A few days ago, my friend Dave suggested a bike ride around Angel Island. Sounded like a good idea – it was a clear day and a good excuse to get on a boat. As we took the Blue and Gold ferry to the island, I hear a kid mention a submarine, so I turn my head. What I saw was not a submarine, but I can see why he thought it was. It is a $300 million yacht owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, which was designed by Philippe Starck. It is huge, odd, and everybody who sees it wants to notify James Bond that the Russians are in town. It has bulletproof glass, a few pools, and an internal boat launch deck that doubles as a night club. I decided to go take a closer look at it one day, since its anchored off of Sausalito. Click on the picture to see more.

So I saw this thing in the grass on a recent trip to Mendocino. I thought, its a odd colored squirrel…wait, now it stood up…way too tall. Is that a Mongoose? What’s the difference between a Mongoose and a Ferret? Or wait, what about a Weasel? Well, the Internets have spoken, and this, my friends, is a Weasel. I like saying that word almost as much as I liked having the right lens on my camera as it popped out of its hole.

I have finally posted a bunch of photos from our early 2008 travels in my photo gallery. So far this year, we did plenty of skiing (my camera was broken!), took a weekend trip to Chicago, took a trip to Washington, DC for Melissa and Dave’s Wedding, and took a trip to the eastern shore of Maryland for Sarah and Greg’s Wedding. Last weekend we stayed in Boston and went to a free show on the Esplanade featuring Cracker and Cake, and drove up to NH for a short hike up Mt. Cardigan.

We decided to try a new trail, the Holt trail – which was said to be pretty steep. I loved it for all the open rock and boulder fields, but Manda was convinced there should have been ropes. In any case, it was certainly not a trail you wanted to be stuck on in the rain.

Also, pixtures.org now supports Piclens, a very impressive plugin for your webrowser that support a full-screen 3D interactive photo wall. You really should try it out – it works with all the major photo sites, and is a great way to browse through a lot of photos very quickly. Unfortunately, it doesn’t pick up my captions right now, but it is certainly worth trying out. I think you will be impressed.

Our big vacation for 2006 was a 2 week trip to Peru. My friend Rebecca was living in Lima for a few months while working on her PhD, and a bunch of us decided to use this as a great excuse to go to Peru. So, Manda and I packed up our hiking gear and set off to South America. We flew into the capital city of Lima, which was shrouded in sea fog the entire time we were there. The gray skies did not help the mood, but I enjoyed my time there, and we certainly got a taste of expat life in Lima. It certainly helped that Rebecca has spent two summers there, so we got to see a bit more then the typical tourist circuit.

From Lima, we flew to Cusco, the gateway city to Machu Picchu. Here we tried to get used to the altitude (11,500 feet) and the food (rough on the stomach). In between everyone fighting fevers and stomach troubles, we were able to take some hikes to amazing Incan ruins, do some shopping in the markets, and take a horseback ride into the mountains. With everyone in varying states of less then perfect well-being, we set off for a fully outfitted trek on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

Lets just say the results were less then ideal. Manda and Noelle will be the first to point out they completed the extremely rugged four day trek to Machu Picchu, while Bob, Rebecca, and I were defeated by the ghost of Incas past. In the end, it worked out fine for all of us, with Noelle and Manda climbing to heights of nearly 14,000 feet and exploring Inca ruins, while the rest of us took the train to Aguas Calientes and witnessed the Virgin Del Carmen festival, and got to explore the ruins at Ollantaytambo.

We all met up again at Machu Picchu, and had a full day to explore the ruins and the neighboring mountain peak of Waynapicchu, which is the pointy mountain you see in every travel photo of the site.

After relaxing in Aguas Calientes for another day, and catching some more of the Virgin Del Carmen Festival, we all went back to Lima to come up with a plan for our last few days. We decided to head south to Paracas to see the “poor man’s Galapagos” (the Ballestas Islands), then took a side trip to the Huacachina Oasis near Ica to round out our trip before returning to Lima and heading home.

I took a ton of pictures on this trip, and it has taken me a long time to go through them all, and select the best while still telling the story of the trip. You can click on individual links above to take you to the various place we went, or click here to go to the master photo album. Take your time, there is a lot to see.

Here is another trip from this past summer. Hey, it’s cold out, so I am thinking warm thoughts! This was a trip with a big mix of people from New York and Boston; Americans, Bulgarians, Czechs, and Indians. My friend Adriana planned this mash-up of hiking and canoeing, with a return trip to the Spruce Moose Lodge. Manda and I were a bit wary of hiking in the rain on the first day, so we slept in and waited until the weather cleared to hike Mt. Tom near Crawford Notch.

Our second day, everyone hopped into some rental canoes to take a 7 mile run down the Saco River. We had a great day, with fluffy clouds overhead as we all kicked back for a leisurely paddle down the river.

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Winter has arrived, and I finally have made some time to post pictures from this past summer. This small set of pictures is from June, when Manda, Noelle, Kyle and I drove up to Franconia Notch to try hiking the Kinsman ridge. We did the quick hike up to picturesque Lonesome Lake, then continued up the Fishin’ Jimmy trail to the top. This was my first time hiking in the notch on the west side of the highway – it is a beautiful vantage point on a clear day.
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This past weekend, Manda and I headed south for a weekend of relaxation with friends on Block Island, an hour ferry ride off the coast of Rhode Island. We met up with Geoff for the ferry ride, then rode our bikes a short distance out of town to the house that Kyle rented for the week. Kyle and Mike were waiting for us on the wraparound veranda of the grand Victorian. My time on the island was short, but packed with hiking, biking, partying, and maybe a little relaxing.
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Well, after 12 years of extremely reliable transportation, I have finally sold my trusty 1995 Nissan 240sx. I bought the car new when I got my first job out of college, a company called Miltope in Montgomery, AL. My car had just under 150,000 miles of road trips and commutes all the way up and down the east coast. My 240 saw action as far south as Mobile, AL and as far north as Millinocket, ME. It never really had a major problem, and with the right tires (as I quickly found out) was pretty decent in snow, even with rear wheel drive. A few years back I picked up a used 2002 Mazda Miata, which is going to be my only car for now…well at least until winter rolls around again. I was surprised to find I miss the car, but am happy to have passed it along to a young woman who was really excited to get it. Her boyfriend raced 240s, so I think it went to the perfect home.

After all the rain we have had in Boston lately, everyone was ready for a nice weekend, and we got it! Temps in the low 80′s and clear skies greeted us on the day we chose to drive up north to hike something in the White Mountains. Manda, Sarah, and Noelle were my partners in crime, and we set off for northern NH. The blue skies in the mountains steered us to climb an old favorite, Mt. Eisenhower, because of the sweeping vistas and even grade of the Edmunds path. We were all challenged by the hike, but when we started above the treeline everyone forgot how tired they were and boogied to the top. This weekend, the rain has returned, otherwise I would be out hiking again. At least I have time to post these pictures now!
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