So, we're in the third leg of our big west coast trip. Two weddings down, two more to go. We arrived in Lala land, where we hit the ground running visiting friends and family, attending wedding festivities and even going into work at the L.A. office for a 3-day training to shave some days off this long-ass vacation (almost 4 weeks). Highlights included: Hangin' with homies, Evanne's birthday picnic, My entire family shamelessly waiting on the porch and rubbernecking as Armin and I arrived (and later unabashadely asking him over mexican food and margaritas how he is able to handle my 'high strung' personality), visiting the Getty Center (finally-thanks Mark and Steph), The gala wedding party at the Ureni Grand, visiting family friends, and a final goodbye barbque with homies new and old. A big fat shout goes out to Arati and Matia, for loaning us their fabulous apartment - this made for an incredibly soft landing. I will spare everyone my 'How can people live here?' rant about L.A. and it's tyranny of the automobile, but let it suffice to say I think it was some kind of cosmic screw up that I was born and raised in a city I have so little affinity for (this revelation coming to me while sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 405 on a Saturday afternoon).
Moving on.
Next leg of the tour was Canada. We caught a hideously early flight to Calgary, where we met Armin's friends Sonja, Brett and their adorable little son Elias. Sonja picked us up in Calgary and then drove(!) us back to Jasper - about a 5 hour drive. It's gorgeous though, through national parks, past Banff and into Jasper National Park. Canada - who knew? It is so expansive and breathtaking, it really feels like the unexplored west. Unfortunately due to the early flight and the long drive, I kind of had a little melt-down when we finally arrived (those of you who know me well know that this usually aint pretty). Although I knew ahead of time we were going to be in a more natural, rustic setting - it somehow slipped my mind that a hot shower an room service weren't on the menu. Armin prudently (and annoyingly) left me on my own to wrestle with myself in our tent. Forutnately I snapped out of it the next day and we proceeded to have a fabulous time. I really enojoyed Armin's friends, and found myself sad that I never got to know them when they were living in Munich. We went on nature walks, to hot springs high in the rockies, ate GREAT food (Brett's a fantastic cook an they had a large vegetable garden) as well as swimming in one of the (many) local lakes. After a few days there it was time to move on for our weekend in Vancouver.
We ventured into the city our first night there. After walking through what seemed and endless tenderloin type district complete with drug transactions, prostitues and the like, we finally made it to Chinatown which was completely closed. The rest of the downtown area also seemed to be D-E-A-D. Hmm, maybe Vancouver wasn't all it was cracked up to be. The next day we saw more of what the fuss was about. We rented bikes and rode through beautiful Stanley park and started to explore some of the little neighborhoods (where all the action seemed to be). If I had to describe Vancouver it's sort of like all of the SF and the east bay smashed together mixed in with Hong Kong and a dash of Chicago. Lots of bridges, a bay, houses on hills (mountains), crafstmans and high-rises. My friend Julie arrived to fetch us and bring us to Seattle (where we are now). We enjoyed a dinner at the hip (but I say overrated/overpriced) LIFT restaurant which sits right in Coal Harbor. I like a mango-pomegranate martinis as much as the next girl, but it was a little too-too, but fabulous views and a nice walk through the city. The next day we took the Aqua Bus to Granville Island Public Market where we ate ourselves into a coma and as the weather started to detioriate decided to hit the road and head homeward to Seattle. P.S. Thanks Catherine for the NY Times '36 hours in Vancouver' article tip - it was good to have in a city where we didn't actually know locals.
I'll stop here to prevent any snoozing. To all those at home in MUC I miss you much, to all those Norcal folks I'll be seeing in a few days for the final Killian-Watts nuptial extravaganza, I am counting the minutes!
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