Big Trees, Big Fun

Finally! We have been so excited to go camping and this weekend was very anticipated. The location was last minute, but the experience was perfect. We drove two hours to arrive at Calaveras Big Trees State Park--home of the Giant Sequoias.

A combination of getting out of town a little later and the travel time taking longer than expected meant setting up camp at dusk. It didn't matter though, we were thrilled to be out in the woods. As seen below, I impressed Karen yet again with my fire starting ability (and I'm not even an Eagle Scout).

Friday night's menu included hot dogs roasted to perfection, chips with ridges, and crispy red grapes. Of course all this was shortly followed by smores. (Have you seen Karen's marshmallow roasting skills?)
The ground was hard (air mattress has a hole), but we slept beautifully. The next morning we ate with anticipation for the morning's activities.....hiking!
It was better than we had hoped. This is actually one tree, not two.
It was worth a try....

There really is some interesting history in these woods. This tree is over 1400 years old. After it was cut down in the mid 1800's, the stump was used as dance floor for several years.

We were pleasantly surprised to also find a river....with fish in it too. Unfortunately, I left my pole at home. Karen says the white water really adds color to my legs.

The next thing I knew Karen was jumping in the river, clothes and all.
The water did look refreshing.

Who's coming with us next time?

Tri for Fun

After splurging on bikes, we decided to go for a sprint triathlon. We trained for 2 months, received some advice from pros like Aaron, and basically planned our weeks and weekends around bike rides, swims, and runs. Finally, Saturday morning came around and it was time to take a stab at this new sport. (Although Sat morning came around at 4:45 am, and that was definitely against my "nothing before 6 am" rule.)

Here we are just before the start of the race. There were about 1000 participants, which makes for a lot of bikes to hop around during transitions.

Our first experience with swim caps...strange. It's amazing how many girls look like men with these things on. (I may or may not be refering to myself--you decide.)


The first part of a triathlon is a swim. This is our weakest event, but one we have worked on religiously 2-3 times a week (in our tiny apartment pool). We both had nerves before the swim, considering that we have never tried out freestyle in a lake. In the end, we both felt we could have done better at this segment. I started way too far back, and kept veering off course. Brady drank enough of the lake water to stay hydrated throughout the race.

Here's a pic of the beautiful lake:

Here's a pic of what we actually experienced:

Seaweed grabbing the legs combined with murky green water doesn't add up to good dreams later on. I much preferred the bike and run, although I still want a road bike!

We made up some time on the bike/run portion. In the end, I decided that my next tri will be longer. I don't think I could have gone faster throughout the event, but I felt I could have gone longer (although a longer swim sounds terrible).

Here we are after the event. We were started in 7 different waves of people, so we ended up 15 minutes apart. Overall, we finished with almost the same time! It made me wish we had waited for the 7th heat (friends/family). It's a little sad that it's all over--especially the training. I'm looking for our next event...

1/10th of the Way There!

Both sets of my grandparents have now made it 50 years in their marriages. I've always hoped for the same. Maybe it is my compulsiveness that requires me to make all these goals, but that's a biggie.

It was Brady's year to come up with our anniversary plans. While we wanted to do a weekend trip, there were no available weekends. I started school, he started the busy time at work, and that's life. So he planned a day trip.

We took the BART early, and got to the city in time for a tasty breakfast at Sears Fine Foods (where we ate last year...YUM!). Then we hopped on our bikes and headed across the Golden Gate. As evidenced below, it was quite foggy. In fact, they call it a drizzle when it is like this.

I've been begging Brady to consider getting road bikes now that we have our mountain bikes (and I want to get more involved in triathlons). In fact, I spent the first few miles in the city complaining that we didn't have skinny, non-traction tires to cruise around on. Then, I discovered the glory of mountain bikes. You can bike off-road.

I know, what a mystery, huh? Well, I have never been off-road. It was breathtaking!!

We biked a LONG time uphill. It was challenging, but there were a few flatter areas, and plenty of drink breaks. The first few miles I couldn't get over the thrill and uncertaintly of gravel.

In this picture, Brady says I'm ready to join Harley. (Check out the gloves.)

Finally, we started in on some downhill. That simply took the workout from the legs to the arms for me. I think I was just so tense and nervous that my arms were constantly flexed.

Brady made sure to find some wildflowers along the way. (He also made sure to get some flowers for me on Friday...)

We found a different trail to go back to the city, and ended up seeing the bridge without all the "drizzle."

All said, we went about 27 miles. (We know that due to Brady's Google Earth hobby.) It was a new adventure, and one we plan to repeat with different trails. We discovered areas to park so we can skip the city next time around. Not that we mind the view...

Sweatin' to the Oldies

We love the oldies, and we don't mind a little sweat. We also don't mind Richard Simmons.

We are, however, pretty sick of this California heat wave. We are reminded daily that we don't live IN San Francisco!

We are currently on a "heat advisory." No one really had to tell us that. That fact is easily established by walking outside at 7am, and still getting drenched. It's been over the 100s for over a week. Saturday, it hit 110. Today, it "cooled off" to a mild 106 degrees. Fantastic.

I was self-conscious about my excessive sweating--especially around all the faculty at my new job. Then I realized that everyone else had neck rings and back sweat stains, too. Eww.

Everyone around here keeps assuring us that this is "out of the ordinary" and that they just "can't believe this crazy weather." Each time I hear these phrases, I make a threat to the weatherman..."It BETTER be out of the ordinary." Or else, right?

What do you do? I suppose even the CA climate isn't always ideal.

Remember the Blues

Sometimes work gives you perks...and this was one of those times. The company I work for is a large sponsor for the Wente Vineyards Concert Series in Livermore, CA. The concerts are outside among beautiful vineyards and golfing greens. Supposedly, cameras are not allowed--so naturally I took only a few pictures.


Karen and I were given tickets valued at $150/ea to listen to music while sitting on tables next to the stage, and also eat from the best buffet I have ever had. I had to be sneaky to snap these pics.

After being stuffed with salmon, chicken, and delectable fruits we awaited the main event..."The Blues Traveler." I remembered a couple of their songs, but the most impressive performance was John Popper on the harmonica(hat and glasses). I promise their concert was better than this picture. Real cool, huh.

Date Night in San Francisco

8 Things You Can Do in San Francisco:

1. Eat really great at The Slanted Door.

2. Have intelligible conversations with intelligent people.

3. Walk to Coit Tower, which means climbing stair after stair after stair. We actually found a secret set of brick stairs (found below in #7).

4. Notice things along the way that we would have never otherwise noticed.

(What happens when this guy stands up?????)

5. Enjoy serene scenes from Coit Tower.

6. Watch Kristen kill a large bug with her eyelashes.

7. Pretend like we're taking engagement pictures again.

8. Enjoy some time with our hot wives.

M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I

Does anyone else remember chanting that spelling the day you learned it? Over and over and over?

Today, everything ended early in church, and teachers all over were struggling to maintain the attention of their classes. After doing every "enrichment" activity I could with my class, I gave in to the all-popular game of hangman.

Each kid had a turn to spell out something--preferably from the lesson. It went smoothly, then a self-proclaimed "smartie" girl in my class said she had a word that was really going to stump us. With just 2 minutes to go, I was skeptical. Aside from the kids of the spelling bee craze that has taken the nation, I would be surprised and embarrased if a 7-year-old could take me.

Several minutes later--after church was over--the class had to give in. I had absolutely NO IDEA what her word was, and figured it must be in Japanese or something (a language she says that she knows). She excitedly filled in the letters to the hangman puzzle, loudly and enthusiastically adding, "The state! See!? I knew I'd get you!"

MISS ASJUPE

SMILE!

This is the face of two people who just went to the dentist yesterday and HAD NO CAVITIES!

You might think, "Well, they just went to the dentist 9 months ago and had a lot of work done. Why would they have more cavities?"

We both had a few teeth that were on "cavity watch." (In fact, I had 4 teeth in this category.) And they aren't cavities! Yeah!!!

AND...the dentist said I really need to consider getting braces, because my gums are starting to recede on my front tooth based on the angle it is sitting. That's happy news, since I've been trying to justify them for about 5 years, and couldn't get over it being a vanity issue. Vanity issue or not, that's a lot of cash.

But at least WE DON'T HAVE ANY CAVITIES!

Eatin' Well and Then Burning It Off

My appetite for seafood led us to San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf over the weekend. Karen and I arrived early enough to even find free parking.
We found this little place right on the pier that is nationally recognized for its seafood--Scoma's Restaurant. It was the best food since the cruise.
One of the highlights of the Wharf is the Bush-Man. I snapped this shot of him in action. Karen was a victim of his tactics last year, so we (and about 40 others) took a moment to laugh at the startled reactions of others. The guy on the right could not figure out what we were all looking at, but in a split second, he understood.
A shot looking on to Alcatraz.
After some casual walking around the piers we spotted the Ghiradelli Chocolate Factory. The brownie sundae with both milk and dark chocolate was delectable.Following a terrific feast the night before, Karen and I hopped on our new bikes for a beautiful two hour ride Saturday morning around the trails near home. Do bike seats come with any more cushion these days? We are both feeling it today.

Our Second Trip to Elko, Nevada

Well, ya gotta do what ya gotta do...so we decided to make the most of it. After our clutch burned out last week, we had a 15-hour drive ahead of us to rescue our car. We went all out, left on Friday, and got a motel room in Elko for $50. Livin the high life, I tell you. No, folks, we won't be going to Hawaii with Cory, Kristen, Ang, and Paul, but we really shell it out for a good Travelodge.

The Lodge was courteous enough to provide labels for the ammenities. The lounge was labeled, the room numbers were labeled, and the shampoo was labeled. Thank heavens...one of the perks of this Travelodge was that it was pet-friendly. Without the label (and based on the smell), we could only have assumed that this shampoo was not meant for humans.

We also decided to take our camera for pictures along the way. We figured there had to be something scenic. Then we remembered that we were in Nevada. The only thing scenic in Nevada is the California border. However, the airline that we took our rental car from sure thought highly of the view.

We almost went for Premium gas at this Shell...

We also immensely enjoyed passing "Boomtown" four times in the last 2 weeks.

Finally, we found joy in the simple pleasures of a road trip...like clean bathrooms at pit stops, continental breakfast, lots of time to chat, and a bag of grapes to snack on.

Good times.