The Den

Finally I'm taking time at the coffee shop this morning to add another day or two to the DisneyWorld saga.

So after two days at the Magic Kingdom, we decided to spend friday at the Animal Kingdom, the newest theme park at Disney World. I think of all the surprisingly cool, and even impressive things I experienced this week, the Animal Kingdom park was high on the list.

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A couple things about the Magic Kingdom, one up, one down: On the upside: even though its clear that there's subtle marketing going on everywhere, and things are arranged to help you spend more money, I never found that aspect to be overwhelming and annoying. Yes, I saw it, but it wasn't glaring or obnoxious, and it was easy to ignore it. The shops and the street vendors all blended into the surroundings pretty smoothly. All this was another reason why the whole week was much better than I'd feared.  

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For those who're familiar with Disneyland in California, the equivalent at Disney World is the Magic Kingdom, which is very similar, but bigger. It has a main street lined with 'in-character' shops, leading to a circle in front of Cinderella's Castle. Around the circle are the various "lands" - Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland. Each land can take half a day or more to explore. We started in Adventureland, where we wandered throught the Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse.

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I know  - its been like nearly a month, rather than the week I 'd promised. Fortunately when I make non-blogging promises to individuals, I'm much better at keeping them!

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A little less than two weeks ago I flew out of Oakland Airport headed for one of the few places on earth I've really never wanted to go in my adult life. Now that I've been back for five days, I'm happy to report that Walt Disney World in Florida was not nearly as unpleasant for me as I'd feared. Its gonna take me a while to get my impressions all written down, so I'll do it in chunks.

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I finally edited three of my video clips from Burning man down to size so that you can download them in less than 12 hours through a normal network connection. You'll find them at the end of the Burning Man 2007 photo album.  I guess now that its been over a month since I've been back, I should let y'all know what I thought about this year's little party in the desert.

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Just a quick note to say that I have some photos up from this year's Burning Man .   I still have to upload a few movie clips and do a little blogging about my experience, but here's some visuals to get ya going

After finally confirming my decision to go this year, 3-1/2 weeks ago I finally bought my Burning Man ticket, and I've been prepping furiously ever since.  The last time I was there was 2003, so I expect things will be a bit different from what I remember. And even more different - I'm camping on my own in my Westy this year.

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Last weekend I took advantage of an American obsession - the Superbowl.  Its not just about the game of American-style Football itself, the Superbowl has a following far greater than that. People who the rest of the year have nearly zero interest in the game will still make a point to watch the Superbowl. Football is an american obsession, but the Superbowl represents a mania far far greater - Television. After all, why would people who generally don't follow the sport watch they game? Because of the spectacle and the commercials. They freely admit it.  

 Which of course is why a 30 second commercial during the Superbowl costs multiple millions of dollars just to broadcast, much less to make. Now I admit that the few Superbowl commercials I've seen are among the best out there in terms of their arts - not just the art of selling, but more importantly the various entertainment and filmmaking arts involved. Even the original Macintosh ad aired during the Superbowl of 1984. But alas, to me, they are untimately still commercials, still broadcast on television. Sorry, I have better things to do.

 So how did I take advantage of the second largest food-consumption day in the US (after Thanksgiving)? I drove out the Bay Area on Saturday with my VW camper van, and went camping, cycling, and hiking in northern Napa and Sonoma valleys - nearby parts of California that I'd not yet seen.

 To folks who don't live in the Bay Area, that might not seem such a big deal, and in most other places, it really isn't. But one of the reasons I don't leave the area on the weekends as often as I like is that litterally millions of other people leave the area every weekend also.  The cities of the Bay Area are confined by water (The Pacific Ocean & San Francisco/San Pablo Bay) and mountains (the coast range, and the Berkeley hills) and so has relatively few roadways in and out, given the dense population. 

Those millions who have been out enjoying the natural and man-made beauty of the rest of California for the weekend all want to come home at around the same time - 4 - 8pm on Sunday evening. And I don't blame them - when I'm out, thats when I want to come home! But of course  all this adds up to incredibly unpleasant traffic jams on all the roads into the area every Sunday. its so bad that what would normally take 20  minutes on the highway can take 3-4 hours or more.  Unfortunately my displeasure at the thought of doing this usually outweighs my desire to get out of town - especially on my own (the drive back would be much more bearable with someone else in the car).  So most weekends, I end up staying nearby to home, and wishing the mountains and wilderness were closer.

 Last Sunday, however, I figured most of America would be glued to the boobtoob muching muchies, quaffing "beer" and enjoying the spectacle. They wouldn't be on the highways trying to get home from whereever. Combined with that, the weather was forecast to be beautiful on Saturday and Sunday, and turn rainy once the work week got going (it did - but we actually need the rain).  So I figured there was my chance - everything was laid out for me. I tossed some clothes in the van, put my bike on the rack, grabbed a day pack and headed north.

 Traffic out of the Bay Area on Saturday wasn't the greatest, but also wasn't horrible. It also likely I could have taken a better route, but I'd never driven up to Napa before.  I left around 1pm after doing some chores and getting ready all morning. I stopped at a couple of little places on the way up, but wasn't inspired to visit any of the wineries. I've been to several of them over in Sonoma before, along the Russian River where they seemed much more  down to earth and less showy, a little more my style. 

 I went up to a little state park campground just outside of St. Helena, parked my van, and had time for just a little hike in the woods of only an hour or so before it got dark (and cold once the sun set).   The rest of the evening was spent cooking & eating dinner, and playing my baritone uke, before crashing for the night in the back of the van (sleeps 2 below and 2 above, if you're normal sized people).

Sunday morning was chilly and sunny, so I took a short hike through the woods and over the hill to the Bale Grist Mill. My friend Malcolm Dunn worked there for a summer three or so years ago, so I had known about it, but always wanted to check it out.  Its pretty cool! Built in 1846, powered by a 36 ft (11m) overshot water wheel, it used to grind all the grain for the residents of the Napa valley. The photo album I have of it gives more details with pictures and a couple short video clips. Its well worth a visit if you're in the area.

After hiking back, I loaded packed things up, and headed up to Calistoga for a quick lunch, then drove over the mountains into the Sonoma valley,  and more familiar territory near the town of Santa Rosa.  I went out to the slightly rolling farmland between Santa Rosa and Sebastapol and did a few hours biking on the mostly-open roads in the warm afternoon sun.

Almost the best part of the weekend, however, was the planned drive home - the whole reason for going out this weekend.  While the highway was far from deserted, I drove the entire way from Santa Rosa to my house without once needing to slow down for traffic congestion. It took me exactly as long to get home as it should have (a little under an hour). It was great, but it did make me wish that Pixar were located somewhere in Oregon .

So there's a bit of story and some pictures to go with. Stay tuned and perhaps I'll put something more up soon.

Peace,
-Chris

My friend & coworker Ling has arrived safely in Greece and posted her first blog updates to her site hosted here at The Den)  She sounded tired but happy when I chatted with her briefly a few mintues ago. I'm looking forward to hearing about her adventures  around the Mediterranean for four months.

URL: http://www.n5md.com/

Another local net and disc label for great electronica, run by the same folks who bring us en:peg.  Some of my favorite artists on n5md: Proem, Bitcrush, Run Return, Funckarma, SubtractiveLAD,.....

URL: http://www.pooleweb.com/travel/

Allen and Britas web site and adventure log - also build with Drupal

URL: http://www.geocaching.com/

 
Geocaching is about the only thing I've every done with my old-style GPS receiver.

Enter your location at this website (zip code, city/state, coordinates...) and it will show you all of the "caches" you might be able to find nearby.

A cache is (usually) a small waterproof container, camoflaged and/or hidden somewhere interesting. You are given the coordinates of the cache, and perhaps a clue or two, and off you go on a treasure hunt. Often there are little toys and trinkets inside (if you take one, leave one) or other odd things like 'Travel Bugs'.  Its not always as easy as it sounds. Check out the website to learn more.  

URL: http://www.couchsurfing.com/

Couchsurfing.com aims to create a better world, one couch at a time.  Meet people from interesting places, meet people IN interesting places!

A 'social networking' site that links travellers with hosts. Sick of being just another tourist? If you're going somewhere and would like to meet a 'local' and get an insiders view of your destination, check out couchsurfing.com.  You can sign up to offer your couch to a passing surfer, or look for available couches in distant lands.   A site with a pretty active community, it offers plenty of wise and useful info about the concept, including issues of safety and trust with regard to opening your home to, or staying in the homes of, strangers. 

 In my many travels I've crashed on plenty of couches offered by total strangers out of pure kindness and hospitality. This is a wondefully karmic way to 'give back to the world'

 

Hi everyone! I just got back from a nearly month-long trip to the North Island of New Zealand.
For those who may not know, I was an exchange student there for a year in 1984, and have been back several times. Unfortunately the most recent visit was 11 years ago on my round-the-world backpacking trip.

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After four and a half months working at Pixar and living in Berkeley, I'm headed back out for a few months on the road. This time I'll be in northern New England and the Canadian Maritimes. I'm primarily heading east for the summer to be there for my niece's first birthday in July. Stay tuned to the Bike page for updates from the road.