Seattle is nice

Had to get up extra early Tuesday to catch the train out of Vancouver to Seattle. I didn't expect to see such a crownd at the station at 6:00 a.m. The train ride was amazingly smooth. Don't forget, my last trip on a train was the Polar Bear Express out of Cochrane to Moosonee. This was a nice trip as the train ran close to the Pacific coast most of the way. It was interesting to see the massive nuclear aircraft carrier USS Abe Lincoln heading out to sea.
In my haste to get going I forgot about one very important detail Neil had reminded me about the night before. Tuesday was the first day back to school for Tyler and Nathan. If I had remembered, I would have telephoned my best wishes. I blew it.
The train got into Seattle just before noon, and the hotel literature said the hotel was only half a mile away from the Amtrak station. NOT! I decided it would be a nice walk, but that was a stupid move. I was carrying my cams, my laptop and a duffle bag. Then I discovered that my trek to the hotel was uphill. I mean seriously UPHILL. I figured I'd give it a try, but after about three hundred metres in the noonday sun, a big yellow taxi pulled up to drop somebody off. "Thank you God!" I gasped. The driver let me hop in we drove to the hotel.
The room is fabulous with a nice view, but I didn't stay long. I had a shower, a 20-minute nap and out the door to cruise the streets. The downtown is nice with lots of boutiques, restaurants and pubs. I went on a bit of a pub crawl, enjoying appetizers and local beers in three different places. Manny's Pale Ale at the Hardrock Cafe was the best. The homemade crab cakes at the Pike's Brewing Company pub were awesome.
Today will be interesting. It's raining like crazy, but I am heading out to the Museum of Flight. After all, Seattle is home to one of the largest aircraft plants in the world, Boeing.

Getting spoiled.

Neil is spoiling me again. Tonight we went out to check out of some of the restaurants in his neighbourhood. Neil lives in the area known as Davie Village, which he says is Vancouver's Gayborhood. Not sure what that's all about, but everyone is so friendly. Even the guys hold hands out here! LOL Anyway, think of Davie Street as being like Queen West in Toronto, which has so many good restaurants. We found a Greek place called Stephos. But there was a line-up on the sidewalk, in the rain. I took that as a good sign. If people were willing to stand in the rain to get in, then so was I. It took about 25 minutes but we got in and got a table. I don't know what the appetizers were, but Neil said not to worry. He was right. They were awesome. Something with cheese, and spinach and philo dough. I wasn't sure what to order, but the waiter said the roast lamb entree was popular. So I ordered it. After enjoying some Greek wine, the waiter brought out a slab of roast lamb the size of a small dog! It was amazing. Potatoes, rice, vegetables, greek salad and roast all for $9.95! No wonder there are line-ups. After supper, we walked home and dropped by the English Bay beach area. It was a bit overcast, but still nice to see the ocean. Then Neil found a liquor store. Eight oclock on Labour Day evening and we bought Scotch and Beer! You can't do THAT in Ontario. Tommorow is a new day. Going to Seattle.

Monday morning. Happy Labour Day from Vancouver. It's just before 7:00 a.m., cool and overcast here. Coffee is good. Neil was clever enough to have some Tim Hortons in his place. I made it extra strong. The sounds of the city woke me up. Somewhere, a garbage truck was backing up, making a helluva racket. As I peeked out the window, something was brought to mind by a comment from one of Neil's friends.Vancouver has an interest recycling system. Poor people, homeless perhaps, are the recyclers. Certainly in the downtown. Set down empty bottle or pop can and within minutes, somebody comes by to pick it up and claim it. This morning, from the height of Neil's balcony, I could see homeless people scouring the laneways and parking lots picking up items. I hope they're okay. There seems to be a lot of homeless in this city. I will have to pick up some loonies and twoonies and make the rounds. The other sounds out here, certainly in the downtown, are the gulls. They're everywhere. They sound annoying, but then again, they remind me of the ocean and that's probably why the air is so clean-smelling and fresh in this city. There's always a breeze. Speaking of breezes, it's not uncommon to pick up a whiff or two of snowboarder smoke. Neil and I were walking by a community festival in one of the downtown parks Sunday and the odor of marijuana was obvious.

We had a bit of rain Sunday night in Van, but Neil dragged me out of the apartment to join some friends at a rooftop barbecue. I met Nolene, his sweetheart, and she put together a nice plate of barbecue salmon for me with potatoes and veggies. Nolene is a very nice, bright, attractive young lady, but as she and Neil were talking to me, I had to zone them out for a few minutes while I ate the awesome salmon dish. Like Homer Simpson, I was thinking 'Can't talk - Eating...' as my taste buds enjoyed the moment. It was excellent. I am being spoiled by fabulous food in this city. Beer seems popular among Neil's friends... I should say specialty beer. I was with a group of the fellows as they popped open a jug of jalapeno beer and poured a round. It was interesting to watch these guys get right into the smelling, tasting and swish-it-around your palette procedure. I chickened out. I was still enjoying the taste of the salmon.

I am posting some extra photos today, click on the pic to enlarge them.

There is a shot of the downtown Vancouver area from the area, somewhere in the middle of that, near the water, is Neil's place. There is a shot of the old Downview airbase in Toronto where our family spent several years when we were kids. It is so changed now. There's also a shot of the log booms on the Fraser River east of Vancouver. I am certain I saw more than 100 booms. There must be a lot of logging in southern BC.

Vegging out in Vancouver . . .

Well it’s overcast Sunday morning in Vancouver. Neil and I got home from “dinner” at about 4:00 a.m. Timmins time. I figured I would stay up as long as possible to beat the lag. Woke up this morning feeling great… it was nice that Neil took the couch and I got his bed.

So, ... Some notes of the thing you notice on a four and a half hour flight from Toronto to Vancouver.(I wrote this on the plane Saturday)

There are only four washrooms on this plane, but 280 people all seem to want to go t the same time. Sit and wait patiently. Kind of sorry I ordered the two beers, but the wait wasn’t so bad.

I haven’t flown in ten years. The technology has changed. Each seat back has a small LCD screen loaded with movies and TV shows. You have to bring your own headphones. Luckily I had some in my laptop bag. Saved the $3 rental fee. I didn’t watch any movies, but I enjoyed two episodes of Two and a Half Men, a really funny sitcom. It’s embarrassing to laugh out loud on a plane where no one else knows you.

Not as bad as having a quick snooze though, and then snoring, and then being awakened by my own snoring! Oh well, it was a nice nap somewhere south of Saskatoon.

After a bit of TV, I found the audio library on the seatback screen and so have been enjoying some amazing John Coltrane jazz for the last hour or so.

The flight is not too bad, but my butt is numb. The view from 32,000 feet is nice. One nice feature of the seatback screen is that Air Canada has a GPS map unit you can check whenever you like to see where you area. I enjoyed flying just south of Lake Winnipeg. I could see Delta Beach where my mom and dad took us as kids during a blistering hot Manitoba summer in the 1960s… back in the year my sister Deb was born.

I also got a kick out seeing the twin strips like an II or the crossed strips like an X that indicated a small airport on the landscape. It’s interesting that as much as the railroad built and connected the country during the mid to late 1800s, it was aviation that did it from the mid to late 1900s.

Got a kick out of seeing bits and pieces of the east-west Trans-Canada Highway which reminded me of my last trip out here in the 1970s when I rode my thumb all the way to the Pacific.

Flying over Banff was nice as it was the first time we got a real good look at the amazing Rocky Mountains.

My watch is still on Timmins time, showing that it’s shortly before 7:00 p.m. but my cell phone has picked up on the local time out here. We will be landing in about 20 minutes, at 4:00 p.m. Vancouver time. Unfortunately, it’s all cloudy skies below us right now so I can’t enjoy too much more of the view.

Will be nice to see Neil in a few minutes.

--- Neil met me at the airport baggage carousel with a nice hot cup of Tim’s Tea, which is funny because I felt so dehydrated after a four and a half hour flight that I was thinking about tea just to get refreshed.

Instead of cabbing back into the city, we rode the new Sky Train thing in. It’s like a single-unit subway train and El-train all in one. The interesting thing is that it works on the honour system. There is no driver. Everything is automated. People buy tickets from the machines that look like ATMs at each station then you get on the train. Neil paid $15 for the two of us. At that price, I think he paid for a few other people who got on without paying! LOL

Got to Neil’s place which is in the heart of the downtown. He moved from his apartment near the beach, but still has a nice view of Vancouver harbour from his kitchen window. There were several ships moored out there this morning waiting to get into the port of Vancouver.
By the way, Neil looks great and says he is doing well. He really loves this city. Last night he and I went out to dinner and instead of cabbing, we walked for a good 40 minutes. He works as a manager at two different restaurants, owned by the same company. I felt guilty ordering a halibut encrusted with macadamia nuts as an entrée, because Neil just put it all on the company tab. It was excellent!

My guilt began to slide away as the evening wore on and Neil insisted I try several of the beers they make right on the premises. I had two types of India Pale Ale, then a super espresso flavoured stout, then pumpkin beer which was really good, but sometime after midnight I settled on a few big glasses of wheat beer. I really got rid of the guilt when they began pouring shots of Jamieson’s Irish Whiskey!

It was a hoot meeting Neil’s co-workers. People kept coming up to say ,Hi Mr. Gillis!’… Jeez I felt old, but there are a lot of nice people at the restaurant. Interestingly, a lot of the young people are from Ontario, places like Ottawa, Kingston, St. Catharine’s, London and Huntsville and they all swear that Vancouver is the place to be right now.

Sending this out from an internet cafe at Hastings and Richmond Street... near Gastown.

Holidays!

So it's Saturday morning and the second day of my vacation. I had a great day with Nathan and Tyler yesterday. I think I wore them out, we did so many things. Of course breakfast at McDonalds was fun and then the ice cream! The exploring around Science North. Then the Sudbury Ribfest. Meeting Mario from Nintendo. I even managed to get some time to drop by the old newsrooms at CBC and CTV where I was pleased to chat with friends. The boys had too much fun I think. I was even able to grab some new photos of the boys, and grandparents are always happy to share photos of their grandchildren. Jenn and Scott made a great supper, and we even enjoyed some chocolate boston creme cake. (gonna finish it for breakfast here soon) It ended last night with marshmallows and weiners around the bonfire. I enjoyed sitting back and just enjoying the non-news moments. Of course it helped that I picked up one of those kegs of Heiniken.

One duffle bag ... for two weeks.

So here's the challenge. I am travelling next week, and although I have done a lot of travelling in the past few years, it was always by road. This will be my first time on a plane in ten years. I will be gone a couple of weeks so I am determined that I need only one duffle bag for my clothes. I was inspired by the fact that the last time Neil flew from Vancouver to visit, he carried only a backpack ... and he was visiting for two weeks. So today is my rehearsal. I am going to see how much I can stuff into a 24-inch duffle bag. My Motto: If it doesn't fit, I don't need it! I kind of like the idea that I can sling it over my shoulder without a lot of trouble. Oh, I should mention that I will also bring my laptop and case, and my cameras, which I stuff into a little packsack. We'll see how it goes.

It's a Gillis thing.

I am losing my hair … from two directions! I really don’t think it bothers me too much … I look in the bathroom mirror in the mornings and I start laughing. First of all, I have a high forehead … that means my hairline is heading backwards. I also have a bald spot in the back that is slowly moving forward. I think I get the high forehead from my Dad’s side of the family. Many of the Gillis men have it. I get the bald spot from my Mom’s side the family. Many of the MacLean men are balding. I mentioned it to my son Neil that my hairline is getting high enough I could show a movie on my forehead. He said “Yeah, Dad … Imax!” That was so funny! He is such a smart-ass at times. That’s a Gillis thing.

Trains, books and church music

Wow, it must be the rainy weather. I can't believe I slept in to 8:30 this morning. Oh well the coffee is good. And I am listening to church music. Yup. There is a small congregation that meets about half a block away from my building and between now and noon, they sing up a storm. It's not too bad.
I am also exploring the idea of e-books right now. When I go on vacation I plan to go bookless. But I will try to download a few books on my laptop (Yes! I am bringing my laptop of vacation. I am a news junkie and I will be updating my blog)So today I am looking at downloading books, but the choice is limited, unless I want to re-read old classics by Mark Twain or the Bronte sisters. I am going to be on the VIA Rail Canadian for a few days, so I am sure to have some time.
I have booked a roomette on the train, so it means I get my own bedroom, which is good. And all the meals are included. (You should see the menu!) I have one worry. When I go to sleep I might miss some nice scenery. I like riding trains for that reason. The scenery is amazing. I still remember the last time I travelled through Saskatchewan... I loved seeing the wheat fields. Even at night, the scenery is nice. My last train trip was last summer and I remember looking up at the moon through the trees and the forest. It was nice.

Legendary prospectors and Minefinders!

I was pleased this week to cover an announcement in Timmins by the local prospectors association. They announced a $200,000 legacy project in honour of the three fellows who found the Big Three gold mines in Timmins. They will be creating three bronze statues of Jack Wilson, Sandy McIntyre and Benny Hollinger. They found the orebodies for The Dome, The McIntyre and The Hollinger gold mines. Forget whatever you've heard about the great gold rushes in history. The Timmins gold rush and the creation of the Porcupine Camp (in the early days gold towns were called camps) is by far the largest in North American history. The big rushes in California, the Cariboo, Cripple Creek and the Klondike were dribbles in the bucket compared to Timmins. They're still finding gold in Timmins. So it was nice to cover that announcement. By the way, the announcement was made this week at the Gold Mine Cafe and as I was driving up to the building, I couldn't help but notice there was a diamond-drill rig running not more than 50 feet away. Right now, Timmins is the mining exploration capital of the world. More than a hundred different companies are out there looking for new mines. This other photo (below) shows the guys from the prospectors association making the announcement and holding up the bronze castings of the prospectors. Heres' something interesting. The prospectors being honoured are all in the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame and are known by the unique title of Minefinders -- those rare individuals who have actually discovered a mine. There have been hundreds of famous prospectors in Canada, but not all become Minefinders. Take a look at the ordinary-looking fellow on the far right there. (click the pic to enlarge it) That's Brad Wood of Timmins. He is a modern day Minefinder. Back in the day, more than 20 years ago, when Brad was a student geologist, he spent one weekend fishing along a Northern Ontario river. That's when he found some kimberlite rock samples. Where you find kimberlite, you might find diamonds. Sure enough, Brad's discovery resulted in the first ever diamond mine in Ontario. It's now called the De Beers Victor Mine. But those in the know at the mine still call it Brad's Pit. How cool is that?

Books and Movies.

I had a nice chat with Jennifer a few days ago to get caught up on everything and she is well. She went for her latest blood test and she is confident all will be well. So am I. I will be traveling to Sudbury at the end of the month so I can depart from there for my trip west. I am doing that because on the trip back home I will be riding the train. The VIA Canadian (that's the name of the train) doesn't stop in Timmins, but it will stop in Sudbury. So it will be nice to spend a bit of time with Jenn and her men before heading out.
I am in book withdrawal this week. I had half a dozen novels on my desk at the end of June, but I've read them all. So I have to go to the bookstore this weekend. I have decided to do a bit of research on the net to find some new authors and new novels. Jenn says she likes to read true crime. Never would have guessed that. But maybe I will try a few chapters. I can't wait to see what Neil has on his bookshelves. He always surprised me with his choices. He has read some pretty interesting books.
I have been researching on the net and have found a wealth of amazing movies available for download. In the past week I watched Motorcycle Diaries, a fantastic tale of the early days of Ernesto Guevara, also known as Che. Great story. I hate to admit it, but some movies are just too good and I am confident they're better as a movie than as a book. Tonight I watched Julie and Julia; a story about the famous chef and cookbook author Julia Child. Another great movie. If you get the chance, see it.
On the weekend I did something quite different. I went to an old-fashioned cocktail party. A friend and his wife were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. It was quite nice. Everyone was dressed up. There were fresh flowers, wonderful drinks and they even had a chef who came to the house to cook. Incredible food. A fabulous way to spend a summer evening. Keep smiling.

I'm addicted!

I spent nearly three hours last night reading blogs! Other people's blogs. I'm addicted. If you look toward the upper left area of this page you will see a line that has the phrase 'Next Blog'. Click on that and it will take you to other blog pages by other people. Keep doing it and you travel the world. It's fantastic. And the photos are amazing. People like to snap pictures of their children, their families and where they live and what they do. Some people are beekeepers, some are farmers and some are high-tech graphics programmers. And pets! I am amazed at how many people are so attached to their pets whether they're cats, rats, horses or reptiles. People get comfort from other creatures. Some people have music piped in on their websites too. Usually that uses up a lot of bandwidth, but I am going to look into it. Keep smiling.

They took a look inside me.

I am easily impressed by things I am not familiar with. That’s how it was today when I had an ultra-sound and biopsy on my neck. Lots of people have ultra-sounds. It’s really amazing technology when you think about it. Well, I am old enough to remember when they didn’t exist. The idea of sound waves taking a picture inside you impresses me. I had to turn my head for the procedure so that allowed me to watch the monitor. Then they inserted a needle to take a tissue sample and I could see it on the monitor as the needle moved around. That made me a bit nervous. So I gulped. And I saw that too! Everything moved. Cool. Then I had a CT scan where they injected a fluid dye into my arm that would show up on their X-ray video. The guy says it will be in my system for 24 hours before I “pass” it. Gonna turn off the lights in the bathroom and see if anything glows. LOL Will keep you posted.

What's the buzz?

I had a chat with Jenn this week and she says she is feeling fine and doing well. My spies tell me she has been walking outside in the yard without her cane. Ahh, yes, my fave daughter has an independent streak a mile wide. When I say walking in the yard, you have to remember Jenn lives in the country and her yard is about the size of a football field. If this keeps up, I will have to buy her a skateboard! This has been a fun week in other ways as well. I zoomed over to Foleyet Thursday to have a quick visit with Tyler, Nathan and Victoria, who are three of the greatest kids in the world. Of course it was also nice to see Denise and Don there too, and just as nice, got to see Aunt Line and Uncle Moe. The whole gang was at the Red Pine Lodge. I was pleased to leave a chocolate cake for the kids. Ty said he was going to have it for breakfast.
The drive back to Timmins was great. The highway is remote enough there was very little traffic so I opened the windows and enjoyed the amazingly fresh clean northern air. That's when I noticed how much fireweed was in bloom everywhere. There are huge patches of it. It's always nice to see to break up the endless rolling landscape of lakes, rocks and trees. It's called fireweed because it's usually one of the first plants to come back in the boreal forest after a forest fire has occurred. So I snapped a couple of photos and got a bit of action as busy little bee, on the right, went from blossom to blossom. (click the pic to see it close-up) So that was nice.

This morning, I covered a little news event that really got to me. A local police inspector has retired and there was a little ceremony at police headquarters. Holy sugar, I thought, I remembered when this guy joined the police force and now he is retiring! I started wondering when I am going to retire. I can't imagine that right now. I get bored too quickly. And I am wayyyyy too nosey. I think I am blessed to be doing something I enjoy. I scoot around town all week snapping photos of people winning awards, or doing things they like, and most people are happy to see me ... unless you're the guy coming out of the courthouse with the handcuffs on.
I booked my hotel rooms this week for my stay in Victoria in September. It will be nice to take a few days off I suppose. Seeing Neil again will be nice. And my niece Melissa lives in Victoria. She's a hoot so I am sure we will all be having fun. Well it's Friday afternoon and there's a cold glass of wine waiting somewhere. Keep smiling.

TV or Internet

I called the cable company this week. I was going to order digital cable. But at the last minute I backed out. I did however decide to order up the new and improved ultra-fast Internet service. I find I am just too busy to watch TV and I am at the stage now that when I do watch, I feel guilty that I should be doing something more productive. And I sure don't need TV for the news anymore. As funny as it sounds, TV news is too slow. If you want fast up-to-date news, check your newspaper website. (CBC Radio is pretty good too.) The internet thing will also let me buy TV programs I truly want to see and download them. So we'll see how that goes. When hockey season comes back, well who knows what will happen. Apparently my new TV allows me to play television programs right from my laptop. (I just haven't figured out how that works.) I am also looking into downloading books from the net -- Just to see how that goes. I think the folks over at the Third Avenue bookstore will be worried. LOL

Good news ...

Good news 1 - Jenn remembered the chocolate cake that was in the back seat of the car and she says the kids tore through it very quickly. I talked to Jenn this morning. "That cake is history," she laughed.
Good news 2 - It's a bit political I know, but Canada has just placed an order for 65 brand new F35 aircraft. I think this is amazing. I am an aircraft nut of course. This is no ordinary fighter jet. It is a stealth aircraft. It is also has Joint Stand Off Weapons, which means it can launch deadly accurate cruise missiles from hundreds of miles away from the target thus not putting the pilot in danger. The cockpit also has voice recognition to allow the pilot to fly and operate aircraft functions by voice command. I can't wait to get the video game version of this plane.
Photo Credit:U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Julius Delos Reyes

Jenn, cake is in the back seat in a box ...

Thursday morning P.S. I am hoping Jennifer remembers I put a frozen chocolate cake (for the kids of course) in the back seat of her car just before she drove away Tuesday!

Winding down ...

It’s Wednesday (or early Thursday morning) and I am winding down. What a great week. Jennifer arrived last Thursday and we sure enjoyed each other’s company for a few days. She went back home Tuesday. We spent five days together and went out to restaurants for five days. It was fun. It was like a vacation for me. We had dinner at home though on Thursday. I was pleased to treat Jenn to a nice steak that we bought at Pick of the Crop. I was worried that I wouldn’t cook it right, but it turned out just fine. It was also time to use the good dinnerware. I always use the same two plates myself. But with Jenn’s visit, we brought out the Royal Doulton so that was nice too. (It was the first time I ever used it!) I forgot to unpack the crystal wine glasses, but we still managed to put away a few bottles of wine. I think the best part was seeing Jenn up and about puttering around my kitchen and doing dishes. Life is good eh.

Jennifer had a nice time too especially because she got to see some of her favourite aunties who were all in town for the weekend. (Front row from left) Lorraine, Suzanne, Lorraine, Helen, (back row from left) Linda and Lilliane sure seemed to be enjoying themselves when we dropped by Moe's place for a backyard fire.

Enjoying the weekend

I have been enjoying a great weekend with Jennifer as she came home to Timmins to relax for a few days. One of the things we did was visit her old elementary school where she reminded me that there was a line on the wall of the school that could be seen by every kid in the schoolyard. Boys were allowed to play on one side of the line in the schoolyard and girls were allowed to play on the other side. Hmmmm…I found that a bit unusual. Oh well. Jenn sure turned out okay! It has been nice to spend a few days with Jennifer, but celebrating with family members all over Timmins is more fun than we imagined. Tiring too. But it's always nice to enjoy great people with the amazing summer weather we have been enjoying so far in July. I shot a fresh photo of Jenn with her new hair style. She missed her long hair, but everyone agrees that she is still a cutie with short hair too.

Happy Saturday.

A fine hot Saturday morning in Timmins. I am enjoying a cup of coffee and munching on chocolate cookies. I have company this weekend. Jennifer is here and it's very nice. The best part was Thursday afternoon when we went out for a walk downtown, in and out of the stores, shopping. Yup, Jenn can walk just fine. She has a cane now and she is determined as ever. I haven't shot a fresh photo of her, because I can barely keep up to her, but I will get a few. Jennifer's hair is slowly growing back and all the aunt's and cousins are telling her how beautiful she looks. Down in Sudbury, Scott and the boys are enjoying a 'boys only' weekend, while up at camp, Denise and her sisters are having a girls weekend. Soon I will be enjoying more of the homemade jams Denise sent up, strawberry and rhubarb. Wow. Yesterday it was nice when some of the Maltais women arrived in town for a visit. Lorraine, Lilliane and Helen Richer showed up. The kitchen table party at Aunt Sue's place went on till two oclock this morning. Helen and Tasha are on their way in from Red Lake. If anyone has ever wondered how big Northern Ontario is, it is taking them two days to make the drive from Red Lake to Timmins. It will be nice to see them. I slept in this morning to eight oclock. Time for another hot cup of coffee.

Grreat Canada Day and wonderful fireworks!

Canada Day was wonderful in Timmins. I was so busy but it was nice to bump into so many smiling faces and the weather was perfect! I think the best part was the amazing fireworks put on by Goldcorp to celebrate Canada Day and the 100th anniversay of gold mining in Timmins.