Paris, 1980

My one and only trip to Paris was with my mom in 1980.

It was a short three day stopover between Amsterdam and Berlin, so not much time to see anything.

We stayed in a smallish hotel near the Place d'Italie in the 13th arrondissement, the Hôtel de la Place des Alpes. I remember it as being quaint, but bordering on seedy. The current reviews seem to agree.

We had a shower and sink in the room, but the toilets were on the landings. The hallway lights were on timers, so you turned on the lights and dashed. If you were lucky you made it to the loo before being plunged into dark. They now have full baths in the rooms. What luxury.


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Our room faced the inner courtyard, but we had the same little Juliette balcony as shown here.

My strongest touristy memory was of trying to visit the Eiffel Tower, but, errmm, we couldn't find it. It is after all such an unassuming little structure.


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Instead we visited the Arc de Triomphe.


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And on the top, we had a revelation and found what we were looking for:

Two Random Things: Snow & a Library

Nothing to do with anything but:

1. Snow

Here is a shot out my den window today. Snow begone!

(Cheap webcam = jerky video)

2. A Library.

I've been spending some time checking out places I've been via Google Maps. I (like many people in the library world) like to check out local libraries when traveling. This is probably one of the prettiest I've ever seen. In Carmel by the Sea, the Harrison memorial Library

Thought: I think I'll make this a regular feature, street views (or bird's eye shots) from places I've been. Great filler. New tag will be Street View


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Vrooooooom, Screeeee!

I don't think anyone I know now (with the singular exception of the people in this video) has ever seen seen me drive.

After watching this you'll understand why.



Points to ponder:

1. Yes I was that skinny once. Also: bite me


2. We don't need to discuss the length of my shorts, or how high they go, ok? It was 1992 folks


3. As to me putting my feet down a few times. I had never driven a real motorized bicycle type devise before this, and I used to use my feet as brakes on my bicycle all the time. Luckily I would remember in time on the scooter and not grind my toes off.


4. Yes that is the Hubster making comments about me driving. Thanks dear!


5. This "drive" was done with no license, no helmet, and total disregard to what side of the road I should be on (The left btw, British law in this part of the Caribbean).


6. Anyone know how to turn me back into the 26 year old I was in this clip (but with better shorts)?

If you are wondering about the topography, video shot here. Looks like the road has been reconfigured some time in the last 16 years.

Em Eye Cee, Kay Ee Wye....

M.O.U.S.E

Just back from two wonderful weeks in Southern California.
Ok we got back on Monday. But five million e-mails (two accounts), a billionty RSS feeds and uploading and editing photos & videos have kept me busy.

(Note: Most pictures can be embiggend by clicking on photo and then clicking on "all sizes" above photo)

This trip we (as usual) spent most of our time @ Disneyland & Disney's California Adventure. But we also rented a P.O.S convertible and visited the general L.A. area. The Hubster reports that we only put 425 miles on the rental during the week we had it - felt like more.

As usual I decided we had to be really early for our flight. So by 6:30 am we were sitting outside the airport sucking back Starbucks. Our flight was @ 10:10.



I used to really love flying - back in the days of Pan Am and Wardair, but it's losing a lot of it's charm.

We flew Alaska. The crew and service were fine, but the seats are getting narrower and narrower, (or my ass is getting - never mind!)

Food service was the ever popular party mix, but the Hubster went out an bought the $5.00 Northern Bites® Picnic Pack and an ok Chardonnay for me.



I was glued to the window. Crop circles?



We stayed at the Hojo Anaheim. It's an 196mumble (same age as me) hotel about a 10 minute walk from the Disneyland main entrance. It's been recently refurbished back to it's original glory and is very retro cool.

What it looked like back then:



And a similar recent shot:



Our room with the new deliciously comfortable bedding. The mattress was an absolute dream.



We overlooked the pool area:



One exit away from yodeling cowboys:



Disneyland & DCA

It was pretty hot most days we were in the parks, so the Hubster partook of the wet rides - often.

Here he is on the Grizzly River Run:



The aftermath:



Favourite new rides:

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, where I proved how much I suck at video games:



And Toy Story Mania!, where I proved how much I blah blah blah:



Pixar rules the rides.

Food at Disneyland still sucks (with a few exceptions), but in DCA we both really like Wine Country Trattoria. Italian food and some really nice wines. I discovered a new Favourite: Dr. Loosen Riesling.

Universal Studios

We spent one exhausting day @ Universal Studios Hollywood.

Started with the tour. We've done the tour a few times before, so it was pretty predictable, except for this part: the wreckage from the fire.



Also new and cool this time. The plane crash wreckage from War of the Worlds.





And of course, Bruce was present as usual:



My Favourite ride is still Jurassic Park. Nothing like a 7 story drop into a pool of water to freshen you up.



There is cute / fake English street @ the park, built for the Austin Powers movies. It includes a equally fake Irish pub that serves decent wines and beers. We managed to kill a couple of hours there in air conditioned bliss. That's the Hubster in the doorway on the left:



Afterwards we visited Universal City Walk, a shopping a dining district attached to the Studios:



And had dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.. We had, well....





I was a bit reluctant to try out Bubba Gump. A restaurant chain based on a movie seemed a bit of an obvious cash cow. But the food was actually pretty good.

As we were leaving we saw this:



Of course most of the colour show was produced by all the smoke from the fires. Pollution does create the pretties sunsets.

Other Stuff

We had the wise idea of trying to drive to Newport Beach on the 4th of July. Idiots!

We gave up and ended up having a very nice lunch at The Cottage restaurant in Laguna Beach instead.

We did make it to Newport Beach a few days later. One of my Favourite beach communities. I'd buy a house here if I was a kazillionair.



Lunch at the Newport Landing.


It was overcast and quite muggy.

View of the Balboa Fun Zone from the ferry:



Balboa Island security - don't mess with the (rich) locals:



Then on to margaritas at Cabo Cantina (no webpage). Good drink & service. Very grotty! It's amazing the places I'll drink stateside:



No trip would be complete without wieners on the beach:



And alas, home again, home again:



Sigh...

Note: All the photos (from above and more!) are here.

A Century In Video - 1921

[Butch O.'s Photos]

It's summer and a great time to travel. How about Egypt:



Interesting film with actually only one screen of the usual xenophobic / racist crap that is a bit too common with films of that era. Look for this title card: "They're a nice sociable little race"

Directly from the "lets all visit the cute little foreigners" school of thought.

Some nice footage otherwise.

Traveling in Style

We've never taken Brat on Vacation with us.

For one thing it would be a logistical nightmare. E.g. finding dog friendly hotels (that always charge a goodly surcharge) and having to stop often for piddle breaks.

And for another, how boring would a loooonnnng car trip be for an small, active dog - very!.

But apparently we just haven't given it enough thought. Looks like next year we'll be going on a sea cruise.

(click to embiggen)

[From Popular Mechanics. Aug, 1939]




I love the wiener life jackets.

One Guild, Plus Free Booze equals ... ...Well I Can't Quite Remember

The Hubster's Guild held their big convention in Victoria this year.

What is basically boiled down to is 3 days of mostly talking for the guild members, and 3 days of pre-paid fun for the the wives. Yes technically it was for the member's "companions", but it was completely girl time.

I flew out on Harbour Air after work on Wednesday.



If you've never flown in a seaplane, I highly recommend it. The one I flew on was a DeHavilland DHC-3 Turbine Single Otter. It only seats 14 people and you only fly @ about 5000 feet, so you can see everything.

Here's the outside:



and the inside:



We stayed @ the Harbour Towers, where I've never stayed before. I didn't like it quite as much as the James Bay Inn, our usual haunt. But it was nice.

The hotel put on quite a show for us, but then I'm sure they make a $$$$ off of conventions of this sort. Here the view from our balcony. Please note the guild flag on the left:



On Wednesday night we had a big buffet in the hotel ballroom. If I remember correctly there where about seven different food stations, including Greek, pasta, seafood, burgers and desserts. Also two carving stations with beef and ham. We never did figure out why they had the young Muslim woman carving ham.

Also at buffet: lots of free booze.

Thursday the wives spent the day at Butchart Gardens.

I hadn't been their since I was a kid, and I was thoroughly impressed.

I think they had about seven trillion different types of rhododendrons:



Like Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Park, the gardens are partially built in a quarry. You get quite the view when you first approach. As you can see the park was very popular that afternoon.



I just love these colours:



There is a pretty fountain in one of the small lakes. This is my footage: (One of the other woman got a clip of me exclaiming "Ballagio!" in the middle of her video footage. Sorry!)



Shaggy wildebeests:



Formal gardens outside the dining room:



And finally, the conservatory. Gorgeous!



After the gardens we had lunch in the The Dining Room Restaurant at the gardens. Very nice food. We had:



We took a Gray Line double decker bus to the park. It's very surreal zipping down tiny country lanes thinking you're about to crash into every tree that you see.

Thursday evening was spent (the entire group, not just the wives) at the Deep Cove Chalet in Sidney. Very, very good food and a beautiful view. Also at restaurant: lots of free booze.

This trip to the restaurant was a little weird. First of all they put the entire load into three school buses. I'm sure that was a sight: three loads of adults, most over the age of 40, all dressed up on the yellow bus. About halfway to the restaurant we stop for a hitchhiker. A young hippyish guy with a full sized bass. He then proceeded to serenade us down the Pat Bay highway with the stoner hits of the 60's.

After we let him off we crossed an intersection and noticed one of the other buses had stopped too. It was letting off a guy with (it turns out) a mandolin. Can you say "set up"? Kinda cool though.

Friday was another tour day for the non-delegates. This time we were treated to a very cool tour of the Empress Hotel given by Walkabouts Tours. Very impressive. I've stayed in the Empress before, but this tour gets you into areas usually off limits.

The hotel is 100 years old this year, and they did quite a bit of refurbishing to celebrate. The floors in the tea room were getting kind of shabby and worn. So they pulled them up and reproduced them exactly with new wood. However they did find an imaginative way to reuse some of the old wood, by making tea tables out of it.



This beautiful stained glass dome was damaged several years ago by a snow storm. So of course they covered it over! A few years ago it was rediscovered (many people didn't even know it existed) and repaired with new glass. It now has a steel dome over it and is back lit with bulbs.



These are the original chandelier in the ballroom. The first time they where washed they were put into the backs of trucks and taken through the car wash. That must have been an interesting sight going down the road.



After the tour - tea. I don't know how I managed to catch everyone looking miserable. We all had a great time and couldn't finish all the goodies.



Friday night: Dinner, dancing and - lots of free booze.

We decided to stay over an extra day. So Saturday was just the Hubster and I for most of the day. Of course we couldn't go a day without booze. So here's the Hubster having the best Mojito that I have ever tasted made with Victoria Gin.



Saturday evening, dinner with the Hubster's sister at the Canoe Brewpub.

Sunday, exhausted from all the free (and some not so free) booze we stopped off to see the brother-in-law @ 2 Percent Jazz coffee shop for a couple of excellent espressos. And finally home again, home again to my own Butchart Garden....



I understand that the guild got a bunch of stuff done too.

Now that's I've put you in a coma, I'll leave you with one more link. If you want to see the few pictures I didn't post here, they can be found here.

I'm Baaaaaack....

Where have I been you ask. V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N

Just got back last night. We had a great time but glad to be home again....

Trip included Las Vegas, San Diego, Disneyland, Santa Maria, San Francisco and points in-between (road trip!)

Hubby drove down and I flew to meet him in Lost Wages.

This is a pic he took on route. (Note the cool moon over the mountain)



This is the view from our room @ the Excalibur (Day & night shots)




The cool mall @ the Venetian



Fremont Experience ("Old" Las Vegas)



San Diego Zoo




This is the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. Best known from the movies Some Like it Hot (it stood in for Florida) and The Stunt Man



Classic San Fran shot



And to finish, Sunset in Oregon



Ok 1 more.

Puppy missed her daddy.....



Off to finish compiling my 5,000,000 emails....