Field Trip!

On the fifth week of James' graduate program his incoming class was invited to attend a field trip for 4 days in the Sierra Nevada Mountain area. This educational experience included tours and trips to Mono Lake, Yosemite and a ghost town called Bodie. We camped for 4 nights with his class in Lee Vining, just outside of Yosemite. The most amazing thing about this trip was that it brought us back a previously visited location on our big cross-country trip on the motorcycle. This area was the place that was the hardest day on the trip, as we ran from snow and crossed Tioga Pass (a road that is closed most of the year, with no guard rails and a 9,000 ft. drop). Traveling on this route again really made us both feel like we were right where we needed to be in life. We had make it through that difficult journey and now we had the pleasure of experiencing it through an educational and professional capacity.


Mono Lake

The group trip ended on Thursday. We spent the previous day hiking through Tuolumne Meadow in Yosemite where we crossed streams, climbed on top of a granite hill and found cougar prints. We broke up into smaller groups: hiking, discovering and drawing. The utter pristine conditions of this location was spiritual. We ended the day by all of us hiking up Lembert Dome. It was incredibly steep and the white stone looked like snow. We sat there as a group waiting for the moon to come up and soaked up the sites.


Where we crossed the stream.


On top of Lemert Dome

After the 4 nights as a group James and I continued on to spend 3 more nights camping, making this our longest camping trip ever. We continued through Yosemite, crossing through the valley and continuing straight through to a campsite just outside of Yosemite called Summerdale Campground. A wonderful spot with a stream that I jumped into.

The next day we were on the road early and made it to Kings Canyon National Park. We found a great campsite called Crystal Springs and spent the rest of the day seeing: General Grant Tree (the biggest in this park), we took a panoramic drive and hiked to see the vista, and finally made an awesome campsite dinner with veggie sausage, mashed potatoes and rice.


James down in the canyon.

The following day we woke early and drove over to the Boole Tree, which consisted of a few miles on dirt roads and a hard hike uphill until finally you're alone with the big giant. This site is one that most don't get to see because of the difficulty of the hike, but that really just made it that much more awesome. On the hike down we discovered that the trail we were on was also used for cattle, and we encountered a cow that was lost from its herd. After the hike we got back into the car and drove down to the Cedar Grove area, which was in the canyon of these mountains. The views were dramatic and unlike anything I had seen before. The final stop was by Hume Lake and then back to the campsite where we had pizza.


The lone cow.


The Boole Tree and me.

The last day of the trip we woke knowing that were where going to see the biggest tree on Earth. We had saved the best for last and boy was it! The first stop was right to this tree: General Sherman, and its was definitely worth the wait and the mile hike. We had wanted to see this tree 3 years ago on our big cross country trip, but couldn't fit it into the schedule because of the difficult location of the park. Next we drove over to a meadow area and hiked around a while while it lightly rained. There was a whole grove of giants, and we even drove through one. The hike in the meadow was amazing, and we were able to see a bear and a deer within 100 feet of each other. The final stop before we left the park was Moro Rock, which is a round boulder on top of a mountain. There is a trail of mostly stairs that you can hike up to it. Once on top you are higher than anything else in the area. The trek down was a little scary, but the most frightful part was the lightening we saw in the near distance once we were off the rock. The rest of the day we spent driving home, arriving by 6:30pm.


Driving through a tree.


Walking through a tree.


The Bear!


An average tree in the meadow.


Hiking down from Moro Rock


Together on top of Moro Rock

3 Year Anniversary!

This is an image of our second night of camping. This is the bounty of food that our camping neighbors gave us.


This is the wonderful restaurant that we had our anniversary dinner at: "Windows on the Water." An amazing meal, which was referred to us by the local wine tasting store downstairs.


This was our first attempt at kayaking. A ton of fun!

This year our3 year anniversary found us in Los Angeles. Last year we celebrated our anniversary in Boston, and the one before must have been Florida, I imagine. Given our flexible schedule we decided to take about four days--the first 2 for camping, and the next for our favorite spot in Morro Bay, at Bayfront Inn. We spent the first night camping in the Los Padres Forrest. THe following night we had planned to stay at a different camp site in the park, but this required a river crossing on the motorcycle. We attempted it, fell and then decided to head over to Morro Bay early. We spent the second night camping at the state park in Morro Bay. This campsite, though very crowded, ended up being one of the best camping experiences ever! That afternoon we made our way over to our hotel. The Bayfront Inn is a wonderful little hotel that has some great deals, and is right on the water. The first day we went to a small local music festival, the farmers market and walked around the little beach community. Later we kayaked, went to a wine bar and then an awesome dinner. It was a great couple of days that made me feel lucky to have James in my life.

Florida Trip - May 2010

Best Buddies on the Beach



Hollywood Beach Brunch with Lynlee


Mother's Day with Mom



As I mentioned in my last post, I recently visited Florida. With only 1 week to see friends, family and meet James' family for the first time as his fiance, the trip was really packed. I didn't get to see everyone I wanted, but I did get in some much needed lady time, with some of my favorite ladies.

We arrived the day before Mother's Day. Luckily one of my best friends was off that weekend. Lynlee and I spent the whole weekend together, and even got in a sleepover. That sacred lady time was reinvigorating. I also had the chance to see Alison, who I hadn't seen in at least a year. Another highlight was my first pedicure with Lynlee and Tera. Seeing my mom on Mother's Day turned out to be really nice, and I appreciated catching up with her. Some of the last people I saw were Andrea and Sarah. This was a real treat because Andrea is moving to Tallahasse this summer to start Law School.

Visiting James's family is always nice, but this visit was especially important since we are engaged now. We were both wished much happiness, and they have all welcomed me into the family with open arms.

Seeing Grampie was a fun treat. We did our usually, just like I was still living next store, only it was much too abbreviated.

Lastly, I sadly didn't get to see my brother, or my dad for a second time. Unfortunately, time was short and didn't allow the quality time that was needed. Next visit I will surely have to make more time for them. I did however get some much needed lady time, with my favorite ladies. Thanks for a great visit Florida - see you in December!

Spring Break Trip - Part 2

DSCF8341, originally uploaded by JJriders.

Spring time in the desert! Hard to imagine, but around this time of year the desert is full of flowers popping up here and there. While it is still obviously the desert, there are some amazingly, unique flowers that you'll find no where else. This is where the second part of our trip lead us: to Anza-Borrego State Park, which is north east of San Diego, CA.

We reached the destination on motorcycle in one day, and camped for two days.

We were excited to use the motorcycle off-road, and since all the campsites were reserved, this was a perfect spot to test out the capabilities of the new bike. The camping turned out to be great! The first site we visited we dropped the bike, but this time the bike slowly kicked out from under us. We both were able to catch ourselves and immediately stand up. The site we actually stayed at was so amazing and free! We were close to one group of people in a RV, but there were totally quiet and well behaved. This site gave us the best sunset, and was utter wilderness besides this other group.

During the day we hiked around the area of our campsite and found some amazing sand stone. We also saw lizards, a jack rabbit and heard coyotes howling at night. It definitely was still hot and dry turning the day time, even though it's only Spring. The temperature reached about 90 degrees, and I was really happy we had the protective clothing, sunscreen and hats with us, as there was little to no shade.

On the way back home we stopped by Salvation Mountain, Salton Sea and Sonny Bono State Animal Reserve. All really great stops, but would be unlikely as a destination, but if in the area, its worth the stop.

Spring Break Trip - Part 1

During the second week of March I realized that I had a week of Spring Break coming up the following week. Time was wizing by, and I had been hoping to make it down to a friend's wedding in Florida. Unfortunately, between time and funds that trip was not going to happen.

So it was on March 11 that we decided that we would take a short weekend trip to start off my Spring Break, then come back, work on homework and James would go to his classes. We chose Paso Robles as a destination because of the wine county. We have not yet made it over to Napa, so this was our wine country warm-up.

On Friday morning we realized that while we had a destination we had no plans. And since we were traveling over the weekend we knew we needed to make arrangements for a place to stay. Since it is only March, which apparently means it is still cold many places, we chose to stay in hotel. My task for this trip was to find and book a hotel. I had about an hour to look at our options around San Simeon, Morro Bay and Paso Robles area for anything cheap, but not skeezy. This was a large area, and before James had left to class he suggested Motel 6 and said, "Honey, I know you'll find somewhere nice."

So the pressure was on to make this a nice trip, and the proper location of the accommodation was key to this. I decided that we could probably do a little better than Motel 6 and broadened the budget to $100. After looking at Google maps I realized that staying by the ocean would be a real treat. I figured it would be expensive, but also knew that it was the off season, so there were probably deals to be had. I made several calls, looked at the maps, and finally found a great little, independent hotel.

Bayfront Inn was the little gem that I found. It's an older building, but updated and clean, and right across from the bay. At $83 out the door, this was a steal. And on top of that when we arrived to check in our room was upgraded to the king-size bed, with private jacuzzi.

Morro Bay is a lovely little town to visit. That weekend there was a Chili Cook-off that was so popular they ran out of food and drink. We meandered around and found a lovely Farmer's Market where we picked up some snacks for the room. We head back toward the bay to find some food and found a great lunch spot called Hofbrau Restaurant. This is where we took this photo.

Later that night we watched the sun set over the ocean and walk around Morro Rock that you see in the photo.

The next morning we woke up and knew that we had to get over to Paso Robles to check out at least one winery. Before leaving we had breakfast at Frankie and Lola's, which had amazing, original, vegetarian selections. Our destination was Pipestone winery. A sustainable and organic, family-owned operation. This is one of the far-out wineries, meaning its not on the main drag, but totally a great find. We were the only ones there, which allowed us to try many wines and have a great conversation with our host.

It was 5pm already and we were hours from home. We knew that we would be driving through the dark, but were lucky that clocks had just rolled back that morning for Day Light Savings Time. On the way back we saw some amazing flower patches and drove for miles without seeing anyone else. The final last hour was of course the hardest and coldest, but we pushed through it and made it back to LA by 9pm. This trip was a major success.

Next weekend we'll be heading to Anza-Borrego to catch some more amazing wildflower patches.

Best Weekend Ever!

On Feb. 13th we set out on a weekend excursion for the long weekend and a much needed break from school. We had a 3 day trip planned, which was mostly a surprise for me since my birthday was that week. So I was lead to believe that this extravagant trip to the mountains in Angeles National Forest, just outside of LA, was a birthday gift, but it was actually much more.

I had asked to go somewhere with snow, as I was actually really missing it, and I wanted to try an outdoor activity like skiing or snow shoeing. We went with the snow shoeing, which was amazing. You can see a picture of us here on top of a mountain, quiet as could be, looking down at an amazing vista. I felt like a mountain climber, or maybe a mountain goat. So on the first day of our trip we went with a small group of people on this snow shoeing adventure before we even checked into our cabin.

James had found this cute little cabin in Wrightwood, and had booked it for the weekend. He did a great job finding this place. It came with a fireplace, full kitchen, television and board games. We did it all: roasted marshmellows at the fire place, played the board game pass the pigs, and of coarse argued about the movie Pretty Woman. And that was just the first day.

The next day was Valentines Day. We had decided to spend it at Devil's Punch Bowl, a geological site on the San Andres Fault line. The pictures I took completely do not do the place justice. I really needed a wide angle lens, but the views wasn't even the best part. As I was staring of the vista, I turned around the find James on his knee with a beautiful ring, asking me to marry him. I was shocked, surprised and elated all at once. I agreed, and we continued our hike as an engaged couple, which I have to admit was really hard not to tell everyone we passed on the hike.

I can't really remember what happened the rest of that day, except a pure state of bliss. On Monday however, we packed up our stuff, loaded the car and decided to go sledding. We found a pretty quiet spot, and thought we would give it a go. I was having second thought about the hill we chose, as it was quite steep, but James went for it. And this was one of the scarest moments in my life. As he slid down the hard ice hill his body vibrated in an unnatural way. I stood there on top of this hill thinking, I've only been engaged for 24 hours and I might have just lost my fiance. When he finally got up I raced down the hill to him to find his hands bleeding. I ran to the car to get the first aid kit and wrapped up his knuckles.

The whole thing worked out. We were both ok, so we decided to just snow shoe a little before leaving this beautiful landscape.

New York in the Winter

(Central Park in the winter)

Though we had only been home (Boston) about 15 days, we headed back out to visit some friends in the NYC. We also had planned to check out an International Motorcycle convention that was taking place that week.

(Our future get away car)

(My future toy)

One of my favorite parts of this trip was spending the day outside in the snow in Central Park. We walked around for hours while it snowed and visited the carousel, the castle and finally ended up at the Natural History Museum. It was a great way to spend our last day in New York.

Ticket Booked.

Well, I have my ticket booked to return home for the holidays. I'll be making my departure down there on Dec. 18 and my return is expected (although not yet bought) Jan 1, 2009. So i should have about 2 weeks to spend time with all the people I love and miss from the SoFla area. I have to say, I'm rather excited. I've actually always wanted to be able to come "home for the holidays" so its pretty exciting to me.

As it gets closer I'll start talking to everyone to see what the best dates are to see people. I do know that I'm probably spending Christmas Ev, Day and Post in Orlando. So other than those days I'm pretty free.

I look forward to seeing everyone in December!