I have to backtrack a little here, as I forgot to include some great photos of the camping trip the night before the wedding. Soop, Steve and I took a short walk down the river in the early morning and much to our surprise Soopy found a little water snake tucked up against the rock in a small pool of water. He’s hard to see, but Steve got a great shot. It was cool out, with grey cloud cover which Soop said was unusual for this time of year. The low water and the wide, smooth rocks sitting out in the little sun there was that morning, reminded me of being a kid and sunning myself on those same kinds of rocks with my sister in the summers. That was one of my favorite parts of being up in the mountains: the cold water and those hot, hot rocks to warm back up on.

Okay, back to the wedding. So we partied on down the night of Robyn and Steve’s wedding. This of course included a couple of shots of tequila (or if you’re reporting to gramma Sunny) those were glasses of, um, water.

The cousins managed to stay up fairly well into the wee hours – and we even persuaded The Bride to stay up with us!

Travis danced just about every woman in the room – thanks Travis! -- and I even got to dance with the bride, though there’re no pictures to prove it.

The next morning was easier on the mid-generation than I expected it to be. We gathered out front of Dave and Liz’s cabin for this year’s group photo. We had all of the cousins with us, and all of their children. When we got back to Bonnie and Bill’s, Bonnie dug out some old pictures of the family in the same parking lot. This one’s from 1982!

Although we were all standing for the 9:00 a.m. photo shoot, we were nonetheless feeling the effects of the night before, so we walked across the parking lot to the lodge for breakfast. We took over the patio (there were probably 15 or so of us) and had ourselves some burritos, eggs, bagels, juice and coffee. The sun was out and it was warm enough for Jocelyn to take of her sweaters and sit there in jeans and a tank top. Bliss.

We took off around noon to head out to my Dad’s house, leaving Ryan and Cory and the other cousins with a little seed planted in their heads about a cousin get away in the next year. As of a couple of days ago, Ryan and Cory reported back with good news about San Jose del Cabo – looks like we might actually make this happen!

The drive from Bear Valley to Tuolumne is just gorgeous and not very long, even if you do miss the exit that didn’t used to be there! The hills are golden and the oak trees drape their limbs over the cows and horses. The wind is hot and the sun is thin and light and low. There is nothing more beautiful to me than Northern California late summer sunshine (I think we’ve been over this before). We drove about 10 minutes too far before we both realized we were not going to Dad’s anymore. We doubled back and figured it out, arriving with plenty of time to enjoy the late afternoon views out over the foothills.

We only visited with Dad and Greta for a couple of days, but on Monday we decided we needed to get out into the country and spend some time enjoying the sun and great weather, so we took a fancy picnic out to the river. We spent the better part of the afternoon there, sunning ourselves, eating, and playing games.

Tuesday morning, our eighth anniversary, we drove on back down to Steve’s parent’s place in Carmel. After much debate, we decided on dinner at one of our favorite spots in Monterrey, Passionfish. We had a lovely meal with Bonnie and Bill full of treats like lamb, fried kalamata olive salad and good good wine.

The next morning, Bonnie and Bill took off for the Bay Area, and theoretically, Steve and I weren't far behind. We just had a few things to do before we could leave. Those few things turned into repacking all of our stuff, going through nine months of mail, answering emails and doing some business. We left Carmel around 3:00 p.m. Just in time to get up to Menlo Park, drop our things off and get back in the car to hit some good 'ol rush hour traffic on our way to dinner with Keith. We dined at Kuleto's Trattoria off of the 101. I only discovered this place because I used to meet my friend Dyna there when she was living in the city and I was living in Redwood City. Aside from being a great meeting spot between those two places, it's a fantastic restaurant.

We woke the next morning at Soop's place and of course had Peete's and bagels for breakfast. So good. We must have done something on the 15th, as I know we didn't have a free minute the entire trip, but for the moment I can't remember what we did!

I do know that Friday was an up-early day (weren't they all) to meet Heather and her new baby, Emily, at Stanford for coffee and shopping. I still needed a dress for Carrie's wedding and Steve needed a suit. Soopy went with us and we sat outside Max's Opera House Cafe sipping good hot coffee (not from Peete's) and enjoying the crisp morning and sunshine. Heath arrived on time, of course, around 10:00 a.m.; Soop left us to get some work done; and we walked into Macy's and found Steve's suit.

Okay, it wasn't really that easy. We did find his suit in the first one we looked at, but it would take us the better part of 45 minutes to get back to that suit and get him into it. We finished his suit shopping around 1:00 p.m. -- do you believe it?! -- and he took off for lunch with Soop, while Heath and I opted for Nordie's cafe. Emily was a doll the entire time and Heather takes to being a mom like a fish to water. I loved meeting her daughter and getting to spend an entire morning with them. After lunch, Heath and I spent another couple of hours finding my dress. She talked me out of a floor-length teal number and into the gorgeous fucia dress you all saw in pictures of the wedding. Thanks Heath!

We were supposed to meet up with Donnora (Donn Denman and Nora Kim) who's house and dogs we sat way back in . . . 2001? Is that possible? We realized that we didn't have time to really get much of a visit in and changed our date to Tuesday breakfast which worked out perfectly. We barely had enough time to hurry over to MKIA's house (Steve's brother's family's acronym) to be late for a family dinner. Not that anyone told us what time it started, but that's beside the point, as we wouldn't have gotten there any before we did either way! Marty cooked us up some incredibly delicious apple-marinated ribs. I simplify by that description the work that went into these ribs, and how many different types of appleness helped them become some of the best ribs I've ever had. Marty is a true talent in the kitchen. Dinner was too short, but it was nice to have all the Broyles at one table. I was exausted, and crashed out early, leaving the boys to talk for a couple more hours.

The kids were up early on Saturday, and therefore, so were we. But I got to read the comics with Isabelle and bead with both Isa and Austin before my sister got there to pick me up for our weekend trip to Santa Cruz. Cristie and I haven't spent more than two hours together in over two years, and that was with other people around. So we were both looking forward to the time together.

The drive over the hill was gorgeous and SC was sunny and warm! We made a bee line for Aldo's, where you'll find the best fried calamari in California. His restaurant sits on a little pier in the SC harbor across from the Crow's Nest. He's remodelled in the years since we've been going there, but it's still a mom and pop place and he still has the best seats of anywhere in SC on his pier-deck. Cristie and I managed to put away at least half of our calamari, ceasar salad and onion rings. The rest of the day pretty much revolved around talking, eating and drinking and where we were going to go next to do some more talking, eating and drinking, with a great trip to the Boardwalk thrown into the mix! We rode the pirate ship, the Big Dipper (of course) and the sky car thing. We searched all the arcades until we found a photo booth where we made goofy faces and got our little strip of pictures. We both liked them so much we did it over again, so we'd each have a strip. We shared an ice-cream sunday on the sand and generally had a wonderufully childish time of it.

We still had plently of late afternoon left, so we decided to spend some of it on the Crow's Nest's patio. We enjoyed the sun and a glass of pinot grigio until we decided it was time to go downtown and figure out where we were going to eat dinner. We made a brief detour into Urban Outfitters, ostensibly looking for a bathroom, and got caught doing a little shopping instead. I found some great t's for both me and Steve and Cristie made it out empty handed. We finally found our bathroom in Pearl Alley Bistro, an old favorite of mine and Katie's way back when. Pearl Alley treated us well with a nice pinot noir and some oysters on the half shell. We had ourselves a couple of glasses of wine and some fresh bread and olive oil, some wonderful conversation and directions to a good Thai place to take us on into the rest of the evening.

We stopped by the Thai place, didn't like it, and found another one just down Mission where we ordered a handfull of yummy things to go. We got to our hotel, put on our swimmies and eased our way into the . . . luke tub. Luke or not, it was fun and relaxing and the freezing run back to the room full of giggles. We feasted on our Thai food, relaxed in bed with the new In Style and fell asleep happy and full and tired.

Labels: california, travel

When I typed yesterday that it was raining a lot here, the rain must have taken offence and, in typical "you think that was rain?" retaliation it POURED all night long. Starting at about the time we started making a really delicious meal to go with the utterly fantastic bottle of UNTI wine that my father brought down for us a few months ago. Delicious! The food came out great too- simple pasta and red sauce with lots of fresh basil, shredded chicken, and herbs.

Of course, as we were preparing the meal, we lost power. Beebee slogged off through the deep mud (the street is pretty mushy these days) and came back with a sack full of candles so we enjoyed the rest of our evening by candlelight. Even after the power came back on (it hardly ever stays off for more than an hour or two) we decided to keep the candlelit atmosphere. It was so pretty and relaxing that I crashed out on the couch (what a lazy bum!).

The rain poured down relentlessly all night, with occasional bursts of lighting and thunder that scared the wits out of poor Caly. Or she has finally gotten smart enough to pretend to be scared such that we let her sleep on the bed.

And my jar experiment from yesterday? Useless. The jar was overflowing when I checked on it this morning at 6:30. When it got to the top, I have no idea. But I feel comfortable saying that we got at least six inches of rain last night. And it is still raining now...

Labels: weather

Boy howdy! Plenty of precipitation in these parts this year. It is pretty rare that I find myself wishing for a rain guage, but I would be interested to know the actual number of centimeters (or even inches) of rain we've had in the last month. I'm guessing that we are over a meter, but not sure if we've broken the two meter mark. I can say for sure that we've had a heck of a lot!

Today alone I'll bet we've had a centimeter or more. In fact, I'm going to put a jar outside now and see how quickly it fills.... be right back.

Do you remember when you were young(er) and had recently gotten control of something special- in most cases a car, any car- and were out doing whatever you thought was "safe enough"?

One of the only advantages to living on a dirt (mud) road is that when, for whatever reason, you get a wild hair and are driving home (responsibly, of course)... well... It isn't really hard to get an HJ60 landcruiser mostly sideways.
Not that we would advocate such degenerate behavior. No, No, never, never.

The funny thing is, dirt (mud) roads are a constant topic of disdainful discussion around here, but they are also a fun and funny link to what, for people accustomed to the asphalt jungle, is the wild and free essence of 16-year-old-I'm-----INVINCIBLE sensation that everyone should enjoy every now and then.

In theory. Of course. I mean.... we would never advocate a driving style that would include throwing mud over the top of the cruiser, singing Eagles music at the top of your lungs, ignoring the complaints of the suspension while spinning tires around bumpy corners. No, no, never, never....

We really skipped over our trip to California, so here's a bit about all the fun things we did.

Monday September 5:

With the time change up there in the states, we actually got to fly straight through to California from CR without having to spend the night in Atlanta. This was a first for us, and we loved it, although it made for a very late/early arrival at SFO around midnight or one a.m. But, ever faithful friend that he is, Soop (aka Brian) was there to pick us up and shuttle us back to his place in Menlo Park.

We managed to stay up long enough to have a celebratory (albeit very short) drink from the bottle of Nicaraguan rum we’d brought him (Nicaragua has some of the best rum we’ve ever tasted) before falling into the most comfortable futon I’ve ever slept on.

Next morning found us up pretty early and ready for Pete’s coffee and a bagel. Bagels, while technically speaking they exist in CR, they really don’t. And BB has a penchant for bagels and cream cheese for breakfast. It was a lovely early September morning in Northern California: sunny and a bit cool in the shade, with that crisp, not-quite-fall air that Cali gets at the end of her long summers. We ate our breakfast on an outdoor patio and I think I drove everyone crazy with my big smile and continuous praise of what a glorious day it was. People have asked where one goes to vacation when one lives in paradise: Northern California in September/October. There is nothing like it in all the world, I am sure of it.

The boys (Steve and Soopy) were hatching plans to go camping, or stay in Palo Alto, or some of both, while I had to get ready for my whirlwind trip south. I had a business meeting in LA on Thursday, and would drive down on Wednesday to San Diego to have dinner and spend the night with one of my best friends, Axel. In order to do this, we had to go pick up the Explorer that Steve’s dad had kindly loaned to us for our stay in California and had even more kindly brought up to Steve’s sister’s house in Newark for us. (Newark is just across the San Mateo Bridge from Palo Alto, on the east side of the peninsula and only about a twenty-minute drive from where we were staying with Soop.)

Soop took us over to Newark where we chatted briefly with Steve's sister and mom and said hello to his niece and nephew. It was great to see them, but we had to be on our way to a lunch meeting. After lunch I sorted through all of the clothes that his mom had brought to us. Since we would be attending a wedding in the mountains (very cold to us!), I had my trip to LA, Steve would be camping in said mountains (even colder to him!), and then we would be doing business and social activities all over the Bay Area, we’d asked Bonnie to dig through our stored clothing for some clothes that were appropriate for cold weather, weddings, etc. This took up the entire back of the Explorer and we needed to sort through what I was taking with me and what Steve needed to stay warm while I was in sunny San Diego. The plan was for us to meet back up in Bear Valley when we met up with the rest of Steve’s immediate family for his cousin’s wedding.

Next day, I was up very early at about 5:00 a.m. to start my drive to San Diego. It was a lovely and uneventful drive (then again, I was on the 5, and how eventfull can that possibly be) and I arrived in San Diego around 1:00 p.m. I had a couple of hours before Axel was off work (he’s a fabulous teacher) so I went shopping! I needed a dress for both weddings, possibly shoes as well and a warm coat. I ran some other errands; the drug store and a pet store for toys for Caly.

I found Axel at home around 4:00 or so and it was such a glorious day, we decided to walk the 15 or so blocks down Mission Blvd. to the beach and then stroll on the beach. (This is the same beach where Steve and I lived way back in 1997/98.) We had a couple of margaritas and wonderful conversation at Lahina’s, then headed back to his house where we got cleaned up and then strolled out to an enchanting little hidden-garden restaurant just down the street from his apartment. We kept up the talking all through what became about a two-hour dinner (we hadn’t seen each other in nigh on three years) and then on through the dip in the hot tub and on into the wee hours of the morning, when we both decided we’d be really unhappy all the next day (that day) if we didn’t go to bed. We woke after about four hours of sleep (you’ll notice a sleep-deprevation theme throughout the entire California/Savannah trip that we don’t make up for until we get back to CR!) and I headed out to the car to get some paperwork I needed to prepare for my appointment later that day in LA.

Well! I knew we’d had a few drinks the night before, but I also knew that I hadn’t moved the car. The other thing I knew was that as Axel and I carried my most valuable things (and my new clothes!) up to his apartment, I actually said to the man, “Do I need to take everything in?” And then, stupidly, “No one can actually get a car stolen in the same town twice.” Ha. And so it was that I stood in Axel’s apartment around 7:00 a.m. with him leaving apologetically for work, calling the San Diego police to report a stolen car. For the second time in my life.

Needless to say, the morning went much differently than I had anticipated. But having no other choice but to muddle on through, I made the necessary calls, rented myself a car, drove on up to LA, and had my meeting. I then called up my friend George, we went for some amazing sushi in Newport and then I greedily and thanfully crashed out around 10:00 p.m. at his place. We were both up early and off to breakfast so I could get rolling back up California and into Bear Valley by nightfall.

The drive back up was just as good as the one down. But instead of heading to Bear Valley, Steve and Soop convinced me to come camp with them. And what a great decision that was! We met up at a cute little wine bar in Murphy's where we all had a nice glass of pinot noir and then set off for the camping. We started pretty late, but had a gourmet time of it with brie, chocolate, wine and pasta a la Brian. This definitely was not the roughing-it camping that I’ve seen Brian do, and I was thankful for that. We had a great time- drinking our wine, keeping warm (even Brian was cold enough to put on a hat) and eating the chocolate the boys bought to keep me happy.

Next day was wedding day, so we got out of there early and back into Bear Valley in time to meet up with the family for lunch. It was fun to see everyone again and we chatted with various family members until it was time to start getting ready.

The ceremony was atop a bluff, at the very edge of what must have been a few-thousand-foot drop into the canyon. It was truly a breathtaking spot. Robyn was fabulously beautiful, Ryan dashing in his kilt and the bagpipes a perfect accompaniment. The ceremony was short and very very sweet, including a ring for Robyn’s young son as part of the threesome made that day. There are lots of pictures, and I urge you to take a look, if not just for the sheer beauty of those mountains.

Labels: california, landcruiser, photo, stolen, travel, vacation, weather

After my nap, I was ready. I got to read a psalm at the wedding, so I went to the rehearsal, which was probably unnecessary, as it was perhaps the shortest rehearsal I’ve ever been to. Thanks I’m sure to the lack of wedding planner. I highly recommend this approach. My planner was all over us and rehearsal took about two hours. Ridiculous. But not this time, we were out of that church and on our way to cocktails in under an hour!

The rehearsal dinner was held at a swanky little restaurant and decorated beautifully. It was great fun to be reunited with friends we’ve made in Atlanta and to see everyone all dressed up for a change. I borrowed a fantastic little dress from Lorelle and Steve looked handsome in his linen shirt and pants. Sorry, Steve also left the camera behind for once, so no pictures of this night. But there are plenty of the wedding, not to worry.

The food was fabulous, the speakers both funny and sweet (and blissfully short winded!) and we all headed off to continue the party – until 4:30 a.m. The bride, smart girl that she is, headed off to bed before midnight.

Four-thirty is really early to go to bed on the day of a big, huge, southern wedding. But this didn’t seem to phase anyone we were with, so we held in there! Saturday found us up too early at 8 a.m. drinking coffee (boy BB sure wishes sometimes she drank caffeine) and munching on fresh muffins. The day was sunny and humid and it was lovely to walk through the parks in the morning. Lots of people were already out, walking their dogs and taking their morning coffee too.

Wanting a nap (okay, wanting a full-night's sleep, but seeing as how it was too late for that) we headed back to the room, where we encountered a phenomenon you all might be familiar with: a tornado had hit our room while we were out and there was stuff everywhere and it all needed to be packed up into bags that were looking suspiciously small. Why are you packing, you ask? We decided (very wisely it turns out) to stay in the Westin the night of the wedding. Had we known we’d be up ‘till all hours the night before, we would have stayed there two nights, but hindsight and all that . . .

So back to the nap. There wasn’t one. Ever. All day Saturday. There were phone calls to be made, emails to write, the aforementioned packing to do and a trip to Tybee island to complete all before Getting Ready. Long about 11 a.m., we called our friends Mark and Anne and rallied Mark out of bed to head out to the beach with us. Anne opted to enjoy her “Heavenly” Westin bed. Good choice. But not as good as Tybee Island, I’m happy to report.

Tybee is about a half-hour drive from Savannah through lovely marshlands and pretty little riverlets. Our first goal once we got to the beach was food. We were all starving and needing a little hair of the dog. We found the perfect spot in Time To Eat. An open air patio, out of the sun (sun bad for hangovers) and with lots of good fried food (good for hangovers) and more of the best Bloody Mary’s I’ve ever had (sorry Bill, you make a darned good one though!). We chowed down on crawfish, which came complete with waiter-demonstrated instructions; home-made onion rings; buffalo shrimp (think buffalo wings, but with shrimp); and a shrimp burger.

I was feeling better at this point, but dying for a nap. Three and a half hours of sleep just isn’t enough for me anymore. Go figure. But, we still had to go swim in the Atlantic, something Steve nor I had ever done. We strolled down the beach for a bit to get away from the crowd a little and jumped on in. The water is about the same temperature as here, which is to say, nice and warm but just a little cool and refreshing. We swam and played and bodysurfed for quite a while, finally killing the last of the hangover. (Which was good, because did I mention that we never got a nap?)

Back at the Westin, we checked in and were given a lovely corner room with a river view and our very own “Heavenly” bed. Which we still weren’t going to get to use until much, much later that night. Getting ready was pretty fun as we never get dressed up. I got to press Steve’s shirt and everything. Whee.

We met up with Henrik (one of our good friends from here in Tam) in the Lobby and offered him and some others a ride to the church. The wedding itself was just lovely and blissfully short for a Catholic wedding. The priest even cracked a few jokes and put Brian on the hot seat on a couple of occasions. Good times, folks, good times.

Since what you want is really pictures and not a blow-by-blow of the wedding, that’s what you’ll get. The wedding, suffice it to say, was absolutely gorgeous. The ballroom’s three sets of French doors were open all night and led out to the gracious lawn overlooking the Savannah River. The lit-up paddle boats cruised by and the lights across the water sparkled and shimmered. It truly looked like a fairyland. We danced and ate and drank until, well, our customary time for these things, 4:30 a.m. And this time, even the Bride stayed with us.

There are lots more pictures to be had! Click here.

Labels: photo

Ok. Love is probably too strong a word, but I did certainly enjoy my day today. After enjoying a nice cup of coffee at home while nailing down some email, I dressed and ran over to pick up an associate before heading off to walk some property with a friend/client.

The property is a litte more than an hour from Tamarindo, but is at over 3,000 ft of elevation (971 meters, to be exact) and thus much cooler and mistier than Tamarindo. Today was more cool and misty than most on account of the heavy rain and clouds present. But aside from the temperature, you can really see a shift in the flora and fauna when you go upwards in the tropics. While walking the property today we noticed that not only the trees and grass were different, but the birds, butterflies, and beetles were different too. Always fun to see something different in the bush.

After a brief discourse on the relative merits of various machete sharpening techniques (feel free to offer advice, we are pretty hopeless at it) we finally booted up and started into the property. Other than being fairly steep and very wet, there was also about three to five feet of undergrowth to hack through. Now, it may seem like fun to be tromping through the woods with two friends hacking at grassy undergrowth.... oh, wait, it was fun. Tons of fun. We couldn't help but comment on how ridiculously easy it was to entertain ourselves walking along hacking at weeds. Of course, we did notice that at the top of the trail we had cleared a nice broad swath whereas at the bottom the path had narrowed considerably (hey, we enjoyed it, but that doesn't mean that any of the three of us have a good machete arm).

After touring the beautiful Costa Rican mountainside for an hour or two, and watching groups of butterflies flit through the freshly cleared path, and talking about some of the cool birds that were keeping us company, we finally piled back into the cruiser and headed down the hill, telling stories of the dumb things we had done in cars as youths.

Starving from the "work" we had done earlier, we stopped in on a great little chinese food place in Santa Cruz (on the way home) and stuffed ourselves.

Headed back home finally, stopping off at our office to take care of a thing or two and then Steve headed down to the beach to enjoy sunset with the dog and a stick she found.

Took a few calls, cemented a deal on the phone, then had a nice meal at home with wife and dog.

Wish that the weather had been more accomodating to photography so that we could share the beauty, but maybe next time. All in all, it would have been a fun vacation day, but the great part is that this is actually how I earn my living. Love it.