Red Rocks

A weekend in Vegas - the glitz, the glamor, the spectacular shows, the never ending buffets, the incessant slot machines, the drunken bachelorettes... the music, the neon, the traffic, Barry Manilow watching over your every move... Two days is really all you need in Vegas. I was trying to recount, and this was about my seventh or eighth time here, and I had yet to spent more than three days in this Desert Oasis on any single trip. No reason to change now, so on Day 3, Erica and I picked up our rental car and headed out of the city, aiming towards the Valley of Fire.

The name 'Valley of Fire' doesn't exactly exude calm and tranquility, but after just over 48 hours on the Strip, it seemed the most peaceful place on Earth. Well, that may be an exaggeration - I actually found the place to be spectacularly wild and jagged, but it is amazing how a mere 45 minute drive out of the Neon lights of Las Vegas, you end up in what appears to be a remote and quiet nature reserve - the Valley of Fire State Park.

As the name might imply, the park is filled with a variety of rocks, fiery red in color, forming a crazy assortment of jagged and angular shapes, seemingly defying the laws of gravity and the incessant forces of erosion along the way. Highlights of the day:
Erica and I in front of the fiery rocks and blue skies.

Our rental car dominating over the highway, as the asphalt pierces through the rock formations

The Balancing Rock

The Elephant Rock. Can be a little hard to tell in the picture, but it looks an awful lot like a big, thick elephant trunk when you get close

This isn't a named formation. I think it looks an awful lot like the guardian aliens early on in the 'Fifth Element'

The Valley of Fire seemed a good start... time to step up the spectacular though - enter Arizona: specifically, enter the Grand Canyon. In order to catch the sunrise over the Grand Canyon (and come on, you gotta!), we needed to get to the South, more spectacular, rim by about 6 in the morning. Given a little more time, or a little more common sense, one might choose to just come down during the day and stay the night - we left Vegas at midnight and were at the Canyon by 5AM. What did you expect? Safety Third: Go Hard or go Home!

On the way out of Vegas: Erica at the Cathouse in Luxor... Don't ask!

Cat, a friend we'd be staying with in Prescott the following day (ahh, Cat ... Cathouse ... I'm such a genius...) had warned, somewhat cryptically, to expect snow at the Canyon(!) - I chose not to make much of it... We're way down South in Arizona, and it's late March already anyway - what snow can there possibly be to talk about!? The tops of the nearby mountains must've gotten a light sprinkling, and everyone's just freaked out, right!? Not so much...

As we drove through the night, the scenes outside my window evolved from 'light sprinkling' to 'there's several inches of snow on the road now' to 'Holy Crap, are we in a blizzard!?' Good news: if you want to save your $25 park admission fee, arrive at the gates at 4:30 in the morning in the middle of a blizzard. Bad news: Temperature at sunrise: 11 degrees! (yes, Fahrenheit) Making it all worthwhile, the pictures:

The first glimpses of the sun washing over the Western slopes of the Canyon just after 6AM!

The views becoming clearer as the clouds thin out

The Grand Canyon Panorama spectacular!

So, yeah, it was a bit more than a 'light sprinkling in the mountain tops.' Several inches at the Southern Rim was more like it, and that brings us to the view ... which was incomparably spectacular as the first rays of Sun broke through the clouds!

The last time I'd seen the Canyon was on a stiflingly hot day in the middle of June. No snow, no sunrise, no hiking (not even any digital pictures!)... still quite awesome, but the big ol' hole in the ground improved on all counts this time through:

Looking out into the Canyon, snow covering the upper reaches of the walls

Erica, pleased to be here (and happy that it's warmed up since sunrise!)

Merely an optical illusion - I'm not really hanging over the abyss... even if I'd been told it looked a lot like I was.

The South Kaibab Trail took us about halfway down towards the bottom of the Canyon, making me really regret not having done any hiking the last trip! And wanting to come back for even more...

And this brought us to lunch time. The restaurant selection was surprisingly sparse - the quality did not disappoint though, as we headed back to El Tovar, the same lodge where we had had a delicious breakfast at 7 that morning. What was a concern ... was the 170 miles worth of highway that still still lay between us and Prescott. A drive through the night, an hour of [blissful] sleep in the car, a couple of hours of hiking in the fresh mountainous air, followed by a wholly rewarding Beef Stroganoff for lunch ... a good recipe for a four hour drive this does not make. We set off anyway - Erica left firmly in charge of making sure I stayed awake. Geography - good choice, Erica! In fact, we were sufficiently certain of my awakedness to feel compelled to make one last little detour on the way down and catch a glimpse of Sedona - a magical, spiritual, hippie tourism center in the center of the state, renowned for its mystical energy vortexes and [deservedly] famous for the giant rock formations invading the town from all sides:

The Courthouse Butte, presiding over its surroundings. All the biggest rocks have been named around here

Chapel of the Holy Cross, spectacularly nestling itself in amongst the giant rocks

This shot was particularly indicative - Sedona isn't a park, a preserve, not even some remote, inaccessible area - the rocks are just right all over town. At times, simply flanking the highway.

And finally, later that evening we reached Prescott, caught up with Cat, sharing a bottle of wine, and were rewarded with a full night's sleep. Next day's adventures in a post to follow!

No Fear, No Loathing, Just Vegas, Baby, Vegas!

or how to visit Rome, Paris, Monte Carlo, Egypt, Venice, New York, and the North of Italy all in a single weekend

Authentic it is not... Glitzy, bright, ever-evolving to astounding new levels of outrageous it certainly is: Vegas, the neon-lit oasis in the middle of the desert. Spend a month touring the sights of Europe, or just come here for a weekend:

Paris, France: July of last year; Paris Las Vegas: a fortnight ago

Venice: summer '99; The Venetian, 'authentic,' down to the gondolas on the river, just last month

Bellagio Resort and Casino, in the North of Italy or on the Strip? I passed through the Alps in the North of Italy on the way to Geneva last summer, but not through the town of Bellagio

Caesars Palace Las Vegas or Roma, Italia?

Luxor Las Vegas, or did you just hop across the Mediterranean to see the Pharaohs' ancient tombs in Egypt?

You can, of course, travel to Monte Carlo and New York too, but there was just too much on the Strip to get pictures of everything...

Want to take in all these sights, but don't have three years to roam the Seven Seas? Or the Seven continents? Why, come to Vegas, of course! Elvis awaits. Won't even have to deal with those pesky Euros of a currency, those pesky Europeans who refuse to learn to speak English, and those pesky museums with all of their priceless works of art. Exquisite European cuisine and the high fashion runways of Milano, Paris, and London bear a mention too, but Vegas may just be able to compete with those - after all, if it can be bought, it's on sale in Las Vegas!

Not sure how much more there really is for me to say about Vegas... It was far from my first time here, but I hadn't been in some 5 years, so was intrigued and excited to take in all the new hotels and casinos. More than anything though, I'd been all kinds of responsible ever since September, not having done any serious traveling, and Vegas might still be in these United States of America, but it sure looks and feels like a whole 'nother country ... if not another planet. And it was only Stop #1 on a week-long adventure around the American Southwest that Erica and I were tackling. It was her very first time here, giving me a chance to relive the bright, vivid, seemingly hallucinogenic memories of my first couple of trips here - watching her try and absorb all the lights and sounds all around. Mind blown, as it ever is - the first time in Vegas!

Happy Vegas!

1AM at a dueling pianos bar at Paris Las Vegas. Up next: breakfast, which is [of course] served here from 1 to 11 in the morning. Then back to the hotel for an early night - that would be in bed a bit before 3... The day before wasn't to be such an early night - we began in Seattle at 4AM, getting up bright and early in time for our flight to Vegas ... then were immediately thrust into an onslaught of Slot Machines, Dancing Fountains, Dim Sum, Singing Pirates, Dancing Vixens, high school prom dates, and Cirque du Soleil acrobats of Zumanity ... all the way to a middle of the night excursion to the heart of Old Vegas: Fremont Street, having drinks with Aga and Aneta, my Camp Caribbean camp-mates from Burning Man - all in all, a fitting, appropriate introduction to the life and culture of Sin City! In pictures:

Chilling the way the Romans did (but better dressed) at Caesar's Palace, waiting for my Beijing Noodle #9 Dim Sum lunch

Sunday night: moving on from Zumanity to Bally's classic Vegas Showgirls extravaganza: Jubilee

When I said prom date, I didn't mean some new, quirky, high school prom-themed Vegas musical - no, we met Milarmi, my actual high school prom date, for dinner and a night of catching up. Seeing her for the first time in some 15 years felt awfully surreal. Yet, so very Vegas...

A visit to the 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas!' sign also on that evening's agenda

Next goal was to head back to wild, unbridled nature of the Southwest, leaving the glitz and glamour of Vegas' neon lights behind, and heading out to catch a glimpse (and a photograph or two... or a hundred) of the funky red rocks that surround this oasis of hedonism - the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada and the Grand Canyon across the state line in Arizona... trip reports coming soon!

My baby has doors!

I've missed you, blog! And I'd missed you too, mini! Fortunately, I went to visit the mini (about a month ago) and am only now finally getting around to visiting with the blog to report on the new and improved status of the car. And good news: the end is in site! We are actually getting dangerously close to being done with the body work (and moving on to such other exciting things as paint, engine work, interior, seats, etc... it's a long list still, but hey, progress!)

Last month, I went to see the car, and here's what I found:

The car has doors again! For the first time since Gunnar initially got his hands on her, just about a year ago!

There was a very good reason why he had removed the doors in the first place: a lot of rust. Now all re-skinned and black. Not quite matching the fluorescent yellow of the car, but we're working on that too...

Unfortunately, the next steps will involve sending the car to other mechanics to have some of the other work done, so it's something less than a straight line from here to victory, but baby steps! The stereo is one thing that Gunnar does specialize in, so the mini now features this bitchin' subwoofer in the back:


Also some lovely recessed speakers in the front and ... of course ... the good 'ol Lada stereo that I've brought with me from the depths of Siberia! After installing it myself at some point on the lonely post-Mongol Rally ride to the Pacific coast... The CD player apparently doesn't work anymore, and just looking at the Cyrillic characters on the back was more than enough to scare the people at CarToys away from even trying to open it up, but they did run the rest of the diagnostics, and the things I do care about all still work: AM/FM and the Auxiliary input. And, of course, more important than them all: the Lada logo on the front!


I would normally now move on to regale you with some exciting pictures from a recent trip or two - be they to exotic third world countries, or right back here in Washington State - but this time, we're going to have to wait. There are pictures and blog stories galore coming from a recent trip that featured the American Southwest, including stops in Las Vegas, Valley of Fire, the Grand Canyon, Sedona and Prescott, Arizona, Phoneix, and San Diego. And such luminaries along the way as Yuma, El Centro, and the fairest of them all: Dateland, AZ (home of the Cougars)! Sorry to leave you on a cliff hanger like that, but stay tuned!

A Day in the Life of the Unemployed

Wednesday, February 9th. 9AM. Beep! My alarm goes off... I scowl at it - Beep! I force myself out of bed. I'd rather not, but, admittedly, 9AM isn't exactly early - for the unemployed amongst us, staying up till 2:30 appears to be a lot easier than getting up before 9. I prefer it that way anyway.

By 9:45, I've had a quick breakfast and it's on to my leisurely day of unemployment: get on the bike and head up to Northgate to visit Gunnar and check on how the mini is doing in his capable hands. Outside, it's sunny, yet a frigid 41 degrees: deciding on a number of layers to wear is a tricky proposition - I settle for erring on the side of hills I'd eventually have to climb through the U District and Green Lake, which are sure to warm me up more than I ever wanted.

After a brief stop at Trader Joe's (turns out the best thing ever is actually Quinoa), I make it up to Gunnar's by 11. The changes in the mini are pretty incremental, but if you look it over closely, some startling things start to emerge: the body no longer has any rust at all, and all the panels that are on it are now properly (and meticulously) fitted.

My baby is all rust free... Check out the shiny new bumper!

The floor is one of the many panels that, at last check (a month ago), was still just very barely in place - now fits better than the one they had put in at the factory.

The 'boot lid' (or the 'trunk door,' as those of us less British might say) has similarly been replaced, adding a matte black new wrinkle to the fluorescent yellow body style... (Just a few more months... just a couple more months, and the fluorescent yellow is all gone!)

In fact, Gunnar and I spend most of the next 30 minutes discussing such seemingly frivolous things as wheel arches and a stereo system. Well, also the rear subframe, and the doors, which are all getting completely replaced...

By 11:45, I'm already running late again, so back on the bike and over to the freeway to catch the bus heading downtown. Now lamenting not having chosen to take more layers, as standing in the shade in Gunnar's garage was a lot colder than it had been on the way up the hill to get there. Well, at least American buses have heating... (I'm looking at you, Bolivia!) The bike is coming with me too, of course, as Seattle buses all come with bike racks. By 12:45, and after having changed buses downtown, I'm back on Eastside and ready to play the 12:30 game at Microsoft (pickup frisbee!). The next hour and a half is running back and forth in the sun, up and down the field, chasing after a little flying disc - it's great fun!

By 2:15 we wrap up and everyone goes back to whatever it is that they do - I'm pretty sure this game regularly attracts equal numbers current Microsoft employees and Microsoft alumni, in various stages of post-corporate evolution (de-volution?). My next step for the day is actually potentially related to employment, as I have a call with a recruiter scheduled for 2:30. (Having recently put my resume up on monster.com, I've been getting a deluge of calls from recruiters - most just fronting for contract positions right back at Microsoft. I'm steadfastly holding out still, but this guy is with a small-ish software company in downtown Seattle, so holds far more appeal. Now to convince him to hire me for a three month contract!) Somewhat inexplicably, the recruiter first tries calling 45 minutes early (I am on the field playing frisbee instead of looking at my phone), but calls again, closer to the appointed time of 2:30, a mere 10 minutes late... We chat for a bit - his company sounds rather enticing (online advertising, in its various forms), and while they're mostly looking for full-time people, they do need contractors on occasion, so he's going to go back and talk to his hiring managers to see if there's a fit.

3 o'clock: that was hard - I just spent 20 minutes trying to work; time to return to aimless unemployment... The Duke - Carolina game is tonight at 6, and we're planning on watching it at Brodie's house here in Redmond - I don't particularly see the point of going back to Seattle just to come back in three hours, so I instead head over to Brodie's nearby Building 50 to take a shower there. (Brodie still has 'My House/Monkey on a String!' in his office - that was the first wakeboarding DVD we all watched upon discovering wakeboarding back 10 year ago!) By about 4, having showered and changed, I've biked the 20 or so minutes to Redmond and head over to the local Post Office. I've got a book to mail for somebody in San Diego for my next errand of the day; you'd better start coming through with some books coming my way soon, Paper Back Swap!

4:30 brings a lunch break at the Redmond Starbucks. I'd been hoping I'd have a little more time here actually, having brought my databases book to read, and having a plethora of things I still need to research online, but instead I've barely got an hour to grab some lunch, catch up on email, and research some more mini fender flares - Gunnar would like for me to actually figure out what I want to do with the car. I'd been aiming to leave by 5:30, instead I finally head out by around 5:45, as it starts getting darker and colder all around. I'm reliving the glory days of some eight years ago, biking along the Sammamish River Trail - the dark doesn't scare me much either: the bike is now equipped with lights. The cold stops being a problem too as I start climbing the hill leading up to Casa de Brodie. Redmond's apparently full of hills... Redmond also claims to be the 'Bicycle Capital of the Pacific Northwest' - maybe they are, maybe they aren't (they're certainly a lot better than nearby Bellevue), but I could use the roads being a little better lit up!

Shortly after 6, I make it up to Brodie's, finding Theo and Tina to have come up as well, and the next 2 and and a half hours go towards watching the Duke-Carolina game. Go to Hell Carolina, Go to Hell! 79-73 final, after Carolina fails to hold on to the large first half lead they had built up! Burn, baby, burn! (I sure hope they still burn benches at the Duke Campus after beating Carolina!). Now, as for getting back to Seattle... bike back down the hill into the center of Redmond (passing by a temperature readout that proclaims 31 degrees!), wait 15 minutes, then catch the 545 back across the bridge to Seattle. By about 10 o'clock I get home for the first time since having left at 9:45 that morning. Five minutes later, having dropped my things off, I run off again, this time to meet Erica at nearby Liberty for some late night sushi and a drink. Actually home a little after midnight...

And so goes a day in the life of today's busily unemployed - 30 minutes worth of potential job research, 13.5 hours of running errands and enjoying the time off. Apparently, I may have to re-appraise my priorities a bit if and when I do actually get a job again! I suppose I'm ready for it... Daily totals: 18.2 miles pedaling; 34.1 miles riding the bus.

And if you've made it all the way here, erstwhile blog reader, I think I'm supposed to now reward you with some pictures of exciting things I've been doing recently and exotic places where said exciting things have been taking place... Unfortunately, I'm afraid exciting and exotic has been hard to come by of late, but here's the finest from the month or so since Utah/San Diego:

Strange Brewfest 2011

Jane, David, Erica, and I went to Port Townsend for the annual Strange Brew Beer Festival at the end of January. A high number of strange brews were on display - 3 different Jalapeno beers and the Beer Bloody Mary, coming out as my personal favorites. The rest of them were strangely smitten by the Peanut Butter Winter Warmer... to each his own, I suppose. More strange from the Festival:

Man on stilts... Costumes were duly encouraged - there was to be a contest Saturday evening

We explored Port Townsend a little... finding such attractions as this old Bell Tower! I really did find it to be a pretty and pleasant coastal town though...

Valentine's Day presented a better than average excuse to go back to Oregon, do more wine tasting in Willamette Valley, and spend a little bit of time in Portland:

The metal umbrella man and I, in front of the Portland courthouse

The post-modern, notably ugly Portland Building, graced by the Goddess Portlandia in the front (really!?)

And finally, back in Seattle, the spoils of war! Spoils of traveling to wine country anyway...

As for the sites and sounds of the good times here in Seattle? Well, every Sunday night, the monks chant at nearby St. Mark's Cathedral. (it's actually just a choir that sings, but 'Monks chant' is more fun to say). I don't have any pictures of the chanting anyway, but I rather liked this shot of the cross:

The monks/choir were really good too!

And on the other end of the serenity scale lies the Seattle Ultimate Carnival - a motley gathering of Seattle's finest, or at least drunken-est, ultimate frisbee players:

Erica, a bit petrified of the multi-colored pants man!

Mark and Justine - making 80's gangsta look good!

Utah: snowy, a bit rainy, kinda creepy... "this is the place!" - Brigham Young

The noble Bigfoot used to roam the streets of Seattle with impunity, occasionally stealing a kid's lunch to keep himself going, not causing much trouble otherwise. But then, the warning signs went up:

Beware, Seattle!

This left the Bigfoot ill at ease - soon enough he had turned into a fugitive and had been forced to leave the easy-living streets of our emerald city and look for quieter places to roam (and to scare kids for lunch). After long and lonely months of prowling the plains he came upon a vision right out of Bigfoot heaven - a modern city (with inexplicably wide streets), surrounded by snow-capped mountains on all sides. "This is the place!" Bigfoot roared - little did he know that he was eerily mimicking the words uttered by a fever-stricken Brigham Young on the very same spot a hundred and sixty years ago. Soon enough, the Bigfoot learned all about his new Mormon neighbors, who inhabited this gorgeous place, and while he wasn't in any way excited about joining their religious cult, he did do some research and reasoning: the members of the Church were supposed to donate twenty percent of their annual income to the Church. This seemed like a significant downside... But the Bigfoot did not actually have an income, so twenty percent of zero didn't seem all that burdensome. And the Mormons did enjoy having rather large families, so there would never be a shortage of little kids to scare up in the mountains, then steal lunches from. This felt like an upside... even though the Bigfoot reasoned he might have to donate twenty percent of the stolen lunches to the Church. He stayed - this was the place!

In fact, he soon evolved into sort of a local celebrity on the slopes around the Great Salt Lake!

The Bigfoot wanted his buddies to come visit, so he started leaving these ice crop circles as reference markers

The place would really never be the same once the Devastator Ram showed up...

And that's the story of the Bigfoot of Utah... Look it up - it's bound to be on wikipedia by now! And following in Bigfoot's footsteps, Erica, Mara, Mark, and I headed for the scenic mountains and spectacular powder of Utah this past weekend.

View of the mountains encircling the city from the plane

The fog lifting leaves the mountains crystal clear everywhere in the city. I may not be a bed-ridden Mormon leader, but this is definitely the place!

Erica, myself, Mara, and Mark in Salt Lake City

Erica and I landed in Utah early Saturday afternoon and headed straight for Park City - the home of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Grabbing lunch at a Utah brewery was a not-to-be-missed cultural experience (Utah has finally given up on its ludicrous alcohol laws, which had previously mandated all beer brewed in the state to contain no more than 3.2% of alcohol by volume...), so we stopped for lunch at Squatters in Park City, then made it over to the slopes by about two in the afternoon. Two o'clock is normally an unacceptably late hour to start your day of snowboarding, but the Park City resorts will give you a free lift ticket if you show up bearing a boarding pass from the same day, so it was was still easily worth it. The resort is vast, featuring a maze of runs and chairlifts, and giving us an early glimpse of the Utah powder - unfortunately the advertised closing hour of 9PM failed to mention that only a single run had been equipped with lights for night skiing, so we left around six, not quite having explored the entire resort, but having witnessed a stunningly spectacular sunset over the mountain:

The skies lighting up a bright red over the peaks of Park City

Now, Utah is famous for the amazing, light, fluffy powder, covering the slopes of its mountains, and the following morning, I was excited to be introduced to a full day of said powder! Unfortunately, the weather fates intervened, and we got introduced to the Pineapple Express phenomenon instead - it rained!


Undaunted, we headed for Brighton, having picked up a tip from a local ski shop that Brighton was the highest altitude mountain in the area - fortunately staying in Salt Lake City puts you within a 45 minute drive of a dozen different ski resorts, so you are never short on options (This is the place!). The Pineapple Express bathed the road with sheets of rain on the way up (damn you, Seth Rogan!), but Brighton did prove to be just high enough, as the rain finally turned to snow right as we were entering the parking lot - hooray!

The Sun even peaked through in the middle of the day!

Eventually though, the rains caught up... We stuck with it for a while, locating some of the famed Utah powder in the higher reaches of the mountain - this was almost enough to make me forget about the wet slush down at the bottom, but by 4 o'clock, we were ready to cut our losses and get back to town (and dry off).

Monday arrived - our last day in Utah... the rains had ceased, and the overnight forecast had claimed 5-9 inches of fresh snow - we were all psyched up to get to the mountains. Mark and Mara chose Alta (a fancy-shmancy skiers only establishment), while Erica and I had our sites set on Snowbird - meeting up with Vidas, a fellow hockey player from back in Seattle, and setting off to experience what promised to be one of the best resorts around Salt Lake City. A quick study of the trail map left me feeling downright giddy - the trails were varied and plentiful, including a thorough selection of diamonds, with a nice variety of easier stuff mixed in. Most exciting of all, the mountain had a 'back-side,' and you got to ride on a magic carpet, through a long tunnel to get there! Unfortunately, the fates were back at it ... we got into the nearest lift line (an exceedingly long one at that) ... and soon discovered that this would essentially be the only lift open on this day. The winds at the top were gusting up to 60 mph, so none of the upper mountain lifts would be opening - the tunnel and the magic carpet remained firmly out of reach... On those slopes we could reach, the wind had blown any and all new snow away (the forecasted 5-9 inches had actually resulted in a slightly less awesome 2-3), leaving the trails hard and icy. No shortage of great views though:

Erica, carving up the icy slopes

Afternoon shot of the mountain, when we had located some better, less icy, snow

Sunset over Salt Lake City on the way back home

In the end, the astounding, spectacular Utah powder didn't really materialize over this weekend, which was a little disappointing. I got enough glimpses, that a return trip is easily warranted, but Park City on the first day probably had the best snow. Snowbird, I got to see enough of, that I'm certain, on a nice sunny powder day it shall be absolutely spectacular!

Back to our title - Utah had certainly proven itself to be very snowy and a bit rainy. As for a kinda creepy - Sunday morning we went to see the imposing Salt Lake Mormon Temple, holding a prominent position in the very heart of the city

Tell me the reflecting pool doesn't make it just a little extra creepy! Especially on a somewhat gloomy, gray day like this...

Ok, how about the statue of the kids prancing about on the lawn?

At the top of the Temple, sits the Golden Statue of the Angel Moroni, who had apparently visited Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon faith, on numerous occasions...

I hope that if there are any Mormons reading this, they know I only kid! But if you take the intersection of the Venn Diagram of the words 'Mormon' and 'Moroni,' you get 'Moron'... I'm just sayin'! The temple definitely creeps you out a little, as well as the imposing, gigantic, very somber LDS office building next door. And we won't even get into the stories of the nearby caves that supposedly contain detailed genealogy records for most of Americans... But, hey, the mountains are beautiful - Brigham Young and Bigfoot were right - this is the place!

After three days I needed a break from the cold and the snow though, so I headed South, arriving on the sunny beaches of San Diego to meet my parents just a few hours after Mark, Mara, and Erica had landed back home in Seattle

San Diego forecast: 81 and sunny - this is also the place!