Well, to start this was a bittersweet trip... I had planned to go home but there was too much snow on Hwy 70 in Missouri, so I stayed out in California. To make the best of it I decided to try snowboarding at Heavenly Ski Resort (http://www.skiheavenly.com) above South Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in the U.S. (11th in the world) and has a water clarity of about 100 ft. It is very beautiful the way it is situated in the mountains at an elevation of 6,225 ft. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_tahoe Lake Tahoe and Heavenly are in the Sierra [View Full Entry]

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Well, what can I say, it's Yosemite. I don't know if I could praise Yosemite any greater than what has already been said by thousands before me. And, I'm not sure any one thing about it that is so extraordinary to deserve such praise, but with everything it has combined, it is special and I think worthy of the praise. Like many of my recent adventures (due to weekend excursion limits because of this silly thing called work... I guess I'm a bandwagon type of guy... you know, everyone seems to be doing it :) this was a day trip. Anyway, [View Full Entry]

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Picked up my rental car around 10 AM and headed down Highway 1 to Santa Cruz. This was the first stretch of Highway 1 that I have driven on and it had plenty of great views of the coastline. Along the way I could see plenty of surfers out. For most of the drive down, the weather was drizzly and overcast. However, thing cleared up significantly by the time I got to Santa Cruz. It was mostly blue skies and about 75 degrees. Interestingly, I could see Montery off in the distance blanketed in fog. I arrived in Santa Cruz around [View Full Entry]

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What a day this was. Out of bed at 6am, I started driving towards Mount Rainier. Mount Rainier, on a clear day, is visible from Seattle even though it is 54 miles southeast of the city. This day was clear blue skies all the way (sunset to sundown) and around 80 degrees. By the way, Mount Rainier is a stratovolcano which has the highest peak (14,111 feet) in the Cascade Range (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Ranier). The first and closest place to go was Carbon River, which flows out of Carbon Glacier (the largest, by volume, glacier in the U.S.) and through the Carbon Rain [View Full Entry]

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Oh, Seattle. What a week. I'm staying three block north of the Seattle Center (which is where the Space Needle, the opera house, a little carnival area, an Imax, the Key Arena, and the Experience Music Project are located -- the Seattle Center was also the location of the 1962 World's Fair). On the evening of my first full day here, I went up the Space Needle. It has a panoramic view of the city, Puget Sound, and the surrounding mountains. I could see Mount Rainier, though it was not the clearest view (due to humidity, I guess). Inside, it has [View Full Entry]

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What a great day... and lots of driving. Four hours to the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park and four hours back (including the ferry between Edmonds and Kingston). The highway there passes along the shore of Lake Crescent... which is beautifully nested in small mountains and has a clear aqua color. After lots of driving I made it to the Hoh Rain Forest, which is a temperate rain forest. Once there, I checked in with Rain Forest Paddlers (http://www.rainforestpaddlers.com) at the Hard Rain Cafe to go kayaking down the Hoh River. I kayaked down the Hoh River with a small [View Full Entry]

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Starting out on Saturday in San Francisco, on sunny-blue-sky-and-cool-air morning, I took the F Line from Fisherman's Wharf down to the Embarcadero and the Ferry Building. How do you eat the best peach in your life... three times in one week (each one being better than before)? Well, you start by buying an organic peach at one of the Ferry Building shops over lunch. Then go to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Saturdays and buy one there. http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/ (Read on to find out about the best peach) I toured around the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market for a little bit.. [View Full Entry]

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This was a great day. I started it out at about 8:30 AM by walking almost two miles from my hotel to Navy Pier. The streets were very empty out where I am staying (they are usually very busy) due to the holiday and "Taste of Chicago" in Grant Park. At Navy Pier, I had a quick bite to eat at McDonald's and then picked up a bicylce I reserved online from Bike Chicago. It was a comfortable mountain bike with easy to shift gears. From there, I rode leisurely along the coastline... around Shedd Aquarium (highly recommended, but I went [View Full Entry]

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Not too much sightseeing so far, as I've been mostly working. The photos are from either my hotel room or where I work. Next week I'm scheduled to be here for July the 4th... and I hope to rent a bicycle and ride around. Then I should have more photos. [View Full Entry]

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This was my, oh, probably sixth time to San Francisco. I really enjoy visiting Cali... would like to check out the LA area sometime... but that is another matter. I've mostly visited SF, Napa, the Sierra Nevadas, and Chico. So, anyway, I was out in SF for training for my new job. For a change, I got to stay downwtown in the Hilton beside Chinatown and the Transamerica Pyramid. Training was a few blocks away. The most notable part of the trip was visiting Alcatraz. I've already walked the Golden Gate bridge, gone to some museums, tooled around Union Square, the [View Full Entry]

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