Sun, sea and cheesecake

Mon 7 Feb

I don't think Los Angeles believes in winter. We woke up to beautiful, bright sunshine, not a cloud in the sky. Something like high of 23 Deg C expected. In February!

After breakfast (the usual - fruit, cereal but today ending off with some Peck's anchovy toast!) we phoned some local friends and family and then set off to do the Pretty Woman thing in Rodeo drive (I mean the bit where the shopkeepers sneer at her, not the bit where she shows off in heels and a hat). Walked up and down and in and around Rodeo Drive for a few hours. Anyone know why it is pronounced to rhyme with Galileo? It was blissfully sunny with a cool breeze and pleasantly un-crowded as we artfully resisted the temptations of the store-front displays.

We settled on an unassuming Venezuelan cafe for lunch, Coupa Cafe on North Canyon Drive. By this time I was starving (famous streets make me hungry). La had a Nicoise salad, without the anchovies (skandaal) and generously allowed me to have her olives and egg whites. I also wolfed down the national dish (apparently) of Venezuela called Pabellón, a.k.a. shredded beef, black beans and rice with plantain and corn-meal cakes. Delish.

What followed was a little more retail therapy, this time in Santa Monica at the 3rd St promenade, a pedestrianised street lined with shops. I was a focused hunter and scouted out the correct shop (Levis) and stalked and snagged my prey (new 501 jeans). Success! (To date on this trip I think the score in terms of purchases is David 5, La 0).

We then met another of La's cousins, this time on her dad's side, for coffee at the Cheesecake Factory in Brentwood. For the uninitiated, this is neither a factory, not does it sell exclusively cheesecake. The menu is like a short novel, running to about 20 pages or so, from burgers to teriyaki, soups to pizza. And of course about 3 pages devoted to cheesecake. I asked the waiter for a recommendation, and his answer took about 10 minutes. I asked him if any were better than my mom's baked cheesecake. He wisely answered that all and none fit that description.

I eventually settled on 2010's special creation: layers of cheesecake and red-velvet sponge with sour cream frosting. My arteries cried out for mercy, but it was goood! La had the one with fresh strawberries which, with hindsight, was a very sensible choice. Mom, I must confess these cheesecakes were incredible, but truly not as good as yours!

Back at our hosts, we had a little time to relax with some tea and then we went out for dinner in Malibu at Gladstones, a seafood/fish restaurant on the beach. I had the striped bass and La had seared fresh tuna. For dessert, we all shared a brownie doused in about a gallon of ice cream. (We fought the war, and the brownie won!) Our host was also mistaken for Sean Connery by our waiter (working hard for his tips) and we were also very amused by the bus-boy who creates themed sculptures out of the 'take home' tin foil - the table next to us took home their leftovers in a (silver) beluga whale and a swan.

Morning, sun and night. Day 23

Tue 8 Feb

A very busy day which started bright and early with a run up and down and around in Brentwood, passing John Travolta's house (one of them), along the section of San Vincente Avenue with a grassed island full of joggers and dogs, and then back past Alanis Morisette's place. Not at all ironic.

After breakfast we drove out toward and past Malibu on the Pacific Coast Highway. Beautiful road and gorgeous houses and coastline and mountains. Then all the way back again, and onward along Ocean Avenue through Santa Monica to Venice. Took a stroll on the boardwalk at Venice Beach, full of flea-market stalls selling dream-catchers, bad watercolour paintings and bongs. And stoners, homeless peeps and tweens squatting on the beach in tents. And the 'permanent' shops selling an endless array of junk, t-shirts, peak caps and loads of 'medicinal' marijuana, each staffed with a doctor willing to sign you off with some ailment qualifying you for treatment. Sheesh.

Went for lunch in Main St Venice at a cool place called Chaya - Venice, related in some way to The Governator, but not sure how. By this time I was ravenous (avoiding sweaty street sellers makes me hungry) and wolfed down a chicken sarnie with fries. La had the same with a salad and sans chicken. Delish! Then window-shopped for a bit, some very cool boutique/specialist shops, hardly a chain store in sight except the ever-present Starbucks.

We had some newly 'popped' friends to meet. First stop was Culver City to a friend of my sister's whose second was born a month ago. Very interesting trying to avoid excitable labradoodle slobber on arrival but very cool catching up. Then detoured via Beverly Hills for one last look at Rodeo Drive and also some super slick star spotting (attempts 7, successes 0) at the Beverly Hills Hotel on the way to meet up with a friend of La's from school. Her daughter had been born about a week ago, teeny tiny fingers and very cute.

Rounded off the day (and our LA stay) meeting more cousins (children and husbands and grandchildren of our hosts) at the Cheesecake Factory (second visit, no cheesecake this time).

Morning, noon and night. Day 24

Vancouver last few days

Thu 03 Feb

This morning we went down to Granville Island, a mini-waterfront area of Vancouver with shops and restaurants and very cool fresh foods market. First stop was some artisan coffee (I think this is what they call it when it is organic and tastes a little fruity) followed by a truly glorious croissant from a La Baguette. Buttery, crusty, crumbly yumminess. We then uhmmed and ah'ed a bit about what to do and eventually settled on having lunch right there. Just as well - I was starving (indecision makes me hungry) and gobbled down a pepper steak pie and a fresh bagel. Delish.

Then we drove with Toots to Granville area to help her pick out a new computer. Let me tell you, the 'extended warranty' up-sale thing is as strong here in Canada as in the UK. And the very persistent sales lady would not take no for an answer. We eventually fended her off by donning 'chugger' bibs and signing her up for a monthly direct debit of £20 per month to Help The Aged, UK.

Back at Toots' place, I removed all the pre-loaded rubbish on the machine and introduced her to the wonders of the mouse-pad and laptop use. Plus, added bonus of course, was that she can now watch the Michael McIntyre box-set DVDs we gave her as these were unplayable on her Canadian region, NTSC-only DVD-player. I also waved a magic wand and with some advanced geekery recovered most of her iTunes library from her old, dead hard-drive. Yay me.

That night we went to friend of Toots' for some sushi and teriyaki chicken (salmon for La of course). After supper we retired to their living room for a catch up and a serious Glee/So you think you can Dance session on their daughter's Wii (her choice, not mine. Really.).

Morning, noon and night. Day 19

Fri 04 Feb

Got up early and went for a run. I had learnt from my elliptical torture experience so headed outside for outdoor exercise to the more residential, treed suburban part of Burnaby. I was totally overdressed as previous days had been wet and chilly but today was positively balmy. Well, not quite, but not cold.

Much more relaxed day which we spent with Toots in her local hood, La had a mini-mani-pedi, did some shopping and continued setting up her new laptop. For lunch we had leftover Thai from a few nights ago. By this time I was starving (hill running makes me hungry) and my curry was much improved by the extra days maturing in the fridge. Delish.

That afternoon we got some DVDs from the library and ended up watching some drivel about a man in NY with 3 girlfriends, all hot. Much worse than it sounds but it did have Ali G's wife in it, innit, so not a total loss. Aaai.

Supper was at Toots' friends near Dunbar St in Vancouver. Great meal cooked by the hosts and we were entertained during the meal by another guest's tales of being sued by his tenants and counter-suing them back and physically cutting off their telephone and electricity supply when they didn't pay rent. Hilarious.

Breakfast, lunch and supper. Day 20

Sat 5 Feb

After a light breakfast, we set off for the SkyTrain station to go downtown. We were meeting my cousin and his family for brunch at the English Bay side of Stanley Park. For the first and only time on this visit to Vancouver, the bus driver was clueless (although still friendly and polite) and assured us that the restaurant we were aiming for was accessible from his last stop, near the Aquarium. Strictly speaking, this was not incorrect, but a 20 minute slow jog across the park, round lakes and the like was not really what we had in mind!

We arrived at the Fish House restaurant only 25 minutes late. My cousin, wife and son were politely waiting with their 10th glasses of OJ but we were assured the fruit scones and muffins they sampled while they waited were most excellent. By this time I was starving (jogging round lagoons makes me hungry) and I polished off 'the biggest salmon benny in Canada', with a side of crushed potatoes, in no time. Delish!

There was a lot of catching up - the last time I'd seen my cousin was when I was knee high to a grasshopper, long before wives (ours) and children (son, his). Afterwards they dropped us off back at the Aquarium where we queued and queued and queued and eventually gave up. Walked a round that side of Stanley Park a bit then public transport to Oakridge mall area to meet up with a friend of my folks'.

Instead of coffee in the mall we went for a walk to Queen Elizabeth park, where there are gorgeous views of Vancouver from the top of the rose garden looking North.

Morning, brunch and burgers. Day 21,

Sun 6 Feb

We woke, had a light breakfast, finished packing, then Toots drove us to the airport. Continued frustration over our inability to use online check-in and actually for this flight we couldn't even use the little self-help computer things in the terminal. Apparently on Alaskan Airlines you need to be American or Canadian to use this!!!! Then, when we were checking in with an attendant we were informed that checked baggage was not free on this airline. Grr. A really snotty email to our travel agent was forming in our minds.

Passing through security was harmless, but I was then given a bit of a hard time (in broken English no less) at US immigration. US bound travellers effectively enter the USA inside Vancouver airport, which is great from a time-saving point of view, but rubbish if you want to shop in the airport as you end up in a smaller, US flight only section of duty free. I was travelling on a UK passport (with a visa waiver agreement) but apparently my old SA passport with a still valid visa takes 'prejudice' over this, so the immigration officer had a bit of a rant at me about this. Funny how the New York immigration guys never knew this rule?

So by now we were in the perfect frame of mind to write said email to our travel agent and due to free WiFi in Vancouver airport (at last, something good to mention here!) our little moaning missive was soon on its way across the interweb. Justice would be ours! Then off to get some lunch before the flight (did I mention previously how overjoyed we are that US internal and Canadian flights have no complimentary meals?). By this time I was ravenous (bile and vitriol make me hungry) so we had sandwiches and coffee before boarding. Ok, I guess, but not quite Delish.

The flight to LA was just under 3 hours and we had a gorgeous view of the city as we came in to land. We made good time getting bags and our rental car (rude attendant, but could just pick any car from our booked category from the parking lot and drive out!) and GPS was perfect (thanks again to Francis) so arrived much earlier at La's cousin than expected. So we went to meet him at his friend's house where they were watching a football match.

Turned out that it was Super Bowl Sunday and this was the big match between some team and some other team and one of them won. Green Bay Packers I think. La's cousin was watching the game with some friends, pretty much all ex-pat South Africans, cigars, whisky, biltong, and egg sandwiches on platters covered in shredded lettuce. Just like the Old country, except the rules of the game are incomprehensible to normal people.

After the match, we went out for meal at the Tavern in San Vincente, Brentwood; apparently, a sometimes celeb hot-spot. But I guess they were all in rehab or drunk in front of football detritus or something because we saw no-one we knew. Maybe a glimpse of Sean Connery ;) After supper, La's cousin took us on a bit of an orientation drive through the neighbourhood: Westwood, Montana, Venice, Santa Monica, Ocean Avenue and towards Malibu.

Breakfast, rage, Lamb Shank. Day 22.

Trained Attack Cat

Wed 02 Feb

Toots has taken the rest of the week off which is really great. We started off the day helping her with some errands, choice of library books, drive by of the bank for some cash and the like. Then we headed off to Steveston, a neighbourhood in the South West of Vancouver. It is a very scenic drive south until you hit some water, then head west till you get to Steveston, a former fishing village, full of charming shops, from boutique clothing to Italian delis and of course the usual ones selling tourist tat. And a Greek restaurant guarded by a kung-fu feline. Well, that is what the sign said.

We took a stroll along the quay, next to tourists queueing up for whale sighting trips and small fishing boats. And loads of fish and chips and seafood restaurants. Which was good timing because by now I was starving (errands make me hungry). La and Toots both had the halibut and I had the large cod and chips. And bottomless coffee. Delish. The enjoyment of the awesome food was only interrupted when La tried to kill me by exploding a ketchup bottle in my general direction. Luckily her plan was thwarted when it was blocked by her fleece (actually Toots' on loan, he he). And her arm. And her hand, he he. And even more luckily there was still enough left for us to dip our chips into. Whew.

After lunch we wandered around the village a bit, into several shops, avoiding the ice cream places (it was freezing today) and the cupcake shop (we were full from lunch). Incredible restraint was shown by both of my companions and a bad day was had by the shopkeepers. Leaving town we took the coastal road again, really beautiful.

Back in Burnaby I was dropped off in Hastings Avenue for my date with an Armenian barber. And to buy some second hand books, as I've finished the two I brought with me. Success on both accounts. Actually the Armenian was busy so my hair was chopped by another barber (a lady barber, so a 'barbara'?) who was actually from Northern Iraq. Very interesting chat we had.

Because the buses here need exact change for the fare (and I didn't know exactly how much that was anyway but probably more than $2 and less than $4 and I only had 2 Toonies on me), I decided to walk back to Toots' place. By the way, $1 coins here have (used to have?) a duck called a Loon on them, so are called 'Loonies' and so $2 coins are called Toonies. Go figure.

Anyway, I was walking home, but then decided to try my luck hitching. So I hitched up my ski jacket and a little Mazda pulled up next to me driven by a charming Toots lookalike with a beautiful La lookalike riding shotgun and they just so happened to be heading back to Toots's building. Can you believe it?

Breakfast, no mushy peas, Thai. Day 18.

Frostbite and Bear Claws

Sun 30 Jan

As it was our last day we woke up earlyish and just as well. It was a gorgeous, clear day. Not a single cloud in the sky. This would mean excellent visibility and awesome skiing conditions. But also meant that the temperatures would be on the low side -> -3 Deg C at base and -13 Deg C at the peaks. Brr. But those pieces of information we only found out later, so did *not* dress accordingly.

Good weather and the weekend mean the queues were pretty impressive. But again moved smoothly with no pushing, shoving, biting or swearing. We went up and up and up to Whistler peak, somewhere above 2km. Took some great photos of the views and an iced-over Inukshuk. It was totally worth the frost bite.

Peak 2 Peak (P2P) Gondola was ridden again. As it was clear today I think this time it counted. Actually not that bad, very smooth ride. But still cold, I managed to de-frost my fingers during the 11 minute death ride, but couldn't feel anything from the ankles down. We skied down to Blackcomb base for lunch. I was starving (sub-zero digits make me hungry) and wolfed down a burger and fries and a coffee served by a fellow P-town traveller. Delish.

After lunch it was now time for our attempt at Blackcomb peak, about 200m higher than Whistler. Even more awesome. I had given up on my fingers and toes and was composing hate mail to the manufacturers of my gloves, socks and ski boots.

We did the P2P again to get back to Whistler side, then all the way down to Whistler Creekside for our last run of the day and our trip. The sweet mountain host lady informed us that actually the better route down was a black run (part of the famous Dave Murray downhill which was used for the Mens' Olympic Super-G race) rather than the narrow blue run we'd taken on other days. And you know what? She was right. There were some very steep parts, but wide enough to not be that bad (I imagine that the Olympians didn't traverse the pistes quite as frequently as I did, but still, we can both say we did it!). The only annoying thing was all the kiddy winkles scooting straight past us. Seriously, they have no fear.

After handing back our skis and boots, La relaxed a bit with some hot chocolate and I went for a jog. Found an awesome walking path along the valley, running between Whistler and Creekside, next to some frozen lakes. Beautiful.

Then after I'd showered, La and I went to our building's outdoor hot tub. May I remind you that the temperature was sub zero, but it was oh so nice and hot in the jacuzzi. It was still super clear so we had the bizarre but beautiful view of stars, heads freezing, rest of us toasty (well, soupy really). An awesome (almost) conclusion to our ski trip.

Soft-boiled, lunch and pasta. Day 15.

Mon 31 Jan

Today was the last morning in our place in Whistler and had to leave the fridge/cupboards empty. So chicken, pasta and salad for breakfast. Kidding. We finished packing then loaded the car and left town. Skiing part of our trip officially over. (sniff, sniff) The drive back is gorgeous and this time we were on the sea side of the road so stopped at pretty much every viewing point along the way for photos. Awesome.

We made good time back to Vancouver and the handy GPS (thanks Francis!) got us nicely back to the car rental place, although human error (mine) meant initially we parked under the wrong hotel (Alamo rental returns is in a Hotel parking lot). Took the Sky Train back to Burnaby, easy peasy, and then we were at La-Sis' place. She had cooked up a storm for us the night before so the fridge was well stocked. Just as well - by this time I was ravenous (returning to sea level makes me hungry) - so wolfed down pasta bake and mushroom tart. Delish.

Spent the rest of the day relaxing and doing laundry with only a minor incident involving a washing machine, a stuck door and a steel coat hanger. You can fill in the blanks. Much hilarity followed (La laughing at me should I say).

Joyful reunions later when Toots came back from work. We'll miss the the snow but nice to be back in Vancouver

Breakfast, Drive and Tacos. Day 16.

Tue 01 Feb

Right, properly back in Vancouver to do some shopping and sight-seeing. We took the Sky Train into town, check at us go, just like the locals! Got out in downtown area and went into The Bay in Pacific Centre looking for a jacket pour moi. I was wearing one of my new T-shirts bought last week. The 'door thing' beeped as I entered the shop, not a good sign. But a quick survey found no heavy set be-suited men with guns bearing down on us, so, all OK. (PS. No jacket found.)

Exiting the shop, the same thing. Beeeep. So, seems like one of those tag things was not deactivated when I bought my T last week. Humph. Then went for a wander down Robson, into and out of shops, looking for Levis, jackets and Bear Claw salad servers. Beeping away. Only in one shop (American Eagle) did anyone query this. Laurel gave me a quick pat down to try locate the security tag but no luck. I told her to look more thoroughly, but we were in a public place after all...

We then met Toots (La-Sis) for lunch near her work in a fabulous food hall-cum-deli-cum-restaurant called Urban Fare. By this time I was starving (security pat downs make me hungry) so I wolfed down a chicken pot pie and a house drip coffee. Delish.

After lunch I frogmarched myself to the washroom (Canadian for toilets) to try locate the offending tag. Success! The bugger was hiding behind the 'do not dry clean' thing. The bastards! Managed to tear it off with my teeth without too much damage to my new T. I showed it to La who threw it in the bin. Damn, think how much fun we could have had tossing that into some SATC-alike's handbag.

We then strolled down to the Waterfront area to check out the Olympic torch. Smoking! And from same spot a great view of North and West Vancouver across the Burrard Inlet. Wandered down to Gastown (the old part of Vancouver) popping into every tourist drek shop looking for bear claws and of course the steam powered clock. Found the claws, but no whistles when we were there.

Then went for a stroll along the Olympic Village side of False Creek, although actually we walked the wrong way so ended up closer to the hockey arena, but that was the sunny side and it was cold so that was alright then. Headed back to Toots' place with a detour up Hastings Road in Burnaby, looking at shops, getting an awesome coffee at Cafe Artigiano, buying some pastries and scouting out barbers as I'm looking a bit fuzzy.

Topped off the day with a visit to La-Sis' building's gym. But some other guy was on the treadmill so I braved the stationary bike (hill program, ouch) and the Inquisition inspired elliptical thing. I'm not sure if I did it right, I got my heart rate up but sure felt strange.

Morning, noon and night. Day 17