Vegas Baby! - DC

Still trying not-so-successfully to catch up on the blog... On memorial day weekend, we went to Vegas. It was nice of my mom to remind me before we went that “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” Therefore, that’s the end of the post.

Just kidding.

It’s about a 6 hour to drive from Santa Barbara to Vegas. The drive itself is pretty dull but for us, the first drive through desert was pretty interesting. Seeing the odd tumbleweed rolling around, Joshua trees and signs for Death Valley were pretty cool. At first, we bypassed Vegas to check out the Hoover Dam. Quite the feat of engineering and pretty cool, even for me! It’s obvious that Adam loved it, he’ll stop to take a photo of any interesting bridge, so bring him to the Hoover Dam and well, he doesn’t know what to do with himself. The dam was really cool and there’s a new bridge above the dam too which was pretty impressive. We managed to spend time in three different states that first day, as we started in California, drove through Nevada and popped into Arizona while at the dam.

We went back to Vegas for the evening and wandered around taking in the sights. The extravagance of Las Vegas is pretty numbing. It was somewhat disturbing but also really impressive at the same time.

The next day, we left the city behind again and headed to Red Rock Canyon. There is an 11 mile scenic drive with several stops along the way. It seemed quite unusual to have toll booths to access nature, only in America. We brought plenty of water with us (remember, we’re in the desert), slapped on some sunscreen and headed out. The nature of the rock makes it apparent how it’s quite a destination for rock climbing. We could even see the odd bolt glinting in the sun. After about a couple hours clambering around, we were happy to revisit the air conditioned whip. As we were coming back to the whip, we overheard a few different people reminding their friends/kids/families that the farther they walked towards the rocks, the farther they’d have to walk back to the car… we were only about 50m from the whippark. Yikes.

Back in the city, we dipped in the pool then more mind-numbing Vegas. We did a bit of gambling, Adam has a much better knack with the one-armed bandits than I do. At one point, before going to the bathroom, he gave me 5 bucks and said “don’t lose it all before I get back” haha - I did. With his guidance though, we ended up about 40 bucks up. The next day we headed back to Santa Barbara via some back roads and no name towns.

Whip* Shopping - DC

We were amazed with the amount of bike paths, including many paths completely separated from roads, upon arrival in Santa Barbara. There are even bike traffic circles and bikes have the right of way over pedestrians! We were very lucky that Tim made it his mission to find us some bicycles. That was a main mode of transport for several weeks while we (mostly Adam) combed Craigslist for used cars. After a couple test drives, we were wondering why on earth people sell cars with the check engine light on. We certainly weren’t interested in purchasing a car that seems doomed. There were several stints of long bus rides followed by short test drives and then another long bus ride. A russian guy was selling a VW Jetta, when we said we weren’t interested he offered us to look at a different car. He shook a heavy key chain and said he had 5 cars that he was selling. Huh? Who has five cars! It was pretty strange. Eventually we found a guy, Richard, selling his 2001 Mazda Tribute (think Ford Escape). When the sale was complete, Richard was so sad to see the car go that he hid behind his house so that he wouldn’t see us drive away. It was pretty cute.

Now that we have wheels, we’ve been exploring a bit. We saw a rocket launcher up in the hills (Adam thinks it might be a water collection tower, but I’m positive it was a rocket launcher). We also went on a hike and came across a 4ft snake lying across the trail. It wasn’t interested in moving out of the way until after I poked it with a stick.



*Disclaimer: Apparently, according to Adam and his "street skills", a whip is a car. I thought that I'd better translate cause a whip is a silly word for car... *

Dr Crowe - DC

Yesterday afternoon Adam defended his PhD. Through a 3-way Skype session between New Zealand, Australia and America. I got him access to a little conference room, the “Rothman Sanctum” and let him loose to defend. His reports were AMAZING. Really really positive and with only minor suggestions (e.g., “take out the indent after your equations”). The defense was a little under 30 minutes! Like I said, very positive.

I’m very proud of him, for what he has accomplished and the quality of his work.

After a bit of bubbly in the lab conference room, we headed out to the local brew house for some dinner and beers. It was a lovely evening.

Congratulations Dr Crowe.

Santa Barbara: The American Riviera - ACDC

We rolled into town on a sunny blue sky Friday afternoon, got access to our apartment and unloaded the truck (crystal mostly). The flat is quite nice, old but well maintained. Two story, two bedroom, three balconies, one bathroom, and one kitchen. Sounds pretty exciting, three balconies!!?!? But two of them are barely large enough for a chair! We unpacked the crystal (thankfully for Davon, unbroken), got a Costco membership and then proceeded to browse craigslist for items other than crystal. Costco is a wholesale store where you buy large quantities of items for (usually) low prices. Everything from meat and cheese, to toothpaste and BBQs. We even got our cell phones at Costco. It was several days before we had anything to sit on and we slept on a couple of camping mattresses for about a week. There are frequent farmers markets close to our place which is excellent. The summer fruit is starting to come in. Each time we go to the market, there are new varieties of oranges or apricots or berries.

The day after we arrived, we went to explore the downtown Santa Barbara area with Mom and Tim. Downtown Santa Barbara is next to the beach and the wharf. It’s pretty lovely. A popular tourist spot with a lot of restaurants at the very tip the wharf. There are also numerous bike rental places around. Adam and I decided to rent a tandem bike to trip around on the beach front. At first, Adam was the driver. We went along a bicycle path that followed the beach. It was pretty stunning with the waves coming in and the palm trees lining the waterside park. Out on the wharf, we were amazed at all the people, cars and restaurants. After a quick stop off to admire the view of the Channel Islands, I decided that I wanted to have a turn in the front seat. Well, it was certainly easier than it looked. When I was in the back seat, it seemed like Adam just pedaled and we were off. However, when I started trying to get going it was a different story! Did I mention that there were many parked cars and buildings and people everywhere? I started to bike with Adam in tow behind and ended up careening down the wharf, somewhat out of control. Weaving around the roadway, trying desperately to avoid any collisions. After we got off the wharf, we needed to cross a busy road then continue on the bike path back to the shop. I barely managed to get us across the road, but when we needed to turn the corner it just got too much and I hopped off the bike, rather quickly I might add, much to the enjoyment of people in passing cars. It was rather difficult and I had a new respect for the innate tandem bike skill that Adam seemed to possess.

San Fran - Part 3 - DC

We arrived in San Francisco late at night after more than 12 hours of driving. Before entering the downtown area from the north we popped off the highway to get a nice night time view overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. The views of the bridge and the city were amazing and clear. After driving over the bridge and some fancy moves in the big truck on the small city streets, including 10 point U-turn on Lombard St, we arrived at the hotel. It was after midnight but Adam and I went for a short walk to the kinkiest street in the world. Wow, now that I write that it sounded really dirty, but no, it is the steepest or the windiest, maybe both. Anyways, we went for a walk…

The full day of driving was rewarded with being able to spend a day being a super tourist around San Fran. We embarked on a hop-on/hop-off bus tour around the city and saw the main attractions, Fisherman’s wharf, Golden Gate during the day, Chinatown and lots of other cool places. The day was finished off with a crab feast right on the water front looking out to Alcatraz. It was great. Another walk around the city back to the motel then it was off to sleep. Next Stop, Santa Barbara.

Cannon Beach and Beyond - Part 2 - AC

We arrived at the destination for our first night in the US just before sunset. Cannon Beach, Oregon is a popular holiday spot and is well known for its giant haystack rock halfway down the beach. A gap in the clouds treated us to a green flash as the sun passed down behind the horizon (Davon thought that seeing a green flash was a BIG deal! She was really excited). After some authentic Mexican food and soak in the hot tub we collapsed in our Murphy bed for the night.

In the morning we continued down the Pacific Coast Highway. Barb (Davon’s mom) was keen to go dune buggying so we ventured off the highway to see if we could locate dunes/buggies for some fun. Unfortunately, April is too wintery for the Oregon Coast tourism industry and there were no dune buggies to be rented. Tim (Barb’s boyfriend), the gentleman that he is, tried to provide us with the experience of dune buggying by entering the sand dunes in the large 4x4 truck. Davon’s cautious warning “This is NOT a good idea” was soon realised as the weighted down truck was stuck in soft sand for about 5 minutes. Eventually, Tim succeeded to break free and reverse the truck back at speed down the sand track before we were enroute again.

The Trip South – Part 1 – AC

After a couple days of packing and repacking, we had finally compacted Davon’s belongings down to ¾ of a truck full, compared to my 1 and a half suitcases. (She had all these frivolous things like dishes and bedding!) We woke up on Monday morning at 4am to begin the trip south, loaded the last of our belongings into the truck, picked up Davon’s mom and Tim, then hit the road. We made it as far as Starbucks and the gas station to fill up Tim and the truck. After a 3h drive to the southern tip of Vancouver Island, we arrived in Victoria ready to catch the Black Ball Ferry into the USA. (yes, it really is called the Black Ball Ferry). The US customs guys come along, car by car, to check your paperwork. Davon looked a bit dodgy so was asked to step out of the vehicle and place her hands on the hood of the vehicle, much to the enjoyment of everyone else. Just what you need at a US border crossing, a wise-guy customs officer who you can’t read as being serious or joking with anything he says.

Washington State was a bit of a blur as we drove down towards the Pacific coastline. There was a lot of green and abandoned houses intermingled with large mounds of oysters shells from the local shellfish fishery. Davon had the GPS set to the ‘shortest’ rather than the ‘fastest’ route at one point in Oregon. This resulted in a detour off the main highway and through beautiful farmland onto a narrow gravel road. At the end of the road, the GPS told us to turn right into a farmer’s field to cross the remnants of an old wooden bridge to get back to the main road. For the crystal glassware’s sake, we backtracked to the main road.

Bad Bloggers - DC

Well, we’ve decided we’re not very good a blogging. It’s been three weeks, and SO much has happened, but we’ve blogged nothing!

In the few days before we left Canada, we decided to take a night out at the local Courtenay casino. Well, what an exciting time that was! The high rollers that we are, we put a whopping 5 bucks into the first machine. Gambled our hearts out down to 4 bucks on the electronic slot machines, one penny at a time. We got bored. After wandering around aimlessly for a while we sat down at another machine and lost. Down to our final bet, 18c left, and lo and behold, we came out of there with 62 dollars. We won some free games then sat there for about ten minutes while the machine just kept on going on its own winning and winning more. It was hilarious.

We were planning to leave Courtenay, BC on Monday April 15th. I got my visa in the mail the Friday before… the visa… the critical piece of paper that would allow me (Adam said he didn’t care and would go without me) to actually cross the border. Remember the LARGE 4x4 truck that Adam alluded to a while back, about how it was so big he had to jump to get in…well, that was to be our ride for the 2400km trip south. Some ingenious packing filled up the whole back of the pick up, despite several attempts by Adam to discard many of my belongings – namely my crystal glassware.

Settling in - DC

It's been neat watching Adam adjust to life outside of New Zealand. Apparently, now that we're in Canada I'm using a whole bunch of new words. (Standard vs manual for the car; Shit disturber; Ketchup instead of Tomato sauce; Skookum, which means tough or strong or sturdy...). I suppose I'm settling back in to living in North America. We have been enjoying a lot of local seafood, teaching Adam how to ice skate and how to drive on the right side of the road and visiting with friends and family. I even got to spend a couple days at a spa with my mom! (Adam had some quality Adam-time looking after mom's cats and dog.)

We have been spending as much time outside as possible to make use of the unusually great weather for this time of year. The photo above is from this evening at Comox Lake as we watched the sun slip down below the mountains. The lake was calm as glass with beautiful cloud and tree reflections. Simply gorgeous.

It's Wednesday now and we're supposed to be leaving next Monday for the US, but I don't actually have my visa paperwork yet. Cutting it a bit close perhaps? Haha yes! Need to keep life exciting! Or so that's what I keep telling Adam!

What feels like home - AC

Both these photos were taken in and around Courtenay, Vancouver Island, BC in the first few days after arriving. The first two days here were sunny and clear with beautiful views to the surrounding snowy mountains on the island and to mountains on the mainland some 50+km away. Awesome! However, I was warned this weather was rare for Spring and that “April showers bring May flowers”. While it still hasn’t rained… or showered, the skies are now filled with clouds. The title of this post came about when Davon said that the dull grey sky, overgrown undergrowth and half dead grass along side the road made her feel like she was home here in Courtenay. Somewhat expectedly, this doesn’t have a homely feel to me. Where is the wind? Where are the ferns? Why do I have to jump to pull myself into this monster 4x4 truck? Overtime, these sights and surroundings will become the new `normal’ before the next stage of our trip in the USA where another set of new normals will come along. 

Leaving NZ... Adventure begins! - DC

Here we are relaxing in the Koru lounge at Auckland International Airport after an eventful check in. Those beverages were well deserved! We were all sorted and ready to check in. No stress,  bags packed,  correct weight, early to the airport even an hour before final check in. Piece of Cake!

However, a pesky immigration rule threw a wrench in our plans. Adam needed a ticket out of Canada, his USA Visa was not enough. Since we are planning to drive across the border into the USA, we couldn't prove he'd leave Canada. After a hurried chat with the supervisor with 40 min to go before check in closes, we were told that we needed to buy a fully refundable ticket from Canada to NZ (which as it turns out is not actually fully refundable! ie drop about $1500 on a ticket and eat about $400 of that for the non refundable part). I asked him if a reservation for the ferry would be ok and after a bit of humming-and-hawing he said it would be.

So, a quick phone call to my mom in Canada (LUCKILY she was home and near her computer!) she booked us a ferry ticket saying that Adam was headed to Port Angeles in Washington State. Great! But now, we needed the confirmation email. After quite a while we managed. I had to run through the airport, dodging other travelers, to an internet kiosk to forward the email to Air NZ for printing. In the last few minutes, we got it all sorted out. Cost less than 100 for something we would have needed to do anyways!

Then, we checked in, got decent seats, said our goodbyes and made our way to the Koru lounge. The gin and beer was needed!

As we write this, we're sitting in the Vancouver airport waiting for a quick flight to Comox.

Let the Adventure begin!