Many Cities, Many Awards

So as you can see from Alvin's last post, we went to many cities: Reading, PA; Chicago, IL; Vancouver, BC; Seattle, WA; and Portland, OR.

I decided to give my own little awards to each city.

The Coldest City Award goes to: Chicago. We were outside in Chicago for about 15 minutes total and I thought my face could have froze off.

City with the Most Cantonese Speaker Award goes to: Vancouver. Seattle gave Vancouver a run, but Vancouver definitely takes the cake. I even tried to speak to a waiter in Mandarin, and she gave me a look like, "what foreign language are you speaking?; here we speak the native language, Cantonese." Vancouver also gets the cleanest subway award compared to Chicago's.

City Where Alvin and I Have to Play with the Most Kids Award goes to: Portland. We stayed at Alvin's sister's house where they had three kids under the age of 5. We also stayed at my cousin's house where she has two kids under the age of 5. One day Alvin's sister brought her kids to my cousins and so there were 5 kids under the age of 5. Good thing there were also 6 adults there. Portland also has really good sushi, but since I didn't have sushi anywhere else, I guess it can't win the award.

City with the Most Foreign Foods goes to: Reading, PA. I felt like every time we went out to eat we went to a diner or had diner food. One friend from the Northeast told us that Pennsylvania people consider they got a good meal when they have 3 meats (from 3 different animals) with 3 starches. But how about the fiber? Man, what foreignness! Where is the Chinese food? Where is the Japanese food?

City that Almost Feels like a Second Home goes to (of course behind our other second homes [which were our first homes] in LA and Phoenix): It's a tie! Seattle and Portland! I have been to Seattle 7 times. I have been to Portland 4 times. I have probably spent more days in Portland than in Seattle. I'm not sure.

Home.

It's been 3 1/2 weeks since we left Dallas for what would be a whirlwind trip around the northern part of the country. Here's the travel log:

1. 2009-01-11 Flight: Dallas to Philadelphia (1301 Miles)
2. 2009-01-11 Rental Car: Philadelphia to Reading (63 Miles)
3. 2009-01-24 Shuttle: Reading to Philadelphia (63 Miles)
4. 2009-01-24 Flight: Philadelphia to Chicago (676 Miles)
5. 2009-01-24 Flight: Chicago to Vancouver, B.C. (1761 Miles)
6. 2009-01-28 Car: Vancouver, B.C. to Portland (315 Miles)
7. 2009-02-02 Amtrak: Portland to Seattle (186 Miles)
8. 2009-02-03 Amtrak: Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. (157 Miles)
9. 2009-02-03 Flight: Vancouver, B.C. to Chicago (1761 Miles)
10. 2009-02-04 Flight: Chicago to Dallas (802 Miles)

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. For a grand total of 7085 Miles.

But, to be able to spend good time with close family and friends, it was well worth it.

Still, it's good to be home.

Things Seen

Just wanted to share some pics of what my camera has seen here at the Oregon/Washington border. First, this is Thursday's sunset from the balcony at my sister's home. I love how the fog is rolling in, and that puff of smoke at the horizon just adds some life to the picture.



And then, here's a sign mounted at a street corner in Portland. I believe the reference is to train tracks there at the intersection. Or possibly it's a pothole warning. Whatever it is, don't get your bike caught in it... the front wheel will get tweaked 90 degrees and you will go flying off of your bike head first. I do not remember this sign from my driver's training handbook.

吃饱了

The title phrase (chi bao le) and the above picture pretty much sums up what we've been doing in Vancouver over the last three days. Taking pictures, playing with kids, and eating. Lots and lots of eating.

When I was growing up, I hated eating. It was a chore - a necessary evil in order to sustain life. One of my childhood memories of Vancouver is of visiting here in Expo '86, and being around cousins and uncles and aunts. But, because I hated eating, I always ate so slow and never wanted to finish my food. I remember one of my aunts (I won't say which one) tying me to the chair with a belt so that I couldn't leave until I finished my dinner... and all the while, everyone else was in the other room having a good time.

Smorgasbord

On Tuesday morning, our team went to S*hady M*aple Smorgasbord. Basically it is a lot of food. It had breakfast foods (which means 6 different kinds of potato products and many different kinds of egg products). It had at least 5 different kinds of meat, which I hear in PA is a sign that a meal is good. They also had a man making corn fritters (shown above) and a cheese bar. They also had ic*ees. We stayed for 2 hours and in the 2 hours we had a team meeting, and then went back to eating.

Yummy! Also, last night we went over to a couple's house and they served us nacho salad. They made cheese with meat in a crockpot, but didn't call it queso. I think only Texans call it queso, everywhere else they call it cheese with meat.