A year in review

We didn't quite know exactly where our trip would take us this year when we departed from Calgary  in January, 2012. For example, we had intended on two or more months in India only to discover it was basically impossible to get a Indian travel visa on the road. Over the year we visited 12 countries; Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, Bhutan, Italy, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, and the USA. On the map, the countries in red are ones we've travelled to this year and the countries in green are ones we travelled to previously, some like USA, Japan and Indonesia we've been to more than once! (Our travel list before this trip includes: Antarctica, Falklands, South Georgia, Cuba, China, Egypt, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, India, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, French Polynesia (Bora Bora & Tahiti), 1 night Germany, and 1 night in Singapore. All 7 continents, and a total of 29 countries to date.)

These are 10 highlights of the year:

1.) Surfing: J practiced daily and learned how to surf in Bali. While he completed this amazing accomplishment I spent time soaking up vitamin D while reading.

2.) Epic trekking: Our first foray into hiking was our plan to trek up to Everest base camp. Sometimes you get wrapped up in the excitement and the fact that no one is there to stop you, and you do something stupid. This was one of those moments. Once booked I decided to look up the trek and I realized there was no way in hell I would make it out alive with out an expensive helicopter evacuation. After spending some time throwing up in the bathroom, while J was asleep, I had to admit that I could not do the trek. It was a dream of J's so I was very disappointed to cancel, but he agreed swallowing our pride was the least objectionable option. We settled instead on trek up Annapurna mountain range. I had no idea I could survive an epic 50 km hike (with over 2000 meter height gain) in the Himalayas, Nepal. The hike was more physically demanding than anything I have ever done! Although I am not sure I would tackle it again, I am impressed I made it. We also hiked up to Tiger's Nest Monastery in Bhutan, which is impossibly perched 3100 meters up, on the side of the mountain. The views of the unspoiled countryside and the ornate temple were breathtaking. Thankfully no donkeys were needed in either trek. The guides in both treks were very relieved when I successfully made the ascents. I recall our guide in bhutan telling me afterwards, "I did not want you to lose hope but I did not think you would make it!"

3.) Isle of Capri: It has always been a dream of mine to go to the Isle of Capri, as I was named after it. What a gorgeous island with interesting architecture surrounded by deep blue sea. I totally stocked up on stuff with my name on it including postcards, a necklace and of course "I Love Capri" t-shirts for the family.

4.) Copenhagen biking: We spent about three weeks in Copenhagen, Denmark, the most bike friendly city in the world. We picked up two second hand bikes, which we named Finn and Juhl, and spent our days riding all over the city. It was so relaxing and made me feel like a kid again.

5.) Building bikes: We worked 7:30am-5:00pm Monday-Friday for four weeks to complete our two frames.  I am surprised that I enjoyed bicycle building as much as I did. I learned to braze and the experience of putting together such a project taught me a lot about management in general. After literal blood, sweat and tears, if anyone steals my bike there will be hell to pay.

6.) NYC: The goal of NYC was to live as New Yorkers for two months and boy did we accomplish that! We loved our little 5 story walk up apartment in the Lower East Side, surviving the Sandy Hurricane and the end of the world,  the amazing vegan dining and shops, copious museums and art galleries, movies, shopping, the Leonard Cohen concert, wandering the streets, and spending time with friends.

7.) Food: We have enjoyed the most amazing vegan food from all over. We were also fortunate to attend the Vegan Fest in Italy, where we also met a new friend, Kristin, of the great travel blog: Will Travel For Vegan Food.

8.) Art: We've enjoyed countless museums, galleries, antique shops, architecture, and public art. One of my favourites was the Joan Miro museum, Barcelona. We also spent hours wandering the The Centre Pompidou, in Paris, and snapping photos of worldwide graffiti. We bought an annual pass to MOMA NYC, as it paid for itself with our visits, visitor passes and museum store discounts. We have explored amazing architecture, to name a few; Petronas Towers, Great Buddha of Kamakura, Sagrada Familia,  Eiffel Tower, Nepal Great Stupa, duomo square cathedral,  Leaning Tower of Pisa, and Tiger's Nest Monastery.We even picked up a few treasures along the way; an antique sculpture in Denmark, a vase in Toronto, two paintings in Las Vegas, two Shafford cats in Tucson,  a rug in NYC, and a few pieces of costume jewelry.

9.) Accommodations: Starting from our tiny room in Tokyo, we have stayed a variety of dwellings including; apartments in France, Spain, Denmark, and the USA, a rocking hostel in Malaysia, a Buddhist monastery in Nepal, and a tent on the USA road trip. We've had both a few nice luxury hotels with pristine bathrooms and also sparse, unheated tea houses. We've also encountered some questionable bathrooms.

10.) Nature: We have seen some spectacular natural sites such as Uluwatu cave beach in Bali, Mount Everest, Annapurna mountain range, Paro Valley Bhutan, the Grand Canyon, volcanic scenery and blue lagoon of Iceland, blue grotto in Isle of Capri, ocean view in Kamakura (Japan), Venice river,  the red vistas of Sedona, Yellowstone geothermal areas, We have also seen countless critters; birds (including puffins), cats, lizards, and many monkeys.

As we review our trip in our last few days in NYC, we feel so grateful for the experience. We are looking forward to coming home and eventually planning our next travel adventure. You can check out the year's photos here: My flickr & J's flickr.

"We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again-to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more." Pico Iyer 

Wandering in the footsteps of others

We had another lovely friend, Chris, visit us here in NYC. We went back to MOMA and also The Guggenheim Museum. At the Guggenheim we checked out the Picasso Black and White. As time goes on I like Picasso more and more. We've seen examples of his all over the world on this trip! The exhibit is of course in the wonderful Frank Lloyd Wright building. He is one our favourite architects. In addition to Picasso, I thoroughly enjoyed the Asterisms exhibit by Gabriel Orozco. It is a large installation of found objects, carefully arranged like a human bowerbird nest. Of course we also checked out more delicious vegan dining.

We checked out a super funny and intelligent comedian, Jamie Kilstein that I randomly heard about on twitter. We spent another fun day with our friend Enki (and talented photographer) at Prospect Park, a 585 acre park in Brooklyn. It was nice to be such a green space in the middle of NYC. We all went to MOMA PS1 Museum, up in Queens, NYC. The building was great and while the current exhibits were not of my particular taste it was neat to see some different more contemporary modern art. A highlight was actually outside the museum; a building across the street covered in amazing graffiti. We attempted to go to the Intrepid: Air, Sea and Space Museum, but it was closed until at least December 21, 2012 due to Hurricane Sandy damage. We did walk around the pair to view the aircraft carrier and the Enterprise space shuttle. From a distance we could also see a concorde plane.

A favorite museum was the Tenement Museum, which "tells the stories of 97 Orchard Street. Built on Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1863, this tenement apartment building was home to nearly 7000 working class immigrants." Access to the building is by guided tour only. We went on the Hard Times Tour; "Discover how immigrants survived economic depressions at 97 Orchard Street between 1863 and 1935. Visit the restored homes of the German-Jewish Gumpertz family, whose patriarch disappeared during the Panic of 1873, and the Italian-Catholic Baldizzi family, who lived through the Great Depression." The tour was terrific! We walked through the two different restored apartments imagining how the families lived, their struggles and daily lives. The German family had to survive through the patriarch disappearing, leaving the mother the sole care giver and provider for her three children (a fourth passed away. She ended up becoming a seamstress, working from her small apartment. In the Italian family's apartment they had a recording of the, now adult, daughter describing her experience living in the apartment. Their triumph over adversity sure put my own worries into perspective! The museum experience was enhanced by our previous watching of episode one of the seven part series on history of New York city, called New York: A Documentary Film. 

The history experiences spurned me on to get to the New York Public Library, to research my granddad who was a New York City police officer (patrolman), in 1905 to at least 1910. I had intended to spend some time at the NYPD Museum and archives, but sadly they sustained significant damage during Hurricane Sandy as are closed for an indefinite period. I received some great tips of where to search at the library from a librarian online and I was able to get a free visitor library card. Via the library, I was able to access the old microfiche rolls for the Police Special Orders records for 1905, 1906 and 1909 (1907-1908 are not available). We sent four hours each pouring over the rolls and made it through 1905, 1906 and half of 1909. Much of it was quite boring with details such as officers sick days, vacation days, transfers, appointments etc. 

However, there were interesting records of some officers misdeeds and subsequent punishments. Some misdeeds included not feeding the horses, not showing up for patrol or leaving early, being found in a liquor store or saloon while on duty, not being found at home when supposedly sick, sitting while on the job, speaking in an insolent manner to supervisors or citizens etc. Thankfully my granddad did not show up in any of those reprimanded! However, I did a learn a few facts of his appointments, duties and locations. I also found out he got a raise in 1906 to $900.00/year. I was also able to access the http://www.ancestry.com site via the library for free (which you can also do so via Calgary Public Library). I was able to find my granddad in the 1910 census, locate his address and view his apartment on google maps street view! The next plan is to go take a photo of his apartment. I was also able to access the newspaper archives and found an article from 1906 detailing the award my granddad received for saving a man who was drowning.  It's been fun playing family detective and I plan on putting all the information together in a family timeline booklet. 

It has been rather surreal to wander the streets of NYC and wonder what my granddad saw and felt a 100 years ago...

Daily life in NYC

We are now well settled into our fifth floor walk up apartment in NYC, Lower East Side, near Chinatown. Evidence of Hurricane Sandy's devastation is no longer visible in our immediate area. However those in other areas of New York City, such as the Rockaways and Redhook etc, were much more severely impacted and are still recovering.



We picked up some cat food for one charity and made financial donations to: NYC Foodbank, and Friends of Firefighers.
If you want to donate, these, and many other charities, are accepting donations online to help those impacted with the long term recovery needs.

We joined many other excited New Yorkers at a vegan election night party. It was exciting to watch this historic moment in real life. I hope Canadians can become more passionate about our politics and make informed choices and participate in the democratic process. We also voted, by mail, in the upcoming Calgary Byelection. If you live in this riding please check out the Calgary Centre, whose goal is to engage constituents in electing a progressive member of parliament.

We walk several kilometres a day exploring the streets of NYC and snapping photos. We also have monthly metro passes and use the subway for long jaunts. I prefer our area, Lower East side, and Brooklyn to midtown and uptown. We've enjoyed amazing vegan meals from a variety of restaurants. It seems nearly every local corner store has vegan offerings as well. So far our favorite meal has been from Blossom, but we also enjoy the nearby Teany Cafe, especially their extensive vegan desserts. We love the sushi from the all vegan Beyond Sushi. We are also nearby the vegan show shop, Moo Shoes, where J found a few new items.

We recently had our lovely friends, Lori and Ken, stay with us for a few days. We toured coffee shops, checked out the The Warhol Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum, spent an afternoon at The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), and attended the unique and interactive Sleep No More show.

There are lovely antique and vintage stores here. We attended NYC's largest antique event, the Pier 94 Antique Show, where we spent four hours viewing the 500 vendors. We picked up two sets of vintage flatware. We also saw Brooke Shields, shopping in the vintage clothing section, and even more exciting, Gary Sohmers, from the Antiques Roadshow. We also had a fun time at the Hell's Kitchen Antique Garage, a weekly flea market, where we picked up a unique 20 foot long vintage Amish rug, to hang in our living room. We've also checked out several other artist and flea markets in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The weather has been cool but pleasant in NYC and no snow! We've taken advantage of this and spent a day wandering the Highline Park, and surrounding area. The park is a unique narrow, elevated space, built on an old railway track, with spectacular city views. I'm also enjoying my new book; Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants. I do love all creatures and I enjoy watching the rats scampering around in the early evening in the subways and parks. The squirrels here are also not shy and are like little rodent monkeys. Other than these, the most unique wildlife spotting was a cat carry a giant cockroach in its' mouth.

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The lights go out in the city that never sleeps

As everyone is aware hurricane Sandy sent her wrath to NYC and exploded an electrical substation, on October 29, 2012, sending Manhattan, south of about 40th street into darkness. Our hotel, and the apartment we moved into today are both in this area. We are entering into the 4th day of no power, no Internet, no hot water, no heat, no subway, no cell service, no traffic lights, and no fresh food close by. Our well stocked emergency bag is at home but we did manage to pick up two headlamps, candles, snacks, etc. I wish we had our crank radio with us so we could stay in the loop! Everyone should keep a well stocked emergency bag, including three days of easy to prepare food. Check the Government of Canada's Get Prepared site, out for tips.

We are very very grateful we still have running water as some don't and we've seen people doing their laundry in fire hydrants! The day after the storm we took a 12 km walk and surveyed the damage. There were cars floating in an underground parking lot under the FDR over pass, uprooted trees, ripped off signs, destroyed fences and scaffolding, busted lawn furniture, garbage strewn about, and piles of debris including large hunks of wood from destroyed docks thrown up from the river.









We spend our days making the 3.5 km walk over the bridge to Williamsburg, and eat great vegan food at Food Swings, and Bad Burger. As well, there are lovely independent and vintage shops to browse. Today J lugged over our laundry to the closest working laundromat.

New Yorkers are a kind and resilient bunch! Folks are helping out neighbors, businesses are doing their best to be open with what they have, and every business we've been to, in other areas with power, have no problem with folks charging their phones etc. We've heard stories of people giving away free perishable food items. For us it is an uncomfortable inconvenience but for families, the elderly, and people trying to get to work it is much more serious. I fear with ongoing climate change extreme weather will become more common. A relevant article on the issue; It's Global Warming Stupid. Consider they ways we can individually make better choices to protect the environment and elect officials who will do the same.




To check out my photos see; http://www.flickr.com/photos/8751723@N02/

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Vegas Baby!

After departing Phoenix we arrived in Las Vegas. We had been to Vegas several years ago and had not been that impressed with the strip. At that time we did enjoy a day trip to search for aliens near Area 51, and visited the The Hoover Dam.

However this time we enjoyed the city more and stayed a week. We started out at the Vdara Hotel, after booking a deal via Priceline. After a few days we decided to switch to the Wynn Encore, after learning that they offer vegan menus at all their restaurants! (Check out an article on it here; Las Vegas: Vegans, get ready for a feast.) We were not disappointed with the food. Awesome entrees, appetizers, deserts and even bread baskets with vegan spread. It is wonderful to see companies being inclusive of vegans and recognizing that we are also a worthwhile market.

We gambled a little bit, walked up and down the strip, spent time in the pool and checked out Cirque De Soleil's Zumanity. The show was hilarious, and rather naughty, with all of the usual amazing cirque acrobatics. My favorite is when some poor sap in the front row gets pulled into the act (as long as it is of course not me!) J did get a face full when a busty performer squeezed through the aisles. I laughed so hard I cried.

We also spent some time off the strip checking out the great antique shops and picked up two amazing paintings from the terrific Patina Decor. We also enjoyed vegan donuts from Ronald's Donuts and vegan brunch from Pura Vida.

Now we are continuing our trek north with our next stopover in Salt Lake City.

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Awesome Arizona

On our way to Tucson, We spent a few days in Phoenix staying at the super fun and great value Clarendon Hotel. We spent time checking out the abundant antique shops and viewing the marvelous midcentury modern architecture. We also found awesome vegan dining. Our favorite for lunch and dinner is Green Restaurant, full of amazing vegan comfort food. Next door is the awesome Nami, with vegan soft serve, bakery items, breakfast bagels and weekend brunch. From the Nami website; "The idea for Nami was born from our infamous organic ice cream treat- The tSoynami. A tSoynami starts with our homemade tsoft tserve, then we stir in all sorts of goodies like cakes, cookies, chocolate, peanut butter and just about anything you can think of, we’ve dozens to choose from. Then we thought, why not bake all of our favorite vegan treats here too. Then, yet another light bulb pops up – who doesn’t enjoy an organic, shade grown cup of coffee with their sweet treat- so voila. NAMI was born, your one stop shop for the good stuff in life." Delightful!

Next we headed down to Tucson for our four week bicycle frame buying course via Bohemian Bicycles. We had great accommodations which included a sweet menagerie of nearby critters. Two kitties, two doggies and a sweet tortoise added extra joy to our trip. I can't wait to adopt a cat when we return! When we weren't building bicycles we had a bit of time to check out the local sites. We ate regularly at the vegan Lovin Spoonfuls Restaurant, which has a great menu of vegan comfort foods and bakery items. We had our weekend breakfast at the vegetarian Sparkroot Cafe. Terrific coffee! We also had great vegan sushi from Yoshimatsuaz.



Besides great food we checked out the many antique stores and our favorite was Copper Country Antique Mall. We also took a trip to Biosphere2. "Biosphere 2 is an Earth systems science research facility currently owned by the University of Arizona since 2011. Its mission is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching and lifelong learning about Earth, its living systems, and its place in the universe. It is a 3.14-acre (12,700 m2)[1] structure originally built to be an artificial, materially closed ecological system in Oracle, Arizona (US) by Space Biosphere Ventures, a joint venture whose principal officers were John P. Allen, inventor and Executive Director, and Margret Augustine, CEO. Constructed between 1987 and 1991, it was used to explore the complex web of interactions within life systems in a structure that included five areas based on biomes and an agricultural area and human living/working space to study the interactions between humans, farming and technology with the rest of nature.[2] It also explored the possible use of closed biospheres in space colonization, and allowed the study and manipulation of a biosphere without harming Earth's." (source; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2) It was vey interesting to see and to contemplate 8 scientists living inside for two years! If these glass walls could talk...


We took a trip out to the Titan Missile Museum. From their website; "The Titan Missile Museum is the only remaining Titan II site open to the public, allowing you to relive a time when the threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union was a reality. The Titan II was capable of launching from its underground silo in 58 seconds and could deliver a nine megaton thermonuclear warhead to its target more than 5,500 miles away in less than thirty minutes. For more than two decades, 54 Titan II missile complexes across the United States stood "on alert" 24 hours a day, seven days a week, heightening the threat of nuclear war or preventing Armageddon, depending upon your point of view." It was surreal experience to be so close to something that could have wiped out part of the planet. We learned that the missile was a tool for MAD: Mutual Assured Destruction. The premise of MAD is to act as a deterrent via a catastrophic counter attack should the enemy attack. The vintage machines were very interesting. Peering down on the 110 foot Titan from the viewing area was eerie.



"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." - Mother Teresa

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Biolite Camping Stove Review

We recently received our Biolite Camp Stove, and took it camping to Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and a few stops in between.We used the stove to boil water, make espresso, roast vegan marshmallows, and cook up other vegan camping delights.

We were extremely impressed with the compact, but hot, fire output if this unit. It only uses small sticks, which we easily collected or splintered off of a log. The design is ingenious, using a small fire powered fan to keep the flames full of oxygen and burning steady. But wait there's more! The stove actually does charge small electrical devices. I charged my iPhone whenever a good fire was going.

Biolite is a great camp stove and a great addition to our Emergency Preparedness Kit.

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