Road Blocks

7 10 2012

There have been many times when I’ve had an idea for a blog post.  After a trip, I have gotten a sudden wave of inspiration of this funny tale to tell about, for example, how I got trapped inside a San Franciscan public restroom as water came flooding into the little oblong capsule and as I kicked and yelled to try to get out, I felt like I was in some sort of Hunger Games booby-trapped room.  (This made me realize that I may have read the Hunger Games Trilogy one too many times). 

 

But once it came down to sitting down to write this funny little anecdote, I couldn’t do it.  The story never really came together on the page, and it sounded so much funnier in my head.  But it was definitely a story that I wanted to tell, and because I couldn’t figure out how to tell it, and because I am somewhat anal about wanting to tell stories in order of when they happened, I was stuck.  Since that horrifying experience thinking that I was trapped in a bathroom at Twin Peaks, I have gone to Napa and driven through wine country, I’ve taken a gondola ride up Crystal Mountain and seen crystal clear views of Mount Rainier, I’ve explored Pike’s Market and bought fresh seafood, taken water taxis and watched sea lions frolic, and seen the sun rise over the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge.  A lot has happened since those 90 seconds of bathroom terror.  But still, I haven’t been able to move forward since I couldn’t get past this one insignificant, but embarrassing moment in time.

Castella Di Amorosa

Up Close and Personal to my Friend Vino

Mt. Rainier View from Crystal Mountain

Mt. Rainier

Seattle Skyline

Early Morning at the Bay Bridge

This reminds me of when I was young.  Maybe 13 or 14 and I decided to try my hand at drawing.  Both my sister and brother are artistically gifted, and I on the other hand, always willed my hands to be able to create some masterpiece when I put pencil to paper, but it never felt like anything came of it.  But on this day, I decided I was going to use some sketch paper and one of those artist’s pencils and I was going to make a teddy bear be my subject. 

I drew feathery strokes on the paper.  Tried to do a little shading to create depth.  And I really wanted to capture that perfect glint in my teddy bear’s eye.  When I finished my drawing, I was so impressed with myself.  I patted myself on the back and showed it off to everyone.  I truly felt like I had overcome some sort of obstacle and that I did have some sort of artistic gene in my body.  But even though there is the saying that ‘practice makes perfect’ and that every talent needs to be continually worked on and practiced to evolve and improve, I decided that there was no way that I could draw any better than that.  I had peaked.  And anything that I drew after that point would surely not meet up to my now high expectations of myself.  So, that was it.  That was the last drawing that I drew…never allowing myself to improve or fail.

I don’t really know what all that says about me, (maybe I’m a control freak?), but during the last few months of my writing absence where I’ve felt like I couldn’t produce the quality of writing that I expected of myself, I realized today that I love writing too much just to stop because I haven’t been able to tell a story the way that I wanted to.  Perhaps one of these days I’ll be able to perfect my San Franciscan bathroom story, but for now at least, I won’t let not being able to tell that story prevent me from moving forward.

On to new adventures and life lessons….

Moving On…


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Categories : Miscellaneous, Napa Valley, San Francisco, Seattle

Bouncing Around the Bonneville Salt Flats

3 08 2012

Bonneville Salt Flats

After almost four years of being ‘on the road’, I finally made it to the Bonneville Salt Flats (while it was light out at least, because I’ve been through at least once during the dark and that’s no fun…because you can’t see things like…)

Random Sculpture on the Salt Flats

It was everything that you would think a salt flat should be.  It was almost blindingly white, reflecting the bright sun.  It was flat and it was impressive how far you could see across the salty plain.  The salt crunched under your feet and you could see the raised areas where the ground was cracking and being pushed up.  When I reached down to pick up some of the larger pieces of salt it looked like crystal quartz in my hand.  The heat reflected off the white surface and you could see heat waves emanating off the ground and see shimmering mirages of pools of water.

Salt

As Flat as Flat can Be

What I wasn’t expecting, but shouldn’t have been surprised about, was that I could feel the moisture in my skin and my mouth start to dry up as soon as we walked out onto the flats.   I was drying up like a raisin and every time I licked my lips I tasted salt.

Bright White Salt Flats

And what I really wasn’t expecting was that I finally got some proof of my amazing jumping skills!  Every time it came to high jumping exercises during the Insanity workouts, I swear I was jumping higher than some of those people in the video.  I kept telling people of my amazing vert, but they were all skeptics.  And since I don’t let anyone in the room during my Insanity workouts to witness the running, jumping, push ups, and general all around ‘kick your butt and sweat like you’ve never sweat before’ work out, there have been no witnesses of my amazing jumping ability.  Until now!

PROOF!!

One…Two…Three!!

Rightfully so, Nathan can jump too.

Jumping Side by Side


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Categories : Uncategorized, Utah

Cheers! To Mother Nature!

24 07 2012

Sometimes you feel like you need to make an effort to celebrate certain occasions.  Birthdays, anniversaries, and national holidays are kind of a given.  But it’s fun to celebrate Mother Nature’s milestones as well.

A Moment that Anyone can Enjoy

This year, on the First Day of Summer, we decided to party it up with Mother Nature.  And I think we had the bug bites to prove it too!

On the First Day of Summer, for my very first canoe ride, we decided to take a canoe down the Shenandoah River.

The Shenandoah River

Celebrating the ‘First Day of Summer’

I have to admit it was a pretty relaxing afternoon.  I had my handsketched paper map in front of me and made note of the slow moving deep water, the rapids and the beach and swimming areas.  I don’t think the map was drawn to scale though, because I always felt like I was ahead of the map, or missed the beach and swimming areas completely.

A Calm Day on the Shenandoah River

Stroke….Stroke…..Stroke….. Is that canoeing? Or rowing?

Either way, sometimes we floated along peacefully watching the turtles sunning themselves and cranes wading in the shallows, drifting under the low hanging branches, other times we challenged ourselves to keep up a rhythm and bypass all of the drifting tubers.  They even had an inner tube for their cooler, although sometimes as we passed a group, we noticed that they had found themselves in an eddy and weren’t going anywhere.

Time to Suntan

Picture Perfect

Tally Ho!

Not the whole trip was peaceful though.  We prepared ourselves for the Class 2 rapids that were at the end of our 4 hour trip.  But we got cocky.  Camera placed in the nose of the canoe, we took off to battle the rapids.  Of course…. you guessed it.  Water lapping over the sides, right into the nose of the canoe, the camera taking on water, the canoe taking on water.      My handsketched map floating to the back of the canoe….  Well, we made it to the other side, a little waterlogged but at least we didn’t flip over, we just ended up leaving the rapids backwards, that’s all.  Thankfully, the camera dried out, but my little map didn’t fare so well, and despite my best efforts, it didn’t make it.

But, all in all, I truly feel that we did our best to celebrate the First Day of Summer. 

Cheers! To Mother Nature!


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Categories : Virginia

Who is THE ‘El Capitan’?

24 06 2012

El Capitan Suite.

This is what Nathan renamed the ‘Presidential Suite’ at the Inn & Spa at Loretto.  And what does one do when they rename a room at a hotel?  Stumble upon the perfect addition to the suite.  And then make everyone take photos with it.

Everyone taking photos with this hat?  Means 50+ photos were taken, so we’ve narrowed down the field to the best of best.  Now, we have our favourite, but we thought perhaps we should open up the voting and see what happens……

Do you have a favourite ‘El Capitan’?

El Capitan #1:

The ‘Ladies Man’

El Capitan #2:

The ‘Thinker’

El Capitan #3

The ‘Flirt’

El Capitan #4

The ‘Party Girl’

El Capitan #5

The ‘Jack Nicholson’

El Capitan #6

The ‘Tip of the Hat’

El Capitan #7

The ‘Gangsta’

El Capitan #8

The ‘Stoic’

El Capitan #9

The ‘Drunkard’

El Capitan #10

The ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’


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Categories : New Mexico

What do you think when you hear the rooster crow?

15 03 2012

When you hear the rooster crow in the morning, is that a sign that you should be up already or is it a sign that you’re up way too early?

I had to ask myself that question after flying from the east coast to the west coast and waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to tackle the day….at 4:30 in the morning.

A normal person would roll over and attempt to fall back to sleep.  A sane person may get up and go downstairs and curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and a book.  Well, we never said we were normal or sane….so with a quick note left in the kitchen for our house guests:

‘It’s 5am and we’re going out to explore!  Should be back soon, but if we’re not – help yourself to anything and everything! ‘

We were out the door and on our way to see what’s happening in West Seattle at 5am on a Sunday.

Twinkling cityscape lights, the first early morning ferries zigzagging across Elliot Bay, and the very noisy sea lions chattering up a storm.

Seattle Skyline from West Seattle

The Space Needle

After taking in the morning and realizing that the sun wasn’t really going to come out from behind the clouds, we still made it back before everyone woke up.

A few days later we decided to repeat our early morning photography expedition, except this time we had a specific location in mind.  However, this time we were not fresh off the plane and still on the east coast time zone.  This time the 5am wake up took a little more coordination – an alarm clock that I couldn’t seem to turn off due to my hand having fallen asleep (and not woken up yet), and a body that knows without a doubt that it was too early to be awake and did not want to be hustled out into the cold.

But, we made it to Kerry Park, and we weren’t alone.  There were no less than 3 other photographers (and more who showed up later) who had kicked themselves out of bed and set up shop to capture photos and time lapsed video of the iconic Seattle skyline with the Space Needle in the forefront and Mount Rainier in the background.

Scenic View from Kerry Park

Seattle Sunrise

The Space Needle & Mt. Rainier

A Morning in Queen Anne

I have to admit, it was worth it.


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Categories : Seattle

Winter in San Diego

13 02 2012

As I bundled myself up with layer upon layer of clothes (tank top, dress, sweatshirt, scarf, winter coat, leather gloves, tights, socks, second pair of socks, shearling lined winter boots), preparing for a Sunday in New York in 19F (-7C), I wistfully remembered that just one month ago I knew what the warm sun felt shining on my face.

Even though there was a chill in the air during a trip to San Diego in January, it was still sunny, it was still flip flop weather, and it was still San Diego.

I’ve been procrastinating to write this post and put up some photos from our week in San Diego, but I just found my inspiration – COLD COLD COLD weather.

Welcome to Winter in San Diego:

Longest Pier on the West Coast

A boardwalk and beach still filled with flip flop wearing crowds (wearing a light sweater and a scarf for decoration), surfers challenging the waves and playing chicken with the pier pillars, dogs and their owners playing on the beach, skirting the waves, and then giving up and just committing to frolicking in the water, and a laidback breezy California attitude.

Even during a cold spell, the sun still shines and the water still sparkles.  It’s hard to imagine what the rest of the country is experiencing with snow storms, ice pellets, and a grey cloud cover that can’t help but make you feel a little grey and lackluster.

You can imagine my delight and surprise, when a walk along the downtown harbour, unearths this discovery.

The Times Square Kiss

A Vintage "Bob Hope" Scene

I’ve heard that people say, “wherever you are, whatever the weather, the weather’s always better in San Diego”.

I can’t say that I disagree.


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Categories : San Diego

Looking for Winter

19 12 2011

It’s hard to get into the holiday/Christmasy mood when the sun is shining, the streets are lined with palm trees, the beach is filled with volleyball players, boogie boarders and paddle boarders, and you’re wearing flip flops.  It just doesn’t scream ‘Walkin’ in a Winter Wonderland’ or ‘I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…’ does it?

Well you can imagine how excited I was when we planned a trip away from the beach and into the mountains to Big Bear Lake, Southern California’s skiing destination.  WINTER WONDERLAND here we come!!  So for the trip I packed my Canadian snow boots (to mark my territory and leave Canadian maple leaf foot prints everywhere I went), a heavy poncho, my leather coat, my leather gloves, a wool wintercoat (just in case), and my cool winter hat that I wear about 1 week a year.   You can imagine the looks we got as we left the hotel lobby, which was full of flip flop wearing families on their way to Disneyland.  To give you a fair comparison, Nathan was wearing a sweatshirt.

We started the road trip with some Christmas music to get us in the holiday spirit.  As we passed people with the top down on their convertible, it just seemed wrong to be listening to Silver Bells on the radio.  So we decided that we wouldn’t turn on the Christmas music until we saw snow.

So I waited as we wound up the California mountains, and waited some more, and waited a little more.  ‘Is that snow?  No, wait, it’s just the way the sun is hitting those rocks…’  Finally!  We found snow, but only in the areas that the sun couldn’t get to.  One side of the street some snow and ice, and on the other side, dry grass and desert looking dirt.

Coming from Vancouver, Canada I think I expected a snow-covered winter village (like Whistler).  As I was shedding layer after layer of clothing, I realized that perhaps my expectations were too high, but what can you expect 90 minutes from the beach?

We did finally find some snow and a lake with a layer of ice.  I didn’t realize that ice could make so much noise, but it rivaled the quacking ducks.

Icy Big Bear Lake

Big Bear Lake Photo Op

Enjoying the View

And, although I didn’t get to trudge along snow covered trails, marking my territory with maple leaves, we did take advantage of a little lighthearted snow play (no snow angels though).

Snow Ball Fight...Kind Of

Taking Advantage of the Snow

A Little Fun in the Snow


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Categories : California

“Dear Me: A Letter to my 16 Year Old Self”

5 12 2011

On a recent flight on Southwest Airlines, I came across a feature in their Spirit magazine.   A book was just published called ‘Dear Me: A Letter to my Sixteen Year Old Self’, edited by Joseph Galliano, which is a collection of 75 different letters by a variety of different celebrities (actors, comedians, writers, etc) writing their own version of a letter to their sixteen year old selves.  I have to admit, it caught my attention and made me remember all of those times I was young and told myself, ‘when I have kids, I will never do …..’.  To this day, I have no idea what any of those things were, I just know that my eight, ten, twelve, sixteen year old self made a mental note.

I’ve always been a huge supporter of journaling and reflecting on my day-to-day life, not only to sort out the troubling times but also to keep those exciting, adrenaline rush memories alive.   And, most importantly, to get to those ‘AHA!’ moments; because, if you write just to write, whatever you are feeling, without judgment, and with the expectation that not even you will be reading what ends up on the page, you WILL get an ‘AHA!’ moment.

The idea of writing a letter to your former teenage self is such a unique way to reflect on what was most likely a time of self doubt and self-absorption and reflect on all of the lessons you’ve learned since then.

So here is my version of ‘Dear Me:  A Letter to my Sixteen Year Old Self’:

'Six Year Old Traci' - Read this in 10 years - it will be waiting for you!

 Dear Traci,

 You have curly hair!  You have to stop fighting it and accept it.  Yes, it may take you until you are 25 to be able to figure out how to style your hair, but you do finally figure it out, and everyone is jealous of your curls (you even learn how to blow it straight!).  You will one day find your hair stylist soul mate who knows exactly what to do with your mane, and despite what you think now, a ‘wash and wear’ hairstyle that does not require any blow drying will never work for you.  

 It is okay if it doesn’t seem like you have found your clique of friends yet.  Your best friendships are yet to come.  You will have great friends in life.  Friends that know exactly what cartoon bird video to put on to make you feel better, friends that you will stay up all night with for no reason at all except that the conversation never stops.  Friends that encourage you to follow your passion and friends that encourage you to leave your comfort zone, but are protective enough to say, ‘make good choices’ before you embark on a new adventure.

 You will discover that school and grades are not everything.  Yes, you will have a fluke genius moment and get 100% on your first calculus test when you were sure that you had no idea what you were doing.  (It was short-lived and lasted only for that one test).  It is not so much what you are learning, but the work ethic that you learn from your dedication to school and extra curricular activities that keeps you moving forward and rising to the top; and, ultimately allows you to enjoy life to its fullest. 

 Don’t worry.  You end up doing so much more than you ever thought you would.  You do not take the traditional route that you think you are destined for.  You discover a fork in the road that you did not even know existed, and for your willingness to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves to you and your commitment to take a chance on the unknown, you are rewarded with a career filled with travel, excitement, and a sense of confidence in your abilities that will stay with you always.  Trust your instincts because they have proven to be trustworthy and make sure you take risks, because they always seem to put you in the right place at the right time.

 And boyfriends?  It’s okay that you’ve only had one boyfriend back in 7th grade (there is another one in your future before you graduate).  You are picky, and you don’t waste your time on crushes.  You like who you like, and if you aren’t absolutely positive that you like him, it means that you don’t.   Unfortunately, you will experience heartbreak but you will also experience a love and companionship that still surprises you.  It’s supposed to be easy, and when you find the right person, it is.  And guess what?  He’s American!

 Love Always,

28 year old Traci

28 Year Old Traci

 I am so glad that I came across the excerpt from this collection of letters.  Feeling a bit of writer’s block lately, this inspired me so much that I felt the need to take out my laptop and write this 35,000 ft in the air somewhere between Denver and LA.  It’s nice to know that with all of the pop-culture, media-diluted content out there, that these pieces are finding their way to people and that a few words from the heart can still make such an impact.

**  This post was Freshly Pressed on December 13, 2011 **


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Categories : Miscellaneous

O’Day on a Monday

30 08 2011


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Categories : Detroit

Here….Fish…Fish…Fish…Crawfish…

26 08 2011

I grew up salmon fishing in Port Alberni, BC.  Waking up at 3am, taking half of a Gravol pill (aka Dramamine) and falling asleep in the truck until we arrived at the boat launch.  Sometimes it was just me, other times it was me and my brother.   Regardless, we would stay awake until we got situated in the boat, wrapped up in blankets and got a quick thrill riding over the waves and boat wake in the pre-dawn light.  Then we fell back asleep until it was light out and my dad had been fishing for at least 3 hours.

During these summers we learned that we did not like waking up at 3am, salmon fishing is no big deal and my dad wanted us in the boat so the fish limit would increase and he could catch more fish, if the fish aren’t biting it’s time for a coffee break, and my brother and I were easily persuaded to do all of this for the promise of a 7eleven Slurpee.

Much to my surprise, in the middle of Arizona, I went fishing for the first time since my summer fishing trips almost 15 years ago.  This time we fished from the shoreline, in a freshwater reservoir, with a little ultra light rod and reel.

No, we did not catch wild salmon the size of a 5 year old, but we also didn’t wake up at 3am!

Because we were not fishing at the morning bite I didn’t catch any fish.  But I now realize that my special talent is to catch crawfish on a line!

It was a group effort, but we managed to catch almost a dozen crawfish.  My claim to fame is the old crawfish that was covered in moss that has probably been in that reservoir forever.   ‘The Old Man of the Lake’ .

And what does one do when one catches a dozen crawfish?  You have a crawfish boil!

More trouble than those little crawfish tails are worth, but definitely a fun little vacation activity.


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Categories : Arizona

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