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Mile 10,143: Hodgepodge

Friday, August 31st, 2007

Stone bridge in Golden Gate Park

OK, just kidding about updating by Tuesday. So, here it is Friday and I’m finally getting back to the blog…however, the astute among you will notice that the mileage between this post and the last post has jumped by about 2,000. This is, unfortunately, not an error. You see, after San Francisco the kids and I headed straight for Portland, Oregon where a surprise 35th birthday party for my cousin Sheila awaited. After the party I had to drive the midgets back to their parents…first 750 miles to Fort Benton, Montana…then another 200 or so to Belgrade, Montana…and ultimately another 250 or so to my mom’s in Pablo, Montana. This fact, in addition to the moderate hangover I acquired at the party in Portland coupled with the cold that the children infected me with have made me feel less-than-bloggy of late. Excuses, excuses…I know.

But, now I’m back and ready to get everyone up to speed. When we last left you, the kids and I had had a long day of touring in San Francisco that included the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. For our last day in San Francisco we headed to

Golden Gate Park where we wandered around the cool, tree-covered paths and ultimately ended up spending some time in the Japanese tea garden which has some interesting monuments (including this weird bridge you have to climb on). We hung out for a while, took some pictures, had some tea and then headed east towards Haight Street. I was a little surprised that the kids were more into the shops in Chinatown than on Haight but then again, Chinatown has a little bit of everything at very cheap prices which is pretty much kid-heaven. I think we were still a bit worn out from our adventures the day before so by lunchtime decided it was time to take the bus back to the hotel where we relaxed, took a nap and read our books in

anticipation of getting an early start the next day. We took the scenic drive up through Sonoma and along the coast through the Redwoods but didn’t stop much as we really just wanted to get to Portland where we arrived on Friday night.

Since the party was a surprise, I was charged with helping Sheila’s husband Ryan keep her entertained until the 3:30 party start time on Saturday. Stevie and I joined Sheila, Ryan and their two cuties Katelyn and Emily (picture below right) at the Bonneville Dam and Fish Hatchery on the Columbia River. Ever heard of a fish ladder? Neither had I but I’ve included a picture below… Since much of the river is dammed it makes it difficult for the spawning fish to go upstream so they made these ladders so they can get there. Plus, they’ve constructed them in such a

Fish Ladder

way that the fish have to go through this narrow passage where there is a person behind some glass whose sole job it is to keep track of how many fish of each type go through. It was interesting to watch the fish go by for about 10 minutes…but

Granny, Aunt Marlena and birthday-girl-cousin Sheilaanything longer than that and I would be nuts in a short amount of time. After the fish ladder we went to the hatchery where the kids got to feed the fish and we had a look at a pond full of the only fish I can identify by sight…sturgeon. They are big and ugly but fun toSheila and Stacey look at so we managed to kill just enough time before ushering Sheila off to the party that she was extremely surprised to be having.The party proved to be a great time and the birthday girl was especially surprised by the appearance of my mom and my granny who had arrived from Montana the previous night and had immediately gone into hiding. A few pics from the Cousin Kaylee and her boyfriend Buckparty are included at left.

The next morning we departed a bit later than planned as Stacey was not in top form..but off we went to Fort Benton as Steven had to start school on Monday. En route to Fort Benton we ran across the below sign in Missoula that Tori and Steven thought my blog readers would recognize as an “only in Montana” moment. And, of course, a trip through MT (especially at night) would not be complete without an Official Critters-on-the-Road Count. I’ve included that here for you all to enjoy. Thankfully I managed to flatten only the bunny with the Civvy:

21 Deer

1 Antelope

2 Owls

1 Bunny

Ok, that’s it for now. I’m here at my mom’s resting and recuperating which is easy to do with a stack of reading material and a hammock in the yard. The next couple of weeks may be a bit slow blog-wise but I’ll try to drum up something interesting. On the 12th I head to San Diego (via airplane, thank god) and when I return to MT there will be lots of activity…my sister arrives, my Granny has her 75th birthday party and I ultimately head back to Madison for my friend Jenine’s wedding before departing for South America. Stay tuned…and as always, thanks for joining me on the Extravaganza.

Mile 8233: PCH + SF Part 1 = Fun Times

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

Ah…the California Coast. Beauty unparalleled…windswept coastline…pristine beaches…endless blue skies…and the coldest water you’ve ever encountered. A common misconception of travelers to California is that it’s always sunny and warm there when in reality it’s often foggy and not-so-warm. Even in Southern California, the average daily temperature on the coast

is about 66 degrees. Pleasant, for sure but warm…I don’t think so. I’ve made it a personal policy to only attempt getting into the Pacific Ocean during the months of August and September…the rest of the year the water is a bit too frigid for my taste. This year, however, the water temperature in San Diego has hit some record highs…73-77 degrees which was very, very nice for a person such as myself who is extremely averse to being cold and damp. The warm water and swimming weather lasted until right around Ventura (north of LA) when things started to get a bit too blustery. After spending the night in Hotel Hell in Santa Maria, we got an early start and had
breakfast at Pismo Beach on the central coast. The weather there was noticeably chilly and gray which always seems a little strange considering we were only about 100 miles up the coast from Ventura where there were no wet suits to be found but lots of sunshine and warm water. After San Luis

Obispo, the Pacific Coast Highway takes a very narrow turn and winds its way around the cliffs of the coastline. Tori is a bit of a Nervous Nelly and was concerned I was going to launch us over the edge of the cliffs but alas, we all made it through intact.

We spent Sunday night in beautiful and sunny Monterey including a stop at the world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. Toriand I really liked the Aquarium…Steven…not-so-much though he begrudgingly confessed that the shark tank was cool. Tori took these shots of some of the jellyfish and they turned out amazingly well considering they were through the glass.The Aquarium is very big on preservation and investigation of the oceans so there is a heavy theme of conservation throughout the building and the exhibits. It also seems like a great place for the under 12 set as there are tons of hands-on activities for the kiddies…mine were, of course, a bit too old for most of the stuff but it looked like a lot of fun.

Early on Monday it was off to San Francisco, one of my favorite cities in the world. We got a great Hotwire deal at the Handlery Union Square Hotel and devoted the first afternoon to checking out the Cable Car Museum and wanderingChinatown through Chinatown (a fabulous place to wile away hours for kids with money to burn). Tuesday was a big day as we kicked off the morning with a bus ride to the Golden Gate Bridge where we took the foot/bike path across the bridge. Unfortunately it was too foggy to really see much and Tori was not enjoying the swaying of the bridge, so we only walked about a third of the way across. The pictures turned out pretty cool though…this one on the left was taken on the bridge. From the GGB we headed east through Crissy Field towards the Marina. We didn’t have time to go in, but the Exploratorium (science museum) is housed in the cool building pictured below. It was fun to wander throughPalace of Fine Arts and Exploratorium the grounds for a bit before we took off for the obligatory tourist spots of Ghirardelli Square and Fisherman’s Wharf. We had tickets for the 3:55 boat tour to Alcatraz so we cruised quickly down the Embarcadero to catch our boat.

Alcatraz is actually run by the National Park Service and the entry fee includes the roundtrip boat trip and a very well done audio tour through the cellblock. The islandAlcatraz itself has an interesting history…originally it was a military prison during the Civil and Spanish-American Wars…then spent 29 years as a federal penitentiary…and was ultimately occupied by Native Americans in protest of US policies toward American Indian issues. The cell block was actually much smaller than I expected though as Steven pointed out…only the worst of the worst were sent here so you might imagine there weren’t too many. No one was ever sentenced to Alcatraz…you could only arrive here from another prison in the system. Alcatraz’s most

View of Bay Bridge and San Francisco skyline from Alcatraz

famous inhabitants included Al(phonse) Capone (interestingly he died of untreated syphilis that created holes in his brain), Robert “The Birdman” Stroud and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. We spent some time wandering around the island…trying not to get blown into the San Francisco Bay and then headed back to Pier 33 in San Francisco where we took the Mason-Powell line cable car back to the hotel. The long day was completed by a trip to a sushi bar which I didn’t even have to bribe the kids to attend. They liked everything…even tried the raw stuff (spicy tuna for the sushi aficionados)…though admitted they liked the cooked stuff better. I’ll save the last day of SF for the next post as I’ve gone on long enough and there are tons of pictures for this location. Tomorrow morning we head up the northern California coast through the Redwoods towards Portland, Oregon (and Powell’s Books!) to visit family. Type to you soon…

Evening view of Golden Gate Bridge from Alcatraz

Mile 7344: California Dreamin’

Sunday, August 19th, 2007

Balboa Park

The only part of this 10,000 mile road trip that I was even slightly nervous about was the last 300 or so miles through the desert before arriving in San Diego. ... [Continue reading this entry]