Spring Break 2004

02.20.04 - 02.28.04

Snowboarding in CA and OR

In a nutshell:  spent the first weekend in Tahoe with a bunch of former Sandians.  Then, took the train up to Portland and spent the rest of the week with Kevin Smith, former resident of Erie, MI.

First Day

Flew into San Jose where Jennifer Brantley picked me up.  Had a tasty beer-soaked burrito at La Costena, the 7-time Best Burrito Champion in Mountain View, CA (and Guiness Record Holder for the World's largest burrito!).  Met up there with Laura Medrano and a handful of Lockheed Martians.

Drove down the scenic Palm Drive of Stanford University and got the 1-hour tour with Jen.  Later met up with Nolan Finch at Jen's house.  Eventually picked up Jen's friend Christy Draper and started the drive out to Lake Tahoe.  Stopped along the way for my first In-n-Out burger experience (next time I'll have to try the Secret Menu).

Stayed at a nice cabin in South Lake Tahoe.  A big Sandia reunion.  In attendance:

• Rachel Rubin and her Berkeley Friends:

  • Steve, Shyam, Kaushik, Debbie, Ryan, Dave

• Ginny Whisnant

• Laura Medrano

• Brian Barrett

• Jen Brantley

• Christy Draper

Second Day

Snowboard Drama

So, after lugging my snowboard across the country, planning on a whole week of riding all over the west coast, and spending my first full day at a real resort, having a real good time, I go inside to put my shoes on and...  for only 10 minutes did I leave it alone out there, on its own... and in only 10 minutes, my board was swiped.  Gone.  :(  And such a pretty board it was too.  Well, all the stages of loss passed quickly, from denial to anger to depression to finishing a 12 pack of beer that evening.  After all that, I had no problem still enjoying my remaining trip.  Plus, I still had my boots, at least, and was able to rent good boards for cheap the rest of the week.

 

UPDATE:  My insurance pulled through for me, big time!!  And I didn't even know they would cover my board.  So, I got myself hooked up with a nice, new Burton board.  No, I never got to ride it this season, and will have to wait 'till next winter to try it out, but I couldn't be happier nonetheless.  :)

Back at the lodge, the girls fixed up some spicy pasta for all.  Brian and Deanna Sosnowchik showed up for the evening, which turned into an all-out wild game of Cranium.  Spring chickens, toe-foo, Ray Charles, you name it.  After the game and several more Full Sail brews, I also seem to remember some sort of digitally animated Barbie version of the Nutcracker.  Wack. 

Third Day

One more day on Heavenly (on a rental board).  Rode the greens in the afternoon, but a lot of off-trail powder made it all worth while.  Stopped at Carrows on the way home; accidentally separated from half the group ... who'dve guessed two Carrows in S. Lake Tahoe?

Once back in Palo Alto, Jen dropped me off at John Hawkins’.  Met his pals Bill and Will.  Crashed on the floor at Loma Vista, his place in Mountain View.

Fourth Day

Woke early and ran all around, first catching a cab up to Stanford to drop off Jen's cell phone, then back down to Mountain View for lunch.  John works at Google, so we did lunch there, "Google-style" ... I highly recommend it if you ever get a chance.  All kinds of cuisine, prepared by the former chef of the Grateful Dead, free to all employees (and friends), enjoyed in nearly a festival like atmosphere of hundreds of mostly young and fun Googlers.  It's a dot.com that didn't die.  They even have those big, inflatable body/stretch balls just randomly lying about in the hallways!  All I need now is to find an equivalent job for mechanical engineers.

After that, took the Caltrain and BART up to Berkeley to hang out with Rachel, have dinner with her and Snow at Cha am (nice Thai place), and get a nice after hours tour of Berkeley's campus.  Grabbed a couple bubble-teas then Rachel dropped me off at the Amtrak station, about 9pm.

Was supposed to catch the 10:15 train to Portland - delayed till 12:50 (The Starlight Express).  Which was fine, since I ended up meeting Tripper Dungan, a quirky chap from Portland.  Tripper is both an artist and a master of shadow puppet theater.  We got along well, which made the 18 hour ride a bit more bearable.

Tripper likes science, space, bees, the moon, and more.  Check out some of his work here:

http://www.gallerybink.com/dungan.htm

http://www.dreamrevolution.org/tripper/tripperindex.html

http://www.nemo.org/Friends_Links/Tripper/tripper_main.html

Fifth Day

Only slept about 4 hours on the train ... once the sun rose, the scenery was too exciting to sleep again.  Followed the raging Sacremento River up through N. California.  Lakes, rivers, mountains, almost all the way to Portland.  The train had a great observation car and a great dining car.  Unlike plane food, train food turns out to be quite appreciable ... even desirable!  Also accomplished my only real reading during this time ... got a good head start on The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins.

Finally rolled into Portland near 7pm.  Kevin picked me up and we headed straight out for Bend, OR.  Stayed at a Super 8 and got ready for our next day at Mt. Bachelor.

Sixth Day

Rode the nearly empty Mt. Bachelor (midweek).  Rated as one of the top 5 snowboarding parks in N. America!  Found some deep, deep powder that quickly wore us out.  Well, that and the 50mph winds at the tops of the lifts that inspired us to laugh and cry all at once.  After lunch, found a nice series of big jumps on the Sunshine Lift.  Apparently I had learned to land jumps at some point, because I was nailing these every time, for the first time ever.  This means, of course, that we had to make some movies.

Drove to Kevin's place in Hood River.  Hood River is a quaint little town right on the Columbia River Gorge, populated by windsurfers, snowboarders, and other outdoors activity oriented folk (and hippies).  Hey, it sure beats a town full of rednecks.  Grabbed some Taco Bell, then grabbed a couch, then quickly proceeded to pass out for the evening.

Seventh Day

Woke up and decided for hiking instead of riding.  After a stop at the coffee shop (Holstein’s) and library, we made our way out to Multnomah Falls.  Took a 5.2 mile hike along some of the dampest, wettest, greenest forest I’ve yet to see.  Saw over 20 waterfalls along the way, 4 big ones, and being a weekday, almost no other hikers.  A nice stretch, indeed, between two days of riding.

Stopped at Char Burger on the way home for a mushroom burger and Black Butte Beer.  Stopped in that evening at the Skylight Theater in downtown Hood River to see Lost in Translation.  Theater is also half pizza-joint, so food and beer are both encouraged while movie viewing.  Best part was where we sat: the front row was all big fat couches and ottomans.  Some special event was also going on, and for every Ice Axe I drank, all the profit went to United Way.  So I did my good deed for the day.

Wrapped up the evening at the River City Saloon.  Open stage night.  Listened to a lot of hand-drumming and rap, and played Foosball with Pete from Michigan State, who knew all about Astoria, where “Goonies” was filmed.

Eighth Day

Mount Hood.  Kevin worked, I rode.  Lotsa powder everywhere.  Walkie-talkies worked out great; allowing us to meet up for lunch and then some riding together at the end of the day.  However, that’s when I tried jumping something a little too steep – ended up with my board over my head and landing smack on my back.  Other than the strong desire to be squeezed by a professional wrestler to pop my back, I was just fine.

Checked out the Full Sail brewery, a few hundred yards from Kevin’s place, for some drinks, before heading off for dinner at the 6th Street Bistro.  Had the sea bass … finally my first bite of Pacific seafood after being out there a week.

Made a weak effort to start watching “The Jerk” at Kevin’s place, prompting both of us to immediately fall asleep.  Was a long day.

Ninth and Final Day

Kevin worked, so I borrowed his car for some exploring on my own.  Drove along the Colombia River into Portland.  Hung out for a bit on Belmont Street – a real cool part of the city on the east side of the river.  Checked out Sproink, a coffee shop, and a Nickle Arcade named Wunderland.  After 30 minutes of skeeball I met up with Tripper (from the train ride) at Olé Olé.  Had some tasty fish tacos with him and his friend Tarin before we decided to head out to Mount Tabor.  Tabor has the unique characteristic of being the only dormant volcano lying within the limits of any city in N. America.  Go Ring of Fire!

While there is no crater to be seen on Tabor, there are nice panoramas of the city, as well as a bunch of punk kids having crazy bike races.  Was it Zoobomb, or just a dream?

(Going to Portland?  Check out "Portland for Dirt Cheap".)

Since the Japanese Tea Gardens had closed early, the last stop was instead The Tao of Tea, a very serene tea house back on Belmont.  Enjoyed a variety of tea and mochi ice cream, all served by our waiter in nearly ceremonial fashion.

Got home, packed in a hurry, headed out with Kevin toward the airport.  Stopped at a sportsbar, Sidelines, and had as much Fat Tire as I could.  Had a few more in the airport, yet despite all my effort, all those beers earned me only 2 hours of sleep on the flight.  Total trip home was 9 hours, including 2 layovers.  Arrived in Detroit around noon the next day for a happy reunion with Mimi.  The airline, of course, decided to lose my luggage.  No worries, though … the perfect ending to the perfect trip.  :)