movie: Religulous
Over the weekend I watched two very different movies that came out around the same time attempting to appeal to what some might consider to be the radical left and the radical right… although politics in reality is not that clear cut. There was first the messy, overly blunt and underly funny An American Carol. Next was the interesting, but not-quite satisfactory Religulous.
I’m not going to do a full on movie review of both pieces. Instead, I am writing this post because I really truly wish that Religulous had been made into a documentary TV series (a la 30 Days) and by a host whose purpose was to inspire conversation and debate on sensitive topics, rather than come across as a smart ass who apparently has the intelligence and the “luxury not to believe”.
Bill Maher is no Carl Sagan or Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, and while I understand that his intent was not so much to make agnosticism or atheism “look good” as it was to make religion look stupid… making someone feel angry, embarrassed, or confused is not a road to enlightenment. There is a taboo in this country about questioning matters of faith, a taboo that I think needs desperately to be broken. Not because I’m an atheist looking for converts (quite to the contrary), but because with talking comes knowledge, with knowledge understanding, and with understanding comes peace. Misinformation and myth about who believes what and why is dangerous, especially about matters so core to how we live, how we raise our children, and how we vote.
I’m hoping that someone might stumble upon this post, and make that TV series I so desire, and to make it easy, I’m laying out a list of possible episodes below. These are topics that Bill Maher touched on in Religulous that I found interesting, but he did not give satisfactory analysis to. I want two sides debating, I want passionate people and objective historians, I want real statistics and scripture passages.
1. Are Islam and the text of the Koran inherently violent?
Let’s start this controversial conversation off with a biggie. If we could theoretically replace the belief in Islam with the belief in any other religion (say Christianity) in the Middle East, would it still be a violent place? Would suicide bombers be finding passages in any other holy book that gave them inspiration for violence? Is it just a matter of politics or is it a matter of religion?
2. Can science and religion co-exist?
How do different religions reconcile modern science? How do different religions cherry pick what science to believe or not believe? We have creationists on one side trying to use science to explain religion and promote a message of “mass conspiracy” from evolution scientists. But then we have the Vatican condemning intelligent design as “bad science” and supporting evolution. Then you have people like Richard Dawkins attempting to use science to disprove God.
3. Can you be rich and religious?
There is a big disconnect in the selfless poor lifestyles of Jesus Christ (or was he poor), monks, Buddha, and many other religious figures versus the ornate churches of Catholicism and the rich and famous lifestyles of televangelists. Is there something fundamental in the text of the Bible (or any religion) that denies one the rewards of this earthly world?
4. Is God an American?
That’s not the exact question I’m asking, but I couldn’t resist the reference to Bowie. God and country, separation of church and state. Many people think it’s right, many people think it’s wrong, and it’s interesting to know why. But more interesting to me is what was intended. What did our founding fathers want and what relationship did they have with religion? And what did Jesus think about nationalism? Are there policies of the “religious right” that actual go against the teachings of Jesus? If we were truly a Christian nation, what would that mean?
5. Do you need religion to be moral?
This is one of the biggest arguments against non-believers, that religion provides the moral backbone of humanity and that if religion was not there, all would be chaos. An interesting point to argue, I know where I stand… simply put that one that does not believe in an afterlife at all is likely to value this one life on earth pretty highly. Why doesn’t the 10 Commandments include “rape” and “child abuse”? What moral codes are included in ALL religions? Which ones contradict each other? What religious codes have made it into law?
6. Can you be homosexual and religious?
What are the texts in various religions that address homosexuality? Furthermore, what is the historic context (language, culture) around these texts? How do homosexuals reconcile their belief in an organized religion such as Christianity or Islam? How do fundamentalists who are adamantly against homosexuality based on religious belief reconcile Jesus’s message of tolerance and acceptance?
7. Are we genetically programmed to believe?
Is religion fundamental to our biology? Is it good or hazardous to our health? What goes on in our brains as a result of “faith”? Are some people more biologically designed to have faith than others? There have been some interesting studies done in this area. What other activity gives us the same brain patterns as praying or faith, or are there any substitutes for true belief?
8. What is a religion and what is a cult?
This one is a very interesting one to me. There are many Christians who would believe that creationist scientists are taking it “one step too far”. There are also many Christians who would classify Mormonism as a cult. And certainly many religious people are quick to call Scientology a cult. Can one believe in talking snakes but claim other’s beliefs in space gods as too “far fetched”? What is the line that distinguishes the believable from the implausible? What makes a cult a cult? Is a cult more dangerous than other religious belief?
9. Is believe in the “end of times” dangerous?
Are we reaching the “end of times”? What are the signs in the various religions that not only mark an “end” to life as we know it, but are showing that we are somehow approaching that mark? Are there people within our government who believe that the end is near and how does this affect the way they govern? How does this affect people’s everyday actions? How does this affect the way they vote and raise their kids? Is the “end” making us crazy or more cautious?
10. Where does religion come from?
There is a long a detailed history of religion. It’s existed for as long as humans have existed as a way to explain the unexplainable. Religions have influenced each other throughout history… stories of flood, virgin birth, resurrection. Is the Bible an original or a collection of far more ancient stories? Or is this anecdotal proof found across the world that these types of mass events (flood) did indeed happen?
11. Are we alone in the universe?
Aliens… let’s just put it out there. Does religion make room for aliens? And if they don’t, how do you reconcile the shear odds that the universe is so vast and so ancient that there must have been or be other life out there somewhere? Then again, are there scriptures in many religions that not only make room but somewhat acknowledge “unexplained phenomenon”?
12. Will secularization hurt society?
This is a different question than the morality question. Assuming religion and non-religion have equal impact on morality… are there other ways that secularization will hurt society? For instance, can we remove religion so much from everyday society (government, schools) that we create a sort of intolerance to religion? How do you balance tolerance for all faiths against tolerance for no faith at all? Does the diversity of religions provide conflict or a necessary cultural patchwork? Are we in danger of cultural homogenization?
I will leave episode #13 in the hands of you. What question about religion or lack of religion are you dying to ask? What questions keep you awake at night?
Marta Strickland
internet meme: Seven Random Things About You
I’m normally not a chain letter type of girl, but I like any excuse to blog for my personal site… which gets often neglected under the weight of daily routine. Although come 2009, I have a “gut” feeling that I might have a lot more personal stuff to blog about. Anyway, back to the meme. Pretty simple, you get “tagged”, you write a blog with seven unique/weird/random facts about yourself, and then you tag seven more people. Let the person who tagged you know (in my case Stacy “that damn redhead” Lukas) by linking and commenting on their blog, and please let the people you tagged know so this meme can thrive on.
Here we go… seven random things about Marta Strickland:
1. I LOVE bad horror movies. I know that I’ve put this on quirky bios and social networks, but I really don’t think people understand that I really love bad horror movies… or actually just bad movies in general. And it doesn’t count if they are trying to be cheesy, like all the Troma films out there, that just ruins it. These movies have to actually try to be good, and just completely fail. It’s an acquired taste, but is a huge part of my life. I know not everyone willingly went to see Catwoman (not recommended) complete with wine in thermos and chocolate in purse. Not everyone has fond memories of curling up on the couch and sipping champagne with their now husband while watching Chopping Mall (recommended) or almost convincing their brother-in-law to fly in from LA to see Black Roses (highly recommended!!!) on the big screen.
2. I have suffered no broken bones, but have had a few organs removed. Despite continually rolling my ankle, I have not suffered any broken bones in my life. Maybe I can blame this on being an only child, with no other siblings to rough house with. But I have had my appendix explode, which according to LOST means that you’ll die. Actually it is pretty serious if it has already ruptured, but now I have a cool story and a scar. Also had my tonsils removed, and hopefully that will be it for now.
3. I dream of bugs, they crawl my walls. Not trying to sound creepy or goth with that statement, although I was pretty goth in high school… although I will always deny that and say that I was “glam rock” as exhibited by my platform shoes, boas, obsessive love for all things Bowie (test me on my Bowie knowledge, I dare you), and intense amounts of glitter… wait, what was I talking about. Oh yeah, I have mild night terrors and wake up (eyes actually open) to see bugs on my walls or covers quite frequently. My husband hates it, because I usually push him off the bed in an attempt to scoot out from dangling spiders or what not.
4. I didn’t eat vegetables until after college. Either I was too stubborn or my parents were to lax, but veggies did not become part of my normal healthy diet until after college. I didn’t like anything green, anything that a five year old would find “icky”, and I was actually pretty embarrassed about it. I wanted to change, but my taste buds wouldn’t let me. Slowly but surely, they changed, and now I am the foodie I am today. I actually think I might have always been a foodie and just never known it. I didn’t (and still don’t really) like “salads”, but wait I love some fresh spinach with goat cheese, toasted almonds, aged balsamic, and dried cranberries… yum! Oh I don’t like tomatoes and lettuce on my burgers, wait but I love roasted red peppers and zucchini, caramelized onions maybe and sauteed mushrooms. Drool… I’m hungry now.
5. I am in love with Carl Sagan. I have seriously considered the name Sagan for my children and a quote by Sagan’s wife Ann Druyan was read at my wedding. There are no two ways about it, I am a big geek when it comes to science, and Carl Sagan is my hero. My favorite book of all-time is Dragons of Eden, although it has had to fight furiously with long time champion Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy to claim that spot. Science inspires me. At it’s best, I find my peace and my solace and my hope for humankind, and at the least it just makes good reading… I take breaks to read some fiction on occasion, but I usually dive back into string theory, the study of consciousness, and brain science pretty quickly. Shout out to the SGU!!
6. Two of my front teeth are false. How does this sound for an explanation: tobogganing accident? I smashed head first (bad way to sled) into some kids foot or face or sled and sheered two of my front teeth to the gumline. They are replaced today, you’d probably never know, but I also like to drink wine… red red wine… which has the habit of staining real to fake teeth at an uneven ratio.
7. I am a westsider for life. Born and raised on the Michigan West Coast. Actually, I moved out east when I was 8 years old, but you can’t take the birthplace away from the kid. I remember those beautiful beaches. I remember the woodland hikes. And I still get warm fuzzy feelings whenever I visit the westside. After enduring a cold and long winter in Metro-Detroit, on slippery roads and in a depressed economy… it makes you seriously considering following the thousands of other people exiting the mitten state. But then the sun peaks out from behind the clouds, the warmth comes back, and most Michiganders make their way up North, where the sand is beautiful and towns are quaint. No matter where I live, I will always have a fondness for the Lake Michigan coastline.
So who is next… who do I pick on for the last day of 2008:
If you’ve already been tagged, let me know so I can choose a new victim.
Happy New Year!!
life: deciding it’s time to join a cause
A lot has happened in the past month. Some of which has changed my perspective on the world I live in… but let’s start where we last left off:
I spoke at my first conference, Web 3.0 in Santa Clara, where I met many semantic web enthusiasts and interesting people. I walked away buzzing with all sorts of ideas and ended up writing a 5 part series for ThreeMinds, Organic’s blog, which might lead to a feature for Advertising Age (stay tuned).
Then, we elected our first ever YouTube president:
My opinion to the now president-elect has gone from curiousity to true hope-filled inspiration. During the campaign, it seemed that all people could talk about was the economy, while I sat patiently wondering if Obama’s technology plan would ever come to fruition.
Now that the campaign is over, it seems that technology is ALL people can talk about. How the internet changed the race? How will Obama use social media to change government? Let’s just say, it’s a good time to be a blogger in the social media niche.
The day after our monumental US election, I attended the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. It would be an understatement to say that the conference inspired me. Smart people from around the world were putting web 2.0 tools to work to not just sell products and services, but to actual make the world a better place… to create transparency in areas that are lacking, to make consumers smarter about the choices they make, and to bring people together to solve problems they couldn’t have solved on their own.
Obama talks in his first YouTube address about:
“…new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and not only look after ourselves but each other.”
Some might view a spirit of looking after each other as akin to socialism. And still others will see it as the American way. We help each other out in times of need, and come through for those who have been our allies. I’m not going to get into a political discussion, so much as to say that I am feeling an itching desire to DO SOMETHING… something actually useful, something helpful, something worthwhile.
I also realized something else at that conference. I love Michigan… I really love it, and in case you haven’t heard, it’s not doing so hot right now. I’m about ready to root myself and my future family in this area for good and the economy is collapsing to all sides of me. And I am not terribly confident that government, including our new YouTube president, is going to be able to do anything about it.
We are on our own, and that might be for the best. The change Michigan needs is going to come from the groundswell, from movements like CEOs for Cities and the dozens of pro-Michigan blogs online. We need tools that connect online enthusiasm to offline activity, like Obama’s social network managed to bring local people together for events and grassroots efforts. It’s a good time for social media tactics to really have a positive impact, and I’m not talking ROI on ad dollars.
For the first time, I feel really proud to be in the industry I am in and proud to be living in this sad, but beautiful state. So sign me up. I’m ready to join the Michigan brigade for change. I’m ready to put my social media strategy skills to the test. Who else will join me?
technology: iPhone
Something happened this week that is going to change our daily lives. No, I’m not pregnant… yet. It is something seemingly less dramatic, but something that nonetheless will change our lives.
We bought new mobile phones. For me, it was the new iPhone 3G. For Tom, it was the Samsung Blackjack, which is admittedly very much like my old Motorola Q. There is no denying that my phone is cooler, but we are both taking it one step at a time, immersing ourselves in a new culture, a culture we were both reluctant to join and surely will come to embrace.
Welcome to the Connected Masses
As soon as Tom set up e-mail on his Samsung, as soon has he began to put bookmarks into his mobile browser, I knew it was all over for him. He had entered into the world of the always connected. No longer would there be online time and offline time. With internet and e-mail always at your side, the lines blur, the worlds collide. You are always connected.
This is a world that I have been part of for quite some time, but only truly embraced about a year ago. I had worn down the keys of my Motorola Q. It had become an appendage. But I had outgrow it. I needed more… more efficiency… more applications. I was already connected, I wanted a cultural revolution. I didn’t want the internet all the time, I wanted it infused into my lifestream.
Forced into the iCult
When I had first decided that it was time to get a new phone, I had all but decided on the Google Android. I had ruled the iPhone out, because I have never felt part of Apple culture and had figured that many of the perks of the phone would only benefit those already immersed in the iCult.
But, several months went by and the reports of the iPhone App Store awesomeness grew, while the launch date of Android pushed further and further into the distance. I couldn’t wait any longer. So on Wednesday of this week, my husband spent an excruciatingly long time at Best Buy purchasing and setting up our new phones.
As he walked through the door with my phone, I wasn’t like a giddy child on Christmas day. It was like an alien object. I kept blogging, I kept working, while the black monolith sat there on the desk waiting to be played with.
Once I started, I got into the hang of it pretty easy. I immediately went to the App Store and began downloading all of the apps I had been reading about for the past many months. As the screens began to fill up with icons, I realized how easy and addicting it was, this could become trouble.
I Shalt Not Act Like a Douche
It had been sitting in the back of my mind for weeks, and now it was reality. I was marked as part of a culture with this phone, would this be something I would come to love or hate? I’m not sure even now. But, when I walked through the doors of my work the next day, I can tell you one thing… I was definitely iPhone shy.
I didn’t want to whip it out and show it off. I didn’t even really want to talk about it. It still was that foreign object, friendly but foreign. But, like it or not… the comments came. “Oh, so you got the new iPhone.” “Wait, I thought you were going to get the Android.” “Hey, since when do you have an iPhone?”
It’s nothing bad, it’s nothing even meaningful. But I was now one of those iPhone people.
Our New “Connected” Lives
The change in our lives was never so apparent as when Tom and I had dinner together yesterday. We were on the road and decided to take a detour by 6 mile to see if there were any new restaurants. We didn’t see any, but when I pulled up my Urban Spoon application and found a highly rated restaurant hidden in the back of the strip.
We sat down, enjoyed some snacks, ordered our drinks, and then… the phones came back onto the tables. Off and on during the dinner the phones served as discussion points. Places to look up information, and places to even record information about the wines we were drinking. I wouldn’t say there was ever a moment where my husband and I were distracted from each others company. It was almost like there was another presence at the table. Like we were not eating alone.
At the end of the meal, my husband told the waiter/sommelier how we had almost missed coming here. I toyed with the idea of showing him my phone, until the urge was just too strong. I had to pull it out and show him the Urbanspoon and how well rated the restaurant was. He had thought it was cool, but didn’t really grasp what I was trying to show. Without being “always connected”, my husband and I would not have even dined there tonight, we would have had a total different experience.
And so that is why I say that it is just that… Something happened this week that is going to change our daily lives. It’s going to change vacations, it’s going to change just sitting around our house in our pajamas. It’s going to change the way we have dinners. It’s going to change the way my husband and I connect to each other.
Don’t believe me, just read this awesome New York Times article, Brave New World of Digital Intimacy - I’m So Totally, Digitally Close To You.
vacation: Seattle, Washington
We grabbed some crepes to go from Cafe Crepe, before making the “two hour” trip to Seattle. I put two hours in quotes, because the wait at the border crossing added over an hour to the length of the journey, putting us into Seattle at around 1pm and very very hungry for lunch. Luckily, our hotel was only a block away from Pike’s Market, where we were sure to get something interesting and tasty.
Pike’s Place Market can only be described as overwhelming. On a blue sky, dry weather, hot Saturday afternoon, it was crawling with locals and tourists. There were flower sellers and local artisans, none of which we were interested in. We wanted the food, and we wanted it now. Still, it was hard to pass up the local shops offering free samples. We ended up buying chocolate covered cherries and fresh pasta, before making it to lunch.
Lunch was some fresh and peppery clam chowder and a searing hot lamb sausage on a bun covered in wine Dijon mustard. Sounds gourmet, and it was, but it was cheap, a combination we always appreciate. I was reminded of our adventures in the Nouveau Beaujolais fair out in France, where you could get a fresh sausage skewered in a baguette or a platter of fresh goat cheese for only a few Euro. It was fair food the way fair food should be.
The market was getting too crowded and too overwhelming. I wanted to make my way down to Spanish Table, but we kept getting lost, having to fight our way through people taking pictures of guys throwing fish.
We love feeling part of something amazing, like the sunset over Vancouver bay, but there is definitely a point when you feel the ratio of tourists to locals have tipped the scales and that is when we just want to get as far away as possible. This was a feeling that had actually brought me to tears in Rome, something that pushed us into the back alleys, skipping from wine bar to wine bar until we felt back immersed in a world we could love.
Our moment of love for Seattle came again in the back alleys. We happened accidentally upon the best spice shop in the city, one that offered anything you could imagine whole and fresh, one that supplied every restaurant in the city. I skipped around ordering the weirdest stuff that smelled awesome and I had never seen before, and best of all I was ordering it whole, because Tom had bought me a spice grinder for my birthday.
The guy behind the counter looked at our list, pondered my question about the location of the Spanish Table, and assumed we were from Seattle. When we informed him we were from “out of town”, it was hard for him to accept. He just kept repeating, but the way you ordered the spices, and you asked about the Spanish Table, how do you know about the good places? The way the guy was inquiring, Tom admitted, well, we do some normal stuff too. “Have you seen them throwing fish?” the guy asks. Tom and I look at each other and laugh, yeah, we got away from there as quickly as possible.
Tom and I like to go off the beaten path more often than not. And we did go up in the Space Needle in Seattle, but only after the Sci-Fi museum closed early for winter hours (perhaps the saddest miscalculation on my point). Some famous things cannot and should not be avoided, like a boat ride in Venice or the view of Paris from the Eiffel Tower, but some of the most moments of all of our vacations come off the beaten path.
Things may change, someday, when we have children. But I still like to think that I will find those strange things, those unique experiences only now for my kids to enjoy.
We snacked before dinner at a pintxo bar called Txori. The offer mini tapas from Basque country, sardines in goat cheese cones and stuffed squid in its own ink. The stop was motivated slightly by a growing desire to visit Spain and Portugal. I figure if I get him excited enough, it might be our next trip 
For dinner we taxied out to Lark, sharing plates of various foods, but most memorable was our first taste of Sweetbreads, which when fried up and covered in sauce tasted like super fatty and chewy sweet and sour pork.
We ended our journey there in Seattle, having drinks at the bar in Pike’s Market, talking about our experiences with the bartender. We had come from the highest mountains and desolate forests to packed cities brimming with nightlife and community. It was an amazing adventure.
The End… tomorrow we return home.
vacation: Granville Island, Vancouver, British Columbia
Yesterday, we ate at a French bistro and a sushi restaurant. Today it was time to eat and drink more locally, a theme of this trip, something I had become even more excited to explore after reading Omnivore’s Dilemma. Sure places like New York and San Francisco have greatly varied food scenes, but isn’t the best way to measure the quality of a city by the way they cook their own foods… from their own backyards, using the traditions and styles of the area.
We started by visiting Granville Island and their public market. The whole island is like an outdoor shopping mall, its own little city under the highway overpass. We were quite full from our breakfast of pancakes covered in authentic Canadian maple syrup and Canadian bacon. So, we just soaked in the view of the delicious fruits and meats and cheeses. We picked up some local spices at the spice shop.
We decided to take a boat ride around the island via the Aquabus, and then stop off at the Granville Island Brewery to try out some decent Canadian beer, which Tom was skeptical even existed. Tom’s favorite was the Maple Lager. Of course, if there is one thing the Canadians certainly know, its how to do maple syrup right. Later in the day we would visit a maple syrup store, and have a tasting of several different varieties. The sugar rush would leave us buzzing until dinner.
Next, we visited Gastown, a brick-lined street section of Vancouver. It’s a cute part of town with quaint shops and a famous steam powered clock. Unfortunately, it is also right next to what Tom and I would refer to as Bum City. It’s probably a wise thing, but the city of Vancouver placed all the shelters, bottle return depots, community centers, and pawn shops all together on Hastings Street. The result is crowds of homeless, the drug-addicted, and the flat out insane.
We went to lunch at a hidden cheese bar in the back alleys of Gastown, actually down Blood Alley. You wouldn’t even know it existed except for a chalk arrow written on the wall of the alley. The menu featured various meats and cheeses from the area. Tom had a Merlot from BC that smelled like a dessert wine, but tasted smoky and bold.
This entry will end up being mostly about food and wine, because that was, after all, the theme of the day. For dinner, we went to the Zagat top-rated restaurant of the entire city, West Restaurant. We don’t usually go to very top places, but I managed to hear that if you went between 5:30 and 6:00 they served a special tasting menu for half the cost. You would think that would cause a mad rush, but turns out we were the only diners lucky enough to score the special menu.
The food ranged from unusual to mind-blowing. Everything, again, was local. From our smoky, delicious Sandhill Syrah to the meats and produce used to make the food. We had a strange duck terrine which was cold and filled with foie gras and pistachios. Tom had a neon green soup made from fennel and spinach with some crunchy wax beans. It’s great when you get the feeling that the chef things out the way all the flavors and textures will play together for the diner.
The main courses and the deserts were where it really shined. We got a free salmon appetizer because the chef wasn’t pleased with my chicken and decided to remake it. I’m sure whatever it was before would have been fine, but when I got the remade chicken I didn’t regret having to wait. It melted in your mouth in a way I had no idea chicken could do. I even liked chicken livers which were incredibly mild. Finally, we finished with a frozen creme brulee soaked in grapefruit and Port, and some chocolate cake that Tom kept rightly calling a gourmet ding-dong.
We ended the night watching the sun set over the appropriately called Sunset beach with all the other people from the city. This is where couples came for romantic evenings. This is where high school kids came to socialize. It was incredibly easy to forget that you were a tourist.
vacation: Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia
While the best thing about B&B’s is their breakfast, today it caused a little bit of panic as a lengthy and delicious meal made us late for our ferry into Vancouver. Luckily with a foot on the gas we just made it.
The drive into Vancouver wasn’t particularly beautiful. The ferry took us through forested islands, but dumped us out in farm country. The midday haze hid the mountains in the distance, so it wasn’t until we crossed the bridge over the Granville Market that we got into blue skies and mountains over the cityscape. If you took the mountains out, you could almost feel like you were in Miami with a few oddly placed palm trees and towering condos.
We checked into our hotel and then walked down the sushi shop lined Denham street to get some lunch. I had planned for us to visit the Cafe de Paris for some cheap soups and sandwiches with a Parisian flair. Cheap was miscalculation on my part, some poor internet research which usually serves me so well. Instead we got a fairly pricey lunch, but it was undeniably delicious and definitely, definitely full of Parisian flair. We’d need to find a cheaper dinner option.
With our bellies full of wine and heavy cheeses, we rented some bicycles for touring Stanley Park. The park is laid out as a giant peninsula off of the Vancouver downtown with a 5 mile seawall that outlines the circumference. Even with stopping for pictures, we managed to fly around the park in no time at all. So, next we ventured into the center. The gravel paths lined with huge pines made it easy to forget you were even in a city at all. This put us right back in Olympic National mode.
We made our way up to Prospect Point for a rest and some ice cream. The view wasn’t as incredible as we had hoped, especially for the amount of gravelly uphill we endured. But, it was fun to watch the raccoons chase down the tourists.
We returned our bikes and set out on foot towards a recommended sushi restaurant. We stopped off at Delilah’s, who claim to have invented the flavored martini. Whether fact or fiction, their infused vodkas made for some tasty drinks. I especially loved my vanilla infused vodka with pear liqueur and fresh lime.
Kadoya was a unique sushi experience. Based on the recommendation, we were expecting something perhaps a little too fancy or maybe a little too authentic. We got neither. This was a hole in the wall, packed with people, and a menu that was even a little too bastardized for me, bacon bits, chicken sausage, pop rocks? We floated in the middle, ordering some more traditional rolls with only a little bit of “creativity” in the form of tempura-fried anything. It was yummy!!
We finished the night watching the sunset at The Boathouse, as a bartender who kept calling me “love”, poured us more unusual cocktails. We wandered back to our hotel, talking about or adventures for the next day, while I tried to convince Tom that we just might have enough room in our suitcase for that bottle of awesome lychee liqueur.
Tomorrow: Granville Island
vacation: Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park, Washington and Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
The very best thing about B&B’s is, of course, the free gourmet breakfast. What would have cost $20 a person in a normal hotel was being served to us for free: fresh fruit, yogurt, tea, coffee, French toast, juice, and sausage.
We packed up the rest of our cheese and freshly picked blackberries and headed out towards Hurricane Ridge. First, we stopped at Lake Crescent. The waters were completely transparent amongst the mountain peaks. You could see the stony bottom of the entire lake. We would have loved to go for a boat ride, but unfortunately there was not a huge amount of time before our ferry today.
We did decide that there was enough time to stop at a local winery along the way. We were totally ready to taste some of the worst wine we had on our trip. I had even looked at their website in route and decided we could get away with just buying chocolate if the wine sucked, and not seeming like dead beats that just wanted some free wine. But, the wine was actually very tasty and we ended up walking away with a bottle of the house white.
The ride up to Hurricane Ridge was excruciatingly painful. At 3 stops along the 12 mile stretch it was down to one lane. You would wait 20 minutes for the stop sign holder to turn their sign to slow as you followed a pilot vehicle up the mountain. A twenty minute journey quickly turned into an hour and a half, which just kept counting down the amount of time we’d actually get to spend on the top of the mountain before coming down.
It was all worth it though. The view from Hurricane Ridge was spectacular. Snow capped mountains and lush meadows. Tom accidentally spilled our chili dipping oil while preparing our picnic on the side of the mountain, which attracted the local wildlife. There I was, eating a tasting bit of cheese and cracker, and Tom started going “Oh my God! Stay still, stay still, stay still.” Either the largest bug in existence was sitting on my head or a deer had wandered up over my shoulder. Luckily it was the later.
The deer stuck around, even though her two babies waited on the hill in the distance, and sampled our crackers and various bites of fruit. Just as Tom was complaining that he hadn’t seen any wildlife all trip, there was wildlife as real and approachable as anything we had ever experienced. This was completely worth the long ride up and the eventual long ride down.
When we got ready to board the ferry, we took a little detour into downtown Port Angeles to kill the wait. Surprisingly enough, we found a local wine bar serving tasty jasmine flavored IPA and bubbly local Syrah. The waitress, who had gone to University in Victoria, recommended some great spots for us to visit that night.
Victoria is awfully quaint. It’s like a Canadian version of Charlevoix or Mackinaw, except quite a bit bigger. We walked along the water, passing by sailboats and hanging gardens, passed the capital building and the moss covered Empress. We arrived at Pagliacci’s, an Italian restaurant recommended by the wine bar waitress. The lines was out to door and around the corner, so after smelling the delicious smells for a few minutes, we decided to walk a little bit further to Cafe Brio.
Expensive, yes. Amazing, doubly yes. We had amazing agnolotti filled with fresh fish and crispy duck covered in wine sauce. I discovered the incredible candy flavor of Elysian Black Muscat. Everything tasted exquisite.
On the walk back Victoria was lit up like a Christmas tree. This was a magical city.
Tomorrow: Vancouver, British Columbia
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