Phutu...one little tree at a time.

4/20/2004 I was over at my neighbor Shane's house watching him do some work on the floor in his kitchen this afternoon. He said that I seem to be spending a lot more time hiking lately than I am working on the house. I can't deny it. I want to get into shape so that when my summer vacation comes I can go on some really nice hikes up in the sierras.

On monday morning I picked up Dory from the airport and we wandered around the city a little. After a nice lunch at one of the restaurants in the Metreon we walked around Union square and proceeded to sit in the cafe at Borders for about two hours. I looked at a bunch of hiking books while we were there, one of which was all about the wilderness area that I visited last August (see the very bottom of the 8/13/2003 entry.) I was amazed that despite the entire book being devoted to this one area, which is admittedly the largest wilderness area in the state, it still didn't list even the trailhead that I visited. I would like to go back, but it is quite a bit further away than the majority of the sierra nevada, so I may put it off for another time.

Hiking seems to be the order of the day as Dory and I have decided that we will be taking a vacation toward the end of June up to the Canadian Rockies. Banff and Jasper are supposed to be quite spectacular places to visit, but they get really crowded in the summer. I hope to escape the crowds by having a stouter set of legs, and a stronger set of lungs than most. I called a hotel up there to make a reservation a few weeks ago, I was on hold for a couple minutes and then I asked just a few questions before hanging up and making the reservation via Expedia...good thing I didn't talk longer since I got our long distance bill soon after and found that Sprint had been charging me $1.25/minute.

Today Dory and I took Romi and set off early. Our first stop was our latest favorite breakfast spot. I was saying to Dory that I think I like eating out for breakfast more than any other meal. Somehow it seems so luxurious and eating out for other meals just seems ordinary. Anyway, I had some banana-walnut pancakes and fruit...quite good with real maple syrup. Our second stop was the Palace of The Legion of Honor for a look at the new Art Deco exhibit...Tuesdays are free admission to the museum but we still had to pay $7 each for the special exhibit. The whole idea of which really makes me a little annoyed. The exhibits in the rest of the museum never change...so they shouldn't charge extra for the new stuff, otherwise you would only ever have to come once to see the museum. Romi had to stay in the car unfortunately, but I did let him out to stretch his legs a little for a few minutes.

After the museum we headed over the Golden Gate Bridge to take a little hike in the area surrounding Mt. Tamalpais. Romi had a much better time there than at the museum. I was thrilled to see some native succulents that I had never seen in the wild before along with some really interesting moss. Some of the trees were really nice also. Hope you enjoy the photos.

3/28/2004
3/10/2004
2/10/2004
1/15/2004
12/26/2003
12/13/2003
11/18/2003
10/26/2003
10/13/2003
9/20/2003
9/14/2003
8/13/2003
7/29/2003
7/19/2003
7/8/2003
7/1/2003
6/3/2003
5/29/2003
4/22/2003
3/18/2003
2/27/2003
2/18/2003
2/15/2003
1/31/2003
1/21/2003
12/18/2002

The list grows ever longer.

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