Death Valley is full of extremes. It's one of the lowest places in the world (282 feet below sea level), yet it's surrounded by some of the tallest mountains in the continental US (some are over 11,000 feet). The mountains were freezing and snowy, while the valley was sandy, warm and DRY. These extremes create amazing scenery. Sometimes I wish I had a nicer camera, because my little point-and-shoot just can't do the landscape justice.

 

Also, the park is enormous! It just keeps going. I could easily spend 2 weeks here hiking, climbing, canyoning and learning about the valley's geography and history (both are surprisingly interesting).

 

It took about 5 hours to drive to the edge of the park, so not too bad of a drive, but getting to the center adds another couple hours to your drive. Although they're no where near as impressive at the real deal, check out my pics to get a feel for the park. I'd love to go back... but there's so many more places that I still need to visit!

Aliza and I decided to walk down the street to Elings Park right by our new place and catch some sunset shots on camera. We had a great time, took some fun pictures and met some lively dogs. I guess Elings Park is the cool spot to go when it's time for your dog to poop.

 

Oh yeah, I finally wrote an article for Beer at Joe's - http://www.beeratjoes.com/?p=121.

So, I’m thinking about taking part in a diabetes study. It seems like a pretty good deal; they give you lunch and dinner every day plus $100 a week to buy breakfast and snacks. They only have two stipulations in order to take part:

 

First, you must stick strictly to the diet, even down to the name brands that they give you, and absolutely no cheating. So no alcohol for two months during the Study. I’m pretty sure that the last time I went two months without alcohol was during my senior year of high school.

 

I suppose it would be good for me to go a while without hitting the booze, but it’s so tough! Both my roommate and my girlfriend are brewing beer and wine. Plus my sister and her boyfriend have become self-proclaimed beer conisuers and have even started a blog about their beer-ventures titled Beer at Joe’s (http://www.beeratjoes.com). So, I don’t exactly have the unwavering support of my friends and family.

 

Secondly, to take part in the study, you have to have a Body Mass Index (BMI) that is considered severely overweight to obese. Surprisingly, I passed this one with flying colors. I am borderline obese (tack on another four pounds, and I am officially obese). Of course, the BMI only takes into account weight and height, so very muscular, athletic people can have high BMI’s since muscle weighs more than fat. Luckily, I’m pretty muscley, but I’ve still got a fair amount of flub clinging to my frame. Checking your BMI is easy; I like the Center for Disease Control and Prevention BMI calculator because it gives you a little description of what your BMI means - http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/adult_BMI/english_bmi_calculator/bmi_calculator.htm.

 

I’m very happy with my size, but I would still like to lose about 10 pounds. Then I would be back to the same weight that I was during my senior year of high school. Although, even after losing these 10 pounds, I would still be considered severely overweight. So what would it take for me to be considered a normal weight? Take a quick guess how much weight I would have to lose… go a head, think of a number between 0 and 100. OK, for me to reach the very highest bracket of “normal” weight, I would have to lose 35 pounds (from 205 down to 175)… jeez! I was probably 15 years old the last time I weighed that much. I don’t think I would like my body after losing that much… I’m just a big guy, that’s all there is to it.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I think that America has a HUGE weight problem, but I think that I eat well, exercise on a regular basis and understand nutrition well enough to make the logical decision that I am at a healthy weight. On the other hand, I think that our society is getting desensitized to being overweight, which is skewing our view of a “healthy” size. I have two close friends who I look at and think, “Wow you’re scrawny! Look at those tiny, little arms and twig-like legs. I could break you.” Lots of other people make very similar comments. So, we decided to check on their BMIs as well. Sure enough, they are both considered to be at a very healthy weight.

 

I think it’s strange that people look at me, an “obese” individual and say, “Obese, that’s ridiculous. There’s no way you could be considered obese,” while saying that my “normal” weight friends are entirely too skinny.

 

Either way, two months of free food and $1000 to participate in a diabetes study sounds pretty good to me. It’s not even a weight loss study. They want me to maintain my weight (or lose it slowly) however; I’m going to be in a friend’s wedding in September and attending a second wedding during the same week. Sorry, but I’ll have to drink during these events (what kind of groomsman would I be if I didn’t drink during the bachelor party) so I wouldn’t be able to start the study until the very end of September. We’ll see what happens.

 

Oh, I recently saw Super Size Me - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390521. If you have some free time, it’s worth checking out. Makes me happy that I only eat at fast food joints a couple times a year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  

In the eternal battle of Work vs Vacation, no apparent victor can be foreseen. While Vacation is the preferred of the two it will ever be the underdog, and the evil tyranny of Work will always force itself upon you.  That being said, I actually have quite a few vacation days saved up, and since I never get sick (thanks for the great immune system mom and dad) I also have a bunch of sick days that I won't be needing any tme soon. But I feel guilty when I'm not at work since there is always work to do. Unlike Bubba's where I took off of work every chance that I got. Luckily, for Thanksgiving, they force us to take a nice big vacation, so Aliza and I planning on heading to Henry W Coe State Park to do some backpacking. It looks pretty rugged, but it's not quite the majestic mountains of Yosemite. We're going to pack some turkey, cranberries, potatoes and, of course, pumpkin stuff to make a lovely wilderness Thanksgiving dinner.

 

My company also miraculously gives us all time off from Christmas to New Years, so I get to make a nine day foray back to Wisconsin for some visiting and hell-raising. Ticket prices were outrageous. I'd been searching for about a month, but couldn't find anything for under $600. Finally, I found something out of San Jose (over an hour away versus twenty minutes away if I was flying out of SF) that flies into Wausau. Then the return trip goes from Green Bay to San Jose. Crazy, I know, but almost $200 cheaper than flying from SF to GB. Since I'm burning two vacation days (leaving the thursday before christmas was a lot cheaper than leaving that weekend), I think that I'm getting a total of 12 days off for Chrstmas. Rock!

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  

I'm still getting used to having a job where I get weekends and holidays off. This week was especially odd since the 4th was on a Wednesday. Luckily, they let us leave at 1:00 on Tuesday, so we got a day and a half off. My plan for the 4th was to go to Chico with some friends from Bubba's to bbq and go to the races and do some swimming and boating. However, my friends have known about this for a couple months now, so they all asked for a couple days of work off, and left me in San Francisco without a ride there, or a ride back. Instead, I went over to Jas and Joe's Tuesday night to hang out and we randomly went out to meet up with Zeb, the guy whose house we partied at during the Northbeach Festival a couple weeks ago. We finally caught up with him and his girlfriend (it was her birthday) at a tiny, secluded, hole-in-the-wall bar that I never ever would have found by myself. It was a great little place though. We were having fun, and randomly Christy decided to meet up with us as well, and even my buddy Arnie showed up. I love it when random gatherings like this happen, it always makes for a fun night.

 

The following morning I woke up bright and early, took my time getting ready, then headed back over to J and J's to help them prepare for their bbq. I had a good time preparing everything, plus J and J always get pretty high quality, fun food to try out. I was having a great time hanging out and visiting with all of J and J's friends, unfortunately, I had also decided to go visit some friends up in Tiburon (which is north of the Golden Gate bridge) for a bbq. You can never have too much bbqing on the 4th. Most of the people at this party were coworkers of my friend Kelly. I had met some of them before, so I had some people that I knew beforehand, and I met some other cool people too. Specifically, there was a couple who had just moved out from Madison! They were both really cool and have only been in the city for a month. I think that I'm going to try to incorporate them into my "weekend friends." Since most of my close friends work at Bubba's, they still work most weekends. Therefore, I've started gathering another crowd of people to hang out with on the weekends. So far it's all been working out pretty well for me.

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  

This past weekend, Jessie and I finally decided to check out the Luthern church down the street from our house. I go by it all the time on my way to work, and have been wanting to go for some time now. It's at the very outter edge of the Castro, so we knew it was LGBT friendly (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender), which actually made it seem even more exciting to check out. As we walked up, there was an elderly couple at the outside gate who were exceedingly nice and completely taken by surprise that Jessie and I were stopping by to go to church. As we came into the church, everyone was very welcoming and smiled or said hi or introduced themselves. It turns out that most of the people there were a bit older than Jessie and I expected (we were definitely the youngest people in the church), and probably about 60 - 70% of them were gay.

 

The service ran like any normal mass until we got to "The Peace" where at other churches I've been to, you politely shake your neighbors' hands and say, "Peace be with you," but here, I think that every single person in the building stopped by to introduce themselves and say hi and chat for a while. Even the 3 Pastors (I think there was a presiding pastor, an acting pastor, and an assistant pastor or something like that). After 10 minutes of chit chat, we finally went back to the service. Afterwards, they had what they called "coffee" in the lobby, but which turned out to be more of a "lunch." There was salad and meatballs and pasta salad and cake and a few other items. Everyone was overwhelmingly kind and made sure to stop and visit yet again. Overall, I had a great experience, and hopefully Jessie and I will continue to attend. They also have a very active choir... maybe that's something I'd like to look into.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  

There were free concerts all over the place this weekend. I started out by heading over to meet Jasmine and Joe by their house for some quality greasy cafe breakfast at Curley's (the restaurant's mascot also happens to be a cleaver-wielding samurai grandma... sweet!). We entered into a mildly noisy and crowded dining room where a thoroughly frazzled chinese woman scribbled down our order and then ran away. After a few minor mishaps (wrong food, burnt coffee) we finally were able to enjoy our truckstop breakfasts. This was my second time eating at Curley's and I'll definitely be back for more.

 

 After B-fast, we headed over to Washington Square park to watch some jazz and drink some beers (yeah, I know, we shoulda just brought some beer in for breakfast, but we decided to wait until 11 to start drinking). There were some awesome bands on stage. The first lady was a boogying and shaking and having a grand old time. Not to mention her singing! Man, she could wail; it was cool. The second band was great too. They reminded me of a funkier version of the Indigo Girls

 

We then walked around to enjoy all the festivities and eventually found ourselves at one of Christy's friend's houses (a fellow UW alum!). He pulled out a boot from the Essen Haus (an awesome German bar in Madison) and we proceeded to drink ourselves drunk. Not stupid drunk, just the pleasent light-hearted drunk. I stayed out for the rest of the day and night with my friends having fun, making friends, dancing, blah blah blah, and finally made it back home at 3:30 that morning.... what a long day.

 

The following morning I woke up at 10 and my roommate Stephen and I decided to run to Golden Gate park to meet some friends and watch a free concert hosted by a local radio station. What  a dumb idea. I felt fine when we started, but running 3 miles after drinking all day the day before tends to take it out of you. I made it eventually, but not in good form.

 

The groups playing in the park were Mat Kearney (surprisingly good), Everclear (not as good live as I hoped they'd be), and my absolute favorite -Smashmouth! Smashmouth has to be one of the most fun bands I have ever seen before. They just have a good time all the time. And they sound just as good (if not better) live as they do recorded.

 

After a couple hours in the sun and a slight sunburn later, my friend Erin and I decided to go get some sushi at a sushi boat place in Japantown (thanks for the recommendation Jasmine!). I love sushi!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  After that I pretty much called it quits. I need to rest up for my big job... which is actually going alot better now. Dare I say that I'm starting to enjoy myself?

It's true that I notice Aliza's absence, and it affects me deeply, but it still does not compare to the profound void in my life left by Calvin and Hobbes. How I miss traveling through the universe with Spaceman Spiff or solving mysteries as Tracer Bullet, Private Eye or fighting crime and bringing justice to those of little imagination as Stupendous Man. I must have read through my calvin and hobbes collection at least 6 or 7 times... maybe more. I would have read through a couple more times, but considering how often I move, the collection is too unwieldy to carry along on my many relocations, and I have been without for several years now... sad.

 

I have found a definite runner-up to the literary genius of Calvin and Hobbes though. I bet Mom can guess it. Yep, it's Get Fuzzy by Darby Conely... ha ha, stupid dog. I've read through about 6 of the books, but these can only tide me over for so long. Soon I'll have to get my hands on Calvin and Hobbes and read through the whole collection again. Ha, I remember once when we went on vacation and I bought a new Calvin and Hobbes book that was physically impossible for me to not read. Mom and Dad kept scolding me and telling me that I should be looking at the sites as we drove along Lake Michigan. In my opinion, I enjoyed and remember the vacation more because Calvin and Hobbes were there to share it with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  

I went to 4 years of college and drug myself into $18,000 of debt to sit in front of a computer and surf the internet all day (boring stuff like data bases and search engines, not fun stuff like videos and jokes)??? I made more than twice as much working at a restaurant where my main focus was asking people stupid questions about Forrest Gump. Granted, I'm still new to this job and more fun stuff should be coming up, but I'm feeling grumpy and want to complain a bit.

 

I'm working on 5 accounts, which is completely overwhelming. While I'm working on one account, I can't help but stress about all the work I have to do for the other 4 accounts. It's just too much for my discombobulated little brain to wrap its wrinkly gray matter around. There are highlights though, and the people are fun, but I can't enjoy it because I have so much to do. When people start leaving the office for the day or go on lunch and see me diligently working away, they always tell me to take it easy and not work too hard. It's these very same people that get all bent out of shape and "dissapointed" with me when I don't have the time to complete a task to their standard... grrrrrrr.....

 

Of course, the entire time I worked at Bubba's, I hated that too. Of course, there I made a lot more money, worked 25-35 hours a week, and took 2 weeks of vacation every 2 months or so. At least now I'm gaining more marketable skills that open up job opportunities to a wider field. I think after working in corporate PR for a while, I would find it very satisfying to work PR for a non-profit organization. There's plenty of jobs available, but they don't pay nearly as well... we'll see. I'm guessing that I'll choice quality of life over quantity of money.

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  

There's a tiny, little, curvy, twisting, winding road that runs along 550 miles the California coast known as Highway 1, and it is 550 miles of some of the most beautiful scenery you will ever see. I bet this is where 75% of the world's car commercials are filmed. Possibly the most reknown of this stretch is Big Sur which is about 3 hours away from San Francisco. It's a little odd, but after driving for 3 hours to get there, All I wanted to do was keep driving to keep watching the amazing scenery.

 

There's a ton of state and national parks and beaches around to check out too. We camped at a pretty cool one, but it wasn't very well regulated. Everyone set up camp around the designated sites in a clearing in the woods. The wind was amzingly strong, and some of the tents that were already pitched when we got there were starting to get torn out of the ground, so we staked the tent but didn't set it all the way up so it didn't get torn up by the wind. Instead we put our heavy stuff on top of it to help keep it in place. After that, we went to a park and hiked around to check out a waterfall and an awesome valley overlook. Once it got to be around sunset, we decided to get back to camp, start up a fire, and cook some hot dogs...mmmmm. Unfortunately, when we got back, a family had completely taken over our site. They even put all their chairs around the fire pit and put a table cloth and food out on the table. What the!?!? This was our site! The worst of it was that they had three loud little kids running around nagging at each other. I wanted no part of that. Luckily, even though all the sites were taken, there was a large group who had reserved 3 sites but only needed 2. They gladly offered the extra site to me and Aliza... thank goodness.

 

The next day we woke up early and went on a horse ride! It's been forever since I've ridden a horse, and Turvee hardly counts as a horse... of course, she did buck me off once when she was about 21 years old or so. Sure, they went reeeeeaaaallllyyyy slowly, but it was cool nonetheless. We went into some cool valleys and then went out onto a beach. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Afterwards we drove along to a restaraunt that was well known for it's amazing location on a cliff 800 feet above the ocean. Even though it was about 2 o'clock, the place was loud and packed and the wait was still about an hour for a table. So we walked down to a lower terrace within the building complex to a quiet, more secluded, cheaper cafe type place where we were perched on a cliff only about 780 feet about the ocean, oh darn. One of the places where we pulled over, there were people out watching 4 huge condors flying around. And since it was by a cliff, the birds were flying very close to our height. It was amazing to see such rare, huge birds, but I have to admit, they are some of the ugliest things I've ever seen. Just a bunch of red, wrinkly skin stuck into a bunch of ratty feathers. Later on, we were hiking on a cliff trail in a park and suddenly we found ourselves practically face-to-face with a gigantic condor that was cruising at our eye level rigtht along the cliff. Now that was incredible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  

Wow, what a crazy full life I lead. It seems like I'm always doing something. It's kind of nice, but sometimes I'd like just a little time to myself, not to catch up on things, but to do absolutely nothing.

 

My new job is good. I suppose nobody really likes their job, especially right off the bat. I think it will grow into something that I enjoy doing, but it might take some time. Right now I'm doing all the busy, boring work, which still isn't all too bad. I'm just glad to be doing something that makes me feel as though I'm growing, and that will hopefully make my $18,000 in student loans worthwhile.

 

This past weekend was full of Mexican culture and strawberries (and no we weren't picking in the fields with the migrant workers). And by Mexican culture, I mean that it was Cinco de Mayo on Saturday, so we drank Mexican beer and ate tacos all day long. Is there any better way to celebrate 4,000 Mexicans beating up 8,000 French in 1862? Before we started the partying though, Jasmine, Joe, Christy and I all headed over to the ballpark to watch the Giants beat up on the Phillies. We also got to see Barry Bonds hit homerun number 744 on his record-breaking run to Hank Aaron's 755 (I'd like to add that Hank was on the Milwaukee Brave World Series champion team of 1957, and he hit his final home run as a Brewer in 1976). After the game, we grabbed a couple beers at Thirsty Bear, a microbrewery that Christy and Joe love, but I find the beer to taste like bitter seltzer water. Then we took the BART over to Berkeley where Aliza met up with us to go to a couple of parties with Jasmine's co-workers. One party even had 5 or 6 different bands playing throughout the day. And of course, both parties were overflowing with cheap Mexican beer, salsa, and tacos.

 

The following day I woke up to a beautimus 80 degree day (about 5 degrees warmer than I've ever seen in San Francisco before). Aliza went on a bike ride with a friend, so I decided to enjoy the weather and shot the ol' basketball around for awhile. At about 12:30, Christy picked us up (she has a car!), we headed over to get Jasmine and Joe, then we drove to Dixon to visit the farm where Aliza and I get our CSA vegetables. They were letting all of their supporters come visit the farm for the day and pick strawberries to your hearts content. I can't even begin to explain how incredibly amazing the strawberries were! Red and plump and sweet and delicious. Plus they were in the hot sun, so it was almost like eating a warm strawberry pie. After eating about 2 pounds of strawberries myself, we decided to pick some strawberries to bring home. Our farmer, Nigel, decided to sell the strawberries for a dollar a pound with the proceeds going to his sons for their summer camp. Aliza and I got 4 pounds, Christy got 5, and Jasmine and Joe got 6 or more. In retrospect, I wish we would have gotten a bit more, but who can complain about 4 pounds of sweet, red goodness? After we finally finished picking berries and walking around the farm, we drove back to Jasmine and Joe's to cook some of the veggies that Aliza and I brought over from our CSA box (we had just seen where all of our vegetable grew!). On the way back home, we got a good view of the melted causeways (click on that) where an oil tanker crashed and caught on fire. It melted and collapsed a huge freeway intersection at 580 and 880, but they've done a very good job of keeping traffic flowing around it. Once we got to the house, I made a wonderful vegetable stir fry with spinach, chard, onions, green garlic, fava beans, and kale. And we finally finished up the day with some ice cream, chocolate syrup and fresh strawberries, mmmmmmmm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  

This past January, Aliza and I decided to pack up and drive to Yosemite for some mountain climbing and winter camping... it was completely her idea. I have to admit though, out of anywhere I've ever visited before, Yosemite is hands-down the most breath taking area I've ever laid eyes upon. I was a bit sad when we first got to the park at 3am and there weren't any cartoon references on any of the signs, but after stumbling out of the tent the next morning, I was in complete awe of the beauty and majesty that surrounded our feeble shelter. Today, Even after personally experiencing this natural wonder, I cannot completely comprehend its full magnificence. A person must be present to fully revel in the glory that is Yosemite.

 

That first day, Aliza and I decided to take a hike… a 7.2 mile hike… up a mountain. As a matter of fact, the trail rose 3,000 feet from the valley floor to a grand elevation of about 7,000 feet, which is 3 and a half times as high at the highest point in Wisconsin (Tim’s Hill - 1,951 feet). Needless to say, it was the most strenuous hike I’d ever been on. The trail went alongside the Upper Yosemite Falls up to the very head of the falls. The Yosemite Falls are some of the longest falls in the world. What was especially astounding to see during this trip was the water falling 1,400 feet through the frozen air to land as shards of ice at the base of the falls. We encountered drastic temperature changes along the way. The temperature at the valley floor during the day was probably in the upper forties, but was probably in the mid twenties at the top of the mountain. More striking than the temperature change, was the change in the landscape. While the valley floor looked like a typical cold March day in Wisconsin, the top was completely covered with a deep layer of snow. It was hard, crusty snow, not good for making snowmen. I still get misty-eyed every time I think of the breath taking beauty that we encountered while upon that frigid mountaintop.

 

The next day, we drove in the car and marveled at the sites available even at the valley floor. Some of the more popular and more famous were Bridalveil Falls – a thundering 620 ft, El Capitan – a sheer granite wall that rises 3,000 ft and is one of the premiere rock climbing spots in the world, and Cathedral rocks – perhaps the most stunning of any of the rock formations we had seen. Then we decided to travel to the southern end of the park and see the Mariposa Grove – one of the largest groves of sequoias in the world. After a frightening drive through an icy, fog engulfed, tiny mountain pass, we arrived at the trailhead to the grove. During the summer, people can drive right up to the grove, but in the winter it was another 2 mile walk to the grove… and well worth the effort! I doubt dad could cut down more than one of these suckers in a single day. And interestingly enough, one of the reasons that sequoias still exist is because their wood splinters and shatters so that much of the trees is useless after falling to the ground, therefore logging sequoias was not worth the time and effort. Aliza and I were 2 of maybe 8 people to visit the grove that day. The seclusion and snow blanketing made me forget that cities and cars and buildings even existed.

 Out of anywhere I’ve been in the US, Yosemite is the one that I most wish to revisit. If you ever have a chance, you need to see this National, natural, wonder.

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  

Let's give this a try. I have a video that Jessie and I took building our sand castle. Click on this link http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=lsmith0201 and click on the sand castle video. It may take a pretty long time to load, but give it a try.

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  

So, Aliza and I decided that since we're surrounded by amazing scenery and nature (outside of San Francisco), we're going to get out and experience some of it while we're here. In the middle of December, we decided to start our adventures by camping in Point Reyes, a national seashore. It was a foggy the whole time we were there, but beautiful and amazing nonetheless. We had to hike 2 miles into the campsite with all of our gear and tents and stuff, but it was a pretty easy walk. The campsite itself was right behind some sand dunes next to the shore, so we could listen to the crashing waves all night. We had some visitors while we were there too. A herd of 13 elk (that turned out to be practically tame) and a flock of 25 or so quail were roaming around the campsite all night long.

 

The next day, we went to the end of the point which juts way out into the ocean. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures this day. Either we forgot to take them, or it was too foggy. Despite the fog, we could still hear the waves crashing on the cliffs below us. We could kind of see it too - pretty incredible. While at the end of the point, we came across my favorite moment of the whole trip - a full grown male elephant seal. I thought it was a giant rock off the beach at first, but then it moved, so I assumed it was a whale, but oh no! That's right, 4,000 pounds of fat wrapped in dark brown blubber, with a beautiful bass growl that echoed off the cliffs. It was amazing!

 

Next exciting adventure, Yosemite National Park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  

I never thought I'd be building sand castles on the Pacific Ocean in the middle of November. Sure I was wearing a t-shirt, a long sleeve shirt, and a sweatshirt, and I couldn't feel my toes afterwards, but what a great time!!!

 

Jessie and I had a random day off together, so we decided to pay the beach a visit. It's been a while since we've been out there. It's surprisingly easy to forget that the Pacific Ocean is only a couple miles away from my house.

 

I also finally applied for a real job. My first one! I would be estatic to actually get this job, but I don't have my hopes too high since it is the first job I've applied for. And after what Jasmine and Aliza went through to have to settle for mediocre jobs, I guessing that I'll have to apply to another 17 places or so to have a good chance.

 

For Thanksgiving this year, I'm getting together with some friends from work. It should be fun, but I'm not expecting too much out of this either. Everyone will probably drink too much and then want to go out somewhere. That's not what Thanksgiving is all about. Thanksgiving is about eating so much food that it hurts to stand up, and you have to unzip your pants just to sit on the couch, without ripping your pants, where dad and grandpa have already been passed out for a good 30 minutes or so.

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.  

 

 

I know you're all dying to see my apartment, so I finally put some picks up for you. It's a beautiful place. 3 nice big bedrooms, 1 small bedroom, a spacious living room, a gorgeous kitchen. Oh yeah, and there's a back porch/laundry room. I have an amazing view of the city from my window. There's a nice "backyard" (by San Francisco standards). And lastly, it's in a great neighborhood with cool little shops and restaurants right next to Alamo Square park.

 

 

 

 

 

Camp 20 Cabins in Laona, Wisconsin - http://www.camp20cabins.com

Forget the Hotel! Enjoy modern conveniences while nestled in the heart of the Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Cabins are fully furnished and brand new. They're cozy and comfy while still providing all of your modern ammenities. Rustic Luxury as we like to call it.