Located in the heart of Vancouver’s trendiest neighborhood, Opus Hotel provides all the top-notch service and world-class amenities you can expect from a luxury boutique hotel in a stylish intimate setting. With their ninety-six vibrant modern luxurious guestrooms, Opus is the perfect oasis in the hustle and bustle of the city, especially during the around-the-clock partying at pride weekend.

Just in time for Vancouver Pride, Opus is offering two gay-specific hotel packages for you to enjoy. Whether you’re partaking in the festivities solo, with a group of friends or your partner, there’s a unique package that’s just right for you. So why not relax, recover and love at Opus Hotel this Vancouver Pride.

The Celebrate Pride Package offers mini-bar ‘raiding’ credits, drinks at the newly renovated (and stunning) OPUS Bar, and accommodations in a Superior Queen room, appropriately enough. For the more romantic, OPUS also offers Propose on Pride Package, with champagne, breakfast in bed, late check out and more options that promote lovey-dovey canoodling.

detailed information for both packages after the jump

Forget “A Night at the Museum,” why not thirty of them. Sounds bizarre, but when you think about it, how cool would that be?! You could try and sneak into an exhibit at a museum and hope you stay still enough not to set off the motion detectors during the night, OR you could enter this contest. The museum is looking for “an adventurous, outgoing person with a strong interest in learning about science and the world around her or him, plus the ability to write very well about your experiences. Ideally, you’re also the web-savvy sort who can keep your thumb out of frame when taking photographs.” Sound like you? Then keep reading…

The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is giving one lucky person the chance to spend a Month at the Museum (that’s right – no in and out priviledges). If the person manages to make it to the end of the 30-day period (From October 20 to November 18, 2010), they get a check for $10,000, a a package of tech gadgets, and of course you’ll be more smarter. :p

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

So stupid Spain, won the stupid World Cup final last night. The stupid score was 1 stupid goal to 0.

Being in Amsterdam for the final was quite the experience. I prepared early. I bought an orange shirt, and due to a bet I made earlier in the tournament, bought some orange underwear. I bought some Heineken, and some water, and headed down to the Museumplein to watch the game with 120,000 other people. I got there at 7:00pm our time, and the place was packed. The game didn’t even start until 8:30. Some news reports were saying that by 5:00 there were already 100,000 people there. Needless to say, this was an event.

The game was pretty great in my opinion. Although no one had scored by the end of regulation, there were a couple nail biting moments. Robben had a breakaway that deflected off the Spanish goalie’s leg, and Spain had a few shots too. The ref has been taking some heat here in Holland. The Dutch were racking up yellow cards left and right. Some deserved, some not so much. I don’t know if I would have been cheering for the Netherlands if I wasn’t living here. They played really aggressively (prime example would be the cleated drop kick to the chest by de Jong), which I don’t normally like.

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Summer is here and it’s time to get outside and take advantage of the beautiful weather, when we have it! I myself have been trying to do the same because before you know it, fall will be upon us. Now, we can always go for a run, hit the beach, or enjoy a beer on a patio, but why not try something different. Go kayaking! And, YES – that photo above is of me HERE in Vancouver! Amazing view, huh!?

I think kayaking is one of those things that sort of sounds more extreme than it is. River kayaking is of course very different than ocean kayaking, so I thought I’d address that first. Although I found it to be a great upper body workout, it is still very easy for someone to do, as you can go as far or as fast as you want. There’s something to be said for drifting away from land on your own boat when you live in a metropolitan area. It allows you to get back to mother nature, appreciate the peacefulness of the ocean with each stroke of the paddle, and take in the beauty of your city which we all take for granted.

A great place to rent a kayak in Vancouver is Ecomarine Ocean Kayak Centre. They offer rentals, guided tours, and lessons – all at very affordable prices! They even have stand up paddling, which I’m definitely going to try out soon as well! They are very accessible with three locations: Granville Island, English Bay, and Jericho Beach. The staff are very friendly and knowledgeable, making you feel very safe & ready for your venture out into the sea. Reservations are recommended, so check out Ecomarine.com for more details and contact information. Highly recommended. Next up, Stand Up Paddling! I’ll tell you all about it.

Check out the video of my experience kayaking, along with my boyfriend Tyrell.

Video after the jump…

Now, I’m no expert on Prides, and I’m certainly no circuit party connoisseur, but I have to say Seattle Pride 2010 was done right! Allowing that hanging out with our huge amount of diverse friends (okay, there’s like 20 of them down there and they’re admittedly mostly muscled, tanned white guys but some have blond hair so as far as most homo-groupings go that’s pretty affirmative actiony!) and being treated to the insider experience on which party to hit and what time- and most importantly in what outfit- definitely helped make this a killer 3 days in Sea-Town… there’s still something to be said for good work done behind the scenes.

Seattle’s Pride this year was well-run, action-packed and without a hitch… except of course a bit for the weather, but I’m a Vancouver boy so no spots of rain are gonna get me down! When it really mattered (ie. when I was tooling around in the back of my Matthew McConaughey-lookin’ friend’s boat into “Gay Bay” where all the mo’s in the know take the sails and the yachts to stretch out, dock (take that anyway you like it hehe) and relax in the company of Rihanna lovin’ boys, the weather turned out in spades and gave us a run for our tan. Still, come pride day the clouds hate crimed a bit and cooled down the more tweaked muscle daddies outside the Cuff Block party and forced more than one or two twinks to run to the bathroom to reaply some drowned eyeliner. Overall though, complete success.

Click through the read my review of the big parties!

Last week I noticed a line on my left chest like an indentation on the skin. I thought I had torn my muscle, but it wasn’t painful and I still had full range of motion. The tear was deep in the skin and I’m guessing it was due to my intense workout routine doing military style pushups with a pushup bar for more range of motion which meant greater chances of injury. You can read the full story, on my personal blog TakeThatOff and check out the photos.

All this working out is preparation for Pride season (Check out my LA Pride video from last month’s trip) & Summer vacation plans of heading back to Europe for a 2-week vacation with a stop over in Amsterdam to have lunch with Topher, Madrid for 3 days & Barcelona to check out Matinee Group’s Circuit Festival. I know what you’re thinking and you’re probably judging me for my choice of activities but if you knew me well enough, you would know that I hardly go out here in Vancouver and partying in another city is totally different and actually fun because I don’t know anyone there. I’m traveling with 4 other friends from Vancouver and a friends from the US and around Europe will be there as well. The last time I’ve traveled to a large party like this was in Montréal’s Black & Blue almost 4 years ago. Check out this video below from last year’s party! It’s like Pride on steroids!

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I went on a little pre-summer vacation to Madrid a while ago. It was my first time to Spain and to be honest I didn’t really know what to expect. One of my old friends from University proposed the trip a couple of months ago, and I said yes without knowing much about the place. I was disappointed to eventually find out that it was in fact inland, and not on the coast as I had originally assumed.

Even though there was no beach time, I had a pretty good time. I was only there for about 4 days, just enough time to see some of the city, do some shopping and eating, and relax.

I stayed with friends in the north of the city. We flew in to Madrid Barajas Airport, and took the subway to where we were staying. First thing I noticed was the the public transit there was exceptional. Buses, trains, and subways combined provide you with multiple inexpensive routes to your intended destination. Cabs are really cheap as well.

Once we got settled, we went into the city for some tapas. While in Spain, you must have tapas I was told. I was also told that tapas is really more of a touristy thing, and the locals aren’t so obsessed with it as foreigners are. Tapas are basically small dishes intended for sharing. We ordered 6 or 7 between the four of us and chowed down. The iberico ham was the highlight of the meal. It’s this really thinly sliced, salty, cured ham that they put on crisp bread with a little olive oil. I could have ate that for the whole meal.

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It’s a surprising concept for a surprising renovation in the Vancouver restaurant scene. Eli Gershkovitch of the new Rogue Kitchen & Wetbar in Gastown is taking a risk and telling his customers that they can pay whatever they feel like the food is worth. Literally.

Previously The Transcontinental, Gershkovitch shut the space down for six weeks, and renovated to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Transcontinental’s lavish and grandiose throwback decor didn’t hit Vancouverites quite right and wasn’t the success he had hoped for. Now with a more intimate and modern-upscale space, this restauranteur has decided that this gimmick will be the key to his success.

“So far, it has almost balanced out,” he said. “People have knocked off or added a buck or two but they take it very seriously and we have had some very insightful feedback.”

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This past weekend a group of girlfriends from work and I headed up to Whistler for a ‘post-wedding bachelorette party’ for one of my best girl’s Jenny celebration (even though we were a little late, it was just another perfect reason to party). The trip started off as a bit of a disaster as we hadn’t even gone five feet from our friend’s doorway when her car ran out of gas. A quick jet to the local gas station and a $20 jerry-can worth of gas later and we were on the road headed to the mountaintop.

A few more hurdles stood in our way before we could enjoy the village and all the hot men Whistler had to offer, including a mis-booked hotel reservation putting all five of us in one room with two double beds. Needless to say I shot-gunned a bed to myself and sent the four women to their side of the room. I kid, of course. Once the room was settled we headed out on the town and took in the local nightlife, hitting up Maxx Fish. I have to say there was something nostalgic about doing tequila shots as 18 year olds dancing to a new mix of California Love by 2Pac, but I digress.

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