Monday, May 31, 2010

Grand Canyon Detour - See you in 16 days!


Photos: Stevie and the Canyon Reo folks rigging our 20 ft. raft. Tree checking gear to make sure we have everything for 16 days. Tree packing the water filter.

Since we’ve been living on the road, life has felt right to me, like we’re living in the flow. I think it’s because we’re able to be flexible and respond to the moment that things just seem to fall into place better.

A couple days ago a BIG moment arose. On Friday Tree received a call from a Grand Canyon ranger. A 16 day permit was available starting on June 1st. Due to the extremely short notice, the ranger couldn’t find anyone who wanted the permit, and then Tree’s name came up. After we did the Grand Canyon last fall Tree told me that he really wanted to do a solo trip with just the two of us. His plan was to try and win a cancellation permit. We both knew that if we got one we’d probably only get 4-6 weeks of notice, but now here we were with a permit offer but only 3 ½ days to plan the entire trip!!! These trips usually take weeks if not months to plan and execute.

Immediately I thought of Lava Falls, and my palms began to sweat like a roasted pig. I already survived one Grand Canyon trip, why tempt fate? A ball of nerves, I couldn’t tell if I was excited or terrified. Did I want to go or not? Not wanting my decision to be based on fear, I asked myself if I'd still want to go if I knew for certain that Tree, Kiki and I would be safe during this time. The answer was ABSOLUTELY.

Last October we did this same trip but for 21 days and with 14 friends and family members. For me, it was truly a life-changing experience. Away from the daily monotony, hourly worries, white noise, and the meaningless space-fillers like television and facebook, I was able to be present and focus on what was happening in the moment. The result was a sense of calm and purpose. I realized that this is how we are supposed to feel, and that sadly, I had never felt it before. It was then that I said good-bye to any illusions I had of staying in the corporate world and being a good consumer. Life is too short to not be true to my heart’s intention. It sounds so cliché, I know, but when you actually feel what it feels like to not be soul-starved and sick with anxiety, it just sounds like plain truth. It was directly after this trip that we cast off our old life and started our nomadic Sprinter Life.

I can only imagine what new epiphanies await us on this new journey. For 16 days, Tree and I will push through the flatwater, navigate scary rapids, and sleep under the stars. How could we not go? Doing this trip alone as a couple has been one of our dreams. Tree immediately called Canyon REO to see if they could outfit us for the trip on such short notice, and amazingly enough, they said yes. Tree is well known and respected in the paddlesports industry and the folks at Canyon Reo bent over backwards to make it happen for us. By Sunday morning at 6am, we were at PDX on our way to Flagstaff. Again, everything just seems to be working out like it’s meant-to-be. Tomorrow morning at 5:30am we head to the river. See you all in 16 days!
STEVIE

ps. If you're interested in seeing photos of our last trip down the Grand Canyon, click here...

http://picasaweb.google.com/tree3344/GrandCanyonTrip

Also, we were able to get our Cuba captions back online, so if you never saw those, click here...

http://picasaweb.google.com/tree3344/CubaTrip

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Tree's Family visits Hood River

Tree’s Dad and his wife Diane came down to visit us in Hood River. They brought Tree’s beautiful little niece Nica. We had so much fun hanging out with them for a couple nights.

After dinner we watched the movie Invictus on dvd. I hadn't realized that the movie was about a chapter in Nelson Mandela's life. Had I known, I would've seen it sooner. I love hearing about inspirational people performing heroic acts of strength, grace and compassion, and that is exactly what Mandela's life story is. How did he find such forgiveness and then have the wisdom to preach love and tolerance in the face of hate and resentment? He gives me hope in humanity. I think I may pick up a biography so we can learn more about this great man. STEVIE

Photo #1 – Sweet Nica giving all her love to Kiki, her “best friend”

Photo #2 – Nica and I taking a break from putting together our princess puzzle

Photo #3 – John, Diane, and I admiring the delicious Copper River Salmon before it went onto the grill

Photo #4 – Tree and John Senior working the grill

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Back in a kayak!

Got up at 6am and had a sweet dawn patrol kayak mission with the ODP crew. It was Tristan's 24 birthday and we ran the White Salmon!

We ran into Corby's sister at the put in. She and her husband just moved to Hood River. I hadn't paddled with Sarah in probably 18 years! Super fun! TREE

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Family, Wine, and Good Food


This has been a great week hanging out with my brother and Cheryll in the gorge. Cheryll has been in “training” all week. She’s been doing Yoga with Stevie in the morning, followed by a hike with Kiki mid-day, followed by a Tree led wine tour in the afternoon, and capped with a Stevie home-cooked meal in the evening (which my brother gladly shows up for!). Today we hit all the wineries in Lyle, WA. Good reds and whites. In the car between the 1st and 2nd winery Cheryll busted out her own bag of crackers, carefully packed and ready for consumption. The student had become the master!
Tonight Stevie is busy making blackened wild dover sole with grilled polenta and cream spinach. My brother brought over a bottle of Chehalem Pinot which is almost gone, so I better run! TREE

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Possible Censorship? READ THIS

Hey everyone,

So, it appears that we may be under censorship. In the Cuba post below I had a link to a photo album of all our Cuba photos. Stevie spent a lot of time writing detailed captions for each photo. When we made the post the link worked. Now a few hours later the entire photo album has been wiped out. I have no access to it. I cannot even open the album. The only way this could have happened is if it was flagged and removed by Google. All of our pictures and photo captions are now gone!

Are we being censored because of our "illegal" trip to Cuba? F-in Crazy!

We re-posted a new link below to an album with all of our raw images. They don't have any captions. Sorry, those seem to be lost now.

As of the time of this posting, the link below is working. I'm not sure if that album will be flagged as well. We'll see how long it stays up.

Isn't it ironic that our government cites censorship when making it's case against Cuba and other "communist" nations? Go America. Land of the free.

TREE

Patria O Muerte - Cuba Rocks!!!

Note: Sorry for the massive delay in getting these pictures up online. We forgot our camera in cuba and it took months to get it sent back to the US.
Click here to view our photo album and read captions about Cuba!
http://picasaweb.google.com/tree3344/CubaTrip

For Valentine’s Day this year, Tree surprised me with a trip to Cuba, the number one destination on my travel wish list. I was also crowned The Trip Leader for this mission, marking the biggest testament of trust from Tree that I have ever received. Anyone who knows Tree knows that this passing of the torch was a very special moment in our relationship.

We spent one week on the Caribbean island from March 18th(which also happened to be our 4-year anniversary) to the 26th. It was the most profound travel experience either of us has ever had. There are many contributing factors as to why we feel this way, and hopefully our photo album can help illustrate where my words fail.
For starters, Cuba is just so different from any other country. Its history, the people, the land, the revolution and its current plight are wonderfully unique. As a general rule of travel, Tree and I try to take off our cultural glasses so that we see with objective eyes. In this case it meant that we left behind our democratic and capitalistic ideas of wealth, poverty, freedom and efficiency, and simply tried to experience Cuba independent of the U.S. propaganda spewed about Castro’s communist nation.

To give an example, one of the things we often heard about Cuba was how poor the country is. And it’s true, Cuba doesn’t have a whole lot of stuff. How could they? We have a trade embargo against them, but I have trouble calling a country with a literacy rate of 97% and an infant mortality rate slightly lower than that of the U.S. poor. ‘Poverty’ refers to the condition of not having the means to afford basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. This doesn’t describe Cuba at all, but I know certain parts of Los Angeles that fit this definition perfectly.

Not to say that Cuba didn’t suffer greatly after the fall of the Soviet Union, the superpower that subsidized them for the first 30 years after the revolution. In order to stave off his own downward spiral and stimulate the economy, Castro began issuing licenses to families to rent out extra rooms to tourists. This limited experiment with free enterprise has turned out to be a win-win for everyone, especially us. As soon as we walked through the door of our Casa Particular, Vivian, our hostess, welcomed us with a huge
embrace. By the time we said our goodbyes a week later, we were all hugging, kissing, and crying in the street. We were family.
It is for this reason- for the passion, generosity, humor, creativity, and love of the Cuban people- that I think Cuba is the wealthiest country that I have ever been. But of course, don’t take our word for it. Go to Cuba!

STEVIE



Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Dinner with Outdoorplay


The food in Hood River is excellent. There are a dozen restaurants that all qualify as ‘great’. The hardest part is choosing where to go on our short visit. Last night we had a wonderful dinner at 6th St Bistro with the entire Outdoorplay crew. The guys and gals who run Outdoorplay in Hood River are a super fun group of people.


We’ve managed to tick off 3 more wineries as well. It is difficult to make significant progress because most of the tasting rooms are closed during the week. We will have to be extra focused this weekend when they re-open. Until then….

TREE

Monday, May 24, 2010

The current hang - Hood River, Oregon

Witness the amazing view we have out of the front window of the house we are staying at right now! This shot was taken in the middle of winter, but you get the idea of the magnificence of this location. The town is Hood River, Oregon. This photo is not digitally enhanced or altered. This is actually how it looks here. Raw. Breathtaking. Beautiful!


We are staying at the home of my close friend, Cheryll Anglin. She has graciously opened up her home to us for the week. Kiki has fallen in love with Cheryll, following her around the house and sitting at her feet. Stevie and Cheryll are hitting it off as well. They are doing yoga in the mornings and taking hikes with Kiki in the afternoons. I’ve been catching up with work at Outdoorplay. Of all the places I could have started a business 15 years ago, looking back I think I made a good choice. Our headquarters sit right between the river and the mountain. Not too bad. Hood River is spectacular.

TREE

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Seriously, We View This As A Job!

To all of our wine loving fans, please know that we are not slacking off! Rest assured we are taking this very seriously. We arrived in the Columbia Gorge 48 hours ago and have so far hit 9 wineries on the Oregon side of the river. As with each wine region we’ve visited on our 5 week bender, we found one gem that is not to be missed. Marchesi Vineyards is a small boutique winery owned by Italian Franco Marchesi, who in addition to making amazing big red wines, also pours in his own tasting room. Behind the counter you’ll find him cutting gourmet salami on a hand powered Italian slicer. He’ll serve you French bread with fine pepper crusted fontina which will pull out the flavor of his Gold Medal winning Barbera and Sangiovese. Super tops. Go there!

We will be in Hood River for the next week. I will be working at Outdoorplay headquarters and Stevie will be writing up a storm. We also have 16 more wineries to visit between now and when we depart for Idaho next Sunday, so there is plenty to get done. But we're on the job!

Ciao - TREE

Saturday, May 22, 2010

This is not a Prank, it's a Prankster!


Trujillo Bothers showcasing iconic purple plastic from yester-year!
This is a real-deal old school classic pre-dot-com freestyle kayak called the Prankster. This boat should not be operated by novice or intermediate paddlers, nor by anyone using a left-hand control paddle, nor by anyone with an accent other than Corran. In the event of an emergency, insert both fins and prepare to low brace. This means YOU Mick!
Love TREE

Oregon - The Aftermath Of Rain



We had a great visit with our wonderful friends Mick and Michelle. They have a beautiful cabin way up in the mountains. We drank wine and watched old kayak videos of me and Mick. Good Times! The rain cleared for a bit yesterday and we enjoyed the beauty of the western slopes of Oregon's Cascade Mountains!

1) Stevie absorbs the power of Salmon Falls on the North Fork of the Santiam River. Truly a magical place.

2) Kiki enjoying our mid-day picnic spot. (click on this photo and view it enlarged!)

3) Our great friends Mick, Michelle and Vinny hosted us for a wonderful dinner.

4) Stevie showing she is not afraid of bears anymore!

TREE

Thursday, May 20, 2010

This Just In – We like Pinot!!!


Who’d-a-thunk-it! Yesterday we cruised the Wineries in the middle Willamette Valley. In typical Oregon fashion the day started out sunny and beautiful but quickly turned cold, rainy and stormy reaffirming why I left this state years ago! The wine brightened the day however. We historically haven’t liked Pinot, preferring instead bigger more structured wines. But there is something in the soil up here because we tasted complex delicious Pinot all day. We especially liked the wines from the 06 vintage. It was a hot summer and all the wines came out bigger than usual. The tasting rooms here don’t exactly suck either. Check out the picture of Stevie and notice that the tasting bar at Bethel is pouring 13 different wines for a whopping $5 fee!!!!!

We’re both feeling the Liver-Tax of multiple weeks of wine tasting, so tonight we plan to head up into the Cascade Mountains and visit Mick & Michelle, and then tomorrow we’re going hiking at Silver Creek Falls!

TREE

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Eugene Oregon - Thumbs Up!

We had a great time in the town of Eugene, OR. It was a liberal haven in the land of flying dixie flags. We spent a lot of time at the Wandering Goat, a super cool punk rock coffee shop that would've prompted me to run away from home and shack up in the parking lot had I discovered it at the age of 13.  They even let Kiki inside. 
Tree has started to test the boundaries of Family Rule #4. He constantly looks for “World Famous” signs. When he saw the sign for The Hotdog Place he was unstoppable. Boldly citing Family Rule #4 he proceeded to order an ENORMOUS sausage. We ended up sharing (well kind of, Tree's also taken to dividing our portions by body weight which puts me at a grave disadvantage) and it was deeeelicious!!!
We wine tasted that afternoon and had a great experience at King Estate. After learning about our plan to drive to South America, our new friend Kevin scrapped the tasting menu and began pouring us all the reserve wines from the back room! Shockingly, we really enjoyed a couple of their Pinots (we generally prefer bigger reds) but in the end ordered a bottle of incredible cab for dinner.  Dinner was amazing. We ate the best crab cakes I've ever had, juicy  juicy juicy tenderloin, sauteed brussel sprouts, and pommes frites with truffle oil. It was the best meal of 2010, and it was NOT allotted by body weight!

Life is good! STEVIE

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

In Oregon? Go to HillCrest Winery!

If you find yourself in Southern Oregon you absolutely MUST go to HillCrest Winery. We stumbled on it, or maybe the universe directed us there, but either way this place is off the charts. The owner, Dyson Demara, came out of Napa Valley. He has worked the wine business all over the world and is now growing in the Umpqua Valley. His wines are not the type you’d expect to find in Oregon. They are as good as anything we had in California. They will blow your socks off. If you love wine, check them out…


Now, onward to the north! TREE

Monday, May 17, 2010

Rule #4 Never Disappoints!

We continue to have amazing luck while following Family Rule #4. For those of you who are new to the blog, Family Rule #4 states…

Always sample local food and beverage when it is titled "Famous"

Yesterday while driving up I-5 Tree spotted this place so, staying true to the rules, we looped back around to try these so-called "Famous Cinnamon Rolls." Oh, and how we tried them! We enjoyed the most delicious Cinnamon Roll I’ve ever had! It really was "Heaven on Earth," just like the sign says. It's located right on I-5 between Grants Pass and Roseburg...in case you're passing through :)  -STEVIE

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Rogue River - Mission Accomplished



We’re back safe and sound from the 4 days adventure down the Rogue River. We enjoyed beautiful sunny weather every day. Temps got into the 80s. We hit every line in every rapid. Nature cooperated and we saw everything that was promised, including bears!

Click here to check out all the photos and read more about the trip.
(note: after clicking on the link, you can actually click on the first photo and then read captions underneath the picture, then use the arrows to move to the next photo)...

http://picasaweb.google.com/tree3344/RogueRiverTrip


We’re in a hotel room in Grants Pass tonight. Tomorrow we begin a 1 week wine tasting trip from Southern Oregon up through the Willamette Valley and into the Gorge. This is Pinot country people! By next weekend our plan is to be in Hood River.
TREE

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Hit Pause...


Well, we’re not on the Rogue River tonight! When we woke up this morning it was 50 degrees and raining. I had told Stevie it would be beautiful even though the forecast called for stormy weather the first day. I've learned never to use the word "stormy" around my two LA girls. Stevie wears a patagonia down jacket in the summer and Kiki won't even go out to pee if it's raining. But looking into Stevie's eyes I realized that she was starting to doubt my forecast skills and perhaps even my Wilderness-Man-Skills. We had a simple choice to make: Rig the raft in the cold rain and tough it out the first day, OR head back to town and hit the Tee-Time for breakfast sausage sandwiches and then sample local wineries in the Applegate Valley. Seriously not a hard call, right??? I struggled for a second, almost put up a fight, and then conceded that we didn’t always have to suffer to have fun.

The 2 vineyards we went to were really quite beautiful. We especially liked Troon Winery where we tasted delicious Port paired with homemade chocolate truffles. Stevie and our new friend Corey chatted about culture, wine, and then exchanged Blog addresses. (Hi Corey!)

One thing I do love about Stevie is that she is the only person who can get me to slow down. Instead of pushing through a rain storm we enjoyed a wonderful day sipping wine and chatting with locals. Tomorrow we will head back to the river and for sure be on our way. TREE

Monday, May 10, 2010

Next Up - Rogue River Rafting Adventure

Well, tomorrow morning we start a 4 day rafting trip down the Rogue River which flows through the mountains of Southern Oregon. And this river is a GEM. It’s one of the original 8 rivers in the US designated as "Wild and Scenic" by Congress in 1968 for its amazing beauty and rugged wilderness. I can’t wait for Stevie to experience this type of river. Unlike the Grand Canyon, the Rogue is mountainous and green with white sandy beaches under old growth trees. Many people describe it like "whitewater rafting through a zoo" due to the plentiful bald eagles, osprey, deer, bear, chinook salmon, steelhead, and wildflowers. Very few people run this river as it is permitted most of the year.

I always forget how much work it is to put a trip like this together. We spent most of today packing, shopping, and rigging gear. A friend of mine owns a company here and hooked us up with a fully outfitted 14ft raft with everything we need (stove, dry boxes, coolers, etc.). Once on the river you are on your own, so you must be fully self-contained . There are no roads in or out, no restaurants or stores, no houses, and no cell service. Only wilderness. Stevie prepared an amazing menu and I’ve got 7 bottles of wine packed up, so we should be good! And we even have a lifejacket for Kiki!

So, we will be completely disconnected until Saturday. Check back on Sunday for photos of our trip!
Buenos Noches - TREE

Sunday, May 9, 2010

The things we see as Nomads


What we see on the winding roads of NorCal…

1) Trees- many, many beautiful Old Growth Redwood trees.
2) Holes in Trees- it seems that every small town with a big tree between Fort Bragg and Grant’s Pass cuts a hole in their biggest green giant in an attempt to draw visitors. Come drive through our tree folks!
3) Squatters Living in Trees- actually we saw entire villages nestled in the trees off the side of the road- one man had a long beard, one leg, and a dog, and he lived in a bunch of beat up cars that had apparently just 'fallen' off the cliff!? Awfully suspicious to me. We saw him hitchhiking into town, or maybe we saw him casing the next 'accident'. Hmmm...I'll let you decide.
4) The Lost Coast- a.k.a. Home of the Happiest Grassfed (and probably very delicious) Cows on Earth
5) Marathons and Races- on the one hand, we could’ve considered it bad luck that the Sprinter twice found itself crawling along winding mountain roads in the midst of BOTH the Big Sur marathon and The Tour of the Lost Coast (an epic bike race along the Dyerville Loop, 100 miles with hundreds of delirious cyclists peddling uphill for 9400 feet). But as we watched the racers pound and peddle pavement in the noonday sun, we found it both inspirational and reassuring to see that other people make crazier lifestyles choices than we do.
6) Beautiful Ocean Views- we had one of the best sunsets yet atop a cliff in Trinidad, just look at the picture of Tree and Kiki. (check out Tree's new hat!)
7) Ticks- tons of them. Kiki got infested at Albee Creek (see photo#2 of the last blog). The worst part is that I had to get them out. We discovered the infestation while we were driving the Lost Coast in the middle of the bike race. The road was winding, I was screaming, Kiki was shaking, and Tree was trying not to knock a cyclist off a cliff. Finally we made it to Petco to buy a tick comb. I sat on the sidewalk combing the ticks out and grinding them into the concrete. A guy from the AT+T store came outside to complain I thought so I was half ready to impale him with the comb too, but as it turned out, he just wanted to know what kind of dog Kiki was, she's so pretty, how old is she, etc.. It's remarkable, even full of bloodsucking ticks, people flock to her. How does she do it?
Since this episode we've taken to calling her Ticky as payback for making us itchy and paranoid. She doesn't seem to mind.
STEVIE

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Camping in the Redwoods

Our experience camping in the Redwoods was perfecto. After driving the Avenue of Giants we snagged a beautiful camp site under a canopy of 200 foot tall old growth trees. We hiked, we made a campfire, we ate gourmet steak salad, and we drank a wonderful bottle of Alexander Valley Syrah.
Photo #1 – Driving down the Avenue Of Giants, Redwood Forest

Photo #2 – Kiki relaxing at our campsite, Albee Creek Redwoods Park

Photo #3 – Stevie going Rockstar, as usual



Photo #4 – Stevie and Kiki hiking in the Redwoods forest

Photo #5 – Tree and Kiki getting the fire going


Wine Tasting Mendocino



We left Fort Bragg Friday morning and cruised our way up Highway 101. The Northern California coast is absolutely beautiful. Seriously, this place is rugged and untouched. Huge Redwood forests meet white sandy beaches peppered with jagged rocks. We found our way to a little boutique winery called Pacific Star. The property sits on a huge cliff right above the Pacific Ocean. An amazing setting to be certain! And the wine was drinkable. So we drank it. TREE

 
Powered by web analytics software.
web hosting companies