Vacation continued....

Re-posted from July 31, 2010

like i said vancouver was awesome! not only did we get to spend time with abby, jason and little anneke but we also got to see rich, shannon and jen! they too taught english in korea while we were there. rich and shannon came over for a couple bbqs at the sauchuks and we biked around the seawall and went out to eat twice with jen. the first time went to this awesome little japanese place called guu with garlic. there are apparently 4 different guu restaurants and each one specialized in a different spice/taste like garlic! it was packed and the servers just yell your order from your table to the people in the kitchen! it was a really lively and the food was awesome! it's like an izakaya which basically serves tapas styles dishes. we got garlic udon noodles, okonomiyaki (fried veg. pancake), octopus balls (like meatballs but with octopus!) and mackerel. it was all super delicious! the second time we ate with jen we went to a ukranian place where we had cabbage rolls stuffed with meat, perogies, sausage, and relishes. yuuuummm!

we ate at really nice restaurant the day we went to deep cove! we got a lamb ragout appetizer that came with pita bread and jens and i split a lemony buttery seafood mix of scallops and crab that came with risoto and vegetables. soooo goood!

i just love food!  

we spent a few days on vancouver island and it was really nice! we stay in abby's mom's condo that's right by the water in nanaimo and it was amazing! i loved it! alex met us out there and it was great to see him again. we all just hung out, they swam a bit but it was too cold for this texan! lol we ate at a mexican place that literally floats on the water and the food was really good. californian style mexican (which basically just means it was healthier than tex-mex lol). we spent our last full day in victoria (the major city on the island) and they happened to be having this huge classic car show lol so i took some pics for my dad. we went to the wax museum which was cool at first and then it creeped me out. i don't understand the necessity of displaying wax figures in darkened rooms with thunder and creepy voices playing really loudly lol wax figures are weird enough on their own! we ate lunch at the pub where abby's sister works and got a wonderful reuben sandwich and good beer! we saw the gorgeous empress hotel and parliament building! then we dropped alex off at the airport and headed back to nanaimo. it was a good day!

our last half day on the island we went with the sauchuks to visit the van keorklies (i have no idea how to spell their name lol) abby grew up near this couple and they're really awesome people! abby actually names her daughter (anneke) after the woman. i think they're from holland and they survived a concentration camp growing up! now they're in their 80s and live in this gorgeous eco-friendly wooden house in the woods on several acres (don't remember how many). they have a garden and plants everywhere! it's just an absolutely amazing gorgeous place and i wish i could live there! lol we took a walk through the woods with anneke v.k. and she showed us where she has to break open a little dam that this beaver keeps building in their stream every day lol they said he (and or his family of beavers) have been trying to build a dam there for years and years but they have to break it open daily so it doesn't flood. but the v.k.s have a very zen attitude toward all things so they just go out there and make a little break it in everyday so the water can get through. it was awesome to see this 80 something year old woman out there with a hoe hacking away at this beaver dam! lol

when we got back to the house we had a very european style lunch: bread, cheese, sausages and fresh raspberries picked right out of their garden mixed with yogurt! it was so good! i knew that they gardened organically so i asked anneke how they keep the bugs off their crops without pesticides and she just said- well the bugs have to eat too! lol abby also told me that they never bother taking the bugs off the raspberries before they eat them lol "extra protein!" i guess after surviving a concentration camp you don't worry much about those kinds of things!

i loved their house though. they told us that it totally burned to the ground a while back but they had the plans for the house so they just had it re-built exactly the same way! only they added a few more eco-friendly features like geo-thermal heating, bamboo floors, etc. even their compost heap was cool! their kitchen is upstairs so just outside on the balcony they have a little chimney that goes down the side of the house right into another little wooden house where their compost is! so they just step outside the kitchen and throw their food waste down this little chimney! so cool!

we wanted to stay there for days but it was time for jens and i to catch the ferry back to the mainland so we could get the train down to seattle!

so we said our goodbyes to them and then we said our goodbyes to abby at the terminal cuz she was staying there to visit more with her mom. jason went back with us though because he was gonna have a visit with his parents. once we got back to vancouver we parted ways with jason and took the train down to seattle where we met up with the langs! jens went to high school with ali (duke) lang and jens and i actually went to her wedding in 2004 when she married patrick lang. they live in a suburb a little outside the city-center of seattle.

i love their house too! it's on a hill so it has a split level basement where half of it's underground but the other half isn't. so you can in through a door into their basement or you an go up some stairs into the main part of the house. their master bedroom is in the basement. on the "first" floor there's a kitchen dining, guest bedroom, guest bathroom and office, and then they have an upstairs loft which is their living room! it's so cool! and i love the way they've decorated it! it's mostly ikea furniture, very modern, soft colors. very nice! the guest bath made me feel like i was in a ritzy hotel! lol

we only had 3 days in seattle so i feel like i still don't know THAT much about it but it was still a good visit. the first day we went to pike's place market which was huge and awesome! i saw a crab thrown! lol i saw the original starbuck's coffee there too. it was packed but there didn't seem to be anything exceptional about it lol we bought a bunch of fruit to eat during our stay and some vegetables to grill with the langs one night.

after that we went to the mind-blowing library! it's SO COOL! it's super modern and has a "book-spiral" like the floors spiral up and up and up so that their collection can be continuous! they also have a "red hall" and a "mixing room" and all kinds of crazy stuff that is better represented by photos which i will eventually add to facebook lol

after the library we stopped by the pink gorilla, formerly known as pink godzilla, video game store so jens could look around.

for dinner went to to big bowl- a vegetarian thai place that had the best fake meat i've ever tasted! then we all took the underground tour! to learn more about the seattle underground go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Underground

it was interesting and fun! (and funny because we took the "adult" tour lol) afterwards we got a drink and headed back to the house.

our second full day we went to freemont with ali and saw the troll under the bridge! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemont_troll we ate indian for lunch and then we met up with patrick and took a hike in the woods which was quite nice (other than the tons of mosquitos lol) then we drove over to some waterfall that was HUGE! the biggest one i had ever seen in person. i unfortunately can't remember the name of it but i could ask ali if you're really interested lol

we grilled that night and it was de-lish!

our 3rd and last full day in seattle we toured a winery with ali. it was the first time we had ever done it and i wouldn't mind doing it again! you get free wine at the end! woohoo! we also did a survey of 3 different reislings for free and they were all really good. we ended up buying their dry reisling. (yeah there are DRY reislings!)

next we went to an awesome boehm's candy shop started many years ago by mr. boehm's who was from switzerland (i think). they make handmade chocolates and candies and they are OUTSTANDING! we actually got to see some women making some chocolates by hand through the window. jens and i bought chocolate caramel pecan turtles and they were YUM!

that night we ate at a pub and then we stayed the night with ali's sister, kat, because the lang's had to leave the next morning bright and early to fly to north carolina!

the next day we trained down to portland!!! i think i need a whole separate post for portland so i'm gonna stop there and go clean my house! :o) until next time!

ps- thanks to all our friends who let us stay with them and showed us around the awesome cities where they live! it was great fun and we really appreciate it!