Southbound and down!

I'm heading to Ecuador in a week. There's a climb of Cotopaxi, the 19,000 foot volcano, a trip to the Galapagos (my evolution, marine biology buff girlfriend is very excited), a trip around the Quilotoa Loop, a trip to a rural open air market, and possibly mountain biking in the Andes in the itinerary. It should be a stellar trip as well as a much deserved chance to scrub those grad school blues from my head, and of course put off the whole getting a job thing for a while. We will be returning to civilized society late August, and we'll keep you posted on our trials, tribulations and jubilant excursions till then. To all, be well and enjoy yourselves. Let me know if you need anything from the other side of the equator.

motorcycle trials followed by man camp

Just got back from a trip to Bremerton with a truck full of our possessions, then a motorcycle ride back. After riding over a thousand miles in four days I've discovered why bikers always seem so rough. It's because they've just spent however many hours getting beat to shit by 75 mph wind. In Sausalito, a mere few hours from being home, I couldn't go on. It was 10:30pm the wind was blowing the fine mist of the bay area straight into my spine and I would fall asleep if I wasn't shivering so much. I stopped at the first restaurant I saw, an Outback, and after eating asked the nearest soul if I could borrow his phone to make a call, since mine had gone dead the previous day. That's when a pretty startling coincidence happened. I gave him the number to put in to his phone for me. To his surprise when he put in the number the name Tim jumped up on his screen. Because he knew my friend, in fact had been speaking to him earlier that day. Turns out he was walking my friends parents dogs while they were out of the country, and knew not only the person I was calling, but where I was going, could describe how to get there, and even knew the code to get in the gate. As random as it is to go from the city of San Fransisco to Sausalito to have drinks, and even then to go to of all place the Outback Steak House? I thought it was pretty cool.
After having a few drinks with Tim that night I was in Santa Cruz at a resonable hour the next day. Mancamp was happening that weekend and I took a few hours to gather some things and was driving towards Ukiah in short time. Ironicly enough at about the same time the day before I was near Ukiah wishing I was in Santa Cruz, and here I was driving again towards Ukiah. Mancamp was the perfect recipe for my health after that endurance race of motorcycle pain. Man camp was a blistering haze of sun dappling through madrona onto the poison oak below. Long days of cribbage were punctuated by dips in the river and games of horse shoes. Yesterday I returned to santa cruz finally and found a recent swell was here waiting for me to return. This life after school stuff is great.

The birth of knowledge...

The waves stacking up at 1st peak at Scorpion Bay, Baja Sur.
This is a photo from a recent trip we (Elizabeth and I) took to Baja, Mexico. Quite the trip, highly recommended.

I've got a blog

I never thought I'd do this but it seems like a good idea for those times when random things are happening and I'd like to tell everyone about it without actually having to tell everyone about it.