In May 2012, I set off on a journey around the world. A brief (or not so brief) itinerary:
After that, of course, after all that work we needed to reward ourselves with wings and beer, seemed reasonable. Fire on the Mountain provided the goods. This is the place where I first tried fried pickles (good... thanks Allegra for that discovery) and fried Oreos (not so good, maybe it was the oil, or maybe Oreo's dont need extra fat).
This weekend also saw excellent food events such as breakfast burritos at "The Big Egg" -some delicious cart food, and Cinco de Mayo tacos and Margaritas! And of course, no trip to Portland is complete without a trip to Pok Pok, the best Thai food I have ever had (which makes me really want to go to Thailand to see how it matches up.
The following weekend we decided to get out early and do the most well known hike in the area, Multnomah Falls. Again, the strategy of going early worked wonders. Thanks to Rick's insider knowledge, we did the trail backwards, which means that you avoid a lot of the crowds until the end of the hike, and you come up on the falls from behind, so it provides this moment of surprise seeing a 600 ft (189m) waterfall coming down at you. And since we got out early, we literally had the whole trail to ourselves until the very end. It also had the added advantage that when you get back, you are ready to go to brunch! Bloody Mary bars and a brunch scramble are not a bad way to finish out the morning. One highlights of the week include playing softball for the first time since I moved to Spain (there is only 1 baseball and 1 softball field in the ENTIRE city of Barcelona), grilled cheese sandwhiches from a cart, and a final stop at Pine State Biscuits before heading to the airport to catch a flight down to San Diego, where the adventure continues with J.
What is the first thing to do when you get into SD? Go to the beach of course. Going for a run down the boardwalk while I waited for J's flight from Spain was a really good way to start the week. Objectives for this week were to go to our old yoga studio (The Little Yoga Studio- still awesome), go to some of our favorite restaurants and cafes, brunch with the old gang, and to see my parents, who just happened to be in town visiting at the same time.
Our first visit to The Little Yoga Studio we decided to surprise the teachers, and set up in our "normal" spots, but not turn around, to wait for her to come up the front and see us there like it was no big deal. The gasp of surprise and excitement was classic. This scene played out several times over the week, each time they were surprised and excited to see us. I think they were especially glad to see J, she seems to be a favorite student of just about everyone. She was really moved by how much people missed her, and how much at home she felt in SD, it made here really sad to leave, and want to head back after our European Adventure is over (whenever that may be). After trying a bunch of studios along the west coast and in Spain, I think that is still one of the best studios I have found, for level of students, atmosphere and fun.
We stayed with the Tiernan bros, and it was awesome to see them again after our trip to Oktoberfest. Maria N was in charge of brunch, and she did not disappoint, taking us to La Jolla's Brockton Villa. The french toast and peach mimosa's were pretty amazing. Thanks to Josh, Jeremy and Sarah, Erica and Jaden, Maria and Sven for a great breakfast catching up with friends.
The parental figures were in town visiting friends at the same time we were, so it was good to be able to catch up with them (and again later in Denver). Yet another brunch at Hash House, as well as happy hour escargot and bubbly at the French Bleu Boheme were not too shabby. They were also kind enough to take us to Costco to get granola bars, gum and lactaid (crazy asians, not being able to handle their milk) in American size quantities :) We were also curious to try the tapas restaurant in SD, to see how we liked it after living here. The patatas bravas still rated out quite well for us, but the pan con tomate and the pulpo (octopus) didnt rate as well as what we find here. The sangria is always good though! I still maintain one of the best burger places I have ever been to is The Neighborhood, in SD, which happened to be the place I took J on our first date, 4 years ago. It did not disappoint this time either, good local beers, great burgers, excellent fries... just dont expect any ketchup, the chef refuses to serve it! He will make his own sauces that are quite tasty though.
We also spent a few days going to the HP office, to catch up on email, to avoid taking vacation days, and of course, to visit old friends and colleagues. J, of course, made some baked goods to bring in, and I went out with the old gang to our usual mexican place for lunch, followed by an early happy hour. All in all, not a bad day, and it was so nice to catch up with everyone.
I could not go to SD without getting in a dive though, so I left J at Josh's and met Jeremy (the quadruple J could have been more, but Janet cancelled last minute!). Even though the water is pretty cold and dark by most people's standards, there is still a lot to see at La Jolla Shores, and it is something special that there is so much interesting life and structure available with a swim from the shore. I cant find any good shore diving in Spain, everything is a boat ride away, so LJ Shores will always have a special spot in my heart. Highlights include some octopus wandering the walls, Sarcastic Fringehead, several different nudbranchs, a couple relatively large crabs (including one dead one) and a nice warming thermocline on the trip back in.
After a nice week in SD, it was time for J and I to head to Denver, where Hava and Preston were getting married. Aside from the wedding, other objectives were yoga/circuit training, Illegal Pete's burritos, beer (notice any sort of trend in our objectives for the trip overall?), and visiting old friends/places.
The first 2 days, we stayed with Naomi in Highlands, a cool "hipster" neighborhood near Downtown Denver. This made it easier to get to Hava's wedding and reception dinner. Both the dinner and the wedding were very nice, in the DTC district of Denver. I was really glad we got a chance to see her on this trip, Preston and her are a very good match together, and I am super happy for them. It was also cool to be able to see Naomi, and explore the Boulder Creek Festival with her.
We found a yoga studio called Breathe that would let us practice for the week we were there, and had a few very interesting classes with some good tips for my tight hips, as well as a kick your butt spin class. One of the things we always do when J and I visit my parents in Denver is go to "Maria's class", a circuit training class. You, like me, might be thinking that J and I would find it a breeze to do a class with the retirement community clientèle, but Maria is a really good trainer, and made sure to give us variations to make it hard for us too. And it WAS!
The biggest race in Colorado, and one of the biggest 10K's of the year is the BolderBoulder on Memorial Day. Somehow, during my running days in high school and college, I never ran in one. So when I found out I was going to be in town for this race, I immediately signed up. It was one of the most fun races I have done. There were bands and spectators cheering on practically every corner, it was quite the spectacle. I did not make it on the slip-n-slide, as I thought I might throw up at that point. It was the first time I really noticed how much altitude hurts.
Beer highlights of the trip include Avery brews, a Lefthand, Breckenridge Brewing, and lots of New Belgium Fat Tires and Sunshine Wheat. Food highlights were the aforementioned Illegal Petes burritos, as well as Buffalo Wild Wings. While I think Fire on the Mountain in Portland had better wings, you cant beat the 50 cent happy hour wings and $1 off draft beers at B-Dubs (BWW). J also made a paella for my parents, and I made a thai curry, 2 gluten free options for the 'rents.
Every time we go back to Boulder, J always wants to stop at the Boulder Book Store, because of the large selection of used cookbooks, and Celestial Seasonings, so we spent a couple of days up in Boulder hanging around all of my old college haunts and going to those places. It was great weather the entire time we were in Colorado, though much of the Western slope has since burned in wildfires.
After all of that, I was ready to head back. It had been nearly a month since I slept in my own bed. The hardest hours of the whole trip were getting back to Barcelona after 18+ hrs of travelling, then having to stay up all day to avoid jetlag. All in all, it was an excellent trip that made me realize how much I like the cities and the people that I got to catch up with. Thanks to everyone that made it a great trip!
Barcelona - NYC layover in JFK
NYC - Wash DC. Spend one night in DC to see Shaela
Next Day
DC - Minneapolis - 2hr layover
MN - Portland. Portland for 3 days, then 2 hr drive down to Corvallis for a week, back up to Portland for the weekend, then back down to Corvallis for another 3 days, then back up to Portland
Portland - San Jose - 1 hr layover in SJ
San Jose - San Diego. 1 week in SD with J
SD - Salt Lake City - 2 hr layover in SLC
SLC - Denver. 1 week in Denver, still with J
Den - JFK
JFK - Barcelona
Leave May 1st, return June 3rd, 2 weeks of work, 2 weeks of vacation, 5 cities, co-workers, friends and family, yoga, food and beer.
DC was filled with the ancient legends of old, hard willed men turned to stone. I realize that DC does not have the oldest history in the US, that much of its lore begins around 1800, but I always grew up with the belief that US history was old. It was quite a shock then, after spending time in Europe, realizing yet again just how truly young the US is. David K told me a story of over-hearing some British guys talking about a sculpture at a museum in Italy, and they said "oh look, only 300-400 yrs old, so it's still pretty new". It was interesting to visit the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean memorial and the White House.
The primary reason for going to DC was to be able to see Shaela. Since I was going to be forced to have a long layover, I took advantage of the opportunity to go visit her. Though it was only 1 night, it was still fun to get some sushi and explore the city a little bit. I could never live there, mostly due to the infestation of politicians there, but I was glad to see that she was doing well in the city, and getting ready to finish Grad School, congrats to her.
DC was filled with the ancient legends of old, hard willed men turned to stone. I realize that DC does not have the oldest history in the US, that much of its lore begins around 1800, but I always grew up with the belief that US history was old. It was quite a shock then, after spending time in Europe, realizing yet again just how truly young the US is. David K told me a story of over-hearing some British guys talking about a sculpture at a museum in Italy, and they said "oh look, only 300-400 yrs old, so it's still pretty new". It was interesting to visit the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean memorial and the White House.
The primary reason for going to DC was to be able to see Shaela. Since I was going to be forced to have a long layover, I took advantage of the opportunity to go visit her. Though it was only 1 night, it was still fun to get some sushi and explore the city a little bit. I could never live there, mostly due to the infestation of politicians there, but I was glad to see that she was doing well in the city, and getting ready to finish Grad School, congrats to her.
Next stop, Portland. I had several objectives on this trip: Beer, food (especially Mexican, Thai and brunch), and hiking. Once I got past that whole "working" thing, Oregon was amazing! The day I arrived it rained, but every day after that for the 2 weeks I was there was sunny and gorgeous! Sitting outside on the patio with a cold draft microbrew (oh how much I love restaurants with multiple taps!!!) is a pretty good way to spend an evening. When I travel, I make a concerted effort to drink local beers, so I tried to drink as much Oregon and Washington beer as possible. It was deeeeelicious.
Of course, it also meant that I needed to find a way to work out. I was looking up yoga studios in Portland, and I stumbled across a studio owned by one of J's old teachers in San Diego. It was cool to be able to go to that studio and practice with him.
Another highlight of Oregon is the hiking. We have a strategy that has worked really well for hiking around Portland... get up before 10 am. Weekend 1, Rick and I took his 2 Labradors out to a trail on the Columbia river. After a very steep trail up, you are rewarded with a panoramic of Mt St Helens, Mt Adams, Mt Ranier, and Mt Hood.
Of course, it also meant that I needed to find a way to work out. I was looking up yoga studios in Portland, and I stumbled across a studio owned by one of J's old teachers in San Diego. It was cool to be able to go to that studio and practice with him.
Another highlight of Oregon is the hiking. We have a strategy that has worked really well for hiking around Portland... get up before 10 am. Weekend 1, Rick and I took his 2 Labradors out to a trail on the Columbia river. After a very steep trail up, you are rewarded with a panoramic of Mt St Helens, Mt Adams, Mt Ranier, and Mt Hood.
After that, of course, after all that work we needed to reward ourselves with wings and beer, seemed reasonable. Fire on the Mountain provided the goods. This is the place where I first tried fried pickles (good... thanks Allegra for that discovery) and fried Oreos (not so good, maybe it was the oil, or maybe Oreo's dont need extra fat). This weekend also saw excellent food events such as breakfast burritos at "The Big Egg" -some delicious cart food, and Cinco de Mayo tacos and Margaritas! And of course, no trip to Portland is complete without a trip to Pok Pok, the best Thai food I have ever had (which makes me really want to go to Thailand to see how it matches up.
The following weekend we decided to get out early and do the most well known hike in the area, Multnomah Falls. Again, the strategy of going early worked wonders. Thanks to Rick's insider knowledge, we did the trail backwards, which means that you avoid a lot of the crowds until the end of the hike, and you come up on the falls from behind, so it provides this moment of surprise seeing a 600 ft (189m) waterfall coming down at you. And since we got out early, we literally had the whole trail to ourselves until the very end. It also had the added advantage that when you get back, you are ready to go to brunch! Bloody Mary bars and a brunch scramble are not a bad way to finish out the morning. One highlights of the week include playing softball for the first time since I moved to Spain (there is only 1 baseball and 1 softball field in the ENTIRE city of Barcelona), grilled cheese sandwhiches from a cart, and a final stop at Pine State Biscuits before heading to the airport to catch a flight down to San Diego, where the adventure continues with J.
Our first visit to The Little Yoga Studio we decided to surprise the teachers, and set up in our "normal" spots, but not turn around, to wait for her to come up the front and see us there like it was no big deal. The gasp of surprise and excitement was classic. This scene played out several times over the week, each time they were surprised and excited to see us. I think they were especially glad to see J, she seems to be a favorite student of just about everyone. She was really moved by how much people missed her, and how much at home she felt in SD, it made here really sad to leave, and want to head back after our European Adventure is over (whenever that may be). After trying a bunch of studios along the west coast and in Spain, I think that is still one of the best studios I have found, for level of students, atmosphere and fun.
We stayed with the Tiernan bros, and it was awesome to see them again after our trip to Oktoberfest. Maria N was in charge of brunch, and she did not disappoint, taking us to La Jolla's Brockton Villa. The french toast and peach mimosa's were pretty amazing. Thanks to Josh, Jeremy and Sarah, Erica and Jaden, Maria and Sven for a great breakfast catching up with friends.
The parental figures were in town visiting friends at the same time we were, so it was good to be able to catch up with them (and again later in Denver). Yet another brunch at Hash House, as well as happy hour escargot and bubbly at the French Bleu Boheme were not too shabby. They were also kind enough to take us to Costco to get granola bars, gum and lactaid (crazy asians, not being able to handle their milk) in American size quantities :) We were also curious to try the tapas restaurant in SD, to see how we liked it after living here. The patatas bravas still rated out quite well for us, but the pan con tomate and the pulpo (octopus) didnt rate as well as what we find here. The sangria is always good though! I still maintain one of the best burger places I have ever been to is The Neighborhood, in SD, which happened to be the place I took J on our first date, 4 years ago. It did not disappoint this time either, good local beers, great burgers, excellent fries... just dont expect any ketchup, the chef refuses to serve it! He will make his own sauces that are quite tasty though.
We also spent a few days going to the HP office, to catch up on email, to avoid taking vacation days, and of course, to visit old friends and colleagues. J, of course, made some baked goods to bring in, and I went out with the old gang to our usual mexican place for lunch, followed by an early happy hour. All in all, not a bad day, and it was so nice to catch up with everyone.
I could not go to SD without getting in a dive though, so I left J at Josh's and met Jeremy (the quadruple J could have been more, but Janet cancelled last minute!). Even though the water is pretty cold and dark by most people's standards, there is still a lot to see at La Jolla Shores, and it is something special that there is so much interesting life and structure available with a swim from the shore. I cant find any good shore diving in Spain, everything is a boat ride away, so LJ Shores will always have a special spot in my heart. Highlights include some octopus wandering the walls, Sarcastic Fringehead, several different nudbranchs, a couple relatively large crabs (including one dead one) and a nice warming thermocline on the trip back in.
After a nice week in SD, it was time for J and I to head to Denver, where Hava and Preston were getting married. Aside from the wedding, other objectives were yoga/circuit training, Illegal Pete's burritos, beer (notice any sort of trend in our objectives for the trip overall?), and visiting old friends/places.
The first 2 days, we stayed with Naomi in Highlands, a cool "hipster" neighborhood near Downtown Denver. This made it easier to get to Hava's wedding and reception dinner. Both the dinner and the wedding were very nice, in the DTC district of Denver. I was really glad we got a chance to see her on this trip, Preston and her are a very good match together, and I am super happy for them. It was also cool to be able to see Naomi, and explore the Boulder Creek Festival with her.
We found a yoga studio called Breathe that would let us practice for the week we were there, and had a few very interesting classes with some good tips for my tight hips, as well as a kick your butt spin class. One of the things we always do when J and I visit my parents in Denver is go to "Maria's class", a circuit training class. You, like me, might be thinking that J and I would find it a breeze to do a class with the retirement community clientèle, but Maria is a really good trainer, and made sure to give us variations to make it hard for us too. And it WAS!
The biggest race in Colorado, and one of the biggest 10K's of the year is the BolderBoulder on Memorial Day. Somehow, during my running days in high school and college, I never ran in one. So when I found out I was going to be in town for this race, I immediately signed up. It was one of the most fun races I have done. There were bands and spectators cheering on practically every corner, it was quite the spectacle. I did not make it on the slip-n-slide, as I thought I might throw up at that point. It was the first time I really noticed how much altitude hurts.
Beer highlights of the trip include Avery brews, a Lefthand, Breckenridge Brewing, and lots of New Belgium Fat Tires and Sunshine Wheat. Food highlights were the aforementioned Illegal Petes burritos, as well as Buffalo Wild Wings. While I think Fire on the Mountain in Portland had better wings, you cant beat the 50 cent happy hour wings and $1 off draft beers at B-Dubs (BWW). J also made a paella for my parents, and I made a thai curry, 2 gluten free options for the 'rents.Every time we go back to Boulder, J always wants to stop at the Boulder Book Store, because of the large selection of used cookbooks, and Celestial Seasonings, so we spent a couple of days up in Boulder hanging around all of my old college haunts and going to those places. It was great weather the entire time we were in Colorado, though much of the Western slope has since burned in wildfires.
After all of that, I was ready to head back. It had been nearly a month since I slept in my own bed. The hardest hours of the whole trip were getting back to Barcelona after 18+ hrs of travelling, then having to stay up all day to avoid jetlag. All in all, it was an excellent trip that made me realize how much I like the cities and the people that I got to catch up with. Thanks to everyone that made it a great trip!
