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Mudder and Daughter

How lucky am I to be able to spend a week travelling with my mom (Dixie).

We started off with a couple of days in the US capital of Washington DC. Neither of us know very much about US politics and history, so I was glad that we bought an audio walking tour to tell us what was what. In fact, at one point we had a rather hilarious debate with me thinking that the Lincoln memorial was the White House and Dixie thinking that it wasn’t because the White House has a dome on the top (it doesn’t).

Audio tour nerds

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting pool

Jefferson Memorial

The Secret Service were in high gear right beside the White House with a whole street blocked off. Someone special must have been in town.

Capital building

We knew there was a chance that the cherry blossoms would be in bloom, but we really lucked out by being there on the day the media announced it to be ‘peak bloom’.

The tulip trees were magnificent

Tidal Basin

We popped in to the Renwick Gallery, one of the Smithsonian Museums and enjoyed some art that foreshadowed some of the artists whose work we would see again later in the trip.

Day 2 we started out with a great free tour of the JFK Performing Arts Centre.

There are tons of incredible art donated from different countries, including this chandelier in the opera house.

We meandered around the historic Georgetown neighbourhood and stopped at a coffee shop to taste the ‘limited time’ Cherry Blossom Latte!

Church at Georgetown University

I’d never seen a Weeping Cherry Blossom before

We capped off our DC adventure with Southern food at the Union market. Étoufeé is a spicy shrimp and rice dish that was delicious!

After a train ride to Richmond, Virginia we started the main event! We spent the next 4 days at the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, which is the largest clay conference in the world! At the opening ceremonies they said that over 6000 people were registered. We listened to clay talks, watched demos, visited galleries, and got lots of free glaze samples from the huge Resource Hall. Our heads are exploding with inspiration!

The resource fair where we could see and buy everything clay!

Last year I had done a workshop at our local pottery studio about body mechanics and injury prevention/management during pottery. A great pottery friend had encouraged me to bring it to a larger audience, so I applied to do it at NCECA. Never in a million years did I think I would be accepted, but in August I found out that I was! Friday morning I did my session, called ‘Can My Body Do This Forever?’. There were at least 500 people in attendance and so many questions at the end that the sound tech had to get the hook to get me off the stage! I am very proud of this experience.

Some of my favourite parts of the conference were the little things:

  • There was a gum-ball machine filled with tiny clay toys made by 50 different artists.
  • There was a fundraiser cup sale where all registrants of the conference were encouraged to bring a cup to sell. There were 1550 cups, which resulted in over $67,000 towards scholarships. I could have spent hours looking at all of the different submissions.

Can you spot the Dawn and Dixie cups?

  • Having dinner with a pottery friend who used to work at Medalta and has now moved to Calgary.

We didn’t have much time for tourist stuff outside of the conference, but enjoyed learning the *free* Richmond bus system and eating good food.

I’m wishing I had some days to get muddy at the studio with my new ideas and glaze samples, but next weekend Rob and I are jumping on another plane, this time to Fiji. I guess my ideas will have the chance to percolate while I enjoy some sun and beach time.

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Stories from Seattle

For years DawnO and I have each planned a date night for the other once a month. Every couple of years or so, we step it up and plan something a bit more extravagant. I was long overdue to plan something so I consulted our ever-growing bucket list for some inspiration. DawnO is a big fan of the Moth podcast and has wanted to attend one of their storytelling events. After doing some research, I had decided on Seattle as there was an upcoming Moth event that just happened to fall on my birthday weekend! Tickets were purchased, reservations were made, and bags were packed. DawnO knew about everything except one thing. When we arrived to our dinner before the Moth, we were joined by RockyB and B-Rod, who spent the next couple of days with us!

Surprise guests
The Moth
Bucket list

The next day we made our way to Pike Place Market and then met up with our friends at pier 55 to embark on a harbour cruise.

Next up was a visit to the Space Needle, but first we passed through the alley where the gum wall is located.

Afterwards we strolled through the nearby Chiluly Garden exhibit which had an impressive display of glassworks.

The next day DawnO and I headed to the fancy Starbucks Reserve to see if I could cash in my free birthday drink. Now if you have ever felt intimidated ordering your coffee in a regular Starbucks, I can completely understand. It’s like you need to learn a new language just to get some steaming bean water. I had heard that the Starbucks Reserve had exclusive blends and drinks, and that the building itself was quite venti (that’s “large” to the layman). However I had been preparing for years for this. I knew exactly how to order in Starbuckian, how to have my app ready to scan and where to stand and scroll through my phone while I waited for my extra-hot latte.

As it turns out, we had walked into a Starbucks that had evolved from the grocery store Starbucks that I knew. They were so exclusive that my usual drink wasn’t even an option. Venti? What a tall-minded fool I was. They served their drinks in ceramic mugs. Small, medium and large, I believe they called them. Free Birthday drink? Get out of here with your coupons you simpleton! In fact, take this beeper, find a table and we’ll buzz you when your drinks are ready, Ron. At least some things haven’t changed.

As for the coffee, it was actually quite delicious.

Once we finished our drinks we made our way to the Seattle Aquarium to see the local sea creatures and then finished off our site seeing tour at the MoPop museum.

Seattle Aquarium
MoPop instrument installation

For my birthday supper we met up with BRod (RockyB had to leave us a day early) at a great Thai restaurant near our place. I can’t believe it took me so long to plan this date weekend and I’ll be sure to plan the next one soon!

RockyB has also blogged about their experience with us here:

Seattle Surprise: Rock-Awn AND B-RoB 1.0
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Birthday Bucket

Anyone who knows me well will know that I love being on an adventure for my birthday and this year was no exception.

I took the whole week off and started out with a 3 day ‘Hike our Brains Out’ trip to Canmore with a friend. We lucked out with 3 blue sky days. We chose 1 hike in Kananaskis, 1 in Banff, and 1 in Yoho, so the terrains were different and all beautiful. After a couple of almost 10 hour days on trail I would say we succeeded in our goal!

After a car day to pick up RobO in Medicine Hat it was back to Calgary again to fly to San Francisco. I used the Turo car share app to rent us a Mini Cooper we named Timmy and we hit the road to Napa.

We have had ‘Go to a Chris Isaak concert’ on the bucket list for upwards of 10 years. When I saw he was playing Napa on my birthday I took it as a sign. After a morning run we started the day with a wine and chocolate tasting (yum!) followed by paella for 2 for dinner.

In the lineup to get into the concert the security guard told RobO that signs were not allowed. Good thing I could fold them up to fit into my pockets! The result: a birthday shoutout during a song. The concert was definitely worth a bucket list check!

The next morning I had set us up for a ‘Drills and Play’ tennis session at the fancy Napa club. It was great. We polished off some chilequiles for post tennis carbs and headed back over the Bay bridge for the trip home.

Last event of this birthday week is a wedding in Calgary. 1 week, 3 different adventures = success!

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It’s The End Of The World As We Know It

This trip was planned about 8 months ago when we decided to watch the Indian Wells Tennis Tournament. On the evening of March 8 we found out that the tournament was cancelled due to outbreak of Covid-19. We agonized over the decision of whether to go on the trip or not. Based on advice from our amazing doctor, info from our AirBnB host, and current travel advisories we decided to go. What could go wrong with plans to play daily tennis and sit by the pool?

When we arrived on March 11 we were feeling pretty good as we made our way to a local taqueria for dinner.

Yum!
Still able to make a joke about Covid-19 at this point…

It was when we got back to our AirBnB that we realized that perhaps we had made a mistake with our travel plans. It was announced that Trump was shutting down all flights from Europe as of March 13.

The next day was torrentially rainy, which didn’t do much for our moods. Unfortunately we were inside most of the day, glued to updates about the virus. The Canadian government instituted a 14 day self isolation for those returning home from all international travel. We tried to change our flights to go home early, but jammed phone lines and chaos prevented this. Thankfully friends hooked us up with back up plans of people who were driving home from the area that we could connect with if flights were cancelled.

Buoyed with a back up plan to get home, we spent the next day exploring Joshua Tree National Park. It was a beautiful setting to help us to relax and clear our heads.

View of the San Andreas fault.
New ‘do
My favourite area: The Cholla Cactus garden

The next day was clear skies and beautiful sunshine. We enjoyed playing tennis and sitting by the pool, punctuated with making plans for our upcoming quarantine.

In the end our flights were smooth sailing. When we arrived to the nearly empty YYC we were never so happy to have landed on Canadian soil. One day, when the world has healed, we’d like to see Palm Springs again.

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Jumping into 40

It’s my 40th birthday weekend, and if you know me at all, you know that I needed to plan some kind of an adventure. After work on Thursday we drove to Whitefish and checked into our solar powered yurt for the weekend (bucket list check!).

This morning we woke up with some anticipation. After choking down a granola bar and signing a million page waiver, we boarded our plane for our first skydive. Do you recognize the plane? I guess it was used in the movie ‘Blow’.

The 20 minute scenic flight was cool, but a little lost on me because of the adrenaline pumping through my body. Once at 10,000 feet, things moved with precision. There was really no time to think. I was sitting at the door of the airplane, a final safety check done, then I was hurling through the air toward the ground. RobO says that I was there, then like a magician I was gone.

It was everything that I imagined, but nothing that I expected. I knew we were falling, but never felt my stomach in my throat. What was seconds felt like hours. It was impossible to think of anything else; an experience of being truly present in the moment. It was so loud I couldn’t hear my own screams, then so quiet we could converse without raising our voices. It was exhilarating, then peaceful. I can’t remember anything but relive it when I close my eyes.

This was right after they sang Happy Birthday to me, and moments before the jump:

We landed perfectly in the exact spot where the plane took off. I would highly recommend Skydive Whitefish.

The rest of the birthday weekend is filled with great food, great weather, lots more fun activities, and a long awaited celebration with friends in Lethbridge.

Bring it on, 40!

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Sin City

RobO’s surprise getaway for me was (drum roll) Vegas! He booked the Cirque de Soleil show ‘O’ which has been on the list for a while. It was excellent.
We spent the majority of our time enjoying good food, watching the Bellagio fountains, people watching, and walking for miles. A shout out to Wahlburgers – we went there twice because RobO loved the GF burger so much.

We visited downtown’s Fremont street and did the 1700 foot ‘superman’ zip line down the length of it. It was as cool as it sounds.

We enjoyed a performance by a ‘king’, and I was lucky enough to catch one of his cheap scarves!

Look who we managed to find! My parents also happened to be there following a drive down the Oregon coast!

On our last night we got tickets to the Michael Jackson Cirque de Soleil show ‘One’. When we arrived we got upgraded from the cheap bleeders to some lower bowl center seats! This was actually my fave Cirque of all the ones we’ve been to. I loved the dancing, effects, and I felt like I learned a lot about MJ.

Of course no trip to Vegas is complete without a few shenanigans…
All in all, we’re not really ‘Vegas people’, but it’s a pretty great place to spend a couple of days once in a while.
Next blog plan: RobO’s 40th birthday trip in Feb!

 

 

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Non-Stop! Chicago blog

Welcome to a surprise blog!  Well it was a surprise for me but DawnO has had this weekend planned for quite a while.  She somehow secured tickets to Hamilton the musical in Chicago back in November after many different attempts.  I found out her plan on Thursday morning before we made our way to the Calgary airport.  Along the way we had a minor setback when our airplane had to make an emergency landing in Grand Forks, North Dakota.  There was a wiring issue and they were worried it could start a fire after the burning smell wasn’t going away.  Luckily we were on Westjet and they were amazing with how they dealt with the situation.  They provided everybody with pizza while they sent us a new plane.

Guess which one was gluten free.

We eventually made our way to our friends’ place in Chi-town and we got to meet their newest family member.  The last time we saw Nick and Meg they had a bun in the oven.  Now they have Maxine to keep her big brother Lou on his toes.
Saturday night finally arrived and we ate some Thai food before heading to the show.

How was it?  It was the best show I have had the pleasure to witness.  If you ever get a ‘shot’ to see this, don’t throw it away.  DawnO even thought it was great.  She said she would love to go again.  That’s a pretty strong endorsement.

On Sunday we joined Nick and Meg for a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.  They destroyed the Brewers which helped the atmosphere.  Baseball crowds are always entertaining, but it certainly helps when they are drunk and happy.

On our last day we finally got a blue sky.  Nick and Meg were at work so we toured the city on some bikes.  We made our way along the bike trails that border Lake Michigan and eventually found our way to the giant bean!

 

All-in-all DawnO deserves the wife of the year award for planning such a huge trip.  If you are wondering, I have one planned for her in the coming months so stay tuned.

 

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Portlandia

The city of Portland gets a high five, or at least a ‘hang loose’, from us. How could we not love a bike friendly, food mecca, funky city filled with genuinely helpful people?  Many times local folk have come over to strike up a conversation, give recommendations, and help with directions, all with a ‘lovin’ life’ kind of vibe.

Yesterday after another morning tennis match we headed downtown to the converted warehouse area called the Pearl District. We had a heavenly visit to Powell’s book store, one of the largest independent bookstores in the country, where I drooled over the travel section and new releases. We then rode over to Brewcycle, where I had rented us 2 seats on a 15 seater bike brewery tour.  We had an eclectic group made up of 10 people from a social media advertising company (most of which played Pokemon Go while we biked along – “Did you know we’re going slow enough that this is going to count for my walking distance?!”), a couple from LA, a local Portlander, and us! My favorite part of the bike is that the people are the signal lights, so at every turn the people on the appropriate side of the bike had to stick our arms out. We stopped at 3 different breweries for tasters. One of them had ‘reduced gluten’ beer, which has some enzyme in it that destroys the gluten particles. Say what?! So far RobO’s guts are still happy (though his head is NOT due to a bit of a hangover).
Working hard to go up a hill!
Our next stop was tasters and eats a Gluten Free brewery called Ground Breaker.
Our final stop on the day was at the First Thursday festival, an array galleries, art vendors, food trucks, and street performers. After a wander through we enjoyed sitting in a park, spectating a game of bocce, followed by an early night to bed. Beer drinking in the sun takes a lot out of a person!

 

Today has been a relaxed final day in the city: tennis, food trucks, hanging around our funky neighbourhood, Indian food, ice cream. When I suggested this Indian place to RobO and described the location as being right beside the Salt & Straw ice cream shop (see last blog for details) his eyes lit up.  He says, “That’s perfect. If the Indian food is really spicy we can just go next door for ice cream afterwards! It’s like doing jumps with your motorcycle right across the street from the hospital!”  How can I argue with that logic?
In case you’re curious, we each sampled many of the flavours that we didn’t try the last time. The olive oil? Surprisingly good. Fennel and maple? Also good. Vanilla? Boring. We settled on the Cinnamon Snickerdoodle (me) and Freckled Woodblock Chocolate with caramel sauce (RobO).
Tomorrow we fly back to Calgary, then stop off in Drumheller for the Blue Rodeo concert. I guess then back to the grind until next time!
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Keeping Portland weird

  The city slogan, “Keep Portland Weird”, is more than just a quirky saying.  From what we have seen, it’s a way of life.  However that is exactly what makes this city so charming.  Portland has been recommended to us by many people that must know our travel style.  We are living in a flat built in a garage that we rented through AirBnB.
  The streets are designed to handle the traffic of both bicycles and cars (what’s plural for Prius? Pri-eye?). We have already rented bikes from our neighbourhood shop and get this, they were already named!  I’m riding Sonny, and DawnO is mounting Dan Marino.

So far we have yet to have a bad meal.  Yesterday we went to a highly recommended taqueria named, “por qué no” (why not) and it was a home run without the runs.

Today is DawnO’s birthday so we have built the day around a few of her favourite things.  We started out at a coffee shop and then biked to a tennis specialty store where she got new shoes and 3 racquets on loan for her to try out.

  She then proceeded to kick my sorry ass all over the public tennis court with all that new equipment.

We decided to try another critically acclaimed restaurant for her birthday dinner.  This time we went for Thai Food on the main strip in our area.  Here are the before and after shots:

Afterwards we went to the popular “Salt & Straw” ice cream shoppe that creates unique (aka intimidating) flavours of ice cream.

  After sampling “Pear w/ Blue Cheese” and “Caramel Corn on the Cob”, I settled on the more normal “Sea Salt w/ Caramel Ribbons” + 1 squirt of hot fudge.  DawnO was having a tough time deciding but after numerous samples chose “Almond Brittle w/ Salted Ganache”.
  On our way home we encountered what I can only describe as a poor man’s The Weekend, Korean Frieda Kahlo, and John Lennon during the ‘bed in’ days walking down the street blasting “Chattahoochee” by Alan Jackson.   Keep up the fine work, citizens of Portland.
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Arrivederci Boston

We have really enjoyed our last few days in Boston. We highly recommend staying in the North End (Little Italy). It’s beautiful, tasty, and easy to walk/bike/metro to anywhere.

We’ll close with some pictures…

The Holocaust Memorial.  Each of the columns represents one of the concentration camps. The number of each person killed in the camp is painted on the glass.