Made it!

I've been wanting to ride my bike over Highway 20 for ages - and I finally did it!

I left Sunday morning from Lynnwood towards my destination of Colonial Creek. I rode to Snohomish and took the Centennial Trail. The CT is a fantastic trail, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a long trail! From Arlington I turned toward Darrington and just barely missed Mike. I kept on from there to Rockport, and had fantastic views of the Sauk along the way. I stopped for food at the Marblemount BBQ Caboose, and also at the Cascadian Farm fruit stand - both were excellent!

From there I made my way past Newhalem and started through the mountains. The only traffic left on Sunday evening were heading west, which made my passage through the dark and wet tunnels a little less scary. But with much effort I finally found myself at Colonial Creek Campground for the night.

I set up my dismal camp, which included little more than a tent, a sleeping bag, and a sandwich from the IGA in Darrington. It wasn't too long before Mike, Huge, and Huge's son Tyler found me! They brought me fire wood, hot dogs, and above all - beer! They turned my dismal little camp into a fine establishment! It was great to have their company after such a long day.

I awoke the next morning with sore legs and a sore head. But the start out of Colonial Creek definitely got the blood moving. It was a steep climb with strong headwinds to boot! But from the Diablo Lake outlook onward the winds were at my back. The climb up to Rainy Pass and then back up to Washington Pass were arduous. I made a few stops along the way and took in plenty of fluids and food. But I did manage to find a riding partner. Mike, from Redmond?, was going the same was as me toward Spokane. We took pictures of each other at the Washington Pass sign, but on the downhill he totally dropped me! The wind was very gusty now, and with all my gear on the rear of my bike it made for some very squirrely steering. This did not improve my confidence as I descended down curvy roads at 40+mph without guardrails!

I met back up with Mike in Mazama, and we continued together to Winthrop. I needed food, and Mike needed to find a place for the night, so we parted ways there. After a much needed sandwich, I talked to my parents on the phone. They decided they'd start heading my way to pick me up - so the race was on! I really wanted to make it over Loup Loup pass before they caught up, and I nearly did. I was 4 miles shy of the top when I saw my dad in his big white truck. Although I was a bit disappointed to not have made it to the top, I felt pretty good about the day's accomplishment! Plus he was nice enough to bring me some good snacks and beverages to celebrate :)

Overall it was a fantastic bike ride! I would highly recommend riding over Highway 20. The views were unmatchable, the shoulders had ample room, and the drivers were very courteous. In two days I didn't even have a single upset driver. The cherry on top were the fantastic tailwinds coming down Washington Pass and through the Methow Valley!


Day 1: Lynnwood to Colonial Creek
Length - 114 miles
Total Climbing - 4,928 feet

Day 2: Colonial Creek to Loup Loup Pass
Length - 81 miles
Total Climbing - 7,552 feet

Total:
Length - 195 miles
Climb - 12,480 feet

Sunny Seattle

It's been too long since we posted anything on our blog! We've both been super busy with wedding planning and job hunting/new job. But we're both doing well!

Last night we enjoyed Seattle's warmest day of the year (so far) with Dave and Colleen on Meadowdale Beach. I caught this eagle in multiple exposure carrying off it's catch into the sunset. It was a great way to spend the evening!

I'm Famous!

I have SO much to catch up on about our travels through South Australia, the Northern Territory, and Tasmania, but for the mean time I wanted to share this news clip!

Kat and I arrived into Honolulu a few hours before the tsunami was going to hit. I called our hostel from the airport and they said to go ahead and come over. When we got there they were evacuating! They offered to store our luggage ... on the ground floor! We refused and instead had to hike with all our stuff a ways up the road. The news crew caught up with me as I was dragging our stuff along.

Quite an adventurous day for us!

Links to:
The Article
The Video Clip

On the Road Again!

The last week was a bit stressful finishing work, packing up, and preparing to be on the road again. The very worst part was having to say goodbye's to our friends and to Sydney itself. No more swims in the aquamarine waters of Coogee with Georg, and no more cycling along the coast at sunrise with Garth :( But it does feel good to have the stress behind us and to be finally exploring more Australia!

Kat and I ended up packing all night long to make a 6:30am flight to Adelaide. We arrived in Adelaide exhausted but eager to explore! One of our good friends from Sydney, Isobel, happened to have just moved here so it was very good to meet up with her and see her again!

Also, one of Fred and Diane's very good friends, Diaper Bob (sorry Bob, but the Bongiovanni's have immortalized that name for you!) happens to live in Adelaide. We went on a wine tasting tour in the Barossa Valley - which is EXCELLENT - and had an wonderful dinner with both Bob and Isobel.

My expectations of Adelaide have been FAR surpassed. Based on the judgements of other people, I had expected Adelaide to be a quaint country town and a bit on the dull side. This is simply not true. Adelaide is a comfortably sized city with a lot to offer. The city center is planned and flat and contains Botanical Gardens, museums, a university, shops, and many great places for food, beer, and wine. This makes it an ideal place to bicycle about and take in the sights. The city of Adelaide has capitalized on this and provides free bicycle rentals! Kat and I are exploring the city by bike and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

Adelaide has been a great respite from the busy, crowded, and HUMID Sydney. The wine, dry heat, and gorgeous stone buildings give the city a relaxed and mediteranean feel. I think it's sometimes a bit off the tourist trail, but if you're looking for a great place to stroll through green parks and sample delicious food and wine in patio seating, this is the place to do it.

Too hot

Today it reached 40C (104F), but was still cloudy and humid. In fact a few drops fell out of the skies a few minutes ago, which immediately vaporized upon landing on any surface. It's a hot day.

I was standing in our kitchen this afternoon sucking down a fruit smoothie when I heard a loud bang and watch liquid and debris flying out of an open shelf a few feet away. My reaction was something like "what the %#@*," which may or may not have been aloud. I inspected the mess and found a huge puddle of brown liquid and a shredded Coke can.

Clearly the can had exploded while on the shelf and sent the contents of that shelf, including 12oz of sticky liquid, flying through the kitchen. I really don't know what else to say, other than it was hell cleaning it up.

Has anyone else ever had a Coke can explode like this?

DNC

On my birthday I woke up and headed down to the beach to attempt a triathlon. That doesn't sound like an appealing way to spend your own personal holiday, but it was a gorgeous day and the idea wasn't necessarily to race, but to get a feel for the transitions before the real race at the end of the month. Well, it wasn't going to be a race as long as I beat Garth... but that's another story. But swimming, cycling, and running in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney are certainly not the worst way to spend a day...

In any case, two days prior to the race Georg was hit by a car. This unfortunately left him out of the race. And then Ian became very sick, so he was out. Andy took one look at the course and said 'no.' So at the start only Garth and I were left standing. I had eaten way too much Mexican pork and cervesas the night before, and Garth smelled as if he had attempted a human pickling. Out of five people, not one of us was ready for this! What does this say about us?

Garth and I lined up at the beach and then tore our way through the surf towards Wedding Cake Island, located 750m offshore and easily spotted by the 'icing' that birds have generously coated it with. We were actually clocking along fairly well, considering our condition, when Garth stopped and said "ow." I don't like it when Australians say this. What is "ow" to Garth is akin to "holy !*&@*#& #!*@ my leg is gone" for me. It seems that Garth had entangled himself in a Blue Bottle jellyfish.

During a race it's important to remain calm to save energy. I was not doing this. I watched Garth untangle himself and was more than a little shocked when he told me he was okay and that we should continue. We made it another 100m when my arm starting feeling hot. I stopped swimming and realized that I had just been brushed, but rather the Blue Bottle's tentacle had wrapped around my arm a half dozen times and there were around a hundred blue stingers lodged in my skin. It did not feel good.

Up to this point I had not been stung before, and I was not sure what to do. Garth was 50m away and hadn't yet realized I'd stopped, and I decided I needed to do something right away. So I reached down with my right hand, grabbed the tentacle, and started unwrapping. And one good thing happened: my hand was fine! The stingers can't get through the thicker skin of the hand! This cheered me up a bit. But only a bit. Then Garth asked me if I was allergic to stingers, and my mild cheer was lost. I replied that we would soon find out.

It seems that Garth had now been stung again and his tolerance had been met. My tolerance was more or less met when I saw him get stung, so I was absolutely ready to call the swim off. But we called it off 600m out into the open ocean... and now had to cross through these same waters to get back. I doggy paddled for a few minutes so I could constantly watch the surface, but I'm not sure I was even keeping up with the tide. Reluctantly I put my head down and started paddling... and made it to shore alive! (I was not really in danger of dieing, but the chemicals in my brain certainly wouldn't let me believe this)

We stopped off at the lifeguard station to warn them that there's Blue Bottles out there today. The lifeguards all agreed that Garth's stings were the worst they'd ever seen: he had them on both shoulders, his arms, chest, one nipple, and the left side of his face. But they gave us ice and cheered us up as good Aussie lifeguards can always do. It seems that one woman's husband had been whipped in his hanging parts once, which made myself and even Garth feel a lot better about our condition.

And that's how 4 of my friends, and myself, got a DNC for the first Coogee Bay triathlon.

We're so bad at posting!

So it's been a while ...quite a while... since either of us posted to our blog! But we're still doing great here in Sydney and are looking forward to coming home soon.

A lot has happened since the last time we posted anything! In November my parents, sister, and Mike came and visited us here in Sydney. We did a lot of exploring around Sydney and had a really great time. We also made a trip up north to Port Douglas to see the tropical side of Australia. Queensland is an amazing place! That place is crawling with life and there is so much to see, do, eat, and explore up there. Definitely one of my personal favorite paces in Oz!

Then over Christmas break we had one of Kat's close friends, Juliette, come and stay with us. With summer fully on, it was a great time to go to the beach. Kat and I bought snorkel gear and use them very often in the bays near our home. We've been lucky enough to see boxfish, blue grouper, octopus, squid, cuddlefish, port jackson sharks, whiting, needlefish, parrot fish, and countless others that I don't know the name.

For Christmas we told ourselves 'when in Rome' and donned Santa hats and made our way to the beach. Santa hats do not make for good beach gear, and I had mine off and myself in the water to cool down in about 5 minutes :) For New Years we fought the crowds to see the fireworks display in Royal National Park - a prime viewing spot for the bridge. It was SO crowded, but everyone was in good spirits and the event turned out to be a lot more mild than I expected. Everyone was crammed together, but most people seemed patient enough.

Recently, while neither of us had to be back at work yet, I took Kat on an overnight trip in the Blue Mountains. We went on a route that took us past great waterfalls, scenic vistas, bird life, the good kind of insects, and unfortunately leeches. I wish I had a picture of one of these bloodsuckers, but when either of us found one we would go into a 'get it off! get it off!' dance until the leech was removed and ground into the forest floor.

Also visiting, and still in Oz, is our friend Elizabeth and her boyfriend Anrik. They came over from New Zealand and we'll have this next weekend together before they have to go home. They're up in the Blue Mountains at the moment, and I'm sure they're enjoying it. It's hard not to when you're on vacation!

Anyways, there's WAY too many good photos to post all of them, but hopefully a few from the past couple months will give a good idea of what we've been up to.

Cheers!