27th Year of Life in Review...

So, I'm 27 years old today... Here's the high points of the 27th year of my life...

I moved back home.

I took a job at the Kanabec Hospital ER.


I house shopped... a lot (Thank you Joslyn).

I finally bought a house in Milaca.


I got my first neice... Evalynn Mae.


I visited Rose & Korey in Charlotte, NC.

I made a long vacation out of my conference in San Diego and stayed 18 days in California exploring... returning the day before my birthday.


Year 28 doesn't have much of a chance of having as many changes or events...

Last day in California...

So, I went to Yosemitie and from the begining it wasn't meant to be. I got there farily early in the day, but yet all the campsites were full... so I had to go hunting in the National Forest outside the National Park. If ound a site about 10 miles outside the park's western border... set up my tent and headed for the park. Hoped to eat at the resturant that was on the map up on Tioga Pass, but alas, it wasn't open yet. I went up to Glacier Point for sunset, but it was too cloudy. Oh and somewhere between there I hit some wild animal that was about bumper hight and dark in color... it jumped into the road from the shurbs and i didn't get a chance to move. Crap, I feel so bad! Luckily it didn't really hurt the car. Anyway, it rained all night and was supposed to continue through Monday, and it was actually snowing so much that they closed Tioga Pass and were requiring chains on other roads, and I have no chains... I could have gone the long way around (2-3 hours) to Yosemitie Valley to see the museums and exhibits down there, but that's where EVERYONE would be since it was raining and the ranger told me that they were saying it was so cloudy in the valley that you couldn't probably even see the sights (like the falls) down there... so I opted not to do it. I drove to San Franscisco a day early instead with my sopping wet tent... Anyway, I decided to go home early, between Yosemitie not wanting me to visit and the fact that I was just ready to go home anyway, I changed my flight and I'm going home tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon. Today I got to San Franscisico, checked into the hostel, packed up all my stuff and made sure it'd fit in my luggage (I didn't gain much while I was here, so it all worked, no need to ship stuff home). Then I went and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge (which is in fact red, not gold incase you didn't know or you care). I went to Mount Tampalis (as suggested by Ashley & Kurt)... it was BEAUTIFUL day in San Fran, I hear it's usually foggy here, but it was a beautiful sunny day. Tomorrow morning I plan on heading to Golden Gate park and maybe walking part way across the Golden Gate Bridge... then heading to the airport. Flight out at 3:10pm. Before I fly out I have to deal with the rental car company and the fact that I dented their car... Thank goodness for my credit card having rental car coverage, shouldn't cost me anything, just the hassle. Lesson in that... get the rental car insurance, stupid things can happen fast. I'll get pictures up Sunday or Monday... I have yard work to do if it's nice out, if it's raining they'll be up sooner. Getting home sooner also gives me a chance to study for ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) class that I'm taking Thursday & Friday at North Memorial. Bad timing for a class and vacation, oh well!

Trip Update...

Ok, sorry I haven't written for a bit... no Internet when camping and the Internet here at the hotel in Death Valley is not very good. The only way they could get Internet here is satellite and it's no good. But hey, it's some access to the outside world. :)

So, this internet is definitely not fast enough for me to get any pictures uploaded... so that will have to wait. Sorry.

Here's the scoop on my last few days...

Sequoia National Park Day 1 (Sunday): Arrived, went on the tour of Crystal Cave (unfortunately, the memory card those pictures are on is currently MIA, so I HOPE it's in my stuff and not in the National Park somewhere... Luckily I missed the afternoon rain shower while I was in the cave! After that I went back and set up my tent and such... then went to check out sunset on Moro Rock, that was AMAZING! Very beautiful!

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks Day 2 (Monday): Drove up to Kings Canyon. Apparently Kings Canyon is deeper in places than the Grand Canyon. It's pretty in the canyon. Checked out some really big trees... found some really big pine cones... saw some big stumps, mostly from the logging industry, but one that got cut down so slices of it could be put in museums. I did a lot of hiking, probably at least 10 miles in total which included lots of hills at a decent elevation. Maybe now I'll be in better shape to do the half marathon in August! At the end of the day I decided to watch sunset from Moro Rock again so I practically ran up the rock to make it by sunset. Again, definitely a good workout!

Death Valley Day 1 (Tuesday): So, I turned on the GPS and as the bird flies it says Panamiant Springs (where I am staying on the edge of Death Valley) was only 74 miles away! Fortunately I had looked at a map and realized there are no roads that go anywhere near where a bird would fly... it took just over 6 hours and just under 300 miles to get there. Wow. Anyway... I explored a bit around Death Valley... saw Badwater (280 some feet below sea level), the Salt Flats, Natural Arch, The Devil's Golf Course, Devil's Cornfield... wow, is it hot and the wind doesn't even cool you off because the wind feels hot too. I took some cool pictures of sunset from down in the valley... but unfortunately my memory card didn't store them right or something because now when I try to open them "File Contains no Image Data" or something like that... sucks. Oh well.

Death Valley Day 2 (Wednesday): Didn't really want to get going this morning, slept too well... but, I went and saw Stovepipe Well, Artist's drive (the mountains are so many different colors! Amazing!), I wanted to drive into a few of the canyons but I only did the short ones because the roads really are not meant for regular cars... at least a truck or jeep would have been better, so instead of getting stuck in a rental car, I opted not to do that. I saw a couple great views from Zabriske Point and Dante's View. When I was driving down from Dante's View a red car was going up and I looked at the person driving and thought, "that guy's face looks familiar"... a couple minutes later it popped into my head that he looked like Kris Allen, our new American Idol... for a brief second I debated going back up and seeing if it was really him... but I talked myself out of it because seriously, why would he be in Death Valley 2 weeks after winning American Idol... he'd either be at home, or doing whatever a person does after you win before the tour starts... Anyway, it rained all day off and on. The wind was so bad I thought I was going to fall over when I walked, seriously. It wasn't only blowing the sand around, but the gravel was blowing! It hurt when it hit me! It was so cloudy, but I was wearing my sunglasses most of the time I got out of the car to keep the sand out of my eyes! Crazy wind! Apparely this is totally crazy weather for here. Obviously, since Death Valley is one of the driest places in the country, you'd assume very few dark clouds and very little rain. But, at least now I can say I was rained on in Death Valley, how many people can say that? :) Right now it's thundering outside.

I have pictures of most of what I described above... but the uploading will have to wait. Maybe this weekend, maybe when I get home next week.

Anyway... tomorrow I will be leaving Death Valley... if I ever come back it will be in a Jeep so I can explore those crappy dirt roads...

Tomorrow I will be driving about 4 hours to Yosemitie National Park for 2 days. Saturday I will head to San Franscisco, so that will be the next time I probably will update or have internet or phone access. Home Monday morning... the back to work, I'll be hitting the ground running when I get back from this long vacation...

Saturday, May 30

So, today I drove my so far favorite stretch of Hwy 1 from San Simeon to Monterey... it was BEAUTIFUL! Then I met up with Brian for the first time in more than 5 years... that was great! We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium together and hung out at a park and got some ice cream. Caught up on each others lives... it was great. :) Then I drove the "17-Mile-Drive" which wasn't as cool as I expected with what I had heard about it... the stretch of Hwy 1 south of here is cooler. Then I got some Chinese food and hung out around the hotel room and relaxed some. I also worked on getting pictures up, links below:

May 20 - 29
May 29 - now

Off to Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks tomorrow!

Friday, May 29 in California...

Sorry, still haven't put the last 2 days of pictures up... maybe tomorrow night.

Today I started out the day checking out the Santa Barbara coast... then up to the Santa Barbara Mission. Apparently they recently had a festival where people drew chalk drawings in front of the mission... the pictures were AMAZING! I'll have pics up later... Then I drove up the coast on Hwy 1 most of the way. Also went off the coast to a little town that was founded by the Dutch and is the only town designed differently than any other town in the area. There are towns along the way here, including the one I'm staying in tonight, that seem to me that they haven't changed much since the 1970's... it seems that I could have done nearly the exact same trip 30 years ago... kind of interesting. I saw sea lions on a dock by Morro Rock today. Tonight I went to Hearst Castle... amazing. They have 5 different tours you can take, I took #5, the night tour. I need to come back here someday and do some of the other tours.

Tomorrow, up to Monterey Bay... Last Hwy 1 stretch I'll be doing on my way up there tomorrow morning. Then to spend part of the day with Brian Johnson. Haven't seen that guy in more than 5 years... maybe 7. It should be fun! We're going to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and maybe some other stuff depending how long we spend at the Aquarium.

Thursday...

So, today I went to 2 lectures, and then went to get my rental car. Ended up with a black PT Cruiser. I hate PT Cruisers, I think they're the ugliest cars in existance. Wait... second ugliest, the ugliest is the one that looks like a box on wheels. Anyway... Drove up to Santa Barbara via the Pacific Coast Highway... took at least 2 hours longer than the interstate probably would have... or maybe not since the interstate would have brought me through downtown LA in the afternoon... Anyway, this was beautiful and worth it. I drove by a big sign to Camp Pendleton and though of Jake... I drove through seaside towns on the ocean side of LA and couldn't help but wonder if there was a celebrity in the car next to me with tinted windows... Then I drove by a sign to Peperdine University and thought of Christina. So many friends that have lived out here at different times... I got to Santa Barbara and checked into Guest House Inn & Suites, which by the way, has a VERY SLOW wireless internet connection. Then I went to La Super Rica which is a very good, makes the travel books, hole in the wall rickety looking Mexican food stand. It was very good. :)

So, pictures from the San Diego Zoo and Balboa park are working on uploading now, and I'm not waiting for them to load to label them and such, I'm going to bed... you will have to wait for the pictures from the drive today. I'll work on those later. For now I'm going to bed!

Conference DONE!

Ok, a couple more hours of lectures this morning... then the conference is over. I'll be getting my rental car around noon and heading north to Santa Barbara today, a couple stops along the way...

Yesterday I did the conference in the morning and then went to the San Diego Zoo and a little bit of walking around Balboa Park after the zoo closed yesterday. I will work on getting those pictures up soon I hope.

Today in Review...

I slept in, then wandered around the Gaslamp District a bit. Ate lunch at the Tin Fish, it was pretty good. Then I went for 4 1/2 hours of lectures. I went to on on "Hot Topics in Bioethics"... apparently I don't watch or read enough news. I need to figure out who Bernard Madoff is and what he did. Haven't looked that up yet. Then I went to the Maritime Museum of San Diego. That was pretty interesting. Old ships are so beautiful. One of the ships they have was used to film "Master & Commander"... apparently I never saw that movie. Then I was going to walk back along the bay... but a guy who does the cycle-cab things (I don't remember what they're called)... anyway... he offered me a ride all the way back to my hotel for $6, so I took him up on it. His name was Sasha and he is 22 and her from Serbia for the summer to make money to buy a nice guitar. This is the first time he has ever had a job because he has been in college and gotten money from his family. He is in the US for his first time and has only been here 3 weeks. Interestingly, he learned English as a child from watching the Cartoon Network. Anyway... it was a nice ride and a nice chat... and I gave him more than $6... since that was significantly lower than I think the standard rate was.

Got the pictures up to date... all captioned and all the pictures through tonight are up. Either click on the slideshow from the previous post or the link on the left. (For those of you reading this in Facebook... you have to go to "view original post" to get the links).