Sensory Overload

Universal Studios Hollywood

2011-11-20T20:42:00.000-08:00

Chad and I drove up to Los Angeles on Saturday to meet Greg at Universal Studios. So we didn't have to pay for parking twice, we went straight to the Universal Hilton where we were able to check into our room early. Since I haven't been to the park since the 1980s, I've been eager to go for a while now. The last time I tried in the '90s, we arrived to find it closed for a special Power Rangers event. After Greg arrived, we walked over to the park to get there when it opened.

Inside, we made a beeline for the Studio Tour. Heading downhill, the tram starts off in the Front Lot with not much to see except the plain tan exteriors of the massive sound stage buildings. (If only we could go inside one during a shoot, but it would probably be too disrupting.) Passing the production bungalows in the middle, we cruised the perimeter of the huge outdoor sets on the Back Lot, rebuilt after the 2008 fire. Most of the streets are very generic so they can be customized for each shoot. An upcoming film was being shot in the middle as we passed, so we could see piles of rubble strewn around. It was great to see some of the classic attractions like Jaws, Bates Motel, Flash Flood, and Earthquake again. The Parting of the Red Sea has been updated with a miniature of Skull Island from the King Kong movie. The new Fast & Furious stunt car demonstration was underwhelming but I liked seeing the airplane crash set from War of the Worlds. I've never watched Desperate Housewives, but it was interesting driving down Wisteria Lane, a perfect little suburban street in the middle of the studio.

The best part of the Studio Tour and probably the entire park was King Kong 360 3-D. While I thought Peter Jackson's King Kong film had some problems, Kong's encounter with the two T-Rex's was thrilling and this new experience captures the essence of that best scene and throws you right into the middle of it. Since the action scene is occurring on both sides of the tram, there is almost too much to see. After a raptor attack, I missed the gorilla's entrance on the far side because I was too distracted by a T-Rex roaring and showering spit on my face from the left. It was awesome as Kong climbed back and forth across the tram car while it fought the dinosaurs, knocking our vehicle off a cliff into the hanging vines below. The motion control was excellent, every movement enhancing the illusion of danger. If it wasn't in the middle of the long Studio Tour, I would line up to do it several more times to get a chance to see everything from different spots on the tram.

After the Studio Tour ended around noon, we got some food and beer before heading over to see Terminator 2: 3D. Since we were a little early we hung out for a bit on the fountain terrace overlooking the sound-stages and back lot sets of the studio below. Chad got tricked by one fountain as it soaked the front of his jeans. The Terminator 2 show itself is a mixture of 3D movie and live actors and animatronic terminators on a stage. It was entertaining, but the storyline was a little weak and the decade-old 3D effects have not aged well compared to the newer 3D technology. One interesting part was the use of scent in the presentation, especially the strong smell of gunpowder during the gunfights.

The exterior of The Simpsons Ride was great, recreating the entrance to Krustyland with a Kwik-E-Mart just outside. The ride had the longest line of the entire day, but it was the most entertaining as well. Monitors played clips of classic Simpsons episodes along with new scenes of Krusty showing off different parts of his new amusement park. With so much material, I never saw a repeated clip. While the ride is one of those motion simulators instead of an actual roller coaster, it is the best of it's type I have ever experienced. Joining the Simpson family on an insane roller coaster at the beginning, the ride soon goes haywire as the nuclear waste material stored underneath Krustyland starts to cause havoc on the park and surrounding Springfield. Very fun!

One of the best things about Universal Studios is that you can walk around the park while drinking the 24oz. beers they sell for $10 bucks. It felt a bit like we were in Vegas. We had our second while waiting in line for WaterWorld. I definitely had a good buzz as we entered the amphitheater to watch the stunt show. We made sure to get seats out of the splash zone. It was a good show but the most exiting moment was when a seaplane exploded over the atoll wall to splash-land into the water below us. The only distracting element was the main villain's voice sounded too nice.

Since it was a cold day, we debated whether to go on Jurassic Park - The Ride in the lower lot. After taking the stairs down, we checked out the splashdown area before making our decision. It didn't look like too much of a soaking, so Greg and I went while Chad sat this one out. It had the shortest line of the day and while we meant to sit in the back, we ended up at the front of the raft. It was a short ride, but it had a great atmospheric design from the movies with plenty of animatronic dinosaurs. The lunging attack of the T-Rex at the end was a great distraction before the final 84 foot drop that sprayed us in the face pretty good. My young nephew is scared of rides, but loves dinosaurs. I wonder if I could have gotten him on this one.

There was a much longer line for the nearby Revenge of the Mummy - The Ride. A very fun indoor coaster ridden in almost complete darkness. It reminded me a lot of Space Mountain. At the halfway point, it stoped in a tomb where we felt scarabs crawling on the back of our legs before it launched us backward along a track to the finish. As we waited for an extended time in total darkness at the end, we thought it was part of the experience until an announcer let us know the ride would continue shortly. If there was a shorter line, I definitely would do that one again.

The sun was setting as we returned to the upper lot to visit the Special Effects Stage. It was a decent show showing the basics of special effects with volunteers picked from the audience for short demonstrations. I wish Universal Studios still had the Airport '77 show in the Screen Test Theater. I thought that was a much more entertaining way of revealing movie magic tricks. We ended our day at the park with Shrek 4-D. It was very funny short film that takes place directly after the wedding in the first Shrek. With moving seats and blasts of water and air, it's a good thing we were wearing 3D glasses because we were sprayed in the face at least three more times. With the temperature dropping rapidly outside, the icy water felt pretty brisk.

After walking back to the hotel to get some warmer clothes, we headed over to Universal CityWalk to get some food at Bubba Gump Shrimp. The Cajun Shrimp appetizer was amazing and I had the Lt. Dan's Drunken Shrimp for the main course. We ended the night at the bar in Jillian's. On Sunday, we woke up to heavy rain. We lucked out and beat the weather by one day. Driving home with Greg, we ate lunch at Portillo's. I have to stop for their Italian Beef sandwich every time I pass Buena Park. So good!

Europe Trip: Final Part (Istanbul, Turkey)

2011-08-17T23:07:00.000-07:00

A Turkısh bath ın Istanbul was a truly unıque experıence and a great way to end thıs three-week trıp. Tonıght, I went to the Cemberlıtas Hamamı near the Grand Bazaar, supposed to be one of the most beautıful baths ın the cıty. Buılt ın 1584, ıt was commısıoned by the Sultan's wıfe and desıgned by the famous Ottoman archıtect, Sınan. I thought that the baths were strıctly segregated, but I guess that doesn't apply to the men's changıng rooms wıthın the main atrıum. Whıle wearing just a towel, I had to walk through the entrance area fılled wıth women to reach the ınner chambers. I felt lıke I must be goıng ın the wrong dırectıon. (I wasn't.)

Insıde the hot room, I was dırected to lıe on the large 12-sıded marble slab under the center dome where around 10 guys already lay. Restıng my head on a small metal bowl, they let me sweat for about twenty mınutes whıle I stared up at the fıst-sıze holes allowing ın pın-poınts of sunlıght. In the heat, they played trıcks wıth my eyes, movıng and changıng shape above me. The attendant brought me out of ıt by throwıng a bucket of warm water across my chest. Wıth a rough exfolıating mıt on hıs hand, called a kese, he proceeded to scrub my skın raw, pausıng occasıonally to smack me hard wıth the palm of hıs hand. I felt lıke a lıttle kıd, squıntıng as he fınıshed by scrubbıng my face. My tan may be a few shades lıghter now.

I've had my haır washed many tımes whıle gettıng a haırcut, but ıt ıs very dıfferent to get completely lathered down wıth soap and massaged. My attendant, Ebo, had tough hands. I broke out laughıng frequently to mask the paın as he dug hıs fıngers deep ınto my back and legs (especıally the calves) and cracked my joınts. Rınsıng me down wıth buckets of water, he dırected me ınto one of the arched alcoves contaınıng small fountaıns. He fınıshed up by washıng my haır and crackıng my neck to both sıdes. I was stıll a lıttle stunned as I stumbled out of the hot room to get my oıl massage. I wasn't goıng to do ıt, but Laura changed my mınd after tellıng me how great ıt was. The second masseur was not as brutal as Ebo so I escaped mostly unscathed. After the long hours I spent at the Topkapı Palace and Archaeologıcal Museum thıs mornıng, ıt felt great. (He did have one paınful technique where he would stab my back ın dıfferent places with a sıngle fınger.) I returned to the domed hot room to relax for another half hour before leavıng.

Departıng Ayvalık on Monday mornıng, we drove across beautıful Turkısh countrysıde to arrıve ın Istanbul around 9pm. (A huge bus termınal!) Peter forgot hıs small bag on the bus, but two nıce young men from the company rode with us to retrıeve ıt. After checkıng ınto our hotel, we went to a rooftop restaurant nearby. We ate dınner sıttıng on pıllows whıle the restaurant played an Eminem album. Durıng our meal, the musıc turned off mıd-song rıght before the call to prayer fılled the nıght from a nearby mosque. As soon as the Muezzın ended hıs broadcast, the rap musıc started right back up agaın. After eatıng, we walked over to take some pıctures of the Haghıa Sophıa and the Blue Mosque lıt up at nıght. Fındıng a nıce spot along the busy Hıppodrome, we smoked some shısha from hookahs untıll 1am, one wıth apple flavor and the other contaınıng a mıx of Peach and Mınt.

Tuesday mornıng, I went back up to the Sultanahmet Park wıth Luke, Anthony & Gınny to go ınsıde the Blue Mosque and Haghıa Sophıa. There were long lınes at each, but we dıdn't have to waıt too long. The Haghıa Sophıa was once the largest church ın the world, buılt by the Byzantıne Emperor Justınıan back ın 537 AD. When the Ottomans captured the cıty, they converted ıt ınto a mosque. It ıs now a museum. The Blue Mosque was buılt ın 1616 just across from the Sophıa where the Byzantıne royal palace once stood. I took a lot of pıctures ınsıde each. We were goıng to go to the Basılıca Cıstern next but the long lıne was ın the sun so we headed over to the Grand Bazaar ınstead. It's a total maze ınsıde (I bought a shırt), but I managed to fınd our way out ın the correct dırectıon.

After lunch, we went back to the Basılıca Cıstern. It was the underground water-storage tank for the Byzantınes durıng war tımes. Restored a few decades ago, the hundreds of columns supportıng the ceılıng are a sıght to see lıt up ın the darkness. We then crossed the brıdge over the Golden Horn ınlet to vısıt the Galata Tower, buılt by the Genoese ın 1348. Up on the hıll, ıt has 360 degree vıews of Istanbul. As soon as we arrıved at the top of the tower, the loudspeakers of the cıty's mosques erupted all around us. Up so hıgh, ıt was a cacophony of sound as we could hear all of them at once echoıng across the cıty. I then checked out Istanbul's major pedestrıan shoppıng street, Istıkal Caddesı, before walkıng back across the Galata Brıdge at sunset for our farewell group dınner.

I had a extra day so I spent thıs mornıng at the Topkapı Palace. It was the Sultan's resıdence untıl the Ottoman Empıre ended durıng World War I. I toured the Harem and checked out the treasury and the other relıgıous relıcs collected over the centuries. I saw a few haırs from the beard of the prophet, Muhammed. They had other ıtems, lıke the cane of Moses and the stew-pot of Abraham. I hıghly doubt those last two are authentıc. The Archaeologıcal Museum was nıce, but except for mosıacs from the Ishtar Gate of Ancıent Babylon, most of the ıtems paled ın comparsıon to what I saw ın the museums of Rome.

Tomorrow mornıng, I leave for the aırport to fly home. It has been a great trıp. It feels lıke I have been gone for months.

Noah

p.s. I trıed the elastıc ıce cream as I walked down Istıkal Caddesı. It uses a thıckenıng agent from wıld orchıd tubers to allow ıt to stretch over two feet. It was just okay compared to gelato, but the kıd put on a fun show as he prepared ıt for me.

p.s.s. After our farewell dınner, we smoked some more shısha at a nearby bar. Our waıter was very ınterestıng, hangıng out, arm-wrestlıng wıth us and demonstratıng hıs card trıcks. He ıs very good at countıng cards. Even wıth me shufflıng and dealıng, he could predıct whıch poker hand would wın almost every sıngle tıme.

p.s.s.s. My feet and legs are much stronger after so much walkıng on thıs trıp. In Rome they were killing me after the fırst two days, but now I could walk all over Istanbul and I barely felt sore.

Europe Trip: Part 5 (Lesbos, Greece and Ayvalik, Turkey)

2011-08-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

This leg of my journey was less action-packed then the earlier ones.

We spent all Thursday traveling from Santorini to Lesbos. The first ferry had rough seas and half of the group got really seasick. Luckily, I remembered to take a motion sickness pill before we departed and I survived in good shape. The motion didn't bother me, but watching the others suffer made me slightly queasy. The highspeed catamaran arrived in Athens late, but we made it in time to catch the overnight ferry to Lesbos. We had cabins on this ferry so after watching the sunset up on deck, I went to bed early after playing a few games of cards with the others in the lounge. There was some heavy rocking in the middle of the night, but this larger ferry was much more stable than the earlier one. After 20 consecutive hours on ferries, it took most of the first day in Lesbos for the ground to stop swaying under my feet.

After checking in at the Hotel Sappho and eating a nice breakfast at a nearby cafe, we headed up the hill to check out the ruins of a Byzantine/Ottoman Castle overlooking the port city of Mytilene. There are hardly any tourists here so it is nice to walk the streets and see the regular daily activity of a normal Greek city. In the park, the kids have a miniature zipline to play on. I wish I had one when I was young. After checking out the shops, I went to the nearby beach with Peter and Ginny for the rest of the day. The weather is beautiful in Lesbos. Greeks eat very late here. Families still crowded the restaurants along the port at 11:30pm.

Saturday was a lazy day. Since the plan to take a van around the island fell through, I slept in so I could have as much rest as possible for Istanbul on Monday. Buying a couple pizza slices, I sat on a park bench and watched the city drive by. You can see so much more when people aren't obscured inside their cars. Scooters and motorcycles sped past, ridden by the young, old, couples, and families with the child sitting in front of the father and the mother riding on the back. (I even saw a child, father, child, mother combination.) Occasionally there was a helmet but most went without as they listened to their iPods or chatted on cell phones, dresses whipping in the wind, shopping bags hanging from both arms. Buying some gelato, I spent the rest of the day at the beach and hung out wıth everybody on the hotel balcony watching the full moon rise over the small harbor.

We took a short ferry rıde across the Mytılını Straıght to the Turkısh port town of Ayvalık thıs mornıng so I am now offıcıally ın Asıa. We are stayıng wıth a famıly ın theır beautıful Ottoman-era home ın the hılly old town so we have to take our shoes off ınsıde. After walkıng around the town, we stopped for lunch ın a small covered market. We thınk the guy at the restaurant told us that one of the dıshes was monkey, but hıs Englısh was not so good so we are not sure ıf he translated ıt correctly. To be on the safe sıde, we kept clear of that one even though ıt looked good ın the tray. The rest of the meal was amazıng though. I had Kofte, a grılled meat patty wıth vegıtables and a sıde of really flavorful rıce. The free apple tea at the end was sweet and very good.

Our pensıon has an amazıng balcony overlookıng the town's mosques and the nearby ıslands surroundıng the port. (The two largest mosques were converted from Greek Orthodox churches.) Hangıng out under the shade of the grape vınes, Peter and I played a couple games of backgammon as we lıstened to the chıldren playıng ın the street below. It ıs very peaceful and quıet here compared wıth Greece. Laura and Gınny brought bread, tomatoes, cheese, fresh fıgs, olıves, and dates back from the market and everyone feasted as we watched the sunset. (Tanya's rose-flavored Turkısh Delıght was amazıng!) As the sun dısappeared, we could hear the call for prayer over the loudspeakers from the hıgh mınarets of the three mosques. When we went to dınner later, I was too stuffed for anythıng but a Coca-Cola.

I wısh that we could have had two nıghts here ın Ayvalık and one ın Lesbos ınstead of the reverse. Both are small wıth not much to do but after more than a week ın Greece, ıt ıs more excıtıng to be ın Turkey rıght now. Tomorrow mornıng we catch a nıne-hour bus to Istanbul. I am crossıng my fıngers for workıng aır-condıtıonıng. I wıll have two full days ın Istanbul (can't waıt!) before comıng home.

Noah

p.s. Some of my i's are mıssıng the dot sınce the Turkısh keyboard ıs dıfferent. Our i ıs ın a weırd spot on the keyboard and ıt ıs hard to hıt everytıme when I am typıng fast.

p.s.s. Half of the Ouzo supply ıs made in Lesbos, but I can't stand the black lıcorıce-flavored lıquor. I am not used to drınkıng so much Coca-Cola, but I always fınd myself drınkıng so much of ıt when I am travelıng.

p.s.s.s. Turkısh food ıs very simılıar to Greek. Both love to ınclude french frıes on the plate or stıck them ın a gyro or doner kebab. Ayvalık was orıgınally a town of mostly Greek ınhabıtants. When Greece and Turkey transferred theır ethnıc populatıons in 1923, the Greeks moved out and were replaced by Turks who lived ın Greece.

p.s.s.s.s. Lots of cats lıke to hang out around at dınner lookıng for scraps. One of the cats fell ınto the Ayvalık harbor besıde our restaurant table. It swam off fast lookıng for an escape out of the water. (12/8/11 - I just found out there is a breed of cat, the Turkish Van, that loves to swim so this may have been one of them.)

Europe Trip: Part 4 (Santorini, Greece)

2011-08-11T23:32:00.000-07:00

Our ferry from Athens arrived in Santorini at 11:30am. The main island is a large crescent, part of the remaining ring of islands after a giant volcanic explosion ripped open the original island long ago. Cliffs almost a thousand feet high circle the remaining volcano tip in the center of the flooded caldera. Docking at the port, we had to wind our way up the steep inner cliff face to head down the sloping backside to our hotel located at Perissa Beach. It is a beautiful beach, but the black sand is almost impossible to walk on for very long without sandals. The water is very warm, but there is a wide section of slippery rock just inside the water's edge that is hard to navigate without falling.

After an afternoon swim, we caught a local bus up to the Santo Winery. It is in a perfect location, perched on the edge of the cliff at the center of the island's two arms. Santorini is a desert island but large vineyards cover the hillsides around Perissa. The grape vines look very unique, each plant spaced out and growing less than knee high with most of their irrigation coming from the morning dew. Watching the sunset over the caldera, we drank six bottles of white wine with some delicious cheese. We also had a glass of the amber-colored dessert wine, Vinsanto, that the island is known for. Unlike other dessert wines, it is not fortified with another alcohol like Brandy. It is the first dessert wine that I have enjoyed.

On Wednesday, I went scuba diving with a local dive shop. After organizing all the gear we boarded a small Navy Seal-type pontoon boat to circle around the island to the dive sites inside the caldera. Speeding over the waves while sitting on the side pontoons was almost as thrilling as the actual diving. The first site was located at an ancient port that is now underwater. An old donkey trail winds along the submerged cliff face. Swimming along it, I took off my fins and my divemaster, Ludo, took my picture pretending to walk along the flat path. Since I haven't dived in three years I went through my air pretty fast. We were still a ways from the boat when my tank ran low and Ludo switched to his auxiliary respirator and gave me his main. It is a little scary switching respirators underwater but I stayed calm and cleared the flooded respirator. Swimming close together we made it back under the boat where we had to wait a few meters down for the three-minute safety check before surfacing.

For our second dive, we drove out to White Island, one of the small islands near the volcano tip. It looks like a layer cake with a thick top layer of white sandstone that has accumulated over the centuries from the blowing winds. The dive started in shallow water before dropping off into a steep wall. We slowly worked our way down the volcanic wall with ledges hanging over heads and swimming through narrow canyons. The water was so clear, I just wish there were more big fish. Except for small ones, the sea was pretty empty. This time, Ludo gave me another weight to help my buoyancy and I was able to finish with plenty of air. The head divemaster, George, was hilarious, always cracking jokes as he drove the speedboat around the islands. (He really liked my jalapeno and cheese crackers. He wanted to know where he could get some, but I brought them from America.)

After returning from diving, I tried to take the bus to the famous village of Oia (pronounced ee-yaa) with the blue and white buildings on the northern tip of the island. The problem is that the buses are so crowded that they don't stop if they are already full. I mean really full, squeezed in like sardines. While waiting for a bus that could pick me up, I met two sisters, Rhea & Sjoukje, from Arizona heading the same way. We considered sharing a taxi, but a bus with enough space finally arrived. We made it to Oia, but five minutes after the sunset. We rushed around at twilight, taking pictures before darkness fell and then had dinner on a nice restaurant terrace overlooking the caldera.

The first bus back to the main terminal in Fira went smoothly, but we ended up waiting a long time for the next bus to Perissa. Since there was a large crowd, Rhea and Sjoukje rushed into the first arriving bus and grabbed some great seats, but I'm glad I double-checked it's destination. It was going to Kamari on the wrong side of the island. After I banged on the window to let them know, it was quite an effort for them to squeeze off before it departed. (Another reversing bus hit Sjoukje with its mirror while we waited, but she was unhurt.) The Perissa bus finally arrived after an hour and I reached the hostel, Anny Studios, around midnight. It was a great day! Tomorrow, we take the morning ferry back to Athens and then an overnight ferry to the island of Lesbos.

Noah

p.s. Since Santorini is a desert, the water in the taps is salt water. Diluted, but still salty.

p.s.s. It took five nights in Greece but I finally had my first Gyro. Very tasty and cheap! Only two euros. I have eaten a lot of Greek salads here. Great tasting vegetables, but they contain no lettuce and the Feta always comes in a big block sitting on top.

p.s.s.s. It may have just been my imagination, but I think I had a mild case of the bends after my first scuba dive. My left leg was really itching back on the surface but the divemasters said there were no jellyfish or stinging creatures in these waters. The boat had a dive accident checklist and I noticed that itching skin is a symptom. I was relieved when it disappeared after my second dive. We spent more time in shallow waters after exploring the wall so it must have allowed any trapped gas under my skin to be reabsorbed.

Europe Trip: Part 3 - (Corfu & Athens, Greece)

2011-08-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

Our bus from Naples to Bari on the opposite coast of Italy has been the only difficult part of this trip. While the countryside was beautiful, the air-conditioner broke at the beginning and the giant windows would not open. In Bari, we got stopped for a brief passport check before we caught a train down to Brindisi located on the heel of Italy's boot. We ate some dinner (I had Spaghetti al pomodaro & a double gelato of Hazelnut and Whisky Cream) before boarding our night ferry around 9:30. We thought we would have assigned seats to sit in, but a ship's steward told us our tickets didn't include them. Oh well, we made the best of the situation, finding a doorway to sit in (a freakin' wind tunnel) and playing cards until we found spots to sleep on the carpet. I ended up next to the stairwell.

We arrived in Corfu at 6:30 in the morning and were picked up by the Sun Rock Hostel. It is a low-key place located on the west side of island, right above the beautiful Pelekas Beach. After a breakfast of Greek pancakes (doughnuts with cinnamon and honey), we headed down to the beach. After the non-stop sight-seeing around Rome and Naples, it is nice to relax for a bit as we explored the tide pools and swam out to the nearby rocks. The water is so blue and clear. Except for a lunch break we hung at the beach all day before heading up for the late dinner. Everyone sits down to the same big meal served by the hostel staff. Very good! We ended up playing cards and drinking on the balcony until 2am. We all tried a shot of Raki, an alcohol distilled from leftover wine grapes. It is the strongest tasting drink I have ever had in my life. Brutal!

Saturday was the first morning on this trip that I have slept in. It felt good to get in the extra hours. After hanging in the shade on the rooftop patio during the hottest hours of the day we headed back down to the beach. Patrick, Ani, Jana and I decided to go para-sailing since none of us had done it before. A boat picked us up and took us out to a floating platform in the ocean. Hooked up in the harness, I grew a little nervous as I watched the long red rope uncoil in front of us while the boat sped off into the distance. Patrick and Ani dropped off the edge of the high platform before rising into the air, but Jana and I lifted off pretty quickly when we ran forward. Floating down the coast, we had to be at least 200 feet high. Twice, the boat slowed for us to splash the water with our feet before speeding back up. Landing in the sea at the end was fun, but we were tangled in the lines for a few seconds before freeing ourselves. Hearing about our experience, Eugenio and Peter decided to try it as well. Making sand castles and playing with a volleyball, we hung out at the beach until sunset.

Sunday was a long travel day, we caught a bus in the morning, driving across Greece until we arrived in Athens around 8:00pm. Luckily, the air conditioning worked on this bus and the nine hour ride passed quickly. I was actually able to get a little sleep this time, but I missed it when we crossed the huge bridge over the Gulf of Corinth to the Peloponnese. After checking in, we had dinner at a restaurant with a great view of the Acropolis lit up by spotlights. After buying some cotton-candy, we walked closer to the high outcrop to get a better view. Athens is much hotter than everywhere else we have been and very humid.

I am the only one in my group going all the way to Istanbul so Monday was the last day for us to hang out together. Since Ani had to leave for the airport before noon, we woke up early to hike to the top of Acropolis. It reminded me of the Getty Center in Los Angeles that I visited earlier this year, lots of towering white stone overlooking a crowded metropolis. The heat was not too bad at 8:30am and we just missed a huge crowd arriving as we left. We then headed over to the nearby Ancient Agora (the old ruins of the Athenian government) but it was so hot we didn't stay long. After the beauty of the Acropolis, I have about reached my fill of ruins anyway. For lunch, I had my best meal so far in Greece with Jana and Natasha. The hotel clerk recommend a restaurant hidden down a side alley frequented by the locals. The meatballs with rice were delicious. I wasn't too hungry but I ended up eating all five.

Since the New Acropolis Museum was closed on Mondays, we checked out the large Central Market in the afternoon (meat/fish market) and shopped at the Monastiraki Flea Market before I met up with my new travel group in the evening. Eugenio, Natasha & Jana joined us for dinner at a rooftop restaurant in the historical Plaka district. (More delicious Greek pancakes with ice-cream.) It also had a great view of the Acropolis, Lycabettus Hill and the rest of the city. Tomorrow, we leave early to catch a 7am ferry to Santorini. I will miss the new friends I made.

Noah

p.s. At first sight, the shallow tide pools in Corfu seemed barren except for sea anemones and spiny urchins. But walking slowly, we soon discovered the rest of the camouflaged inhabitants scurrying away from our feet in the clear water. Tan speckled shrimp, miniature flounder and fish with leg-like front fins, hid around us, all about the length of a finger. One tiny fish species was attracted by the sand kicked up, always congregating around our toes as it searched for food.

p.s.s. Our hostel in Corfu had a unique tab system based on the honor system. Every drink we pulled from the fridge, every sandwich we ordered or item grabbed from the small store, we would write down in the book kept on the bar. With internet, laundry and many, many ice-creams, my tab ended up around 40 Euro. Not too bad.

p.s.s.s. In Greece, not only is there a new language but a new alphabet as well. Since I was never in a fraternity, I am completely clueless about the lettering. In Greek, my name is spelled Νώε.

Europe Trip: Part 2 (Naples, Italy)

2011-08-05T13:28:00.000-07:00

I am writing this email from our hostel on the Island of Corfu in Greece. It sits along the steep cliff overlooking the clear waters of the Ionion Sea. After very little sleep on the night ferry that arrived before dawn, we are having a nice relaxing day at the beach.

We spent two nights in Naples. Tuesday morning, we caught a train down to the city from Rome. It took about two hours but time flew as we played cards. I ended the train ride winning seven games of Asshole in a row. A couple kids were playing with a whoopee cushion in the seats in front of us until their mother came back to smack them. I don't think they felt it though, they were laughing too hard.

After catching a taxi to our hotel, we all went out for Naples' most famous food. We ordered two of the official Margherita pizzas and four more with additional toppings. They were all pretty good, but my favorite was the one with sausage and peppers. The Margherita with prosciutto was great as well. I think I tried every one except the mushroom. When we left, we walked past the oldest pizzeria in Naples, Pizzeria de Michele. I would have wanted to eat there instead, but it was crazy busy and they only serve pizza to go. Plus, they only make the original Margherita, with or without cheese. (You really have to pay attention when walking through the Old Town or you will get taken out by one of the scooters zooming around the narrow streets.)

Jumping on a train to Pompeii with full bellies, I ended up sitting next to an older Italian gentleman covered with tattooed symbols and wearing very, very short cut-off jeans with his shirt up over his belly. I think he got the tattoos in prison because when I pointed and asked about the bloody knife crudely drawn on his thigh, he crossed his arms and tapped his wrists together. He didn't speak English and our guide, Peter, couldn't understand his thick Nepali dialect. He was very friendly, talking and laughing with us the whole way as he played his tiny radio. The only thing I could understand is when he started to talk about Steven Seagal and making martial art movements with his hands. I got my picture taken with him.

The ancient Roman ruins of Pompeii were very cool. Well, make that very hot since there wasn't much shade. One mansion, covered an entire city block and was filled with large gardens and wide atriums. Most of the first floors of the city were preserved by the volcanic ash from erupting Mount Vesuvius that covered the city in 80 A.D. and it was amazing to see the ruts carved into the narrow stone streets by ancient carts. One of the bath houses was almost entirely intact and we got to walk through all the different rooms. Our last stop in Pompeii was the one of the city's many brothels, called a lupanare in Latin. Inside, frescoes painted over the doorways of the small chambers depicted the acts the prostitutes would perform. Leaving Pompeii, we continued down the coast to Sorrento where we had dinner at the Foreigners' Club on the steep cliffs and watched the sunset before returning to Naples.

Wednesday morning, we took a ferry out to the Island of Capri. We arrived around noon and took the funicular up to the top of the island where we had lunch on the hillside with great views. After eating, we rented two motor boats to explore the surrounding waters. It takes about 80 minutes to circle the island, but we stopped at the Green Grotto at the halfway point where we anchored and swam into the warm emerald waters inside the caves. While the Blue Grotto of Capri is more famous, you have to hire a guide for 30 Euros to take you inside on a small boat. You can't swim so I'm glad we skipped it. I drove one of the boats the rest of the way back, taking us through a huge arch in the pinnacles of towering rock sitting off the coast. With a glass of wine, my jet lag finally ended after dinner back in Naples and I fell asleep at midnight.

Yesterday was a travel day but our bus didn't leave Naples until 1:30pm so I went to the Archaeological Museum with Jana. About half of the museum contains the original statues, frescoes and mosaics recovered from Pompeii. It was very interesting to see what covered the walls of the ruins we had just explored. The fun part of the museum was entering the Secret Room where no one under 14 is allowed. It contained graphic Roman artifacts like the ones in the Pompeii brothel. The freakiest one was a graphic sculpture of a faun having sex with a goat. We spent the rest of the time searching for more of the bodies from Pompeii, but we discovered they are all kept out at the archaeological site. We must have missed them. Leaving, we spent about five minutes trying to open Jana's locker until she realized that she had pulled out the wrong key. Ha!

Noah

p.s. It was hotter in Naples & Pompeii than Rome, but not too bad. While standing in the shade, it was quite nice. I actually spotted garbage trucks in Naples picking up trash around midnight. I guess the strike is over, but I did still see lots of scattered trash on the outskirts of the city.

p.s.s. There are not really any recovered Roman bodies from Pompeii. Instead, hollow pockets were left behind in the volcanic rock after falling ash trapped the fleeing citizens. While uncovering the city, Archeologists drilled down and filled the pockets with plaster which hardened in the shape of the person who had collapsed in that spot. I only got to see three of them, plus one of a dog. :(

p.s.s.s. Ani almost got run over by a boat while swimming backwards in the ocean outside the Green Grotto. We were all shouting and the large boat slowed just in time for Ani to notice it and push off from the bow with his hand. It was a close call.

p.s.s.s.s The funniest part about the Secret Room was the two youngs girls left to wait outside by their parents. They were sitting on the edge of their seats, craning their necks to see through the forbidden doorway.

p.s.s.s.s.s. Our hotel in Naples looked really bad from the outside, but inside it was completely different. Eugenio, Ani and I shared a room with it's own unique Tropicana theme with wall paintings of parrots and pink drapes hanging over the beds. Heh!

Europe Trip: Part 1 (Rome, Italy)

2011-07-31T23:25:00.000-07:00

After two nights of no sleep on my three flights, I arrived in Rome very tired but excited to explore. I took the Leonardo Express train into the city and then a taxi over to my hotel. Teatropace 33 was great, originally a Cardinal's mansion, the hotel had a huge staircase spiraling up the center. While I waited an hour for my room to be ready, I ate lunch in the nearby Piazza Navona where I had a traditional Roman dish, Spaghetti alla Carbonara. Made with eggs, parmesan and pancetta, it was perfect for a late breakfast.

After checking into my room, I went to the Palazzo Altemps, one of the three branches of the National Museum of Rome. Filled mostly with sculptures of Greek and Roman gods, my favorite was the Suicidal Gaul, made for Julius Caesar after his victory over that country. The museum was not too big so I saw everything before walking over to the Vatican Museum for my 2:30 tour. I'd been to that museum when I visited Rome for one day back in 1995 but I wanted to see it with a guide this time for more depth. Our guide had a lot of great jokes, pointing out the statue that looked exactly like Bill Clinton or the resemblance to Sylvester Stallone in one of Raphael's paintings. The Vatican Museum is amazing, stuffed with so many artifacts, but it's very crowded and hot with hardly any seats. Halfway through the tour, the lack of sleep really began to strain my attention span.

We ended the tour at St. Peter's Basilica. It was the middle of a Mass so I did not get to visit the far end and take a picture of my favorite piece by Bernini, the Alexander VII monument. Flowing drapes of marble envelop a skeleton raising an hourglass beneath the statue of a pope. I took a picture of it with a disposable camera back in '95 but it didn't come out too great. Even though my feet were killing me after the four hour tour, I wanted to climb to the top of the basilica's dome. The gate to the cupola closed right before I arrived so a test of my will-power was avoided. Taking the Metro over to the Piazza del Popolo, I climbed the hill to the Pincio and watched the sun set over the city and then visited the Spanish Steps filled with dating couples. I had planned to continue on to the Roman Forum so I could take pictures of it and the Colosseum lit up at night, but after eating dinner, I couldn't fight sleep off any longer. I stumbled into the hotel at 10 and passed out.

I really wanted to sleep in on Sunday when my alarm woke me up at 7:30am but I didn't want to skip my bike tour. After a cappuccino, I perked up. Starting above the Colosseum, we worked our way across all the major sites and neighborhoods in a big circle, stopping frequently for our guide to explain the history of the place or to check out the inside of a basilica. It was great way to see Rome with breaks for pizza, gelato or cappuccino. It was over four hours long, but I was still sad when it ended. So far, it has been the highlight of my trip. Very fun!

After switching hotels to join up with my group after the bike ride, I went to another of the National Museums of Rome, the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme. The first floor contained the realistic sculptures of important roman citizens during the Roman Republic while the second floor concentrated on the more idealistic sculptures from the later Imperial Era. It contains a statue of Augustus Caesar, the nephew of Julius and the first Emperor. There also was a life-size bronze statue of a boxer that I really liked. Both branches of National Museum I visited were great. Spacious rooms with just a few impressive items in each, all labeled in English. (Big difference from French museums.)

That evening I met my group before going to dinner. Except for Eugenio from Costa Rica and Jana from Germany, the rest of us are from North America. Much different from South America where Chad and I were in the minority. After dinner, I took the Metro down to the Colosseum with Erin and Patrick to make up for skipping it the first night. I got a lot of great night pictures of it, the Roman Forum and Capitoline Hill but the Metro closed before I finished. Luckily, we found a bus heading back in the right direction.

This morning after breakfast, I walked down with the others toward the Colosseum again, stopping at the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. I was going to go up on to Palentine Hill while the others went to the Vatican, but the line was so long that I decided to walk over to the Capitoline Museums on the next hill. Big mistake, they are closed on Mondays. Bummer! I ended up going to visit the Basilica di San Clemente south of the Colosseum. The excavations below the church are one of the best places in the city to see the different levels as Rome built up over the last two thousand years. It has three levels below the surface. The current church sits atop the original basilica built 1000 years ago while the level below that dates from 200 AD during the Roman Empire. There is a third level dating from 200 BC but it is not open to the public yet. Too bad we were not allowed to take pictures inside, but I snuck one shot. (They had some kind of sensor alarm that beeped when I took it. Heh!)

The weather in Rome is wonderful. I got lucky! It is supposed to be boiling at this time, but it has been in the low to mid 80s with nice cool breezes. Tomorrow morning, we leave for Naples. Can't wait for pizza!

Noah

p.s. The chair in this internet cafe is so freaking uncomfortable.

p.s.s. I thought bruschetta was always just bread and chopped tomatoes, but last night we were brought a plate with five different varieties. The regular type plus ones with eggplant, salmon, beans, or cheese & anchovies. Very Interesting!

p.s.s.s. I've learned that clinking glasses started as a tradition against the practice of poisoning anothers wine. I already knew that you are supposed to take a drink before setting your glass back down, but Peter explained that good eye contact is required as well. Now we're all sharing an exaggerated glance with each clink. :) Takes a little longer, but it's very fun.

p.s.s.s.s. While I waited for the Basilica di San Clemente to open at 3pm, I ended up having lunch at a place that turned out to be a very gay restaurant. I didn't notice it until I sat down but I was surrounded by rainbow flags and the waiters had the name of the restaurant spelled out in rhinestones on their black uniforms, "Coming Out". A Canadian at the next table, Greg, started up a conversation, telling me he found the restaurant on the internet and was waiting for the basilica to open as well. We ended walking over and touring the church together after eating.

Las Vegas - Chad's 40th Birthday

2011-07-25T21:02:00.000-07:00

Since I will be traveling in Europe and miss Chad's 40th birthday on August 1, I went out to celebrate it early with him at the Hard Rock Hotel. Chad got a special deal on a suite after working a conference in Vegas all week. My Jeep Wrangler has no air conditioner and struggles on long hills, so I rented a Chevy Impala and drove out Friday night after work. I arrived at midnight, drank a shot of Tequila, and hung out with Chad and Heidi, who he met Thursday night.

After breakfast, Chad and I went out to the Rehab pool at 11am where he rented a daybed. It was blazing hot, but our waitress started bringing us ice buckets filled with Coronas and Smartwater. The pool area was relaxing at first, but it soon got crazy as the music started up and the crowd grew and grew. We hung out with the couple renting the daybed next to us and Heidi came out to visit us. Normally, I control the amount of alcohol I'm drinking, but on Saturday I lost track with the heat and never-ending bucket of beers. Whenever my hand was empty, I was given another opened Corona with a slice of lime.

Though we had a blast at the pool, it destroyed our plans for the evening. Around 6:30, I staggered up to the room. I was very drunk but I managed to shower and change for the Soundgarden concert at 8. When I came out of the bathroom, Chad was passed out. I crawled into my bed and the next thing I know it was 1:35am. We missed the concert and I had a throbbing headache. We had a tiger in our room and it was clawing at my brain.

Attempting to rally, we met up with Heidi and went down to Mr. Lucky's for some food. I was trembling and barely hanging on while we ate, trying to avoid looking at the drunk guy in the next booth. Watching him flop around made me nausous. This was the worst hangover since my last night in Rio De Janeiro. I had promised myself that I wouldn't get wasted because of my upcoming Europe trip, but Vegas will win every time. Oh well!

After sleeping in on Sunday, we went down to Pink Taco. I always judge a Mexican restaurant by their salsa and the three different kinds that came with the chips were delicious. The tortilla soup was not as good as La Especial's in Leucadia, but the carne asada tacos were excellent. The meat was very tender and the tortillas were hand-made in the restaurant. I regretted squeezing the lime on my tacos though, the smell reminded me of all the Coronas I drank at the pool. I don't think I will be able to drink another one for a long time.

After a few hours recuperating at the hotel's West Pool, I left at 5pm thinking I would get home by 10:30 but the traffic between Baker and Barstow kept slowing to a crawl. It was 9:30 by the time I stopped for a bite. I thought I had passed the worst of it, with only a small section of red traffic in Victorville showing up on my iPhone, but I was wrong. It turned out to be horrible and I spent well over an hour traveling 4 miles. At 11:30, I finally wised up and checked for traffic-free roads off the freeway. I found a clear frontage road and jumped off the I-15. I cruised the last 8 miles alongside the frozen freeway and got back on after passing the accident. After nine hours on the road, I arrived home at 1:30am.

p.s. This was my first time staying at the Hard Rock and I loved their down pillows. I tried to buy one at the hotel, but they don't sell them. I did get the website address of the company that sells them though.

Las Vegas - Anna's Birthday

2011-03-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

I flew to Las Vegas for Anna's birthday this weekend. We had a room at the Mandalay Bay, my first time staying there. While we waited for her friends to arrive on Saturday, we played Anna's favorite slot machine, Dean Martin's Wild Party. It was a fun game with catchy songs like "Go Go Go Go" and entertaining party sound effects. After winning a nice jackpot with three Dino's, I broke even which was a good sign for the rest of the weekend.

After Michelle and Cote arrived, we met up in their suite with their friends, Rob, Nicole, Ashley, Danielle and Patty. We had a few drinks before all nine of us went to eat at the House of Blues. After changing and meeting back at their room for more drinks, we headed down to the casino where we gambled for awhile and stopped for Vodka Martinis at Red Square. I was real buzzed by the time we headed up to the Mix Lounge at the top of THEhotel. There was a great view of the entire Strip from the outdoor balcony.

I had a strong hangover Sunday morning, sleeping it off while Anna headed down to the pool. At noon, the group walked over to CityCenter. It had been under construction the last two times I've visited Vegas, so I was eager to see it. I liked the modern skyscraper appearance of the six towers. Inside the Aria hotel, we had brunch at Julian Serrano, a spanish tapas restaurant. We all ordered a couple plates to share, including a pitcher of white wine sangria, but I wasn't quite ready to start drinking alcohol again so soon.

I ordered the Huevos Estrellados (fried potatoes / eggs / imported spanish pork chorizo) which was the perfect hangover food and the Crispy Pancetta Iberica (pork belly / petit pois puree / molecular mozzarella). The pancetta was Anna's and my favorite dish. The green pea puree was amazing. Anna ordered the Pan Tomate (toasted bread / fresh garlic tomato sauce) and the Pintxo de Chorizos (mini spanish pork chorizo / garlic mashed potatoes / garlic sauce). Dipping some bread in the butter sauce from Michelle's shrimp was heavenly. Everybody finished with some Bunuelos (spanish doughnuts with butterscotch caramel).

Anna is a big Dean Martin fan, so for her birthday I took her to the "The Rat Pack is Back" show. The Copa Room is at the Plaza Hotel downtown, right next to Fremont Street. The included dinner was not great (bleagh!) but the performance was very entertaining. The Joey Bishop impersonator provided the quick-witted comedy while a 12 piece band backed up the songs from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. We were sitting right up against the stage and it felt like the classic representation of a Vegas show you might see on a sitcom episode.

After walking down Fremont Street and playing some slots at the renovated Golden Nugget (very nice), we went to The Cosmopolitan hotel that opened last year. Inside, we met up with Michelle, Cote, Rob and Danielle at The Chandelier, a three-story bar encircled with thousands of hanging crystal strands. After a few drinks, like a Burnt Campfire with a chocolate graham cracker rim and a toasted marshmallow, we gambled until 2am. I really enjoyed the Star Wars Droid Hunt slot machine, the movie clips were entertaining and Cote and I kept winning extra cash from the frequent bonus games.

Monday was Anna's actual birthday so the two of us went to lunch at Fleur by Hubert Keller. I have wanted to go to one of his restaurants since seeing him on Top Chef Masters. We both started with the Caesar Salad (toad in a hole / fontina / truffle) that had the most flavorful croutons ever. All the plates are small so we both had two additional dishes. Anna had the Gnocchi (san marzano fondue / pesto) and the Chicken Croquettes (upland cress, garlic cream, pine nut) while I had the Croque Monsieur (smoked ham / gruyere / bechamel) and the Angus Sliders (blue cheese, onion, bacon, pear). Everything was so rich and delicious, but never overwhelming to the taste buds. The only thing I was unhappy about was the markup on the Red Bull. $8!!!!!

Since our flight home wasn't until 8:30pm, we spent more time partying with Dean Martin's slot machine. Anna won over $10 and I got back the $30 I had lost the night before. Except for losing twenty while playing craps with Anna (her first time), I came out even with my gambling this trip. In the afternoon, we spent some time at the Bellagio watching the water show and having a drink at the Petrossian Bar before heading to the airport. A Very Fun Trip!

p.s. I placed a $20 bet for San Diego State to win the NCAA Basketball Tournament. I got my ticket at 22/1 before the SDSU vs. BYU game on Saturday. After San Diego State won, the odds dropped to 16/1 and then down to 12/1 when they were officially selected as a #2 seed for the tournament bracket. That means if they win, I earn an extra $200 by betting early. Go Aztecs!

The Getty Center

2011-02-14T20:34:00.000-08:00

I have wanted to go to The Getty Center in Los Angeles since it opened in 1997. Since I was going to a friend's birthday in Culver City on Saturday night, it gave Anna and I the chance to stay the night and go on Sunday. After breakfast room service at our hotel, we drove up the 405 Freeway to Brentwood where we could see the white museum gleaming high on the hill. Parking in the garage at the bottom, we took the electric tram up to the Arrival Plaza.

When we first arrived, Anna and I joined the Architecture Tour. Our guide led us through the less crowded areas on the north end between the Auditorium and the two administration buildings. We learned that the architect, Richard Meier, used the hill's natural ridges in his design of the center. She described how he repeatedly used a motif of three foot squares with the travertine limestone and other building materials to represent the area of personal space one normally desires. Originally planned to be built for a few hundred million dollars, it grew to 1.3 billion before it was finished. The main museum with its five connecting pavilions are separated from the Research Institute and the main restaurant by the Arrival Plaza and Central Gardens, but all of the buildings connect underground.

After eating a snack at the Garden Terrace Cafe with it's beautiful views, we explored the exhibition of photography from the mid-1800s by Felice Beato. One of the earliest photographers of Asia during British Colonial times. He was also one of the first war photographers, documenting the Opium and Crimean Wars and the British crushing a rebellion in India. A photo of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing gave me a double-take. Except for the weeds on the stairs of his photo, it looked exactly the same as a 2007 photo I took. A nearby gallery of modern photography from Chinese artists was an interesting contrast.

Walking around the museum, I enjoyed how the buildings and stand-alone walls framed the views of the center's gardens, fountains and skyline. One of my favorites was the view of the long travertine wall extending south toward the circular cactus garden above the city. Except for a bit of low-lying smog in the distance, it was a beautiful day with blue skies and scattered clouds. We could see the high rises of Studio City nearby with Downtown Los Angeles off in the distance. When the sun set later in the day, it lit up the snow-covered San Bernardino Mountains to the East.

At 3:30, Anna and I took the Sculpture Tour with an art student who works at the Center. Leading us through the pavilions to a few select pieces, she described their importance and history. Near the end, she showed us two amazing wood carvings from the time of the French Revolution. The popular artist was a loyalist to the monarchy and the intricate details held many symbolic images from the ongoing events. The first representing the King defending France against the revolutionaries and the other hoping for a compromise with a Constitutional Monarchy between the King and a new Legislative Assembly in the interim period.

We ended the tour on the outdoor sculpture terrace. Except for photography, the museum's collection is from pre-20th century Europe. In his trust, J. Paul Getty specified that no money could be used to purchase Modern, Asian or American art. Any of the museum's pieces that fall into those category had to be gifted to the Center. All the modern outdoor sculptures spread throughout the center were donated to the museum by Fran and Ray Stark.

After the tour, we walked down the zigzagging path through the trees to the waterfall in the Central Garden. It is a great place to relax and enjoy the sun. We visited one more exhibition before the center closed, the Polychrome Sculpture of La Rodana. She was a female Spanish artist during the Baroque period and the exhibit showed step-by-step how the painted wooden sculptures were constructed.

I want to go back someday. It feels like we spent most of our time admiring the outside of the museum, absorbing the amazing views between the brilliant white buildings, long travertine walkways, fountains and gardens. We never even made it to the second floor of the main pavilions where the majority of the painting are displayed.

We left after five as the sun was setting, walking down the hill instead of waiting for the tram. Driving home, Anna and I went out of our way to cross over to the I-5 to eat at Portillo's again. I was craving one of their Italian Beef Sandwiches. I have included some pictures below from Cherita's Birthday on Saturday night at the YEN Japanese Restaurant where we had a private karaoke room.

We drove up to Los Angeles early for Cherita's party to visit with some of Anna's friends she mentored while going to school at USC. After we met at their house in South Central LA, we all drove over to the nearby university so Anna could show us around and hang out. It is a beautiful campus to walk around with no cars inside the grounds.

Ski Trip to Aspen, Colorado

2011-02-07T14:31:00.000-08:00

When my friend, Craig, invited me on his ski trip to Aspen, Colorado, I jumped at the opportunity. It has been five years since I have last been skiing and I've never been there. Since he was flying from his home in New Zealand, we met up last Saturday at the Denver Airport. After spending the night at the nearby Hyatt, we picked up our rental car at 6am for our drive over the Rocky Mountains. The sunrise greeted us with blue skies as we climbed the foothills outside Denver, illuminating the snowy peaks ahead. Crossing under the continental divide through the Eisenhower Tunnel (11,158'), we passed Vail and numerous other ski resorts on the western side of the Rockies.

Sixteen miles outside Glenwood Springs, we entered the beautiful Glenwood Canyon. Carved by the Colorado River, steep canyon walls sprinkled with snow rose a thousand feet over our heads. Interstate 70 paralleled the river on an elevated roadway to protect the natural beauty. I had a frozen hand from sticking my camera out the window so many times to take pictures. We arrived at Snowmass at 11am. It is one of the four ski mountains around the town of Aspen, including Buttermilk, Aspen Highlands and the original Aspen Mountain. The Winter X Games were wrapping up in Buttermilk that very day.

We were staying in the Snowmass Village because Craig was attending an Anesthesia Conference. Conveniently, all the seminars were scheduled for the early morning and late afternoon, allowing him full days for skiing. Our place, Laurelwood, was in the Upper Village, right on the slopes and three streets above the mall with all the restaurants and shops. After checking in and picking up our skis, we were on the mountain before 1pm. After describing myself as a high-blue, low black-diamond skier, I almost fell on my first turn down the hill to the lift. How embarrassing!

Since Craig had only learned to ski last year and I had such a long lay off, we did a couple green runs off of the Elk Camp Gondola and Assay Hill to get our legs under us. Feeling more comfortable, we took the six-seat Village Express to the top of Sam's Knob (10,620') for some blue runs. We stayed on that side of the mountain for the rest of the day, only stopping for some hot chocolate at Sam's Smokehouse. It was a beautiful sunny day and there was a great view of the surrounding mountain ridges from the high-altitude restaurant. We skied until the lifts halted at 4pm.

While Craig left for his evening seminar, I relaxed outside in the hot tubs right underneath our balcony. The smaller one was hotter but the other was the perfect temperature. When Craig got back at 7, we went for dinner at The Stew Pot. I was starving so I got a bowl of chili (the best) and the Old-Fashioned Beef Stew. They were delicious. Craig got the leg of lamb. After only two hours sleep the night before in Denver, both of us were ready to crash out by 8:30.

We woke up to heavy snowflakes and colder temperatures on Monday. After a few great runs from the top of Elk Camp (11,325'), I had to stop to put on some toe warmers. I wanted to try the off-piste Long Shot run, but I would have had to hike up to reach it and the visibility was very poor. We stayed at Elk Camp, exploring all the blue runs, until we stopped for a late lunch at Fuel. We did another long run from the top of Sam's Knob before stopping for the day. It was freezing! Craig has friends from Australia who have a house in Snowmass so we met them with several others for dinner at il Poggio, a fancy Italian restaurant. Craig's friend, Greg, called it the Commonwealth Dinner because everyone besides me was from New Zealand, Australia, Canada or South Africa. As an American, I was made an honorary member.

The falling snow had almost stopped on Tuesday, but it was overcast and very cold with a high of 5 degrees Fahrenheit. I made sure to add a third layer for warmth. We started the day going to the top of High Alpine (11,775') to ski the Green Cabin Run. I loved the fresh powder down the wide canyon, but Craig was exhausted trying to turn through it. He preferred the groomed runs so we split up until lunch so I could ski some more powder. I went to the top of Big Burn (11,835') and enjoyed the soft moguls of Sheer Bliss. Back up at Big Burn, I took the nutcracker lift that slowly pulled me up to the highest peak, The Cirque (12,510') where the sun slipped briefly through the clouds. I totally froze my nose on descent and had to warm it up with my scarf. After that, I covered my face with it for the rest of the week. Whenever I skied fast, it would freeze in the shape of my face.

After stopping for more delicious chili, I took Craig down his first Black Diamond run, Slot, over on Sam's Knob. It was steep but nicely groomed. I noticed that there were tons of people from all over the world working in Aspen. For dinner, I had a very tender steak at The Artisan in the Stoneview Hotel. It is further down the village so we were really short of breath on the hike back up the hill to our place.

Wednesday was the coldest day of the week at zero degrees. It was nice and sunny once more, but the slopes were deserted as we skied down to the mall to take the free bus to Aspen Mountain. It is the original Aspen ski area that rises directly out of the town center and it is one of the tougher places with no green runs. We received some screwy directions on the bus and got a bit lost in Aspen locating the gondola. I had my first crash, slipping on the icy road in my ski boots. The Silver Queen Gondola was great, watching the town of Aspen shrink below us as we climbed all the way to Sundeck (11,212') at the top. Just outside the lift house, there were amazing views of the continental divide and the Highland Bowl at nearby Aspen Highlands.

We stayed on the top quarter of the mountain for awhile, riding back up the short Ajax Express. We soon discovered one of my favorite trails of the entire week, Ruthie's Run, tilted with nice spots for building speed and great views. I exclaimed to Craig, "Isn't this amazing!" We skied it several times before heading down Magnifico Road to the Little Nell runs near the base of the mountain. I caught Craig on video in a nice wipe out as he shot past me. After a snack at Starbucks and some long distance tech support to my office back home, we headed back up the gondola to tackle our first black diamond on the mountain, FIS. Craig guessed that it stands for F**king Insane Slope.

Aspen has a unique shape with a narrow canyon, Spar Gulch, that runs down the center of the mountain to the base. It was fun, but icy in the afternoon shadows. Taking the gondola up one last time, we spent the rest of the afternoon near the top until the lifts closed. We were one of the last ones off the slopes. The other night at our Commonwealth Dinner, we met Victoria and her husband who own a cafe in the town called Victoria's. We stopped there for hot chocolate and a pastry after skiing. As we ate, Greg and his wife popped in as well. After taking the comfortable bus back to Snowmass, we relaxed in the hot tub where we were visited a couple times by a curious fox. We then went for a giant pizza at Taster's.

It warmed up for our final day of skiing on Thursday. With sunny skies we were able to see the beautiful scenery of Roaring Fork Valley beyond the peak of Elk Camp for the first time. I decided to hike up to Long Shot and meet up with Craig at the bottom of the 3.5 mile run in Creekside. I met two guys from Toronto on the 15 minute climb and we decided to stick together for safety reasons on the way down because we were the only ones on the isolated trail. It was great carving new tracks in the deep powder through the natural glades, but I started to regret skiing together about halfway down. This was their first day of skiing and I struggled to keep up, my legs worn out from five straight days. I was panting and sweating by the time I reached the Creekside lift.

After a picnic lunch (amazing cookies) on the mountain provided by Craig's conference, I took him to the top of The Cirque. On the way down, I decided to take a quick detour through Garrett Gulch, a black diamond run in a long narrow ravine. It looked fun at the top but it soon filled with huge exhausting moguls that really slowed me down. Worse, it popped out below the Big Burn lift where I was supposed to meet Craig and I had to hike back up a little ways. He had been worried when it took me so long to show up. We ended our last day at Sam's Knob, skiing the Black Diamond runs, Slot and Campgrounds.

After returning our skis and relaxing in the hot tub, Craig and I went to the Aspen Airport to pick up the rental car and drive into town. We ate at the Hickory House. Everything was good, but their onion rings were the best I have ever eaten. I should have skipped the chocolate cake. I was so stuffed. The next morning, we woke up real early and got on the road to Denver by 4:30am. We made it back to the airport with an hour to spare for Craig's flight to Houston, but because of the Texas snowstorms, he had to take a flight to New York and missed his connection to Dubai where he had a nice room booked. I made it back to San Diego by 3:30 on Friday where Anna picked me up. An amazing trip!

I had a busy weekend after I got home. I went wine tasting in Temecula on Saturday with Anna and her friends. It was in an area of Temecula, the DePortola Wine Trail, that I hadn't visited before. We started at Cougar Winery in the morning before going to Danza del Sol where we had lunch. Their 2008 Tempranillo (with it's hints of red licorice) was my favorite of the day. We ended up at the Robert Renzoni Vineyards where the friendly barman kept the girl's wineglasses full with extra pours. That night we had dinner at En Fuego with Anna's fellow law students. I ordered Chicken Mole for the first time. It had an interesting taste that I enjoyed, but I don't know if I will ever get it again.

On Sunday, we went to the Super Bowl Party at Suzie's house. It was great because she and a lot of her friends are from Wisconsin so we were all wearing Green & Gold and rooting for the Green Bay Packers. It was pretty wild when they won. There was so much food.

Back to Disneyland

2011-01-06T23:23:00.000-08:00

Anna took me to Disneyland on Tuesday for my birthday. It was my first time back since 1988 when I was 16 years old. I was eager to see the new rides like Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones Adventure that I had never experienced. After a stormy and rainy Monday, the clouds cleared and we were greeted with blue skies as we drove up to Anaheim in the early morning.

We arrived at 9am when the park opened and Anna made sure I got a Birthday pin. (Eliciting "Happy Birthdays" thoughout the park for the rest of the day, including the birthday song from a couple kids in line.) Meeting up with Katharine & Abraham on Main Street, U.S.A., we went straight to the Mad Hatter in Fantasyland where Anna bought me a hat. After trying on several different looks, I ended up getting a pirate bandanna with gold-ringed Goofy ears.

My favorite Disneyland ride has always been Space Mountain in Tomorrowland, so we went there first. We were in line for less than ten minutes before we were rocketing through the star-filled blackness on one of the world's most unique roller coasters. After seeing Michael Jackson's "This is It!" concert film on DVD recently, it was great to see the Captain EO Tribute when he was still in his prime. I am glad they brought it back. I really appreciated the Submarine Voyage, updated with one of my favorite Pixar movies, "Finding Nemo".

Before lunch, we went over to the New Orleans Square to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean. It looked pretty much the same way I remembered it except for a few Jack Sparrows added in. Since it wasn't a crowded day, Anna and I were able to eat at the Blue Bayou without reservations. It is one of the nicest places to eat with the dining area inside the Pirates ride, all lit with hanging lanterns. The gumbo was very good. Katherine and Abraham were luckier, they had a special invite to eat at the very exclusive Club 33, hidden on the second floor of the Square's buildings. Since we finished eating before them, we went up Tarzan's Treehouse for a great view of the park and took the boat on the Jungle Cruise. When we came back to meet up with them, they were hanging out on the club's private balcony.

We picked up a Fastpass for the Indiana Jones Adventure before heading over to Splash Mountain. I was hesitant to ride it because it was a very cold day, but I survived with only a minor wetting. Anna got nice and soaked, sitting in front of me on the final big drop. Coming back to Indiana Jones, we got on the ride quick with our Fastpass. I dug the interactive features in the line, like the descending spikes. They should have more of them. It was a cool ride. Driving through the rat line was freaky and the rolling stone scare was excellent. Anna told me it is the only ride with real fire effects in Disneyland.

When Katharine and Abraham left for the California Adventure Park, Anna and I headed over to Toon Town. I enjoyed the crazy architecture before riding the Roger Rabbit Car Toon ride. Before returning to Tomorrowland, we went on the iconic "It's a Small World", always disappointing but such a great target for parody. Tomorrowland at twilight was a pretty sight, with the sun setting behind the retro spire of the swirling Astro Orbitor. We helped Buzz Lightyear defeat Evil Emperor Zurg on the laser-shooting Astro Blasters ride. Despite a little cheating by Anna (Ha!) I still managed to pull off the win, 53,400 to 20,000.

My first reaction when I entered the park was that the Sleeping Beauty Castle looked small and unimpressive and they should rebuild it to much larger proportions. But at night, it is beautifully lit and I discovered it's the perfect size for photographs. All day we had short lines, never waiting more than fifteen minutes until reaching the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Frontierland. They were having technical issues causing both lines to slowly merge into one at the loading area. It was worth it. I had forgotten how good a roller coaster it is, a real thriller, fast and smooth. I wanted to go again!

Because the Thunder Mountain line took longer than expected, we had to skip the Matterhorn Bobsleds, the only major ride I missed out on the day. We used a pair of gifted Fastpasses to go on the Indiana Jones ride one more time before the park closed at 8pm. Meeting up with Katharine and Abraham outside at the Disney Store, Abraham suggested we drive up to Portillo's in nearby Buena Park. It was a great idea, their Italian Beef sandwich and chili was delicious. I definitely want to go back there the next time I am in Orange County.

p.s. Anna made it the perfect birthday with her Magic Bag, filled with snacks, presents and fun stuff to amuse us in line.

Self-Realization Fellowship & San Elijo Lagoon on New Year's Eve

2011-01-01T22:54:00.000-08:00

Even though I have driven/biked/walked past the Self-Realization Fellowship in Encinitas my entire life, I have never been inside to the Meditation Gardens. On New Year's Eve, Anna took me to the cliffside gardens overlooking Swami's Beach. Lush paths wound between Koi ponds, waterfalls and tiny nooks filled with benches. The oddest site is the empty swimming pool sitting right at the edge of bluff. It was a beautiful sunny day.

After leaving the Meditation Gardens, we ate lunch at Swami's Cafe and went for a hike through the San Elijo Lagoon. The recent rains flooded the center path in two places. We took off our shoes and waded across the ankle deep water. It was bearable at first, but the freezing pain hit halfway across.

It took about two hours to circle the lagoon's main path. From the border of Solana Beach, we walked back along the beach to Cardiff-by-the-Sea. It was nice that the last day of 2010 ended with a pretty sunset. Back at Anna's house, we had a nice dinner party with fifteen people and loud firecrackers at midnight to bring in the New Year.

Christmas Festivities

2010-12-27T19:13:00.000-08:00

This year, I finally saw It's a Wonderful Life and White Christmas for the first time with Anna. (Both great!) It really set the tone for this holiday season that started in early December with the H&P Christmas Party. A group of us took the train up to San Juan Capistrano on the 4th where we had drinks at the Swallows Inn before meeting everyone else for dinner at the El Adobe De Capistrano. The downtown was super festive for the Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony that evening. Back down in Carlsbad, we continued the party with more pitchers of beer at Pizza Port.

On December 14th, I visited the Holiday of Lights at the Del Mar Fairgrounds with Anna. Driving my Jeep around the race track, covered with interlocking rubber tiles, we checked out the colorful light displays and listened to the holiday music broadcast over the radio. Afterwards, we had a nice dinner at Sbicca (gnocchi) in Del Mar. After one dinner party left, we had the back room with the fireplace all to ourselves.

I drank a lot at the 8th Annual Kegger Claus party on December 23rd. At least 5 different types of liquor were poured down the Ice Luge into my mouth. (Tequila, Schnapps, Whiskey, etc...) Some couldn't handle the fast-flowing alcohol. Ha! I have a great picture of Chad falling over to the side mid-pour. I received an Honorable Mention for my ugly Christmas Sweater in the costume contest. The grand finale was the burning of the Christmas Tree loaded with firecrackers and a Roman candle. It started out as a dud when the fire just fizzled, but the thrown bucket of gasoline sent everyone leaping back as the the flames roared into the sky.

I haven't been to a Christmas Eve Mass in a long, long time. I went with Anna and her family to the Immaculata Church at the University of San Diego. I forgot how many rituals the Catholic Church has. (Lots of repeated standing, kneeling, sitting and singing with the heavy scent of burning incense in the air.) The young woman who led the hymns had a very beautiful voice. A Bishop in his red skullcap gave the sermon in place of the church's regular priest. Afterwards, we checked out the nearby Founder's Chapel with the dark mahogany walls, white marble altar and towering gold altarpiece surrounding the crucifix.

This is the first year that I have spent Christmas at my Mother's house. Normally, we all go to my Grandma's house in Santa Ana, but she has passed on the tradition. We spent Christmas morning watching my nephews open their presents while eating bacon and pancakes before driving up to Riverside. There was tons of food and two cakes this year for my birthday. Once again, I was in charge of the gift exchange. It is fun, but so hectic!

Kiteboarders in Cardiff

2010-11-28T19:13:00.000-08:00

Kiteboarders in Cardiff on Thanksgiving Weekend. Looks Fun!

Halloween Weekend

2010-11-02T19:31:00.000-07:00

With the upcoming mid-term elections, I dressed up as Uncle Sam for Halloween. We always have a good costume turnout at work.

I went with Chad down to University Heights for our pub crawl version of the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. We started at the Small Bar with some friends before cruising down the road waving our signs. We had dinner at Mama Testa.

I wrapped up Halloween playing in costume on Monday night with my kickball team. The opposing team had a cool theme, everyone in different superhero outfits. No wonder we lost. Yeah, right!

Pink Party at the House of Blues

2010-10-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

Chad and I went downtown Saturday night for the Pink Party, an annual fundraiser for Breast Cancer. It was my first time at the House of Blues. We arrived around 9 where we met up with some friends from my kickball team and ended up staying till 1:30 am.

We had a good time. The stage was busy with different performance groups like The Hoop Unit and Fire n Ice who danced with hoops, wings and umbrellas. An acrobatic couple displayed some impressive balancing tricks and we saw several fashion collections walking up and down the center runway. During the night, DJ's took turns providing music between the entertainment.

All night, a huge drum wall dominated the back of the stage. It belonged to the electronic band, Soul in the Machine, who performed around midnight. One of the members played a tall laser harp, interrupting the green beams with his gloved hands to activate the notes. Pretty interesting. I think one of the other instruments was a xylophone but I'm not positive.

Treehouse and Waterfalls

2010-08-07T14:35:00.000-07:00

I went to the coolest house on Friday night for Nicole's birthday party. It felt like the set of the Swiss Family Robinson movie with a four foot iguana to boot. Dominating the backyard was a giant tree house with a rope swing. Three ladders winding up the truck led to the first level where beds and a small TV decorated the stained-glassed interior. I was surprised to find another ladder leading even higher.

Extending out from its roof, there was a moving platform suspended by ropes and pulleys. It scared the crap out of me when I first stepped out on it and it started swaying around. I thought the branch it rested on was about to snap. I wish I had a regular camera with a flash because the top two levels were too dark to shoot with my phone. A swinging suspension bridge crossed over to another tree containing an even higher platform. About 60 feet above the ground, it had a great view of Leucadia and the party below.

I spent most of the night in the crowded hot tub heated by a wood burning fire pit. Blackened copper tubing coiled over red hot coals kept the water nice and hot. The only drawback is that the water carried a strong aroma of burning wood that I can still smell on my skin after two showers. Flip a switch and a powerful waterfall would drop from six feet into the center of the tub. The pounding water felt great on my neck and shoulders, but I had to keep my thumb over my beer to keep the spray out everytime we turned it on. It was nice to be able to switch between chatting outside in front of the fire and soaking in the water.

The constant supply of alcohol was my downfall, sitting in the hot water made the cold beers go down too easily. I have a quite a hangover today.

My Dad in Norway

2010-08-05T23:16:00.000-07:00

My dad travels to Sjkolden in Norway every couple years in the summer. It is the village at the far end (127 miles inland) of the Sognefjord, the longest and deepest fjord in Norway. He does volunteer construction work for a small hostel in the village, this year building a new sauna.

In the picture you can see my dad overlooking the Lustrafjord arm of the Sognefjord with the village of Sjkolden visible in the lower right hand corner.

Soak City Water Park

2010-07-31T11:23:00.000-07:00

I took Chad to Knott's Soak City water park on Friday for his birthday. We really stood out. I think we were the only guys over 20 that weren't there with their children. The best ride of the day was one I have never tried before, the Pacific Spin. I prefer to call it the Toilet Bowl. It is a short two person raft slide, but we caught air launching off the last drop. I don't know what was scarier, being able to observe the steep drop below us or going over backwards like Chad. Our weight and momentum took us high up the walls before we flushed out the bottom. It was a blast.

The four high-speed slides at Soak City don't compare to the freaky seven-story Drop Out slide at Raging Waters, but they are still fun. Banzai and Pipeline whip you around in pitch darkness at high speeds before spitting you out the bottom. Emerging into the blinding light, I banged my elbow hard against the side of the tight chute, thinking I was about to land in a splash pool. Dropoff is the closest to the slide in San Dimas with a single steep drop, while Straight Shot is the fastest with two combined shorter drops. Gaining so much speed, I was afraid I wouldn't stop at the end. All four slides are excellent wedgie machines.

San Dieguito High School - 20 Year Reunion (Class of 1990)

2010-07-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

The 10 years between graduation and my first high school reunion seemed to flow at a normal pace, but time really flew up to the 20th. This time, the 20 Year Reunion for the 1990 Class of San Dieguito High School was held at the Bristol Hotel in Downtown San Diego on July 17th.

Chad came with me to Yogi's the night before the reunion for an unofficial get together with others from school. It was a nice group. It was fun hanging out with everyone and playing pool with Julie and Megan. I ended up drinking too much tequila. My hangover lasted till 3pm on Saturday, recovering in time for the reunion at 7. A delicious omelet for breakfast at The Little Moore helped.

I must admit, I preferred the location of the 10 Year Reunion at the Berkeley Ferry on the harbor instead of the Bristol Hotel. It got pretty hot inside the hotel ballroom with over 200 alumni and it got very echoey, making it hard to hear conversations sometimes. It was a big improvement when the roof slid open after the group photo. It was great hearing what everyone was up to these days and I had a blast out on the dance floor during the last hour.

After the reunion ended at midnight, I walked with a big group over to the Yard House for more drinks till 2 am. We first tried the Star Bar in the Gaslamp Quarter, but they wouldn't let such a big group enter all at once. Maybe because of the heavy police presence right outside. A fight had just ended and they were loading a handcuffed man into the back of a paddy wagon. He had the #*@% kicked out of him, his face all black and blue.

Colorado River - 4th of July Camping Trip

2010-07-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

I went out to the Colorado River for the 4th of July weekend. I love it out there but it has been three years since I've been camping at Picacho State Park. Chad and I drove out Friday night to meet up with the rest of the group. When we finally got on the 18 mile dirt road at 10 pm, we spotted a vehicle chasing us down. It turned out to be a Ranger warning us to slow down because of soft road conditions up ahead. After we arrived, we all walked down to the river for a night swim. I got to sleep around 3 am, but Chad and a couple others stayed up till dawn talking around the campfire.

Saturday morning, I went out with Blayne and Clint to wakeboard on the empty river while the water was still flat. We had the largest yellow dragonfly land on the boat. They are so cool. The river level was high, so we set up our beach camp on one of the few exposed sandbars. Normally, that makes them crowded, but we lucked out and only had to share it with one other group the entire weekend. We had a great inflatable raft with a hole in the center to relax on in the river. At the end of the day, we floated down to the campgrounds dock with it.

The campgrounds were practically empty this trip. I have never been to Picacho in the middle of summer before. It was hot, but not too bad because of the cool breezes. The water was very nice, 78 degrees, and I didn't see or hear one buzzing mosquito the entire time. At night, we would sit out in the dark, away from the campfire and look at the stars. They are so bright out there. I like how I could easily see the dense band of stars pointing to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. You can also hear the wild burros braying at night, but I have never spotted one on any of my trips.

On Sunday, Lenny and I decided to paddle the kayaks up river from the North Dock to our beach instead of taking a boat. It turned out to be pretty brutal, so much paddling as the landscape barely moves. You can't stop to rest either because the river will pull back all your forward progress. I am glad I did it though. I spent more time in the sun the second day, only got burned a tiny bit. I am bummed because I lost my favorite sunglasses to the river. The wind caught them and blew them overboard.

Blayne had his new boat out at the river. It's bigger with a bimini cover for shade and a nice step on the back to get in and out of the water. We did some more wakeboarding in the afternoon. The water was very choppy because of the constant flow of boats up and down the river. I had to take shorter pulls because all the bumps make it harder on the quadriceps. It took a few tries, but Chad got up on the wakeboard. I wish I got a picture of him pulling the perfect faceplant. Heh!

Driving home, Chad and I stopped at Cracker Barrel across the border in Arizona. They need one of those restaurants in San Diego. The food is so good.

Food at the San Diego County Fair

2010-06-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

I ate quite a bit of junk food at the San Diego County Fair (Del Mar Fair) yesterday with Chad, but that's why we go. Isn't it?

My first stop is always Pignotti's, half-way down the main strip. Every year I have to get one of their meatball sandwiches, my favorite. It is not very big, but I don't know which part is best, the perfect meatballs, the savory sauce or the buttery-garlic bread. After sprinkling liberally with Parmesan cheese, I devour it quickly. Next year, I will have to try the interesting-looking spaghetti and meatball sandwich. Chad began his day with an ear of corn hot off the grill.

After checking out the cool photos at the photography exhibit, we went for more food at Ten Pound Buns. Chad got the Latin Lover with cheese and jalapenos. I ordered The Ultimate, the full slice of buttered sourdough bread slathered with mozzarella and cheddar cheese, pepperoni, tomatoes, red onions, and nice mixture of cilantro, basil and garlic. It is so large, it sits across two paper plates.

I also like to try something crazy every year and this trip, I tried the chocolate-covered bacon. I was a bit disappointed, they just handed me a container out of a cooler with 4 pieces inside. I think I was expecting to see sizzling bacon with chocolate being poured on top or something more theatrical. It tasted okay, nothing special.

Like always, I get a cinnamon roll covered with cream cheese frosting at one of the Country Fair Cinnamon Rolls stands. I also bought a slice of Rocky Road fudge from the Mackinac Fudge stand to take home with me. Love it!

Venice Canals & Hollywood Clubs

2010-04-18T21:11:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I went to Los Angeles with Chad and Laurel to see his cousin, Jourdan Bordes, DJing at a club in Hollywood. We would be staying in Venice at a friend of Laurel's, so we drove up early at 1pm to hang out.

Darcy and Danny live on Ocean Avenue right next to the canals. I have seen them many times on television and in movies, but I have never visited them. I thought they were pretty cool, crossed by numerous white bridges and interesting houses lined the shallow waterways. I guess there used to more canals back in the day, but the city filled them in because they were not being properly maintained.

Exiting the canals, we walked along the Venice Boardwalk. It was pretty crowded, even though the sky was a bit overcast. A great place to get medical marijuana if you need it, I discovered. We checked out the pick-up basketball games, the dancing roller skaters and the skateboard park next to the beach before walking back for dinner. Darcy cooked an excellent Chicken Pesto.

I was seriously tired when we left at 11:30 to go to Hollywood, but I rallied quickly with a Red Bull. We arrived at Circus Disco on Santa Monica Boulevard after midnight so the list Jourdan put us on was already closed. Too bad, we had to pay the cover. Circus Disco is a gay club most of the week, easy to tell by the giant naked Michelangelo statue directly inside. I liked the layout of the huge club, two stories with four large rooms containing different music. Jourdan would start spinning discs at 2am in the LMD (Love, Music, Dancing) room, but the headlining DJ, Ronski Speed, was missing. He couldn't make it because he was stuck in Europe due to the erupting Iceland volcano suspending all flights.

It turns out that two areas of the club were transformed into the Bat Cave, a monthly Gothic bondage fetish party. The place was filled with elaborate costumes of the black and white variety. When we entered the first room crowded with dancers, our first sight was a bent-over woman in a g-string getting lightly spanked with a large collection of short whips and crops. Later in the night, we found her repeatedly kicking a man in the crotch who was wearing only a tiny Speedo. On the other side of the room, two topless women were taking turns getting tied up with ropes.

In a back room, a loud Goth band was playing with two bikinied dancers on either side. I don't know if it was the sound system, but I couldn't hear the lead singer shouting the lyrics over the guitars and keyboards. It was the same problem with a second band later on. We really stood out on the Goth side of the club because 95% of the people were in costume.

That was all very entertaining, but we spent most of our time dancing in the LMD room with the electronic DJs. I liked that they performed on a stage in front and frequently mixed up the beat. Instead of the Dun-Dun-Dun-Dun, Da-Da-Da-Da, Dun-Dun-Dun-Dun you hear all night long at some places where my head feels like its gonna explode. Jourdan was really good when he came on, dancing and interacting with the crowd as he mixed the music.

This was one of the best times I have ever had at a club. I never had a chance to get bored. I really liked the courtyard where we could escape for brief respites from the heat and pounding music. And if you are hungry at 3 in the morning, you could get Mexican food at the taco truck without having to leave the club. We ended up leaving at 3:30am and got to sleep after 4. Before we drove home on Sunday, Darcy cooked a good breakfast when we woke up late. (Eggs with zucchini and goat cheese plus raisin toast) Darcy and Danny were excellent hosts, very cool people.

Favorite Meals in San Diego

2010-04-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

A list of favorite meals around San Diego. (In no particular order)

1. Pasta Pronto - The Linguini with Pesto at this Del Mar restaurant is the closest to the pesto dishes I ate in Italy. The first time I had pesto was in Genoa, where it originated, and I love when I can eat somewhere that reminds me of it.

2. T.G.I. Fridays - Pepper-Crusted Pork Chop with Mashed Potatoes and Onion Rings. I don't care for T.G.I.F. that much, but this pork chop is amazing. It is perfectly seasoned.

3. Royal India - Butter Tarka (butter, green onions, ginger, garlic, tomatoes and spices) with Chicken. A royal curry served with white rice and Nan bread. If I wanted to drive downtown more often, I would get this at least once a week.

4. Juanita's Taco Shop - The best place to get Flautas, the crispy flour rolled tacos with shredded beef. I love these things with the salsa fresca. Very cheap too. Great with a Horchata to drink.

5. Wendy's - The best fast food burger is Wendy's Bacon and Blue. It is limited time only, but I hope they keep this bleu cheese burger longer. It reminds me of the burgers we cook on the 4th of July every year. I have them hold the sauteed onions though.

6. Borelli's - I have been ordering the Meat Lasagna with Meat Sauce since I was a little kid. My favorite, no other lasagna compares with Borelli's masterpiece. I love their simple garlic bread too.

7. Vigilucci's Trattoria - Their Filet Mignon with Gorgonzola on top is the best steak I have ever eaten. I have ordered it many times and it is always so tender and flavorful. It is one of their specials, not listed on the menu.

8. Nikos - The Gyro with Chicken Souvlaki plate is so good, I get it once a week for lunch in Carlsbad. I just order the usual. It comes with my favorite greek salad. Their dressing is better than anywhere else. With the rice and bread, it is a huge meal.

9. California Pizza Kitchen - I love their Chicken Tequila Fettuccine. It is the tequila-lime and jalapeno cream sauce that makes this dish so magical. I always want extra bread to sop every last drop.

10. Outback Steakhouse - Their Victoria's Filet with Blue Cheese may not match Vigilucci's, but it is the best of the rest. Combined with a caesar salad, a baked potato with all the toppings and their honey-wheat bread, I'm in heaven. Sharing a Bloomin' Onion is great too.

11. Noodles & Company - Pesto Cavatappi with Parmesan Crusted Chicken. I love it with the Tomato Basil Bisque, a piece of warm Flatbread and the side Tossed Green Salad. The rich soup is what makes this almost a perfect meal.

12. Little Moore Coffee Shop - Whenever I crave an omelet, I go to this spot in Leucadia. Their omelets always have the perfect mixture of egg, cheese and the different fillings. So many places mess up this important ratio. My favorite is the Chili Cheese Omelet with hash browns and a side of cottage cheese.

13. Wahoo's Fish Taco - Banzai Burrito (carne asada) with red sauce. The tender carne asada is marinated in teriyaki and I love it served wet with the red chili sauce. I like the combo with black beans and the seasoned ahi rice.

Iraqi Parliament Elections

2010-03-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

I had one of the questions that was answered by the Baghdad Bureau of the At War, Notes from the Front Line blog on the New York Times.

Reader Q. and A. on the Iraq Elections
By ANTHONY SHADID

As the results from Iraq’s March 7 elections finally coalesce, our Baghdad correspondent Anthony Shadid is responding to readers’ questions about the election, its outcome, and the likely winners and losers in the complex negotiations that are certain to follow. Mr. Shadid joined The New York Times earlier this year after winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2004 for his Iraq coverage.

Q. Will the parties be able to use the number of seats they win in Kirkuk right away in negotiating for a coalition, since they are only provisional according to the Election Law? Will those Kirkuk seats be able to cast votes in Parliament before they are finally confirmed? Will this affect the Parliament’s vote for president, prime minister and speaker?
Noah
San Diego

A. All these are possible. My sense is that you won’t see any breakthrough – in ways good or bad – any time soon in Kirkuk. The Kurds, of course, could protest their showing in Kirkuk, but I there’s enough American engagement there right now to head off any conflict. That won’t be the case long term. My sense is that the election will solidify a balance of power that promotes a temporary status quo, with a pledge to negotiate long-term sovereignty in, say, seven years or so. On your question about the seats themselves, nothing is confirmed until the results are certified, so Kirkuk’s representation will await the seating of everyone else. The seats themselves will probably fall in line with larger coalitions that are gathered to name a prime minister. Kirkuk is a little different, since there is a provision to allow a challenge of the voter rolls, but in the end, I’m not sure that challenge will affect the final balance of the seats.

Pacific Beach Pub Crawl

2010-03-07T12:47:00.000-08:00

I spent 8 hours drinking in Pacific Beach on Saturday in 4 different bars. I met up with Chad and some of his work friends at the PB Bar & Grill at 2pm for some beers and shots. It was pretty empty at first, but it filled up quick when a golf-themed pub crawl arrived.

Costumes seem to be really popular lately. We bumped into at least 4 themed groups during the day. The mustache aficionados sporting some impressive real ones and funny fake ones (including the girls), a group wearing denim and a large gathering of birthday celebrators all wearing the same t-shirt. There were some random guys wearing trash bags and wrestling costumes, but I am not positive they were part of any group.

We took a taxi over to Rocky's for more beers and their delicious hamburgers. I have been here once before and I agree that they have the best burgers in San Diego. Afterwards, we went over to Bub's Dive Bar on Garnet where I had a car bomb and more beer.

We ended up at Open Bar by 8pm. I was able to play a few competitive games of foosball with Chad against some nice guys, but we lost all but one. I need to get practicing again on our foosball table at work.

Blossoming Pear Trees

2010-01-30T19:51:00.000-08:00

I have always loved the three Pear Trees along my driveway that blossom in January for a few weeks. I finally pulled my camera out to take a couple photos before the flowers disappear for another year.

Sensory Overload - Part III

2010-01-03T19:59:00.000-08:00

After my successful New Year's Resolution last year that motivated me to write five chapters and finish Part II, I made a new one this year. It is not as big, but I need to finish a thorough edit of the first fourteen chapters of Part I & II and write at least two new Chapters in Part III by the end of the year. One each for my two main characters, Jâk and Keefer. This will set me up to finish the last 5 chapters of Part III in 2011.

Update: 9/27/10

After spending the first seven months editing, I've finished writing the rough draft of Chapter 14. It's great to be officially past the half-way point of my book. I need to write one more chapter this year to fulfill my goal. I want to be completed before December so I can spend time re-writing Chapter 8. I'm going to change a supporting character who will be showing up later in Part III and make some radical alterations to two scenes.

Update: 11/24/10

Chapter 15 is finished, completing my New Year's Resolution for 2010. It is a couple pages shorter than my usual chapter length but I think it perfectly sets the scene for Keefer's story arc in Part III. I am now ready to tackle the problems within Chapter 8 in December.

Update: 12/30/10

I finished re-writing Chapter 8 with a day to spare in December. I think it is so much better now. Now I am ready to start a new New Year's Resolution to write five chapters in 2011 to complete Part III.

Update: 3/10/11

Chapter 16 is finished, the first new chapter of 2011. This was an important section that I had outlined in great detail a long time ago. I had originally planned for these events to occur earlier in the book, but I ended up pushing them back along the storyline. Even though I knew all the details, getting them all to flow together in a cohesive way was a bit of a challenge.

Update: 5/22/11

I really struggled with Chapter 17, but the rough draft is finished. After I wrote the first two sections, I changed my mind and flip-flopped them. It works better but I had to do a lot of editing to massage the new order. The third and final section also caused problems. After writing half of it, I realized that it didn't belong in this chapter and I had to start again from scratch, but it came out great.

Update: 10/28/11

Chapter 18 is finally finished. I meant to have this chapter done at the end of July before my three week trip to Europe, but I was still 2 pages short when I left. I was delayed further when I had to spend so much time editing the 5,000 pictures from my trip when I got back. I now only have two more months left in the year, not enough time to write the last two chapters of Part III like I planned. I will have to be content with just finishing 19 and starting 20 at the beginning of the year. That will eat into some of the editing time I have planned for 2012 before I start Part IV.

When in Rome Restaurant - Annual Harvest Wine Dinner

2009-11-12T23:03:00.000-08:00

I went to the Annual Harvest Wine Dinner at "When in Rome" tonight with Chad, Aimee and two of her friends. An Italian wine expert from Argentina informed us about the wines served along with each course. It was a good atmosphere with over twenty people around the long U shaped table. The last time I had a five course meal this good was at Joël Robuchon's restaurant in Las Vegas last year.

Course 1
Hazelnut Profiteroles with Blue Cheese Mousse
Wine Pairing – Piper-Heidsieck Brut Reserve Champagne

These were amazing, I could eaten thirty of them. Normally I'm not much a fan of champagne, but this was very good.

Course 2
Salad of Mixed Greens, Golden Raisins, Smoked Duck Breast, Red Wine Vinegar Gastrique
Wine Pairing - Merlot, Lazio, Falesco, 2005

My only experience with duck has been in Beijing which I did not like at all. The tender slices of duck in this salad was completely different and I enjoyed it.

Course 3
Butternut Squash Ravioli, Brown Butter, Chanterelle Mushrooms, Fried Sage Leaves
Wine Pairing - Decadent Blend from Ornellaia, Le Volte, 2007

The most delicious course with my favorite wine of the night. The buttery raviolis tasted almost like a dessert at the center of the meal and the wine had a nice fruitiness which I prefer.

Course 4
Roasted Wild Boar Tenderloin with Fig and Red Wine Compote
Wine Pairing – A Marriage between Sangiovese and Merlot Luce, 2005

I thought this was the best pairing of the night. The earthy wine matched well with the Wild Boar. I had been worried about how this dish might taste before the dinner but I really liked it.

Course 5
Honey and Pinenut Tart, with Vanilla Gelato and Balsamic Vinegar
Wine Pairing - Pomelo Rosso Dolce, Falesco, 2006

This dessert wine was too sweet by itself, but great with the tart and gelato. After a couple bites I avoided the drops of balsamic vinegar along the sides of the plate. It was an interesting mix of flavors, but I thought the vinegar clashed against the sweetness in the desert. It was just me though, everyone else loved it.

Every Italian restaurant serves bread but I have never had the tomato sauce that was served along with it. The sauce was a mix of the ingredients normally on top of Bruschetta, which I love. I think I ended up having over six pieces of the bread.

I watch Top Chef all the time and I felt like I experienced one of the dinners on the show. Very Fun!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T09:18:00.000-08:00

I got to wear my costume for two days this Halloween. A bunch of us dressed up a day early at work and I went down to the Gaslamp Quarter with Doug and Louise on Saturday night. Before heading down on Saturday, I went for a another 24 mile bike ride to Torrey Pines. I've been biking there every weekend for the last month and I have seen a big improvement. This time, I was able to reach the top of Torrey Pines without having to drop down to my easiest gear.

We arrived downtown at the Gaslamp Quarter pretty early and stopped for a couple beers and bowled some games at the East Village Tavern. I was surprised I was able to bowl so well wearing my hockey helmet and shoulder pads. The streets were starting to fill up with cool costumes when we went for dinner at La Bocca. All the restaurants were wearing costumes but the best was the sushi bar where all the chefs wore prison outfits while the servers and hostesses had police uniforms.

The streets were packed after dinner and we joined the parade of costumes going up and down 5th Avenue. There was a great mix of clever, sexy and the profane. My favorite were two tall guys jogging down the street in 70's style basketball uniforms with Afros and headbands. I liked the topical costume I saw of the Balloon Boy, Falcon Heene, with a shiny balloon constructed of tin foil hovering overhead. Fun night!

Roller Derby - San Diego Wildfires vs. Cincinnati Rollergirls

2009-10-17T23:37:00.000-07:00

I went to my first Roller Derby tonight with Chad, Aimee and Laurel at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. After going to get Thai food at Siamese Basil, we went to see the match between the San Diego Wildfires & the Cincinnati Rollergirls. By the end, I still couldn't figure out how the scoring worked, but it was still exciting to watch. It reminded me a lot of short track speed skating in the Winter Olympics because they raced on a flat track.

They wore pads, but the girls hit the hard concrete floor many times over the hour long match. They are pretty tough. My favorite was #18, K. Lethal, one of the Jammers for the Cincinnati team. I ended up rooting for her team which won 103 to 71.

There was a nice size crowd and everyone sits real close to the action. All the players and referees had nicknames like Kiki DiAzz, Killian Destroy or Oliver Clothesoff. Pretty Cool!

South America Trip - Bonus Update (Favela da Rocinha)

2009-09-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

I woke up today with a huge hangover. I drank seven caipirinhas last night. A big mistake with my trip to one of the hillside slums of Rio this morning. A relative of Chad's friend who is studying here for a year met us at a bar in Ipanema and took us to a club in Leblon called, "The House". They gave us a blue card when we entered to keep track of our drinks to pay for when we leave. There was a 40 Real minimum and they charge extra for any drinks after we pass 30. Pretty confusing. His Brazilian friend told us whatever we do, don't lose the card or we will be charged 300 Reals. Yikes! I ended up taking a taxi back by myself at 3:00 in the morning because I had to get up early. I was pretty drunk and barely had enough money after exiting the club to cover the ride to the hotel.

I got picked up by my guide to go to Favela da Rocinha. It is the largest favela in Rio with 200,000 people living on the hillside. It is on the backside of the one of the two mountains visible at the end of Ipanema Beach. (The Two Brothers) A sheer granite wall rises over one side of the favela as it curves along the mountain to the newer section under a forested peak on the opposite end. The favelas are built in the national park area of Rio so all the construction is illegal. The government is trying to build a wall around this favela to stop its growth further up into the tree line. The only public service provided is four schools and two small medical clinics.

I thought hanging on the outside of the electric tram yesterday was exciting, but riding up on the back of a motorcycle to the top of the favela in the rain scared the crap out of me. I had a death grip on the small handles behind me as we whipped around sharp and steep corners, dodging between oncoming cars and motorbikes. I was afraid the motorbike would slide out beneath us on the slick street. I was one of the last ones in my group to leave from the bottom, but my driver loved passing slower vehicles and we almost made it to the top first. I was still shaking five minutes after getting off. The lingering effects of the hangover did not help at all.

On the roof of a three story green building at the top of the hill we could see the whole favela spread out below us as well as the ocean and the richer areas at the bottom. In the narrow alleyways of the favela, we had to walk in single file to allow others to pass. There was a lot of tiny shops selling food, plumbing supplies, toiletries and clothes. Most of the buildings are built with brick and concrete with long flights of stairs between lined with power and phone lines just above my head. Every three hours, water for the residents is released down the plastic pipes in the alleys for a half hour. Our guide must have greeted and waved to every single person on the way down to the bottom. He was a cool guy. We stopped in a small bakery halfway down where I had a sweet roll and some water.

We were allowed to take pictures everywhere except at the very top and bottom and a few places where the gang who controls the favela does not want pictures taken. Rocinha is controlled by one gang called "Friends of Friends". Our guide told us that they control the drug trade, but do not allow the use of crack cocaine inside the favela because of its harmful effect on the community. Ironically, they are very strict on any stealing committed in the favela, everything must be done outside in the rest of the city. One of our last stops near the bottom was a daycare center for children in a blue building run by an Italian charity. One of the kids kept high-fiving us and another taught me a greeting and a hand sign which you tap against your chest.

Walking down the favela and eating lunch at Bob's Burgers afterwards with Chad finally cured my hangover. I'm glad, I did not want to fly tonight still feeling that horrible. Heh!

Update 10/22/09: This past weekend, it has been big news that a gang in one of Rio's favelas shot down a police helicopter during a raid, killing several policemen. There has been increased violence since the Red Commandos gang tried to take over the Morro dos Macacos favela controlled by the Friends of Friends. Many gang members have been been arrested and killed since with at least one innocent severely wounded by a stray bullet. Our guide in Rocinha told us that one of the biggest dangers of living in a favela is getting caught in the crossfire when the police raid in the early morning. Stray bullets land in the middle when gang members shoot down from the top and the police return fire from the bottom.

South America Trip - Final Part (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

2009-09-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

It was another beautiful sunny day when we left Ilha Grande in the morning and drove up the coast to Rio de Janeiro. Approaching the city, we saw the back of the 125 foot Jesus statue high above the city. Exiting a long tunnel under the Corcavado mountain, we drove past the lagoon into Copacabana. After checking into our hotel, we strolled down to Ipanema Beach along the Copacabana promenade with the Portuguese wave pattern set into the pavement. Since it was Sunday, the beaches were packed and the street closest to the sand was closed off to vehicles and filled with bikers, skaters and pedestrians. A surf contest was being held where the swells were breaking around the rocky point separating the two beaches. The waves were six to eight feet and the pros were ripping them up. Walking down towards the two mountains at the end of Ipanema, we saw a lot of the tiny Brazilian bikinis and speedos the city is famous for.

For dinner we had an amazing meal at Monchique, where they served Churrasco Rodizo. The waiters came around to our table with skewers of meat and cut off slices right onto our plate. I couldn't stop asking for more because it was so good and the strong Caprihinas were only 4 Reals each. At 11:00, we were taken to a huge night club at a favela in the Jacarepaguá district. We had access to a VIP section on the second floor, but I stayed on the first floor dancing till 2am. It was hard to dance though because the club was packed tight and we constantly had to move to let people pass by as they went for more drinks. At 3am, sparklers rained down on the crowd and there was a dance contest. It was mostly to find out who was the most talented at ass shaking at various speeds and levels of intensity. :) We left at 4am when the club closed, but we couldn´t find Matt who was missing and Johnny had to be carried between two people because he was so wasted. The square outside was still crowded when we left without Matt, but he turned up safe and sound in the morning after meeting a local girl. I think my hearing has been seriously degraded.

On Monday after only a few hours sleep, we went to swim and relax in the sun on Copacabana beach. The size of the crowd was only a fraction of the day before but the sun was out and the water was warm. The clouds began to roll in in the afternoon when we went to the top of the Corcavado to see the "Christ the Redeemer" statue close up and look down on the city. We could see a long distance in all directions, but it was hot and steamy and there was a layer of haze. I never realized the Jesus statue had nail holes in its hands. We stopped at the colorful mosaic tile stairs in Lapa on the way to Sugar Loaf Mountain. Taking the two cable cars up, we arrived a hour before sunset. The view was not as impressive as from the top of Corcavado, but I think it is more beautiful. We stayed two hours in the cool breeze watching the sun set over the city and the lights come on as the darkness grew. We went and had dinner in Ipanema. The food was good, but they tried to include a 50 Reals music charge on the bill because people were singing karaoke at the back. What?! Heh!

Today, we took the Bondi tram from Downtown Rio up into the hills in Santa Teresa. The open-sided electric tram is bumpy and crosses over a white 18th century aqueduct after it leaves the station. Hanging out from the side of the bright yellow tram, I could it was a steep drop to the streets below. Yesterday, I saw little kids hanging off the sides, jumping on and off at each stop. (Sometimes before it had come to a complete halt.) It was fun hanging one-handed to a wooden handle as the tram whipped around corners. I had to be careful of oncoming cars zipping by though. Tonight we are going back for more Churrasco Rodizo and then going out in Ipanema.

It has been raining off and on today and is supposed to continue until tomorrow so I will not get to hanglide over Rio like I planned. Instead, I am taking a walking tour through a hillside favela in the morning before Chad and I fly home at 10pm. It has been a great trip, but I always look forward to coming home to San Diego.

p.s. I've eaten countless fried meat pastries here in South America, especially in Brazil. The most interesting was a tear-drop shaped lump of fried mashed potatos wrapped around some type of ground meat that I ate late at night in a bus stop cafeteria. It turned out to be pretty good.

p.s.s. At the end of the electric tram line, we got off thinking we would explore. The conductor shook his head and said something to us, but we were not paying much attention as we wandered down the road toward a favela. After the tram went about twenty feet it halted again and the conductor shouted out after us again. Thinking twice about where we might be heading, we jogged back and jumped on the tram and headed back down the hill. Halfway down, he gave us a smile and indicated a tram stop where we could get off and walk around Santa Teresa. I still don't know if we were accidently heading into a dangerous area or if he was just letting us know that there was nothing interesting to see at the top. Later, he gave us a wave as his trolly passed while we walked down the hill looking at all the cool buildings.

p.s.s.s. We keep seeing Different Strokes on Brazilian TV in the evening. Hearing the high-pitched squeeky voice dubbed in for Arnold is very weird. "What you talkin bout, Willis?"

p.s.s.s.s. "Give me a moment. I need to go change my pants," I said as I walked out of the room to get dressed for dinner. Several members of my group broke out into wide grins and chuckles as I disappeared around the corner. Realizing too late what pants meant to the majority of them, I quickly stuck my head back around the corner. "I meant pants in American, my jeans. Not my underwear."

Update 10/2/09: Rio de Janeiro won the right to host the 2016 Olympics today. I wish could have stayed in the city for two extra days so I could have witnessed the celebrations. There were signs all over the city promoting the city's Olympic bid. I saw a woman kiss the banner hanging around the base of the Christ Redeemer statue.

South America Trip - Part 4 (Paraty & Ilha Grande)

2009-09-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

I woke up with my first hangover of the trip. The Caipirinhas at our BBQ were very, very strong. I ended up jumping into the pool with several others after midnight. The sausages we had were the best things I have tasted all trip so far. Wow! We ended up skipping the dam and going to the Bird Park near the falls instead. It was cool to walking among all the South American birds inside the large aviaries, but I was more excited seeing a pair of wild Toucans in a tree on Sunday.

Most of the 24 hour bus ride to Paraty on the coast of Brazil was brutal. I had absolutely no leg room all night. We arrived in the huge city of Sao Paulo in pouring rain where we were stuck in traffic for two hours. The city seemed pretty gray and uninteresting, but that might just be from the section we drove through. It was unusual seeing a small beach party hanging out along a concrete water channel in their bathing suits. Leaving Sao Paulo, the scenery really improved as we drove up into the mountainous coastline.

Paraty is very beautiful. The old section of the city is full of white buildings with colorful doors and eaves. The cobblestone streets were constructed with the ballast stones left behind from Portuguese sailing ships after they reached the New World. We had a really good Thai meal for dinner. The green curry was perfectly spicy. Around town, they have these blue carts that sell pieces of cake for 2.50 Reals each. So delicious! The weather has been cloudy here, but watching the tendrils of white mist cresting over the surrounding lush green hills all day is very cool.

On Wednesday, we went to the beaches in nearby Trindade. I went surfing but the small waves were not very good. We played soccer and threw the Frisbee before hiking to a natural cove to snorkel and clamber over the huge boulders. After lunch, we went up to some waterfalls in the mountains. Jumping off a high rock into the pool below, three of us hit a submerged rock. It was slimy and set at a steep angle so none of us were hurt, but it was unsettling glancing off it after hitting the water. The lower falls had a natural rock waterslide that was very fun. A couple of us went down, sans shorts, at the very end. We learned it is much faster that way and I caught crazy air into the water. I don't know which was worse, the friction burn or the slap from hitting the water at the bottom.

We are spending three nights on Ilha Grande, a large island a few hours south of Rio. It was raining when we arrived here by boat in the afternoon, so we only took a short hike to the ruins of an old prison built in the 1800s. It used to house Brazil's most dangerous criminals before it was abandoned. A cool-looking aqueduct, constructed of stones and whale oil to supply water for the prison, was nearby. Chad and others ordered the Brazilian fish stew, Moqueca, for dinner. I tried a taste after I ate my meal and now I regret not ordering it for myself.

Yesterday, the rain stopped but the sun was still hidden by the clouds. After a hour and half hike to a small beach along the coast with a big group, I decided to hike on with Jake to Lopes Mendes Beach located on the other side of the island. It was a beautiful two hour hike over three steep hills with a great view of the island from the highest one. We passed three quiet beaches along the trail where we saw some sea turtles before reaching Lopes Mendes. Facing the open Atlantic, the waves were huge and the white sand squeaked. The only problem is we missed the last water taxi back to the main village and had to hike back. We went as fast we could to get back before the sun set, but the last half hour we were in the dark. Good thing I had my flashlight in my bag. It was tough but it gave us the opportunity to see fireflies all around us.

Today, our last full day on the island, the sun finally arrived and we took a boat around the island to snorkel at the Green and Blue Lagoons. It was nice to see the island in sunny weather, but I am glad it was cloudy during our six hour hike yesterday. It would have been way too hot. Tomorrow we leave for Rio. We are going to a night club in a favela our first night in the city.

p.s. We played a couple card games of PIG on this trip. It always ended with the last two people having to race to finish a beer or a sandwich for the win. Always hilarious!

p.s.s. Driving down the steep road to Trindade Beach, we saw a woman get her wheel stuck in a ditch trying to go around a bus. Luckily, there was eight guys in our van to help lift her car back onto the road and send her on her way.

p.s.s.s. Getting in late to our tiny hotel in Paraty, I found the door already locked. A woman opened up the door for me after one quick knock, but just as I was closing my eyes to sleep I heard a loud knock downstairs. After a pause, the pounding on the door came again and again and again. Thinking it was probably Chad and Matt coming back from the bar after me and since nobody was opening the door, I decided to go downstairs and let them in. It turned out to be Martin, our guide, and a Brazilian woman leading the other tour staying at the hotel. (She kept apologizing the next morning during breakfast, but it was no problem.) I groaned when I heard another knock at the door just as I got back into bed, but this time the door was opened before I had a chance to go down again. It turned out to be Chad who came into the room several moments later.

p.s.s.s.s. We have spotted several marmosets, a relative of the monkey, up in the trees here on the island.

p.s.s.s.s. There's lot of roaming dogs here in South America. On Ilha Grande, Johnny tossed some food to a white shaggy dog with prominent ribs who proceeded to follow us on our first hike looking for more food the entire way. We ended up taking him back with us on the water taxi instead of leaving him behind. When Jake and I missed our water taxi back from Lopes Mendes, a cute little Beagle followed us all the way back. She was a nice companion on the long hike and wasn't motivated by a handout either.

South America Trip - Part 3 (Iguassu Falls)

2009-09-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

I have just spent two days at the Iguassu Falls. I knew the falls were supposed to be impressive, but when we went to check them out from the Brazil side I was prepared to be underwhelmed. That thought vanished as soon as the first section of the falls came into view. They were spectacular. As we walked down the trail, more sections of the falls were revealed as the mist grew heavier. At the end of the trail, we went out on a walkway into the middle of the two-tiered falls. We got soaked as the water crashed down above us, flowed underneath and cascaded down to the bottom level. The water level is four times higher than it normally is at this time of year.

Today, we went to the Argentinian side of the falls, where 75% of it is located. We started out at the very top, looking down into the thunderous Devil's Throat. It was freaky standing right at the edge as the water pounded down, the bottom hidden by a huge cloud of mist. Going down river, we rode a speed boat right up to the base of the falls. It was fun being blinded and drenched by the spray, but it was over way to quickly. My favorite part, was at the very end of the day as we hiked along the Circuit Superior at 5pm. This was the most beautiful section of the falls. It looked unreal, like a scene from a fantasy film complete with rainbows. The light was perfect as the long ridge of countless falls spread out before us as we walked along it's rim. So many great pictures and videos.

It took two long buses to reach here from Uruguay. On Thursday, we took a seven hour bus ride from Montevideo to Salto on the border of Argentina. We arrived in Salto during a lightening storm with pouring rain. A close strike knocked out the power to half our hotel, but the lights came on pretty quickly. The rainstorm was over by the morning, so we took a city bus out to the thermal baths in Dayman. It was windy and cold all day, so we kept running from pool to pool to stay warm. It was the complete opposite of the clear blue skies we have had here at Iguassu.

Friday night, we took a night bus north to the border of Brazil. We passed the time juggling a soccer ball in the bus terminal until it arrived an hour late. I got hit in the face with the ball before we were asked to stop playing on the loudspeaker. The thirteen hour ride was not bad with food served by a stewardess and movies. Chad and I had the front seats at the top of the doubledecker bus with a huge window in front of us. When I woke up at two in the morning, the flat landscape was pitch black on either side of the road, like driving between two dark oceans. It felt like I had a first class ticket to observe my own death though, every time we passed a slower truck on the road.

We started our last night in Montevideo in a tiny hotel room playing drinking games. At 11:30 we went down to a bar in the Ciudad Vieja called, El Pony Pisador. There was two live bands with lots of song requests and dancing till late in the night. The Caprioska's were very good. Walking back to our hotel late, several of us tried running up a sharply slanted marble wall to touch the top edge. Kept missing it by mere inches.

Tonight, we are going to have BBQ by the pool. Sundays are pretty dead here. Last night, we went out and had Feijoada, the national Brazilian dish, a thick stew with beef, pork and black beans. It came with a big spread of bacon, collard greens, cassava flour, bananas and oranges. The liberally applied pepper sauce was strong but good.

Tomorrow we might go out to Itaipu, the second most powerful dam in the world that is on the river between Brazil and Paraguay. Monday night, we have another long night bus to take before we arrive on the coast of Brazil in Paraty.

p.s. Jugglers trying to earn money at traffic intersections here in South America are interesting to watch.

p.s.s. It seems very religious here in Brazil. We walked by a boisterous prayer service in the park and a nearby church always has people going in and out all weekend long.

p.s.s.s. At a bus stop in Salto, a local man saw us trying to figure out which city bus to take to the thermal baths. He stuck his cell phone up to my ear where I found myself talking in English to a young woman back in Florida. Once he knew where we were headed, he was super helpful by pointing us to the correct bus and making sure we got off at the right spot.

South America Trip - Part 2 (Uruguay)

2009-09-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

We took the morning ferry across the Rio de la Plata to Colonia, Uruguay on Monday. The water was a dark brown from all the sediment flowing down the rivers into this huge inlet in the coast of South America. We stayed at this nice little courtyarded hotel by the water called Posada de la Flor. Colonia is a UNESCO World Heritage town that was founded by the Portuguese in 1680 to spy on the Spanish in Buenos Aires.

We explored the small town, ate lunch and went to the beach to play soccer. At night we watched the U.S. Open Tennis Finals at a bar with our Argentinian guide, Martin. He was rooting for Del Potro, his fellow countryman to beat the multiple U.S. Open Champion, Roger Federer. He was really happy when Federer was upset and lost. Too bad, we were not in Buenos Aires for one more night to watch it in an Argentinean Bar.

At the restaurant for dinner, there was a Foosball table and I was able to show off my skills. I won the little mini-tournament we had. In the morning, we caught a bus to the capital of Uruguay called Montevideo. Miles and miles of cattle ranches were the only sights until we reached the outskirts of the city.

Exploring the old section of the capital, we ended up at the Escollera Sarandi, a fishing jetty near the port, just in time to catch the sunset. I found it interesting that even though we are on the East coast of South America, the sun still set over the water. The Rio de la Plata is too large to see Argentina on the opposite side. For dinner at El Peregrino in the Mercado del Puerto, I had my best meal of the trip so far, a tender sirloin steak with a mustard and Roquefort cheese sauce.

Earlier today, we were walking down the winding Ramblas along the waterfront when we were stopped by two plainclothes policemen. They wanted to check Chad and my passports and review the pictures in our cameras. At first we thought they were some kind of conmen but one spoke English very well and explained that they thought we had taken pictures of an embassy as we walked past. After they radioed in to check out our passport numbers and looked at our pictures, they shook our hands and let us go.

Today is our last day in Montevideo. We are going to hang out tonight and watch a soccer game in a bar, before going to dinner. Thursday, we go to the city of Salto in the north of Uruguay to visit the thermal baths and relax.

p.s. We got our first question about Obama here in South America when Chad and I were asked by a taxi driver in Colonia if we were Americans.

South America Trip - Part 1 (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

2009-09-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

I have spent three days in Buenos Aires. We have had bright sunny days, but there is a steady chill in the air. It gets pretty cold at night so I had to accessorize my hoodie with a scarf. It goes great with my new Mohawk. I am enjoying the cold after our hot summer in California.

After we flew in Friday morning, we took a taxi to the MALBA, the Museo de Arte Latinamericano de Buenos Aires, in the Palermo district. There was a lot of abstract art, including a wooden bench that flowed over the balcony in tangled wooden threads to reconnect with another bench on a different floor. My favorite painting was of a sad woman's face shrouded in an intense red shawl of tassels created with thick swirls of paint. They also have one of Frida's self-portraits where she is posing with a parrot and a monkey.

After walking through the Japanese Gardens in the Parque Tres de Febrero, we went to the Soho part of Palermo. We came here to have dinner at La Cabrera Restaurant, one of the best parrillas in the city, but it was booked solid. We ended up having some delicious empanadas, the gourmet hot-pockets of Argentina, at another restaurant instead. Soho was filled with shops and bars around the Plaza Serrano where I bought my scarf and Chad had to buy a jacket.

We have lucked out with our hotel here in Buenos Aires. We got bumped to the four-star Hotel Carrson on Viamonte from the pretty run-down place we were originally booked. After we discovered that we didn´t have to change hotels on Saturday morning, we went to the Plaza de Mayo and took a tour through the Rose House. The Buenos Aires version of our White House. We spent the rest of the afternoon around the up-scale Puerto Madero district where we ate lunch and walked down the long crowded boardwalk along the nature preserve.

We met up with our group later that night. Most of them have already been traveling for months, starting on the west coast of South America. It is a mix of English, Scottish, Australians and a New Zealander. Except for another couple, Chad and I are the only Americans. We started drinking vodka shots in one of the hotel rooms before ending up at the Krakow Bar in the San Telmo district. I didn´t get to sleep until 3:45.

After sleeping in a bit on Sunday, Chad and I went to the Recoleta Cemetery where Eva Peron (Evita) is buried. Lots of impressive tombs. Then we took a train to Tigre, the delta area on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. We walked around the town and canals before finally eating at a parrilla. We were served a large sizzling tray covered in steak, chicken, sausages and some fatty piece of meat that I only tried a small piece of. (Turned out to be intestine.) We took the slower and more scenic "Tren de la Costa" on the way back into the city.

We are going to go out to dinner tonight for our last night in the city. Tomorrow morning we take a three hour ferry across the Rio de la Plata, the widest river in the world, to the town of Colonia in Uruguay.

p.s. This computer in the Internet cafe is so crappy. I have to slam the space bar every time for it to work. My thumb is getting a work out. Heh!

p.s.s. There was a crazy video presentation at the MALBA of a dancer in a white suit twirling two ropes with hunks of meat on the end as he was attacked by hungry barking dogs. Very strange performance art.

p.s.s.s. I liked the Krakow Bar in San Telmo. Cheap drinks and lots of people playing card and board games at many of the tables.

Midnight Madness Ride

2009-08-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

Chad and I rode our second Midnight Madness Ride in Downtown San Diego last night. Chad was able to replace my bent back wheel the day before so I was ready to ride.

The night was full of mishaps but we had a fun time. It started with Chad's cat escaping from the house as we loaded our bikes. We had to track her down with flashlights before we left. Also, my bike wasn't fully fastened on the roof rack so we had to stop on the freeway to lock it back down. Then Chad realized he forgot his helmet after we arrived Downtown. Both turned out all right. My bike was only slightly bent and Chad was able to buy a new helmet before the ride.

We arrived early enough to watch the costume contest this year. I don't know how some of them can ride the full twenty miles while wearing them. On the course, I was amazed to see a guy pedaling in a giant sumo wrestling suit. It must be tough to keep balanced. Before the start, a rider was doing some cool tricks off the back of a pickup truck before the ride started.

The crowd had really built up before the ride began. At midnight, they released us in groups of 200 every couple minutes and we were in one of the last groups on the road. I haven't ridden in a while, because of my bent wheel, but I felt great and I quickly got better at weaving through the tight pack of slower riders ahead of us.

Right after we left Shelter Island out on the course, I hit a massive pothole with my rear wheel in a dark section of road and flattened my tire. My spare tube had cracks in it so we had to patch up the two holes in my flattened tube. The problem came when we tried to fill it. We quickly realized the tube in my new rear wheel had the old-style Schraeder stem that doesn't work with the small emergency pumps on our bikes. Luckily, a mobile bike tech from REI came along with a regular bike pump and we were able to re-fill my tire.

A quarter of the way down Rosecrans, my tire flattened again. I walked the short distance to the am/pm on the corner and sat in the grass. I was done for the night and I had only completed the first 12 miles. I sent a text message to Chad who was a little bit up the road to pick me up with the car after he reached the finish. I enjoyed watching all the riders go by, but I didn't have to wait long. Two race volunteers picking up the race signs, gave me a ride to the finish area.

The first time I rode in this race, we finished near the front of the pack. This time I came in at the end on the "broom truck". Heh!

80's Prom Pub Crawl

2009-06-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

I had a blast at the 80's Prom Pub Crawl last night, riding a crowded limo bus to six bars all over San Diego. Earlier in the week, Chad and I went to Flashbacks with Anna to get the appropriate 80's outfits. Chad got a cool mullet wig as well.

We started out at the bar in the Del Mar Plaza with a few drinks as everyone arrived. There was a great mix of 80's clothes, including old prom outfits pulled back out of the closet. I had never been in a limo bus before. Long rows of leather seats lined both sides with a stripper pole in the back. The bus was boiling hot in the beginning, but the A/C began to kick in as the journey began.

After a champagne toast on the bus, we arrived at Jack's in La Jolla. We were all given ballots to vote for 80's Prom King, Queen, Princess, Princess, Duke, Duchess & Best Dressed. I made a concerted effort to campaign for Duke, offering bribes, some vote-trading and demonstrating my dance moves to win votes. I think I had it wrapped up by the time we left. There was a lot of cool cow statues out on the street. Street art is even better appreciated with a buzz.

Our next stop was Tower 23 in Pacific Beach. It is right next to the beach and we arrived as the sun was setting. Very nice. I was having a beer and a shot of tequila at each stop and this is where the drinks really started to kick in. I think it was the same for others as well.

On the ride down to Jbar in Downtown San Diego, the winners were announced. I won Duke so all my campaigning had paid off. The Prom Royal Court had our pictures taken together over by the pool on the rooftop bar. It got crazy and was real fun.

Universal in Hillcrest was pretty empty when we arrived, but it was no problem for our large group. More room on the dance floor for us. I was really wasted at this point so it was a bit of a blur. The Pub Crawl had started out calm but got crazier and crazier as the night went on. Driving away, the bus was really rocking, everyone dancing and singing along to the loud 80's music.

Our last stop for the night was Whiskey Girl back in Downtown San Diego. Of all the bars we visited, this is the only one I had been to before. We ended up downstairs in the Karaoke room. After 8 hours of drinking, I started to run out of gas a bit. Chad, Anna & I left at 12:30am after a great night. Today, I am suffering from a mean hangover, but it was worth it.

Beautiful Day in Encinitas

2009-06-06T15:08:00.000-07:00

I am so lucky to be living here in Encinitas. It is a beautiful day in Southern California.

Today started with a delicious breakfast after the neighborhood meeting down at Le Papagayo Restaurant. My sister-in-law works there and the restaurant is trying to get its alcohol and live music permit extended to the new dining room in the back. Everyone seemed very positive about it.

For my trip this fall, I also got my passport photo taken today for the Brazilian Visa Application. (Can't wait!) I took these pictures over at D Street while I was walking around Downtown Encinitas waiting for my Jeep Wrangler to pass its Smog Test. (It passed!) I am definitely going down to the beach tomorrow to surf and throw the Frisbee.

Now, I am off with my best friend to see the band, Skanic, down at Fiesta del Sol in Solana Beach. The last time I saw them play was in Mexico at Cactus Stock. That was a great trip.

UPDATE: It was good to hear the band again. On the drive back home, I took a picture of my favorite stretch of Coast Highway 101 as the sun was setting. The Pacific Ocean to the West and the San Elijo Lagoon to the East with the cliffs above Swami's in the distance.

Emery the Skater

2009-06-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

My nephew, Emery, who just turned two is obsessed with skateboarding. He always wants to copy Justin, my youngest brother.

When I saw him skating with Justin in the driveway, I just had to take these pictures.

All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth

2009-05-02T21:13:00.000-07:00

Well, it's finally time to pay for getting my two front teeth knocked out in a car accident back when I was 19. I was driving my first car, a 1971 Buick Apollo, to work on El Camino Real in Encinitas. People used to park the used cars they wanted to sell on a long stretch of the road. I had distracted myself by checking them out and didn't notice the red light. I saw the mini-van in front of me too late as I slammed on the brakes and everything went black.

My ancient car had only a lap-belt so I smacked the steering wheel with my face. I woke up with one of my front teeth sitting on my tongue. All I remember is a nice lady stroking my hair as I lay groaning across the front seat. The firemen found my other tooth between the seat cushions before I left in the ambulance to the Emergency Room. An oral surgeon was able to put my teeth back into my mouth, held in place with metal braces until they healed. He said they should last about thirty years before they need to be replaced. Now, my dentist is recommending I replace them with dental implants after a little less than twenty years. I am pretty nervous.

Update: 6/19/09

I am sitting here on a Friday without my two front teeth. It was pretty brutal getting them removed yesterday, but the pain is not too bad. I haven't needed to take any of the Vicodin I was prescribed which is a good sign. I have the rest of the weekend to heal up before going to work on Monday. Now I just have to hope I heal properly so I can get the dental implants in five months to replace my front teeth.

Update: 7/6/09

I had my three week check-up today. The oral surgeon says the bone graft is healing well so far. Except for an annoying sore throat that was bothering me for two weeks, I haven't had much pain.

Update: 7/27/09

I had most of my stitches removed today. Not too fun, but the doctor says everything is healing very nicely. I am starting to get used to my new look when I am not wearing the Invisalign. I feel like a Hockey player.

Update: 8/17/09

My last check-up before my trip to South America next month. My doctor says he is very happy on how everything looks. This makes me very happy as well.

Update: 10/6/09

I just finished my trip for three weeks in South America. I had been worried about having to deal with my missing front teeth on this trip, but it was pretty hassle free.

Update: 11/1/09

I took advantage of my look by dressing up as a hockey player for Halloween. It was very fun.

Update: 12/18/09

After healing for six months, I had a CT Scan today. It is a detailed 30 second X-ray that the doctor will use to create a study of my upper jaw for the implants. I am now at the half-way point of this whole procedure.

Update: 1/27/10

Today, I went into my dentist to have an impression made of the gap in my upper teeth. The oral surgeon called yesterday to tell me that he has finished the implant study of my CT Scan. I am relieved that the graft has healed correctly with enough bone to place the implants and he can now order them from Belgium. Computer-guided robots create the stents that he will use to accurately guide the drilling location.

Update: 3/9/10

I had the titanium implants inserted under my gums today and the doctor said it went perfectly. I am sore right now, but the procedure was not as long as the first. He also grafted a little more bone on the front for extra stability of the implants. Now, I just need to heal up for about six months before he attaches the abutments.

Update: 4/29/10

My third checkup was good. I had a mild infection after the surgery so my doctor kept me on antibiotics for an extra three weeks to be safe, but now everything is healing nicely.

Update: 9/16/10

So close to the end. Today I had my last operation with my oral surgeon to place the healing abutments onto my implants. It was the quickest of the three operations (thirty minutes) and I didn't even need stitches afterwards. I now have two shiny metal bits sticking out through my gums. After the gum tissue has fully healed in a month, my dentist will take over to replace the healing abutments with permanent ones and attach the crowns. I will have my new teeth a week before Thanksgiving.

Update: 10/19/10

I'm finally completed healed. Today, my dentist took the final impression so he can order the titanium abutments and computer-designed crowns. One more month to go.

Updated: 11/2/10

I no longer have to wear the Invisalign tray on my upper teeth anymore. After attaching the new gold-plated abutments which made me look like a blinged-out vampire, my dentist crafted some temporaries for my front teeth. I can now smile and eat like normal human being. The temps will be replaced by the final crowns in two weeks.

Updated: 11/30/10

I have finally arrived at the end of my journey this morning when my dentist put on my permanent crowns. I am so happy. Perfect holiday timing considering how I titled this post eighteen months ago. I ended up wearing the temps for almost a full month since the final crowns weren't completed by the lab in time. The temps looked good but they didn't feel natural against my tongue like these custom designed crowns do.

Tour of California - Palomar Mountain

2009-02-22T22:59:00.000-08:00

Why do I torture myself? I had no plans to bike up Palomar Mountain at the beginning of the day, but I ended up near the top with no water while riding a bike with a bent back wheel that rubbed against the brake. The Tour of California was coming to San Diego for the first time on Sunday and Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour of France Champion, was back from retirement. I couldn't miss it.

The Tour was going to climb up Palomar Mountain in the final stage of the week-long race. This was a "Beyond Category" climb and mountains are the best place to watch the racing action because the riders are split up and moving slowly as they try to reach the top. I have watched all of Lance Armstrong's races in the Tour of France on TV and this was my first chance to see him race in person. I got up early and parked on the race route about a half mile from the base of Palomar Mountain before they closed the roads.

I had over five hours to kill until the racers passed so I decided to ride up to the base of Palomar Mountain to check things out. I joined the constant stream of bicyclists who were heading up the road to get a good viewing spot. I didn't think I was going far so I left my two bottles of water in my Jeep. I ended up going higher and higher as I kept saying to myself, "Just one more switchback." The spectators on the side of the road cheering and ringing cowbells helped keep me motivated, but I had to stop several times to rest. It's been over two years since I've been on a bike ride.

After I passed 4,000 feet, I was really hurting. I was fighting dizziness and was really thirsty. A biker who asked me to take his photo shared some of his water with me and I was really grateful. I finally found a good corner to stop at with not too many people a few more turns up the road. It had a great view of San Diego County. I could see Downtown San Diego, Point Loma and the Coronado Islands in the distance to the south and the Encino Power Plant in Carlsbad to the west. As it neared 2pm, we started to hear the helicopters and spotted the peloton down in the valley. The police began to clear the road of bicyclists and we followed the progress of the racers on the visible sections of road below us.

Luckily, I think I ended up at a perfect spot on the mountain to watch the race. Jens Voigt, 4th place in the overall race standings, attacked the peloton half way up the mountain. This caused Levi Leipheimer who was wearing the 1st Place Yellow Jersey to chase after him with the riders who were in 2nd and 3rd place, Dave Zabriskie and Michael Rogers. They caught Jens before the top, but they passed my spot on the mountain in small separate groups. I went to the inside corner of my turn and got several great pictures of the racers, including Armstrong, passing right beside me.

I was very sore but I am glad I made the climb up. It made me appreciate the talent of the competitors as they raced up the 21 switchbacks of South Grade Road at an unbelievable pace. The last big group to go by was the Gruppetto. It is mostly filled with the fast sprinters who don't climb very well and help pace each other over these big mountains. I spotted the best sprinter in the world, Mark Cavendish, wearing the Green Sprinter's Jersey at the back of this group.

After the last rider, Fast Freddy Rodriguez who is a good sprinter but lousy climber, passed us I was able to descend the mountain. It was a little scary with my bent back wheel wobbling like crazy. I joined the big crowd at the bottom to watch the racers zoom past at high speed as the headed to the last climb on Cole Grade Road.

I spent over an hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic driving back to the I-15, but it was worth it. I taped the race, so I was able to find out that Frank Schleck from Luxembourg won the 8th Stage after I got home. I also saw myself on television when Levi Leipheimer, the overall winner, passed by me as he was climbing Palomar. Pretty cool! Levi's team, Astana, with Lance Armstrong won the race's Team Competition.

Pepper at the Belly Up

2009-01-04T16:06:00.000-08:00

Last night was great. Not only did I watch the San Diego Chargers beat the Indianapolis Colts in the first round of the NFL Playoffs, but I saw some good bands at the Belly Up in Solana Beach with Joe, Suzie, Abby & Aaron.

Passafire was the first band but we missed most of their set because the Charger game went into overtime. I really liked their sound, too bad they weren't the second band up. Afterwards, I wished I had gotten one of their CDs while I was still inside. I guess I will just have to look for them on the Internet.

The second band, Supervillians, was good but they almost blew out my eardrums a few times. With the saxophone and trumpet, they could get really, really loud. The lead singer was the drummer, something I have rarely seen. It seems like it would be so hard to sing while keeping the beat.

The crowd really got crazy when Pepper came on. There was a great atmosphere but the security was tough, yanking out anyone who tried to light up a joint. We ended up back at Joe & Suzie's place eating cupcakes and pizza while playing Jenga. Good times, good times.

Sensory Overload - Part II

2008-12-21T22:09:00.000-08:00

After taking a few years off from writing my book, Sensory Overload, I am back up on the horse. I finally finished writing my first new chapter in a while, Chapter 8.

I remember hitting the wall because I had come to a cross-roads in my story and I didn't know which direction to take. Just thinking about it caused me frustration and sapped my enthusiasm to write. I felt like I would just have to wait for the inspiration to hit again. It lasted much longer than I thought, but the breakthrough finally came on a long drive up to my Grandmother's house for Easter. I tried to zone out the bumper-to-bumper traffic while listening to some music on the radio and a cool idea for my story popped into my head. Plot points just started to fall into place like magic and I found myself mapping out chapter after chapter in my brain and I even figured out how I wanted to end it.

Near the end of the drive, I had to pull into a 7-Eleven to buy a small notepad and quickly write all my thoughts down before they vanished back into the ether. That was a great drive.

Now, on to Chapter 9.

UPDATE: 2/14/09

I finished Chapter 9. My New Year's Resolution is to finish Chapter 13 by the end of the year. My book will then be half finished.

UPDATE: 4/9/09

I have finished Chapter 10. While writing this chapter, I had an inspiration on how to wrap up Part III of my book. I now have to decide if I want to end the book at that point or continue with my original plan to finish it with Part IV. An expanded version of the storyline in Part IV might make a good sequel.

UPDATE: 5/9/09

I have finished writing Chapter 11. I am ahead of schedule so far on my New Year's Resolution to write five chapters this year. I am going to spend the last three weeks of May editing the three chapters I've written so far, before starting to write the last two in June.

UPDATE: 8/2/09

Chapter 13 is finished. I know I skipped Chapter 12, but it's okay. My chapters are currently alternating between two main characters and I was feeling inspired to continue with the same one after Chapter 11. The good news is I figured out how I wanted to write Chapter 12 as I wrapped up this one.

I like the pace I am currently writing at, around two months per chapter. Fast enough to keep the storyline fresh in my head, but slow enough to think carefully about the upcoming plot.

This week, I also finished a rough chapter outline for my story arc in Parts III & IV. I have expanded my original plan for Part III to spread it out over III & IV. I realized that I was trying to cram too much story into too few chapters. Now my original idea for Part IV will definitely be pushed into a second book.

UPDATE: 11/10/09

I am back to writing after taking a break for my trip to South America. Walking through the hillside favela in Rio de Janeiro really inspired me to go back and rewrite two of my recent chapters. I have just completed making the edits to Chapter 10 and half-written Chapter 12. Now I have a month and a half to finish writing Chapter 12 and complete my New Year's Resolution. I will finish.

UPDATE: 12/12/09

I have finished writing Chapter 12 with two weeks to spare in 2009 and Part II is complete. My book is now 273 pages long at the half-way point. Since there was more than a five year gap between writing Parts I & II, I will spend several months editing both to make sure they are consistent with each other and the story flows.

Hopefully it won't take too long before I start writing Part III. I already have pages filled with notes about new chapters and I am eager to write them.

UPDATE: 1/2/10

I saw James Cameron's Avatar for the second time today. I really love it but I'm worried that people will think I stole some of it's ideas for my book even though the plots are radically different. My main character's name is Jâk, pronounced just like Jake from the movie. That is not so bad by itself, except that Jâk also has blue skin and is a former soldier who was discharged because of a combat injury. At least their injuries are different, Jake has paralyzed legs while my Jâk suffered brain damage.

The last item is only vaguely comparable. While Jake links up to an alien avatar body, Jâk uses a link to control computers and other machines over a network. I came up with all these ideas back when I started writing my story in 1996. It's funny because it probably won't matter at all. How many will end up reading my book to spot these details when it is finished anyway?

UPDATE: 3/6/10

I have spent the first couple months of 2010 working on fixing my grammar in Parts I & II. Using Find in my word processor to get rid of bad words like suddenly, completely or entirely, and changing my passive verbs to active. I have just finished going through and removing all the prepositional phrases that state the obvious or adverbs that intensify instead of modify. It's very time consuming. It is amazing how many little typos I find searching through my book in this way. I tend to miss them when I am reading the story straight through.

I have now started the part of editing that I love, re-reading the chapters and adding deeper layers to my story. Fixing dialogue and adding details. When I write my first draft, I am more concerned with pushing the plot forward and I use generic details and dialogue as placeholders. I have already found in my grammar search six scenes that need to be re-written based on how the story has developed in the later chapters.

I am planning on editing a chapter a week so I can get back to writing new ones before the end of summer. I have not stopped planning the future chapters and I have been making notes of all the ideas that keep jumping into my head when I am in the shower or driving to work.

Update: 5/8/10

I have finished editing 11 chapters so far with a few more to go before I can start writing new material. I think I have been making a lot of improvements.

While I enjoy writing, I am not very prolific. It takes me about an hour to write 1 page of rough draft and I get burnt out if I write more than 2 a week. When I am doing a thorough edit of a chapter (around 15 pages), it takes me about 10 hours to check every single line. I can easily spend an hour just tinkering with a couple paragraphs.

A quick chapter edit, where I read fast to test the flow of the story, takes about an hour. I haven't done the math but the amount of time I have spent on these first 14 chapters must be huge. I did about 20 drafts of Part I back when I was stuck on the future storyline.

Update: 7/19/10

I have finally finished editing all 14 chapters and I'm ready to start writing new material. I made some major changes in the prologue and had to follow the ripples it created through the rest of the novel. My biggest rewrite was creating a whole new version of Chapter 6. Russ had been reading some of my chapters and has given some great notes that I incorporated in Chapters 4 and 5.

I have also been working on the outline for my second book during the past month. For years, I've had the idea to write a travel adventure story, a fictionalized version of my international trips. I've finally figured out the basic plot and I have been writing down the timeline and locations.

Chili Cook-Off at Lakeside Rodeo

2008-11-08T20:35:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted to go to a Chili Cook-Off Contest. Whenever I read about them or see them on television, I get an intense craving for chili. When I heard about the 1st Annual Chili Cook-Off at the Lakeside Rodeo grounds on the radio, I just had to go today.

I wanted to get to the Cook-Off before the tasting began at 1:30, but I arrived about 40 minutes after that. They had 50 contestant booths and 4 out of 5 ran out of chili within the first half hour. I hurried from booth to booth and was able to try six different types as they were running out all around me. Two of them were great, three were just average and one was so spicy that I couldn't finish it. It was more the taste than the heat that I couldn't take.

My favorite chili was from the Phat Boyz Tri-Tip Chili Booth #35. I was talking to the two cooks after I voted for them and they told me the reason they lasted longer than most of the others was that they made twenty gallons of chili instead of just the minimum two gallons. I think if they do this again next year, they will have to increase the minimum amount for all the contestants or I will have to arrive much earlier.

Booth #42 ended up winning the People's Choice Award, but I didn't get a chance to taste their chili. Good thing I was able to buy some nachos or I would have been still hungry after all the booths ran out. The DSC Morning Show from 101 KGB was there as well. It was nice to see in person the people I listen to every morning on the way to work.