Crater Climbing

This isn't a volcano. Nor is it a meteor crater. It is the result of some kind of explosion about 4,000 years ago. In case you were wondering, it took about 15 minutes to climb down and about 45 to go back up.

Furnace Creek

These photos are taken around the Furnace Creek area of the park. This is pretty much the "center" of the drivable parts of the park.

Death Valley

Ever since Mr. Minsky, my 7th grade science teacher told me about Death Valley, the lowest place on earth, I've wanted to pay a visit. I mean, I knew I was never going to make it to the HIGHEST place on earth, so why not take care of the other extreme?

I can safely say that ANY entrance into the park will blow you away, but I went in from the south. These are the pictures just from my drive in.

Yup, that is a double rainbow. And only about 10 seconds after I took this picture, the skies totally opened up for about 2 minutes. Never thought I'd be so lucky to see it rain in the desert!

Who Knew

That the middle of nowhere is just north of the Mojave Preserve. Since it was dark by the time I exited the Preserve, I had no idea what the area around the hotel looked like. I actually really hate arriving somewhere totally new in the dark for this exact reason. While bringing my bags in, a train rolled passed. Within about 50 yards of my room. That happened 7 more times that night. As it turns out, I was pretty much staying in an old train station.

Needless to say, there wasn't much going on as far as food in Nipton, CA. The hotel staff suggested going to Searchlight, NV, 22 miles away, which was literally, the only game "in town." ("Town" being a relative term, of course.) Apparently the are a couple of casinos in Searchlight, and one, "The Nugget" had great prime rib.

I don't eat cow unless I can help it, but I figured that a casino IN NEVADA that served prime rib had to be a decent bet. I had visions of the casinos I saw in Tahoe... and in Vegas, for that matter. You can imagine my shock when I had my dinner here:

Yeah, this place is HOPPING, isn't it? Believe it or not, it isn't even 8pm yet. What you can't see in the picture is that the restaurant is supposedly "smoke free." The casino, is not. Still can't understand how that works. Also don't understand how prime rib could be $10. The slot machines were so old school, that when I won $8 in a nickle machine, I got my winnings in 160 nickles. It was pretty exciting. I stood there completely stunned as an avalanche of coins fell out of the machine. "What am I going to do with so many nickles?" I announce to nobody in particular. An older gentleman, a regular I would assume, walked by and handed me a plastic bucket. Awesome.

Mojave Preserve

North of Joshua Tree is not much of anything as far as civilization is concerned. But there is the Mojave National Preserve. This place definitely counts as the "scenic route."

Joshua Tree

About an hour from Palm Springs is Joshua Tree National Park. I always thought that the main attraction in this park was the Joshua Trees. Rumor has it, they were an inspiration to Dr. Seuss.

But for me, the main attraction of the park was all the rocks. I am not the only one who is attracted to the rocks. Believe it or not, I think every rock, no matter how big or knarly, is considered climbable. There are even books that you can buy that rate rocks by they climbing difficulty like ski runs. And no, I didn't climb them.

The person in this picture is my friend Sarah who was traveling with me.

So I've been on vacation...

In Southern California, to be exact. Somewhere I've never been. It was really fun and different.

I started out in Palm Springs, which seemed to be a bit of a mish mosh of a lot of things and walks of life. The hotel was a throw back, for example:

In Desert Hot Springs, there is an "energy vortex," apparently. In case you are not clear on what this is exactly, you are not alone. But I think it has something to do with a lot of different kinds of energy (water, air, heat, etc) come together in a single place that makes you feel some kind of powerful.

http://energyvortex.net/

What would you expect an energy vortex to look like? How would you think something so amazing would marked... so that you would know it was there? Well, in Desert Hot Springs, they put the main intersection of the town right on the vortex.

There is a airway tram that takes you high above the desert floor. This is not for those who are scared of heights or who get motion sickness. Not only does it go up nearly 10,000ft, but it rotates as you go up. Hence, no pictures till I got to the top.

In the tram parking lot, I noticed I was parked next to this car. It made me giggle. So redundant.

How do you know you could be at a Seattle wedding?

1.  When you on a ferry:

2. The cake is Scandinavian:

3. There are a lot of children. Doesn't matter if it is a night time wedding either. And they have no problem making themselves comfortable.

You know you are at a charity auction in Seattle when:

...one of the "big ticket" items is a chicken tractor.

Not sure what a chicken tractor is? It is a portable chicken coop. You know, in case you need to take your chickens camping with you, I guess.


http://www.chickencoopsource.com/chicken-coops/chickentractors/victoriachickentractor.cfm?TID=GKP009&source=channel_intelligence_gbase&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=GKP009

Have you ever watched a local professional team win the "final" or "championship" game of anything... LIVE? Sure, watching it on TV is exciting... and better than nothing... but LIVE... an entirely different experience.

Last night I watched the Seattle Sounders Football Club defend their America's Cup title. It was awesome to watch. I was jumping at my seat the entire 90 minutes. I lost my hearing AND my voice. Totally worth it.

Guard Your Fingers

So it is Oyster Season. Any month with an "R" in it is an 'oyster' season month. Oysters are a huge deal out here... so when the season starts again, people go a little Oyster crazy.

There was an Oysterfest about 90 minutes Southwest of Seattle this weekend.. sure, the purpose is to celebrate shellfish and eat a lot of it... but the main attraction is the speed oyster shucking competition that goes on for two days. This seems entirely too drawn out for my taste considering that each heat only takes about 90 seconds.

How many oysters can YOU shuck in 90 seconds? 1? If you are lucky, maybe 2? Try 2 dozen.

And no, I will NOT be entering this competition next year. I like my fingers exactly where they are.

On Saturday, I went to brunch on a farm outside Poulsbo on the Kitsap Peninsula. This farmhouse is only open for brunch one saturday a month... and they have only one thing on the menu that month. The best part of going here is that you really need to take a ferry to get there. I had yet to go somewhere for a feed that required a ferry ride. Very Seattle.

The menu was stuffed french toast with bacon, egg and sausage.

The surrounding gardens are even more beautiful than the food.. which created a wonderful backdrop to brunch.

The best part, however, just might be what the server said to me after the meal:

Server: "Would you like a box for your leftover eggs?"

Me: "Oh, no, that's ok, thanks for asking."

Server: "I always like to ask because some people like to give their leftovers to their chickens. (Pause) Although that might be a little weird in this case... bringing eggs to feed chickens.. (Pause)... Nevermind."

I swear, ONLY in Seattle.