hot dog heaven!!

I was going to mention this along with the Chicago post, but because it's such an amazing find, it deserves it's very own space.

Mike and I were parked on a side street in Chi-town while leeching off someones wireless bubble, we found this awesome sounding hot dog mecca at one of the online posting for Chicago cheap eats. This place is call Hot Doug's. Just reading the types of hot dog they have on their special menu makes my mouth water. I wouldn't mind ordering one of each.

"White Wine and Dijon Rabbit Sausage with White Truffle Butter and Romao Sheep's Milk Cheese"

The extremely down point to this is we got there too late. They only open from 10am-4pm. We even drove by it to see how the place look like. It's a small little eatery in the middle of some commercial/office area. AHHHHHH, that makes it even more authentic.

*sigh* next time...definitely next time...

the Windy city...

Mike and I took a day trip to Chi-town the other day. We mainly ventured to see shops in the city, can't say we really did any sight-seeing. But we did drove through down town and some special districts. We noticed there are so many things on sale in Chicago. It seems like there are abundances of merchandise on sale and no one is buying them. And trust me, they are REALLY cheap! Where are all the shoppers? Isn't Chicago one of the biggest cities in the States? I know it's not fair for us to comment about the city given we only spend 6 hours in town, but from what we did get to see. The city didn't give us an urban/big city feel. It almost feels like being in Calgary (no offence to all the Calgarian out there). But one thing i got to say is Chi-town do have some REALLY unique architecture. Actually, I would say it's the best architectural city in US. Regardless if it's a 3-story residential building, or down town skyscraper, many of them are very well designed. I just wish people in Canada would put as much thought into designing buildings. It would add so much more character to each city.

Sleepless in Washington..

So we finally arrived to Toronto. Our flight was delayed for 29 hours. We were first scheduled to depart on Saturday 7:30pm. But we got a call from the airline at around 2pm saying our flight was cancelled due to weather condition in Toronto. As weather is not one of the things they have control over, we have to scramble to arrange the extra night accomadation. But at least they re-scheduled us for a flight the next day free of charge. Since mike never been to the capital of U.S of A, i thought the extra night would be a great chance to show him around. We drove around the government district for a crash tour. But we did parked and walked over to see the White House up close. On our way back to our car, we and other pedestrians were stopped by police to proceed toward the pathway to the estate. We weren't sure what could possibly be happening at 11pm. Five minutes later, we saw the chain of police bike, security SUV and limo THE president is in drove by in front of us. It was kind of like what you see in the movie. Now we can tell people that we saw the president..in his limo!!

So the next day, we drove around town to checked out some stores. Mike found a wallet he's been hunting for and got it at dirt cheap price. So he was a happy camper. We also went to an Etheopian resto for a late lunch. It was delicious and very interesting. After all the fun, we returned the rental car and checked into our gate for our again delay flight. It was suppose to be 7:30pm, now it's at 9:30pm. Through out the time we are at the gate, the departure had been delay again and again due to mechanical problems. As this is obviously an error on their part, free accomadation was offered. A number of passangers took the offer, re-schedule the flight and left. The rest of us await for the future of our intended flight. At least we each got food vouchure for some sandwiches and water. Finally at 12:30am, our plane has arrived and we got back to Toronto at 2:30am.

ahhhhh... home sweet home!!

New York! New York!

New York was quite hectic. There's just too many places to see in too little time. And it doesn't have that NYC was FREEZING COLD those couple of days. We didn't exactly packed for the negative 10+ weather. We had to defrost ourselves by going into one store in every other block. blurrr...

I noticed my perspective have slightly changed toward the city. It doesn't seem to be as intimidating as i last remembered. People are quite friendly, everywhere is easily accessible via transit (much easier/efficient than driving), and every district is in rather close proximately to each other. Despite approaching to a number of passerby for directions, I grew quite comfortable to venturing around town on my own. Did i mention that there are soooo many restaurants in NYC, it'll take us a VERY LONG time to try them all out!!

On the road again

Can't believe i'm flying out tomorrow again. I'm both nervous and excited to go to the Big Apple. Excited because I always love New York. The food, the shops, the craziness are all too fascinating. Nervous because i have to get myself familiarize with the subway system once again. I got quite comfortable with it last time I was there, which was like 2 years ago. Now i have to re-learn it all over again. It feels almost the same as returning to driving stick shift after a long period of time. Nervous yet exciting. I just hope it won't involve too much staling.

Anyways, wish me luck!

great friends, great food, great weather..

I guess that pretty much sums up my trip to LA. I'm sure most people would first think of Disney, Universal, Walk of Fame and allll the other tourist spots which populate that city. But I didn't see any of it this time. Most of them I've already been in my previous visits.

My main purpose of going this time is to hang out in the city, see some friends, try out some good local food joints, and maybe find some good deals in the stores around town. I've managed to do all that and it was quite relaxing. But somehow i felt that my friends were the ones who are anxious to have me to do more and see more in LA.

I know as a host, there's always a sense of obligation to arrange a fully packed schedule for your guest. I wish they would only believe me when i said "it's OK. Anywhere would be fine. I just want to hang out (together)". Since my LA friends are all relatively new residence to the city. I think by saying that, it made their lives even harder. Because not only they can't take me to the few famous tourist spots that they know of, but now they have to think of somewhere new to take me to "just hang out". As odd as it sounds, i would have no problem even if they just take me about to do their daily errands. But of course they didn't. And therefore, I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to those of you that made this trip so perfect!

NA adventure - L.A.

Being in LA is great. Even though it's rather cold considering normal LA weather, but it's awesome be somewhere that's always sunny w/blue sky. We think one day we will move down to Cali. We feel that California and NYC is a great place for young couple to live in. But we definitely don't think it's a place to raise kids in. This place is too superficial in general, and there's too much temptation. But as "bad" of an influence LA is, we LOVE it. There's such a great eclectic of places to go and see. There's been so many things happening, i thought i just do a point form briefing.

The first day we were there, we went to a farmers market. All we did was eat. From Thai, to Turkish, to toffee, to ice-cream. MMmmmmm..

Next we were here and didn't even realize the Golden Globe is happening. We actually drove by Beverley Hills Hilton during the red carpet not knowing it's there. But we didn't see any celebs (at least i don't think so), only limos, police and star gazers.

Example of the "bad" influence. We heard a commercial on the radio for plastic surgery. It sounds as if it's a clothing sale commercial. It said you can get tummy tuck for as low as $99. And there's a breast, tummy, lipo combo which can save you $1000. AND they have limo service to and from the surgery. Isn't that just beautiful! No wonder most people here has no facial expression.

Speaking of radio/tv, it's intriguing to think that when you hear about any upcoming musical shows, tv shows, or celebrity news in general. They are actually happening in this city. Despite of the close proximity of these Hollywood event/news, i still think the chances of bumping into one is quite slim. Just because there's a ton of people in this city.

Finally, MTV is a horrible. Can't believe how much trash can one channel contain. If this is the influence the new generation is being expose to now, then global warming is not the only thing in the state of emergency.

LA continue...

NA adventure - Edmonton

Our day trip to Edmonton was short yet sufficient. Even though we were only there for 6 hours, i feel that we have seen what Edmonton has to offer. We were impressed by the West Edmonton Mall. The water park, the roller coasters and rides, and the mini aquarium (they have real flamingos, and they really do look like the fake ones!). Before going, i thought it would be HUGH and it would take us more than a day to cover the entire mall. But it's actually not THAT big. I mean other than the extra additions to your regular mall, we can walk through everything in 2 hours. It's interesting to see people swimming and resting on beach chairs inside the water park while it's -20C outside. We took some pictures, then moved onto the downtown area. There's really not a lot of make notes on regarding the trip. But i did also noticed that Edmonton has more major shops than Vancouver. I would think it's probably due to the existance of West Edmonton Mall. But still, how odd.

Next, Los Angeles...

Snow in the west coast...again?!

I swear this is not a duplicate entry. And I'm not using the same picture as the previous snow post. But it's snowing in Vangroovy again!! This is not fun anymore. The novelty of trenching through snow in the west coast is starting to wear off. I definately didn't moved here for the cold weather and the snow.

Winterlicious

As mike and I will be back in TO the end of the month, we would like to go to one for the first time together. As there are TONS of resto to choose from, do any of you have any sugestions as to which one is worthy of trying? We mainly want somewhere that has well made dishes.

NA adventure - Calgary

As per my previous North America Adventure entry, i mentioned that i will blog about all our trips throughout Canada and US. We started off our NA adventure yesterday with a day trip to Calgary, which we call the Texas of Canada. With only 8 hours or so in this city, we can't say we know everything about Calgary, but we did noticed a few things...

We have never seen so many people that drives pick up truck in a Canadian city. We've saw housewife, business man, senior and even asian driving them. There's old ones, American-made ones, Jap-made ones and modified ones. Pick-up is like the staple of Calgary. But beside pick up, we also noticed there are quite a number of high end luxury cars. From Audi to Mercedes. Then again, it is an oil city after all.

Second, the great Western hospitality. When I entered into the baggage area at the airport, i was welcomed by this friendly senior couple who were in their cowboy hats and boots. I think other than being greeters at the airport, they also help assist travelers with directions. I thought that it was kind of neat. And within the city, there are a number of Western clothing/accessory stores. We went to check out one. If it was within my budget, i would of got myself a pair of real cowboy boots. They come in many colors, styles and are very well made.

Lastly, after visiting Calgary, we thought it would actually be nice to travel to small city like this. The whole day that we were there, given we've managed to see most of the tourist area in the city, we only spend $7 in gas. Everything is in such close proximity that doesn't really too much driving. It is a great deal to see a city. Can't wait to be back for the Stampede and to visit Banff. EE-HA!

Next, Edmonton....

Return-home vacation

It was great to be back home for the two weeks over the holiday. Got to spent sometime with family and friends. Even thought i didn't get a chance to see EVERYONE, but it was great to hang out with familiar faces at familiar places.

I noticed there's a definately a difference between Return-Home vacation, and Travelling vacation. Return-Home vacation is less eventful, very lay back, and you're there pretty much just to hang out. It's like re-living your time when you were at home. Usually nothing really changed. Same life stlye, same routine. The only difference is that you are constantly updating yourself with what's new with everyone. To hear or to see what you've missed the last months. It's funny that by the second week that i'm back, it felt as if i never left.

Well, i'll be back again in two weeks. Hopefully, I will manage to see everyone this time.