laravelvet (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} laravelvet) wrote,@ 2008-07-26 21:33:00 |
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I left off with the flurry of spring erupting in my back yard and the excitement of adventure on the horizon.
It was Spring Break for me, my first as a teacher. I decided to join the Academy of Art on their trip to Yosemite. For only $100 I was getting transport from SF to Yosemite, 2 days in the park, accommodation in a hostel and 2 meal a day. It was a fantastic deal! I was the only faculty on the trip, the rest being students and one group organizer. I wanted to come up with some alternate personality to exhibit on the trip since I did not know anyone and was going alone. However I did not have the confidence in my acting skills and revealed my true self, eventually. No one even guessed I was a teacher....
So we left downtown SF on a Sunday at 12noon. Crawled into the cramped back back seat of a 14 person van. I made friends quickly with the girl sitting next to me. Found out that her and many others were grad students and about my age as well. After about 4 hours we arrived at the Yosemite Bug hostel. They were assigning rooms and for some reason I did not want to be in the all girls dorm (they talk too much!) and waited until they picked me and 3 other guys to room together. I being very colorful and strange am put with 3 very normal looking guys who look very uncomfortable rooming with a girl. However, I tried my best to make it work and asked if they wanted to go on a hike really quick before dinner. We walked and walked passing the water hole and up a large hill, the sun was setting and we were on our way home, one of my roommates took this photo on that walk.
It was then coming to light the creative people I was living/traveling with. However, not many of them were tough hikers and as excited as I was about a 6 hour hiking trip the next day. Dinner, went to bed, woke up at 6am to take a shower in a cold restroom, and got in one of the vans leading to Yosemite Valley. Arrived in chilly frosty weather. Looked for a good hike: Top of Upper Yosemite falls and tried to recruit people to join me. I was pumped and ready to go. Here I am with my destination behind me. The top of the falls.
The trail stared out in some semi steep switchbacks, but with beautiful sunlight between the trees.
Many of the people I started off with were not keeping up. I kept waiting for them, but soon only waited for the last remaining few. Here is the view from Columbia Rock, about 1/3 of the way up. Behind me is Half Dome (that I was to hike to the top of on my next trip).
In this next picture is my friend who made it the farthest with me. Here we found a sneaky view of the upper waterfall, still much more to climb.
Soon the trail turned to snow. Only 2 people were still with me.
Incredible views:
I just had to make it to the top, even if I was alone. I heard it was only 20 minutes up. But through snow...
I finally reached the top
On the way down I saw some other people of our crew making their way up, saying they were going to find a different ride home because they were going to be late, not much of a good choice in my opinion. They did not get home until 9 or 10pm. However, on my hike down I saw rainbows in the waterfall:
The next day in the park we visited the sequoia tress in Touolomne Grove and even crawled through the center of one!
Here is all my crew on the van. Good times. Lots of snow.
Did I say lots of snow? About 4 feet or so. Here is our group crossing a 'bridge'. Notice were the railings are..
We then did a ridiculously stupid 'hike' up a dome to see a view of the valley. We ended up at the top of Turtleback dome. Here I am with my tough hiking partner.
Here and the view:
I happened to make friends with two very good photographers. This photo was taken at the top of Turtleback dome in the snow:
My friends took some great photos:
On our way home we passed through some gorgeous rolling green hills, some covered with green energy windmills (yay!). Such the glory of spring.
Dropped off downtown. Said goodbye. Received email addresses. Keeping in touch with new found friends.
Back in San Francisco I continued my new favorite sport. Aerial Silks!!!! I would go to Tyler's warehouse every Thursday to practice. Unfortunately the opinions of the roommates became a bit unfriendly and it ended. Here in my last hurrah (before I build my own mini version in my garage!).
The Friday before March 26th (our 3 year wedding anniversary), I surprised Chad with an unexpected camping trip. I had planned for us to go to Angel Island but the plans fell through and I ended up asking my roommate if I could borrow her car, she said yes and Chad and I were off up north. We drove around and found a campsite up near Sonoma. We happened to forget matches, pillows, wood, air mattress and etc. so that we froze all night long ending up sleeping in the back of the car. Oh, I am so happy to have my Chad.
The next day, not so fresh as a daisy, we went driving around the North Bay areas of Sonoma and Calistoga. I stopped and picked flowers.
We tried to find something nice to do together (mud bath?) but everything was pretty pricey. But then we decided on Harbon Hot Springs. http://www.harbin.org/intro.htm It was an amazing time!!! Chad, decided to break out of his prude mode and accept the 'clothing optional' bathing. We undressed in the unisex dressing room, rinsed off in the mosaic showers, and then made our way to the warm pools that were out in the open looking up at the newly budding spring trees, where we sat for quite some time. We then moved up to the sacred hot pool enclosed in a little hut decorated with undersea creatures. Boy, that pool was HOT!!!! I could only stand it for a minute or two and then came the best part...the cool pool where you felt a certain process going on in your body. This was the most amazing system, and I understood now why the Romans liked it so much. We then lay out the sun for a while amongst the multitude of nude humans. It was wonderful to lay in the sun, in a secluded canyon, with not clothes on. The best mini vacation ever!
So we had to come back to SF early enough to start our sugar party. Sarah, me, and a few other of our friends were doing Lent this year. We had not eaten any sugar for the past 6 weeks and as of Sunday March 23 at 12:01am we were free to eat all the sweets in the world, and boy did we! But first we had a job to do.....burn our Christmas tree!
It had been hanging out in our back yard for quite some time and I cannot tell you how scary it was to see that tree go instantly up in flames in our back yard fire pit. The neighbors looked over in horror at the instant 10 foot flame shooting out of the freaks' backyard. There are still black steaks on our outdoor oven.
So then, at midnight the sugar party began! We spread the whole of our sugary delights on the living room floor and gorged ourselves until our bellies ached, like little kids on Halloween.
The next day (yes, this is still the same weekend!), was Easter and we had planned to go to an Easter egg hunt in Mountain View Cemetery, as we did last year. We filled our eggs we acquired last year and got dressed up in our Easter finery. I had found a bridesmaid dress that just needed a little work at a thrift store and covered it with fake flowers.
but the best part was my hair....
A bird's nest!
Everyone else got dressed up too! I love my friends.
Kalico and Tyler looking so cute even in black on a spring day.
Sarah and Erik, such a lovely couple.
Isaak, Autumn and Karen.
Kalico being the beauty she is:
Sarah and I posing with the pumpkin (where the hell do you get a pumpkin in March!?)
Even Karen and I's shadows looked good!
We played lots of games, like rocket balloon contests:
Chad loved this game:
Even things like "light the cigarette with the sun!"
All of our toys made a mess.
I love my Chad!!!!!!
It was a fantastic day with our great friends. It was so nice to celebrate the wonders of spring (and eat sugar again!!!!).
Only a few days later was Chad and I's official 3 year anniversary on the 26th of March. Chad surprised me with a short trip out of town and took me to one of my favorite childhood restaurants The Old Spaghetti Factory, were of course I ordered mizithra cheese! He was so sweet and gave me a card. I too gave him a card which held tickets to go on a evening tour of ALCATRAZ!!!
We went that Sunday, March 30 at 4pm to Pier 33 where we caught a ferry to take us to the island. Chad got dressed up in a suit and could not decide between 3 ties, so he wore all three!
We jumped on Chad's scooter (it's name is Okapi). This is how Chad gets to school everyday at SFSU.
I ride on the back.
But the scooter ride is very different from the boat. We watched the city get smaller and smaller in the distance.
Once we arrived at Azkaban...wait...no, Alcatraz, we took up the audio tour and walked around the prison and the grounds. It was strange to think of the years of lives wasted behind those bars (I appropriately wore my prison uniform).
Chad was stunned. Here as a free man in a place so filled with feelings of restriction and anger.
The view from the inside looking out.
However, the best part of the prison was the hospital, only open to evening visitors. It was amazingly creepy with peeling paint and old gurneys.
Chad really liked the hospital. He became very thoughtful.
Also, the grounds around the prison were very interesting and beautiful in their own way. Alcatraz is the "island of the sea birds" and was literally covered with seagulls.
The view of San Francisco completely entranced it's prisoners who dreamed of one day returning to civilization. Such a deep divide.
We were there to watch the sunset through the Golden Gate Bridge. Chad and I are so happy.
But once the sun went down they did not let us explore much more. We took a look at some of the ruins (my favorite things there!).
We hopped back on our ferry boat and made our way back to SF. A wonderful time!!!!!
Chad faced the lights of the city as we came in on the boat. I love this silhouetted photo.
So there is the end of March 2008, more to come......
It was Spring Break for me, my first as a teacher. I decided to join the Academy of Art on their trip to Yosemite. For only $100 I was getting transport from SF to Yosemite, 2 days in the park, accommodation in a hostel and 2 meal a day. It was a fantastic deal! I was the only faculty on the trip, the rest being students and one group organizer. I wanted to come up with some alternate personality to exhibit on the trip since I did not know anyone and was going alone. However I did not have the confidence in my acting skills and revealed my true self, eventually. No one even guessed I was a teacher....
So we left downtown SF on a Sunday at 12noon. Crawled into the cramped back back seat of a 14 person van. I made friends quickly with the girl sitting next to me. Found out that her and many others were grad students and about my age as well. After about 4 hours we arrived at the Yosemite Bug hostel. They were assigning rooms and for some reason I did not want to be in the all girls dorm (they talk too much!) and waited until they picked me and 3 other guys to room together. I being very colorful and strange am put with 3 very normal looking guys who look very uncomfortable rooming with a girl. However, I tried my best to make it work and asked if they wanted to go on a hike really quick before dinner. We walked and walked passing the water hole and up a large hill, the sun was setting and we were on our way home, one of my roommates took this photo on that walk.
It was then coming to light the creative people I was living/traveling with. However, not many of them were tough hikers and as excited as I was about a 6 hour hiking trip the next day. Dinner, went to bed, woke up at 6am to take a shower in a cold restroom, and got in one of the vans leading to Yosemite Valley. Arrived in chilly frosty weather. Looked for a good hike: Top of Upper Yosemite falls and tried to recruit people to join me. I was pumped and ready to go. Here I am with my destination behind me. The top of the falls.
The trail stared out in some semi steep switchbacks, but with beautiful sunlight between the trees.
Many of the people I started off with were not keeping up. I kept waiting for them, but soon only waited for the last remaining few. Here is the view from Columbia Rock, about 1/3 of the way up. Behind me is Half Dome (that I was to hike to the top of on my next trip).
In this next picture is my friend who made it the farthest with me. Here we found a sneaky view of the upper waterfall, still much more to climb.
Soon the trail turned to snow. Only 2 people were still with me.
Incredible views:
I just had to make it to the top, even if I was alone. I heard it was only 20 minutes up. But through snow...
I finally reached the top
On the way down I saw some other people of our crew making their way up, saying they were going to find a different ride home because they were going to be late, not much of a good choice in my opinion. They did not get home until 9 or 10pm. However, on my hike down I saw rainbows in the waterfall:
The next day in the park we visited the sequoia tress in Touolomne Grove and even crawled through the center of one!
Here is all my crew on the van. Good times. Lots of snow.
Did I say lots of snow? About 4 feet or so. Here is our group crossing a 'bridge'. Notice were the railings are..
We then did a ridiculously stupid 'hike' up a dome to see a view of the valley. We ended up at the top of Turtleback dome. Here I am with my tough hiking partner.
Here and the view:
I happened to make friends with two very good photographers. This photo was taken at the top of Turtleback dome in the snow:
My friends took some great photos:
On our way home we passed through some gorgeous rolling green hills, some covered with green energy windmills (yay!). Such the glory of spring.
Dropped off downtown. Said goodbye. Received email addresses. Keeping in touch with new found friends.
Back in San Francisco I continued my new favorite sport. Aerial Silks!!!! I would go to Tyler's warehouse every Thursday to practice. Unfortunately the opinions of the roommates became a bit unfriendly and it ended. Here in my last hurrah (before I build my own mini version in my garage!).
The Friday before March 26th (our 3 year wedding anniversary), I surprised Chad with an unexpected camping trip. I had planned for us to go to Angel Island but the plans fell through and I ended up asking my roommate if I could borrow her car, she said yes and Chad and I were off up north. We drove around and found a campsite up near Sonoma. We happened to forget matches, pillows, wood, air mattress and etc. so that we froze all night long ending up sleeping in the back of the car. Oh, I am so happy to have my Chad.
The next day, not so fresh as a daisy, we went driving around the North Bay areas of Sonoma and Calistoga. I stopped and picked flowers.
We tried to find something nice to do together (mud bath?) but everything was pretty pricey. But then we decided on Harbon Hot Springs. http://www.harbin.org/intro.htm It was an amazing time!!! Chad, decided to break out of his prude mode and accept the 'clothing optional' bathing. We undressed in the unisex dressing room, rinsed off in the mosaic showers, and then made our way to the warm pools that were out in the open looking up at the newly budding spring trees, where we sat for quite some time. We then moved up to the sacred hot pool enclosed in a little hut decorated with undersea creatures. Boy, that pool was HOT!!!! I could only stand it for a minute or two and then came the best part...the cool pool where you felt a certain process going on in your body. This was the most amazing system, and I understood now why the Romans liked it so much. We then lay out the sun for a while amongst the multitude of nude humans. It was wonderful to lay in the sun, in a secluded canyon, with not clothes on. The best mini vacation ever!
So we had to come back to SF early enough to start our sugar party. Sarah, me, and a few other of our friends were doing Lent this year. We had not eaten any sugar for the past 6 weeks and as of Sunday March 23 at 12:01am we were free to eat all the sweets in the world, and boy did we! But first we had a job to do.....burn our Christmas tree!
It had been hanging out in our back yard for quite some time and I cannot tell you how scary it was to see that tree go instantly up in flames in our back yard fire pit. The neighbors looked over in horror at the instant 10 foot flame shooting out of the freaks' backyard. There are still black steaks on our outdoor oven.
So then, at midnight the sugar party began! We spread the whole of our sugary delights on the living room floor and gorged ourselves until our bellies ached, like little kids on Halloween.
The next day (yes, this is still the same weekend!), was Easter and we had planned to go to an Easter egg hunt in Mountain View Cemetery, as we did last year. We filled our eggs we acquired last year and got dressed up in our Easter finery. I had found a bridesmaid dress that just needed a little work at a thrift store and covered it with fake flowers.
but the best part was my hair....
A bird's nest!
Everyone else got dressed up too! I love my friends.
Kalico and Tyler looking so cute even in black on a spring day.
Sarah and Erik, such a lovely couple.
Isaak, Autumn and Karen.
Kalico being the beauty she is:
Sarah and I posing with the pumpkin (where the hell do you get a pumpkin in March!?)
Even Karen and I's shadows looked good!
We played lots of games, like rocket balloon contests:
Chad loved this game:
Even things like "light the cigarette with the sun!"
All of our toys made a mess.
I love my Chad!!!!!!
It was a fantastic day with our great friends. It was so nice to celebrate the wonders of spring (and eat sugar again!!!!).
Only a few days later was Chad and I's official 3 year anniversary on the 26th of March. Chad surprised me with a short trip out of town and took me to one of my favorite childhood restaurants The Old Spaghetti Factory, were of course I ordered mizithra cheese! He was so sweet and gave me a card. I too gave him a card which held tickets to go on a evening tour of ALCATRAZ!!!
We went that Sunday, March 30 at 4pm to Pier 33 where we caught a ferry to take us to the island. Chad got dressed up in a suit and could not decide between 3 ties, so he wore all three!
We jumped on Chad's scooter (it's name is Okapi). This is how Chad gets to school everyday at SFSU.
I ride on the back.
But the scooter ride is very different from the boat. We watched the city get smaller and smaller in the distance.
Once we arrived at Azkaban...wait...no, Alcatraz, we took up the audio tour and walked around the prison and the grounds. It was strange to think of the years of lives wasted behind those bars (I appropriately wore my prison uniform).
Chad was stunned. Here as a free man in a place so filled with feelings of restriction and anger.
The view from the inside looking out.
However, the best part of the prison was the hospital, only open to evening visitors. It was amazingly creepy with peeling paint and old gurneys.
Chad really liked the hospital. He became very thoughtful.
Also, the grounds around the prison were very interesting and beautiful in their own way. Alcatraz is the "island of the sea birds" and was literally covered with seagulls.
The view of San Francisco completely entranced it's prisoners who dreamed of one day returning to civilization. Such a deep divide.
We were there to watch the sunset through the Golden Gate Bridge. Chad and I are so happy.
But once the sun went down they did not let us explore much more. We took a look at some of the ruins (my favorite things there!).
We hopped back on our ferry boat and made our way back to SF. A wonderful time!!!!!
Chad faced the lights of the city as we came in on the boat. I love this silhouetted photo.
So there is the end of March 2008, more to come......
