La belle province

After a lovely and relaxing trip to Ottawa, it was off to Montreal!

I took the train out, which was a first for me. I've never had a chance to take ViaRail before, way too expensive to travel out west, but it was a lovely trip. We passed a lot of farm land. It was nice to sit back and just watch everything pass by.

I had a friend to stay with in Montreal, and she was an amazing guide to the city. Super mega bonus: best bathroom in the world! I could have swam in her bathtub it was so big! I had the longest, hottest bath possible. It was amazing. I still dream about it, especially since it's the last bath I had.

Aside from the greatest bath ever, I had a fantastic time. We went out for a very lovely meal at a bistro close to her house. The food was great, the atmosphere was great, everything was fantastic!

The next day my friend from Ottawa joined us and off we went to explore the city. I had such a great time. We went to visit the old port, ate bagels, went to a few bars, ate poutine, all the good stuff!

Hello, Bonjour!

From LA I went to Minnesota. I'd love to post some photos of Minnesota, but I didn't take many. I was there for such a short time, I spent all of it just enjoying it.

Minnesota was my first introduction to WINTER. Oh boy was it cold. So cold in fact, it snowed. It decided to snow the in the night before I was supposed to leave. The whole drive to the airport I felt ill (combine bad anxiety plus car sickness... so fun). I was so worried that my flight was going to be so delayed that I was going to miss my connection in Chicago.

Oh boy, it was the beginning of a long day.

I got to the airport, went to check into my flight, which was delayed, and I would miss my connection, so the lady that was checking me in put me on a direct flight on another airline. THAT flight was delayed. I finally got my flight into Toronto, arrived at the check in counter for WestJet, and tried to check in for my flight much later that night. The girl at the counter offered to put me on an earlier flight and I nearly burst into tears. After being in airports and on airplanes since 8 AM, I was DONE. I got on the earlier flight, made it into Ottawa, and my ride was able to get me early. Thanks to making that flight I was able to attend a Thanksgiving dinner! So unexpected!!

Ottawa was so much fun! I got to visit with one of my favourite girls in the world, as well as see Canada's capital!

As a good tourist, I made sure to visit such cultural heritage sites such as Filthy McNasty's.




But I also made sure to tour Parliament Hill. I'm glad I did. It was beautiful. My only regret was not being able to take photos in the library. It was my favourite room in the place.










The trees were changing colours and it was so beautiful to see.




I think I went at the perfect time of year! Ottawa is absolutely worth visiting!

So after SF I headed to Los Angeles.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was really happy when I got out outside to discover that it was nice and warm! Oh the nice warm weather! So warm I took off my sweater, which I promptly lost. *sigh*

I was greeted by my two wonderful friends, and their two new fuzy kids! So cute!




It was nice to have kitties around!




I saw so much in LA. I got to see the tar pits in the middle of LA, where tar oozes up out of the ground, as well as nasty gasses. It was pretty cool to see.




I had a chance to pay a visit to Beverly Hills.



We drove along the PCH, up into Topanga Canyon, and of course, Mulholland Drive.








We drove through Hollywood. It's an interesting place, to say the least.




It's also a scary place.



I ate nothing but mexican food while I was there. It was kinda nuts. I pretty much lived off of tacos. The food was so damn good!!






I also got to go to a couple of really great bars. Good times were had!
















LA was basically a blur of awesome.

Let me holla at the DJ

So after I left Vancouver Island, I went home to Vancouver for a week. It was a very busy week. My mum got married, I packed up my bags, and left town!

My first stop was Seattle, then a bunch of us headed out to Big House Lodge in Cle Elum. I had an amazing time. It was a great way to say goodbye to some of my favourite people.

From there I headed down to SF. I'd never been and I'm so glad I went! I arrived at my hotel late enough that I decided to just hunker down and get some rest after a weekend of fun. I only had a couple of days there, but I needed a good night's rest.

The next day I headed out to Alcataz. It was so very worth the price of admission. Just the boat ride over was worth it! I had an amazing time walking around, taking the tour, and just soaking it all in.







After a day out at Alcatraz, I decided to have another quiet night in.

I had a great sleep, and woke up quite early. I spent a little time poking around online looking for a city tour. I was about to give up because they were all so damn expensive, but I managed to find a great tour, at a reasonable price!

We went everywhere! Lombard Street, The Seven Sisters, Muir Woods, The Golden Gate Bridge, everywhere! Our guide was quite entertaining and knowledgeable, and just a nice guy all around. It was a great tour and I would recomend it to anybody heading to SF. I'm so glad I was able to go. I saw all the highlights of SF.








After the tour I went out to meet some friends for dinner and drinks. It was so nice to see my friends! Berkley was pretty much everything I expected for a college town, but I had great company. I was really happy to spend my last night hanging out with such wonderful people. I stayed out later than I wanted to considering I hate to get up at 5 AM then next day, but it was worth it!

I want to go back to SF one day, that's for sure!