Turkey noodle soup… like chicken soup but better!
Turkey Vietnamese salad rolls – we ended up putting julienne sliced cucumber, red peppers, green onions, pineapple, avocados, turkey and vermicelli…also hot sauce too if you like that sort of thing! Tres delicious!

I think our next turkey meal will be green thai coconut turkey curry… with red peppers, carrots, onions…and whatever else we can muster up.

Maybe also a turkey quesadilla, turkey club sandwich, open turkey sandwich hot with gravy! turkey poutine! with turkey gravy, cheese curds and turkey! Turkey chinese noodle soup, turkey fried rice, turkey croquette, turkey pot pie, bbq turkey pizza.

I’ll think of some more stuff, but that should keep you busy for the next week!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/08/31/national/a070437D12.DTL&tsp=1

A friend had sent this link to me… aren’t you glad your name isn’t his?

http://www.ece.uah.edu/Individual_Staff_Pages/HoF.html

I’ve been teased tons as a kid with my last name ‘Ho’. I can’t even imagine what this guy went through!

Here are some really adorable pictures that I managed to take of them:

More pictures can be found here: http://flickr.com/hokicanadian

Comments are always appreciated!

Meowing out!

Now how to find the best U-Pick? Check the newspaper in the classified, under the food/produce section. They will usually tell you the price for the U-Pick and call just to confirm the price. We found that some people would jack up the price compared to the newspaper! Evil!

We went driving on highway 97 and we stumbled upon the Bellman’s farm. They had $1.50/lb U-Pick raspberries! OMG, they’re so good. And Jen (whom owns the store) was super nice. She even told us about the paper and the cherries. She ended up directing us to her father in-law’s place and we picked at $1.00/lb! Oh yeah!

So go Cherry picking! it’s cheap and it’s good!

Once we checked into the hotel, we actually just continued to sleep until the next morning. Our first day consisted of going to McDonalds for breakfast. Yes…that’s right McDonalds! I know, I know! What they serve for breakfast was quite a bit different than what you can get in North America. They have espresso/cappuccino machines and lots of pastries! And the pastries were sooo good! Oh and you have to try their Dijon Mustard! It’s the best!

Anyways, we headed to the Louvre after breakfast, but before that, about 1 hour of searching for the Metro. What a pain! We asked a transit worker where it was and she said down a few blocks when in fact it was where we were! arg!

The Louvre is amazing. There are no words or pictures to describe the beauty of all the artwork. The detail and the history/story behind each is amazing. If you had one day in Paris, just head to the Louvre! After about 4 hours, we headed out and walked by the Seine and just taking the view of the city. We stumbled up St. Germain and this little street which was occupied by different types of restaurants.

We attempted to go to Notre Dame three times. Not on the same day . The first time, there was media everywhere and the bells of the Cathedral was going. It was a very low, sad sound. Of course we weren’t certain what was going on, then we saw some people with AF wings on their jackets. It was a memorial for the Air France flight that had gone down. We decided to jet back to hotel since we didn’t think it was appropriate to be there. Our third attempt at Notre Dame was well worth it. The gothic architecture was amazing!

We went to the catacombs. I was clutching onto Tina for dire life! The sign before entering was ‘not for small children or people of nervous disposition’ OMG! I’m a person of nervous disposition. First we had to go down miles and miles of stairs. Then once we got down there, they had a bit of history on the catacombs. Then you had to walk miles and miles of dark underground tunnels. You never really know what was around the corner, whether it was the start of the catacombs. We finally reached it and I can’t tell you how eerie it was. Bones were piled on top of each other, and there would be a row of skulls in the middle. And this went on for who knows how long. It was a bit damp and musty in the tunnels, and since it was underground, there was some water dripping from the ceiling. We rushed out of there…miles and miles of walking. Arg!

Once we got out of the tunnels, we went to the grocery store. Bought this big gouda cheese wedge and two small bottles of wine for 3 Euros! Then we took it to the park and ate it. Where a bylaw officer said something to us in french… of course it’s in reference to the alcohol LMAO. Me playing dumb … ‘huh?’. No alcohol at the park! OH!

Sean, we can’t drink in the park!

We took a hot air balloon ride which cost 10 Euros each. Not too bad, but we got to see the city from an aerial view. Beautiful!

Tour de Eifel was quite beautiful, especially at night. Though going up to the tower doesn’t really seem worth it since it’s overly crowded with people. Barely any room to breathe.

One of the most interesting neighborhoods is Montmartre. I would say it describes what you would think Paris was like. Very historical, old, and not an ounce of modern architecture. There would be streets and streets of fabric. Of course there was also this very good coffee shop! mmm Espresso!

Overall the experience was positive. We did have sewage smell coming from our drains, which was disgusting. C’est la vie! Majority of Parisians weren’t the most friendliest, but of course the ones who helped us with directions were wonderful!

BAGUETTES BAGUETTES BAGUETTES. So fresh, so good and so cheap! Cheese was good but smelt like dirty sweat socks, which made it hard to eat! My oh my, that rhymed!

Would I go back? I would for only a few days. Maybe catch up on some sight seeing that we missed, but that would be it! Next trip? hmmm…maybe South America next year! heh!

Can’t wait! Got most things packed… just a few little things left to do.

Will see you all when we come back!

We decided to go through hotwire and we’ll probably get a decent hotel. Or at least we thought. In the past we have tried hotwire and got the Sheraton which was pretty awesome. This time we went with a 3 star hotel and got something called ‘Hotel Cheverny’.

For those of you who don’t know how hotwire works, essentially you pay for a hotel, you don’t know which hotel. You just specify an area, price, star, etc. and they choose the hotel for you. So in essence, it’s a gamble. No refunds, no changes.

I had a gut feeling to not do this but we went with it anyways, since sometimes it’s fun not really knowing what you’ll get. It’s like going to a buffet! LOL. Though I have to admit, I’m a bit scared about our potential sleeping place. Having read some negative reviews on tripadvisor.com, this has really gotten me worried.

I just have to remind myself that this is our sleeping grounds and only there to sleep. Not to hang out, just to sleep, since we are in Paris! We’ll make the best of it!

K: ‘God it’s snowing here’
N: ‘Snow? I’m trying real hard not to say some rather vulgar four letter words right now.’
K: ‘LMAO’
N: ‘Is Spring ever going to arrive?’
K: ‘Snow is vulgar! LMAO’
N: ‘And it’s four letters :S’

Yes it’s snowing in May…late May I might add! Welcome to Calgary!

Over the weekend we had tried out the Bali Indonesian Restaurant in Calgary. Never have had Indonesian food before, (other than the soto ayam that my roommate made for me) it was quite exciting. We had ordered the bali platter (spring rolls, triangular spring rolls and croquettes), soto ayam (chicken soup), mee goreng (fried noodles), and the rendang (coconut beef stew).

It was definitely an experience going there. The service was really good and the owner who was our waiter had explained what everything was. The food was mediocre. Though there was a lot of similarities to Thai and Malaysian food, there was quite a bit of spices used in comparison. (Spices were stronger, not hotter). The soto ayam was overly salted and was our least favourite. The spring rolls we felt could have been cooked a little longer.
And everything else was tasty but definitely not our favourite.

I guess the real question is, what does really good Indonesian food taste like? I’m not entirely sure, other than that it’s no Banana Leaf! I know I know, I can’t compare Malaysian with Indonesian, but all I know is banana leaf is uber tasty and totally eye rolling!

I’d rate the restaurant 3/5. The restaurant does get thumbs up for the guava juice. Yum!