Stacey’s 30th Birthday Extravaganza

La Virgen de Quito 

Hola amigos! Well, I made it. Colette valiantly fetched me from mi casa at 4:30 am on Tuesday in time to drop me off at the famed Van Galder shuttle to O´Hare with plenty of time to spare. Happily, the flights from Chicago to Miami and from Miami to Quito were on time and I arrived here in Ecuador right on time and without incident. My taxi driver was quite chatty (and amazingly, I understood most of what he was saying) so I got a mini-tour of the city of Quito while en route to my hostel…somewhat oddly named the Chicago Hostel. So far so good.

Plaza de la Independencia 

On Wednesday I planned to take it easy as I´m just getting over a cold and wanted to be sure that the altitude here in Quito wouldn´t affect me too badly. I´m staying in a section of town that is near the “Old City” where Quito started several hundred years ago. The Old City is packed with cobblestone streets and lots of old colonial style buildings. I made it as far as the main square…Plaza de Independencia before I realized that yes, on my very first day in South America, I had been pickpocketed. This I cannot recommend.

Don´t despair my dears…the only thing los ladrones got that was of any real import is my ATM card but fortunately I had several hundred dollars stashed elsewhere and here in Ecuador where my single room costs $9 per night and a three course lunch costs $2, a couple of hundred dollars goes a long way. As it turns out, I found out that it is really quite simple to call the States from Ecuador and not too expensive…so I´ve chocked up the PP incident to stupidity on my part and a rather pronounced educational experience.

Wednesday afternoon was spent in calling the States and canceling/reordering cards and by the time I was finished with that task I determined it was time for a nap and that starting fresh on Thursday was the way to go. On Thursday, I ventured out again into the Old City though this time with much more caution and a hand on the zipper of my bag at all times. My first stop was El Museo de la Ciudad (Museum of the City) which is an interesting historical museum set in a restored 16th century hospital. They have various displays representing the city of Quito at various points in history…from pre-hispanic times through the 19th century. It doesn´t take too long and is pretty interesting. At the end of the museum is a very beautiful courtyard and cafe where I had the best cup of coffee I have had since arriving here in Quito.  A picture of the courtyard is below. 

The courtyard of El Museo de la Ciudad 

Being an extremely Catholic country…Ecuador appears to be quite enamored with virgins. As it happens, the city of Quito actually has its very own virgin…or rather a statue of her that overlooks the city. The picture at the top of the post is, of course, of La Virgen de Quito as seen from the city below. It´s possible to take a taxi up to the statue for great views of the city but some Swedish girls I met recommended taking the Teleferico (cable car) to the top of a different mountain instead for better views. I planned to do this today but the clouds have been rolling in at a rather brisk pace so I´m not sure how good the views will be.  It´s currently the beginning of rainy season so most outdoor sightseeing must be complete by about 1 pm or you will get soaked in the storms and downpours.

Tomorrow I intend to take a bus to the outlying village of Otavalo where one of South America´s most important markets takes place. Watch for some pictures from that coming soon. On Sunday I head to the coast in the city of Manta where I will begin 4 weeks of one-on-one Spanish study.  That´s all for now…

La Plaza de San Francisco 

Erin and Angie on Friday

Hey everybody!! I’ve got to be brief today as it’s late and I’ve got to get up extremely early tomorrow to get my person to O’Hare International Airport at the proper time. I’m sure my brevity is heart-breaking to some of you…and sheer bliss for the rest. We aim to please here at the Extravaganza blog so for those who think I type too much…here’s your chance to revel in the lack words.

I managed to make it back to the Mad City in time for wine, gossip and Grey’s Anatomy (season premiere…did anyone else think it sucked?) at Ryan and Colette’s last Thursday. As always, the Civvy rolled into town in top form. Friday night dear Erin from San Diego (who failed to make the blog when I was in San Diego) arrived and a bunch of us went out for drinks and fun times (including the elusive Sarah Ralph…new mother of two). Here are some photos from that:

Angie, Erin, Sarah R., Sarah P., Colette and Stacey

Ryan and Colette

On Saturday Erin, Colette, Angie and I went to the wedding of our friend Jenine where, of course, a good time was had by all. Some more pics:

Me and Jenine (it is entirely clear to me I need to get some taller friends. Just kidding J.)

Stacey, Angie, Erin and Colette

This past week was spent trying to get organized and get final errands run while at the same time trying to see as many of the locals as possible. Speaking of locals, these two are trying to win the special Extravaganza prize for appearing on the largest number of posts:

Matt and Jen

And finally…the day we have all been dreading…Saturday…the day I finally had to sell the Civvy. Yes, I fear it is true. She was a good and faithful car but storage costs for the next six months would have been prohibitively expensive so it was time to part ways. She went to a nice couple who was buying a car for their son in high school who hit a deer with his. Here’s a picture of the Civvy departing:

Bye, bye Civvy!!!

I’m finally off to bed…must get up at 4 am so Colette can drive me to the Van Galder bus stop (thanks Colette!). Watch for a new post coming from Quito, Ecuador in the next few days! Buenas noches!!

Recently I’ve been concerned about the education…or rather the lack thereof…of my blog readers. I feel as though I’ve left you all high and dry in the information department so have decided to devote this entire entry to education, illumination and enlightenment. And for that, we return to Big Sky Country…

Last week, of course, I inundated you all with pictures of my family and our various goings-on. This week I’m going to inundate you all with a little history and geography lesson as it relates to my family and our goings-on. As I’ve mentioned before, the vast majority of my family lives in the central part of Montana in both Fort Benton and Great Falls. Before leaving my grandma’s last week I took it upon myself to take a self-guided refresher course on the importance of central Montana in the history and development of the Old West. And because I love y’all so much (too much time in the South) I’m going to share it with you.

The picture at the top of the page was taken at a scenic overlook on Highway 87 right before entering into Fort Benton.

The mountains in the background are the Highwoods and the river snaking below is, of course, the Missouri…the same Missouri River and the same location that Lewis and Clark first explored in 1805 on their way to the Pacific Ocean. At that time, this area along the river was inhabited and explored entirely by the Blackfeet Indians but by the 1830s fur trappers had discovered the site of present-day Fort Benton and soon a thriving center of trade was born amongst the Native Americans, the white explorers/fur traders and the growing numbers of homestead settlers and gold miners.In 1860, the steamboat Chippewa became the first steamboat to reach Fort Benton and because of an underwater “shelf” just past FB steamboats were not able to go any further up the Missouri River. With that, little ol’ Fort Benton became the world’s innermost port…3,300 miles upriver from St. Louis and the farthest port by water from ocean or sea served by regularly scheduled powered craft. Unfortunately the boom times in FB were rather short-lived as the miners eventually dropped off and in the 1880s the railroad turned up…effectively blitzing the river traffic as they knew it.

Never fear my dears because the Homestead Act of 1862 (in my opinion one of the most interesting pieces of legislation ever written by Congress) introduced more than a few settlers who contributed to a resultant boom in agriculture. Even today, Chouteau County is one of the top counties in grain production in the state of Montana as a whole. Of course, roundabout the time of World War II things again started to decline but unlike other prairie towns in central and eastern Montana, Fort Benton became known for its recreational opportunities and ultimately its historical significance in the settling of the Old West. FB is a major jumping off point for those looking to float the Missouri River through a wild section of the unchanged river called the Missouri Breaks.

Now some of my astute readers may be wondering if there is a “Fort” in Fort Benton. Well, I’ll tell you. Yes there is…or rather yes there was as the remains of which are crumbling quickly despite efforts to maintain it. Interestingly, the fort was built as a fur trading post rather than a military outpost between 1848 and 1860 and truthfully, by the time it was sold to the military in 1869 the adobe structures were already starting to crumble. The only structure remaining is the corner blockhouse in the photo below…the square building in the lower left hand corner with the flags on top of it…one of the oldest buildings still standing in Montana.

A bit about the pictures…when the Grand Union Hotel pictured below was opened in 1882 it was considered to be the finest hotel between Chicago and Seattle. For those of you interested in real estate you’ll likely be amused to hear that the construction of the Grand Union cost $50,000 and an additional $150,000 was

spent on furnishings with a construction time of 1 year, 3 months and 18 days. When I was a kid it had fallen into a state of disrepair and much of the interior and furnishings had been auctioned off. In 1999 the Grand Union Hotel gained a new lease on life following a skillful restoration supervised by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the U.S. Parks Department, and the Montana State Historic Preservation Office which has preserved the historical character of Montana’s oldest operating hotel and one of its most famous landmarks. The Culbertson House pictured above left (brick building) was also built during the heydey of 1882.

After spending a few days in FB with my grandma and other assorted family members it was time to head back to Madison in anticipation of departure for Ecuador on October 9. The drive from Montana is largely through North Dakota…quite possibly the most boring state to drive through (though Texas truly rivals it and is significantly wider). One interesting thing in North Dakota worth taking a look is Theodore Roosevelt National Park near Medora right off of the Interstate. I stopped briefly to take a picture of the Painted Canyon in the southern portion of the park (pictured below). It is worth mentioning here that I consider ND to have few redeeming qualities (and I’m allowed to say that since I was born there. Keep it down! I don’t like that tidbit of information to get out much!)…lots of wind, smelly water and a dull landscape. It occurred to me recently that perhaps North Dakota has a bad rep and maybe there are some interesting things to know about it. So in continuing with the educational goals of this post I give you the following:

3 Truly Exciting and Enthralling Things You Did Not Know About North Dakota

1. North Dakota is 12th in size in terms of land mass in the U.S. but is 48th in terms of population (approximately 640,000 residents in 2006).

2. Some notable former residents of ND include: Roger Maris (of baseball fame), Shadoe Stevens (of American Top 40 fame), Josh Duhamel (actor in Las Vegas and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton) and Lawrence Welk.

Painted Canyon in Theodore Roosevelt National Park near Medora, North Dakota

Two weeks. Ugh. So sorry my dearest blog readers. I’m hoping this is the biggest gap we’ll have on this trip but I make no promises. Unfortunately getting ill the first couple of weeks really trounced my blogging endeavors. I had grand plans to take some interesting day trips, see some countryside, pop into a ghost town or two…basically be a tourist in the state where I spent many summers as a kid. But then the pus grew on my tonsils and that plan flew out the window. So what have I been doing? Not too much that’s blogworthy, really. Of course there was the funeral for my cousin JJ on September 15…and then the birthday party on the 22nd for my grandmother who turned 75. Basically…lots and lots of family stuff which is fun for me but probably not-so-interesting for the rest of you. If you’ll indulge me a little I’ll be posting quite a few pics of said family this time around but will shift back to travel locations later this week.

I’ve fielded several questions lately about the status of the investigation surrounding my cousin JJ’s murder so thought I might type a brief update on what’s been going on. As many of you know, my 26 year-old cousin was shot to death late on September 6 in Fort Benton, Montana (where my grandmother and the majority of my mother’s family lives). The two suspects were immediately apprehended after the man with the gun lead the authorities to the body the next day. Multiple stories have been given about what happened and the murderer maintains the shooting was accidental…but with four shots to the head we’re thinking that’s not likely. The one thing that most agree on is that the outcome was likely fueled heavily by alcohol and drugs for both Cal and Kelsey (the murder team) were known to have drug-related issues. Since Chouteau County hasn’t seen a murder in more than a decade, the state of Montana sent in their own investigators who’ve been extremely tight lipped about what is going on in the investigation. Both Cal and Kelsey have pleaded “not guilty” to their charges (deliberate homicide for Cal and obstruction of justice for Kelsey) though more charges are likely to be filed as the evidence is reviewed. To say this is a difficult time for my family would be an understatement but all things considered, we’re getting on with living which is simply what must be done when something like this happens. Your continued good thoughts would be appreciated.

After the funeral, my mom, step dad Tony, my sister Lindsay and I headed back to my mom’s for a few days where we mostly vegged and got ready for my grandmother’s birthday party the following weekend. The moose head pictured above is my brother’s…no, he didn’t hunt it (Tony did) but he did pay for the taxidermy. As you might imagine, the moose presents a bit of a transportation problem so it remains here on my mom and Tony’s wall until such a time as my brother figures out how to come and get it. Good luck to him on that endeavor. Here’s a couple of pictures from our Wednesday night out at the VFW for steaks and Cheers for a couple of beers. These handsome folks to the left are Tony and Maxine, of course. Some friends of my mom and Tony, Faye and Stew, were out at Cheers on Wednesday night too. That’s them on the right. Faye is the newest Extravaganza blog fan so I thought she might get a kick out of seeing herself posted on it (Hi Faye!).

On Thursday we packed up the cars and headed east to the prairies of central and eastern Montana. After a tough weekend of funerals and sadness, my family really needed a reason to celebrate so decided to continue on with the original plan of my grandmother’s 75th party on September 22. Maxine, Tony, Lindsay, my aunt Joanie and I spent Friday afternoon putting together 13 lasagnas for the party on Saturday. While it was fun…I’m quite sure I do not have a future in the catering business. I don’t like being responsible for so many people’s gastronomical happiness!! To the right is a picture of my sister Lindsay (Noodle Woman) in her chef’s hat with my mom’s sister Joanie. Despite the fact that my grandmother didn’t think anyone would show up, the party was a smashing success by all accounts and fortunately the lasagnas turned out OK. Below is a snapshot of the whole crew with my Granny on her 75th birthday. Aren’t they cute?

The Hankins Seven + Granny Goose

From back left…Cheryl (Tori’s mom), Joanie (Andrea: cousin Alijah’s mom), Marlena (Sheila’s mom), Rodger (cousin Jenifer’s dad) and Dale. In the front row from left is John (JJ and Stevie’s dad), Granny Goose and Maxine (my mom, of course). And in the thumbnails there’s Granny’s cousin Phyllis and her son Michael who traveled 12 hours from South Dakota to be at the party. Also shown is the official emcee of the family…Uncle Dale…and official musician…my mom’s cousin Butch. And of course…the tag team of Stevie and Tori.And with that Tour de Familia I shall depart for now. I should be able to get some more Montana stuff up and posted by the end of this week and I’m back in Madison on Thursday night for the season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy with Colette and Ryan. I’m in the Mad City until October 9 when I depart for Quito, Ecuador…stay tuned for some new culture, new useless facts and lots of great pictures coming from South America starting early October. My best as always and thanks for reading the Extravaganza Blog.

Ok, I’m back. So sorry everyone for the delay but as I mentioned in my interim post I’ve been as close to my deathbed in the past two weeks as I’ve ever been and am just now starting to feel like a human. In light of this, I have not been able to do as much here in Montana as I would’ve liked so this post may be a bit on the lean side. I promise things will pick up soon… On the bright side…if you’re going to be sick it’s rather fortuitous to become ill at your mom’s house when you’re unemployed. I guess it could’ve been worse but you surely couldn’t have convinced me of that last week when I hadn’t slept in 4 nights and couldn’t breathe through my swollen, pus-covered tonsils. I was thinking about taking a picture of said tonsils as evidence of my blog-belatedness but was worried I’d lose all four of my devoted blog readers out of sheer disgustingness.

You may have noticed that I “Part 2’ed” my recent mileage for this post. That is because the Civvy has been taking a much

deserved break here at my mom and stepdad’s house. Fortunately Maxine and Tony have been willing to drive me around when I’ve been well enough to drag my carcass off of the couch. Before my tonsils revolted, we did manage to make it up
to Plains, Montana for a good old-fashioned county fair. I haven’t been to a fair in a very long time and since this one was pretty small it was quite manageable and we checked out all of the fair goodies…you know…like cattle…and pumpkins…and quilts. Afterwards we headed up the road a bit to Thompson Falls where my cousin Jenifer and her husband Colby and daughter Katie live. The first scenery shot is from Jen’s backyard and the picture is, of course, of Jen and Katie.

After being sick for what seemed like ages it was great to see my dear friends from Madison roll into town on Sunday evening. Matt and Jen (from Mile 3510 – the wedding reception in Ontario) arrived just as I was starting to feel better and decided to stop here in Pablo en route to Glacier National Park where they will be doing some back country hiking for the next week. Since Max and Tony are excellent hosts, the Schmidters (as we affectionately refer to these two) enjoyed a very Montana meal of moose roast with some local Mission Mountain wine. On Monday they were planning a day hike into the Bob Marshall Wilderness and with

some trepidation I decided to go with them despite my recent ill-health. We opted for a popular area near the northeast corner of Flathead Lake called the Jewel Basin in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The appeal of this area is that there are multiple hikes of varying difficulty so we were going to pick an easyish one for Stacey since she’s out of shape and recently virus-laden. Further…the trail head was at 5500 feet so we could drive there and still get up pretty high but only had to hike about 1200 feet to be near the top elevation. Believe me when I tell you that this was a very good thing for Stacey…maybe not so much for the Civvy. As a California-born-and-raised-car…the Civvy had never encountered gravel (and the requisite dust) before arriving here in the great state of Montana. I’ve included a picture below of the Civvy in what I consider to be her camouflage outfit.

Remember these two?

I’m happy to report I made it through the 5 mile hike and really only felt lousy in the initial climb. We enjoyed some beautiful scenery and fabulous weather. The pictures above are on the trail…the first section was to some alpine lakes referred to as Twin Lakes. The other pictures are looking toward Flathead

Lake (largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River) though with the wildfire smoke and the reflection from the sun it’s a bit difficult to see. After the hike, we headed down to the lake where Max and Tony met us with the boat and we proceeded to head out to Wild Horse Island which is a primitive state park on an island in the middle of Flathead Lake. We did some exploring on the island and then got back in the boat to cruise up and down the shores checking out the rich peoples’ houses. It’s nice to wish isn’t it? Jen and Matt headed out this morning towards Glacier and since I’m feeling a lot better lately things have been looking up. Well, health-wise at least.

And now for the very bad…

When I started the Extravaganza blog I was willing to admit that a wide variety of topics were likely to be covered in the nine month duration of this trip. Some stories good, some stories bad…but never in a million years did I expect to report what I must today. It is with a rather heavy heart that I share with my readers the untimely and tragic murder of my 26 year-old cousin J.J. in Fort Benton, Montana last week. J.J. was the older brother of Stevie…who you may recall as one of my travel companions through the California section of this trip. The details are only now coming to light but the good news is that the two persons involved are in custody and facing both murder and obstruction of justice charges. I won’t go into the details here but those interested in what happened can check out http://www.greatfallstribune.com/ for details.

Matt, Jen and Stacey (timer shot, hence the pine needle close-up)

Baby Ayden, Kate and J.J.

Stone bridge in Golden Gate Park

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

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.

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 wandering 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 through 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 island 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

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. You see, the only time in

its life that the Civvy has ever failed me was coming back across the border from Tijuana a few years ago…when she overheated and I ended up blowing a head gasket. That was an expensive lesson learned: always watch the temperature gauge in your car…especially when in the desert. The good news…the Civvy made it through the desert like a champ and, as you know, we arrived safely and a day early into the San Diego Metro area. Since the Civvy was returning to her homeland (she was purchased in SD on New Year’s Eve 2001) it seemed appropriate to have her checked out and her oil changed at my favorite service station…Cush Honda in Mission Valley. It is worth mentioning here for the doubting Thomases in the crowd…Cush says the Civvy is in top form. Top form. I bet all you doubters are feeling badly now.

Like the DC post from Mile 3847, I’m a little worried about the potential for boring-ness in this post. Since I’ve previously lived in SD I was not approaching it from a tourist perspective so I fear I’m not going to have too many interesting pictures (though I will likely be able to dig up some useless facts for the crowd). The scenery shots here are all from Balboa Park. I ended up arriving a day early into San Diego in part due to the two hour time gain but also because the Civvy is a fast car. My first stop was Old Town to meet my friend Erin and her mom and aunt Lynn (all of whom I failed to take pictures of. We’ll blame it on the 11 hours of driving). Fortunately my friend Julie was able to put me up for a couple of nights since Hotel Erin was full with her family visiting town. Julie has an awesome one bedroom loft condo in the Little Italy section of San Diego. She also has two cats…Bubba and Roscoe whom we attempted to photograph but Roscoe wasn’t having it. So its Julie and Bubba in the picture below. Julie and I had a great time getting caught up on all things

San Diego and ate at a fabulous new (well, new to me) sushi restaurant called Ra in the Gaslamp District of San Diego. I was also fortunate enough to be able to have breakfast on Wednesday at the famous Hillcrest eatery Hash House A Go-go with my old boss Gayle from i3Statprobe who is now retired(ish) and a little picture shy. And, I got to hang out with my old friend Azalea whom I hadn’t seen in a couple of years either…that’s her below with my beloved Civvy. The next couple of days I spent running errands and getting my life organized in anticipation of the arrival of the kids. Ah…the kids. Who are they and how did I acquire them? The kids are:

• Tori (age 13), cousin of Stacey, daughter of my mom’s sister Cheryl
• Steven (age 14), cousin of Stacey, son of my mom’s brother John

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m always packing various kids around the country. They’re fun to borrow for a spell and send back later and since California has lots of fun stuff to do I thought it might be amusing to bring these two along

as I drove back to Montana (where they both reside). So far, we’ve had only one confused person wondering if I was their mother. Or rather, the only one brave enough to ask.

So the kids were supposed to arrive on Wednesday but they had a bit of bad luck leaving Great Falls, MT when a bird flew into the engine of the plane that was to take them to Seattle where they would ultimately connect to San Diego. After a fair amount of rigmarole, it was finally determined that the best thing to do would put them on the same flight the next day. The end result, of course, is that they ended up losing a whole day in SD which proved to be OK as they decided they didn’t want to do any of the zoo/wild animal park/Seaworld attractions and mostly wanted to go to the beach. Off we headed to the best beach in San Diego County…Moonlight Beach in Encinitas with brief diversions to Balboa Park and Old Town.

Aren’t they cute?

After a late start yesterday morning from San Diego, the kids and I battled the horrendousness that is Los Angeles traffic (5 hours to go just over 100 miles) and arrived at the only available hotel room within a 30 mile radius of San Luis Obispo (my goal location)…in Santa Maria, California. Unfortunately that hotel is a place we’d like to strike from our memories for the rest of our lives…I cannot recommend Santa Maria or the America’s Best Value Inn on E. Main. Both are vile locations, though yesterday’s trials and tribulations were more than made up for today by a beautiful drive up the Pacific Coast Highway, trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and our really nice hotel Casa Munras. Tomorrow we head to San Francisco so hopefully we’ll get some great shots from there.

And, as promised, my useless facts about San Diego (in honor of the kids starting back to school soon…a school/education theme):

1. The San Diego Unified School District, also known as San Diego City Schools, is the school district that serves the majority of the city, it includes 113 elementary schools, 23 middle schools, 4 atypical schools, 10 alternative schools, 27 high schools and 25 charter schools. In the northern part of the city, Poway Unified School District and San Dieguito Union High School District are districts outside city limits, but serve several schools within city limits. In the southern part of the city, Sweetwater Union High School District serves multiple schools within city limits, although it is headquartered outside city limits.
2. According to education rankings released by the U.S. Census Bureau, 40.4 percent of San Diegans ages 25 and older hold bachelor’s degrees. The census ranks the city as the ninth most educated city in the United States based on these figures.
3. Public colleges and universities in the city include University of California, San Diego (UCSD), San Diego State University (SDSU), and the San Diego Community College District, which includes San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College, and San Diego Miramar College.
   

After Atlanta, I had only one more sightseeing destination on my agenda before I bombed my way across the country towards San Diego and that destination was New Orleans, Louisiana. I have long regretted that I never made it to NO before Katrina but as it turns out, the French Quarter and Garden District were on higher ground than the rest of the city and have escaped much of the devastation. Instead of taking the

uninspired interstate route, I decided to take the old US-90 route that runs right along the Gulf Coast past all of the towns that you would’ve had to have been living under a rock the past couple of years not to have heard of. Pascagoula. Biloxi. Pass Christian. I got all the way through Pascagoula and hadn’t seen anything…I was starting to wonder what spin the media had put on this…so many reports of ongoing devastation two years later…but everything looked fine to me.And then I tried to go over the US-90 bridge at the Bay of Biloxi…still out two years later. So, I went back to I-10 for a bit and back down to US-90…and then I saw what they were talking about. I had originally planned to take pictures of what was left…the only problem…there is nothing left. Either the bulk of the debris has been removed…or the storm just wiped away the structures that close to the water because all I saw was driveway after driveway that led to nothing. Parking lots that had no structures next to them. A few houses where the first floors were washed away and the second floors were still perched precariously on the studs. It was truly horrible.

Naturally, the first things to come back were the hotels and the casinos…many of which looked to be in fine shape. But the beautiful white sand gulf beaches were virtually empty during the hottest week of the summer. Umbrellas sat on the beach with no people under them…jet skis were tied up to the docks (or what remained of the dock). No one was around…it was very creepy. At some point it became clear to me that the taking pictures of other people’s misery was somehow distasteful so I took only the one shot above…the only thing remaining of this house is the brick staircase and the tree swing.

Since I only had one afternoon to spend in New Orleans I focused only on the French Quarter…again…the heat was almost unbearable so I gave up on the sightseeing a little early and thus pictures are limited mostly to architecture examples. The famed Bourbon Street was not quite as I had imagined…for some I reason I pictured a more broad, main boulevard which smaller side streets connected up with. Instead, all of the streets were equally narrow (all single-lane one-ways) and in an organized grid pattern. The FC is a pretty compact area and is a great place to just wander around in…people are friendly and happy (could be the legal drinking in the streets) and what they say is true…New Orleans needs no reason to party. They just do it every day, all day. Many of the bars were open and serving substantial crowds by 10 am.

I wandered briefly through Jackson Square down by the river…the building in the background on the left is the Cabildo and is where the Louisiana Purchase was signed in 1803.

Jackson Square

I also wandered through 1850 House…a 19th century building in the French Quarter that has been refurbished to the style of the home in 1850. Naturally my focus while in NO was food…I had myself some great seafood gumbo and Louisiana crabcakes for dinner. And on Kim’s recommendation for breakfast…beignets at the Cafe Beignet on Royal Street. While I had heard of beignets previously, I wasn’t actually sure what they were. It turns out that they are kind of like square dough nuts covered in powdered sugar and are typically served with cafe au Lait. Not at all good for me…but very, very yummy.

Beignets and Cafe au Lait

After breakfast I headed to St. Louis Cemetery #1 to have a look at the above ground tombs required in New Orleans because of its existence below sea level. The cemetery, opened in 1789, is operated by the New Orleans archdiocese and is marked all over with signs to enter at your own risk. It was clear to me once I entered why that is. Many of the tombs are very old and crumbling and the debris is everywhere. I also nearly had a heart attack when I almost stepped on a homeless man trying to escape the heat by lying in the shadow of one of the tombs…and the haphazard way the plots are laid out would make for a very competitive game of hide-and-seek…or easy means of hiding for a dangerous sort of person. Since it was 9:30 in the morning I wasn’t worried…but the cemetery is certainly not somewhere I would like to be at night which is no problem…the cemetery is open only very limited hours during the day.

St. Louis Cemetery was my last stop in New Orleans so mid-morning I headed out on I-10 with the intent of making it to San Antonio the first night…El Paso the second…and then a very long final push towards San Diego.

This plan was exceedingly successful as today I’m typing to you from San Diego where I’ve been since Monday evening. In a couple of hours I’m off to the airport to pick up my kids before we spend a few days heading up the coast towards San Francisco, Portland and ultimately back to Montana. Kids? What kids? Does Stacey have kids? Indeed…I have the best kind of kids…borrowed….and returnable! You will be meeting them presently…

I didn’t stop much on my way to SD except for a brief scenic drive and historical park stop in Texas. Here’s a picture from Fort Lancaster near Sheffield, Texas. Type to you soon!

Fort Lancaster, Texas

View near Sheffield, Texas

Stone Mountain

The great thing about stopping and visiting people you know while traveling is that the locals always know the cool stuff to do. After departing the inferno that is Charleston, I made my way towards the inferno that is Atlanta, Georgia to meet up with an old work friend Kim and her family. Kim and her husband Chuck and their two kids Zak and Erika made for quite excellent hosts as they had planned an outing to a local park area named Stone Mountain.

Stone Mountain is a hybrid government-run recreational park and for-profit amusement park. Kim explained that a few years ago it was determined that the park could not be sustained on park fees alone, so an amusement park company was brought in to increase revenues. In addition to the rides and games they added for a fee, they also added a nightly laser light show set to music that is projected on the side of the mountain. People bring their blankets and kids and set-up on the lawn beneath the massive piece of granite and watch the show as darkness falls. Fortunately, this has remained free…or almost free…it is included in the $8 per carload to get into the park. The laser light show would prove later to be a very fun, southern and patriotic way to end the evening.

Kim, Zak, Erika and Chuck

Kim and her crew and I opted to bypass the amusement park and headed straight for the walking trail that leads to the top of the mountain. Now, some might argue that we were not in our right minds to embark on a 1.3 mile trek up a mountain in 100 degree heat. I might agree with them…but we made it and it wasn’t actually as hard as I thought it might be. Or, it could just be that by that point the endless heat had addled my brain to a such a degree that I just couldn’t feel it anymore. On the way down we encountered a bizarre phenomenon…the gum rock. It is just as you imagine…a repository for chewing gum from the past several decades. It’s as gross as it sounds and is definitely blogworthy so here’s what it looks like:

Stone Mountain is the largest exposed piece of granite in the world and it also contains the largest high relief sculpture in the world on its north face. The sculpture, pictured below, is of three major Confederate heroes from the Civil War. In the interest of making the Extravaganza Blog a bit more interactive I would like to implement the following pop quiz:

Extravaganza Pop Quiz #1 – Can you name the three Confederate war heroes pictured on the north face of Stone Mountain?

I’ll put the answer at the bottom…type me a comment and let me know how you did. No peeking!!

Since Kim is actually originally from Massachusetts she is well aware of how strange some things in the South are to we Northerners. Like the food for example. The next morning we loaded up into the car and headed for breakfast where I got to sample some true Southern favorites…Brunswick Stew…grits…biscuits and gravy. Then, back at home, Kim fried up some fresh okra out of the garden for me…yum…definitely my favorite. In order of descending preference, here is my assessment of the “southern food.”

1. Fried okra – contrary to my prior belief, okra is not leafy like spinach but is more like an overgrown pod that is sliced, dipped in flour and fried (sort of like squash). Kim also tells me it has a natural thickening agent so is often added to stews for that property.
2. Brunswick stew – I had never heard of this but it is a yummy thick tomato-based stew that includes multiple types of beans and vegetables plus some sort of meat. Apparently chicken is more favored in Virginia and beef or pork is preferred in Georgia.
3. Biscuits and gravy – Not a huge lover of gravy to start with but this was better than expected with a nice peppery taste. And, of course, the fresh biscuits were awesome.
4. Grits – I don’t know if I’m ever going to understand grits. Kim suggested a bit of butter and salt but I still think they’re too bland. Someone…anyone…please send me a recipe for grits with some flavor.

And now…the answer…to the Extravaganza Pop Quiz #1…..

• Jefferson Davis – President of the Confederacy
• General Robert E. Lee
• General Stonewall Jackson