ALC8 Day Two: My first (official) century (and I love bears!)
June 1, 2009
Route: Santa Cruz to King City
Distance (according to my Garmin): 106.5
Calories burned: 6520
Avg. Speed: 16mph
Total Elevation (no laughing): 3014ft
Today was seriously awesome. And why? Well to start it was my first official century, let alone first over 100 mile day! So let’s go through the highlights of today:
Preface: not all “highlights” are good
- Getting out of Santa Cruz was, for lack of a better term, a clusterfuck. Michael and I got up at 4:45 with the goal of being on our bikes ready to go at 6:30. However… seems folding up a tent in a way that fits in a little bag thing is a skill you have to earn… earn with about five failed attempts. So we ended up getting out at 7 instead and oohhhh good god getting out of Santa Cruz was madness!! Imagine about, god I don’t know, hundreds upon hundreds of bikers all lined up single friggin file in the bike lane in downtown Santa Cruz. During rush hour. And, since about 95% of us were on our best behavior, nobody ran lights or even took up a lane (which I still think we should have done). It took us about an hour to get out of Santa Cruz. An hour!! So that was definitely the low point of the day… because normally I’m all about getting through traffic asap!
- While biking on our way into a town called “Marina” we came across some serious headwinds. Now, friends of mine have always said “Heather, if you ever get a chance, draft a tandem. It’ll be the easiest riding of your life. Just push hard to hold on because those things can fly!” Well the biking gods favored me today because right when the headwinds picked up what happened? A lovely (almost seafoam colored!) tandem flew by me. So, what did I do? Well I picked it up, caught up, and held on for dear life! The next few miles were quite lovely until the evil call of the demon flat god sounded. The tandem got a flat!! Tragedy! So I asked them if everything was ok (it was) and I continued on my way.
- At lunch I called Chris to let him know how things were going and that so far, so good! This gave me something to do so I did’n’t have to sit all alone
- The rest of the day was really pretty flat and oh boy I flew on some parts. For a long time I was riding right behind a girl who I believe rides for Berkeley. We were going a solid 21ish for something like 10-15 miles. But, I left the rest stop before her and continued out on my own. I actually really enjoyed some of the riding by myself. I’ve never spent any time in that area of California and it’s really beautiful. Though I have to say… I felt a little weird/bad/guilty biking by the people who were picking all the strawberries.
- My very favorite stop of the day was at the mission. The theme? Dancing Bears!! Now, we aren’t talking about bears like the animal, we’re talking about “bears” – big burly gay guys. So I pull in to the rest stop in the middle of nowhere to find dance music and a bunch of bears wearing pretty much nothing but pink tutus with giant flagpoles with glittery flags, dancing together. So I got of my bike, got my yummy otter pop, took a video of them, and then my picture… because how could I not?! It was awesome!!
- After getting into camp I had dinner with Michael, Ryan PC Gibson (somehow I can’t just think of him as “Ryan”…and he apparently can’t think of me as “Heather” since now I seem to be “Private Whitney”), Topher, and Baris – and then we walked over to Safeway to get some snacks. Oh, we stopped at Carl’s Junior, too since everyone but me wanted a milkshake (I was too burnt out on candy from the ride)
So that was my day!! Tomorrow is about 60 miles more!
ALC8 Day One
May 31, 2009
Alright – now I might not be able to charge my laptop for this entire trip so I’ve got to make these entries short and sweet!
This morning at 3:45 Chris, me, and, I presume, Michael, all woke up to get ready to head down to the Cow Palace to start AIDS/Lifecycle 8 San Francisco to Los Angeles! Actually, Michael and I woke up to actually ride it and Chris woke up to be a saint and drive us over. Sadly (so so sooooo sadly) Chris couldn’t do the ride this year 
So anyways, thousands of cyclists and roadies (volunteers who help do pretty much EVERYTHING throughout the week) gathered for opening ceremonies and the ride out!
Google sponsored the event through the Gayglers (our gay Googler group), which meant the Google team got to ride out right up at the start! This was particularly great because there are over two thousand riders… and that’s a lot of people to start riding all at the same time. Especially through San Francisco.
Basically the rest of the ride was fairly uneventful for me. I stopped at a few rest stops and got to see some pretty amusing themes (like a bunch of guys dressed in 50’s poodle skirts and belly shirts) and made a new bike buddy! After lunch I ended up riding right with a girl named Leslie for pretty much the rest of the ride (an additional 40 miles). I was particularly grateful because I don’t really know *that many people on this ride and of the people I do know from work, none of them ride my speed
I arrived at camp at ~1:15PM after our 80 mile ride and was quite surprised to see that not too many people had arrived yet. This was awesome because it meant I got to take a shower with no line!! Yippieeeee!
After we all got our tents set up (thanks Michael!) a few of us decided to go to Costco (right outside our tent city) to see if there was anything delicious and/or useful. And, right when we finished with that Chris had arrived! He came to see me the first night since we were just in Santa Cruz!! After hanging out around camp for a while Chris took me out to a yummy Italian dinner in preparation for our 106 mile ride tomorrow.
After dinner and some hanging around Chris had to go so I walked him to his car and begged him to stay for about thrity minutes. But, sadly, he didn’t give in. So now I’m in my tent typing with Michael messing around with his iphone.
Time for bed! Tomorrow will be my (technically) first over 100 mile ride!
Oh but before I forget, I just want to say a very special thank you to Chris. Not only did he donate to me and Michael, he helped pack me (and by “helped” I really mean he just packed me), he made sure I had everything I needed, and he sat with me through all the day zero packet pickup lines. He’s a saint and I’m really very very grateful! I will miss you so much, baby!!
-Heather
Weekend of Freckle-Making (aka: weekend of outdoorsy-ness)
March 31, 2009
This past weekend was chock-full of outdoorsy adventures! (too bad I somehow managed to gain back 2.5 pounds of the precious weight I’ve lost since January during this past week in spite of all my exercise, but I’m not going to dwell in a sea of self-hating and pity…… [why meeeeeee?!])
Moving on — this weekend!
On Saturday Chris and I went to Half Moon Bay and took a beginner sea kayaking class! And on Sunday we, along with his friend Christina, went on an almost 70 mile bike ride to Pescadero and back (back via Tunitas… *cue scary music of doom and despair!!*)
So how’d it all go down
Sea Kayaking
I’ve wanted to try sea kayaking again ever since I tried sit-on-top sea kayaking in Maui back in high school. And, since I wanted to treat Chris to a really cool activity in honor of our two month anniversary (…don’t laugh. Why shouldn’t we think of every possible reason to celebrate and do fun stuff?!), I thought this would be an awesome time to give it a whirl.
So we arrived at 8:45 and found out that there were only going to be three students! Us and one other girl. I started thinking that the low teacher student ratio was really really awesome right when I sat down in my sea kayak for the first time and had a little panic attack when I realized that I was like really really stuck in a contraption that could capsize with me still wedged in it.
The morning was spent practicing basic maneuvering skills (i.e. turning left, right, front and backwards paddling, etc.) in very calm waters. I had a case of déjà vu when I watched my paddle go into the water, which was kinda neat. [déjà vu because I rowed for UCLA my freshman year, which means I’ve seen an oar go in water a lot more often than pretty much 99.99% of the population]
We then had a nice lunch break over on a dog-friendly beach. This was cool with me but I’m telling you right now it was not so cool with the instructor. I didn’t think it possible for someone to hate dogs but if he doesn’t than he comes damn close. My guess – he’s had one too many unleashed and unmonitored dogs interrupt his teaching so he’s just sick of it.
After lunch it was time for our self-rescue practice, which means it’s time for us to purposely capsize our boats and learn how to get out (and then back in) safely.
Apparently it showed that I was less than enthusiastic about this business and, accordingly, he said I would go first. Eeekk!! When he first showed us the steps of how to get back in the boat I started laughing. Not “this is so funny” laughing but “holy shit this is ridiculous, I’m going to die” nervous laughing. I tried to explain that sometimes I can’t help but laugh when I’m nervous but I always worry people just think I’m an ass. Oh well. The laughing continued (though I did try and turn away while I did it).
After we all practiced it on the shore (which looks hilarious) it was time. I got in my kayak, Chris wished me luck and pushed my boat in (since I’m not so good at the getting-the-boat-to-go-from-shore-to-water bit) and I was on my way. The instructor was out standing in the water waiting for me to come up to him. The idea was that he’d walk me through the first time and, of course, be right there in case I totally flipped out (and, as a side note, I asked and in fact some people do need to basically be saved because they freak!)
After some protracted laughing and asking him if he was ready, I counted to three (“one” …. “two” …. gigglegiggle….. “twwwwoooooo”…… “two and a half” …… giggglee……. giggle….. “twoooooooooo ok”Capsize!) and did it!
Holy shit Half Moon Bay is cold.
Turns out I don’t have the arm strength to get myself and my giant life vest back on my boat so he taught me another method on the fly. It was a lot easier! I finally got back in, yelled “I’m alive!!” and paddled back to shore to trade spots with my two big-eyed comrades.
And, I found out, Chris recorded the whole thing!
Chris was next and he, unsurprisingly, did in fact have the strength to get himself up on his kayak. Blah blah who really needs upper body strength anyway?
The best part of the experience was definitely what happened next – partner rescue. So basically instead of rescuing yourself you enlist the help of your partner. I volunteered to go first and Chris was supposed to come rescue me. (romantic, I know). Well turns out prince charming can’t hack it! As he got his boat next to mine I guess my boat (and I’m already in the water holding onto my capsized boat at this point) started floating away from him. So, instead of paddling to it, he just reached out to grab it. Well, he lost his center of balance in the process and capsized himself!!
So there we were… both in the water.
I was laughing. Freezing but laughing.
I then waited until the other girl came over to rescue me while the instructor got Chris. By the time it was all over I was in that friggin ice water for way too long because I swear I couldn’t reattach my spray skirt thing to the lip of my kayak because I couldn’t feel my fingers well enough!
But let’s face it… I’d do it all over again… if only for the joy of telling Chris he couldn’t save me.
So that was sea kayaking! It was fun and I think we’re going to try and rent some and practice a big before taking the next class.
Biking
Route: Chris’ – Stanford (to pick up Christina) – Alpine – Old la Honda – then I think we descend the other side of it (?) – ????? – Pescadero and DELICIOUS food!!! – Stage Rd. – ?? – Tunitas climb of doom – Kings – Woodside – home!
Distance: 67 miles
Time: all day (left at about 10:30 and got back at, I believe, 6!)
What can I say? It was my first time riding with Chris and Christina together and I was a bit nervous I’d totally suck compared to them. But, it turns out, I did alright. I was the slowest going up Tunitas but other than that we were all together the entire time. (Well… Chris stayed with me on Tunitas because he’s sweet and values his life but you know what I mean!)
I love cycling and all that but what really makes long all day rides like that worth it is the food. Seriously. The Pescadero bakery place is so delicious I could shed a baby tear. I got an awesome turkey sandwich made with the freshest sourdough roll and a carrot cupcake-muffin thing that puts even Sprinkles to shame! Oh and we got a blueberry scone, too. God food tastes so good after biking.
So I made it back alive (though that descent down Kings scared me a fair bit) and was super proud of myself!
That’s, for better or worse, the longest ride I’ve probably done since Eric and I last rode to Pescadero! And I’ve got to pick it up if I’m going to survive the AIDS ride come the end of May!
El fin!
Napa! (and by Napa I really mean Yountville!)
March 3, 2009
This past Saturday Chris’ friend Ming invited Chris and a bunch of other Stanford Immunology geeks up for the Make Our Garden Grow Napa Youth Symphony fundraiser. Ming is the conductor for the youth symphony and his girlfriend is a year above Chris in Stanford’s Immunology PhD program. So now that all those connections have been explained, on to the good stuff!
Chris and I decided it’d be fun to make a mini-vacation of it, so I took Thursday and Friday off from work and we headed up early for lots of drinking, ungodly amounts of eating, biking, and a generally merry fun time! I had actually never been up to this so called “wine country” before, so I was super excited!
I’ll go over some of the highlights
Wine
My favorite wine stop was, without question, Silenus. Silenus is a custom crush facility, which basically means a bunch of smaller producers can actually crush their grapes and make their wine there. This is all super great for me, the wine drinker, because I got to try lots of different makers’ stuff all at once. And, with the assistance of Erica, the awesome wine hostess we had, we got to hear lots of first-hand accounts about the winemakers. Oh, and they had great wine, too! I ended up getting the MOST delicious wine by Scott Harvey called “Angel Ice”. Oh good gods it was good. So good in fact that after I finished my taste I kept smelling my glass. Embarrassing really. But the nose on that thing! And it was like liquid heaven on the palate! Oh, and if you decide to buy some I recommend serving it super DUPER cold. It’s just totally meant to be that way.
Dearest Scott Harvey, if you ever read this, feel free to send me more of your deliciousness anytime!! Your Jana Rieslings are delectable!
[side comment: yes, I purposely found a way to say both “nose” and “palate” – how will I become a true wino like Chris if I don’t practice my vocab?!"]
In other wine news, I’ve discovered that I’m a fan of Muscat, or at least the Palmaz Vineyard Muscat Canelli Florencia [reviewed by an actual wine blogger person here]. Palmaz ended up being our big tour experience (they have caves… though they aren’t the dark murky spelunking caves with dwarves working away in them like I imagined… sadly) and the muscat was my favorite tasting there. Chris really enjoyed their cabs… I just haven’t gotten to the point of red-enlightenment yet.
Food
Oh dear gods we ate so much food. So. much. food. The gluttony! The glory!
Highlights
Bouchon: Chris took me out for one fancy schmancy dinner and I got to pick the restaurant. I’ve heard so much about this Thomas Keller guy and since French Laundry seemed *just a little* out of our price range, I settled on Bouchon instead. You can see all the food pictures by checking out my web album but let me tell you right now: soooo good. I started with a goat cheese salad followed by steak frites (we were told that the fries are cooked with duck fat and were “must haves”) and finished with an almond pot de creme for dessert (which we split…because we were about to throwup from eating so much that day).
Chris started with a sweet creamy garlic soup (that I wish he would have shared more of!) and had the lamb t-bone (which was seriously yummy and lean). I also ate more than my fair share of the 
warm Bouchon bakery bread and sumptuous butter that was served at the start. Oh! And Chris spoiled me by bringing one of his best bottles of merlot! It was a Blackbird and was actually on the wine list for almost $200! (but don’t worry, while bringing a wine that’s on the list is a faux pas, Bouchon (tragically) post neither their menu nor wine list… so there was no way to know!)
It’s true that we probably would have liked the meal even more if we weren’t seriously over-full but whatever! It was fantastic anyway!
Oysters: The next night Chris and I felt like we needed to detox so we decided to venture back to the Oxbow market for a light clean oyster dinner! Now I haven’t really had oysters before (just literally one at Google back when one cafe used to do that in the evenings) so I was a little nervous. But, thankfully, it turns out I find them quite tasty. We got a sampler of a bunch of different kinds, which was fun. We also had the best clam chowder. It was chock-full of clams and the base was simultaneously creamy and broth-like. Just what I wanted!
Bouchon Bakery: As many of you know, I don’t have a sweet tooth… I have sweet teeth. And so I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I 
found it my duty to try out as many sweet treats at Bouchon bakery as possible. I’d say their best treats were their chocolate chip cookies and macaroons. The TKO (“Thomas Keller Oreo”) didn’t really do it for me. It’s like music – if the original is better than the remake, why are you remaking it?! The macaroons, though, must really be tried by everyone. Oh and their sandwiches are quite yummy, too. But their chai was really bland and generally garners a “meh” rating. Overall I still think Tartine is better (except in the chocolate chip cookie category, Tartine’s are too crispy and thin)
Other
Biking! Chris and I went on two bike rides. The first, on Friday, was supposed to be the full Ink Grade loop (~50 miles) but we were feeling sluggish (this was the morning after the I-feel-overly-full-and-super-ill night) and had to turn around early (~30 miles) to ensure we arrived at Palmaz on time for our tour. I’ve got to say, the roads for that route aren’t paved very well – and there are parts where the cars are driving a bit too fast for biker-comfort.
On Saturday, however, the gods smiled upon us! We biked from Yountville to Calistoga and back (~45 miles) on the Silverado trail and it was fantastic! We ended up eating lunch in Calistoga (I love eating lunch mid-ride) and really sped it up on our way back. 
Chris said there was a straight away section where I was maintaining 23 mph! Go aerobars! Unsurprisingly, Chris caught me on the hill. Dammit! Anyway, I definitely recommend biking up there – Silverado trail is a great road for it. The rollers get noticeably bigger as you near Calistoga but it’s very tame.
The Fundraiser-Concert: I got to get all fancy (which is always fun) and Chris looked dashing in his new Van Gogh-esque tie for this. The opera singing was ok but I wish the kids would have played more. The final song was quite lovely but the Opera singers totally overpowered the orchestra, which is so sad!
So overall we had a super great time! Yountville was adorable and I had my first Napa/Yountville wine tasting experience!
Half Dome Glory!
October 8, 2008
During the weekend of September 27th, a brave and fearless group did the unthinkable! the unimaginable! They hiked Half Dome!!
“Wait…this happened during the weekend of the 27th? It’s friggin October 8th, Heather. Why have you become such a lame and late blogger?”
Alright. I accept the criticism. But at least let me attempt to mount a defense.
First, I moved. Finally! No more creepy-land for me! So I got back from Half Dome glory Sunday night and spent Monday packing (because of course I had packed exactly nada before leaving… Naturally) and on Tuesday the movers came! And then, as if that weren’t enough, on Wednesday I had to go to an ethics and compliance conference all day. See? So busy!
So I thought I’d write this over the weekend but, alas, every time I open my blogging program on my personal computer it freezes. I tried deleting it and re-installing but to no avail. And then to make matters worse, my camera got stolen!! At, ironically enough, Lovefest! So all my Half Dome glory pictures were lost! So I’m writing today because I’ve finally come to the conclusion that no, someone is not going to respond to my craigslist lost and found post. My baby camera is gone. And I just bought that thing in June!!!
The good news is my trusty fellow adventurers took plenty of pictures. And, of course, my trusty flip is still with me.
So now on to the story…
The players. First, let’s introduce them via video (because video makes everything more interesting):
So in words you’ve got:
Eric (who you’ve met before)
Sarah (a friend of mine from way back in the day. [“the day” being junior high])
Sam (Eric’s friend. They met while backpacking in Alaska together with NOLS)
Sean (A fellow Googler who I met for the first time while getting in his car to drive up to Yosemite. Basically I sent an email out to the SF2G list saying that our campsite could hold two more and, if anyone wanted to come along for guts and glory, they were more than welcome. Sean was game and so was…)
Jacob (the second Googler to respond. I met him for the first time the day before we left while biking to work)
Me (but of course)
So how’d it go?
Well first off, it took us about forever to get there. Why? Because we got lost, oh, conservatively, about a zillion times. Jacob is a software engineer. Doesn’t that mean he should be good at directions?! Well we found out that’s just not true. Well it’s not true that he’s no good at navigating… I still contend that as a software engineer he should be.
It’s entirely possible we drove at least 50 completely unnecessary miles. Now I didn’t really care but we all learned that Sarah gets pretty car sick pretty easily. And the idea of her puking all over Sean’s lovely car was sort of a figure-out-how-to-get-there-quickly motivating factor.
But I’m happy to report no throwing up occurred.
So after getting lost, listening to the presidential debate while eating dinner while driving, and lots of over-shares, we made our way to Tuolumne meadows. Eric and Sam, who drove up from LA (and were expecting us to arrive before them by a few hours), were already there.
At that point we went straight to bed (I think it was already passed 11pm…and the idea is to start Half Dome ridiculously early).
Well here’s some advice for future badass hikers. Tuolumne meadows is really not a good choice for campsite location. I didn’t really understand this ahead of time and couldn’t have prevented our going there anyway because:
1. I’ve only been to Yosemite twice and neither time did I actually camp there – so I don’t have a mental map of where everything is.
2. I’m told that Tuolumne was the last open camp area by the time we made reservations.
But anyway, the point is this: Tuolumne is about an hour drive away from “the valley” – which is where you start the half dome hike. So if you want to, say, start the hike at 6, you’ve got to leave the campsite a little before 5 – which means you’re eating nasty oatmeal at like 4:30.
And that’s going to be a big “no”
So instead we opted for the late start variety. And by that I mean we probably started hiking about 9:30.
Pretty much right away we knew we were going to have a problem. Sarah’s backpack weighed a significant portion of her total bodyweight and about five minutes in she said something like “Whoa. This backpack is killing me!!”
At that point I looked at Eric and gave him the “this means problems” look.
But no matter, we forged on.
Basically there were a LOT of stairs, a LOT of dirt particles in my face, a LOT of sour gummy octopi (my hiking snack of choice), and a LOT of me wanting to steal everyone else’s water.
Which brings me to another point. I, when hiking, prefer to drink an insane amount of water. I brought two bottles, each about 32 oz (so that’s 8 8oz glasses for those of you keeping track) and I could have easily finished them off by lunch (which was at about 11:45). Instead, I finished them near the top and decided to take water from dear old Eric. He of course is used to this. When we bike together I’m fairly confident he brings that second bottle specifically because he wants to make sure he gets at least one bottle for himself.
[*side story* When I was young I was, let’s just say, quite plump. When I’d say something to my mom about this her response was always, “Oh, Heather. If there were a nuclear explosion and we were in some sort of food-barren post-apocalyptic setting, you’d outlive everyone! You’re just built hearty because you’re built to last!”
Beyond thinking this didn’t really make me feel any better, mainly because I couldn’t convince myself that the chances of that happening were high enough to make my then-current suffering worth it, I now know that in reality she was wrong! Even if I could live on very little food for a long period of time, I sure as hell would die of dehydration long before everyone else! So I totally lose!]
So back to half dome… the hiking continued. And then continued some more. Oh and then some more after that.
So that was exciting (in a masochistic way) – plus I really enjoyed seeing the happy proud squirrels running around.
The bad news was that we were hearing the line to go up the cables was two hours!! And, considering we started really late, that would mean not getting back until well after sunset. This concerned me because doing the Vernal fall stairs in the dark (not everyone had lights with them) is just plain dangerous.
So we had a solution. We decided to create a new top of half dome and claim our victory there. See our explanation…
So after that we hauled it down to the valley, barely breaking at all.
One thing I distinctly remember was fantasying about the water fountain at the base of Vernal Falls. We were out of water early on the descent and all I could think about was how much water I was going to drink. Like frakin gallons of water. I wanted to swim in a sea of drinking fountain water, sprout gills, and just gulp and whatever-gills-do-to-water all the water in existence.
And upon arrival at said water fountain I pretty much did exactly that. I think I drank somewhere along the lines of eight to ten glasses of water in about two minutes. Felt a bit sick afterwards, but oh it was worth it.
At the end we ended up eating at the buffet in Curry Village because the pizza line was out of control. No matter – it was delicious.
After that we got s’more stuff (I made s’more eating a requirement), drank a lot of alcohol, and had fun hanging out around the campfire.
The next day we got up, got some food (sadly by the time we got there breakfast was over!), and made the long and significantly less chit-chatty drive back.
So overall it was an intense and awesome experience. It was great to meet some fellow Googlers and it was great to finally get out for some outdoorsy goodness.
I can’t wait for our next trip!
…though I am more than willing to wait for the next I-can’t-properly-bend-my-legs-for-four-days experience.
Oh and thanks to Sean and Sarah for their photos!