Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Snow Pr0n!!!

I've been snowboarding a few times since I got back from my road trip one week ago. Now that I'm officially unemployed instead of unofficially "working from home," I can fully devote my attention to the pursuit of... pursuits. Like snowboarding. And the gym. And soon I'll add the climbing gym to my repertoire. Wahoo!

And I promise to complete my road trip posts...one of these days when I don't snowboard every other day?! Hmm. No, really, now that the dastardly holiday season is nearly over, life should settle down to (nearly) normal, right? It's not like I hate the holidays or my family or anything like that, but seriously, a 5-week holiday season is a total PITA.

Crystal Mountain, the day after Christmas 2008


Ah yes. This is where it belongs, not in my hallway!


Mmm, freshies :)

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Road Trip: This is the End

Today I completed my road trip with a jaunt from Portland to Seattle a/k/a my home. I swear I will add text to these last few posts soon, but I'm just exhausted right now. I will have plenty of time for such things in the coming weeks.

Find all these pictures and more here.


Hungover? No, just sleepy


Portland was completely encased in ice. Literally.


One of five accidents I saw on the way home, though after Portland I thought the roads were pretty nice.


The snow in my unused parking spot at my condo in Seattle


Soon, my sweet...muah!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Road Trip: Florence to...Portland, not Seattle

Next up: Dunes and snow. Someday I'll actually complete these blog entries, but for now I do hope you find the pictures sufficient. I hope to get home tomorrow. Of course, I hoped to get home today and I'm in Portland. Utter armageddon on the streets. Thank goodness for Subaru!

The rest of the pictures are here.

Dunes in Southwest Oregon, just south of Florence


Sadie really, really likes the dunes




50 miles south of Portland on I-5, things started to get bad


I-5 heading north into Portland

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Road Trip: Arcata to Florence, Oregon

Arcata to Florence was a beautiful jaunt north along the coast. Sometimes the weather was nice, but mostly it was high winds and rain (I happen to think that qualifies as 'beautiful'). I was kind of dragging by this point and pretty much just wanted to get home. There's something about not being able to get home (due to the weather in this case) that really makes you want to get there!

Once I arrived in Florence I checked into a hotel which unfortunately was really crappy. I'd had good luck with the hotel sitch through the entire road trip though, so I guess I won't complain too much. Next time I will do my homework before I get to a town. Although I didn't do that before I ended up in Sonoma and ended up in a great place! Actually, the entire Sonoma side-jaunt was unplanned, but I'm glad I ended up there.


Northern Coast of California


Elk! From the largest Roosevelt elk herd in the world


Beautiful redwoods. So that's what the big deal is about...


Bandon, Oregon


The Sadie-ear-windometer says that we are at gale force

More pictures here

Well, wonders never cease

I'm holed up in Small Town, USA (a/k/a Florence, Oregon), and we are experiencing a storm similar to Seattle's except with rain instead of snow. Internet connection is pretty crappy, and after about 20 minutes of finagling I've managed to coax a tenuous signal out of the air. Not sure how long it'll last. I have to go eat dinner now, but if this wifi cooperates later I will update last night's post and write tonight's. And pictures! Dunes, big trees, and elk, oh my.

Okay TTYL.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Road Trip: Sonoma to Arcata and Spots In Between

After my wildly refined night in Sonoma, I awoke rather...slowly the next morning. I sneaked the dog out of the room (oh, the things we do) and headed into town to find sustenance. But how to find good coffee in this town? Of course. I found a man sitting on a park bench drinking coffee and asked him where I could find some for myself. He very helpfully directed me to the Basque Boulangerie just across the street. And yes, the coffee was delicious! There were dozens of delicious-looking pastries available to drool over, but unfortunately Sadie started barking at delivery men and we had to boogie out of there. After wandering around some more and making a brief stop in Three Dog Bakery (we go there all the time in Seattle!), we hit the road for points north.

Mendocino was beautiful on the outside, but I was a bit perplexed by something that happened to me there. I needed to change a headlamp bulb in my car, and I had bought one at an auto parts store in Sonoma before I headed out of town. As it was getting dark when I was in Mendo, I decided I'd better get that baby in there before finishing up Highway 1, or "22 miles of misery" as my friend calls it. I had some difficulties getting the old bulb out of the socket, so all told it took me about 15 minutes to complete the switch. For the 15 minutes I was parked by the side of the road with my hood up, lots of people drove by. And nobody stopped. What the hell?! Where are all the friendly Californians I've met my entire trip? I decided Mendo is dead to me (what isn't, really) and hit the highway with Arcata as my destination. Later that night, I was out with my cousin's friend Brooke in Arcata and I told her this story. "It's not that they don't want to help you," she explained. "It's Mendocino. They don't know how to do anything menial." For some reason this cracked us up. That's pretty sad, but it's pretty funny!

Arcata...I think maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind for Arcata. I understand that it's a pretty cool place, but I didn't see much of that, unfortunately. Homeless kids with dogs on ropes begged for change and smoked weed in the town square. And I saw a guy in a homemade t-shirt that said, "Dominate me with your cunt." Really, do I need to say any more?

Sonoma town square in the morning


Mendocino


Mendocino


The end (or beginning) of Highway 1


Here's t-shirt guy trying out his moovs on an unsuspecting lady. She didn't succumb to his charms. And yes, that is indeed a Native American 'dream catcher' attached to the back of the shirt.

More pictures here

Friday, December 19, 2008

Road Trip: Mysteries and Wine Country, etc.

This morning started out with a frustrating trip to Walgreens to get a prescription refill. I won't go into detail here, but let it be known that Millbrae California is DEAD TO ME. I hate them, I hate their google map directions, and I hate their inhabitants. That is all. Moving on...

Driving to San Jose from my hotel, the weather and the surroundings were beautiful.


In San Jose, I went to the Winchester Mansion. I'd read a story about it as a kid that said Mrs. Sarah Winchester built the strange parts of the house to confuse the spirits of people who'd been killed by Winchester rifles. I always thought it was a normal house with some weird spirit-foiling additions. Today on the tour I learned that a psychic told her that to keep the spirits confused, Mrs. Winchester had to keep up construction on the house constantly. Therefore, the house remained under construction 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 38 years until Mrs. Winchester's death in 1922.

It turns out that, far from being normal, the entire house is pretty wacked out. Staircases that go nowhere, doorways that go nowhere, and even a chimney that goes nowhere. Plus cupboards opening onto walls, windows in the floor, "easy riser" staircases built into hidden closets for Mrs. Winchester. I don't care what they say, Sarah Winchester was batshit insane.


After the Winchester Mansion, I drove to Santa Cruz to see the Mystery Spot. Far from being simply a place that men need to learn more about, the Mystery Spot is, in my expert opinion, fucking crazy! I took pictures, but even those don't do the spot justice. You need to just go there yourself. Seriously. Gravitational (or whatever) forces cause people to gain or lose inches of height based on where they are standing. It also causes people to have to fight against a strange force that wants to push you in a certain direction. Balls roll uphill, and none of it's an illusion. It's just wacky gravity (or aliens, or whatever theory you prefer. I go with gravity and/or magnetic fields myself.)

I finally got a bumber sticker to cover up the Obama/Biden sticker. Because, you know, they won.

Well. You know what they say... "the best laid plans" and all that. The great thing about road trips is that plans can change, and you should never be in a hurry. As you know, I'd intended to be in Ukiah tonight, but thanks to delayed timetables and San Francisco traffic, I'd only made it to Petaluma by 7:00 p.m. I'd been stuck in traffic for 2 hours and was at the point of weeping, so I decided to get off the freeway and find a place to stay for the evening. I wasn't thrilled about staying in Petaluma, but what choice did I have? Until I exited from 101 and saw the sign, "Sonoma 17 miles; Napa 24 miles." My eyes opened wide. I heard angels singing a chorus. 'Wine country? I'm this close to wine country?!' I thought. A phone call to my mother plus a AAA tour book led me to the Best Western Inn in Sonoma, which takes dogs, has a surprisingly awesome room with a king size bed and a fireplace, AND has a free breakfast that is delivered to your room! Kind of hard to beat that. Plus they have free parking and coffee, and it's one block to the center of Sonoma. Which is a good thing when you've had a few glasses of amazing wine and you need to get back to your dog and make sure she's not barking in the hotel. Or, ahem, so I've heard.

My room in Sonoma. King-size bed and a fireplace!

I went to dinner at A Girl & A Fig, which is on the Southeast corner of the town square in Sonoma. It was pretty great. Not the food, which was tasty but not amazing, but the people I met! The bartender, Mark, was cool, plus after the dinner crowd left (I got there late due to getting to town around 8 p.m.), all the local service industry folks rolled into the place and I got to chat with them. It reminds me of Port Townsend, though maybe not as dysfunctional. One can only hope. I was chatting with an attractive, shy guy, and at the end of the night he had to take off because of a conference call in the morning. I gave him my info in case he's ever in Seattle, and he gave me his card. He's a winemaker! Well, I love wine, so maybe it's a match made in heaven. Or something. At any rate, I had a really fun time tonight.

The cozy bar at A Girl and A Fig

My revised schedule has me staying in Eureka, CA tomorrow (Friday) night and Reedsport, OR on Saturday night. I hope to be home on Sunday. But as long as I'm home by the 25th, I guess I'm ok.

More tomorrow night, hopefully from Oregon! More pictures here

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Road Trip: In the City

Today was another beautiful sunny day, and I didn't even need my down jacket till about 4:00 p.m. this afternoon. Much of the day was spent in the car, driving around seeing all the important sites. Molly drove, since she lives here, but we took my car because it has the fidorido. Of course, after a couple of hops in and out of the car I just held Sadie on my lap. We weren't going very fast anyway.

We are light on pictures today because I was silly and forgot to charge the battery in my camera. The below pictures are courtesy of my cell phone. [EDIT: added a couple of pictures from the camera now that it's charged.] Of course, I also forgot my phone in the car during one walking excursion, so maybe pictures weren't meant to be taken today. I think I have plenty already!

Getting Sadie out of the room and into the car this morning was quite difficult. I think she's had enough of this road trip. Too bad for her that we're a 2-3 day drive from home.


First a delicious pastry and coffee at La Boulange near Molly's place.


Boulange dogs

Then we drove the long way through Golden Gate Park, checking out the new science museum, Stow Lake, and the polo fields, before heading down to Ocean Beach in the Sunset neighborhood.


Sadie loves Molly, so they were happy to walk down the beach together while I took pictures of the surfers. Unfortunately, none of those came out! Dang it. Later we let Sadie off the leash and she played chase with another dog. That tired her out to the point where she tried to drink the ocean, though much choking and gagging convinced her that it was not a wise choice.


When taking a driving tour of San Francisco, of course you have to drive down the Russian Hill section of Lombard Street, the "crookedest street in the world"! It was like an amusement park ride, and pretty popular with the tourists based on the attention it was getting. Man, I would hate to live on that street, not only because of the difficulty of getting in and out of your home, but because of the constant traffic.


We saw many other interesting places today, and unfortunately I have forgotten much of it. There's so much to see! I should have taken notes. But I will recap some of it: Nob Hill, Russian Hill, Twin Peaks, SOMA, Fisherman's Wharf, Financial District, Sunset.

Oh, at Fisherman's Wharf I tried In-n-Out Burgers for the first time. Um, sorry, but what's the big deal about that place? Maybe it got too built up for me, so when I finally tried it, it was just a...burger and fries. Call me crazy but I'll take Dick's Drive In any day. Also at Fisherman's Wharf we went to the Buena Vista and had an irish coffee, where the drink was invented. It was delicious! Later in the afternoon we took Sadie to the dog park in Cole Valley near Molly's place, then relaxed in her adorable apartment until it was time to meet Cinthia for dinner in the Haight. We ended up getting takeout because the restaurant was packed, which was even better because we went back to Molly's place and ate dinner and had wine. The night ended with plans to meet up soon in Seattle, since both Molly and Cinthia will be there for the holidays. Now they can see my condo! I'm very excited :)

Tomorrow I get up early and leave the city. I'm heading down to San Jose to see the Winchester Mystery House, then back down to Santa Cruz really quickly to see the Mystery Spot. I guess tomorrow is 'mystery day.' Props go to Ryan for suggesting these intriguing sights.

After Santa Cruz I'm winding back up the coast on Hwy 1 to 101 and hope to make it to Ukiah,California to while away the evening in the economical digs of Motel 6 once again. The night after that (a/k/a Friday for you working stiffs) I want to be in Newport Oregon, before cutting back to I-5 for the rest of the trip. The night after that (Saturday the 20th) I hope to be HOME! Yes I love it here, and the road trip has been fun. But my car is full of maps and papers and this and that and general stuff, and I'm living out of a suitcase. And the whole car experience has been really tough on Sadie. I now feel like a terrible mother for subjecting her to this, but at least now I know she can't go on road trips anymore. I know that snow and ice armageddon has hit the states of Washington and Oregon, which is why I'm taking the coast.

See you Seattleites soon! More pictures here

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Road Trip: Half Moon Bay, etc.

Today I went to the coast, starting in Half Moon Bay and working my way down to Santa Cruz. Fortunately, the weather was beautiful and sunny. It was still cold, but at least I was able to shed the down jacket in favor of a hooded sweatshirt.

There were a lot of rusty sculptures lining the road to Half Moon Bay.


When I arrived in town, I found the visitor's center and got the lowdown on where to eat and where to take the dog to work off her excess energy. That led me to the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, where I had a delicious lunch and discovered that, much to my dismay, the seas were flat at the world-famous Maverick's and there wouldn't be any surfers to watch. My waiter at the brewery said that there might be some people surfing a few miles north at Montara State Beach. No surfers there, either, but it was a beautiful beach with curling waves, and Sadie and I had a nice walk there. Sadie rolled in a dead bird carcass, which pretty much made her day. I was not quite so enthused.


After that we jumped back in the car and headed south to Santa Cruz to see the famous boardwalk and the Mystery Spot. It's funny how before I went on this road trip, driving 50 miles was a huge deal to me - I don't really like driving that far. But now it's a drop in the travel bucket. Not that I plan to become a roadhog once I get home!

We stopped at San Gregorio State Beach, but didn't stay long because the sign said 'no dogs on the beach.' I'm a law-abiding citizen, especially when I think I might get caught. Plus I was running out of time because I was due back in the city at 4:40 to pick up Molly at the airport. Molly actually lives here in San Francisco, but she was in Seattle visiting family. Since I'm here, I offered to pick her up at the airport. I thought that was pretty funny since I don't even live here, but I'm glad it all worked out!


Finally we arrived in Santa Cruz and hit the boardwalk. The place was deserted - most of the shops were closed, and the boardwalk was closed. The good news is there was plenty of parking! We had taken but a few steps onto the deserted boardwalk when a security guard appeared and said, "Excuse me, ma'am. Unfortunately no dogs are allowed on the boardwalk." I said, "are they allowed on the beach?" He said, "No, but that's not our area of responsibility." I asked, "so if we run across the boardwalk to the beach, you didn't see anything then?" He laughed and said, "that's right." So we scampered. As far as beaches go, it wasn't nearly as impressive as the rest of Half Moon Bay, but the sun was shining on me and it was quiet and peaceful, and that was enough. Then it was time to jump on the road back to the city to pick up Molly. I really enjoyed my drive down Highway 1 a/k/a Cabrillo Highway, and I think I will head down to Carmel after I leave San Francisco and work my way back up to Santa Cruz from that direction.


After I picked up Molly at SFO, we drove to her absolutely darling apartment in Cole Valley, which is a neighborhood just a few blocks from the Haight. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant in Cole Valley, which was good but not otherwordly good like Mona Lisa, a restaurant in North Beach. Seriously. If you're in SF and you want Italian, you MUST go there. That's where Molly and I ate in June when I came down to visit.

Molly's apartment in Cole Valley - most adorable!

So far I've had a Marin day and a Half Moon Bay day, with a bit of the city thrown in at night. Tomorrow is all city! Molly is taking me on her special tour, and I am finally going to go to the tourist spots. I'm dying to go to Lombard Street!

As always, more pictures can be found here

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Road Trip: San Francisco! And Areas Nearby

What a day - I am exhausted! Too exhausted, in fact, to write a coherent update for now. I'll add some text in the morning when I wake up. For now I'll leave you with some pictures and: Stinson Beach, Muir Beach, rain squalls, Lincoln Park, Golden Gate Recreation Area, and the Mission. Oh god, the Mission. I am so glad I have friends who live here. I wish I lived here. I love San Francisco so much I want to marry it. If not for my condo I'd move here in a heartbeat. Damn, you, mortgage! Damn you.

EDIT: Okay, time to fill in this post. The day started with a trip north up Highway 101 from my hotel, over the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County. I like that part of Hwy 101 because it actually winds through San Francisco proper, and is a nice way to see some sites while staying on the highway. All day the weather was frigidly cold and occasionally rainy, with some sun breaks in Marin. Apparently this weather is a freak occurrence that just happened to occur during my visit. Oh well - at least I'm used to it, since it feels like a Seattle winter. And I have my down jacket, hat and gloves, which I've worn part of every day!

Sadie: uncooperative Me: unphotogenic

I had mixed feelings about driving into Marin County and up the road near Mill Valley, because the last time I was here my boyfriend's family lived here. Now my ex's family lives here (ha ha, get it?). Once I was there, though, driving along the winding Panoramic Highway to Stinson Beach all that was forgotten in the beauty of the moment. The sun was shining, the views were beautiful, and the smell of the eucalyptus trees was amazing. There were very few people on the roads and I arrived in Stinson Beach without incident.

It's always sunny in Marin County

Stinson Beach


On the way back from Stinson Beach I took the shoreline highway instead. Such beautiful views! A sudden storm whipped up when I was driving along the ridge and it was so windy and rainy I thought I wouldn't get out of the car anymore till I got back in the city. Then Muir Beach came along and I decided to stop being a chickenshit and check it out. Good thing, because that storm cleared as quickly as it arrived and the sun was shining once again.

Muir Beach lookout hike



Look at this little guy! I found him on my hike at Muir Beach

Later in the evening I met Cinthia and Mike in the Mission for some frites and bar crawling. I'll just say that the night was pretty awesome :) But, again, freezing. Note the down jacket in the picture below.

Cinthia, Mike, & me at the end of the evening. Yay for local friends who take you cool places!

As always, more pics can be found here

Monday, December 15, 2008

Road Trip: Grants Pass to San Francisco

The second day of our road trip started auspiciously, as Sadie and I shed our divey Motel 6 digs in anticipation of a fun drive and a lovely 4-night stay at the San Francisco Airport Marriot, which I got for $60 a night courtesy of priceline. Props to my sister for teaching me the trick to getting swanky digs for cheap. Never accept less than three stars!

First, a necessity: coffee! I saw these Dutch Brothers coffee stands all over the place, and the coffee was actually really good. I will surely go back, especially as I've seen them quite a lot around here. Had a nice chat with Mr. Barista about my trip. He asked about the road conditions between Seattle and Grants Pass, and I told him they were great, except for one kind of scary spot. Then I was on my way.

Coffee? Why, yes I will.

After that I stopped in Ashland, Oregon, which boasts the famous annual Shakespeare Festival. Ashland is very cute, cool, and funky, and I hope to go back sometime. It reminds me very much of Hood River, Oregon.

Like Port Townsend, only cuter!

Then it was on through the Siskiyous to Weed, California. I went there looking for Snoopy's brother (who I though lived in Weed but it turns out he lives in Needles. Doh! No wonder they didn't know what I was talking about), but all I found were these kooky artists, Arthur and Isaiah. I walked around town and had coffee with Isaiah and he showed me their joint art studio. Isaiah said he was looking for some inspiration for his art and he thought the Creator had brought me to Weed to meet him. Hey, if it helped him get past his "block," I'm okay with whatever he wants to think. Isaiah is an interesting guy, but I finally had to leave to flee the talk of love and vibes, man.

Not named after the tumbleweeds that were everywhere like I had thought

After Weed, the snow started coming down hard and the conditions quickly got fearsome. The whole experience was pretty terrifying, even thoughI know how to drive in the snow. I think it's because of the sheer length of the mountain crossing - in Washington state you go over one pass and you're done. In the Siskiyous IT NEVER ENDS. It's mountain pass after pass after pass. I won't go into details because I don't want my Mom to cry. Suffice it to say that the car, the dog, and I are all in one piece.


After coming down the passes, the snowstorm turned into a simple rainstorm. Still sucky, because the visibility was limited and there was some hydroplaning going on among various cars. But still waaaay better than the Siskiyous experience! I think I will take highway 101 up the coast on the way back, at least to Eugene.

The what?! Oh, the BASShole. Snicker.

The rest of the drive it was pouring down rain the entire way. When I say 'pouring down rain,' I think I will sum it up with this one observation: it was so bad, the California drivers were driving 10-20 miles BELOW the speed limit. And that's all I have to say about that.

Coming into San Francisco I came into traffic once I got on the San-Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and onto Highway 101 South toward my hotel. I was actually glad to slow down to 20 miles per hour, it was relaxing! It ended up taking us, with stops and weather difficulties, 10 hours to get to San Francisco. Just a tad bit longer than the 6 hours that google maps predicted. Needless to say, Sadie and I are exhausted. I left her sacked out on the king size feather-bed and came down to the lobby bar to blog. Now I am heading upstairs to get some much needed rest myself!

I may never get out of this bed. Ever.


More pictures can be found here