2012 Snowboarding Trip

I CAN SNOWBOARD!  WHOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Hahahaha, okay.  That was a bit much.  But seriously, I was so excited to actually be able to make it down a hill without going flying and knocking all the air out of me and then crying in the snow for 20 minutes.  (seriously, my first experience was pretty horrible)  Am I good?  God no.  I still pretty much suck.  But I've definitely graduated from "couldn't possibly be any worse" to "well, she has the basics down."

The first day we were at Park City, and I never even left the First Time hill.  You'll probably have trouble finding it on that map I linked, because it's TINY.  I didn't realize how much of a wuss I was being until I saw that map at the end of the day.  But I was really happy to figure out how to ride my heel edge and "snowflake" down the hill without falling.  Also, I was with Samantha all afternoon, and we had dinner with all our Santa Barbara people, which was amazing.

So on Monday, Day 2, I made it my goal to make it down at least one "real" run.  This time we were at Solitude, which is a bit harder of a place since it has mostly harder runs and even the green ones are fairly steep.  I also really wanted to figure out how to ride my toe edge, which was still giving me a lot of trouble and causing me to wipe out.  You can't really do much with just your heel edge.  Some would argue it's not snowboarding at all.  DS and I spent a couple of runs on Easy Street attempting to get my courage up, and then we tried Little Dollie.  Man.  That thing was crazy steep.  I was terrified.  But I made it down!  On my heel edge!  Slowly!

DS left me for a while to do "fun" runs, and I hung out with the other newbie, Jaime's boyfriend Jonathan for a bit back on Easy Street.  Then there was lunch, which was insane, as any gathering of the SC crowd tends to be.  And then I was back on Easy Street working hard on my toe edge.  Which is when I took a bad fall, flew threw the air, and landed really hard on my lower back and slamming my head into the ground.  Good thing I had my new helmet on.  After that debacle, it was time for hot cocoa and some chill time with Sam while we waited for the rest of the gang to finish their blues and blacks.  That night we had dinner at the Red Iguana, which is probably the best Mexican food place I've ever been to.

Tuesday, Day 3, we decided to lay low and rock climb with Nell and Brian at Momentum.  That gym was so much easier than the one we go to here in Philly.  I on-sighted a 5.10b, and felt much better knowing that I'm truly better than a 5.6 climber.  It was a pretty cool gym.  They set so that each route uses a uniform color for the holds instead of marking the holds with tape.  They also had crack routes, which was awesome.  I'd never seen that before in a gym.

Wednesday, Day 4, we went back to Park City with the SB folk.  This was where DS realized that the reason I could ride my toe edge was because my bindings were entirely too loose.  Whoops.  Once he showed me how tight they needed to be, I picked it up in no time.  Hooray!  And then we rode to the top of the Crescent lift.  I could feel the temperature dropping as we went up, and I thought it would go on forever.  It was also a really tall lift, and I was a bit terrified of the height.  My goal was to ride all of the Home Run route, so we went down Claim Jumper to the Silverlode lift.  Now we were at the top!  DS left to ride some blacks, and I took some time to think about what I was doing.  Home Run is 3.5 miles long, and we were really high up.  Nearly 10,000 ft up, if their map is accurate.

The Park City map, via www.parkcitymountain.com.  For a larger version, click the Park City link above.

It took me something like an hour and a half to get down, but I did it.  I did it riding both edges, and only falling a couple of times.  Those were minor falls too.  Though I did stop several times to rest, because my legs just weren't used to this type of exercise.  Juliana caught up with me at some point, and we went down part of the way together.  But she's better than me, and left me for some blues.

In the end, this was an excellent trip.  It took a good week or two for me to be able to sit on the floor without being careful of the tender spot from Monday's fall, but that was the only real problem.  I learned to snowboard!  I had really excellent food.  We played multiple rounds of Zombie Fluxx!  I got to see people we almost never see anymore that I love dearly.  I climbed a 5.10b!  Also, the mountains around Salt Lake City are just awesome.  These photos don't do them justice.

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At the Beach in Avalon

We spent the day in Avalon, NJ at the beach.  Bri's family rented a house for the week and was kind enough to let DS and I crash with them for the day.  This was mine and DS's first trip to the Jersey shore, and I have to say, it was rather pleasant.  Much nicer than expected a northern beach to be.

The day started off cloudy and a bit chilly for beach play.  We took our time getting into our bathing suits, first walking to the Paper Peddler to pick up a copy of A Feast for Crows for Dan.  He and DS have been going through the Song of Ice and Fire books together, and Dan didn't want DS to get ahead of him.  I was rather impressed with this tiny little bookstore.  It had a much better selection than I expected of a place so small in the middle of a tourist district.

Once the sun came out, we head to the beach and each read our books while sitting in the sun.  It was the perfect temperature for me, so that the sun warmed my skin, but I never felt hot or sweaty.  The boys convinced us to get into the ocean, which was definitely on the cold side.  However, once we got used to it, we had fun jumping around in the waves for a while.

I didn't have a camera, but here is a photo of where we were, taken by ONG.

When we got hungry, we went back to the house for lunch, then spent the rest of the afternoon by the house pool.  I have to say, if you have enough people you like that are willing to split the cost of one of these houses, it's a really nice time.  The house was fully furnished, complete with washer and dryer and 3 bathrooms, and easily held Bri's entire family.  Very relaxing.

We had dinner at Oceanside Seafood, which was decent and well priced.  There were much better rated seafood places we could have gone to, but they were also insanely expensive.  This was also when my sunburn decided to show up.  Normally I can tell when I'm getting too much sun, but this time the breeze and the temperatures tricked me.  So I will be sleeping with ice packs on my stomach tonight.  No joke.  It hurts to move.  Hell, it hurts not to move.  Still, it was worth it.

Fall Beginnings

Fall is my favorite season, followed very closely by winter.  In my head, all of the wonderful things these seasons bring start in September.  There are all the holidays, the decorations, the colors, the smells, the FOOD.  Also, my birthday.  You guys know how nuts I am about my birthday, and this year is a milestone.  I'll be 30.  Apparently that makes some people feel old, but I say, MORE CAKE.

On Sept 1, Thursday, Bri dragged me to a bikram yoga class.  We had got a set of five classes for $25 through Groupon in the spring, and they expire in Nov.  We figured it was about time we used them.  Especially now that we're working out so much, we actually feel in good enough shape to get through a whole yoga class.  You know how I am about heat; I hate it.  It makes me sick.  So probably bikram yoga was a bad idea, but I figured that I'd at least try it.  It was 107° in there, and I felt bad the second we walked in the studio.  The first 45 min were standing poses, and I kept falling out of them and then sitting on the floor waiting for them to get to the next one, trying not to cry.  It was entirely too hot for me.  The last 45 min were seated poses, and my head tended to be in the draft of the back door, which someone had cracked open.  That made things soooo much better, and I ended up really enjoying the second half.  It was hard work, but the kind of hard work that makes you feel good.  Instead of the kind of hard work that makes you want to run away in tears.  I have 4 more classes...

On Friday I did my first pull-up since elementary school.  So I guess all this exercise is working.

Today DS and I have been mostly relaxing.  But when our chef friend gets off work late tonight, he's picking us up and we're going to the beach.  We live super close to the beach, but in the entire year we've lived here, we've yet to go.  So Sunday, BEACH.

Then on Monday, we're going to the PA Renaissance Faire.  Apparently it's a big deal.  I'm so super excited.  I've always wanted to go to something like this.  Bri keeps exclaiming about how I'll eat an entire turkey leg, but I'm more excited about the costumes and the jousting.  Because I'm a nerd.  And it's awesome.

Hopefully we'll have some good pictures of that stuff for you.

Oh, and before I forget.  My band is playing a show on 9/14, which is doubling as my birthday party (and also our cellists', whose birthday is the 18th).  We're planning to debut 2 new songs, one of which was my idea.  It will be the first time we'll perform publicly with DS and I included in the whole show.  Plus, someone is making me cupcakes.

I told you this month was awesome.

Sequoia National Forest

Camping in Sequoia.. mine and DS's last ditch effort to "see California" before moving out of the state.  Happily, we did not do this one alone, but had the pleasure of being with our Battlestar viewing crew.  We stayed at the Quaking Aspens campground, whose amenities include pit toilets and a spicket.  And surprisingly, I did just fine.  Who knew?  We enjoyed a campfire each night complete with dinner, s'mores, and jiffy pop.  We slept in tents, in sleeping bags, and woke up around 7am without alarms.  We hiked and hiked and hiked until I had a blister on my heel the size of an embedded golf ball...  But truly, it was all worth it.

We hiked the 1/2 mile, paved loop of the Trail of the 100 Giants.  Ran up to the top of Dome Rock to have lunch.  Did the 4.6 mile there-and-back trail to the Needles Lookout tower (which nearly gave DS a heart attack, but he still says it was worth the view).  And finally did maybe 1/3-1/2 of the 8.6 mile Freeman Creek Trail.  This is where my feet decided they had had enough, and DS says "How are you?"  To which I replied, "Done."  And with that, we all decided to eat our lunch and then hike back out to go home.

The follow photos do not even begin to do this place justice.  Seriously.  You should definitely go if you ever get the chance.

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Grand Canyon

DS's parents are RV'ing across the country, from their home in South Carolina, out to us in Santa Barbara, up to Yosemite, to Mt. Rushmore, down to visit family in St. Louis, and then back home.  All in all, a VERY long trip.  Since I'm 'retired' now, I decided to drive out to meet them at the Grand Canyon.  We stayed at the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park, and took their train from Williams, AZ up to the Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim.  We only had about three hours there, which turned out to be a bit too much as it was one of the few days it actually rains there.  I doubt their hoodie, sweater and poncho sales are ever higher...  Luckily, I had checked the weather before going and brought my own jacket.

Even without a ton of time to hike around, this was probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen.  There's just no way to describe how jaw dropping it is to walk up to the rim the first time and see the gaping hole.  I had no concept of its proportions, even after seeing it from the plane just weeks before.  It's up to 16 miles wide, 1 mile deep, and 277 miles long.  MILES!  It's just... indescribable.  I'm so glad his parents like me enough to have me stay with them all by myself :D

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Morro Bay, Part 1

(The following events took place May 8-10)

To escape the smoke, ash and encroaching fire, DS and I packed up the cats and went 2 hours north to Morro Bay for the weekend. We went with our friends D&J, who I may have mentioned from our "game nights" with them. They were very cool about us bringing the cats. DS and I weren't too worried that they would die in a fire, but just in case, we didn't want to be 2 hours away if things went bad.

We chose Morro Bay just by searching for hotels that took cats in a place far enough that it would be completely booked with evacuees, but close enough that we wouldn't regret driving there. It was perfect. We saw amazing things, including what I feel was my first real experience with the Pacific Ocean.*

Below are images and two movies. The sound on the movies is not great, just a warning. This is an abbreviated showing of the images. For the whole, humongous set, see my Morro Bay flickr set.

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*Our beach faces south with a view of the Channel Islands National Park, which is a string of, well, islands. This combination of things, in my opinion, makes our view of the ocean seem very different than other parts of the west coast. I'm told it also has something to do with our crazy weather.

Things you probably don't know about Athens, Part 1

Apparently, when the Sahara has a big sandstorm, Athens suddenly has smog.  Except it's not smog.  It's sand.  I was convinced that Athens was a dirty, nasty city.  DS kept telling me it was beautiful before I got there; sunny, clear, perfect temperatures.  All I saw was clouds and sand smog.  So here are some smog pictures, all but the last taken from the Acropolis*.  After looking at a map, I'm fairly certain we would have seen sea if not for that sand.  So that sucks, but how often do you get to come home and say you experienced the effects of a Saharan sandstorm??

That's Hadrian's theater, which is part of the Acropolis tour.

This is a view of the Agora from the Acropolis.

The Temple of Zeus, with the Olympic Stadium from the first modern Olympics in the background.

General city.  Pretty crowded!

* As it turns out, if you're short for time, you can see pretty much everything of interest from the Acropolis.  So go there with a camera that has a good optical zoom, and you're set!