the way home to toronto (usa)

13 Monday Jun 2016

Posted by mintyandtashi in travel, Uncategorized

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canucks, country music, nashville, new york, nhl, usa, washington dc

I have to say we were getting a little travel weary by the time we arrived in NYC (again). We had 3 days in Brooklyn and seemed to enjoy hanging out in the comfort of the hotel, the brilliantly named Dazzler, for most of it despite being in one of the best cities for doing anything but staying in your hotel room.

It was about now the amount of travel we had chosen to undertake in such a small amount of time was catching up with us and we were ready to be stationary having to remind ourselves that this was New York and we should get the hell out and enjoy it. Lucky it was St Paddy’s day! We parked ourselves at a nondescript Irish bar and sang and drank ourselves silly waiting for our friend Rhenise to finish work. Of course this was all done the day before we had to leave leading to painful hangovers while needing to navigate our way to the train station. We thought we were leaving from Grand Central but it was actually the other one that no one cares about and isn’t in movies – Penn Station. So on we hopped for a rather convenient ride down to D.C. (minus us disembarking somewhere random and almost getting stranded due to Tash misunderstanding the directions………)

It’s always good to stay with friends when travelling and makes for a much more personal experience. It had been less than a year since staying with Casey and Liam and the boys and we were happy to be back in familiar surrounds with our good friends. It was a lot colder this time! One of the great things about D.C being the nation’s capital and all, are all the amazing museums and the like. This time we hit up the National Air and Space museum. It was rad. All the museums have the best of the best shit so there’s always a lot of “no way” moments. I also do love myself a bit of aeronautics. During our stay we had a fun night out on the town and hit up a cool high tech golf driving range getting our asses kicked by L & C. The bloody mary bar took the edge off the low scores and the after effects of the night before. Til next time Acklands!

Nashville was a bit of a random last minute choice but we thought, why not cram in another city. There’s a lot mentioned about southern hospitality and it sure rings true, especially in a place like Nash which is full of tourists yet everyone loves a good old chat. I managed to get myself a bit of man flu for most of the time there but I pushed through like a true soldier. We spent a day in the Honky Tonk bars as I ordered up extra whiskeys to try and put the sickness to bed. One of the bars we frequented had toasted cheese sandwiches on the menu, more please! We made it to the Country Music Hall of Fame, something I never thought I would be doing, but neither did I think I’d be dancing and singing to songs being played while we were out and about. We squeezed in a Canucks vs Predators game, of course we lost but it went to a shootout so was at least entertaining.

And with that we we’re on our way to Toronto after bang on a year since arriving in Vancouver to become a permanent resident. Time to put it to use and stay still for a while!

J & T

washington dc, usa (and back for a little more ny)

25 Saturday Jul 2015

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usa, washington dc

After our quick escape from Tony, we headed to Indiana, Pennsylvania for the night. It was a college town and school was out and therefore, nothing was open. So we ate some cheese and wine for dinner, went to bed and left the next morning for DC! There were a bunch of signs for Punxatawney that delighted Jaymin to no end. He was absolutely certain this was the town from the movie Groundhog Day that was the namesake of Punxatawney Phil. He was right. However as he made a few wrong turns we elected not to investigate any further and continued south to Virginia to spend some time with Casey, Liam, Brooklyn & Ashton.

We had a beautiful 5 days of family time, sightseeing and long overdue late night discussions. The weather was hot and so we were able to spend evenings outside bbqing and sipping on sparkles. We felt so comfortable and relaxed thanks to our amazing hosts and left a bunch of our things in the basement to ensure a return visit in the not too distant future!

Not sure why, but I’d had a strong desire to eat at an Italian chain restaurant called Olive Garden for the whole time we’d been in the States. Virginia was the place this dream was to be fulfilled, endless salad and breadsticks included. We spent an afternoon at a very dog friendly winery and Jaymin and Liam had an eventful night at Chics n Wings that left them feeling rather hung the following day. Jaymin also mistakenly attempted entry into the CIA which resulted in some stern words and the threat of arrest. He responded by parking around the corner and being moved on by a patrolling police vehicle. Thankfully escaping the authorities, but most likely being tracked, we then visited the Lincoln Memorial, the Museum of Natural History and took a few snaps at the Whitehouse.

Such a lovely time and we can’t wait to come back to play and read Brooklyn some more stories and to see Ashton growing into a little man!

We drove back North and had a couple more days in NY before we were due to fly out to the UK. Since we still had wheels we thought we would check out the Hamptons. Ainslie was in town staying with Rhenny so she jumped in with us and we spent hours travelling through miserable wet weather, in backed up traffic before arriving to see the mega mansions on the beach. Unfortunately due to the weather, we didn’t really want to be out walking around so we found a little pub to eat delicious chilli for lunch and then headed back in the car to Brooklyn.

That evening we had a girls night out and went to a really cool bar in the West Village called The Happiest Hour to chat and sip on some delicious cocktails. The following day, accompanied by Ainslie we wandered through Brooklyn one last time, enticed into a restaurant for brunch by a waiter giving out free cookies. One last meal before going home, packing our bags and heading for JFK. We forgot to fill the car with gas before returning it but the Budget guy was super nice and let Jaymin burn around the corner only to return it within minutes of the deadline. Goodbye for now North America, we will be back early next year on a one-way ticket!

T & J

On Rhenny’s rooftop

we heart new york (and a roadtrip to 3 states)

02 Tuesday Jun 2015

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atlantic city, baltimore, new york, philadelphia, usa

We both love New York and have been several times before so it was nice to come here and spend time with one of my besties while enjoying life without having to feel like we had to be anywhere or see anything in particular. Each day entailed a different neighbourhood and thinking of each one ‘we could live here’.

We arrived on a Friday evening to really chilly weather and were thankfully picked up by an uber driver in a big chevy suburban at JFK at the end of a very long taxi line. After arriving at Rhenise’s sweet pad in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, we went out for dinner, caught up on life and got excited about the ‘hood. The weekend was spent in Brooklyn going to the markets, rooftop bars, hipster bars, watching the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight (zzzzz), having a bottomless mimosa brunch (which turned out to have a bottom after about 2hrs), wiling away the afternoon at a brewery and immersing ourselves in the neighbourhood.

At the beginning of the week we spent our fist day walking around midtown enjoying the Rangers finals fever and spending hours in B&H (an insanely large and well organised Jewish electronics store) trying to find camera supplies. The next day was filled with walking around Brooklyn and then into the meat-packing district, highline and along the Hudson River to downtown where we toured the 9-11 memorial and finally making a feeble attempt to celebrate cinco de mayo (at an Irish bar). Day 3 we took a ferry down the East River and walked over the Brooklyn bridge and then in and around Little Italy where we had an amazing Italian lunch at Rubirosa (thanks Cath & Mick!). Finally, a perfect weather day in Central Park and an evening wandering the bars of Williamsburg & Greenpoint ended by a huge authentic Colombian dinner that left Jaymin in agony and ecstasy, unable to sleep that night.

On Friday morning we got up early and took our time to get to Chinatown before realising we had about 5 blocks and 5 minutes to get to our bus to Philadelphia. We ran through markets and smelly streets before hopping on the bus just in time without having eaten and completely without hydration. 2hrs later we arrived in Philly and dismounted the bus to be greeted by a psychotic woman swearing at me that she knew me and a guy who was ‘robbed’ on the bus and needed our assistance to get home. Obliged by Rhenny we hastily walked away in desperate need of food. The city looked cool but once our starvation was sated we ubered ourselves to the airport to pick up our new car, a Ford Focus and got on our way to Atlantic City.

Atlantic City ended up being a big night. We met new friends, danced in an 80’s club, drank too much and woke up 30mins before we needed to check out (at midday). It was a fun time in a city that we all hope to never return to. We then drove to Baltimore to see one of our best friends Casey, Liam and their 2 sons Brooklyn & Ashton. It was a beautiful afternoon catching up, enjoying the warm weather and wondering how we had all ended up here together. Our prior evening had ruined us so when we all said goodbye it wasn’t long before Rhenise & I were in the hotel room trying to convince Jaymin that Pitch Perfect was the best movie option.

Our return to New York the following day was arduous. We decided to detour through Amish country in Pennsylvania and even though it added hours to our journey were pretty happy that we had seen such a completely different snapshot of the US and were able to watch cars overtake horse and carts on incredibly busy intersections without a bat of an eyelid. The traffic coming back into New York was nothing short of horrific and it ended up being an 8hr day in the car preceding another long journey the following day to Montréal. Au revoir pour le moment!

T & J

lost vegas

28 Thursday May 2015

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las vegas, nevada, usa

Our return trip to Vegas was fun, warm and relaxing. Everyday we slept in, went to the gym and spent time by the pool. We checked out a bunch of hotels along the north of the Strip gambling along the way and planning our next visit, headed downtown to frequent dive bars (I lasted 1 drink), walked back to the Strip from downtown at 3am (blisters, bad neighbourhood and bathroom desperation), indulged in a buffet at the Aria and attended an impressive cirque du soleil show, Zarkana. After 4 nights, we packed our bags and headed back to LA to say goodbye to the west coast and the Yaris (+5000km on the little beast) before flying out to NYC.

T & J

street drinking like a boss

hurdy gurdy

mating call?

nice murse

denver, colorado (via utah)

21 Thursday May 2015

Posted by mintyandtashi in music, travel

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alkaline trio, colorado, denver, usa, utah

Alkaline Trio are one of my favourite bands in the whole wide world. Months before our departure from Australia we found out they were playing all 8 of their albums over 4 nights in only a handful of cities. We quickly went online to purchase tickets and Denver was our only viable option. We basically planned our whole west coast jaunt around this event.

We decided to take a couple of days to get to Denver and stopped in 2 towns along the way in Utah. This state has some of the best scenery I’ve ever encountered. We only chose one park to explore which was Arches National Park and it did not disappoint. Thankfully, because our accommodations did. Jaymin’s ultimate wish was to stay in “one of those motels like in the movies where you park in front of your room”. The first night we ended up at a little motel in Cedar City and boy did it deliver. The following night was at the Robbers Roost in Green River which was a huge improvement, but that may have been due to relativity.

Onto bigger and better things…Denver. Such a cool city! We had a great basement suite that we got through airbnb in an up and coming area to the north of the city. Only in town the 4 nights of the show, we did most of our touring by day. We visited the Red Rock Ampitheatre where Jaymin discovered that running up hundreds of stairs at high altitude was a bad idea, we did a tour of some microbreweries, ate some great Mexican food and indulged in a bottomless pint for $10. But the highlight of course was 4 nights of amazing music that left us almost voiceless and happy we had remembered to bring our earplugs.

It was getting pretty cold in Denver so we decided last minute to do a long haul and drive ourselves back to Vegas where we could get a room at the Hard Rock for $30/nt and be back in 30 degree weather. As we were leaving that morning the weather started turning ugly, we saw a Fedex truck in a ditch and a temperature gauge that continued to drop. When we started seeing cars coming from the other direction covered in snow, we knew we were in for it. Within minutes we were in white out conditions, barely recognising the existence of a road and seeing car after car sliding off the road. Jaymin and the tire chain-less Yaris held fast though and after hours of expert driving we made it out of Colorado and back onto the dry Utah roads. It was then my turn to take over and ensure we make it to Vegas before midnight.

T & J

las vegas, nevada

18 Monday May 2015

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las vegas, nevada, usa

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