las vegas, nevada

18 Monday May 2015

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Our first visit to Las Vegas had us leaving Phoenix and driving via Lake Havasu to Laughlin. A poor man’s Vegas where we stayed at the cigarette perfumed Colorado Belle hotel for $19. We watched the Canucks lose a playoff game, sharing a plate of nachos that could feed a family and then sunk a buck into a pokey machine that kept on giving and therefore kept us hydrated on free rum & cokes until the wee hours of the morning. Still, we weren’t at all saddened to depart in the morning for the real Vegas!

We were picking up my friend Ron who was flying in from Vancouver later that night so avoided all temptations to start partying when we arrived at our hotel (LINQ) in the early afternoon. We had procured a 1.75L bottle of Captain Morgan from Costco for $18 and stopped in at Wholefoods for some green smoothie ingredients – it’s all about balance! We purchased a personal blender while in Phoenix in an attempt to maintain some element of health while on the road and surprisingly we used it almost daily on this stop. After picking up Ron we found out that Jaymin’s friend Dave and his sister were in town for the night also. Let the fun begin!

Shall we start at the end, when Jaymin climbed onto the bed fully clothed and shoed, complete with drink still in hand. Needless to say it was an eventful night filled with drinking, gambling, random new friends and probably a lot of other things that may never be remembered! The bottle of rum was almost empty. Yikes. Still, by midday I was up and ready to hit the pool and Jaymin had no choice but to join. Ron met us and we resumed where we left off with a round of ciders. It wasn’t long before we were playing beer pong in the pool. We were most likely the worst contenders the pool had ever seen. Our opponents weren’t much better so anyone else wanting to have a go soon gave up hope. The rest of the day/night took a sharp turn towards fatigue and an early night it was.

The next morning we woke fresh and decided to attend a day club. After waiting a long while in line to get in and then waiting even longer to buy a bucket of beers we were front and centre of the stage splashing and dancing the day away at Daylight at Mandalay Bay. The DJs disappointed Jaymin to no end but clearly Alesso was keeping everyone else happy…

The rest of the weekend was filled with eating, drinking and gun shows. You know, the usual stuff.

T & J

lake havasu, london bridge

phoenix, arizona

17 Sunday May 2015

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arizona, phoenix, usa

So this blog thing is tracking nicely! It’s been well over a month since the last post! The thing we forgot about after the push to get the thing up and running is that it is that it is always there nagging you to be done after each major stop and that that kind of pisses you off a bit as it’s supposed to be a “holiday”, thing is yes it’s a holiday but a very long one.

Which leads me to the next reason why there probably hasn’t been too much blog action, and that’s that the honeymoon was well and truly over by the time we got to Phoenix. The kind of travel slump that comes in after the 2 or so weeks of “fuck yeah we are finally away” and the realisation that we have no jobs, no place to live or everything else that goes with it, like direction and life purpose. It’s taken probably a month to get past this stage and into a bit more of a groove.

So back to Phoenix, not sure why we ended up there but it may have something to do with the fact that it was super cheap!? It was a long drive from LA to a dry and hot city. We saw the US border fence we got that close to Mexico. Phoenix was all about being somewhere where there were no distractions in which to get the blog up and running. Definitely no distractions in Phoenix! A strange city with what turned out to be not much to offer to us. It was early spring and already the heat was oppressing, with mid 30’s temps and no breeze – no wonder they air condition the baseball stadium. We went to a Dodgers and Diamondbacks game, did a bit of outlet shopping, I did a few drop ins at a local gym and that was about it. Probably not the best destination in terms of excitement but you get that sometimes.

J & T

gourmet dinner

los angeles, california, usa

11 Saturday Apr 2015

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california, los angeles, usa

LA is one of my favourite cities. I love the grit and glamour and everything in between. Taking 1.5hrs to get somewhere that the GPS told us was 10 minutes away due to traffic doesn’t even bother me – this may be helped by the fact that we don’t really have to be anywhere!

We made our way down from Van, upgrading to business class with our frequent flyer points. Unfortunately there was no lounge access to enjoy and a car waiting at the other end of the flight, so not much indulging to be had. We picked up our Toyota Yaris, tuned the radio to KROQ and headed out to Santa Monica where we had arranged to stay at a friend’s place while he was out of town (thanks Dave!). His landlord turned out to be a little unhappy with the arrangement (and also a little crazy) so we only stayed a couple of nights but got to spend the next day walking around Santa Monica in the beautiful spring weather, chasing chipmunks with the camera, window shopping and eating frozen yoghurt. In the late afternoon we headed to check out the Getty centre but due to the traffic mentioned above, got there just after closing time. We drove into the hills and walked up Runyon Canyon just in time to watch the sunset. Jaymin had researched the best taco trucks in town and after a few missed freeway turnoffs we managed to get ourselves some delicious dinner for a few bucks.

The following day we checked out of Santa Monica and drove down to Newport Beach, OC to have lunch with my friend Lorraine and her gorgeous 14mth old son Ryland. That night we shacked up in a hotel in little Japan and went out for Sapporo and ramen in an area that seriously had us questioning whether we were in fact not in Torrance but Japan! We spent hours walking the aisles of the Daiso discount store and the Mitsuwa marketplace where we returned the following morning to procure various Japanese treats for our roadtrip to Phoenix.

T & J

whistler, british columbia, canada

08 Wednesday Apr 2015

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british columbia, canada, whistler

Hello Whistler! My oh my you have changed so……..oh hang on you are exactly the same. Like a reliable old shoe, but with not much snow (by Canadian standards).

I’d been on the snow reports from some time in January watching the spectacularly crappy season slowly grind out. I was wondering if there was going to be anything worthy of riding when we got there and if Tash with her “powder only” requirements looking like she might be propping the bar. Turns out as she was still a little under the weather instead made good use of the hotel Adara’s king size bed, free cookies & warm apple cider and stole many hugs from Kate, the resident golden retriever.

Somehow, the snow gods came through and there was fresh April powder with only a week to go before the season close of Blackcomb! As you can see in the pics below there was no chance of a ski out, a whole lot of muddy slush at the base but up top there was about 20-30cm which had me having to reacquaint myself with riding powder and Whistlers much longer runs and steeper gradients and in new boots…..ouch.

Village life seemed much the same except I wasn’t boozing on at the bar under the hotel like old times, but rather passed out due to extreme tiredness. I found myself running into people I did a season with 10 years ago, the Whistler bubble!

J & T

vancouver, british columbia, canada

08 Wednesday Apr 2015

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british columbia, canada, vancouver

ready for takeoff…goodbye melbourne

So here it is, first blog post! Actually being written in retrospect as the past few weeks have been fairly hectic. After packing up life in Melbourne (into a 9sqm box) we were on the red kangaroo to Van via LA. All smooth sailing except for the large amounts of luggage in tow. 5 large bags including a snowboard bag had us reaching for the trolley, a first for me! Even had a passing comment from an elderly American couple “who needs that much luggage unless it’s for a photo shoot”, fair call but they got a spray from Tash nonetheless. Funny shit.

Canadian customs open their arms and we are in and checking into the luxurious Comfort Inn on the corner of Granville street. Jetlag was kind of OK in a sense as it was that loud from all the action on the street below that we were staying up until the bars shut anyway. Large amounts of poutine were consumed over the coming days, damn that shit is good. So as Tash laid in bed recovering from the long haul, I did as I did 10 years earlier and went to Kitsilano to get some snowboard gear for the trip to Whistler. A large amount of deja vu happening. Was served by an Aussie and got new boots, goggles and bindings for probably less than a pair of boots back home. Sorted.

The rest of the time was spent walking around admiring how beautiful a city Van is and drinking shitty coffee. I felt dirty having my first Starbucks, sad to say it wasn’t the last (I’m drinking one as I write this). Before heading off to Whistler we spent a few days in Port Moody, east of the city, to stay with friends Corey and Ange and their two boys Laikyn and Indiana. Days consisted of eating pancakes, trips to the mall, scamming free gym entry, drip coffee (with butter pecan creamer, damn good, oh no it’s happening) and babysitting. Sure didn’t think we would be babysitting a week into our travels. I’d like to say we owned it, it was only a few ours though, so I don’t think we can really say we did.

We then headed off for a few days in Whistler (more on that next post) but were back in town for a hockey match against the Kings before flying out to LA. More great Canadian hospitality was bestowed upon us from the awesomeness that is Curt and Darlene who put us up and sorted tickets to the game. To say I was excited about this game is an understatement, I could never afford to go to a game when I was in BC in 2005 – Whistler/Blackcomb was paying me nowhere near enough. Kings needed to win to stay in the playoff race, Canucks needed to win to effectively clinch a playoff spot, game of the season, hype, hype. We had great seats as it was but by 2nd period our friends Dave and Ron had us all in their box for the rest of the game. Beer and popcorn provided! The game went to overtime with the Canucks winning it in a shootout! Time to celebrate!

And that’s a wrap for Van, it’s a bit of a strange experience to have to think about if you want to live in a city while you are there. As will be the case for Toronto and Montreal or somewhere else (if talking to Tash it’s somewhere in the States). Looking forward to being back at the end of the year.

J & T