Perfect Purgatory Paradise

Hey Everyone,

Chris here about to apologize for the very long delay in this update. But let me tell you - the wait was totally not worth it.

So, as you may have guessed from the "dun dun dun" and the title of today's post that something was desperately wrong with the car. The AAA guy took us back to Gallup, New Mexico, 25 miles away, and dropped us off at the Pep Boys (an automotive chain) at 5 in the morning. Well, as you probably know - it wasn't open at Sunday at 5 in the morning. Luckily, there was a MacDonald's where Alexei proceeded to win two french fries and I a third. We waited there for as long as I could stand the disapproving glances of the manager, and then we decided, as Tak was already asleep at the table, to sleep in the car.
Now, you may think that New Mexico is always warm and sunny. It is not at 6 in the morning. It is COLD! So we wrapped ourselves in sleeping bags and drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
I awoke first, about half an hour before they opened and wandered around in the morning cold. While we were waiting another vehicle, filled with three gentlemen of similar ages, arrived as well by tow. And they had the same problem (or so I thought) as we did - a busted alternator, which we joked about in a friendly manner.

At last! The store was open, and we were served rather quickly. I told them the problem and the symptoms, and the clerk reluctantly agreed that it was probably an alternator. So we waited for about an hour, bleary-eyed as we were, and then another hour. Joking together at the various accessories available to be put on our car (Chevy stickers and Honda decals galore). When they were ready for me, I was told of bad news! My engine was seized. I then proceeded to question the fellow for more details, at which point he realized I was not car-illiterate, and stated that the crank shaft had seized, greatly to my dismay. The estimated cost of repair and labour was $2060, pre-tax. At this point I asked him if he would be okay with me leaving my car in the lot for a few days, to which he said No Problem. And I immediately called my insurance company, which, as it turns out, was closed on Sundays. At this point I was fairly distressed but not without ideas on how to solve our current predicament. For I have a tendency to always plan for the worst (happens to be useful most of the time) and had a vague idea of what we should do. We went for an early lunch (it was about 11 now) at Pizza Hut to discuss our predicament. We found out there were several hotels not a 5 minute walk from where we were, and that there were several rental car places in the town. Alexei was keeping up good spirits while Tak was his usual optimistic self. I think, for my benefit, more than any other reason. For my part, and remember, we were all fairly sleep-deprived at this point, I was pragmatic, if a little depressed. For I had grown rather fond of that Hyundai on this trip, especially after our excitement near Area 51.

That same day, Alexei and I went over to the Wal-Mart to do an equivalent exchange of Magic. As previously noted, Alexei and I went to David Copperfield's magic show, which Alexei paid for. So, I repaid him with an equivalent value of Magic Cards. And, throughout the time we were there they amused us to some extent. The rest of the day went by pretty quickly before we had made a plan.

On Monday Morning, Tak was to take the 8:15 train from Gallup to Albuquerque to rent a car from Avis. Alexei and I were to call around different machine shops asking for different estimates (though we did not have much hope - hence why were renting a car) then scrap dealers, and also my insurance company. Tak may decide to write about his trip on the train (which I am told was beautiful) but I shall write of our adventures in Gallup that day.
We woke up bright and early with Tak - 6:30am Mountain Time (actually - Gallup is very close to the time border, so our phones could not decide when we were - which made it confusing to decide when we should be somewhere). Tak left to the train station (thanks to a very nice lady at the hotel) and Alexei and I went back up to the room to make phone calls. First place I called was my insurance company - and surprise, Success! Apparently my policy does cover floods, much to my surprise. And the rental car will also be covered, but I will have to wait a few days for an appraiser to come to estimate the damages and see if they are reparable. This, thus, reduced my anxiety and gave us time to explore the town.

The town was just across the highway, along old Route 66, which Alexei was enthusiastic about, and we wandered around. We passed several used car lots, to which Alexei jokingly said we should buy a car, to which I stated never, though I was interested in a Yellow Chrysler something, for it was Yellow. We also passed by several trading posts, which as far as I can tell, are more elaborate pawn shops that cater mainly towards selling native artwork. These trading posts are quite interesting and are apparently almost entirely unique to the town of Gallup, NM. There was also a museum which we did not have much time in, that stated the history of the area. It also informed us, that Gallup has the highest concentration of Native peoples anywhere in the United States! This is exciting! Then it was time for lunch, as we had been wandering around for several hours, and we stopped in at one of the 101 best sports bars in the US as voted by ABC (I think). What was interesting, was on the menu, they had something called wet fries, which upon further exploration, turned out to be fries with gravy, and one must wonder, how long it will take before some clumsy clerk accidentally drops cheese it and thus American Poutine Will Be Born!

We found out that Tak's train had been delayed, so we thought that we had some extra time. So we decided to go to the Aztec movie theatre (the name seems to be an odd choice for a Navaho area) and sat down to watch Hotel Transylvania - when Tak called saying he was back in town. We sat through the movie because we had paid for it. It was not really worth it. If you have a child in your life - rent it with them and you may get a few laughs. That is all I can say for that movie.

We went back to the hotel and told Tak of our news, which he was glad to hear, even if it meant staying in town for another day or so. That night we went to the Golden Corral, which is a crazy amazing buffet, where I ate So Many Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Mushrooms, Corn, and other vegetables, which I was desperate for at this part of our trip. And Alexei was amazed, with child-like glee, at a chocolate waterfall, which fell to three different levels. Tak was nonplussed until he saw Alexei's reaction, at which point he joined in the fun. I refrained, being old and boring.

The next day went by slowly at the start. I was waiting for a call from my insurance company. Eventually, I got a call back stating 'nothing today, maybe tomorrow' - this was at 2pm. So we decided to do something, and went to Sky City.

Sky City is a native community that is built up on top of a mesa in the desert. It is highly rated as a tourist place to go, but is over an hour from where we were. So when we got there the last tour of the day had left, since it was off-season. We looked around at the museum and art gallery. It was interesting because they showed a timeline of parallel development between Europe and North America and also the blending of crops from North America to Europe and vice-versa. Example: tomatoes, potatoes, and maize were all native to North America, and dramatically changed European Cuisine forever. Surprisingly enough, we were there for two hours reading, and may have stayed longer but they were Closing Up around us, and didn't want to be stuck in Sky City. We drove back, had supper, and worried about the next day.

The next morning, the insurance agent answered as soon as I called, and said she still hadn't heard back from the estimator. At this point, we were growing rather concerned, as we were running out of time to get back to Montreal. I asked her then if I could just leave my keys with the garage, and leave the rest to her. To my surprise - she agreed, with the stipulation that if my car was reparable, I had to go get it. I eagerly agreed, and we were off!

I went rather quickly through those three days, and I failed to capture the friendliness, kindness, and nicety of that town. And, though we had never planned to stop there, I am glad we did. Would I take another three-day trip there? Probably not. But, if I was in the area, I definitely would stop there again for a day.
I am sorry also for the lack of pictures - Tak posesses the memory chip with them - at a later date I may update this post, or just make a post with a bunch of photos.

Happy Trails

Olé Cirque du Soleil, The Grand Canyon and The Impending Hinderance

You say you want a revolution~

Going to a magic show performed by the man who made the Statue of Liberty disappear and passed through the Great Wall of China was enticing.  However, if I'm going to make a choice to see only one Vegas show, anything involving The Beatles is always going to win out in any scenario.  Conveniently housed within our hotel is a Cirque de Soleil Beatles themed show called LOVE, which was my show of choice.  Again, our timelines split once more.

British flags and "police officers" populated the venue 

From its opening words "Bonsoir Las Vegas!" until its closing proclamation "All You Need Is Love", the spectacle was astounding.  Cirque du Soleil's reputation for putting on amazing shows was certainly proved that night with their brightly coloured costumes, extraordinary feats of acrobatics and dexterity, comedic timing and seamless blend of technology to transform the arena into a magical, awe-inspiring environment.  It's not hard to see why the show, which has repeated twice every night for the past four years, manages to sell out so fast.

I must admit I got a bit emotional as soon as the performance started with The Beatles blasting through the speakers.  What was surprising to hear was not only the remastered versions of their songs but also their speaking voices as if all four band members were still alive and well to put on one last goofy show together.  Their playful shadows were projected occasionally to further enforce the effect.  Overall, it was a great show, one I would strongly recommend seeing if you're a Beatles fan.

A signed Hofner Violin Bass (it's so beautiful)

On to the next day!

Someone needs a good wash (hint: it's not Chris)

The guys and I checked out and received our car in its battered condition.  Just like our clothes upon checking into the hotel as mentioned in Alexei's post, the whole exterior was completely covered in dried mud.  The engine caked in mud as well.  We should have brought the car to the garage for an inspection, but we decided to stick to our schedule and persist through what we thought was minor nuisance (foreshadow!).  Despite Chris' concerns and much to our amusement, the car ran smoother than it ever had.  Our drive to and through the Grand Canyon was effortless.

What a view!

It is hard to believe that millions of years had passed to carve mountainous grooves to create what many would consider to be one of the country's national treasures.  As red as the sands on Mars and layered like stacks of brick, the walls of the canyon harbour a great deal of history from ancient fossils to expeditions sought out by European explorers.  Like the explorers, our group ventured into the wilderness for a closer look.

We hiked on a trail that led to edges of the Grand Canyon.  The cliffs lead to a long tumble down a rocky terrain, so we had to be careful on certain parts of the trail that had very little to stand on.  I can't imagine how the explorers could hike on the same trail on mules.  Nerves of steel and lots of guts, that's all I can say.

In the car, we drove up onto the peak on the road.  The sight was well worth the wait.  Never had any of us had seen anything comparable to this one.  The Canyon is truly a remarkable treasure.  You can judge it for yourself in the video below.

The sky grew darker and darker by the time we left the peak.  Chris and I decided to sacrifice our sleep to drive as far as we could into the night to reach our next destination, Houston, Texas.  We raced along  an small, unlit road guided only by two lines, one dotted and the other solid.  Nothing else could be seen other than the rare rabbit or field mouse on the ground (no animals were harmed in the duration of this trip).  Eventually we made our way back to the interstate highway.  Suddenly, something unexpected happened.

As I routinely sped to pass a truck, the car began to slow down by itself.  The accelerator was unresponsive and the battery light came on.  Thankfully the truck behind avoided us as I pulled over to the side of the road.  Chris woke up, checked the engine and tried to start the car again, but it wouldn't budge.  The car was as still as the night at 4 AM.

Chris called CAA to get us towed to the nearest town.  Here, in Gallup, New Mexico, was where the fate of the trip fell into a world of worry and frustration, where our fate was put to the test.  One misguided step in the wrong direction could potentially cut our journey short.

Whatever will our travellers do?  Will they ever get back in time to their humble homes in Montreal?  We shall wait and see!

Bum bum buuuum

Viva Las Vegas!

We arrived in Las Vegas muddy, wet and tired.

Since parking was via valet, we pulled out the stuff we needed from the back seat of the car (where most of our bags ended up when we searched the trunk for rope during the flash flood incident). With our bags in hand, we proceeded to the hotel lobby.

With our clothes covered in mud, we went to check-in at the hotel. After some negotiation to make sure we got the promised (at the time of booking) $75 food and beverage voucher, internet access and an extra cot to accompany the two queen beds, we proceeded to the elevators that would take us to our room. This involved walking through the middle of the hotel casino, where well-dressed patrons were busy parting with their money. It must have been quite a contrast to see the three of us, dirty and wet and carrying much luggage, going through the fancy casino area.

Our room was on the 22nd floor and was very nice. It was spacious and offered a large bathroom, a bigscreen tv, a fridge stocked with very expensive snacks and beverages and a table ideal for playing card games. The room had large windows allowing us to overlook the hotel pool, some roofs of lower buildings and several other hotels off the strip:

After cleaning ourselves up and changing clothes, we went downstairs to hopefully grab some dinner, as we had not yet eaten that evening. We wandered round and round, checking out the half-a-dozen or so restaurants within the hotel-casino resort. As it was already quite late, many of these - particularly the less luxurious ones - were closed already. Frustrated, we decided to look elsewhere for food. We walked down the strip for some distance, but found nothing of interest and were getting increasingly annoyed at being solicited by strip club promoters at every corner, so we decided to turn back, though we took the other side of the street.

At some point, we were diverted by a man wearing construction-worker clothing to go inside, instead of continuing on the sidewalk, presumably because of the flood. It is still not clear whether his goal was to look out for our safety, or to just get people into the casino. We walked through various twisty passages and halls that made up the casino of that hotel. In many ways, it was very similar, yet in other ways quite different to the casino of our hotel. The difference, in a word, was that hotel was just grungy, whereas ours was fancier - and this reflected both in the setting and in the clientele. Finally, we managed to get out of it and back onto the street. We saw a neon sign for $1.99 foot-long hot dogs - and since we had been looking for food for a while now, as well as being enticed by the novelty of foot-long hot dogs, we decided to try them out. They were everything one would expect - although again, as one would expect, they were not filling enough to substitute for dinner, so we ended up having another meal shortly after at a Denny's we found just beyond the food court with the hot dogs.

The next morning, we woke up a bit late and went to have breakfast at one of the restaurants downstairs. The service was very slow and it was much pricier to what we were used to - though that meal ended up being covered by the food and beverage credit, so at least it was "free". Next was a trip to Caesar's Forum mall to get a new pair of shoes for Chris, whose running shoes got ruined by the flash flood mud.

The mall, which was connected to the Caesar's Palace hotel next door also shared its decor. Roman-style statues and architecture filled the mall and fake-sky ceilings added to the illusionary setting.

Afterwards, we looked at the various shows that were available. Tak decided to see the Cirque du Soleil's performance of the Beatles' LOVE, while Chris and I decided to see the David Copperfield show instead. We bought the tickets at a discount from one of the Tix4Tonight booths.

After acquiring the tickets for later that night, we had some time to waste. We decided to check out the casino downstairs. Tak tried his hand at Texas Hold'em Poker against the dealer, while Chris and I explored some of the slot machines. Both efforts were unsuccessful from a financial point of view.

With our wallets slightly lighter, we decided to leave the casino behind and walk down the strip to a 7-11 to satisfy a craving for some fresh fruits, which turned out to be a longer walk than what we expected. Each street crossing involved using an overpass, where the escalators weren't working (likely due to the previous night's flood). After getting our fix of fruits at the 7-11, with the clerk being quite surprised that our purchase did not involve any alcohol or cigarettes, we decided to take up an offer from Tix4Tonight to eat at a buffet at the Monte-Carlo for half-off (12.99 per person vs. 25.99 normally.)

The buffet hit the spot and it was time for us to split, with Tak heading back to our hotel, where his Beatles show was playing, while Chris and I stayed in the area as the MGM hotel where David Copperfield was performing was nearby. I will end this post with an account of the David Copperfield show and our journey back to the Mirage hotel and Tak's next post will go from there, starting with the show he saw.

Quite frankly, our expectations of David Copperfield weren't too high. We knew his reputation and were familiar with the amazing feats he's done in the past, but we also read some reviews of the show on yelp that complained that half his show was just videos introducing him and showing some of his past performances, rather than live ones. The show we saw ended up nothing like that - David Copperfield performed every act live and they were all amazing, delighting and bewildered us one after another. Not only that, but parts of his show were also quite funny.

He performed over a dozen acts - ranging from small tricks such as picking out a card chosen by an audience member and transforming a piece of paper into a live butterfly, to more grandiose tricks such as making a car appear out of nowhere and making a dozen members of the audience disappear. Even his "simpler" tricks were given some special treatment - for example, the card trick involved a live scorpion picking out the card. Other tricks involved "time travel" or other fancy predictions - such as a one where he picked random members of the audience (by throwing balls into the audience), to choose random numbers ... which were then found locked up in boxes and printed on metal license plates.

In one trick, he incorporated technology - asking members of the audience with smart phones to send an email at the beginning of the show. In the act, after a light show, he announced he had travelled to the future and brought a poster to the past, hanging it up face-away from the audience. Then, a member of the audience picked randomly was asked to answer some personal questions. The audience was told to check that they received an email, but to not yet open it. Finally, the selected person had to choose a  celebrity who was deceased - Michael Jackson was the choice. David Copperfield turned over the poster and asked everyone to open their e-mails. Sure enough, the poster had a picture of Michael Jackson, which also contained the story from the random audience member and the email message also contained a picture of this poster. (Mind you, being savvy with technology, the e-mail part of the trick did not fool me. Still, the whole thing was quite impressive.) I don't think I can give the show enough justice in this post, so I'll leave it here and say that the show was just amazing and I would highly recommend it, if you have a chance to go see it!

Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel to re-unite with Tak. Along the way, we decided to walk through some of the other hotels on the way, such as the Excalibur (a castle-shaped hotel), NY NY Hotel (shaped like the New York City skyline), Monte Carlo, Bellagio and Caesar's Palace - the last two being quite fancy.

Rainbow Death, Floods and Volcanoes!

Hello!

So we left the hotel early to get to the beach! Getting there was not really that fun. LA traffic lives up to its reputation, and as the highway was like a larger version of our Decarie trench, we decided to take the side roads (Google maps said it would be about the same time). This time was about an hour, so we settled in for a longish drive, one that I was not looking forward to. We were headed to Santa Monica beach; the GPS gets confused some times (as I have mentioned before) and this time was no exception.

 The roads are good in LA, and they seem to have enough sense to build a network that moves people quickly, but, for some reason, outside of the downtown core, they have not developed an advanced green light. So at one traffic light we sat for 30 mins, this wasn't a turn I was not supposed to be making either, there were two city buses on their normal routes waiting as well. At each light, one, maybe two cars got through. The rest of the drive was really not that bad, like I said, the roads are good. We stopped at a 7-11 to pick up a quick breakfast, but I stayed in the car. The reason? NPR was on the radio, and the program was featuring an anti-nuclear whistle blower, a Marxist economist, and I did not catch the last segment. Now I like NPR (National Public Radio), and think for the most part they try to be balanced...but when you have a line up like that it's hard to disagree with the idea that it is leftist! Anyway the radio was a lot of fun as we arrived at Santa Monica!

The beach was beautiful! It was also not crowded (one of the benefits of October!). We changed in the public washrooms/changing rooms provided, and went for a swim. The water was not that cold, and the waves were a lot of fun, we spent 1 1/2 hours there and went on our way!

So in Santa Monica they have advanced greens...why LA not you??

The next several hours were spent driving to Death Valley, and the drive there was spectacular! We stopped on the way for lunch at Chili's, and then the desert. We did not really have a valid viewpoint of the desert, as it was raining when we got there! At this point it was only light showers (foreshadowing people woooo) so the driving was not really problematic. 

To get to Death Valley, we had to go up first, to around 4000ft, then we had to drive down again. Once again our view point is a little skewed, there was a rainbow at the first look out! 

The drive down was breathtaking, and fun. We did not stop until we got to what I assume is the middle, at the ranger station to pay and get a pamphlet (the other parks had the station at the gates). We found out many things; the temperature on average at that time of year was 30º (it was 16º when we were there), it costs 1200$ to tow your car out of the valley, and to watch out for rattle snakes, scorpions, and black widow spiders! The sun was starting to set, so we went on our way!

The way up was more twisty than the way down, and the rain started to get thicker. I was driving, and had the glorious opportunity, to avid fallen rocks in the road. But at last we made it out, and were on our way to Rhyolite! 

This town had a population of 10,000 in 1909, but now there is no one left OOHHHHOooooo! In fact the history is pretty great, so I will let you read it for yourself! When we got there, the sun had already set and the town was extra creepy. We stayed for only a short while, and then went on our way toward Las Vegas!

The rain was coming down properly when we got back to the highway (US-95), so the driving was slower. We stopped for gas around 8pm (Pacific time) and found out that we were right next to Area 51! This was an unexpected surprise, and we had good laugh about it! The the rain started coming down hard, I slowed down as much as the rest of traffic, and drove on. Then, the cars in front of me (I kept a long distance in front of me for safety) slammed on their breaks. I did the same, while keeping an eye out for people behind me, then I hit the water. I have had limited experience with driving through water before, and it is not so different from ice & snow. There was a lot of it and it was moving across the highway with massive speed! As soon as I was out of it, I, like the others on the road, pulled over to the shoulder where it was dry. One of the cars in front of me seemed to have spun out, and then started to move backwards, then Tak, Alexei and I came to the realization at the same time, he was being washed away! I jumped out of the car saying only "watch the car" and ran after it! This was immensely stupid. For one, I have just abandoned my friends on a highway, in the desert, in the rain, for two, what the hell was I going to do when I caught up with a car, getting washed away in a flash flood, by myself, with out any tools? In any case I was running after the car.

Other people were doing the same thing, speaking much to the communal bond/stupidity of humanity I suppose. To the driver's credit, he was trying to save himself, he kept trying to drive up on the bank, but to no avail. As his car hit the far bank (the one opposite to the highway) the bank would crumble and his car would be sent back into the flood. I will now attempt to describe the flood. At this point it had run off the highway and into the ditch, but the ditch could not hold it, so the flood was creating a larger channel for itself. The river that had formed was about 12 feet. The car was at the other side. So there was nothing to do but follow it. More people started to join us (I looked behind me and saw that we were running downhill slightly, which relived my fears about the car((stupidly))). THE CAR HAD STOPPED! It wedged firmly against the far bank. At this point more people started to show up, first a couple of other drivers, then one guy in an army(?) outfit, then two more, and then I was surrounded by these fellows and ladies. Tak also showed up, informing me that the car was fine where it was. As I am writing this down I know I am leaving out a million details, but as this is a blog post, and not a short story, and Tak has already wrote what happened at this point, I will end it here.

Spooky Car WwwOOoooOOoo!!

"WAIT!" you exclaim, what of our intrepid Alexei, what was his happenstance at this point?? Well reader, I will allow him to explain that in a follow up post!

After the army (I think it was the army) officer (he had lots of things on his sleeves) told everyone to move their cars, I did as requested, and restarted our drive to Las Vegas. 

This was slow, as we were driving downhill, the water became fiercer on our side, overlapping the right lane entirely. Almost no one was driving, or trying to drive fast and the ones that did pass us most likely had missed the fun. Twice more was the highway overlapped by water on our way, but never as fierce as before, and then finally, we got onto the major highway to Vegas, and then we arrived on at our hotel, The Mirage.

The valet looked at us, and our car (mud, mud, mud, missing hub caps, etc) with surprise. Also It was hard talking to her, not because of any language barrier, but because a volcano was erupting! Yes, I know, sounds fake, and that is because it was! The Mirage has a fake volcano in front, that erupts in the evening to a beat set by the drummer from the grateful dead!

That is all for now!

The Price is Right and The City of Angels

Gotta speed things up a bit.  We got a great story about our stay in Gallup, New Mexico lined up.

The very morning, we woke up early to get ready for a taping of The Price Is Right.  Surprise!  Back in Vancouver Chris and Alexei signed up for tickets to be in the audience and everything until LA was rushed to make it in time for the show.  Hurray for planning skills! 

The drive to the Hollywood was met with mixed feelings.  On one hand, the tall, thin palm trees made for a refreshing view against the clear blue skies down the city streets as you can see below (lower your volume).  On the other, buildings in the area look rundown contrary to our preconceived idea of a pristine district.

At the CBS studio gates, we received our tickets to the show.  Then we proceeded to wait in line for 3 hours before we were allowed to enter.  The staff was friendly to keep the crowd of 300 entertained and fed.  Chris enjoyed himself and was glad he was not in the driver's seat for the next while.  Alexei and I might have felt the same if we were less sleep deprived and starved.

Unlike we previously believed, contestants on TPIR aren't randomly chosen but are  handpicked by the quick-witted Stan, the show's producer.  Each person is interviewed in groups of twelve to find unique participants.

The staff led the studio audience to their seats after lunch.  Upon entry, we were astonished by how small the stage was compared to the way it is shown on TV.   Television sure makes things larger than life!  

The whole event felt like one huge party.  The two hosts, Drew Carey and George Gray, cracked jokes and made the spectators feel welcomed.  In between what are supposed to be commercial breaks, they played upbeat music and got everyone to their feet to dance.  Even some of the staff danced on stage along with us.  They put on Gangnam Style at one point much to my surprise.  All three of us left with smiles and positive vibes.  Catch glimpses of us in the audience on October 18th!

What are two of the sexiest animals on a farm?

Brown chicken brown cow.  (Bow-chica-bow-wow. Get it? LOL)

We headed to Grauman's Chinese Theatre soon after.  Lots of people in fancy costumes such as Iron Man and Saw asked tourists to take pictures with them in front of the attraction for money.  Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles roped me into taking a picture with him (oh naive Tak).  Strewn all over the entrance floor were the famous celebrity hand and footprints, everyone from the legendary Clark Gable, the jolly Mickey Rooney, to the more recent Daniel Radcliffe.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

For the Iron Man fans

Chewbacca gets his daily fix at Starbucks

After ice cream and milkshakes at the theatre, we went on an architectural tour to see the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Bradbury Building.  The concert hall is an astounding piece of engineering.  The way the metal roof twists and turns to give its unique shape reminds me of the Sydney Opera Hall.  The Bradbury Building was made in the 1890s and contains an open elevator design, marble staircases and beautifully detailed metal fencing.  It's not difficult to see why several movies such as Bladerunner were shot in there.  Across from Bradbury is the Million Dollar theatre, which has very detailed exterior and high arches reminiscent of ancient Roman decor.  It always amazes me how all these little features were crafted, chiseled and sanded accurately by human hands.

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Interior of the Bradbury Building

Look at that detail on the Million Dollar Theatre!  Wow!

Next on our tour was the Universal Citywalk near Universal Studios.  This place had everything I expected from Los Angeles: glowing lights, gift shops, fancy restaurants, neon signs and movie memorabilia hanging from them.  You can take a look at the video below to see what I mean (keep your volume low).

We unfortunately ran into a lot of rude people in between each stop.  There was an incident of an old man yelling at us in front of our car.  Chris rolled down the window and greeted him in French, much to our hilarity. Another incident involved a well dressed teenager who came asking for money and swore at us when we refused.  We weren't used to this as we never had problems with people in other cities before this one.

So, as you'd expect, our impression of the city was unfavourable that day.  The massive traffic jams, the high crime rate and our encounters with some of its rude citizens was enough to convince us to never live in LA in the future.  I may come back to visit another time though to discover more architectural findings.

Next up, Santa Monica beach, Death Valley and Las Vegas!

SF to LA

We're a little behind schedule with the blog updates, so I'll be talking about our trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles, even though we're quite a bit past that point, as you can see by the following Google Latitude path (again, with dots missing where there was no data coverage):

That morning, we decided to check out Chinatown in San Francisco, which was quite impressive. Red Chinese lanterns hung across the streets (note: plural) that made up Chinatown and there was even a performance of some sort in one of the parks. We stopped at several shops to look for some souvenirs, where we were greeted with ambient music of a style you would expect to find in an RPG video game, as we browsed the wares in the stores' basements. We walked through a few streets and it was interesting to see how they differed from each other. The main street was more tourist-oriented, with many souvenir shops and such, while a parallel street consisted mainly of grocery stores, where many locals were buying fresh fruits and vegetables.

A tea shop caught our eye as we walked around and we decided to check it out. It had a very extensive collection of various teas. They offered us tasting of several of the teas, which were quite tasty - and we ended up buying some, such as the lychee black tea.

We stopped to have Dim Sum for brunch at a place called the House of Dim Sum. We were expecting something a little bit more fancy, but it turned out that the House of Dim Sum offered very little in the service department - you had to pick up your food at the counter and they gave disposable plates and utensils. Despite this, the food was tasty and we were satisfied.

Afterwards, we proceeded out of San Francisco towards Los Angeles. We opted to take the scenic route along the shore of the Pacific Ocean, rather than the faster interstate route. Although this cost us 2 extra hours of travel time, it was well worth it. The views were absolutely breathtaking - most of the road went atop and along cliff-sides next to the shore, with many vista points along the way. We stopped at quite a few of them to admire views such as these:

The rest of the drive was uneventful as we reached our motel in Los Angeles. Stay tuned for the next post, where the mystery surprise in LA will be revealed!

Golden Gates, Good Days

So as promised, I am writing for a second time in a row YAY me! Sorry for the Crazy Long Delay, been super Busy, and tired, also, for the lack of major details...without any more delay:


We started the day by finding a garage in San Fran, the internets helped us find a place called The Garage. Getting there meant getting across the bridge from Berkley, which meant 6 lanes of traffic! Surprising enough this was easy, and gave me a new found love for toll booths. When everyone stops, it is easy to gun the engine and scoot across to where you need to be!

On the way across we stopped at Treasure Island, which is a man made island, and was a "secret" military base in its past. There we got a great view of the city, and during the summer it has lots of events to check out! Then we drove straight to The Garage, which meant getting the GPS to understand that, not, I did not want to drive back and forth across the bridge all day. At The Garage we met the mechanic, who told me that if it is an easy short to find the cost will be minimal, but if a diagnostic needed to be run the cost could be 180$, I consented, the price was the price, and we needed those damned signals! I left him with the keys and a phone number, and we went on our way.

To Market Street we walked! Interesting fact, San Francisco has a really large homeless population, which once one is aware of, not really a problem, but Tak and I were not, so surprised we were. Most were non-aggressive, and we soon learned whom to stay clear of.

This only lasted 5 or so blocks, then we were in the more traveled areas, so there was no problems to speak of. We spotted a sign for "best breakfast in town" at a place called "Munch Haven", and went in. It had simple decorations, but good food at good prices, and we were seated.

Down, down we walked toward the piers, stopping at the Apple Store (for a charger) and at Lenscrafters (sunglasses for Tak), till we reached the piers. Art and Statutes met us there, plus plaques with local history. Then we called "The Garage. It turned out that all that was wrong was two, not one, fuses were burned out, the one for the hazards was the real problem, as it is need for the turning signals! We then left to pick up the car immediately.

We took a street car up Market street, a fun experience, and arrived, and to our surprise the mechanic refused to let us pay, said it was just two fuses, and that we should have a good trip! This was totally unexpected. He could have charged me for labour and parts, or worse, easily told me a lie and charged me a ton for repairs, but no, he took the high road, and for that I am indebted!

Back to the piers! We had lunch at a place called In-N-Out Burger, a fast food place that lives up to its name! Small menu (maybe 12 Items), inexpensive, and good quality! We then went around the piers for a while, finding an arcade with antique machines, like Victorian picture viewers, and player pianos!  They also had early to middle arcade games, pong amongst them! We then looked to get tickets to see Alcatraz  unfortunately, it being Columbus day (or Thanksgiving in Canada), it was all booked until Wednesday, so we left the area, stopping only to observe these fellows:


Driving around San Fran is not too bad, but it has its ups and downs. Har har. The hills were steeper than I have ever tried with this car, and I was surprised at how well the car handled itself. Even when going down Lombard Street (the crazy zig-zag one) the car felt in control! Once that was done we went to the art palace, which was impressive, as shown:

Crossing the Golden Gate was next, stopping at the view point on the other side.

Then to Golden Gate Park, which is as immense as it is impressive! A walk around a man made lake a a quick trot up a hill was what we did, making us very hungry!

Then we went back to Berkley, had supper at the Elephant Bar, and then saw Frankenweenie which was much better than I thought is was going to be!

After all of that we went back to the motel, and had a good night's sleep.



More happened during the day, but I will allow my fellow travellers to expand on what i have written, as today was exhausting (Wednesday).

News Flash

We're skipping ahead of our regular posting schedule to bring you the latest update on an event that happened this evening.

The area covering Death Valley and Las Vegas rains about once a month and we were lucky enough to pass through on one of these days.  The climate, though, produces heavy rainfall causing flash floods to rush through the mountains, fill all ditches and spill onto the roads.

Alexei, Chris and I were racing along the highway in the dark here.  The two windshield wipers quickly waved in front of us and pushed aside rain from a rare storm in Death Valley.  When we were 30 minutes away from Las Vegas, the car suddenly ran into a gush of water pouring onto the road and our entire windshield was covered.  The car swerved a little, but Chris managed to keep us from spinning out.  However, one of the car ahead of us wasn't so lucky.

Just as we drove past the pool, a green car fell into the ditch with a river of brown, muddy water.  The river carried it away while an elderly man was trapped inside of it.  The water was deep and fast enough to pull the car for a quarter of a mile.  As soon as Chris saw this, he told Alexei to call 911 and bolted out of our car with me trailing along behind him.

We ran beside the car in the rain with a few other drivers who stopped to offer help.  Eventually it slowed down to a halt, but the current was so strong that the car's bumper was torn right off.  The water was too deep for the driver to roll down his window without having water seep in.  All of us watched the man encased in his vehicle as we wondered what we'd be able to do to help as he was too far for any of us to reach him safely.  Our group gradually became bigger until we realized we were surrounded by 20 soldiers who happened to cross our path (this place also happened to be near Area 51).

One of the soldiers suggested we link arms together to reach the man.  Chris advised against it and informed him the current was strong enough to drag the car with it.  After trying out the idea and seeing one of them almost swept away, another proposed we throw a tow cable toward the driver.  The cable was too short for the job though.  Chris offered some rope from his trunk and as the green car started to move again, a soldier told him to fetch it.  So Chris and I sprinted back to the car on the highway, parts of which, at this point, had been covered fully with mud.

Meanwhile Alexei notified the 911 operator of the situation and asked for rescue assistance.  He was told that the driver had dialed in already and help is on the way, though she inquired whether medical assistance was also necessary.  Alexei suggested to send for them anyway.

Chris and I returned to the car and drove it back to the scene.  Quickly, all three of us moved the luggage from the trunk to the back seat to get to our emergency compartment.  We found the rope and ran back to the group.  At that moment, a solider yelled instructions to the driver to roll down the window on the passenger's side and jump to the other side of the bank.  The driver slowly climbed to the roof and leapt to the watery grass below.  He struggled through the brown current and crawled until he reached higher ground.  Exhausted, the driver fell onto his back and watched his car being swept away once more.  Another soldier stated help was on its way and called out to everyone else to move their vehicles.  We did as we were told and drove away as we watched a few people starting their cars with jumper cables in the pouring rain.

Long story short, we're okay and are in Las Vegas now.  Our clothes were soaked, our shoes and pants were muddy, and our car lost a hubcap, but we're doing fine.  Some of us are tired, yet still awake from the adrenaline coursing through our veins.  If this incident taught us any lessons, they are to be prepared for an emergency before one arises and our military and emergency response staff are working very hard to keep its citizens safe in any type of situation.

Pro Tip: always keep a strong rope in the trunk of your car.  You'll never know when you might need it.

Avoid Turning Toward the Future

Hello again, Haggy is here to regale you with tales of our exploits!

We have been very busy the last two days so we have not had time to update, sorry!

Sunday morning we left Portland early, and started our trip to San Francisco via Crater lake. The drive was nice, Oregon takes good care of its roads and there were few problems. The fuse had bitten the dust again, so we stopped in Springfield. There we bought more water, some fruit, got lost for a bit (confused GPS is confused) and got to a NAPA Auto Parts.  The guy at the counter (who was very helpful) told me it could be a short in the system, but nothing to be concerned about (i.e. not a fire hazard), so I bought some fuses and drove away.

Then we were on our way to Crater Lake, which is the deepest lake in the USA at 592 meters deep! The drive to the park was not too far off from the normal course, but the roads were much slower. On the way we grabbed lunch at a "Steak and Eggs" place that had all day breakfast! The portions were large and tasty and the prices were low, so it was a good lunch all around (the leftovers were eaten today).

The Park itself is spectacular.  The crater was caused by the explosion of a volcano! We drove around the lake and stopped for pictures at a few locations!

We decided it was time for a hike, so we took the short Watchman trail (2.6km) to an old Fire tower, on which rangers used to look for wild fires. Though the trail was short it is almost all uphill. The elevation at the top is also pretty high (2442m above sea level) so although breathing is not hard, it is easy to lose your breath.

After the hike, we set off for San Francisco.  The fuses were burning out as soon as we put them in at this point, so the driving became more stressful.  I slept in the back of the car until 7ish when the sun went down and then took over. Driving at night is always an experience; whether it is someone following you/coming at you in the other direction with their high beams on, a truck whose load looks to be swaying, or improperly marked turns, it is always time to be alert, even when you might be at your sleepiest.  Tak and I have been careful on this trip about night driving, and Alexei is always next to us to make sure we are awake, which has been, and continues to be, a boon. That night was no exception, the difference was: no turn signals, and let me tell you, hand signals are hard to see at that time of night. So I did the only thing I could: I picked a lane and stuck to it, only passing when there was no one else behind me, and it worked out pretty well.

It is amazing how the lanes change on a highway. They get added, removed, and change position. After leaving Oregon, the highways descended from the mountains. Then lanes would get added, sometimes after an exit or an entrance, sometimes from the left or right, but what amazed me was how my lane would change. I started in the right (slow) lane, which then became the middle lane, then the left lane (there were now 5 lanes) then, after a while, the far right lane again (4 lanes)! This was lucky to me, I was able to pass, get passed, and stay awake, with no effort!

After all that driving (12-14 hours that day), we arrived in Berkeley, CA, at 1:30 am, found a reasonable motel (Knights Inn Capris), unloaded everything from the car, and went to bed (well Tak and Alexei used their laptops and I watched an episode of the old black and white "Twilight Zone").

That is it for now. I will also be writing tomorrow about San Francisco!

Occupy Portland

The day started off with Chris and myself (Alexei) taking the car out for an oil change. This earned us a free Ultimate Car Wash, which consisted of giant mechanical arms spraying a dozen different things on the car in sequence, including the following rainbow spray:

That out of the way, we returned to the hotel, packed up and headed back to the USA. Unfortunately, as it was the Saturday of a long weekend, traffic was terrible. The border crossing took almost an hour and another accident on the road also slowed things down to a crawl on a 10 km segment of the highway.

While on the road, we decided to stop for food and gas and noticed there was a T-Mobile there too. We tried to see if we could upgrade our plan to get more data at higher than 2G speeds, but apparently it was something that was impossible for them to do for an existing month without getting a completely new plan.

For dinner, we stopped at Olive Garden, which was offering an "unlimited plate of pasta" - an offer that was expiring the next day. Of course, we decided to all go for it, selecting different options for the type of pasta, type of sauce, either unlimited salad or unlimited soup and extra unlimited toppings such as sausages and meat balls. Of course, the initial plates were so big that we didn't end up taking them up on the "unlimited" offer, except, naturally, for Tak who got a second plate, switching up his choices of sauce and noodles on the new plate.

After dining and being stuck in traffic, we decided to head directly to Portland, cancelling our initial plans to make another stop at Seattle to ride the monorail. The drive to Portland was rather uneventful and we arrived late in the evening. Since the plans called for leaving Portland early the next morning, the only chance to see the city was that night. Despite Chris' reluctance, we decided to drive down to explore Portland's downtown area.

Little did we know that there was an Occupy Portland protest earlier that day as it was the anniversary of the initial protests a year ago.

We wandered out and about around the downtown area of Portland. Some of the interesting things we saw included really some nice Portland trams and a circa-1911 steam-powered fire engine that was on display at a fire station:

We also saw quite a lot of nightlife activity, with lots of bars and clubs being full of people. There were also quite a number of homeless and generally sketchy-looking people (probably remnants of the protest from earlier that day), who were making Chris quite uncomfortable.

After wandering for a while and not finding a place to eat that was both open and not super fancy, we decided to head back to the hotel. As we were getting into the car from the parking lot, Chris happened to notice some policemen below pulling out some rifles from the trunk of the car. We hastily proceeded to drive out of the area and decided to have a meal at a 24-hour Pie restaurant near our hotel, where we had delicious pies and Tak and I split a German-style pretzel burger:

The pies and pretzel burger were delicious.

The 206, Vancouver and the Wedding

Hey-o!  Long post ahead.  You're been warned.

After resting for the night in Missoula, MT, we drove along the I-90 until we stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Viking Drive Inn.  What looked like a shack in the middle of nowhere turned out to be a decent burger joint.  If you're searching for a restaurant with friendly staff, plates of tender burgers and crispy fries, and joke books equipped at each table, look no further than this place.

Tasty Viking Burger here

Back on the road again, the first part of the journey across Washington state was drier than expected.  The common color in the scenery was brown: brown mountains like huge chunks of chocolate; brown fields and brown hills as if its residents sprinkled the terrain with powdery Ovaltine.  Eventually trees started to sprout and gather beside the highway once more, with their leafy branches looming over the road to create a scenic path to the next city.

Dusty hills in Washington state 

We arrived in Seattle in the afternoon and unloaded our luggage at a Super 8 near the airport.  Fatigue settled in after a long day's drive.  We desired to get to bed as soon as possible, so we were less picky with our choice of dining and walked to Dave's Diner which was close by.  The 50's decor and license plates lined along the walls were the best parts of the restaurant.  The service left a lot to be desired; the food was quite pricey for the quality we were used to.  To illustrate my point, I ordered a plate of ol' fashioned pot roast with vegetables and the highlight of the dish were the vegetables.  We should have saved a couple of dollars and head to the Jack-In-The-Box next to it instead.

On to the positives of Seattle!  If a comparison were to be made, Seattle is not unlike Vancouver.  It's a nice, modern city matching its courteous citizens in every way.  The streets are clean, rude drivers are hard pressed to find, and the monorail flies above spreading its message of environmental awareness everywhere.  Chris stated that it was a great place to find a good job (Seattle is home to Microsoft, Amazon.com and Boeing) and for young families to start.

Clean streets in Seattle

Boeing's Museum of Flight is located next to the Boeing Field-King County International Airport.  Even though I studied aviation in high school, it still amazes me how a large plane like the 757 can manage to lift off the ground and soar through the air at, what seems to be, the very last second on the runway.  What is more amazing is the collection of aircraft preserved at the museum.  Proudly displayed inside and outside the building are planes ranging from hand gliders to foreign WWII fighter jets to modern spy drones to space shuttles.  The tours were entertaining and educational as they brought us through the era of gliders to the Wright brothers' first attempts at flight to the first commercial air services (as a side note, did you know there are aviation high schools? That's so cool!).  The Airpark allowed us to see the interior of famous planes such as President Eisenhower's retired Air Force One (the Stars Wars theme and other space-themed music playing out of the speakers as we walked across Space Bridge to Airpark was the icing on the cake).

Soon afterwards, we encountered our first hitch in our trip.  The turning signals in our car refused to light up.  Luckily Chris and I remembered our turning hand signals and stuck our arms out of the window to lead us to the city center safely.  While we considered the possibility of driving straight to Vancouver to get the car checked out, we came to the conclusion that safety was our top priority and decided to pull over.

(Here's a funny tidbit: When I was away as Chris and Alexei were fixing the car, two scouts approached them and asked if they wanted to be models.  It would involve dying their hair with  multicoloured streaks. Bearing in mind they would be at a wedding the following day, they politely declined.)

Thanks to the Internet, we were able to diagnose the problem to a shorted fuse and search for instructions to fix it.  Chris got creative in the fuse box and replaced it with the fuse from the CD player.  In the end, we found a Radio Shack with Alexei's GPS and bought a few more fuses.  I retracted my previous resolution to use less technology on the trip.  If it weren't for the web, our car would be in a garage right now.  All hail technology!

We crossed the border without any problems and arrived in Langley, BC, in a hour.  Here, our timelines split.  I caught up with my friends, Annie, Carlton, and Jenn, in Vancouver for supper; meanwhile, Chris and Alexei relaxed in the hot tub and took turns using the two-story water slide built into the motel.

My Vancouver friends and I got together at a Taiwanese restaurant called The One (a confusing name for those asking for directions to the place).  Asian cuisine in this city is always a treat.  You'll have trouble finding better Asian dishes anywhere else in Canada.  The food tastes better, is well made and, most importantly, is more authentic than the North Americanized dishes we're used to back in Montreal.  You'll have to try it to believe the hype.

Soooo gooood! 

Huge bowl of shaved ice with red bean paste, strawberries, taro & grass jelly

The next day I met with Jenn and Annie at the University of British Columbia for lunch.  Jenn showed me around afterwards and, let me tell you, the campus is BEAUTIFUL and HUGE.  I have never seen a campus so advanced, so well designed and so environmentally conscious as this one.  Compared to the ones at McGill, Concordia, Université de Montréal, Université de Québec à Montréal, and University of Toronto, UBC's is on another level.  I'm even more surprised at how well the buildings are maintained and the fact that ongoing construction of new ones is still prevalent.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we missed Melody and Nathan's wedding ceremony, however we were able to make it to their reception.  The couple looked really good together and the speeches were funny.  There was a photo booth with costumes inside and dance floor which we took full advantage of.  We danced to the Twist, Michael Jackson, disco with the bride and groom, reminding me of our days together in CEGEP in Montreal.  It was the most fun any one of us has ever had at a wedding.

In the same night, we received news of a surprise waiting for us in LA!  Stay tuned for more updates ;)