After Lassen, our next stop was the California Redwoods! This was the stop on the trip that I was most looking forward to as I've heard quite a bit about the Redwoods and always wanted to see them. The drive from Lassen to the Redwoods, however, was 4 hours straight of mountain driving. That was exhausting and taxing, but we made it through eventually.
After all that strenuous mountain driving, we decided to do a very easy walking path through the Redwoods. Neither of us wanted to wear hiking boots, so we went with a 1 mile walk through the Redwood groves. We had also planned to do more of a driving tour of the Redwoods up the coast the next day, so we didn't mind seeing less on foot.
On a completely different note, there are two food-oriented things that I will leave this trip with a greater appreciation for: black olives and sour cream. Neither of these things have I particularly liked before, but I do find them rather delicious now.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Lassen Volcanic National Park
The next day, we were to head to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Lassen peak erupted on May 19, 1915 and again on May 22, 1915 and really devastated the area. After the volcano erupted, the area was made into a national park to be able to study the way the forest rejuvenated itself. After the strenuous hike at Yosemite the day before, we decided to do a moderate 3 mile hike to all of the geothermal activity going on still near the volcano. At one point in the drive to this hike, we were at 8,053ft. elevation!
We stayed in Redding, CA for the night. This was quite nice because we had been staying in a lot of little podunk towns for awhile and it was nice to be back in the city. Haven't even made it back to Minneapolis yet and already I miss Sydney.
We stayed in Redding, CA for the night. This was quite nice because we had been staying in a lot of little podunk towns for awhile and it was nice to be back in the city. Haven't even made it back to Minneapolis yet and already I miss Sydney.
And We're Off to Yosemite!
After Bryce Canyon, our next planned destination was Yosemite National Park. This meant crossing all the way through Nevada and into CA again. Since we had already driven through Vegas once, we decided to take the roads less traveled and cut across Nevada via the Extraterrestrial Highway! Shortly into the drive we realized that these roads would commonly be boring, straight, and go on for as far as the eye could see. There were also many points that we were completely alone: No cell service, and no cars for at least 5 miles in either direction, and there was a good 150 mile stretch in there without a gas station.
Along the drive, we saw the most wildlife that we had seen in total on the trip. But with wildlife comes the possibility of hitting an animal. Remember that note of no one being around us for 5 miles in either direction? Well, in this exact moment there were 4 places on the road that a squirrel-sized animal couldn't be, and he decided to dart under JHG's back tire and die!! May you rest in peace, idiotic animal.
First, we stumbled upon a town called Rachel. As many of you know, my favorite coworker and closest friend's name is Rachel, so we decided to stop and take pictures of the lame sign that said "Welcome to Rachel". Rachel consisted of trailer homes that were extremely spread out, and an "Al`e Inn" - Hah! Get it? Alien! I don't even know if there was actually an inn there because the place was so small, but it cracked me up. They had junk that they claimed to space alien junk, and a faux flying sauce hooked up to a pick up truck. It was a good time!
After Rachel, we hit free range cattle country! Mmmm, dinner! There was one instance where a cow was scratching her head on a pole. We slowed down, and right as we were about to pass her, she decided to prance to the side of the road (yes, prance, it was a very strange gallop/prance) almost to say hello. We think that we thought we were a farmer or something because after she got about 5ft. away from the car, she looked at us and then bolted away!! Silly cow!
We made the rest of the drive in really good time and entered into the east side of Yosemite at about 2, and decided to take the hour and a half drive into the valley to do a 6mile 'strenuous' hike to two of the largest waterfalls in Yosemite. This hike was absolutely ridiculous. I will proceed the next few sentences by stating that the hike was gorgeous and (now) entirely worth it. But my god, the first 2.2miles of the hike was straight uphill. This was not a gradual uphill, but like...seriously uphill. At one point we had 600 stairs to go up and some of these stairs were 1.5ft tall and 6inches wide. Talk about steep!!! Of course, what you hike up, you must hike down. To say the least, I was sore the next day. The coolest part of this though is that right at the end of our hike, we saw a wild black bear about 20ft from us!! That's the first wild bear I've ever seen in my life, so I was pretty syched.
Along the drive, we saw the most wildlife that we had seen in total on the trip. But with wildlife comes the possibility of hitting an animal. Remember that note of no one being around us for 5 miles in either direction? Well, in this exact moment there were 4 places on the road that a squirrel-sized animal couldn't be, and he decided to dart under JHG's back tire and die!! May you rest in peace, idiotic animal.
First, we stumbled upon a town called Rachel. As many of you know, my favorite coworker and closest friend's name is Rachel, so we decided to stop and take pictures of the lame sign that said "Welcome to Rachel". Rachel consisted of trailer homes that were extremely spread out, and an "Al`e Inn" - Hah! Get it? Alien! I don't even know if there was actually an inn there because the place was so small, but it cracked me up. They had junk that they claimed to space alien junk, and a faux flying sauce hooked up to a pick up truck. It was a good time!
After Rachel, we hit free range cattle country! Mmmm, dinner! There was one instance where a cow was scratching her head on a pole. We slowed down, and right as we were about to pass her, she decided to prance to the side of the road (yes, prance, it was a very strange gallop/prance) almost to say hello. We think that we thought we were a farmer or something because after she got about 5ft. away from the car, she looked at us and then bolted away!! Silly cow!
We made the rest of the drive in really good time and entered into the east side of Yosemite at about 2, and decided to take the hour and a half drive into the valley to do a 6mile 'strenuous' hike to two of the largest waterfalls in Yosemite. This hike was absolutely ridiculous. I will proceed the next few sentences by stating that the hike was gorgeous and (now) entirely worth it. But my god, the first 2.2miles of the hike was straight uphill. This was not a gradual uphill, but like...seriously uphill. At one point we had 600 stairs to go up and some of these stairs were 1.5ft tall and 6inches wide. Talk about steep!!! Of course, what you hike up, you must hike down. To say the least, I was sore the next day. The coolest part of this though is that right at the end of our hike, we saw a wild black bear about 20ft from us!! That's the first wild bear I've ever seen in my life, so I was pretty syched.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Goodbye Sydney, Hello Summer!
So Sydney has come and gone. The flight home was worse than expected, but what can you do. I remember vividly having a terrible time when I flew home from New Zealand five years ago, and this flight from Sydney was a very close repeat of that. Not only did I sleep very little the night before the flight, but even after taking two Advil PM's, I was only able to sleep twenty minutes...on a 13 hour flight!!
Unfortunately, I did need to pay overweight charges on one of my bags. Apparently they weigh carry on's now, so all three suitcases started over weight. After shifting things around, I ended with two a few tenths of a kilo overweight, and on at 32 kilos with a limit of 20.5.
JHG picked me up from the airport A-Okay and after a lunch with his mom, sister, and nephew at In 'n Out, we hit the road for Vandenberg Air Force Base. He had been working at Vandenberg for most of the summer and wanted to show me what work he had been doing. We then went to Jocko's in Nipomo, CA for a steak dinner. Jocko's atmosphere is no where near what one would expect for a "welcome home" dinner (and I had been forewarned about this), but the steaks were well worth the lack of atmosphere!! Not only are the steaks local, but they're cooked Santa Maria barbeque style. A "little" Top Sirloin was still 2.5" thick and bigger than my hand!!! Oh man these were good steaks and if you ever find yourself in Central California, I highly recommend going!! By the end of this night (not including my 20 minute nap on the plane), I had been awake for close to 40 hours...and then I finally slept!!
The next day we started the drive to (ultimately) Bryce Canyon. There were a few stops we wanted to make on the way,a nd we intended to stay the night in Vegas and finish the drive to Bryce Canyon in the morning. If you've never seen it before, Honda created the Honda Civic Musical Road in Lancaster, CA. It was initially designed for a commercial, but after the commercial was shot, they decided to leave it in place. The locals (of course) complained, and the road has now been moved to the middle of nowhere, near Lancaster, CA.
The road was created by cutting groves into the pavement, similar to the groves that are on the side of the road and are meant to wake you up when you're drifting off. By changing the width between the grooves, the road produces different tones to create a song. Although it's designed to be driven over by a Honda Civic at 55mph, a Volvo S40 works perfectly fine as well!!
And to make things clear, the road is only 15 seconds long and we took a route that was an hour longer than we otherwise would have driven just to see this road. And every extra minute was worth it!
After the Honda Civic musical road we drove into Vegas for the night and stayed on the north end of the strip at the Sahara. After a few games of craps, blackjack, and a few pulls on the slots, we called it a night.
The following morning, the previous guest had conveniently set a 6am alarm for us and we thus started our day. After a delicious breakfast at the slowest 1970's cafe, we set out to finish the drive to Bryce Canyon. We stopped in St. George for a bit and Cedar City, but pretty much made this drive straight through. We stayed in Cedar City for the night depsite still being two hours from Bryce Canyon.
We finally arrive at Bryce Canyon at 4pm and took the "World's Greatest Three-Mile Hike". I don't know how you determine the world's greatest hike, but they claimed it. The hike was absolutely phenomenal and I highly recommend checking out the photos! Note: it may take a few days for these photos to be posted. It seems that finding internet on our road trip is just as difficult as it was in Australia!
Unfortunately, I did need to pay overweight charges on one of my bags. Apparently they weigh carry on's now, so all three suitcases started over weight. After shifting things around, I ended with two a few tenths of a kilo overweight, and on at 32 kilos with a limit of 20.5.
JHG picked me up from the airport A-Okay and after a lunch with his mom, sister, and nephew at In 'n Out, we hit the road for Vandenberg Air Force Base. He had been working at Vandenberg for most of the summer and wanted to show me what work he had been doing. We then went to Jocko's in Nipomo, CA for a steak dinner. Jocko's atmosphere is no where near what one would expect for a "welcome home" dinner (and I had been forewarned about this), but the steaks were well worth the lack of atmosphere!! Not only are the steaks local, but they're cooked Santa Maria barbeque style. A "little" Top Sirloin was still 2.5" thick and bigger than my hand!!! Oh man these were good steaks and if you ever find yourself in Central California, I highly recommend going!! By the end of this night (not including my 20 minute nap on the plane), I had been awake for close to 40 hours...and then I finally slept!!
The next day we started the drive to (ultimately) Bryce Canyon. There were a few stops we wanted to make on the way,a nd we intended to stay the night in Vegas and finish the drive to Bryce Canyon in the morning. If you've never seen it before, Honda created the Honda Civic Musical Road in Lancaster, CA. It was initially designed for a commercial, but after the commercial was shot, they decided to leave it in place. The locals (of course) complained, and the road has now been moved to the middle of nowhere, near Lancaster, CA.
The road was created by cutting groves into the pavement, similar to the groves that are on the side of the road and are meant to wake you up when you're drifting off. By changing the width between the grooves, the road produces different tones to create a song. Although it's designed to be driven over by a Honda Civic at 55mph, a Volvo S40 works perfectly fine as well!!
And to make things clear, the road is only 15 seconds long and we took a route that was an hour longer than we otherwise would have driven just to see this road. And every extra minute was worth it!
After the Honda Civic musical road we drove into Vegas for the night and stayed on the north end of the strip at the Sahara. After a few games of craps, blackjack, and a few pulls on the slots, we called it a night.
The following morning, the previous guest had conveniently set a 6am alarm for us and we thus started our day. After a delicious breakfast at the slowest 1970's cafe, we set out to finish the drive to Bryce Canyon. We stopped in St. George for a bit and Cedar City, but pretty much made this drive straight through. We stayed in Cedar City for the night depsite still being two hours from Bryce Canyon.
We finally arrive at Bryce Canyon at 4pm and took the "World's Greatest Three-Mile Hike". I don't know how you determine the world's greatest hike, but they claimed it. The hike was absolutely phenomenal and I highly recommend checking out the photos! Note: it may take a few days for these photos to be posted. It seems that finding internet on our road trip is just as difficult as it was in Australia!
Monday, July 6, 2009
If it isn't the rain, it's the wind. Thanks, Sydney.
I had such great plans for this weekend. I couldn't have told you how excited I was to jump out of a plane to celebrate the Fourth of July, and I had a great awesome bushwalk (hike) planned for the 5th, and this was how I was going to spend my last weekend in Sydney.
And then came the winds.
The weather was absolutely beautiful. There wasn't a cloud in site, it wasn't too cold, it was perfect. Until someone mentioned how windy it was. Ugh, Sydney, I hate your weather! I took a two hour train ride only to find out we were on "hold" from jumping until 11am (the jump was planned for 9am). Alright, no big deal, I'll hold out until 11. We were on a beach (hence the name, Skydive the beach), so I decided to walk around a bit. It was a gorgeous beach, I'll give you that, but I would have much rather been seeing it from 14,000 feet in the air.
And then 11 o'clock rolled around, and yet again we were put on hold. This time until noon, and at noon they would either send all jumpers up, or call off all jumps for the day. Judging by the amount of wind, they said it was highly unlikely that any jumps would be taking off for the day. And thus concluded my excitement over skydiving.
Luckily they were able to refund me all of my money. There was a disclaimer somewhere that stated that $110 was nonrefundable, regardless, but since I wasn't able to reschedule my jump, they were kind enough to give ma full refund. Alas, two hours and $20 for the train ride just to see a beach.
By the time I got back I was pretty cranky, so I headed home and started packing a bit (scary to think of)! I thought I would start Sunday fresh, with a clear mind. I had a bushwalk planned with another member of the group, but as I started to think about it more and more, I did not want to take that two hour train ride again (we were going to be hiking right where I was supposed to be jumping). So, I called off the bushwalk.
Anyway, in place of the bushwalk, I decided that I was going to head out to Manly Beach on Sunday. Do you know what I found at Manly Beach!? Another $20 ferry ticket, a beach, and MORE WIND!! After about an hour I realized just how sick of the beach and the wind I was after two straight days of it, so I decided to go back down to the CBD and my most favorite shop that I've found down here (www.supre.com.au), and buy myself something nice to meet a special someone in at the airport. Who would have thought that XXXS would be so addicting? If I could get all my Supre receipts on the same slip, I'd be able to get all the tax back (If you spend over $300 at one place, you can file a report that says you're a tourist and they'll give you the tax back). Alas.
I can't believe that it's already my last week in Sydney. On Friday at 9pm Minnesota time I leave to fly into LAX to start part #2 of the summer! We've finally started to plan out where we'll be and when. Those two weeks are going to be very jam packed and we're going to see over 5,000 miles of the country! Exciting stuff!
And then came the winds.
The weather was absolutely beautiful. There wasn't a cloud in site, it wasn't too cold, it was perfect. Until someone mentioned how windy it was. Ugh, Sydney, I hate your weather! I took a two hour train ride only to find out we were on "hold" from jumping until 11am (the jump was planned for 9am). Alright, no big deal, I'll hold out until 11. We were on a beach (hence the name, Skydive the beach), so I decided to walk around a bit. It was a gorgeous beach, I'll give you that, but I would have much rather been seeing it from 14,000 feet in the air.
And then 11 o'clock rolled around, and yet again we were put on hold. This time until noon, and at noon they would either send all jumpers up, or call off all jumps for the day. Judging by the amount of wind, they said it was highly unlikely that any jumps would be taking off for the day. And thus concluded my excitement over skydiving.
Luckily they were able to refund me all of my money. There was a disclaimer somewhere that stated that $110 was nonrefundable, regardless, but since I wasn't able to reschedule my jump, they were kind enough to give ma full refund. Alas, two hours and $20 for the train ride just to see a beach.
By the time I got back I was pretty cranky, so I headed home and started packing a bit (scary to think of)! I thought I would start Sunday fresh, with a clear mind. I had a bushwalk planned with another member of the group, but as I started to think about it more and more, I did not want to take that two hour train ride again (we were going to be hiking right where I was supposed to be jumping). So, I called off the bushwalk.
Anyway, in place of the bushwalk, I decided that I was going to head out to Manly Beach on Sunday. Do you know what I found at Manly Beach!? Another $20 ferry ticket, a beach, and MORE WIND!! After about an hour I realized just how sick of the beach and the wind I was after two straight days of it, so I decided to go back down to the CBD and my most favorite shop that I've found down here (www.supre.com.au), and buy myself something nice to meet a special someone in at the airport. Who would have thought that XXXS would be so addicting? If I could get all my Supre receipts on the same slip, I'd be able to get all the tax back (If you spend over $300 at one place, you can file a report that says you're a tourist and they'll give you the tax back). Alas.
I can't believe that it's already my last week in Sydney. On Friday at 9pm Minnesota time I leave to fly into LAX to start part #2 of the summer! We've finally started to plan out where we'll be and when. Those two weeks are going to be very jam packed and we're going to see over 5,000 miles of the country! Exciting stuff!
Monday, June 29, 2009
"One can never have too many Chinese friends…"
On Friday, after a catch-up text session with Rachel, I decided to go to the Chinese Garden of Friendship (her response to my attendance of this location was "One can never have too many Chinese friends"). The Chinese Garden of Friendship is a place located right in Darling Harbour and is just a small touch of China in Sydney. The gardens include a tea garden (with delicious Earl Grey tea), and then 27 stops along a path that demonstrate the Chinese culture. It was initiated by the local Chinese community to celebrate Australia's 1968 Bicentenary and share their rich cultural heritage. This place was extremely beautiful to walk through and was a nice break from the downtown city life that I have every day of the week. I didn't spend quite as much time here as I would have liked, but I did enjoy the time I spent here.
After the Chinese Garden of Friendship, I decided to finally do some souvenir shopping! I can't believe I'm only in Sydney for another two week!! With work and shops closing down at 6pm every day, it is very difficult to get any sort of shopping done during the week. This souvenir shopping took much longer than expected, and eventually turned into my whole day! Alas, I think only one more trip out specifically for souvenirs and I should be done.
After the Chinese Garden of Friendship, I decided to finally do some souvenir shopping! I can't believe I'm only in Sydney for another two week!! With work and shops closing down at 6pm every day, it is very difficult to get any sort of shopping done during the week. This souvenir shopping took much longer than expected, and eventually turned into my whole day! Alas, I think only one more trip out specifically for souvenirs and I should be done.
St. Mary's and the RBG
I had seen this church on my visit to Hyde Park on the first weekend in Sydney. The name was St. Mary's and I had thought even then that it was a beautiful church. I decided to attend a mass this weekend to see the inside of the church and to see what a mass was like in Sydney.
Thoughts on mass:
- Listening to mass in an Australian accent kind of cracks me up. It just doesn't sound like church, and it's difficult to take the priest seriously.
- St. Mary's is a gorgeous cathedral! While I didn't take a lot of photos, I was able to snap a few. Check Picasa if you'd like to see them.
- I don't feel that Australian's are huge into religion. There were hardly 250 people in this mass, and the church was larger than the Basilica. It seemed empty, and almost sad.
- We had joked about/discussed the lack of organization that Australian's seemed to have. This didn't stop at church, either. When going to receive communion in American church, things are very orderly, there are sometimes even usher's telling rows when they can go up to receive communion. Not in Australia. It's more so "go as you please". I found it interesting that even the Priest was giving communion, and even more interesting that I was able to receive communion from the Priest. That was pretty special.
I'm happy I went, and just like when I left to go to Australia, I'll be going to church the Sunday before I leave (next Sunday) to pray for safe travels home.
St. Mary's is located right near the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG). I have a photo of myself in Australia five years ago from a point called Mrs. Macquarie's Chair. In the spirit of watching the passage of time, I decided to head back to this point to get a photo of myself again. Last time I was at the RBG, five years ago, we did not take the time to walk around the gardens. Today, I decided to do so! I hadn't realized just how big the Royal Botanical Gardens really are. There were quite hilarious signs that were inviting visitors to walk on the grass and hug a tree. I walked on the grass, but never hugged a tree. :( Oh well. Throughout the gardens there were different themes (there were trees, plants, some flowers, etc): tropical, roses, endangered and threatened, and then just "lower gardens" and I think a "side garden" section. These lower and side just included species from all over the world that didn't need special conditions to grow.
As a shout out to my mother, I am sorry that there are yet again so many pictures of trees. The trees down here really are just spectacular, Mom, and if you had a camera in your hand and saw the greatness of them, you'd take a million pictures too! At least this time I tried to switch up the species of the tree, instead of just taking pictures of the same kinds of trees!!! :)
I was going to try to go to Centennial Park today as well (a park with a lot of Victorian Era statues in it), but after walking so much yesterday and already walking so much today, I was completely exhausted and decided to head home to relax before starting the work week. Maybe next weekend I'll be able to see Centennial Park. If not, I think maybe another trip in five years may be in order!
Thoughts on mass:
- Listening to mass in an Australian accent kind of cracks me up. It just doesn't sound like church, and it's difficult to take the priest seriously.
- St. Mary's is a gorgeous cathedral! While I didn't take a lot of photos, I was able to snap a few. Check Picasa if you'd like to see them.
- I don't feel that Australian's are huge into religion. There were hardly 250 people in this mass, and the church was larger than the Basilica. It seemed empty, and almost sad.
- We had joked about/discussed the lack of organization that Australian's seemed to have. This didn't stop at church, either. When going to receive communion in American church, things are very orderly, there are sometimes even usher's telling rows when they can go up to receive communion. Not in Australia. It's more so "go as you please". I found it interesting that even the Priest was giving communion, and even more interesting that I was able to receive communion from the Priest. That was pretty special.
I'm happy I went, and just like when I left to go to Australia, I'll be going to church the Sunday before I leave (next Sunday) to pray for safe travels home.
St. Mary's is located right near the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG). I have a photo of myself in Australia five years ago from a point called Mrs. Macquarie's Chair. In the spirit of watching the passage of time, I decided to head back to this point to get a photo of myself again. Last time I was at the RBG, five years ago, we did not take the time to walk around the gardens. Today, I decided to do so! I hadn't realized just how big the Royal Botanical Gardens really are. There were quite hilarious signs that were inviting visitors to walk on the grass and hug a tree. I walked on the grass, but never hugged a tree. :( Oh well. Throughout the gardens there were different themes (there were trees, plants, some flowers, etc): tropical, roses, endangered and threatened, and then just "lower gardens" and I think a "side garden" section. These lower and side just included species from all over the world that didn't need special conditions to grow.
As a shout out to my mother, I am sorry that there are yet again so many pictures of trees. The trees down here really are just spectacular, Mom, and if you had a camera in your hand and saw the greatness of them, you'd take a million pictures too! At least this time I tried to switch up the species of the tree, instead of just taking pictures of the same kinds of trees!!! :)
I was going to try to go to Centennial Park today as well (a park with a lot of Victorian Era statues in it), but after walking so much yesterday and already walking so much today, I was completely exhausted and decided to head home to relax before starting the work week. Maybe next weekend I'll be able to see Centennial Park. If not, I think maybe another trip in five years may be in order!
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