Lindsay & Geoff: September 2007

Ottawa and Gatineau

After Sudbury, we went to Gatineau to visit Lindsay's (and my) friend, Claude. We visited her last year as well and I must say my French hasn't improved since then. Oh well, it's great visiting Quebec, anyway. It's nice having two such distinct people and parts of Canada. It's like we get two countries for the price of one.

That's Claude on the right and her friend on the left.

We also ventured across the river to Ottawa to visit my aunt and grandmother. This picture was about the extent of our sightseeing - Parliament Hill taken from our moving car.

That's my aunt, Janice.

And my grandmother, Ferne.

This is Lindsay's friend, Amy and her little boy, Liam. They live in Ottawa too.

Sudbury

Our next stop was Sudbury, a town I had never been to. I had driven through the place a couple of times, ten or so years ago, on my way out west (first, in a Pontiac Parisienne station wagon with fake wood siding. That was with Jonny, Nicki and Jackson. We drove, unknowingly, in second gear the entire way and broke down in every province. Then two years later with Slippy, Nicki and Rob Carfra. This time breaking down and selling Slippy's Pontiac Grand Am in a little town called Virden, Manitoba. Up until now, I had no idea both those cars were Pontiacs. I guess, I should stay away from Pontiacs) but it never made much of an impression on me. So finally, twelve years later, I actually stopped in the town.

Sudbury isn't much of a scenic town - there is a giant railyard downtown (picture Fredericton with a railyard instead of the St. John River) - but the people are great and the cottage country (like North Bay) is basically within city limits. The lakes are beautiful here as well and we spent a great afternoon out at a cottage (Sasha's - see below). The reason we stopped in Sudbury was because our friends Neil and Sasha and Faye. Neil and Faye are brother and sister and they are both great singer/songwriters with their own CDs. I've been lucky to play bass for both of them in Taiwan and, now, in Sudbury. Sasha is Neil's girlfriend. They are great people and also great hosts. Thanks a lot. We will have to do it again.

It's pretty big, I guess.

We played a show at quite a nice bar. Good crowd too. This is Neil's set with Faye on drums.

This is Faye's set with Neil on drums.

North Bay - Part 2

After the wedding in North Bay, we went to visit Chris and Tara (the other couple we know from North Bay) and Jami (Tara's brother, who I also played music with in Taiwan). Jami and Tara have a beautiful cottage on an island in Trout Lake. Trout Lake is very cool. As far as I can tell, it seems to be in North Bay's city limits but it feels like you are further away. All you can see is water and trees. No buildings, no cars, no buses. Though this picture could describe almost anywhere in Canada, it's a rare site for us Taiwan dwellers. We visited lots of cottages this summer and they always seem to be the highlights. It's funny how something as simple as trees and lakes can do that.

Here's Jami cutting up a freshly caught fish. I assume it's trout since it is from Trout Lake but I can't remember.

Their dog Olive jumping for a ball. This dog was the size of a small horse and could jump about fifteen feet. It would do this all day long and not get remotely tired.

Here's myself with Tara and Jami in the water. Thanks for the good times, guys. It was awesome. Thanks to Chris, too, who I don't have pictured. We didn't really take that many photos. We were too busy swimming and relaxing and eating delicious food.

North Bay - Part 1

It's funny. Lindsay and I seem to go to North Bay a lot now. But the fact is we only know 4 people who live there. Two couples. Oddly enough, one couple got married last summer and the other got married this summer. I guess we will have no reason to go anymore but we still will. North Bay is a great town full of great people (and we certainly know more than 4 of them now). Both times, we went we had a blast.

This time I was in Jamie and Steph's (you will see them below) wedding. We met Jamie and Steph three years ago in Taichung. We taught at the same school and we became good friends. Jamie and I also formed an acoustic duo called the Double Standard. We ended up playing quite a bit in Taichung and got sort of popular (or at least, I like to think we did). It was great.

Speaking of the Double Standard, here we are doing a little reunion show at the rehearsal party. We hadn't played for about two years (though we played a little bit last summer) but it went rather well. There's a video clip of us on Facebook doing a couple of Modest Mouse tunes, if you are interested. I must warn you though, that I hit a few too many wrong notes.

At the wedding, my job was to walk Steph's mom, Anna down the aisle.

The bride going down the aisle with her dad, Frank.

The new bride and groom.

Lindsay and I in their backyard (this is where the wedding took place).

The Double Standard all dressed up.

The tuxes we rented were great but wearing suspenders is a little different. The pants are so high, it feels like you have a constant wedgie. But, I must say, we looked good.

Peterborough and Balsam Lake

Oddly enough, our summer this year was very similar to our summer last year. We were invited to yet another wedding up in North Bay and decided to make a road trip out of it. Our first stop was to see Hammy. He lives outside of Peterborough in a town called Keene. It's a nice little community with a good diner. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to taking any pictures.

It was awesome hanging out with Hammy again. I can't even remember the last time we did. It was many years ago for sure. It was also great to finally meet his girlfriend, Nicole. We ended up spending three nights with them and it was fantastic. Thanks, guys!

Sunset off the 401.

Hammy and the Captain in Boston Pizza (or one of those chain restaurants, I can't remember).

We spent two days out at Nicole's grandmother's cottage in Balsam Lake. A beautiful spot.

Nice aquasocks, Hammy.

Turn left for Toronto, turn right for Lindsay.

Summer Recap ... Saint John

After Tokyo (and a very long flight via Chicago), we were home. Fredericton is such a nice place to come back to, but, like last summer, it seemed like we were hardly there. Actually, that isn't true. It seemed like we weren't there for much of July. Which I guess might be true, since I don't seem to have any pictures.

Anyway, our first little trip was down to Saint John. Our friends Neil and Sasha from Taichung (a year or so ago) were traveling through the Maritimes. Neil, who I played in a band with called Newt and the Slacks (he's Faye's older brother) did a mini-tour during his trip, which brought him to Saint John and O'Leary's. It was a fun Thursday night.

Neil, Sasha and Lindsay at Boilerworks - a new restaurant in Saint John, run by Craiger's girlfriend, Heather.

At O'Leary's.I ended up playing a few tunes with Neil on guitar. O'Leary's was surprisingly packed for a Thursday night. I'd like to think it was because of us but the 2 for 1 on Moosehead products might have had something to do with it. The future mayor of Saint John?

Summer Recap ... Tokyo

Summer has been and gone and Lindsay and I are back at work. Vacation time is over. So it's time to do a little recap of the summer. Our first stop was Tokyo.

It's funny I wasn't that impressed with Tokyo when I was there. I, for whatever reason, had higher expectations. I just assumed it would be like New York, London and Hong Kong - famous cities you've heard of all your life. Cities that seem to be the center of the world when you are in them (I want to use words like 'cosmopolitan' and 'fashionable' right now but it wouldn't sound like me). Anyway, Tokyo just felt too normal.

Now, this could be because I already live in a big Asian city. A lot of Tokyo was really no different than Taipei, even parts of Taichung. Or I could be becoming a desensitized, jaded traveler (I actually worry about this sometimes). Fact is, the more places you go to, the more they all start to look the same. But anyway, I'm digressing. And I actually did enjoy Tokyo, though it might sound like I didn't.

Perhaps the problem is that Tokyo is so huge. I think you really need to know a local to find the cool stuff. Districts such as Shinjuku (the business district), Ginza and Shibuya (the shopping districts) and Roppongi (the bar district) are just like any those districts in Taipei and, I'm assuming, other Asian cities. I'm sure Tokyo built it all first and the rest followed suit but still, it just felt familiar and because of that, a little disappointing.

But having said all that, there were some cool parts of town and the really cool aspect of Tokyo ended up being the Japanese culture. They are very interesting people. There is a park that we stumbled across where men dress up like Elvis (or at least fifties greasers) and dance; teenagers dress up like goths and hang out on a bridge; crazy guys sing English pop songs at the top of their lungs; bands play live music; we saw more than a few men dressed in women's clothing; etc. And none of them are 'busking.' They don't want your money. We even stumbled across an art fair that felt like a Dead or Phish show. In fact, you could buy Dead stuff, and even bands like moe. and String Cheese Incident. It was kind of weird, but right up my alley.

Here are some of the dancing Elvises.

Some of the teenagers I was talking about. I find this picture funny. The guy on the right is just some tourist taking the piss out of them (look at his eyes).