People actually live here

Today Sara & Colin and I went to Golden Gate Bridge Park where Colin and I indulged our need to shoot pics on while Sara patiently waited. It was awesome! The sun was shining as we walked the beach, which doubles as a dog park.


There were a million sailboats under the bridge. Colin figured out they were racing. What an amazing sight.








This sea lion was probably stealing the fisherman's bait off of the fishing dock. I got sofa king excited about catching his picture in his natural habitat. Then we went over to Pier 39, where they hang out full-time. Turns out it's not so rare to see them around here!


After four hours of hiking around we came back to the apartment to rest and digest the enormous sourdough breadbowls holding good ol' New England clam chowdah we ate for a late lunch. Later we had giant crabs for dinner, purchased fresh off the dock earlier in the day.

Tomorrow we'll hike into Chinatown for Dim sum.

Tomorrow is also my last day of vacation. I come home on the red eye. Sniff. I'm admittedly tired and ready to go back to a more sane schedule, but I honestly have no desire to be in New England for the rest of the winter. I could get used to this lifestyle. I could get used to winters that offer nothing worse than overcast skies and low temps of 40 something. I could get used to fabulous coffee and beer on every corner. I could get used to stunning vistas every which way I turn, to culture, art and music forever changing. This is not a vacation lulling me into adoring a place because I've left my worldy worries behind for a little while. I think I'm really in love with the west coast.

I hope it calls me back.

You know you're in San Francisco when...

...the first place you land is a kinky coffee shop. In fact, the this is the ONLY kinky coffee shop in all of San Francisco, or so they claim. I'm in Wicked Grounds, and luckily for me the kink is at a minimum.

Whoops, just went looking for the cream & sugar and found the whips & chains! Ok, I'm exaggerating...just whips. Seriously.

I woke up at 5:30 AM without the aid of an alarm clock and because I didn't know what else to do with myself I drove back to the mountains. Sunrise was scheduled for 7:21, so I drove around in the dark trying to get to higher ground but couldn't find the perfect spot for picture taking, and was too impatient to sit around waiting for light to see if where I was was good enough. But, in the end I got some lovely shots of both a mountain and a bit of Lake Shasta. I was back at the hotel by 8:15, and back on the road by 9:15.

The rest of the drive was easy going compared to yesterday. I made it in a little over 3 hours and the entire ride was flat this time. I couldn't believe it when I crossed the Golden Gate bridge around noon. It just snuck up on me. I've been over it before and as I remember it's a lot more impressive when you're gazing at it from across the bay rather than driving on it.

Triumph of the day...I got the car returned before I was charged for a second day. HOORAY! I can afford another meal before I return home.

The only thing I know of on the agenda for the weekend is happy hour tonight, and that is really all I'm focused on. Between the walking in Portland and the long ride down here my sciatica came back (no pun intended) to remind me that 10 minutes of a dude pushing and pulling on my legs does not fix a condition that took years to create. In short, I need a drink. In reality, I need an exercise regimen.

The barista just propped the door open. Yes, that's how nice it is here...about 60 degrees, maybe warmer in the sun.

SF, I love you and your wicked grounds already. Now hand me my whip.

Flickr

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SHAsta!

It was a long day, dear blog. Somehow what Google predicted would be a 5.5 hour drive was actually a 7.5 hour drive, including a few very brief food & rest stops. I got on the road at 12:45 PM, and arrived at the hotel at 8:15 PM. The scenery was breathtaking...I drove through mountains nearly the whole way...up and down and up and down again. At one point I was 20,000 feet above sea level! There was even snow on the ground for a short portion of the journey. The roads were good the whole way, and the temperature got as high as 60 degrees at one point, and the sun was out for most of the ride. I have been blessed with great weather this entire trip (knocking on the wooden desk now). I snapped a few shots of the landscape from my cell phone, but that was about the best I could do as I-5 in Oregon didn't offer a single scenic view to pull over at. It was hard to believe what I was looking at wasn't considered scenic enough! The grass is literally greener over here. There were all manner of farm animals grazing along the drive...even a few llamas.

I reached the California border around 5:30 PM, just as it was getting dark. The sunset was completely different from an East Coast winter sunset. Usually at home it goes from light to dark within about 30 minutes during the winter. Here the light lingered a good 1.5 hours after the sun had sunk below the horizon.

To help pass the time I started listening to Stephen King's latest epic, Under the Dome. It's great so far. King, being true to his usual form, pumped out another giant novel, and although I listened the entire way I'm probably only 1/5 through the story at best.

It seems I booked a hotel a bit too far from the great scenic area of Shasta National Park. I left the park about 20 miles ago, and I'm not sure I'll have the time to backtrack in the morning. I'm supposed to have the car in San Fran around noon tomorrow, and that's another 200 miles away. I'll play it by ear...right now I'm just glad I had the foresight to break this drive up over two days.

I hear the weather is downright miserable at home, and although I should be feeling great about missing it I can't help but feel bad for my loved ones back east, enduring another craptastic winter.

I'm putting myself to bed early in the hopes of rising early for more photo ops...night night.

Portland review

Good morning. It's way too early to be awake in the Pacific timezone. I've been up since 5:30, because apparently 2.5 pints of Deschutes fine brews had too much alcohol to let me sleep in. Where did my tolerance go? I think I left it back in my twenties.

So the weather was beautiful yesterday, allowing me to go with Plan A and enjoy the Oregon Zoo, Hoyt Arboretum, and Japanese Garden. Each place was more impressive than the last.

The zoo was very good as zoos go, and relatively cheap! Only $9 for the day. I saw nearly every exhibit within 2.5 hours.

There were two Polar Bears, and they were MASSIVE beasts. One of them happened to be laying down really close to the glass and I actually jumped when I turned the corner and saw him. The guy above is clearly enjoying the morning sunshine.

I want to know who his stylist is.


The lions were actually watching me. When I saw the male taking an interest I intentionally started pacing back and forth in front of the glass. This got all of their attention. Eventually he decided I was just another schmuck with a camera and settled down again, and the female on the right who looks annoyed went back to licking her tree.


Another sun worshiper.


The sea lions looked almost as big as the polar bears, and just as cuddly. They were putting on a nice show for everybody, doing flips in front of the glass and coming right up to the kiddies to say hello. This picture barely does justice to how majestic they are.

My complete zoo set can be found here.

I left the Zoo and bought a map of the Arboretum, because it was honestly too big to just wander around. Here's what I saw along the way...


It is about here that light dawns on marble head and I finally figure out how to manually focus my camera. Get ready for a lot of unnecessary closeups.




I have reached my final destination - the Japanese Garden. Serenity now!







That is Mt. Hood. It is too pretty for words.

You can find my complete set of Arboretum & Japanese Garden pics here.

Thanks for looking. I'm going back to bed for a few hours before I start my long journey down to San Francisco.

Worn out

Just a quick update before I do a faceplant in my bed. The weather was great, and so I did my tour of the zoo and arboretum. I hiked around for almost seven hours, took another several hundred shots, and came back to the hotel to recoup. I finished the night off at the Deschutes Brewery, which had fifteen or so stellar offerings on tap. I'll fill in the details tomorrow, because YOU CAN STICK A FORK IN ME PORTLAND, I'm done. Goodnight all...sleep tight!

Hello Portland!

I have landed in Portland, Oregon, and it is good to be here. Oh so good. Why is it so good? Because I am being oh so good to myself.

I'm staying at a lovely hotel that I will tell you all about after I leave because I am that paranoid. At this lovely hotel is a lovely spa, and 30 minutes after checking in I was getting a massage.

Ryan, my miracle worker, asked me how I was feeling and I told him about my neck pains (from sleeping on it funny) and my back pains (ciatica). He said, "How much to you want to fix the ciatica?" and I said, "I'm not afraid of a little pain." Luckily for me Ryan had the magic touch and I barely grimaced. He lightly touched my lower back and knew exactly what I was doing wrong. "You sit funny in your chair at work, don't you?" "Why yes", I said, "I sit on my right foot. This is like going to the back psychic." Ten minutes later, after a few astonished gasps from Ryan about how screwed up my back felt, he set me straight and then proceeded to pamper me with a massage that left me drooling. I was completely out of it by the time he was done with me...he had to lead me to the door because I would have just sat on his table smiling for another hour.

My back feels better than it has in YEARS.

Afterwards I toddled next door for a gourmet meal of gnocchi sprinkled with Oregon black truffles. I had to get it because WHEN IN ROME, RIGHT? The truffles were diced very finely and sprinkled all over the gnocchi and I tried just a forkful of them so I could see what they tasted like by themselves. People, truffles taste like dirt. Seriously, just like dirt, with a slightly better aftertaste. But mixed with the gnocchi and the cheese and the greens? It was a totally different story...such an amazing dish. I paired it with a local red wine and finished the meal off with a local brew that has Africa in the name. I'm low on details tonight, as I've had two drinks, a massage, and only about 5.5 hours of sleep last night.

I've chosen my itinerary for tomorrow. Plan A is to visit The Grotto, which is "A serene oasis in the midst of the city...a natural gallery that offers a place of peace and quiet reflection for all people."

(Whoa...my back just cracked audibly. Ryan, you are a shaman.)

In The Grotto I will find the Portland Japanese Garden, the International Rose Test Gareden, the Hoyt Arboretum, World Forestry Center, and the Oregon Zoo. I'm thirty-three and I still love the zoo.

Plan B goes into effect if it rains. I will take a tour of every brewery in Portland accessible via public transportation. If that proves to be too ambitious, I will visit every brewery on the local transit line that I can still stand upright at.

Either way there will be stories to share.

Seattle Wrap Up

It was another banner day here in Seattle (pun intended). We left the house early so the N-man could get dropped off at daycare and mommy could make her flight (hi Banner!). I was dropped off at the bus stop and from there I made my way back to the Westlake area. After my Starbucks injection I boarded the monorail (what's that sound? MONORAIL!) which runs one whole stop to the Space Needle. I paid my admission and travelled 10 mph up to the top.


The needle was built for the World's fair in 1962. It is 605 feet high, and offers a 360 degree view of the Seattle skyline. There are windows surrounding it, and you can also walk around the perimeter outside, which is awfully windy but really cool. There are also high-powered binoculars and telescopes that are so effective you can spy on people in their offices.

I'm glad I made the trek up. It was pricier than going up the Columbia building (Columbia was 72 stories up and only $5, whereas the Needle was $17) but the shots I could take from a lower vantage point were totally worth it. However, the whole time I was up there I was excited to check out the amazing looking Jimi Hendrix/Science Fiction museum below.


The building does not have a single right angle on the outside. Neat, eh?

The inside was as amazing as outside. If you are a music lover, you should go. If you are a sci-fi fan, you should go. I heard it's sort of pooh-poohed by the locals because it was built by a rich mucky muck at Microsoft...sort of a pet project I guess. Regardless, I applaud the end result.

On the music side, besides seeing the memorabilia, the impressive display of guitars, and listening to the incredible music pumping through the building everywhere, you can go play the adult version of Rock Band. There are drums, guitars, keyboards, and mics all enclosed in little sound studios. A helpful computer teaches you the rudimentary steps towards playing the instrument, and then you can jam with songs you know or other people. You can even record your own CD or DVD! I decided against doing that because I would have felt like a turd performing badly by myself. But really, how friggin' cool is that?

The dork/movie lover in me enjoyed the Sci-Fi side as much as the music side. There is some neat movie memorabilia, as well as an awesome display of influential sci-fi media, including The Jetsons, Blade Runner, and The Matrix.




I noticed a trend at both the Space Needle and the museum...there's a lot of amazing blown glass on display and for sale. So I asked where I might find a shop to poke in, and was told about a place on 5th St - the Seattle Glass Blowing Studio. I meandered over and got a great behind-the-scenes look at the artisans at work.



Many of the items for sale had price tags as large as my entire vacation budget. Now I understand why that is...not only is glass blowing a labor & time intensive process, but the materials are crazy expensive. As one of the employees explained to me, there are only four or so places in the world where the raw blocks of glass can be purchased from, and most of them are in Germany. Apparently how they create these blocks is a pretty well-guarded secret. So a.) they have to be shipped overseas, and glass is pretty damn heavy, b.) there are minerals in some of the glass, which gives it both that metallic glow as well as color (for instance, all red glass is made with gold!), and c.) the furnaces can never stop running, as it would take weeks to get them back to the temperature they need to operate at.

In the end I bought a little glass pendant with a blue flower (also glass) in it, partly because it's beautiful, and partly because they were so nice to me I had to buy something.

You can see my complete set of photos (another 200...sheesh) here.

Tonight is my last night in Seattle. I couldn't have asked for a better visit here, nicer weather for January, or more flexible hosts.



A thousand thanks to you guys!!!

Ice Cream Cruises and Flutterbies

We had another fabulous day here in Nirvana...er...Seattle. The weather is colder and rainy but that didn't stop my fabulous hosts from pulling themselves up by their sleep deprived boot straps and showing me a good time. (Banner & Frazer, I'm eternally grateful!)

So we headed down to Lake Union and took an Ice Cream Cruise! It was on an adorable little boat that took us on a little tour around the lake. There was a bit of history behind every sight, but of course I was so busy snapping pictures I only heard bits and pieces.

The floating houses impressed me the most. Look at these little architectural gems.



Does this last one look familiar? I'll give you a hint, it was in a movie that did pretty well at the box office, with Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan. And it wasn't You've Got Mail. Yup, that's the Sleepless in Seattle house. Neat, eh?

Next stop, the Science Museum for BUTTERFLIES! My hosts, they are too good to me.




So of course I took another 300 photos today and just cannot share them all here. You can see the rest of the cruise & butterfly pics on my Flickr account.

After our adventures I made some dinner to try and say thank you to my oh so gracious hosts. We laughed at the massive bowl of butternut squash risotto I put on the table and said who will ever eat all of this? Then we devoured 1/2 of it.

Tomorrow I'll be on my own in the city again. I heard something about a Jimi Hendrix museum and I think I'll have to check it out. It's also right by the Space Needle so I'll fork over whatever they're asking because when in Rome, right?

Belgian beer fest!

Last I left off Frazar was doing something odd with pretzels & string. He was actually stringing pretzel necklaces for us lucky people who went to the Belgian Beer Festival in Georgetown today. The necklace was to provide sustenance so as to maximize our drinking time. Brilliant. We weren't even the only people who were wearing such necklaces at the event.

There were about 20 or so vendors pouring their Belgian Tripels, their White Ales, and their various other Belgian brews. It was MAGICAL. I mean, a beer festival is wonderful in and of itself, but Belgians are my favorite beers on earth. We dropped the N-man off at the neighbors and spent a good 4 hours enjoying the beer, sausage, and Belgian Waffles.

My favorite of the day was Dick's Belgian Tripel. It's well-rounded...not too much spice, sweet, or bitter...just the right combination of all three. A few other winners came from the Issaquah Brewhouse, which is apparently owned by Rogue. Their White Frog Ale and the Menage A Frog Ale are both very good.

Man, I am wiped out tonight. I thought yesterday I'd be exhausted from all of the walking around I did but that was nothing compared to the effects of drinking all afternoon. No plans for tomorrow...with Noah's feeding schedule it will probably be difficult to venture far, but a day of chillin' around the house sounds pretty good to me.

Besides, why go out when there's a dude this cute hanging around?

For ALL 145 of my photos from Day 1, you can go to my Flickr account.

Best little city in da woyald

Granted, I haven't been to a lot of cities in my life. I'm not so much of a city person...I've always loved the serenity of the countryside and the idea of the tranquility of a simple life. But goddamn, Seattle, you impressed me today.

My poor hosts had a rough night last night. Their little one, Noah, woke up at least 3 times, and was a pretty unhappy camper. I have a fabulous little setup in the basement, and although his cries woke me all I could think was, "Poor Mom & Dad!", and then would fall back to sleep. By the time I left for work I was coming to and feeling well rested.

I got out around 9, and made my way to the bus stop. Fantastically Fat Freddie from last night was not on the bus this morning. He was replaced by very normal sized people doing very normal commuting and it was all good. After about a 30 minute ride I was back at Westlake Station.

Coffee and a bite of breakfast was found at, surprise surprise, the Starbucks. From there I was pointed in the direction of Pike Place Market, my own little slice of heaven on earth. This was the scene:











Not to mention all of the unbelievable crafts for sale. I tell you, I could spend a FORTUNE in that place.

Now, you're saying to yourself, whoopdee fucking doo, I've seen flowers and fish before. Ok, I hear you. Here was the scene a couple of hundred feet from Pike's Place.





Yeah, how's that mountain grab you? I think it's Mt. Rainier. That's what happens when you walk around in a strange city without a guide, you guess about things that are common knowledge to others.

By now it's about 12:15, time to go meet Banner for lunch at McCormick & Schmick. I find the trolley and take a 10 minute ride over to Lake Union. There I am served a $10 masterpiece.


That's Dungeoness Crab, mango, and avocado, in a mango sauce with a balsamic vinaigrette. Unreal.

After lunch Banner suggested I visit the wooden boat museum across the street. Sadly, they are closed for renovations, but I saw something even better on the dock.



Uh huh, that's an otter. A real, live, genuine, WILD, otter. A little boy pointed him out to me and I am forever indebted to him.

Well it's taken almost an hour just to upload these pics so I think I'll throw the rest onto my Flickr account and call it a night. Just one last one...we'll make it a game. What is Frazar doing in this picture, and more importantly, why? Answers tomorrow.