The SF bay area was fantastic. I visited a lot of old friends, went to a couple of really good parties, saw A’s performance in Fiddler on the Roof, and saw Jenny Owen Youngs in concert. Also, I’m an uncle again.
I was in the bay area for quite some time, but I still feel like I didn’t have time for all the people and things to do.
I got to see my cousin L in Sacramento on the way up, and then spent a few days in Chico catching up with my parents and hanging out with K and her friends. I spent an afternoon with D and A, and went to the weekly dueling pianos show that my twin brothers put on, which was awesome and absurdly over-the-top.
My time in Chico was brief, and the same went for Portland. I did have quite a nice hike along the Columbia river with K and S.
I went to my aunt & uncle’s beach house after that, in Rockaway beach, more or less due west of Portland. It was quite nice, but I was there only briefly before I drove up to Seattle.
Seattle was mostly relaxation and downtime, and spending time with S. We saw “Let The Right One In”, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I recommend it as a date movie. We also had a “Twilight” party that involved glitter and quite a lot of alcohol. The movie wasn’t as bad as I expected, although it was fairly bad. Certainly not “D&D: The Movie” bad. I met a lot of S’s library school friends; they were generally pretty cool, as librarians tend to be.
Driving into Canada was peaceful and pretty, although it was disconcerting in small ways. I’ve been working on thinking in kilometers instead of miles. The lanes are also narrower, many of the green traffic lights blink, and there are a few subtle matters of driving etiquette that I don’t yet fully grasp.
Vancouver is pretty cold. It’s not bad, and actually I’ve always preferred colder climates (colder than LA, at least) but it’s taking me a while to adjust to wearing a lot of layers and focusing on staying warm. We’ll be heading to the beach as soon as M gets out of the shower. I like getting bundled up and wandering along gray, windy beaches.
I haven’t taken as many pictures as I expected. I’m spending a lot more time sitting around talking with people than I am going out and hiking or seeing the sights. I do have a few trip photos up on flickr.
(I wrote this a couple of days ago, but didn’t get around to posting it until now. Too much to do. It’s the good kind of too much to do, though.)
