The illuminaugi
12 years ago
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Lake Tahoe
Arriving night – went to La Cantina, recommended to us by the South Lake Tahoe Climbing Guide was actually pretty decent. Very fast service and stiff drinks.
Day 1:
Rest Day – we were determined to do the bare minimum, which consisted of eating, sleeping, watching TV, napping, snacking and visiting the hotel pool/sauna.
Day 2:
Climbing at Eagle Falls gorgeous sunny day, approximately 20 degrees Celsius in the alpine, so there was still snow all around us. Gill, Marija, and Tessa’s first crack climb. The girls all found crack climbing to be quite difficult and not like anything they had experienced in Victoria. After I led all the routes the girls followed on top rope.
After climbing we decided to head to a club that was recommended by the hotel concierge, Vex. Vex apparently is the closest thing to a Vegas club in South Lake Tahoe. We walked from our hotel on the California side of the Nevada California state line to the Nevada side and made it to the club. Marija and Tessa were pumped to get out clubbing but I was not quite as pumped on the idea. Everyone brought two pieces of ID and I brought my passport (the only ID I had at the time). We got to the bouncers and Marija decided to jump in line with a bachalorette party that was in the VIP line. Gill and I waited in the casino to see if she got in or not. Unsurprisingly Marija did not get in. She was in tears. It turns out that you need a passport to get in to the club if you are not from the USA. I was the only one with a passport. Gill and I were just as happy to head back to the hotel. Marija went to the other club and tried to get in as well but was turned away for the same reason. We went to bed after an impromptu hotel dance party.
Day 3:
Today we went to Reno, “The Biggest Little City in the World”. Reno is depressing. It seems to be where old gamblers go to die. We read that the best burger in Reno was the “Awful Awful Burger” from the Golden Nugget Casino. We decided to give it a try. The Awful Awful comes with a ½ lb. patty and a full pound of ulta-salty fries. The burger was good, not the best that I had ever had, but good. The diner it was served in was dimly lit and about as depressing looking as you can imagine. In Reno we also went to an antique store and tried on costumes for a while. We also toured the city on the free bus. The University of Nevada, Reno was a very nice looking school despite the depressing surroundings. On the way back we stopped at Starbucks and Gill was told to “head back to Canada, Reno sucks.”
Day 4:
Today I decided, with Gill’s approval, to take her out multi-pitch rock climbing. Multi-pitch rock climbing is a climb where the climb is longer than the length of the rope and you have to belay each other from points along the route, generally on small rock ledges. The route we chose was Knapsack Crack (5.5). Knapsack Crack was a highly rated easy climb in the climbing area known as “Lover’s Leap.” The climb went extremely well despite some light rain. Good quality granite made Gill’s first multi-pitch climb very fun, which was important if I wanted to convince her to do more multi-pitch climbs on this trip. After getting picked up by the girl’s at 6, we headed back into town and had 50% off appies and 3$ Margarita’s at Chevy’s, a Tex Mex restaurant. We then made lasagna for dinner.
Day 5:
Tandem Biking looks good on paper. I will let Gill describe her side of the story here as well because they are a bit different.
Tom:
I had a great time. Tandem bikes are quick and you get to try to get two people to do the stunts that normally only you will do. We borrowed two bikes from Anderson’s bike rental and had a glorious hour and a half bike around Lake Tahoe’s paved bike trails. We explored a local beach and saw some “historical buildings.”
Gill:
Tandem biking was invented by the criminally insane. 2 people and1 bike leads requires serious knowledge of biking etiquette and communication. I was placed on the back of the bike first, and was completely at Tom’s mercy in terms of steering and braking. We then switched so I was driving, but this didn’t work out either because Tom could change the direction of the bike any way he liked by simply shifting his weight due to the large weight difference between us. After my brief turn at the drivers seat, I hopped back onto the back and held on for dear life for the next hour (Jumping off the bike for sweet, sweet ground every time Tom thought we should ride through something that I was sure would make us crash), all the while Tom was shouting “Weee” at the top of his lungs.
Day 6:
3rd Day of climbing (by Gill): today we went to Phantom Spires, everyone’s first spire climb!!! It was very sunny and everyone forgot sunscreen. Tom thought by bringing 3 girls along, sunscreen would automatically be brought to and boy was he wrong. I was the only one not burnt a deep lobster red because I was in the wind, belaying Tom up every spire and therefore completely covered for the day. Tom did the hardest trad climb he had ever done (10.c) called candy land – it was very cool looking with these huge knobs just sticking out of the face of the spire. I finally figured out how to crack climb, mostly because I was doing a route with a huge overhang and really wanted to avoid it. Marija and Tessa suntanned in the nude and received the most damage from the sun.
We then went to Opal, a club in the Blue Moon Casino. Marija and Tessa went earlier than Tom and myself because we were stuck doing laundry, so by the time we arrived at the club (12) they had a serious head start. It was fairly easy to catch up however, because the drinks were only $1!!! After a dance-off with a hippie, we called it a night.
Day 7:
We left for San Francisco at 10:30am. After Gill’s impressive dodge of an approximately human shaped item wrapped in a moving blanket in the center of the Freeway we made it into the city. Driving in San Francisco is the devil. All the streets are one way and every stop sign has a 45-degree hill start to cope with. I finally managed to park the car in valet parking overnight and we headed off for a tour of Alcatraz.
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was open from 1933-1963 and housed all the prisoners too bad for the regular prison system. The tour was very informative and Gill and I walked around the island whistling the theme song to “The Rock” starring Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery. Many pictures were taken (as always), thanks Marija!
At night Tessa and Marija hit up a club called Slide, where you take a slide to get into the club. I was not allowed in because I w
Day 1:
Rest Day – we were determined to do the bare minimum, which consisted of eating, sleeping, watching TV, napping, snacking and visiting the hotel pool/sauna.
Day 2:
Climbing at Eagle Falls gorgeous sunny day, approximately 20 degrees Celsius in the alpine, so there was still snow all around us. Gill, Marija, and Tessa’s first crack climb. The girls all found crack climbing to be quite difficult and not like anything they had experienced in Victoria. After I led all the routes the girls followed on top rope.
After climbing we decided to head to a club that was recommended by the hotel concierge, Vex. Vex apparently is the closest thing to a Vegas club in South Lake Tahoe. We walked from our hotel on the California side of the Nevada California state line to the Nevada side and made it to the club. Marija and Tessa were pumped to get out clubbing but I was not quite as pumped on the idea. Everyone brought two pieces of ID and I brought my passport (the only ID I had at the time). We got to the bouncers and Marija decided to jump in line with a bachalorette party that was in the VIP line. Gill and I waited in the casino to see if she got in or not. Unsurprisingly Marija did not get in. She was in tears. It turns out that you need a passport to get in to the club if you are not from the USA. I was the only one with a passport. Gill and I were just as happy to head back to the hotel. Marija went to the other club and tried to get in as well but was turned away for the same reason. We went to bed after an impromptu hotel dance party.
Day 3:
Today we went to Reno, “The Biggest Little City in the World”. Reno is depressing. It seems to be where old gamblers go to die. We read that the best burger in Reno was the “Awful Awful Burger” from the Golden Nugget Casino. We decided to give it a try. The Awful Awful comes with a ½ lb. patty and a full pound of ulta-salty fries. The burger was good, not the best that I had ever had, but good. The diner it was served in was dimly lit and about as depressing looking as you can imagine. In Reno we also went to an antique store and tried on costumes for a while. We also toured the city on the free bus. The University of Nevada, Reno was a very nice looking school despite the depressing surroundings. On the way back we stopped at Starbucks and Gill was told to “head back to Canada, Reno sucks.”
Day 4:
Today I decided, with Gill’s approval, to take her out multi-pitch rock climbing. Multi-pitch rock climbing is a climb where the climb is longer than the length of the rope and you have to belay each other from points along the route, generally on small rock ledges. The route we chose was Knapsack Crack (5.5). Knapsack Crack was a highly rated easy climb in the climbing area known as “Lover’s Leap.” The climb went extremely well despite some light rain. Good quality granite made Gill’s first multi-pitch climb very fun, which was important if I wanted to convince her to do more multi-pitch climbs on this trip. After getting picked up by the girl’s at 6, we headed back into town and had 50% off appies and 3$ Margarita’s at Chevy’s, a Tex Mex restaurant. We then made lasagna for dinner.
Day 5:
Tandem Biking looks good on paper. I will let Gill describe her side of the story here as well because they are a bit different.
Tom:
I had a great time. Tandem bikes are quick and you get to try to get two people to do the stunts that normally only you will do. We borrowed two bikes from Anderson’s bike rental and had a glorious hour and a half bike around Lake Tahoe’s paved bike trails. We explored a local beach and saw some “historical buildings.”
Gill:
Tandem biking was invented by the criminally insane. 2 people and1 bike leads requires serious knowledge of biking etiquette and communication. I was placed on the back of the bike first, and was completely at Tom’s mercy in terms of steering and braking. We then switched so I was driving, but this didn’t work out either because Tom could change the direction of the bike any way he liked by simply shifting his weight due to the large weight difference between us. After my brief turn at the drivers seat, I hopped back onto the back and held on for dear life for the next hour (Jumping off the bike for sweet, sweet ground every time Tom thought we should ride through something that I was sure would make us crash), all the while Tom was shouting “Weee” at the top of his lungs.
Day 6:
3rd Day of climbing (by Gill): today we went to Phantom Spires, everyone’s first spire climb!!! It was very sunny and everyone forgot sunscreen. Tom thought by bringing 3 girls along, sunscreen would automatically be brought to and boy was he wrong. I was the only one not burnt a deep lobster red because I was in the wind, belaying Tom up every spire and therefore completely covered for the day. Tom did the hardest trad climb he had ever done (10.c) called candy land – it was very cool looking with these huge knobs just sticking out of the face of the spire. I finally figured out how to crack climb, mostly because I was doing a route with a huge overhang and really wanted to avoid it. Marija and Tessa suntanned in the nude and received the most damage from the sun.
We then went to Opal, a club in the Blue Moon Casino. Marija and Tessa went earlier than Tom and myself because we were stuck doing laundry, so by the time we arrived at the club (12) they had a serious head start. It was fairly easy to catch up however, because the drinks were only $1!!! After a dance-off with a hippie, we called it a night.
Day 7:
We left for San Francisco at 10:30am. After Gill’s impressive dodge of an approximately human shaped item wrapped in a moving blanket in the center of the Freeway we made it into the city. Driving in San Francisco is the devil. All the streets are one way and every stop sign has a 45-degree hill start to cope with. I finally managed to park the car in valet parking overnight and we headed off for a tour of Alcatraz.
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was open from 1933-1963 and housed all the prisoners too bad for the regular prison system. The tour was very informative and Gill and I walked around the island whistling the theme song to “The Rock” starring Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery. Many pictures were taken (as always), thanks Marija!
At night Tessa and Marija hit up a club called Slide, where you take a slide to get into the club. I was not allowed in because I w
Sunday, May 23, 2010
May 9th-13th: Portland-San Francisco
May 9th-May19: Oregon Coast -> San Francisco -> Lake Tahoe
It has been a while since I have last updated this but here it goes:
Portland, Oregon:
We drove from southern Washington to Portland to get out of the cold. In Portland we were guided into Portland by our friendly GPS, Dave. There was no room at the first place we tried and the other hostel in town only had two private rooms left. Portland is a very artsy city. The first place we stopped was a street lined with hippy vendors and organic bakeries. At the hostel we were invited to go on a free art walk around the Pearl District. It turns out that all the art galleries open their door and provide free beer and wine on the first Thursday of each month. The art was a little bit too far in left field for most of us and ranged from what looked like poor Photoshopping (by Gus Van Sant) to a arcade with a smoke machine in it. The people on the tour and the food and booze made up for the art though.
Oregon Coast:
From Portland, we headed out to the Oregon coast to drive down the 101. Our first stop outside of Portland was at the Tillamook cheese factory in Tillamook Oregon. The engineers are all obsessed with factories, robots, and production lines, so the stop here was considered essential. Tillamook Cheese is actually the #2 distributed cheese in America, and there were many free samples of fresh cheese. After the cheese stop, we drove down the 101 to Florence, Oregon and camped at Jessie M. Honeyman State Park, home to 2 miles of Dunes on the Oregon coast. The 101 was as ridiculous as the movies, and the dunes looked like something out of a star wars movie. We heard of a dune buggy tour company near where we were camping and we decided to go for the half hour “fast tour”. It was crazy fast and really fun, the driver took us around most of the 13miles of dune that were out there and took us down the steepest hill in the park at lightning speed.
We drove south from Florence to Harris Beach a national park right on the Oregon side of the Oregon/California Boarder. On the way we stopped for a stroll along the beach at Point Blanco Lighthouse. It was a really nicely developed campsite and our little site had a short stonewall around it and a stone staircase leading from the parking spot to the tenting area. The only problem with Harris Beach was the rain. After we went to bed it started and did not stop until we left. Gill and I had a very waterproof MEC Tarn 3 tent and Marija and Tessa had a not-so-waterproof Woods brand tent. We woke up dry. Marija and Tessa not so much. Marija left the tent to seek refuge in the car and while she was there the tent collapsed on Tessa. We were still bone dry and fast asleep.
We stopped for lunch the next day at a city park in Eureka California. In order to dry out all our wet camping gear we decided to spend the next night in a yurt. Yurts are a popular place to stay at US campgrounds. They are essentially the Eurasian take on the Tipi. Our yurt had a heater and the campground (in Redding, California) had free breakfast so we could not complain. The next day we were off to San Francisco!
San Francisco:
In San Francisco (more specifically Mill Valley) we were going to stay with Marija’s aunt Grace for three nights. We told Grace that we would be there for dinner. It was a short drive from Redding to Mill Valley so we had some time to go ROCK CLIMBING! It was the first rock climbing of the trip and it was a nice introduction to California climbing. We went to Mickey beach near Stinson Beach. The road up to the climbing was one of the windiest that I have ever been on, so windy that Marija and Tessa looked in vain for an alternate route back to Mill Valley. I was a fan of the curves however it was like an Oceanside rally circuit.
Grace and Josh were nice enough to host the four of us in their beautiful house. All the food, conversation and wine were excellent. Grace is also an engineer and had all sorts of insightful things to talk about. We all had a great night sleep (our first in a real bed in a week). The next morning we got ready to head into town.
We were not yet out of the car when we first got scammed. A guy, claiming to be the parking attendant, asked us for $15 and slid what looked like a parking verification onto our dash. After he scampered off we quickly realized that it was just a random receipt that he had put on our dash and the guy had no relation to the parking authority at all. Damn! We paid the real machine for parking and pledged to pay more attention to these things. In the city of San Francisco we drove the steepest road, the windiest road, walked up some crazy hills in search of the Full House house, saw some sea lions, went to the fortune cookie factory and Pier 39. What a great day of exploring the city. We got back in the car, drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and made it back to Grace’s in time for dinner.
Nappa and Sonoma Valleys:
California is known for its wineries. Marija’s uncle recommended three wineries to visit. He also got us a free tasting at one of the vineyards. First stop Viansa Vineyard where Mike the helpful wine guy poured each of us a flight of four wines. Viansa is a small-scale winery set on a beautiful estate along the highway to the Nappa Valley. The second vineyard we visited was Artesa. Artesa is a fancier winery where we had been given a free tasting session courtesy of Marija’s uncle Josh and the mysterious Glenn of Artesa. Gill was the only one ID’ed out of the group, she was not impressed. We then drank 4 new wines and decided that the 2005 Cabernet Savungion was the best. Artesa then comp’ed us a bottle of the ‘Cab’ and after lunch we drove off to the last winery Gloria Frerrer. We didn’t stay too long at the last winery because we were all tired, but did sneak onto to the champagne tour. When we got to the champagne making and storing warehouse we saw the coolest robot of the whole trip. Marija, Tessa, and I all debated what type of robot it was (Puma, 6 degree of freedom) while Gill watched the rest of the tour along with everyone else there for a tasting.
It has been a while since I have last updated this but here it goes:
Portland, Oregon:
We drove from southern Washington to Portland to get out of the cold. In Portland we were guided into Portland by our friendly GPS, Dave. There was no room at the first place we tried and the other hostel in town only had two private rooms left. Portland is a very artsy city. The first place we stopped was a street lined with hippy vendors and organic bakeries. At the hostel we were invited to go on a free art walk around the Pearl District. It turns out that all the art galleries open their door and provide free beer and wine on the first Thursday of each month. The art was a little bit too far in left field for most of us and ranged from what looked like poor Photoshopping (by Gus Van Sant) to a arcade with a smoke machine in it. The people on the tour and the food and booze made up for the art though.
Oregon Coast:
From Portland, we headed out to the Oregon coast to drive down the 101. Our first stop outside of Portland was at the Tillamook cheese factory in Tillamook Oregon. The engineers are all obsessed with factories, robots, and production lines, so the stop here was considered essential. Tillamook Cheese is actually the #2 distributed cheese in America, and there were many free samples of fresh cheese. After the cheese stop, we drove down the 101 to Florence, Oregon and camped at Jessie M. Honeyman State Park, home to 2 miles of Dunes on the Oregon coast. The 101 was as ridiculous as the movies, and the dunes looked like something out of a star wars movie. We heard of a dune buggy tour company near where we were camping and we decided to go for the half hour “fast tour”. It was crazy fast and really fun, the driver took us around most of the 13miles of dune that were out there and took us down the steepest hill in the park at lightning speed.
We drove south from Florence to Harris Beach a national park right on the Oregon side of the Oregon/California Boarder. On the way we stopped for a stroll along the beach at Point Blanco Lighthouse. It was a really nicely developed campsite and our little site had a short stonewall around it and a stone staircase leading from the parking spot to the tenting area. The only problem with Harris Beach was the rain. After we went to bed it started and did not stop until we left. Gill and I had a very waterproof MEC Tarn 3 tent and Marija and Tessa had a not-so-waterproof Woods brand tent. We woke up dry. Marija and Tessa not so much. Marija left the tent to seek refuge in the car and while she was there the tent collapsed on Tessa. We were still bone dry and fast asleep.
We stopped for lunch the next day at a city park in Eureka California. In order to dry out all our wet camping gear we decided to spend the next night in a yurt. Yurts are a popular place to stay at US campgrounds. They are essentially the Eurasian take on the Tipi. Our yurt had a heater and the campground (in Redding, California) had free breakfast so we could not complain. The next day we were off to San Francisco!
San Francisco:
In San Francisco (more specifically Mill Valley) we were going to stay with Marija’s aunt Grace for three nights. We told Grace that we would be there for dinner. It was a short drive from Redding to Mill Valley so we had some time to go ROCK CLIMBING! It was the first rock climbing of the trip and it was a nice introduction to California climbing. We went to Mickey beach near Stinson Beach. The road up to the climbing was one of the windiest that I have ever been on, so windy that Marija and Tessa looked in vain for an alternate route back to Mill Valley. I was a fan of the curves however it was like an Oceanside rally circuit.
Grace and Josh were nice enough to host the four of us in their beautiful house. All the food, conversation and wine were excellent. Grace is also an engineer and had all sorts of insightful things to talk about. We all had a great night sleep (our first in a real bed in a week). The next morning we got ready to head into town.
We were not yet out of the car when we first got scammed. A guy, claiming to be the parking attendant, asked us for $15 and slid what looked like a parking verification onto our dash. After he scampered off we quickly realized that it was just a random receipt that he had put on our dash and the guy had no relation to the parking authority at all. Damn! We paid the real machine for parking and pledged to pay more attention to these things. In the city of San Francisco we drove the steepest road, the windiest road, walked up some crazy hills in search of the Full House house, saw some sea lions, went to the fortune cookie factory and Pier 39. What a great day of exploring the city. We got back in the car, drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and made it back to Grace’s in time for dinner.
Nappa and Sonoma Valleys:
California is known for its wineries. Marija’s uncle recommended three wineries to visit. He also got us a free tasting at one of the vineyards. First stop Viansa Vineyard where Mike the helpful wine guy poured each of us a flight of four wines. Viansa is a small-scale winery set on a beautiful estate along the highway to the Nappa Valley. The second vineyard we visited was Artesa. Artesa is a fancier winery where we had been given a free tasting session courtesy of Marija’s uncle Josh and the mysterious Glenn of Artesa. Gill was the only one ID’ed out of the group, she was not impressed. We then drank 4 new wines and decided that the 2005 Cabernet Savungion was the best. Artesa then comp’ed us a bottle of the ‘Cab’ and after lunch we drove off to the last winery Gloria Frerrer. We didn’t stay too long at the last winery because we were all tired, but did sneak onto to the champagne tour. When we got to the champagne making and storing warehouse we saw the coolest robot of the whole trip. Marija, Tessa, and I all debated what type of robot it was (Puma, 6 degree of freedom) while Gill watched the rest of the tour along with everyone else there for a tasting.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
May 6th: Portland
The night was cold and Marija woke up with “cold eyeballs”. We had some quick oatmeal and broke camp by 10am. We were off to Portland! The initial plan was to head over to Smith Rock National Park to do some climbing but we changed things to spend more time on the coast. We decided to spend the night at a hostel in Portland.
Portland is a beautiful place with large trees, artistically painted buildings and tons of art studios dotting the streets. It turned out that the first Thursday of every month is the day that the artisits of Portland open their doors to the public and show off their art. Most of the art we saw was very modern and some a bit too off the wall for me. We saw everything from an arcade with a smoke machine running to a room with forecent lights and rocks that were painted black. Most of the art was lost on me. I did however enjoy the free beer and food that came along with the art.
After going aroung to the art studios we picked up some food and beer and Safeway and headed back to the hostel to cook up some dinner. We had heard that there was a good local brewpub nearby the hostel and the plan was to head off there after dinner. We made up some chicken alfredo and drank some micro brewed local beer. We were off to the pub. I was amazed that the locally brewed beer was $3 a pint! We had the sampler of all the local brews and got a pint of the best one. The total bill for 3 pints and a sampler of 6 beers? $15!
Friday, May 7, 2010
May 5th: Heading off to the USA
Gill and I were up early. We said goodbye to her parents and went to pick up Tessa and Marija. Tessa lives very close to the boarder so it was really quick to get there. Our goal for the day was to go and visit the Boeing Everett Factory in Everett Washington. The Boeing Factory is the largest building in the world by volume at 13 million cubic meters; that’s 94 acres at 11 stories high!
This was my second visit to the Boeing Factory and it did not disappoint. We had a great tour guide who had some of the best muttonchops I have ever seen. He was really dramatic and well spoken; it made the greatness of the building and factory even easier to appreciate.
The first real sign of being in the USA was a cashier at a corner store refusing to accept my Canadian nickel. “this is America hun, your funny money is no good here”
After a brief stop at Wal-Mart we were off to the campsite. At the campsite we met a colourful character, we will call him Billy. Billy called us over to help him unload some folding chairs from the back of his 27’ powerboat. He then proceeded to tell us his story.
“dang government got done raised my taxes. I could not afford my house any more and I’m sure as hell not gonna sell my guns, boat n’ pickup truck to pay for taxes. So I sold my house. I’m a disabled veteran I can camp here for free I am sleeping in hotel Chevrolet tonight.”
Welcome to the USA.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Made it!
977km down. 15000km to go. Fortunatly I had a rather uneventful 10 hour drive from Calgary to Vancouver. There was some snow on the Coquihalla highway and by Lake Louise but nothing too impeding.
Second time is a charm!
View Larger Map
Monday, May 3, 2010
Day of Rest
Time is flying. I took yesterday off. I helped my mom get supplies ready for a cave rescue course in Hinton. A quick visit to MEC also let me get a longer version of my sleeping bag. A little extra wiggle room. After we picked up grandma for dinner I went to visit my uncle for a beer. I hope that tomorrow's departure is less eventful than last time.
Lost Wallet
Here is a quick update. On Saturday I waived goodbye to the family and left to Vancouver! Unfortunately when I made it to Kamloops I realized that I had lost my wallet! I talked to my dad, Gill and the VISA people via Skype in a Starbucks parking-lot. I quickly came to the cold realization that I had to head back to Calgary to replace all my cards. Ooops! 1400km and 16 hours later I was back in Calgary. Fortunaltly my family was happy to see me and I still had a bed to stay in. I guess this "hiccup" will make me more careful about what I am doing with my wallet. Better I loose it in Golden than in Texas I guess.
Here is me on my first departure. Note the roof racks and Thule.
Here is me on my first departure. Note the roof racks and Thule.
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