Finally!

Tis been a long while since the last post. It's time to resurrect it with the latest pics from our Tucson 2008 Dartmouth mini-reunion. I flew out to Tucson, Arizona over Labor Day weekend to spend some quality time with the girls--Michelle Comeau, Katie Greer Boland, Laura Rasmussen-Torvik, and Chloe Dillon. The stars of the show, however, were Danny Schoen and Ivy Rasmussen-Tovik, future class of 2029.

We had a grand time, staying in Green Valley, swimming in the "active adult community" pool (and getting kicked out), visiting Tohono Chul Park, eating Mexican food, enjoying the Arizona monsoon season, and having general Dartmouth merriment. Of course, at our age, that meant hitting the sack by 10pm. It was a quick weekend, but great to catch up with everyone. My trip home was a massive 24-hour journey, including a 7 hour layover wandering the streets of Salt Lake City, UT. At least I can cross that city off my list. Here's an album of the weekend.

New York City

We made a short visit to New York City before heading up to New Hampshire for our friends Katie & Jarrod's wedding last month. When planning our trip, we discovered it was cheaper to fly into NYC than Boston, and then we thought, why not visit the city, stay an extra day, etc etc. Eventually, our stay in NYC cost more than any savings we made from the flight, but it was worth it! See more pics in our album.
We had a day and a half to explore. We caught up with some friends, visited the Empire State Building, ate hot dogs, and rode the subway.



















We stayed in an apartment, East Village B&B, which made us feel what if? we lived in the East Village. Margaret the innkeeper showed us the owner's collection of folk art, and she introduced me to the New York bagel smothered with cream cheese. There is no other experience on earth like it.

Welcome, Caleb!

There is a new addition to the Bassford family! Caleb Samuel Bassford, born at 12:30pm on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2007 to Lizzy and Tom Bassford (Dan's brother).
Congratulations to Tom and Lizzy!













































Gran & Grandpa Bassford













Gran & Grandpa Bettany (Lizzy's mum & dad)













And of course, we are proud to be his new Auntie and Uncle. Haven't met him yet, but looking forward to it. Bring on the baby toys!

A great time, eh?

Goodbye, Vancouver. We love everything about you. We love that you are nestled in between the sea and the mountains. We love your coffee shops, with clever names like Bean Around the World and Higher Grounds Cafe. We love your numerous sushi and izakaya restaurants, and that dim sum we tried in Richmond was damn good. We love your summer weather (we felt guilty if we didn't spend copious amounts of time outdoors). We love your residents, their attitudes, their lifestyle. Your no. 1 best-city-to-live ranking is well-deserved. Thanks for the memories!

The Food Entry

Here are some photos of great food memories from Vancouver. That cupcakes place on Denman Street:

Dan took me to a lovely Filipino restaurant for my birthday, called Rekados, which served kamote (aka sweet potato) fries.

Going to Pearl Castle with Harvey, Helen, and Samira in Richmond:

The Noodle Man at Legendary Noodles:

And of course, Bubble Tea!
Too many pictures to post. See the rest in our slideshow.

Mambo

Yes! Every orchestra needs a jolt of this. The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, with Gustavo Dudamel conducting.

Seattle

Pics (to see captions, click on the picture during the flickr slideshow)

Taking advantage of the three-day weekend in Canada, and the fact that it was our second year wedding anniversary (whoo-hoo!), we took the bus and crossed the border to visit Seattle, shrine to Nirvana, grunge, and Starbucks. It is usually a 3.5 hour trip, including border time, and we made plans to spend one night. Armed with Starbucks coffee--we were preparing for the atmosphere--we gleefully boarded the bus in downtown Vancouver at 9am, ready to arrive at 12:30pm in downtown Seattle.

Unfortunately, it seemed like everyone in Canada was crossing at the same time, and our wait turned into 5 hours just to go through the border. There are only so many rock-paper-scissors games you can play before going insane, as we learned. After finally passing through, we arrived in Seattle just after 5pm. (whoo-hoo #2!)

We got to our B&B in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, the Gaslight Inn, where we were met by innkeeper Trevor, who recommended that we head down to Pike Place Market fast. We got there just as all the stalls were closing, but at least the original Starbucks was open.

The next day, we went back to Pike Place to see what the market was like when open. We also did the walking Underground Tour in Pioneer Place. To experience the best tour ever of dilapidated basements and the odd alleyway, we suggest you do this. We actually found ourselves oohing and aah-ing at metal bracings and dirty concrete, thanks to the enthusiastic tour guides.

Finally, we rode the monorail to the Space Needle, which is actually set apart from the downtown area, unlike the crafty pictures of Seattle seem to depict. More ooh-ing and aah-ing, and it was finally time to catch the bus back to Vancouver. A whirlwind trip, and we got tired out, but we enjoyed every minute of it. Seattle has a relaxed vibe despite all the coffee, and it seemed to have pride in being an independent, thriving outpost in the Northwest. But who are we to say? We spent barely over 24 hours there. Definitely an anniversary to remember.