They have been my favourite band for years so I was excited when I heard they would be playing near us. Before the show we were lucky enough to be able to watch the sound check and even spend a little time with the band and get a picture taken. Alright, so the only reason we were allowed to do this is because I’m a member of their fan club – yes, how very high-school of me – regardless, it was amazing.

Photo with Switchfoot

We showed up at the venue at 3pm and waited in line with the rest of the fans. Christen reliably bolted across the street to the nearest Starbucks (for her soy decaf latté) where she ran into the keyboard player Jerome! She said hi while trying not to sound like a crazed fan.

The sound check was interesting – it was cool to be able to hear them try different ways of playing their songs and see them play with a much smaller crowd than usual.

After the sound check we got a chance to spend a few minutes with the band which was kind of surreal since I have been a fan for about 10 years now. It turned out that they are really personable group and we chatted about Starbucks, working for Apple, surfing and Canada (they picked out our accents). Some of them had braved the chilly water and caught some waves earlier that day at Pacifica (20 mins south of San Francisco).

The structure of the show was different from any concert I had seen before – it was broken into 2 sets: first they played their entire new album “Hello Hurricane” from start to finish and the 2nd set featured songs from previous albums. In general, most albums have say 3 or so songs that have “hit-potential” or are “single-worthy” and the rest are clearly a notch below, so playing the whole album straight through usually wouldn’t work. But for Switchfoot’s latest I count at least 8 “single-worthy” tracks and the rest are still really good songs.

It made for a great show even though we left a little deaf. Check the pics below and the movie (only 45 seconds long) from my iPhone (sound quality is poor).

Switchfoot Concert from Jesse Dybenko on Vimeo.

I wanted to take the opportunity of a new year to to heartfully reflect on my personal experience of 2009. I know bullet points aren’t very “heartful” in themselves but they get the job done!

• I began to open my heart, soul and mind in ways I never expected.
• I experienced unconditional love.
• A feeling of clarity and joy is ever replacing the depression I used to struggled with.
• I feel empowered knowing I can have a significant impact on the world’s health and my own health.
• “Let food be thy medicine, thy medicine shall be thy food” – Hippocrates

As for my 2010 resolutions, I hope blogging publicly them means I’ll stick with them. I think this is the first time my resolution is not to eat less, but to eat more!! Here goes…

• I will not put anything organic into the trash, I’ll save it in a bucket for the compost centre.
• I will eat at least one head of organic greens every single day in my green smoothie.

Love you all!

GO CANADA!

So it was off to the vet for Parker and, well, I should let the video tell the rest of the story:

Parker’s Teddy Bear Adventure from Christen Dybenko on Vimeo.

PS – I thought of using “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Steeler’s Wheel as the soundtrack for this video that Christen put together, but it seemed too soon to joke about it. :) Any other suggestions?

Sunday we went shopping at Lululemon (she spoiled us rotten!!!) and went on a short hike up to hunter’s point for the view. We were then joined by Ginny’s colleague Deb for dinner at a Steakhouse in San Jose. It was an extremely tasty meal, however, this most likely may have been Jesse’s last steak… EVER. (More on that to follow in a later post. :)

Monday, I got to accompany Ginny and Deb to their visit with alumni at Google in Mountainview. I accompanied them as the “photographer” and got to see first hand what the Google cafeteria is like and feel the vibe in there. It was great. After that we toured around Palo Alto and the beautiful Stanford campus. Monday night, Ginny came with me to my absolute most favourite Gentle Yoga class at Santana Row. We basked in relaxation.

Tuesday, Ginny and Deb had more meetings with alumni in Dublin, CA.  In the afternoon, they accompanied Parker and I to the local dog park. This was definitely the highlight of the visit for Parker. Tuesday night, we got Ginny to ourselves for a quiet dinner at home. It was great to just hang out. We let her listen to some embarrassing tracks we laid down using the “I am T-Pain” iphone application. :)

It was a great time!!!

View the whole trip on Flickr Ginny’s visit to Cupertino or a few select ones below:

Watch the clip:

On Sunday morning, we took an hour to drive around West Hollywood and Beverly Hills to ogle mansions and huge hedges. Our Hyundai stood out like a sore thumb but we saw the gates/security systems of Leonardo Dicaprio, Paris Hilton, Courtney Cox and Dr.Phil. (I won’t lie and say that I didn’t have my little map of The Hills shooting locations on my iPhone too.) Overall, it was really difficult to see anything of the stars’ homes so we cut the mission short and took the longer drive home along the coast to see Malibu and Santa Barbara on the way.

Jesse had planned to boogie board at Zuma Beach in Malibu (“The Bu”) but there were seriously high winds on Sunday so that didn’t happen, but it was still a beautiful drive.

Whirlwind iphone video montage

Biking from Venice Beach to Santa Monica

Skatepark on Venice Beach

Skatepark on Venice Beach

Lunch on the beach at Santa Monica

Guy trying the rings at the Santa Monica pier

Venice Beach Pier

Leonard Nemoy at the Griffith Observatory

View of downtown LA from Griffith Observatory

View from Griffith Observatory

The Hollywood Sign at night

Kiss at the Griffith Observatory

Some of the “camera-banned” highlights were the Harry Potter prop museum where we both donned the sorting hat and Jesse was pronounced as “Hogwarts” and I a “Slitheren”.

We saw the sets of Ellen and Chuck and basically just got a sense of how grand all of these productions are. Seeing the set of Friends was really neat too. We didn’t officially see any stars, but Jesse and I could have sworn we saw Chris Kattan leaving a set.

After that, it was off to Universal Studios to stand in line at 3:30pm for the 5:00pm taping of the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. Had we showed up earlier (probably around noon) we would have had better seats. Instead, we were in the top level and off camera, but we watched the show on TV tonight and Jesse swears he saw himself once near the beginning!

Although we weren’t terribly excited about the guests on the show (Drew Carey, Joe Buck and Joshua Bell), the energy of the show was really incredible and especially the charisma of Conan as a host. It’s a really grand stage and TV doesn’t do it justice. The design and attention to detail in the set design is so beautiful. I wish we could have had cameras there too, like the one we snuck into his old studio back in New York.

Tonight we are beat. We just got room service and are going to bed early”ish”. (Jesse is already sleeping.) As always, the full set is on Flickr.

Backlot tour at Warner Brothers

Batmobile!

General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard

Jesse and the green screen

Jesse and Agent Smith

Ladder from the spiderman upside down kiss

The set of friends

Waiting in Line for the show

Universal Studios

Taking the Metro in North Hollywood

Point Reyes is a beautiful peninsula-like area of protected land that is separated from the main land by the San Andreas Fault. It is just north of Muir Woods National park that we visited last year with Dan and Erica.

Our blog post gives an overview and some of our favourite shots, but as always, the accompanying Flickr photo set for Point Reyes National Seashore has it all and more and is best viewed at full screen. :)

The drive from Cupertino to Point Reyes

Saturday

We got there fairly early on Saturday morning (early for us = 11am) and set up our tent at a car camping area called Samuel P Taylor park since all of the Point Reyes camp sites are hike-in or boat-in camp sites. (Eventually we hope to own the lightweight gear that would let us hike in, but for now car camping is where it’s at!)

We spent Saturday hiking a long loop that we chose based on seeing the tallest part of the mountain range, the most beaches and a rock formation called “Arch Rock”. (We didn’t however calculate that the 13 mile loop was in fact a half marathon and the first 2 miles was straight uphill.)

By the time we got to the really great photo opportunities we were just trying to make it back with Jesse’s sore knees and my blisters, but it was an awesome experience.

Jesse stoked to get going on the Bear Valley Trail

At the top of our climb

Overlooking the seashore from the highest point

Jesse hiking the redwoods along Sky Trail

Beautiful vista

Not too happy with ping pong ball blister

Looking south along the shore

Jesse checking directions under a MASSIVE tree

Our last view of the shore after 9 miles

Sunday

On Sunday morning, Jesse was determined to lure a stange blue bird to our camera with pistachios and use the wireless remote for a picture

Pistachio bait test shot

Say “Cheese!”

Gotcha!

Lunch in Inverness on our way to Lighthouse point

Beautfiul boat at Inverness where we ate lunch

Parker at Inverness

The lighthouse

Beginning our descent into the fog at the lighthouse

That's not blood, it's plants

302 steps after our 13 hike yesterday... hmm..

The lighthouse

South beach, Point Reyes

Swimming anyone?

My favourite photo of Jesse and Parker, ever.

Parker and I staring at the huge surf

Parker doesn't know she's running back to the car for the ride home!

The instructor started by showing us the 2-man kayaks that we would be set up in and I was stoked – the paddler in the backseat got to work a rudder with two footpedals to steer the boat!  The little excursion down the slough wasn’t a strenuous workout but it was an awesome experience to paddle alongside otters and seals and see some beautiful scenery.  The guide mentioned not to get too close to the otters because although they look cute, they are actually part of the weasel family and can be pretty vicious – hard to believe!

Below is a sampling of our trip, but the whole set is on Flickr.

Tag Team

Otter looks like he's waving - behind those cute little eyes is a mean streak

Funny Lookin' Pelican

Turns into a pteradactyl when he spreads his wings

Workin' the rudder

This seal had his eye on us - no eye contact!

The Seal Crew

Christen Post-paddle

Jesse Post-Paddle

See our Flickr slideshow of the Elkhorn Slough for more photos and larger sizes!

All of a sudden two small dogs came running out onto the road from a nearby parking lot and one of them was hit by a passing car.

I hate remembering the sound of it… a loud bang followed by the most terrible frantic screams the little dog as he rolled. We think he was a Chihuahua / Jack Russell mix.

I immediately started sprinting for the dog as it lay there writhing and screaming as it tried to get up. There was no traffic – an empty road – but the car that hit the dog momentarily flashed his brake lights and then kept on going. (Douche bag!) He must have seen the commotion left in his wake.

It felt like I was running in slow motion trying to get to it and when I was about 10 feet way it stopped writhing and put its head down on the pavement, like Parker does at the end of a long day. I thought for sure it was dead but he was still breathing as I put my hands on his little warm rib cage. I was screaming at Jesse to call for a pet ambulance as he was juggling his iPhone and our two dogs.

The dog tried to look up at me but he was obviously in shock and staring off into space. There was a cut on his head, but nothing else was obviously out of place. I managed to move him off onto the shoulder and out of harms way.  Just as I did, his owner came running out of the shadows, scooped him up in his arms and then ran away with the dog just as fast as he appeared.

It was so strange to have been involved in such an intense situation for such an extremely short period of time and then all of a sudden the dog and owner vanished as quick as they were there.

I can only hope that they when straight to a dog hospital… but I guess I’ll never know what the outcome was.

I cried for about 15 minutes after the whole scenario and hugged Parker close. It’s a real eye opener how something so awful can happen so quickly, and it leaves me with extreme gratitude for the time I have right now with the ones I love so much.

It’s also a real life reminder to put the pet ambulance in my contact list.

I can’t tell you how many Americans still get a kick out of hearing my Canadian pronounciation of “out”, “about”  and “house”.  After almost a year, I’m used to letting new acquaintances have their little “tickle” about the way I talk, although sometimes it still catches me by surprise. When we arrived last July, I welcomed the conversation ice breaker as I tried my best to assimilate.  A year later, I still find that my accent lets Americans feel feel they’ve got me figured me out. I’m happy to give them that, cause they’ve pegged me as a Canadian.

I realized this morning that I took Canada Day for granted all those years I was there: strawberry picking, fireworks and just a day off work in the humid heat. Canada Day is so chill and campy and cool… very unassuming, and full of quiet pride.

So, here’s to my first Canada Day in 28 years that I’m not at home:

Please have a Molson Canadian for me (and a Labbatt Blue for Jesse). Stand tall as “Oh Canada” plays (without a hand on your heart but one on your Timmies). Give Canada all the silent props you can while you wait for the 21 gun salute. And bathe in the flickering light of a budget fireworks display as your chest vibrates to the screaming bag pipes. I miss you Canada!

Miss you all. We’re there in spirit.