Oh! Canada

What is there to say about Canada? Ohhhh! Canada! Well, the ride up from Seattle was nice and easy. We stopped in Richmond for dim sum - thanks to cousins Tracy and Matt for the recommendation. And then we were off to the big city, or so we thought. Our directions told us to get off in the suburbs...I couldn't even see the city from the exit! We tried to laugh it off, but on the inside we were all worried. It seemed like an eternity, mostly because they were doing construction the ENTIRE way (no joke)!
Fortunately, once we arrived at our hotel we realized it was just a bridge away from the city. In my personal opinion, Vancouver is like a sleepy Sydney. A REALLY sleepy city. The people seemed to take awhile to warm up to, but once they opened up they were quite nice. The next day we drove up to Mount Whistler, again an extremely long (but breathtaking) drive thanks to construction. Talk about preparing for the 2010 Olympics! Golly gee. We finally made it to the top about 3 hours later and enjoyed Poutine - thanks to Sho's recommendation. It sounded pretty nasty, french fries with cheese curds and gravy. It looked nasty. But we loved it! Maybe because it was cold and we were hungry but they were awesome. Definitely a must have if you're visiting. We made our way back into the city and enjoyed our last meal at a Greek restaurant, Kalamata Greek Taverna. It was, quite possibly, the best Greek food I've ever had. I would go back just to eat there. Every bite was better than the last. And the Greek salad was simple - tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, olive oil and feta, but that was by far, the best feta I've ever had. They also served gigantic pita bread, I believe they were whole wheat, warm, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. I'll leave you with that thought...

Kalamata Greek Taverna
478 Broadway W
Vancouver, BC V5Y 1R3
604-872-7050

Sam The Little Man

Sam clearly took a liking to me! Sam is hilarious and quite the entertainer. He gives out the "knukles" to greet you, absolutely LOVES Beckham...although I think it's mostly because he can say his name. Beck-em. Beck-em. Beck-em. His "please" comes out as "ssssssssssee" and he loves to dance! He must get that from his Aunty Marlene. As soon as he hears any type of music, his foot starts tapping and his head starts bobbing. It's quite the site to see. Beck-em. Check out some of his faces below...

Seattle

After a long day of traveling, with a stop and delayed flight in Utah, this Sheep landed in Seattle. We started off visiting the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks to see the salmon ladder. Unfortunately, it was rather uneventful. I'm assuming the salmon (like humans) like to relax on Sundays because we didn't see one salmon make it up the ladder. Although, once we made it down to the viewing room (as you'll see in the first picture) a bunch of salmon were just enjoying the lazy Sunday summer morning. Sheepy!
We then drove over to Pike's Place and enjoyed the Summer Sunday market where we saw amazing chili wreaths, beautiful flower bouquets (cheap too!), tasted fresh peaches and of course enjoyed the famous Pike's Market. The flying seafood and singing fishermen were kind of scary. Moving onto one of my favorite finds in downtown Seattle were the pigs, my homies from the farm. There are a ton of pigs just hanging out on the sidewalks. They looked a bit lonely, so I found a brief summer fling (pictures not included) and also befriended the Money Pig, his fancy threads were made of pretty pennies and he took in the fabulous sheep vision before him with dollar bill eyes. We then took a walk down to Pioneer Square where I think I saw a bunch of my old relatives stacked on a pole? By this time we were pretty wiped out. It's a lot of action for a little thing like me. Off we went to meet the extended Arakaki family for dinner. We met at Ray's Boathouse Restaurant for an early munching session. I began with the Chilled Sungold Tomato Soup with dungeness crab. I moved onto the Grilled Southeast Alaskan Halibut as the main entree. And of course, I couldn't say no to dessert - Chilled Peaches & Cream. Everything was fantastic! As always, I enjoyed catching up with the Arakaki's, but I still didn't get enough quality time with the newest addition, Sam. Sam is the man!

The Next Journey

I'm leaving sunny Los Angeles in two days and traveling north to Seattle, Vancouver and Oregon. So many things to see!!! Stay tuned!

Pinkberry

Pinkberry was (perhaps still is) all the craze in Los Angeles. People love it, people hate it. My old co-worker lived on the street of the original Pinkberry, and if that means nothing to you, you need to read this LA Times article. I have another friend who simply refuses to even try Pinkberry because she's afraid of getting addicted and having to stand in the notorious long lines. However, when I first discovered Pinkberry there were no lines. I was lucky, I know. And really, it's nothing new to me either. I grew up in Hawaii on a product that tastes similiar called, Yami Yogurt. I love Yami so I was pretty ecstatic when I found Pinkberry. However, I truly thought I was the only one who enjoyed the natural yogurt flavor. Who gets natural?! Most of my friends prefer vanilla or chocolate not natural! Well, I can confidently say I am no longer alone in my enjoyment of natural flavored yogurt (or whatever it is, who cares really?). I've been meaning to write this post forever but then there was Pinkberry drama after Pinkberry drama, exhausting. Anyway, tonight I went to one their imposters for dinner. Yes, I wrote dinner. And yes, I wrote imposter. The imposters mostly tastes the same (except for Cantaloop, not so good sorry!). And the imposters have all of the same toppings and the same white cardboard cup. Can't they atleast get a different colored cup? So anyway, here are a few of my favorite imposters (notice how all the websites look similiar too)....

Kiwiberri
Yogotango (they have a strange tomato flavor I'm slightly and I mean slightly intrigued by)
Bare Naked Yogurt (Century City food court)

And there's also Red Mango which I haven't been too but it's supposedly the "real" originial. Ha! No, really it was Yami Yogurt! Ugh. This is what happens when you grow up on an island.

Oh and although I occasionally enjoy the nude yogurt (sans toppings), my favorite toppings are mango, blueberries, kiwi, captain crunch, mochi balls and cocoa pebbles. Not all at once and also pending how bad my sweet tooth is fighting for control.

August Birthdays

When I think of August I think of Birthday season. With that said, a quick shout out to Lauren (August 4th), Monte and Lynn (August 6th)! Happy Birthday to all! We celebrated Monte's birthday this year at the old school (think Korean style Denny's), Dong Il Jang. The waitresses are decked out in awesome brown and white uniforms, there are booths for families, a big party room where you sit on the floor and even a little koi pond to greet you at the entrence. The tables have built-in bbq grills and service tends to be fast and furious. We discovered this restaurant about a month ago, and I read that if you get the Roast Gui you get the "leftover" kim chee fried rice. I've been there several times but we always ordered the Bulgogi instead. Since we had a big party this time, I FINALLY got to order the Roast Gui. And unfortunately, I'd recommend sticking to the Bulgogi. The Roast Gui isn't marinated and the meat is a little tougher. And although the fried rice at the end was tasty, it wasn't worth giving up the thin slices of marinated beef that melts in your mouth. We also ordered the Kalbi and pork which were both hits. As you'll see Baby Noah graced us with his presence and he obviously did NOT take a liking to me. Sad day. Don't worry Noah, you'll learn to love me!

Dong Il Jang Restaurant
3455 W 8TH St
Los Angeles, CA 90005-2517