Birthdays

I’ve written this last year but did not post until today.

44 years ago yesterday October 6,2011  I unconsciously was born to this world. I have no recollection of that event and I can only seem to remember things when I was maybe 4 and onwards. Time flies indeed and here I am at 44……..at some bit wondering on the “what if’s”. It’s normal I guess as we move along this path called life. Don’t get me wrong, I am HAPPY! I have the love of my life with me and I have my two wonderful children who never cease to make me so happy as a father. I don’t know if it’s coincidence or fate but I got to rethinking the path I’ve been taking this many years. A couple of days before my birthday, Steve Jobs of Apple passed away on 4Oct2011. I remembered him speaking in 2005 at Stanford University and his speech made an impression on me but somehow through the years I got sucked back in to join the flow of the rat race. With his passing, that speech came as a flashback but I wanted to hear it all over again and remind me what made it impressive to me. Fortunately, You Tube had it and I have watched it over and over again. The speech was simple as it should be but very powerful. Listening to that speech made me realize why he got to be him. He said – “Don’t let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” I’ve heard this may times from so many sources but they were all words….blah blah blah! Maybe because I did not see those people live it. Steve Jobs did.  It’s fascinating how a tech wonder becomes a life coach.

Old Town San Diego…. a simple pleasure

Cafe Coyote Old Town San Diego

Fried Ice Cream from Cafe Coyote

A lazy afternoon brought us to Old Town San Diego for some fried ice cream. Yes, FRIED ICE CREAM! Old Coyote Mexican Restaurant was mentioned in the travel channel so we figured to give it a shot. Of course a meal before desert so we ordered tacos, chile colorado, burritos, and horchata in anticipation of desert. Our lunch was good and came in big portions. The prices reasonable. Mexican food is always debatable in Southern California as there are so many places to have it. Everyone has an opinion which is the best In this case, Old Coyote has been voted as best Mexican restaurant in San Diego many times over. Bottom line, a good priced and tasty lunch. The fried ice cream arrived in a nice red bowl. The ice cream was covered in cornflakes which protected the ice cream from melting when quickly dunked in hot oil. The ice cream was drizzled with honey and topped with whipped cream. If you are asking, does it taste fried? Nope, not all. For what it’s worth, the idea is pretty cool for the kids. I did like the ice cream with a drizzle of honey.

Tortilla Making at one of the restaurants

Casa Estudillo

Anyway, we explored Old San Diego and it was interesting. There were old buildings to visit to include Casa Estudillo which was considered one of the finest adobe houses built in California. Visiting Old Town San Diego is very walkable. Many things to do and see on a lazy afternoon. The stimulation for me was the diversity of people visiting the place. There are many places to eat, to shop, drink a margarita, drink a never heard of soda brand, listen to a mariachi band, or just laze on one of the park benches and watch people.

Bottle Caps of soda brands by small or regional producers.

Dang Butterscotch Root Beer, Leninade (Lemonade/This is amusing really), Mason's Root Beer

At Fiesta De Reyes, a Mariachi band was playing and it was free and entertaining.

The Real Mariachi Band plays at the center court

The Queen Grandma enjoying the Mariachi Band

I took some pictures that I thought was interesting which I am posting here. If you do not want to be overstimulated by theme parks or places requiring constant attention, this is a good place to be. The kids have enough to see and do. You can just kick back on that Margarita, listen to the mariachi band, and strike up a conversation with someone (which I did).

Old Town San Diego

Flamboyant Guitar Player. He was really nice posing for me.

Tile Store at the Fiesta De Reyes - Old Town San Diego

When in San Diego, visit Old Town. It’s FREE and its fun. If not, perhaps that margarita will lighten you up

The Irish Heather GastroPub / Gastown,Vancouver, BC, Canada

There are many places to eat that stimulate your gastronomic palate, wow you with taste and flavors, tantalize your eyes with presentation but not a lot to remind you of your childhood. I am a bit of sentimental bloke and I like looking back at all the good meal time experiences I’ve had as a child. In this case, The Irish Heather GastroPub covers all the bases. 4 times a week (Sunday to Wednesday), this GastroPub offers dinner called “the Long Table Series”. This is a dining experience unique in itself because a maximum of 40 people share this one long table. There are no seat assignments, you sit wherever you please. Everybody gets the same meal and the same beer for one price ($CDN16). You need reservations to get on board. Dinner starts promptly at 7 PM so be there early and perhaps meet your upcoming “dinner mates”. If you are a bit shy to chat up strangers, perhaps a shot or two from “Heathers” very large collection of whiskeys will loosen you up . They too own Shebeen Whiskey House which is behind the Heather. For you whiskey aficionado, I think you will enjoy this place.

The Whiskey Selection

Whiskey Menu

The Irish Heather

The Irish Heather looking out

Now for a quick detour why the Irish Heather appealed to me. Growing up, I spent many summers living with my maternal grandfather. My grandfather had this long table (not as long as Heathers’ 40 ft.) with a long bench. My brother and I with our cousins would sit there all lined up and ready to finish any meal. Meal times were special because everything was discussed during mealtimes. I love our mealtimes because we were all together as a family. I’ve always wondered how my grandparents managed to whip up these big meals all the time. At the table, our family discussed everything, be it sad or happy and topics ranged from politics, religion, family, business and anything.  We kids always listened in but do not really remember much because we were more focused on what to do after meals or maybe we were anxious to be assigned to dish washing duty. Can you imagine the number of dishes?  To a child, that pile was a mountain Ah sweet memories.

The mind wanders again Anyway, off we go the Irish Heather…….

The Long Table

At the door, we were met by a nice young lady who had a clip board and was waiting for people to check-in for the dinner. I saw my name on that clipboard and we were checked in and the adventure began. Our evening started not at the bar but directly at the long table because our underage children were with us. As we were directed to the dining area, we moved along this cozy, dim, long, small pub area and through a short corridor we emerged in another part of the pub and lay before us was the “long table”. The dining area was on one side a brick wall and the other side the kitchen pantry and restaurant counter. I seated facing the pantry whose one part of the wall was see through glass, I could see some ham hanging as well as other fresh ingredients. I was excited , our server was very friendly and was a matter of fact Irish (or so I think) with the matching accent. With that, in honor of beautiful Erin (Ireland) I started with nothing else but with a pint of Guinness. This made the experience much more enjoyable too.

With our fellow diners...

Promptly at 7PM, the rest of the diners (I think I counted a little bit over 30) were walked in and it was interesting to see where the rest of the diners would position themselves. Some were with friends and some were by themselves. Two groups of friends sat on our left and right with very interesting stories. On my right were 3 young ladies who were talking about a wedding. One of them was the bride. I enjoyed listening to them as it was all filled with both excitement and anxious feelings. I wanted to exchange stories but it was much better listening to all the plans being made. Seated beside them was a  young man who made an impression on the ladies. One lady was clearly flirting with him and he likewise. From the corner of my eye, I thought they hit it off quite nicely. The energy around the table was vibrant and lively. People were smiling and making friendly glances around the table and I knew we were off to a good start. Introductions of the wait staff was done, a description of the beer we were drinking (Blood Alley Bitter) and meeting the chef who described the meal and where the ingredients were obtained. In this case, the salmon we were to enjoy was directly sourced from the fisherman. No middlemen involved. Basically a sea to table or farm to table relationship.

Blood Alley Bitter

The Meal

The Blood Alley Bitter arrived with a deep rich amber color, nice froth and sweet scent of beer. I took a sip and it was good. I am no beer expert and all I know is if it tastes good, then it is good. All that matters is that I am enjoying it. I would have ordered another pint but my Guinness was begging to be gulped down as well. It was amusing to see the servers bring out the food as they moved very quickly holding plates in their hands and forearms. Tonight’s dinner was  Pan Fried Salmon with roasted cauliflower and spinach with a vinaigrette and capers. The salmon had a nice crisp skin that I really like. The salmon was tasty and flaky. The salmon was seasoned just right that I had no need for extra salt or pepper. I felt the chef  took the time to carefully prepare the dish so that I can enjoy eating it instead of thinking of  “adding a dash of this or a dash of that”. After finishing my meal, I looked around to see if everyone finished theirs. I am happy to report that the chef should be proud. My wife and I were not only smiling because of the dinner but because we were together with our children enjoying such a nice meal.  My children finished theirs and told me it was good. My daughter loved the roasted cauliflower, so I now would need to add that to my menu repertoire at home. My family ordered a dessert that i do not remember and it too was good from the one teaspoon I was obligated by my kids to taste. It could have been a custard or pudding. I am not a dessert person so that flew by me. I am including a picture of it so in case you know what it is, tell me Dessert does not come with the dinner so it will set you back a few dollars.

Dessert

Yum

Dessert gone

Overall, it was a delightful meal matched with an experience of communal dining. Food somehow connects us all to be together in the company of family, friends or strangers. When you happen to be in Vancouver, visit this place. Perhaps, you may meet someone who may become your new friend or just experience dinner in the company of friendly people. It does not matter if you are alone or with someone, because that one long table connects us all.

At the Irish Heather Gastropub

The Irish Heather Gastropub                                                                                 212 Carrall Street                                                                                       Vancouver, BC, Canada

http://www.irishheather.com

Vancouver, BC, Canada / July 2011

A relaxing day in GasTown, Vancouver, BC, Canada

This is my 3rd visit to Vancouver and it always impresses me. Vancouver is a wonderful friendly city where I am comfortable walking along with the locals. The city is culturally diverse but it does not have that strong “rat racy” energy like New York or LA. No disrespect to New York (I love NY and its high energy) and Los Angeles, hey I am an Angeleno by heart having lived there and continue to be there almost every week as I am now located in the south bay. You can walk the city just being you and have a good time but of course like any other big city, you still have to be careful. But hey, in all my visits to Vancouver, I’ve always felt safe at all times. One local told me that some “haters” are around like any other place but they are a minority. Bottom line, Vancouver is a welcoming and a really clean city!

For 6 days, my family and I roamed the city on our rental car a Hyundai Sonata (I have to mention this because I enjoyed driving this car ) BTW, my pleasures are simple so a good drivable car makes me smile. The mind wanders once again LOL!!! On that note, We tried to discover as much as we can of the city and found many interesting experiences. The tourist traps were traps but I must say I enjoyed them because my family did. As a good tourist would do, we headed out to Stanley Park, YaleTown, GasTown, Downtown, Capilano Bridge, Grouse Mountain, Harbor Cruise, China Town, 2010 Olympic Venues, Crystal Palace Mall, Metro Town and others. All were good experiences for us, we found little gems in all those places and enjoyed them. For instance, GasTown had 2 restaurants we thought were really cool places to eat and they are the Irish Heather and Chill Winston. I will have a separate blog on each of the restaurants. Grouse Mountain has a fantastic zip line with well versed guides – Meghan and Lee. Meghan is an artist and creates wonderful animal/pet portraits, find her at customanimalportraits.com. Lee is an avid skier and also teaches skiing at Grouse Mountain. If you happen on Grouse Mountain and decide to Zip or Ski – say hi to them for us. Crystal Palace Mall was another world, it felt like I was in Asia. Most of the stores only accept cash so I am thinking prices are negotiable. You can shop for anything Asian in this mall. My kids found Gundam Wing model kits and stuff toys not available in the US (of course they said we have to buy them). The food court was exciting as it had things on the menu that made us hungry and others say huh? If you know me, I always go and order for the “huh?”. There is a really good Chinese restaurant there called Top Gun where we had dim sum for lunch. Don’t worry, it has no military motif inside, it’s just the name. Give it a shot if you are there. At YaleTown, we tried Charm Modern Thai, a hip looking Thai restaurant that had very reasonable prices and a good menu selection. The traditional dishes were given a modern flair in terms of taste making it a more delightful meal. Capilano bridge and the Cliff Walk was really neat as a testament to engineering. It may not compare to the Golden Gate bridge but it does hold its own. The Cliff Walk is quite an interesting feat as well and you need to walk over it to feel the vertigo effect of walking on an 18 inch wide walkway over a really deep gorge/cliff.

Cliff Walk at Capilano Bridge, Vancouver, BC, Canada

If you like a coffee experience, Vancouver’s Commercial Drive is the place to go for classic italian espresso. Ask around for the older espresso bars like Cafe Roma or Abruzzzo Cappuccino. Have a sit and enjoy the conversations/discussions of the old timers while you take on that caffeine fix. Commercial drive is a unique place to visit as it has it own character. Shopping and restaurants line commercial drive so not a dull walk. If you have no time to drive over to commercial drive, there is Blenz, Tim Horton’s and Waves. I know they are chain stores but they are a value for your Loonie.

The family on zen mode with our guides at Grouse Mountain Zip Line

When driving around Vancouver, you will need to have a pocketful of change as parking is metered in almost all places. Some machines take credit cards but I still prefer dropping in coins. There is no Canadian 1 or 2 dollar bill (as far as I am aware of). They are coins – $CDN 1 is called a Loonie and $CDN 2 is a Toonie. You can take public transport around Vancouver and from the looks of it, it is efficient and safe.

This trip was an opportunity for us to reconnect again as a family unit. No one had cellphone service (except me of course for emergency use) thus no internet on the go or IM on the go or text on the fly. Vacations are not only times to recharge but it gave us an opportunity to connect and be US. I look forward to our family trips because I am with my family all over again. It’s much different from being together on Friday nights through the weekend. The weekends are still filled with chores and things to do that it is just another day. On the other hand, family trips take on a different energy. All we think about is us as a family, we decide on things together, experience things together, talk about the experience together and laugh our hearts out. I love traveling with my family because everybody is game for a new experience. New food, new sights, new rides, and sometimes new friends await us. The views of and scenes of Vancouver are a pretty site but the sight of my family made it more special. Trips are expensive but it is worth it if it gives you a chance to discover your family and them to discover you all over again.

I wish you a trip of discovery both of places and your loved ones. Happy Landings !!!

Thoughts at 38,000 feet

At 38K feet, flying over Texas closing in on the border of Arizona…….there is nothing much to do except knowing that your plane has a ground speed of 510 miles/hour and the outside temp is -51F. After all the magazines have been read, the drinks chugged down, the snacks eaten, what else is there? I can start a conversation with the passenger on my right but she is asleep or that’s just my alibi as I really don’t like opening up a conversation with strangers. Come to think of it, I am shy. I’ll just imagine why she is on this flight. Perhaps she is going home or vacationing or working.

The mind wanders/wonders in close quarters.

I started writing because I thought I had an epiphany on what I wanted to do in life. After years of flying all over, meeting people, seeing places and experiencing things….I began to wonder what now? whats next? Is this for me? Will I still be doing this down the line? I love telling stories, I love discovering and sharing my experiences…..that’s it! Eureka! I think I found it.

Many times I ask myself, will I be doing this in the next 10 years? I’ll be 53 then (now that’s another story). I have co-workers who are in their late 50′s and early 60′s and BAM, it’s a hard way to make a living. But what’s the recourse? After doing the same motions and actions (schedule, pack, fly, meetings, fly back and again and again) for the last 15 years, it’s all I know. I can only wish I was doing what I love and still make a living out of it. I love people and the interaction, I love helping people, I love making a difference. I dream of working with people and communities who do not have much. Maybe with children who value that pencil and paper one provides them so they can learn to write or have that chance to write their thoughts or draw their imaginations. I have that chance and take it for granted because I am too busy. Busy with the things……..so many things. That pen and paper is always at my desk, waiting…..begging to capture my thoughts. What is the value of my thoughts? I don’t know. To someone else it may mean nothing….just scribbled words of another soul wandering this earth or maybe it may mean something.

It’s funny how thoughts move from one to the other like raindrops falling all over the place. Right now, I finally heard Adele’s album on this fight (Delta 109), now it’s Train. See that’s what I am saying….like raindrops all over the place. Now where was I? Soul searching……don’t get me wrong, I love my life even with its imperfections. I have my beautiful family, my true treasures in this world and in my heart…..now my eyes are tearing up. I love them, I love them, I love them!!!

The search is what can I give to this world? I know it won’t be mind-boggling, it won’t be life altering, nothing of that sort. I am just me, a “one” among the billion souls on this earth. Making more money would be nice but I think that should come after I do what I love to do. Instead of making money and loving it because of the money. It’s really simple but we complicate things sometimes. I guess that’s why life is difficult. We are what we are because of our experiences. The experience molds us be it good or bad. I’d like to think we choose how we get molded into but I also counter that because sometimes there is no choice. It’s sad but it happens. The bottom line is just to love ourselves. Be kind to ourselves because we become better souls. A good soul is kind and gentle.

On that note, Flight Delta 109 is getting ready for landing. My thoughts have moved again. My thoughts are moving out of this “flying can” ….no more dramatic thoughts, no more soulful ideas. Now it’s ….do I have some bills to tip the shuttle driver? , How is traffic? What’s for dinner? that report better be done! ….. Ahh, such is life on the ground. Now I am beginning to love sitting in this flying can