Rolling Sea

I've always imagined myself living by the ocean. I dream about owning a vacation home with tall glass windows, exposed wooden beams, comfy down-duvet beds, and a view of the wide open ocean. I want to be surrounded by it's smells, engulfed by it's moods, and calmed by it's sound, for all my life.

Black Friday

To partake in shopping on a day such as Black Friday, you've got to know what you're doing. You've got to have a plan, a list, a firm concrete idea of what you are looking for. You've also got to be partially insane.

I wasn't even one of the die hards. I wasn't shopping at 12 am on Friday the 27th. I wasn't fighting over handbags at 1:02 and waiting in line for a change room at 2:45. I waited till a modest 8 am. I can't say for sure what the malls were like at midnight, but I can tell you that early morning shopping was an absolute ZOO!

Days like black Friday are scary for a number of reasons. First of all, you will find that people will do absolutely anything for a good deal. Manners and common courtesies will disappear into thin air. And there is not a hope in hell that anyone is going to do you any favours. It's every man for himself on Black Friday.

Now imagine hundreds and thousands of these frantic people everywhere the eye can see. They are moving at the speed of sound through the hallways, packed like sardines into boutiques, and waiting 45 minutes in line just to try on that could-be-perfect (40% off) dress. They are throwing clothes here and there. They are half submerged in unorganized piles and body-checking their ways through the crowds. People are aggressive and grumpy, because, you know, shopping really takes a lot out of you. You have your eye on a sweet little sweater across the room, and so does the lady next to you. You give each other threatening stares, with fire burning in your eyes. You reach for it and so does she, you pull and she pulls back. Eventually you will snap out of your trance and give in. You will realize how preposterous this all really is. You will let the lady win, and you will carry on, only slightly disheartened, in search of another great deal.

Try shopping on Black Friday for 10 hours straight. You might feel invigorated (my sister). Or, you may feel you want to break down and cry (me). Shopping on this day is like a marathon. You need proper training. You need stamina. You need Power Bars. Even though I partake in this event year after year, I was caught ill-equipped and under-prepared. I was ready for a nap before it was even noon.

The moral of this story is simply this: Black Friday is not for wimps. Get your shoulder pads, credit cards, and crazy face, and head out for one heck of an insane adventure.

Big

I don't know that it is very well possible to sum up a city like Toronto in just a few sentences. I mean, there are the obvious adjectives I could use, including words like big and flat, but that doesn't really do the city much justice. 

I'm a westcoast girl. Always have been and always will be. I practically scoff when I hear anyone even slightly imply that Toronto is the best city in Canada. "Are you crazy!?" I want to scream at them. I mean, HOW can you even start to compete with Vancouver's beauty. You can be standing at the top of a mountain and 10 minutes later be sunbathing on a beach. Vancouver has an alright transit system that gets you where your going. It has great food and unique shopping. It has everything you'd ever want conveniently located within a modest 114.67 Km². So the prospect of this Vancouverite roaming the streets of Toronto evoked a sense of skepticism, to say the least. I automatically assumed that everything within Toronto would be a less exciting version of Vancouver. It didn't take much: within the first few moments of stepping foot into the city I knew. I was totally and completely in love. 

It was huge, and full of little bits of everything. The lack of ocean and mountains didn't even faze me; it was still beautiful. I spent five glorious days wandering around the city, exploring the popular shopping areas, snacking in quaint eateries, and biking around Toronto Island. I was in heaven. What really got me was the diversity between the different area's of the city. Little Italy and Queen Street. The Distillery District and China Town. Collage and Bloor. It almost seemed like there were separate cities within the city. Everywhere I looked there was something new to see.  

So I've got to admit, Toronto IS worth the hype. I was surprised, in a good way. The trip allowed me to finally see the appeal of the biggest city in Canada. I never, ever thought I would say this but here it goes: I love Toronto!

More of This

Today was a near perfect day. My favorite of all the California days we have had. We start the day off with breakfast in bed and then we mosey on down to the pool where we suntan and swim and read until it's noon and our bellies are growling. We get in the car and drive to the nearest In-N-Out burger, the only reasonable option, where we dine on burgers and fries and Izzie sodas. I take pictures of our ketchup and our burgers. Then it's time to go again, onward towards the Golden Gate Bridge, but traffic is bad and it takes a while. We decide to try something different this time, and we take a turn off before our usual vista point. This turn off leads us up the side of a mountain, right beside the golden gate bridge. The road winds and curls and we see the bridge like we have never seen it before, in all it's glory, the way it was intended to be seen. We travel on and wind down the other side of the mountain. The bridge disappears and in it's place is the wide open Pacific. The beach is gorgeous: long, lined with cliffs, with gigantic waves crashing down on the shore. Surfers dot the coastline and we even spot a seal scaling along the beach. The wind is cold and ferocious and yet i still can't resist running into the waves and feeling the strong current push and pull my legs. Emilie wanders along the beach barefoot and ben sits on a bench, pensively watching the waves crashing against the cliffs. I take pictures of everyone and everything, trying my very hardest to capture the beauty as best as I can with my camera. We get in the van again, this time my feet are covered with gritty sand and bits of seaweed, so I'm barefoot. Up the mountain again and there is the bridge, this time we stop and I take more pictures. The wind seems to have become so strong that i am willing to bet that i could just about lean into it entirely and not fall over. 

Next we drive to the beautiful town of Sausalito, where there is shelter from the wind and an open air market. My primary goal is find a bike that I can rent and ride along the water, which I find just off of Princess St. Cruiser bikes, with baskets in the front! Dad and Emilie and I bike for an hour, riding past a houseboat community and even going under the freeway. My legs feel like jello when we are done and we check out the little farmers market. I buy white nectarine-raspberry sorbet (best I've ever had!), organic strawberries (not all california strawberries taste like nothing), and some arabic flat bread from a boy who gave me more then my fair share of delicious samples. 

An hour long car drive later bring us to dinner at Bovolo, which is eaten on the patio out back. The food is fresh and delicious. The service is remarkable. Mom and Dad finish off a bottle of white and dad is wondrously happy, encouraging us all to have the house made gelato for dessert. The air is warm and everyone is happy, staring up at the sky and watching the clouds pass by. It was the perfect evening to conclude our California visit. 

Tomorrow we drive back home. We'll see what adventures await...

Today's Soundtrack:

"More of This"- Vetiver

"Inni mer syngur vitleysingur"- Sigur Ros

"Love Me Do"- The Beatles

Sharing a Hotel

Sharing a hotel room with 4 other people sounds preposterous, and most of the time it really is. There is only one shower, one bathroom, one mirror, one tv, four bedside lights, and two twin beds. We are in each other's spaces all the time. We all want to go to bed at separate times. We all have different taste in movies. Emilie is the worst person to share a bed with, I swear to god. If you ever have to share a bed with her just don't. For some reason, even though I can expect these scenario's on every family vacation, I still put up with them and I am still more then willing to tag along. I sleep with ear plugs and and eye mask and last night Emilie pounced on my back and i FREAKED OUT. And then i got in trouble. She completely blindsided me, which I carefully explained to my parents this morning. Really, there was no reason for me to get in trouble. Sometimes we bug each other just so we can see my parents snap and freak out, which seems incredibly juvenile, which is completely juvenile. We have fun together exploring unchartered territory, outside of the teeny tiny hotel room. We break out into spontaneous song during car trips and tease each other like you wouldn't believe. Even though I feel claustrophobic sometimes, there is still something appealing about these wonky adventures. It's the food, probably. Or even more likely it's the time together, that we rarely seem to get these days. I have a crazy family, but we have some pretty amazing times together. We definitely know how to have a wonderful vacation, besides the part where nearly five adults share a hotel room together...

Cranky

The sun is always shining here in Santa Rosa and I really appreciate that. Because as soon as you get even close to San Francisco you are suddenly surrounded by a thick, bone chilling fog. And although the sun may try as it might, it takes a very long time to break on through that fog. It feels like winter and it looks like winter. I would have to agree with Mark Twain when he said "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

Although I am definitely feeling better now, earlier this afternoon I was on the verge of breaking down. Spending 5 hours in stores such as Hollister, Sephoria, and Abercrombie and Fitch will do this to you. I have never really been a fan of shopping with other people. The people you shop with never want to go in the same stores as you and if they do go in the same stores they take way longer/shorter then you need and it's just disastrous all around. I ended up sitting down in the middle of the mall for quite a while staring at the ceiling and fighting off sleep. I did manage to find myself a lovely pair of flats that i bought courtesy of Grandma! So that wasn't the most fun of events but i dealt with it alright and came out alive. 

I also regret to inform you that Tartine was not as dreamlike as it has been during our previous visits. Mostly the problem was that the girl who was helping us at the counter was really rude and treated every customer as though she thought they were completely incompetent. That is slightly off putting when you are visiting a highly notable bakery! As expected, all of the baking had dairy in it... except for the rochers which were divine! Rochers, if you do not know, are light airy meringues that, at Tartine, are mixed with either coco nibs or roasted almonds. I opted for the roasted almond rocher which was so delicate and tasty and perfect that is practically made my day upon first bite! There was another small issue, which involved having to wait 30  minutes for a sandwich that we were told would only take 10= grumpy family. HOWEVER, i personally found the sandwich to be well worth the wait. It was filled with tomatoes and shitaki mushrooms, spinach, and a broccoli rabe pesto and then grilled on some of their lovely house made bread. It was even better then it sounds!

Dinner was based upon a quick visit to Whole foods and was, of course delicious. We picniced on the floor of our hotel room and then watched Larry King talk about Micheal Jackson's funeral on tv. Now everyone is going to bed and I, once again, feel like i could stay up so much later! I think I am going to watch a movie actually...

As much as I love to travel, I always miss my kitties and my BOY! I wish they could come with me on all my adventures. Snickers and Cally could make friends with the friendly cats at the wineries. 

I don't know what's going on for tomorrow, but you'll undoubtedly hear about it!

Wine Country

So before we left this morning my dad told me that we would be traveling down one of the most beautiful roads he's ever seen during our drive to a vineyard somewhere in Dry Creek. This excited me because 1. i love scenic drives and 2. pretty roads=good photo opportunities. I lugged along both my cameras only to soon discover that I had not brought any extra film for the pentax so i was stuck using my nikon. It actually worked out pretty well because by the end of the day i shot close to 200 pictures. I didn't keep them all though (hooray for digital!) but it was great because i got to fool around with settings i have never used. And although there were a quite a few crap photos (shooting out the window of the van trying to capture the essence of the beautiful road was easier said then done!), i did end up with even more brilliant ones. I guess I should actually tell you what went on today... it was a good day and I think you need to hear about it. 

The plan was to visit this great winery that mom and dad had visited before. It is called Preston and it is somewhere near Healdsburg. Dad said he knew exactly how to get there, but he didn't really and we ended up getting lost. This was rather disconcerting for Ben and Emma, who had empty stomachs and were eager for their lunches. I however, was in heaven. I felt like I was in Tuscany again, or somewhere out of a movie for that matter. All around us were rolling hills covered with grape vines and the roads were lined with olive trees. The sky was so blue and the dirt was so dry and yet somehow these plants just thrived. It was beautiful, to say the least. I had my window down and i just soaked it all in. I felt so relaxed and full of life and i realized (yet again) that traveling, in all it's glory, is one of my favorite things to do. 

After making our way down this windy, one lane street (VERY reminiscent of the tuscan countryside!) we eventually reached our destination: Preston Vineyards. My day just kept getting  better and better and better. This winery is completely organic, very private (no parties over 8 people allowed), and looks like a place i swear i saw in a magazine once. They have a huge farm with every kind of vegetable you could imagine, they make fresh bread every morning (which was delicious!), the grounds were astoundingly beautiful, and there were the friendliest cutest cats ALL over the place. Mom and Dad did a wine tasting while I wandered around taking pictures of all the cats and checking out the heirloom tomato plants in the garden. We had a huge picnic under a walnut tree that gave us shelter from the sun and we were even joined by a few of our new cat friends. After lunch I did a bit more wandering around and even stumbled about a fig tree with plump purpley-red figs hanging from the branches. Dad picked one for us to try and I'm not really sure what to say about that other then there really isn't anything better. I realize, actually my whole family realizes that we are absolutely weird when it comes to the things that we enjoy. I do not know anyone else who gets so excited about a garden full of leeks and garlic and onions. We were in this oasis for about 2 hours before it was time for us to pack up, say goodbye to the kitties, and move on.

I guess i can fast forward ahead to dinner, because that was another wonderful part about today. We decided that after visiting the wineries, we would go wander around the town of Healdsburg. After much deliberation we settled on eating at a restaurant called Zin. Zin is gorgeous, and Zagat rated, and expensive and considered by the locals "the place to eat if you don't mind dropping some cash." I like this place because they use local, organic ingredients and often as possible and they even have their own garden where much of their produce comes from. Dinner was composed of sparkling blood orange juice, crispy green beans with mango salsa, "the best ribs ever", "chicken that just falls off the bone", and a wonderful vegan vegetable medley for myself. It was tasty and satisfying and memorable and we all liked it very, very much. Nothing like an amazing meal to end off a practically perfect day :-)

The time has come for me to wrap this up. As i write, my whole family is fast asleep and the only company i keep is the eery glow from the computer screen that makes my eyes water. We are going into San Francisco tomorrow morning for a day filled with shopping, walking, and of course, TARTINE! Goodnight!!!

Today's Playlist:

"Love Story"- Taylor Swift

"E-Pro"- Beck

"Electric Feel"- MGMT

"Life in a Glass House"- Radiohead