in search of awesome... Hawaii part two

SPEAKING OF TURNING 31...
Speaking of turning 31, in doing research for the trip, I read about a series of articles that Mark Twain had written in regards Hawaii while he was here back in 1866 (at the age of 31). At that time he was on assignment for the Sacramento Union and spent four months writing about ship captains, whalers, missionaries, mosquitoes, thickets of flowers and thousands and thousands of cats. Some of these letters were published as part of his "western travel anthology" called Roughing It. I had wanted to pick the book up to read while in Hawaii, but a last minute trip to Powells to pick up another book which I had ordered a week prior on Amazon for the trip... but had not yet arrived by the time I was set to depart, had me looking over Twain's book. I wanted to read Twain's work... honestly I did... but I did not want to carry another book into the thickets of flowers, mosquitos and cats known as Hawaii with me... so I left it for a later time. However, if any of you are Mark Twain fans...I suggest you read it as I've heard nothing but great things about it for the past 31 years of my life. (PS: In Hawaii I started reading "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman, which is a compilation of three books combined in one, most notably the Golden Compass -it was made into a movie staring Nicole Kidman back in 2007-. The movie, by all means was a pretty lame retelling of the story, but the ideas behind it and the characters which were created had me captivated, so... when looking for a book that I could read for hours and hours on end on a soft, sandy, warm beach somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this was the book I chose.)

PEARL HARBOR

On Friday Sam and I got up early and boarded "The Bus" for cross town transportation to Pearl Harbor. When the thought of going to Hawaii first crossed my mind, the biggest thought aside from surfing that crossed my mind was getting to visit Pearl Harbor. Always a history nut growing up, I had a keen interest in WWII and even wrote a fictional story for a writing competition using Pearl Harbor and the events of December 6th, 1941 as a backdrop. So... needless to say I was more than excited to get to see the site with my own eyes. We arrived in what I thought would be enough time to see everything and leave with enough time to get a half-day of surfing in, but when we went to the ticket window at 11am to get our ticket, the earliest they could give us to catch the boat to the sunken USS Arizona was 1pm. From there it was a 90 minute trip/tour, which put us well into the afternoon and out of the range of surfing. I was mad that I had come this far and had gotten so close to seeing it, only to be dealt with the fact that I had already paid for a day of surfing too. I wanted to be able to have my cake and eat it too... but logicistcal crap was preventing me from doing so. Sam and I sat down on one of the many park benches which lined the displays at Pearl Harbor and talked over our options. I really wanted to go see the USS Arizona, but I also really wanted to surf. Then practically dawned on me... the Arizona is underwater, there isn't much to see in the first place. Realizing this, I took it to be here in this sacred and holy ground as being good enough. And really, you could feel the solemn energy, it was the same as being at Gettysburg or at Ground Zero. You could tell that something big and important happened here and many lives were lost. That was good enough for me.

Pearl Harbor Side Note: So... news to me you aren't exactly allowed to bring in any bags to Pearl Harbor. Which if you've driven there... great, go put your sunscreen and water and rain jacket, etc back in the car. However, if you're like us and took public transportation, the kind security guards tell you that you can check your bags. Seems pretty harmless right? So you go over and there you realize you've gotta pay a fee. Bull shit right? I mean, I totally understand the reasoning and I know our National Parks are in funding danger, but it's also a little bit of an ass-hole move. I mean, what kinda woman who goes to visit PH isn't going to have some bag or purse with them? Men? many pockets and wallets handle that need... but ladies, we normally have bags with us. This is where it comes in handy to travel with a lesbian, preferably one who wears cargo shorts. One fell move... Sam put all of our bagged belongings, even the bag itself (the amazing REI Flash) into her pockets. Bam... eat that Pearl Harbor National Park Bag Bitches!

MINOR OVERSIGHT:

On our way back to Wakiki we were going to quickly change into our suits and then run down to the shop to grab our surfboards and get a few hours in before the shop closed for the day. Which, was a great idea.... providing we could get into our room. It just so happened that there was a lapse in planning and we had booked the condo for two nights, instead of the three (as we were told was the minimum amount we were allowed to stay). So, as you can imagine this created quite a stir when we couldn't get into the room to get to our stuff and try to contact the rental company and Sam's phone was dying. Luckily, everything got sorted out, but it did end up being a minor hic-up in our day and apparently, our planning.

SURF BREAKS:

We learned from the folks that we rented boards from, that Pops surf break is a lot better for the beginner than Canoes. It's not so much abut the waves themselves, but more or less the people who inhabit the break. IE: a lot less ass-holes at Pops. As well, Sam was able to overcome the surfing frustrations of the day before and once again... enjoy surfing. Thank God.

SECOND MINOR OVERSIGHT OF THE DAY

Later that afternoon after surfing and happy hour (which Sam had a much more enjoyable go at it this time around) we walked a mile or so to the local mall to pick up more jet-boil fuel canisters at Sports Authority. See, after tonight we'd be departing for a more rugged and isolated part of the island and camping for the next three nights. I had brought my jet boil as a means of cooking meals, but due to airline restrictions, was unable to fly with the needed fuel canisters. No worries, I thought... I'll just pick some up in Honolulu. So, Sam and I walked into the store and went to the "camping gear section". We finally came to the row with the fuel and there we found, row after row after row of coleman fuel canisters, little green Coleman fuel canisters filled up every row as far as the eye could see and as far as the arms could reach. Back to back, side to side, Coleman, Coleman, Coleman. Upon seeing this, I realized we'd be in luck... if only the jetboil took a coleman fuel canister, which I didn't believe it would.

So I asked a nearby salesman. At first he was like... "yeah, that should work" and then we pressed him and asked him more questions finally he coughed up that he didn't think it would work at all. The funniest thing is that Sports Authority sells jetboils, in fact they had one on hand at that moment for $99; however, what they didn't sell was the fuel to go in them. I asked the salesman if he thought that was ridiculous. He replied that they normally do sell it, but they seemed to be sold out. "Really?" I responded... by looking at the row upon row of green coleman gas canisters... "where do you think they're supposed to go?" - pointing to a small gap right in between the row after row of Coleman canisters. Disappointed, we settled on getting a cheap little backpacking stove with little cheap fuel canisters. Not glamorous and nothing that will boil water in under twenty minutes, but good enough to make some mushy noodles in the backcountry for dinner at least.

This has nothing to do with Denver...

Well, it is with great pleasure that I look forward to loading up the car this evening, armed with one bag of clothes, my GF, my dog, a thermos of coffee and a block of Tilamook white cheddar cheese and pointing it east. We'll travel the Columbia Gorge towards Pendleton and once we get there, we'll take a southerly route towards Boise, Idaho. From here, it'll be further east passing by Salt Lake City Utah and then into Wyoming and finally coming to a rest some 20 hours later in Denver, Colorado.

I made a promise to myself when I moved out to Oregon, that I'd get out and truly experience the wonder and the glory of the fabled American West, but driving 20 hours straight to get to Denver doesn't really qualify. Granted, we'll be passing through some pretty areas, but most likely these will all look the same in the dark. Actually, I'm kinda of dreading the long drive, but looking forward to it all at the same time. The trip isn't really about going to Denver, it's about the "trip", it's about spending some quality time with the GF, it's about getting to see some family, and it's about picking up something I've had my eye on for a really long time.

Which... leaves me to this:

For those of you not in the know, the above images are from Cincinnati's Crosley Field, which was home of the Reds from 1912 - 1970. It was constructed during the great era of steel and concrete ballparks like Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park. During the years Crosely was in use, it saw many great games and memorable moments in baseball history. For example, during the Great Depression, with baseball attendance at an all time low, Cincinnati installed lights and hosted the Philadelphia Phillies in the first ever professional baseball night game. That date was May 24th 1935 and President Franklin D. Roosevelt had the distinction of pressing a button that lit up Crosley Field for the game.

So you might ask, what does that have to do with Denver?

And my response is... absolutely nothing.

Nothing expect what is waiting there for me.

color me bright

Part two of a photo blog regarding my recent trip to Scandinavia. Part one can be seen here.

One thing that has always amazed me about our Nordic neighbors, is how brightly all their buildings seem to be painted. I don't know if it's a reprieve from those dark long winter nights or a uniform housing code... but regardless if you're in the country or in the city, if it's an old barn or a new house... so many structures are wearing a beautiful bright coat of color.

In Sweden especially, most of the buildings are painted a deep red with stark white trim. I learned that this color of red is called Falu red, and it came as a by product from the abundance of local copper. Not only was falu red cheap and accessible, but it was great at preserving wood. If a building was not painted red, then it usually was a creamy golden or white hue. Back in the day, people painted their buildings those colors because that was what they had... but even these days, when pretty much everyone has access to every color of paint in the rainbow (and beyond), people still chose to paint their buildings in the classic historical colors. I personally love that. I love that when driving through the countryside there is just this uniform look to things. I mean, granted it might be a little hard to give directions if you say "my house is the cute red one on the left"... but I'm sure even if you find the wrong house, you'll find some wonderful people inside.

Really, from the three times I've been to Scandinavia (and Sweden especially), it really does feel as if you walked into a giant IKEA. Everything is well designed, there is no trash, the kids are all rosy cheeked, beautiful healthy people are eating meatballs, and no matter how hard you try - you just can't figure out how to take it all home with you.

at the farm, Sweden

at the farm, Sweden

the new guest house at the farm

Uppsala, Sweden

summer cottage in Norrtälje, Sweden

Gamla stan, Stockholm, Sweden

Gamla stan, Stockholm, Sweden

Gamla stan, Stockholm, Sweden

Gamla stan, Stockholm, Sweden

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark

Reykjavik, Iceland

bike menagerie

Hello friends!

Guess what, as you can probably tell by this post I am back from my travels abroad and as much as I love traveling and adventure, I do love coming home. Especially when there are friendly faces and warm greetings to welcome you. Anyways, the highlight of every trip for me is always taking photos. In fact, I think I had well over a 1,000 images from this 12 day trip (probably even more if my camera wouldn't have died 3/4th of the way through)... but anyways. Instead of one massive blog about my trip, I think I'll just share a few select themes here and there and post related photos.

So, this post is about the bikes I saw on some of my travels.

Outside of Portland Oregon (and Minneapolis perhaps) almost in no other place will you see more bikes for everyday use than you'll find in Scandinavia. I thought it was interesting to look at the bikes people seemed to use for everyday use and compare them what we have here. So... this is a little photo blog about bikes. Enjoy!

SWEDEN:

All over Sweden, the type of bike I saw the most were the typical "city bike" style. Heavy, clunky, slow but an upright riding style which makes it easy to go everywhere in your everyday work clothes. I only saw two people riding anything different. Those two people were also the only people I saw on "road bikes" and they were also the only two other people I found wearing spandex (and team kits).

very green: it's got an interesting tube out to the side under the back cargo rack - which I'm not sure what you'd use that for.

a bicycle built for two...

Paul Frank single speed cruiser

This was the first fixed gear bike I saw on my travels. Fixies (or track bikes) are very popular here in the states, are very popular in urban areas... but surprisingly enough... I hardly saw any in Europe. As well... any fixie I did happen to see, had flat handlebars as opposed to the ones with drops that'd we see here. I thought that was interesting.

Stockholm's bike sharing program.

DENMARK:

The Danes are crazy about their bikes. CRAZY! So crazy in fact that they completely shun calling themselves cyclists. It's similar in the fact that many of us walk... but yet, we don't identify as "walkers" or "pedestrians". We don't subscribe to "walking magazine" or start buying tickets to all events where people can be found walking... just because we happen to walk as well. Basically, walking isn't an activity, it's just how we get from point A to point B. Riding bikes in Copenhagen is much like that. It's every day. It's nothing special. It's nothing new. But, to the outside eye... Copenhagen's bike culture (or lack of) is pretty friggin amazing. Personally, I loved seeing an encyclopedia's worth of various bike styles pass me on the street. There were trikes, bakefits, bullitts, city bikes, christiania bikes, fixed gears, road bikes, cruisers, mountain bikes, hybrids, commuters, etc. And... on top of that, all the people are stylishly dressed. Wearing their finest attire, pressed suits and ties and high heels. I loved it! Not once did I see someone wearing a neon vest or have a little hemet mirror dangling off the side of their head. Bikes are as much of a part of someone's outfit as their coat. In fact, some people I saw even took their accessorizing of their bikes and outfits a little too far.

Bullitt bike

christiania bike

The rental bikes even had handy permanent maps on them.

The only folks I saw on "road bikes" or wearing spandex

fashionable lads with matching coats and bikes and skinny jeans

cargo bike (notice the smaller front wheel)

interesting seat and frame design

this bike had a smart elastic band system installed to protect clothes fro getting caught in the spokes.

heavy duty kid and cargo carrying (i love the face paint job on the kid)

Nice blue accents

white bike

Who says you can't bike in wing-tips and a scarf?

now, that's what I call accessorizing!

Aside from the racers dressed in their team kits, bike messengers in Denmark were the only other people I saw wearing spandex. Which I found all sorts of amusing.

ICELAND:

Sadly, my camera broke right before I went to Iceland, so I have minimal bike photos from there. However, when it came to the style of bikes... most of the bikes seemed to be wal-mart huffy style commuter/mt. bikes. I'm not quite sure if it's due to the general isolation of the country or the cost to get bikes there or the fact that so few people live there, but... there was defiantly a shortage of bike diversity. However, everywhere you went in the urban areas you saw people, young and old on their bikes. Going to and from work and school etc. My hotel even had bikes for rent. So, they like bikes there... they just don't have all the types of bikes that we have here in the states or they have in Denmark. However, given the landscape of the country, not only is "by bike" one of the best ways to travel and see the sights in Iceland, but I'm pretty sure they could host some amazing mountain bike races.

I took more photos of hot dogs in Iceland than I did bikes.

Mt. Baker photo journal...

Howdy everyone, I just wanted to take a break from the lack of blogging (i've been busy at work!) to show everyone some photos from my trip up to Mt. Baker, Washington a few weekends ago for a few days of boarding, beer, boots, buddies, baked goods and cabins. (ps... through the formatting of my blog, it cuts off 1/3 of any of my horizontal pics, so click on them for the full view)

On our way there, we took a slight detour through downtown Seattle where sure enough, we got stuck in traffic right next to the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile!!!

(art outside of the Evo Store. Fittingly made with snowboards, skis, and crutches)

While in Seattle, we drove to Fremont to pay our friends at EVO a visit. For those of you not in the know, Evo is a fun little company out of Seattle that offers amazing deals on snowboarding, ski, wakeboarding, and skateboarding equipment. Their main presence is on the web, but they do have a brick and mortar location. Sam has spent some quality time with Evo recently as she has ordered at least five various pairs of snowboard boots, each failing to fit. So... we thought instead of paying for S&H over and over and over again, it'd make so much more sense to just try the boots on in the store. Needless to say, that's exactly what we did. Needless to say, it took about three hours. So, while Sam fiddled with boots, Julie, Amy and I aimlessly fingered through merch, sat in big comfy chairs, read snowboarding magazines (ie: looked at photos), and talked boarding with some highly energetic and informative sales staff. Waiting for Sam to find the perfect pair of boots could have been a very painful process... but thankfully it was pretty enjoyable. And to make it better, the Evo folks sent us on our way through Seattle rush hour with a goodie bag full of Red Bull, Clif Bars and stickers.

The cool thing about driving up north of Seattle towards the Canadian boarder is that the surrounding mountains are so much more dramatic. We have mountains down in Oregon, but they are older and smaller, more worn down over time. Up here though, each peak is snowcapped and rugged... it lends itself to the imagination and day dreams of climbing each one of them.

Our lodging for the weekend was in this cute little cabin in Glacier, WA. Roughly a thirty minute drive from Mt. Baker and about 45 minutes from Bellingham. The cabin was perfect. Not too cutesy, but yet not to rustic that we had to go pee in an outhouse either. It had a full sized tiny kitchen, a wood burning stove which heated the whole place, hot shower, and was really built with huge logs that formed all the main load bearing walls. There was no paneling, no ceiling, no art, minimal light sources, and no TV. We made some tasty meals in here and some of Julie's infamous cookies. As well, the people who run the cabins are really nice and they even lent us some missing ingredients we needed for our baked goods. If one were to take a walk down the unnamed road nearby, they'd be privy to a beautiful sweeping vista of Mt. Baker in the distance with a gurgling river running nearby. It was a great place to watch the sunset on the mountain. I think that I'll defiantly be stopping by this place again.

When passing through Glacier on your way to Baker, you can stop and get a coffee and scone at the Wake N' Bakery. Not only is their name amusing, but their pastries looked delicious and they had a pretty wicked cool back fence made from old ski's.

Saturday morning we all woke early and got the the mountain, primed for a good parking spot and an excellent day on the mountain. The conditions were perfect for springtime, high at about 50 degrees, beautiful blue skies and soft snow. Sadly, some patches were icy due to half of the runs being in shade, but really... providing it was early March... we really couldn't have asked for anything more (though fresh dumps of powder would have been nice).

The coolest thing about Mt. Baker has got to be their backcountry terrain. In order to access backcountry from the ski resort, you have to pass a dude at ski patrol who's job it is to stop you and make sure you have all the necessary backcountry gear (shovel, probe, beacon, friends, etc). Seeing how none of us have invested in backcountry beacons ... we could not gain access, but a girl can dream and also plan her next trip to Baker.

(I want to play here....)

I love Sam's reflective goggles...

Sam of the Mountains....

Sadly, the only disappointing thing about our trip to Mt. Baker was the ass-hole quotient of the people on the slopes. I don't like making broad sweeping generalizations about a certain age-group or demographic, but there were a fair amount of male snowboarders between the ages of 16-25 that did not do wonders for representation the male species. I could go into a massive diatribe about that, but.... this post is about pretty pictures, not ass-holes.

(props to Julie T. for her fine camera)