More Road Trips of the Past (SF to Vancouver!)

Hello there Mom and those three people from China who read my blog!

I have been extremely tardy in updating the internet of my (mis)adventures, but that is because I have been quite busy.  Some of the minor reasons being because I started a new job and I moved across the country to San Francisco, and one of the major ones being that now I own a shirt that says "Best. Dad. Ever." (Yes, I am a Dad, but no of course I'm not a father: I'm too young to have kids).  More info about that one in a future post.  Anyway, I thought I'd regale you all with the multi-part saga of how I traveled to San Francisco for a wedding and then stayed for a few weeks to camp up the west coast until I hit Canada.  Enjoy some of that snarky, awkward road trip journal that you are no doubt used to by now.


Friday 6/20/14 - San Francisco
It is about that time to start another grand adventure.  To start off, I just accepted a job offer at LM in the bay area, so I'm pretty pumped to be moving to SF in a month or two.  Also, my really good friends Joe Bryan and Rebecca Busch are getting married.  TOMORROW.  And I'm the one officiating.  It's a huge honor, and I'll admit that I'm a little nervous, but it's going to be beautiful and a ton of fun.
So Michelle and I are on the plane to SF RIGHT NOW!  So pumped.  Today will be a lot of hotel logistics and rehearsal stuff, but it will definitely be a blast.

And now it's roughly midnight (reading from an actual written journal is like jumping into a literary black hole: you never know where in space-time you're going to be next!), and let me just tell you that I was previously correct - a blast was had this day.  Michelle, Jessie, Jake, and I took an Uber to our hotel downtown from the airport.  Uber will be the name of the game travel-wise in SF, so let's just get used to it now.  So we checked in and then grabbed some food at a local place, the Brick Hotel (at least I think that's the name, don't hold me to it).  Phenomenal food.  I had a corned beef sando that was just killing it, and garlic fries that were offensive to anyone within a ten mile radius of my breath.  So good.  I then had to leave (Uber) to meet up with Joe, Rebecca, and family at the flower observatory in Golden Gate Park for the wedding rehearsal.  It was an AMAZING day out, and the flower garden area was pretty easy on the eyes.

I just got here, can you tone it down San Francisco?

After a few dry runs, we seemed to have a decent idea of how this wedding thing was going down.  A lot of moving parts, but we got a good handle of it.  It seems like it will be a breeze (the wedding is kite themed, get ready for the puns everybody).
After that, I Uber'd over to Fisherman's Wharf (a somewhat touristy but still cool area in the northeast part of the city) to check out the sea lions on Pier 39 and have a beer with Michelle, Paul, and Sam.

I usually associate Alcatraz with the deafening sound of sea lions barking

We then walked back to our respective hotels since it was so nice out (so nice that we started working on our base-burns) and wanted to see part of the city.  I then had a fun adventure with the iron at our hotel in an attempt to salvage our airplane-wrinkled clothes, and then we headed over to Joe and Rebecca's place for a fun reunion dinner.
It was so much freaking fun holy crap.  First off, their place is unbelievable.  So nice and with amazing views (which only get better as the Sun set), and the Indian food dinner was delicious.

Just the view from their deck, NBD

And we got to meet new people and a reunion of people that we hadn't seen in a while.  A lot of Tufts and Winchester people; it was amazing (turns out I even re-met my future roommate, Burdick).  We spent the night just hanging out and enjoying the views before heading back to the hotel.  I can't wait until tomorrow.

Caturday 6/21/14 - San Francisco
So today (or rather yesterday since I'm cheating and writing this on Sunday - don't tell anyone!) was the big wedding day.  I awoke to find Kyle and Amanda sleeping next to us - YAY!  They came when I was passed out in deep slumber the previous night.  We started the day off with a walk to Chinatown - explored a bit, walked up the insane hills, bought some fortune cookies at the little alley shop where they were invented.  Then we met up with a bunch of people at a really cool brunch place in Castro - the bartender was wearing only underwear.  Classic Castro.  Good food and it was Joe's big day!  He seemed not nervous at all.  Dude's a champ.
Then a few of us hiked up to Corona Heights, which might be my favorite part of the city.  Great views and it kind of feels like you're not actually in a city.

Apparently I don't have any quote unquote NORMAL versions of this picture

Michelle and I then had to leave and go back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding; we had a trolley with the wedding party to catch.  WHICH WAS INSANE.  We drove all through San Francisco just waving and drinking champagne as Rebecca and Joe looked awesome.
We drove to a few cool spots for pictures - pinwheels everywhere, dapper as fuck, and then over the Bay Bridge to Treasure Island - the location of the wedding.

I'm so pumped to be on a trolley right now

Those sunglasses were MADE for this

LET'S GO

Paul: improving pictures since whatever year he was born

It was so perfect outside and the island provided such amazing views of the city: it was nuts.  The ceremony took place right at the "Bliss Dancer" statue, which is a gorgeous location.  As we were prepping with pictures, Michelle, Paul, Sam, and I all went and got some pizza.  The correct decision.

Majestic as fuck

Joe has been happier, but not by much

dudejump.org (I swear to god if that is an actual website...)

Getting back to the Winery (the location of the eventual reception), I attempted to calm my officiating-related stress with an odd combination of champagne and 5-hour energy.  Not sure if it helped.  Didn't matter: before I knew it, it was go time.
I walked out listening to my pump-up playlist.  And lucky for me, everything went off without a hitch.  I remember when Joe and Rebecca came down the aisle and were staring at each other, both kind of nervous and both excited, I thought "wow, this is real."  They were both just so happy that any nervousness that I had immediately went away.  It really felt great getting to be a part of such an incredible moment.  And their vows were great, almost as good as my kite puns, which preceded them flying a huge awesome kite with their vows written on it.  So amazing.  So yeah, we survived it and I made two people become married.
The drinks, dinner, and dancing were indescribable.  The venue was beyond gorgeous and I think we danced so hard that it is going to be legitimately difficult to hike tomorrow.  Such a blast.  We had several adventures in the photo booth and donut area.  And did I mention how AGGRESSIVE the dancing was?  I did?  Ok good, because holy shit.

Dawwww

Varum tanzt der Afe

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun

What a lovely bunch of Jumbos

I can't even

Needless to say, as the night rolled around to a close, we were wiped out.  But I still remembered to sign the marriage license, so that's good.  I think that wedding is going to be hard to top.  The bus ride home was sleepy, but we made it back to the hotel with as minimal complains as one could hope for.
I love this city and I love Joe and Rebecca.  I'm so happy they asked me to officiate their wedding and I'm beyond pumped to be moving here in a few months.

Sunday 6/22/14 - San Francisco
Today started achy as hell, but we managed... strugglingly, to pack up and head to the SoMa StrEat Food Truck brunch.  This place was nuts.  ALL KINDS of delicious food trucks with which to stuff our faces.  Joe and Rebecca had a school bus rented out for us (yep), and we used it as our base for nomming so many foods, hanging out with people, and eventually watching soccer.  USA almost beat Portugal, which would have been great for our World Cup chances, but we ended in the last second with a crushing tie.  It's ok though; I ate Korean tacos and Old Bay fries and pig roasted over a pit.  So good.

They are happy on the inside

Right before Portugal tied it up

"Wanna be roommates in September?" "Yeah."

But alas, now was our time to say goodbyes and pick up our rental car for the next phase of the journey: Yosemite.  Getting our groceries was actually taking a lot longer than anticipated.  Silver lining is that we dined on some delicious In'N'Out Burger.  So yeah, just driving out to Yosemite in the dark after that.  Pretty late too, we didn't arrive until after midnight.  After a really fun switch-backy drive with some INSANE stars.  Seriously the stars were so clear and incredible.  You could easily see tens of thousands, along with shooting stars, from patches between silhouetted evergreens.  It was beyond amazing.  But we were extremely tired after an eventful weekend, so it was bed time.  I was asleep before I was fully in my sleeping bag.


Ok gang, the adventure continues in the next installment of "WEST COAST ADVENTURE EXCEPT WITH A BETTER NAME!"
Rated PG 13.

Epic Loj Snow-venture

I wrote some journal-type stuff whilst away at the Tufts Loj in NH for the long weekend, so I shall transcribe it for the people of the interwebs (especially my loyal followers in China).

1/14/12
Since I've decided to do the 48 4000 footers in the NH White Mountains, I've been making a lot of trips to the Tufts Loj. Also, my ankle injury last fall (where I tore most of the tendons in my left ankle playing... sports) has finally healed. In order to make up for lost time, I've been all about hiking in the past few months. This is my third weekend in a row up here hiking the 48. Sarah, Katie, and Michelle have been hiking a lot with me this winter. There have been microspike excitement-times, interesting people we've met, and great views.
Last night was the standard "get all the beers and have partytimes" night. Kings with snuggies was a natural product of such an evening.
Today, Katie "I already hiked all the mountains but whatevs, I'll do them all again" Rizzolo, Ryan "Weaksauce" Jacobs, and Sterling "I just met you but you're cool, sorry I can't remember your last name right now" Lastname (in the journal I call him "a new friend-gentleman named Sterling") hiked North and South Kinsman. Twas my first snowshoe hike, and it was damn fun. We started at maybe 8:30 after renting some snowshoes, starting from the Lafayette Campground parking lot. It was ass-freezingly cold though. Like, fuck. Three fucking degrees at the summit.

I am le tired

Snowshoeing ALL the mountains

But snowshoeing was fun. I got a huge bruise from the front of it slamming into my shin. No worries. The top of the mountains was a bit ping-pong ball-ish, so view was sporadic. But it was great when you could see. The whole hike obviously looked like Skyrim.

Am I doing it right?

Guest entry by Katherine D. Rizzolo:
Guest entry! Yeah! I suspect [Chris] is letting me write in this b/c he wants to analyze my handwriting for the raptor-postcard mystery. Anyway, addendums to the above: FUCK YEAH SNOWSHOES. . Also like, I love the Loj all the time but it's cozy as shit in the winter. Straight up adorbs. I'm super pumped/grateful that I have the ability to be here, and also that I've found peeps who love weird outdoor adventures like me. So that's cool. Also Chris, you're cool. kbai.

Awwwwwwwwwww. Anyway, it's now time to hang out, drink growlers, and get ready for the rest of the adventure: skiing tomorrow and hiking Monday. Heading to Woodstock Inn tonight to watch some playoff games and drink some beers. And then do some star-gazing, because those things are out of control tonight. Oh Loj. You cozy motherfucker.

Alissa, Rob, and random dude passed out in the middle of a noisy Loj, so we started stacking random items on them. Things to note: jenga stacked on Alissa's head, hammer, and guitar.

1/15/12
We just got back from skiing at Cannon. Negative 15 degrees at the summit. What. The. Fuck. So cold. But at least we were layered well and had the right gear(ish). My goggles were fogging up early, which led to IMMEDIATE freezing, so I was at a lack of vision for a lot of the runs. So I went to the lodge for some expensive-as-fuck fries and hot chocolate. Then I took the chair lifts all the way to the summit (alone, since my optics issues had me duck out early). I walked up to the lookout deck - great view, but that was the coldest, windiest piss I think I've ever taken. Worth it. By the time I walked back to the slopes, my goggles were once again entirely frozen over, resulting in nothing more than a useless, blinding weight in front of my eyes. This led to an interesting and nauseating ski to the lodge again (I had to go cross-eyed to see out of the only non-frozen portion of the goggles).
There, I met up with everyone again and had a great, full-vision rest of the day. It was a great day to go skiing; the extreme cold prevented a lot of people from showing up, so there were no lift lines. We had a few great runs, and a few great wipe-outs. Good times.
The only downsides were most of us getting early onset frostbite warnings on our faces. Oh also, the snow machines were running in the morning. Skiing through a cloud of man-made snow is absolutely terrifying. Think of your worst zombie nightmare. The levels of panic are similar. I couldn't even see the tips of my skis: the visibility was that bad. Alissa was 10 feet in front of me, but was only a silhouette. And I fell when I tried to ski over to her because I was lost in space and time and apparently was facing up the mountain somehow. I could have easily skied into a tree or over a cliff - it was awesome in theory, but kind of scary to experience. Thankfully, there were no zombies.
But most people are headed home tonight, just me and Michelle staying to continue our adventure hiking tomorrow. Time to chill the fuck out, eat some spicy soup, and read some Game of Thrones books.

1/16/12
Michelle and I snowshoe/hiked Hale today. INTERESTING SHIT HAPPENED. The access road was closed, so we snowshoed 2.5 miles to the trailhead. It was only 2.2 miles to the summit, but a continuous uphill with no breaks.

I know that you are probably thinking this is a screenshot of me playing Skyrim, but I can assure you that this is planet Earth

Some great views of the Prezzies along the way. The summit was pretty cool: some decent views and not too cold. No wind, thankfully.

Hale was my 24th 4000 footer! Halfway there.

We met a retired couple at the top, Bill and Diane. We made fast friends and they told us a way down with better views and a nicer hike, so we took that opportunity, chatting it up the entire way. It's amazing the caliber of people you meet while hiking: everyone is so ridiculously friendly, and it is very doubtful that they are insane murderers. So they took us down their trail, which is mostly bushwacking to another, shorter, less steep trail in a clear birch forest with an incredible view of Washington.

Washington is probably a bit harder to hike now that it is entirely covered in ice

Bill was telling us how he had a snow sliding accident in which he smashed his ankle into a tree and shattered it. We also discussed turtles.
Those people are nuts about White Mountain hiking; they've done the 48 a ton of times, and are currently working on their "grid." A Grid is where you do each of the 48 inside a MONTH. And you do this for EVERY MONTH OF THE CALENDAR YEAR. And I thought inside a year was badass. Fuck. I can't wait for retirement...
They drove us back to our car from the shortcut trailhead. Such a great turn of events. I love opportunities to learn new hiking tricks. Definitely a good end to an amazing weekend.

Epic Roadtrip Journal: 6/10/11 Salt Lake City

Ok, similar for other posts, I'm going to transcribe my written journal of the epic road trip to the INTERWEBS. I'm going to break it up into pieces, because apparently we did a shitload of stuff, and if I put it all in one post everybody's head would explode and I would break the internet. Anything in italics is an added thought; everything else is the original journal. Enjoy! Or don't. I really don't care how you choose to react to these words, just as long as more than just my followers in China read this.

6/10/11 Friday - Boston

I'm sitting in the Boston airport right now, thoroughly pumped about the epic adventure I'm about to take. I'm waiting for Scott to arrive at the moment; we have window/aisle seats in the same row (turns out Scott decided to show up exactly 30 seconds before we were boarding). I REALLY hope there isn't anyone in the middle: otherwise this flight could get awkward. Oh man, I hope I sleep on this flight. Something tells me I'm not going to get that much rest on this trip. Because fuck sleeping. It's adventure time.

I'm not 100% amped though. I just got a great text from Michelle, and I'm realizing that I'm really going to miss people in Boston. I'll see them in a couple weeks though, so I'm not TOO disappointed. it's good to know that I have people that I'm this close with in my life.

Salt Lake City

After a short layover in Dallas (read: a Tex-Mex FEAST), Scott and I made it to Salt Lake. The flight was incredible, because the snow covered mountains are enormous and surround the lake and the city. I feel kind of bad that Nads and Alex won't be able to see how gorgeous it is. We plan on leaving at fuck o'clock in the morning for the Grand Tetons tomorrow, but maybe the Sun will be rising in time to see it? (in retrospect, not really a concern. While the Utah mountains were awesome, they were basically a joke compared to the mountains we saw in the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and Olympic National Parks).

We picked up our rental car - a Ford Expedition. I'm not sure if you've ever seen/driven a Ford Expedition, but I'm not sure my license legally covers a vehicle that size. I think I need "tank" checked off or something. It is a beast. In fact, we named it "Beast." We look BALLER. We checked into our hotel, jumped on the beds (obviously), and then immediately drove over to Temple Square to see the Mormon Tabernacle.

It was fairly spectacular, but a bit awkward as we were easily the worst dressed people there (hiking boots vs. white button-ups? what?) and we weren't getting married (seriously, does every Mormon teenager in Utah get married there?). AND I guarantee everyone thought Scott and I were gay together. But everyone was super-polite and friendly and didn't care that we are heathens who don't believe their interesting religion.

Wait, am I pretending to be Amish or Mormon? I can't tell.

We definitely stood out. The first thing anyone said to us was "where are you guys coming from?" Oh you can tell I'm not from Utah? One hilarious conversation was when we told a girl that we were coming from Boston. She responded "oh, have you seen the Mormon church there? I've heard it is beautiful!" My response was just "nooooooooo..." and then we kind of shuffled away.

Then we bought 800 lbs worth of noms for the next few days at Walmart. At least we're kinda prepared now?

Lastly, we went to Squatter's Brew Pub, recommended by none other than Pete Rock. Great beers and Bratwurst. And Scott finally found his keychain! So now I'm readying for bed. Scott is going to pick Nads and X up from the airport since I am driving at some God forsaken hour tomorrow morning. Ugh.

Before I'm 30

I've mentioned this or have shown this to a few people, but apparently having a list of things to do before you're 30 isn't all that normal? I don't see why. I have life goals, and the most opportune time to do most of them (due to being physically capable, having the time and energy, or just because of the terrifying idea that I might not be as insane as I am now) is before my 30th birthday. Plus, that is going to be a super depressing day, and I want to be able to look back at my life and be like "oh right, I forgot how awesome I am. Carry on." I encourage you to make your own, because it feels great crossing off these huge life achievements when you complete them. Like, better than that feeling you get when you push the "other" button down on a McDonald's soda lid. I came up with most of them the day after I graduated undergrad (literally the next day), but some I added when I heard of something so awesome that made me go "holy shit. I must conquer that. IT'S GOING ON THE LIST." So here is my list:

1. Oktoberfest in Munich - this needs to happen.
2. Get a dog - I'm going to name him Khan, so that whenever I call his name I scream "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN" SEE WHAT I DID THERE? roflroflroflrofl lolersk8s roflcopter
3. Skydive - COMPLETE (This is the epic coming-of-age narrative in which I punched the face of god and then jumped out of a moving aircraft)
4. Triathlon - potentially signing up for baby's first triathlon this summer? CALM DOWN it's just a sprint, not a full "all my bodily functions are failing me and I'm definitely going to have 17 heart attacks" all-out crazy triathlon. But still. w00t?
5. Climb Kilimanjaro - should probably start researching what that is going to require...
6. Go to California - COMPLETE (I kinda lived there for 4 months? And I kinda created this blogosphere to chitchat about it? The blag is literally named "Goin' to California." To my faithful readers in China: I know you probably didn't realize this, but yes, I completed that life objective.
7. Go to Yellowstone - I'm doing this in 3 weeks! (You'll probably see some journal entries in the future, or if you are a time traveler from the future, you already know this, but I'm going on a road trip from Salt Lake City to Seattle with some grade A chums).
8. Learn another language - FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU- I need to get on that...
9. Learn how to solo on the guitar - COME ON. When am I going to have time to "become proficient at skills I don't yet have?" Ugh.
10. Go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras - that seems pretty fantastic.
11. Go to Japan - seems simple enough. I think I need to start designing some pyramid schemes to build up enough capital to achieve some of these goals.
12. Eat the Vermonster - some of the D. Haus crew and I came up with that around sophomore year, but it never came to fruition. I need to build up a team to take down this mountain of ice cream THIS SUMMER.
13. Paint the Tufts cannon - I've actually never done this, how is THAT possible? But whatevs, it's happening this summer.
14. Drink around the world at Epcot - I heard about this through Jimmy (who actually did it on his honeymoon), and it sounds phenomenal. The idea is that at every "country" in Epcot, you get that country's signature drink. Apparently, it culminates to a tram ride back to the hotel in which you scream "I love you, dude!" in front of 20 children. SIGN ME UP.
15. Wear Greenman suit to a sports game - SO PUMPED TO DO THIS. The Phillies just need to get up to Boston and I need to get tickets so I can pull this off. Because I am NOT rooting for a non-Philadelphia team in the Greenman suit. That's sacrilege.
16. Eat the world's spiciest burger - COMPLETE (UGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH enjoy this link to the WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY SWEET YOUNG LIFE).
17. Get Master's Degree - FUN. I'm working on it I'm working on it.
18. Backpack in the Alps - I'm actually worried it will be too gorgeous.
19. Brew beer - I'm hoping to make a batch for the fall. And I want it to taste like FRIGGN PUMPKINS.

Not really a "before I'm 30" goal, but DEFINITELY a life goal: I recently ate so many cupcakes that I literally vomited. It was awesome. There was one with bacon brittle on it and pieces of actual bacon in the cupcake! WELCOME TO AWESOMETOWN, POPULATION: ME.