Legend of the White Rock

Four days after the snowboarding adventure and I'd say I'm back to about 95%. My neck is still a bit stiff, but for the most part I can go about my day and not be distracted by it. This pleases me.

We've been making an effort to soak up as much of the sunshine as possible, especially since this region is known for its clouds and rain. It's still a little cool -- 40s, mostly -- but compared to 30 below it's practically flipflop weather. Yesterday Brij took me down to one of the local scenic spots, White Rock Beach. I had been wanting some ice cream, so we found a shop, grabbed some, and talked to the old guys sitting out in front for a few minutes. Canadians are so fucking nice, eh (5:20).

For which the town and beach are named.

Walking down to the end of the pier.

According to the plaque near the big rock, scientists say it was brought down by a glacier. According to one of the local First Nation (I'm told that's what the people native to the area prefer to be called -- Native Americans, natives, Indians, etc are considered insulting) tribal stories, it was thrown out of the sea by a god who had fallen in love with a human princess; wherever the rock landed, their people would settle. That's how the local First Nation got started, apparently. The rock itself is periodically spraypainted white because early in the 20th century it suffered bouts of graffiti; the plaque states that the last straw was when some hooligans painted it black and put a big white skull and crossbones on it. Personally, I think that's pretty awesome.

White is cool too though, I guess.

Surviving Snowboarding

This blog post comes to you from Highway 99 heading toward Vancouver on a bright, sunny, beautifully warm day in Canada. The mountains are covered in trees and snow, and clouds obscure the tops.

That’s right, I said mountains. For a girl from Illinois, they just never get old.

Speaking of mountains, a bunch of us went up to one of the local ones, Mt. Seymour, on Monday evening to snowboard. Monday nights are Ladies’ Nights, which means each of us girls gets in for only a $5 donation to the BC Cancer Foundation. Brij gave me his brother’s gear to use – a few pairs of socks later and even the boots fit pretty well – so we didn’t have to rent me anything.

See the mountains in the back?

Getting closer...

Snow + fog = almost there.....

Long story short, I choose to gauge the success of the evening not by how flawlessly I was able to ride down the cute little “bunny hill,” but rather by how many fewer times I fell on the last run as compared to the first. Going by that criterion, I’m pretty satisfied. I suppose it wasn’t too bad for someone who’s never snowboarded or skied in her life. I did whack my head on the ground pretty hard the first few times I fell (yes, I had a helmet), but after that it was my glutes and wrists that took the worst of it.

I think I rode down that hill about 6 or 7 times in the 4ish hours we were on the mountain, including the first two where Brij was giving me a crash course – rather literally – in snowboarding. By the end of the evening I was able to make it almost to the bottom without wiping out, instead of every few feet the whole way down. A considerable improvement, if I do say so myself. I would have gone down one more time but my muscles were completely wrecked and there was no way it was going to happen.

The next day, yesterday, was spent almost entirely lounging at home recovering. Everyone in our party had sustained some kind of injury and I, being a complete noob, was really hurting all over. It was so bad I couldn’t even sit up from lying on my back because my neck was sooooo sore; I had to roll over and push myself up with my hands. Today I woke up feeling considerably better. I’m not sure if it was the rest or the fact that I broke down and took a couple of Extra Strength Tylenols, but I feel like I’m on the way to recovery.

This morning, the sun was shining and the wind had died down, so we decided to head into Vancouver for a day in the city. So here we are, driving up the highway. Stories and photos to follow.

Northwest... Pacific Northwest

It seemed like forever away when I booked my ticket to Seattle back in December, but just as I knew they would, the last few days flew by. Suddenly I didn't have enough time to finish the sweater I was knitting or the books I was reading. I didn't pack a single thing until the night before I left. I don't remember being such a procrastinator in the past. So it goes.

Security at O'Hare wasn't bad. It always happens that way when you get there early; it's the times you're running late that the TSA takes their sweet time nosing through your things and looking at you like certainly you must be hiding something.

Boarding went smoothly, but we wound up sitting in the plane at the gate for what must have been almost an hour. At least the seats were comfy. Four and a half hours is nothing compared to the 15 or so it took me to get to Delhi a few months ago, but it's still a considerable chunk out of one's day. The cool part is I was flying west, so I managed to not lose too many hours on the clock.

We got some pho at a Vietnamese restaurant near our hotel. After our meal, the owner asked how our food was, told us it was nice to meet us, and gave Brij and me each a hug. Talk about a warm welcome to Seattle.

Obviously I had to pick up some Starbucks since I was in the place where it originated. It's pretty much the same as anywhere else.

My first two days in a city known for its rain, the weather was bright and sunny. And warm. I mean REALLY warm. Considering I'd escaped the polar vortex that's been ravaging the Midwest for however many weeks now, 50 degrees in Seattle felt like summer vacation.

Anyway, across the street from our place was this restaurant:

On Friday we set off in search of a vegan sandwich restaurant called Plum, which Brij had gotten a Groupon for. After misreading a map and subsequently walking all around Seattle, we finally found it.

Following that, we wandered across the street to the Space Needle and, being tourists, decided we ought to check it out. Twenty bucks a person for a pretty sweet view of the city is not a bad deal. (More pix will follow when I can get them off my phone):

Saturday the plan was to hang out in Seattle and head up to Vancouver in the evening. My good friend Cory, who has recently made a move to the west coast, met us in Seattle and the three of us got some delicious Thai food at In The Bowl which, to our surprise and delight, happened to be having a 50% off promotion in observance of their anniversary. We all recommend you go there if you're in the area.

After food and some deliberation, we made our way to Belltown Billiards for some pool. I guess all those hours of Wii Pool paid off because I managed to win a couple of games. Woot. :)

Sorry Cory, I think my action shots of you are still on my phone...

None of us managed to remember that it was Saturday night by the time we were done, so there was no parking to be had, all the restaurants looked busy.. plus it was raining pretty hard at this point and we had no idea where to go anyway. So we parted ways and Brij and I headed up to Vancouver.

The border crossing guard asked us a bunch of questions like how long I was staying and when I was expected back at work, where had I come from, and when was the last time I was in Canada? When it became clear that he was going to let us through I asked for a stamp for my passport and he informed us that he'd forgotten his stamp that day, and we'd have to park and go inside and did we really want it that bad? Yes, yes we did.

So long story short, I made it to Canada and I've got a stamp to prove it.


Right now we're chilling at Brij's friend Justin's house, waiting to go snowboarding, and they are bugging me to get off the computer so we can play something called Oculus. I guess that's going to happen.

So tonight's agenda: coffee, snowboarding, return to suburban Vancouver. Possible Indian food to follow.

I've also established that my phone doesn't work here, so leave me comments, send an email, or message me on FB if you need to get in touch with me.

Catch you later, eh.