I left my heart...

OK, so it’s occurred to me that I haven’t written a blog for a little while (2 and a half months?!) and to be honest I’m not sure where to begin. SPOILER ALERT: This is going to be a LONG one.

It feels like the last few months have flown by, which I think is a sign that we’re enjoying ourselves much more than we were before (see mice, bedbugs, thieving gits etc). I know Ash filled you in on our super gay mini-break to the cabin so I won’t go over that...except to say that Ash was an excellent driver, and I greatly appreciated our friend Mike leaving his iPod in the mini for us (hello Barbara Dixon).

Next up was the royal visit ie. Jen and Mark crossing the pond to experience the delights that Vancouver has to offer. And to be honest the Couv pulled it out of the bag. The summer weather made the city look a completely different place from when Mum and Dad visited, and it was nice to show it off. Most culinary hot spots were visited; Meat & Bread (which Mark insisted on visiting twice), Bao Bei, big dumplings, Bin 941, smoked-meat filled bagels and the obligatory diner visit. Needless to say we also tried a few of the BC beers too, including raspberry beer brewed on Granville Island. Tasty. It was a bit of a heart wrench to say goodbye but I had an amazing time and I’m pretty sure they liked it too. Especially as we sent them home with some Meat & Bread mustard.

Harry and Ginny

Otherwise in the city, things are going well. If you didn’t hear already I WON AN IPAD at work. A result of my incredible intellect and wit (and love of acronyms). Unfortunately, we need the money more now we’re saving for our travels so it’s gone on craigslist. It is killing me. I tried half-heartedly to convince Ash (and myself) that we could justify keeping it but alas, my Ash’s common sense won out. I also promised to go sharesies with Adam so I couldn’t really keep half of it. Pretty pleased nonetheless.

It’s just been my birthday which was lovely. Adam threw a British party to celebrate which was suitably drunken and fun...complete with cucumber sandwiches! I desperately wanted to go as SuBo but bottled it in the end due to my fear of just looking like myself but hairier. Harry Potter was the obvious choice and I spent the evening wiping red scar all over my face and yes...I did drop my iPhone down the loo. Thankfully due to the “bowl of rice trick” all is well again. Ash treated me to a really great day out on my birthday, complete with picnic and a secret bar in the evening. Unfortunately we were both pretty ill for most of the day but we made the most of it regardless.

Secret birthday picnic drinking

My birthday choices!

Beaver Lake - Stanley Park

The main event of the past few weeks however was our Big Fat USA Trip, which I can’t really believe we’ve been and done. Now, I know that Ash wants to cover some of it in her blog so we’ve divided it by cities; I get San Francisco and Las Vegas. And you get mainly food stories and the odd attempt at a sarcastic joke from me. Hooray.

View from Coit Tower

Firstly San Francisco...

From the moment we arrived (fairly gross and sweaty after our 18 hour train journey) to the moment we left, I enjoyed every minute of getting to know this city. Well, every minute except the “me-naked-in-the-shower-whilst-a-burst-pipe-floods-the-shit-out-of-this-weird-old-lady’s-house” experience. We’d literally been in her house half an hour. Oh well, nothing says getting to know each other like being naked wrapped in a shower curtain. 

Anyway, putting that aside we had a great time. We were staying in a bit of a hippie area that had great views of the city and its very own lesbian bar. On a sidenote – don’t go there. They might kill you. But it was in a great position to explore the city.

Murals in the Mission

 

Chinatown

We walked up Coit Tower on our first day – man that city is hilly! But we were rewarded with great views of the bridge, Alcatraz and the windiest road. Not to mention the excellent giant pizza slices at the bottom! Chinatown was crazy but great to experience and just as you imagine it. The Castro was really laid-back and great to hang out in. We saw where Harvey Milk had his shop, the Castro theatre...and a cookie shop full of pictures of men in tiny y-fronts saying HOT COOKIES on them. We also had our only Man vs Food experience here at Ike’s Place. The fact that we took “the best sandwich I have ever eaten” and accidentally ate it in a ‘Dog Free run Play Park’ didn’t even dampen our experience. We had a lovely, but too short, time in Golden Gate Park, followed by an authentic taco crawl around the Mission lead by a friend-of-a-friend. Excellent.

I managed to convince Ash to do something touristy so we headed to Alcatraz amongst the thousands of other tourists. But I’m pleased we did because it was really well done. You listen to an audio tour narrated by former inmates and guards and it was pretty fascinating. It didn’t seem to stop me referring to it as Azkaban the whole time though. 

We both got burnt to hell on the boat back but it was totally worth it. From there we went to Fisherman’s Wharf which was probably the only area I didn’t like that much. It was rammed full of tourists and full of chain shops and fast food places. Although we did get to experience the thrill of ordering from the secret menu at In & Out burger, a California staple. 

 

Azkaban

Speaking of secrets...I did my homework before arriving and found a secret bar called Bourbon & Branch that was a Speakeasy during prohibition. It had no signage whatsoever and we had to give a password to enter. Once inside, we got taken through a false bookcase into the library bar for one of the most amazing cocktails and drinking experiences I’ve ever had (who knew Allspice could taste so good?). Totally worth trudging through the slightly rough bit to get to. I don’t have any pictures of the bar as you weren’t allowed so here is one of the door outside.

 

I have included a few transport photos (for you Dad). The traditional trams and streetcars were really amazing to get around on. In fact we took the cable car to an amazing beer bar on our last night. Which turned out to have a sausage bar next to it. Doesn’t get better than that (for you Mum). 

 

 So now...VEGAS. Looking back on it, I think we were prepared to hate Las Vegas. As it is, I kind of liked it. We spent a lot of this trip making sure we didn’t just do the tourist thing...finding the places that the locals go for really good food and drink, and trying to get away from other tourists. The thing is with Vegas is that everyone is a tourist...and there’s no getting away from it. We didn’t need to find the cool places; there aren’t any. Everywhere is on your doorstep, and that was quite a relaxing feeling at the end of our trip. Everywhere is loud and bright and full of people, and you just have to embrace it.

Firstly, I am a big fan of the Vegas culture of frozen cocktails, especially the Margaritas. I draw the line at a frozen Jagerbomb though. This helped a little with the horrendous temperatures. 38 degrees at night? This is not a night-time temperature. Thankfully we had a pool at our hotel which was a big saviour. And factor 50 suntan lotion (I fear that being with a ginge means I’m predestined to come back from every hot holiday paler than when I left). 

Hitting the fruities

We barely gambled ($11!), but had fun hanging out at the slots, mainly for people watching. We decided to throw caution to the wind and go for a famous Vegas buffet at the Bellagio. Which actually was amazing, but I felt pretty dirts queuing for it for 45 minutes. The bars were fun, and there’s a massive party atmosphere all day and all night. It felt like there was definitely a dirtier edge to Vegas (hinted at by the gross guys handing out cards with women on them) which I’m pretty glad we didn’t see. 

All in all however, Vegas was a really good end to our trip. I think a couple of nights was probably long enough. We were a bit bored of the endless escalators by this point. Although watching everyone sigh whenever they had to walk up a flight of stairs was pretty fun. It’s a totally weird place and I think I would go back, if only to visit the little gay Mexican server we met, who told us he liked our style and that he knew Cher Lloyd. That’s a win-win.

For now, it’s back to work and back to saving for our last couple of trips. The Rockies are finally beckoning and it’s weird, but we’ve had to start planning for when we leave. I don’t quite feel ready to go yet. So hopefully it’ll be a fun summer. 

Will try and blog more frequently over the next couple of months.

Stella x