Willie and Teddy's Excellent Adventure: July 2011

7/17/2011

The summer trip to the holy land ended with one more trip to Club Fernandez, as papa calls Fergie's house, and we must agree with him on this one. Between unlimited stale Red Vines, swimming in the pool and jacuzzi, BBQ, video games and poker night, we had a great time. We also got to go to the Apple Company Store where they sell Apple branded merchandise and stuff. I (Willie) owe papa a lot of money for my swag, but it was worth it.

Then off to Seattle and back to our own beds. We've had a couple of really late nights, but we actually got in bed before 11 tonight. Didn't anybody tell our parents that it's summer and we should stay up as late as we want?

On the drive on the way home we had more tacos at a place we both really liked in Portland. We've learned to order them 'solo carne' (only meat for you non-spanish speakers)--it's easier than listing all the things we don't want on them.

Seems like it's going to be a busy week with blood draws and doctor check ups and prep for camp and dinners with friends. We're also refamiliarizing ourselves with our pantry, specifically where papa hides his stash on non stale Red Vines. We detect a theme here.

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We tried to go to Exploratorium again, and wouldn't you know it, it's closed on Mondays. So instead we took a hike up to this bridge thing and hit spots in the city that we hadn't gone to yet.

Like the Toad Fountain. Of course we went to Ghirardelli for multiple visits to the candy store for free chocolate samples. And to Boudin to get some really good baguettes.

It was nice to stay at Nana's--she didn't even mind that we took over her computer room and slowed down her internet connection. She must really like us.

Poker night at Club Fernandez. Below Teddy is Papa's friends' daughter, Alessia.

Daniel was the dealer, and the house was definitely winning most of the hands. Bring on more Red Vines and nobody gets hurt. Papa kept coming over and saying "you guys playing cards?" and "let me introduce you to my friend Jugdish" and walking away laughing like a maniac. Weird.

We went to a 'new to us' science center call Chabot something or other. It was lame mostly, so we didn't spend long there.

And it made me sick with the planetarium show. Uggg, I still feel dizzy.

7/10/2011

It's been a week of marches, some fun, some less fun. Some beautifully scenic, some on city streets. Mostly though we've just been trekking all over the place. We've been across California and back again, and walked all the way to Contra Costa County. Lets let the pictures do the talking.

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We started off the week with a visit to the holy of holies, but because it was July 4th, it was closed. What kind of religious experience are we supposed to have when the place we most desire to go to is closed?

The bitmapped 'One' sculpture was a nice touch, but it does not make up for the fruitlessness of our pilgrimage.

Alas, the doors are locked, and nobody even took in the paper. Definitely closed.

We'll be back another day hopefully to explore the bounty contained within.

In the meantime, it was off to Lawrence Hall of Science to build as high as we could with their unlimited supply of keppla blocks. My tower to taller than me (that's over 5' 9" and I was standing on a chair on the table to put on the finishing touches before knocking the whole thing down.

I decided to build low and mighty. Then I set up domino blocks on the steps and made them tumble down.

Wednesday we went to Yosemite, but first we stopped at Hetch Hetchy

According to a kind of boring documentary, Hetch Hetchy was a valley just as beautiful as Yosemite, but somebody got the brilliant idea to flood it and use it as a reservoir for San Francisco. Sounds like a "hey guys, watch this" moment. Darwin says you're not supposed to mess with nature like this.

Good thing we don't have to hike to Yosemite Valley from here. 47.5 miles on foot is a bit too far.

Actually the trail was closed at Wapama falls because the water was washing over the bridge.

We did make it into Yosemite Valley, and there were the regular falls, like Yosemite falls behind us, and falls from everywhere where they aren't supposed to be in the middle of summer. They had some kind of tremendous snow pack and the water is coming out of everywhere.

We went up to Mirror lake because it is right below half dome.

We still don't see why anybody would want to climb that thing, but to each his own.

There's wild animals in this place, but we thankfully didn't see any bears.

Next day we set a goal of getting to the top of Nevada falls. It's just 3.4 miles via the Mist Trail, but it's 2000 feet higher than where we are standing. Oh boy.

We made it to the bridge below Vernal falls pretty easily, and set out up the mist trail.

We got completely 100% soaked on the mist trail, but that actually helped because it kept us kind of cool as we continued up the trail. Here we are just below Nevada falls.

2 tenths of a mile to go--woo hoo!

Here we are standing on top of our destination--hail the conquering heroes!

Back at the bridge below Vernal falls we were definitely pooped. Just one more mile to the valley floor and ice cream treats for the mighty hikers--that's us.

Hetch Hetchy panorama

7/3/2011

It all started very innocently. We went to Redwood park in the Oakland hills and parked at the north end of the park at 1300 feet. About 100 yards down the trail, we felt a misty drop and papa asked if we should go back to the car to get our rain jackets. No, we said, so on down we went. We took the "stream" trail alongside a slowly moving stream in a redwood forested canyon. Very pretty stuff. The mist picked up over the next hour and a half (we're still going down in elevation and going south) but was never more than a slight annoyance, refreshing really. We got to the southern end of the trail where it's about 600 ft. elevation and picked up the return trail--the West Ridge trail. This was 3.5 miles from the start. Then it started to really rain, and the trail climbed to 1500 feet. we'll just say that that 4 mile leg was not a happy time. By the time we got back to the car, we were all soaked head to foot--especially the feet, and our shoes were completely caked in mud. Our two small brainstorms at that point were to wash off our shoes in the dog water fountain (they were soaked anyway so it didn't matter) and strip off our soaking wet t-shirts in the parking lot and swap them for dry 'blues.' We made it home, showered to warm up and had lunch. All the clothes went in the washer. The shoes went in the oven. We played well earned online computer games. We have a war story.

Thursday we met Auntie Monica, cousins Marissa and Ethan at the Exploratorium. This was our second try, as we went on Monday and Papa discovered he didn't have the science center pass with him. D'oh! Anyway, we got in and had a day of it, followed by lunch at Sam Wo. Yum.

Saturday early (before the beastly heat) we went to Muir woods for a hike through more redwood trees. This was only a 5 mile hike, and nothing bad happened. Just went like it's supposed to.

Sunday we headed south to the Fernandez's and a day in the pool. Lot's of splashing and water fights followed by delicious barrel BBQ'ed chicken. Don't tell papa, but Fergie's BBQ is better than his.

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Monday after striking out at the Exploratorium, we headed off to Fort Point for some windy, foggy good views.

okay, we get that it's windy and foggy. What else can we say about this place?

Ya, it's an overpass, and we're under it. Definitely cold. Let's go to the next place.

Ahh, a nice hike--this seems better.

From the gulf stream waters...

to the Redwood forests...and then the bad weather headed in. We did the last 4 miles in the rain. No pix, cuz it was cold and WET.

The next days we met MAL for fun in the city with included a stop at the DeYoung museum to see some artwork and their sculpture garden. We also went to lunch, but me and Teddy didn't like it too much. Papa and MAL seemed to like it though.