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Summer Road Trip 2009 – The Journey

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

** Note: Newest updates of the trip will be added to the top of this one post. Follow along with us on our summer road trip! **
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8/3/09 10:35am

Annnnd we are back! We got back to Goleta last night all safe and sound. We even had a chance for a mini Burn Notice marathon (I love that tv show) to catch up on the episodes we’d missed while we gone.

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8/1/09 11:25am

About to head to the Bay Area for one last visit. Having dinner tonight with some friends and hopefully get to see some family. We head back down to Goleta tomorrow morning. Hopefully all our stuff isn’t covered in a layer of dust.

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7/31/09 10:05am

Records were broken in Portland while we were there. Temperture records, I mean. It was over 100 degrees while there. Our friends that live there were adamant that those kinds of tempertures are not… ordinary.

Regardless of the out of ordinary heat, Melissa and I still had a blast up there.

On the way from Boise, we did end up stopping for a night over at Hood River and had a nice dinner and some ice cream. It was nice to have quiet night to just the two of us.

The next morning we drove into Portland and met several friends in Powell’s City of Books (after getting lost and driving back and forth over a half dozen freakin’ bridges).

Powell’s is very impressive. It’s like the Louvre of bookstores – you can spend days just in each sub-section. We went to lunch from there with Camille, Stephen, Melody, and Liza at some little place whose name escapes me right now.

While in Portland we got to explore a bit, go to the Portland Art Museum to see the M.C. Escher exhibit (which was awesome), escape the heat a bit by seeing 500 Days of Summer, eat an incredible dinner at a Lebanese place (go sampler feast!), and stay with the very generous Chad and Liza Hughes (who had air conditioning).

One day while in that area, we took a trip to Tillimook (which is right near the coast) and went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. My favorite part was the fact the it was at least 20 degrees cooler than Portland. The coast was nice too .

Yesterday we drove from Portland back down to Sacramento and now we are just hanging out in Rocklin where Ross and Crystal are house sitting for relatives. Only a couple of days left in our trip. I think I’m ready for my own bed again.

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7/26/09 2:50pm

Okay… some quick back tracking.

Our days have been fairly packed for the last several days so I haven’t been able to update here.

After we hung with friends in the Sacramento area we travelled up to Bend, OR (more specifically Redmond just north of Bend). We stayed with the Torsons and they were very gracious and generous. Their kids are all getting so big! Jaden just turned nine and showed us several of his new toys when we got there (Brent, his dad, showed us some his sweet toys while we were there too ).

On our one full day there – Thursday – we went hiking up Smith Rock. It was beautiful but kicked my out of shape butt. Even the kids were outpacing me. I even almost called it quits about 5/6 of the way up. But I pushed through and got to see the great view from the top (plus I couldn’t not do it if even Leanne made it to the top without any problems all while carrying a freakin’ baby). The reward for a successful hike was ice cream! Go
Team!

On Friday we set out from Redmond, Oregon for Boise, Idaho. The drive was … uneventful. No, seriously. Do not drive this path unless you are a farmer or logger. Eh… I *guess* it wasn’t that bad (but just barely).

We barely got into Boise in time for the rehearsal dinner (we had just enough time to check in to our hotel, frantically shower, dress, and drive over). Dinner was at Cool Hand Lukes and it was delicious.

Saturday morning was mostly just filled up with card games in the Hilton lobby (where several of Melissa’s family were staying). And, of course, the afternoon and evening was the wedding. The wedding went well and the couple seem very happy. Don’t really know what else to say about that. Um… there was a candy bar with all blue candy?

Now we’re driving from Boise to Portland and we starting to get a bit tuckered out, I think. We don’t have any specific plans in Portland other than to meet with some friends tomorrow, so we may just get a hotel room in Hood River and rest up and check out that area and just drive into Portland tomorrow morning.

All in all, this trip is going really well. Okay, I think Melissa might need a driving break. Time for a driver swap!

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7/25/09 10:35am

Currently playing cards in the Hilton lobby in Boise with some of Melissa’s family. We’re just hanging out until we need to get ready for the wedding tonight. I’ll add some details about our time in Oregon if I get a chance later.

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7/21/09 9:41pm

Had lunch with Eric from Vision Launchers today at some dive Mexican place in Sacramento. I ordered the “super burrito” and there was definitely nothing super about it. It was nice talking with Eric in person since we usually talk via the intertubes (being a 7 hour plus driving distance away and all).

After lunch, Melissa and I headed up to the Folsom area to explore and I really liked it. I think it might be my new favorite area near Sac. We checked out the lake briefly and even explored rinky dink Sutter St (which I would describe as “rustic” and possibly “boring” but my wife seemed to really enjoy it.

For dinner, we headed back to Davis and treated our friends Ross and Crystal to thai food at Thai Nakorn. Good service and the food was tasty.

We head out for Oregon tomorrow morning and I can’t wait!

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7/20/09 4:21pm

Just had a really late lunch at the Mr. Pickles in Rocklin, CA. The Gaylord Focker was delicious (never thought I’d type that). Wife and I like this area though it sure is hot. We’ve been driving around and just exploring and I thank God that we have functional A/C.

Our friends’ cat Finn still isn’t doing so well and apparently also probably has some bits of plastic in his belly (such a bummer). Now Ross and Crystal have to decide on surgery for the poor lil’ guy (from the sounds of it, it’s freaking expensive). Hopefully, he makes it through the week (I am sure that Ross and Crystal welcome your prayers if you feel so led).

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7/18/09 6:16pm

Fun times in Woodland… if you’re not a cat.

Turns out that our friends’ cat swallowed a piece from a toy and the poor guy started vomiting blood just before our arrival (just what you wanted to read about).

We show up and the cat vomits even more blood (everyone is a critic) and now we’re at the small animal clinic at UC Davis. The vet says there is a metal piece possibly now in his colon and Ross and Crystal are in the other room with the vet discussing (expensive) options.

Where all the cool kids hang out on Saturday…with very sad cats

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7/18/09 3:50pm

The Walnut Creek leg of our trip has ended. We got to hang out with Jessica and Lewis and they were nice enough to cook us dinner last night. Afterward we went for gelato – which was only a short walk away. I got mojito flavor!

We also got to see my lil’ sis Marissa when we first got into town after her shift at the Ross in Walnut Creek. We spent a good amount of time catching up in the parking lot of all places (nothing says intimate catch up time like a Ross parking lot).

We didn’t get to see my uncle Pete like I’d hoped but we did get to treat Marissa to a nice breakfast at the Country Waffles in Concord.

On the way to Sacramento we stopped to visit my mom and sister Analisa in Vallejo, which was nice. Now we’ve arrived to the Sacramento area – specifically Woodland. We’re staying with our good friends Ross and Crystal. Hopefully I can get some cool pictures and videos recorded while we are here.

Don’t turn that dial!

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7/16/09 1:30ish

Our road trip to Boise is now underway. We are currently outside of San Jose on our way to our first stop, Walnut Creek, to visit our friend Jessica. While in town we will also be visiting some of my family who live in the Bay Area.

Below are a few pictures and video from the very beginning of our trip.

We could not figure out how to embed the video from the iPhone so here is a link in the mean time.

Vid #1

Stay tuned for more pictures and videos as we go along on our trip.

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Tags: Roadtrip, travel
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Summer Road Trip 2009 – The Prep

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Sometimes you just have to get away. In a car. With beef jerky.

So here’s the deal. My wife’s cousin Sarah is getting married on July 25th and we’re going. The only hitch? It’s in Eagle, ID which is just outside of Boise, ID. Melissa, my wife, offered to simply fly up there alone and said I didn’t have to go if work did not allow. But forget that! I know an opportunity when I see one! My suggestion? Road trip.

I just wrapped up several web projects and have been overworked and stressed (about deadlines) so there is nothing like a cramped car and thousands of miles to help improve my spirits.

We’re still trying to piece everything together exactly and we’re leaving tomorrow. We’re about 90% sure the trip will be SB to SF to Sac to Bend, OR to Boise, ID to Portland, OR back to Bend, OR to Sac to SF and back to SB. *see map below

View Summer Road Trip 2009 in a larger map

We’re keeping costs down as much as possible by staying with friends whenever possible. We’ve already got a car rented (I pick it up tonight) and a hotel in Boise while we’re in town for the wedding. Other than that we don’t have a lot planned out. We’re couch hopping up the state of California and Oregon and will probably end up stopping at a hotel here or there if necessary. No idea what will happen.

I went a little over board at the grocery store in anticipation of the trip. There’s a big bag of trail mix in there behind the two bags of jerky. What? Don’t judge me!

So I am still working this all out but I was hoping to share our trip with our friends and family. There will be at least three posts on this blog about the trip – The Prep, The Journey, and The Follow-up. The Journey post will have pics and updates via my iPhone as we go along and The Follow-up will have the nicer pics and probably a more deailed wrap-up.

Stay tuned!

PS
Don’t forget to follow my Twitter feed @alandowling

Tags: family, friends, life, travel
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Austin Adventures and Ice Cream

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

Right after my trip to San Francisco in mid-March I took a trip out to Austin, Texas from March 16 – 23.  It was a blast.  There was tons of SXSW related events going on and lots of interesting people and good music.  If you don’t know, SXSW stands for South by Southwest and is a week and a half of Interactive/music/film festival that takes over Austin.

I don’t have a lot of time to write too much detail so I’ll just quickly go through some random highlights from the trip.

One of the first things I did in Austin was get some refreshing blackberry ice tea.  While drinking outside with my buddy Dave a lil’ lady bug decided to hang out with us.

Dave and I stood in line for hours waiting to get into a live filming of The Totally Rad Show.  We were the third and fourth from the last guys let into the venue.  And I mean guys.  There were maybe 5 women in that place.  It was dark, hard to take photos, hard to see the TRS guys talking but I still had a good time.  Dan from TRS even ate fire on stage.

Oh, and before the TRS filming began, Jonathan Coulton played several songs including “Still Alive” (a la the video game Portal on the The Orange Box – you must buy this) and “Re Your Brains” (a song about zombies and brains and two former co-workers – hilarious).

There were tons of people everywhere and music emanated from almost every bar, restaurant, or even to my surprise – the back of someone’s hitched flatbed trailer (too bad I don’t have a pic for that).  Walking around SoCo (or South Congress) reminded me quite a bit of Telegraph in Berkeley.  Lots of small shops, hip young people, and tourists.

While on SoCo, Dave and I stopped off at Amy’s Ice Creams and I got Grasshopper flavor.  Apparently, I have to get ice cream whenever I go to large city.

I did the obligatory stop by the University of Texas (which has the biggest screen I’ve ever seen in a football stadium) and the Texas State Capitol building.  Even from the steps of the capitol building, we could hear music blasting from somewhere nearby.

One night I caught a movie at The Alamo Drafthouse theater.  The movie I saw almost didn’t even matter.  That place was novel and different enough to note regardless of what movie I may have watched.  They even serve meals there so you can eat WHILE you watch your movie.  And apparently they have a bunch of community oriented stuff there as well including screenings of classic quotable films in which the audience is encouraged to recite lines along with the film playing.

I ate tons of great food while in Austin, but Dave would not let me leave without having some good Texas BBQ.  So we went to The County Line, which had a good atmosphere and great BBQ.

At some point I decided I hadn’t gotten enough pictures of the actual city of Austin so I took this while in the passenger seat of Dave’s car racing down the highway.

And there you have it.  I’m sure I left out a LOT but that’s all I have time for right now.  I posted a bunch of pictures from the trip on my Flicker account.  Check out the set here.

Tags: photography, travel
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San Francisco Treats and Travels (aka I’m out of Shape)

Monday, March 30th, 2009

Recently took a trip up to San Francisco with a bunch of peeps from our church – Reality Carpinteria - as part of a “Prayer Tour”.  Basically, Reality Carp is going to be starting up a new church in SF – Reality SF – and our trip up there was for the purposes of laying some spiritual ground.  I can’t think of a less weird way of describing this for my non-Christian friends.  I like to think of it as giant angels and demons flying around punching each other in the faces.  Or something like that.  Spiritual warfare.

Right, anyway, so we took 5 or 6 big ol’ white passenger vans up there on March 12th (and boy was it cramped!) and prayed, walked around a district, prayed, got lunch, prayed, got taught a bit about the history of the city, prayed, went to dinner, and so on and then headed home March 14th.  That’s pretty much a summary of the trip in a nutshell.  We all stayed at Hotel Whitcomb which was just around the corner from the U.N. building.

(more…)

Tags: photography, san francisco, travel
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