Perk and I met each other in the airport on Saturday (8/6/11) late afternoon. We were met by Perk's Aunt Ruth and Uncle Terry who let us stay with them in Ravenna, one of the many little neighborhoods near Seattle.
Saturday night was an eventful one. Friends of the family came over for a lasagna dinner followed by a play. The play was called "In the Next Room (The Vibrator Room)" and featured a doctor from the early 1900's treating women with "hysteria." It was quite the show considering we (mostly me) had just met Ruth and Terry for the first time. The play also included a display of the first vibrators ever sold.
Sunday started off with a wonderful walk around Ravenna. We made our way to a local coffee shop and strolled along Greenlake while discussing life and why people seek prayer.
Thursday began with a hike to a place called Greenlake. While not as challenging as our hike from the previous day, this hike had much more wildlife. We (Perk) were (was) able to catch two snakes, see adorable little chipmunks, and feed a pica. The end of the hike proved to be the best; a spectacular green-shaded lake welcomed us with a peaceful calm.
Friday came sooner than expected (as the story always goes). After a little personal time, Perk and I said our goodbye's to Esther and drove back to Seattle. We met Terry and Zach at their house to play a little Kinect before heading to the movies to see "Planet of the Apes: The Prequel." This was great because we got to see a very entertaining movie and minimized conversation all at the same time. On the way home, we witnessed Terry and Zach have an ADHD battle while discussing the movie...I still don't know what was fully discussed.
Friday ended with a beautiful dinner at Anthony's Fish House in Des Moines after our walk through Fremont to see The Troll. Perk and I had an epic dinner with wild, freshly-caught salmon that we had wanted all week long. Overall, it was all extremely romantic having dinner at almost-sunset over looking the marina.
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Spring Vacation 2011 -- Weddings, Yosemite, and Mammoth
We had a spectacular week+ vacation across the beautiful state of California.
I arrived in LA on Thursday and got a ride from Traci to meet family in Santa Paula. We checked in to the adorable Santa Paula Inn having our first of several encounters with the crazy-lady manager. We quickly determined that the bed was a bit squeaky.
On Wedding-Eve, tensions were running a bit high and we were all working hard to set up the premises to the Bride's specification. In the end, everything looked really good and only a couple finishing touches were left. The rehearsal went well, though many of us were left wondering if the homemade benches would hold up the wedding guests the next day.
Traci, Chris and I started Wedding Day with a walk down the canal behind "the ranch". It was nice and the dogs were fun. Traci took off for bride-duty and Chris and I went to Garmin's to split a sandwich. After lunch we met up with Frank at Ron and Gilda's. This proved to be critical for my future entertainment. Frank and I headed out, finding Ron in the orchard and asking him hundreds of questions about farming, the avocado industry, and fly fishing. He's a great/wise man and answered all of our questions. Before parting, he pointed us to a nice vista overlook of his property, which we began hiking to.
Frank and I, completely engrossed in conversation about trading, pet products, technology services, and small business startups, blew past the vista and wound up a road into uncharted avocado country. I think we both assumed we'd be able to loop back. We were wrong. Baking in the California sun, we used our GPS's to make it, eventually, out to a real road, after cutting through several farmers' fields and passing an erie scene from a horror movie. Traci's Dad started calling to find us and we ended up running the last 1.5 m home. I was pretty sunburt at this point and was glad to grab a shower before heading to the wedding.
Rachel and Justin's wedding was beautiful, memorable, and ended without a hitch. Everyone had a good time and everyone I met was great. The best man's speech was nicely done and Traci's speech left half the audience in tears. She broke down herself as she described their upcoming honeymoon in which they would be staying in hostels. It was a really funny point to cry, in retrospect.
On Sunday, we all were somehow locked out of the master suite at the Inn and Marni and I worked together to risk both our lives getting in that damn room. I jumped from the stairs to the room's balcony and pryed off the window screen. Marni then lept from the stairs into the open window. It was hilarious. Traci's dad just kept saying, "no. don't do it."
After saying our goodbye's, we were on our way to Fresno! Traci gave me le grande tour of Frenso and Clovis, including the unbelievable school system, Woodward park, her church, Buchanin, Rick and Dana's place, the Polermo's, and Doghouse grill. Everything was awesome and I ended up liking the city more than expected, especially how quickly the city turned to beautiful countryside.
On our way out of town, we made a spontaneous decision to visit the McShea's. Their ranch was phenomenal and we got a nice tour from the son. On our way to Yosemite, I picked 200,000 barbs out of our socks from the grass at the McSheas. We loaded up on groceries and entered the park. Our first order of business: see giant trees. The Sequoia's at Mariposa were huge. Their aspect ratio decreases exponentially as they grow and we saw a chart that proved this. On the way down, enraptured by the nature around me and not looking at my feet, I sprained my ankle and Traci pretty much carried me down after the park workers dissed our request for a ride. I feared this would be a trip-breaker. We prepared a delicious meal of seared/grilled chicken, roasted veggies, mashed potatoes, and chocolate covered strawberries. After lots of ice and ibuprofin, we decided to just wait and check in on the ankel the next day.
In the morning, after finding an ankle brace, visitng the Awanhee, and having a spectacular breakfast, we deemed my ankle walkable and took off for some hiking. Every step hurt, but also for Traci because she pulled/tore a muscle in her calf, but we pressed on up the Mist trail. Slowly the trail become more and more absurdly wet and cold as the blow-off from the record-flow waterfall mounted. At some point, you just realized, "this is crazy" and then kept on hiking. We went farther than really made sense and decided to come down before we were blown off the trail. Looking like we had just emerged from a pool, we dried in the sun and had lunch in the back of the Pilot.
By this point, the valley had gone from desolate to jam-packed and we decided to drive to Glacier Point, which was about 1 mile from us at that moment (as the bird flies). In reality it would mean about 35 miles of driving (as the Honda flies). On our way out, we stopped at the store to grab a map and I remembered Trace said it would be nice to have a glass of wine, so I secretly got one and hid it in the cooler.
Glacier point was breathless, as was our next point, Sentinal dome. The latter was hiked up, by us, after we realized, thanks to eavesdropping on a local ranger, that the trail did not end at the base, where we had assumed. We hiked up the snow-covered dome and found an alarmingly beautiful 360-degree view of 60% of the park. We witnessed some inappropriate Asians piss off a tour guide and then headed back to the "hotel".
That night I surprised Traci with the wine, made some steak and trout and Traci preparred some delicious corn-on-the-cobb. After dinner we tried to take a stroll, but it failed due to pain. So we sat on a stump and watched two kids play swords with large sticks. The boy got carried away and threw his sword onto the hood of an SUV, denting it quite badly. At that point, things got awkward. The child knew we knew what he had done, but he could not predict how we were going to react and this worried him. He started asking us lots of questions, searching for a hint if we would tell or not. We finally just walked away.
For our final half-day in Yosemite, we drove to the high Sierra and hiked around Tuolumene Meadows. The meadows were amazingly flooded -- it was more like an endless series of small, glassy mountain lakes. Speaking of which, when we came around a turn to find Tayana lake in front of us, we literally dropped our jaws and gasped. I don't know if I've seen anything more beatiful than this perfect sheet-of-glass lake reflecting the Sierras. Traci thought it was a canyon due to optical illusions in the crystal clear water.
The hikes around Tuolumene were very different than in the Valley. Hikers were sparse. Trails were obscure. Wildlife abounded. We saw birds, deer, and marmots, all just catching our eyes in the deep woods as we snuck up on them. It was so peaceful to see wild animals existing in harmony with humans. We crossed one raging stream on a log, but decided against the same maneuver on an more intese river which cut our hike short. On the way back we found our deer licking the ground around soda springs, a cool set of two springs that emitted an unknown soda-based material. We ended our time at Tuolumene with a nice picnic lunch and headed out to Mammoth.
My first memory of Mammoth is a spectacular shower, and transitioning to a new level of pampering in our amazing suite -- one of the best places I've ever stayed. The first night we explored town, had some Mammoth microbrews, hit up some fly stores, and called it an early night in our suite.
The next day we spent in awe of nature, trying to fish Hot Creek. Traci's first ever day of fly fishing was the most challenging imaginable: The creek was at historic high flows and the wind was gusting up to 40 mph. You couldn't cast -- you had to roll cast, and the fish were holding tight on the bottom and under banks. We tried to lure them out with small nymphs on the bottom, but didn't figure out how to get our bait down until our second fishing session later in the afternoon. We just kept adding more and more weight until we finally hooked the bottom. After that, I got a couple trout and was overflowing with excitement pulling them out of the water. Apart from the difficult conditions, we had an amazing time exploring this unique geological playground, enjoying the scenery, and piggybacking Traci across flooded paths.
The last day of our vacation was Relaxation Day. After a cool trip up the Mammoth gondola, we tried to relax, we really did, but Traci ended up studying and working out while I went back to Hot Creek for more fishing pain / hiking. We did get in a little pool lounging and had an amazing mexican dinner at Gomez's (sic). Traci surprised me with bath candles and a caramel apple -- it was one of the most romantic nights we've ever spent and I'll always remember it.
After driving down east of the Sierras to Santa Paula the next day, we attended Josh and Ann(e)'s wedding, which was very nice. The highlight of the wedding was meeting Nicholas Steadman, a seemingly pretentious Englishman who actually knew the human body/mind better than any MD I've ever met. We discussed various interesting topics such as low-level laser therapy, neurotransmitter modification by amino acid supplements, knots in muscles, back pain, arm pain, the interconnectedness of the body's cellular framework, and other things.
Best. Vacation. Ever.
I arrived in LA on Thursday and got a ride from Traci to meet family in Santa Paula. We checked in to the adorable Santa Paula Inn having our first of several encounters with the crazy-lady manager. We quickly determined that the bed was a bit squeaky.
On Wedding-Eve, tensions were running a bit high and we were all working hard to set up the premises to the Bride's specification. In the end, everything looked really good and only a couple finishing touches were left. The rehearsal went well, though many of us were left wondering if the homemade benches would hold up the wedding guests the next day.
Traci, Chris and I started Wedding Day with a walk down the canal behind "the ranch". It was nice and the dogs were fun. Traci took off for bride-duty and Chris and I went to Garmin's to split a sandwich. After lunch we met up with Frank at Ron and Gilda's. This proved to be critical for my future entertainment. Frank and I headed out, finding Ron in the orchard and asking him hundreds of questions about farming, the avocado industry, and fly fishing. He's a great/wise man and answered all of our questions. Before parting, he pointed us to a nice vista overlook of his property, which we began hiking to.
Frank and I, completely engrossed in conversation about trading, pet products, technology services, and small business startups, blew past the vista and wound up a road into uncharted avocado country. I think we both assumed we'd be able to loop back. We were wrong. Baking in the California sun, we used our GPS's to make it, eventually, out to a real road, after cutting through several farmers' fields and passing an erie scene from a horror movie. Traci's Dad started calling to find us and we ended up running the last 1.5 m home. I was pretty sunburt at this point and was glad to grab a shower before heading to the wedding.
Rachel and Justin's wedding was beautiful, memorable, and ended without a hitch. Everyone had a good time and everyone I met was great. The best man's speech was nicely done and Traci's speech left half the audience in tears. She broke down herself as she described their upcoming honeymoon in which they would be staying in hostels. It was a really funny point to cry, in retrospect.
On Sunday, we all were somehow locked out of the master suite at the Inn and Marni and I worked together to risk both our lives getting in that damn room. I jumped from the stairs to the room's balcony and pryed off the window screen. Marni then lept from the stairs into the open window. It was hilarious. Traci's dad just kept saying, "no. don't do it."
After saying our goodbye's, we were on our way to Fresno! Traci gave me le grande tour of Frenso and Clovis, including the unbelievable school system, Woodward park, her church, Buchanin, Rick and Dana's place, the Polermo's, and Doghouse grill. Everything was awesome and I ended up liking the city more than expected, especially how quickly the city turned to beautiful countryside.
On our way out of town, we made a spontaneous decision to visit the McShea's. Their ranch was phenomenal and we got a nice tour from the son. On our way to Yosemite, I picked 200,000 barbs out of our socks from the grass at the McSheas. We loaded up on groceries and entered the park. Our first order of business: see giant trees. The Sequoia's at Mariposa were huge. Their aspect ratio decreases exponentially as they grow and we saw a chart that proved this. On the way down, enraptured by the nature around me and not looking at my feet, I sprained my ankle and Traci pretty much carried me down after the park workers dissed our request for a ride. I feared this would be a trip-breaker. We prepared a delicious meal of seared/grilled chicken, roasted veggies, mashed potatoes, and chocolate covered strawberries. After lots of ice and ibuprofin, we decided to just wait and check in on the ankel the next day.
In the morning, after finding an ankle brace, visitng the Awanhee, and having a spectacular breakfast, we deemed my ankle walkable and took off for some hiking. Every step hurt, but also for Traci because she pulled/tore a muscle in her calf, but we pressed on up the Mist trail. Slowly the trail become more and more absurdly wet and cold as the blow-off from the record-flow waterfall mounted. At some point, you just realized, "this is crazy" and then kept on hiking. We went farther than really made sense and decided to come down before we were blown off the trail. Looking like we had just emerged from a pool, we dried in the sun and had lunch in the back of the Pilot.
By this point, the valley had gone from desolate to jam-packed and we decided to drive to Glacier Point, which was about 1 mile from us at that moment (as the bird flies). In reality it would mean about 35 miles of driving (as the Honda flies). On our way out, we stopped at the store to grab a map and I remembered Trace said it would be nice to have a glass of wine, so I secretly got one and hid it in the cooler.
Glacier point was breathless, as was our next point, Sentinal dome. The latter was hiked up, by us, after we realized, thanks to eavesdropping on a local ranger, that the trail did not end at the base, where we had assumed. We hiked up the snow-covered dome and found an alarmingly beautiful 360-degree view of 60% of the park. We witnessed some inappropriate Asians piss off a tour guide and then headed back to the "hotel".
That night I surprised Traci with the wine, made some steak and trout and Traci preparred some delicious corn-on-the-cobb. After dinner we tried to take a stroll, but it failed due to pain. So we sat on a stump and watched two kids play swords with large sticks. The boy got carried away and threw his sword onto the hood of an SUV, denting it quite badly. At that point, things got awkward. The child knew we knew what he had done, but he could not predict how we were going to react and this worried him. He started asking us lots of questions, searching for a hint if we would tell or not. We finally just walked away.
For our final half-day in Yosemite, we drove to the high Sierra and hiked around Tuolumene Meadows. The meadows were amazingly flooded -- it was more like an endless series of small, glassy mountain lakes. Speaking of which, when we came around a turn to find Tayana lake in front of us, we literally dropped our jaws and gasped. I don't know if I've seen anything more beatiful than this perfect sheet-of-glass lake reflecting the Sierras. Traci thought it was a canyon due to optical illusions in the crystal clear water.
The hikes around Tuolumene were very different than in the Valley. Hikers were sparse. Trails were obscure. Wildlife abounded. We saw birds, deer, and marmots, all just catching our eyes in the deep woods as we snuck up on them. It was so peaceful to see wild animals existing in harmony with humans. We crossed one raging stream on a log, but decided against the same maneuver on an more intese river which cut our hike short. On the way back we found our deer licking the ground around soda springs, a cool set of two springs that emitted an unknown soda-based material. We ended our time at Tuolumene with a nice picnic lunch and headed out to Mammoth.
My first memory of Mammoth is a spectacular shower, and transitioning to a new level of pampering in our amazing suite -- one of the best places I've ever stayed. The first night we explored town, had some Mammoth microbrews, hit up some fly stores, and called it an early night in our suite.
The next day we spent in awe of nature, trying to fish Hot Creek. Traci's first ever day of fly fishing was the most challenging imaginable: The creek was at historic high flows and the wind was gusting up to 40 mph. You couldn't cast -- you had to roll cast, and the fish were holding tight on the bottom and under banks. We tried to lure them out with small nymphs on the bottom, but didn't figure out how to get our bait down until our second fishing session later in the afternoon. We just kept adding more and more weight until we finally hooked the bottom. After that, I got a couple trout and was overflowing with excitement pulling them out of the water. Apart from the difficult conditions, we had an amazing time exploring this unique geological playground, enjoying the scenery, and piggybacking Traci across flooded paths.
The last day of our vacation was Relaxation Day. After a cool trip up the Mammoth gondola, we tried to relax, we really did, but Traci ended up studying and working out while I went back to Hot Creek for more fishing pain / hiking. We did get in a little pool lounging and had an amazing mexican dinner at Gomez's (sic). Traci surprised me with bath candles and a caramel apple -- it was one of the most romantic nights we've ever spent and I'll always remember it.
After driving down east of the Sierras to Santa Paula the next day, we attended Josh and Ann(e)'s wedding, which was very nice. The highlight of the wedding was meeting Nicholas Steadman, a seemingly pretentious Englishman who actually knew the human body/mind better than any MD I've ever met. We discussed various interesting topics such as low-level laser therapy, neurotransmitter modification by amino acid supplements, knots in muscles, back pain, arm pain, the interconnectedness of the body's cellular framework, and other things.
Best. Vacation. Ever.
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