Easter Sunday, Manic Monday, Nightshift Tuesday, Zombie Wednesday

  After Saturday night shift, I took a brief nap then woke up to enjoy my Sunday off.

We had two of our fellow travelers, Aaron and Leah, join us for dinner.  We feasted and talked the whole evening. Unfortunately the only picture I have is of Bagheera, in an Easter coma.

Monday I was off, so Leah, another traveler named Brittany, and I ventured out for a day of activities.

We went hiking at Hood Mountain in Sonoma county. It was a beautiful day.

After enjoying fresh air and exercise, we googled the nearest winery, hoping to get a taste of what Sonoma is known for.

Although only 2.8 mi away as the crow flies, the closest winery was Pride winery, and nearly at 30 min drive through winding roads. The drive wasn't bad though, as we had great views and conversation for the ride.

It was beautiful and so grand. The man who took us on a tour was informative and funny.

There's so much to know about wine making! It's a science. 

I have previously verbalized dislike toward the taste of red wine, but I can't say that now. When it's good, it's smooth and the taste is multi-dimensional. At least, that's what I experienced when with every sip the tour guide shouted things like, "do you taste the grape, blackberry, oak, tang, sweetness?!?"

I DO!    ..and it's delightful.

After the winery and receiving a great list of suggestion for things to do from some of the locals, we had a chilly patio dinner at a place in downtown Santa Rosa.  Following that, we nurses parted ways only briefly, for Monday, was a night for jazz.

Oakland is a quick drive from my apartment, under 30 minutes. Perhaps that's because it was 9pm on a Monday night, but it was quick nonetheless. 

We had tickets to see famed trombonist, Wayne Wallace, at Yoshi's in Oakland.

Leah had a friend who gave her a gift card for our meal, so I acted like a poor girl in a bar and said to the bartender, "top shelf vodka martini"..  She just looked at me puzzled and annoyed and said, "which vodka to you want?" After showing that I clearly don't know which is the tippiest of the top shelf I looked to Leah for advice.

It was strong and I couldn't finish the whole thing, but I sure felt fancy sippin' on that 'tini while tapping my foot to some great music.

The band was so good. We had a great time. I would love to go again.

Tuesday night I worked. Night shift is stealing something from my heart and soul that I hate seeing leave me.  The transformation to vampire is difficult and painful.

My complaints could fill an entire life's work of blog posts, but for fear of displaying how petty and discontent I can be, I'll refrain from writing it down.  Despite being in a sleepy fog most of the time, I'm trying to use my days off as best as I can, but it's difficult.

 Blah blah blah, wah, wah....

Tomorrow morning my friend Laura Haile arrives for a weekend of fun! This is so exciting.  

Tonight's shift ain't goin' break me dahn. 

hiccups

Monday and Tuesday were spent with cleaning, shopping, packing, neighborhood walks, and coffee breaks.

Wednesday morning I woke up with an unfortunate case of pink eye.  With emotions of denial I went on with my early departure from Washington.  In approx 2 hrs I arrived in Portland, OR for my scheduled breakfast and site-seeing. 

 Delicious breakfast at the Zeus Cafe.

After increasing eye discomfort and consulting my favorite RN (my mommy) I took her advice to nix the rest of my Portland adventures, and find a walk-in clinic.  Instead of interesting old buildings and exploring another city, I spent my morning in a doctor's office and Target pharmacy.

Good news is, it didn't delay my trip at all. And in the grand scheme of things, it really wasn't a big problem. Just a simple hiccup.

Most of the drive through Oregon was overcast, rainy, and boring.  But always beautiful.

By the early evening I found my way to Cave Junction, OR, a town about two blocks in length. It was the last stop light before Out n About Treehouse Treesort, where I would be staying for the night.

I can't even tell you how cool this place is.

The rooms are individual tree houses and cabins.  Access to the rooms is by stairs and tree bridges.  The place I stayed in was called the "Peacock Perch" and was in the tree about two flights up.

I spent the evening walking on the bridges, swinging on a tree swing, then reading inside by the fire.

Later I was walking to my tree house when one of the workers scared me half to death when he appeared suddenly out of the woods.  He said hello and explained that he was on his way to light a bonfire.

 

While he got that going, I went to my room to change and get my Steelers flashlight. It started to rain, so I sat at the bonfire under my little pink umbrella. 

In the morning, I woke up to the same sound of rain on the tree house roof that I had fallen asleep to. 

After breakfast I left early, driving the scenic route toward California.

The drive through Oregon's forest was windy but beautiful.  However, once I reached the border between California and Oregon I came to an abrupt stop, as there was about 2 feet of snow burying the road.  Apparently California does not bother maintaining state routes during the winter months..

Because I left the Treesort early, this minor hiccup en route did not disrupt my trip as a whole. 

Despite the unrelenting rain, I made it to California.  I stopped for lunch in Mt Shasta where I had intended to explore and wonder at the mountain.  But the rain and clouds blocked my view so I cut those plans and left after lunch.  Hiccup. 

These minor wrenches in my plan dropped me in San Francisco at the height of rush hour.  Flustered and bladder full, I decided to get off of the freeway early and check in to my hotel.  You see, my plan was to drive the whole way to Pacifica, which is where my things are in storage. I was going to load my car, drive back North to San Rafael, where I will be moving in to my apartment tomorrow, and check into a hotel for the night.  So instead of sitting in traffic for an hour, I figured I'd stop at the hotel and kill some time with dinner or something.

When I arrived at the hotel, they had mistakenly assigned me to a smoking room. There weren't any non-smoking rooms available in that hotel, or any nearby hotel I would come to find. Hiccup.

Bladder full to the point of spasm, I sat in my car in a parking lot, frantically searching for a reasonably priced hotel or bed and breakfast, or anything that I could stay in for the night. 

Somehow, by design of a God who loves me far more than I am worth, I stumbled upon this lovely bed and breakfast not even a half a mile from my new apartment. It sits above a restaurant and turned out to be less than the original hotel I had reserved a room with.

After checking in, I debated driving to Pacifica to get my things. What should only take 40 minutes was projected to take over an hour because of traffic. The last thing I wanted to do was load all of my belongings into my car in the corner of some storage place at night. So instead I relaxed on the little porch outside of my room, then went to the restaurant to enjoy dinner, a beer, and some live jazz.

In retrospect, these minor hiccups of the day weren't really that bad.  Much like my trip up North a few weeks ago, there was potential for disaster or bigger problems, but these were manageable. I am grateful. But tired.  It's not easy to deal with issues when you've been driving for two days straight.  I'm ready to be settled again for a little. 

 It's been 5 days since I've seen someone I know. That's too long for me.  I miss familiarity and the comfort of seeing people you know and care about.  I told Ashley to be prepared for me to be way more excited to see her tomorrow than she will be to see me. 

So it's rest for now, and up and at 'em tomorrow :)

Vancouver

Driving through Customs into Canada is something that I've done before, when my family goes on vacation up North.  I knew what to expect, and assumed it would be the same routine.  Well when you travel alone and only for a day, they probably have some assumptions about you.  The guard that interviewed me asked me about 50 different ways if I was carrying anything over the border for someone.  She also had me describe in some detail what a traveling nurse is and where my next assignment would be. 

This is the first view you see of Vancouver, over the bridge, with the Coast Mountains behind the city. 

Their public transportation is with cable cars.  The wires create this web-like ceiling over the city streets. 

After arriving in the city, I checked in to my hotel, a building from about the 1920s/30s that has the same vibe, with new modern style furniture. It was clean and the bed was so comfortable. 

The West End of Vancouver has a well known area called Third Beach, which has the best sunsets in the city.  I arrived there around 430p, and walked up and down the bay, waiting for the spectacular view. 

The later it got in the day, the colder it became.  I had been wandering around for about an hour and a half, and I thought that I had seen the best of the sunset.

So I took one last photo and walked to a restaurant that was so much fancier than I realized.  At first I thought they might not seat me because I was wearing jeans, but it didn't seem to be an issue.  They placed me at a small table in the front of the restaurant, which was near the bar and where the waiters hung out until they were needed.  I had a great view of the window through the crowd, so the waiters and I chatted and gazed out of the window and watched the sun transform from what you see above, to the most vibrant orange and pink I've ever seen.  It was beautiful.  Every once in a while the couple sitting in front of the window would look up at us staring at them. You could see them squirming uncomfortably at the fact that we were all looking in their direction.  Finally one of the waiters walked over and pointed out that it wasn't them we were gawking at, but the amazing view out of the window.  I don't know how this couple went so long without noticing the vivid colors lighting up the sky right next to them. After that realization, they too spent most of their dinner craning their necks to the side. Wish I had a picture of it. 

This is the view out of my hotel window at night. It reminded me a lot of NYC, or any city window for that matter. And one I enjoy.

In the morning I made coffee but did not put "whitener" in it.  It didn't seem palatable to me..

It was a dreary morning in British Columbia, as I walked around the city. 

I ventured in and out of stores and antique shops, with my main goal which was just to see the city. 

Downtown, historic Gastown, and the harbor were my favorite areas to walk through.  They have the same feel of the city that I described yesterday, the clash of cultures, old and new buildings, and etc. 

Canada Place

I watched planes land and take off of the water for a little..

I'm sure that you've caught on by now that I love to see new places. New buildings, new people, new climates - so intersting to me. If I let my true colors show, I'd probably always walk around with a stupid grin on my face, my head constantly snapping around, looking up and down, and I'd greet everyone who looked remotely friendly with, "Hi! I'm not from around here, but I am so happy to visit!"

But I know I can't be like that.  I have to bottle my wonder up and lock it in my heart, until I can spill it out on the phone to my family, or on this blog.. I have to walk around with a pace that hides the fact that I'm a total tourist with my only serious plan being, "walk here and look at this". I try not to smile too much. Basically, I try to look normal. 

As I continued through Downtown into Chinatown, it wasn't only the buildings that started to change..

The city started to change as I entered Chinatown.. It got dirtier, the stores were no longer nice cafes and high end clothing, but businesses actually named, "Cannibus Culture", and "BC Marijuana Party". The people changed too.  They weren't walking around intentionally, but milling.  Loitering, with no purpose.  And not to be judgmental, but their clothing changed.. you know what I mean.

Without pressing further in to the area, I turned right with the intention of walking back toward Downtown.  For a while I had been walking behind a homeless man.  I assume he was homeless because he had a huge hiking backpack jammed full of things, about 50 layers of dirty clothing on, long ratty hair, summer teeth, and carried a dingy cooler. Suddenly he darted into the street with little regard for traffic. Initially I thought he was crossing but then he bent down and scooped up a bloody dead bird.  

Yes. He did.

Perhaps you are thinking the same I did initially, that he was doing a civil service and disposing of the road kill.   After he passed the third garbage can, I started to think he had different intentions for the bird. Let me just tell you, I was so grossed out watching this that I literally had to stop walking to gain distance between us. The urge to vomit was something I had to consciously get control over.

Almost as quickly as I was in the funk of Chinatown, I quickly found myself back in clean and comfortable Downtown.  I passed business men and women, construction workers, and students.  I wanted to smile at them and say, "I missed you all while I was in Chinatown."

That was enough of the city for me.  University of British Columbia's  Botanical Garden was next. 

Despite the fact that not much beyond green really blooms in the winter, it was a lovely visit to the garden. 

They have something called, The Greenheart Canopy Walk, in which you walk above the ground and learn about trees. 

Because nobody else really cares about this stuff in the winter, I got a private tour with a grad student, Brian. 

It was interesting and cold. To be honest I got a little nervy at times on the walkway. They sway and bounce a lot and are kind of high up. 

There wasn't anything more to discuss about tree bark and the tour was over. I walked through the garden a little more, then went to Kitsilano, the hippie-esque neighborhood of Vancouver.  

 

<3 Topanga Canyon in British Columbia?!

There was a vegetarian restaurant named The Naam. Even though the meat wasn't really meat, it was delicious! I wasted a little bit more time in a coffee shop, waiting for a good traffic window, then left Canada. 

Lovely visit to B.C.  My only regret was that I couldn't find a magnet :(