South African Soccer Team

The World Police and Fire Games is on in Vancouver right now, to the delight of women everywhere, and I had the pleasure of taking a Skytrain trip to SFU with a team from South Africa.  They were singing!  And chanting!  They kept it up the whole time they were on board.  It’s such a pleasure to hear good singing of that nature, and it was in a public space that is usually so reserved.  It lifted my spirits.

Barcelona Vs Vancouver

What a weird feeling, to come back to Vancouver, a city I know and love, and be struck by how much space there is here. Ok, let’s back up. I was recently in Barcelona. It’s a dense European city, with every block chock full of tall buildings. The buildings are all right up against each other, no access in between. And at street level, it’s all storefronts.

Just being able to see past the immediate buildings in Vancouver felt like a huge change. And it’s no wonder people drive everywhere here, it’s hard to get around otherwise with all this room. Is the abundance of space in Canada a blessing or a curse?

Signal Down! Reconnecting in 3 weeks time (or so)

Although I’ve got a few ideas kicking around, I haven’t been able to properly express them with my available time and I am unhappy with the drafts I’ve got up and running.  I want to respond to this post and it’s survey over at Scott’s blog and I will do so in the future.  I will be away working and then travelling with the old man and my little brother during August, so I won’t be posting here for the next 3 weeks or so. 

I am currently reading ‘Bad Samaritans – The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism’ by Ha-Joon Chang, and this book is having an impact on my views regarding how governments and markets interact.  The sub-title is a bit fantastic and reeks of conspiracy theory, but that’s misleading as so far it’s an excellent and well researched book with a strong contrarian bent.  I should be done this book by the time I am ready to post again, and hopefully I’ll have it assimilated and ready for some debate.

Oregon/California Road Trip or Zinga Zinga Zinga

Shoud have finished this up about 10 days ago, but I got sidetracked.

Just returned from a great trip with my pal Steg.  The intention was to head to San Francisco, camping and enjoying our time along the way, sticking to the coast as much as possible.  The trip really began when we got through Washington and made it out to the Oregon coast.  It’s a beautiful spot with many awesome beaches and coastal scenery.  We camped out as much as possible in the Oregon state park system which was very affordable, well run with friendly and informative staff.  Tent sites were $14-$17, with yurts andcabins going for $25-$40 I think but you have to bookthese ahead of time.  Nothing but good things to say about Oregon’s state parks.  Check out Fort Stevens on the Columbia river if you get a chance.  A great beach with paved bike paths through the park.

After a couple of nights in Oregon, we entered California and found our way to the #1 and continued South; driving the #1 was a highlight of the trip for sure.  It’s everything you want out of a driving road, fantastic coastal scenery, lots of curvy bits and it’s well designed and maintained.  I’d say a standard transmission is required for enjoying this part of the trip, and if the car has some balls all the better.  Fortunately we were in Steg’s V6 Passat, and when Steg forced me into the driver’s seat, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  There was some evidence of wild fires in this portion of the trip, but nothing too big.  We eventually camped down near Montecito and then hit up the beach to watch some Mexicans throw a few red tailed perch into their buckets.  A little windy and cool this night.

Made it to San Fran the next day, and got our heads spun around at Fisherman’s Wharf.  It seemed like a good place to start, but heavily infested with tourists (like us!).  After being on camp time for a few days, it was a little much, and eventually we settled into a pub to gather our senses and come up with a plan.  Fortunately, that plan included checking out a Giants game!  The Dodgers were in town, and it was a 6 pm start.  After some wrangling, we managed to find a modest motel for the night that was a 15 minute walk away from the ball park.  Note to travellers, be prepared to pay through the nose for a bed on July 4th weekend.  Ouch.

So, we cruise up to the park, fully intent on heading to the box office to pick up whatever tickets we could, and the stream of scalpers started.  Probably the first pitch had already been thrown, and the guy we bumped into rapidly dropped his prices to a little over book.  We paid $40 for $37 tickets, and gave the guy a tip of $5.  The tickets turned out to be awesome as we were in the 2nd row, of the 2nd section in between 1st and home.  We had unobstructed views of the field withno net in front of us.  A great game, well pitched by both starters, a full stadium, and the Giants ended up with a crowd pleasing 5-2 victory, beating up on LA’s bullpen in the 7th.

The next day Steg and I parted ways for the afternoon after visiting with Alexandra in Oakland.  I went to visit my dad’s ex, Stevie, who lives just north of San Fran and Steg was hoofing it around SF.  Hadn’t seen her in over 10 years, but we had a nice time and caught up quite a bit, and I happily got some insight into the old man.  Stevie is doing really well too which makes me happy.  After departing from Stevie’s and picking up Steg, we headed south towards Monterey to find some lodging/camping, but campsites had filled up or were ridiculously expensive (boo Koa!).  After I refused to sleep on the side of the road, we eventually settled on a reasonable motel for the 2nd night in a row.  The budget was under strain, but we took advantage and set up an early start to the morning, heading to the Monterey Aquarium.

At the Aquaurium I was mesmerized by the 3 chinook salmon in the tidal water tank.  They cruised around pretty quietly, and I even saw one dig it’s back into the sand as if to scratch it.  Not what I expected; I assumed they would be more active but I suppose they can get into a feeding frenzy at times.  The rest of the aquarium was pretty interesting, but it got busy really quickly so we were happy to have arrived first thing in the morning when it was a little quieter.  After this, we headed to Santa Cruz to check out the beach.  For some reason, I really enjoyed SC when I was a kid.  These days, not so much!  The beach was ok, but definitely for a younger crowd and/or families.  Next!

So, we had officially made the turn heading North by now, and our next stop was the amazing camp site called Costenoa.  Although a little biased against Koa based on the previous night’s attempt at finding a campground, this one was affordable and awesome.  I highly recommend stopping at this one for a visit if you are Northof Santa Cruz on the #1, with some of the most impressive bathroom facilities on the entire trip.  Here I managed to do about 5 minutes or so of swimming.  But after ducking under three waves in a row, I got a massive brain freeze and packed it in.  The water was very cold.

The next day, with a tear in our eyes, we left Costenoa and got off the #1 and into wine country, after a brief stop at the whiskey shop in SF.  The difference in heat was amazing after heading  in land.  I think the gauge on the car read between 42C and 45C.  Reminds me why I like living on the coast.  Stopped at a vineyard after some trouble in locating a suitable one, and got tried various wines.  My  palette is not yet refined enough except to say.. “I like it” or “I like this one less” or maybe even “I like this one more”.  Anyway, our host was pleasant enough, and she poured big tasting portions!

Continuing North, we stopped beside a river campsite and bedded down for the night.  The next day we were going to be camping near the Oregon sand dunes, and we did.  Steg got directions to the beach, with the attendant looking at him kind of funny.  Apparently not many people hike over the dunes to the beach, preferring to use motorized vehicles, which is too bad, cause hiking the dunes with the wind howling and sand flying was a ton of fun.  Felt like I could have been in the desert.  Got up bright and early the next day for some ATV’ing on the dunes, which was a blast!  1 hour was about right though; I was getting a little bored by the end of it.  This is where my camera packed it in as well.  Oh well.

This day we made it up to the aforementioned Fort Stevens and got out for a nice long jog along the bike paths, and then returning on the beach.  The trip was rapidly winding down, so it was nice to get out for some exercise, followed by finishing off our liquor supplies.  A noble mission.  The next day was going to be a long day of driving home, which we were both just about ready for.  Musical highlights for me included the new Coldplay, MGMT, and I was happy to introduce a good friend to the great music of the Cardigans.  Till next time.

Back in Town, Now Leaving Town

I just returned from a great road trip to San Francisco (but really the Pacific Coast was the star of this show), and I’ve been recalled to do some more work at the the fishing lodge.  Looks like there was a capsized boat this past week and a subsequent drowning.  It sounds like they are sort of scrambling up there; I’m a little concerned for my friends as I don’t know the identity of the victim.  I’ll find out more tomorrow, but you can read the (scant) details here. 

Remember the first rule when you are on the water, stay in the boat. 

Otherwise, next week I’ll give a full recap of my trip to the states, camping recommendations and what not.  For all the baseball fans out there, I managed to catch a great game between historic rivals the Giants and the Dodgers on July 5th.  The stadium was packed and everyone was into it.  Zito and Park both pitched well (Zito had 10 K’s!) and the home side came through with some timely hitting against LA’s bullpen for a 5-2 victory.

MD