The Renovation!

What the hell, I'll start a new article instead of adding to the old one.

So we bought the fixer-upper, and Jax was a little trepiditious because she doesn't like to paint or rip things out or lay things down or pretty much anything involving any kind of moving...

come to think of it, she pretty much only likes to sweep and clean litter boxes... no, I shouldn't say that. She changes sheets and cooks fantastic dinners and scrubs toilets and does laundry and a whole bunch of other stuff that I don't even know about.

Strangely, she also buys a whole bunch of soup stock. I tell ya, if the apocalypse ever comes, or if jacquie's greatest fear is realized and a zombie army rises up, when everyone else is eating stray dogs and drinking ditch water we'll be sipping our soup in style.

No soup for you!

 I actually used to think - and I swear this is true - that for some reason our place was miraculously keeping clean on its own. Like somehow, if I sorta, tiptoed around and put my shoes in the closet and hung up my clothes occasionally that somehow, the new place just for some reason smelled better than the one I lived at on my own.
But then one day jax told me to bring her the Mr. Clean and I realized I had no clue where we even kept the cleaning supplies....
so.. yeah, apparently I'm a slob.

Sure you can come over... let me tidy up a bit first.

But this was supposed to be about renovating - but truth be told I'm writing this on a dark,rainy Sunday night in late September, and our place looks fantastic, and well, I can barely remember what we even did for the renovation. Not that we're finished - the kitchen wallpaper needs to be scraped off and jacquie was going to put some tiles or a backsplash up. and the bathroom is pretty much a 1980's disaster, and we could probably spend a month and at least 10 grand trying to upgrade that. But for the most part, this place is kick ass. really nice.

wanna make Jacquie mad?!? Make her paint the ceiling!!

I can't really remember what I wanted to say about the renovation - how exciting could that be? I spent some very sweaty days ripping out carpets - and loading disgusting black, moldy skin flaked strips of carpet - into Bob's truck, driving truck to the dump, unloading carpet, and... repeat.

Half way home! (and yes, that's a spilled can of white paint on the floor)

 But it was sorta fun actually. I absolutely detested my stupid job at Skyline pretending to be interested in selling trade show exhibits - so ripping out carpet and baseboards and slopping paint on walls and ceilings and trying to figure out how to install new light fixtures and ripping out closet doors and moving heavy appliances and all the fun stuff that goes into trying to get a 950 square foot place that hasn't been cleaned or renovated in 20 years ready in two weeks...

Found a local midget to help paint a map of China on our wall

 Let's just say it was challenging and annoying and scary (because we didn't even order the wood for the floors until like 7 days before we were supposed to move in, and then we had to find an installer, and he had to schedule a time, and I was driving back and forth from Downtown to my job to New West to Rich's to all over the place..

It's a bird.. It's a plane... it's HANDY MAN!!

But you know what they say... a picture speaks a 1000 words, or is worth 1000 words... or whatever... here's some pictures of the (almost) finished Jimmy and Jacquie love shack! xoxoxo

Take a look:

Movers and Shakers

* when pictures are added, this will be WAY cooler.

So we moved.
Yep.
Not that that's a huge deal, considering we both move approximately every 6 months, but this was a big move, because we bought our first place together!! Woohoo!!

Yep. 306 - 1240 Quayside Drive, New Westminster British Columbia Canada V3M 6H1 (love my 6 hot unicorns... makes sense to us... or to me anyway)

Jax helping Sid put on his moving dress.

We started looking with Rich the realtor in January, pretty much right after we got back from Cuba, and it took us until about the middle of April to finally find a place after much hand-wringing and some stressing and bidding/making an offer on another place (and having that offer accepted! only to us finding out that there was a pending lawsuit against the builder and that the garage was leaking profusely... so we backed out of that one) and, yeah, then we found this place - in the tony Tiffany Shores no less - but it was in rough rough shape. like, blech. the carpets were black with filth, the walls too, the blinds, the appliances were all circa 1980, the wallpaper peeling, and most disconcerning was the old lady who liked to do puzzles sitting in the middle of the living room and pretty much refusing to move.

But we managed to see past all that, because A) about a month earlier we saw an identical suite in the same building only on the second floor. and that sucker was $289,000, and the one we ended up with was a floor higher, with a view(ish) of the river and trees, and was being offered for $249,000! The one we didn't buy we thought was overpriced for a one-bedroom and it faced the street with an unhidden balcony (not good for 4 kitty fur babies masquerading as 2 kitty boys according to the strata bylaws) but it had new laminate flooring and was all done up nicely and staged with snazzy new appliances (although it was a bit dark because it was lower down, and not south facing, and the trees in front of the building kinda blocked the sunlight)
and B) upon further review, everything that was horrible and disgusting about the new place was all cosmetic - there were no walls to bang out and no electrical wires hanging out or holes in the floor or anything like that. Even someone with no tools could throw on a coat of paint and rip out some carpet and all that stuff that only required labour, and not actual skill... right?!

so we talked it over while Richie and Jack Klinkhammer (the other realtor who Rich loved talking to) waited, and we decide to lowball em with a $240,000 bid. Jacquie was all for bidding the asking price cause she didn't want to insult them (because really, it was a fair asking price) but Richie talked us into asking $240,000... so we did.
They came back at $243,000 - and since we were already preapproved by Allan our friendly neighbourhood mortgage broker for $300,000 - we accepted, contingent on us reading the minutes and having an inspection, and that was that!

We took over the place on May 15th - and luckily I had a job that allowed me to run around and go to the bank and mortgage broker and realtor's office and read minutes and all that stuff! And then on May 15th we waited while the weird old lady attempted to move... one hour, two hour three hours late... but eventually she was gone (we felt kinda bad because it was a foreclosure situation and it was apparent she wasn't pleased about going... but I did end up running into her in the hall and she was kinda Asbergerish, a tough gnarly traffic-sign waving working grandma who took no shit and was heading up the hill to live in her friend's basement suite and she rode a motorcycle and seemed a bit skuzzy (and considering we knew she never cleaned her apartment in 15 years, skuzzy is probably a nice description) but anyways, she wasn't so bad, and the good thing was after meeting her I felt less sorry for her... it wasn't like she was limping and pushing a walker in front of her with her 6 cats strapped to her back and white hair....

I wish I had pictures, cause right about now I'd add some of Jacquie's condemned building at 1-1020 Nicola |Street, our chicken-wired balcony, the 50 year old broken flower beds hanging from outside the windows, the vines covering the chipped and cracked stuccoed walls, the uneven steps, the 3 inches of space under the doors to let in the winter air, the no cupboard kitchen, the electrical fuse box from the 1920's, the fuses themselves that could only be purchased at one hardware store in the westend, and they'd blow if you turned on the microwave the same time you had the space heater going (which was necessary due to the single pane windows and the aforementioned drafty doors) the lack of shower, the exposed pipes and ancient radiators and cracks in the walls and crackheads in the back alley and drunk neighbours screaming in front of our window at 3am and....
yes yes jax will tell you the ceilings were nice and high, it was at least 650 sq. feet and... well the floors were original hardwood too so that was nice. Plus the location across from the firehall was good, and it was only a 7 minute walk to the Listel, all for under $1000, which was a WAY better deal than Laurenas on Nelson - although come to think of it, the doors didn't have giant spaces, the heater worked, the glass was doubled-paned etc etc.
but I digress...
I'd look to put up some pictures but if I stop to do that I get I'll stop writing and fiddling around with photo shop and I'll never get this finished!

Jax breaking it to Johnny that we're moving and leaving his friend Flo behind.

actually, you know what? I better stop anyway - Jacquie is on the Skytrain and if I don't finish sweeping and mopping she'll come home and have to do it, and she'll get all obsessed by it and won't even want to kiss me (among other things) until it's done to her satisfaction... so I might as well. plus the kitty litter is starting to attract flies (sidrick is an impressive pooper) ha! Actually, the other night we had Jax's dad and mei and jordan over for dinner, and she picked up Sid near the end of the night, but when she put him down there was a big glob of cat poop on her arm. I laughed, and she scolded me, saying ' don't baby, he's embarassed!' and we both turned, and Sid jumped up in the middle of the glass dining room table, stuck his back leg behind his ear, and starting licking his kitty butt in front of all 6 of us (jen was there too) definitely NOT an embarassed or shy kitty.
but wow, that's a huge digression...
I'll finish this soon!

Friends don't let friends date Rich

Just adding this on the off chance that Jax forgets...
remember - richie, while a nice guy to us and a wonderful friend, is not to be trusted when dating.

Oh my god!

as in, Oh My God it's almost August and we haven't written a blog entry in months!

And so much has happened - and so many many bottles of wine were drank (drunk/drunken) that there is no possible way I'll be able to remember what/where/how much we bought. Too bad, because I'm sure there were some good ones. One that comes to mind is Flip Flop - a California Pinot Gris that cost $9.99 and had - you guessed it - flip flops on the label! very clever. and very refreshing and fruity!
But to just jump into a wine that we drank at the end of July, skipping May/June would be redonkulous. So we won't do that.

So where have we been? Where HAVEN'T we been! and what haven't we done!

Looking at the last entry, we were snapping pictures at 1-1020 Nicola - and now we're in Tiffany Shores - so a TON has gone on since the last entry.

We moved, of course. But before we moved we had to run around and secure deposits and mortgages and have multiple meetings with our rotten realtor (he's not rotten really, that's just what Bob nicknames Richie : It's Richie the Rotten Realtor... rolls off the tongue nicely.

And then after we secured the new apartment we painted and laid floors and ripped out carpets (but not in that order) and Jax learned how to (sorta) do light fixtures. And we travelled to Seattle where Jax almost became a vegetable due to the excitement of seeing REALLY cool architecture (and drinking approximately 3 bottles of Chardonnay) and we bashed piles of crabs with mallets.

Dork with  a mallet.

 Jacquie devouring a bucket of crab, potatoes and corn. Not to mention 2 bottles of wine!

What else, you ask? We were golfing in Vernon, and Jax once again kicked my butt. And it's not even like I pretend to try and don't, cause I'm a guy and that's what you're supposed to do.. no. I try, and I lose. Golf blows.

Beautiful girl, beautiful course - beautiful form!

Yikes. Might have to rethink the white shades.

and the we found ourselves in Rock Creek!! YEEEHAAAA!! Wrastlin' mutton and ridin' greased pigs and hanging at the local pub with stuffed bears and crackhead waitresses and racist Indian gang members and just havin' a grand ol time in Jacquie's home town.

And then we found ourselves in Osoyoos, and the Golden Mile in Oliver, sippin' BC wines and hangin' at an awesome hotel and a fantastic pool, with a view of the lake - heavenly. Oh, and it was nice and hot and frankly, I think a road trip to Osoyoos is almost on par with Cuba.  

 And we even found the an elusive den of ground weasels!!

On the road again... one of our many weekend summer road trips.

We were chased by a ravenous bear on my birthday in the wilds of Port Moody... and I learned that Jacquie can outhike me hands down if she has the added motivation of a bear somewhere in the woods behind us. We even painted/cleaned the White Rock condo and put it up for sale! see??? crazy busy. no wonder I haven't been blogging. And that's not even the half of it.


I went to Minneapolis not once, but twice, and endured possibly THE most boring sales meetings in the history of the world, then quit my stupid boring horrible trade show job - thank god - and am now working at Flight Centre as a business development manager (aka sales rep) and Jax had PRK (People's Republic of Korea) done to her eyes and can now read signs and tell the difference between all three cats by sight alone - without having to listen to how their nails clack on the laminate at 4am.

What else? Death almost visited the Bjorkes' new abode - a small bat made the near fatal mistake of flying into our side window... only to be greeted by Loki, Sidrick and Mr. Mooglez. Luckily Jax was there to whisk the boys into the bedroom, then lock me in the laundry room to wrassle the bat. Afterall, it might have rabies, and she didn't want the kitties to be subjected to that! me on the other hand....

Oh, and we witnessed someone almost dying at our new gym at the New West Canada Games pool - but apparently he lived. Some weightlifter keeled over and had a heart attack mid-lift. This prompted us to buy yet another Groupon we probably won't use: 2 for 1 First Aid course.

And... well, that's probably enough for one entry eh? I'll stop now. C-ya soon.
~JIM

Wines of Spring 2011

Well, spring is a stretch, is flippin' cold, but it is what it is.

This is supposed to be somewhat of a wine blog, so without further adieu, here's some wine!

This wine was decent...I drank 3/4 of a bottle last night so that says something. Not complex, didn't need food and was just easy drinking. French..not sure of varietal, name; Lougue Dog...French trying to be cute and make their wines more appealing for people like Jim and myself. (Jax)

I liked it, but wasn't thrilled by it. Nice picture on the bottle though. (Jim)

And here's one that we got as a gift from Vera:
Mt. Boucherie
2005 Summit Reserve
Blaufrankisch
$ ?

I'll let Jacquie have her say, but to me, it tasted like Port without the sweetness, like grape juice. To give you an idea of how popular it is, we've had it opened over the course of two weekends, and we still have some left. I have NEVER seen my wife leave a bottle of wine open and undrunk that long.

Oh I am such a lush apparently...though this wine is not great, it is not that bad either. But what Jim has not quite learned yet is that I already know what varietals he prefers...so he is fun to pick out wines for. 

And here's another one, this one a California red blend, that I was really hoping would be a big, bold, tasty Australia type wine, but it ended up being super tanic, and Jacquie's first impression of the taste was, and I quote, 'tobacco'. ugh. Not really the flavour I was hoping for!


Big House Red, California
Blend
$12.95

Wouldn't buy it again. Much rather have a Little Penguin or something simple next time. It has an overwhelming tanic after taste, a bit harsh. I'm drinking it though, because I'm in a bit of a grumpy mood (because I'm bored at work!!) and I want a drink!

This wine is okay...taste like tea leaves...bitter and tanic..but actually it is growing on me  due to it being so different that what we normally drink. I would never bring this to a party but wouldn't mind on my own with some sundried olives. (Jax)

End of Days (in San Fran)

Clearly I cannot keep these blog entries short. But just think, they're so long, it's almost like you were actually there with us!
And now, on to THE LAST DAY.

We woke up, (as we often do) and we were a tad hungover, (as we often are) and I do believe I went swimmming, and Jacquie watched awful chick flicks in bed. Don't worry, I won't go into detail. We packed, showered, and Jacquie stuffed her hoodies, rain jackets, books, make-up and a variety of other things into my daypack for me to lug around all day, and we were off!

I had heard about a restaurant called 'HOME' in the Castro district - it had make-your-own bloody mary's - and for some reason this really excited me. Jacquie was all like, 'If I'm paying good money, I want to be servced damn it' but I'm a sucker for marketing ploys, and the thought of a waitress bringing me a shot of vodka, and then I get to go up to the bar and pour my OWN tomato juice was just too thrilling to miss. (cue Jacquie rolling her eyes)

So we jump on a street car going in the opposite direction of the ferry building, and 10 blocks later boom - there's the restaurant! Seriously, our hotel is either in the THE most convenient place, or... no, there is no 'either' - it is THE most convenient hotel. Ever.

So we wander up to the restaurant, and Jacquie reads the menu - and I'm all like, 'we don't have to go if it doesn't look good' and meanwhile as Jacquie is reading there are 59 dudes in tight jeans with bulging biceps who are undressing me with their eyes. (Flattering sure, but quite uncomfortable)

And then jacquie notices the bar menu - ALL YOU CAN DRINK Mimosas - $8.

Needless to say, we decided this would be our restaurant of choice (for the rest of our lives) Here's the menu:

OH NO!! I wrote a ton of other stuff, and it all didn't save! Blarg. well, I'll have to write it again, just not right now. damn.

San Fran DAY II (that's two... not eleven)

Howdy.

Wow, you're back? Day One read like War & Peace... I'll try to keep day two shorter, but it was a full vacation considering it was only a couple of days!

So... we woke up, sore as hell, and so I went for a fantastic swim to wake up, while Jax lazed in bed and I think watched some Sandra Bullock movie. (Jax reminds me upon reading that it was not Sandra Bullock, but some horrible made in Canada chick flick on the women's network featuring McDreamy. Not to get off track, but listen to this... so this average looking chick meets McDreamy (he works at a bagel shop) and she's a lawyer, but not happy in her work. He asks her to go away for the weekend with him and pretend to be his girlfriend. His best friend is getting married and he can't bear to be a the wedding without a 'date' and being McDreamy, of course he can't find a hot girl to really date, so he has to beg this average chick. Follow me so far? So the girl decides to slum it, and pretend to date the bagel guy. So they take this idyllic ferry ride out to some beautiful island, and all his friends are perfect and filthy rich, and they go kayaking and play croquet and McDreamy basically just sits there and listens to this girl drone on and on.. he's cute AND a GREAT listener. So dreamy... anyways, she finds out that McDreamy is actually filthy rich himself, he used to work on Wall Street but he decided to get back to nature and he OWNS the bagel shop!! He's a great listener, he's dreamy, AND he's rich!!


He's so dreamy.

They start to fall in love (of course) and they do it after the wedding -but, and here's the even worse, ridiculously contrived part of the script, it turns out that this girl's mother died when she was a kid. (this we learned during one of her rambling at the mouth scenes where McDreamy sat nicely and listened) Before her mother died she told her that the 7th man she falls in love with will be her soulmate. Here's the kicker, McDreamy is only #6! What to do?! A rich, successful, soulful, hot guy is in love with her, but she's carrying around an old piece of paper that her dead mom wrote that clearly states he is NOT the guy for her!!

So of course she leaves him. And then some smarmy realtor says he loves her, and so of course she should be with him she figures. Poor McDreamy! Gawd.

But don't worry, in the end... wait for it... everything turns out alright! She quits her job, joins McDreamy in the bagel shop, and they all live happily ever after. Whew! Close one!

Anyways, back to the trip... and oh! In all my Chick Flick ranting I almost forgot - the Inter Continental provided a basket of goggles for swimmers! So nice. The gym was big, and had a ton of cardio equipment, but after our triathlon on Day One, we figured we didn't need any fake cardio. Today we were scheduled to take a boat cruise and maybe hit a museum, take it a bit easy... and as Jacquie continued to remind me, go SHOPPING!!
yay.


Jax's dream day.


Jim's dream day.

We left the hotel and walked to the centre of town, still a huge line-up at the cable car, so we hopped on the street car going towards the ferry terminal, and finally used our San Fran day pass booklet I was so excited to get from Air Miles. (500 Air Miles per book - Thanks Mom for shopping on the 1st of every month at Safeway so we could get enough Air Miles for free San Fran transport!)



Jax on a streetcar

The street car was easy to use, and as soon as we got off we ended up in market at the ferry terminal. We didn't spend much time there, because our street car to the Fisherman's Wharf showed up. From what we saw though, the market looked like we could've spent a lot of time there.


little hippy gear

There's something about Palm Trees that says 'Vacation!'

And soon we were back at Fisherman's Wharf, and kicking ourselves at how easy it would've been to take the street cars yesterday and save ourselves the extra 2 hour walk on the way home!!

We used our San Fran city passes to get tickets on the cruise of the Bay, which was just an hour out on the water to go under the Golden Gate Bridge, zoom around Alcatraz, and snap some pictures of the skyline. While waiting for the boat we ate breakfast at some overpriced faux surfer's restaurant. Breakfast was notable because I ordered bacon and gave it to jacquie, but then almost threw up cause bacon grease was all over my eggs. blech. It's been a long time since I ate pig juice. We also got to see some of the Tampa Bay vs Pittsburgh round one of the playoffs game - Tampa won 8-2. (for those who are interested) By the way, since we're recording this for prosperity, Vancouver was playing Chicago and were up 3-0 in the series, but by the time we returned from our trip it was 3-3 and the city was in a panic!! But back to San Fran...


View of Telegraph Hill from our boat.


Golden Gate Bridge from the boat

The boat ride was nice, mostly because we didn't have to walk or ride bikes this time! We could just kick back and watch the beautiful scenery go by. They also played one of those cheesy touristy tapes, that spouts useless facts like, 'the amount of wiring that went into the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge - if laid end to end - can circle the Earth 3 times.' and some interesting facts like, 'alcatraz island was named after the Spanish word for Pelicans' and 'only 5 inmates ever escaped from Alcatraz, but they were never found, and presume drowned' - see, I did learn some stuff!


coolio


The notorious Alcatraz penitentiary.

We just drove around the island - we didn't get to stop and see the cells or anything. I'd done that on my last trip to San Fran, and Jacquie was worried that because she sometimes sees ghosts (and grey-haired images of her future husband-to-be) that she would pick up bad spiritual vibes and bring ghosts back with her (or something like that) Anyways, the island gave her the heebie-jeebies and so we didn't opt for the actual tour, plus we heard from a very disappointed little girl on our boat that the Alcatraz boats were sold out for the entire weekend and she was stuck on this stupid boat that didn't do anything. She was quite chatty, until her little sister told on her for speaking to strangers and her mom yanked her away.

Then, as I snapped 147 shots of seagulls behind the boat, jacquie went downstairs to order a beer, because she was so excited about American liquor laws. Plus she LOVES to come back from places she goes alone to tell me that so-and-so hit on her. In this instance, she came back with a Corona and informed me the bartender promised her a free beer if she came back. He also said she looked 25.
But, she whispered, he's Mexican-American, or latino of some kind. (according to Jax only black men and foreign men try to pick her up - me being a boring white dude is interesting to her then, apparently?) I don't know... anyways, I spent the rest of the boat cruise trying to get her to go downstairs to get the free beer, but she was flustered, and didn't go. (and if she DID go, I'd have been jealous, so she did well to ignore me!)


The way to my wife's heart: booze and compliments about her young skin.


there it is!! THE perfect seagull/alcatraz shot!

The boat ride over, we then headed to the aquarium - which was thrilling for me, but not so much for Jax! I didn't realize she was scared of the water being OVER us. There was a large tunnel that you walk through, and the fish and sharks swim over and around you. I thought it was beautiful! So cool to see a ray swim over you!


Sardines? I dunno...but wow eh? Don't they look amazing?!


Jim and a shark.


Look at those nervous fingers!!


Jim and a ray.

Jax preferred the frogs and hedgehogs. But hey, the tickets were part of the City Pass, so we could go for a quick 30-minute run through the place, and not feel like we were obligated to stay longer than we felt like! Plus we bought really dorky $30 pictures of ourselves standing in front of a green screen of sharks/jellyfish and the Golden Gate Bridge. Funnily enough, on our very first date together we went to the Vancouver Aquarium, and they take pictures of everyone entering in front of a green screen. Anyways, we take such dorky pictures usually, but this one was BRILLIANT! Alas, it was our first date, and neither of us wanted to shell out $30 for some cheesy touristy aquarium picture, so we didn't buy it. We still regret it, and the picture has taken on near mythical proportions in our minds... it is THE single-most beautiful picture of the both of us EVER taken. And we don't have it.

Anyways, after the aquarium we, what'd we do... OH! We walked up near Little Italy again, and then headed for Lombard Hill - the crookedest (most crooked?) street in the world! walking was very slow going today as the hills seemed WAY steeper now that our legs were tired. But we did mange to struggle thru, walk the hill, and then what did we find at the top of the hill?! Our very first cable car, with room to spare!!


yet more hills...



Lombard Street. Crooked eh?

So we hopped onto the cable car and boy, what an experience!! It's like a roller coaster, up and down the steepest hills imaginable, everyone hanging on for dear life, the conductors berating the tourists for getting in the way, not knowing what to do... it was tiring actually. Not as tiring as actually climbing the hills on your own, but it definitely isn't relaxing. They're working museums really, not built for comfort, no padding or anything... they're just like they were 100 years ago.

 View of Alcatraz from the back of the cable car.


cable car going the other way

God... I'm getting tired even WRITING this blog. We were busy,eh? Because after riding the cable car a good 30 minutes, we ended up back downtown. Did we go back to the hotel for lunch? nope. We jumped in a cab (after I had THE best slice of pizza in the world. really. it was that good) and headed for haight/ashbury, site of the 60's flower power, hippy dippy movement of the 60's. I'm sure Jacquie's dad hung out here at the time.

But now? Meh... now it's gentrified, and feels like a high class Commercial Drive. It's WAY more picturesque than Commercial or Main, and there are lots of pot smoking hipster hippy dudes and dudettes, but the stores are pricey, the clothes are hi-end, and open air tour buses are lined up by the dozen. It's cool to see, and while the murals and graffiti and piercing/tattoo shops etc were interesting, it didn't seem really authentic. Kinda like Hollywood Blvd for me. It was once something real, and now it's a reasonable facsimile created for tourists. We wandered, shopped for various items of clothing (okay, truth be told I was a little sulky and I moped on various man benches in little boutiques while jacquie shopped - but really, I was the only guy in MANY shops) And then we went for some WICKED Thai food. really awesome. But by 5pm or so we were ready to call it a day - and besides, jacquie promised to take me for dinner tonight, and we had to go back, go for a swim (I wanted to anyways!! Can't let a perfectly good pool go to waste!) and then head out for dinner. woohoo!








So we bussed back to the hotel, amazed at how easy it is to find our way around the city. Buses, streetcars, cable cars, they all seemed to travel in fairly straight lines and all of them shot us back in the general direction of our hotel. We lucked out on the hotel location big time - considering it was my first HotWire purchase as well! ($150 a night for 4.5 stars - seems like a decent deal, eh?)

I swam, Jacquie I think found another Sandra Bullock chick flick, and then it was time to go out! Oh wait, you know what, I missed something - we shopped!! How could I forget?? I was DYING to stop walking, but I followed jacquie into Old Navy to buy a shirt, and then to Burlington Coat Factory for underwear and socks, and I'm pretty sure there was some big shoe warehouse, and a make-up store... I can't believe I blocked all this out! Huh. And this was all before we returned to the hotel before dinner. I'm tired just thinking about it.


yes baby, those are SUPER cute. Can we go now?

Soooo... after our lovely shop and laze at the hotel, we walked back to downtown, and jumped on a cable car because we were old hands by this time, and went all the way down to the Fisherman's Wharf again. We weren't sure if we should go for seafood there or to Little Italy... but luckily we decided against the tourist traps and instead headed to Little Italy, for... wait for it.... quite possibly THE best Italian food I've ever had.

now... it might have been the company, the magical surroundings, the weekend in San Fran, or the fact we'd bike/hiked/swam/walked 3000 kilometres over the last two days, but when we finally decided on a restaurant.. everything was perfect!! we chose Volare, a Sicilian restaurant... wait, I'll see if I can find a picture online.. found one!


Found a review online, and so this blog isn't boring with just my musings, here is some random guy waxing poetic about his meal at Volare:

There was a spinache gnocci dish with gorgonzola sauce, and a regular gnocchi dish with basil pesto sauce.  At my suggestion, my wife asked them to give us the spinache gnocchi with basil pesto sauce (combining the best aspect of both dishes), and they had no issue with that.  OMG, it was THE BEST gnocchi ever, hands down.  Just ridiculously good. And the sauce was not all cream to cut the cost. It was true olive oil based pesto, loaded with pesto ingredients. They didn't cut a single corner. WOW.

Here's another one, more succinct, but possibly even more powerful:

Great authentic Italian/Sicilian pizza! Loved the place...and I was born and raised in Sicily, so I would know.. A+++++ 

See?!! It really was a fantastic place. We ate so slowly and savoured everything we ended up shutting the place down. The wait staff was all changed, the chairs up, and still we sat and raved to each other about the delicious foods! We ate: (and excuse my spelling)
Fresh bruschetta
Crunchy bread
Amazing olives
crisp, refreshing, salads
Homemade spinach ravioli in gorgonzola creme sauce
and the biggest, bestest bowl of cioppino that we'd ever seen (a big bowl of seafood soup with everything in it - Jacquie's favourite kind of meal)


lobster, crab, mussels, squid... a big mess o seafood - Cioppino
I don't even remember if I ordered dessert. I think I did... did I? Maybe a piece of chocolate cake or something? I really don't know. I think maybe I was in insulin shock at my blood sugar was out of whack because it was SO rich and SO good. I ate with my eyes closed most of the time.
Oh, and we had a FANTASTIC bottle of wine, eau deauffes or something weird like that. I tried to peel the label off discreetly, but it wouldn't budge.. It was Californian anyway, and the year was 1999, and for $30, it was a PERFECT compliment to our meal. (well, it was perfect until my pasta came, but then it didn't really match, but that was okay, I was too busy eating to bother to drink)
Damn, and this was supposed to be somewhat of a wine blog. Here we are, coming across our first bottle of wine, and we don't even remember the name! arrgh. ah well.

And so that was pretty much it for the night. It was close to 11pm, it was raining a little, so we hopped into a cab and sat in the rain and listened to our driver ramble on in Russian or some Central Asian language into his earpiece and ignored us, and we were back in our beds before midnight, still raving about the food (in fact, we're STILL raving about the food, a week later!)

Anyways - that was Day Two! And if you're really interested, you can read all about DAY III in the next installment of the thrilling, exciting, mind-broadening, Jim and Jax do San Francisco!

Until then... I bid you goodnight. (it's 12:22 on a Friday night, and Jax has been drooling into her pillow for at least 2 hours, night owl that she is!) I'm going to show her how to log onto this sucker tomorrow - maybe she'll do the next update!)