Volcano

My wife and I just Prius’d acrossed the USA. Yes. I’m using Prius as a verb. After two successful cross-country trips (overloaded and overstuffed, might I add), I’m allowed to brag about my Toyota. Aren’t I?

Nine days, six stops. And affordable gasoline! Guess how much gas we spent?

I’m getting ahead of myself.

Our most recent trip was actually a move: Rochester, New York to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho (or the close by Spokane, Washington, where I’ll be working).

That’s a bunch of map

Rochester -> Louisville -> Nashville -> Memphis -> Kansas City -> Denver -> Yellowstone -> Ceour d’Alene

It’s a crazy mess of a road trip. I know. Here was the thought process:

Kansas City and Denver had family. Admittedly, Nashville was completely out of the way, but we really wanted to see it. And if we timed it just right, we could lock down two nights in Yellowstone. Louisville and Memphis were convenient stops in between.

Most nights we would camp, others we’d stay with family.

Little did we know what we’d discover along the way; little would we see out of our blind spots.

A quick note on the photos: We shot hundreds, some with our new Cannon Rebel T5, others with our iPhones. My wife took all the good pictures. I took all the weird, squirrelly ones. Also, since there are so many, and we just go home, please excuse the lack of editing.

Okay, so, you ready? Me neither. Let’s go! (more…)

Every Saturday morning I wake up to a familiar and tempestuous thought. I roll over in bed, listen to the wind labor through the morning air and think: “ya know, I could just stay in bed… all day.”

As for Megan and me, we don’t have kids.

Neither of us work Saturdays.

It’s been a chilly California 57 degrees as of late.

Our TV is right in front of the bed; yes, of course we have Netflix.

This is the problem. See, we’re still adjusting to California winter. Our minds are telling us it’s much colder outside than it really is. In Idaho, it’s not uncommon to take a “bed day” here and there throughout winter.

It’s a terrible excuse, I know.

I didn’t even look outside before burning through three episodes of NBC comedy, Parks & Recreation. (Great show by the way; every episode literally gets better.)

But then I looked outside.

Sure it was a little windy, but also warm. Sunny in-fact! California sunny! We both had an “oh yeah” moment and thought: instead of watching Parks & Recreation, why don’t we actually go to a park and recreate… (it sounded better in my head).

All this to say, Megan and I turned our lazy Saturday into a volcano hiking, boulder hopping excursion. Finally, we marked a mountain off our list and hiked San Luis Obispo’s favorite volcano—Bishop’s Peak.

I won’t go into too much detail here. It’s a wonderful hike. The terrain changes every twenty minutes it seems. Take the trail and you’ll see: dry mountainous, shaded, mossy forest, New Mexico-esq boulders. There’s even a bench dedicated to “George: The Hiking Cat.”

To top it all off there’s a view of the ocean at the top. Not bad for a day almost spent in bed. As far as Sunday goes… I wont be moving my legs.