Bangkok

Shanty town on a small creek

Temple visited on our bike tour

Long boat crossing the river

I visited Bangkok for a work meeting in May.  I decided to fly in a couple days early and spend a weekend there.

I arrived Saturday evening without much to do, so I ate in the hotel.  At the time I didn’t know that in Southeast Asia, some of the best restaurants are found in hotels.  So I had one of the best Thai meals of my life that night.

The next day, some colleagues from Mattel had invited me to do a 3-4 hour bike tour of Bangkok, with ABC Bangkok Bike Tours.  It was fantastic – we didn’t spend much time in traffic, and instead rode through some cool local neighborhoods.  We then crossed the main river in a long boat (powered by a horrifying bare car engine hooked up to a long driveshaft with a propeller on it).  On the other side, we rode through the Thai jungle on a raised concrete path, and stopped in a tiny village for a snack.  It was really amazing – I felt like we saw another side of Bangkok that day.  Later that night, we went out for dinner and drinks in the neighborhood of the hotel.  We had a peek of the seedy stuff that night – drunk foreigners hitting on ladyboys in the street, callers inviting you in to sex shows, and so on. Bangkok is weird.

If I had one additional day, I probably would have done maybe a temple tour and gone to a night market.  On the drive to the plant, we saw some pretty ridiculous huge elephant statues and stuff, and I heard good things about the insanity of the night market.

Belize

Seats in paradise

Kristen looking out over the shallow reefs and sand flats

Kristen learning to roll a kayak

Jeff learning to windsurf

Kristen and I took an “anniversary trip” to Belize at the start of January.

For a while now, we have been trying to find a way to do a warm-weather vacation in Winter that wouldn’t be boring.  And by boring I mean that neither of us can sit on the beach for more than 45 minutes without going crazy.  As it turns out, it’s hard to find a beach vacation that is also active, and so we’d more or less given up on the idea of going to the beach.

But sometime over the Summer, Kristen stumbled on Slickrock Adventures, which owns a private island way off the coast of Belize, called Long Caye in Glover’s Atoll.  The island has no internet, no cell service, no electricity save for lights in the mess hall, no hot water, rainwater for drinking, composting toilets, and a 3 hour boat ride over rough open ocean to get there.  It also has a fleet of sea kayaks, surf kayaks (which you can take into the break to ride the waves), windsurf boards, kite surf gear, stand-up paddleboards, and countless coral reefs within a 1-mile radius.  In short, it’s perfect – you get to do tons of activities without ever having to travel – so no packing up and moving from place to place.

Basically it was adult summer camp.  There were about 10-20 guests on the island, and 4-5 guides.  Each day, the guides would lay out ~3 activities we could do in the morning, and 3 more after lunch.  There was almost always a guided snorkel, plus lessons on one of the wind-related sports.  The instruction and guiding was absolutely great.  And of course you had the option to do something else, but the guides were giving instruction on the pre-determined activities, so we just about always did those.  You also had the option of skipping the activity to lie in a hammock, but almost nobody did that.

Which brings me to my next point: the people we were with.  The island is very self-selecting.  The rustic living conditions and remote location, coupled with the focus on activities rather than relaxation, means that only a particular type of person is interested in the trip.  Just about everyone there had outdoors experience, and didn’t mind being dirty for 8 straight days.  So of course everyone else was super nice and friendly, and we got along great with all the guests and guides.

We were on the island for a total of about 8 days (Saturday-Saturday).  I took 1.5 kite surfing lessons before the wind died out, and also got decent at beginner windsurfing.  Kristen did a ton of open-water swimming, and loved kayak surfing.  And we snorkeled every day, and did SUP whenever the water was calm.  It’s hard to say what we liked the best, since we were having fun with all the activities every day, but the snorkeling was honestly probably the highlight.  The water was crystal clear and warm, and we saw tons of cool stuff – gorgeous fish like parrotfish, angelfish (the queen is the best), fairy basslets, jacks, damselfish (the juvenile is the best), pufferfish, hogfish, blue tang, chubb, grunts, trumpetfish, barracuda, spiny lobsters, octopus, bonefish, grouper (big ones), nurse sharks, scorpionfish, butterflyfish, triggerfish, filefish, spotted moray eels, sea urchins, squirrelfish, wrasse, jellyfish, sea cucumber, conch, yellow rays, southern rays, spotted eagle rays, and of course, lionfish.  Plus a bunch of others I can’t remember, and super cool types of coral as well.

In all, the trip was truly amazing.  We want to go back next year.  I can’t really imagine any other way we’d want to take a “beach vacation” in the future.

Penang

After leaving Hong Kong, Kristen was sent to Penang, Malaysia to visit a factory there.  She ended up getting to spend a weekend in Penang, so I visited her before returning back to the US.  (She was put up in an absolutely gorgeous colonial hotel called the Eastern & Oriental, which is where we stayed for the weekend).

Our trip was set up and planned by a very friendly person at the client named Nithia who had grown up in Malaysia, and was formerly the manager of the client’s plant there.

He booked us a driver, and set out an itinerary to tour the city.

The view of the Penang coast from our room at the E&O

Day 1

Kristen at the Penang Botanical Garden

The Chew Jetty in Georgetown

Kristen with street art on Armenian Street in Georgetown

On our first day in town, our driver took us first to the Reclining Buddha Temple, which is exactly as it sounds.  I’d never been to any Buddhist temples before, so it was a great experience for me.  We then walked across the street to a Burmese Buddhist temple, and were blessed by a monk there.

Afterwards, we headed to the Penang Botanical Garden, where we had a gorgeous walk through jungle trees, where wild monkeys were playing.

From there, we went to the Snake Temple, where live, venomous snakes are hanging around inside.  They also have a “snake farm,” which was sort of like a zoo.  The guide was so happy to have Americans in his farm that he took us on what amounted to a private tour of the place.  He took us into the python cage, got a viper to spit at him, and took out a king cobra (which absolutely scared the hell out of Kristen).

Our driver then suggested we head over to Georgetown, which is the colonial section of town.  We walked the Chew Jetty, which is a series of houses built out over the ocean (originally put there by Chinese immigrants to avoid property taxes), and then walked Armenian Street, which is famous for its Banksy-style street art.

After sampling some of the really excellent street food for lunch (Penang is known for its street food, such as char kway teow – something similar to pad see ew but with more curry flavor), our driver suggested a tour of the Pinang Peranakan House.  Peranakan apparently means mixed marriage, and the house was very interesting.  It was the mansion of a early 20th century Chinese gangster who had moved to Penang and married a local woman.  The house was extraordinarily ornate, and our guide told us crazy stories about the family that had lived there.  The house had been purchased and restored recently by a Chinese antiques collector, and was stocked full of interesting things.

And after an exhausting day, we went back to the hotel to hang out at the pool, and then got dinner at the best Indian restaurant I’ve ever been to, called Kashmir, right near the hotel.

Day 2

View of North Penang from Penang Hill

The Pagoda and Chinese zodiac horse at Kek Lok Si

Jeff in the Penang Spice Garden rainforest

The view from Batu Ferringhi beach

We woke up early Sunday in anticipation of another full day.  First stop was the overly-touristy but must-do Penang Hill.  We rode the cable car up from town to the top of a large hill with views of the city and the strait.  There were a couple of temples and mosque at the top, but not too much else.  We had actually hoped to hike the hill, but the sweltering heat and limited time turned us off of it.  Anyway, the views from the top really were very good, though the throngs of people were annoying.

Afterward, we went to the biggest and highest temple/buddha around - Kek Lok Si.  We got to walk up through a narrow market to the base of the structure, and took a short tram ride to the temple area.   Again there were nice views and cool pagoda structures.

For lunch, we went to a Nyona restaurant.  Nyona is the food from the Peranakan mixed-culture families mentioned above.  As it turns out, it’s not that good.  We would much have preferred street food again.

In the afternoon, our driver took us to the Northwest part of the island, to an area called Batu Ferringhi.  It was a gorgeous little beach town with lots of resorts.

First stop in the area was the Spice Garden, which is a botanical garden featuring a wide array of native jungle species and spices, including nutmeg, coffee, tea, and many others.  It was a really well laid-out and interesting place, and it was super fun to see all the interesting native rainforest plants.

After a stop at the local beach at Batu Ferringhi to feel the water (warm and clear), we headed again back to the hotel, since Kristen had to catch a flight to Jakarta.  I had dinner by the pool and enjoyed the view.

Penang is a really great place.  Everyone was extremely friendly, there was a lot to see (including ornate temples which I’d only seen in other people’s pictures before this trip), and the food was fantastic.  I’m really glad it was my introduction to Southeast Asia.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong at a glance:

- National Pastime: shopping

- Selfies: constant

- Sidewalks: impassable

- Tea: high

- Overall impression: great

Visit 1: October

Approaching the Buddha from the trail on Lantau

Lantau island

I visited Hong Kong several times this this Fall/Winter.  My first trip was only 3 days, but I soon came back for about 2 weeks.  My colleague and friend Jason was there with me, and we decided to explore the city a bit.

We were working for a client based in Kowloon, near the Star Ferry.  The office is located in Harbour City shopping center, which is probably the most luxurious and insane shopping mall I’ve ever seen.  It’s full of impossibly priced luxury stores, and even has a kids couture wing (Fendi Kids, Armani Kids, etc.).  WTF.  A common sight is a person dragging 2 massive suitcases through the mall – apparently mainlanders flock to Harbour City to stock up on luxury clothing they can’t get in China, and pack it all into huge suitcases to take back.

Over the weekend, I spent a day walking around Kowloon, stopping in at Yau Ma Tei temple and Mon Kok, which is a bustling area that apparently had some Occupy action going on at one point.  Jason and I also took the train to Lantau Island (where the airport is located), and did a ~2 hour hike up to a giant buddha statue located in a touristy village area.  The hike was gorgeous and a fun time – basically stairs the whole way up, following the track of a gondola (which we took back down).

I also got to visit mainland China for the first time for work, traveling to Shenzen (which is just across the border) for meetings, and visiting a factory in Zuhai.

It’s interesting – the sky could be blue in Hong Kong, and as soon as you approach the China border, the sky turns grey with pollution.  Apparently the situation is improving, but from what I saw, it’s still pretty bad.

Visit 2: November

The city of Hong Kong

Kristen at the top of Victoria Peak

During my second visit to Hong Kong (this time for 3 weeks), I got extremely lucky.  Kristen got staffed on a project for the same client, and ended up spending 2 weeks in Hong Kong with me!  It’s probably the first time in history that traveling to Asia for 3 weeks could be described as “convenient”.

For work, I got to attend several meetings at factories in mainland China, near Guangzhou.  For some reason, they always seem to serve Pizza Hut when the white people come to town.  Seriously, I was probably in mainland attending meetings for a total of 8 days, and I was served Pizza Hut for lunch probably 6 times.

But outside of my trips to the mainland, I had some really spectacular food in Hong Kong (and in Guangzhou for that matter).  We tried to get as much local flavor as possible while we were in town – we hit Cantonese joints on side roads, got Peking Duck at Spring Deer several times, and tried out various dim sum places.

The most memorable dim sum experience came the weekend when Kristen arrived.  We wanted to do as much Hong Kong-centric stuff as possible, so we’d gone to high tea at the Intercontinental the night before, and spend the next day walking through the Central district.  We were joined by our friend and colleague Vikas.  We went to a very famous dim sum restaurant for lunch on Sunday – it’s reputation was “hot, crowded, and local.”  It was a zoo.  Nobody spoke english, and it was not clear to us how the system worked.  A cart would come out of the kitchen, it would get mobbed by people before it could make the rounds, and would go straight back to the kitchen, empty.  Since we don’t speak Cantonese, our only choice was to go up to the cart and try and just take whatever they were serving (we never had any idea what we were eating).  Though we did end up flagging a waiter down and pointing to some tea duck soup a guy near us was eating.

The following weekend, our group walked up to the top of Victoria Peak for some great scenery, and then found a much better (and cleaner, and friendlier) dim sum place for lunch in a train station in Central.  It was probably the best dim sum I’ve ever had (finally!).  We spent the rest of the day walking around central and Kowloon.

Finally, after another week of traveling back and forth to mainland, Kristen left for Malaysia and Indonesia to visit more factories, and my time in Hong Kong was done.

Iceland Lake Overnight Trip

Iceland Lake

The granite slab in which Iceland Lake is located – we had to climb into there

Kristen, Trisha, Ben, Helen, Jeff with Relief Reservoir in the background

Descending the cross-country section on solid granite

We have been wanting to do a backpacking trip with Ben and Trisha for a while now, but hadn’t been able to get it together.  So we started shopping around for a 1-2 night weekend trip close by.  Steve recommended Iceland Lake, which can be done as a single night out-and-back, and is located in the Emigrant Wilderness (between Tahoe and Yosemite) only about 3.5 hours away.  We did some additional research and decided it sounded perfect.

Kristen and I assumed the trip would be pretty easy after our abuse at Rae Lakes.  Iceland Lake is only about 8 miles (2500ft elevation gain) from the Kennedy Meadows trailhead.  However, the 8 miles took about 5.5 hours of trail time each way, and was actually a bit grueling.  The trailhead is at 7,000ft, and the lake is at 9,200ft, so altitude definitely played an issue (we drove up from Oakland the morning of the first day), plus Kristen and I are probably were not fully recovered from Rae Lakes.

We started from the Kennedy Meadows trailhead, where we paid $10 to park at the private resort (it was either that or walk 3/4 of a mile from the free parks service lot to the trailhead).  They run horse tours out of there, so the first several miles of trail were dusty and filled with horse poop.  After passing Relief Reservoir (which is a gorgeous milky green color) at about 3-4 miles in, though, the horse poop dissipates along with the people on the trail.  At about mile 6 or so, we were into Saucer Meadow, where the trail comes close to the river.  Trip reports we had read indicated we should cross the river and start the cross-country ascent at the confluence of two rivers, but Trisha and Ben had walkie-talkies, and Ben said we should cross earlier (Ben had hiked in the day before with Helen and were already up at the lake).  We did, and began a steep cross-country section up a solid granite slab into the high lakes basin.  We knew we were shooting for a saddle (a pass) that would take us into the basin, so after a bit of climbing, we saw the saddle and it was fairly obvious where to go from there.  The climb up was surprisingly gentle, especially since all the trip reports had said it was dangerously steep.

When we got to the top of the pass, we had a great view of the reservoir.  Except we shouldn’t have had a view of the reservoir.  We were confused.  Iceland lake should have been straight ahead and visible, but it wasn’t.  Ben told us via radio to go left (South) toward the huge granite cliffs making the edge of the basin, so we consulted the map and decided it was good idea, as the lake was near the cliffs.  We were still not totally sure what had happened to our route, and for the next 45 minutes or so, we expected to see the lake around every bend, but instead there was only more rock and a large marshy area.  Finally we spotted Ben and Helen, who had been looking for us from a high vantage point.  They directed us to the campsite.

Ben and Helen had spent the day exploring the lake basin (Iceland Lake, Ridge Lake, Sardella Lake, and the Lewis Lakes), and had figured out what had happened to our route.  We had climbed a far gentler saddle slightly to the North, and then had cut back South to get to the lakes, likely as a result of us crossing the river before the junction.  We decided this accidental route was WAY better than the one suggested in the trip reports, and made a map of it for future reference:

The “typical” route takes you over the pass just North of Sardella Lake, which is apparently sketchy.  We also camped accidentally at a tiny lake just next to Iceland Lake, which actually turned out well since the campsites were very nice, and the shallow lake was warm.

We settled into camp, set up the tent, and cooked dinner.  There were zero mosquitoes.  It was amazing.

After the sun set, we laid on some rocks and watched the night sky come into view.  I have to say, the view of the sky up there was probably the best I’ve ever seen.  It was totally clear, not a cloud, and the moon did not rise until midnight.  The show was spectacular.  We saw several ridiculously bright shooting stars, had a very defined view of the milky way, and spotted several satellites traversing the sky.  Ben and I stayed out watching the sky for about an hour after the girls had gone to bed.

The next day, we woke up, ate breakfast, and went over to check out Iceland Lake proper.  It’s quite gorgeous.  The entire lakes basin appears to be a giant granite slab, with sheer cliffs overhanging most of the lakes.  Iceland Lake was the most dramatic we saw – there were cliffs on the East side of the lake, and a granite slab of an island in the middle of the lake.  It was really spectacular.

From there we made our way back down the way we had come up.  After crossing the river and hitting the trail, we told Ben, Trisha, and Helen to go ahead.  Kristen had twisted her knee a bit (a lingering injury from the Rae Lakes abuse), my left achilles was hurting (also from Rae Lakes), and we were going to descend very slowly.  Ben had planned on having lunch after hiking out, so they were low on food (Kristen and I had brought a couple extra PB&Js).  The only issue was, we had forgotten that Ben had our first aid kit, so Kristen was not able to take any ibuprofen for her increasingly painful knee.  The last several miles seemed to take forever – each step on the steep descent hurt Kristen, and we arrived at the car to find a note from Ben and Trisha that they had left to go home (which is what I would have done).  We bought some Gatorade and salty snacks from the Kennedy Meadows store (we had run out of water about 45 minutes before the end of the hike, but didn’t want to stop), and drove out of there.  Of course, we stopped at In n Out in Manteca on the way home, and actually met up with Ben, Trisha, and Helen (they weren’t THAT far ahead of us) as they were finishing their meal.

All in all, this was an absolutely gorgeous hike, and one that I’d do again, maybe with an extra day or two built in to explore the huge granite basin.  However, I would not recommend doing back-to-back trips like this, as it apparently takes a longer than two weeks to recover from the musculoskeletal abuse.

Rae Lakes Loop

After all the insanity from buying our house, Kristen and I wanted to take a vacation.  We’ve also been looking to do a backpacking trip with Kristen’s friend Vicky, who lives in LA.  So, on Steve’s recommendation, we decided to get together in King’s Canyon National Park and do the Rae Lakes Loop.

The Rae Lakes Loop is ~40 miles total, with about ~7,000ft of total elevation change (the trailhead is around 5,000ft, and Glen Pass, the highest point, is around 12,000ft).  Most hikers do the loop clockwise, ascending the Woods Creek trail, and descending down Bubbs Creek.  If you do the loop in 4 days, the clockwise approach means you crest Glen Pass in the middle of day 3, and thus spend 2.5 days acclimating.  We could only get permits to go counter-clockwise, however, which would require cresting the pass mid-way through day 2.

 

Day 1 – Road’s End Trailhead to Junction Meadow (12 miles, 3,400ft ascent)

Granite domes above Junction Meadow

We all arrived at King’s on Friday evening, and camped at a frontcountry site near the trailhead.  Saturday morning was a bit of a slow start – taking down camp, distributing the food, pre-moleskinning our feet, etc.

The loop is a “Q”, with a short, sandy 2-mile tail from the trailhead to start and end the hike.  At the first fork, we veered right to start the large loop, and headed up Bubbs Creek valley.  The ascent could most accurately be described as “relentless.”  Switchbacks led to stairs and upward pitches which led to more switchbacks.  And it was HOT.  80-90 degrees with solid humidity, and little tree exposure.  Who knew it would be so hot this high up?

Everyone was feeling good – we were making fantastic time up the ascent, pushing the pace, and working up a good sweat.  Until about 7,500ft.  I started to feel nauseas and had a migraine coming on.  Uh oh, altitude sickness, probably exacerbated by the big effort in the heat.  The last 2 miles of the day were a disaster – basically willing my legs to go on while everyone else felt fine (the 3 others had also taken Diamox, while I had not).  When we finally arrived in camp, it was all I could do to inflate my sleeping pad and pass out for 2 hours before dinner.  Luckily, the sleep (and 4 ibuprofen) helped significantly, and I was functional from that point on, though the headache didn’t really go away until we finished the hike.

 

Day 2 – Junction Meadow to Rae Lakes (8-10 miles, 3,800ft ascent, 1,400ft descent)

Allen and Vicky ascending from Lower Vidette to the Charlotte Lake area

Nearing Charlotte Lake

The Rae Lakes basin from Glen Pass

The Rae Lakes basin, with Painted Lady and her reflection to the left

I ranged the mileage on this leg because we’re pretty sure the distance markers are wrong (particularly from Charlotte Lake to Rae Lakes, which is marked 3.9 miles but is definitely more like 6).

This was our hardest day, though the most beautiful.  We were out of camp at the crack of 9am (most of the other camp sites were empty when we woke up), and set a good, but not blistering pace up to Lower Vidette meadow, where we took a snack stop (jerky and trail mix).  We didn’t actually eat lunch on Day 2, probably due to a combination of altitude and wanting to finish out the day quickly.

When we arrived at the Charlotte lake turnoff (~11,000ft), the wind picked up and it started to spit rain.  We put on rain gear, but the real rain never actually materialized, so we soon took it off.  The trek up to Glen Pass was slow going – even Vicky, our pace leader, dropped her tempo.  But the views from the pass were amazing – a huge granite bowl off of one side, and Rae Lakes and the surrounding mountains on the other.  And on top of it, I felt great – energized and barely out of breath.

We assumed the way down from the pass would be a victory lap, but it wasn’t.  The 1,500ft descent to Rae Lakes took almost 2 hours, and felt like several miles.  We had a view of the lakes the whole way down, and they never seemed to get any closer.  By the time we hit camp, we were all exhausted.  We didn’t even set up the tents right away.

The Rae Lakes basin is just gorgeous.  From our camp, we had panoramic views of the upper basin and Painted Lady (a colorful banded mountain), plus its reflection in the lake.  Rae Lakes was one of the nicest campsites I’ve ever stayed at.  We all took a quick dip in the lake before dinner.

Just after dinner, dark clouds started to gather over the ridge to the Northeast.  This was bad news.  We assessed our camp situation, and quickly decided we needed to move to higher ground.  We picked up the tents and transferred them to a campsite higher up the rock, and covered our packs with ponchos.  Just in time, we got into our tents and rode out the thunderstorm.  It hailed.  Everything got dirty, but most of our equipment remained dry, thankfully.  After the storm passed, we had a period of calm and a gorgeous sunset.  Throughout the night, though, storms rolled through.

 

Day 3 – Rae Lakes to Road’s End Trailhead (22 miles, 5,800ft descent)

Kristen at the start of the descent out of Rae Lakes, before the rain

The view down the valley from Rae Lakes

Nearing the bottom – Kristen and Vicky on the final switchbacks down Woods Creek near dusk

On the morning of day 3, there were clouds in the sky, but the weather looked like it would hold.  We descended the valley from Rae Lakes at a leisurely pace, with beautiful views of the mountains below.

Our hike today was supposed to be easy – 10-12 miles from Rae Lakes down to Upper Paradise Valley.  But as we neared the bottom of the Rae Lakes drainage, the clouds gathered once again and it poured rain.  Now we were truly soaked.  Vicky and Allen had forgotten to bring garbage bags for their clothes (none of us expected rain, and definitely not like this), so their packs got drenched.  We were miserable.  We ate peanut butter sandwiches for lunch while crouching under a tree.  Allen tried to change his socks to a drier pair, only to find his reserves were even wetter than the ones he had on.  We decided to shoot the moon and hike all the way out – camping in the rain with all wet clothes didn’t sound good to anyone.

The hike was fine for most of the day, though very slow going, as Kristen’s back tends to act up if she pushes the pace downhill.  We were doing about 1.5-2mph max, meaning we walked for a total of about 12 or 13 hours that day.  After Lower Paradise, we hit mosquito territory.  Now we were wet, miserable, sore, and getting bitten.  And worse, twilight was approaching.  We pushed the pace a bit in order to make it to the bottom of the Paradise just at dusk (descending down steep terrain in the dark + rain sounds pretty treacherous).  We hiked the final 2 miles with headlamps, and made it to the cars around 9pm.  First stop out of the park – In ‘n’ Out burger.

This was easily one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever done.  I had never really been to the High Sierra before this trip, and was just blown away by the granite formations.  I would definitely go back, and can’t wait for years of backpacking trips to come in the Sierra.

Blog Re-purposing

From here on out, we’re going to use this blog as a diary of our trips and adventures outside the bounds of our Big Trip.

Off to San Francisco

This is the end.  After 1.5 years of travelling, seeing beautiful things, getting married (!), and generally having a great time, it’s finally over.  We’ve moved into our new rental house in Oakland, and are getting ready to head back to work after Labor Day.  We don’t know what awaits us from here on out, but maybe sometime in the future we’ll get to do it all again!

Go Congress–Tacoma

This year, Go Congress was in Tacoma, WA.  Congress was fun; I rode my bike a lot and hung out, while Kristen won most of her games.  We again played pair go together, and went 1-1 at the second worst table.  At least we didn’t get beat by a 7 year old kid.  But we won the pair go costume contest!

Mt. Rainier

Mt. Rainier as seen from Grand Meadow

Kristen and I headed up to Seattle early before Go Congress started.  The idea was that we were going to hang out with our friends Brian and Cathy for a day, then all head up to Mt. Rainier together to do a quick 1-night backpacking trip.

Kristen’s hip started to hurt on the way up to Seattle, and the next day she could barely walk or move around.  It was probably the worst it’s ever been.  She decided there was no way she could do a backpacking trip in that condition, so I drove her to the start of Go Congress in Tacoma and headed to rainier on my own to meet up with Brian and Cathy.

I’d never been to Mt. Rainier before.  It’s really quite spectacular.  I don’t think there’s anything like it in the continental US.  It’s incredibly massive and glaciated, especially up close.

Brian, Cathy, their two friends, and I met up at the base of the mountain, and shuttled our cars for the one-way trip.  Our hike was mostly be downhill, and passed through the spectacular Grand Meadow on the second day.  We camped near a creek the first night, and went for a short hike/rock scramble up a gully into the descending fog.  The next day, we hiked out through the meadow, which lived up to expectations.

I’d really love to go back and do some hiking around Rainier.  The terrain is so varied and beautiful.  Hopefully Kristen heals up quick so we can do it.

Elk Grove

The Bonneville Salt Flats

Matt and I tarping the trailer to take to the landfill

We drove from Aspen to Elk Grove via Salt Lake City.  On the way, we really only stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats to take pictures.  It was pretty surreal – white salt everywhere and blinding light bouncing off the glassy surface.  We couldn’t actually go on to the salt, though, since they were filming a car commercial.

The drive through Nevada was nice.  I expected it to be sort of a wasteland, which it was, but it was also really beautiful.  There were plenty of interesting mountain ranges (duh, since we were in the basin and range territory), and the scenery was pretty calm and pleasing to the eye.

Our plan for Elk Grove was pretty simple – finish the trip up comfortably, go to Go Congress in Seattle, and find a rental house in San Francisco.

Oh and one other thing – Kristen really loves to clean her parents’ house when she’s there.  She considered this visit to be potentially the last time she’d have a solid few weeks to clean, so she set out on the ambitious task of blowing the whole thing up.  It was The Great Purge.  We went room by room, separating everything we found in every nook and cranny into donate vs. keep vs. trash piles.  I had to rent a 4’x8’ U-haul trailer to haul multiple loads of trash and recycling to the landfill, and a huge load of donations to Goodwill.  It was tiring, but the house looked great by the end, and should be easier to keep organized in the future.

Finding a rental house in San Francisco was more difficult.  The rental market in SF is even worse than in NYC.  Not only is there way more demand than supply, but the rules work differently.  In NYC, housing is first-come, first-served.  So the first qualifying applicant for a rental unit gets it (the purpose of this is so the landlord can’t racially profile people).  In San Francisco, the landlord gets to take lots of applications and review them all, so timing is less of an issue, but you feel like you’re on The Bachelor.  Plus, a lot of people here seem to hate pets.  I can’t even remember how many times we heard people tell us “we love cats, but one tenant’s cat peed on the floor and we had to re-do all the hardwood for $10,000”.  Who are all these cats that are peeing on floors?  Our cats have never peed on the floor.  When we finally found a landlord that was willing to consider pets, we had to get references for our cats.  Thank goodness our apartment in NYC had hardwood floors, and the management company there was able to say no damage was done to the unit when we had our cats in it.  That’s how ludicrous this was.

Anyway, we finally found a fantastic house in Oakland, right near Ben and Trisha.  It has a full, furnished basement, and is really nice.  We’re excited to move in!

Aspen

Kristen with the Maroon Bells

Aspen Mountain, the town of Aspen, and the Roaring Fork Valley as seen from the top of the Ute trail

Part of the 7 Castles, up the Frying Pan Valley

We drove from Boulder to the Aspen area.  We AirBnB’d an in-law apartment on the bottom floor of a house up Frying Pan Valley, which is in Basalt, CO (about 30 minutes from Aspen proper).  We weren’t sure how it would go, but the place was GORGEOUS.  The apartment was very nice, and the hosts were very accommodating as well – they invited us to hang out and use their hot tub, and recommended several things to do.

The plan for our 3 days in the Aspen area was pretty much just to check everything out and do some hiking.  First, we headed to Maroon Bells, which are always touted as the most photographed mountains in the country.  We did a hike back to a lake near the bells, but the view was honestly better further back.

We also did a hike up the Ute trail, which is famous among local (and not so local) fitness freaks.  It’s a very steep, switchbacking trail that you pick up right in the town of Aspen, and ascends up the side of Aspen Mountain.  People time themselves to see how fast they’re able to go up.  Anything under ~30 minutes is considered a good time.  I got up in about 22:30, and Kristen was about 30 seconds behind.  We were definitely feeling the altitude – we were pretty winded at the top.  But wow was there a great view.

Afterwards, we walked around the town and got some ice cream at Paradise Bakery.

On our last day in town, we decided to do a hike in Frying Pan Valley, into the rock formations known as the 7 Castles.  They do indeed look like castles – cliffs of red rock that look like spires and battlements.  It was a very nice hike, ended at a waterfall at the back of a red rock box canyon.  I had no idea Aspen had Colorado Plateau-like scenery.

Boulder

From Chicago, we were headed to Boulder to visit Maggie again.  It’s a long, pretty flat drive, so we decided Kristen would be better off skipping it to save her the back pain.  She found a cheap plane ticket from Chicago to Denver, so I did the drive solo.

Honestly it was kind of nice.  I split the drive over 2 days, and stopped for the night in Omaha.  I listened to all of “The Endurance” book on tape, which was very interesting.  And the states I drove through were quite pretty.  Iowa is hillier than I expected, though Nebraska flatter and more boring.  I really didn’t mind the solo drive, though when I finally arrived in Boulder I was pretty exhausted.

Kristen was waiting for me when I arrived (she flew in earlier that day), and we had a fun couple of days with Maggie.  We did the hike up to Mt. Sanitas, walked around town, went to a very interesting guitar trio concert up at the Chautauqua, and I cooked some ratatouille.  We really love hanging out with Maggie, and love Boulder as a town – there is so much to do right at the foot of the mountains, and the weather is about perfect in the Summer.

I’m really glad we got to spend so much time with Maggie over the past year and a half.

Chicago

After leaving Detroit, we drove to Chicago to spend a couple days with Karoline and Wentao.  It was a fun long weekend – we went to the Morton Arboretum (where Karoline works) and rented bikes for a spin around the gorgeous premises, we went downtown to walk around the city and visit some of Karoline’s favorite shops, we went for hot pot in Chinatown, and Wentao taught me how to make those amazing Chinese pork dumplings wrapped in banana leaves!

Detroit

Us at Joe Muer’s with Tenny

The rest of our time in Detroit was mostly spent hanging out with family.  It seemed like everyone we knew wanted to have some one-on-one time with the new bride and groom!

Tenny took us to Joe Muer’s in the Renaissance Center, which was fantastic.  My mom, dad, Cara and Julie Greenberg were also there.

Aunt Muriel and Uncle Bernie took us to Lelli’s.  We were with them for a good 5 hours or so, mostly telling jokes and having a great time.

Phyllis and Gerry took us to dinner at Pepino’s in Walled Lake.  We had delicious planked whitefish and a great time chatting with them.  I don’t think I’d ever been out with just Phyllis and Gerry before, so it was really nice to talk to them one-on-one as an adult.

The Sterns and Cicurels also took us to a great Italian restaurant in Rochester.  I think the fam filled half the place up, laughing and chatting all night.

And finally, on July 4, we had a BBQ at the house, and Jan and Gary came over for a fun evening.  I cooked steak and they brought delicious ribs.

So we had a very busy, but very fun time in Detroit.  We were sad to leave.

Walloon Lake

The sun sets over Lake Michigan

Waterskiing on Walloon Lake

My second cousins Kathy and Richard Lenter invited Kristen and I to come stay at their house in Northern Michigan for a few days.  The house is on Walloon lake, which is gorgeous.  I have fond memories of visiting them when I was younger, during trips to Harbor Springs.

We spent 3 days at the house.  The weather was perfect, and the lake was very warm.  I’d forgotten exactly how nice Walloon Lake was.  Kristen went for a couple swims, we went kayaking, did some waterskiing, and toured the lake on Kathy and Richard’s boat.  They were very gracious hosts, and we decided we’d absolutely love to go back there soon.

Fishing on Lake Erie

Cooler full of walleye

Reeling one in on the Finlander

My dad and a friend of his chartered a fishing boat on Lake Erie one day while we were in town.  In recent years, my dad has become a bit of a fisherman, taking periodic trips up to Northern Michigan to fish for steelhead and salmon, and then scheduling the fly fishing trip in Jackson Hole.  So of course, I was excited to go and see what it was about.

Chartered fishing trips are a little odd, I found out.  It’s certainly fun to catch all those fish, but it was a much less “active” process than fly fishing (my dad confirmed he prefers fly fishing).  The boat captain baited and set the lines (we couldn’t do it because the boat used a complicated system with something like 12 rods at a time), and as the guests on the boat, it was our job to reel the fish in when they bit.  That day, the walleye were biting like crazy.  We hit the catch limit of something like 8 fish per person within the first 1 or 2 hours of the planned 5 hour trip, and it was a blast reeling in fish after fish.  We were back home in time for lunch.

That night, we invited a bunch of family over and cooked a mountain of fish in various ways.  We sauteed them, grilled them on cedar planks, “oven fried” them (the runaway favorite), and prepared them using a few other methods I can’t even remember.  Walleye are very, very delicious.  What an excellent day!

Detroit Reception

The spread

Hanging out outside

A few days after returning to Detroit, we were set to stay with my family for about 2.5 weeks, during which time we were going to host our second wedding reception.

The reception took place at my parents’ house in West Bloomfield.  We had decided to do a full middle eastern spread for lunch.  Every time Kristen and I visit Detroit, may parents ask “what do you want to do for dinner,” and the answer is always the same: “Middle Eastern.”  So of course we were going to throw a middle eastern feast if given the opportunity.

My mom put together a list of all the best dishes from various local eateries.  Tabbouleh from Anita’s in Ferndale, shawarma from Al-Oumara in West Bloomfield, and grape leaves, hommous, and babaghannouj, and even some chicken skewers from other far flung corners of the city.  My dad and I ran around all morning picking it all up.

And wow was it great!  The food was delicious, and it was fantastic to have our whole extended family all in one place; I think 50 or 60 people came to visit us that afternoon.  Some I hadn’t seen in many years, and a few people Kristen had never even met.  Plus, Steve, Barabara, Karoline, and Wentao all came in for the weekend as well, so they got to meet the whole gang.

Algonquin Park Canoe Trip (Fail)

In the canoe on Rock Lake

Kristen and all our gear

We planned a 4-day, 3-night canoe trip in Algonquin park (in Ontario, Canada).  I went to Summer camp in Algonquin park as a kid, and we used to take these fantastic multi-day canoe trips.  I figured, when else in our lives would we ever get the chance to go to this obscure park, to do this obscure thing, in a particular middle-of-nowhere I happen to have some memories of?  Never.  That’s the answer.

The closest town to Algonquin park is Huntsville, ON.  We drove in and spent  a night at the Motel 6 (which I don’t recommend by the way) after buying some backpacking food at the local supermarket.  The next morning, it was raining pretty steadily, but the forecast called for it to be nice and sunny for the next 4 days, so we were excited.  We headed into the park to pick up our rental gear – a beautiful fiberglass canoe, tent and sleeping bags, and some massive trip packs we would use to carry our gear and food across “portages”, or short trails in between lakes.  Just as we were loading up the car, the sun broke through the clouds and the day was glorious, if a little humid.

Our planned schedule was to launch the canoe at Rock Lake, then spend our first night at Pen Lake, our second night at Henry’s lake, third night at Louisa Lake, and then complete the loop and exit again at Rock Lake.

We launched the canoe around 3pm or so, and paddled along gorgeous Rock Lake.  There were great views, and barely any other people around.  We managed our way through the first portage over to Pen Lake, though the mosquitoes were a bit annoying.

After launching again on Pen Lake, the clouds started to gather again, so we decided to look for a campsite ASAP.  The map showed one on a nearby island (and Kristen loves islands), so we decided to head over to it.  On the way, we stopped in the middle of the lake to purify some water (deep water is generally cleaner).  After a few strokes, an un-fixable part of the filter pump broke.  Crap.  Now we’d have to use gross iodine tablets to purify our water for the remainder of the trip.  Then it started to rain.

We paddled frantically to the island campsite, and thankfully the rain began to let up, and the air was still.  We dragged our stuff up onto the island and made camp.  Almost immediately we were mobbed by mosquitoes and black flies.

Black flies are these tiny little bloodsuckers also commonly called no-see-ums because you can’t even see them while they’re destroying you.  Their bites itch worse than mosquitoes, and bleed.  Kristen is allergic.  When we were in Brazil, she’d gotten a series of black fly bites on her feet, and they swelled up so badly she couldn’t walk.

They were coming through our head nets, up our pants, and down our shirts.  We sprayed ourselves with 40% DEET.  They bit us through it.  We put on gloves and rain jackets, and long underwear.  We tucked our pants into our shoes.  And they bit through everything.  We had blood streaming down our faces from the bites.  But finally, we finished setting up camp, and got into the safety of the tent.  We should have been cooking dinner, but neither of us wanted to go back out there.

We discussed the situation.  We had no water pump, the weather forecast appeared to be incorrect, and we were getting absolutely destroyed by black flies.  Ugh.  Did we really want 3.5 more days of this?

It was around 5:30 or 6pm.  We decided we had just enough daylight left to tear down camp and paddle out.  So we did.  And on the way out, we were greeted by the sight of a mama and baby moose hanging out in Rock lake!  In all it was quite a pretty paddle out at dusk.

Back at the car, we again were mobbed by black flies while unloading the canoe.  It was inevitable.  We left the canoe at the launch, and headed for the Best Western, where we slathered on anti-itch cream and took ridiculous pictures of our bites.

The next morning, we returned all our gear (the people at the canoe rental place were not the least bit surprised to see us), and got the hell out of Canada.

On the way to Detroit, Kristen gently told me she was right.  “You were so excited to go on that canoe trip, how was I supposed to tell you that going into the woods in Canada in May was a terrible idea?”

Montreal

Schwartz’s deli, serving Montreal Smoked Meat

Pig odds and ends at Au Pied du Cochon

The next stop on our road trip was Montreal.  It turned out to be a pretty serendipitous trip, too.  Ben, my best friend from high school, and his wife Betsy were going to be in town at the same time we were planning to be there!  Which was perfect, because they are in the midst of having a baby and buying a new house to make room for said baby, and so were not able to attend any of our wedding reception parties.  We were very glad we got to see them.

Montreal is a very nice place (at least in the Summer).  Kristen had been there years before, but I had never been.  When we asked friends from the area for recommendations on what to do, their lists kept coming back filled with restaurant recommendations.  Ben and Betsy had the same experience.  It turns out that the best thing about the city is the food.

And so we ate.  After we arrived at our absolutely tiny rental apartment (complete with scary old elevator), we headed out to meet Ben and Betsy for dinner.  They took us out at Au Pied du Cochon (At The Pig’s Foot), which was one of the better dining experiences of my life.  It was the type of place where they serve every part of the pig in gourmet fashion.  Kristen and Betsy were a little leery of some of the odder organs and parts, but Ben and I dug in.

The next day, we woke up early and walked around the Plateau neighborhood, meeting up with Ben and Betsy to get breakfast at a Montreal style bagel shop called St. Viateurs (the bagels are baked in a wood oven, giving them a crunchier crust).  I liked the bagels a lot.  Sure, they’re different from New York style bagels, but they are delicious.

Afterwards, we spent a few hours walking through a street fair in the Plateau, and ducking into some little shops and boutiques.  For lunch, we tried the Montreal smoked meat at Schwartz’s deli.  The restaurant was very similar to Katz’s deli in NYC.  It had the long deli counter, the menu on the wall, the pictures of celebrities up everywhere, etc.  Montreal smoked meat itself appears to be very similar to pastrami, and we all thought the sandwiches were pretty comparable to the best NYC pastrami (i.e. very good).

From that point, we needed to walk off the meal, so we headed toward Old Montreal, which looks a bit like Paris, but smells yeasty (there is a huge Molson brewery nearby).  Kristen stopped for a coffee while Ben and I looked at some cool old poster prints.

At that point, it was time to say goodbye to Ben and Betsy.  They had reservations that night at the famed Joe Beef restaurant and had to go get ready, so Kristen and I walked around a bit more on the riverfront.

That night, our last, we were grounded a bit in our assessment of Montreal food (which to that point had been 100% incredible).  We went to the bistro L’Express, which was recommended by several friends.  It was good, but not great.  So normal restaurants do exist in Montreal!

Boston

After leaving NYC, we planned a short road trip en route to Detroit (for our next wedding reception party).  The first stop on the road trip was Boston.

We were set to stay with our friends Becky and Dan, who live in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.  I had been to Boston only one time before, so I was totally thrilled with how charming that part of the city is.  The architecture looks authentically colonial, the cobblestone streets are horse-drawn carriage width, and ivy climbs the walls everywhere.

On the way in, we stopped for a visit at the MIT campus in Cambridge.  We figured I got to show Kristen around Princeton a week earlier, and now it was time for her to return the favor.  And I have to say, the MIT campus is nice.  When I walked through there years ago, I remembered only seeing the bland concrete block buildings (like the library and one or two of the dorms), but Kristen took me through the beautiful academic building, which has a huge grassy courtyard that felt much more “college-y” than other parts of the campus.  That, plus some of the other interesting buildings (like Toon Town) definitely changed my mind – the MIT campus is in fact quite nice.

That night, Becky and Dan took us out for a walk around Boston Common (where it rained for the exact length of time it took us to find and buy umbrellas), and then out to a cool restaurant/bar downtown for a delicious dinner.  They were fantastic hosts all the way through – though it was brief, we really enjoyed staying with them!

NYC

The outdoor space at 34 Berry

Rob, Nicole, and Kristen

Keenan the bartender

After a week in California, Kristen and I headed to NYC for a week and a half.  The focus of the trip was to set up for and have our NYC wedding reception/party, but given that we are moving out of the city, we also wanted to see our good friends and visit our favorite haunts.  Our time in the city can be divided into 3 parts: pre-party, party, and post-party:

PRE PARTY

When we first arrived in NYC, we stayed with our friends Rob and Nicole, at their apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  This turned out to be perfect, both because we got to spend a ton of time with Rob and Nicole, but also because their apartment is located very close to our wedding reception venue.

Most of that first week was consumed by party planning and set up (securing the food – BBQ from Fette Sau and some fantastic salads from Cara’s friend Erin, finding helpers – Cara hired some of her friends for us, renting chafing dishes and plates, etc.).  We did manage to do a bit of sightseeing and reminiscing, though.  We took a trip down to Princeton for the day, had dinner at the restaurant where we’d had our first date, went out for my birthday, and went for some long walks and bike rides.

THE PARTY

We had the wedding party on the roof deck at 34 Berry, the apartment building where Cara’s (and our) friend Stacy lives.  Our original location (the roof deck at our old building in NYC) fell through, so Stacy saved the day.  The space was perfect, and my mom and Barb Kasprzak help decorate it with flowers the morning of the party.  Keenan bartended, and he devised a drink that was extremely popular, using some (way too) spicy vodka we had infused earlier that week with chili peppers, kiwi, and lime.  And everyone seemed to appreciate the food we served: 3 appetizer salads, ribs + pulled pork + brisket from Fette Sau, and an Argentine-style steak I cooked up on the outdoor grill.  For dessert, we picked up a few small cakes and cupcakes from what we think is the best bakery in NYC – Two Little Red Hens.  Delicious.

About 50 or so of our friends showed up, and it was great to see everyone.  This seems to be the main function of these sorts of parties – they work as an excuse to get lots of people together you’d normally have to see individually.  Plus, one sort-of-planned consequence of having 3 parties is that we get to actually spend time with individual people at each.  Sure, tons of different people came up to us to say hi, but we got to have several actual conversations, to taste all the food, and to relax and enjoy ourselves.  I get the feeling that “real” wedding receptions don’t offer that kind of intimacy with the guests.  We are very happy we did it this way.

POST PARTY

We had booked a rental apartment in our old building (The Monterey) to stay in for a few days after our wedding party.  This is why we initially planned to have the party on the Monterey roof deck.  But as it turns out, renting out apartments on a nightly basis at the Monterey is against the terms of the lease (as we had initially suspected), and so they freaked out when we mentioned we wanted to have a party on the roof.  I guess the people who had the lease on the apartment were scared we would draw too much attention to their rental operation.  Regardless, we were “checked in” to the apartment we rented the day before the party by an extremely shady and sleazy property manager, who kept telling us we were not allowed to use any building facilities, and that we should lie if the doormen asked us who we were.  Ick.  We really wanted to call the whole thing off, but we have such great memories in that building, we just had to stay there.  And in the end, we had a great time.  We walked around our old neighborhood, went to Central Park, I did a couple bike rides, and we enjoyed the views of the city from the roof.

One thing I will say about NYC: we forgot how cramped everything is.  After being away for a year (and in the rural middle of nowhere at that), it was sort of a shock to remember how small the spaces are (apartments, restaurants, etc.), how busy the sidewalks are, and generally how congested it all is.  It took us a few days to adjust.

In all, we had a fantastic time in NYC.  The wedding party was really the perfect way to say hello (and goodbye) to all our friends there, and our time before and after the party was the perfect way to say hello (and goodbye) to where we used to live.