Destination 3: Sequoia National Park

Before diving into this latest trip, a quick note on the blog. I am obviously format challenged in terms of making this thing look good (any tips would be appreciated) but I've received a bit a feedback on length. Apparently there are those out there in our adoring audience that don't like to read 10,000 words on each and every trip we take (a certain girl working out in NYC that won't be named). Even the wife - new code name Ms. Betray Us - has commented that no one would want to read so dang much. ouch. I want you all to know I am crying on the inside. You need to remember you are talking to the record holder (I think) for thesis length back at Bates College...why use one word when 10 work so much better?? :)

Ok, so Sequoia, our final stop in California before heading out to New England. Dual purpose for this trip: communing with the big trees one last time and testing out our backpacking gear we've purchased for our treks in New Zealand. We had great weather for two hikes - one up Big Baldy Ridge for mountain views and the other through Redwood Canyon, site of the largest remaining Sequoia grove. A note to the uninitiated - hiking with 10-20 lbs on your back above 8000 feet is a whole different world than regular hiking.

Jules and I at the beginning of the first hike...

Jules at the top...

Now the second hike:

Julie with an enormous pine cone...

Just in case you were wondering just how big the trees are...here is a fallen one with me standing next to it.

Or an 'average' sequoia - look closely and you can see I am holding two hiking poles each over 4 feet long.

Click on the picture above and see if you can find Julie...

Side Trip: Guys Weekend in SanFran

So my buddy Dave and I were supposed to meet up for a weekend of hiking and beer drinking in Yosemite this past weekend. Unfortunately, the winter storm that chased Julie and I from the park hung around and caused Dave and I to change plans on the fly.

We decided on a guys weekend in the city - after I wussed out on a last minute trip to Vegas. Despite a crappy hotel room - complete with chandelier (note, never stay at the Westin in Union Square) we had a great time (despite the massive hangovers from Friday night).

While Friday was over the top, Saturday was a chill day in the city. We caught what I am confident will become a cult movie hit: Shoot 'em up. Horrible acting, way over the top violence, but some great gun fight scenes and one liners. Watch it, enjoy.

Next up was a Giants game - likely my last visit to PacBell - I mean SBC - I mean AT&T park. Since it was the end of a crummy year for the Giants we were able to score great seats at half the face value. Pics below are Dave at our seats behind first base and me outside the park.

After that we simple closed down the nearest brew pub and called it a night. It wasn't Yosemite but still a good time.

Destination 2: Yosemite

After getting settled at our first home base in Fresno, we set out for Yosemite National Park. This would actually be our third visit, though frustratingly we've never made it there when the waterfalls were at their peak. Regardless, our plan was to camp at Crane Flat and to hike up in Tuolomne Meadows.

We snagged a great campsite and then made the long way up Tioga Road to Lembert Dome. This was listed as one of the best day hikes in the Tuolomne area and given it was only a few miles round trip, we figured it was a good way to acclimate ourselves to the elevation (9,450 ft).

We were definitely hurting on the way up due to the elevation (sea level to 9000 feet is always a bit harsh in one day), but the views from the top were worth it. Though the top was a bare face, it was an easy scramble up until the final 30-50 feet. Julie decided to skip it, but I was never one to let a 45 degree sheer face deter me from a marginally better view! Ok, so I have this thing about actually summitting - must, (imagine the squaring of the shoulders) just be where I am used to being... :)

Pardon the California late afternoon smog by the way - you just get used to it after awhile. Besides that we had a wonderful day - even above 9000 feet is was still decently warm out in late September - a situation unfortunately that was not going to last long.

After a truly gourmet meal of hot dogs, we settled into my favorite part of camping - having a beer around the campfire. Combined with seeing the stars this is what makes up for sleeping on the ground and dealing with crappy campground bathrooms (in this case portable toilets only - no fun). Anyhow, after we put the fire out we truly felt how cold it had gotten - the temp was quickly plummeting toward freezing. Time to bundle up!

The next morning found us not yet frozen and on our way to hike out to North Dome. The bummer was that the weather had turned over night - a winter storm was moving in with snow forecast around 6500 feet and above (not great when you are camping at 6200 feet). We decided to worry about camping later, bundle back up, and get out on the trail. The hike to North Dome was a great hike - mainly through the woods with moderate elevation gain and loss. When we got out to the dome though - renowned for having great views as it is right across Yosemite Valley from Half Dome - instead of looking out across the valley we were looking right at smoke - lots of smoke. The forest service had decided to do a controlled burn on the valley floor which left the whole valley shrouded in smoke.

The second picture shows half dome - tantalizingly close, but indistinct due to the smoke. In both pictures you can also see the heavy storm clouds moving in. Given the cold temp and the high likelihood of rain and possibly snow, we decided to bag the rest of the trip and head back to Fresno. On the way out we did manage to catch one more great view of the valley - thankfully free of smoke.

A nice way to end a good, if unlucky, trip to Yosemite.

Destination 1: Napa, CA

The first leg of our journey found us in one of our favorite spots on earth, the Napa/Sonoma wine country in CA. While we liked wine before we moved to Cali, it reached a whole new level once we arrived. Over the three years we were in the Bay Area we visited well over 80 wineries, many of them multiple times. For us, one of the hardest parts of leaving the Bay Area was that we were also leaving wine country (all this makes us sound like serious wine snobs but really we aren't...at least not too bad. We just love the whole wine tasting experience, especially in such a beautiful area as Napa and Sonoma)

Regardless, given how much we loved it and how much we will miss it, our first destination just had to be back up to Napa. We organized our trip around a hot air balloon ride that we had received as a wedding present from Julie's cousin Jim and his wife Jen (sweet gift!).

The first day we hit several wineries with the highlight being the reserve tasting room at BV. We had been to BV to taste their mid-range wines once before but had always wanted to go back to try their high end wines.


The tasting room itself was perhaps the nicest we had ever been in - think dark wood, beautiful flat screen tvs, and row after row of old vintages of some of the best wine in the world. We lucked out by both having the place to ourselves and getting a great pourer - an English lady who gave a great pour, was fun to talk to, and kept letting us try additional wines. All of the wines we tasted were amazing, but the highlight for us was the 2002 Georges De Latour. Wow. If you ever want to impress someone this is not a bad bottle to go for. That is if you like giant (but smooth) cabs... The funny thing was that we liked the '02 and '03 better than the '90 that the crazy English lady decided to pour for us. The '90 had mellowed to a point it was extremely soft but it just didn't have the oomph that we loved.

That night we headed to Coles Chop House...regarded as the best steakhouse in Northern California. We ended up with a nice table in an overall nice room but the food was just not that over the top good. Now expectations can always screw with you, but I know I could have grilled up a better rib eye than they served me. Good news was that it was actually significantly cheaper than many places in San Francisco though that isn't saying much. Julie took the plunge on some Maine Lobster and quickly confirmed her suspicion that she should never eat Maine lobster outside of Maine. Oh well. It was a nice dinner regardless.

Tuesday morning found us moaning and groaning as the alarm went off at 5 am. By 5:45 we were at the departure point for the hot air balloon ride. We were supposed to go on a hour balloon ride over Napa but soon received some bad news - heavy fog was rolling in and we weren't going to be able to go. As a backup, the balloon company offered to take everyone (there were over 40 people flying that day) on a ride in the Central Valley. While bummed we felt it was now or never and decided to go for it.

We were definitely glad that we did so. Flying in a hot air balloon is definitely a different way to fly than anything else. Take off was very smooth ("oh wow, we're in the air") and then during the flight itself you feel like you are just floating in place with no sense of motion until you look at the ground (as you are just floating in the wind). The most excitement we had was right before and during takeoff. The balloon basket was a bit over 4 feet tall with just a few footholds to get up. Julie went up ok and then ever so gracefully fell face first into the basket. That's my girl. I, of course, bounded up and over like a cat (this blogging thing might be fun after all...)

Once the entire group of 10 had settled into the basket we took off...right towards another balloon that was being inflated. I can assure you that Julie and I were completely calm as we flew right through the other balloon - no 'wholly sh*t!' or anything... Of course the other balloon was filled with air and simply was pushed aside by the several ton basket we were riding, but it seemed bad I tell ya...

The ride itself was fun as we floated over orchards, a few housing developments, and much empty grassland. Definitely not as exciting as sailing above beautiful vineyards, but still a good time. After we landed we were bussed back to the original departure point for a full breakfast and champagne spread. I was a bit peeved that we didn't do the traditional champagne right upon landing but Jules told me to get over myself...

The picture to the right shows the shadow of our balloon, the orchards we were flying over and one of the other balloons from our group (there were four balloons in total).

After the balloon ride (and a quick nap) we ended this first destination with a few more winery visits before bidding Napa goodbye for now. If anyone reading this ever needs recommendations for wineries to visit, you know who to ask (that would be Julie). Overall, a great start to our trip.

Cheers
Dan

Introduction and trip plan

Hello all,

So this is our first foray into the world of blogs - please forgive us any faux pas we happen to make. We decided to create this blog to keep our family and friends up to date on our upcoming travels. For various reasons, both Julie and I decided to quit our jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our last day of work was September 7th.

So here's the grand plan we hatched over the summer. Julie would go down to part time in August and start the process of applying to graduate programs in organizational behavior (aka Industrial Organizational Psychology). Both of us would then quit our jobs on September 7th (just after my one year work anniversary). We would throw our stuff into storage, give up our apartment, and travel for several months. Our rough plan is below - our general principle was to focus on either wine or hiking though we threw some other crazy things in as well.

Homebase 1: Fresno, CA (where Julie's mom lives) through September
Destination 1: Napa, CA
Destination 2: Yosemite National Park
Destination 3: Sequoia National Park OR Mt. Shasta/Redwoods National Park

Homebase 2: Lake Sebago, ME through October
Destination 4: Acadia National Park
Destination 5: Bates College
Destination 6: Boothbay Harbor and Freeport
Destination 7: Boston

International trip 1: Australia and New Zealand, End of October through the beginning of December
Australia:
Destination 8: Sydney, Australia
Destination 9: Hunter Valley Wine Region
Destination 10: Blue Mountains
Destination 11: tbd
New Zealand:
Destination 12: Christchurch, Kaikoura, and the Marlborough Wine Region
Destination 13: The Queen Charlotte Track (a three day trek on the north end of the South Island)
Destination 14: The Nelson region
Destination 15: Mt. Cook
Destination 16: Queenstown
Destination 17: The Routeburn Track (a three day trek)
Destination 18: Doubtful Sound
Destination 19: The Milford Track (a four day trek)
Destination 20: Milford Sound
Destination 21: Auckland

Homebase 3: Fresno, CA, through much of December
Destination 22: tbd

Homebase 4: Minnetonka, Minnesota (where Dan's parents live), late December until Julie finds out what school she has gotten into.
Destination 23: tbd

International trip 2: tbd, likely Italy, sometime between January and April.

Ok so that is the general idea. This rough outline will almost certainly change - hopefully because we've added destinations (Denver, D.C.) The plan for the blog is to do a new post for each new destination...we'll see how long that lasts. :)

Cheers all
Dan