O Canada......Our Home and Native Land!

Now, even though Canada isn't our home nor our native land...Branden and I still had a wonderful time visiting Vancouver B.C. for a quick weekend getaway. The original purpose of this visit was for Branden to see his beloved Zags play against Hawaii. Well, they won (73-54)...which was the good news! YAY! However the upset lies in the fact that Roger's Arena wouldn't serve us a beer! We stood in line for a minimum of 20 minutes, only to be told we need TWO pieces of identification for EACH of us. WHAT?! Your country allows 19 year olds to drink any ole' day, and your telling me a 26 year old from the U.S. needs to bring a passport and drivers license into the arena for a beer. A sign would have been nice.......nonetheless--we watched a win on Saturday night and it was awesome!

My Favorite Pictures from the weekend:

We drove up mid-day on November 18th and went straight to the Victoria Hotel. Well done Branden, well done. It was a historical boutique hotel that was in a great location and fit our needs. That night, we walked and walked until we finally decided to eat at Japa Dog.

I love me some hot dogs, but this just didn't do it for me. Branden on the other hand, devoured his.



Megan's dog = Okonomi

 

Branden's dog = Oroshi


 








Post dinner at the food cart, we went to an Irish Pub to get warm and get some [expensive] beer. The good ole "sin tax" got us good...all weekend! Here is the breakdown of why it cost us a pretty penny for a drink or two....There have been many justifications for having an excise tax, both federal and local, on beer.  Some argue that these so-called “sin taxes” are a great tool for curbing habits that are deemed less than healthy, while others see them simply as a tax on a luxury item. Credit: Trappist Punks.

The following morning we walked, a lot. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. I didn't know what to expect, but seeing Vancouver in the daylight made me enjoy the city that much more! In 2010, it was ranked as having the 4th highest quality of living of any city on earth (but also one of the most expensive cities to live in!). In the 1950's, city planners began encouraging the building of high-rise residential towers in Vancouver. This is still the case today. In my picture tour below, you'll see several buildings with floors and floors of livable space, and business opportunities on the ground level. Basically, it's completely walkable/liveable.
Here's what our walk included:

-Running into a guy who fell from his apartment from a potential domestic abuse fight.
-Breafast at The Templeton. Ohh boy, it was yummy!!
-Walked 3,600 feet across Cambie Bridge to Granville Island.
-Used the freeway off ramp to exit the Bridge (there is no stairwell down to ground-level, woops!)
-Spent some time on Granville Island (ooogling over yummy fruits, cheeses, veggies and meats).
-Listed to a musician and his Hurdy Gurdy. You know you're curious...click here!
-Took the water taxi back to the mainland. Realization sets in that no one walks the bridge like we did.

Insert: Water Taxi Pictures

-Went to a delicious lunch at Meat and Bread. Soo salty, juicy and flavorful. Picture to follow!
-Drinks at Shark Club. Saw the BC Lions football players AND a women getting stood-up (....for hours....)

The rest of the weekend included the b-ball game, late night pizza, Irish pubs (Side note: pizza and Irish Pubs are HUGE in Vancouver), a taco restaurant, stolen hot sauce (Branden!), junk food at the local 7-Eleven, sleep, then a drive-through tour of Stanley Park. And on the way home...we went to McDonald's. Soo typical of us on a road trip. But, this is where we found out you can get 50 chicken nuggets for $10. Wowza! And no, we didn't order it. Overall, it was a successful trip! I still can't believe that I've lived in Seattle my whole life-and have never visited Vancouver. I highly recommend the trip. It's truly a beautiful city!

Take a glance at our "walking" picture tour of Vancouver!

Picture Collage 1

Picture Collage 2

Picture Collage 3

Picture Collage 4

Picture Collage 5

Picture Collage 7



The.End.

Four days of Dining, Dancing and Drinking....In Nashville!

We landed in Nashville on a dreary Seattle-esque day. Miss Jamie picked us up at 9:00am after a night of flying through Portland and Atlanta. Side note: In Nashville, your hosts can actually bring their car to the “arrivals” gate and wait. The only rule, you must have your trunk open the whole time. Odd, but it worked. Our first stop…Jamie’s adorable studio apartment. It was charming, cute and so HER. Decorated impeccably endearing, I was amazed at how she made the space work for her. She had Branden’s air mattress all made up, coffee brewing and Krispy Kreme’s sitting on her tall white pedestal kitchen table. It was such a wonderful welcome to Nashville.

Prior to our travels, Branden and I (well mostly him) had done extensive research on food. Yes Food. I mean we did some research on touristy-stuff as well, but mostly just food. We had grand plans of where we were going to eat on Friday morning, but weather deterred us. The rain unfortunately held us back from waiting in line The Pancake Pantry. Apparently, this restaurant is supposed to be delicious, but rain mixed with a line around the block isn’t as appealing. Instead, we went to an amazing lunch at Arnolds Country Kitchen. Check out THIS  video to get an idea of what we ate and how we ate it. Simply put: a meat and three. That’s what we did, and ohhh how we enjoyed it. Even though we had sworn against it, we definitely came back and took a nap. Arnolds and lack of sleep did us all in.

On Friday night, we ventured to the neighboring town of Franklin for a Haunted Ghost Tour "thing." It wasn't quite what we expected, so we ditched it early. Adorable town though, I'm happy we took a quick nighttime tour. We returned to Mid Town, an area close to Jamie's apartment and went barhopping to The Red Door Saloon and to Losers (as opposed to the bar next door called Winners). Losers was jam-packed with a live band. Unfortunately, I got a full beer knocked out of my hand by a guy dancing a little too hard and little too much. Luckily, he was a southern gentleman and bought me a new one :) And if you're wondering, Loser's is apparently a lot cooler than Winner's. I love a good play on words. Two things I noticed about the bars: Even if a band is playing LIVE music, they still don't charge cover. Nashville score! However, I very much appreciate the "no smoking" laws back home. Seattle score!

On Saturday, the weather took a turn for the BETTER. It was still crisp, but the sun was out. We stopped by Jamie's second weekend job. Loved the store! I could have spent much more time looking around. But, I'm pretty sure Branden had endured enough wedding invitations, baby presents, and window shopping. We then visited Vanderbilt and did (a few) drive-by's of some fraternity parties. They were partying, mid-day, doing keg stands on their front porch as if it was no big woop. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Officer Bell would have put the kibosh on this here situation.

We skipped breakfast this day, and went to lunch at Bolton's Spicy Chicken. And holy moly, it was SPICY. Too spicy for my wimpy taste buds. However, Jamie and Branden managed just fine.On Saturday night, we celebrated Halloween!! And we went a "honkey tonkin'!" Also known as going out to loud, rowdy bars that play country music. There was whiskey-shot taking (not by moi), where's Waldo-ing, and lots of wiggling to live country music. Again, NO cover anywhere--it's incredible.

Sunday was NFL GAME DAY/recovery day :) We went to Germantown Cafe for breakfast. Although it wasn't our first choice, the area was adorable, brick lined streets, small churches. Definitely has potential. Then, we headed to the Titans vs. Colt's game. This was Branden's dream come true, gone slightly wrong. He's a huge fan of the Indianapolis Colts, and more specifically THIS GUY. We bought tickets months ago. He was pumped to see Peyton Manning's mad skills as one of the best quarterbacks in history. Sadly, Mr. Manning underwent neck surgery and is out the rest of the season. Peyton being able to play again at all is still tbd. Although, we didn't witness a win from the Colt's, the game was still a good time and the seats were awesome.

We re-fueled at Jack's. This was another cafeteria, "meat & three" style restaurant. Also very delicious. We went back to the apartment, rested, then went out to a Sunday Night Jam Session at the Station Inn. Very cool show...by the end there were about 18 string musicians all just playin' along. Love that blue-grassy feel. However the frozen Totino's "like" pizza I ate there, probably was unnecessary. The three of us moved on to the Whiskey Kitchen. This was a swanky bar that served good drinks and good wings, which Branden thoroughly enjoyed. He had the right idea and skipped the $13 frozen pizza we had previously ordered. After all that swankyness, we were pooped and decided to end the night with a flick and a cozy bed.

Monday morning, we finished off our trip at my favorite restaurant of the weekend, Monell's. Talk about food. Talk about LOTS of GOOD food. We shared a table with a lovely local couple. They do lots of family style seating here in Nashville. Here's just a snippet of what we enjoyed and passed amongst ourselves: mashed potato's, meat loaf, biscuits, green beans, broccoli salad, cole-slaw, fried chicken, chicken & dumplings,  strawberry shortcake ect....Then it was off to the airport. Bags in hand, we said our goodbyes to Jamie-girl. What a jam packed, fun weekend away. Thank you again girlfriend for hosting us! We'll see you in December!! XO

NASHVILLE: here we come!

On Thursday, Branden and I will be flying to Music City U-S-A...otherwise known as NASHVILLE! I couldn't be more excited to visit the capital of Tennessee. No no no, I couldn't be MORE excited to visit my friend Jamie!! Nashville has been home to her for more than a year, and I can't believe it's taken us this long to visit my old college roomie in her new digs. Everything fell into place though--Halloween weekend, Colts vs. Titans game, accrued time-off, it's simply a done deal. I have heard time and time again, that Nashville is AMAZing and I'm looking forward to experiencing it all first hand. The food, the music, the arts, the old plantation homes, LP Field, the sunny (but still crisp) weather. However, we are especially looking forward to our Host. Branden and I are very grateful for Jamie opening up her home to us--we appreciate the gesture and her kindness AND her willingness to prance around with us all weekend, playing tour guide. A big thank you to you, Miss Jamie Jane, a.k.a. my Where's Wenda twin for Halloween! XOXO see you soo very soon!

Picture of our trip to Nashville will follow in a later post, along with a recap of the food itinerary we plan to follow.

No joke, it truly is a food itinerary.....Can't wait!

Work Photography Club: Session 2

This month's theme for my photography club is FALL. The lovely Pacific Northwest is transitioning from Summer to Winter. The nights are ending earlier, the wind is picking up, the leaves are changing colors and MY fireplace has been on a number of times already (sorry Branden--I know it can be overly toasty!) As much as it saddens me to see the golden orb in the sky disappear, I'm finding myself enjoying the crisp air, the winter festivies that are commencing, and the endless oranges/reds/burgundys that fill the trees. Well, that is until they go bare. Then we welcome Springtime with open arms.

When starting this project, I knew I would take pictures of the pumpkins sprawling out over the QFC parking lot. I also knew I wanted to take pictures of leaves, lots of leaves. If anyone knows me at all, they know I love bacon, yes bacon. BUT more importantly, they know I LOVE the color orange and any variant that comes with it. Apparently orange is a power color. And, orange "encourages socialization, stimulates activity, and stimulates appetite." Well isn't that a coincidence?! 

Now to proceed with a little game. I need your help! I can only pick 3 of my images to bring to the discussion board in my photography club next week. I want your opinion--it matters! Please vote for your top 3 images presented below. Let's make this simple:

Top Row: L-R are pictures 1, 2, and 3

Middle Row: L-R are pictures 4,5, and 6

Bottom Row: L-R are pictures 7 & 8

Simply, leave a comment with your input!! It's greatly appreciated.

We ALL know I can't make a decision to save my life!

Please Vote: What are your favorite three "FALL" photographs?
Help me decide :)



I have to add that while wikepedia-ing Seattle for fun, I came across this image. With the image, reads this caption: Between October and May, Seattle is mostly or partly cloudy six out of every seven days. It made me chuckle. We get 8 whole months of mostly cloudy days. Remind me why we live here again?! :)





A Premier Photography Photo Shoot...

This past Sunday, I was able to do my first photo shoot!! My friend Maggie has a new Seattle Wedding Blog and asked me to take pictures of her wearing a bridesmaid dress. The catch: to sport five different looks with one simple black dress. I'd say she nailed it! See how Maggie altered her look with layering, jewelry pieces and attire-appropriate hair styles to re-use this trendy little number.


Thank you Maggie for asking me to do this project...You're a studette!
Disclaimer: This dress really is a bridesmaid dress. See Maggie's blog for pictures from this event posted on 10.7.11.



Work Photography Club: Session 1

The Theme was BACK TO SCHOOL!

Very fitting for September's agenda. Here is the background of THE coolest club on the block. after the Art Contest at work was deemed a success, some people in my company decided to start a Photography Club. The selling point: Interested in photography. Join us to discuss photography techniques, share pictures, perhaps have some assignments and outings. Well sure, I like photography, I like discussions, I certainly enjoy giving my opinon, I like being tested to shoot out of my comfort zone ect....Count me in! The Photography Club does not stand alone, employees can also join the Wine Club, an Investment Club and/or a Running Club, among many others. As for the later two, I will be opting out.

With that said...here are my photos from September's assignment:

And he didn't even know I was taking this. Lucky guy ;)
But, for those wondering, he IS going back to school for Physical Therapy.

Hamilton International Middle School in my neighborhood.
Opened in 1926. Beautiful building!

Someone won't be attending the THIS fieldtrip. Woops!
My Personal FAVORITE fieldtrip in my elementary days: Seattle Children's Theater.

Why I decided to blog...

I decided to start blogging partially because of a challenge, sponsored by my work. My employer hosted a company-wide art contest and I won!! Wellll....not really, but three of the 10 photos I submitted made it to the finals.  I was shocked! There are currently 52 images on display in our office buildings that span overseas. My company offered to pay for the printed enlargements and had all the winning photography framed. I'm not trying to toot my own horn (too much!), but this competition fueled it....fueled my passion for photography (and winning). So - I decided to go public and I'm using this blog as my medium. I want to share with you the pieces that started it all.

The middle three images are featured on the walls of my company.

Disclaimer: By walls, I'm referring to the white walls located across from the mens & women's restrooms :)