Sightseeing in Vancouver--Part I

It has been a whirlwind last few days, starting with Jon's dad dropping us off at LAX before 9:00 Monday morning for a flight at noon up to Vancouver, Canada.  Even though the flight was short and WestJet service was good, we were pretty drained by our day in two airports and 36,000 foot altitude, plus a bonus surprise visit to customs.


We were picked up at the airport by Jon's cousin, who took us to the place we are staying / house- and cat-sitting.  On the 28th floor, the view looks out over False Creek and Granville Island.  Verrrrrrrry nice--see?

On Tuesday, we walked through downtown Vancouver to Stanley Park.  It was a little cold, but not rainy, so I was able to take plenty of pictures.  You can see the full slideshow here.

Wednesday we decided to hit the Farmers Market on Granville Island, which was lots of fun, but dangerous--we had some serious sensory overload!  We started out by taking the False Creek Ferry over, then just walked around and looked at all the shops.  Finally, we went inside the market and did some grocery shopping.  Gorgeous pictures of our day are right over here.  We finished up our afternoon by walking to the Vancouver Central Library and being amazed by the grand architecture and massive collection of books.  An unplanned stop at JapaDog made our evening complete!

By Thursday it was raining for pretty much the whole day.  We went to visit the University of British Columbia (UBC), planning to see the botanical gardens and other features, but instead decided to spend the whole morning indoors at the Museum of Anthropology, which gave us plenty of opportunities to practice our amateur photography skills.  Nice that they have a pass that covers all the different sights and you don't have to use it all in one day!  Enjoy my slideshow of pictures from the museum--I hope I selected a nice representation of the 1000's of artifacts and objects they have from all over the world.

So today is Friday, and we decided to take it easy, giving me a chance to catch up on my vacation blogging!  I hope you enjoyed a vicarious visit to the north with me.  Check back soon for part two!

Lighten Up!

The morning began with my signing up for 4 yoga classes this week at MYC Yoga in downtown Bend for only $20. After the 30 minute walk there, and some help finding it from a local shop worker, I was greeted warmly at the front desk.  Turns out it was Claudia, the teacher's, first day teaching there and I was her only student!  So I got a wonderful one-on-one session in Vinyasa foundation from a lovely German woman.

Next, I mosied up the street to see what else I could find, and lo and behold, the Tangerine Hair Salon I had read about online was right there.  When I asked in the shop about getting an appointment with Chelsea (the hairdresser most recommended online), they went across the street to the Lemon Drop (smaller shop where the original Tangerine used to be) and got her and it turned out I could get in right then and there! 


Quick reminder of the hair before:

After a brief consult about what I wanted, and 5 hours of going back and forth between the sink and styling chairs (still not as bad as the day I had the black stripped out, that took 8 hours),  I came out like so (no heart attacks, please).

Maybe it was my going through the old family photos of me being strawberry blond when I was 2 that inspired it, plus a wanting to "lighten up" for the summer, and being on vacation, but I felt like it was time for a change.  With Chelsea's very capable hands on the job, and her determined patience to do as many steps as the process required to get it right, she pulled the old color out and put the new color and highlights in--I think beautifully!

My final stop of the day was at 900 Wall (as recommended by Chelsea) for "lunch" at 4:30.  Had some nice Happy Hour food (fried green beans and chicken gorgonzola pizza), then began the hike back up the hill to go home and crash, exhausted after my big day.


What do you think of my new strawberry blond 'do?  And while you're at it, tell me a story about a somewhat drastic hair style change you've done. ☺

Summerfest in Bend

So, after my 30-Day Shred workout this morning (I tried the Level 2 program today--nearly killed me, think I'm going back to Level 1 tomorrow), I decided to walk to Downtown Bend to check out Summerfest.

It was your typical collection of arts & crafts sellers and local businesses.  Being that it was so hot, after walking up and down a few aisles, I decided to stop in the Pine Tavern for lunch.  The salad and fried oysters I had were quite satisfactory.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kahunna/130603535/


Then, back to perusing booths.  I was tempted to buy some summer/yoga pants at Za Zen, but don't like to buy clothes if I can't try them on first.  There was a bejeweled bracelet that I tried on as well, but then remembered all the bracelets in the drawer at home that I never wear.  Finally, I found the Tumalo Lavender booth, and could resist no longer.  I bought a small lavender dark chocolate bar, a lavender rosemary focaccia bread mix (can't wait to try that out), and a lavender gourmet lemon pepper that is going on our chicken for dinner tomorrow night.  It smells like this:

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/slack12/353313907/


After a couple of samples of Riesling at the winery booths and of course, more chocolate, I was on my way for the hike back up Awbrey.  A good, but tiring, afternoon.

Farewell Bend

Jon and I headed out to the Tumalo Falls for our last morning in Bend.


This 97 foot waterfall is the source of Bend's drinking water, and a beautiful sight to see.

Because I know how to play with the settings on my camera now, I was able to make the water freeze and flow.



Jon took some pictures too.





Happy as we look on that bright, sunny Oregon morning, the sadness hit as we got in the car on the 'morrow and had to say, like so many others before us, "Farewell Bend."

Now home safe and sound with a purring-while-sleeping cat and a growling-while-being-petted cat. And my new computer!!!

Bend - Day Nine

Pretty low key day today. We had a brief thunderstorm this afternoon/evening. Although it only lasted a short time, it was gorgeous.







And I thought of a new project to make, so Jon took me back to the yarn store to get more yarn. Now I have patronized both yarn stores in Bend (I feel so accomplished). This project was born out of my own need as I've been doing a lot of hiking the last week or so. Can you guess what they're for?



Oh so practical...

Now I can keep my camera bag for my camera and have a separate carrier specially designed for my water bottle. I call it--the Watergirl (or Waterboy for the more manly colors). Got lots of yarn, so I'm going to be making tons of them!

Bend - Days Seven & Eight

So I know this doesn't sound like a thing to do on vacation, but I had been thinking about getting a new computer to replace the one I got when I started at UCLA (11 years ago!) and seeing as how there's no sales tax up here in Oregon, we went and got this behemoth with a $300 discount. Look how easy it was to set up: 5-4-3-2-1

And blastoff! All done, in like one minute. Didn't feel like doing anything outdoorsy as it's 95 degrees out there and we had quite enough sun the day before, so it was a good day for computer shopping and messing around with it.

I've also been working on my photography, thanks to the books Brenda lent me. This is the one I'm currently reading:

So far it seems like my pictures are getting worse rather than better, since I took the camera off the auto setting. But I did experiment with the Tv and Av modes today at the High Desert Museum and got some pictures I might not have otherwise been able to get. Sorry they're a little blurry, I didn't have a tripod and it was really dark in there.

This poor guy was found in the wild. He had apparently been someone's "kitten" and had been declawed, etc. then released into the wild when he got too big. Way too hot for him today, too!


They had an exhibit on bats, one of my favorite animals. Did you know they eat fruit and then poop out the seeds while flying around, thus seeding entire areas of land?

I thought these guys were kind of cute.




And then, of course our fabulous dinner!

What restaurant do you think cooked up this tasty looking dish?


Nope, we made it right here ourselves! Yummy!!! Too bad I didn't get pictures of lunch--grilled cheese sandwiches with Canadian Extra Sharp Cheddar and a beautiful salad. Next time...

Bend - Days Five and Six

Mt. Bachelor - I borrowed this picture from Jon's camera. I didn't go out to watch the race that day (Saturday) because I was still recovering from my urban hike the day before.


Jon watching the downtown crit (bike race) yesterday.


And there they go! (A cool picture Jon took, can't take credit for that one)

Some scenes from our MASSIVE walk around town today:



I love this house/condo/apartment. I forgot to take pictures of Gossamer, the yarn store we were headed to around the corner. And that reminds me I forgot to mention the other yarn store that we went to on Wednesday, Juniper Fiberworks, where all the yarn was organized by color. Quite a huge selection, but I didn't buy anything from them... yet!


Then we went to the Old Mill District.




Another house I love



Can you spot the butterfly?