3 March 2007 Orinda, CA

<-- Orinda movie theatre

Last week we went to the beautiful old movie theatre at Orinda. We saw the Last King of Scotland, not a bad film at all, and nice to hear a Scottish accent.

I made this, could you? -->

Tennessee 16-18 Feb 07

<-- the horse near Government House in Nashville

Carnton manor, Franklin -->


Marie has to travel a bit over the next three weeks, so instead of her spending time flying back, we decided that I should go out there. It's more fun that way, and saved her at least 12 hours flying.

Nashville is a mid sized city with small streets, some skyscrapers and a lot of gorgeous heritage architecture. The home of country music has bars with live music all down Broadway, and other places. We went to the Grand Ole Opry, the longest running western music show in the country, the high church of country and western. An old dude, probably famous, cracked jokes about his latest album which was released in 1963 etc, he was great. Some old lady got on and sang a song about God and the war, and how they'd find it was all worth it.

<-- Columbia's main square

Marie on Main St, Franklin -->

Driving out of Nashville, the suburbs of large graceful homes and finely manicured properties gave way to the larger homes and properties, then the town of Franklin, which was very pretty. At Carnton plantation, we had a tour, looked out on the battleground for Franklin, saw the blood stains on the floor from the Confederate wounded, and were moved by the stories of the soldiers, and all the people who come every week to put flowers on their ancestor's graves. Tennessee calls itself the Volunteer state for its history of volunteering for military service.

Idaho 10-12 Feb 2007

<--Boise (boy-zee) Adults on the Oregon Trail -->



Lucky for us, we got to go to Idaho. Boise has mountains on one side, and the wide plains on the other. Young drunk people were hanging around historic downtown when we got there. We saw a country band who were tight, professional and sounded excellent with their 4 guitars & subtle drums. They put on a good show for the ten people in the bar, and we stayed out till about 1am, which is a record for us. The food here was great, and we ended up in excellent places every time.

Outside Boise, there is the Sun Valley ski resort. Most people were out walking their dogs, and dog people are always so cool.


Half frozen stream near the road north to McCall -->

Heading north up to McCall was even more amazing, lots of white fields, snowed in streams just starting to break through the ice, and the greenest pines. Wish we had much more time!


<-- the road to McCall

Phoenix, Az. Jan 26 - 29

<-- Petrified Forest Jerome -->


Arizona is a fantastic. There's something to see in every direction. We took a 3 day weekend, and saw things from Grand Canyon, village ruins from the 1100's, petrified logs that are 225 million years old and some great historical towns.



<-- Salt River canyon Tonto National Monument -->

Burbank

You've heard the news, now see the pics. It's pretty amazing to think there's another individual kicking aroung the place. He/she's only 12 weeks, and you can hear the heartbeat, see the legs and arms whizzing around.

Happy New Year

<-- The new Surly Long Haul Trucker. Note front racks. This baby can carry a lot of baggage, and it's so long I don't touch them with my feet. -->



Well Santa didn't fit down the chimney, until a week after Chrissy. Lord knows how he got this bike down, it's huge.

We got 3 days off for New Years, hung around town, went for a couple of rides. We had dinner, kept the wait staff waiting, drank a couple of drinks at a bar and walked home straight after midnight cause we're borin'.

Merrrrry Christmas 2006

<-- near Vacaville
Capitol park -->


We went to Sacramento. Everyone was asking why, but they always say that. We started at Fairfield, a pretty little town, and cycled to Winters first. Leafless trees sat close to some of the road, and opened out into freshly ploughed farmlands. The road was quiet and beautiful, getting busy on the approach to Davis and through to Sacramento, partly running right next to the stinking 3 lane highway 80.


<-- Discovery Park, Sacramento
Amtrak Capitol Corridor is a great train line -->

Davis was a pleasure being the only platinum graded friendly town in the whole US. Sacramento has an excellent rail museum, and very pretty suburbs, but downtown is scarred by the Interstate-5 which unfortunately belches stink and much noise into most of downtown and old town.

San Jose Sharks Ice Hockey Dec 21 2006

This is a pretty exciting spectator sport. With about 3 sets of players being substituted regularly, the pace is furious. Regular crunches into the perspex is great to see, kinda like gladiators. Players grab each others sticks and jerseys; they need a video umpire damn it.

Oh, and my team, the sharks, went down about 3 to not much.

San Diego Dec 2 & 3 2006

<-- about 10k's cycle along cycleways to Mission Beach. More paths run around Mission bay.

4 jet engines not subject to civilian pollution control by the looks. It's big. San Diego is in the background -->

We got cheapie plane tickets a while back, so this weekend we're heading for the ocean, and San Diego bay. There's a big naval base with the Pacific fleet. Ocean Beach bars are a bit wild, and plenty of the people look like they're from Metallica or Guns and Roses.

We hired bikes for the whole weekend, and guees what? San Diego is the number one large US city with regards bike riding. There's trails going around the bays, and along the beaches. All very spectacular, and even in winter, very pleasant.
<-- nice break dude

50 oz. beer, about 1.5litres, just enough to get a glow on -->

Utah 26 Nov 06

<-- the Needles, Canyonlands
Salt Lake City Great Temple -->

After spending all day yesterday in Arches NP, we're back for more in the morning. It's a real shame we don't have more time, so we have to choose between seeing a lot too quickly, or picking a few places to look at properly.

<-- Delicate Arch, Arches NP

Hanksville, Utah -->

Moab, Utah - Arches National Park - 24 Nov 06

<-- Park Ave. Where's Wally? I'm just below the middle of this shot.

Marie at doggy do rock -->


Moab is surrounded by crazy red rock mountains. Nearby is the snowy La Salle Mountains, and Arches National Park. This park has Delicate Arch, which features on a lot of Utah number plates. This place is just like a drive through the valley of the giants, which some impressive arches thrown in.

<-- perched on a toast slice

Double O arch -->

Utah

<-- near Spanish Fork amazing Canyonlands.

Check the road on the right to give you perspective -->


Utah is an awsome place, and is worth a couple of posts just to get all the pictures in. We started off in Salt Lake City, and picked up a car. Just nearby snow mountains. It would feel a bit more Alpine, if there wasn't 2 or 3 oil refineries right in the middle of town. That's one thing they don't usually talk about.

Night one was lovely Provo. There's ski fields nearby, and mountains next to town. A scenic drive took us to Moab via Canyonlands National Park.


Mesa Arch in Canyonlands. This has an arch, Roadrunner cartoon formations on the left, and a huge set of huge canyons -->

Bundy Rum

<-- Bundaberg Rum at the airport on the way back

If you've been to Bundaberg, you know you won't be seeing a polar bear. It's the trademark of Bundy Rum anyway, and I think this is a great play on the Australian Coat of Arms.

Having a ball

<-- Willie all 3 -->

We dropped in on Ceals and the fam. We did some trampolining, and stayed for tea.


Tess's eye -->



<-- my eye

Belle's eye -->

A week at home

We had to go home due to family emergency. This was hard, but nice to hear stories about a well loved man.

<-- Marie's home

Saturday night before Halloween

<-- guess which house welcomes trick or treaters?
getting into these pants was a good trick -->

Twas the Saturday night before Halloween, and there were trick or treaters aplenty down at the Castro. If I didn't say so already, everyone is so friendly down there.

<-- scary Halloween penguins

They really put an effort into dressing up, and a huge amount of fun. This is one festival we should get going back home.

hellraiser having hell good time -->