February 02, 2006
More Sundance...
Somehow, all three of my major trips for work have taken me from the airport directly to liquor stores... but the body gets hungry, and so after stocking up from the miserable wine selection in SLF (for work, not me, clearly), Gary and I hit the Red Iguana. And ordered an almond mole so rich we couldn't finish it between the two of us.
Some of us watched Sam Shephard's Don't Come Knocking at the resort. Why is it that Sarah Polley always has the same look on her face in every film she's in?
Friday night we squeezed the entire 8+1 person staff into an SUV and drove an hour to Park City for the premiere of Alpha Dog. Which we then almost didn't get into due to oversold tickets and belligerent Sundancier-than-thou folks in the line... damn, people take their films SO seriously!
Here is the best of my Sundance paparazzi photographs.
What? You can't tell that those fuzzy shapes are in fact Emile Hirsch, [some guy,] Ben Foster, Anton Yelchin, Justin Timberlake, and director Nick Cassavetes?! Fair enough, my camera isn't the greatest, and I hadn't heard of any of them before. Except Justin, who did a little dance for the audience, yee haw! Everyone else was taking photos, so I felt I should too.
Movie stars are fun. Watching people who really love movie stars is even more entertaining (I should have worn bigger earrings). And I'm a bigger fan of the Utah scenery.
Posted by Elizabeth at 05:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 26, 2006
All In a Day's Work
Thanks to what must be one of the best job perks ever, I have been hanging out at the Sundance Resort the last few days. I had forgotten how beautiful Utah is, and how fun snow can be! Whether or not a body is meant to go from equatorial beaches to a high altitude winter wonderland in the period of a week I'm not sure, but my hyper-hydration program seems to be working.
Life is good here. After breakfast yesterday, a couple of my colleagues and I went cross-country skiing. Then I headed for the Spa for a Four Winds Massage, whatever that means. Then I actually worked for a couple of hours, which included a screening of the latest iteration of a (non-Sundance) film-in-progress, edited from footage shot by National Guard soldiers in Iraq; the current working title is "The War Tapes," but it's changed a few times so we'll see how it actually gets released...
After dinner, I scored an unexpected ticket to the premiere of Neil Young: Heart of Gold, which is awesome if you're a Neil Young fan (check). I might get to go to another Sundance screening tonight, and on Friday, we're all heading to Park City to see (I think?) Alpha Dog.
How could I not love my job?
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January 23, 2006
Brasil Dreaming
There are definitely some things that I miss about Brasil...
For instance, it's really nice to start the day with really cheap, fresh fruit juices. There were many, many different fruits to choose from (including several without translations in the Portuguese/English dictionary) at the multitude of juice stands everywhere we went. We tried to get through the whole menu at this place, which was close to our apartment in Rio de Janeiro, and didn't get close. Açaí, acerola, banana, graviola, guava, mango, passion fruit, pineapple, etc etc etc and still, my favorite was laranja (orange).
Hotels located high above busy squares are totally worth the added expense... especially if you wake up in time for breakfast. (Our room in Salvador de Bahia had the same view.)
Having a huge variety of food and drink available to you from stalls, carts, coolers, and jugs on the street and the beach at all hours is definitely a good thing... I'm convinced that anything eaten on the beach tastes better.
I also experienced what happens if you eat shrimp that has been sitting at a beach stall all day. Fortunately Araí, this lovely (and creative) woman who took us in after we arrived in the vacancy-free Praia do Forte, cured my disasterous condition with a remedy I later determined was tea made from a chunk of coconut husk.
While initially a little disturbing, hot water on demand makes a lot more sense than hot water heaters. After causing a small explosion in our Rio apartment (no casualties, but lots of noise and lots of soot and ash), I prefer these electric shower head contraptions over gas flash heaters.
Great music and dancing at any hours in any location is definitely a good thing.
Thinking about when I can go back.
Posted by Elizabeth at 04:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 17, 2006
There Will Be Maps
Because the Geographer in me has more energy right now than the Photo Manipulator, here are some maps. Photos (and complete sentences) later.
Overview:
Jan 2-3: SFO --> ORD (Chicago) --> GRU (São Paulo) --> CGH (São Paulo's regional airport. This extraneous and harrowing sight-seeing adventure through São Paulo was made necessary thanks to flight delay in Chicago, which caused us to miss the next flight. Though he miraculously never hit any other vehicles or pedestrians, the shuttle driver did run a car off the road.) --> GIG (Rio de Janeiro).
Jan 9: SDU (Rio's regional airport) --> SSA (Salvador da Bahia)
Jan 13: not sure where we went exactly, but the bus driver promised he would get us to a convenient location part of the way from Salvador to Praia do Forte (at least that was what we could gather given improving-though-still-poor Portuguese language skills), and that he did. A jam-packed kombi got us the rest of the way there.
Jan 16-17: Praia do Forte --> Salvador --> Rio --> São Paulo --> Chicago --> Home, ~26.5 hours door-to-door.
Now: sleep.
Posted by Elizabeth at 08:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 27, 2005
Since You Asked...
In case you've been wondering, people don't necessarily call more when you don't regularly blog about your life's happenings. On the other hand, a serious benefit of not posting is that when you DO talk to people, you don't hear as much "yeah, I read that in your blog."
***
Let's see. I'm a month behind now, both at work and on the blog. The Northeast Adventure Count will have to wait, as my notes are at home, and I'm still in the office at 9:57pm, but only because when the big boss man is in town, I get to do things like go to Zuni for dinner. For the record, San Pellegrino Bitters is a great surrogate for a real drink, and it comes in a cool enough little bottle (no photos immediately unearthed via Google, how disappointing) that even the big boss man didn't give me the usual shit for not drinking.
Best view of my neighborhood yet:
Favorite Menu Disclaimer:
The Farmers Diner might be closed for now, but I spent 2 days behind the papered-over windows trying to figure out how to open it up again. We had to go across the street for food, and I STILL managed to consume their brand of bacon three meals straight. Mmm, bacon.
Went on a great hike in Tahoe, and while we knew exactly where we were supposed to be, the second half of our planned loop trail, while clearly marked on the map, no longer exists. What should have been a little jaunt turned into a seven-hour bushwhacking, cliff-avoiding adventure. Felt old the next day as our collective joints complained.
Consoled ourselves with a breakfast Eliot claims you just can't put together in France:
Went to Expo East to give a presentation for work, which went well; of course, when the audience is entrepreneurs and you're representing investors, it's in their best interest to tell you your preso was fabulous... Had precious little time to walk the floor of the actual show, which bummed me out (not as much as not having anyone to share my lovely hotel room with). I did sample approximately 5,624 natural organic fair trade no preservatives nutraceutical-packed antioxidant aura-boosting recycled hemp chlorine-free biodegradable UV blocking products, edible and otherwise. Thai Curry Kettle Chips? They're yummy; you heard it here first.
Posted by Elizabeth at 09:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 30, 2005
Northwest Adventure: a Recount
I had every intention of posting more about the Northwest Adventure before starting the Northeast Adventure, but it didn't happen. So I'll keep it short, so I can get up to speed:
--12 days
--3 international airports
--2 float planes
--11 pounds of baggage over the 20 lb maximum per passenger on the float plane, payable at $1/lb (with no allowance for the fact that most people weigh double what I do, three cheers and thanks mom for the rolling maximum legal carry-on suitcase I resisted purchasing for years)
--7 busses
--5 meetings with CEOs of cool organic/fair trade/local food companies
--4 ferries
--4 islands (San Juan, Lopez, Vancouver, Salt Spring)
--3 farmers markets
--2 farms
--10 mornings started off with fresh fruit smoothies
--1 rope swing into a stagnant, algae-o-riffic pond
--1 day on a boat with Adam counting marbeled murrelets
--2 great hikes with mom & dad
--1 knitted scarf begun, and not completed
--1 chair massage in YVR
--1 exhausted girl who felt like she needed a vacation after supposedly having one.
Some representative photos:
...and the same scene from three different perspectives.
My parents' place on Salt Spring Island, while you're sitting on the dock drinking wine:
From the 7am float plane on your way to Vancouver:
...and from the jet en route back to SFO.
Posted by Elizabeth at 07:04 PM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2005
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
One of the things that you've got to love about traveling to islands in the Pacific Northwest is the number of hours it takes just to figure out how to get there... and that's long before you spend the hours actually getting there. [For those of you planning trips to more exotic overseas locations, remember it's all relative.]
The Friday Harbor live cam:
On this end, there are the usual fun questions to ponder:
--Get a parking ticket, or sweet-talk someone into moving the car on street cleaning day? Better yet, does anyone want to borrow the car while I'm gone?
--What would I have to do to get someone to drive me to the airport, and is it worth it?
--Since the answer to part B of the above question is usually No, should I buy a more expensive ticket from the BART-friendly SFO, or schlepp all the way to OAK?
As often happens, I just opted for OAK so I can fly Southwest, just because I think they're fab. How to get there has yet to be resolved.
In Washington:
--Should I take the float plane, which is spendy and fun and potentially a show-stopper (they won't fly in fog) and involves a complicated word problem (if the first flight arrives at x o'clock, and the shuttle to Lake Union leaves Sea-Tac on the hour and takes 35 minutes, which flight will I be able to catch)?
--should I take the other "shuttle," which involves countless hours on a bus from Sea-Tac that drives onto the ferry to San Juan, and never seems to operate at hours that make sense for anyone's schedule?
In previous chapters of life, when time was plentiful and money less so, I would always opt for the cheapest, most circuitous, adventurous and scenic route. To get to Salt Spring Island, this involved not only the plane ride but a combination of busses, ferries, hitchhiking, fishing boats, and frequently missing a return flight due to screwing up somewhere along the line.
Now that The Job fills most of my time and vacation days must be rationed carefully, I need to trim the journey:destination ratio. And since there is theoretically a paycheck (I say "theoretical" because I have yet to receive one after more than a month as an official employee), priorities have shifted somewhat. Float Plane it is, and praying for clear weather.
Once I have arrived in the land of Boats, Bald Eagles, and Brother, the dilemmas are even more exciting:
--For dinner, do we eat salmon from Adam's fisherman friend (Exhibit A, below), or oysters and clams collected from the beach (Exhibit B)?
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
--Do we attempt go totally overboard on modes of transportation (adding two more ferries, a bus or hitchhiking leg, and a customs and immigration station in each direction) to visit mom and dad on Salt Spring?
Aaaaaahhhhh, when questions like this are on the table, life must be good.
Posted by Elizabeth at 07:56 AM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2005
All Roads Lead to... Bolinas
I love living in contradictions: in four days, I filled the gas tank three times to drive from SF to Yosemite Valley to Mono Lake to Mammoth to June Lake to Yosemite Valley to Bolinas and back home again... and then this morning I rode my Xtracycle to the worker-owned co-operative Rainbow Grocery to purchase organic products from companies that do things like give their profits to charities (mmm, I'm addicted to Newman's O's). Thank goodness I'm only fractionally sactimonious or I think I'd still have some petroleum-use guilt to work off.
***
Life in the Valley is almost exactly the same as it was when I lived there six (and four) years ago. Even Chongo is back again after a brief fugitive absence, though there is an upcoming court case during which he'll have to explain how he's managed to be in the Valley for eons without ever having legally occupied a campsite or other accommodation...
The notable differences are:
Antigone, by far the cutest thing to frequent the dirt-bag climber table in the Caf (I tried to talk Ben Wah and Danielle out of that name, to no avail):
All the water (never seen the falls still going off like this in July!):
...and insane traffic, now that the Park Circus has eliminated so much of the day-use parking. On Sunday it was so choked with tourons that as much as I love Yosemite, I had to get out of there.
That, and I couldn't resist the pull of July 4th Celebrations, Bolinas style! If this guy had known how much gas I used prior to arriving in Bolinas, he probably would have strangled me with the tug-of-war rope:
Ran into Ole, who was pissed because this was the first year in ages that he couldn't ride in the parade. Alas, the bike was grounded due to mechanical difficulties.
After the parade there was surfing (I'm more partial to knitting on the beach, myself),
...and apple pie with ice cream, a (relatively short, all weekend considered) drive to Stinson, corn-on-the-cob, bbq chicken, blue potato salad (apparently if you use vinegar they keep their color, good trick), a very serious and close badminton match (Lewis finally beat me, but we had to play to 24 so he could win by 2), caviar, small children wielding fireworks, a chocolate cake decorated with a berry flag, salmon, sunset, more food than would have been consumed by three comparable parties (I did my best), and finally, a multi-county fireworks viewing from Four Corners.
The body is saying there will be no more driving for me for some time. Lest you fear I'm not a true American, despite having consumed a week's worth of food yesterday, I still ate plenty today. God Bless.
Posted by Elizabeth at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2005
Hometown Tourism
I've been taking advantage of this amazing weather to remind myself that it doesn't get much more beautiful than California.
Spent a day at the Heartland Festival representing Organic Valley, one of my favorite national food companies. The cooperative is 100% farmer-owned, and as much as possible, they package and ship their products locally. The bus runs on biodiesel.
Double T Acres Ranch is a trip!
***
There is significant evidence that I'm out of shape. Friday's hike from the Mountain Point Inn to the West Point Inn on Mt Tam kicked my ass, and I managed to injure myself during a brief doubles ping pong match at Lewis's grandpa's retirement community the next day... mostly because I was laughing so hard.
Certain people with one-track minds see surfing spots wherever they go, and borrow other people's cameras to document them:
Last night Amanda and I watched the sun set over Mt Tam from Ring Mountain. A few minutes later, the full moon rose over the East Bay.
On today's agenda: Bass Lake.
Posted by Elizabeth at 04:43 AM | Comments (0)
May 05, 2005
To France or Not to France?
The highly idealized Plan A was hatched several months ago: spend the summer in the South of France with Eliot, staying with Jen & Didier in their farmhouse, ride bikes nowhere in particular, swim in the river, meet local winemakers and potters, get sunburned, plant vegetables…
A would-be affair (for some reason a long trip overseas with the high school sweetheart wasn’t going over well?) and an oddly practical desire to secure a post-graduation job before vacationing put that plan on hold. Plan B oh-so-briefly involved Australia and no exes; the affair fizzled, the internship turned into a job, and a two-week version of Plan A (Plan C) was back in effect.
That is, until I started flight shopping. Egads! Procrastination is rarely your friend when it comes to plane tickets. This morning’s options: pay an arm and a leg for a normal flight, or burn 80,000 frequent flier miles to fly SFO to Chicago to Washington to Brussels… insert long pause for a seven hour layover… to Frankfurt to Toulouse. Then the train to Carcassonne. Very funny.
Plan D? Now accepting suggestions. Top of the list: another Northwest Adventure to see the bro and “his” whales (he took this photo), zoom around on government boats, eat salmon, veg out on Salt Spring Island, possibly visit Mahea on Cortes Island. Or ???
Posted by Elizabeth at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2005
Calgary Tidbits
I imagine that Nick would have a heyday with the City of Calgary, racking up several entries for Beyond Stupidity. The apparent lack of planning foresight in this boom/bust city means that there are no town centers at all amidst the throw-‘em-up-quick housing developments. Strip malls rule supreme, and you have to drive miles and miles (or should I say kilometers and kilometers) to get anywhere worth going. Not surprising really; the major oil companies are all headquartered here, helping make Calgary the fastest growing city in Canada.
Meanwhile, I will rave about Fish Creek Park, which I hope to check out next time I’m here via mountain bike. At 1348 hectares, Fish Creek is one of Alberta’s largest provincial parks, and the largest urban park in Canada. It used to span all of Cow Town, until the city oozed and sprawled out to its current extent...
Last tidbit before I head to the airport: Calgary was the first city in North America to power its light rail system (still no match for the city's sprawl) with wind.
Posted by Elizabeth at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2005
What do I know?
Arrived yesterday afternoon in Calgary and almost immediately got whisked off to the Alberta Sessions by extended family members I haven't seen in 9 years. Included in the lineup of Albertan singer-songwriting talent was Rae Spoon. Rae actually lives in Vancouver, but like Canadians in general, apparently Albertans will still claim you even if you move away...
So Rae looks like he can't possibly be more than 15. By the end of the set however, I was convinced that she may resemble a 15 year old boy, but is actually a girl, and one with a mighty fine yodel. My uncle and cousin didn't agree with me on either count. In the absence of gendered pronouns, we couldn't settle the former argument until today. They were right, and clearly I can't be trusted.
Posted by Elizabeth at 05:07 PM