a shutterfly book...

Here's the photo book I just threw together - I think you may be able to use the links below to order a copy for yourself??

Click here to view this photo book larger

Photo books are the perfect gift for any occasion.

San Francisco

Having experienced some of the beautiful California wilderness, it was time to focus on some of the fun the city of San Francisco had to offer. Unfortunately, Justin and Michelle had to be all grown up and go back to work but the four Wisconsinites had Tuesday and Wednesday to see and do all we could.




We started Tuesday by taking the BART (SF's subway train) into the city. From there we took a trolley (yes, the SF trolley!) to a bike rental joint. Yes! We got to have our first good look at the city from the seat of a bike!


We stopped at Ghiradelli square to check out the amazing chocolateness and then biked along the bay toward the Golden Gate bridge.


Tom and Javier noticed an Ultimate Frisbee game underway as we were going along and on a whim asked if they could join the game. The puzzled players shrugged and said "sure!" and soon were happy they had as T & J guarded each other, leaping, throwing, and catching with the rest. After ten minutes or so they felt they had sufficiently demonstrated the Wisconsin style of frisbee awesomeness and we took off again.


We stopped next at Fort Point where we not only wandered around and explored the fort itself, but also browsed an art exhibit that was created to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the bridge's construction. The story of building the bridge itself was laid out and the beautiful engineering and art that combine to form it was explained in a way that made the structure even more magnificent.

Then it was time to tackle the bridge ourselves! Dodging strollers, walkers, golf carts and faster bikers, we threaded our way across the amazing structure. It was incredibly beautiful - not only could we see the bay and the ocean, we also got a closer look at the structure of the bridge itself.


After an exhilarating ride down the hill into the heart of Sausalito, the city that faces SF across the bridge, we explored the town and eventually found a lovely restaurant on the water that served super-yummy seafood. Then it was on through Sausalito to the ferry where we had a beautiful ride through the bay back to SF.


Here we got a close-up view of Alcatraz and a from-the-water view of Golden Gate bridge. Once back on land we rode our bikes back to the rental place, boarded the city bus, and took it back to a BART station. This brought us back in nice time to meet friends for dinner back in Berkeley. And what a lovely time that was! Deanna, a college friend/former roommate of Angela's, and her friend Scott drove up to meet us as we rejoined Justin and Michelle at a favorite Indian restaurant of Michelle's and Justin's. It was a neat time of getting to know each other and catching up on the day's adventures.

Wednesday was only slightly more moderately paced. For this trip we took the car and headed straight for Golden Gate Park and the Cal Academy - a place of gardens, museums, and many kinds of good food to try.


The Cal Academy was doing a special on earthquakes, so we learned about those through their Planetarium film and an earthquake simulator, got to see heaps of amazing tropical and aquatic plants and animals, learned about their work in the Galapogos Islands, and more.


We broke up the day about halfway through to participate in a CityGuides walking tour of the Japanese Tea Garden. Our guide was interesting and knowledgeable and we all saw so much there that we wouldn't have seen if we were just browsing through on our own. Walking in the sunshine awoke a powerful hunger, so thankfully we found a (best tried yet?) Mexican restaurant called Nopalitos. Wow was it good.
After finishing (reluctantly) we headed back to the museum for further wonder-perusing until the museum closed. We had a bit of time to kill so we went to see the 49ers stadium and stopped on the way back to watch wind surfers take advantage of the afternoon's conditions.

For supper, the itinerary included meeting up with another of Angela's college friends, Alex. The plan was to meet at a favorite place of Alex's called Wasa Wasa.
The only problem was that the iPhone Maps app listed it as permanently closed. We double checked with Alex and he assured us that the restaurant was open, but we next saw that Yelp listed it as closed. Calls to the place got us no further than the answering machine. Another call to Alex, a realization that Yelp gives real-time info so the Yelp info would change as of 5pm, and further investigation of the web convinced us we would be fine. Yelp's status switched to "Open" and we headed there. We arrived early, only to find that Wasa Wasa was indeed closed - but just for the day! What?!!


We called Alex again and quickly arrived at another great destination, Kincaid's. Justin took the BART to its very furthest reaches and was able to join us as well (hooray!). More amazing food (this time, Copper River Alaskan salmon - wow, best ever!!), great conversation, and intense discussion of iPhones and Androids all contributed to a very nice wrap-up to a great game night adventure. Tom, Tammy and Javier headed off to the airport to return the car and take off back to Wisconsin - Angela stayed to enjoy the rest of the week/weekend with Alex and Deanna. Yep, it was a great time, and yep, we saw a ton of neat stuff and yep, I think we'd all go back in a heartbeat to see and experience even more of this beautiful city!

Sierra Mountain Crazies

[note: even if you don't read the whole thing, be sure to skim the pictures at the bottom - it was a gorgeous trip!]


Ever heard of the Mountain Crazies? Maybe not; I think it may be Javier's term for altitude sickness. Whenever any of us started acting strangely this past weekend, he was quick to diagnose us with this serious disease. He may not have been all that far off, actually. What, really, would convince six seemingly normal individuals to leave civilization and the comforts of home for three days in Sequoia National Park, hauling all the gear and food they'd need on their backs?

Tammy, Tom, Javier, and I left Wisconsin Thursday night and arrived without too much trouble at Justin and Michelle's in San Francisco. Friday we did a bit of sightseeing and grocery shopping in Berkeley, where Justin is a doctoral candidate on biomedical engineering (super cool stuff!). When Michelle finished teaching for the day, we all headed off to the Sierras, aiming for Stoney Creek campground as a place to stay before starting on the backpacking trip. It was a cold night, and we were greeted Saturday morning with four inches of snow on our tents. Weather forecasts had mentioned slight chances for snow, but four inches was well beyond even the highest estimates. The fresh snow on the majestic trees around us was beautiful but ominous. Did that stop us? I think we were already feeling the effects of the elevation change, for no one even suggested backing out. We packed up, drove to the trail head, got our permits, and set out - never mind the snow crunching beneath our feet.

Saturday's hike was one of silent, looming trees, plants and flowers weighed down with the unexpected snow, dense fog, and snowy beauty everywhere. We had a dim sense of a bigger world beyond our scope of vision, but the fog/rain/snow/sleet kept us boxed in and focused on the few visible feet in front of us. We arrived at our camp site after nine miles of hiking to find a huge group of high schoolers already entrenched there. In spite of being encouraged by one of their leaders to keep going (huh?!), we found space below their site and enough food space in the shared bear box to solidify our original intention to spend the night there. Our tired bodies were quite happy to call it a day so we wrapped up the evening with cocoa, quinoa, and nalgene bottles filled with hot water for our frozen feet (thank you Justin and Michelle!).

We awoke Sunday to the sound of rain on our tents. Nooo....! It didn't take long to figure out, though, that the "rain" was actually snow melt from the trees above us. We ventured from the warmth and dryness of our tents to find a cool but fabulously beautiful day all around us. That called for blueberry pancakes in the wilderness! Michelle proved to be a wilderness pancake master, and soon had Javier cooking them like a pro as well. With such a solid start to the day, we took off for further wilderness explorations. For this day we were able to pack lightly since we planned to stay in the same spot for two nights. Dodging the showers and occasional snowballs the trees tossed our way, we started to get a much better sense for what they meant when they named this "High Sierra Trail". The world yesterday's fog had hidden from us was now unveiled. And wow. Purple mountains majesty is right! We walked straight up into them, hopping rocks through snowmelt-laden streams, and pausing for breath and photos as the altitude demanded it. A mile before Hamilton Lakes, our days's destination, clouds started rolling in and we paused to reassess the situation. We didn't want to get into any trouble with unexpected weather conditions and some in our group were getting pretty tired. We discussed and decided to continue (more mountain crazies??), keeping a close eye on the situation as it developed. And it worked out! We made it to the furthest of the two lakes and gosh was it worth the climb. Still water reflecting the mountains and waterfalls that surrounded it - everything you'd expect from a pristine mountain lake. Tom celebrated the occasion by jumping INTO the frigid water, and a curious deer wandered by as we ate lunch on the shore. And then it was a rapid downward excursion as we sought to beat any potential weather trouble. Thankfully for all concerned, the skies cleared up and a tired but triumphant group arrived back to find at least some of our gear dry. We wolfed down some salmon chowder and were too tired after cleanup to do anything other than call it a night.

Monday was even more beautiful than Sunday had been. Since the trail was more down than up at this point, our main stops were to take off layers till we were all in short sleeves/tank tops and in danger of sunburn - such a contrast from Saturday's wintry weather! Some of us were getting pretty exhausted by this point, not too tired to appreciate the beautiful vistas we'd missed on our way up, but perhaps too tired to comment on it all as much as we might have otherwise. by 3 or so we found ourselves back at the trailhead and after a change of clothing were ready to stop by the world's biggest tree (by volume), a giant sequoia by the name of General Sherman. It was nearly a mile to walk down to the tree and back, which Javier thought rounded out the miles traveled by foot for the weekend nicely to 35. There was actually some debate on this point - the guidebook actually listed Hamilton Lakes as a 32 mile trip, but according to the park signs it was 34; most of us opted to believe the higher number based on muscle soreness alone!

Our trip back to civilization was fairly uneventful. Tom had been extolling the praises of In-n-Out Burgers on the trail enough that visions of hamburger patties had been dancing our heads for the last few hours - so we were all pretty happy to find one on our route back. The burgers lived up to the hype, and when combined with great fries and shakes, gave the entire trip a nice rounding out. And maybe we weren't all so crazy after all - I don't think any of us would decline the opportunity for another trip just like it if given the chance!


And, with no further ado, here are some of the best pictures of the trip. These are in no particular order, so enjoy at will!

ready to hit the trail?

Javier the pancake man

what we saw

Michelle the wilderness pancake master

no idea what these are, but aren't they beautiful?!

top of the waterfall

food prep for the surviving of the wilderness

recommendation: clear the snow before you set up your tent

breakfast in 4 inches of snow... are we really going to backpack today?

a man and a tree

beautiful trail - if you have boots!

Angela's favorite shot - thanks Justin!

feeding our faces - thanks Javier.

the stream crossings begin...

where exactly is Tom going?!

yellow-bellied marmot

still smiling on Sunday

top o' the waterfall

why we wonder whether to go on or go back...

the trail and the mountains

the second of the Hamilton Lakes

the largest tree (by volume) in the world!

the girlses!

lunch stop on the way down Monday

mountain men

last stop before the final descent - we should get points for the smiles!

the sign says: Hamilton Lakes, 17 miles. So a 34-mile trip?!

more pictures here (Tammy and Justin's cameras) and here (Angela's camera)

Ravi. Not dead.

In early June, Tom, Ravi, Tammy and I found ourselves in Madison's REI. Ravi and Tammy supposedly came along for the fun of it, but I kind of think there was more to it than that. No sooner did Tom and I turn around than Tammy had Ravi talked into a new backpack! Well, that was no good by itself, so I of course had to make sure he had backpacking-worthy shoes to go with it. And there we were. Ravi all dressed up and no where to backpack. So this past weekend Jeremiah, Jody, Ana, Tom and I put our personal preferences for comfort and air conditioning aside to head to one of our favorite backpacking locations, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in northern Michigan. I know, heroic and self-sacrificing, right?

Car stuck "in a doughnut area"

I'm pretty sure we had him nervous right from the start. We were supposed to meet Ana at our camp site Thurs night, and somehow ended up in a town on the wrong side of Munising, wandering around darkened streets filled with Christmas shops and north pole-themed street names. For real. Once we made it back to the other of Munising, we found ourselves driving around an ATV track in the middle of the night in the midst of a group of long-abandoned camp sites. They looked close enough to the real deal but Jeremiah, who was driving (and whose car we were beating on dirt trails), really didn't think an ATV track was compatible with campground sites. Finally, he peered ahead, motioned, and exclaimed to us all, "you guys! This is a doughnut area!" K, maybe you had to be there. But "This is a doughnut area!" became our rallying cry for the rest of the weekend. Ravi suggested calling Ana and asking her to set off a flare so we could find her in the dark, right about the time Jeremiah's car got stuck in the sand. We all got out and he was eventually able to drive forward and we made it to our site, no flares required. I'm guessing Ravi was by this point becoming pretty dang apprehensive about our ability to navigate the wilderness on foot when we clearly had so much trouble with wheels and not one, but TWO functioning GPS devices on board.

Jody, Jeremiah, Ravi, Tom, me, Ana

Friday we got trail passes, had a lovely breakfast in Munising, and repaired a tent (yes, the "boy" tent. The girl tent was fine. I'm sure Ravi wasn't worried at all about the tent ripping open in the middle of a thunderstorm.) while Ana and Jeremiah dropped a car ahead on the trail. And then we were off! And it was simply beautiful. Tom and I were the only ones who had been there before - and the last time had been quite a bit more foggy. So it really was just fabulous to be there and on the trail. Check out the pictures if you don't believe me! Jody and Ana kept us amused with stories on the trail, Ravi told us stories of a previous camping trip gone wrong, and Jeremiah alternated between making insightful comments and wishing Christy (his fiancee) was there with us.

By the end of the day, it became clear that things were going just a little too well. Since Ravi didn't show any particular signs of impending injury, and since something dramatic needed to happen at some point, Tom decided to take the fall for us all. Literally. We had decided to hang out/cook supper on the stone slab shore and as Tom waded out with his cool camera for a good sunset shot, he slipped and fell. His goal of keeping the camera dry was met, for the most part. However, he sacrificed his elbow in the process. Ravi took a look, saw bone, and referred it to the rest of us. Thankfully, Jody's had some training in backcountry first aid, so with Ravi and Ana running back to the camp site for first aid stuff and the rest of us helping however we could, we got him patched up well enough to stop the bleeding. For the rest of the trip, he tried with varying levels of success to keep it dry, clean, elevated, and from getting bumped. He ended up going to the doctor on Monday where they immediately gave him a tetanus shot and put him on antibiotics. And there - we hope - that part of the story ends. :( Because I'm his girlfriend and I'm writing this :) I get the prerogative to say that I was impressed with how little he complained - between that and several other injuries, he really had grounds for it!

move along, move along... nothign to see here!

Indian Pipe!

Saturday dawned as beautifully as Friday had. We had 10 miles to cover, which didn't seem like much at the outset (it never does), so we had a leisurely pancake breakfast and then set out. Have I mentioned that the Pictured Rocks are just incredibly beautiful? The pictures capture it to some extent, but Ravi and I talked about the fact that there just isn't a way to capture the stillness and the sound of water and the pulsing beauty of it all. At one point we were bumbling along the trail and I noticed something white. I paused to look closer and about fell over with excitement. I had found Indian Pipe, a rare flower that grows in the region but that I had yet to discover on my own. Indian Pipe is cool - it's truly a flower, not a fungus, but you wouldn't know it to look at it, since it doesn't have or use chlorophyl. Ravi's camera can take 3D pictures, and if the blogger technology supported it, I'd post it here. Even in 2D, it's still pretty stink in' cool, hey?!

While I was getting excited about wildflowers, Tom was developing new economic theories. He and Jeremiah hashed through possiblities of eliminating the public sale of stocks and turning all companies into consumer-driven cooperatives. Toward the end of the day's hike, Ravi had yet to be seriously fearful for his life, so it was time to take things up a notch. There's a great swimming hole along the path, where you can jump off the rock into the clear cold water. Never mind that Ravi can't swim: we all were jumping, so Ravi had to too! And he didn't die! We played around in the water and on the rocks for more than an hour, soaking up the sun and the beauty before heading back to the trail for the days last stretch.

Jody giving Ravi impromptu swimming lessons

We wound up the day near a more sandy beach (much easier on elbows). While a few evil stable flies did show up just to make sure we knew there were problems and troubles in the world, we really had a lovely evening. The sun set beautifully and we watched it sink into the water hugging our backpacking meals and just being glad to be alive.

Sunday morning started hot, and got warmer and muggier from there. Jody, Ana and Ravi were smart and started the morning in the water, but after a while even that didn't keep every one of us from getting sweaty and just a teensy bit miserable. Finally! A day for Ravi to give up on backpacking as a valid form of entertainment. Only it didn't work. Even after taking a wrong turn and fighting off bugs and dropping stuff and Ana dropping her pack to run back for it and leaving beautiful Lake Superior for woodland trail, Ravi was STILL smiling! It was a little eerie. I think we were all glad to finally reach the car and the beautiful air conditioning, but Ravi's final, parting comment was, "so, can we go next weekend too?"

still smiling!

Hmm - it's really tempting!