Showing posts with label road trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label road trips. Show all posts

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Does Anyone Speak Italian?

Help! I just found some relatives in Italy and they've written me a letter in Italian. I don't speak a lick of it and the handwriting makes it even harder.

Do you speak Italian and think you could help? If so, drop me a line: lipstick@lipstickdipstick.com

It's very short--six lines. I'm DYING to find out what it says.

This is the first letter I've received from them.

Grazie!
Lip

PS: All these images are from Bologna, where my cousins lives and my family is from.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Tofino, Canada II


Well, I'm just getting around to posting another blog about our amazing time in Tofino.

First, I must talk about the Pointe Restaurant. WOW! Normally, hotels don't have the best restaurants and the food is typically sub-standard. Even the Fairmont's food usually blows. But The Pointe Restaurant at the Wickanninish Inn is stupendous! Patty is a foodie and, of course, I've always got an opinion to share (especially when it comes to lesbians and food) and we both give their nosh five stars. Some of the highlights include: brioche french toast, the warm spinach salad with Hillier's bacon dressing, their amazing clam chowder made with local fish, the pork belly appetizer, and their wild salmon with potato gnocchi. All of this deliciousness is couched so close to the sea you don't need to salt anything as the air itself is so salty. At high tide, the waves crash within feet of the big windows.

Beyond the gourmet cuisine, the service was sterling, too. Our favorite waiter was Danny. He's pictured here. We got to know the wait staff pretty well, as there really isn't anywhere in town to eat, so we ate most of our meals at the Inn. We did venture out for lunch one day, only to find one restaurant open--the Dockside Pub, a local haunt for fisherman. It was quite the experience. It was full of salty dogs and you could have heard a pin drop when Patty and I walked in. As pretty much the only women in the pub, the entire sea of unbathed, scruffy men watched us walk through the door and to our small table with a view of the bay. "We don't see many like you coming to these parts."

On our way back to the ferry at the end of the trip, we saw a black bear fishing in a river by the road. Gawkers that we are, we stopped and took pictures. We decided it was time to go after we opened a bag of beef jerky and he started walking and sniffing our way.

Thanks for the great birthday Patty!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Lake Louise is Paradise


Well, we saved the best for last. Last night, we stayed at Chateau Lake Louise and had an absolutely amazing evening and day on the shores of this natural jewel. Besides the color of the Flathead River—where my parental units are living—I’ve never seen water so blue. And it’s even more spectacular in person. It was cold, evidenced by the snow sprinkled on the grass around its edge and the warm down coats we’re wearing. In the winter, the lake freezes and people play hockey and ice skate on it. We’ll have to come back in a few months to strap on a pair of snow shoes for the view from the other side. In the summer, you can rent canoes and row across. Rumor has it there is a tea house at the base of the glacier.

The photo of the lake by itself was (kid you not) the view from our hotel room window. So is the video. Not a bad backdrop for morning coffee, eh? The lounge in the lobby, where we enjoyed decadent cheeses and Prosecco as the sun set, had just as stellar a view.

The road trip was so much fun and it really gave me a great perspective of Alberta and British Columbia. Even being from Oregon—with Mount Hood, St. Helens, et al—I was so amazed of the mountainous terrain throughout Banff Provincial Park (aka the Canadian Rockies) and Glacier Provincial Park. They seem to go on forever, both into the horizon and into the sky. Oh glorious world—may we take good care of her so generations to come can enjoy her beauty.




















Sunday, October 26, 2008

Greetings from Banff!


Well, Lipstick & Dipstick are still on the road--Dipstick's covering the east and Lipstick the West. On our way to Banff, Pattycake and I stopped in Calgary and bought my nephew Calvin a John Deere buckle belt [not sure if his hippie parents will put him in it :)]. We cruised Stephen's Street and, since Calgary is Cowboy town, almost bought matching cowboy boots before stopping ourselves for fear of falling into the lesbian twin trap. The next day, we headed to Banff to relax and let our hair down. Staying at the Rimrock Resort was lush and opulent. We shopped and had lunch on Saturday after an unexpected, windy snowstorm on Main Street.

I've never been to Banff and have to say it's one beautiful place, surrounded by jutting Rocky Mountains dusted with snow. The town, which history says has been inhabited for 11,000 years, was named Banff after one of it's early settler's birthplaces--Banffshire in Scotland. The town is now a booming tourist trap, loaded with charm, places to spend your money and cozy eateries. It's well-worth the drive from the states to see this world treasure: Banff National Park.