La Grosse Vie Sale

Day 7: Solvang to Santa Barbara (22 miles)

2010-10-02T18:36:00.001-07:00

The problem with biking through wine country is the ever present temptation to sample a bit too much of the local offerings before, during, and after dinner and to forget that we still have to get on our bikes the next day.

We had the option to sleep in this morning and to explore Solvang a bit before starting our ride. At 11:00, a bus pulled up to shuttle all of us mid-way to Santa Barbara. It seems that a cyclist was recently involved in a fatal accident on the busy, mostly shoulderless road between Solvang and Santa Barbara, and our tour guides wanted to keep us safe. But they weren’t counting on many of us nearly having a heart attack on the long, steep climb up to the lunch spot.

Wine headache + long climb = bad idea.

Luckily, the views from the top were spectacular and we almost forgot all about the pain of getting up there. The road followed the backbone of the mountain range, and we had sweeping views of the hills on our left and the ocean on our right. After a picnic lunch at the summit, we descended into beautiful Santa Barbara for one last night with our cross country crew. We even stayed at the same hotel where we began our American odyssey three years ago.

After our last goodbyes on Sunday morning, Ed and I hopped into the Cirrus that was waiting for us at the Santa Barbara airport. (Ed flew it down last week.) We’re now on our way home, trying to spot the roads below us that we conquered along the coast and in the hills.

And now we’ve reached that sweet moment after a bike trip when we’re both basking in the memories and satisfaction of completing a journey and starting to think about where our next adventure will take us...

Day 6: Avila Beach to Solvang (80 miles)

2010-10-01T18:29:00.000-07:00

What a great day of riding. It was a true Central Coast kind of day. We began the chilly morning with light showers and fog, then the sun took over and the heat really hit us on our last climb of the day.

I (Nancy) was true to my convictions—I don’t ride in the cold rain. (The warm rain in Maui is entirely different.) So I followed a handful of people to the vans and we shuttled 20 miles south over some hills where the weather was clear. Ed soldiered through it, though, and he had the mud tracks on his bike, shorts and jersey to prove it!

We rode by this cute little seaside town that was shrouded in fog, and we saw a huge rocky hill jutting out of the sea near the marina. It was spooky—it appeared out of nowhere in the mist. We were told it was the remnants of a volcano, but it looked like a meteor had smashed down into the ocean.

The group stopped for lunch at a strip mall with some healthy food options, but Ed honed in on the pizza place right away. It’s like he’s got some sort of pizza radar. So me and Ed went to “Me & Ed’s” pizzeria for lunch. With a name like that, how could we not go?

The afternoon was spent mostly going up and down hills in the Central Coast wine country. We passed the Fess Parker winery and stopped for drinks and snacks at the Zaca Mesa winery. We didn’t get to sample the wines, sadly, or we wouldn’t have made it to the rest of the way to hotel at all.

Our stop tonight is in Solvang, a cute little Danish-themed wine town with lots of windmills, bakeries, and tasting rooms. Every thing seems to be called “The Old Copenhagen.” Our hotel is really nice and air conditioned, and Ed and I will definitely be back here for a long weekend sometime.

One more ride left!

Day 5: Cambria to Avila Beach (40 miles)

2010-09-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

Day 4: Big Sur to Cambria (75 miles)

2010-09-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

Glorious. That's what today was. Just glorious. Perfect weather, gorgeous scenery, empty roads and lots of time to enjoy the surroundings and take photographs. This area is so exceptionally beautiful. It's a bit like the Amalfi coast minus the cute seaside towns, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and giant tour buses. As the local newspaper puts it, Big Sur is "The Greatest Meeting of Land and Sea."

We had the hills on one side and the sea on the other, with Highway 1 weaving its way between them. Up and down, up and down, with the smell of the sea in the air until the road was swallowed up by the redwood forests. The road isn't easy, but the scenery took our minds off of our quads and tickers. Shortly before arriving in Cambria, we passed Heart Castle up in the hills and then went through the tiny town of San Simeon. There was a mission in San Simeon, and the buildings there are all Spanish-style white with terra cotta roofs.

It sounds like our group is really enjoying this trip (and some are perhaps a little envious that we get to call California home...). To be fair, the weather has been exceptionally good and isn't always this cooperative along the coast. We're here with Undiscovered Country Tours, with whom Ed and I did a Death Ride training camp at Lake Tahoe in June, and they're doing a spectacular job supporting this motley crew of cyclists. The owners, Terry and Mary, are guiding this week with Scott and Brennan. They've been great at adapting to all of our quirks, personalities and preferences. And they stocked the vans with chocolate milk! =)

Day 3: Monterey to Big Sur (42 miles)

2010-09-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous ride (again) today. We started by riding along 17 Mile Drive, a private road that runs through the Pebble Beach golf course. Nancy was fortunate enough to spot numerous houses that wouldn't be terrible to live in, if I happened to buy one of them for her.

After 17 Mile Drive, we passed through Carmel, another ritzy beachside community. Apparently the powers-that-be in Carmel are dog lovers, and dogs are free to play off-leash on the beach. Kula will definitely be getting a play-date in Carmel. Notice how Kula gets appeased with beach time before Nancy is with a home purchase. Shows where my priorities lie. After all, Nancy is much less likely to chew up my shoes.

South of Carmel, we entered Big Sur. It's hard to tell what makes Big Sur different from the rest of the coastline, but the cliffs are a bit rockier, the redwood trees a bit woodier, and the crashing waves below are just a bit wavier. Put it all together, and it's a beautiful landscape for riding.

We're staying at the Big Sur Lodge tonight. It's a rustic place in the middle of a redwood forest.

Day 2: Pescadero to Monterey, 76 miles

2010-09-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

Coastline!

Today we followed Highway 1 straight down to Santa Cruz. As we rode the coastal road through town, looking over the cliffs, the sea was littered with surfers riding some pretty hefty waves.

After Santa Cruz, we passed through the beachside towns of Capitola and Aptos, followed by the lush farmlands of the central coast. True to form, many of the fields we staffed by migrant workers, doing the jobs Americans don't want. Just as the air at the coast was filled with the smell of the sea, the air here was thick with the scent of strawberries.

A few miles outside Monterey, we picked up a coastal bike trail that continued all the way through Cannery Row. We passed by creatively named towns such as "Seaside", "Marina", and "Sand City". The bike trail went right past the Naval Postgraduate School, though it was filled with runners in Army t-shirts. Perhaps a turf war is brewing in Monterey?

Today's ride didn't have the big hills of day 1, but it was still a long and sunny day. Many of us finished with rosy sunburns. Our hotel is right on Cannery Row, a stone's throw from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It would be nice to stay here for an extra day; the aquarium is a lot of fun. The main draw is that it's a habitat for the rare "friendly" sea otter. Most otters, as everyone knows, are quite vicious.

Day 1: Mill Valley to Pescadero, 80 miles

2010-09-27T07:12:00.000-07:00

Sausalito Waterfront

The night before we started riding, we met up with our cross-country friends at a hotel in Mill Valley, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. As we got reacquainted with our friends, the main question everyone was asking was: have you been riding much? Most people admitted they hadn't been riding. Nancy and I have been pretty active on our bikes this summer. One of the guys confessed that he'd been riding like a madman, and had just won the Arizona state time trial championships, and took second in Colorado! So now we knew which wheel to follow.

Approaching the Golden Gate Bridge from the North

After riding along a really busy bike path in Mill Valley, we passed through the too-cute seaside town of Sausalito, followed by crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. We then had to take the obligatory group photo on the bridge. The conditions were perfect, in that they were typical and very representative of San Francisco: blue skies north of the Golden Gate, and then fog all the way until south of Pacifica (where the sun goes to die). There was actually a "Fog Festival" going on in Pacifica as we rolled through!

Our very fit group

We biked along Skyline, and found ourselves on part of our regular rides. After lunch, we descended towards the ocean and got back on Highway 1 and rode down to Pescadero, but not before passing our favorite general store in San Gregorio, near the ocean. It had its classic Sunday afternoon country band playing and an assortment of old drunk or stoned hippies standing around. Ah, California.

It was nice to get to our hotel in Pescadero and chill out for the rest of the evening. Everyone was happy to see all those hills behind us and a relatively flat day coming next. Next stop: Monterey!

The happy Karrelses setting off on yet another biking adventure

California Dreamin'

2010-09-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

On the road again!

Ed and I are about to start another biking adventure with about 20 cycling friends from our cross-USA honeymoon bike trip. Thankfully, this will be a much shorter trip with fewer miles to cover. We'll be biking down the California coast this week from Sausalito (Mill Valley, to be more precise) to Santa Barbara and covering 40-85 miles each day. If you've read our cross country trip blog, Road Trip for Slackers, you'll know that these are relatively comfortable distances. Instead of keeping our heads down and hammering at the pedals, we'll have time to enjoy the scenery and to catch up with everyone.

The trip starts with a fantastic experience. We'll be crossing the Golden Gate bridge on our bikes soon after leaving our hotel. (Is it cheesy that I've lived here for 4 years and still get excited when I cross the Golden Gate?) The first leg of the trip will take us very close to our house, on a road that we often bike. After Day 1, though, it's all new country.

Hope you can join us for the ride!

Puppypuppypuppypuppypuppy

2010-02-03T02:45:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy start to 2010. After getting back from Hawaii, we started getting ready for the arrival of our little bundle of joy: a 7-week-old chocolate Lab Retriever puppy that we named Kula. We like to think that we strive to be well-rounded people, but we've been entirely consumed with playing with, feeding, training, walking, laughing at, and going gaga over our chocolate meatball (so named by our 3-year-old nephew Jimmy) for the past 2 weeks.

Otherwise known as Kuls, Kula Kahlua, Kula Colada, Chocolate Sausage, and Little Stinker, at 9 weeks old, Kula's already been out for a puppy social, a walk at the mall, and a flight in Ed's plane. She's a popular little pup-- those sad green eyes make everyone rush to pet her and oooh and ahhh over her. I hope she doesn't let it all go to her head.

We can't do a whole lot with her until she's 16 weeks old and immune to parvovirus, so we're hoping to teach Kula to swim in the pool in the coming weeks to give her a bit more exercise (and, quite frankly, to exhaust her so that we can get our lives back). She's not the sharpest tool in the shed, as she shows us every day with some silly thing or another, but that just makes her funnier to watch.

When she grows up, Kula hopes to resolve world hunger and be an L.L. Bean model. In the meantime, she's happiest chewing paper towels.

Merry Christmas from the Islands!

2009-12-25T20:09:00.001-08:00

(In case you're wondering, we are wearing swimsuits!)

Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka!

It was a perfect Christmas day on Maui: warm temperatures, a bike ride to the Four Seasons for breakfast, some down time with Jack Bauer, a bit of Guitar Hero, a lunch of lobster salad and sushi and tropical beverages, then some beach time and a gorgeous sunset from our balcony. Basically-- a typical day in Hawaii!

Happy holidays!

Lanai Vacation

2009-12-19T22:40:00.000-08:00

La Vie en Rose

2009-11-26T22:15:00.000-08:00

If you thought the Royal Hawaiian (a.k.a the "Pink Palace) on Waikiki Beach was as pink as it gets, you're about to be royally disappointed. Or amused. We just spent the night at a hotel in San Luis Obispo that looks like it was decorated by someone possessed simultaneously by a 4-year-old girl, a 90-year old English spinster, and a Las Vegas madam. Welcome to the Madonna Inn, where every night is an adventure. Each of the rooms in the 50-year-old, pink-themed hotel is decorated uniquely, so each visit will provide a different... um... sensory experience.

A small taste of our new favorite hotel:

Our room, the "Love Nest."
(We didn't request it. It was assigned. How did they know?)

We had our own turret! And pink shag carpeting throughout!

The spiral staircase was in the middle of the room.

No hotel is complete without a pink lamp post

Treats from the bakery

We had a really, really great time. The restaurant had good food and really great service-- even on Thanksgiving day-- and we brought home a couple of pink souvenirs. The pink icing on the cake, though, was learning that an episode of The Girls Next Door, the so-called "reality" show about Hugh Hefner's Playboy bunny girlfriends, shot an episode at the Madonna Inn. Pause it when she says "a pink room" at 0:43 -- they show our room.

We'll most definitely be back. The next room we want is the caveman room. Less flowers, more zebra print. Equally seizure-inducing.

Vancouver and Victoria

2009-09-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

First Nations totem poles in Stanley Park

Ed and I have a running joke that he never takes me anywhere. This is a bit of a stretch, as you'll know if you've read any other part of this blog, as my wonderful husband manages to sweep me off my feet and fly/drive/bike me out to a fabulous location on a pretty regular basis-- yes, I am spoiled, spoiled girl. But the gag is that I'll ask him, "Hey, you wanna go to (fill in the blank)?" and he'll reply "Sure!" To which I respond, "You never take me anywhere." Or else we'll be standing at the top of the Eiffel tower, or flying over Mount Rushmore, and he'll say, "It's a shame I never take you anywhere." The longest-running of these exchanges has been about Vancouver. I've never been to Western Canada (gasp!), but Ed's been there, he liked it, and he wanted to go back.

Harbor near downtown Vancouver

So we finally went to Vancouver and Victoria this week, and it was awesome! The flight up the coast in the Cirrus was kind of cool-- we got to see the tops of Mount St. Helens and Mount Lassen in the distance-- but we couldn't fly up along the coast or see much below us because of that lovely northern coastal weather. But it was a smooth, fast 4-hour flight into Vancouver, where Ed once again proved his mettle by flying IFR into a class Bravo airport between jumbo jets, with instructions from the controllers flying at him every couple of seconds. He was so ridiculously calm and collected-- and landed one of the smoothest greasers of a landing in the history of flight, despite it being too cloudy and rainy to even see the end of the runway. Nice way to start the holiday!

Girl in a Wetsuit sculpture in Stanley Park

As expected, we got quite a bit of rain while we were in Vancouver, but managed to get one beautiful morning to ride around Stanley Park on our folding bikes. We saw the totem poles (and the crowds pouring from tour buses to see them) and really enjoyed our ride around the park in the sun. The outer marinas were so picturesque. And we were lucky enough for the sun to last into the afternoon so we could take a short ferry ride over to Granville Island to see the market.

Cute little houseboats on Granville Island, with the city in back

One thing that struck us about Vancouver, besides the neat blue-glass architecture, was the crazy number of Prius taxis. Vancouver has one of the biggest fleets of Prius taxis in North America.
They were everywhere. Cool!

Prius taxis

We also got to spend some time with my friend and former law school roommate, Erin, who lives just south of the city. She took us to a really great little tapas place called The Refinery, where I had some of the best smoked salmon I've ever had (locally fished and smoked, of course), and a surprising Moroccan-spiced lamb salami that we all fought over to get the last piece of. Vancouver didn't disappoint on the good eats front. Thanks for the visit and great restaurant pick, Erin!

Hanging out with Erin at The Refinery

Then it was off to Victoria for just one too-short day and night. We walked and biked around the city on Saturday morning, while I tried to accept that I could really like a place that was so darned cute. It's not as Victorian and British as some say it once was, but it's still a stunningly beautiful and quaint city. We were mostly in the tourist part, but still-- the gorgeous waterfront, the boats and float planes, the Fairmont Empress Hotel and its tea service... definitely the setting for a fairy tale. Ed, of course, liked the British candy shop best.

Victoria Marina

Ed on his folding bike, enjoying the view

We had to check out the beginning of the Trans- Canada Highway in Victoria. Ed made me watch a South Park episode about Canada in which the kids have to walk to Parliament Hill in Ottawa to meet with the Prime Minister, and the only way to get there is to "follow the only road." Because, as we all know, Canada has only one paved road. And our Parliament building is an igloo. In any case, if there WERE just one road, the T-Can would be it, and this is where it all begins (on the Western end, at least).

British Colombia Parliament House

Here's where it gets too cutesy in Victoria: How can I take seriously a Parliament that looks like a gingerbread house at night?

Float plane at Victoria Harbor

And now for the highlight of the trip: the 13-minute flight in the Cirrus from Victoria to Bellingham, WA was possibly the most beautiful flight I've ever been on (yes, even beating out Hawaii, the Alps, and the Grand Canyon). The islands between Vancouver Island and the mainland (including the San Juan Islands in the U.S.) are breathtaking on a crisp, clear day like the one we had. I could have flown over them all day. The seascape was enough to make Ed want to take float plane lessons in Vancouver just to hop around those islands.

View from the cockpit

Screen shot of the Cirrus' GPS. The magenta line is our route,
and the white plane shape in the middle of it is where we are.
We took off from Victoria International here.

What a fun trip! It's a shame my husband never takes me anywhere.

The Great Safari Adventure

2009-08-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

Ed has this shirt. It's a special shirt.

In my opinion, it's unbelievably tacky. In his opinion, it's amazingly stylish. When I first moved out to California and we were making room in the closet for my clothes, the shirt stopped me dead in my tracks. I had to touch it-- I mean, could this be real? I am by no means a model of fashionability (if that is indeed a word, which I sincerely doubt), but I had to step in and beg him not to wear it in public. Except maybe in Vegas.

Sure enough, he wears it each time we go to Sin City. I keep threatening to get a tacky cougar-print dress and wear it at the same time as him... and I finally did it on our most recent trip. Oh, the fun we had at other people's expense.

The offending shirt

The first night he wore it, I renewed my threat to wear a matching/clashing dress. (I should note here that I'm strictly a J. Crew kind of girl-- I can't pull off animal print at a Flintstones-themed party on Halloween.) Ed and I were enjoying some adult beverages at the Paris casino with our friends Kevin and Ann and their family when two extremely trashy, probably drunk women came up to Ed, reached over the balcony dividing our table from the casino aisle, and yelled, "We love your shirt! We want to get it for our husbands! Where did you get it?" Ed thought it was a compliment. (For the record, he bought the shirt in Las Vegas.)

Ann played along with Ed that night, wearing a cute zebra-like print dress:

Ed and Ann on night 1

After this apparent justification for Ed's claim that the shirt is stylish, I made true on my promise and bought a dress that would make any middle-aged cougar proud. And I bought it at a shop I am absolutely certain hookers shop at. Ed and I went out on the town with our friends a couple of nights later.

Cheetah shirt, meet cougar dress

Once again, Ann played along. (Her shirt has narrow swaths of animal print.)

The cougar, the cheetah, and the catwoman

Since we weren't drawing nearly enough attention to ourselves with our clashing animal-printed group (yes, that was sarcasm), we decided to stop everyone we saw on the strip who was wearing animal print clothing and get our picture taken with them. Here are some of our unsuspecting victims:

Interestingly, most of them were from abroad, where animal print seems to be the height of fashion. I can't wait to try our little stunt in Paris. The real Paris, not the casino.

Another reason to love Vegas

2009-07-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

They will put your fancy Belgian beer in an ice bucket under serviette:

Beach, Bikes, and More Wine

2009-06-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Ed and I flew down the coast on a beautiful summer day last week to explore a bit of Santa Barbara wine country. We haven't been to Santa Barbara in almost two years-- this is where our cross-country bike trip honeymoon began in 2007-- and we were lucky to get a room at the same beachside hotel we stayed at with our bike tour group.

We got there in the afternoon and took a long stroll down the boardwalk, being sure not to miss the great candy shop on the pier and stocking up on achingly sweet fudge. The beach was hopping, with lots of people sunbathing, running, and cycling. We rode our folding bikes along the beach road the next morning and re-lived a small part of our cross-country odyssey's first-day route, heading south from the boardwalk towards Los Angeles.

After breakfast, we drove our rental car up and through the hills to Santa Barbara wine country, more specifically to the town of Los Olivos. This is the part of the country that's depicted in the movie Sideways, and it's part of the Central Coast wine appellation. Unfortunately, we weren't wowed by most of the wine, and Santa Barbara wine country has a ways to go before measuring up to its big brothers further up the central coast in San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles. It tasted, well, young, which is to say that they haven't quite figured out how to grow, ferment, blend, and/or age wines in a way that's really pleasing to the palate. It tasted a bit like your Italian great uncle's basement wine-- it's not bad, it's just not great.

Ed's a bit less generous in his assessment: he thinks they have no business making wine there, and that Santa Barbara wine country is just there to appease Hollywood types who want their own wine country to travel up to on weekends because Napa is too far. Actually, what he said is that it's "like a Universal Studios set of Napa specially constructed for Hollywood types." Ouch.

One place where we did find pleasant wines was at the Consilience winery-- deeper, more complex, and just plain yummier than the others. Plus they had really cute photos of their black lab in the tasting room.

What I found most interesting about the region was that there were no vineyards to be found near the town of Los Olivos. Rather than vineyards dominating a landscape dotted with wineries, Los Olivos had two intersecting streets lined with tasting rooms for wineries that don't grow their own grapes. The wineries purchase their grapes from area vineyards and make their own blends. It's quite different from Napa, where most of the vineyards make their own wines. I can't say with certainty that what we tasted and saw are representative of the region, though, and more research may be needed for me to make a formal assessment... ;)

And here's one of Ed's highlights of the trip:

It's like an umbrella box, but it's for skateboards, and it's inside a beach side pizza parlor, across the street from a skate park. Kids can come in for a slice and "park" their boards in the box. One more reason for Ed to say, "I wish we had that when I was a little skater punk!"

Life in the Fast Lane

2009-06-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

Nancy and I went to Thunderhill Raceway for a day of driving without speed limits. I was driving the Cobra, Nancy the Mercedes. The event was organized by Hooked on Driving.

Thunderhill is a three hour drive from our house, and that's a long time in a car with no radio, cruise control, effective mufflers, or roof. Nancy was much more comfortable in the Benz. I offered to let her drive the Cobra for once, but she wisely declined.

There were four levels of drivers/cars at the track, from the beginners in group A to race-ready cars in group D. This was Nancy's first time, so she signed up for group A. I have been to this track a few times before, so I signed up for group C. When I got there, they had put me in group B, and I'm glad they did.

This was a group of hard core drivers. I'm a pretty good driver, and the Cobra is a heck of a car, but I was getting left in the dust in the B group. Nancy was getting lots of aggro from the drivers in the A group, because few of them were actually beginners, and they were getting frustrated by the slower cars. Also, a number of them were only in the A group because they hadn't signed up until the faster groups had already filled up.

At the track, we met up with our friend Chris, driving his M3. He's been to track events like this many times, and it shows in his driving skills. He blew by me a number of times.

For my first 20-minute session, I grabbed an instructor, because I hadn't been on the track in a few years, and this was my first time taking the Cobra on a track. His primary advice was not to worry about coming out of the corners too slowly--570hp would bring it back up to speed in a hurry. As I mentioned above, I got passed a fair amount by the more more experienced drivers, but it was a heck of a lot of fun. The Cobra just loves it on the track. Unfortunately, on hard right turns the left rear tire was rubbing against the wheel well, and I had to switch to the Mercedes for the rest of the day.

Here's me on turn 5 in the Benz.

If driving the Cobra is like being in a mosh pit at a rock concert, driving the Benz is like listening to Mozart in a La-Z-Boy. It's so quiet! I could hardly tell when I was giving it gas. The suspension is a lot softer too, but it still handled nicely.

Nancy surprised me in showing an interest in this event at all. Normally, she's the one asking me to slow down on the twisty roads. (I have noticed she does have a bit of a lead foot though). Being on the track was new to her, and she gave it a shot, but decided after a few sessions it wasn't for her.

Near the end of the day, when I was getting pretty comfortable with the Benz on the track, Nancy rode with me for a session. I didn't want to scare her, but I wanted to show her what it's really like to drive the track at speed. I flew through the turns, letting the speed pull the car to the outside after turn one, hanging on for dear life in turn two, sailing into the unknown on turn five, and flying through turn eight. She was a little excited, a little impressed, but mostly terrified.

A few people went off the track that day, but no major damage. Somehow a guy in an Audi TT went into the dirt inside turn two and pulled two tires off the rims. Other than that, the cars that left the asphalt just got a bit dusty, and more importantly, got razzed a bit by the other drivers.

Here's a video of me on turn 5. It looks quite stately from a distance, but in the car I assure you it's much more exciting.

Summer in Wine Country

2009-06-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of touring our own backyard, Ed and I drove up to Napa for our annual wine country getaway last week. (There's no reason for this easy trip to take place just once a year. I fully intend to remedy the situation.) The Napa Valley is just two hours from home by car, or a mere twenty minutes in the plane, so it's perfect for a quick overnight hop. We stayed at our favorite B&B, the Chanric Inn in Calistoga, where co-owner Ric cooked up a gorgeous breakfast of fresh banana walnut cake, poached egg over creamy truffled polenta, fresh OJ, and farmhouse cheese. My taste buds were tingling with pleasure. Ed was almost too distracted by Ric's sweet and incredibly well-behaved yellow Lab to notice that I booked in-house massages to ease us into a long, hard day of wine tasting.

Chateau Montelena

If you've seen the movie Bottle Shock, the building in the photo above should be familiar. It's the "chateau" at Chateau Montelena, and the winery has been getting a lot of publicity since the film (starring the wonderful Alan Rickman, otherwise known as Snape) came out last year. Here's the abbreviated version of the story: in 1976, an English wine shop owner in Paris decided to drum up publicity for his shop by hosting a taste-off between a small number of famous, well-respected French wines and an equal number of unknown American wines from the upcoming and unlikely wine producing region of Napa Valley. The judges were all French, and the tasting was blind. To everyone's shock, American wines won in both categories: Chateau Montelena's Chardonnay won in the whites, and Stag's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon won in the reds. The event became known as the Judgement of Paris, and a book was published about it in 2006. (The French are still in denial about the whole event.)

After learning about this wine in the class I took to pass the Certified Sommelier exam, I decided to push aside my preconceptions of California Chardonnay (i.e. oak bomb) and give it a shot-- and ended up loving the neutral oak, crisp Granny Smith, and luscious pear notes so much that we served it at our wedding in 2007. Last week's visit to the winery, and the accompanying tasting of Montelena's library wines, was the icing on the cake.

Fermentation tanks at Paraduxx

Ed and I also toured the Paraduxx winery on Silverado Trail. Ed discovered Paraduxx a couple of years ago with his mom, Connie, when they were touring the valley. He thought the super-cute duck artwork on a postage-stamp-shaped label was a dead giveaway that the winery spent too much time and money on graphic design at the expense of wine quality, but he was pleasantly surprised-- shocked, even-- when he realized that the wine was better than the label. Paraduxx makes almost exclusively red blends, and they put out a new blend featuring a whimsical duck label every year. We're hoping to collect the bottles, and we've got a nice line-up of 2002-2006 waiting to be enjoyed first and displayed later. (We buy wine to drink it. None of this vinegar museum business.)

We also stopped by Chandon, the sparkling wine cousin of Moet & Chandon's French Champagne operation. (We have to call it "sparking wine" rather than Champagne because it's not made in the Champage region of France, but it's essentially the same thing, with identical wine varietals and processes. And it's yummy.) We love their Etoile Rose, a dry pink bubbly.

My mission to return to Napa in less than a year was quickly accomplished-- just this past Monday, I got to spend the day touring wineries with my friend and former law school roommate, Erin, who was visiting from Vancouver. Ed flew us up, treating us to an amazing tour over San Francisco, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate bridge before a leisurely afternoon of tasting. We flew back over Sonoma Valley and got a stunning aerial view of the vineyards.

The smiles were only partly wine-induced

Our next task: working our way through some fantastic vino! I'd better get cooking.

The Sweetest Thing: Home

2009-05-18T20:55:00.000-07:00

Wow-- it's been quite a while since we updated this blog. I (Nancy) was in Paris for the winter, and Ed was in Wisconsin, so we didn't have many adventures together. But now we're back home in California, it's summer, and we're ready to let the good times roll again!

First on the agenda: spend a ton of time at home this summer. (We're loosely defining "home" as the entire state of California, plus Las Vegas, for our purposes.) We hope to get back into biking, do some running together, and explore the area around us a bit more. We're looking at making our way through the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma, kayaking near Marin, flying to Catalina Island, having dinner in LA, and gorging ourselves in Sin City. Oh, yes, and spending some time at our actual home. It's so good to be home.

2009-01-05T11:06:00.000-08:00

Nancy and I just arrived in Paris. In between jetlag-induced naps we've gone for a few walks around town. Here's the standard shot of a happy couple in front of a landmark, in this case, Notre Dame cathedral:

It doesn't snow often in Paris, but it did today. We both grew up in northern climates, so we are naturally excellent snowmen-makers.

We had a wonderful lunch at the Jules Verne restaurant, 1/2 way up the Eiffel Tower. It was crazy expensive, but the food was great. We didn't have much of a view, because the falling snow obscured everything.

Where to next?

2008-12-28T09:40:00.001-08:00

We've been mostly hanging around the house and getting grad school applications done for the past month, but we're about to embark on some new adventures very soon. Ed and I spent the holidays with my family in Montreal for a week and got to enjoy a chilly winter wonderland with my folks and friends. The snow was beautiful-- and endless-- and we were lucky to get in with relatively few flight delays. We had hoped to fly Ed's Cirrus across the country to visit his family and friends in Wisconsin for a week, and actually found a great day to fly despite the impending storms across the country-- but 30 minutes after takeoff, we noticed the engine sputtering as the plane gained altitude, so we had to land and have the problem fixed at Ed's shop over the course of the next day. Given all the bad weather and the time setback, we decided to fly commercial after all. I hope we'll be spending some time in the Midwest together soon, though.

For now, Ed and I have some exciting new things planned. Ed is going to be teaching a computer science class on parallel programming at his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, during the winter term. Brrr. I'll be fulfilling a long held dream of living in Paris while taking full-time cooking and pastry classes at the Ecole du Cordon Bleu cooking school (and I'll be writing all about it on my new blog, Tomato Sorbet). Ed and I are heading off to Paris early in the new year for some tasty meals and crisp winter walks, the Ed will come home to begin his winter in Wisconsin. He'll be living with our friend Adam, whose lovely wife, Oksana, will be visiting Saint Petersburg, Russia, with me in March before I come back stateside.

We're hoping to keep updating this blog occasionally. Ed can tell you all about the sunburn he'll get in Maui with his family over spring break while I happily freeze my buns off running all over Paris and hoping to burn off the chocolate croissants and pommes frites I ate.

We wish everyone a happy and healthy new year, and hope to see our friends and family again soon. Happy holidays, and welcome to 2009!

Morning on the Big Island

2008-11-20T22:06:00.000-08:00

This morning, we had the good fortune of going for a plane ride to the Big Island with a local Cirrus pilot and owner that Ed befriended through pilot channels. Lorne, who's from Toronto but has been on Maui for about twenty years, has a great job: he's a neurologist with offices on most of the Hawaiian islands, and he flies his own plane from island to island several days a week to see patients. He was kind enough to offer to take us along on one of his flights, and we got to fly in a Cirrus for the first time in Hawaii.

We took off from Kahului around 7:00 a.m. It was a beautiful, smooth flight, and we were happy to see that Lorne has every imaginable safety contraption for ditching (emergency landing in water): inflatable life vests with lights (to be spotted at night), flares, flashlights, inflatable raft, portable radio and GPS-- all waterproof, of course.

Lorne dropped us off at the Kona airport to go to work, and we rented a car to explore the island. We really wanted to see the active volcano spewing molten lava and ash, but didn't have enough time, since wheels up was at 1:30 p.m. So we explored a bit of Kona and saw lots of cyclists. We wondered if some were training for the Kona Ironman held here every year. This Ironman is sort of the Boston Marathon of Ironmans-- you need to qualify to get in, so the field is extremely elite-- and masochistic. It gets really hot on these roads, and there's nothing around but lava fields for miles and miles!

After a yummy breakfast of lemon ricotta pancakes, eggs, bacon and pure Kona coffee at the Four Seasons (the bacon here rivals the amazing bacon at the Wailea Four Seasons-- where do they get that wonderful stuff???), we explored the pristine waters of the area before heading upcountry to Waimea.

The land here is quite different from Maui. The lava fields that dominate the Kona area look less like freshly turned soil and more like slick, just-hardened lava deposits. It was nice to get out of the open fields and drive up to about 2500 feet where the temperature was cooler. We even got a tiny bit of rain and had to put the top back onto the convertible.

The Kona Ironman road-- with nice, wide shoulders for cycling

This island really is "The Big Island"-- there's so much to explore! Next time, we hope to fly into Hilo on the other side to explore the lusher face of the island as well as the volcanos.

Just Say No to Taro

2008-11-17T19:03:00.000-08:00

You've heard us rave about the wonderful fish, fresh pineapple, local coffee, and even the decent wine here on Maui. What you've never seen on our list is the stomach-turning local staple, poi. Hawaii's got some fantastic eats, but poi is not one of them.

Poi is a sort of mush, not unlike watery mashed potatoes, made of taro, a local plant like a sweet potato that Hawaiians cultivated for sustenance for hundreds of years. It resembles South American purple potatoes but is often cooked into a sweet, carb-heavy mush. Hence the sustenance. Now that there are dining choices aplenty on the island , taro and poi aren't necessary to the diet... but they're still around for us to gag on.

Ed and I tried poi at Mama's Fish House, that bastion of Hawaiian cuisine and melt-in-your-mouth ahi sashimi, and even there it provoked our gag reflex. Imagine our shock and curiosity when we heard a McDonald's ad on the radio for "Taro Pie." We had to see it for ourselves. I picked one up today and saw that it was packaged just like traditional McDonald's apple pie, in the little pillow cardboard box, and kept in a warming oven beside the apple pies. It even smelled like apple pie. I opened the box and broke the deep-fried pastry open to reveal... nasty purple goo. It was horrible looking. Like lumpy, glistening, lavender Play-Doe encased in a greasy, overcooked pastry shell. It tasted just as it looked, only sweeter. My guess on the ingredient list: a variety of corn-derived products, including partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, plus sugar, purple food coloring, and a bit of taro for the lumps.

The offending "food product"

A closer look at the purple goo

Yuck. I'll stick to the fresh tuna sashimi.

11/18/2008 Addendum: We just saw a commercial for the "Spam and Egg Breakfast" at Burger King on the Islands. Yup-- the stuff that comes in cans. They love it here.

Pearl Harbor

2008-11-16T10:39:00.000-08:00

Nancy and I went to Honolulu for a couple days this week. Compared to Maui, it's like Portola Valley compared to San Francisco. Honolulu is very "big city", with heavy traffic and bad neighborhoods.

We ate at Chef Mavro's, checking off another restaurant from our Top 40 list. It was great, but not in the same caliber of Joël Robuchon or Daniel.

We went for a nice walk by the old royal buildings:

The highlight of the visit was going to Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona memorial. For those who don't know, it was one of the battleships sunk in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. A lucky bomb hit its ammunition stores and sunk the ship in 7 minutes, taking 1177 sailors down with it.

What's cool about Maui

2008-11-11T21:11:00.000-08:00

There are some things that you just don't see everywhere. Like when I was driving down the main road close to the beach in Kihei yesterday and had to stop to allow what I'm pretty sure was a mama peacock and her four peacock babies to cross the road.

Then there's the palm tree trimmers. Our condo complex has gardeners who take care of the grounds, and every now and then they climb the palm trees to trim the leaves. I love watching them do it. They wear a harness around their waists that also wraps around the trunk of the tree, and then use crampons on their work boots to dig into the trunk as they climb up, shimmying the harness up the tree as they go. It's pretty amazing. Ed got a photo of someone up there today.

And there's the amazing bamboo forests we saw yesterday on the other side of the island near Hana. I've never seen anything like them! It felt like we were walking through a tunnel to the Emerald City. The biggest tress were about 3 inches across, and they made eerie sounds as they bumped and brushed against each other in the wind. I might have been spooked out if I was alone. It was really beautiful.

And then there's my favourite crazy beach, Hamoa Beach. Ed tried filming me to get a record of me either losing my top or drowning, but luckily neither happened. Just fast waves and momentary panic. That might be my little head bobbing around.

I love it. Maui rocks.

The dreaded Road to Hana

2008-11-10T08:07:00.000-08:00

Driving to Hana is a tourist tradition on Maui. It's a beautiful drive along the lush northern coast, with lots of waterfalls and flowers. We've never actually done it. We've bicycled to Hana and back a few times, but we've never taken a car. The road is very long, very narrow, and has a ton of traffic, mostly going slowly to check out the view.

There's also a southern road to get to Hana. It goes through a desolate part of the island, so tourists usually ignore it. We have wanted to try it out, but an earthquake in 2006 closed the road. The road just opened up again, so we finally had a chance to take the southern road.

The road starts really pretty, with gentle swooping turns going downhill, which are a lot of fun on a bike.

Then the road turns to crap. It's not unpaved; that would have been an improvement. It's patched over patches over patches. We tried biking this way once before, and we couldn't ride more than 20 feet of this badly paved stuff before turning around. In theory, the car has a suspension system and should handle it, right? Well, I don't know how much damage we did to the poor car, but there was 5 miles of this!

This bridge was brand new. It must be what was rebuilt to reopen the road after the earthquake.

We stopped at Charles Lindbergh's grave.

Just before Hana, by the "7 Sacred Pools" we went for a hike up to a waterfall. Here's us by a banyan tree.
We passed through a huge forest of bamboo trees. It was a bit spooky. I was expecting them to start closing in behind us.
And here's the waterfall at the end of the hike. It's 185 feet tall!
\

Shredding waves... er... sorta

2008-11-08T14:46:00.000-08:00

Ed and I are in Maui for a few weeks, just chilling out and trying to work on our grad school applications in between trips to the beach, chilling by the pool, and bike rides. Life here is rough.

We went for a surfing lesson with Goofy Foot surf school in Lahaina this morning. They were the first school we used back in 2006, and so far our favorite. We even had the same instructor as last time, Mark, a very laid-back surfer dude. The waves were small and friendly, and we had a really good time.

We quit after a couple of hours out there. Our puny biker arms and chest were killing! We have a lot of respect for surfers with muscular upper bodies who can paddle all day-- we got tired pretty quickly coming back in after catching waves. I need to do a whole lot more push-ups and rowing!

Ahh, good times. Aloha!

Getaway to Quebec City

2008-10-29T06:27:00.001-07:00

Nancy and I are in Montreal right now, visiting her parents. There's some oddly cold white stuff falling from the sky. Her parents insist it's normal, but I think something's wrong; cold white stuff never falls from the sky in California.

Since we're in the neighborhood, we drove up to Quebec City for a night. I've never been there, and it looks old and European so Nancy really digs it. "Everything's better in Europe!" The hotel, Chateau Frontenac, was awesome. It looks like a castle on the outside, but inside it's all flat-screen TV's and wireless Internet. The perfect combination. Plus, we were on the 14th floor, and there was a bar right on our floor!

This is the church where Nancy wanted to get married. I didn't find this out until a year and a half too late. It's the oldest church in Quebec.

Awwww...

2008-10-21T18:11:00.000-07:00

Ed and I took a quick trip out to Wisconsin and the Dominican Republic last week to attend two weddings on Ed's side that were scheduled two days apart.

We went to Bubba and Sara's "tailgate wedding" on Saturday near Oshkosh. I was hoping to finally experience my very first Wisconsin-style tailgate party, with pickups and drunken hooligans and all, but it was a fairly family-friendly affair with good company, yummy brats and burgers, every kind of beer you can imagine, and some of Ed's college classmates. Congratulations Sara and Bubba!

UW Oshkosh friends

Bubba picking on (or rather, picking up) Ed.

Wisconsin is always fun for me because it's this whole other planet than the one I've lived on most of my life. (I'm sure Ed feels the same way about Quebec.) Here's a few photos of what I mean:

In addition to posting fuel prices outside of gas stations, some places post cigarette prices. You know, so you can save up for your funeral.

I'd never seen an actual one of these-- Ed calls it "Fruit with Jello," but I've heard it called Jello salad-- anywhere except on The Wonder Years, so I assumed it was a culinary fad big in the sixties, like chicken liver aspic. It's brilliant, of course.

And you can't escape Packer madness. This is a display in a local drugstore.

Ahh, Wisconsin. Good times. The foliage was beautiful while we were there, and our friend Adam was nice enough to take us in yet again, as were Ed's mom Connie and stepdad Rob.

Then came Jeremy and Cary's wedding in the Dominican Republic. We flew out of Chicago and into warmer climes in Punta Cana for 3 days with Ed's family. Jeremy and Cary thought ahead and gave each guest a gift bag with some necessities, the most memorable being a 34 oz plastic mug to limit your time queuing up at the bar and to maximize your time enjoying an adult beverage in the pool. Congratulations Jeremy and Cary!

The bride and groom

Ed and his wonderful Granny Karrels. Every grandma should be like Agnes.

Ed and Uncle Joe with their high-volume Bubba Sport mugs

Another round in Vegas

2008-10-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

Ed and I went to Las Vegas this past weekend and decided to do something besides gorge ourselves at Nobu and Picasso (though that was great, too!).

The infamous animal print shirt. I tried to hide it, but it found its way to Vegas.

Hey, where else is he going to wear it?

Hoover Dam

We went out in the Cirrus on Monday and flew over the Hoover Dam and the northwest part of the Grand Canyon. We didn't get as far south and east as the South Rim, where we biked to and stayed overnight on our cross-country bike trip last year. The sky was really hazy, and we had the sun in our faces for the first half of the flight, so it didn't seem all that impressive-- until we turned around and the sun lit up the canyon in gorgeous red and gold tones.

Ed did some steep turns over the sights so we could see everything. We had to stay up above 8000' over the canyon to stay out of the no-fly zone (commercial operators can get closer). The photos don't do it justice because of the haze, but once I again, I was so awed that I had to ask, "Do people KNOW about this???"

Fun times in the plane

More photos from the Pyrenees bike trip

2008-09-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

The Vuelta a Espana rode through part of our course on day 7

We WISH we could have gotten some EPO for this trip...

This photo needs an explanation. After injuring himself in 2007, pro cyclist Stuart O'Grady and his CSC team started wearing black bracelets that read "HARDEN THE FUCK UP" to remind themselves not to be pussies when they were training and racing. The bracelets were, of course, inspired by those ever-present yellow Livestrong bracelets, only the message wasn't quite so positive. Ed thought they were hilarious, so I had a few dozen made up for him for Christmas, and we handed some out to our fellow cyclists on this trip. I'm not sure how much they helped, but they gave me a good laugh when I needed it most.

Pyrenees Day 9: Olot to Platja d'Aro

2008-09-09T01:35:00.000-07:00

116 kilometers, 1170 meters climbed

Last day!

Today was a quick ride to the coast, with a lunch stop in Girona. The first half of the day, into Girona, went very quickly. Partially because it was very flat, and partially because a couple of us felt like using up our remaining legs to hammer all the way into town.

Girona is the summer home of many current and former pro cyclists, including Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton, and of course Lance Armstrong. Most of us had not been to Girona, but we knew it was a big cyclist hangout, so we assumed it would be a tiny town in the middle of the mountains. Not so. It's a fairly big city 100km from the mountains. Maybe the cyclists are happy to ride to or drive to the mountains, but they can't live far from good coffee shops.

Speaking of Lance Armstrong, did you hear he's coming out of retirement? Now all his former teammates, who are capable of winning the big races themselves, will be forced to ride in support of him instead. I suspect this will be the start of a big clusterf***. Details on his un-retirement are supposed to be in next month's Vanity Fair magazine.

Since we hammered all the way to Girona, we had some time to kill before our lunch restaurant opened up. We walked around the old part of town, which is now part old-cathedral, part shopping district.

After lunch we took it a little easier and rode together, but only because the directions getting out of Girona were really complicated, and it's a lot easier to let our guide lead us than to actually read our route sheet.

There was one last climb before the coast, and at the top we had a basically finished mini-party.

Descending that hill we arrived at the Mediterranean. It was a lovely sight to see. We road 12km along a twisty cliffside road, which reminded Nancy and me of one of our favorite rides on Maui.

Our final destination was a nice hotel right on the water. We jumped in the sea and popped some champange corks to celebrate the conclusion of our trip. Like our cross country trip last year, it was a great sense of accomplishment, but unlike the cross country we ended feeling good and wanting more.

We're already making plans with the group to get together for a bike trip next year. The preliminary consensus seems to be New Zealand.

Pyrenees Day 8: Gosol to Olot

2008-09-07T08:58:00.000-07:00

98 km, 1167 m of climbing.

Early morning clouds over a mountain peak

Back to another beautiful day in the Pyrenees! The rain stopped overnight, and we woke up to a clear, brisk morning.

These last two days are a little easier than the first week of the trip, and it was nice to get out in good weather, knowing we could enjoy the entire day.

Sitting down for lunch with Warren and Terry

Our view from lunch-- not bad!

One of today's fun descents

The scenery was simply stunning. Green hills and valleys, nice and steady climbs, and fun descents. We rode almost all day on windy country roads with very little traffic, and stopped after 50 km for a long, leisurely Spanish-style lunch. (Unfortunately, we didn't observe the siesta custom afterwards.)

Here's the group enjoying some post-ride snacks at the hotel.

One more day to go!

Pyrenees Day 7: Sort to Gósol

2008-09-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

105 km, 2900 m of climbing

From our hotel room in Sort, we could see a road that appeared to be painted on the face of a cliff. "Wouldn't it be funny," we said to each other, "if our guides tried to get us to ride up that!"

Well, the joke was on us. Sure enough, this morning our guides said, "Ride that way!" pointing to the ludicrously steep hill. Plus, it was raining for the first time on the trip. We dutifully started pedaling uphill. Nancy put up with the rain and the cold for about five kilometers before the van came by and lured her inside. I pressed on. Yes, it was raining, and yes, it was somewhat cold, but while I was climbing I was warm enough even without a jacket.

I saw Nancy at the top, warm and happy in the van. She stepped out to give me a good luck kiss, but ran back into the van before she got too cold. Since the descent was guaranteed to be really darned cold, I put on all the cold weather gear I brought.

If you've been following our blog, you know that we went on a cycling trip through Alaska just before this trip. In Alaska we cycled through lots of cold rain, and we bought a ton of extra warm gear to make it survivable, if not enjoyable. We debated bringing all that gear to the Pyrenees. It was difficult to get weather reports for the Pyrenees, because the only settlements in the mountains are the ski resorts. That should have been a clue. In the end we decided to bring all our cold weather gear, with the theory that if and only if we brought it, we would not need it. That worked for six days, but now we needed it.

Appropriate bundled, I headed down the mountain to lunch. Our guides had found a very nice restaurant for us, and had even gotten the dress code temporarily expanded to include lycra.

The Vuelta a España (like the Tour de France bike race, but through Spain) was intersecting our course today, right by the lunch restaurant. We decided not to stick around to see it, because we would have had to wait quite a while, and the race would be going by on a flat section of road, so the pace would be high, and we wouldn't see much.

Once we had finished lunch, Nancy got back in the van, and I got back on my bike, but with dry socks Nancy loaned me. What a difference dry socks make! They only stayed dry for about 20 minutes, but it was a nice 20 minutes.

There were two more climbs left on the day. The first one was quite long, and I got a flat on the way. Not a big deal, but our bikes are only stocked with one spare tube, and I hadn't see anyone on that desolate road for over an hour. I fixed the flat and continued climbing, but I was starting to worry about getting stuck in the middle of nowhere if I flatted again.

Climb climb climb. Summit. Descent!

The descent wasn't nearly as much fun as it should have been, because that was when the rain really started coming down. I was looking for somewhere dry to take a break when I spotted three other people from our group hiding under a bus stop awning. They were cold and fed up, waiting for the van to pick them up, and I decided that was a great idea. So, I vanned it in the rest of the way, skipping the final climb. I was hoping to ride EFI (every fine inch) of this trip, but the rain broke my spirits.

Back at the hotel, it was warm and dry, and Nancy had brought our bags to the room already. Another hard day in the saddle finished.

Pyrenees Day 6: Luchon, France to Sort, Spain

2008-09-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

110 km, 2070 m of climbing.

Oufff. Today was supposed to be a little easier, what with the rest day and only 2 climbs to do. The day started off nicely enough, with cool and slightly overcast temperatures as we headed up the Col du Portillon, whose summit divides France and Spain. Reaching the top was a little anti-climactic: there were no markers for the pass or even to indicate that you're leaving one country and entering another. Ahh, the EU.

Ed has done Portillon before, but only after doing the 3 climbs we did on Day 4, all in one day. He found it much easier this time around, since it was the day's first climb. He also did it while chasing (and sticking with!) the fastest guy on our trip, Nate (also from Wisconsin). Ed says he paid for that effort for the rest of the day, but I'm sure his satisfaction will last even longer.

The second climb, Category 1-rated Port de la Bonaigua, was unremarkable. Ed and I stopped for lunch in a small bar halfway up and managed to order some sandwiches in spite of our non-existent knowledge of Catalan. (Much as I love that this trip takes place in 2 countries, I really hated losing the ability to communicate entirely as soon as we left France. The things you take for granted.)

The second half of today was supposed to be east-peasy: a 50km downhill into town and an afternoon of napping until our 9pm dinner (welcome to Spain!). But we didn't anticipate riding through construction zones and gravel for 20km, then getting attacked by nasty headwinds for the last 30km. That last part was technically downhill, but it felt like all uphill and took more out of me than actually climbing. Luckily for me, I have the best husband in the world, and he let me sit on his wheel the whole way in -- even though it looks like he's coming down with something and isn't feeling 100 percent. Having him slice the wind in half for me is what allowed me to survive out there today-- I'm still whupped, but I made it. Ed's tired but in a slightly better mood (as usual).

A word about Sort. It's supposed to be the luckiest town in Spain ("Sort" means "luck" in Catalan), with a record number of winning lottery tickets being purchased here. After walking around (unsuccessfully) to find a place to buy a snack before 8:30 pm, Ed and I have decided that Sort is the mullet capital of Europe. We saw at least 20 mullets on men, women and children in the span of 1 hour. It was truly amazing.

No photos today-- we both forgot the camera. The only thing we really wanted was a photo of spraypainted graffiti on the road up Portillon that said, "I love EPO. EPO forever."

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Pyrenees Day 5: Luchon - Luchon, 0 km, 0 meters climbed

2008-09-04T22:12:00.001-07:00

Rest Day!

We had a much deserved break today in the town of Luchon. It's the only town of significant size in the Pyrenees, which made it a nice place to stop. Our guides had put together a package of information on local activities, but nobody had the energy to do much.

A bunch of us went to the natural hot spring spa around which the town was formed. Nancy and I were too lazy to go. Everyone said the spa was "interesting". It was very regimented. You were assigned a schedule for the treatments you would receive, with no mention of selecting which treatments you would prefer. I don't know what women wore in the spa, but men were required to wear Speedo-type suits, because the spa people thought board-shorts style suits were unclean. If you didn't have a Speedo, they would rent you one, but they'd take one of your shoes as collateral. You did have the option of a massage or "The Shower". For "The Shower" you face a wall and spread 'em as a burly assistant hoses you down with a high-pressure sprayer.

Other than that it was a nice, relaxing day. Just what we needed.

Pyrenees Day 4: More Pics

2008-09-04T05:11:00.000-07:00

The descent from Tourmalet is one of my favorites of all time, and while I didn't want to stop to take photos, I did manage to get a few near the bottom.

2 out of 3 done for the day!

Ed said he saw what looked like an (unfortunately) dead horse at the top of one of the climbs. That image, and the fact that the mountaintop marker for our last climb, the Col de Peyresourde, looks like a grave marker, are both great metaphors for how we felt by the time we finished our ride yesterday.

Pyrenees Day 4: Pierrefitte-Nestalles to Luchon

2008-09-02T22:59:00.000-07:00

105 km, 3216 m of climbing

Today's stage was the "queen stage" of the trip, with the greatest elevation gain of any day this week. We went up the Col du Tourmalet, Col d'Aspin and Col de Peyresourde. It was challenging-- but we did pretty darned good! I thought the day was actually easier than Day 2, because even though the climbs were longer, the grades weren't as steep.

Once again, the temperature was perfect and the scenery was amazing. Tourmalet is one of the legendary climbs of the Tour de France, up there with Alpe d'Huez and Mont Ventoux. Ed's done it once or twice before, and the last time he did it, it was the first of four giant climbs that day; it's also the first climb I ever did in my life, back in 2004 (talk about baptism by fire!).

The evil road up the Col du Tourmalet

Though it was still difficult, this was by far the easiest it's ever been for me to get up Tourmalet-- probably because of the 3 previous days of climbing in my legs. For the first time ever, I really enjoyed it!

We saw at least a dozen other cyclists testing their legs on this epic climb

Like every day, the whole day was sent climbing and descending. We stopped for a late lunch after the second climb, and all they had left to serve us was steak and pasta-- not the lightest of lunches with another big mountain looming ahead. So we really struggled up the Peyresourde, lunch heavy in our bellies, dreaming of our rest day awaiting in the thermal spa town of Luchon. What a relief it was to check into our nice, modern hotel with wifi! Everyone's legs and butts can use the break.

Pyrenees Day 3: Cette-Eguyun to Pierrefitte-Nestalas

2008-09-02T13:15:00.000-07:00

104 km, 2760 mof climbing

Today was much more reasonable than yesterday. About 2/3 the climbing, and the hills were not nearly as steep.

The road we are on is not just the "Route of the Pyrenees", it's the

"Route of Cheese"

The picture of the road grades for the first climb were unfortunately
accurate. Only the last 4km were really painful, though.

In France they call cattle grates "Canadian Barriers". This one was staffed by a friendly Canadian to keep the cattle in line.

The second climb, Col d'Aubisque was longer, but had pretty reasonable grades. Plus, we stopped for lunch 4km from the top.

Pro-Floyd graffiti

Inside one of the covered sections (covered for snow in the winter) there was a bunch of graffiti, including a hard-to-read message in support of Floyd Landis, the American who won the Tour
de France in 2006. (Click on the photo to see the graffiti.)

After Floyd won the Tour, a French drug testing lab made up some bogus results claiming Floyd doped to win the Tour. Floyd put together a convincing defense, but was found guilty anyway and fined $100,000 for making public the sloppiness in the French lab's procedures.

Permanent fixtures celebrating the cycling history of Col d'Aubisque.

Nancy at the top.

We saw a cow plodding along near the top of Col de Soulor with her calf running after her like a wandering child. It was pretty cute.

Last climb of the day!

After Soulor we had a great descent and easy ride into the hotel. Tomorrow is the biggest day of the trip. Wish us luck!

Pyrenees Day 2: St. Jean Pied de Port to Cette-Eguyun

2008-09-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

107 km, 3200 meters of climbing

Today's ride was brutal. BRUTAL. I didn't think I was going to make it. The climbs were among the steepest I've ever done, with several consecutive kilometers at 11%-13% grades. I think Ed said it was like doing 3 Mount Diablos (about 3500 feet from base to top) in half of the mileage. Ouch. It took ALL DAY. First was the Cat 1 Col de Burdincurucheta, followed closely by the Cat 3 Col d'Iraty. They all sort of blurred into one endless grind. The last big climb was the HC (Hors Categorie-- too hard to classify!) pass of Col de Soudet.

Downhill-- the easy part of the day

Every mountain pass here is marked at every 1 km point with the distance left to the top and the average gradient for the next kilometer, for the information of cyclists on their way up. On Col de Soudet, the signs kept getting more and more depressing-- 12km to go, 10% over 1 km; 11 km to go, 13% over 1 km; and so on. The road just wouldn't let up. It was grueling.

So pretty, and so painful

Ed dressed up for the ride

The good news is, we survived the day and did the full ride. Barely.

On a happier note, the scenery was absolutely breathtaking (or at least it would have been if I'd had any breath to spare). Beautiful green mountains and valleys dotted with old brick houses and cute churches everywhere. Several times throughout the day, I got away from my pain enough to smile and say to myself, "THIS is why I ride." It was definitely all worth the effort.

Ed was convinced that this first cow was out to get him

Another thing that was memorable about the day was the sheer amount and variety of animals we saw. Our road was blocked at least once by each cows, sheep, and horses. The most striking part was when we got to the end of the second climb and saw a herd of cows beside us, grazing on the hillside. There were, like, fifty black flecks on hill behind them, and we soon realized they were vultures circling overhead, resting on the ground, and screeching with blood-curdling volume and pitch. Then we noticed what they were so excited about: they were feeding on a cow carcass that had once belonged to the herd of happy munchers right beside us. It was frightening and fascinating at the same time. Part of me was afraid they would try to go for one of the skinny cyclists in our group, but the vultures were happily distracted by their bovine prey.

All those grey lumps in the background are vultures. They were HUGE.

The vultures feeding away on the cow carcass. Poor fella.

Our hotel was in a beautiful location, perched in the mountains and with great views all around. I left dinner early to go to bed, thinking I would pass out and be too tired and sore to ride the next day. Ed was tired, but in better shape. After a good night's rest, though, we were both ready to take on Day 3.

Pyrenees Day 1: St. Jean de Luz to St. Jean Pied de Port

2008-08-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

75 km, 1347m of climbing (Yay! Metric!)

The group at our starting point in St. Jean de Luz

Yesterday was one of the most perfect days of riding in recent memory, where everything comes together just as we'd hoped. It was the anti-Alaska. We met our guides Shannon, Kathryn, and Gilles on the waterfront in St. Jean de Luz for a bike fitting, and that's also where we met the 7 new (non cross-country) members of our group, making it an even 16 guests plus 3 guides.

Ed at the top of one of the small climbs

We all took off around 12:30 for a beautiful afternoon of riding in the rolling foothills of the Pyrenees, where we spotted typical Basque homes nestled into the countryside, lots of happy cows, and a few horses. Gilles made us a fabulous Trek Travel style gourmet picnic lunch about halfway through, with local cheeses and sausages, salads, quiches, and gateau Basque ("Basque cake," a dense, almost cornmeal-y cake with either creamy custard or black cherry preserve filling).

Gilles showing off his picnic

Yesterday was the only "easy" day of the trip, with less mileage and climbing than any of the days to come. We did 2 Cat 3 climbs averaging less than 4 percent grade, and 1 Cat 4. They were gentle climbs and fast, fun descents where we had time to look around and enjoy the spectacular scenery. The temperature was perfect, hovering between 70 and 80, and shady on the climbs when we needed it to be cool. We rode through my very favourite Basque town, cute and tiny Ainhoa, where I had a bike trip based when I guided in 2006. We left France and entered Spain for about 25 km of the ride, and our "bonjour"s to local cyclists and pedestrians became "hola"s for a while.

Today's big climb done! Beautiful landscape behind us.

After the ride and a shower, the group all descended into town for some local wines and tapas before dinner, and Shannon gave us a small talk on how the rest of the trip will unfold. The two main things I got from it were 1) it's going to get much, much harder because we'll actually be entering the mountain range today, and 2) the scenery will get even more spectacular.

Our guides Kathryn, Shannon, and Gilles

*Sigh*

St. Jean Pied de Port

This is going to be a great trip! My quads hurt just thinking about it.

Sigh I love France

2008-08-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

We arrived in St-Jean-de-Luz on Friday after a short flight from London and a train ride from Biarritz. We checked into our hotel and just happened to run into "Texas Jerry" from our cross country trip. Jerry is the nicest man, and was everyone's cheerful motivator on last year's trip. He's back (and about 25 lbs lighter!) to take up his role again on this trip with his hearty shouts of "Woohoo!!! Its a beautiful day!!!" to keep us all happy. We had dinner with him and his lady friend at a Michelin 1-star here in town.

The Grande Plage ("Big Beach") in St-Jean-de-Luz

Yesterday was a wonderful, lazy day. Ed stayed in at our seaside hotel in the morning while I wandered around town, enjoying the local architecture, shops, and beaches. I love Basque homes-- they're traditionally painted white with red or green trim, and many of them have their own names painted on the front. The family names of Basques are linked to their homes, so that last names beginning with "Ixt" mean "House of" fill-in-the-blank.

I also went to the Saturday morning farmer's market to check out the yummy local sheep's milk cheese-- one of the things I was lo0king forward to most about this trip. If I'm going to bike my butt off, I'm going to reap some caloric benefits, too!

Tables and tables of cheese, oh my!

The best part of yesterday was meeting up with our fellow 2007 cross-countryers for dinner. Eight of us made it over for this trip-- a pretty good showing! We're all excited to get started on our new adventure, and our token "old guy," Terry, is already trash talking everyone. Ed and I gave out some bracelets we had made up last year that are just like the ones pro racer Stuart O'Grady gave out to his team, CSC. They're like the yellow LiveStrong bracelets, only they're black and say "HARDEN THE FUCK UP." It's motivation for when we're barely inching up a 16% grade and start feeling sorry for ourselves. =)

From left to right: Nancy, Ed, Terry (New York), Grace (New York), Steve (Calgary), Warren (Saskatoon), Pam & Jerry (Texas), and Hans (Vienna)

The trip begins later this morning, when we'll meet our guides, get fitted on bikes, and head out into the mountains!

Virgin Upper rocks!

2008-08-28T22:24:00.000-07:00

Chilling and enjoying some complimentary treats in the Virgin Upper lounge at SFO

We're in London now. There was a summer sale on Virgin Airlines, so we flew upper class out here. It was great! You have your own little cubbyhole, the bed lies flat, the video-on-demand thing had of 50 movies to watch, and the food was pretty good!

Once in London we walked about in a jetlagged daze until we could check into our hotel, and then took a nap so hard we may have been technically dead for a few minutes. Fortunately we woke up in time to see Wicked, the musical about the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz. Turns out she wasn't wicked, just misunderstood. Great show.

Today we'll catch a flight to Biarritz, then we'll be hanging out in Saint Jean de Luz for a day before we start biking.

Ed

My legs hurt just thinking about it

2008-08-27T02:39:00.000-07:00

Ed and I are heading to the Pyrenees today for a bike trip. The trip'll be run by Trek Travel and does the entire length of the Pyrenees from the Atlantic Ocean in Biarritz, France to the Mediterranean Sea in S'Agaro, Spain (near Barcelona). It's 8 days of riding in the mountains, plus one rest day in the middle. The climbing ranges from about 2,000 to 10,000 vertical feet per day.

I think it just might kill me. It was my idea. I'm an idiot sometimes.

Click here to see our itinerary.

What made this trip appealing to me is that it spends a good chunk of time in French Basque country (and a little bit of Spanish Basque country, plus Catalonia). I guided in the Pyrenees in 2004 and 2006 at the Tour de France, and fell in love with this little corner of France and its people. I didn't think I'd get to go back so soon, and so jumped on the opportunity. Ed wants to go because of the mountains-- this is serious climbing country, and it has determined many a Tour winner (and crushed the weak) in the past. It's where 5-time Spanish champ Miguel Indurain is from. Both Ed and I have done some of the climbs in the past, like the mighty Col du Tourmalet, but nowhere near this many of them or for this many days. He's there for the riding, I'm there for the culture. We'll both get a good dose of each.

Another great reason to do this trip is that it's a mini-reunion with some of our friends from our cross-country USA trip that we took last year for our honeymoon. Warren from Saskatoon, Grace and Terry from New York, and Hans from Vienna will be there. I suppose we're all suckers for punishment and yummy gateau Basque.

Ed and I will spend one day in London on each end of the trip, and hopefully see a couple of my friends from Montreal now living there.

Off we go again!

White Water Rafting

2008-08-22T23:02:00.000-07:00

Nancy and I went white water rafting on the South Fork of the American River today, starting near Lotus, California, halfway between Placerville and Auburn. It's also very close to Sutter's Mill, where the gold was discovered that started the gold rush of 1849. The trip was organized by a group of Canadian ex-pats who get together occasionally to reminisce about the Old Country and drink Moosehead.

Here's our boat, in the calm before the storm.

Smiling for the camera

Turns out Canadian geese are much like Canadian humans. They come down to the U.S. to visit and enjoy the nice weather, then they never leave.

Nancy rode on the front for one of the sections of rapids.

She didn't stay on the front for long.

We know when to pose for the camera.

There's at least half a dozen white water rafting companies in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Each of them has a very old school bus or two for ferrying passengers. Because of that, there's a cluster of people around this town who are experts at wrenching old buses. Unfortunately none of them were here today, because our bus wouldn't start, and we had to wait for alternate transportation at the end of the day.

Another beautiful day in California.

Some last photos of Alaska

2008-08-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

The Prince William Sound on the ferry ride between Valdez and Whittier:

Amazing chocolate "moose" from the Flying Machine restaurant in Anchorage:

Ed and his new moose buddy:

So long, Alaska

2008-08-15T04:45:00.000-07:00

It's over! We're back in sunny California.

As you can see, the weather finally opened up a bit on the last 2 days (it only poured rain for parts of those days). We got some great views, and Ed really enjoyed that last day. (By then, I was blowing the contents of my brain into a boxful of Kleenex and didn't give a flying f*%k how pretty it was.)

Ahhh, the adventure. It was neat and different, and we're glad we did it. Ed still wants to fly back in in his Cirrus with his dad. I told him he's on his own for that trip.

Hunting in Alaska

2008-08-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

Hi all, this is Ed. I finished my homework and can finally play on the computer.

In Alaska, hunting is very popular. Much like my home state of Wisconsin. But Alaskan hunters are not very particular.

In Alaska, road signs are in season 365 days a year, and there's no bag limit.

Alaska Bike Trip, Day 4

2008-08-09T22:22:00.000-07:00

Another balmy 43 degree morning in Fairbanks. We are so ready to go home to some California sun. We escaped the rain again today, a least, and *gasp* had a few minutes of sunlight and glimpses of blue sky! It's still pretty grey and dingy out, though, and the sights are limited by all the low-hanging clouds. We saw some moose hanging out by the side of the road on our way to dinner. That was pretty much the highlight of the day.

Oh, and we got to climb some massive hills (lol-- about 350 feet each, for a total of about 1000 feet). The Pyrenees are going to hurt even more after this.

The day started with a group trip to a sporting goods shop, where we all stocked up on winter cycling clothes... in August. Here's what I set off with today:

The abominable Alaska woman

Baselayer T-shirt, jersey, thick windproof jacket, armwarmers, bib cycling shorts, fleece-lined pants, wool socks, chemical toe warmer packets (like skiers use), neoprene booties, balaclava, and warm full-fingered gloves. It felt like I was wearing a wetsuit. Or a snowboarding outfit. At least I stayed warm-- as long as I kept pedaling.

You might be wondering, "Why isn't Ed posting on this blog anymore? I'm sick of reading about Nancy." Well, Ed's being a good boy. He's taking an operating systems class at Stanford this semester, and his last assignment is due in a couple of days. So every minute he's not on the bike, he's busy programming away. His final exam is next weekend, and after that he'll pay attention to me again. =) (Don't tell him I told you, but he's at the top of his class, so all his hard work is paying off.) He'll send some news when his class is over.

Alaska Bike Trip, Day 3

2008-08-08T23:51:00.000-07:00

No rain today, just very, very cold.

Finally! We saw mountains through the clouds!

One of the few patches of blue sky in the state

The great Alaska pipeline

Alaska Bike Trip, Day 2

2008-08-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

I'll begin with the fun part.

We started the day with a 50-mile shuttle to the beginning of our ride. On the way, a couple of us were looking out the window and spotted a BLACK BEAR a couple of hundred feet from the road, just hanging out on the hill rising from the roadside. Amazing and freaking scary!

About 20 miles into our ride, we came across cyclists coming from the opposite direction and telling us that someone had se en a grizzly bear in the area. For the first time ever, I was genuinely afraid that a bear would maul me to death on a bike ride. Ed and I rode in to lunch like we'd stolen something. No one ever did spot the grizzly, but it sure added excitement to the morning.

And now for the miserable part:

Alaska kind of sucks. This week, at least.

Today's ride was another 70 miles in rain and 46 degree temps. (What's that-- like, 8 Celsius? Yikes) It was awful. The clouds were so low that we mostly couldn't see anything besides the road under us, and we were frozen by lunchtime. I only stuck it out for the first half, and Ed made it 3/4 of the way before calling it a day. (Someone on the trip did spot a moose, though.)

It seems that Alaska is having a record-setting cold summer, and one of the top 10 rainiest summers in recorded history. Great timing for us. Ed and I left the hotel this morning wearing virtually all the cycling clothes we brought, including fleece-lined full-legged pants, earwarmers, rain jackets, wool socks and plastic baggies in our shoes-- but it wasn't enought to keep out the rain and cold. Ugh. Totally miserable.

Now we're in Tok for the night and expecting more of the same for tomorrow. Looks like it's 75 and sunny in Portola Valley...

Alaska Bike Trip, Day 1

2008-08-06T18:57:00.000-07:00

Rain, rain, go away.

Today's ride was about 70 miles, from Chickaloon to Glenallen. We were shuttled from Anchorage to Chickaloon and got to spend 2 quality hours in the van with our new best friends for the week. Nice bunch, as usual on these bike trips.

Smiling... before the rain begins

Then we took off on our bikes... and it rained pretty much the rest of the way, all in about 53 degree weather. Brrrr. We were soaked and freezing, even with warm layers and rain jackets on. What with the rain and low clouds blocking any views besides the road in front of us, Ed summed up the experience quite succinctly: "It's like biking in Wisconsin on a shitty day."

Being reasonable people (and fair-weather cyclists-- thank you, Silicon Valley!), Ed and I packed it in after about 35 miles and a lunch stop, along with a couple of other people. We're all hoping the weather picks up tomorrow, or it could be a looooong 8 days on the last frontier.

Ed and Jeff in Anchorage

On a good note, we had a nice introduction to Anchorage yesterday from our friend Jen's uncle, Jeff, who's lived here for more than 25 years. He and his wife are pilots, and fly a small single engine plane like Ed, so we had lots to talk about and to learn about the area. Thanks, Jeff!

Smiling with our new friend, the purple moose

No meese or bears sighted yet, but we're keeping our eyes open. Oh, and tonight we're staying at the Caribou Hotel. =) We have wireless here, which is amazing and wonderful.

(Yes, I know it's moose, but I like meese, so that's how it is.)

Drinkin' in LA

2008-08-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

I finally realized my dream of visiting the Getty Center in LA this past weekend. I drove down in the Prius (the whole trip cost less than $50 in gas! And that includes 2 days of driving around the urban sprawl!) because I wanted to see California between the Bay Area and LA-- now that's done and I never have to do it again. =) It was only a 5.5 hour drive each way, so pretty easy. I listened to an audiobook on the history of the Basque people on my way, to help me get ready for the Pyrenees bike trip next month.

The Getty Center was amazing. A. MA. ZING. The collection is sort of middling-- lots of second-rate artworks by first-rate artists. The curators admit how difficult it is for a relatively new museum (about 60 years, compared to the Met's 150 and the Louvre's 400) to acquire top pieces, even with a huge budget. They are entirely dependent on the market, and all they can do is be ready to swoop in when something good comes up for sale or auction.

So it wasn't the Getty's collection that was astounding. It was the building and the grounds. It is the most surprising, thoughtful, and comfortable museum space, architecture and landscaping I have ever seen. (And not for nothing... but I've seen a few of these things...) They used both flat white stones and textured white stones on the building, blending old and new looks in a timeless (yet very cutting-edge) design. I'll just keep saying the same thing: amazing.

Inside the museum (which is huge, even if the collection doesn't require it), natural light comes through the massive windows in the hallways between exhibition spaces. There are balconies where you can step out of the museum and have a quiet moment to yourself in the sunlight, overlooking the museum grounds or the smoggy city. (I hear it's a beautiful view on those odd days when the cityscape's not hidden by clouds or pollution.)

What I liked best are these small, private spaces in the museum where you can step off the main walkway and into your own little nook, sit down in a big leather chair, and take some quiet time. You're in the museum, but oddly and comfortably detached from it. I've never seen this idea executed so well before.

The landscaping is also spectacular, with sculpture gardens, grass, fountains, and space for family activities.

In the afternoon, I went to the Getty Villa in Malibu, which is where the Getty keeps its ancient Greek and Roman art. I'm not an ancient scholar, so I can't comment much on the collection, except to say that all I kept thinking about while looking at it was that THIS is the reason why the Getty Villa's curator, Marion True, is currently sitting in jail in Italy and standing trial for conspiring to loot ancient Roman artifacts to fill the Getty's showcases. Wow. What a story.

The Villa itself was interesting. It was built in the last 10 years and based on a real villa in Herculaneum, a city close to Pompeii that was also deluged by the smoke and ashes from Vesuvius' eruption. Nothing was spared in building the Villa: it's filled with marble everything, the most colorful and stunning marble you have ever seen. (Or at least that I've ever seen.) There are so many madly intricate details, like the floral patterns carved by hand into ceilings and tipped with gold leaf.

The inside walls of the courtyard are colorfully frescoed, and of course the floor here is marble, too. It was an impressive building, but, well, it was sort of Disneyland-ish. They tried to pick up all the elements of a 2500-year-old Roman country home and drop it on the beach in Malibu for tourists to see, just like Disney recreates a Pirate tale, with ships and rum barrels galore, for kids to experience in the middle of a theme park. I guess there's something to be said about context.

Wait, I take that back. It's not Disneyland-ish, it's LAS VEGAS-Y. It's like the Eiffel tower at Paris on the Strip. I like Vegas, and I like Paris... just not together. And that's exactly how I felt about the Getty Villa.

And then the tourist thing.. saw Rodeo Drive and wasn't tempted to help out the LA economy... refused to stand in line behind 100 people for a cupcake at Sprinkles (seriously, how good can they be?) and met Ed's stepsister Lisa, who lives in LA and works in TV production, for dinner in Santa Monica.

Next time, I'll drag Ed along so we can sample some of LA's fine dining...

Flying to Oshkosh

2008-07-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

I flew my plane to the EAA Airventure convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on Sunday. Here's a shot of the haze surrounding the Sierra's at 7am:

My first stop was in Thermopolis, Wyoming. It's a nice little airport with relatively cheap gas. There's an old guy in the office who eagerly answers any radio calls, and who hobbles out to help you pump your gas.

I went a little bit out of my way to see Devil's Tower. I remember my dad flying over it once when I was a kid.

Like most things that you haven't seen since you were a kid, I remember it being a lot bigger. Maybe my dad just flew a lot closer to it.

I was hoping to stop at the airport in Milbank, South Dakota for my second fuel stop, because the gas there was over a dollar cheaper than most airports. Unfortunately, just before I got there I heard on the radio that they had run out. Seems like a lot of people were stopping there on their way to Oshkosh.

My final leg took me across Minnesota and Wisconsin, just south of Minneapolis, north of Madison, and towards the bustling metropolis of Ripon. Ripon is where the arrival to Oshkosh begins.

Flying into Oshkosh during the convention is a big deal. For that week, Oshkosh is the busiest airport in the world. There's so much traffic, they ask everyone to turn off their transponders (used by radar to help see your plane) within 30 miles of Oshkosh, because the density of the traffic tends to freak out the air traffic control computers. So, after turning off your transponder and turning on your lights for better visibility, you make your way to Ripon, Wisconsin and fly northeast along the railroad tracks at 1800 feet doing 90 knots. If you see other traffic, just keep them in sight and do your best to stay separated. I didn't see anyone until I was right at the airport in Oshkosh. Here's a shot of the airport just before I landed:

Those splotches in the grass around the runway are all people who flew in and are camping next to their planes.

As soon I was near the airport, there were planes everywhere. Just before I turned toward the runway some taildragger came out of nowhere right in front of me. The controller told him to get out of the way, and had me land at the same time as a Cessna just a few hundred feet ahead of me. They've got large colored dots painted on the runway, and the controller had the Cessna land on the blue dot and me on the orange one. And that was it! I flew into Oshkosh! I parked my plane in the "North 40" and set up camp.

Not a total wimp yet

2008-07-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

I finally did the entire ride up the Haleakala volcano on Maui a couple of weeks ago, from sea level to over 10,000 feet. It's the most hellish single climb on earth (in my humble opinion) -- and quite possible the greatest elevation gain of any paved road in the world-- 10,000 feet of continuous climbing over 38 miles. So yeah, I get bragging rights.

Ed has done this climb a few times before. He's a rockstar. I've done it several times between 2000 and 7000 feet, and once from 2000 all the way to the top. But this time, I was on my own (no Ed to motivate me or force water and Powerbars down my throat) and determined to go the whole way from Paia.

Total time: 6 hours, 30 minutes. Ouch.

It was clouded in from about 5000' onwards and freezing at the top. I nearly stopped at the information center at 7000 because of the cold, and let's face it, I was tired, but another cyclist who did from about 2000'-7000' said, "If you started at the bottom, you have to go all the way to the top." So I did. Thank god for audiobooks and shammy cream.

Happily, a nice family from Michigan gave me a lift down to where it was sunny again in their SUV. After that, I hit the beach.

Surfing Video

2008-07-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

I went on an all-girls surfing retreat in Bali in April. Surf Goddess Retreats, the company running the trip, recently published a promo video, and I'm in it! You can see me at 1:45, wearing a sleeveless turquoise rash guard and white board shorts. I give the camera a shaka and then I fall over-- which petty much sums up my surfing skills: goof around then hit the water.

Check it out:

Vegas, Baby

2008-07-09T08:47:00.001-07:00

Sharkey at the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay

Cool fish. Probably dangerous.

Stingray pond. They actually let you put your hand in the water to pet them.

Ed petting the stingrays.

Alex Restaurant at the Wynn. YUUUUUUMMMMMMM.

Biking in Lake Tahoe

2008-07-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

We went for beautiful ride around Lake Tahoe yesterday with Ed's friend Ray and Ray's friend Chris. The last three times I've been to Tahoe, I was trying scary and/or painful things for the first time: snowboarding, mountain biking, and the Death Ride. So it was a treat to finally get to enjoy Tahoe with only a little suffering towards the end of the 75-mile ride.

Nancy and Ray

We started off at the airport in south Lake Tahoe after flying in around 11:00. We soon came upon the house that was used in The Godfather 2 as Michael Corleone's place where he celebrates his son's First Communion and gets his office shot up. You can see it if you look closely at the photo-- it's in the middle, behind the trees. It's built in the style of a traditional Scandinavian lodge, and it was a really cool thing to see.

The Tahoe House from The Godfather

Lake Tahoe, with the beautiful, snow-capped mountains in the background

We biked and we biked and we biked, up and down on the undulating road. There were some massive traffic congestions that stretched for miles on this 4th of July weekend, and we were happy to zip past everyone. It looked like the REM "Everybody Hurts" video, with ignitions killed and people out of their cars, milling around. We're lucky we avoided getting doored.

Bear family crossing? Unfortunately for Ed, we saw no bear cubs.

I started getting tired towards the end of the ride. (I've only been riding for about a month and a half, and spent the 6 months before that recovering from cross-country biking burnout.) Ed had two blowouts in the last 10 miles and I fell over onto the pavement when I wasn't paying attention to the road surface. It was time to go home and to reward ourselves with dinner at Michael Mina with newlywed friends Dave and May.

Ed on the road

All in all, a stunning ride with great weather!

How Ed is Getting into Heaven

2008-06-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

We recently returned from a 1-week trip to Wisconsin and Montreal to visit our friends and families. It was actually our "Christmas" trip, since we were grounded back in December. We flew out in the Cirrus, and had great weather most of the time in the air. First we stopped in northern Wisconsin, near Minneapolis, to visit Ed's sister, her husband, and their three great kids. I love spending time with all of them, and I especially like watching Ed cower when they try to crawl all over him (definitely NOT a kid-person!). Then we flew out to Montreal to see my folks and friends, and moved on to Ottawa to see my 5-months pregnant friend Chantale and her husband in their new home. After that it was off to Oshkosh, WI to see our friends Adam and Oksana, who are always amazing hosts. Finally, we moved on to Fort Atkinson, WI, to see Ed's family and our friends Bruce and Jana and their son Brennan.

The trip to Fort was strange and unbelievable. If you've seen the reports of flooding in the Midwest, you know what I'm talking about. From the air, the town looked like it had all these lakes scattered across it. Upon closer inspection, we noticed that some of the lakes had jungle-gyms and homes half-submerged in them, and that some roads suddenly dipped underwater. We took Bruce and Brennan for a morning flight over the city, and they pointed out all the places that were normally completely dry.

The most ironic thing we saw was that the Public Water Utility building was flooded to about waist-high. The scariest may have been going down the road that connects Fort Atkinson to Jefferson, where Ed's dad, stepmother, and grandmother live. The narrow stretch of road was lined with sandbags on either side, barely containing the floodwaters, some of which were seeping through at points.

This small land bridge between the towns is normally just a regular road on flat land. The waters were supposed to crest as we were leaving; we hope there's no more rain and lost of sunshine to dry up these uninvited urban lakes soon!

As for how Ed is getting into heaven... he bought his way in. I have the proof. A few years back, a wiring problem caused the pipe organ at Ed's family's church to catch fire. The organ was ruined. Ed donated a new pipe organ and asked that the attached plaque read "From the Karrels Family." But the church printed up that it was from Ed (see below). That's gotta get him through the pearly gates even if he hasn't attended church in years, and doesn't plan on going back anytime soon... I hope the absolution will transfer to me, too!

Mendocino

2008-06-11T15:07:00.001-07:00

Ed and I just celebrated our first wedding anniversary in beautiful Mendocino, on the Northern California coast. It's gorgeous up there-- waves crashing against the rocks, sheer cliffs, and pine forests all around. Did I mention the wind? Man, was it windy! And a little chilly... good excuse to use the in-room fireplace.

We flew in on Monday about an hour before the marine layer of clouds swallowed up the coast and the airport (good timing!). We brought our bikes, and borrowed a friend of Ed's car which he leaves in his hangar in Mendocino. On Tuesday, we went for a short ride up to Fort Bragg for lunch and battled strong headwinds to earn our meal. I haven't ridden in such strong winds since we were in Oklahoma last year, and almost forgot how hard they can be to push through. But then we had a nice tailwind back to the hotel and cruised in.

We're heading home to Wisconsin and Montreal to visit family and friends this Friday, and coming back the following weekend (around the 22nd). Then we both start classes at Stanford, which we're really excited about.

Tiger cubs at the zoo

2008-06-08T17:06:00.003-07:00

Nancy and I went to the San Francisco zoo today to see a trio of tiger cubs. They're three month old Sumatran tigers. They're so cute!

At last...the anti-Prius

2008-06-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

Nancy and I picked up my new car yesterday. It's a replica of a Shelby Cobra. It rocks. We picked it up in Reno, and drove the long way home, through the mountains, past the ski resorts south of Lake Tahoe.

For those that are interested, it's got a Roush 427 cubic inch, fuel-injected engine. It'll put out about 560hp. The body was made by Superformance, and the two were put together at Reno Engine & Drivetrain.

La Vita e Bella

2008-06-02T21:37:00.001-07:00

Ed and I just got back from 3 great weeks in Italy. We started in Rome, then rented a car and went to the Amalfi coast, Tuscany, Cinque Terre, and Trento.

Cinque Terre

Based in the small, quiet town of San Giovanni d'Asso in southern Tuscany for a week, we rented road bikes and rode all over wine country, up and through the Tuscan hill towns. We stopped for plenty of Brunello and olive oil tastings, of course!
I guided a tour in Tuscany a few years ago and knew we were in for some tough rides-- it sounds so quaint, but it's actually really challenging! We rode 70 km through Chianti one day, beginning and ending in beautiful Radda, and the ride felt more like 70 miles because of the constant hills. The vineyard vistas and food rewards made it all worthwhile, though.
Except for the bread, Tuscan food can be to die for-- the ultimate in comfort food. Ed and I biked up to Montalcino one morning and followed our noses to a small ristorante and enjoyed fresh egg tagliatelle with wild boar bolognese sauce and an inky dark glass of Brunello-- all at 11:00 a.m. Hard life. The restaurant at our hotel, the Locanda dell'Castello, served the best meals (with the best service) we had on our trip: great innovations based on traditional Tuscan specialties, like boar and roasts of other meats.

Doesn't he look hot in an apron?

Then there's the bread thing. We LOVE bread (who doesn't?). We salivate just thinking about the bread cart at Joel Rubichon in Las Vegas. But throughout Italy, we had trouble getting past the rock-hard, saltless bread-- how can they be so close to France and get it so wrong? I understand that it's made in the traditional style, but when the mammas have to come up with half a dozen soup recipes containing bread to do away with tooth-cracking leftovers, isn't it time to rethink the whole deal? We were happy enough to pass on the bread and eat more salty pecornio and prosciutto instead.

I was happy to finally see Amalfi, the land of limoncello and all things lemon. Lemon is to me what chocolate is to chocoholics-- I can't get enough of it in any form or variation. We had limoncello, limoncello cream, lemon white chocolate, lemon cookies, lemon pasta with shrimp, lemon candies... let's just say I won't be coming down with scurvy anytime soon.
This is the actual spot where we met in 2006, in Trento, near the Dolomites. We are soooo cheesey.

It was raining when we got to Trento, and rained for our entire 3 days there. Trento is where we met 2 years ago, and we had hoped to rent bikes to ride up Monte Bondone together. The rain and cold at the top of the mountain held us back, though we did go up in the car. As far as cycling goes, we only got a few days in. Now that we're back, though, it's time to start training for some late summer trips...