Monday, February 25, 2008
So tired...
I feel like I haven't slept enough in over a week, which is odd given that I've actually spent a fair amount of time in bed. But after getting back from Whistler (where I didn't sleep well any night even though several nights we were in bed for 9-10 hours), my sister came in town for the Game Developer's Conference and stayed with us all week. I love when she visits, and we had fun (even though she ditched us the first night to go to dinner with friends - my bf and I went hunting the lunar eclipse (stupid clouds) and then grabbed Korean bbq at Pine Restaurant (sadly kind of disappointing this time - they overcooked the bulgogi) and desserts at Golden Island (yummy!)). But we put her in the master bedroom and my bf and I slept on the bed in his office, which should have been fine but some combination of sleeping on the opposite side of the bed as usual, his computer being on, the windows not being as insulating in that room, and his iPhone causing his speakers to buzz during the night led to insufficient sleep, or insufficiently restful sleep each night. Or maybe it's just that I never slept enough to make up for Whistler. At any rate, Friday night my mom flew into town (she'd been visiting my grandma in LA) so we were busy getting dinner (at Dragonfly in the Sunset - very yummy, they all liked it), lunch (at Canton Seafood Dim Sum Restaurant on Folsom and Hawthorne Lane), attending the Chinese New Year's Parade in Chinatown in the cold windy rain (after spending much of the afternoon browsing the touristy stores and sort of looking at the rather uninteresting street fare), and getting dinner (at Ploy II - mental note: Pumpkin Curry was watery and bland), so that was fairly tiring. Saturday night my sister and bf played Halo 3 happily while my mom read the paper and I updated my website. Sunday was lunch at Pho Hoa, hazelnut milk tea at Verde, followed by 3 hours of karaoke at Gamba (while my mom was hanging out with my aunt), and then dinner at my aunt's before taking my sister to the airport. So, a very full weekend (at least for me). I guess it makes sense I'm still tired despite getting almost 9 hours of sleep last night (and getting into work rather late). Maybe I should go to bed super early tonight. Zzzzz....
Whistling down Whistler
For several years, my bf has gone off to Whistler near Vancouver for multi-day ski trips, but I've never gone. He was unemployed and didn't have to worry about vacation days, whereas I couldn't justify using my vacation days on just doing a ski trip, especially since he favored going midweek to avoid crowds.
This year, though, one of my friends organized a trip over the President's Day weekend that would only require two actual vacation days to be taken, plus I have accumulated enough vacation days that I don't think I have to scrimp and squeeze to get enough anymore. So, off I went to Whistler while my bf, who is now employed and has no vacation days, stayed home. One of these days we'll get in sync and we'll go at the same time.
I'm really glad I went. It was really fun, Whistler Village is a cute ski town, and the snow was so much better than we usually get at Tahoe. My friend rented us a condo on the outskirts of Whistler Village, which was nice - especially nice was that we had 3 full baths for 6 people. Made the whole showering after skiing, getting ready for bed, and getting up in the morning thing so much smoother. We also had a kitchen, and were located almost across the street from an IGA, so we ended up cooking for 3 out of 4 dinners. There were pluses and minuses to this - there are a lot of restaurants in Whistler Village and we probably missed out on some nice nights out, but we also could shower and change into comfy clothes, and then just stay in the warmth of our condo and relax after a long hard day of skiing.
I do have to say, the weather conditions varied widely over the weekend. We flew in Thursday night (that's right, not only did I go to Whistler without my bf, I ditched him on Valentine's Day) and stayed the night at the Days Inn by the airport (thanks, GPS, for only kicking in after I made the wrong turn away from the hotel - or maybe really, thanks GPS, since turning the wrong way, I discovered a Chinese plaza that later came in handy). The next morning, we were up bright and early and off to Whistler. Almost immediately, our two cars (they rented us Jeep Patriots b/c they had no cars with ski racks, which only worked b/c there were 6 of us - with 8 of us we'd never have fit the people and the gear in the Jeeps) got separated. So much for caravaning. Armed with a GPS per car, though, we managed to meet up at the Squamish 7-11 to pick up discount lift tickets ($69 CAD + tax, as opposed to $83 + tax at the window). The drive up 99 was pretty, going along the edge of the water with great views of the Vancouver Islands, but it was also heavy with construction and slow. I think they're widening/modernizing the road for the 2010 Olympics.
The whole drive up, it was raining intermittently. One of the guys in my car was concerned about the rain, but as we neared Whistler, it soon turned to snow. We went directly to the first parking lot we saw (turned out it was the furthest lot from the lifts - oops), and got all our ski/snowboard gear out to hit the slopes. We didn't end up really getting up onto the mountain until almost 11, but we still had quite a good first day. We started off on Blackcomb Mountain, and the lines were pretty short. Visibility wasn't great because of the constant snow, so we were advised to stay away from the higher areas like 7th Heaven and Blackcomb Glacier. The snow was almost a wet, sticky powder - on the border of too wet but mostly quite nice b/c of the freshness of it. We stayed on blue runs that first day, which was probably a good idea b/c it seemed like a lot of the blacks were covered in moguls. I'm a pretty limited skier - I do blacks fairly regularly, but I don't like moguls or trees. The kind of black run I like is probably considered an advanced blue at some resorts - long, wide, steep, and groomed. I did discover that I should have waxed my skis though - every time we hit a flat traverse, even if I started off passing all my friends, my skis rapidly slowed down and eventually I was barely moving while everyone else passed me. I kept saying I should wax my skis all weekend, but never actually did it. Ah well. At the end of the day, we made our way over to Lower Gear Jammer to do a long run all the way back to the base, but I missed the turnoff we were supposed to take to get there easily, and we ended up doing an annoying flat traverse on "Last Resort" to get back to it. Sigh. Map-reading.
Day 1 ended semi-late - one car had to figure out how to check in (the reservation didn't make it clear how to do this - turns out there was a property management company on Main St, a couple blocks from the condo complex, where you were to pick up the keys) while the other one went to fetch one person's shoes from the rental place (they'd done a 3-day rental and then unthinkingly left shoes behind, forgetting they wouldn't be back that night). Then, after 3 of the people had showered (including me), we headed over to the IGA to pick up supplies for the next few days. By the time we had the groceries bought and dinner (spaghetti) made, it was quite late. We basically ate and headed straight for bed where I, as usual for me in a strange bed, spent a very restless night.
Day 2 we were aiming to get out of the door and to the lifts by the time they opened at 8:30, but we ended up not really getting onto the slopes until 10, what with getting out late, rentals, figuring out where we were going, etc. C'est la vie. Day 2 was focused on Whistler Mountain and had its own set of weather conditions. The snow had stopped, but a big cloud bank hovered at mid-mountain, where it stayed for the rest of the day. As a result, the top of the mountain had beautiful clear skies and nice conditions, while the middle of the mountain was shrouded in fog, making it hard to see more than 10 feet in front of you. Trying to get away from that fog, four of us started trying to make our way to other regions of the mountain, and ended up spending the bulk of the morning just waiting in lift lines and going from lift to lift. Saturdays are just sucky ski days all around - long lines everywhere. We went to the Harmony lift area and discovered long lines, so we were aiming to try to get to Symphony Express. However, due to a misleading map, we kept missing the green trail that was supposed to take us into the area - the first time we found ourselves back in Harmony without any way to get to Symphony short of going over the side of a cliff. The second time, we missed the green trail again so we decided to take a single black - the Sun Bowl. Shouldn't have been so bad but it was mogully, fairly steep, started off a bit narrow, and my friend almost ended up going over the side of a cliff - it looked less steep down one side so we started going that way but then she discovered it was basically rock and a much steeper drop at the end of it, so she ended up taking her skis off and climbing out, while I, who was higher up, sidestepped my way back up to the beginning of the bowl. We eventually made our way down, only to discover that Symphony Express had been stopped for quite a while and a huge line had built up. After the line finally reopened and we got through it, we were already late meeting our other two friends for lunch, and didn't have time to ski Symphony at all. We had to make our way back to the lodge instead. Oh well. The afternoon went better, although we had hoped to aim for "Peak to Creek," a long run that went from the very top of the mountain to the very bottom, but discovered too late that the "Peak" lift closed at 3, not 3:30. We ended up having to go down from where we were, about 2/3 of the way up the mountain, though we discovered several runs we liked on the way down - the blue Crabapple, the black Dave Murray... We also got some nice photos up top, though I was really regretting having forgotten my camera that morning since the cloud bank made for some really funky looking vistas.
Day 2 ended with us making "soft tacos" (which were more like burritos/quesadillas, food falling out of a loose soft tortilla) and then playing games. I love Settlers, which one of my friends had brought, so we happily played that for most of the evening before heading off for an early night's sleep.
Two of our friends had to go back early, so they did their 3rd day of skiing on Sunday. The rest of us took the day off (turns out we should have done Fri/Sun/Mon b/c the lines would have been better, as well as the weather, but oh well). We got to a late start intentionally, and headed out to check out Whistler Village around 11am. We wandered down Main Street, going into candy shops, camera shops, and various souvenir shops, and then over to the Village Stroll, a winding path through the bulk of the shops and inns in Whistler Village. I was feeling fairly crappy that morning, but perked up when we hit Cows, an ice cream parlor where they made fresh waffle cones (smelled SO good), and sold all this super-cute cow-themed merchandise. Because my bf and I watch CSI and tend to go around singing "Whoooo..are you. Who who? who who?" (ie the theme song), I had to get him a T-shirt for "Cow Scene Investigation" with "Moo are you? Moo moo, moo moo" on it because it was just too funny. We each got an ice cream - I got two flavors in "one scoop" - a Peanut Butter Cup (I think it was like Peanut Budder Cup) and a super minty chocolate mint (forgot the name). Turns out the mint was so strong it overdominated the peanut butter, so I couldn't really taste the peanut butter. Oops. Still, very yummy. We *then* went to get lunch at a local restaurant (I forgot the name), which was pretty good. I just got a French Onion Soup (lots of effort to drink that, what with all the cheese). We then kept wandering and eventually ended up at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory where they made the chocolate fresh in the store. Feeling greedy, I ended up getting several chocolate bombs - a "Tiger" bomb which was like peanut butter, caramel, and some other stuff, an Oreo bomb, a chocolate/hazelnut hedgehog, two maple cream chocolates (one milk, one dark), and one smooth mint dark chocolate (sooo good, should have gotten another one), as well as a box of 1/2 off Valentine's Day chocolate for my bf, and a hunk of maple walnut fudge. Happiness. It's all about food. We also stopped by a bookstore where my friend happily found some Canadian and British books to buy, while I spent most of the time looking at Argentina guidebooks for my next big trip. We ended up having to swing through the brand new, pretty library they had there twice - the first time out of curiousity, the second time b/c I suddenly remembered I wanted to find a back issue of Canadian Living magazine, which had bought one of my photos but never sent me a copy like they had promised. I ended up photocopying the page with my photo and credit to bring home, which was nice. Yay libraries!
Day 3 ended with dinner at Bavaria Restaurant on Northlands/Main St, our one dinner out. We ended up ordering 2 orders of cheese fondue (every fondue had to have a minimum of 2 orders), 2 orders of the "Chinoise" fondue (basically like Chinese hot pot - chicken broth in which you cooked chunks of pork tenderloin, beef filet, prawns, and veggies), one jaegerschnitzel, and one beef rouladen, all to split. It was really good - the cheese was yummy (with decent bread to dip), and the meats were tender and delicious. I only really got one bite of each of the other entrees, but they were tasty. We ended with 3 orders of chocolate fondue for dessert - should have gotten 4 - which was delicious. Yummy belgian chocolate, and great fruit - strawberries, bananas, pineapples, ladyfingers... sooo good. Not cheap, but definitely a satisfying meal. The night ended on a somewhat less satisfying note, though, when I slipped and fell into a deep puddle. Cold and wet. Yay!
Day 4 was our last full day at Whistler and we were determined to do the Peak to Creek. The four of us remaining on the trip decided to do the "Fresh Tracks" breakfast - $17 to have breakfast buffet at the restaurant/lodge at the top of the gondola, where you go up an hour before the lifts officially open so you're at the top of the mountain and ready to go when the resort opens. That was nice - the food was fine, nothing special, but the views were great, and it was a beautiful clear day. Turns out the "Peak" lift didn't open until 9, so we got an additional run in before taking it, but we were soon at the top, where we busied ourselves taking a bunch of photos of both the vistas and the Inuchuk at the top of the mountain. Finally, we embarked on the "Peak to Creek" run, which ended up being one of my favorites. It was a blue run, very very long, and just a lot of skiing to get in on one pass. I kept stopping to take photos on the way down. We eventually made our way to the bottom, and promptly got back on the gondola (at Creekside, which was sort of a satellite village) and went to try to get on the Dave Murray, which we'd only done part of the previous day. Turns out part of this was closed for the Telus World Cup, but we were able to do most of it. The snow got really odd at one part of the run - very large corn that made for a very bumpy ride - but for the most part it was a nice run. That early in the day, the snow was actually very packed and a bit icy, but not bad. Having finished with the long runs on Whistler side we wanted to do, we decided to go back over to Blackcomb, which we thought we liked more.
We had also decided to skip lunch that day, so at Blackcomb, we just stopped for a quick bathroom break before starting up skiing again. This time we were aiming for 7th Heaven. That seemed like a nice area when we got to it, but it had gotten so warm at that point that the snow was turning into sticky slush. We quickly decided to try out the glacier to see if it was cooler and therefore less slushy. However, we discovered when we got there that the primary way to get up the glacier was via T-bars, which our snowboarding friends did not want to do. So we ended up just skiing down the glacier once from the 7th Heaven side. This is where things became a bit problematic - half of us wanted to go down a black face with lots of moguls while the other half of us did not. We split up, and ended up getting confused and never rejoining. So each pair of us ended up just doing a bunch of runs for the rest of the day and we met up at the bottom. It was still a nice end of the day - my remaining friend and I did a bunch of blue runs, and then got back on the Lower Gear Jammer via the correct route this time, and ended the day with very very tired legs, but very satisfied. Day 4 ended with lasagna at the condo for dinner, followed by 3 games of Settlers. A nice day all around.
Day 5 was supposed to be our visit Vancouver day, but things did not work out in our favor. We got out of Whistler on time, met up at the Squamish 7-11 to get a bit of gas and sync up, and arranged to meet at the airport where we were going to park one car in long-term parking while driving the other around, so we wouldn't have to coordinate two cars and worry about our stuff getting stolen out of our cars. However, to our dismay, we discovered that the Lion's Gate Bridge, or whatever it's called, the one that connects to downtown Vancouver, was closed. Apparently there had been a 3-car crash that closed the entire bridge while they cleaned it up. After consulting a map, we decided to take the long way around to the next bridge, but traffic was super-slow and super-backed up. Turns out not only was it backed up b/c all the Lion's Gate traffic was going to the other bridge, but *that* bridge also had had an accident in the center lane that was only just getting cleaned up. We ended up not getting to the airport until around 2pm (our flight out required us to get back to the airport around 5pm). Starving, we decided to find a restaurant in that Chinese plaza in Richmond we'd stumbled upon Thursday night, since we knew where it was. Ironically, it turned out that a lot of the restaurants were either closed on Tuesdays or closed for lunch on Tuesdays..of all days of the week to be wandering around..or were cash only (we had almost no Canadian cash). We did find a restaurant with an interesting mix of food - Chinese, Portugese, other Western-ish dishes - though, and were all reasonably satisfied with our food, so that was good. We then killed another couple hours just wandering around, going into and out of bakeries and tapioca tea places, and marveling at the number of hair salons there were in that one small plaza. We finally got in the car to drive around Richmond some more, and ended up at a small coffee/tea shop (Berry Good) where we each got something to drink and killed some more time before it was time to go to the airport. So much for Vancouver. Of course, at the airport we discovered that the weather in SF was bad so all the flights were delayed, so we ended up playing several rounds of "My Word" until we finally split to get on our respective flights. And thus, after a fun-filled several days of skiing and hanging out in Whistler, followed by a somewhat disappointing day in Richmond, we wrapped up a great vacation. I'd definitely do Whistler again..maybe next time my bf will come too.
This year, though, one of my friends organized a trip over the President's Day weekend that would only require two actual vacation days to be taken, plus I have accumulated enough vacation days that I don't think I have to scrimp and squeeze to get enough anymore. So, off I went to Whistler while my bf, who is now employed and has no vacation days, stayed home. One of these days we'll get in sync and we'll go at the same time.
I'm really glad I went. It was really fun, Whistler Village is a cute ski town, and the snow was so much better than we usually get at Tahoe. My friend rented us a condo on the outskirts of Whistler Village, which was nice - especially nice was that we had 3 full baths for 6 people. Made the whole showering after skiing, getting ready for bed, and getting up in the morning thing so much smoother. We also had a kitchen, and were located almost across the street from an IGA, so we ended up cooking for 3 out of 4 dinners. There were pluses and minuses to this - there are a lot of restaurants in Whistler Village and we probably missed out on some nice nights out, but we also could shower and change into comfy clothes, and then just stay in the warmth of our condo and relax after a long hard day of skiing.
I do have to say, the weather conditions varied widely over the weekend. We flew in Thursday night (that's right, not only did I go to Whistler without my bf, I ditched him on Valentine's Day) and stayed the night at the Days Inn by the airport (thanks, GPS, for only kicking in after I made the wrong turn away from the hotel - or maybe really, thanks GPS, since turning the wrong way, I discovered a Chinese plaza that later came in handy). The next morning, we were up bright and early and off to Whistler. Almost immediately, our two cars (they rented us Jeep Patriots b/c they had no cars with ski racks, which only worked b/c there were 6 of us - with 8 of us we'd never have fit the people and the gear in the Jeeps) got separated. So much for caravaning. Armed with a GPS per car, though, we managed to meet up at the Squamish 7-11 to pick up discount lift tickets ($69 CAD + tax, as opposed to $83 + tax at the window). The drive up 99 was pretty, going along the edge of the water with great views of the Vancouver Islands, but it was also heavy with construction and slow. I think they're widening/modernizing the road for the 2010 Olympics.
The whole drive up, it was raining intermittently. One of the guys in my car was concerned about the rain, but as we neared Whistler, it soon turned to snow. We went directly to the first parking lot we saw (turned out it was the furthest lot from the lifts - oops), and got all our ski/snowboard gear out to hit the slopes. We didn't end up really getting up onto the mountain until almost 11, but we still had quite a good first day. We started off on Blackcomb Mountain, and the lines were pretty short. Visibility wasn't great because of the constant snow, so we were advised to stay away from the higher areas like 7th Heaven and Blackcomb Glacier. The snow was almost a wet, sticky powder - on the border of too wet but mostly quite nice b/c of the freshness of it. We stayed on blue runs that first day, which was probably a good idea b/c it seemed like a lot of the blacks were covered in moguls. I'm a pretty limited skier - I do blacks fairly regularly, but I don't like moguls or trees. The kind of black run I like is probably considered an advanced blue at some resorts - long, wide, steep, and groomed. I did discover that I should have waxed my skis though - every time we hit a flat traverse, even if I started off passing all my friends, my skis rapidly slowed down and eventually I was barely moving while everyone else passed me. I kept saying I should wax my skis all weekend, but never actually did it. Ah well. At the end of the day, we made our way over to Lower Gear Jammer to do a long run all the way back to the base, but I missed the turnoff we were supposed to take to get there easily, and we ended up doing an annoying flat traverse on "Last Resort" to get back to it. Sigh. Map-reading.
Day 1 ended semi-late - one car had to figure out how to check in (the reservation didn't make it clear how to do this - turns out there was a property management company on Main St, a couple blocks from the condo complex, where you were to pick up the keys) while the other one went to fetch one person's shoes from the rental place (they'd done a 3-day rental and then unthinkingly left shoes behind, forgetting they wouldn't be back that night). Then, after 3 of the people had showered (including me), we headed over to the IGA to pick up supplies for the next few days. By the time we had the groceries bought and dinner (spaghetti) made, it was quite late. We basically ate and headed straight for bed where I, as usual for me in a strange bed, spent a very restless night.
Day 2 we were aiming to get out of the door and to the lifts by the time they opened at 8:30, but we ended up not really getting onto the slopes until 10, what with getting out late, rentals, figuring out where we were going, etc. C'est la vie. Day 2 was focused on Whistler Mountain and had its own set of weather conditions. The snow had stopped, but a big cloud bank hovered at mid-mountain, where it stayed for the rest of the day. As a result, the top of the mountain had beautiful clear skies and nice conditions, while the middle of the mountain was shrouded in fog, making it hard to see more than 10 feet in front of you. Trying to get away from that fog, four of us started trying to make our way to other regions of the mountain, and ended up spending the bulk of the morning just waiting in lift lines and going from lift to lift. Saturdays are just sucky ski days all around - long lines everywhere. We went to the Harmony lift area and discovered long lines, so we were aiming to try to get to Symphony Express. However, due to a misleading map, we kept missing the green trail that was supposed to take us into the area - the first time we found ourselves back in Harmony without any way to get to Symphony short of going over the side of a cliff. The second time, we missed the green trail again so we decided to take a single black - the Sun Bowl. Shouldn't have been so bad but it was mogully, fairly steep, started off a bit narrow, and my friend almost ended up going over the side of a cliff - it looked less steep down one side so we started going that way but then she discovered it was basically rock and a much steeper drop at the end of it, so she ended up taking her skis off and climbing out, while I, who was higher up, sidestepped my way back up to the beginning of the bowl. We eventually made our way down, only to discover that Symphony Express had been stopped for quite a while and a huge line had built up. After the line finally reopened and we got through it, we were already late meeting our other two friends for lunch, and didn't have time to ski Symphony at all. We had to make our way back to the lodge instead. Oh well. The afternoon went better, although we had hoped to aim for "Peak to Creek," a long run that went from the very top of the mountain to the very bottom, but discovered too late that the "Peak" lift closed at 3, not 3:30. We ended up having to go down from where we were, about 2/3 of the way up the mountain, though we discovered several runs we liked on the way down - the blue Crabapple, the black Dave Murray... We also got some nice photos up top, though I was really regretting having forgotten my camera that morning since the cloud bank made for some really funky looking vistas.
Day 2 ended with us making "soft tacos" (which were more like burritos/quesadillas, food falling out of a loose soft tortilla) and then playing games. I love Settlers, which one of my friends had brought, so we happily played that for most of the evening before heading off for an early night's sleep.
Two of our friends had to go back early, so they did their 3rd day of skiing on Sunday. The rest of us took the day off (turns out we should have done Fri/Sun/Mon b/c the lines would have been better, as well as the weather, but oh well). We got to a late start intentionally, and headed out to check out Whistler Village around 11am. We wandered down Main Street, going into candy shops, camera shops, and various souvenir shops, and then over to the Village Stroll, a winding path through the bulk of the shops and inns in Whistler Village. I was feeling fairly crappy that morning, but perked up when we hit Cows, an ice cream parlor where they made fresh waffle cones (smelled SO good), and sold all this super-cute cow-themed merchandise. Because my bf and I watch CSI and tend to go around singing "Whoooo..are you. Who who? who who?" (ie the theme song), I had to get him a T-shirt for "Cow Scene Investigation" with "Moo are you? Moo moo, moo moo" on it because it was just too funny. We each got an ice cream - I got two flavors in "one scoop" - a Peanut Butter Cup (I think it was like Peanut Budder Cup) and a super minty chocolate mint (forgot the name). Turns out the mint was so strong it overdominated the peanut butter, so I couldn't really taste the peanut butter. Oops. Still, very yummy. We *then* went to get lunch at a local restaurant (I forgot the name), which was pretty good. I just got a French Onion Soup (lots of effort to drink that, what with all the cheese). We then kept wandering and eventually ended up at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory where they made the chocolate fresh in the store. Feeling greedy, I ended up getting several chocolate bombs - a "Tiger" bomb which was like peanut butter, caramel, and some other stuff, an Oreo bomb, a chocolate/hazelnut hedgehog, two maple cream chocolates (one milk, one dark), and one smooth mint dark chocolate (sooo good, should have gotten another one), as well as a box of 1/2 off Valentine's Day chocolate for my bf, and a hunk of maple walnut fudge. Happiness. It's all about food. We also stopped by a bookstore where my friend happily found some Canadian and British books to buy, while I spent most of the time looking at Argentina guidebooks for my next big trip. We ended up having to swing through the brand new, pretty library they had there twice - the first time out of curiousity, the second time b/c I suddenly remembered I wanted to find a back issue of Canadian Living magazine, which had bought one of my photos but never sent me a copy like they had promised. I ended up photocopying the page with my photo and credit to bring home, which was nice. Yay libraries!
Day 3 ended with dinner at Bavaria Restaurant on Northlands/Main St, our one dinner out. We ended up ordering 2 orders of cheese fondue (every fondue had to have a minimum of 2 orders), 2 orders of the "Chinoise" fondue (basically like Chinese hot pot - chicken broth in which you cooked chunks of pork tenderloin, beef filet, prawns, and veggies), one jaegerschnitzel, and one beef rouladen, all to split. It was really good - the cheese was yummy (with decent bread to dip), and the meats were tender and delicious. I only really got one bite of each of the other entrees, but they were tasty. We ended with 3 orders of chocolate fondue for dessert - should have gotten 4 - which was delicious. Yummy belgian chocolate, and great fruit - strawberries, bananas, pineapples, ladyfingers... sooo good. Not cheap, but definitely a satisfying meal. The night ended on a somewhat less satisfying note, though, when I slipped and fell into a deep puddle. Cold and wet. Yay!
Day 4 was our last full day at Whistler and we were determined to do the Peak to Creek. The four of us remaining on the trip decided to do the "Fresh Tracks" breakfast - $17 to have breakfast buffet at the restaurant/lodge at the top of the gondola, where you go up an hour before the lifts officially open so you're at the top of the mountain and ready to go when the resort opens. That was nice - the food was fine, nothing special, but the views were great, and it was a beautiful clear day. Turns out the "Peak" lift didn't open until 9, so we got an additional run in before taking it, but we were soon at the top, where we busied ourselves taking a bunch of photos of both the vistas and the Inuchuk at the top of the mountain. Finally, we embarked on the "Peak to Creek" run, which ended up being one of my favorites. It was a blue run, very very long, and just a lot of skiing to get in on one pass. I kept stopping to take photos on the way down. We eventually made our way to the bottom, and promptly got back on the gondola (at Creekside, which was sort of a satellite village) and went to try to get on the Dave Murray, which we'd only done part of the previous day. Turns out part of this was closed for the Telus World Cup, but we were able to do most of it. The snow got really odd at one part of the run - very large corn that made for a very bumpy ride - but for the most part it was a nice run. That early in the day, the snow was actually very packed and a bit icy, but not bad. Having finished with the long runs on Whistler side we wanted to do, we decided to go back over to Blackcomb, which we thought we liked more.
We had also decided to skip lunch that day, so at Blackcomb, we just stopped for a quick bathroom break before starting up skiing again. This time we were aiming for 7th Heaven. That seemed like a nice area when we got to it, but it had gotten so warm at that point that the snow was turning into sticky slush. We quickly decided to try out the glacier to see if it was cooler and therefore less slushy. However, we discovered when we got there that the primary way to get up the glacier was via T-bars, which our snowboarding friends did not want to do. So we ended up just skiing down the glacier once from the 7th Heaven side. This is where things became a bit problematic - half of us wanted to go down a black face with lots of moguls while the other half of us did not. We split up, and ended up getting confused and never rejoining. So each pair of us ended up just doing a bunch of runs for the rest of the day and we met up at the bottom. It was still a nice end of the day - my remaining friend and I did a bunch of blue runs, and then got back on the Lower Gear Jammer via the correct route this time, and ended the day with very very tired legs, but very satisfied. Day 4 ended with lasagna at the condo for dinner, followed by 3 games of Settlers. A nice day all around.
Day 5 was supposed to be our visit Vancouver day, but things did not work out in our favor. We got out of Whistler on time, met up at the Squamish 7-11 to get a bit of gas and sync up, and arranged to meet at the airport where we were going to park one car in long-term parking while driving the other around, so we wouldn't have to coordinate two cars and worry about our stuff getting stolen out of our cars. However, to our dismay, we discovered that the Lion's Gate Bridge, or whatever it's called, the one that connects to downtown Vancouver, was closed. Apparently there had been a 3-car crash that closed the entire bridge while they cleaned it up. After consulting a map, we decided to take the long way around to the next bridge, but traffic was super-slow and super-backed up. Turns out not only was it backed up b/c all the Lion's Gate traffic was going to the other bridge, but *that* bridge also had had an accident in the center lane that was only just getting cleaned up. We ended up not getting to the airport until around 2pm (our flight out required us to get back to the airport around 5pm). Starving, we decided to find a restaurant in that Chinese plaza in Richmond we'd stumbled upon Thursday night, since we knew where it was. Ironically, it turned out that a lot of the restaurants were either closed on Tuesdays or closed for lunch on Tuesdays..of all days of the week to be wandering around..or were cash only (we had almost no Canadian cash). We did find a restaurant with an interesting mix of food - Chinese, Portugese, other Western-ish dishes - though, and were all reasonably satisfied with our food, so that was good. We then killed another couple hours just wandering around, going into and out of bakeries and tapioca tea places, and marveling at the number of hair salons there were in that one small plaza. We finally got in the car to drive around Richmond some more, and ended up at a small coffee/tea shop (Berry Good) where we each got something to drink and killed some more time before it was time to go to the airport. So much for Vancouver. Of course, at the airport we discovered that the weather in SF was bad so all the flights were delayed, so we ended up playing several rounds of "My Word" until we finally split to get on our respective flights. And thus, after a fun-filled several days of skiing and hanging out in Whistler, followed by a somewhat disappointing day in Richmond, we wrapped up a great vacation. I'd definitely do Whistler again..maybe next time my bf will come too.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Foody food food
On Chinese New Year's Eve, I had Belgian food this year. Oops. Didn't realize somehow that it was New Year's *Eve* you were supposed to do the big meal. What basically happened was, I made chicken quesadillas for dinner like 3 nights in a row (they weren't even that good - I just made that much filling by mistake in an attempt to finish off the 2 chicken breasts not used in the Chicken, Tomato & Prosciutto Risotto I made late last week (Costco packages them together in 2 or 3 chicken breasts, and I'd used up all my 2-breast packets)). My bf was itching to eat out on Wednesday, and I had been wanting to try La Trappe, a new Belgian restaurant in North Beach (800 Greenwich St)... the only Belgian restaurant in SF, in fact. When I was in Belgium a few years back, one of my favorite things was the food. Lots of cream-based stuff, so not good for me, but very yummy. So I'd been wanting to eat Belgian since returning but only now did I have an opportunity.
La Trappe is a little odd in that the street level has a few tables and an open-air kitcheny type area, but, when we were there, nobody at all except kitchen staff on that level. Made the restaurant look empty and unpopular. The main dining area and bar are downstairs, in a rather cute and cozy brick cave that was rather reminiscent of places I'd been in Brussels (and which is apparently fairly common in North Beach). It's got wooden tables and benches, and the whole thing does feel rather European, which is nice. Menu-wise, La Trappe was lacking some of my favorite Belgian dishes - Beef Carbonnade (beef stew made with beer), this Belgian endive dish with ham and a cheesy cream sauce, etc - but it did have Chicken Waterzooi, Ghent Style, which is a creamy chicken stew that I had enjoyed in Belgium. Seeing this, I happily ordered it, along with a $6 side of fries because, after all, Belgian fries are supposed to be the best ever. My bf didn't see as much on the menu to interest him but got the pork chop on a bed of yams (neither of us are mussel fans, otherwise I hear their Moules Frites are great). When my bf ordered Coke and I stuck to my water, the waiter expressed surprise - "that's unusual." I guess most people go to La Trappe for the Belgian beer, not the food. But neither of are beer drinkers.
Unfortunately, La Trappe proved to be a bit disappointing. The Waterzooi was decent - nice warm comfort food - but way overpriced at like $18-19 (and they didn't give me a spoon until I asked). The fries were nothing special at all (didn't help that I had had fries at lunch). They came with ketchup and a horseradishy dipping sauce, and we didn't even finish them, making the most expensive wasted side ever. My bf's pork chop was apparently fine, but nothing special, and also seemed a bit overpriced at like $22. I was utterly stuffed by the end of my waterzooi, so we didn't even look at the dessert menu. Overall I'd say the ambience was nice, it's probably a good place if you like Belgian beer and moules frites, but for us, it was overpriced and didn't feature enough Belgian favorites to merit a return visit. Oh well.
On the plus side, on Thursday, I tried to put something Chinese-like together for dinner that my bf would eat, and based on a shortage of time, went with beef lo mein. I couldn't find a single recipe online that quite fit what I was thinking, so I kind of blended a few and did my own thing. Turned out slightly over-salty but otherwise quite good, and my bf really liked it. So I'm going to try to remember what I did...
1 lb flank steak, sliced fairly thin
2 carrots, used the grater to make thin slices
Napa cabbage, not sure how much, sliced it up to be about the same amount as the carrots
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin slices
1 onion, cut into thin slices
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 6oz package of chow mein (only non-dry kind I could find in Lucky - and not nearly enough for the condiments above - wanted lo mein, couldn't find any)
Marinated the flank steak in soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic powder, ground black pepper, some sugar, and cornstarch. Let sit while preparing the rest of the ingredients (and I'm a slow-ass chopper).
Followed the directions on the chow mein package - boiled ~2 quarts of water, put in noodles for 3 minutes, then drained, ran under cold water, drained thoroughly, set aside.
Used peanut oil - heated in wok over high heat.
Stir fried flank steak until brown (but probably still somewhat pink on the inside).
Added garlic, stirred in.
Added onions, stir fried for maybe 1-2 minutes.
Added red bell pepper, stir fried for about a minute
Dumped in carrots & cabbage, stir fried and mixed for a few minutes until everything started looking soft and cooked-ish.
Had way too much meat/veggie stuff, so pulled about half of it into a separate pan.
Mixed in noodles (not so easy to get it all distributed), and continued stirring and cooking and warming (though I turned down the heat to like medium-high). Poured in some soy sauce and oyster sauce and a big tablespoon of sugar, and then tried sprinking white pepper on top but most of it seemed to float up into the fan. Oops. Some portion of this did get in, though I'm pretty sure. Continued mixing until it all seemed warmed through and cooked. Served.
Obviously the actual sauce/seasoning I used was pretty approximated and me just dumping stuff in at will. I guess I put in too much soy sauce or something since it was kind of salty. But it turned out quite fragrant and yummy.
Going to try to make the second half tonight with "fresh egg noodles" from an Asian market. We'll see if those turn out ok.
La Trappe is a little odd in that the street level has a few tables and an open-air kitcheny type area, but, when we were there, nobody at all except kitchen staff on that level. Made the restaurant look empty and unpopular. The main dining area and bar are downstairs, in a rather cute and cozy brick cave that was rather reminiscent of places I'd been in Brussels (and which is apparently fairly common in North Beach). It's got wooden tables and benches, and the whole thing does feel rather European, which is nice. Menu-wise, La Trappe was lacking some of my favorite Belgian dishes - Beef Carbonnade (beef stew made with beer), this Belgian endive dish with ham and a cheesy cream sauce, etc - but it did have Chicken Waterzooi, Ghent Style, which is a creamy chicken stew that I had enjoyed in Belgium. Seeing this, I happily ordered it, along with a $6 side of fries because, after all, Belgian fries are supposed to be the best ever. My bf didn't see as much on the menu to interest him but got the pork chop on a bed of yams (neither of us are mussel fans, otherwise I hear their Moules Frites are great). When my bf ordered Coke and I stuck to my water, the waiter expressed surprise - "that's unusual." I guess most people go to La Trappe for the Belgian beer, not the food. But neither of are beer drinkers.
Unfortunately, La Trappe proved to be a bit disappointing. The Waterzooi was decent - nice warm comfort food - but way overpriced at like $18-19 (and they didn't give me a spoon until I asked). The fries were nothing special at all (didn't help that I had had fries at lunch). They came with ketchup and a horseradishy dipping sauce, and we didn't even finish them, making the most expensive wasted side ever. My bf's pork chop was apparently fine, but nothing special, and also seemed a bit overpriced at like $22. I was utterly stuffed by the end of my waterzooi, so we didn't even look at the dessert menu. Overall I'd say the ambience was nice, it's probably a good place if you like Belgian beer and moules frites, but for us, it was overpriced and didn't feature enough Belgian favorites to merit a return visit. Oh well.
On the plus side, on Thursday, I tried to put something Chinese-like together for dinner that my bf would eat, and based on a shortage of time, went with beef lo mein. I couldn't find a single recipe online that quite fit what I was thinking, so I kind of blended a few and did my own thing. Turned out slightly over-salty but otherwise quite good, and my bf really liked it. So I'm going to try to remember what I did...
1 lb flank steak, sliced fairly thin
2 carrots, used the grater to make thin slices
Napa cabbage, not sure how much, sliced it up to be about the same amount as the carrots
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin slices
1 onion, cut into thin slices
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 6oz package of chow mein (only non-dry kind I could find in Lucky - and not nearly enough for the condiments above - wanted lo mein, couldn't find any)
Marinated the flank steak in soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic powder, ground black pepper, some sugar, and cornstarch. Let sit while preparing the rest of the ingredients (and I'm a slow-ass chopper).
Followed the directions on the chow mein package - boiled ~2 quarts of water, put in noodles for 3 minutes, then drained, ran under cold water, drained thoroughly, set aside.
Used peanut oil - heated in wok over high heat.
Stir fried flank steak until brown (but probably still somewhat pink on the inside).
Added garlic, stirred in.
Added onions, stir fried for maybe 1-2 minutes.
Added red bell pepper, stir fried for about a minute
Dumped in carrots & cabbage, stir fried and mixed for a few minutes until everything started looking soft and cooked-ish.
Had way too much meat/veggie stuff, so pulled about half of it into a separate pan.
Mixed in noodles (not so easy to get it all distributed), and continued stirring and cooking and warming (though I turned down the heat to like medium-high). Poured in some soy sauce and oyster sauce and a big tablespoon of sugar, and then tried sprinking white pepper on top but most of it seemed to float up into the fan. Oops. Some portion of this did get in, though I'm pretty sure. Continued mixing until it all seemed warmed through and cooked. Served.
Obviously the actual sauce/seasoning I used was pretty approximated and me just dumping stuff in at will. I guess I put in too much soy sauce or something since it was kind of salty. But it turned out quite fragrant and yummy.
Going to try to make the second half tonight with "fresh egg noodles" from an Asian market. We'll see if those turn out ok.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Lost season premiere
One could ask why I'm posting three separate posts on the same day within like an hour of each other. Some perverse desire to keep thoughts separate, I guess.
Watched the Lost season 4 premiere yesterday. I won't spoil anything but I have to say, I've watched Lost faithfully for the previous three seasons. I enjoy the show. But I've never been absolutely absorbed in it, which is probably why I have never gotten frustrated like other people have that they don't answer questions more promptly or more thoroughly. I just find it entertaining.
But last night? I was on edge the entire time, dying to know the answers to all these questions. And then I was really frustrated to realize that of course they're not going to answer everything right away, and I have to keep watching and waiting to find out what's going on. I don't think the show has ever been so compelling and interesting for me. I can't wait to see the rest of the season, and boy do I hope the writer's strike ends in time for them to produce the rest of the episodes for the season - I think they only have eight right now. The good thing is, it feels like they know the answers and they intend to tell us, it will just take time for the mystery to be developed and revealed. They dropped enough hints and gave us enough information that I feel like there's a whole puzzle that's already fully created, and we're just getting pieces dropped in one by one, so the picture will be gradually revealed...
On a random note, we never watch the one hour specials that are supposed to be clip shows combined with revelations b/c we tend to find them so much recap and not so much new insight. Not interesting enough. But what in the world was up with those pop-ups in the rebroadcast of last season's finale? We ended up stopping after like 5 minutes because 1) I remembered pretty well what happened last season and 2) the pop-ups were distracting and weird. Sometimes interesting but mostly seeming to recap what we were watching right in front of us.
Watched the Lost season 4 premiere yesterday. I won't spoil anything but I have to say, I've watched Lost faithfully for the previous three seasons. I enjoy the show. But I've never been absolutely absorbed in it, which is probably why I have never gotten frustrated like other people have that they don't answer questions more promptly or more thoroughly. I just find it entertaining.
But last night? I was on edge the entire time, dying to know the answers to all these questions. And then I was really frustrated to realize that of course they're not going to answer everything right away, and I have to keep watching and waiting to find out what's going on. I don't think the show has ever been so compelling and interesting for me. I can't wait to see the rest of the season, and boy do I hope the writer's strike ends in time for them to produce the rest of the episodes for the season - I think they only have eight right now. The good thing is, it feels like they know the answers and they intend to tell us, it will just take time for the mystery to be developed and revealed. They dropped enough hints and gave us enough information that I feel like there's a whole puzzle that's already fully created, and we're just getting pieces dropped in one by one, so the picture will be gradually revealed...
On a random note, we never watch the one hour specials that are supposed to be clip shows combined with revelations b/c we tend to find them so much recap and not so much new insight. Not interesting enough. But what in the world was up with those pop-ups in the rebroadcast of last season's finale? We ended up stopping after like 5 minutes because 1) I remembered pretty well what happened last season and 2) the pop-ups were distracting and weird. Sometimes interesting but mostly seeming to recap what we were watching right in front of us.
Getting progressively stupider.
Last year, when we moved from big house in the suburbs to smaller apartment in the city, I finally went through and purged the 4-5 boxes of school stuff I've been moving with me from one place to another (and I've moved 4-5 times in the last 7 years). I reasoned that after 7 years, if I still hadn't pulled out a single bible of class notes or looked at anything I'd produced in my 5 years of college+M.Eng, then I never would. As I went through my boxes, though, I stopped to read through some of my old assignments, tests and papers, and ended up feeling both very stupid and very confused. I had no recollection of ever learning like 75% of what I read, and was rather blown away by how intelligent I apparently used to be.
I just had a similar experience - my manager recommended I sign up for this new mentoring program at work that's supposed to be good for career advancement, and to apply, you have to fill out this application form and submit a resume. Some of the questions ask about how many papers I've published, presentations I've given, classes I've taken at work, etc... Whenever I finish doing anything, I think I just purge it from my mind, so I started going through my old emails to see if I could remind myself what papers I'd written. I started reading some old email threads and was actually both impressed and saddened by some of my emails in these threads. Apparently I used to know how to do stuff, and analyze stuff, and whatever... Somehow I came away from those projects thinking I'd contributed nothing and knew nothing, but when I read these threads, apparently I knew *something*. But now I don't remember it.
I suppose in a couple years I'll look back at what I've done in my current project and be impressed by what I knew and figured out how to do. But at the moment, I feel ignorant and inexperienced and like I'm just implementing what other people tell me how to do.
Why can't I ever feel as intelligent *now* as I do when I look back at myself? And why am I getting progressively stupider? Sigh...
I just had a similar experience - my manager recommended I sign up for this new mentoring program at work that's supposed to be good for career advancement, and to apply, you have to fill out this application form and submit a resume. Some of the questions ask about how many papers I've published, presentations I've given, classes I've taken at work, etc... Whenever I finish doing anything, I think I just purge it from my mind, so I started going through my old emails to see if I could remind myself what papers I'd written. I started reading some old email threads and was actually both impressed and saddened by some of my emails in these threads. Apparently I used to know how to do stuff, and analyze stuff, and whatever... Somehow I came away from those projects thinking I'd contributed nothing and knew nothing, but when I read these threads, apparently I knew *something*. But now I don't remember it.
I suppose in a couple years I'll look back at what I've done in my current project and be impressed by what I knew and figured out how to do. But at the moment, I feel ignorant and inexperienced and like I'm just implementing what other people tell me how to do.
Why can't I ever feel as intelligent *now* as I do when I look back at myself? And why am I getting progressively stupider? Sigh...
Last night for DAT
On the last night for DAT, we went to Circa (2001 Chestnut at Fillmore). This was probably actually one of my favorites of the DAT menu, food-wise. The restaurant itself was a little odd - half of it was devoted to a bar area where apparently some dating service was in effect - there was a looping slideshow of beautiful people at I guess past such parties, someone with a huge video camera, a photographer going around and taking photos... The other half, though, was a nice restaurant with a simple, clean design and relatively quiet, given that it was right next to this busy bar. I enjoyed the food though. For the DAT menu, the entrees offered were 5 of the 7 entrees on the regular menu (minus a Sea Bass and one other seafood dish), which was nice. The entire dessert menu was available for us to choose from. The only real limitation is that Circa had quite a lot of starters and "quick bites" that looked interesting, but for our first course, we could only choose between two salads and the tomato soup with grilled cheese bites. Too bad, since some of the other appetizers looked good. We both got the tomato soup for our first course - it was quite yummy but a little too spicy for my taste. The grilled cheese bites I kind of enjoyed - the cheese was a little strong but the bread was grilled perfectly. I was actually filling up a bit on this appetizer, so I stopped eating before I was done to leave room. My entree was the grilled salmon on some kind of chanterelle mushroom/white corn/spinach? succotash with a tomato-something puree. This was quite yummy. I enjoyed the succotash a lot (I love all those flavors) and it complemented the salmon (which was cooked tender and flaky) really well. This is probably the entree I found best-flavored and most interesting of the various DAT entrees I've tried. Not too strong, not too bland. My bf got the painted hills flat iron steak with chive-horseradish mashed potatoes and garlic-spinach. He was a bit disappointed because his steak was burnt on the outside. It was right on the inside - he asked for it medium - but it was probably cooked on too high of a flame or something, b/c the outside was a bit charred, and neither of us like the burnt taste. He said later he should have scraped the burnt part off and he probably would have liked it fine. He found the mashed potatoes interesting because of that hint of horseradish and ate more of it than he probably usually would have, given his general lack of interest in potatoes. I had to leave part of my entree behind too, or there was no way I'd be able to eat dessert. For dessert, my bf got the chocolate lava cake, which had a peanut butter filling and homemade peanut butter ice cream on the side. I tried to order the apple pie creme brulee, which sounded really interesting, but they were out, so I got the brioche donut holes with cinnamon sugar on the outside, and chocolate and maple creme anglaise dipping sauces. His lava cake - especially when it first came out - was quite yummy. I love peanut butter/chocolate almost as much as I love hazelnut/chocolate or mint/chocolate, so that was delicious to me. I liked the ice cream better than him (he's not as much of a PB fan) so he donated the scoop to me. I got five brioche donut holes, well coated in cinnamon sugar, but was very sad when in my infinite clumsiness, I went to try to eat one after dipping it in the maple creme anglaise, but having had it sitting on top of my fork, it went flying, managing to bounce off my hair, my shirt, and my jeans before hitting the ground, leaving a trail of cinnamon sugar and creme anglaise behind. Sigh. I was sadder for losing one of my five donot holes than for getting myself so messy. The rest of it was good, though. I found the actual donut holes much more interesting than what we had gotten at Sauce the previous week - better taste and consistency - and I love maple, so the maple creme anglaise was a wonderful dipping sauce. The chocolate was all right too, but I basically scooped up as much of the creme anglaise as I could so that was definitely the highlight for me. Happiness.
Overall, while I think my dining experience was a little better than my bf's (b/c of his burnt steak), I was very happy with Circa's food. Service was good, too. Everything was quite prompt and attentive, and we were out of there with an hour and 15 minutes, which always makes me happy. As my bf said - we're not diners. We don't really enjoy lounging around in a restaurant for hours and hours.
So that's about it for DAT 2008. Must eat much less and work out more - I think I gained a couple lbs over the last couple weeks!
Overall, while I think my dining experience was a little better than my bf's (b/c of his burnt steak), I was very happy with Circa's food. Service was good, too. Everything was quite prompt and attentive, and we were out of there with an hour and 15 minutes, which always makes me happy. As my bf said - we're not diners. We don't really enjoy lounging around in a restaurant for hours and hours.
So that's about it for DAT 2008. Must eat much less and work out more - I think I gained a couple lbs over the last couple weeks!
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