On xmas eve 1998 I found myself in a town in Argentina called "Perito Moreno" with a bunch of Isralies camping out at the edge of town. Along came this British guy who introduced himself as Karl. In typical traveller's custom we discussed where we were from and where we were heading - me south, him north. I asked if he had a vehicle and he casually said "no, I'm walking". He then explained that he had spent the last month walking north along the highway from Punta Arenas, Chile bound for...drum roll... London. Yes, London.

Obviously, this led to a lenghthy conversation. This guy had managed to get some sponsorship from a shoe company to set him off, and had this cart-thing that he was towing behing him to carry his gear. I'd heard of people making epic treks like this before, but exactly how the heck he inteded to cross the ocean was the nagging question. So... Karl explained that quite simply, he would walk to North America (passing through the dreaded Darien Gap along the way), then another long slog up Central America, Mexico, the flat plains states and provinces, the Alaska highway, the Alaska interior and ... then, with sufficient sponsorship, he would wait for winter and WALK across the bering sea to Siberia... then casually continue across Russia to Europe and stroll through the Chunnel to a glorious welcoming in the streets of London.

I've gotten periodic email dispatches from time to time, including a harrowing account of the Darien crossing, but nothing has suprised me more than this news: Karl made it across the Bering Sea! [ARTICLE HERE] and is now stuck in jail in Russia for failing to have the right paperwork. He was accompanied by another guy named Dimitri Kieffer and apparantly had to swim a few times wearing some kind of protective suit.

Unbelievable! Bravo Karl!!! If he can get across the Bering Sea, I'm sure a little Russin bureaucracy isn't going to slow him down for long. Keep your eye on this guy, looks like he's going to make it all the way!!!

Megha gave me these photos tonight. They're fabulous. From Burning Man 1999 ... I can't believe how much time has passed. Featured here are Alex B, Chad B, and Sue G!

Merci is a phenomenal photographer. Her selection of photos from our Mexico trip are here!

And on Flickr! Merci's photos - My Photos. Subtle differnet photo styles... fun to compare!

I've been bad about posting pics from trips lately, but here's some cool ones from the new year's Mexico road trip. We went up to Guadalajara then to Lake Chapala, the largest lake in Mexico. It's sort of a "Tahoe" type place, minus the snow, where a lot of people (Americans and Canadians in particular) have gone to retire. It's really quiet and really beautiful.

Anyway, it's also been a local catalyst for environmental action. Much like Mono Lake and the Aral Sea, industrial and urban water diversions have massively shrunk the lake from its normal levels, increasing the concentration of pollutants and wreaking havoc on the fishing industry. Introduction of the non-native water hyacinth has complicated matters as the devious plant is known to cover half the lake from time to time in a massive green carpet of un-navigable matter. It's also really shallow (about 15 feet), so many people feared the lake was literally on the verge of death.

Have a look at these Google Earth photos (click for full size). You will see the towns of Chapala and Ajijic, their respective piers, high and dry, and in the case of Ajijic, what appears to be a racetrack carved into what was once lake-bottom - indicating the assumed permanence of the dry condition.

THE TOWN OF CHAPALA:

THE TOWN OF AJIJIC:

I don't know when those satelites flew by, but this is what we saw a few weeks ago:

Every once in a while I deliberately give myself a long layover at an airport so that I can check out a city I've never seen before. This time: Atlanta. I just took the MARTA train into Atlanta with the intention of checking out the Georgia Aquarium which has just opened with great fanfare. Anyway, the aquarium is "sold out", meaning you can only get in if you buy tix online some time in advance. So I was turned away tragically and have been aimlessly wandering the streets for the last few hours.

Atlanta seems like a pretty nice place, but as far as street life goes it seems like a ghost town. I walked all the way from five points to uptown and encountered about 8 human beings and the only thing open is the Starbucks I've now sequesterd myself at. Far from the teeming metropolis of the south i'd been led to belive. Then again, it is xmas break so there aren't any students around. But still, it all seems a little bit sterile on first impression. Time to go find something to eat, then back to the airport, and onward to Mexico...

I just got back from a journey from London to San Francisco via Chicago that, door to door, took about 24 hours. Ugh. Still, it was all worth it. Tragically, my camera broke the day I got to London and hasn't started working again. Guess that's an excuse to buy a new one. Anyway, one of the highlights of the trip was a surprise visit to Bilbao, which is absolutely fantastic and most definitely ought to be on anyone's lists of places to visit. If you're into architecture, it's a must, but the best piece of architecture in Bilbao, in my opinont wasn't the Guggenheim - it was the airport. Sondika Airport, designed by Santiago Calatrava is easily the coolest airport I've ever seen. Sort of like the Milwaukee Art Museum, but the size of an airport.

The only time during my entire travels that I took any photos was in Bilbao, where I bought 4 disposable cameras and used them all in 2 days. Unfortunately I have to wait for them to be developed. In the meantime, here's a link to someone else's photos of the airport in Bilbao.

I forgot how fabulous the summers can be in the midwest. I'm literally between flights on a deliberate 16 hour layover in Chicago and managed to have a nice swim in balmy Lake Michigan today followed by a nice romp around town. This is the way to travel. Who needs a non-stop flight?

Ah yes, like rental cars that advertise $9.99 a day car rentals, U-Haul has some extraordinay powers of inflation. I usually expect to pay double what they advertise, but when all was tallied up the other day, I paid more than 4 times the U-Haul advertised rate of $19.95 a day, plus I put 10 bucks of gas in. I declined the accident protection too. The catch of course, was that I took the thing to IKEA in the east bay and thus went over the mileage maximum, but gimme a break!

Just got back from a wild trip to the hinterland of Alaska, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Anchorage and more... The best I can do in terms of writing about it at the momment is merely to provide this link to a massive photo dump I set up: HERE. It takes ages to load, so eventually I'll filter out a few of the best. More to come!

Greetings from Austin. Perusing the inflight magazine today I once again found an ad for "Melby Ranch". Every inflight magazine I've read in recent memory (like many years) has contained an advertisment for this place featuring some dated looking photos with a smiling couple and a guy posing over a recently felled elk... a mythical paradise located somewhere in southern Colorado. What is this place and how is it possible they've advertised for this long... is it of infinite size? or does no one ever buy land there? And while I'm on the subject of in flight magazines what's with the Brazilian Steakhouses? Fo Dao Whatever, with pieces of beef the size of treetrunks? I think the only things more prolific are the corporate seminar ads.

Just got back froun Sayulita, a small surfing town about an hour north of Puerto Vallarta, hence the lact of posting. If you like small Mexican towns where there is nothing to do but laze around and jump in the ocean when the momment strikes you, you cannot do better than Sayulita, but, that said, it's quickly getting overrun by tourists and real estate buyers, which I suppose is both good and bad. But for now it remains a groovy little town with uncompromised hospitality, cheap places to stay, great food, great surfing for all levels, and great swimming.

I'll post a few more photos later.

Additionally, I'm pleased to see that Buck Smith has joined the blogosphere.

From one extreme to another... I forgot how cold if gets in August in San Francisco. Getting out of the taxi in the Haight late last night it was almost commical as i shivered in my short sleeve shirt in the freezing fog. Not much warmer today, although it's nice and sunny.

I got bored on the train somewhere in Connecticut the other day and started going through photos of this year's adventures. This is a cool one: A family taking advantage of the only shade available in the blazing Sonoran Desert on Mexico Hwy 15 somewhere between Nogales and Hermosillo.

The occasional pitfalls of the freelancer: I arrived in Boston about an hour ago and went straight across the street to the nearest Starbucks and have been plowing thought about 35 emails... latte tastes the same here, but there's definitely a major buzz in the air about the DNC, which ought to be rather exciting. More later...

Greetings from Stonington, CT. It dosn't get much more peaceful than this. Out on a spit of land in Long Island Sound, the only thing to hear is the horn from a bouy. It's gorgeous. Boats and restaurants are here and there, and a certain sensibility you can't find on the west coast that's definitely New "English" if that means anything...

Still, I can't get over the apparantly widespread East-coast phenomenon of charging money to go to the beach. $6 and a nasty chain link fence all the way down the sand in Rhode Island! Call me a communist, but I'm of the opinion that beaches everywhere should be free, period.

Finally made it to New York, and it's so hot I'm typing this with napkins between my palms and the laptop to keep them from slipping on sweat. Nonetheless, this is truly the king of cities. There is more going on here than anywhere.

Observations:

- You can save $2 by taking the Subway one way, then a bus back, but don't do it via midtown or ths bus just sits there in traffic
- New York seems to be packaging crazy, you always get a straw with a canned soda and an inch-thick stack of napkins, hence my attempt to recycle them
- Airport transportation is remarkably primitive.
- There is excellent bouldering right in Central Park
- Everything about Central Park is awesome
- It is amazingly friendly here
- The food is phenomenal, even if it does cost twice what it should, speaking of which, the $12 burritos at Mexicana Mama on Hudson Street open up an entirely new genre of tortilla-wrapped cuisine.

There are indeed benefits to living in Reno. Today I climbed Mt. Rose, one of the highest peaks around here (10,778ft). It was a long hike, but just another afternoon around here. The view from the top was amazing, you could see Mt. Lassesn 115 miles away, and of course Lake Tahoe, pictured above. It was so windy on top my water bottle flew out of it's holder and sailed off into the sky. Feeling guilty, I picked up someone else's trash later.

Here is a MASSIVE 360-degree panoramic view from the top. You can see all of Reno, all of Lake Tahoe, and most of the northern Sierra. The Sierra Buttes stick up in part of the photo, and tragically you cannot see Lassen in the photo (shaking because of the wind i guess), but it was quite clear to the naked eye. [Check it out - but only if you are on broadband!]

There has been a helicopter at low altitude over my head for at least 50 minutes of each of the last 5 hours. It's madness.

This image pretty much sums many all the problems of Los Angeles, an oblivious disregard for one's affect on other members of the community, or even that a community exists. But what can you do? It's not just LA anyway. On the bright side, this morning I woke up, wandered into Bill and Jessica's backyard and picked about 10 fresh grapefruit and had myself 3 huge glasses of unbeatable juice. I also had chocolate cake for breakfast. Today is a good day.

In a radical step, possibly never seen before, I walked to the Reno airport this morning. It was about 2 miles, so not very long, but there was something especially satisfying about getting there in an entirely non automotive fashion. I did have to jump over a small fence, but it otherwise went quite smoothly.

Stupidly, I left my camera in my luggage so once again missed the opportunity to take photographs of some very interesting sights, including a spectacular vista of the Yosemite valley. I saw half dome from an angle I've seen it before.. it's actually way narrower than I thought. Then over the southen part fo the vast central valley of California where you can see the transition between desert and irrigated farmland. There seem to be a tremendous number of either chicken or hog farms down there, rows upon rows of long white sheds among the farm fields. In certain areas, salt is visible on the surface - the result of overly agressive groundwater pumping, straight out of Cadillac Desert.

And of course the spectacular final aproach into the ultimate megalopolis, LA. Next time my camera remains in my pocket.

The popular question lately has been: "What the hell are you doing in Reno???" Indeed. Good question. I'm taking care of the pakenheimer's place and getting some work done, basically. And honestly it's not that bad. Would help if I knew a few people here, but I'm by no means of the opinion that provincial America is a black hole, although some of the casinos downtown come close. Ok, I admit it, I'm bored.

The Truckee River begins by draining Lake Tahoe, and plummets down the backside of the Sierra, through Reno, then out into the great basin of Nevada. It terminates at the mysterious, remote, and enormous Pyramid Lake.

I drove out there today to check it out, and it is far more impressive than I thought it would be: After miles of stark Nevada desert, you suddenly encounter this vast ocean of impossibly blue water, punctuated by bizarre tufa rock formations, including the namesake Pyramid Rock, and mountains shaded grey, purple, and pink.

The ground was also literally crawling with enormous insects known as Mormon Crickets, who frequently swarm around here like a biblical plague.

It has been said that contemplating this place is a four dimensional experience.

I've tragically ceased to be a frequent poster on this website, but having begin to reorganize myself after 4 months in Arizona, I stumbled on this fabulous photo I took of a sign above the urinal in a bar in Jerome, AZ. Run-on sentance, I know. Anyway, thought it summed up the character of that town well. There are few places that party harder than Jerome... a self described "drinking town with an artist problem", it's also incredibly beautiful and profoundly unique in the Western US - it looks almost European with narrow walkable streets perched high above the desert on a mountainside.

Just got back from an amazing trip into Canyon de Chelley, in the Navajo Nation with Charles. It's an incredibly beautiful canyon that is usually impossible to hike into due to the restrictions put on outsiders by its Navajo caretakers. Nonetheless we got lucky and were invited in by some friends.

Among the highlights were the most amazing petroglyphs I've ever seen, the most interesting of which depict Spanish conquistadors on horseback.

We also turned traditional cuisine on it's head by created an extradorinary, groundbreaking camp food concept - the unthinkable burrito - featuring chedder cheese, granny smith apples, italian salami, and canned herring with jalapenos. Yep, that's right. It was delicious.

I'm really glad I went on an intercontinental backpacking trip in the good old days, before everyone carried GSM Cell Phones. Most of you poor Americans don't even know what I'm talking about, but if you do, get your backpack on now and go before the party plane lands.

Just got back from a fabulous journey through the hinterlands of Sonora, Mexico... [links open smallish photos]

My quick impression was that Sonora is very big, very hot, and very sparsely populated, which made for some incredible landscapes of sun baked desert, impossibly rugged mountains, and dusty but friendly towns.

After crossing at Nogales, we sorted out car permits with surprising ease, and headed south into the dusty unknown. The landscape is wide open and very untouched by development.

Sonora is known for having excellent meat dishes, and our stop at the "Paradilla del Sur" in Hermosilo did not disapoint. In fact, i think it ranks as one of the best platters of meat I've ever dived into.

South of Hermosillo the landscape was even more dramatic, and hot as a frying pan, a place where people covet shade wherever they can. The day's drive culminated with some wild formations over the beach town of San Carlos, where we spent the night.

San Carlos was a bit of a gringo-land, but it was nice to be on the shell-strewn beach, and eat some ceviche while the sun went down. The next day, we wasted no time rising and motoring another 5 hours south to the town of Alamos, which was also a bit of a gringo land, but in a far more subdued way, where gringos come to appreciate old mexico among the lavender hills, and sit quietly in restored colonial mansions or in the palm studded square. We stayed at a fabulous old mansion called Los Amigos - which I have to recommend highly, if for no other reason than their fabulous rooftop palapa. We also managed to take over the municipal theatre for a little production.

Nonetheless, trying to pack it all in, we left the next day and hit the coast again to a camp known as Navopatia at the very end of Sonora. This was a very quiet, off the grid place, where we slept in palapas right were the baking desert meets an enormous estuary. Navopatia is sort of eco camp, vaguely hippyish, where locals are offered education in sustainable practices, and tired travellers can unwind. We had a great time canoeing through the mangroves [photo 1][photo 2] in a quest to find the open sea, which ultimately proved to feature sparkling waters and miles of untouched beach.

The lifeblood of Phoenix and Tucson is the Central Arizona Project, a mighty canal dug from the Colorado river hundreds of miles away. Although urban Arizona is notoriously wasteful in water use, the canal itself supposedly only loses 3-4% of its water to evaporation. (I had previously thought it a lot worse)

That fact surprises me, though I won't dispute it. Nonetheless, it's an ominous sight straight out of Cadillac Desert, snaking among the impossibly green golf courses and exotic palms.

Feeling knackerd? Try the Nackard hotel in Flagstaff, AZ. Or maybe it's called the downtowner, either way, classic.

Outrageous amount of traveling with no major snafus. Left Barcelona with a belly full of good stuff from Bar Pinotxos in the Boqueria and topped it off with a pint of beer at the 10 Bell's Pub in London, at which time I got bored and started sending text messages around the globe with the little credit my cell-phone had left.. if you got something in the middle of the night, forgive me.

Anyway, London, despite impressing me with it's beauty (yes, it really is beautiful) took about 6 hours to become oppressive, but I took it with a sense of humor... stayed up all night on Wednesday and took a 4am cab to Heathrow, then got slapped with an unbelievable 280-pound bill for my excess luggage, almost got banned from the flight for using profanity in response, but ultimately convinced them to reduce it by 50%. Despite that, KLM is a really nice airline and underscores the fact that all European airlines (except the budget ones) are millions of times superior to their American counterparts.

Had about 1 hour in Amsterdam, and flying in obeserved a large number of lakes and canals. Will have to return there for a proper visit one of these days. Unfortunately, my theory that staying up all night would lead me to a good day's rest on the plane utterly failed and I immediately passed out on the couch. Now I'm awake and back to work...

Cadaques is one of the nicest places on the Costa Brava and it's got twice the liberty of New York! Either that or they like to manage the air-traffic here in a particularily splashy manner.

I´m about to go on an extended hunt for free WiFi in Barcelona, which is surprisingly lacking in cafes that offer the service. However, there are a number of allegedly free nodes I discovered on a website. We'll see if they actually exisit.

In further news - I´m done with the easyEmpire. After being skunked with extra charges by easyCar, sitting in filth at the easyInternet cafe and most recently charged an insane 68 pounds for one extra piece of luggage on EasyJet, tripleing my airfare, I´m through. They're tacky, dirty and obnoxious. Bah.

...and the woooorld's your ashtray. Easy to say. Granted I spent last night slumped over the blackjack table at the world's cheesiest casino listening to one of those "so bad they're still bad" coverbands do Stevie Wonder etc... On the other hand, in between the gas stations and strip-clubs, somewhere near the quicky-mart lies a secret Reno which thrives as an antidote to the cheeze n' sleeze. 'Old Southwest' (photos to come) is a beautiful and mellow oasis of professionalism and reason amid the chaos, plus they have a damn good frozen custard store. The ashtray has flowers growing in it around here, and any would-be Reno detracters ought hold their peace.

But, still, not even David Hasselhoff can match the sheer power of the Peppermill's Fireside Lounge... a sight we must all behold at least once in our lifetimes.

Greetings from Cincinnati airport... which I just discovered is actually in Kentucky. Because all the payphones are out of order, I had to pay $5 to use this business center place... for only 5 minutes. I made the phone call I needed, now I have about 2 minutes left. Thought I'd get my money's worth and post a completely meaningless message.... gotta run.

Bit of a random collection of thoughts here, based largely around the attached series of photos. Click on 'em and they get bigger:

The journey began at the Gare d' L'est train station in Paris where we picked up our car, an Opel Corsa, which served us well. At the station we encountered what is possibly the worlds largest vending machine. This room-sized behemoth spits out everything from cat-food to toilet paper. We thought about getting some TV-dinners, but ultimately settled on a bottle of water.

In any case, we were anxious to get moving. The drive took about 3 1/2 hours, and after a bit of a parking fiasco inside an elaborate underground network of roadways, we found ourselves in lovely Luxembourg City. Despite a forbidding and sterile ring of suburbs, the city turned out to be really nice. The central "old town" is perched high on a hill between two river valleys, which are full of parks and gardens, and spanned periodically by magnificent bridges.

It seemed like a perfectly pleasant place to live and work, but I can't say Luxembourg city was exactly "rocking". I suppose if you're really into international affairs or tax laws, you might find quite a lot to do, but otherwise it's just a nice quiet place.

Still, it did have an interesting if only slightly palpable "diplomatic" flair in the air. That was fine with us though, and we had a couple of beers at the popular central square, took a few photos and got on our way.
So, we cruised off to Vianden, right along the border with Germany and were greeted by the stunning vista of the Vianden Chateau high atop the hill which overlooks the town. Our arrival called for a Champagne toast, of the finest Luxembourgois bubbly the Shell Station had to offer, We "eurocamped" for the next two nights, and basically did nothing but bike around, hike, eat and drink. It was fabulous. And you can't beat the 4 Euro a night campground, even if it was overrun by Dutch people in elaborate campervans.
Along with the enormous number of Dutch people, were practically every motorcycle enthusiast in Europe, which looks like a hell of a good way to see the country. Despite that, we rented some clunky bicycles from a shop so inept, they sold us a hiking map instead of a cycling one, which got us into a bit of trouble (don't bike on steep singletracks with a 3 speed schwinn). Nonetheless, we snuck into Germany along the shore of the reservoir above Vianden, discovered a pretty impressive network of trails for mountain biking or hiking. Certainly worth a return.

Despite all this promising activity, the residents of Vianden appear to be bored enough to do some bizarre things with the local foliage.

As for BitBurg - give it a miss. Rather odd German town where I wouldn't be surprised to see David Hasselhoff appear around a corner. Plus, Bitburger is nowhere near as good as I remember it being. If you're looking for a brewery trip near Luxembourg, pop over to the Trappist monastery at Orval, Belgium. A far nicer place with far nicer beer. They also make some fabulous cheese. I've got a hunk of it the size of my head to get through. Hope there's room in the fridge tonight.

In honor of the long weekend ahead (British holiday on Monday), I'm off to Paris tonight, then driving to the mysterious and forgotton nation of Luxembourg! I've read all 20 paragraphs ever written about this allegedly delightful paradise and indend to write at least the 21st when I get back on Tuesday.

The plan is to visit a place called Vianden and do some swimming and kayaking on the river there. Plus, looks like Bitburg isn't too far away - home of one of my favourite German beers, Bitburger, Bitte ein Bit! This could get dangerous.

Just got back from an amazing 4 days in Cassis, France. [click links for photos!]

To make it cheap, we Euro-camped, which is like camping except it's done in a crowded gravel lot with a bar and showers, and loads of RV sporting Dutch people and French teenagers.

Just down the hill from the campsite was the beautiful town of Cassis, blistering in the 100 degree heat, but made bearable by the sea, and the ease by which you can leap in at just about any location in town.

We took a road trip up to the edge of the Alps, where the French version of the Grand Canyon lies, and swam in a big reservoir there.

We also spent some time in Marseille, which is a surprisingly funky and cosmopolitan city. The Basilique of Notre Dame de la Gard dominates the city, and we sweated our way to the top for a fabulous view, then slid down the city's piste-like streets.

But the highlight of the trip was a sea-kayaking expedition into the famed Calanques between Cassis and Marseille. The Calanques are a series of fjord-like inlets cut into the limestone cliffs, where the water is deep and incredibly clear. You can swim, climb, and leap off cliffs into the magnificent water all day long.

I didn't bring my camera for fear of it's getting wet, but through the power of Google Image Search, here are a bunch of other people's photos to enjoy. (Jeff will post some photos later) The Calanque known as "en vau" is by far the nicest. I'm already making plans to return and spend a couple days exploring.

Inspired by the summer solstice, and the fact that I don't currently have an apartment, I spent the last 5 days in a place I've always dreamed of going: Iceland! (click links to view photos).

Reykjavik is a truly pleasant city. Small, but not sleepy, it radiates a uniqueness that is hard to explain. Strolling around you are always aware that you're somewhere remote and different. Could be the 1am sunshine, could be the corrugated metal buildings that look like something from an Antarctic base, could be the monster trucks everywhere, I don't know, it's just definitely out there, and I really liked it.

Aesthetically, it's surprisingly suburban. Most people seem to live in apartment complexes on the city edge. But the streets at the city center are especially pleasant and quaint. There is art everywhere. Sculptures and murals, and nothing seems to be vandalized. Apparently there are more musicians per capita than anywhere else, and the busses even have books on board for your reading pleasure! Talk about civilized.

It's clearly at the crossroads of America and Europe. There are loads of American cars and trucks all over the place, and certain brand names you don't see in the rest of Europe. Yet you're clearly in Scandinavia. This crossroads manifests itself quite literally at Þingvellir where you can see the mid-Atlantic ridge pulling the island apart. On the right of that photo the rocks are headed for Europe, on the left to North America. Totally amazing.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see as much as I wanted and mostly hung around close to Reykjavik. The busses are not that practical outside of town, and a car rental would have been out of the question due to cost. Still, I did get to see a bit of the country and the requisite tourist sites, the Gullfoss waterfall, Geysir, and of course the Blue Lagoon, which is a bit of a marketing phenomenon. It's actually excess water from a geothermal power plant that sits around on a lava field. Because it's close to the main airport, Icelandair busses passengers over during layovers making it Iceland's most visited tourist attraction. Still worth an afternoon though!

I've got to make it back there. But next time it's gotta be with a group and a car. Want to come?

Scotland is not technically an independant country, but somehow it prints its own money. The Scotish pound is the same thing as the English pound, and both are completely interchangeable. What's even wackier is the fact that there are three different kinds of Scottish bank notes, from the three main Scottish banks: The Bank of Scotland, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and the Clydesdale Bank. All of these are in regular circulation, along with the regular English notes.

As stated earlier, Scotland was amazing. One of the best parts was staying in a bothy on the west coast. (what's a bothy?) We spent two nights here on a remote peninsula with a few fellow travellers and few hundred sheep.

I won't tell you where the Bothy is exactly, but it's somewhere near this beach.

Well, I've been out of town since Thursday... posted some thoughts on Scotland at Charlie and Karen's website. Read all about it! More to come...

Verona: While scampering around the Roman Arena in Verona, Italy on Saturday, I noticed this large fossil shell imbedded in one of the marble steps. I wonder if the Romans noticed these while building the place. They're all over the Arena and are very easy to spot.

A cursory search via Google reveals that very little has been written about ancient attitudes toward fossils. Searches repeatedly point to a book called "The First Fossil Hunters", which suggests fossils may have had a key role in generating some of the mythology of Greece and Rome.

The classic story is that elephant skulls, with their giant nasal cavity, look like the skulls of a huge one-eyed creature, and are often credited with generating the Cyclops myth. As for these shells in the steps of the Arena... who knows!

Corvatsh, St. Moritz: Most ski areas have some good Apres Ski facilities, but not every ski area has a Pingo Bar! A giant greenhouse/igloo with raging heavy metal music inside, no shortage of ski-bum personalities, a fabulous view of the St. Moritz valley, and (for some reason) a giant cow, is the ideal place for a quick weiss bier in your ski-boots. American ski resorts are crying for one of these.

Here's a better photo from someone else's site.

Having moved my never ending quest for free plane tickets to Europe, I am finding the project infinitely more difficult due to the dearth of methods by which one may attain "miles", the frequent flyer currency, as well as the insidiously miserly attitude British Airways has toward coach class passengers. That's another long story. The interesting thing I accomplished this evening was a calculation of the approximate worth of one BA mile: 0.61 Pence, that's just about 1 US cent.

How? By mock-booking numerous flights in various price ranges and comparing them to available mileage flights, I divided the prices I was offered by the number of miles that I could have used. Taking tax into consideration, the average popped out at just about 0.61p per mile.

This number is useful when calculating how much one would benefit from getting a mileage earning credit card, which pays you 1 mile per pound spent. For every £100 spent you therefore get about a 0.61 61 pence return, which is pretty pathetic really, but still justifies the Amex card I got because it has no annual fee. So I win, but barely.

The bottom line is that it is never worth paying extra for BA miles, unless you're receiving them at a price significantly lower than 0.61p. If the credit card has an annual fee, that's probably enough to destroy any benefit from it.

This is the kind of crap I think about. [more info]

Went up to Liverpool with Andy last weekend. Nice town, friendly people, 1000s
of half naked women everywhere you go (no joke!). Despite it's apparant reputation for violence, it seemed pretty safe too. Photographic highlights:

	The famous Liver buildings are actually pronounced LIEver. They're the landmark buildings of central Liverpool along the riverfront.
	Andy and I at the Albert Docks, a very successful and interesting redevelopment on the riverfront with its own Tate Gallery and lots of tourists.
	The Anglican Cathedral. This place is spectacular and apparantly among the biggest in the world. Belive me, it's huge.
	This church was bombed during World War II. Now it's just a shell with trees growing inside. It's a pretty interesting sight.
	Those famous Liverpool girls like to flirt with the cops and try on their hats. Forgot my uniform.
	The hipper the bar, the more dangerous the fish. This place, Modo, features a tank of Piranahs. Sorry about the blurry night vision. I can picure a bar fight ending rather grimly here.

I ate so much cheese last weekend I am feeling ill. Cheese ravioli in cheese sauce with extra chunks of cheese floating in it for lunch. 6 different kinds of cheese with 3 types of bread for dinner. Thought about fondue on Sunday, but I was already way over the line. Maybe next time. Incredibly good cheese though. Mmm... I was going to bring a bunch of cheese back to London, but I ate it. The only touristy thing I did last weekend was spend an hour at the medieval part of the Louvre, which was great. The activity under IM Pei's pyramid at closing time was impressive enough to inspire this composite image, and when I left the Louvre the sunset was absolutely perfect. (see below)

Park Guell in Barcelona is every bit as amazing as I thought it would be. I wish I had more time to write some intelligent commentary about it, but I'll just say it was extremely pleasant. Just being there was somehow uplifting. I spent about an hour sitting under one of the viaducts listening to a jazz band, whose CD I ultimately purchased, then wandered off climbing the staircases until I could look over the whole city and out to sea. A true masterpiece of landscape architecture. Some enjoyable photos - click these thumbnails for big full screen pics:
     

US Zip Codes are organized geographically into regions 0-9. (the digit the zip code starts with) I searched the internet for 30 minutes and could not find a map that showed only the 10 zones, so, in the tradition of my geographically accurate tupe map, I created a regional US zip code map myself. Click the thumbnail below to view:

Literally, but not exactly. Due to inclement weather in Detroit last week, I wound up delayed a day, and celebrated New Year's Eve on a plane. The actual moment of midnight was probably somewhere over Newfoundland. Could have been worse, I suppose. The guy sitting next to me was celebrating his birthday as well.

Ahhh nice. Karen and Charlie's photos from Guatemala are up. And they look really great. I have to admit, I'm a bit jealous! Oh well, living in London is still in a novel stage, so I'm enjoying a bit like a vacation. Rock on K & C...

Forgot to mention - Stonhenge was as impressive as expected. Unfortunately, it's also full of tourists with an admission fee and an awful gift shop, but what can you expect? Well, I was suitably inspired that I now have as a goal in life to incorporate some sort of celestial feature into my lodging at some point. A shadow or a ray of light on the summer solstice would be really cool...

... furthermore, don't forget to check out this year's Google Zeitgeist, as fascinating as ever.

The first time I saw a Peruvian musical group performing on the street (incidentally in Peru), I thought it was pretty cool. Now it seems wherever there are gatherings of people, in any city in the world, there is a Peruvian band playing the exact same pan-pipe tune and hawking CDs. I am now convinced it's actually the same 4 guys that by some kind of ancient Incan teleportation system are actually able to be, simultaneously, everywhere at the same time.

I can't believe I've been here for 3 months and have not yet left London. (well, went to Brussels, but I mean in the UK). So I rented a car for tommorow with the intention of going to Stonehenge! I am really paranoid about driving on the left side of the road, and dealing with British driving. I only realized the other day what the white triangles painted on the street mean: Yield. I rented a smartcar, which is another thing to look forward to!

While in Brussels, Patrick and I wandered over to a place called "Mini-Europe". It's a theme park where they have small replicas of various European landmarks. There was an Eiffel tower, a Big Ben, all the stuff you would expect from cities all over Europe. But when we came to Barcelona, there was a refinery fire. Not the Sagrada Familia, but a replica port with a refinery that catches on fire when you push a button. Poor Barcelona. I couldn't stop laughing. We set the refinery on fire several times and watched the fire boats put it out, then we set it on fire again.

Yikes! [this article] brings back some rather chilling memories.

One week to go! A week from tommorow, I'm off to Oktoberfest, then to Budapest by bike with Karen and Charlie. The weather looks good, the flooding is over, and the roads are in order. I will have a special blog for the trip!

Things began today with last ditch packing and freaking out about not having enough time to get to the airport, but then i calmed down when Julia came to pick me up. We took care of all my errands then had a nice lunch in South Park, a fitting last meal in SF.

The flight was generally mediochre, as the seating was utterly inhumane. I couldn't even move both arms at the same time, and was trapped next to two ladies who did nothing but chatter on about cosmetics and dieting for 3 hours. They had at least 10 "fashion" magazines spread out falling off thier laps.

That aside, the view leaving San Francisco was phenomenal. We ascended about the fog and all that could be seen was the tri-spired Sutro Tower sticking up into the heavens. Then we cruised out over Lake Tahoe, off to Pyramid lake, and best treat of all, the remains of burning man... I saw massive concentric circles etched into the Black Rock Desert, from them emanating a massive dust storm. It looked like a few hearty encampments were still down there getting pounded by the dust. Pretty amazing sight.

I did manage to get my camera out for the arrival into London, which featured a perfectly coreographed flyby of almost every major monument in the city. Spent a whopping $75 on a cab to the office, because the amount of baggage I had preculded any other method. (at least it's tax deductable). The smog and smoke on the street where pretty bad, as was the traffic, which did little more than crawl, but I arrived safe and sound, and actually did a fair amout of work. Right then, as they say, off to the pub, then off to bed. Cheerio!

Mill Valley is actually not that sterile. I had a great time tonight at a joint called "sweetwater". Mitch Stein and his crew played and were thoroughly entertaining. As was the opening act, whose CD I would have bought had they not sold out. Can't remember the name, but it was one crazy old guy from Seattle and his steel guitar. Totally amazing. He barked like a dog and whooped periodically while he sang. Pure genius. Some of it's on tape.

Anyways, time is winding down for me in San Francisco. I have 11 nights left here! Each night ought to be something special, we shall see how it all turns out!

Just got photos from Dave's bachelor party at Big Bear Lake in Southern California! It was a riot of a time, and remarkably civilzed for a bachelor party, imaging kayaking instead of strippers, which frankly I consider a good choice! Click for full size image of the biggest bear we could find at Big Bear Lake, and here for more photos, some of a fairly dubious nature...

As promised, the photo montage. As we ascended Mt. Tam on Saturday we were rather impressed by the incredibal vista of rolling fog coming in from the ocean. It eventually overcame our campsite, soaking everything in mist and chill. But prior to sundown it made a lovely site. Here are three photos:

Had a nice time hiking and camping with Mike this weekend, culminating in raucus debauchery at the Tourist Club on Mt. Tam.

We drove to Mill Valley, then hiked to the PanToll Ranger station, set up our tent and then climbed to the top of Mt. Tam. There is a massive ruin up there from some long forgotten military installation. Not quite the picturesqe mountain top one expects.

The fog rolled onto the mountatin in it's typically dramatic fashion, and created a rainstorm beneath the trees. We woke up a bit wet and opted to take the bus down the mountain rather than hike through the still dripping forest. Then we found ourselves at the legendary Tourist Club overlooking the top of Muir Woods. It was a riot and much beer was had, along with Sausages and leiderhosen wearing dancers pranced about. They have three parties a year, Junefest, Summerfest, and of course, Oktoberfest. I recommend checking 'em out!

For reasons unknown, the Alaska state capitol building is probably the least ornate of any state capitol. In fact it's the only one i've ever seen without a dome. Here's a photo. It's really a rather non-descript office building. Perhaps that's a good sign. Perhaps the government of Alaska is quite thrifty, or perhaps they are just not very imaginative.

ED NOTE :: Here are detailed description and photos of all the state capitols, so you can compare.

(Click each image for full size view)

	Our ascent of Mt. Juneau was most arduous, but as Brian deftly demonstrates, we took it all in stride. As it turns out, we lost the path shortly after the tree line and pretty much bushwacked the way to the top.
	When we got to the top, despite having trekked thourhg some very wild areas, we came upon a pile of debris and a rusted old bulldozer.
	On Friday, we went on an excellent Kayaking mission. We set forth in the rain from Auke Bay and went out to a small island about 2 miles off shore. The salmon were jumping out of the waters like dolphins in all directions. This photo was taken at our trimphant conquering of the islan.

Here are the photos. They are a bit disorganized, and some are sideways, but that's ok for just a quicky gallery.

Highlights of the trip:

1) The trip to Tracy Arm Fjoird
2) Climbing Mt. Juneau
3) Push Starting the Subaru

I can't wait to go back up there, it was truely fantastic!

Successfully returned from Alaska today, and I have many stories and photos. I'll get 'em up tommorow. I had to spend 7 hours at Sea-Tac airport this morning. I curled up in a corner and slept. I must have looked like a hobo with my head on a duffle and 7 days worth of beard. Needless to say I'm rather tired. Here's some photos that Dan took on his x-country journey.

Highlights from Portland! I had a fantastic trip up to Portland and out to the Columbia Gorge last week.

 

One of the coolest things in Portland is their fantastic network of bike paths and bike lanes, including one that floats on the river. [video1][video2] It was hilarious biking on it, because it kept bouncing around due to heavy 4th of July boat traffic on the Willamette River.

After a few days in Portland, Esther and I took a bike ride down the Columbia River Gorge. It was brimming with greenery and waterfalls. The bridge we crossed into Washington had a surface of grating instead of pavement, so it was really scary biking across. If I looked down instead of ahead it looked as though I were flying a hundred feet over the River. I almost wiped out.

We finally arrived at the Phoenix Festival, a sort of mini-burning-man in the woods of Washington not far from the town of Klickitat. On a hot summer's day in Klickitat, the entire town can be found at the swimming hole, daring eachother to leap from ever higher points on the riverside cliff into the river. This was a ton of fun. We were also repeatedly stalked by a small rattlesnake that kept coming into our campsite and slithering around. We cornered it under a log, then debated what to do. Finally, we drove it away with long sticks and it didn't come back. On the last night Jason and Esther took part in the biggest fire-show I've ever seen. It was fabulous! [video]

More Photos and Videos here.

Have I gone a full 12 days with nothing to say? Some weeks are like that... Yesterday was a day well spent: BIking in the morning through the park to the beach, then lazing in the sun, then I took the bus up to Mill Valley and biked aroung in the hills there, then down to Sausalito. I went back to the city via the ferry and sat in the bow with a gin and tonic watching San Francisco float to me.

Last weekend was a bit of a debacle. TheMt. Shasta Debacle: I came down with a horrendous bout of mountian sickness about half way up the mountain which stunted our summit attempt at a place called Helen Lake. Jeff helped me off the mountain. I could have perished had I not descended immeditely. Rather scary event, next time I'll make a point of acclimating to the altitude beforehand.

The Ascent