last weekend i helped my friend joe drive his car from chicago back to vancouver. i flew out to chicago on friday morning, landed at o'hare by 3pm, got in his car and we started driving west right away...

we covered 8 states in 4 days. much of it looked like this for the first while.

we stopped to visit the official spam museum just off the highway in austin, mn.

we stayed with good friends charles and serena the first night in madison, WI, and rocked the night away.

uh oh. smokey pulled us over once. not bad i guess, for how much driving we did.

we passed some pretty interesting mid-west towns, where the locals seemed pretty 'interested' in seeing two asian guys walk into their diners and gas stations.

we crossed the border in blaine, WA on monday at 6pm, some 3,700kms later.

a few weeks ago we took a trip to the Bay Area to visit some friends. it was micah's first flight, and he did very well! we flew allegiant air outta bellingham, which saved us some money. but BLI won't be winning any airport of the year awards anytime soon.

our first trip with 2 kids, car seats, stroller and luggage was quite a handful! but our good friends the kashiwamuras were kind enough to let us use their minivan which made everything easier.

boo had a great time hanging out with auntie patty and kalista again...

we also enjoyed sonic for the first time. must go back to try some of their other drinks.

we paid homage at 1 infinite loop, visiting a friend that works there as well as the company store. we found some cool swag

matia, meet mateo. we had pho with my coworker and his family in fremont one night, and enjoyed letting the kids play.

while killing time one afternoon at the great mall in milpitas, angie discovered kettle pop. think kettle corn with caramel and chocolate dripped over it. mmm. we brought a couple mega bags home with us, it was so good!

on our last night we enjoyed watching an old concert video from 1989 of a continentals concert. patty and i met on that tour, and it was very nostalgic.

one of the best things about my visit to the hockey hall of fame was the tsn broadcast zone, where you got to play commentator to your choice of a few classic game moments. here's the clips i made. it comes out sounding like i'm an imperial gunner working with radio frequency jamming issues on the death star, but you'll get the idea...

Download TSN Broadcast Zone Clip 1

Download TSN Broadcast Zone Clip 2

a couple of weeks ago i was in the centre of the universe (aka by the rest of canada as toronto) for work. i used a couple of hours of free time one morning to visit the hockey hall of fame, and it was so cool!

as a kid growing up in the late 70's and early 80's, the habs were my favorite team and #23 guy lafleur was my favorite player. ah, the days of feathered hair, unrestricted by helmets.

the game winning puck amongst other memorabilia from the recent olympic gold medal game.

i recognized all of these old school jerseys, and was very tempted to buy my own whalers jersey later on in the gift shop.

gretzky's record-setting 802nd gear...

stevie y's final pair of skates worn during the 05-06 season.

wuhoo! it's my birthday and i'm going to disneyland! and it was free admission for me and boo, too. she was kinda scared by the oversized characters at first, but eventually warmed up to them as the day went on.

i've never had so many strangers wish me happy birthday, as everywhere i went the disney staff would see my birthday badge and congratulate me! it was awesome! but i quickly realized i was just one of hundreds (thousands?) of others who were also wearing the same badge around the park. haha.