San Gorgonio Hiking Adventure

I had been wanting to hike San Gorgonio for many years. I knew it was going to be a difficult hike, but it was still more of a challenge than I had expected. We, meaning my friend's and I, did this hike as a warm-up hike for our one day hike up Mt. Whitney next month on July 2nd.

We drove up in the morning, wanting to get an early start, but due to longer that expected stops along the way and a wrong turn on highway 38 we didn't starting hiking until 9 AM. Also, we were lucky to get a permit. There was only one left at the ranger station. We did not request a permit in advance because we had just decided on a date last week.

Of the six people on this hike, all but Kevin had been going on local San Diego hikes to get ready for Whitney. Kevin was a last-minute addition for what he was told would be a "small hike".

The beginning of the trail is under construction, so there is a detour through the river bed. Yellow flags mark the path. This trail consisted of soft sand and lots of rocks. Along the way, however, we encountered a bighorn sheep! I had never seen one in the wild before, and he/she stood there long enough for me to take several photos before it ran up the steep hillside. This was the highlight of the hike, and we had just begun!

Eventually we reached the regular trail and crossed the creek. From there the trail heads straight up the side of the valley. There are switchbacks, but they are still very steep. We knew in advance about this part of the hike, so we just took it slow. Along the way we were passed by a couple and two dogs. The women told us the trail got easier soon. However, we encountered her later and she gave us time estimates that were way off. More on that latter.

Sure enough, the trail got easier, but already the six of us had broken up into three groups. I was with the "fast" group, which may have been a mistake, because my legs gave out before reaching the summit. Yes, none of us summited.

The trail follows Vivian Creek. The trail was very scenic and luckily not too warm, with a nice cool breeze. I was wearing long hiking pants instead of my shorts, which was good to keep off the many mosquitoes. Every time we stopped, the bugs attached us. I got about 5 bites on my arm. We stopped several times to rest and eat. There weren't many other hikers on the trail. One large group of hikers with full packs and warrior-like face paint came hiking down the trial. They looked more prepared than us and were friendly, despite the face paint.

As we walked along the trail, we encountered many fallen trees which we had to either climb over, under or around. One mistake we made was not having a good map. I had a topographical map that I printed out at home, and when we looked at the map to see where we were, we could not read it. There was a junction at Halfway Camp and we were not sure where to go. Luckily another friendly couple told us to keep going up, following the High Creek trail. They were headed to Halfway Camp to camp for the night. Jim had a good map, but he was way back behind us.

I was still hiking with Steve and Kevin, and we knew Darin and Lee were not too far behind. But Lee was hiking with Jim, who was struggling with the hike and going very slow. So we kept going. Eventually we reached another creek, which turned out to be High Creek. We realized at this point that we were not as far along the trail as we thought, no thanks to my poor map. We should have filled up with water here, since I had my water filter, but we didn't. Later I ran low on water and had to conserve. I was drinking way less than three years ago when I drank one liter per hour of hiking, and was dehydrated and just didn't know it.

Shortly after crossing the stream, we met up with the couple from earlier who were headed back down. The woman told us that they did not summit because her husband, who did not talk at all for some reason, had a medical condition preventing him from going higher that 10,000 feet (and talking?). She told is it was 15 minutes to the next crest, and 45 minutes from there to the summit. She was way off. It took us 50 minutes to get to the crest and had we summited, it would have taken another two hours!

Once we got to the crest, we stopped to eat. After a few minutes we sighted Lee and Darin hiking up. Once they caught up we continued on, sharing stories of what we had seen so far. At this point, Jim was still hiking up, even though he had been told to go back to the car. But he did not and eventually he did make it to the 10,500 foot level.

As we kept hiking, once again Steve, Kevin and I took the lead. By this point my legs were getting very tired. I wasn't sure how much farther I could get. Also, our pace was slowing, except for Kevin, who, for wearing just running shoes and not being prepared, was doing very well. We crossed a long snow field and stopped shortly after to rest. The altitude was getting to us. As we rested, we saw Darin coming up the trail. When he joined us we continued up, looking at the trail high above on the mountain. A man we talked to a few times earlier told us the route up, but we could not picture it in our minds. He has hiked this trail every year as a warm up for hiking Mt. Shasta. This man must have been in his 60s and was carrying a full backpack. He said he was going to summit and was prepared to hike in the dark.

We kept debating when to turn around. I had expected it to take almost six hours to summit, and it was now 3 PM, six hours into the hike. We decided to hike until 4PM. The four of us got up the trail to a point where Steve and Kevin stopped. Darin and I kept going, but when I realized it took us five minutes to hike about 500 feet, I was done. My body was done. My muscles were done. Darin was not. He kept going up and round the corner, hoping to reach the crest of the mountain. I just sat there for about five minutes before walking back down to the others, and then we hike down back across the snow field and waited for Darin. It was already passed 4PM. Eventually we saw him hiking down, and he talked to the old man who told him he was only about a 1/2 mile from the summit, which turned out to be true. But Darin said every time he thought he was near the Divide Trail junction, there was just one more turn.

We were all disappointed, but knew that we still had a long hike back down. It was funny, after hiking down for five minutes we looked up at where we just were and were amazed at how fast we got down as compared to how long it took us to get up to that point. Another 10 minutes of hiking and we were happy to see Lee and Jim waiting for us. Yes, Jim made it pretty far. Slow but steady. We took time to eat more food and prepare for the long journey back. At this point two of us were out of water and some low on food, but other's had extra food and water to share. That's what hiking is all about. Having fun and watching out for your fellow hikers.

So the decent began. Like I said, we made great time hiking down. Even though we were tired, sore and getting headaches, we made it to High Creek in less than an hours. We all stopped to filter water with our two filter pumps. Nothing tastes better than fresh filtered cold mountain water. I filled a one liter bottle with water and added two Nuun tablets and drank half the bottle right there. Then I added another liter of water to my Camelback bladder. Once we all had a refill of water, the hike continued.

Time went by quickly, and we more or less stayed together as a group, with good old Jim leading the way. His mission was to get back before dark. I had to remember to stop and take some photos on the way down, and not just hike without enjoying the scenery. We made it to the top of the steep section at the beginning and just kept going. In reviews of this hike people said you don't realize how steep this part of the trail is until you hike back down. That is somewhat true, but I knew coming up how steep it was. By this time my knees were starting to hurt. Not as bad as I expected, but I didn't let the pain slow me down as I have in the past. I used my hiking poles to cushion my steps on the steep trail, and today I can feel in my arms and back just how much I used my poles.

Even though it was getting very dark along the trail, I could see down in the valley though the trees that the sun had not yet set. I was also amazed how far down the Vivian Creek bed was but knew that with the steep trail we would be there soon. The trail was so steep I had to be very careful not to slip or twist my ankle. Finally, we made it, just as the sun was setting. All six of us got to the river and continued on. Even though we had headlamps, Jim suggested we not use them since our eyes were adjusted to the dark and with the lights we would lose our night vision.

We crossed back across the river and then once again followed the yellow ribbons that marked the detoured path. But as it got darker, and everything turned to black, white and gray, it was difficult to spot the yellow flags. But we kept going, hiking along the soft sand.

We reached the parking lot just as all sunlight was gone. We had two cars and proceeded to take our boots off and put on more comfortable shoes. Everyone was exhausted. Kevin asked, "So what part of this trip did you guys find fun?". I told him that in ten years we would look back upon this adventure and remember only the good times. I know Kevin had some fun, as at one point near the top he got ahead of us and threw snowballs at Steve and I as we crossed the snow field.

We were all ready for dinner. However, since we were not familiar with this part of town, it took us a while to find a place to eat. We ended up and an In-N-Out that was very busy for being 9PM on a Thursday. I had not eaten at In-N-Out in probably over eight years, but a double-double never tasted to good. After eating we all felt much, much better. But Steve, who drove us from San Diego, turned the keys over to Jim to drive us home. We said good by to Darin who does not live in SD.

The drive back seemed to take forever. I was sitting up front in the passenger's seat, and my job was to keep Jim awake. Jim did just fine, except he said without his glasses he could not read the road signs. Hmmm. So I had to tell him what lane to be in. We made it safely back to Steve's house, where we unloaded our hiking stuff and all headed home.

I got home around 11:30, showered, got on the Internet long enough to post an update to Facebook, and went to bed at midnight, after having woken up at 4:15 AM! I was tired, but still had trouble sleeping. I woke up at 8:30, had coffee, breakfast, lunch, long nap and then wrote this blog post.

Everybody said that they never wanted to do this hike again. I do. I have never not summited before unless it was due to weather (snow/rain/lightening). Now that I know what to expect, I think I'd make the summit. Start earlier, hike slower and drink more water.

Next hike - Mt. Whitney!

San Gorgonio Photo Album

San Gorgonio Hike

These are the best of my photos from my hike up, but not quite to the summit, of San Gorgonio.

Getting ready to hike San Gorgonio.

For my Blogger friend's, just to keep in touch, I plan on hiking San Gorgonio tomorrow with Steve, Lee, Jim, and Darin. Gorgonio is the tallest mountain in Southern California. We are taking the Vivian Creek Trail which is the shortest but steepest route to the summit. It will take at least 10 hours to hike 16 miles with an elevation gain for 5600 feet - more than one mile up! I will have some very nice photos to post upon my return as the weather looks perfect with sunny skies. This is officially a warm-up hike for Whitney, but if we summit it will by my second most difficult hike and an accomplishment in of itself. Wish us luck.

Mt. Woodson Hike May 22, 2010

I woke up this Saturday at 6:15 in the morning to get ready for a hike up Mt. Woodson from Lake Poway. I've done this hike many times before, but this time I was meeting up with the crew that will hike Mt. Whitney in one day on July 2nd. We all arrived at Lake Poway around 8 AM. It was actually quite cold and windy, but I was still wearing shorts and no jacket. Mike, Steve, Lee and I had a head start as Jim waited for Darin to get his gear together. Once we made it to the "shady" tree, which was the coldest spot on the mountain today, Steve had to head back to attend a sporting event for one of his children. Darin and Jim had not yet caught up. So we continued up the hill to the summit. It was still cloudy at the top, but not too cold. About five minutes later Darin joined us without Jim, who decided to go back down with Steve for other reasons. It took us about two hours to get to the summit. As we hiked down, the sun finally started to shine through the clouds which was nice because it was more windy. There were quite a few people hiking up at this point. We made it back to the parking lot in 90 minutes. We all agreed that we need much more training hikes before Mt. Whitney. Hopefully we can do San Jacinto in a few weeks. Until then, more local hikes just to get into shape.

Camping at Picacho 2010

Picacho 2010

We made it back to Picacho for the second time in two years. This was the first time I camped there for two nights. It was nice having a full day, Saturday, to spend there, but I was ready to leave by Sunday morning. The temps were not too hot, high of 100, low of 68. Next camping trip is the Kern River.

Fabulous Fords Forever 2010

Fabulous Fords Forever 2010

I believe this is my fourth year attending this Ford auto show. There seemed to be more cars and people this year than ever. Weather was great. Bright and sunny with a cool breeze. Great for taking photos of the many unique Fords.

Star Trek Warp Collection 6 Inch Figures

I picked up this shipment of Star Trek Warp Collection six inch figures from the local post office today. I bought all ten figures from Entertainment Earth and they were shipped promptly and packed nicely in perfect condition. They are made by Playmates Toys, which stopped producing Star Trek figures over five years ago. I didn't even know these figures existed until I saw them at a Sam Goody's while at lunch during my jury duty. How does Sam Goody's even stay in business? Everybody buys music online now. Anyways, enjoy the photos.

Futurama Series 5, 6 and 8.

Now that my home remodeling is almost complete, I can get back to my hobby of collecting action figures. I stopped paying attention to the latest figures available and was pleasantly surprised to find out that Futurama series 5 to 8 were out. I bought all but series 7 from Entertainment Earth - they were sold out of that series. Can you spot the item in the photo that does not belong? It was free with my order complete with a warning label about possibly containing toxic chemicals.

Jury Duty - For the 4th Time

Wow, it has been over a month since I posted on my poor blog. I've been giving Facebook too much of my time.

Anyways, after postponing my jury duty services twice, I had to show up to the downtown courthouse on Tuesday. The jury room was packed, and after the inspiration speech by that 100 year old judge whose been around forever, I sat and waited for my name to be called. They announce that there was one case that was expected to take three weeks, so I marked the box that indicated I could not be on a case that long. They also wanted a detailed reason why I could not be on that case, so I had to indicate my company only pays for one week of jury duty.

Just before lunch, my name was called, so me and 35 other jurors marched up to courtroom 19. Once there we eventually were given a randomly selected number and assigned to a seat. I was number 19, which was easy remember. With 12 jurors and two alternates, I was five away from being on the jury. The jury selection process began after lunch and ended in the late afternoon. They ended up dismissing five jurors ahead of me, so yes, I was the second alternate.

Even though the case was going to last only a few days, after they explained the charges, it was apparent that trial was going to be very boring. The defendant was accused of petty theft. He had taken money from undercover narcotics officers who were trying to buy drugs from him, and he never returned with the drugs - or money. This happened two days in a row - thus the two chargers. So apparently the San Diego police could not arrest him for selling drugs, so they charged him with steeling money - a total of $100.

All the witnesses were police officers who were on the undercover team those two nights. The defendant, who went by the street name of Cobra, did not testify. The testimony took most of Wednesday and was over by the end of the day. We did not have to return until 2PM the next day.

On Thursday we were given jury instructions and heard the closing arguments from both attorneys. The prosecuting attorney was very professional and did a great job presenting her case. The defendants attorney was not so good. She spoke too fast, seemed disorganized and was probably getting paid less per hour, which really has nothing to do with anything.

Since I was an alternate, the only one since the other alternate juror was released on Wednesday for some unknown reason, I did not join the other jurors as they left for the jury room. I was instructed to wait for a call when the jury had reached a decision. So I went downstairs to the jury lounge and waited until 4:30. When I saw the other jurors come down I knew we would be back on Friday. Bummer.

So Friday morning I went back to the court room and told the bailiff, who was a very nice man who like his job and joked around with us, that I'd be downstairs again. This time I brought a book. I sat there until noon, reading and being very board. I took my lunch at noon and returned at one. After another half hour, I was paged and asked to go to jury services. I was told that the trial was over and I could go home. The lady said the courtroom clerk was supposed to have called me when the jury reached a verdict. She even called the clerk and asked her "are you new?". Turns out the jury left before lunch! Not only did they forget to call me, I could have left two hours ago. I asked to speak to the clerk, only to find out what the verdict was. They found him guilty, which was they way I was leaning, had I been one the twelve angry men/women.

I felt kind of sad that I was not called up for the reading of the verdict. I at least wanted to be there and then say buy to the other jurors, judge, bailiff and prosecuting attorney. After all, she was very tall - and cute, but did have a huge wedding ring on. So, now I'm exempt from jury duty for three more years.

2010 San Diego International Car Show

2010 San Diego Auto Show

Photos I took at the 2010 San Diego International Car Show. Enjoy.

Buenos Aires: Last Day and Trip Home

If you managed to read my post yesterday then congratulations. I haven't even re-read it. I hope this blog post is not as long but let us see.

We slept in Thursday morning because we knew we had a long day ahead and not much to do in Buenos Aires and a long flight home. We met at 10 AM in the lobby to go to breakfast. We went back to Galerias Pacifico Shopping Mall (I just found an advertisement for it in the map I'm using to retrace our steps). The choices for pastries and coffee were almost overwhelming. I got a coffee drink with three small pastries at one of the cafes. Since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving there none of realize that it was an American holiday.

After breakfast, we went back to the hotel to check out and then have our bags stored by the concierge (that is a hard word to spell, I tells you). We then planned our last day in Buenos Aires.

The night before Karen and Lorie used the Internet to find the exact address of the El Zanjon house that we had read about but could not find two days ago. Rather than walking, we finally used the subway. There was a subway station one block from the hotel. We bought one-way tickets which were only 1.25 Pesos, which is very cheap. The subway stop was still some distance from the house, so after arriving back in the San Telmo district, we still had more walking, and it was very sunny and warm outside. We found the house, but were told to come back in 50 minutes for the English speaking tour.

So with more time to kill, we wandered the street of this colorful neighborhood. This place was part of a "walking tour", and there were signs posted in front of notable houses and buildings. One house was listed as the smallest house in the city. You could walk right by and not even notice the house or even realize it was not part of the buildings on either side if it weren't for tourist map and the house was painted in a different color. The problem we ran into, is because the streets are lined with tall buildings, it was hard to get good photos of the best looking buildings. The best place for a photos would have been on the roof of the building across the street, which of course was not possible.

So after 50 minutes of walking we made it back to our destination of the day. They promptly let us in at 2 PM. There was a small issue with admission because we were running low on Pesos and they didn't know the exact exchange rate on US dollars. But we ended up paying $12 each for the one hour guided tour. There were only eight people on this tour, which was nice. The tour guide spoke good English and had a unique accent. She did a great job of making the tour interesting. She explained how this old, run-down building was bought by a person who had plans to turn it into a shop, but soon realized that there was a maze of underground rooms and old stone walls that were used to block off a branch of a river running through the house. Once we walked downstairs she told us we could not take any more photos because they wanted to preserve the mystique of the house, meaning you have to come visit it to appreciate it, not just look at someone else's photos.

Besides guided tours, this house can also be rented for parties. It is actually set up for Tango dancing where they turn off all the lights and then start the music and turn on the disco balls. That would be interesting to experience. But not on this trip. Once our hour was up we departed and continued our walking tour of the neighborhood.

There were museums in the area, but they all seemed to be closed. So we looked at the map and found the nearest subway station was back at May Square. So for the third time we were back at the site of the protests. None today, luckily. The subway line we took to get back to Florida Street was, I think, the oldest subway in the city, which used original subway cars or something. I did not get a photo of the cars. We somehow lucked-out and got onto an express line, which bypassed all stops but the one we needed to transfer on. The next subway took us to a stop near Florida Street, where we planned to go back to the same mall for lunch. There were so many choices it took me longer to decide where to eat than to actually eat. This turned out to be our Thanksgiving dinner. Not the typical Thanksgiving dinner, but just as good because it was with family.

Once we were done eating we basically sat and did nothing. There was not enough time to make anymore trips within the city, and too much time before going to the airport. Finally we decided just to go back to the hotel and arrange for a ride to the airport. Turns out that this was a good idea because it took over 30 minutes to get a non-taxi/non-shuttle to show up. The car was rather small, but fit all our luggage plus us. I sat in the passenger seat. Our driver began by taking the surface streets, and just like the taxi drivers, cut in and out of the lanes and did his best to get in front of slow cars and busses. Once we got on the expressway, traffic was moving slow. So he exited the expressway and did his best to explain why. Turns out he is from Russia and does not speak much, if any English, but we understood what he was telling us about how there were two ways to get to the airport.

Taking the surface streets, or the long way, gave us an opportunity to see parts of the town we had not seen. We went though the poorer sections of town, where we saw playgrounds on rooftops (with no fences to stop children from falling off) and soccer fields in grassy areas between the road, which were cluttered by burned-out cars. Once we got near the exit for the airport, for some reason the driver did not want to follow the signs. He tried to make a left turn against traffic but was stopped by police. He then tried to take a short-cut though a neighborhood but found the street blocked and had to back up the wrong way to find another path. I did not realize that somewhere during this excursion he scraped a parked car. I did notice the speedometer didn't work, which was just as well. We finally got onto the road to the airport and he dropped us of in front the our airline departure area. The ride took about one hour, only 15 minutes more than the ride from the airport to the hotel.

Once in the terminal, we found that there was a line for our specific flight. First they had to find our itinerary which was pre-printed out. Since we all and American Airline priority access, we got to bypass the long line and were taken to the business-class checkin, except for Karen who was already upgraded to business class. That didn't take much time, but we all found out that we had to pay an airport exit fee which was put in place after we bought our tickets last February. This made for one more stop, one of many required to fly internationally into the US. We all got though security without any problems and now waited for our flight departure.

We boarded the plane and almost left on time. One of the two runways were closed so there was about a 15 minute delay. The flight back went through Dallas and took more time than the flight from New York. It was a 10 hour and 30 minute flight. After be fed dinner, I did my best to get relaxed hoping I could sleep. Unfortunately, there was some rough turbulence for the next two hours and I could not relax. I must have fallen asleep after the bumpy ride because then I woke up when the flight attendants came by to serve breakfast. So I must have gotten at least five hours of sleep because we were only 90 minutes for Dallas.

As we approached Dallas, it was still dark at 6:30 AM. We landed on time and exited the plane to go through customs. My sister had a special Global Entry pass which allowed her to use an automated kiosk to clear passport/customs. The line for us regular folks was moving slow. Somewhere along the way I realized that I had a different flight home than my brother and his wife. I was going to arrive in San Diego two hours later than them, and they were my ride home. So I rushed off to their departing terminal to see if I could get on their flight to LA and there was plenty of room. I even got an emergency exit seat. They put me on standby for the flight from LAX to SAN, but there was no guarantee that my luggage would arrive early even if I did. It was on the flight to LAX that I realized I lost my iPod. I was not happy about that. It was due to my carelessness. I never lose anything, except for my mind.

Once at LAX, I watched the standby list with my name listed as number three. The flight was full but I was still hopeful. When the plane boarded, Brad and Lorie got on and I waited. There was room for two more people, so I missed it by one. The next flight left in one hour and I was listed as number one on the standby list. As this fight boarded there was along delay before they started calling standby passengers. I was not happy when three people were given tickets even though MY name was at the top of the list. Just as I stood up to complain, they called my name. All is good.

The quick 25 minute flight to San Diego was, well, quick. I was really hoping that my luggage was there, but it was not. So I had to wait for the next flight, my original flight. Luckily, my brother was waiting for me back at the food court in terminal one. I took the "red bus" there and went to Starbucks and bought one of their special Christmas-time mochas. It was only 1:30 in the afternoon, even though it seemed later. Usually on our overseas trips we leave very early on a Friday or Saturday and get back home very late the same day. At 2 PM we walked to our car in the long-term parking and drove back to the commuter terminal. We timed it perfectly. I walked in, saw my bag had just arrive and walked back out where my brother was waiting for me.

I got home by 2:30 and proceeded to do laundry, go shopping and read my e-mail. By 8PM I was ready for bed. Even though I slept in, I woke up every hour starting at 2 AM. At 6:30 AM I was out of bed and ready for the weekend. I had nothing planned other than relax, and relax I did.

Overall I'd say this was a fun trip. I'd rank Buenos Aires better than Lima, Peru and not as interesting than any historic city in Europe. We have officially decided that next year we are going to Vienna, Austria, with a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia. Can't wait.

Buenos Aires: Colonia, Uruguay Day Trip

You may have noticed by now, those of you who have read my blogged "vacation reports" before, that I am not including photos. Since I have already posted all my photos I figured it wasn't necessary. Also, it saves time. I might also add that I appreciate anyone who takes the time to read my blog posts. Even though it takes me an hour or two to write them, I enjoy the opportunity to share my fun life experiences with the whole world in a format where I'm able to write in my own style. Not what they taught me in college which was "Say what you are going to say, say it, and then say what you said." I prefer the freedom to write in my own, unique, narrative style.

Now that I'm done with that unexpected paragraph, let's get on with the day. My alarm went off promptly at 6 AM and I was down in the lobby by 7 to meet up with my brother, his wife and my sister. We had planned to get breakfast somewhere near by, but nothing looked good, so we just walked down to the pier. Once there, we found the line to check in for our boat. There were automated kiosks which made the process simpler since we had no bags to check. Then we made a stop at the cafeteria and grabbed some pastries and coffee.

From there we headed upstairs where we basically exited Argentina and entered Uruguay. We had our passports stamped out of Argentina and stamped into Uruguay. Very efficient. We then waited for the boarding of our ship. We had coach tickets that had seat numbers, but once we boarded the ship we realized we could sit anywhere in the couch class. We found four seats in the middle section, which turned out to be good for anyone who gets sea sick as this section had the least motion. I do not get sea sick.

The trip across the river took about one hour. We then docked at Colonia Del Sacramento. Once off the boat we exited so quickly we passed by the place where we turn in our passes and are told what bus to board. We eventually found this booth and boarded bus 126 - the English speaking tour. The bus was only about 10% full. I'd say less than 20 people.

As soon as we departed the terminal the guide started her speech. The bus tour lasted about 45 minutes or less. We got a tour of the area outside of the historic district of Colonia, making only one stop where we got out to take photos. I tried take photos while the bus was moving, but they either turned out blurry or just didn't capture the scenery. It was kind of funny that most of the sites were of buildings that were built in the early 1900s and then abandoned a decade later, such as the bull fighting ring. During the tour the guide also gave us a history lesson of the city, told us about the people, lifestyle and average temperatures during the summer and winter. She made it clear that Colonia was a very laid-back city with very little crime and the water along the beaches were clean, unlike the polluted waters of Buenos Aires.

Once we arrived at the center of town, our guide, who's name I can't remember, led our group down the main street, showing us where the restaurant was that we would be eating at. There were maps of the city along the street, and she stopped to show us where we were on the map and where the various sites to see were. We than had over four hours to explore the city before meeting up again for a guided walking tour of the historic area.

Our first stop was the beach. It made for some great photos of the city and of us. From there we wandered towards a lighthouse. It was just 15 Argentina pesos to climb to the top. In Colonia they accepted Argentina pesos, Uruguay pesos and US dollars. I think the exchange rate on the US dollar was the best deal, but mostly we used our Argentina money. The stairs to the top circled up a tight path, but I think it only took a few minutes to reach the top, unlike some of the towers and domes we walked up in Italy last year. From the top there was a great view of the city, and since the sun was out it made for great photos. Once we had our fill of the view, we walked back down, being careful of people walking up as there was only one stair case.

After exploring the city some more, we decided to have our lunch before the restaurant got too busy. The lunch included the salad bar, which had a large variety of cold foods other than salad, a choice of beef, chicken or pasta, and a desert. I chose the mushroom filled raviolis for my main dish. Overall the food was quite good. The lunch did not include drinks, but I just got a Coke. I could have tried a local beer, but their beer didn't look too exotic, plus that would have just made me want to take a nap. So after just over an hour there dining, we paid our bill, tipping the waiter nicely, and continued our explorations of the town.

During the next hour or two, we did lots of walking. We went into many shops to look for souvenirs. I ended up buying a magnet in the shape of the lighthouse we climbed. The lighthouse was completed in 1857 according to the map I'm looking at. As the day went on, the temperature warmed up and we did our best to stay in the shade. We walked up and down the quite streets. It was interesting that most of the intersections had no stop signs. Drivers just politely yielded to the the car that was already in the intersection. We explored a farmers market but bought nothing. Then we walked to the Basilica of the Holy Sacrament, one of the few religious sites we visited.

By this time we were very tired and hot. We saw other tourists who were even hotter, as their shirts were soaking with sweat. Finally, as it got near 4 PM, we walked to our meeting place where we met back up with our guide and the rest of the people on the bus. She then took us to the places in town that we did not tour because we knew we would be there for the guided tour. We learned more about the culture, the influence of the French and Spanish, and much more about the differences in how the French and Spanish build roads than we ever wanted to know. Water drainage, sidewalks and types of stone. We, as with the rest of the group, were ready to board the air-conditioned buses by this point.

So just after five we boarded the bus and made the short trip back to the port. Once again we went through passport control and got two more stamps in our passports. On the boat we sat in the center but closer to the front. The one hour ride was eventless except for the hard rain we encountered as we approach Buenos Aires. Luckily the rain stopped by the time we docked, making our walk back to the hotel rain free.

You are in luck. Since I'm getting tired of typing I decided to take a photo of the magnet I bought in Colonia so you can see what the lighthouse looked like that we climbed to the top of. Enjoy :-)

Once back at the hotel, we took another hour break before going to dinner. A shower and change of clothes felt great. Even though I put on sunscreen, my face still got sunburned. I tried my best to reduce the redness in the photos of my using Photoshop. Also, I had a few misquote bites, but not as many as my sister had. We were worried because there were signs posted everywhere, which I never saw, that warned us about getting the Dengue fever from misquotes. As of now, over two week later, none of us got sick.

We had planned to eat a an Irish Pub we passed several times, but once inside we opted not to eat there due to smoking allowed downstairs and the music was too loud (yes, we are old). So we walked a few blocks away and found another Irish Pub. While my brother and I waited near the door, my sister and his wife walked up towards the bar. At the bar there were several businessmen in suits who were more than happy to see two American girls in their local bar. They proudly spoke their best English to impress the women. Then Brad and I finally walked up and we were seated in a table near the bar but in a less crowded and quieter place. The waitress did not speak much English, but we managed to order our drinks, my sister and I got a Guinness while Brad and Lorie got their usual Coke and Coke light. We ended up all ordering the same meal, their salmon dish. It was not near as good as our meal the night before, and in fact was very fishy tasting.

We eventually paid our bill and left. It was now dark outside and the latest we had stayed out. Before I forget, I really wanted to see some Southern hemisphere stars and constellations, such as the Southern Cross. But due to clouds and light pollution I saw but one star and the Moon. Guess I'll have to make that trip to Australia some day. Once again we found ourselves on Florida Street. However, by this time at night, pushing 9 PM, the vendors had left and there were actually a few prostitutes hanging out on the street corners. They were obviously hookers, just standing there wearing very short, easy access, skirts. This was not a "Pretty Woman" scenario. I was not going to bring one of them back to my nice hotel in a fast car.

A few more stops along the way and we were ready to turn in for the night. Since Thursday was our last day in town and our travel home day, we all agreed to sleep in and meet at 10 AM for breakfast before checking out by noon. Back in my room in packed my bags for the trip home, watched some TV, thought briefly about the hookers and went to bed.

Buenos Aires: First Full Day

I have forgotten to mention that since Argentina is in the Southern hemisphere, it was late Spring there, so the temperatures, even when cloudy, were 75 degrees during the day. The humidity was also high, making for an uncomfortable walking environment. We could have worn shorts, but almost no body wears shorts there. I saw only a few tourist wearing short and they stood out, something we did not want to do. Although it was obvious to every local that we talked to that we were American, and luckily they still like Americans.

We met in the hotel lobby around 7 AM I think and went out for a light breakfast and coffee. After that we walked down to the docks to buy our tickets to Uruguay for the next day. We knew the walk was short, but once at the docks we somehow missed the building with the big sign that read "Buquebos", the name of the company the hotel suggested. So we walked too far into the docks and finally a man stopped us at the entrance to an empty building and directed us back to the correct building.

Once there, we found the room where you buy tickets. It was set up very nice. They took our name and then when a representative was ready our name was posted on a monitor, which we did not notice right away. The saleswoman was very helpful and got us signed up for the deluxe tour, which included the price of the fast boat, a guided bus tour of Colonia, lunch at a nice restaurant and then a walking tour of the city. I think this cost about $100 dollars per person, which is relatively cheap.

Now that we had our tickets we went back to the hotel to drop them off and then made the plans for the day. Now for some reason, exactly what we did this day and in what order are a little fuzzy. I suspect my memory was not so good due to jet-lag and the extra long two days it took to travel there and all the walking the day before.

I believe our first plan was to use the so called hop-on-hop-off bus to take us to a few sites around the city. The bus had a stop across from the hotel. We boarded the bus and after sitting for some five minutes someone finally came to sell us tickets. Turns out they wanted over $100 US dollars! That is way to much. These tour buses usually cost more like $15, and we were only going to go to a few of its stops. Plus they seemed very disorganized - and slow. So we ran off the bus and opted to walk to our first destination - the Recoleta district to see the Recoleta Cemetery.

Many famous people are buried there, including past Argentinean presidents and Eva Peron. This cemetery is huge, with rows and rows of mausoleum (or crypts?). Each one decorated in some unique, ornate way. After walking round in the sun and snapping some photos, I was ready to leave. We found the site were Eva Peron was buried, but not her husband. We could have paid for a map from one of the many people outside selling maps to this free site, but they were too annoying so we just ignored them.

By this time we were ready for lunch. From the day before when we were here looking for the Hard Rock Cafe, we knew there were many places to eat. We ended up in the Buenos Aires Design center, an upscale mall with all sorts of interesting stores with expensive looking furniture. I was fascinated by a booth that was selling door locks that open with your finger print. We sat down at a small cafe and I opted for what looked like a callzone. It wasn't too bad, but was over-cooked and needed more fillings inside. I was really hungry.

We then left and hailed a cab to take us back to the San Telmo district. There was a house with underground rooms that we wanted to check out. The conseair at the hotel had marked on a map where the house was located, but we walked up and down the street and could not find it. However, we walked into a museum to ask about it and they didn't know what we were talking about, but encouraged us to check out their "door" museum, which was free. It was a very small place, with items recovered from buildings that used to line the street back when the area was kind of a Little Italy, I believe. After a few photos and signing a guest book, where the people who signed it before were from San Diego also, we left.

After some more walking around we found ourselves at May Square again, near the government buildings. This time something was abrewing. There were more police and they were in riot gear. I took a photo of them without being obvious because they were stopping others from taking photos. Not wanting to get involved in any kind of riot, we walked back to good-old Florida Street. As we headed up we heard some noise. It was the protesters marching up a street banging on drums and holding signs. We think it was a protest by indigenous laborers, but we never found out. They were protesting peacefully and even had their protest permit displayed on the front banner.

So more walking got us back to our hotel. I was also hoping that my lost luggage was found, and once in my room I saw I had a voice mail message. I eventually got ahold of someone who told me my bag was delivered by the airline. I was very happy to hear this. Clean clothes awaited me.

We took about a hour break before going back out for dinner. There were restaurants everywhere. We heard someone talking about a place near the hotel, but we got there too early and all they had were pizzas, not their full menu. So we checked out a few menus of nearby places and found a nice restaurant called Dada's. Turned out this this was our best dinner and dinning experience of the trip. The waitress was very nice, spoke great English and the food was unbelievably great tasting. I can't remember exactly what I had, but it was beef of some sort topped with all sorts of flavorful sauces and sides. We finished off the meal with a decadent desert. We left feeling satisfied and again, ready to turn in early, since we planned to meet at 7 AM in the lobby so we could get to the boat dock by 8 AM.

This may have been the night that Brad, Lorie and I went back out for another walk up Florida Street as Karen went to her room. We discovered that later at night, when the leather shops are closed and nobody is trying to get us into their stores that the street was much nicer. It was also well lit with bright lights. We discovered a three story mall with a beautiful, tall Christmas tree, above which was a Sistine Chapel-like painted ceiling.

Since the planned wake up time for me was 6 AM (or 1 AM San Diego time), it was time to go back to our rooms. It was kind of depressing to watch all the people leaving the hotel, dressed up for long night of dinning and possibly Tango dancing as we headed up to our rooms for sleep. We did no Tango dancing while in Argentina, which was fine by me.

Buenos Aires: First Day

After checking into our rooms, we were ready to head out into the city. We had no plan at this point other than find sunglasses for my sister. We needed to find a bank first to get some money. They use Pesos in Argentina, and the current exchange rate was about 3.5 Pesos for one US dollar. Overall, prices for food, taxis and merchandise was cheap. However, there was a 21% tax included in all prices.

Our hotel was at the end of Florida street, which was a pedestrian street lined with all kinds of shops, but mostly leather since Argentina is known for its meats and leather. I know this street goes by a different name, but I can't seem to find what it was called on the maps I'm looking at. During our stay, we made the walk up and down Florida Street so many time, the vendors who stood outside their shops trying to get people into their stores began to recognize us. Some of the vendors were so aggressive, it was annoying after a while and we found ways to avoid the worst blocks by taking short cuts through a mall and using side streets.

Anyways, you would think there were many stores selling sunglasses, but it took about 20 minutes before we found one. So my sister bought a pair of not only cheap sunglasses, but ones that distorted her vision due to poor lenses, but at least they blocked out the brightness of the sun. We kept walking up the street, taking in the sights. After about an hour we stopped to decide what to do. Up ahead I saw some interesting buildings so we kept going. It was interesting that the people hanging out on the street went from shop owners to hippies and other assorted Bohemians. We must have walked to a different district.

The buildings we were headed for ended up being the Government House located next to May Square. May Square was a nice park, but it was divided in the middle by a big, ugly fence. We soon realized that this fence was there to keep protesters away from the Government House. There were a few police guarding the access to the other side of the fence which you could get to from the sidewalk. There was no protesting going on at this time, but there was evidence of protests of some sort by the graffiti painted on monuments and buildings. It was sunny at this time so we took some photos of the area and then moved on.

By this time we were getting hungry and feeling the effects of lack of sleep. We knew there was a Hard Rock Cafe somewhere in Buenos Aires. Once we reached the Centro district, near the Obelistk, we found a tourist information booth. I asked the bored looking man inside where the cafe was and he marked-up a map of its location. Looking at where we had just walked from, and where the cafe was, we agreed to just walk there. Unfortunately, maps can be deceiving if they are not to scale, and buildings on the map do not look like they do in real life.

So the walk was much further than expected and even when we found the right building, we were still unable to locate the restaurant. Even after asking a person where it was, the entrance was so hidden we wondered how anybody could find the place. Because it was still early, like 4PM, only the upstairs was open. We had a nice waiter who spoke some English, but was trying very hard to learn more words, so he discouraged us from speaking any Spanish. So we ordered our food and beer, which tasted like food and beer from any other Hard Rock Cafe around the world. Once finished, we all agreed on taking a taxi back to the hotel. No more walking.

Like in any other country than the US, the lines on the road are only "suggestions". People drive swerving in and out of lanes, or they drive in two lanes at once. They at least stop at stop lights, but their stop lights not only turn yellow before turning red, they turn yellow before turning green. So as soon as the light is yellow, all cars race to get ahead of the slower buses, which there were TONS of.

Back at the hotel, even though it was not even 7 PM, we were done for the day and decided to go to our rooms for much needed sleep. Our plan was to meet in the morning, get some breakfast and then go buy our tickets for the trip to Colonia, Uruguay. The concierge recommended getting the tickets the day before make the trip. Since there was a chance of rain on Tuesday (it was still Monday if you lost track), we would decide what to do the rest of Tuesday depending on the weather and how we felt.

I watched TV for a little while and really had no problem falling asleep. I think I dreams about flying in planes and walking round city streets.

Buenos Aires: Travel to Day

This year for our family Thanksgiving overseas vacation we decided on Buenos Aires, Argentina. We (or I) made this choice for a few reasons. First, it was a part of the world that we had never been to before - the east coast region of South America. Second, it was time to take a break from trips to Europe, where there is a 9 or 10 hour time difference. Argentina is just 5 hours ahead of the Pacific time zone. Third, I saw a show on some channel about how nice Buenos Aires is. They said it was very European and metropolitan. We also decided before going, that we would make a day trip to Colonia, Uruguay, which is a designated world heritage site.

Since we knew that there wasn't anything really famous to see in Buenos Aires, we planned a shorter trip - just three nights. However, since we were arriving in the early afternoon the first day, and leaving in the very late evening the last day, we really had almost four days to site see.

We, meaning my sister, brother, his wife and I, all flew out on the same flights. We left San Diego early Sunday morning and flew to JFK in New York. Once there, we had about a five hour layover. All but one of us used frequent flier miles to fly for free, so we were limited on our choice of flights and times. At JFK we killed time by eating, sitting, walking around and more sitting. I was happy to find a TV to watch the Charger game on and was even happier that they won. Finally, our flight was ready to leave. From JFK to the airport near Buenos Aires, EZE, was a ten hour flight. I was in an non-emergency exit, isle seat with very limited leg room. Luckily the lady sitting next to me was short and spent the whole flight sleeping and never left her seat.

Even then, this was the longest flight I had ever been on. I think I was able to get three or four hours of sleep. Everybody woke up about 2 hours before landing when they served breakfast. Then the pilot announced that there would be some heavy turbulence and even asked the flight attendants to buckle up. So for about an hour the plane shook pretty hard, making some passengers nervous and sick. I was too tired to be scared so I just tried to relax and get more sleep.

We landed on time, around 11 AM local time. It didn't take much time to get through customs and passport control. But soon I had my first disappointment - my checked bag never showed up. So I went to the lost baggage window and put in a claim for my lost luggage. They said most likely it would arrive on the same flight the following day. Luckily I packed extra clothing in my carry-on backpack.

We had pre-arraigned for a ride to the hotel, so as we exited the secure area we met up with the man holding a sign for use. The hour of us piled into a large van and then sat and observed our first view of Argentina during the 45 minute ride to the hotel. Since it was still early afternoon, there was not much traffic.

Our hotel was a Marriott, located near the center of Buenos Aires. We checked in with no problems, but over the next two days we had issues with our rooms, due to the hotel getting confused about our reservations. We had three rooms for three nights booked by my sister and I using our Marriott rewards points. Somehow the hotel got mixed up and lost the reservation for one of the rooms for two nights. It took a long phone call by my sister to Marriott (while we were in Uruguay) to get this mix-up straightened out.

When we checked in, only two of our room were ready due to our early check-in. Mine was ready, but I think I got a smoking room, as it smelled like cigarette smoke. Since it was just for three nights, I wasn't going to bother asking for a different room. So, after about an hour we were ready to start our adventure in Argentina.

A short movie I took at the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Buenos Aires Vacation Photos

Argentina and Uruguay - Best Of

These are the best of my photos taken in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Colonia, Uruguay during my Thanksgiving family vacation.

Site-seeing photos in Philadelphia

Site-seeing In Philadelphia

This weekend I flew to Philadelphia to attend a friend's wedding. I arrived on Thursday evening and the wedding was Saturday evening. So I had a chance to do some site-seeing. On Friday I went to the historic part of Philadelphia and saw the Liberty Bell and other sites. Then on Sunday we made a quick trip through Valley Forge.

I didn't take any photos during the wedding events, but I hope to have copies of photos that other people too.

Clouds

Classic Star Trek Christmas Ornament

I just happened to be in a Hallmark store today and remembered to look at the new Star Trek Ornaments. I did not like the Klingon Cruiser. I just lit up and had no sound. But this "The Menagerie" one was much better - and $4 less! I regret not buying last year's "The Trouble with Tribbles" ornament. It had a internal mechanism that dropped Tribbles on Caption Kirk.