2 Weddings and a Bluegrass Music Festival

Let me start by saying I was ready to leave Florida before I went back to the REAL Bay Area (Tampa also dubs itself the bay area) but after these last few weeks I am starting to count the days.

After being denied a SUBSTITUTE teaching credential in this great state (I have a Master's Degree in Education) I was briefly employed as a Valet.  The owner of the company, Jimmy Alfonso (up-and-coming mob boss?), claimed that payday was every two weeks.  After over a month of working for him I still had not received any money and neither had my newly hired co-workers.  After many inquiries, excuses and ignored text messages I decided to keep a big wad of cash that I had collected from customers and said "adios" to Mr. Alfonso.  A series of awkward texts later I was free of the company, Jimmy was mad, my co-workers were mad, and I essentially got paid under the table but overall it was an awful and nerve-racking job experience.

The best man from my wedding, Chris Heintzelman got married on the 28th of September and one of Jen's Bridesmaids, Francesca, had her wedding on the 29th.  I went to California, Jen went to Newport Rhode Island.

Before we left Will came to visit.  We hadn't seen him since our wedding last year and we got to spend some quality time at the beach, playing ping pong and going to dinner.

I arrived in California 3 days before Chris's wedding so that mom and I could celebrate Grandpa Kenny's birthday with him.  We ate at the Buckeye and the Dipsea Cafe and had a blast.

Chris and Jen's wedding was beautiful.  The weather was perfect, the ceremony was short and sweet and they put a lot of time in to little DIY touches that really added a personal feel.

The ceremony took place in a meadow:

The bride and groom surveying a happy, tipsy crowd:

The first dance:

While Travis, Abby and I left Chris and Jen's wedding at round 9pm, Jen stayed out till 5am with Francesca and Ian, partying and dancing.  She did the partying during the wedding and I was jealous that I hadn't been able to celebrate like that with Chris. Oh well.

Being back in Marin was surreal.  The weather was perfect and the natural beauty reminded me of why the Bay Area is such a special place.  I think there was a full week of sunshine in San Francisco which is a rarity.  Travis and Ricky drove me around, paid for disc golf, lunch, beer, etc. and made me want to move back to the Bay badly.  Travis and I biked to Lake Lagunitas one day, a childhood stomping ground:

Ricky and I went out at dawn to go surfing and play disc golf.  We drove up the headlands as the sun was rising.

I managed to do a number of fun things nearly every day I was there.  One day Ricky and I spontaneously rode our mountain bikes from his house in Fairfax to the top of Tam.  I had never done that before in my entire life!

As my trip was coming to an end, word of a free Bluegrass festival (Hardly Strictly) in San Francisco was reaching my ears daily.  Ian (another one of my groomsmen) was coming to town and a number of other friends were going to make a weekend out of it.  I decided to push back my return date.  Jen, while supportive and understanding, was bored out of her wits during the extra week I stayed.  Luckily she was able to socialize with Ron Thompson and some of his friends.  

Before we even went to the (free) Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, which was probably the best concert/set of concerts I have ever been to, we went to see Capleton at 19th and Broadway.  The show cost $35 and was by far the most expensive activity I was planning on doing while in Marin.  Ricky managed to get us in for free.  Smooth.  Then, when Capleton finally came on the stage at 1230am, he erupted with energy and the crowd went wild.  I have never seen it so crowded and vibrant in 19th, it was astounding.  The tiny venue was instantly hot-boxed and people were dancing, drinking, smoking and loving every minute.  After that amazing show it was time for a weekend of more music.

Because we had such a large group at Hardly Strictly we were able to sit, talk, hang out, dance, drink beer, eat good food, walk around, listen to all kinds of music and generally enjoy the beautiful, sunny, and lush environment of Golden Gate Park.  It was awesome.  And, I got to re-connect with good friends.  It has taken me a full 4 days to recover from all the partying but it was worth it.

(Above) The very final act we saw, The Civil Wars, played an awesome, soulful and genuine set.  Their humility and incredible harmonies made it easy to really enjoy the moment and as the sun set we cheered, whistled, swayed and howled at the end of each song.  As this was the last day of the festival, naturally we were out of beer.  Everyone knew that in order to get more beer they would lose their spot and miss the end of the show.  Just as we were planning a beer run Andy Jones showed up with a 12 pack and we congratulated him heartily.  The perfect end to a perfect weekend.  

(Above) We arrived home from San Francisco after thai food and the end of a depressing Giants baseball game (luckily they went on to win the series in one of the greatest comebacks in recent history).  Bloom (green shirt) was unexpectedly in town for a funeral.  He has been unable to come to Hardly Strictly because he had to go to a conference in New York but those plans were trumped by the death of a good family friend, Rene, and so Bloom ended up in the Bay after all.  Unfortunately under dismal circumstances.  But we DID get to see him and that was a plus.  After all that drinking and dancing we took a sauna at midnight on Sunday and washed out all the toxins.  It left us happy and relaxed.  

The next day Bloom and I saw Looper, one of the best movies I have seen in years, and then I went to the airport for a redeye back to Tampa.  It was incredible to see Jen, we had missed each other terribly.  With no job and a month to go I am trying to make use of my time in this strange state.  I am looking forward to the freezing cold of Boston :) 

Valet - eh?

It was Thursday night. I carried a plastic double-sided sign to the entrance of the parking garage.  I opened it up and put one leg on the sidewalk and the other in the street.  People were coming and going all around me, like passengers in an airport.  Servers, boat captains, cooks, bartenders, deliverymen, parking attendants, cashiers, bussers.  Restaurants and bars pumped employees in and out like blood through a heart.  I made sure everything I needed was in order and then all that was left was to wait.

            Mitchell was supposed to arrive at 5pm. It was 5:15 and he was nowhere in sight.  I paced frantically hoping he would get there soon. 

            “Valet!” two guys in white button-down shirts, black pants and black vests walked up behind me.  I turned around and didn’t recognize either of them.  I gave a pitiful half smile.  The guy who’d called my name was smoking a cigarette.  Big fake diamond earrings dangled from his earlobes.  He had a thin, chinstrap string of facial hair hugging his jaw line.  He looked like a porn star.  “You the valet?” 

“Yea,” I said attempting an air of cool.  “You guys working on the boat?”

He took a long drag from his cigarette and then looked over his shoulder.  He held smoke in his lungs and without exhaling answered, “Yup.”

“You guys servers?”

“Slot technicians.”

I imagined him patrolling old lady’s coin cups, giving errant machines a stiff elbow if needed.  He moved on to talk to someone more interesting.  Standing there with baggy shorts and a shirt tucked in too tight I wasn’t up to his standard.   He and his buddy left me standing awkwardly outside the circle of conversation. 

            A car pulled into the valet only lot.  My boss’s instructions echoed in my brain “If they aren’t valet, call the number and have ‘em towed.”  Maybe it was Mitchell. 

            I jogged over to the lot.  Two Filipinos, an older woman and a younger man, sat in a red, dilapidated T-Bird.  The man rolled down his window as I approached. 

“Valet only sir.  I can valet your car or you can park in the garage.”

“What is the cost, valet?”

“I’m seven, the garage is ten.”

The old women butted in, “We can’t park enwhere, not there, not there, not here.  We going on the boat to gamble, where we park?”

I was sweating, my face was glistening, I could feel it.

“I’m sorry,” I offered, “but I just work for the company that is using this lot.  I don’t want to tow anybody.”

The man and woman both perked up at the passive aggressive threat and the woman looked in her purse for some cash.  They were pissed.

“Ok,” the man said getting out of the car. “I want you to leave it parked like this.”

“I will have to move it against that wall,” I said pointing over his shoulder.

“Why, why you can’t leave like this?”

“Because it doesn’t make sense, I have to organize the lot like this,” I made two parallel movements with my arms. “One row like that, another like that.”

“I want you to leave it here, like this.”

I smiled despite being frustrated. “This is how I was told to do it…”

“Huh,” he interjected sharply.

“I have to do it like this, this is how I have to park them.”

He shook his head and went to give me the keys.

“Wait,” I said, “I need to get you a ticket.” 

They walked off in the direction of the casino will call and I ran to get their ticket.  One part tore off as their receipt, another went on the dash of their car and the middle section of the ticket went onto their key ring.  Tear, tear, stab. 

            I jogged over to them standing in line.  The woman gave me the seven dollars and I gave them their piece of the ticket.  I could see all her bottom molars were missing as she gave me a perfunctory smile.  “Good luck,” I told them.

New Digs

If you have ever been to Florida you know it's hot, spread out and humid (mind out of gutter).  Luckily we live on the water here.  Check out Jen's early-morning-before-work-view:

At this hour I am asleep.  When I do wake up I usually take an hour run on the beach or do yoga on our dock.  Then I spend a good portion of the day looking for work and writing stuff.  We have some neighbors:

This is Henry (above).  He is weird.  He eats the fish out of a pond maintained by the landlord.  He likes to walk up to our deck and stare at us for hours.  If you look in his eyes you can almost tell what he's thinking.

This is Leo.  One of our neighbors (human) rescued him.  He is very affectionate and makes us think of Zoey.  He also wants to eat the fish.

It is pretty quite here.  Soon I should be valeting cars for a casino cruise ship in port.  I expect an interesting crowd, who knows what the tips will be like but the hourly is a whopping $4.75.  Yea, people in Florida live on that.  Teachers make squat here.

More pictures of our backyard:

On a Sunny Day

On a Rainy Day

We are trying to stay busy with free activities.  Here are some pics from a recent nature walk:

We've seen more wildlife here than Colorado!

Jen isn't working today because of Tropical Storm / Hurricane Isaac.  The media hyped it up like it was going to be a huge disaster but in the end, it turned out to be not much more than scattered showers and some above average wind gusts.  We got sand bags and everything!  Even went to the grocery store to get supplies.

We are still working on finding a friend with a boat.  It would be nice to do some fishing while we are here.

We had lunch with Ron Thompson in St Pete the other day.  He was really nice and we had a great time, we plan to see him again soon.  

All in all Florida ain't so bad but personally, I can't wait till we are back in California.

Counting....the....days.

Denver to Florida

Florida: land of the billboard and palm tree.  Stunning beaches, warm ocean water and it is humid.  No one is outside unless they have to be or unless they park themselves at the shore of the Gulf.

We set off for this tropical state at 5 am Thursday August 17th.  We drove ten minutes, forgot something, went back.  And again.  Finally we left and drove 13 hours to St. Louis Missouri.  

Leaving Denver at Dawn

There's really nothing to say about the drive.  I don't believe there is one thing to see in Kansas despite the numerous hand-painted signs proclaiming "world's largest prairie dog"and "five-legged cow."  Miles and miles of corn were our only entertainment.

When we hit Missouri we saw some trees, oh and big fireworks stores!  I should have bought some but our budgetary woes trump firework purchasing.

When we got to St. Louis, Karen's cousin Carol let us stay in her apartment.  She was very sweet and hospitable.  After driving for 13 hours I had to run so I put on my Asics and ran for about 45 minutes.  It's is humid in the south and I was quickly drenched.

You know, I gotta say, St. Louis was really nice.  Nice neighborhoods, nice people, things were new and clean and bright.  But alas, we continued on.

Early morning gas stop.

We drove through Tennessee and Alabama.  We stopped for roadside BBQ in Nashville.  MMMMM, pulled pork.

With full bellies and cups of steaming coffee we drove off to Atlanta, acid reflux punishing me for my food and beverage choices.  We saw no part of the city and drove straight to our hotel.  Jen and I both had aching backs and tons of energy so we hit the hotel gym and then went to bed.

Our final day driving.

It was a Saturday morning and we tuned in to NPR which kept us sane for most of the drive.  After 2 full days of driving this was our 3rd and we were feeling a little crazy.  We took turns behind the wheel, made quick pit stops and finally arrived in hot muggy Florida.

Here is our backyard:

Even as I write this a dolphin just swam by ten feet off our deck:

So here we are.  Jen is working at the Bay Pines VA hospital, 8-4.  I am here writing this and looking for work. We miss home and family. Wish us luck.

Diamond Lake Trail, Our Final Backpack Trip

This time there there were no traffic jams, we didn't get lost in the rain and we had no unexpected credit card charges at the end of our trip.  We drove from Denver to El Dora Saturday morning and arrived to a pristine, sunny valley, that held numerous lakes, trails and waterfalls.

We had to park about a half mile from Diamond Lakes Trailhead.  The place was packed.  When we asked someone why it was so crowded he just said, "people from Boulder go hiking...a lot."  That statement pretty much sums up the state of Colorado.  People love to be outdoors and you have to get up pretty early to beat them to the campsite.  

We started off on a trail that hugged a South-facing mountain range and climbed up towards Arapahoe pass.  Across the valley we could see and hear the roar of a waterfall.

We hiked a mile and came to a fork in the road.  The trail had been full of families, couples with dogs and other backpackers.  We overtook some families bogged down by slow little kids, heheh, and made good time to the lake.  It was only 2.5 miles from start to finish and when we got there we were amazed at how stunning the lake was.  We were surrounded by mountain peaks and perfect wilderness.  

Above: Diamond Lake from multiple vies.

We set up our tent at campsite 10, the most secluded campsite which also boasted the most wildflowers and easiest access to the lake and river.  

The hike had been so short that we didn't know what to do with the time we had.  I went climbing up towards the nearest mountain peak and Jen headed to the lakeshore to read in the sun.

We relaxed and were constantly stunned by the natural beauty of this place.  Now we understood why it was so crowded.  Our only concern were the few signs we'd seen stating, "camping permit required!" and we had none.  We didn't even know where to get one, but we never saw a ranger so it was all good.

We took some time to explore our surroundings:

Mushroom :)

Below: I got my head wet, the water was clear and ice cold.

Super Mario Brothers?  I didn't get bigger.

We cooked dinner by the lake while the fish jumped and ate bugs.  A bunch of people were fishing but no one was catching anything.  The sun began to set and we just watched.

Sunday morning we got up after a rough night sleep.  In the day, the sun was hot, even scorching but at night the temperature plummeted and we froze! We took a short day hike to a higher elevation.  No one was around, it was quiet and peaceful. 

We made it back to our car and drove home.  It had been a great last trip!

1st Year Anniversary

We did it!  One year!  So much has happened between then and now, seems like a long time ago that we had all our friends and family come out to Bonny Doon for our wedding.

What did we do for our anniversary?  We are still trying to figure it out.  We found a deal on LivingSocial for a 2 night stay in La Veta.  Never heard of it.  In fact, no one we know from Colorado had ever heard of it.  And, there's a reason.  This place was in the middle of nowhere.  3 hours South of Denver on a forgotten highway, La Veta quietly sits at the base of the Cristo de Sangre mountain range.  
The main street was paved, side streets were dirt and deer walked around like the owned the place.

What does one do in La Veta?  There weren't really any bars or restaurants open late.  The few businesses in town just seemed to close when they felt like it.  Kinda eerie.

We arrived Friday night and Saturday morning, luckily, was one of the busier days in La Veta.  We found a fundraiser pancake breakfast, pancakes, OJ and coffee for 5 bucks each.  We joined the townspeople and were serenaded by the Orphan Valley Singers WOOOOO!

We sat down with a heaping plate of pancakes and enjoyed the company of no one under the age of 65.  

We consider ourselves old at heart anyway.  Here was the day's schedule:

Despite the much anticipated "Chicken Drop" we decided to head up the mountain to do some hiking and exploring.  If nothing else La Veta and the surrounding national park is beautiful.  

Blue Lake was beautiful and the water was an emerald green color.  What you don't see are the tons of people fishing all around the shore.  Apparently that is what you do here, fish.  We had a picnic and then left for another site.

Above: the view from Cuchara pass.  Jen reads, I take pictures.  It was a perfect day weather-wise.

Above: vista point from a hike near West Peak.

Above: coming back from West Peak, heading to the car.

Above: the wildflowers were bright and in full bloom.

After a long day of hiking and exploring we headed back to the hotel for our final night.  A word about the hotel.  When I called to check our reservation on Friday, as we were leaving, they said they had no record of it.  Despite the fact that I remember, verbatim, the conversation I had with one "Randy" about reserving a room, the same Randy was unable to locate the reservation.  When we arrived he talked fast, seemed nervous, mentioned something about putting us in the luxury suite (which never happened) and let his associate finish checkin us in.  The place was pretty funky.  The ceramic lining of our bathtub was chipped and peeling up pretty badly, they had single serve pump soap dispensers in the bathroom and when I went to pull my computer charger out of the wall, the entire socket came clear out.  I neatly put it back and went about my business.

We enjoyed champagne!

My beautiful wife busted it out.

            

Above: not realizing that pressure had built in the bottle as we ascended to the elevation of 7,000 feet in La Veta the cork prematurely shot out and tagged me in the neck.  Jen mercifully continued to take pictures.  Uninjured we proceeded to drink.

    

We managed some level of luxury despite being in....La Veta.

Later in the evening we headed to a wine bistro (totally out of place in this town) to claim our bottle-of-wine voucher that was part of the LivingSocial deal.  

We drank wine, ate cheese and played some cribbage.  By the time we were done, Jen and I were tipsy enough that we seriously doubted our ability to gracefully leave the bistro.  We managed.

We took a nice long walk around town, ran in to some crazy characters who would've talked to us forever if they could and finally wen to bed.  The next morning we left La Veta, refreshed/hungover (both?)  yea...both.