Pasadena Day 4 / Home

I woke up with a horrible cough this morning. So I spent My last half of a day before I go home, packing and relaxing. I met up with Laura for lunch at Equator in Old Town. Equator is an Asian fusion place. I had the lunch special Pad Thai which was really good and the portion was huge. Laura had a crab roll with albacore tuna. Our bill came to only $20. After lunch I went back to Laura and Henry's to relax and do any last minute packing.

To get from Pasadena to LAX airport by Metro is a bit of a hassle so I booked a shuttle that picked me up from Laura and Henry's. It was about $25 which is not bad considering a taxi would of been astronomical. I flew Alaska Airlines home direct to Vancouver and that was a big savings believe it or not.

I got to the airport with a few hours to spend so I refreshed my memory with some of Arrested Development's episodes before the new episodes come out on Netflix. The plane boarded early and for some reason I could not get comfortable on the flight to fall asleep. :( The plane arrived on time and was welcomed to Vancouver rain. And now my cough has gotten worse and I sound like a dying person. Hopefully I can take a day off tomorrow to rest and get better.

Time to start planning the next vacation.

Pasadena Day 3

Shopping in Old Town! First stop H&M. I met up with Laura for lunch as her work is right in Old Town. We went to Dog Haus a gourmet hotdog and burger place. Each hot dog is served on a Hawaiian bun and topped with crazy condiments. I ordered the Downtown Dog and Ogre rings. They were heart attack heaven. I could not finished mine.

Laura went back to work and I continued shopping. I went to Forever 21 and got a few things. After searching through the two floors of Forever 21 I had to pee. And the only place around there was the iPic movie theatre. Holy crap that is a fancy theatre. Bars and lounges inside the theatre and at the bottom of the escalator a cute girl is there to point you in the right direction. I also went to this place called Cotton On and got a cute dress and blazer. After all that walking in the hot sun I sat down in a court yard in the shade and just relaxed.

A few things I noticed here are; everywhere you go and pay by credit the cashier asks for your ID and I have never had to put in my pin. Found out it's because there's a lot of credit card theft here. I think this is an Old Town thing but addresses here don't go from 0-100 in one block it might take several blocks before you get to the 80s. One thing I hate is that it's okay to U-turn here. I almost got hit by someone trying to U-turn and I had the right of way. There was this diagonal pedestrian crosswalk which was kind of cool. I also like that machines have not replaced people unlike back home. But I really like the old brick buildings and terracotta roofs.

At 5PM I met up with Laura as her shift was over and we walked back home. We decided to take it easy tonight and ordered take out from Himalayan Cafe. The food was so good and they even delivered my mango lassi. We just hung out and bothered Henry while he did his homework. I did some laundry and sort of packed up.

Pasadena Day 2

I slept in this morning for the first time this vacation! I woke up around 10AM and got ready to meet up with Henry and some of his physics friends. We went to Mijares Restaurant for lunch. Mijares has been around for 92 / 93 years. I ordered a chicken tamale and chile rellenos with beans. It quenched my appetite for mexican food.  After lunch Henry went back to Cal Tech for his last class of the day and I went shopping. I went to Ross and TJ Max. Ross is always a place I like to go to when I'm in the US because I can always find something there. TJ Max is like Winners before Winner got to popular. It was a good day of shopping, found a couple things, no lines and friendly staff.

I met up with Henry after shopping and we met up with Laura after her work, to go to Little Tokyo in LA. We went to Izakaya Honda-Ya. I ordered Coke Chu-Hi to drink, a spicy tuna roll and a super California roll (a California roll with eel on top). It was a bit expensive but worth it. After dinner we walked around Little Tokyo, nothing too exciting as Vancouver has a huge Asian culture. But we did pick up some green tea mochi ice cream (which according to Wikipedia ice cream mochi originated in LA).

Pasadena Day 1

Checked out of the hotel. I give it 3 stars. The staff were very friendly but the rooms were noisy and I couldn't get the shower to work. I decided to call the cab driver I had from the theatre because he actually knew where I was staying last night. And my cab fare was half what I paid the first cab driver, yay. I have to say I won't be coming back to Fullerton anytime soon, there just isn't anything to do around here and you need to drive everywhere.


I caught the Amtrak train to LA and then took the Metro to Pasadena to meet up with Laura and Henry. We ended up going to the Norton Simon Museum and saw Van Goghs, Monet's and Asian art.

After the museum we walked around Old Pasadena, grabbed a frozen yogurt at 21 Choices and headed home to rest our feet.


We met up with Henry's friend Peter for dinner we went to a famous burger joint called Pie and Burger which open in 1963. Laura and Henry have pretty much guaranteed me a burger fest while I'm in Pasadena but the bacon cheeseburger I had at Pie and Burger was the best burger I've had. Our waitress seemed a little scattered and looked like she had been working there since the place opened. We grabbed some homemade pie to go.

An evening with Shirley

The train ride from San Diego to Fullerton was very relaxing and went by so fast. I took a taxi from the Amtrak station and that was the worst ride ever! The guy got lost. The hotel is in an industrial area of the town, so there are like no sidewalks. I walked to a near by restaurant called The Elephant Bar for dinner. Everyone was very friendly there. I ordered the surf and turf. It was pretty tasty.

After dinner I headed to La Mirada Theatre the real reason in in the middle of nowhere. I bought tickets to see Shirley MacLaine. I have been a fan of hers ever since I saw The Apartment. When I got there I'm pretty sure I was the youngest person there. Now granted Ms. MacLaine is a Hollywood legend I didn't expect the age gap to be this big. I sat next to a nice gay couple from LA Proper. It was nice to chat before the show. Ms. MacLaine was a riot. She didn't miss a beat. She told stories about herself and answered some questions.

Since everyone drives here there wasn't even a cab waiting outside the theatre. Luckily one of the staff let me borrow her phone do I could call a cab. This time the driver knew where I was going. Time to get dome sleep tomorrow is Pasadena.

San Diego Day 3

I checked out of the hostel around 11 and headed to Balboa Park to check out the Museum of Photography Arts. There was an exhibit of black and white photographs taken by Jessica Lange over the course of her travels. Each photo captures a raw moment in time.

After my visit to MOPA I headed to the Museum of Man. The Mayan pillars and the Egyptian mummies were cool but the best part had to be seeing one of Davinci's creations; a robot knight.

Waiting at the train station I saw an Amish family, which reminded me of an episode of Sex and the City. I also bumped into one of the hostel workers who was picking up her father. Now I'm on my way to La Mirada a small town near Fullerton.

San Diego Day 2

Woke up early had cinnamon pancakes for breakfast before heading out to the zoo. One of the girls and I went to the zoo. We spent about 5 hours there. It was massive and had about every animal you could think of. My favourite was the pandas. After the zoo I walked around Balboa Park looking at the beautiful architecture.

That night I went out with one of my form mates who's from Mexico. We tried to go to one of the clubs recommended to us but they wouldn't let us in because David was wearing shorts. This is San Diego it's warm and sunny. Yesterday we got into another place wearing flip flops. After waking around Gaslamp we found an Irish bar called the Dublin Square. I enjoy an Irish pub any day but this place had Murphy's beer which I'd drink over Guinness any day. I was even able to add black current to my beer. :)

I have one more thing on my list to do in San Diego before I leave. But I'm sure I'll be back some day.

San Diego Day 1

The hostel is super chill and accommodating. Free wifi, breakfast, dinner and activities planned for everyday.

Last night I took it easy because I hadn't slept in over 24 hours. Met some pretty cool people; a guy from Victoria, South Korean students, a lady from Ireland and a New Yorker just to name a few.

A few of us went up to the Gaslamp District to hang out. The first place we went to C Lounge had no cover so we checked it out. Turns out there was a reason for the no cover it was a shoebox with really bad music. We downed our drink and then carried on to the Tipsy Crow. A nice comfy bar. The moment I was alone, I got hit on which was kind of funny. He had an interesting approach, sat down beside me said he saw a cute girl so he had to sit with her. That would never happen at home.

Much needed vacay

After the last few days cramming meetings etc. into my schedule before my much needed R&R. I still wasn't ready to go. I stayed up all night putting the final touches on one of my projects before it had to go out to the broadcaster. I even managed to somewhat put together a prep schedule for another project I'm working on in July. After that it was time to finish packing.

Once 5:30AM hit I was waiting for my bus to Bellingham. Because I'm all about the travel deals my trip will be a little more complicated than most. I am busing down to Bellingham and then flying one way to San Diego. Doing this I'm saving about $150. But the downside is I will be waiting at the Bellingham Airport for a few hours. That gives me a nice little nap though!

The flight to San Diego is just under 3 hours. I should be there around 4pm.

Voting

This morning I got a phone call asking for help in which political party I thought would be good to vote for. Of course I gave the person some information about each party and which one has a platform to help our field of work. I had never been asked before about my opinion on the matter, I had always discussed the subject with my elders.

Now sitting here in the line to vote has me thinking about when I was a kid and for a very brief period I wanted to be Prime Minister of Canada. As a kid you think that if you look up to what a job stands for that its a something you want to do when you grow up. I can remember thinking that the person who is Prime Minister has the power to stop children from starving, save endangered animals, save the ocean and many other important causes out there. But as I grew up I became more and more aware that the person with so much supposed power really couldn't do all or any of those things.

In fact it's more and more I see that job I used to look up to, really doesn't care about saving anything. Instead budgets are cut, deals are made and the welfare of our country has been put in the hands of foreign affairs. Canada is a country with vast resources yet we sell our raw materials to foreign investors who then sell it back to us at a higher rate. This makes no sense to me. Even the city I live in is ranked as one of the most expensive cities to live in yet that could change if we stopped the foreign investors from buying up high rises. Or even the industry I work in has a huge impact on the economy yet funding programs have been cut which makes less jobs for people. The list goes on.

I hope my vote today will help change something.

1833 Radio

Over the past few months I have been designing a website for an online music hub showcasing indie and underground music. The goal of the site is to provide what FM radios don't and that is non stop music without any duplicate songs or commercials. Right now we've got about 10 hours of music.

The site will feature different genres of music, top 5 songs and albums of the month. Down the road we are hoping to also do interviews with bands.

We have also teamed up with ING Cafe to put on a concert each month where 1833 Radio will find the talent and ING provides the space. All the proceeds of each concert go to #SingItFwd which helps kids at the Saint James Music Academy. Each session will be filmed and uploaded to the website as well. The next show will be Thursday May 30th.

Please check it out and give me any feedback.