O Canada

Alaska 2

2010-05-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Icy Straight Point was a cute little town, with over-priced fish and chips and not a whole lot else. We got to see a bald eagle who was pretty cool and laid back. Probably because he knew he could eat us if we caused any trouble. Other than that we just wandered around the woods there. The Captain of the boat went bear watching but didn't see any. He's pretty funny, he's norwegian and thinks everything is smashing, and he really likes bears.

After that we headed to Ketckikan, which is a fairly big town. Well not really but compared to others we had visited. It has an area called creek street where all the buildings are built on stilts over the edge of a creek, it was pretty nice looking but the stilts looks pretty slimy and old so hopefully they don't fall down. We got to see a bald eagle that someone had shot and then someone else had looked after, it couldn't fly, but it liked to flap a lot. We also got to meet a hawk and a tiny owl who was really cute. They also had been saved.

Yesterday we went to Victoria on Vancouver Island, which is a pretty cool town. It has about 300 thousand people there, so its pretty big. We went out for dinner, which made a nice change from the ship food, which while its nice its pretty heavy and we wanted something different, after that we got a horse and carriage ride which was really fun. We had a horse called Mike who responded to words so they didn't use reins. After Victoria, we got back on the boat and woke up in Seattle and disembarked this morning. We catch our bus back to Vancouver this afternoon.

Alaska

2010-05-09T10:17:00.001-07:00

We wrote this on Wednesday but couldn't post it til now:

On Sunday we boarded the Norwegian Pearl, after waiting in line for 3 hours. Through the US customs they had about 6 people processing US citizens and 2 processing foreign including Canadians. Seeing as we left Vancouver there were a lot of Canadians hence the wait. We got on the boat and were pretty excited to explore. There is so much stuff on here; a bowling ally, pools, hot tubs, movies, theatre, casino, shops and food. There is so much food on board. And so many fatties, bum bags and perms.. About half the restaurants are free and the others have a cover charge of about $10-$20. Its all surprisingly yum. We had expected it to be greasy American food, but there is a whole heap of different stuff. There is a buffet, a couple of proper restaurants, and one with burgers and things. Eating is our favourite past time on the ship, but we've also seen some comedians and dancers and things in the theater, played a fair bit of Big Buck Hunter Open Season PRO in the arcade, lounged in the sun loungers and watched some covers bands.

For 2 days we went through the Alaskan Inside Passage, and the Tracey Arms fjord to get to Sawyer Glacier. We couldn't make it to close to the glacier because there was too much ice, but we did get to see some spectacular scenery. We got to see a bear hanging out on the shore, he was pretty cool.

Yesterday we docked in our first point, Juneau. Its pretty small for a capital, but pretty cool. We saw the governors house, where Sarah Palin lived, we went out to a glacier that was pretty massive and chilly and looked at Russian dolls and ate some Russian dumplings.

Juneau is kind of like Pleasantville in that its roads dont lead anywhere. To get there you have to arrive by boat or plane, even so there are still fast cars, I couldn't work out why.

Today we arrived in Skagway which is a goldrush town. When the Klondike goldrush happened, Skagway was one on the main ports in. The town now has about 700 year-round residents and pretty much looks like it did during the goldrush – its not a big development town. The area around is pretty amazing. To be let into Canada from Alaska the people looking for gold had to take enough food and clothing to last a year which became known as the 1-ton rule. They must have been pretty tough to carry it over the mountains that are around the town, and most of them didn't find any gold anyway. Now there is a railway over the mountains, which would have been nice to go on, but it was too pricey for us.

We're off to Icy Straight Point tomorrow, which doesn't exist in our lonely planet book, so it must be pretty small. We've enjoyed our trip so far, and feel pretty young. We're about 20 years younger than anyone else not with their parents. Everyone else all seems to also have cruised many a time before. The old people let loose, getting buckets of Budweiser at 9.30 am and staying up til midnight at the cabaret shows. They love it!

Hasta luego Mexico

2010-04-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

Our last days in Puerto Escondido were just spent lazing about and swimming which was pretty fun. Then we flew out of the wee airport back to Mexico city. The flight was so fancy, I bet that's how classy planes were in the 60's. So much space and peanuts. When we landed we caught a bus to a town just outside of Mexico city, Puebla. It was pretty nice, just the right size and also it happened to have an arts festival in the zocalo which was 2 blocks from where we stayed. We watched some sort of who's line is it anyway comedy thing that was done in a wresting ring, some acrobat/juggler/comedians in really tight white Lycra suits, a band in Mexican wrestling masks, and a jazz band.

One of the days we were there we went to watch some biesbol. It was super fun. They got so excited about it, and the Puebla Pericos beat the Oaxaca Guerroros! Yay! Oaxaca had better uniforms though. Sam liked it so much he bought a hat in support.

While we were there we went out to another town 20 mins away to see a church built on a giant pyramid, in front of a volcano. The photos and descriptions were somewhat misleading in regards to the volcano - it would be like saying Christchurch was built amongst the southern alps. But it WAS built on a pyramid, which is kind of funny because they didn't realize it was there because it was covered in dirt for reasons unmentioned. We were looking forward to going into the tunnels of the pyramid, but they were closed. Sad. It is the biggest by volume in the world, but did look a lot like a hill.

After Puebla we headed back to Mexico city. We went to the zoo which is free, and therefore attracts a lot of school groups. It was a pretty fun zoo, but the orangutan had dreads and looked so sad. He had people eyes which made him seem sadder. There was a super cute monkey family, and a capuchin who had some pesos that he really liked.

The next day we finally went to the pyramids. I'm glad we left the til last because all the other ruins would have been boring after them. They're so big, and in such nice condition. It's on about 20kmsq and is has 2 really big pyramids, a bunch of other buildings, frescos that are still detailed and bright and a podium for speeches that echoes off the surrounding pyramids that was pretty fun.

Today we left Mexico for Seattle. The customs guy took some convincing that it was me in my passport. He said I was too brown, in the photo I had no freckles and today I have lots. But I convinced him and made it! Yus!

Tomorrow we head back to Vancouver then Alaska! Exciting!

flying fish

2010-04-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went on a somewhat seaworthy vessel with a Mexican man who promised us turtles and dolphins. It was pretty fun because it was just the 2 of us and the man who spoke very little English. We didn't really find any turtles, we found a boat who had already caught one who we got to look at after. I felt pretty sorry for the wee turtle because he looked like he really wanted to go swimming, but it was still pretty nice to be able to talk to him. As for the dolphins, I think the boat man had given up on them and was just heading for the lagoon to drop us off, but we spotted some in the distance so he took us toward them. It was a pod of them and they were so good at backflips even Crusty Demons would have been impressed. Then a mama and baby dolphin swam by the boat. They were pretty cute and freckly. As we were heading back in we saw some flying fish which are speedy little fellas. Pretty impressive.

Then the boat guy took us to a lagoon which he'd pick us up from in a few hours. When we got off the boat he told us to follow these two guys, which we did. They led us to an umbrella which we didn't realize we would have to pay $60 peso for as soon as we had sat under it because most places let you use them if you buy stuff. I guess they have some sort of deal together. Anyway, the beach was pretty nice and clear and a lot safer than the one near where we are staying. The water is so warm around here, and we had a pretty fun day of swimming.

When we were picked up by the boat man the umbrella/cafe owner gave home a Corona to say thankyou for bringing us and our pesos. As soon as we headed off he popped the top off, judging by the empties, his 8th beer of the day. He thought it was hilarious and yelled something in spanish about cerveca. Sam says probably cerveca 4 lyf.

The past two days we have gotten fairly burnt as a result of two winters in a row so today decided to hang around our hotel. So today has mostly been spent reading and practicing underwater handstands while trying not to peel. Nice and relaxing!

Puerto Escondido

2010-04-15T18:13:00.000-07:00

So we spent our last day in Oaxaca looking at ruins, which is pretty hot work. We went to see Monte Alban which was the strongest of the Zapotec civilizations, they even had stone carvings of upside down leaders from other towns just to show how strong they are. Then they abandoned the town though, and no one really knows why. There were so many massive monuments and things, it was pretty impressive. We bought some guide book anticipating a lot if Spanish signs, but it was in english as well so it was ok, any way the guide book made this one tomb sound really amazing, but it looked like a closet when we went to see. I guess they took the stuff out so no one would steal it. Other than that it was a fun trip. The mini bus ride up was an experience, it was about 70km p/hr in a 20km one lanes area with judder bars.

Anyway, turned out that trip had nothing on the trip to puerto. It was about 260km but took 6 hours because it was like driving on traffords hill ( takaka hill for the south islanders) all the way, with donkeys wandering on the road nibbling. Also, I guess speed limit signs don't work that well here, so throughout villages there are brutal speed bumps every 100m or so, which act to slow people down only just before they hit them. For all this speeding up and slowing down fir 6 hours you'd think they'd go through a lot if petrol, but the tickets were only about nz$15 and there were only 6 of us. I have no idea how anyone earns a living here, but they seem to be doing ok. We arrived safely, and are really excited to be here. We've been swimming so much in the pool were we're staying, not in the beach yet because we need beach towels, but it's on tomorrows adgenda. Where we're staying is nice, it's an apartment which means we get to make pancakes for breakfast every morning and it'll be nice to cook for ourselves again. There is a pool which is nice, and it's super close to the beach. We also have our own patio which is pretty cool, and our room is pretty cute. All for only $35 a night! Bargain!

Everyone seems to speak English in the town which is popular with Americans, but not so much that it's like Cancun. It's so nice and tropical here with coconut trees, and mangos, so many they're in the gutter, in Canada they were like $5 each. Limes here are 70c nz a kg which seems pretty nuts also. So we're here til the 24th then we fly back to Mexico city and probably will go to a city called Puebla from there then back to Mexico city for a few days then back to Vancouver to go on our cruise.

We haven't heard anything from any job prospects yet, so we've booked tickets back to NZ, so we'll see everyone on the 28th of may, after which I will be joining the Westpac Christchurch ranks once again!

Montezumas revenge

2010-04-12T18:00:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night Sam came down with a case of montezumas revenge, which involves a lot of spewing etc. so Sunday was mostly spent drinking Gatorade and eating imodium. Sam was too sick to leave the hostel so it was up to me to brave the markets alone to get some fruit so he could eat some thing. Numbers are not my forte in Spanish so I was a bit nervous but luckily the fruit was $20 and the water was $8, which are two of the only numbers I learnt, which made me happy even if the fruit was pretty pricey.

Today we explored Oaxaca, we looked through the markets, saw a dancing mascot (so funny I almost choked on my churro), had some chocolate snacks, and bought some trinkets. While we were out I saw a cute bag in the shape of a pig but it was about the size of a jack russel so way to big to get home, but I later found one the size of a piglet so bought that one with some successful haggling. He's so cute.

To get to Puerto Escondido it's 5 hours faster to get a second class bus so today we tried to suss out the second class bus station, but it smelt like poos so we went elsewhere and got minibus tickets, which will hopefully be more successful.

Tomorrow we are probably going to head out to see some ruins then off to Puerto Escondido the next dat

EXPLOSIon!

2010-04-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

Woah totally forgot to mention:

Gasoline Tanker Explosion En Route To Oaxaca

We passed the still smoking wreckage of a gasoline tanker as it lay upon a flatbed tow truck. The proud road was decorated with an immense CRATER as the minstrel trees looked on. Holy shit. Too real.

Taxco- Mexico City-Oaxaca

2010-04-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we got up bright and early to march up to the church of Guadalupe which overlooks taxco, which was pretty cool. But then Sam made me walk up to see Christo (Christ) on the very top of the hill. He was so far away and I got so puffed. We had to walk up a million stairs and roads with an incline of what felt like about 50 degrees all in jandels and a dress which isn't the best hill climbing outfit and all on narrow cobbled roads built ages ago while dodging vw beetles (taxcos favourite car. I think its because that's all that will fit up the wee streets). But we made it, but it wasn't very exciting. He was no rio de janeiro Christ. It looked like they had spent the most time carving his moustache. Anyway, so we wandered back down and looked through the markets in taxco and then headed back to mexico city on Thursday.

This time we stayed in the centro historico which is the area around the zocalo which is the 2nd biggest town square after the red square. It's a really fun area with lots of museums and monuments. Also it had a really impressive bakery. It was about as big as a Deka and had so many treats all for about 4 peso, which like 40-50c. Upstairs was also exciting because they had so many cakes on display. They had wedding cakes were like 10 tiers tall and some that weighed 110kg. They also had cakes for Jesus, Mexican wrestling, birthdays and graduations. And people went nuts about this place, everyone left with boxes of treats. Lucky.

Today we caught a bus to Oaxaca which is about as big as Christchurch and seems to be closed on weekends, which is a bit sad since we're here for only 4 days and 2 will be weekend days. Oaxaca is famous for it's cuisine especially chocolate. Yum. Upsetting that we're going to be at the chocolate capital just before we go to the beach though..

Taxco

2010-04-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

Today we went to taxco by bus, which was super fancy. It was better than the plane we came on, we got pepsi, nuts, and got to watch kung fu panda all with ample leg room. We arrived in taxco which is about 2 hours from Mexico city and went to our hostel which is really cute. It's run by a retired doctor who is really kind and who gives out welcome cocktails. After that we walked around taxco which is a really cute town with cream buildings and teracotta roofs and narrow cobbled streets. We went to see some churches and looked through some shops and wandered around the streets. Tomorrow we might go to see another church way up on the hill if we can wake up before the heat, and maybe we'll go see some caves. Taxco is really cute. If we were retired doctors who could speak Spanish we'd open a hostel here too.

Tengo vomitos

2010-04-05T15:53:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we caught the underground to coyoacan, which was surprisingly easy, to see the frida kahlo museum. It only cost 55 pesos to get in and was really cool because it was in the house she had lived in so it was really fun and colourful. Then we looked through some markets and for some reason there seems to be a big market for adult costumes because there are heaps for sale. I found a really sweet harry potter costume but didn't go for it. Then we headed home for tequila night. There were only 4 of us and the only rule was once the bottle is open it's got to be finished. The bottle was 1.75 l and I have never been so sick. We tried to get lunch but I made us leave half way through to vomit in a garden. I couldn't keep anything down, even water. So pretty much Sunday was spent sleeping and vomiting. Then this morning I still couldn't get out of bed so Sam brought me some toast down from breakfast and after laying still for about an hour so I wouldn't puke it up I felt much better. Then we headed our to see the basilicas for the virgin of guadalupe. They were so cool and massive. One was really modern and extreme built in the 70's and the other was old and classical and was sinking like a lot of buildings in Mexico city. Within the grounds of the churches there were 6 churches. I don't know why they have so many, but the were all really pretty and ornate. I touched so many statues to try and cure my sore belly, but then I had a pepsi and was pretty much back to normal. It was probably a holy pepsi since I bought it at a church. After the churches we stopped off halfway home to see some ruins which were the last fortress of the Aztecs before the Spanish conquered them, so they were pretty old, built in 1325, and impressive. Lizards like to live there, but it was too hot for us so we headed home for a siesta. Tomorrow we're off to taxco for a couple of days, which is a smaller city famous for it's silver, so that should be fun!

Mexico city, day one

2010-04-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

Today we set off to the zona rosa, which is an area near where we are staying. We went to visit a giant gold angel called glorieta angel de la independencia. She was really cool and everything in that area is so tidy with such nice lush gardens. While we were there we met a fake policeman with a Velcro badge who tried to sell us a trip to the pyramids, we didn't take up his offer. Today is good friday, meaning everything is closed to mourn Jesus and reenact the crucifixtion, but most people seemed to be in the gardens we went to which were also really cool, there were heaps of museums, galleries and a zoo to see, but we're going to explore more when it isn't a public holiday. There were lakes with pedal boats but the water was an opaque green so we'll test them out when I'm not wearing a white dress. We resorted to dominos for lunch because it was least confusing and pretty delicious. Siesta time now then maybe we'll study some menu ordering techniques, and maybe off to the pyramids tomorrow.

The Union Forever

2010-04-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

4 out of 4 Americans are not willing to trade airline seats so you can sit next to your girlfriend. And we were in the air again. From Seattle to dust etched Houston was a 6 hour flight and then short layover, enough to imbibe some tex-Mex, before we belted into our connecting flight. High above the gulf of Mexico at night we could see the torchlights of far off cantinas and lovers flames and taxicabs and pure fire until the endless sprawl of Mexico City formed absolutely. Once arrived our trepidation becomes tepid in the mixture of new air and foreign status. Our taxicab peels off it's rank and through crest filled highways we motor at inappriate speeds. Comfortably delivered to Bed and Breakfast Mexico, we rest our bodies upon our bed made of an unfurled blanket on soda cans and breathe our new home.

Today we are in Mexico.

Seattle

2010-03-31T20:08:00.000-07:00

Today we arrived in Seattle, the first leg of our mexican adventure. We don't have a computer, just an iPod so can't upload any pictures, but it was a fun day. We saw the famous fish market, the original starbucks, two mummies, and explored the underground part of the city which is pretty creepy. The city burnt down in 1889 and they decided to build it up to stop the flooding so built the buildings with the second floor as the main level and entrace, then built retaining walls with roads on top and slowly filled the gap with dirt and unwanted stuff, leaving the footpath at the original level. Then they ran out of money and the footpaths stayed at a lower level for 4 years. 17 people died from falling from the road level to the pavement. Weird.
Anyway, we're off to Mexico city tomorrow, which is pretty exciting!

Limo Goodbye

2010-03-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our last day of work, but because of high winds the mountain was closed. Hooray! Last night we went to Abotsford, which is about an hour away, to watch some hockey with some people from work. It was pretty fun. We went there in a limo bus, which made us feel like we were rockstars. The hockey teams were the Manitoba Moose and the Abotsford Heat. We supported the moose, which I thought was because they had a better name, but turns out they are the feeder team for the NHL Vancouver Cannucks, even though Manitoba is ages away. There was lots of fighting, which caused this Aussie we work with to yell 'bring back the biff'.

There were the intermission kids playing which were pretty cute, although not as small as the last ones we saw

Then we headed back to the limo for the ride home.

We head off to Seattle and then Mexico tomorrow morning so that is probably the last time we'll see everyone, although if we get summer jobs at Grouse we'll see some of them again. It was a fun night, now we are into holiday mode, and have to hope for jobs or book some tickets back to NZ soon. We wont have our computer, but will have my ipod so we can write blogs, but not upload any photos unless we have computers in the places we're staying, but we will be able to keep in touch.

EXCITING!

All you can eat Japanese

2010-03-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

For St Pats day 5 of us had some Guinness at our place and headed out for some all you can eat Japanese. This is what we had, the numbers on the side are how many plates of each dish we ordered.

It was so delicious and plentiful all for $11 each before tax. I recommend people should visit Vancouver just to eat this.

Day of FUN

2010-03-13T21:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday 6 of us went to Castle Fun Park, which was ages away, but worth the trip. As the name suggests it's a fun park in a castle. There are go karts, dodgems, arcade games (2 floors), batting cages, remote control boats and 3 mini golf courses. It would be the best place ever to have a birthday. And everything was super cheap.

Sam, Pat and Alex tried some batting. Pat and Alex tried the 70mph baseball cage, Alex being the most successful. Sam stuck to 50mph softball, socking some sweet dingers.

Sam tried some hockey target practice, which turns out is harder than it looks.

Everyone tried the soccer goal but me because I was afraid I would lose my sneaker.

Then we played jungle mini golf. It was really cool, the fanciest mini golf I've played. There were dwarves.

They pushed Pat in the well. Oh no!

The results were;
1.Pat
2.Sam
3=.Sara
3=.Alex
5.Jessie
6.Sam (Jessies little brother)

After that we played some arcade games and I won some nerds, a tootsie roll, a chupa chup, a parachute man and a jumping frog. Fun!

Then we drove back to Vancouver and watched a Giants game. It was really cool, turns out hockey makes way more sense in real life.

Then some wee hockey players played between two of the periods. They were maybe 5 years old, and very good at falling down.

We got to meet Mr Peanut. He was so classy.

In the car park I met the biggest ute I've seen. It was a dodge ram, which has a really corney ad on the american channels where he has a personality. Hence I was fairly excited to meet him.

Mexico

2010-03-09T21:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we booked a month long trip to Mexico!

The winter season on Grouse ends sometime this month, and the summer season on Grouse and at the other resorts we have applied for jobs at, start mid-may, meaning we have a month and a half off. Hopefully by the end of this month we'll know if we have new jobs or will be heading back to NZ. We've handed in our notice for our house, and will be heading to Mexico on the 1st of April, so we'll either travel between our jobs, or fit in some travelling and head back to NZ for our 3rd winter in a row!

Alaska

2010-03-02T23:53:00.000-08:00

Today we booked a cruise to Alaska for 8 days. Exciting! It leaves on the 1st of May. I'm sure we will be the youngest by about 60 years, but everyone says its worth it because it's so scenic and nice. Fun!

Olympic happenings

2010-02-15T23:18:00.000-08:00

During the Olympics there is lots going on around the city. There are marquees with the games being projected on that anyone can go to watch, and places that are different nations houses (pretty much just massive bars), free concerts, but there are massive lines for them so we haven't actually gone to any of them yet. We have however wandered around the city and seen some things.

We saw the Canadian Jump Rope team (look how fast her feet are!)

Some Natives and their art (thats actually what they call them)

This wasn't for the Olympics but we went anyway, it was a candy store with so many flavours of Jelly Bellys and so many colours of m&m's

And also we went to the NZ welcome party sponsored by Icebreaker. Sam met Larry the Lamb

So did Blake, but he wasn't so keen on him

And Sam also met John McBeth!!

We saw some Kapa Haka

Exciting. It made us feel like we were in NZ. They also had a band playing kiwi essentials such as Blue Lady, Why Does Love Do This to Me?, and of course Whaling.

Hopefully we'll get to do more Olympic things, and see some bands etc. Its pretty happening around here, we'd better get in on it.

FLAME ON!

2010-02-13T21:19:00.000-08:00

hello readers, last night we had our first overnight shift at work & it was really good. this picture shows sara & i drinking hobo speed. it demonstrates our commitment to wide-eyed excellence.

as you may know, the opening ceremony was yesterday & it went off without a hitch. there was a big firework display in the harbour which we could easily see/feel from our house.
we have just been for a walk through town & it is BUZZING!

some people aren't so excited about certain aspects of the olympic games & today they staged a protest. some of the protesters got the wrong memo or something & dressed up as ninjas & wrecked & vandalised some store-fronts and properties, which, if you are to make a point about money being wasted, doesn't make a whole lotta sense. eh. these are some repair trucks.

we also visited the olympic torch which was very crowded but a grand sight!

Almost Olympics!

2010-02-11T00:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we got to catch up with Blake, and he gave us 2 passes to watch him train this morning. So this morning we went out to the Pacific Coliseum to see him.

There were lots of gates and security to get through, and no one had seen our 'friends and family' passes before, but they let us through anyway. But they did make us go through a metal detector which I guess is something. The stadium was decorated to look nice and pretty and Olympic themed.

Blake was pretty speedy,

but he had some blade troubles which he dealt with pretty casually.

After Blakes training, the Japanese team had their turn. They had pretty sweet outfits so we took photos.

New Zealands is the best and least cheesy by far. Australia's is definately the worst.

This is the heat for Blakes first race.

This is a Mountie protecting everyone. I liked his hat. You can tell Mounties from Police because they have a stripe on their pants.

Then we went to work and it was time for the Olympic Torch to come up the mountain. Sam got confused and ended up with this on his face.

Every one got pretty excited and shook bear bells. Including me.

Then the torch went past. It was a suprisingly big flame, which explained why the torch bearer went on the tram roof, rather than inside. It was also quite lucky, because due to an Olympic miricle it snowed. Hard. And visibility was pretty low.

Some people had better views than others.

The Olympics are getting pretty close, only two days til the opening ceremony. During the Olypmics we have to dress in things supporting our countries. If anyone has any suggestions on what we can make/buy to wear, let us know because we don't have anything really!

Olympic Schedule

2010-02-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

Today we got our olympic schedule.

DEATH!

Snow!

2010-02-02T23:44:00.000-08:00

Last night it snowed 11cm at Grouse! It didn't make much difference, but it looks a bit nicer. It didn't snow on all the runs so I don't know if we'll get any busier, but at least its less slippery on the way to the rental store!

A bit deeper than the last feet photo I took

I'm about to get snowballed

View from the backdoor of rentals

What it looks like in rentals

On another note, before work we went to the market on Granville Island again and met these guys. I don't know if they're poodles that are unclipped or some kind of cross but they were really cute. People here love to have dogs even though its the middle of the city, they especially love dog breeds with funny names like cock-a-poo

Sam making friends

These were some of the treats for sale. YUM

Hopefully the snow keeps up and its nice for the people who visit for the Olympics. Not far away now!

Whistler Blackcomb

2010-02-01T00:15:00.000-08:00

Last Monday we went to Whistler with some friends we work with. It was super fun. Our mountain has had pretty much no snow apart from a few cm's the snow machines have made, so is pretty rocky grassy and icey. Whistler on the other hand, which is where most of the outdoor events of the Olympics will be, has had lots of snow. It was so soft, it was like falling in feathers. It is apparently the best mountain in the world for skiing and snowboarding and we definitely agreed. It's also really massive. It takes about 20-30 mins to get to the top of the gondola and green runs which is about 2/3 of the way up and about an hour to get down from there. And there are TWO mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb. They're joint together by the peak to peak gondola which is pretty high up and has really good views. Also, you can spend the whole day on the mountain without going on a chair lift which is good because I'm rubbish at getting off at the top. You can snowboard right into the village below where there are a bunch of bars and places to eat and plenty of places to buy souvieners. Intrawest, who owns the resort missed a payment and now its up for sale, so if anyone has a few dollars you should keep this in mind.

This is as we arrived in the village.

Getting ready to head up.

The view from the learners area (1/3 of the way up) up to the top of Whistler.

In the learners area: Glenn, Caroline, Me, Kinta, Sam (Dean, Kintas boyfriend was too skilled for the learners area so isn't in the photo).

On the chair lift in the learners area. I got off without falling down! Yay!

Sniffle station.

Dean navagating the trees. Sam did this run too, but didn't look as professional so there aren't any photos of him.

On the peak to peak gondola.

The view from the peak to peak. You can probably see the curvature of the earth because it's so high up.

The top of Blackcomb, after exiting the peak to peak gondola.

We'd like to be able to spend a bit more time at Whistler, but it's pretty pricey, and we'll have to wait until the Olympics are over, so I guess we'll wait and see whether or not we make it up there again.

Aquarium

2010-01-22T15:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. It was pretty big and fun. We saw lots of things.

Bugs (ew):

Birds:

Turtles (trying to escape/ make friends with us):

Dolphins:

Belugas:

Jellyfish:

Frogs:

Pictures of Walruses:

Giant fish:

And of course regular fish:

Then we got to watch a 4D MOVIE!

The 4th dimension was touch. Eg when the whales squirted their blowholes we got squirted in the face with water, when the fish made bubbles the theatre was filled with bubbles, when there were kina we got our ankles whipped by bits of plastic. Fun. Now we kind of want to see Avatar. Me not quite as much as Sam.

Visas

2010-01-19T21:43:00.000-08:00

Today it was announced that the returner visas for Canada have been cancelled effective immediately, which means we can only stay one year now, which is pretty stink. We'll have to think of some other travel plans I guess!

SUPERBOWL XLIV

2010-01-15T20:57:00.000-08:00

ok people, pick a side. WE HAVE!

sure it's like a month away & eight teams are still in it but we've picked our teams & we're putting it ON THE LINE

SARA=INDIANAPOLIS COLTS

SAM=MINNESOTA VIKINGS

@stake....!

a wii fit for sara (tan not included)

mundane recording equipment for sam

if neither team wins WE BOTH LOSE

LAMMMME

Weather

2010-01-13T20:29:00.000-08:00

Because of the weather on Grouse, it was closed for 2 days. While we weren't working we went to visit Gastown and China Town. Gastown is a pretty cool part of town, it's a national historic site and looks really pretty. It has lots of fun shops and a steam powered clock.

China Town was fun also. We went to the Chinese gardens which were the first of their kind built outside China. They were really nice and had turtles and giant carp which were pretty cool.

China Town was pretty traditional, with shops selling heaps of strange things. We didn't buy anything because we didn't know what anything was, but one day with more time and exploring it'd be a pretty fun place to shop for spices and things.

Today (Wednesday) Grouse opened, not because it snowed but because we had a couple of school groups coming and as they just use the beginner slopes they opened to make some money. In the end they cancelled, but at least we got to go to work and earn some money. This is what it looked like:

This is how slushy everything is:

This is Sam and Eric, who we work with, frowning because the snow is yuck:

Everywhere is usually covered in snow, no rocks or gravel or anything, so it looks pretty different at the moment. The mountain hosting the Olympic events has closed for the winter to save all its snow to build a halfpipe. Hopefully they have enough, and hopefully it snows on Grouse soon so it's less yucky and dirty looking!

2010-01-11T12:57:00.000-08:00

While we've been working on Grouse it's snowed only about 3 times, with snow makers making the rest. When it rains they can't use the snow makers, and recently its been pretty rainy and the snow has been disapearing quickly. There are rocks and plants poking through and everything is the consistancy of frozen coke. That's meant that we haven't had a chance to do any practicing because its pretty difficult conditions to learn in.

Last night while we were working a storm came through that was pretty similar to a Canterbury nor'wester. It felt like about 12c, which is pretty hot for the moutain and it was super rainy. When we left at 10 everything had turned to puddles of slush. This morning we checked and the mountain is closed til we get snow, which they are hoping might be Wednesday. Hopefully it gets snowy by the olympics. They're thinking they might have to moved the events from Seymour, which is a neighbour of Grouse, to Whistler 2 hours north where the rest of the outdoor events are happening. Anyway, because the mountain is closed we have no work, so hopefully it snows soon!

We haven't been up to too much lately. We had New Years, so on New Years eve we went to a house party that a few people we worked with went to. This is what we drank:

Pretty north american looking.
This is the party. The second is some of who we work with:

We went to another part of Stanley park and looked at a collection of totem poles:

Aparently people like to rollerblade in the park:

We also went to Granville Island which is a little island in the harbour that has a marketplace on it. It has so many delicious treats. We didn't take any digital photos but this is what it looked like:

If the snow keeps away we will have more time to do things, so maybe we will have more to report soon. Hopefully it just snows and we can go back to work though.

Comments

2009-12-28T20:43:00.000-08:00

We have had some requests to explain how to comment. In hopes of boosting our comment count I'm posting this:

If someone has comments enabled on his or her blog, then you can usually find a "comments" link at the end of each post, like this:

If you click this link, you will go to the comment posting page. (Note: in some templates, this link may take you to the post page first. From there you should be able to find the "Post a Comment" link which will take you here.) The comment posting page looks like this:
In the upper left corner, there is an option to show or hide the original blog post that the comments relate to. The rest of the left-hand column contains any comments that have already been made. The profile photos of the comment authors may also display, depending on the blog's settings.
On the right hand side of the page is the space for you to enter your comment. Beneath that are the identity options. (Some of these may not be available, depending on the blog's settings.)

The options are these:

Blogger username: Your display name will appear, along with a link to your profile and your photo (if you have one).
Other: You can enter your name and a link to your website, without having to have a Blogger account.
Anonymous: No identifying information is displayed. The comment is credited to "Anonymous" without a link.

The owner of a blog also has the option to have comments open in popup windows. In this case, all the primary features will still be present, just arranged a little differently:

Christmas day

2009-12-24T23:26:00.000-08:00

Because of our work schedule and so that we had Christmas the same day as everyone in NZ, we had our Christmas on the 24th. As our Christmas present Sam's mum bought us a night in the Marriot, so we stayed there for Christmas eve, which was pretty fun. This was the view of North Vancouver from our room (note the olympic ring lights on the barge in the harbour).

We could even see our work from our room. This is a run called The Cut and the wind turbine The Eye of the Wind.

After some swimming in the hotel pool we went out for Christmas eve dinner, which since I haven't been paid yet, couldn't be very fancy. This is what we had:
Bottomless pepsi:

Burgers with bottomless steak fries:

And HEAPS of onion rings:

Then with the leftovers we could make the olympic rings!

The next morning we woke up and it was Christmas!

It wasn't a white Christmas unfortunately (the weather man said it only happens once or twice every 10 years). We opened presents, put on our Christmas outfits, then had a champange breakfast, or rather a metodo tradicional breakfast.

This is one of Sam's presents I made:

On our way back home, we stopped at the supermarket, and were considering buying some eggnog, but because it sounds gross we asked the guy working there what it tasted like. He opened it up and made samples for us.

This is what Sam thought of it:

We didn't buy any.

After that we went home where we had lots of Christmas mail waiting for us! This is what we got from Sophie and Mike to remind us of home, very cool.

Then we made some gingerbread men to take to work for everyone who has to work Christmas with us.

All in all a good day. It's pretty different having Christmas over here, it's strange that it doesn't signify the holiday season. People are still at school and uni, no one has work holidays, and we're really busy at work. It's fun to have change and have a winter Christmas like on TV, and to have everything be so Christmassy and pretty.

Stanley Park

2009-12-18T19:26:00.000-08:00

Today we explored our neighbourhood & it is full of magic.

English Bay is where the cities inhabitants swim in the warmer months. English Bay Beach is the most popular & closest to us. Really nice looking water, can't wait to Hitro Okesene it when summer comes around.

Stanley Park is Vancouver's big park & it is really big & we almost got lost in it's 200kms of poorly signed trails. It is a mystical place full of mist & monsters. Here is a fresh-wood crocodile that we were scared of but then Sara wrangled it & it was instantly tamed.

All of the interior paths are cut amongst spectacular native timbers.

While Paris has poodles & New Zealand have sheep; Vancouver has equestrians. Pretty sure this is where Mark Todd buys his coke.

There are a lot of trees in the park that have completely uprooted and fallen over. A sign informed us that this is good for the animals that live there but we weren't sure so we asked one.

Beaver Lake is a scary lake inside Stanley Park filled with dangerously placid water & misty birds of venom.

Sam was very brave to approach the Arrowheaded Sparrows with peacefully outstretched arms but wisely retreated with haste when they attacked him in a swarming pack. Unflinching.

Apartment

2009-12-12T16:48:00.000-08:00

This isn't very interesting but these are some photos of our little apartment, its a studio apartment so it pretty much one room. Apart from the bathroom, which I didn't bother taking photos of because it just looks like any bathroom..

This is the sleeping part:

It is a furnished apartment, but we bought the linen. Note the sweet duvet we got. Very Canadian

Cooking part:

Dining/living part:
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Another view:

And that's pretty much it.

On another note we posted all our Christmas presents back to our families today. We were warned that Canadian Post is very slow, but didn't realise how slow. When we posted something from the US it was 15-20 days, here delivery time is estimated to be 8 weeks. So no one should excitedly checking the mail box each day or anything.. Until the 15th of Feb.

Today Show

2009-12-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

Today I(Sara) was working, when I got a call saying to go upstairs to do a zipline tour, so I did. Ziplines are kind of like flying foxes but you're harnessed in and don't need to hang on. There are 5 runs on Grouse of varying lengths and speeds and over various kinds of terrain. It turned out that the tour was for NBC and will be on the Today show which is some show in America (and SkyTV I think? Maybe not) and it will be used as the worldwide olympic promo, and NBC has the biggest worldwide coverage of the olympics. So hopefully they don't cut me out, and you might get to see me. They are filiming the Today Show throughout the olympics at Grouse so I guess they might get more footage, but hopefully not! I didn't get to take any photos, but this is basically what it looked like:

That's me and Scott Swann, who is a reporter from Indianapolis. I'm not sure why someone from there is filming it. I don't even know where that is.
Ziplining was so cool. It was great weather to do it. Since we've been working there we've had nothing but sunshine, so it was an awesome view over all of Vancouver and the harbour. On one line you go 80km per hour and travel for about 1 min, and you traverse this valley so you're up quite high, about 100m. Its definitley my favourite thing on the mountain so far, and would totally be worth paying the $100 or so for it.
So keep a look out for me!

Christmas time

2009-12-08T09:39:00.000-08:00

Its pretty christmassey here in Vancouver. These are some of the christmas things we've been up to. On Friday I (Sara) worked as Santa's helper which was pretty fun. I don't have any photo's of that, but Santa's workshop is pretty cool. Its this little hut that is used for renting snow shoes the rest of the year but at christmas has heaps of lights, nutcrackers, decorations and Santa added to make it look really cool and people can get their photo's taken with Santa if they make a donation.

On Sunday we went to the Santa Claus Parade, but it was really long and cold, so we didn't end up waiting for the end to see Santa, we did however see the olympic mascotts

This guy is my favourite. He's a sasquatch

This is Miss New Westminster. I guess they didn't have a lot of entrants this year..

This is Sam's christmas cupcake

And this is him destroying it..

This is our little chirstmas tree

Last night (Monday) we wen't to see the lights in Stanley Park which is a park near our house

This is the lake freezing over in the park. It's kind of hard to see

Even the racoons are getting into christmas, this one is eating a candy cane

Grouse Mountain

2009-12-02T18:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had our first day of work which was basically an overview of the running the mountain and today we started our actual training. We arrive at the base of the mountain and catch a skyride tram 1100m up to the ski fields. The two days we've been up there it has been so clear and incredibly scenic, but we hear it's often foggy so I guess we've been lucky.

The actual resort itself is so cute and I guess it looks just like you would expect a north american ski field would at Christmas.

For Christmas there is a Santa's workshop with Santa and elves, ice skating, a theatre showing Christmas movies, reindeer, Christmas themed coffees at starbucks, and so many fun decorations.

The company seems pretty cool to work for. Everyone in our department seems quite fun. It's pretty cool that we get trained for a whole week, I'm sure the most training I've had for a job is a day, so we should know what we're doing by the time we actually start. Today we had a tour of the peak with snowshoes (those things that look like tennis rackets) and tomorrow we start the day with an hour or two of snowboarding. Eek! I hope we (mainly I(Sara)) don't hold everyone up too much. A couple of people have only done it a couple of times before but they use much more technical lingo than we do so I think they must be a lot more advanced.

So it seems like our job will be pretty fun and fairly laid back. We will be making the most of our discounts and free passes. It seems like even if you never learnt to ski or snowboard you could still have heaps of fun over the season because there's so much to do.

Vancouver

2009-11-29T12:12:00.001-08:00

The day after we got here, we had this orientation thing with the company we came here through, which just told us about how to get bank accounts, cell phones, where to live, etc. Then we went house hunting. We had no idea where to live, and had no idea Vancouver was as big as it is. We started our search near where we work in North Vancouver, but it kind of lacked the big city feel, so we decided we didn't really like any if those, so we focused our search more on the city, deciding to travel further. After visiting a lot of places, including some weird one with this old guy who would be living in the living room, we settled on an area and found somewhere. So if anyone wants to write to us, send it to:

Suite 5
1339 Barclay St
Vancouver, BC, V6E 1H6
Canada.

It's pretty fun. It's furnished, so we don't have to worry about that and its only about 2 or 3 blocks from downtown and in the other direction is a beach and massive park, so it should be pretty good. Also it happens to be in the block the Incredible Hulk was filmed, and pretty near where Changeling was filmed. Famous. Everything happens monthly in terms of accommodation, so we have to wait until the 1st (its the 28th here) so a couple more nights in a hostel. Anyway, now that we've sorted where we are going to live we can get to know the city and do some fun things. First on my list is buy gumboots.

Last days of the USA

2009-11-29T12:11:00.000-08:00

We haven't written any thing in a while. We've been pretty busy trying to find somewhere to live, which we did tonight! Hooray!
We spent our last day in San Fran looking around the Haight Ashbury district which was pretty fun.

There are heaps of fun looking houses, and the Golden gate park, which is massive, is near by so it was pretty cool, we saw a bit of wildlife there.

We caught a Greyhound over night to Portland, and we thought it would be a good idea to get some sleeping pills before we did. It wasn't. For some reason they made us both really restless and fidgity, so neither of us got much sleep. 16 hours later we arrived in Portland.
Portland was really nice. It was very scenic and clean. They have a really good public transport system thats free so we got to see all off the city. They have this aerial tram that goes from one part of the health and science University to another which we went on and got to see some pretty good views including Mt St Helens. We didn't get up to too much, we just looked around the town, ate in some cool all American Diners that sort of thing. We thought of going to the Trailblazers (basketball) but they were sold out.

On Thursday the 26th it was thanksgiving which is pretty much like Christmas, everything is closed and everyone is going to see their families, so we decided not to stick around for that as it didn't really mean much to us, so we had booked our bus tickets for Vancouver for then. We set out in the morning, struck HEAPS of traffic. In the middle of nowhere there was just tons of cars, all going to their families, all at about 40kms an hour. On our bus was this weird guy who had something wrong with him, who took a liking to this Army guy – Captain Eric Carter. He was right behind us and chatted the whole time to The Captain about all this strange stuff, apart from one hour when he locked himself in the toilet. I was worried he would decapitate us once The Captain left, but he didn't. Once we left Seattle everything was fine, only about 7 people on our bus and no traffic. When we crossed the border, this girl on our bus, who had been on the bus for 3 days got denied entry. She was coming to visit a guy she met on the internet who she hadn't seen before, was planning on being there for 3 months and had $200 and no job. I guess I would have denied her entry too, but I felt sorry for her. Once we got to Vancouver we were pretty hungry since everything had been closed in the US. All I wanted was Gerry's quiche and crunchy potatoes, but I couldn't have them. Gutted. But we had finally arrived, so I cheered up and we started exploring the city.

RAIDER NATION

2009-11-23T10:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went to see the Oakland Raiders play the Cincinatti Bengals at the Oakland Coliseum, courtesy of Cam & Penny (THANKS GUYS!), & it was AWESOME

Edward had laughed when we told him we were going & described the entrance to the stadium from the train as a "maximum security prison". we were not disappointed.

In the parking lot of the stadium they have Tailgate Parties where everyone hangs around there cars & gets really hammered on Budweiser & chicken wings

The stadium itself is pretty awesome; the Raiders share it with the Oakland Athletics baseball team so it's got an odd shape to it & they patch grass over where the baseball diamond would usually be

The Raiderettes are BABEZ

We got some food

The game itself was action packed with many a twist & turn. The Raiders were major underdogs with a 2-7 record coming in to the game against division leading Bengals (7-2), & the Bengals took an early lead. The picture below is the first Raiders touchdown; #5 will throw to #80 & the stadium will go NUTS!

When the Raiders are on defense & a big play is coming up some sort of undertakers bell will toll over the speaker system & it's DEFENSE TIME

The Raiders were down 17-10 with only a couple of minutes left but managed to comeback with an 80-yard touchdown drive to tie it up at 17 all. Then a fumble was forced by the Raiders to regain the ball within field-goal range which sent the crowd into a FRENZY.

Janikowski nailed it & the Raiders won it 20-17

Truly an awesome spectacle & the win meant we didn't get stabbed. We have some video to upload but haven't worked that out yet so coming soon. Off to Portland on an overnight Greyhound later today so we're off to explore Haight-Ashbury & Golden Gate Park & maybe catch a cable car!

Alcatraz

2009-11-22T23:08:00.000-08:00

For my birthday, Sam booked us a night tour of Alcatraz. We took a ferry to the island, and on the way got some good views.

When we arrived we were assigned a guide (ours was Art) who took us up to the prison in the same way the prisoners were taken there, without the shackles.

We all were given an audio player and headset as we left the showers, which was the end of the induction for the prisoners (we didn't have to shower..). It was narrated by previous guards and inmates, and was really interesting. We walked through the cells, isoaltion cells, dining room, and Library. It was all pretty spooky but really interesting. The isolation cells had no lights and no windows, and some prisoners, like Al Capone, were in there for a long time at once.

After the audio tour we were free to wander around and take guided tours if we wanted. The hospital wing was open for only half an hour on the tour because of the asbestos in the ceiling and walls. It was definitely the spookiest part. The equipment they used was so scary looking and weird. Al Capone also spent a lot of time here and while he was dying from syphilis.

It was a really interesting tour. The prison was completley different to any other. It wasn't about at all about rehibilitation or justice, but punishment and control. Not a very fun place to be in or work in, but really cool to visit!

San Fran Tour

2009-11-22T22:39:00.000-08:00

While in Brisbane my bro Jonathan had put us in contact with a US mate he made while in Europe who lives in San Francisco. So yesterday Sara & I had the privelige of a local's tour of San Francisco with our hosts Edward & Liz (end of tour photo).

Firstly we headed for this CRAZY impractical street called Lombard which looks like something a slalom skiier would carve.

Palace of Fine Arts is a sweet buiding constructed for a World's Fair in 1915

Next we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge & copped some amazing views of the bridge & city & THE ROCK from the hills above Sausalito. Really started to feel like we were in the Full House intro by now. Really good.

Below is Alcatraz with the Bay Bridge which connects Oakland to San Francisco in the background.

We returned to the city to take in some of Little Italy & Chinatown. These two districts aren't just a gimmick for tourists, rather Little Italy is full of Italian restaurants run by Italian families who have lived in the area for many generations including some of Liz's family.

Chinatown is huge & chaotic. 22 blocks of dim-sum & fishmongers selling dead turtles & people who can get by easily without ever having to learn english. Edward was keen for a snack so we got some take-out dim-sum, yum.

Edward took us out later for a dinner of local cuisine and produce, which was awesome. Next we met up with Liz who was at a friends birthday, then on to celebrate Edwards friend Johnny's engagement. We had heaps of fun & are grateful for the sights presented to us & the experiences shared.

Interstate 5

2009-11-22T21:11:00.000-08:00

Hello,
On Friday we left LA for San Francisco. Our Greyhound bus rode the I5 which began with an hour of winding hills known as The Grapevine, then took us through the San Joaquin Valley which included five hours of the longest, straightest road we've ever been on. The entire valley is flat, arid & looks like a desert should except it is extensively farmed. We stopped for lunch at a truck-stop in the middle of nowhere & walked through sand to McDonalds.

No idea how they grow things there but there were massive plantations of citrus, fruit, vineyards all just grown from the sand & some fields spanning several kilometres. One of the strangest things was there were no houses anywhere that we could see, so while there where people picking the fruit we couldn't work out where they came from. This is a view looking east, to show how flat it was.

We arrived in San Fran 7 hours after we first left, and had a look around the city which we liked heaps. This is Union Square

More Blogs About Buildings & Food

2009-11-20T23:05:00.000-08:00

Today we saw many buildings & several more Districts of LA:

Walt Disney Music Hall designed by Frank Gehry

City Hall

Sara had Cherry Pepsi & it was delicious [Sam slammed down Gatorade (not pictured)]

Little Tokyo has a Little Space Shuttle

We walked through awesome Toy District which had shiny piñata alley-ways

Wholesale District had an exciting array of technology & wristwatches & barbed-wire

Central city is odd, all the skyscrapers are solely commercial buildings with little or no shop frontages on the street level. All the people walking around seem to only be going to or from work so in a way it's a bit lifeless. Still, lots of good glass & bricks & steel

Lunch = wicked burrito + salad in a giant taco bowl. YUM!

Santa Monica and Venice

2009-11-20T21:46:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Santa Monica and looked around the pedestrian mall, where we found a mystic, or rather he found us. He talked me (Sara) into sitting at his table and then just sort of worked into the conversation that he would be reading my cards, and he would like $20 for it. Long story short we both got our cards read, were told that I was bossy and liked to eat and was recommended to move continents, Sam was indecisive and musical and was recommended to look at dead musicians for inspiration, and we were out $20. 2 for 1 though, I guess. I didn't mind giving him money too much because he was pretty funny and kind and actually did something to earn some money, most people just straight up ask for change without doing anything, and often with a grande latte in their hand. After the mystic, we went to Santa Monica pier where they have a bunch carnival rides, but the rides we all closed because of filming. Sad.

We walked along the boardwalk, through muscle beach to Venice.

We had some vegan macrobiotic lunch, which was a bit weird, but yum too. In Venice there are canals running through the town that were originally a tourist attraction with gondolas, but they just have private canoes now.

Along Venice beach there were some pretty fun sights, roller bladers, medicinal marijuana, and heaps of vagrants and buskers. Sometimes a combo of both, one guy in a Santa hat would sing “Jingle bells, jingle bells, help me get drunk” over and over again.

On the way back to Santa Monica we came across a Claus Oldenburg sculpture which we had both studied in Art history, which was pretty cool. Next Downtown LA...

East Downtown LA & LACMA

2009-11-17T21:31:00.000-08:00

“you probably worked out you're not in Kansas anymore”

Today we sought the American Apparel factory store. Our bus driver recommended we get off well before we should have. Not knowing entirely where we were, we wandered through the Fashion District ($99 for two suits!), Flower District (religious bouquets!), Textile District (fabric!) & Produce District (including a massive Coke bottling plant!). Note: All Districts populated entirely by Mexicans, so most signage wasn't in English.

Finally found the AA factory store hidden behind a giant produce market. Cool store with multiple bargains which made the trek worthwhile.

When we left the store we realised the sun was on it's way to setting despite it being 2.30pm. We headed back toward Downtown on foot since the buses only take correct change which we didn't have. We saw these horse-mounted police so snapped a photo (obviously).

This gave away our secret tourist identity. The following conversation ensued:

OFFICER 1: Are you guys tourists?
SAM&SARA: Yep.
OFFICER 2: Where are you guys from?
SAM&SARA: New Zealand.
OFFICER 2: What are you guys doing here? You don't want to be here
SAM&SARA: Just been to the American Apparel factory store.. heading back to downtown. We don't have the right change for the bus
OFFICER 2: Did you get some discounts? If you're not in downtown by the time the sun sets, start running
OFFICER 1: Where are they from?
SAM&SARA: New Zealand.
OFFICER 1: New Zealand... you probably worked out you're not in Kansas anymore
[laughs]
OFFICER 1: What's the big city in New Zealand?
SAM&SARA: Auckland
OFFICER 1: There's probably a place like this there right? You know, skid row... a place where people hang out smoking drugs & taking drugs...
SAM&SARA: [pause] No.

They recommended we break a note at a dairy & bus home, so we bought some Gatorade & caught the next bus. Even though we had walked through this area earlier in the day, when it seemed quite fine, apparently everything must change after sunset. We got off at the La Brea Tar Pits (Sara says they're from My Girl) which are a surreal sight in the middle of a metropolis.

Next door is the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) which has a sweet installation of antique street lamps outside.

Inside were some incredible paintings etc which must be worth literally billions. Seriously. Here are some that we saw but didn't photograph ourselves because that is forbidden.

Tomorrow we'll go to Santa Monica & Venice Beach (original plan was Magic Mountain but it is closed on weekdays during 'winter' so it's off the menu altogether). We are home now & have just microwaved & consumed two hot tamales! YUM.

HOLLYWOOD

2009-11-16T20:53:00.000-08:00

Our flight left on time at midday. 13 hours, and many inflight movies later we arrived in LAX. LAX has 8 or 9 international terminals, so I'm not sure if it was just our terminal, but it was the most shabby airport I have seen. We got the third degree from customs, as they couldn't understand what kind of partners we were. He kept looking at the guitar as though we were musical partners.. We arrived at our hostel at about 9 but couldn't check in til 1, but they locked up our gear and gave us tips on where to go. We found this shopping area which was pretty cool, but also found out we would miss a book signing by Mario Lopez a.k.a AC Slater from Saved by the Bell, so were pretty gutted. We then wandered to Hollywood to look at the sign and star walk, and on the way saw a squirrel in some palm trees. Cute. While in Hollywood we got hassled by countless people trying to sell trips to stars homes, film locations, and haunted stars homes/film locations. While walking down the star walk, we came across a crowd of people so we joined them figuring someone was getting their star. It turned out it was John Stamos, so we got to see him and some of his Full House and ER friends which made up for all the people hassling us. It was probably about 27C and we were out until 1.30 with no sunscreen and didn't get burnt at all, so will be looking forward to having a normal ozone layer and therefore tan, for once (come summer).
We then came back to our hostel and checked in, had a nap and shower then went to get some pizza, which turned out to be the biggest most delicious pizza ever. YUM!

Brisbane

2009-11-16T20:51:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Brisbane on the 12^th, and were glad we packed some summer clothes. Saw a lizard, 2 dead cane toads & some crows. Natasha is cool, really likes to talk, we would chat a lot but mostly in circles. I think she will be a rock 'n' roll star when she grows. Spent some time in the city catching up with Auntie Tania & Cousin Brodey, very nice to see them again. Ferry hopped across the brisbane river to enjoy vistas of haze wrapped CBD. Haze was from bush-fires in sunshine coast. Friday night bbq at Jonathan & Violetta's where we were staying. Uncle Steve, Auntie Val & Cousin Matt were in attendance, great to see them too. Rest of weekend was filled with sun-soaking & relaxing. Monday morning we said our goodbye's and headed to the airport.