Asian Portland

 

We have enjoyed being in the *big city* this weekend to get our fill of Asian culture/cuisine. While Arcata has a few sushi places and some authentic Vietnamese food, it does not have the variety/diversity that a large city can offer!

On Saturday, we visited "Old Chinatown" (near downtown Portland) and one of the highlights was the Lan Su Chinese Garden, which is the "most authentic" [16th century-style, classical] Chinese garden outside of China.  It was nicely decorated with lanterns, left from the recent Chinese New Year celebration.

It's the year of the snake!

I wonder if I could keep a bonsai tree alive...

In continued celebration of Lunar New Year, there were a couple of children's performances that we caught.

Today, amidst our other adventures (post forthcoming), we checked out the Asian-part-of-town-away-from-downtown and had very good dimsum (for brunch) and phở  (for dinner). We then did our Asian supermarket shopping for the month :)
We definitely got our Asian fill :)

Heaven (doughnuts & books) in (Portland) Oregon

We decided to get away for Presidents' Day weekend and, taking a half-day off Friday and having Monday off, we went a bit farther than we normally do... to Portland, Oregon.  I spent a month in Portland, OR my 4th year of med school doing an ER rotation, but haven't really spent time there since. Since moving to Arcata, we have had some really fun weekends in Oregon-- in Ashland, Bend, and the Coast. Portland is about 7-8 hours from us, and we drove up Friday.

Although I don't have any pictures, we stopped in Eugene, OR (home of the Ducks) for dinner... and had what I would definitely consider the BEST SUSHI OF MY LIFE at Kamitori. It, traditionally "Japanese," was sooo fresh. Heaven in norri.

Today, we tried to "beat the crowds" and checked out Voodoo Doughnuts, a famous Portland establishment. Although I'm not generally into doughnuts (or lines-- even at 930 AM, there was a line!), I was willing to stand in line for 45 minutes to check out these baked goodies. The doughnuts (heaven with glaze) were definitely worth it.

The line

 "The Magic is in the Hole"

Loved this obligatory "allergy warning" sign... 

We felt bad for this truck across the street, selling 99c pastries... (note the absence of patrons)

 

We admired this sign (have you seen Portlandia? Weird show!)

The display...

You can get married (officially) under this massive doughnut inside.

"Good things come in pink boxes"

 

We came away with a half-a-dozen doughnuts... including the classic "voodoo" one (pictured below), maple/bacon (2), mango-tango, Arnold Palmer, and classic glazed. Delicious (don't worry, we didn't eat all of them yet).

Apurva joined us (drove from Seattle) and after taco-truck food, we headed to Powell's bookstore, the largest used and new bookstore in the whole world. Talk about HEAVEN for a book-lover like me. Per the website, it has more than a million books divided over nine color-named rooms... you could get lost in there forever. We limited ourselves to an hour and a half (based on our paid parking meter) but I really could have happily spent a day there. While I am more of a book-browser than a buyer (now with a kindle and with my proximity to the library, I am trying not to accumulate too much), I came away with two historical fiction novels for our Russia/Poland trip.  If we have time, I may go back tomorrow :)

We also love (and I forgot) that they pump your gas for you in Oregon.
And that there's NO SALES TAX (heaven for shoppers, a group to which I don't really belong... but, still...).

There is much more to see and do in Portland, but these were definitely heavenly highlights of our first day!

Another New Year's Weekend

Chúc mừng năm mới (Happy New Year!)

Although we are far from friends/family in Orange County (and it's not Vietnam, from where my parents just returned and where there were decorations galore), we spent an enjoyable relaxing SUNNY weekend which included the Tết holiday (Vietnamese New Year, today), which marks the start of spring based on the lunar calendar. After having a busy few days around Jan 1st, including spending a few nights in the hospital and delivering the New Year's baby, I was thankful to be off Saturday and Sunday for this, second New Year.

Yesterday, we went for a 6-mile hike in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, on the West Ridge/Prairie Creek trails. The first 2-3 miles were moderate in grade, but then we descended to a flat walk among the trees.

I loved these shamrock-like plants whose individual leaves are heart-shaped (just in time for my most-hated holiday this week).

Pep was a real trooper the whole 6 miles!

 
In the evening, we checked out the Ritz restaurant in Eureka, which we were told had Asian-fusion food. Unfortunately, they had JUST changed the menu, which now includes Hot Pot and Cheese Fondue. Since Kelvin's idea of a torture date (as he hates cheese) would be my taking him to some place like the Melting Pot, we skipped the cheese fondue but had seafood and veggies to dip into spicy chicken and coconut broth, which was actually really tasty!

 

(p.s. The books to my left are a 33c each STEAL from the Booklegger used bookstore down the street).

Today, we checked out Table Bluff County Park, south of Eureka. On the bluffs overlooking the beach, we saw this parasailer. Kelvin and my only parasailing experience was in Miraflores, in Peru a couple of years ago. This looks like fun! And check out the BLUE sky!

Pep, as always, loved the beach.

 

Here's to a very prosperous year of the SNAKE! (and to many more sunny days!)

Merging my loves--

... not my husband and doggie, though (this time, travel and books)!

Gate of Auschwitz

Source: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

In May (three short months away!), Kelvin and I are planning to head to Eastern Europe to visit Russia and Poland, two new countries for both of us. While the Russian visa process is quite daunting (both the cost, and the fact that we're supposed to list all of the countries we've visited in the past 10 years [41 different countries for me]) and exacts dates (!) of entry/exit (I had to go track down my scrapbooks!), we are very excited. We're planning to see Mindy in Moscow, visit St. Petersburg, and spend 4-5 days in Krakow, Poland. I think I've mentioned it before, but I have a (slightly morbid) fascination with Holocaust history and concentration camps and have been to a few others in other European nations (notably Dachau in Germany and Salaspils in Latvia). However, I have been waiting for a long time to get a chance to go to Poland and to visit Auschwitz, the largest camp of them all, and to experience the history of a nation which experienced genocide to a greater degree than any other during the Nazi regime (my family had previously shot down my cries for [our annual Christmas vacation] "Krakow '05", and Kelvin easily nixed Poland as a honeymoon destination in 2011 due it not being an appropriate romantic destination).

In any case, I am so excited for all the history we will experience while on this trip, despite the solemnity of a lot of it. To get a head start, I am trying to prepare a reading list of some books that I could try to read either in these months prior to leaving, or during the trip, in order to be fully immersed in the setting(s). I don't think I could hit all of them (and may need a break from these type of books), but I am going to make an effort. I haven't really found much in the way of movies, so I'd appreciate some help in making a better/longer list!  Today, I watched The Pianist, a film directed by Roman Polanski (who escaped the Lodz ghetto) and based on the autobiography of the same name, about the Polish Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman. I have seen the movie before but it never ceases to be powerful; however, I need some more (and new) suggestions.


If you have read or viewed any of these, please give me your input. And please "write in" any media items you recommend that have been omitted (especially non-Holocaust-themed books set in or about Poland).

Russia
The Kitchen Boy: The Last Tsar (Robert Alexander)
The Romanov Bride (Robert Alexander)
Rasputin's Daughter (Robert Alexander)
The Archivist's Story (Travis Holland)
The Winter Queen (Boris Akunin)
Gorky Park  (Martin Cruz Smith)
The Winter Palace (Eva Stachniak)
The Jewel of St. Petersburg (Kate Furnivall)
The Russian Concubine (Kate Furnivall)
The Red Scarf (Kate Furnivall)
Nicholas and Alexandra (Robert Massie)
Peter the Great (Robert Massie)
Catherine the Great (Robert Massie)
The Romanovs (Robert Massie) 
Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy) - I know there are several movie versions, too, none of which I've seen
War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy)
Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
Fiddler on the Roof
The Concert

Poland
The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas (John Boyne) * also a movie which is heartbreaking
The Long Walk (Slavomir Rawicz)
The Yellow Star (Jennifer Rozines Roy)
Push not the River (James Conroyd Martin)
The Kommandant's Girl (Pam Jenoff)
Schindler's List

Suggestions of "must see" things to do/places to go/ideas for lodging in Russia and Poland are welcome, too, as we think about planning our itinerary!

Fort Humboldt

 

On Saturday, we checked out Fort Humboldt State Park in Eureka, which is our new favorite place to walk Pepper.

The fort was established in 1853 to help mediate disputes between Native Americans and gold-seekers (the latter who gave the redwood city and Humboldt Co.'s capital, literally "I found it!" its name). Ulysses S. Grant spent a few months here at the fort.

Even on a Saturday, it was nearly deserted-- we enjoyed having the campus to ourselves, wandering among the original Hospital (the only remaining surviving building), and various locomotives which helped transport mighty redwoods (this area's main industry) in the 19th century. It had a great view over the bay (and the Bayshore mall which, alas, we did not capture).

Medicinal garden

 The little engines that could...

Happy tracks, happy trails, happy times!

(and, in honor of being in gold-country... Go, Niners!)