Easter, Vancouver Island

Well, it looks like I might have time for a few extra blog entries in the coming weeks/months…At Flowerbowl a week and a half ago (Vancouver ultimate tournament) I managed to injure my knee pretty badly.  It’s still not clear what exactly is damaged (possibly a torn meniscus, knee capsule and/or a partial knee cap dislocation, but mostly likely a partially torn ACL), but only an MRI can really clear that up and we all know how impossible those are to get in the Canadian health care system.   So, while I wait for things to get better or to stay the same I’ll fill you in on some recent trips.

Over Easter we had a family get-together on Vancouver Island to paint my Mom’s basement.  I had never done any substantial painting before this and learned that I’m not particularly good at it (cutting or rolling) but thankfully it’s just the basement which hopefully will be poorly lit most of the time anyway.   We took frequent beer breaks which was fun but probably didn’t contribute to a quality painting product… J    We also subjected Rod to the Sharma’s terribly mainstream taste in the music for several days straight.  Hopefully there was no permanent ear/soul damage.     Too bad the weather so was so nice, including some gorgeous sunsets from the backyard (see title pic).

Dev tapin’ it up to save the poor door frame from my erratic paint strokes.

Sweet hat don’t you think?

Supervising the guys

Group shot of the painting crew (unfair that some people had a chance to shower already [Kiran!] and some of us didn’t…)

 A walk down to Maple Bay for a change in scenery and a break from paint fumes.

At the end of the weekend we took a short break to visit Roberts Memorial Park near Cedar.  Absolutely lovely views

Winter Wanderings, Greater Vancouver

Spring (maybe even summer) has finally arrived in Vancouver with ultimate/hiking/BBQ-on-the-beach season in full swing.   Before it’s too late I wanted to post a few pictures from some of my winter snow-shoe trips in the Greater Vancouver area.  I took a few, but most of the photo credits go to Rod and to fellow avy-course participant Jodi. 

Here are a few from a beautiful day up at Cypress snow-shoeing Mount Hollyburn.   There were lots of people on the trail, but I loved seeing the dogs heading downhill and slip-sliding out of control yet lovin’ every second of it.

Vancouver hiding beneath the clouds:

Clear view of the lions (the two medium sized bumps).  I hope to hike them one of these days when the snow melts.

A whiskey-jack (officially the gray jay).  At Whistler these birds are fun to watch since some of them have learned to perch on ski poles.

And some shots from a short-but-sweet snowshoe up Mount Seymour to catch the sunset.  

And finally some from an avalanche course Rod and I did, also at Seymour.  I felt a lot better about recognizing potentially dangerous terrain after taking the course, and it was good to get a lot of practice working with transponders.  It was actually pretty fun looking for buried backpacks in the snow with transponders in them...hopefully I’ll never have to be in the situation that the transponder is attached to a person instead.

Heading into avalanche terrain...

These dogs were awesome.  I wished I had a pair to help pull me up the mountain too!

Our fearless leader wielding a mini-saw to create a snow-pit.   This part got a little complex...not sure if I could repeat it by myself if I had to.  Pretty neat looking at all the layers though and seeing how weak some really are.  Bang it a few times with a shovel and you can make an entire slab collapse.  Yikes!

Snow pits mean lots of shovel action.

After establishing that one snow column we dug out was pretty stable with a Rutschblock test , we decided to make it fail! (I’m second from the left)

Our last exercise was a multiple-burial scenario.  We had a team of 4 with one leader, two people looking for buried transponders and myself to poke around to look for “jeans-guy”.   You know jeans-guy, he’s the one who shows up at whatever event unprepared, makes poor decisions, and then gets himself buried in an avalanche with no transponder!

Using a probe in search of jeans-guy at his last known location.

I was unsuccessful, but the others found the buried backpacks with the real transponders and we then formed a probe line in a pretty smooth operation and eventually uncovered the pack.

LA Lei-Out (Part 2)

There was a lot to see in LA in addition to the ultimate going on (e.g. the Walt Disney Concert Hall, above which I’ll get more into later). With Venice Beach only steps away from our rented condo I had a chance to explore the strip which is a bizarre and interesting place. I have never seen so many wheeled methods of transportation in my life from segways, to ellipticals, cruisers, rollerblades, strollers, recumbent bikes, rowing bikes, etc. 

The strip on Venice Beach is also filled with interesting hippies and the alternative crowd, with vendors, fortune tellers, artists, hula-hoopers and crazies. Some memorable lines directed at me were: “Can you spare some pocket lint?”, “You don’t skateboard.” [It was a statement, not a question], and “Come back in 10 minutes to see my striptease breakdance”. I saw one guy carrying a sign saying “Reggae: save the children”, and another guy in a red Speedo carrying a bejewelled antler and having words with a guy dressed up as the devil: 

I also witnessed a random love-mob; a mother and her two kids were invited to press a button set up on a small circle in the middle of the pavement. Upon pressing the button suddenly a cardboard scaffold opened up to reveal a dozen dancers with heart-boxes on their head dance around the bewildered family whilst streamers flew through the air. 

A more conventional sight – the Venice Beach sign signalling the beginning of muscle beach at the end of another perfect California day: 

When travelling I always like to buy a local paper to see what is making news there. LA news that week focused on how cash-strapped California is with the beach cities (e.g. Santa Monica, Malibu, Venice) trying to sell off every square inch of space on garbage cans, lifeguard stations, etc. for sponsorship deals. Maybe they should consider charging more than a dollar for their pretty impressive public transit system. Where else in the developed world can you get to the airport for $1? The bus drivers there though are pretty tough. Our bus driver put the bus into park in the middle of a left-hand turn lane to come to the back of the bus and give someone a dressing down for listening to their ipod. “Whoever got the radio on shut it off! ipod, iphone, telephone, radio I don’t care. If I can hear than there’s a problem!”. Picture that coming from a petite black woman with a whole lot of attitude. 

After all of the ultimate excitement in Santa Monica, I decided to head downtown for my last day before flying home. My grandiose plan was to check-in my bags at the airport and then explore central LA encumbered. Ha! Turns out there is no luggage storage ANYWHERE since 9/11..the only tips I got from the airport info desk were to get a hotel room and leave my stuff there or to rent a car and leave everything in the trunk. So, luggage in tow, I arrived at Union Station and proceeded to walk around downtown and take in the sights. 

City Hall: 

Public sculpture (any good suggestions for a title? I’m thinking Lady-bug, paperclip, northern lights):

For lunch I headed to the market which was bustling on a week day and filled with mostly Mexican-inspired fare (I like the older cowboy guy on the left hand side too). 

Also fun at lunch was that I got mistaken for a food critic/gourmet food blogger after taking some notes and taking a photo of my food. The other patron was disappointed to find out I only contribute to a travel blog, but she started off with a conspiratorial whisper (“so...are you a food critic or a blogger?”), as in I just HAD to be one or the other! 

I didn’t have a time to get a peek inside, but I checked out the outside of the MOCA (Musuem of Contemporary Art) and enjoyed a delish old-fashioned lemonade for an afternoon energy boost. More public sculpture... 

 

 

My highlight of downtown LA was the Walt Disney Concert Hall, mostly because they let me check my luggage  The concert hall is another Frank Gehry creation and is described by Lonely Planet “the landmark that launched a thousand metaphors. Billowing ship? Blooming rose? Silver bow? “. I’m going with boat-meets-metallic-wedding-cake (see top photo). Admission is free and the audio-tour was pretty informative drawing attention to the architectural design details including how air-conditioning units are hidden inside smooth Douglas fir columns: 

Special perforations were created for these walls in BP Hall to improve acoustics (smooth curved walls are bad because everything reflects converging to one direction….OK, no more physics for the rest of this post). 

Floors feature the “Lily” (named after Lily Disney) bright and colourful floral carpet pattern which is mirrored in the colourful rooftop garden with “Red Hot Poker Torch” lilies. 

 

The concert hall itself; the auditorium has beautiful carved Douglas fir organ pipes which Gehry under no circumstance was going to keep straight. It’s unusual to have seats behind the orchestra, but this way one can look at the conductors’ animated faces as they work their magic. 

More great views from the outside of the concert hall: 

Wandering around downtown I was surprised at how empty and deserted it all seemed for a week day. There are hundreds of thousands of cars on the road, but they are all on the freeway bypassing downtown. This is more what LA actually looks like: 

And to get onto the freeway you have to be able to understand complicated traffic lights such as these – how many different lights does one intersection need?