I am making my first trip to Oregon this week, and I have been approaching it with some trepidation…I’m not sure why. For some reason, I really haven’t been looking forward to this week. The point of my travel is to attend a week-long workshop on temperature sensing using fiber-optic cables. While that likely sounds incredibly boring to everybody else reading this, it’s interesting to me (not the actual physics, mind, just the application), and hopefully I will use it in my research.
This workshop I’m attending (at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest in central Oregon, east of Eugene) starts on Monday, but I’ve come up a couple of days early (with a colleague; for the next week, when I say “we” I will be referring to the two of us, unless noted otherwise) in order to meet with on of the gurus in hillslope hydrology, a professor at Oregon State University in Corvallis. My plan was to meet with him, then spend a couple days exploring the coast of Oregon before heading down to the workshop.
My day today began at 3am (Pacific Time), when I got out of bed before my alarm went off to get ready to go to the airport. My wonderful wife got up to drive me to the airport. (Speaking of my marriage, lately I’ve been a very bad husband in a lot of ways. Alison is truly patient to continue to tolerate me. I’ve came to a realization today that, in spite of earlier protestations to the contrary, I really am Michael Scott. The difference between myself and him is that at least he was the one bringing home the money in his relationship. Oh, and I actually graduated from college. And when I tell my jokes, I know they’re not funny. I have made a little poster for myself that says: “Think: WWMSD? (What Would Michael Scott Do?) Do the Opposite.” I hope that motivates me. I have become less and less responsible since I met Alison, and I think it’s because she is so responsible that it’s easy for me to totally rely on her for everything. My faculties in a lot of areas have slipped because of this. I don’t know, maybe it’s something else, but this seems to fit.)
My flight left around 6am to quickly head over to Phoenix. As those of you who read my wife’s blog know, we went to Pittsburgh recently, and I reflected that Phoenix is about the ugliest city to fly into. There is no green anywhere, except on the golf courses. Some little kid who was kicking my chair the whole way knew another kid who was talking about all the dirt. Yeah. Most other places you go (Tucson and Las Vegas being obvious exceptions) at least look somewhat alive when you head toward them. And this is one of the fastest growing cities (and therefore one of the fastest growing water demands) in the country.
No time to do anything in Phoenix, and the food in the airport was terribly overpriced, so I just did crosswords for awhile. The next flight was to Portland, and shockingly this flight was not full. It has been a very long time since I have been on an airplane that was not chock-a-block full of people. And not just a few seats were empty; my row only had two people, and I had traded seats with somebody else, and my original row also only had two people. The row in front of me only had two. It was actually very nice. A pleasant flight, and I got like two and a half articles read, which for me is quite outstanding. We arrived ahead of schedule, but then we had to go to baggage claim, then to the rental car place, then we had to wait for the shuttle, and the rental car lots are actually not really at the Portland airport, so we had to drive awhile. And they “upgraded” me from an economy car to a small SUV (a Hyundai Santa Fe) which I’m sure gets only about 2/3 the mileage. While in the airport restroom, I had the pleasure of getting to listen to somebody’s phone conversation, which they held while sitting on the toilet. At some point the guy’s reception cut out, which made him quite upset. I say, the cell phone companies should have no obligation to provide you with reception inside of a restroom. Phone calls are not so urgent that you have to make everybody around you uncomfortable by considering that you might be blasting a dookie while talking to a fellow businessman.
The drive to Corvallis took about two hours, and it was pretty pleasant. We grabbed Subway on the way, and today was Free Cookie Friday, so that automatically was a spirit lifter. In Corvallis we parked on the campus of Oregon State University and walked for awhile so I could meet this hydro guru. I think it was a productive meeting, but who knows. Afterward we went to a local book store where I picked up a guide to hiking along the coast. We went to dinner at Block 15, a local brewpub, because I am obsessed with the idea that I am a beer snob, even though my palette is not at all refined enough to really identify flavors, or what is actually a good beer, and my memory is so poor that I don’t remember what tastes like what anyway. In fact, if I didn’t take notes I would have no idea what I actually liked. I will not have this problem with the beers at Block 15, however, which I universally disliked. I tried a 5-beer sampler, with their Brown Porter, Trubbled Monk Belgian, Aboriginale, American Wheat, and Golden Glo. The last two were very light, and really had absolutely no flavor. It was almost as if I was drinking tonic. The Aboriginale was extremely hoppy (to the point that it was difficult to finish and made me feel a little nauseated), the Belgian was very strong (in a not-so-good way), and the Porter was so-so. I actually drank the Porter first because I thought it had the least chance of being a beer I would like, and I thought it was only OK…but it turned out to be the best of the bunch. I did admire the fact that the brewery uses wind power, they purchase carbon offsets, and they feed their spent grains to local livestock. So at least they are low-impact.
We grabbed groceries before heading out of town (I asked a lady on the street to direct me toward a grocery store, and she told me how to get to the Safeway…then also told me about the local grocery store (which was unfortunately too far out of the way)…then also told me about the farmer’s market (which was unfortunately not until tomorrow)…what a town! And I bought cherries at the Safeway; one of my life’s goals is to live somewhere where I can grow cherries) and driving toward the coast. We first passed through the town of Philomath, from which this post takes its title (the title is actually a quote from an old R.E.M. song, so I’m sure it was meaningless to 99.9% of the world population). This took awhile, but the road was just beautiful. I like the whole coastal range area…lots of tall forests, although there are also numerous clear-cut scars everywhere. We drove into Newport, then headed north toward Lincoln City. We camped at Beverly Beach State Park, which was quite nice (if a little noisy, since I chose a campsite that was right next to the highway, and also very close to the beach access). After arriving we took a little hike up the beach to Devil’s Punchbowl (a collapsed sea cave) and back, about 2.8 miles total according to the guidebook. It was beautiful, although the wind was quite cold. There were very few people around. The goal was to see the sunset, but the western horizon was unfortunately cloudy. The hike back, we decided to try our luck with hiking above the beach, and ended up walking down a highway the whole way. This was somewhat harrowing, but it was still pretty light out (this being about 9:00 P.M.) so nothing bad happened. Once back to the campsite, we set up tents and I brushed teeth and went to sleep. It feels great to be out camping, even if you can hear the traffic noise all night. Connecting with nature, at least to the degree one can by backing one’s SUV into a campsite and unloading the tent from the back.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Monday, June 2, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Hello....internet.
Every day I check my favorite blogs to see whether there have been any new posts. This includes my wife's blog, even though I should theoretically know exactly when she writes a new blog, us living in the same house and everything. I mostly do this out of a desire to not do anything worthwhile, which is apparently my life goal. The reason I say this is that I have realized that it's been about 3 weeks since I last posted a blog. Hypocritical, yes. It's not that I haven't had anything to say - that is, anything more to say than I usually do when posting here.
Since I last posted we of course has Christmas (actually, we had like 4 Christmases - we opened stockings on the 20th, opened some presents with Alison's family Christmas morning, opened more presents with my family Christmas afternoon, and finished when KC and BC showed up on Dec. 29). New Year's -- we went to bed before midnight. We had the pleasure of driving home to ABQ on New Year's day; at least there was very little traffic. Oh, I did get to go to a Phoenix Coyotes game with MD in which the Coyotes won in a shoot-out, the first shoot-out I had ever seen (not getting cable -- which really wouldn't help very much).
Since then, not a hell of a lot has gone on. Alison left on this past Friday to spend two weeks in Ecuador on a volunteer vacation with her sister. They're staying at an eco-resort and spending their days building trails or something, she wasn't entirely sure what they would be doing. This is definitely the longest I will have gone since I met her without actually talking to her -- even when I was in Canada for a summer I only spent about 4 days at a time in the field. It's a weird thing to suddenly not have any contact with her, and kind of depressing. I have not gotten enough work done so far with her gone. I've spent some time playing Evil Genius, one of the greatest computer games ever created, and good training for myself and the other horsemen (you know who you are brothers!). I also did some house cleaning last night, taking down our Christmas decorations and such. I went running the past three days in a row, and boy am I sore; this is my effort to be a little thinner when Alison gets back.
Today I surprised myself by actually getting up in time to get to the van and come down to Socorro. Trying to go to sleep last night (not very successfully, as I slept in pretty late on Sunday), I gave myself maybe a 25% chance of actually getting up in the morning. Maybe this will be a good start for me. This week I have to get writing more on a proposal I have to have done in a couple months, as well as doing some GIS work for my research. I also have to apparently get ready for the class that I am apparently going to T.A. this coming semester. Finally, I have a few secret blogging projects in the mental works that I'd like to get firing up.
Since I last posted we of course has Christmas (actually, we had like 4 Christmases - we opened stockings on the 20th, opened some presents with Alison's family Christmas morning, opened more presents with my family Christmas afternoon, and finished when KC and BC showed up on Dec. 29). New Year's -- we went to bed before midnight. We had the pleasure of driving home to ABQ on New Year's day; at least there was very little traffic. Oh, I did get to go to a Phoenix Coyotes game with MD in which the Coyotes won in a shoot-out, the first shoot-out I had ever seen (not getting cable -- which really wouldn't help very much).
Since then, not a hell of a lot has gone on. Alison left on this past Friday to spend two weeks in Ecuador on a volunteer vacation with her sister. They're staying at an eco-resort and spending their days building trails or something, she wasn't entirely sure what they would be doing. This is definitely the longest I will have gone since I met her without actually talking to her -- even when I was in Canada for a summer I only spent about 4 days at a time in the field. It's a weird thing to suddenly not have any contact with her, and kind of depressing. I have not gotten enough work done so far with her gone. I've spent some time playing Evil Genius, one of the greatest computer games ever created, and good training for myself and the other horsemen (you know who you are brothers!). I also did some house cleaning last night, taking down our Christmas decorations and such. I went running the past three days in a row, and boy am I sore; this is my effort to be a little thinner when Alison gets back.
Today I surprised myself by actually getting up in time to get to the van and come down to Socorro. Trying to go to sleep last night (not very successfully, as I slept in pretty late on Sunday), I gave myself maybe a 25% chance of actually getting up in the morning. Maybe this will be a good start for me. This week I have to get writing more on a proposal I have to have done in a couple months, as well as doing some GIS work for my research. I also have to apparently get ready for the class that I am apparently going to T.A. this coming semester. Finally, I have a few secret blogging projects in the mental works that I'd like to get firing up.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Weekend update
OK. Here's what went down this past weekend.
Friday: KG took me to the airport and dropped me off to get on my flight. It was very nice not to have to take a bus, but of course was very expensive. To cover it I am going to sell my bass. The flight took an hour, a huge improvement over the like 10 hours it took by bus; however, I was sitting next to a definite spreader, who decided that the armrest was not a real dividing line between the seats, and put his knee on my side. He also used the armrest. Even though I was there first.
I got to L.A. and got myself on the Flyaway bus to Union Station to meet the wife. Every indication on the internet is that this bus costs $3. Alison said that all advertisements indicate that it is $3. So I had $3 in my pocket. When I finally got there, I discovered that it is actually $4. But then if you don't have luggage in the stowage area, apparently you don't get hassled to pay. So for me, it was free.
Having no idea where I was, I had to then discover where Alison was waiting, but it turned into a big debacle because it turns out that Union Station consists of a main station and an east station. Alison was at the main station; I was at the east. Neither of us had any idea. It took a great deal of walking around and consternation before we found each other in a tunnel somewhere. All was forgiven.
We walked to Little Tokyo for an excellent dinner. If I worked near this place like Alison does, I think I would be poor. Poor and fat. After dinner we met up with Alison's friend J at the jazz bar for some drinks. I tried some not-so-local beer (brewed in Paso Robles in central California - somewhere I have actually been!) from the Firestone Walker Brewery, having both the Double Barrel Ale and the Pale Ale. I was fairly ambivalent toward them, especially at 6 bucks a bottle. We also played some darts (real metal-tipped) and some weird short-table shufflepuck that actually had the real shuffleboard triangle design at the ends. After the bar we went to J's house and slept in somebody's bed.
Saturday: We got up in the morning and drove J to her car, then went to Altadena to go on a hike, one that Alison had been to already (to Echo Mountain and Inspiration Point). The hike was 10 miles long, going from Altadena to Echo Mountain to Inspiration Point via the Castle Canyon trail, then back along a different trail. The hike was in the Angeles National Forest. It was very pretty, and for most of the way up we could actually see all the way to downtown, several miles away!
After that we were all hot and sweaty and gross, so we went to the In-n-Out for lunch. This was a drive-through only place, and cars were backed up onto the main road, even though it was past 1:30. What a crazy place. Alison accidentally ordered a veggie burger instead of a grilled cheese, so it was just a burger bun with some vegetables and weird sauce on it. My burger was good though, and for once I actually loved the fries; I think they salted them a lot more than usual.
With full bellies we drove back to Alison's house to shower, then did some searching for a hotel. We located the Glen Capri Motel in Burbank, which was like $65 a night, about the best we could do for a 2-star hotel. We booked online over Orbitz, then immediately headed down to the motel to check in (having nothing really better to do). When we got there, and rang the bell, the dude at the desk was a total ass to us and said that we didn't have a reservation. So we left and I spent the next like 30 minutes on the phone with Orbitz, having the customer service guy recite to me every detail of my reservation for some reason before finally letting me tell him that the hotel did not have our reservation. He called them and sorted it out, and we headed back to check in. Once again, pretty much an ass to us. We got up to our room, and it was not a non-smoking room, which was really annoying. The room itself was pretty OK though, and we didn't want to deal with the desk jerk again, so I just turned on the vent full blast to try to get some fresh air in.
We headed out to Citywalk at Universal Studios to check it out and have dinner. We ate at Panda Inn, which was tasty and had very competent servers. Alison was upset to find out that it turns out that Panda Inn is basically the fancy-schmancy offshoot of Panda Express. Following dinner we walked around for awhile, and did some shopping at Sparky's, a big candy store. Bought some sugary sweets and a rockin' Grumpy Bear alarm clock. It was some good times. After this we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
Sunday: Today we slept in and took it easy. There was a restaurant right next to the motel that looked pretty nice (Cafe Patrick, I believe), so we decided to try it out for brunch. I had the "Carnivore Sandwich" which was a roast beef, along with fresh fruit. The sandwich was okay, but I absolutely loved, loved, the fresh fruit. I want to live somewhere that has fruit. It was awesome.
After brunch we decided to head down to Malibu just for some grins, to drive through the mountains there. The mountains were pretty, although they were regularly marred by mega-mansions that are probably second or third houses for people. We got through the mountains and drove down highway 1 for awhile until we located a beach access spot that wasn't crazy busy and got down to the beach! We walked for a little while until Alison accidentally stepped on a bee and got stung on the bottom of her foot. It was very sad. We hobbled back toward where we had come down to the beach, then sat down for awhile so she could recover.
When we eventually got back up to the car, we drove toward Anaheim to see the Angels-Tigers game. Getting there a little early, we stopped at a Del Taco near the stadium for dinner (to avoid spending the money at the game). This was my first Del Taco experience, and while I appreciated the idea of getting a burrito and fries at the same meal, I was pretty ambivalent about it. Alison likes it so I will be happy to go again some time for her benefit. :) We headed over to the stadium and parked (at $8 it was $7 less than we were charged to park near Dodger Stadium a couple weeks ago), then limped the like half mile to the stadium. Our tickets were the very very topmost row in the stadium, but it still had a good view of the action. The stadium was pretty full, and there were a lot of Tigers fans there, which was pretty exciting. We were also in the shade for most of the game, which was nice (interestingly, we started in the shade, then were in the sun for awhile, then we were back in the shade due to the vagaries of the construction).
My excitement about finally seeing a Tigers game was pretty quickly dashed as they gave up 4 runs in the first, 2 in the 2nd, and 6 in the 3rd to build a 12-0 hole. When we left it was like 12-3 or 12-4. I don't like to leave baseball games early, but I had to get on a bus again. The final score was 13-4 as the Tigers got swept by the Angels. So sad. After watching some Family Guy in the Greyhound station I boarded the bus by 10pm, and got into like the 4th row with a seat to myself once again. The trip from Los Angeles to Phoenix is SO much nicer than the trip in the other direction.
Monday: I slept so poorly on the trip back again, but had breakfast with MD and KG, then went back to my sister's apartment and had a 3-hour nap. Then I headed out to east mesa to have lunch with KG (highly disappointing; the pizza place had changed hands since the last time we ate there) then got the hell out of town. I drove the 60 all the way out to Socorro; if you've never taken this drive you should. It's so much nicer than taking the interstates. Back in Albuquerque around 11pm and exhausted.
That's it, that was my weekend. Since my last book update I have finished two books: The Federal Landscape by Gerald D. Nash and A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle. The first was an interesting book about how the federal government affected the western U.S., both through the ownership of federal lands and the buildup of the military-industrial complex to support the Pacific fleet. Interesting stuff.
The second was the book after A Wrinkle in Time. I read these books many many years ago on my own, and enjoyed them back then. I enjoyed this book much less this time for some reason. I guess that's what comes with getting old. Two more of these books, then I get to start The Origin of Species which I'm sure will be highly stimulating.
I've also decided that (for no real reason whatsoever) I am going to keep track of my media experiences for the next year: all the listings under my "Latest" from beer to movies. Should be completely uninteresting!
Friday: KG took me to the airport and dropped me off to get on my flight. It was very nice not to have to take a bus, but of course was very expensive. To cover it I am going to sell my bass. The flight took an hour, a huge improvement over the like 10 hours it took by bus; however, I was sitting next to a definite spreader, who decided that the armrest was not a real dividing line between the seats, and put his knee on my side. He also used the armrest. Even though I was there first.
I got to L.A. and got myself on the Flyaway bus to Union Station to meet the wife. Every indication on the internet is that this bus costs $3. Alison said that all advertisements indicate that it is $3. So I had $3 in my pocket. When I finally got there, I discovered that it is actually $4. But then if you don't have luggage in the stowage area, apparently you don't get hassled to pay. So for me, it was free.
Having no idea where I was, I had to then discover where Alison was waiting, but it turned into a big debacle because it turns out that Union Station consists of a main station and an east station. Alison was at the main station; I was at the east. Neither of us had any idea. It took a great deal of walking around and consternation before we found each other in a tunnel somewhere. All was forgiven.
We walked to Little Tokyo for an excellent dinner. If I worked near this place like Alison does, I think I would be poor. Poor and fat. After dinner we met up with Alison's friend J at the jazz bar for some drinks. I tried some not-so-local beer (brewed in Paso Robles in central California - somewhere I have actually been!) from the Firestone Walker Brewery, having both the Double Barrel Ale and the Pale Ale. I was fairly ambivalent toward them, especially at 6 bucks a bottle. We also played some darts (real metal-tipped) and some weird short-table shufflepuck that actually had the real shuffleboard triangle design at the ends. After the bar we went to J's house and slept in somebody's bed.
Saturday: We got up in the morning and drove J to her car, then went to Altadena to go on a hike, one that Alison had been to already (to Echo Mountain and Inspiration Point). The hike was 10 miles long, going from Altadena to Echo Mountain to Inspiration Point via the Castle Canyon trail, then back along a different trail. The hike was in the Angeles National Forest. It was very pretty, and for most of the way up we could actually see all the way to downtown, several miles away!
After that we were all hot and sweaty and gross, so we went to the In-n-Out for lunch. This was a drive-through only place, and cars were backed up onto the main road, even though it was past 1:30. What a crazy place. Alison accidentally ordered a veggie burger instead of a grilled cheese, so it was just a burger bun with some vegetables and weird sauce on it. My burger was good though, and for once I actually loved the fries; I think they salted them a lot more than usual.
With full bellies we drove back to Alison's house to shower, then did some searching for a hotel. We located the Glen Capri Motel in Burbank, which was like $65 a night, about the best we could do for a 2-star hotel. We booked online over Orbitz, then immediately headed down to the motel to check in (having nothing really better to do). When we got there, and rang the bell, the dude at the desk was a total ass to us and said that we didn't have a reservation. So we left and I spent the next like 30 minutes on the phone with Orbitz, having the customer service guy recite to me every detail of my reservation for some reason before finally letting me tell him that the hotel did not have our reservation. He called them and sorted it out, and we headed back to check in. Once again, pretty much an ass to us. We got up to our room, and it was not a non-smoking room, which was really annoying. The room itself was pretty OK though, and we didn't want to deal with the desk jerk again, so I just turned on the vent full blast to try to get some fresh air in.
We headed out to Citywalk at Universal Studios to check it out and have dinner. We ate at Panda Inn, which was tasty and had very competent servers. Alison was upset to find out that it turns out that Panda Inn is basically the fancy-schmancy offshoot of Panda Express. Following dinner we walked around for awhile, and did some shopping at Sparky's, a big candy store. Bought some sugary sweets and a rockin' Grumpy Bear alarm clock. It was some good times. After this we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
Sunday: Today we slept in and took it easy. There was a restaurant right next to the motel that looked pretty nice (Cafe Patrick, I believe), so we decided to try it out for brunch. I had the "Carnivore Sandwich" which was a roast beef, along with fresh fruit. The sandwich was okay, but I absolutely loved, loved, the fresh fruit. I want to live somewhere that has fruit. It was awesome.
After brunch we decided to head down to Malibu just for some grins, to drive through the mountains there. The mountains were pretty, although they were regularly marred by mega-mansions that are probably second or third houses for people. We got through the mountains and drove down highway 1 for awhile until we located a beach access spot that wasn't crazy busy and got down to the beach! We walked for a little while until Alison accidentally stepped on a bee and got stung on the bottom of her foot. It was very sad. We hobbled back toward where we had come down to the beach, then sat down for awhile so she could recover.
When we eventually got back up to the car, we drove toward Anaheim to see the Angels-Tigers game. Getting there a little early, we stopped at a Del Taco near the stadium for dinner (to avoid spending the money at the game). This was my first Del Taco experience, and while I appreciated the idea of getting a burrito and fries at the same meal, I was pretty ambivalent about it. Alison likes it so I will be happy to go again some time for her benefit. :) We headed over to the stadium and parked (at $8 it was $7 less than we were charged to park near Dodger Stadium a couple weeks ago), then limped the like half mile to the stadium. Our tickets were the very very topmost row in the stadium, but it still had a good view of the action. The stadium was pretty full, and there were a lot of Tigers fans there, which was pretty exciting. We were also in the shade for most of the game, which was nice (interestingly, we started in the shade, then were in the sun for awhile, then we were back in the shade due to the vagaries of the construction).
My excitement about finally seeing a Tigers game was pretty quickly dashed as they gave up 4 runs in the first, 2 in the 2nd, and 6 in the 3rd to build a 12-0 hole. When we left it was like 12-3 or 12-4. I don't like to leave baseball games early, but I had to get on a bus again. The final score was 13-4 as the Tigers got swept by the Angels. So sad. After watching some Family Guy in the Greyhound station I boarded the bus by 10pm, and got into like the 4th row with a seat to myself once again. The trip from Los Angeles to Phoenix is SO much nicer than the trip in the other direction.
Monday: I slept so poorly on the trip back again, but had breakfast with MD and KG, then went back to my sister's apartment and had a 3-hour nap. Then I headed out to east mesa to have lunch with KG (highly disappointing; the pizza place had changed hands since the last time we ate there) then got the hell out of town. I drove the 60 all the way out to Socorro; if you've never taken this drive you should. It's so much nicer than taking the interstates. Back in Albuquerque around 11pm and exhausted.
That's it, that was my weekend. Since my last book update I have finished two books: The Federal Landscape by Gerald D. Nash and A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle. The first was an interesting book about how the federal government affected the western U.S., both through the ownership of federal lands and the buildup of the military-industrial complex to support the Pacific fleet. Interesting stuff.
The second was the book after A Wrinkle in Time. I read these books many many years ago on my own, and enjoyed them back then. I enjoyed this book much less this time for some reason. I guess that's what comes with getting old. Two more of these books, then I get to start The Origin of Species which I'm sure will be highly stimulating.
I've also decided that (for no real reason whatsoever) I am going to keep track of my media experiences for the next year: all the listings under my "Latest" from beer to movies. Should be completely uninteresting!
Monday, July 9, 2007
Update, quickly
I'm in the big SV. Maybe I'll blog why, maybe not. I doubt you really care all that much. L.A. was great, maybe I'll blog about what we did, maybe not. Alison has pictures, and I don't; I have internet, and she doesn't. What to do?
I'll leave you with this, which is pretty much the funniest thing I've read recently. Just the last panel.
Note: If you don't know who Yakov Smirnoff is, this will be significantly less funny to you.
I'll leave you with this, which is pretty much the funniest thing I've read recently. Just the last panel.
Note: If you don't know who Yakov Smirnoff is, this will be significantly less funny to you.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Article 3, more
Alison's third article is out at the times. Go here to check it out. I have determined that the Times is schizophrenic about when it will let you look at a particular article without being registered, so I will post a link to another website when somebody else reprints it.
I just noticed that the only thing I blog about anymore is Alison's journalistic endeavor. That's because I've done nothing latewwwly with my life, other than work. My current schedule has me waking up at 5:45 am (alarm starts at 5:30, although since I am always freaked out about missing the alarm, I tend to wake up several times to check to see what time it is...this morning, at 1am and 4am at least), eating breakfast and fixing lunch, leaving at 6:15-6:20, biking 15 minutes to the van stop, waiting for the van to get there at 6:45, then riding to Socorro, where we arrive around 7:55 (although the driver today was a speed demon and we were here by 7:45). I then get hungry by 9am, snack at 10, and graze for the rest of the day. Back on the van at 5:05 or 5:10, and get back to the van stop around 6:20 to 6:30. Hope that my bike is still there. So far it has. Bike home, get there around 6:45-ish. This schedule makes me tired; mornings are my natural enemy. Also, I think my plants resent being in the house by themselves all day with no cooling; thank goodness for adobe, at least. Bike lanes are short to nonexistant here; at least I miss rush hour as it stands. Downtown is strangely deserted both when I bike to the van, and when I bike back. I've never been in a city that was like that.
In other news, I will be out in LA visiting Alison the weekend of July 8th. This will entail getting to the Greyhound station on the afternoon-evening of July 5 (Thursday), bussing overnight to arrive noonish in LA, then leaving LA on the evening of July 9 to arrive back in Abq on July 10. This will be my first >1 hour experience on a Greyhound, and should be a thrilling adventure. I'll be sure to post all details.
I just noticed that the only thing I blog about anymore is Alison's journalistic endeavor. That's because I've done nothing latewwwly with my life, other than work. My current schedule has me waking up at 5:45 am (alarm starts at 5:30, although since I am always freaked out about missing the alarm, I tend to wake up several times to check to see what time it is...this morning, at 1am and 4am at least), eating breakfast and fixing lunch, leaving at 6:15-6:20, biking 15 minutes to the van stop, waiting for the van to get there at 6:45, then riding to Socorro, where we arrive around 7:55 (although the driver today was a speed demon and we were here by 7:45). I then get hungry by 9am, snack at 10, and graze for the rest of the day. Back on the van at 5:05 or 5:10, and get back to the van stop around 6:20 to 6:30. Hope that my bike is still there. So far it has. Bike home, get there around 6:45-ish. This schedule makes me tired; mornings are my natural enemy. Also, I think my plants resent being in the house by themselves all day with no cooling; thank goodness for adobe, at least. Bike lanes are short to nonexistant here; at least I miss rush hour as it stands. Downtown is strangely deserted both when I bike to the van, and when I bike back. I've never been in a city that was like that.
In other news, I will be out in LA visiting Alison the weekend of July 8th. This will entail getting to the Greyhound station on the afternoon-evening of July 5 (Thursday), bussing overnight to arrive noonish in LA, then leaving LA on the evening of July 9 to arrive back in Abq on July 10. This will be my first >1 hour experience on a Greyhound, and should be a thrilling adventure. I'll be sure to post all details.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Honeymoon pictures, YES.
You can go here to check out pictures of our honeymoon. FYI, I am NOT going to complete the Honeymoon days 8 and 10 entries in the blog. You can reconstruct day 8 from the pictures. Short recap of day 8: 15 miles of hiking, 2700' of elevation gain, a little snow, and some limping. No quiche. Day 10: drive, drive, drive. "Gas, brake, honk. Gas, brake, honk. Honk, honk, punch. Gas, gas, gas." Tour of Berkeley. Fly to Abq. Drive home. Fall asleep.
P.S. Quote is from Homer Simpson.
P.S. Quote is from Homer Simpson.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Honeymoon Day 9
Today was our second day at Yosemite. We started out with breakfast at the food court, and discovered something very important about the breakfast coupon scheme. Apparently, if you get the correct cashier, you can get pretty much anything with the coupon. Alison had oatmeal and toast, I had a breakfast sandwich (gross) and cocoa puffs, and we shared some eggs and hash browns. However, in addition to breakfast we discovered that we could each get a sandwich on our coupons, so we also got lunch. If anybody happens to read this and is going to Yosemite, they should keep this little tidbit in mind. If you're hiking all day, it is very useful to get lunch at the bottom anyway.
After breakfast we finished getting ready, then headed over to the Upper Yosemite Falls trail. Today, we were looking forward to a 7-mile round trip with 2700' of elevation gain. At the bottom of the trail, there was a sign that read: "This challenging wilderness trail zigzags up about 60 switchbacks to Columbia Rock. From this vantage point, about a mile up the trail, hikers can enjoy spectacular panoramic views of Yosemite Valley and the peaks beyond. An easy half-mile beyond Columbia Rock is the first view of Yosemite Falls. The trail steepens for the last two miles to the overlook at the brink of Upper Yosemite Falls." The final count runs like this. The first section of the trail contains 65 switchbacks in 1 mile. The middle, "easy" part has 8 in half a mile. The final section is 2 miles, and has 64 switchbacks. This hike took us about 6 hours to do a total of 9 miles. And at least 2/3 of the time was the way up. All the views were neat, and we definitely loved the hike, even though it was pretty strenuous in the biting 80 degree heat.
Our enjoyment was diminished somewhat by some of the other people on the trail with us. There were ridiculously many people on this trail with either little or no water, pretty dumb for a 7-mile (to the Upper Falls and back) hike over this kind of trail. Who hikes that far even on flat ground without water? Stupid people, that's who. People looked like they were about to pass out walking up this thing. We ended up passing everybody on the trail, and we're not even in very good shape. The NPS could also do a better job of warning people about the climb. Not that it would matter, but at least then they couldn't be blamed in any way. Also, apparently nobody wants you to pass them on the way down the mountain, because I think that not one group moved aside for us unless we had been breathing down their neck for a couple switchbacks already. I mean, I can't think of any other reason why we would be hiking so close behind them.
We got up to Upper Yosemite Falls around 12:30, and decided to have lunch up there. Our sandwiches were rather good, probably the best thing we've gotten at the cafeteria so far. We downed those, then decided to move on to Yosemite Point, from where you're supposed to have a good view of the Valley. The trail up here was mostly snow-covered, so we had to be bad people and follow footprints of people who didn't bother to use the trail in order to get up to the point. We didn't stay there very long, coming back down to Upper Yosemite Falls to actually go to the vantage point. The trail down to the viewpoint is super crazy, and they have hand rails installed to keep you from plunging over the sheer cliff face (part of the trail has the rail on the wall side of you, so there's nothing between you and certain death). Alison did much better than me here. We took some photos, then slowly climbed the stairs back up to the main vantage point.
We immediately took off for the bottom. On our way away from the overlook we ran into a couple guys in their 30's who had apparenty decided it would be a good idea to attempt the hike with absolutely no water or food or anything else, for that matter. They had both removed their shirts at some point, and had come up with the brilliant idea of using snow as a surrogate for water. That's right, they were eating the snow that had been on the ground, probably for months, collecting all sorts of tasty stuff. Now, it's one thing to not bring any water on a hike. It's quite another to decide that, when you get deathly thirsty and feel like you can't go on, you must recourse to eating snow to survive. It is quite a thirdly incredibly idiotic decision to then continue hiking to the top, relying on snow to keep you hydrated. Survival of the fittest, indeed.
On our way down, despite it getting on toward 3, we ran across many more people who were still climbing up toward the top. Some of them were a long ways from the top. We also passed some people on their way down about halfway down who we had passed about halfway up on our way up the mountain. They were taking it very slow, and looked like they were not really fit for this trail. Perhaps it is for people like them that they have a large number of spots in the parking lot reserved for Search & Rescue, a thing we didn't really appreciate until we had done the hike.
After finally reaching bottom, we headed back to our room to wash the sweat off, then went over to the Mountain Room Lounge for some well-deserved dinner and drinks (24 miles in 2 days with over a mile of elevation gain!). Alison started off with a Lemon Drop, but I stuck to non-alcoholic, caffeinated beverages at first. I worked on blogs for awhile, successfully saving over yesterday's after finishing it. After hanging out for a little, we moved toward the central fire pit to have dinner. It turns out that the "dinners" they offer there are pre-packaged, and pretty much the same thing that is available in the food court, only in the food court you don't feel compelled to pay somebody for unwrapping it for you. I still ordered the same turkey sandwich I'd had for lunch, and Alison ordered the brie and fruit plate. I tried the Yosemite Pale Ale, which was quite good, though heartily overpriced ($4.50 for a glass, not a pint - that's $6). After dinner we moved to the real reason we'd gone here for a meal - they offer a S'mores package for less than $3 that contains everything you need to make 4 S'mores. We toasted our marshmallows and made S'mores and generally had a fine time there. It was an excellent way to cap the evening. Plus, Alison got to watch some NCAA tournament basketball during dinner, so she was pretty jazzed about that too.
Following dinner we headed back to the room to get packed for the journey home. Since we had gotten so many souvenirs on our trip (such as the basket that Alison got for me in Mendocino, my good luck cat from Chinatown, and various sundry other things), we were pretty sure that our bags, overstuffed on the way out, were going to burst this time. However, we miraculously fit all of our stuff into our luggage with a tiny bit of room to spare. Things actually fit better this time than they had originally. Wild. This activity pretty much tired us out, so we went to bed soon after we were done.
After breakfast we finished getting ready, then headed over to the Upper Yosemite Falls trail. Today, we were looking forward to a 7-mile round trip with 2700' of elevation gain. At the bottom of the trail, there was a sign that read: "This challenging wilderness trail zigzags up about 60 switchbacks to Columbia Rock. From this vantage point, about a mile up the trail, hikers can enjoy spectacular panoramic views of Yosemite Valley and the peaks beyond. An easy half-mile beyond Columbia Rock is the first view of Yosemite Falls. The trail steepens for the last two miles to the overlook at the brink of Upper Yosemite Falls." The final count runs like this. The first section of the trail contains 65 switchbacks in 1 mile. The middle, "easy" part has 8 in half a mile. The final section is 2 miles, and has 64 switchbacks. This hike took us about 6 hours to do a total of 9 miles. And at least 2/3 of the time was the way up. All the views were neat, and we definitely loved the hike, even though it was pretty strenuous in the biting 80 degree heat.
Our enjoyment was diminished somewhat by some of the other people on the trail with us. There were ridiculously many people on this trail with either little or no water, pretty dumb for a 7-mile (to the Upper Falls and back) hike over this kind of trail. Who hikes that far even on flat ground without water? Stupid people, that's who. People looked like they were about to pass out walking up this thing. We ended up passing everybody on the trail, and we're not even in very good shape. The NPS could also do a better job of warning people about the climb. Not that it would matter, but at least then they couldn't be blamed in any way. Also, apparently nobody wants you to pass them on the way down the mountain, because I think that not one group moved aside for us unless we had been breathing down their neck for a couple switchbacks already. I mean, I can't think of any other reason why we would be hiking so close behind them.
We got up to Upper Yosemite Falls around 12:30, and decided to have lunch up there. Our sandwiches were rather good, probably the best thing we've gotten at the cafeteria so far. We downed those, then decided to move on to Yosemite Point, from where you're supposed to have a good view of the Valley. The trail up here was mostly snow-covered, so we had to be bad people and follow footprints of people who didn't bother to use the trail in order to get up to the point. We didn't stay there very long, coming back down to Upper Yosemite Falls to actually go to the vantage point. The trail down to the viewpoint is super crazy, and they have hand rails installed to keep you from plunging over the sheer cliff face (part of the trail has the rail on the wall side of you, so there's nothing between you and certain death). Alison did much better than me here. We took some photos, then slowly climbed the stairs back up to the main vantage point.
We immediately took off for the bottom. On our way away from the overlook we ran into a couple guys in their 30's who had apparenty decided it would be a good idea to attempt the hike with absolutely no water or food or anything else, for that matter. They had both removed their shirts at some point, and had come up with the brilliant idea of using snow as a surrogate for water. That's right, they were eating the snow that had been on the ground, probably for months, collecting all sorts of tasty stuff. Now, it's one thing to not bring any water on a hike. It's quite another to decide that, when you get deathly thirsty and feel like you can't go on, you must recourse to eating snow to survive. It is quite a thirdly incredibly idiotic decision to then continue hiking to the top, relying on snow to keep you hydrated. Survival of the fittest, indeed.
On our way down, despite it getting on toward 3, we ran across many more people who were still climbing up toward the top. Some of them were a long ways from the top. We also passed some people on their way down about halfway down who we had passed about halfway up on our way up the mountain. They were taking it very slow, and looked like they were not really fit for this trail. Perhaps it is for people like them that they have a large number of spots in the parking lot reserved for Search & Rescue, a thing we didn't really appreciate until we had done the hike.
After finally reaching bottom, we headed back to our room to wash the sweat off, then went over to the Mountain Room Lounge for some well-deserved dinner and drinks (24 miles in 2 days with over a mile of elevation gain!). Alison started off with a Lemon Drop, but I stuck to non-alcoholic, caffeinated beverages at first. I worked on blogs for awhile, successfully saving over yesterday's after finishing it. After hanging out for a little, we moved toward the central fire pit to have dinner. It turns out that the "dinners" they offer there are pre-packaged, and pretty much the same thing that is available in the food court, only in the food court you don't feel compelled to pay somebody for unwrapping it for you. I still ordered the same turkey sandwich I'd had for lunch, and Alison ordered the brie and fruit plate. I tried the Yosemite Pale Ale, which was quite good, though heartily overpriced ($4.50 for a glass, not a pint - that's $6). After dinner we moved to the real reason we'd gone here for a meal - they offer a S'mores package for less than $3 that contains everything you need to make 4 S'mores. We toasted our marshmallows and made S'mores and generally had a fine time there. It was an excellent way to cap the evening. Plus, Alison got to watch some NCAA tournament basketball during dinner, so she was pretty jazzed about that too.
Following dinner we headed back to the room to get packed for the journey home. Since we had gotten so many souvenirs on our trip (such as the basket that Alison got for me in Mendocino, my good luck cat from Chinatown, and various sundry other things), we were pretty sure that our bags, overstuffed on the way out, were going to burst this time. However, we miraculously fit all of our stuff into our luggage with a tiny bit of room to spare. Things actually fit better this time than they had originally. Wild. This activity pretty much tired us out, so we went to bed soon after we were done.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Honeymoon Day 7
Today we left the B&B behind and drove to Yosemite National Park. We started out with our last breakfast. The quiche-of-the-day was Black Forest Ham and Cheddar, and was quite tasty. I broke my no-pig-but-bacon rule for this quiche. Unfortunately, Alison was only able to eat one of the quiches on our stay there. If anybody vegetarian happens across this and is going to stay at Sea Rock (which we would definitely recommend), I might recommend that you let Barbara know that you need vegetarian-only quiches. There were so few people staying there with us (off-season) that I'm sure they would be happy to sort of modify the menu a little. In any case, all the quiches we ate were very tasty.
After taking off from Mendocino we headed down (South) the road (Highway 1) to Van Damme State Park again so I could see the Pygmy Forest. This area is a sequence of wave-cut ocean terraces that have been uplifted over time. They have stayed very flat, and are therefore poorly drained. Over time, some of them develop an iron hardpan, which further limits drainage and is often pretty shallow in the soil. What this all leads to is that the trees are unable to grow very tall, so they are pygmy. It wasn't terribly interesting, but it was a nice short hike and about all we did outside the car all day.
After leaving there we drove a few more miles south before hopping on highway 128 and heading east, leaving the ocean behind. Sad, but oh well. We drove through Navarro Redwoods State Park, which was super-beautiful. We then cruised through a bit of wine country in Mendocino County before passing into Sonoma County. There wasn't much to the countryside in this area and eventually we got to highway 101, one of the main thoroughfares linking the Bay Area with NoCal. This was pretty much all cities after awhile almost all the way to the Bay Area. We passed over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, which was the first time we went through a double-decker bridge and were on the bottom level. Still, pretty views. We passed through Berkeley and waved hello to Jenny, then passed out to the east.
We finally stopped for lunch and gas around 1:30pm in a place called Pleasanton, although the only reason we know that is that it was printed on our gas receipt. No signs or anything. We had In-n-Out there, because it was almost the first one we had seen on the whole trip. We miss ours back in the Phx area. Once we finally figured out how to get back onto the 580, we passed two more In-n-Outs in the first several miles. Oh well. We also passed through Livermore, where LLNL and SNL/CA are. There, they had a Baja Fresh, where I plan on having every meal on Sunday.
After we got through Livermore we started descending into the Central Valley, and passed from Liberal country to Pombo country. Pretty different place. It took us another 3 hours to get to Yosemite after lunch, making about 6.5 hours total of driving on the day. Very long drive. And at the end of it, we still had to pay an entrance fee, even though we are staying at a hotel within the park. At least the entrance thing is good for up to 7 days.
It took us another half hour to finally get into the valley, where we stood in line and started to get the real Yosemite experience when we checked into the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. At least the scenery was beautiful, because the car alarms and honking were not. After checking in we hauled our stuff over to our room and sat out on the porch before heading down to the Food Court for a late dinner. Alison had organic penne with vegan marinara sauce, and I had chili con carne and a side of mashed potatoes. It wasn't crazy expensive, but it wasn't all that good either. Basically cafeteria food at restaurant prices.
After dinner we headed over to the gift store to browse and found all sorts of neat things we didn't want or need, and, unlike when we were in Chinatown, we didn't buy anything. After that we headed back to the room and went to bed pretty early.
After taking off from Mendocino we headed down (South) the road (Highway 1) to Van Damme State Park again so I could see the Pygmy Forest. This area is a sequence of wave-cut ocean terraces that have been uplifted over time. They have stayed very flat, and are therefore poorly drained. Over time, some of them develop an iron hardpan, which further limits drainage and is often pretty shallow in the soil. What this all leads to is that the trees are unable to grow very tall, so they are pygmy. It wasn't terribly interesting, but it was a nice short hike and about all we did outside the car all day.
After leaving there we drove a few more miles south before hopping on highway 128 and heading east, leaving the ocean behind. Sad, but oh well. We drove through Navarro Redwoods State Park, which was super-beautiful. We then cruised through a bit of wine country in Mendocino County before passing into Sonoma County. There wasn't much to the countryside in this area and eventually we got to highway 101, one of the main thoroughfares linking the Bay Area with NoCal. This was pretty much all cities after awhile almost all the way to the Bay Area. We passed over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, which was the first time we went through a double-decker bridge and were on the bottom level. Still, pretty views. We passed through Berkeley and waved hello to Jenny, then passed out to the east.
We finally stopped for lunch and gas around 1:30pm in a place called Pleasanton, although the only reason we know that is that it was printed on our gas receipt. No signs or anything. We had In-n-Out there, because it was almost the first one we had seen on the whole trip. We miss ours back in the Phx area. Once we finally figured out how to get back onto the 580, we passed two more In-n-Outs in the first several miles. Oh well. We also passed through Livermore, where LLNL and SNL/CA are. There, they had a Baja Fresh, where I plan on having every meal on Sunday.
After we got through Livermore we started descending into the Central Valley, and passed from Liberal country to Pombo country. Pretty different place. It took us another 3 hours to get to Yosemite after lunch, making about 6.5 hours total of driving on the day. Very long drive. And at the end of it, we still had to pay an entrance fee, even though we are staying at a hotel within the park. At least the entrance thing is good for up to 7 days.
It took us another half hour to finally get into the valley, where we stood in line and started to get the real Yosemite experience when we checked into the Yosemite Lodge at the Falls. At least the scenery was beautiful, because the car alarms and honking were not. After checking in we hauled our stuff over to our room and sat out on the porch before heading down to the Food Court for a late dinner. Alison had organic penne with vegan marinara sauce, and I had chili con carne and a side of mashed potatoes. It wasn't crazy expensive, but it wasn't all that good either. Basically cafeteria food at restaurant prices.
After dinner we headed over to the gift store to browse and found all sorts of neat things we didn't want or need, and, unlike when we were in Chinatown, we didn't buy anything. After that we headed back to the room and went to bed pretty early.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Honeymoon Day 6
Today was our last full day in Mendocino. We started out with breakfast (quiche-of-the-day: spinach feta, from which I removed the gross feta). We once again got up late today (8:15-ish), and what with DST moving everything back an hour, I've gotten worried about what will happen to me when we get back to Socorro. I have a hard enough time getting up in the morning as it is, without it still being dark.
We had seen a lot of things the last couple days, and we only had a couple of the B&B's recommendations left. First, we headed out to Jughandle State Reserve, whose entire point is some sort of 2.5-mile nature trail called the Ecological Staircase which shows the floral changes associated with the different ocean terraces here (due to tectonic uplift of the coast). However, the list of places didn't specify the length of this hike, and we just weren't up for it right before lunchtime. Maybe if we'd gotten lunch, but even then I don't know that we would have been super excited. Plus the trail was out at one point. So instead we went out to do our favorite activity, sit on the seacliff and look out. We had still (probably) not seen any whales on the trip, so we were thinking that maybe, just maybe one would appear.
After a very short wait, we started seeing sprays of water coming up out of the water. I hurried back to the car (for some reason we had left the binoculars there) and hurried back. We spent a long time (1 - 1.5 hours) just sitting there staring at the whales, as well as at a "stork" who was doing some fishing and then entertained us with his attempts to down his slithery prey. It was super neat. It's too bad we don't have some sort of super-zoom for our camera so we could have taken pictures of the whales to share, but suffice to say that it was quite an experience. We never got to see much of a whale (I think I once caught one's entire tail out of the water, but I didn't have binos) but it was still amazing to think of how much whale there was that was not visible. Great times.
After that we went back into Fort Bragg to see about lunch. We had seen the North Coast Brewing Company the day before, and I wanted to go there to have a local microbrew. But when we finally got there, we discovered that they don't open up until 2pm on Wednesdays. So instead we went down the street to Taka's Grill, a Japanese place. I had Chicken Udon ($6.75) and Alison had Inari ($5) and a vegetable roll ($4.35). The Udon was good, although the chicken was not completely to my liking. Our waitress was kind of strange (new there too), and she messed up my order (wrote down a vegetable roll for me too), then when I told her so she promised to get my udon out in a hurry, and took the vegetable roll for her own lunch.
After lunch we had an ice cream sandwich next door at Cowlicks Ice Cream, which was super good. After this there was just one more place to see on the list, so we left Fort Bragg behind (bye-dee-bye) and headed back to go south of Mendocino. We were in search of Spring Ranch State Park (which is apparently part of Van Damme State Park). To get there, you pull off Highway 1 at a specified point, and basically start walking toward the ocean. There's a trail. We spent a little time at the seacliff looking for whales, but not much since we had spent so much time earlier. Instead, we just walked around a little bit to locate the "postcard views of Mendocino" advertised on the B&B hiking tip sheet (note: never really found). We spent a little bit of time trying to get a good picture of a mini-blowhole in the rock, but it never really came out. Also, we looked a bit at the sealife clinging to the cliff face. Afterwards, we picked our way down to the beach to look around down there. The neatest thing we found was a waterfall that emanated from a spring up high on the cliff, which discharged directly onto the sand, where it immediately percolated underground. There wasn't even a pool under the waterfall, much less a stream coming out of it. Super neat. We also saw some anenome-like creatures and more barnacles and such. I took a few close-up pictures of a probably dead crab. Then we climbed back up to the terrace, and hiked out to drive back to the B&B.
At the B&B we got out our complimentary half-bottle of white wine and some organic cheddar cheese we had bought the day before in Fort Bragg and headed out to the clifftop benches across the street. We sat there for awhile just drinking, eating, and listening to the ocean. It was beautiful. Alison claims to have liked the wine, but she only had half a glass while I was forced to drink the other 2.5 glasses in the bottle. Luckily it was pretty good wine, as far as wine goes. When we finished, we headed back to the room to get caught up on internet stuff, and to get ready for dinner.
We left for dinner at 7, and decided to hit the Mendocino Cafe again (where we had dinner on Sunday). We both got the same thing we had had the previous time (Chicken Quesadilla for me, Thai Burrito for Alison), and I also had a Wolaver's Organic Pale Ale. This stuff isn't pasteurized, so perhaps it was a little past its prime (bottled back in October). In any event, it was a little skunky and bitter, as IPAs are wont to be. I don't know if I'll have it again.
After dinner we headed back to the B&B to get ready to leave in the morning. Tomorrow is going to be a long day of lots of driving to make it to Yosemite, where there will probably not be internet access (no more blogging!). Hopefully we can make it there without chains!
We had seen a lot of things the last couple days, and we only had a couple of the B&B's recommendations left. First, we headed out to Jughandle State Reserve, whose entire point is some sort of 2.5-mile nature trail called the Ecological Staircase which shows the floral changes associated with the different ocean terraces here (due to tectonic uplift of the coast). However, the list of places didn't specify the length of this hike, and we just weren't up for it right before lunchtime. Maybe if we'd gotten lunch, but even then I don't know that we would have been super excited. Plus the trail was out at one point. So instead we went out to do our favorite activity, sit on the seacliff and look out. We had still (probably) not seen any whales on the trip, so we were thinking that maybe, just maybe one would appear.
After a very short wait, we started seeing sprays of water coming up out of the water. I hurried back to the car (for some reason we had left the binoculars there) and hurried back. We spent a long time (1 - 1.5 hours) just sitting there staring at the whales, as well as at a "stork" who was doing some fishing and then entertained us with his attempts to down his slithery prey. It was super neat. It's too bad we don't have some sort of super-zoom for our camera so we could have taken pictures of the whales to share, but suffice to say that it was quite an experience. We never got to see much of a whale (I think I once caught one's entire tail out of the water, but I didn't have binos) but it was still amazing to think of how much whale there was that was not visible. Great times.
After that we went back into Fort Bragg to see about lunch. We had seen the North Coast Brewing Company the day before, and I wanted to go there to have a local microbrew. But when we finally got there, we discovered that they don't open up until 2pm on Wednesdays. So instead we went down the street to Taka's Grill, a Japanese place. I had Chicken Udon ($6.75) and Alison had Inari ($5) and a vegetable roll ($4.35). The Udon was good, although the chicken was not completely to my liking. Our waitress was kind of strange (new there too), and she messed up my order (wrote down a vegetable roll for me too), then when I told her so she promised to get my udon out in a hurry, and took the vegetable roll for her own lunch.
After lunch we had an ice cream sandwich next door at Cowlicks Ice Cream, which was super good. After this there was just one more place to see on the list, so we left Fort Bragg behind (bye-dee-bye) and headed back to go south of Mendocino. We were in search of Spring Ranch State Park (which is apparently part of Van Damme State Park). To get there, you pull off Highway 1 at a specified point, and basically start walking toward the ocean. There's a trail. We spent a little time at the seacliff looking for whales, but not much since we had spent so much time earlier. Instead, we just walked around a little bit to locate the "postcard views of Mendocino" advertised on the B&B hiking tip sheet (note: never really found). We spent a little bit of time trying to get a good picture of a mini-blowhole in the rock, but it never really came out. Also, we looked a bit at the sealife clinging to the cliff face. Afterwards, we picked our way down to the beach to look around down there. The neatest thing we found was a waterfall that emanated from a spring up high on the cliff, which discharged directly onto the sand, where it immediately percolated underground. There wasn't even a pool under the waterfall, much less a stream coming out of it. Super neat. We also saw some anenome-like creatures and more barnacles and such. I took a few close-up pictures of a probably dead crab. Then we climbed back up to the terrace, and hiked out to drive back to the B&B.
At the B&B we got out our complimentary half-bottle of white wine and some organic cheddar cheese we had bought the day before in Fort Bragg and headed out to the clifftop benches across the street. We sat there for awhile just drinking, eating, and listening to the ocean. It was beautiful. Alison claims to have liked the wine, but she only had half a glass while I was forced to drink the other 2.5 glasses in the bottle. Luckily it was pretty good wine, as far as wine goes. When we finished, we headed back to the room to get caught up on internet stuff, and to get ready for dinner.
We left for dinner at 7, and decided to hit the Mendocino Cafe again (where we had dinner on Sunday). We both got the same thing we had had the previous time (Chicken Quesadilla for me, Thai Burrito for Alison), and I also had a Wolaver's Organic Pale Ale. This stuff isn't pasteurized, so perhaps it was a little past its prime (bottled back in October). In any event, it was a little skunky and bitter, as IPAs are wont to be. I don't know if I'll have it again.
After dinner we headed back to the B&B to get ready to leave in the morning. Tomorrow is going to be a long day of lots of driving to make it to Yosemite, where there will probably not be internet access (no more blogging!). Hopefully we can make it there without chains!
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Honeymoon Day 5
Today we got up and headed down to breakfast. Quiche-of-the-day: quiche lorraine, which I had for dinner the night before. This quiche contains cheese and bacon. I loved it, and had two slices with two english muffins. I am now fatter than I was before.
On today's agenda we had a number of places to visit up north in the Fort Bragg area, about 10 minutes north of Mendocino. First we stopped at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, which I thoroughly enjoyed ($7.50 per person admission). We discovered lots of things that we'd like to plant in our garden (rhododendrons and magnolias) when we have a garden. One neat thing is that they actually had a vegetable garden in the botanical gardens. They also had, on a bridge over a stream, a sign that read "No coins necessary to operate stream." apparently meant to combat coin-throwing-related problems.
We spent some time on the seacliff here too, trying to find us some whales. I think I may have seen a spray at one point, but we were never sure and the time spent ended up being unproductive. Oh well.
After this we went to the north side of town to visit Glass Beach. According to the website, this used to be a city dump, meaning that there is probably an incredible array of terribly nasty things there now. However, since it has been closed for three decades the beach is now pretty much all polished glass. Kind of neat, although not a real time sink. Plus, there was some sort of hobo camp gathering there, so we decided not to stick around too long. One of the hobos was being very mean to his dog too.
In town we got lunch at the Laurel Deli, which was sort of train-themed to go with the general terminus-of-the-Skunk-Train theme. The sandwiches (California Club for me, Vegetable Sandwich for Alison) were excellent, and we ate there for little more than $20! Apparently things in Fort Bragg are substantially less expensive than in Mendocino, although the town is also not quite as nice. If pressed, we could afford to live and eat in Fort Bragg, and spend all of our off-time in Mendocino hanging out at the headlands.
From lunch we headed north out of town to MacKerricher State Park. This park actually had somebody at the check-in station, but day use was free. Weird. This park is notable for the resident colony of Harbor Seals, as well as purported whale sightings. There is a whale skeleton next to the visitor center from a guy that just got tuckered out and washed up on shore.
First thing we headed down to the seal colony to check them out. I had never seen seals before, so I was pretty excited. Turns out that seals are about the laziest animals ever. They spent the whole time lying on the rocks, sometimes lifting their heads or moving an appendage. Once in a while one would get in the water, but they never did anything exciting. Good thing for them they're cute, or they'd have already been hunted out of existence for sure. We left the seal area to go to the beach, and headed south to the rocky beach section to look around.
Next we headed over to Lake Cleone, where we took a quick hike around it. Apparently, if I have followed the logic of the signage correctly, Lake Cleone is home to a herd of some sort of lake cow. Also, there was a bird there that we took some pictures of, since it was just hanging out on a lakeside branch checking us out.
After the lake we went back to the beach, where we followed the Haul Road north along the sandy part of the beach. The Haul Road used to be a railroad that evil loggers used to transport their ill-gotten gains to mills and such. This was a nice walk, and we just sort of ambled along and took some pictures. Aside from the road apples, we enjoyed it. At one point we came across a creek that was trying to make its way to the ocean. It terminated maybe 20 feet away, but was steadily moving down the beach. I took a movie of it, because the patterns were really interesting; it would be making slow forward progress in one part of its channel, then another part of the channel would start flowing and the first area would either stop making forward progress or actually start regressing. In any event, you could see the permeability of the sand on easy demonstration, as most of the creek water just disappeared.
After MacKerricher we bought gas (a CA-record low $2.999 per gallon) and headed back down to Mendocino to see about dinner. We went by Mendo Burger, which was closed until Wednesday, and to the Moosse Cafe, but discovered that it was also closed. Restaurants being closed the first part of the week is apparently very common in Mendocino. We ended up getting dinner at Tote Fete, a takeout place in town. I got a California Club (again), and Alison got a pesto, artichoke, and ?? sandwich. Reasonable prices because sandwiches were 50% off. We also got a twice-baked potato (way too much sour cream) and some butternut squash, which would have been better hot. After dinner we returned to the B&B and watched some more Office.
On today's agenda we had a number of places to visit up north in the Fort Bragg area, about 10 minutes north of Mendocino. First we stopped at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, which I thoroughly enjoyed ($7.50 per person admission). We discovered lots of things that we'd like to plant in our garden (rhododendrons and magnolias) when we have a garden. One neat thing is that they actually had a vegetable garden in the botanical gardens. They also had, on a bridge over a stream, a sign that read "No coins necessary to operate stream." apparently meant to combat coin-throwing-related problems.
We spent some time on the seacliff here too, trying to find us some whales. I think I may have seen a spray at one point, but we were never sure and the time spent ended up being unproductive. Oh well.
After this we went to the north side of town to visit Glass Beach. According to the website, this used to be a city dump, meaning that there is probably an incredible array of terribly nasty things there now. However, since it has been closed for three decades the beach is now pretty much all polished glass. Kind of neat, although not a real time sink. Plus, there was some sort of hobo camp gathering there, so we decided not to stick around too long. One of the hobos was being very mean to his dog too.
In town we got lunch at the Laurel Deli, which was sort of train-themed to go with the general terminus-of-the-Skunk-Train theme. The sandwiches (California Club for me, Vegetable Sandwich for Alison) were excellent, and we ate there for little more than $20! Apparently things in Fort Bragg are substantially less expensive than in Mendocino, although the town is also not quite as nice. If pressed, we could afford to live and eat in Fort Bragg, and spend all of our off-time in Mendocino hanging out at the headlands.
From lunch we headed north out of town to MacKerricher State Park. This park actually had somebody at the check-in station, but day use was free. Weird. This park is notable for the resident colony of Harbor Seals, as well as purported whale sightings. There is a whale skeleton next to the visitor center from a guy that just got tuckered out and washed up on shore.
First thing we headed down to the seal colony to check them out. I had never seen seals before, so I was pretty excited. Turns out that seals are about the laziest animals ever. They spent the whole time lying on the rocks, sometimes lifting their heads or moving an appendage. Once in a while one would get in the water, but they never did anything exciting. Good thing for them they're cute, or they'd have already been hunted out of existence for sure. We left the seal area to go to the beach, and headed south to the rocky beach section to look around.
Next we headed over to Lake Cleone, where we took a quick hike around it. Apparently, if I have followed the logic of the signage correctly, Lake Cleone is home to a herd of some sort of lake cow. Also, there was a bird there that we took some pictures of, since it was just hanging out on a lakeside branch checking us out.
After the lake we went back to the beach, where we followed the Haul Road north along the sandy part of the beach. The Haul Road used to be a railroad that evil loggers used to transport their ill-gotten gains to mills and such. This was a nice walk, and we just sort of ambled along and took some pictures. Aside from the road apples, we enjoyed it. At one point we came across a creek that was trying to make its way to the ocean. It terminated maybe 20 feet away, but was steadily moving down the beach. I took a movie of it, because the patterns were really interesting; it would be making slow forward progress in one part of its channel, then another part of the channel would start flowing and the first area would either stop making forward progress or actually start regressing. In any event, you could see the permeability of the sand on easy demonstration, as most of the creek water just disappeared.
After MacKerricher we bought gas (a CA-record low $2.999 per gallon) and headed back down to Mendocino to see about dinner. We went by Mendo Burger, which was closed until Wednesday, and to the Moosse Cafe, but discovered that it was also closed. Restaurants being closed the first part of the week is apparently very common in Mendocino. We ended up getting dinner at Tote Fete, a takeout place in town. I got a California Club (again), and Alison got a pesto, artichoke, and ?? sandwich. Reasonable prices because sandwiches were 50% off. We also got a twice-baked potato (way too much sour cream) and some butternut squash, which would have been better hot. After dinner we returned to the B&B and watched some more Office.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Honeymoon Day 4
Today we started exploring the Mendocino area. We got up not-so-early (8:30-ish) to enjoy the nice bed in our cottage (#2). After breakfast (quiche-of-the-day: mushroom swiss. eww) we headed out to check out the countryside.
First, we went to Point Cabrillo Light Station. We gave the actual lighthouse a miss completely, and just spent our time looking at the ocean. On our way out we saw some deer, which was pretty exciting. We just hung out at clifftop for awhile, taking some pictures and enjoying the sights, and waiting for a whale to swim up to us. Alas, that never happened, we got bored, and we left.
From there we headed just south to Russian Gulch State Park, which was given to California back in the 30's, and they haven't done anything to it since. The roads were kind of bad, and there was nobody at the check-in station, but we dutifully put our $6 in the envelope like good little kids. I wonder how many other people in the park that day did the same.
First thing in Russian Gulch we did was the long hike to the waterfall. That totalled around 5.5 miles round-trip. This hike was definitely up my alley, with lots of gigantic redwood stumps and other pretty vegetation. Alison wished she could see farther. But some of the stumps must have been 35 feet in circumference. And many of the stumps had smaller trees growing out of them. We ate lunch at a little picnic area (bagels stolen from breakfast, and cheese and crackers from the basket Alison had put in the room for me), then continued on toward the falls. The falls were shorter than Arethusa (N.H.), but there were about a hundred fewer people there (just us). So it was still pretty nice. We took some pictures, then decided to go back the way we came, rather than continue on the long way around. On the way down we came across a slug (banana?).
After the falls hike we went to the headlands and had a snack before wandering around and taking some more pictures from the seacliffs. There was a blowhole there that was connected to the ocean through a tunnel, but the tide was pretty low so it did not do anything impressive. We did see a lot of tunnels in the rock on this coast, and took pictures of more than a few.
After the headlands we headed down to the park's beach. We took some more photos there, and I almost got stranded by the rising tide and a creek. I nearly died, especially when my foot got slightly wet during a high-stakes, adrenaline-fueled river crossing. It was very dangerous.
We left Russian Gulch satisfied, and moved on to the Mendocino Headlands State Park, which is pretty much located in town here. Apparently, way back when the citizens of Mendocino decided that they shouldn't let any crazy person try to live out on the headlands, where the winds are stupid strong. So they parked it all up. We wandered around there for not a lot of time, taking pictures and freezing our kiesters. We stayed in town for dinner, going to the Mendocino Bakery and Cafe, where we picked up some food (Quiche Lorraine for me, some other kind of quiche + green salad for Alison). They were about to close, so we took our dinner to go and headed back to the B&B to eat on the porch.
After this we decided to act on the many recommendations in the journal in our room and head over to Cafe Beaujolais to see what the dessert fare was like. We had already looked at their dinner menu, and decided not to spend all our money there. We shared a Ghirardelli Lava Cake ($7, and really small) with waters all around. I don't think that our waitress was amused, as it was likely a record for least money ever spent by a couple there. Not a place to go for the un-moneyed.
Dessert was the last thing in our day. After that we headed back to the B&B to watch us some Office and fall asleep.
First, we went to Point Cabrillo Light Station. We gave the actual lighthouse a miss completely, and just spent our time looking at the ocean. On our way out we saw some deer, which was pretty exciting. We just hung out at clifftop for awhile, taking some pictures and enjoying the sights, and waiting for a whale to swim up to us. Alas, that never happened, we got bored, and we left.
From there we headed just south to Russian Gulch State Park, which was given to California back in the 30's, and they haven't done anything to it since. The roads were kind of bad, and there was nobody at the check-in station, but we dutifully put our $6 in the envelope like good little kids. I wonder how many other people in the park that day did the same.
First thing in Russian Gulch we did was the long hike to the waterfall. That totalled around 5.5 miles round-trip. This hike was definitely up my alley, with lots of gigantic redwood stumps and other pretty vegetation. Alison wished she could see farther. But some of the stumps must have been 35 feet in circumference. And many of the stumps had smaller trees growing out of them. We ate lunch at a little picnic area (bagels stolen from breakfast, and cheese and crackers from the basket Alison had put in the room for me), then continued on toward the falls. The falls were shorter than Arethusa (N.H.), but there were about a hundred fewer people there (just us). So it was still pretty nice. We took some pictures, then decided to go back the way we came, rather than continue on the long way around. On the way down we came across a slug (banana?).
After the falls hike we went to the headlands and had a snack before wandering around and taking some more pictures from the seacliffs. There was a blowhole there that was connected to the ocean through a tunnel, but the tide was pretty low so it did not do anything impressive. We did see a lot of tunnels in the rock on this coast, and took pictures of more than a few.
After the headlands we headed down to the park's beach. We took some more photos there, and I almost got stranded by the rising tide and a creek. I nearly died, especially when my foot got slightly wet during a high-stakes, adrenaline-fueled river crossing. It was very dangerous.
We left Russian Gulch satisfied, and moved on to the Mendocino Headlands State Park, which is pretty much located in town here. Apparently, way back when the citizens of Mendocino decided that they shouldn't let any crazy person try to live out on the headlands, where the winds are stupid strong. So they parked it all up. We wandered around there for not a lot of time, taking pictures and freezing our kiesters. We stayed in town for dinner, going to the Mendocino Bakery and Cafe, where we picked up some food (Quiche Lorraine for me, some other kind of quiche + green salad for Alison). They were about to close, so we took our dinner to go and headed back to the B&B to eat on the porch.
After this we decided to act on the many recommendations in the journal in our room and head over to Cafe Beaujolais to see what the dessert fare was like. We had already looked at their dinner menu, and decided not to spend all our money there. We shared a Ghirardelli Lava Cake ($7, and really small) with waters all around. I don't think that our waitress was amused, as it was likely a record for least money ever spent by a couple there. Not a place to go for the un-moneyed.
Dessert was the last thing in our day. After that we headed back to the B&B to watch us some Office and fall asleep.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Honeymoon Day 3
Today we got up early (sprung forward = lost an hour of sleep) to have breakfast in bed before packing our bags and driving over the Golden Gate Bridge out of San Francisco. I was sad to leave SF since I loved it so much, but we were about to hop onto the Pacific Coast Highway to drive north to Mendocino. I've always wanted to spend a week driving the length of the PCH, but after today I know it would take more like a month. I had to pull over every 10 minutes to let a few cars past, since I drove way slower than all the locals. It took us about 6 hours to drive the 190 miles, including lunch.
Even so, Highway 1 was beautiful and I would love to have stopped every half hour to take a bunch of pictures, but I was worried about getting into Mendocino before dark (neglecting to remember, of course, that with the early onset of DST the sun doesn't actually set until about 9 o'clock the next morning).
We stopped for lunch at a place called Timber Cove Inn, which is apparently a gathering place of sorts for yuppie motorcyclists. It was very strange. After they let us know that they were out of fries and tuna and a soup of the day, I got a turkey sandwich and Alison a grilled-cheese sandwich. The sandwich was good enough, although pretty small for costing $7. Alison's sandwich was pretty much Kraft singles on Wonder bread, with it not even having been cooked long enough for the cheese to melt all the way. For that, it only cost $5. This meal was pretty much the least bang for the buck I've ever had. The only nice things about the place were the two cats roaming around and the incredible view out the restaurant window.
We left there and continued on to Mendocino, making better time to the north of the super-curvy parts. We got into Mendocino at around 4pm, found our B&B (the Sea Rock Inn), and checked in. We walked accross the street to a little bench area the Inn owns and had some sparkling cider, crackers and cheese, and fruit, a surprise that Alison cooked up for me. It was an absolutely beautiful view, but we were both a little too tired to sit there for too long. We headed back and Alison napped while I read.
At 7 I finally roused Alison and we headed into town by foot to find some dinner. It wasn't a long walk, but we were unsure about where in town to go, so we spent some time wandering around before finally settling on the Mendocino Cafe. Food in town is super expensive. I got a (free-range) chicken quesadilla ($12) that was super good (salsa spiciness - 4/10), and Alison got a Thai Burrito ($12) that she loved. Probably our best meal so far on this trip. We ate outside on the patio and watched the sun set over the ocean.
Leaving there around 8:30 we discovered that it was pretty dark out, and that there are no street lights on the road back to the B&B. Nothing else to do, we hiked back without really being able to see. You could still see and hear the surf crashing on the beach at the base of the cliffs despite the dark. We made it safely, and are going to fire up the fireplace tonight, drink the rest of the cider, and maybe watch some Office. If I still have legs in the morning, tomorrow will be another full day.
Even so, Highway 1 was beautiful and I would love to have stopped every half hour to take a bunch of pictures, but I was worried about getting into Mendocino before dark (neglecting to remember, of course, that with the early onset of DST the sun doesn't actually set until about 9 o'clock the next morning).
We stopped for lunch at a place called Timber Cove Inn, which is apparently a gathering place of sorts for yuppie motorcyclists. It was very strange. After they let us know that they were out of fries and tuna and a soup of the day, I got a turkey sandwich and Alison a grilled-cheese sandwich. The sandwich was good enough, although pretty small for costing $7. Alison's sandwich was pretty much Kraft singles on Wonder bread, with it not even having been cooked long enough for the cheese to melt all the way. For that, it only cost $5. This meal was pretty much the least bang for the buck I've ever had. The only nice things about the place were the two cats roaming around and the incredible view out the restaurant window.
We left there and continued on to Mendocino, making better time to the north of the super-curvy parts. We got into Mendocino at around 4pm, found our B&B (the Sea Rock Inn), and checked in. We walked accross the street to a little bench area the Inn owns and had some sparkling cider, crackers and cheese, and fruit, a surprise that Alison cooked up for me. It was an absolutely beautiful view, but we were both a little too tired to sit there for too long. We headed back and Alison napped while I read.
At 7 I finally roused Alison and we headed into town by foot to find some dinner. It wasn't a long walk, but we were unsure about where in town to go, so we spent some time wandering around before finally settling on the Mendocino Cafe. Food in town is super expensive. I got a (free-range) chicken quesadilla ($12) that was super good (salsa spiciness - 4/10), and Alison got a Thai Burrito ($12) that she loved. Probably our best meal so far on this trip. We ate outside on the patio and watched the sun set over the ocean.
Leaving there around 8:30 we discovered that it was pretty dark out, and that there are no street lights on the road back to the B&B. Nothing else to do, we hiked back without really being able to see. You could still see and hear the surf crashing on the beach at the base of the cliffs despite the dark. We made it safely, and are going to fire up the fireplace tonight, drink the rest of the cider, and maybe watch some Office. If I still have legs in the morning, tomorrow will be another full day.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Honeymoon Day 2
We love B&Bs and wish we could afford to stay in them all the time. This morning we had breafast delivered to the room at 7:30. Not a terribly exciting breakfast, but it included fresh fruit and fresh-squeezed OJ and hot cocoa and several other things.
After breakfast, we headed down to the waterfront again. The first thing we saw when we stepped out of the B&B was a crowd of Chinese expats doing Tai Chi in the morning light of Washington Square. I would love to have that in my Saturday Morning schedule every week.
Reaching the waterfront, we sped through Fisherman's Wharf and got over to Fort Mason, which is an old military installation on the bay. From here we could see the Golden Gate Bridge, so I took about a hundred pictures of it as we walked West. We continued down the coast through Marina Green and Crissy Field and finally got to the Bridge, where there were many, many people. If I lived in San Francisco, I would personally do everything I could to avoid that area on the weekend, but there was an incredible number of people using the Bridge (and the coastal trail) as a running path. I'm sure I would love to have such a nice view on a run, but they seemed annoyed when we didn't move out of their way quickly enough, or when they had to slow down to accomodate us.
We walked to the first tower on the Bridge, then turned around and headed back.
We turned right instead of left and headed out towards Land's End via Baker Beach. The exact location of Land's End remains a mystery to us, but we got a number of beautiful views on this hike. At one point, a wave of fog rolled in to obscure our view, but it quickly passed on. We got to Seal Rocks, where we ate lunch at the Seal Rocks Inn. From there, we went down to the Cliff House, where there was once some sort of glass-domed tide-filled baths built in the late 19th century by a man with too much money. We opted not to go downhill since we had already hiked upwards of 5 miles, and instead skipped the baths and set out for the Golden Gate Park.
Golden Gate Park was super neat, all green and lush. It is also a 3-mile long, very eclectic mix of attractions. We saw the Dutch Windmill, where Alison says last time she came to SF there was a multitude of beautiful tulips. Just a few this time. From there we went over to the bison enclosure, where they have produced 100 bison calves in something like 110 years. Next we walked past the Polo Field, then on to Stow Lake. We were on a quest to find the Japanese Tea Garden, and located it shortly thereafter. After the $4 admission, we were swiftly disillusioned of the expected peace and solitude of this beautiful place. Turns out Saturday is a day when parents take their uncontrollables out to places where they think they can let them run around, so the Tea Garden was instead very loud and crowded. We enjoyed it as best we could, and shelled out an additional $7.50 for tea and cookies. When we live here I look forward to going here some weekday when nobody else is around and hanging out in the serenity.
After the Tea Garden it was getting on toward 4, so we decided to skip the 4-mile hike back to the B&B and board the bus. It was pretty empty when we got on, but swiftly filled to capacity when we went through Haight Ashbury, which has somehow gone from being a hippie enclave to being a trendy shopping place for the emo crowd. We successfully tranferred to another line to drive back through Chinatown and up to our B&B.
After showering we went downstairs to raid the social hour (wine, cheese, and crackers), then waited for Jenny to join us for dinner. We went to an Italian place in North Beach called Calzone's that was slightly scary, but had good food. they have a number of tables set up on the sidewalk, but all the chairs are on one side of the tables. I guess it's so they don't crowd, but I think they try to sit the "beautiful people" out there for free advertising.
After dinner we went to a pub called O'Reilly's where we had way too much to drink for us lightweights. Unfortunately there was no local brew on tap (they had Anchor Steam, but it's well-known and the tap was broken anyway), so I had to settle for some name brands. I made Jenny really mad at me, and she may never forgive me. After leaving the bar we escorted her back down to Market St. so she could catch the BART back to Berkeley. After that Alison and I basically passed out as soon as we got back to the hotel.
After breakfast, we headed down to the waterfront again. The first thing we saw when we stepped out of the B&B was a crowd of Chinese expats doing Tai Chi in the morning light of Washington Square. I would love to have that in my Saturday Morning schedule every week.
Reaching the waterfront, we sped through Fisherman's Wharf and got over to Fort Mason, which is an old military installation on the bay. From here we could see the Golden Gate Bridge, so I took about a hundred pictures of it as we walked West. We continued down the coast through Marina Green and Crissy Field and finally got to the Bridge, where there were many, many people. If I lived in San Francisco, I would personally do everything I could to avoid that area on the weekend, but there was an incredible number of people using the Bridge (and the coastal trail) as a running path. I'm sure I would love to have such a nice view on a run, but they seemed annoyed when we didn't move out of their way quickly enough, or when they had to slow down to accomodate us.
We walked to the first tower on the Bridge, then turned around and headed back.
We turned right instead of left and headed out towards Land's End via Baker Beach. The exact location of Land's End remains a mystery to us, but we got a number of beautiful views on this hike. At one point, a wave of fog rolled in to obscure our view, but it quickly passed on. We got to Seal Rocks, where we ate lunch at the Seal Rocks Inn. From there, we went down to the Cliff House, where there was once some sort of glass-domed tide-filled baths built in the late 19th century by a man with too much money. We opted not to go downhill since we had already hiked upwards of 5 miles, and instead skipped the baths and set out for the Golden Gate Park.
Golden Gate Park was super neat, all green and lush. It is also a 3-mile long, very eclectic mix of attractions. We saw the Dutch Windmill, where Alison says last time she came to SF there was a multitude of beautiful tulips. Just a few this time. From there we went over to the bison enclosure, where they have produced 100 bison calves in something like 110 years. Next we walked past the Polo Field, then on to Stow Lake. We were on a quest to find the Japanese Tea Garden, and located it shortly thereafter. After the $4 admission, we were swiftly disillusioned of the expected peace and solitude of this beautiful place. Turns out Saturday is a day when parents take their uncontrollables out to places where they think they can let them run around, so the Tea Garden was instead very loud and crowded. We enjoyed it as best we could, and shelled out an additional $7.50 for tea and cookies. When we live here I look forward to going here some weekday when nobody else is around and hanging out in the serenity.
After the Tea Garden it was getting on toward 4, so we decided to skip the 4-mile hike back to the B&B and board the bus. It was pretty empty when we got on, but swiftly filled to capacity when we went through Haight Ashbury, which has somehow gone from being a hippie enclave to being a trendy shopping place for the emo crowd. We successfully tranferred to another line to drive back through Chinatown and up to our B&B.
After showering we went downstairs to raid the social hour (wine, cheese, and crackers), then waited for Jenny to join us for dinner. We went to an Italian place in North Beach called Calzone's that was slightly scary, but had good food. they have a number of tables set up on the sidewalk, but all the chairs are on one side of the tables. I guess it's so they don't crowd, but I think they try to sit the "beautiful people" out there for free advertising.
After dinner we went to a pub called O'Reilly's where we had way too much to drink for us lightweights. Unfortunately there was no local brew on tap (they had Anchor Steam, but it's well-known and the tap was broken anyway), so I had to settle for some name brands. I made Jenny really mad at me, and she may never forgive me. After leaving the bar we escorted her back down to Market St. so she could catch the BART back to Berkeley. After that Alison and I basically passed out as soon as we got back to the hotel.
Friday, March 9, 2007
Honeymoon Day 1
Today we got to San Fran. We got up at 3:15 am PST to pack up and leave the Motel 6 in Albuquerque to get ourselves to the Sunport. The flights were OK, and we made sure to get good and loaded up with caffeine. Or at least I did. Do only annoying people fly, or is it just that those are the only people we notice?
We hopped a shuttle to get to the rental car area, which for some reason is only vaguely associated with the Oakland airport (it's at least a mile away). The rental car guy tried to scam us out of some money but Alison brought the hammer down. Driving in California is always stressful for us small-town folk, but I decided the best tactic would be to position the car behind a big-rig that was going slow and just follow. Worked like a charm, although he had to switch rigs a number of times. I was super excited when, shortly after leaving the rental car place, we drove past McAfee Colisseum, where the Oakland A's play. We didn't stop to gawk, but it was neat all the same.
We arrived in San Francisco at lunch time. After much consternation and signage so bad a Mainerd might get lost, we found our way to Pac Bell/SBC/AT&T Park, where the Giants play. We found a pretty good parking space, surprisingly, although we had some trouble corralling coins for the meter. Had a slice in a pizza place that was pretty tasty, then headed down to the park. I had the idea of going on a tour (a lot of good things have been said about this stadium), but there were no tours due to some sort of God concert. Sorry, God rock concert. So instead we walked around the outside a little and took some pictures.
After this we offloaded the car in a garage and dropped off our luggage at the B&B on Washington Square. Luckily they didn't have the room ready or this likely would have been the end of our day. Instead we walked over to Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower and looked around up there, then headed down to the waterfront. We went to Pier 39 and Fishermen's Wharf, and were too late to catch a boat to Alcatraz. To make up for it, we went over to Ghirardelli Square and shared a cookie bottom sundae. To work that off, we immediately started finding the longest and steepest hills we could so we could walk up them. We went up Russian Hill, then walked down the super-crookedy part of Lombard street. From here we decided we'd had enough of downhill and went up Nob Hill, and walked by Grace Cathedral. Back to the south we skipped over to Union Square, which, as it turns out, is all shopping and such. We did not stay there long enough to take any photos.
From Union Square we headed north to Chinatown, which I was very excited about seeing. Not so much for Alison (she's been there). We went to a bunch of cheapo markets there and bought some stuff we probably don't need, but can justify because it's our honeymoon. My favorite pickups were the good-luck cat and the set of Mah-Jongg tiles. Alison got a cute bag and a loose-leaf tea brewing pot. We ate at a place called Snow Garden, where the food was pretty good though not great (we're starved for good Chinese in NM) and the attendance was super low. I guess nobody eats at 5. Alison spent most of the dinner trying to will a crab out of its death-trap aquarium. It never did make it, poor guy.
We headed back to the B&B to drop off stuff, then went looking for (and found!) the City Lights bookstore, home to beat poetry, progressive thinking, and general dissent. It was a neat place, although with over 20 books in the queue I was browsing. Alison bought a couple of books, one out of which we will surely get a lot of use. From here it was finally back to the room for a shower and some sleep. We got to bed around 9:30 pm PST, which means we were up for 18.25 hours on day one. And with several miles hiked over hilly terrain, we were pooped.
We hopped a shuttle to get to the rental car area, which for some reason is only vaguely associated with the Oakland airport (it's at least a mile away). The rental car guy tried to scam us out of some money but Alison brought the hammer down. Driving in California is always stressful for us small-town folk, but I decided the best tactic would be to position the car behind a big-rig that was going slow and just follow. Worked like a charm, although he had to switch rigs a number of times. I was super excited when, shortly after leaving the rental car place, we drove past McAfee Colisseum, where the Oakland A's play. We didn't stop to gawk, but it was neat all the same.
We arrived in San Francisco at lunch time. After much consternation and signage so bad a Mainerd might get lost, we found our way to Pac Bell/SBC/AT&T Park, where the Giants play. We found a pretty good parking space, surprisingly, although we had some trouble corralling coins for the meter. Had a slice in a pizza place that was pretty tasty, then headed down to the park. I had the idea of going on a tour (a lot of good things have been said about this stadium), but there were no tours due to some sort of God concert. Sorry, God rock concert. So instead we walked around the outside a little and took some pictures.
After this we offloaded the car in a garage and dropped off our luggage at the B&B on Washington Square. Luckily they didn't have the room ready or this likely would have been the end of our day. Instead we walked over to Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower and looked around up there, then headed down to the waterfront. We went to Pier 39 and Fishermen's Wharf, and were too late to catch a boat to Alcatraz. To make up for it, we went over to Ghirardelli Square and shared a cookie bottom sundae. To work that off, we immediately started finding the longest and steepest hills we could so we could walk up them. We went up Russian Hill, then walked down the super-crookedy part of Lombard street. From here we decided we'd had enough of downhill and went up Nob Hill, and walked by Grace Cathedral. Back to the south we skipped over to Union Square, which, as it turns out, is all shopping and such. We did not stay there long enough to take any photos.
From Union Square we headed north to Chinatown, which I was very excited about seeing. Not so much for Alison (she's been there). We went to a bunch of cheapo markets there and bought some stuff we probably don't need, but can justify because it's our honeymoon. My favorite pickups were the good-luck cat and the set of Mah-Jongg tiles. Alison got a cute bag and a loose-leaf tea brewing pot. We ate at a place called Snow Garden, where the food was pretty good though not great (we're starved for good Chinese in NM) and the attendance was super low. I guess nobody eats at 5. Alison spent most of the dinner trying to will a crab out of its death-trap aquarium. It never did make it, poor guy.
We headed back to the B&B to drop off stuff, then went looking for (and found!) the City Lights bookstore, home to beat poetry, progressive thinking, and general dissent. It was a neat place, although with over 20 books in the queue I was browsing. Alison bought a couple of books, one out of which we will surely get a lot of use. From here it was finally back to the room for a shower and some sleep. We got to bed around 9:30 pm PST, which means we were up for 18.25 hours on day one. And with several miles hiked over hilly terrain, we were pooped.
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