About 3 days worth of pictures of the Galapagos and Quito

I know that this has taken me *forever* to do. But it's quite a process I tell you. But I've got some of our pictures from the Galapagos and Quito up here.

This is about 3 days our trip, and I apologize, because it's all wildly out of order. Of course, for most folks, I'm guessing the order is less important. Among the pictures I've put up, you can see things on San Cristobal, Genovesa, Isabella and Fernandina as well as our shots from Quito.

MLE: Mountain to Ocean

This past weekend, we participated in one of the classic activities that causes some of the most acute cases of Bay Area snobbery - going from skiing in the mountains to walking on the beach all within the span of a day.

We were out in Truckee for the weekend - and originally we were concerned that the skiing would be crap since it's been so warm out there. But we were surprised with snow that actually was more like fresh powder, despite no precipitation for quite a while out there. Fantastic day on the slopes. Warm, sunny, no wind, really a perfect day.

After we drove back to SF, our bodies were cramped from the work on Saturday, so we needed a walk. We headed out to the beach and walked up and down a bit.

But I have to say - even though you *can* get to both places - probably the only person who can really take advantage of the beach side of the equation to the fullest is someone who surfs - because there is no way that anyone is going to get in that cold water without a wetsuit. Brrrrr

The Galapagos Islands are as cool as you think they would be

Rick Steves in Austin

One of my very favorite authors/TV show hosts came to Austin this week. He was doing a talk and book signing at Book People. The topic was "Travel as a political act." He spoke passionately for about an hour and a half on the mind-broadening power of travel, and how seeing other countries and cultures, we can both appreciate ours better, as well as discover other ways to improve.

It was a great talk - if anyone gets a chance to see him, I highly recommend doing so.

He also recently traveled to Iran to both visit the country and make a TV special. It is going to be airing on PBS starting in January. I can't wait to see it. He talked about some of the things he learned while there. Fascinating stuff.



It was a completely packed house

Washington DC

This past weekend we headed up to the DC area for Dave Grossman's wedding. It was a lovely event, and the rain managed to hold off just long enough for them to have their ceremony outside as planned. We got some time with Jim and Dawn as well. We took some pictures at the wedding, but naturally, I left that memory card at home this morning. I'll try to remember to post some pics.

More Lake Tahoe

Ok - Lake Tahoe is fantastically blue, which I didn't fully realize until I went there in the summer for the first time. Last year, I went on a boat cruise with a friend, and I went again this year. When you are out on the lake, you can get a really good sense of the 3 different colors that the lake takes on - deep royal blue, turquoise blue (like the Caribbean), and an emerald green.

Here's a shot where you can see one of the transitional areas. In the foreground, where there is the deep blue, it means that the water is very deep, and the color is a reflection of the sky. In the distance, you can see a turquoise, and that is an indication that the water is 30-100 feet.


And now a few shots of just the lake. It really is an incredible color

Truckee

We're on our annual 'get out of Texas in August' vacation. As I've previously reported, this summer has been rough in terms of temperature. As I've left it's finally started to rain on and off, and the temperature is predicted to be only in the upper 90s. But with the rain, it's humid, etc....

So I'm up at altitude, which is lovely.

However, let me send out a general comment that watching 'live' events on the west coast sort of sucks. I speak in general, because that "previously recorded" note on top of the "LIVE" that ends up in the corner of your television feels just mean.

And more specifically, because you've had to take the already depressingly tape delayed Olympics, and delay it further. Here, where to actually watch quite a few of the events live would be entirely reasonable to do. No no, you get to see things a full 24 hours later as well as 3 hours after the east coast. My biggest current irritation was the 3 hour delay of the men's marathon that took place Sunday morning in Beijing - you know, because watching something live that started at 3:30 pm on a Saturday afternoon is such a difficult thing to do....

But I digress.

Highlights of the trip thus far:
* Got a genuinely cheap rental car - yay for off-airport car rental locations!
* $25 hotwire rate for a room on the club level at the Atlantis. It was a really swanky room.
* Already 1 trip to Sierra Trading Post - and their Labor Day Sale time of year
* Walking, hiking, skating, running, and maybe some boating are all in the plans.

Trip to San Francisco, part 1

Ok, so it's not all that novel - a trip to San Francisco. I mean, Tom is there all the time. But this is the first trip I've made up there in quite a while. As always, Tom was working, but I wandered about a bit and found some nice fun things.

Here's the Ferry Building the day I visited. I had to wear a coat on occasion. It was fabulous. While it was a beautiful blue sky in this direction, if you looked across the bay, it was foggy and crappy, so I elected not to bore you with a picture of that.


I visited the Timbuk2 store. Timbuk2 bags are available in many places, including my favorite Sierra Trading Post. However, they are based in San Francisco, and there are some fabrics and styles of bags that are only available there. I got this nifty new custom bag.


I did run across a janitors strike near Union Square. I walked along with them for a bit.


More to come.

Family Reunion

Tom and I met with some of the Behrens' side of the family at the Cumberland Mountain State Park at the beginning of June. We gathered here 22 years ago, and now there are 2 more cousins, and everyone's grown up.

We visited the family cemetery - mostly to visit Grandma Lottie, but also it was nice to show Tom the names of so many of my family members. We learned of a few more folks that have passed more recently. And Dad reminded me of who a lot of folks were, and how the family tree looks - it's a big family, and understandably hard to keep straight.

Burgess Family Cemetery

We also spent time at the state park. A lot of the family time was spent playing a game that is (unfortunately) called cornhole. It is good fun. I'm quite awful. Uncle Jeff is the best trash-talker I've ever been around. It's like he's a trash-talking prodigy.

Cumberland Mountain State Park

See Rock City

We traveled to Tennessee after our trip to Ohio. While we were there, we started our week with a trip to Chattanooga to See Rock City. I was last there in 1986. It's a fun natural amusement park. This time, Tom and I also went to Ruby Falls - a beautiful underground waterfall inside a cave under Lookout Mountain, GA.

It was a hazy day, so I don't think we could actually see all seven states. But we'll just pretend.

Our photos from this trip remind me a lot of the photos from 22 years ago.

See Rock City

Sarah and Caleb's wedding

In early June we traveled up to Ohio for Sarah and Caleb's wedding. It was a lovely weekend all around. Here are some various photos from the events we attended (click on the photo to open each album):

Rehearsal and Rehearsal dinner

Sarah and Caleb Rehersal

Getting ready with Sarah, her mom and the bridesmaids

Sarah Wedding Prep

Wedding events

Sarah and Caleb Wedding Day

Reception

Sarah and Caleb Reception

Galapagos Baby

This Thanksgiving, we're off to visit the Galapagos Islands. Yay for us since we wanted to make travel arrangements, and then actually went ahead and did so

Here's the company we're going with for the tour around the islands.

Miami Beach

I was in Miami Beach this past weekend for Sarah's bachelorette party. Her sister Megan organized a super swank weekend at the Delano with plenty of good food and fun places.

Here is the bride-to-be in her bachelorette party attire


We were staying in the penthouse suite, and here was the view from our window. Not too shabby.

Ahhhh....short track speedskating

Here are some of the pictures from our weekend in Salt Lake City for one of the short track speedskating world cup events.

Day 1

SLC World Cup Day 1

Day 2

SLC World Cup Day 2

Day 3
(still to come)