Los Angeles Birthday Weekend, August 27-29, 2010

Seeing as how my birthday technically fell after the Miami trip, I decided to extend things into the following weekend.  And nothing says fun like a marathon weekend of house partying, mountain climbing and dancing on your mostly dead legs at the Hollywood Bowl.  Yes?  Yes.  I had a little party out on my back deck the Friday after my birthday and spent the entire following day cleaning up.  But a good night is always well worth the layer of cans bottles and general slime, I think...

Sunday was the crazier day because we woke up nice and early to hike Mt. Baldy and then had to race home and change before hitting the Hollywood Bowl for a show.  In the planning stage this seemed like a fine idea, but Mt. Baldy is 10,064 ft.  It's a day hike but still mildly murderous. 

You can actually see the mountain from Los Angeles (seen below in Wintertime) and we even occasionally ski up there if the snow line dips down far enough to cover the closer mountains.  But this hike was in August so a little bit more color to see along the way.

 Although we did have to battle all manner of fearsome forest creatures...

We had a quick break at the warming hut at the halfway point (which I later learned is more like 3/4, a sneakily helpful fact) before trudging all the way up. 

Its the climb down that really starts to wear on you though, because now matter how warm it was when you started it is god awful cold and windy up at the top and allll along 'devil's backbone' on your way down.

 Let's just say heaven is a cold beer in a ski lodge followed by a chairlift ride to your car. 

And nothing helps rest those dead legs quite like 3 solid hours of dancing at the Bowl! Weekend planning committee gets minus one star for this, but it was still a blast and the survival of my 26th birthday will not soon be forgotten.

Juno Beach & Miami FL, August 20-23, 2010

Ryan's Grandmother, the lovely Peggy Flynn, turned 90 this August so we headed down to Juno Beach to celebrate and take a little dip in a warm ocean for a change.  And the most exciting thing of all for someone as fond of Lake Erie as myself; real live thunderstorms.  Finally, actual weather!

And I have no complaints about birthday blueberry pancakes with an ocean view not 15 minutes off the plane (complete with visitors :).

One thing I didn't know about Juno Beach until we arrived is that it's pretty much the capital of baby turtle hatch watching.  After scouring the beaches every night pretty frustrated we hit double jackpots, first literally tripping over an adult Mom (thought to be a big rock by us couple of geniuses) on her way to make a nest and then practically walking into a herd of hatchlings scrambling toward the water.  The cuteness that ensued cannot be described. 

We also don't have many pictures as I'm sure you saw above because the flash can disorient them so you'll have to take my word on how many little scramblers there were.  I do have some pictures from the turtle sanctuary, below.

After Juno, we spent my Birthday weekend in South Beach which, when I look back at the pictures, was beautiful, but the heat and humidity were so over the top that I honestly do not understand how you could live there without staying indoors the entire time. Kudos to Ryan's little brother, a South Beach resident, for his survival all this time.

As is the custom, we got caught in a MASSIVE rainstorm but luckily had already sat down for dinner a little Haitian place called Tap Tap just a few blocks off the main drag.  The rum punch and beautiful murals were enough to keep us occupied until the rain let up and we cold head out to the clubs for official Miami birthday cocktails....

Thomas Mountain, July 23-25, 2010

4th of July weekend was spent in Lake Havasu pretty similarly to Memorial Day weekend; beer, a shocking display of American Flag bikini's, pasties and other American paraphernalia and a healthy helping, the famous Harvey family hospitality...and their Pina Coladas, of course.

 After surviving that, a much calmer weekend of camping at the peak of Thomas Mountain was a relaxing way to wrap up July. 

We caught the sunset on the way up and had just enough remaining light up top to make camp.  It's the perfect camping spot discovered last year on a camping trip when we knew we wanted to camp, but only had reservations for one night.  We drove to some unmanned specs on a map and found this site tucked up at the peak with not another camper in site - perfect for a big group. 

An unobstructed view, sunsets saturated with some distant wildfire smoke (yay California!) and a full moon didn't exactly hurt things, either.  On the last day we packed in and took the longer pass down the other side of the mountain into Hemet.  Much to the dismay of the couple other campers who decided to follow us, it was an extra hour and a half or more down a winding off road trail.  Fun for all :)

Yosemite Valley, June 17-20, 2010

I haven't been back to Yosemite since I was about 10 years old, aka the traumatic year of trying to memorize my 'times tables.'  I remember it well; my Dad's insistence in quizzing me as we drove up the Glacier point, me begging him to stop  because I was on vacation, followed by his now legendary response that "You're never on vacation from math."  Thanks Dad.  One thing that didn't change was that very first shocking view of the entire valley, just after you come out of the tunnel.  I could see it every day and be amazed every time.

This time around, we made it a full 4 days trip so we could see EVERYTHING, the culmination of which was hiking the "Sierra Loop" which is basically a series of shorter trails strong together over about 13 insane miles, the first 4.5 of which are a very steep straight up top Glacier point where you're promptly met by hoard of tourists...who drove up.  Althoguh we were all initially a little bummed we weren't able to get permits to hike Half Dome, the views the Sierra Trail afforded were so different than anything you could typically see in the park that there was no way to stay disappointed. 

 Ryan at the Half way mark to Glacier Point facing West with Sentinal Rock and El Capitan.

rounding the bend at Glacier Point with Half Dome and then Nevada and Vernal Falls awaiting our arrival... 

Looking across the lake at Yosemite falls and then hiking to the base of Lower Yosemite Falls.

Major hiking day aside, we spent the rest of the weekend taking in the entire park and, me personally, wishing no cars were allowed in. I'd hike my pack in if I had to, because the traffic was just so out of hand and I can't imagine doing much good for the valley itself. But in spite of the masses, Yosemite never lets you down. 

Lake Havasu AZ, Memorial Day, 2010

Capital L lazy!  Back on the post wagon and I'll try to keep up this time.

Going back, we did start the summer off quite well with a trip to Lake Havasu for Memorial Day, wherein I learned that there's nothing the good people of Lake Havasu, Arizona love more than America!  Excpet perhaps pasties, or maybe thongs.  Or really any combination of the three while bonging a beer.  Basically, get out early and find your own cove and save your eyes.

A nice relaxing time was had by all and of course, at the end of every day was an amazing sunset...