Pictures from the Past Couple Weeks

Drinks at the Tiki Bar

Beach Cruiser Gang

My Daily Car Pool

My Bad Ass Work Dog Cane

My Pregnant Work Dog Molly

Summer Happenings

Hello folks. Apologies for the lack of postings. Life has been busy this summer. I've been driving all over coastal NC chasing geese and running my work dogs. I've also been working at an island shop giving surf lessons and taking people on kayak and jet ski tours.

The island is packed with sunburnt tourists and vacationers. I've come to grips with the fact that this place gets trashed, abused, and thoroughly used for about 10 weeks out of the year. I don't know what it will be like to walk out to the beach again this fall and not see anything but pelicans and seagulls. The weekly vacation cycle is entertaining though. Every Sunday a new batch of pasty white families excitedly unpack minivans and head down to the beach for that first dip into the ocean and the following Saturday morning they tearfully take one last trip down to the seashore as a sunburnt dad repacks the van. 

I can't complain about tourists though. They allow me to have a pretty sweet side job. A couple days a week I cruise the beach in a little John Deer Gator and pick up beach rental chairs and umbrellas. The best part of the job is taking people out jet skiing and on kayak tours through the local estuaries. There are days where I'll do a early morning kayak tour, then a surf lesson, and then spend the rest of the day out on the inter-coastal waterway taking tourists on high speed jet ski trips.

My full time job for FlyAway Farm and Kennels is going well. I've worked on some great dogs who are now chasing birds at Air Force bases up and down the East coast. I get to travel all around our area to high end golf courses to run the dogs on Canadian geese. For the past month I've had to take a ferry each morning to one of the courses. It's awesome that my morning commute involves a 35 minute boat ride across the Cape Fear River. 

Charging around a golf course with a couple of wound up dogs in a Gator is a great way to spend a day. All of those guys in their little golf shirts and fancy pants look at me kind of weird. There are so many rules and etiquette on the course. I just have to chuckle at all of those guys chasing the little ball around while I get to charge around the course chasing birds and other random creatures.

The surf has been minimal for the past couple of weeks. We've had some fun days of surf around here, but nothing to get the blood pumping too much. I'm holding out for some good surf this fall and winter. The water temp is still around 80, which is just about perfect. 

On the literary and political front of life, I just finished reading through 'The Monkey Wrench Gang" by Ed Abbey. The book is about four eco-minded individuals who are tired of watching their beloved desert be torn apart by corporations. They turn to sabotage in defense of their Southwest country and destroy all manner of things mechanized. It's a great book and brings up some very strong points. The phrase "Resist much. Obey Little" is a central theme of the book. The book is a loose retelling of Abbey's days defending the desert wilderness he loved. The only resource we can't get more of is wilderness. After driving around and across the country for a couple of months this winter I can't believe how much rampant development there is. Here at the beach there are huge condos going up in every vacant lot, condos that will only be used 10 weeks per year. I'm not calling for an all out war on development, but Ed Abbey makes some strong points in favor of pulling out survey stakes and monkey wrenching large corporate development. 

Anyway, thanks for reading and keep on keeping on. I'm gonna get back into this blog thing, so stay tuned for more postings.

Random News Article that Pissed Me Off!

Wow! I thought things were out of control in Eureka when it came to people getting way too much money from the gov't. Apparently the trend has now gone national. Here's an article from USA Today. Get in line for your free handout, just don't think about future generations.

My Opinion about Amusement Rides at the Beach

Letter to the Editor

Follow above link to letter.

During the past couple of weeks, a carnival has been set up along our town's boardwalk and downtown area. It annoys the crap out of me. It's tacky, gaudy, loud, and shitty looking. I'm so fired up about it that I wrote a letter to our local paper. There are already a couple of responses to it, mostly telling me to go back to California. I'm going to make it my pet issue until the carnies leave town. I want to prove to myself that the written word can make a change. I'm going to take a stab at investigative journalism and raise some hell in this little beach town. I'm almost positive that some movers and shakers in this town pushed the carnival's approval through the town council in order to make a private buck. The Freedom of Information Act is my friend! I'll post all of my writings here.

I've been spending non-stop time out at the beach working. I teach surf lessons, give kayak tours, occasional jet ski trips, and set up beach umbrellas. I'm basically a beach bum. I spent ten hours out there yesterday. Four of which were spent teaching people to surf. It's a great skill to teach someone. It opens up a whole new world, it may even change your life...Like maybe cause you to leave your home and move all around the country looking for a perfect little beach town with good culture and great waves....

Late April Update on Life

Hey Folks. Many apologies for the inconsistent posting schedule. I've been pretty much busting ass to get things set up here in Carolina Beach. My first job ended up being uber-shitty to a corporate degree. I guess the constant stressing of money making during staff meeting tipped me off to this job not exactly fitting into my persona. At one point the owner asked me, "How much money do you need to be happy?" I guess after living a somewhat charmed life in a California paradise below the poverty line for three years, a fellow tends to itemize whether possessions are more important than experiences. Needless to say, I lasted about two weeks working in sales. I now work for a delightful small, family owned business called FlyAway Farm and Kennels. They specialize in training Border Collies for use at airfields and corporate facilities to discourage certain animals from settling down. I currently am working at a super high end golf course, chasing Canadian Geese away with my 'killer' dog named Nick.

It's a fun job that fits my personality fairly well. I get to tear around the poshest country club in Wilmington and chase birds away from the precious grass. A goose eats like 5 square meters of grass each day, so imagine how much grass an entire flock eats daily. It's up to me and Nick to kick some ass each day and save the day for the wealthy old folks. The country clubbers are some of the grumpiest, snobby people I've ever come into contact with. It's certainly an interesting contrast from the hippies and crab-fishermen of Humboldt that frequented my bar. This coming week I am putting in a bid with the course to trap a couple gators and muskrats which had the audacity to set up homes in the lakes around the course. I've never really trapped an alligator, but these are little guys, so I'd think some stinky meat and some Hoosier creativity should do the trick.

I'm loving the area. Our apartment sits right on the beach, I make a couple trips down the water each day. Now that the water temps are edging into the 70's, it's getting very pleasant to go swimming a couple of times each day. We picked up our fishing permits and we've started to drown some bait. It's nice to drop a line in for a few minutes after work each day. The fish are starting to bite. Flounder, Blues, and Whiting are all starting to come in-shore as the water warms up. We've even had some good surf sessions since we've moved to the area.

Now that we're fairly settled in to the area, we are able to start working towards making some goals. There are some nice, cheap sailboats to be had and I've been assembling the tools to start shaping a surfboard. I'm halfway through doing research for my article on the great John Maffitt and I'm writing an article about my job for a local magazine.

Are you guys ready to watch Obama's big 100 day news conference? Ya, I don't really care either. I'll watch it, but I can't really believe anything that guy says anymore. There is a ton of crap going down in the world apparently. If you believe the news...then shit is really hitting the fan (as always). Oh well, keep on keeping on and don't go smooching any pigs.

Thanks for reading. 

Email me at bencaywood@gmail.com 

I'm Back!

Well folks, It's been a strange and crazy ride since my last posting in February. Justine and I have landed in Carolina Beach, NC and we're both starting to settle into our jobs and home. We've been here at the beach for almost three weeks and the time has flown by. A fellow forgets how hard it was to nail down a job and network after settling into a town, but it is not easy to adjust to new things. Life was starting to get pretty comfy and easy in Humboldt, I mean all I did was run a bar, surf, and take long weekends along the coast. We had good friends to have beers with, easy work schedules, and an established routine. However, we weren't comfortable being comfortable with that routine in that place. Family was too far, the culture was too skewed, and the sky was not the limit. 

Jobwise, I went corporate this time around. I work for a company called EcoWater, we're the world's largest and oldest water treatment company around (apparently Warren Buffet owns 60% of us). We sell 1/4 of all water treatment systems in the world. I basically show you how crappy your water really is and tell you how we can fix it. Most of the water we drink is filled with nastiness, even the bottled water, I can run the tests that prove it to you. Next time you take a drink of that Aquafina, see if you can taste the chlorine and added minerals. 

It's funny to go from bartending at a somewhat rough, neighborhood bar full of crabbers, loggers, and assorted workingmen to toeing the corporate line...learning the lingo and saying the correct answers. I sat through a week of the most God-awful unpaid training last week, fighting for a few spots with 40 people, just thinking how much I'd love to crack a few of these numb-skulls in the head with a pool cue and drag their asses into the bar parking lot...telling them 'You aren't kicked out for good, just for today'. 

When we first got down here, it took a while to get dialed into a job. It's annoying to have someone tell you that they don't want to hire a college graduate. 'They're looking for someone with a lower pay scale', I would usually just ask them if they knew what a knew teacher got payed in California...

I may have gone corporate to pay the bills, but there are two cool little publications on the island which I am starting make submissions to. In June or July I have an article on the 'Prince of Privateers, John Maffitt' coming out in the Snow's Cut Monthly. He was an uber-badass sailor during the time of the Civil War, running blockades and blasting Yankee ships to bits. He grew up, made a name for himself, and died around the Wilmington area. The other magazine is Surf Carolina, it's a cool little surf magazine devoted to everything surfing that is the Carolinas. I'm in the talks with them about publishing a little article I'm writing about surfing the West coast on a budget. 

Things are settling down here and I'm finally getting some water time, so the words will start flowing once again. Times are crazy politically, there is plenty to piss and moan about going on in this world...But, as always, there is even more to get down on the knees and praise the Lord for. The news only sells if it's bad news, but is it really that bad? We're screaming about an abstract idea like money when it isn't real anyway...How does it effect your day today if someone else got a couple hundred grand they didn't really deserve? If some complete asshole won the lottery would there be the same outcry?Granted...lottery winnings are different, but we also put those bums into office that gave them the cash. I have food, family, friends, sand to put my feet in, and waves to push me along...How can I ask for anything more?

Stay tuned for more stories, screes, and pictures from life as I experience it. Keep on keepin' on and just keep paddling, there's always another wave.

Out of Humboldt County, Into Wine Country, Pirate Camping, and a Day in San Francisco...

After my blitz drive across the country with our van load of possessions, I was ready to continue the good times with a leisurely drive down the California coast. When my flight landed back in California, Justine was ready and had packed our little Honda full of camping equipment, wetsuits, and duffle bags full of gear. Justine and I each chose a board to strap to the roof of our little car for the shredding of any tasty waves we happened across. After one last bagel at our favorite Humboldt County bagel shop and a quick trip through our CO-OP for our favorite jams and granola, we left our home of 2 1/2 years for points South and eventually the East coast.

There is something incredibly exhilarating about cutting ties, packing up, and moving on to new places and experiences. People have guffawed the idea and basically told us it's silly to cut ties and move on without jobs or apartments lined up, but isn't it sillier to be tied down to jobs and comforts without questioning what is around the next bend. There are believers and there are doubters, Justine and I don't let the naysayers keep us down. They tend to get in the way of a good time.

After leaving Humboldt County, our first stop was the wine country around the Russian River Valley and some prime beach camping at Wright Beach, near Jenner. We stopped at a couple of wineries for tastings, the highlight being the Copolla Winery. The Copolla Winery offers tons of great varietals of wine (Pinot Nior, Cabernet Sauvingnons , and Syrahs). They also have some prime wine tasting digs at their huge vineyard which overlooks the huge Russian River Valley. They usually cook up a pretty mean wood-fire pizza, but they are currently building bigger and better facilities, so their wood-fire oven is out of commission. We fed our inner hunger for classic California wood-fire pizza by heading into the town of Geyserville and eating at Diavola Pizzeria. The best part of Diavola is that they make their own sausage and cure their own meats. We ordered a big salad and a pizza loaded with sausages, peppers, and other sundry delights. After our wine tasting session I was hoping to order a bottle of wine with dinner, but the wine at Diavola is pricey. I opted for the delicious, cold, and FREE pitcher of ice water to go with dinner. Justine and I saved our money for a six-pack to go with our campfire on the beach and some stargazing at the edge of the Pacific Ocean...Caution though...Don't stare at the stars for too long or else your feet will get wet with the incoming tide. Everybody knows how hard it is to dry a pair of boat shoes crammed in the back of a Honda while on a camping trip.

Wright Beach is one of the best campgrounds on the beach close to wine country, it's also one of the priciest. It costs $35 a night for a beach-front campsite. It's definitely worth it, if you're made of money.  I, personally, don't think that a fellow should have to pay that much money to pitch a tent on the ground at a state owned campground. I have no problem paying $15 to sleep on the ground in paradise, but I could almost get a motel room with cable TV and running water for $35. Expensive camping is something Justine and I have learned to deal with and find ways around, I have come to call it 'Pirate Camping'. There are times, while on the road, when you really just need a place to pitch a tent, light a fire, and catch some ZZZ's. 'Pirate Camping' is not for the weak of heart, or those who are afraid of schmoozing the occasional Park Ranger, it involves a blatant callousness for the rules and regulations. 

Camping usually involves a certain level of self policing, the camper fills out a self-registration and drops it into a box...and then he goes on his merry way, camping and enjoying the great, monitered out-of-doors. 'Pirate Camping' involves much of the same, but instead of dropping that self-registration envelope filled with $35 of your hard-earned dollars into the nameless box, you hold onto it until the nice Park Ranger comes and confronts you about not paying for your beach front camp-site. The savvy 'Pirate Camper' always has his envelope ready to hand in, but has a good reason for not turning it in. I usually rely on the classic 'incorrect change' excuse, but sometimes if you encounter a particularly asshole-ish Park Ranger, then there becomes the need for the ability to improvise. We didn't need to use any of the classic tricks at Wright Beach, we arrived late and woke up early...Thus avoiding anyone asking us for money. We had a sweet campfire, a  nice stroll on the nighttime beach, and some great sleep...

Sunrise comes early to a tent on the beach after a full day of leaving behind your home and tasting wine all day. We packed up the tent and headed South on HWY 1. After coffee and bagels with blackberry jam in Bodega Bay, we headed towards some tasty waves at Dillon Beach. The drive down to Dillon Beach is absolutely beautiful. It's a windy country road, flanked on each side by beautiful, green pasturelands filled with sheep and cows. Morning drives along the California coast are so beautiful that I lack the words to convey it all, I could have a thesaurus in one hand and my journal in the other and still be at a loss for adjectives to tell you how wonderful the West coast is in the morning. A morning drive along the North coast is nothing but the dankest green pastures, rocky headlands, and glassy waves. I must have mind-surfed a hundred waves on the drive to Dillon Beach, but I'm happy I waited to pull on my wetsuit until we got to Dillon Beach proper to do it. 

Justine and I got down to the beach and scoped out the break. It was the perfect set-up for some mellow wave riding. Waist high and glassy waves were the name of the game. There were perfect sets just peeling into the bay. I could hardly contain my excitement as I pulled on my wetsuit and waxed up the boards. From the car I could watch the waves peel by unridden. It was all I could do not to skip around the parking lot in jubilation. Justine and I paddled out and surfed all morning alone, in perfect waist high peeling waves. The water was crystal clear and in between sets we stared inland, towards those dank green pastures and hundreds of happy California cows. As we were peeling off our wetsuits, a couple of surf dudes pulled into the parking lot and asked us how it was out in the water. We chatted with them for a bit, gathering local knowledge about the spot we surfed. They chuckled when I asked how sharky it was out there. Locals called the spot we were surfing 'The Shark Pit'.

After our morning of surfing, we threw on some clean clothes and headed south on HWY 1, towards San Francisco and an afternoon of revelry. From Dillon Beach it's about 2 hours into the heart of the city. By mid-afternoon we were digesting some tasty In-And-Out Burgers and climbing onto a Cable Car for a cheap ride around the city. For $11 you can buy an all day pass on the Cable Cars and ride around the city to your heart's content. Justine and I usually buy the pass each trip, they're good for free rides on the buses and trolleys too. A good strategy for saving cash in the city is to find cheap all day parking outside the heart of the city and then take public transportation into the middle of everything. All day parking at Fisherman's Wharf costs around $10, while parking garages downtown start at about $25. 

San Francisco is made up of districts, all of them have their own flavor and attractions. We usually like hitting up the Market, Financial, Haight-Ashbury, and Waterfront Districts. Union Square is definitely a fun place to walk around. It's a huge amalgamation of people...business people hustling towards meetings, Japanese tourists snapping pictures, shoppers walking with bags of designer clothes, bums begging change and offering directions, and every other type of person imaginable from every walk of life. Justine wanted to pop into a couple of shops that she regularly frequents on trips. She shops better without me looking over her shoulder, so we set a time to meet back up and I moseyed along the streets...taking in the sights and sounds. There's an Irish pub called 'Time For A Pint' that I like popping into while Justine is shopping in Union Square, so I walked that way and grabbed a frosty pint of Anchor Steam while my lady shopped.

After meeting back up, we grabbed a Cable Car and rode around towards Chinatown, past many great memories we had made during 2 1/2 years of visiting San Francisco. It will be weird not to visit this town every month or so, I'm sure we'll be back within a few years for another visit...but it'll never be the same again. With the sun setting over the Pacific and lighting up the city with a golden glow, we headed out of the city and towards Santa Cruz.

An Adventure Begins, Escape from Reno, Across the West, and A Political Ramble...

The Entertaining  Portion of the Story

About a month ago Justine and I loaded most of our belongings into our Chevy G20 Van and I drove it across the country in four days. It was a long, strange drive and I have no desire to do it again during the winter. At the outset of the drive I had intended to sleep in Wal Mart parking lots along the way. I had read about this club of RV'ers who do it all the time and I figured it sounded like a cheap way to go, plus I was hoping to get an article or something out of the experience. 

If you've never driven straight across the country alone, I highly recommend it. The scenery along the drive plays out like a long mix tape of songs from American icons like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Neil Young. There is something purely American about the open road, it's the rumble of a V8, combined with classic rock, and a bag of Oberto's jerky. Redwood forests thinning into California's fertile central valley, Steinbeck's agrarian valley erupting into Muir's snow-covered Sierra Nevadas, the Sierra's melt into Johnny Cash's Nevada desert (Remember the 'dusty Winnemucca road'?), and from the desert comes the mighty Rocky Mountains in the distance. The Rocky Mountains are an experience onto themselves to drive through during the winter. I got lucky and started my drive in between winter storms. The roads were clear, but the surrounding hills were packed with snow-All the scenery, but none of white-knuckle 'Chains Required Beyond Point' driving. After dropping down from the Rockies and the beauty of the West, the senses are assaulted by the 'Great Plains'. Aside from their size and the incredible amount of time it takes to drive through them, there is nothing 'great' about them. 

Planning for the trip consisted of watching the Weather Channel and little else, I figured as long as it was an Eastbound highway, then I was fine. As I said earlier, I figured that I could catch a bit of sleep in random Wal-Mart parking lots. I figured I could spot one from the highway, pull into an outside parking space, crash out for a few hours and then be on my merry way. The first hitch in my plan came in Reno, I had pulled into a Wal-Mart and was dozing off when a fat-gray haired security guard with an attitude came and decided to confirm my suspicions that Nevada has no shortage of assholes. He pounded on my window with the butt end of a big Mag-Lite and demanded I get out of my van and show him some ID. I took one look at the security patch on his little blue Wal-Mart vest and politely told him sit on his flashlight and leave me the f@$k alone! After a brief, yet entertaining quarrel with him, I gathered that he had called the cops and they were probably just as eager to harass a long-haired, unshaven, and bleary eyed 'hippy' with California plates as the rest of the town...I ended up cranking up some Led Zeppelin and making tracks down the road to a Motel 6 and a legal nap. The Motel 6 ended up being more of a mind trip than any confrontation in a Wal-Mart parking lot could be. 

I was napping peacefully in my cheap room, when around midnight, the most drugged out collection of meth-crazed miscreants checked into the room next to me and began unloading a collection of gas-cans and bottles into their room. They were driving a big, rusted out Explorer that was pulling a ski boat that hadn't seen water in years and now apparently served as their trailer. Now at that point in the day, my nerves were about as frazzled as could be...I had been driving the entire day, I had crossed over Donner Pass in white-out conditions, and in my mind I had avoided a nasty confrontation with the Reno police and the Walton family. At some point while dozing in my roach motel it came to me that these ruffians next door to me were up to something nefarious. I figured they were setting up some sort of meth cooking operation or something equally disturbing. I tried to sleep with one eye open for a few hours, but to no avail. I ended up hitting the road before sunrise, putting Reno behind me and swearing off Wal-Marts and seedy motels for good.

Day two of my drive took me through Nevada, Utah and into Wyoming. Nevada and Utah is pretty much a collection of dumpy old mining towns with mountains looming in all directions. I did stop in Winnemucca to see the town made famous by Johnny Cash's song, 'I've Been Everywhere'. There are some beautiful places in both states, but seeing that I had neither the time nor desire to sight-see I kept the pedal to the metal and kept on driving. I was hoping to make Boulder during this day's drive, but Wyoming proved more than I could handle in one day. I ended up crashing out in the van at a Flying J. Nobody cared. What a novel idea...Letting someone sleep in their car on a road trip. I ended up stopping almost exclusively at Flying J's along the rest of my drive. 

Day three found me driving through Wyoming and half of Colorado. I stopped in Boulder, meaning to say hi to some friends and then continue onto Kansas, but my buddy took me to lunch at a pub. After one sip of the IPA at Sun Mountain Brewery, I knew that my driving was over for the day. My buddy and I ended up having an afternoon pub session and then we went hiking/scrambling in the mountains around Boulder for sunset. After scrambling around the Flatirons, we walked around Boulder searching for beers and wings. We stayed up late into the night waxing poetically about Purdue Boilermakers, climbing, surfing, and the philosophical intricacies of western theology.

It took all of day four to get through Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. I didn't run into any snow, but I suffered from horrible side winds the entire way through the Plains. I saw a couple semi-trucks that tipped over from 65mph wind gusts. Around St. Louis it started raining and sleeting, so I found a Flying J and caught a nap until the sun came up. I made quick work of Illinois and found myself drinking beers with my old college roommates by early afternoon in Indianapolis. 

I figure that during my drive I drank around 24 cups of gut-rotting truck stop coffee, ate 48 inches of Subway sandwiches, consumed 4 1/2 bags of beef jerky, and ate enough processed snack foods to take months off of my life.

I spent two days in Indiana and then flew back to California where my wife was waiting with our Honda Fit all packed up and ready to go. I left Indiana in 10 degree weather, with an impending blizzard and landed in California with the weather in 70's and sunny. The plan had always been for me to haul ass across the country with our stuff and the van, then we were going to take several weeks to make the trip South along the California coast and then leisurely across the country...visiting friends and having adventures along the way.

It's a funny mind trip to drive that far alone. I think it's healthy to spend time in your own head, thinking your own thoughts, drinking truck stop coffee, and dreaming about the future. 

The Political Rant (Feel Free to Skip Over)

After listening to NPR and conservative talk radio for 4 solid days, I feel like there is a definite difference in the rhetoric each viewpoint spews out. It seems like NPR is so in the tank for Obama that they lose all claim to objectivity, while most of talk radio is so in the tank for republican evangelicals that they lose their credibility on many issues. Both sides are constantly shouting about how bad things are and how they can only get worse...it seems like the one thing everybody can agree on. I'm no expert, but maybe things were a little out of hand economically. I mean, is it really that bad if people don't spend as much money at strip malls and movie theaters? On one hand people bemoan the decline of the environment and global warming, but on the other hand they bite their nails over the decline of the consumer based economy...Isn't an economy based on people spending and spending and spending a little bit irresponsible anyway? Maybe things are starting to correct and get back to a more 'sustainable' level of spending. Call me crazy...but maybe buying loads of worthless crap on a credit card which is mass produced in China by 9 year old peasants, shipped across the Pacific in huge container ships, driven across the U.S. of A in semi-trucks which get 4mpg's, and then sold to consumers at huge multi-national chain stores with just enough mark-up to make a couple hundred share-holders a %7 profit is a tad bit irresponsible.

Apologies for the rambling. I had a lot of time to think. Check back later for some stories about our trip down the California coast, the drive East, adventures in Colorado, and our brief return to the great state of Indiana. 

Four days in Portland

Last weekend Justine and I headed 400 miles north to the city of Portland, Oregon for some rest and relaxation. We left early Thursday morning and returned late Sunday night, during our all too brief time in Portland we packed in the good times. Beyond Justine reserving a place to stay each night, we didn't do too much planning. We've found that scheduling a weekend full of events gets in the way of the actual adventure of traveling to a new town. Portland is known as a mecca for micro-brewers, craft distilleries, funky pubs, green living, and youth culture. We went into the weekend ready to have a good time and experience a new city.

On Thursday night, we had reservations at the Bluebird Guesthouse. The Guesthouse sits in the Division neighborhood of Southeast Portland. It's a bed and breakfast type house with 7 guest-rooms and a really friendly atmosphere. The Bluebird is pretty reasonable, we paid $60 for our room. It was super clean, well decorated and pretty centrally located for walking to pubs and shopping. You get a private room and share a bathroom with other people. It's your typical bed and breakfast set-up. I would recommend the Bluebird to anybody, even fussy people would find it inviting. We've found that to truly experience a city's unique culture you have to get away from the Holiday Inn's and Pizza Huts and head towards the businesses which are unique to each town.

After the 7 hour drive up from Eureka, we were ready to start having some fun and seeing the sites. We checked into our room, cleaned up, and fired up the laptop and found our fun for the evening. As I said earlier, Portland is known for it's pubs and micro-brewed beers. Early in the trip I decided that I wasn't going to drink the same beer twice and I was going to try beers that I couldn't find outside of Portland. We headed out for the evening and walked around the neighborhood. We popped into several great little pubs and sampled some really good beer. After pub hopping around the Division area of Portland for a little bit, window shopping and just kind of taking it all in...we were ready to grab some dinner. Now I love English pub food like meat pastries and sausages, so it was almost too good to be true that close to our lodging was an authentic British pub called the Horse Brass Pub. They have over 50 beers on tap and more British meat pastries than you can shake a stick at. The pub has an awesome ambience, it could have been straight out of an English neighborhood. It's decorated with dark woods and all kinds of memorabilia from the Empire. The pub is filled with happy people at little tables discussing life and laughing with good pints in hand. We munched on Scottish eggs (hard-boiled egg, wrapped in sausage, and deep fried), sausage rolls, and bridie pies (meat and onion popover smothered in mushrooms and gravy).

After dinner and pints we needed to walk off a full belly, so we set out into the night and towards our next adventure. Portland is full of old theaters and art houses. On our walk home we strolled by several theaters and finally Justine's curiosity got the best of her. She just had to have a look inside of one, so we walked up to the Bagdad theater and went on it. They were recording an artist interview with some guy named Ian Svenonius, I 'Googled' him when we got back to our room and apparently he was a pretty famous musician. We watched the tail end of the interview from the balcony and it was all I could do not to laugh at him. He seemed like one of the bigger dumb-asses I've ever had the privilage to observe from the balcony of an old theater. The high point came towards the end of the interview when he asked the interviewer why he hadn't asked him about the tube socks he had tied around his shins. I guess you might of had to be there to appreciate the absurdity of the situation.

Friday morning comes quick after a night of revelry and fun. The Bluebird Guesthouse had a sunny, open kitchen and a tasty continental breakfast of bagels and coffee. Justine and I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and laughed at the events of the night before while we planned our day.

After breakfast, we put ourselves together and decided to head towards our next lodging and try for an early check in. We were staying at McMenamin's Kennedy School and we were pretty stoked to get there and see what was in store for us.

In the Pacific Northwest there are several great hotel/brewery/pub/theaters run by the McMenamin brothers. In the mid 1970's these two guys bought an old bar in Portland and revamped it into a unique family friendly, neighborhood brewpub. They kept going with the idea that a pub needed to be a fun, family friendly meeting place and began turning defunct buildings into brewpubs, hotels, and theaters. They focus on maintaining the history of the building and incorporate existing features into the landscape of the building. 

We stayed at a McMenamin's in Bend last year and we've been hooked ever since. It's the business model that we'd eventually like to use to start our own brewery. The hotel we stayed in was formerly an elementary school, they used the existing structure and revamped it into a really unique place to hang out and stay. They managed to keep the flavor of the school by leaving the chalkboards in the rooms, naming rooms after the teachers that had taught there, and decorating the building with great paintings and old memorabilia from the school's history. 

After checking into our room and drawing a quick penguin on the chalkboard, we headed towards the pub for a bit of lunch and planning. Our plan for the afternoon was to take the MAX train into downtown Portland and snoop around. Public transportation is a fun way to see a town and have a little adventure at the same time. It's also a good method for couples to work on their communication skills. Nothing brings out the teamwork like seeing a train approach and needing to figure out whether it's the right one or not. Portland has a really good public transportation system, it was way easier than San Francisco's or Chicago's to negotiate.

In downtown Portland we walked around, looked at some shops and went to Powell's Books. Powell's Books is a pretty famous bookstore, it puts every other bookstore I've ever been in to shame. It takes up a city block and its rooms are color coded so you don't get lost. I could wander around inside of Powell's for a day and not even scratch the surface. I ended up picking up a few hard to find books for future enjoyment.

Riding the MAX train around Portland and shopping made Justine and I ready to enjoy some leisure activities at McMenamins. We started our evening out by enjoying some pitchers and crab fondue over a movie at the theater inside the hotel. They had turned the old auditorium into a cushy movie theater that plays new movies each night. Instead of uncomfortable chairs, they filled the theater with overstuffed couches and recliners. The best part is that instead of the typical fare of popcorn and Skittles, I was able to munch on killer appetizers and swill good microbrew during the movie. The movie was 'Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist'.

After the movie we headed towards the 'Boiler Room', which was a three story pub inside the hotel that featured pool tables and tons of other games. Justine and I opted to shoot pool for a while and just kind of enjoy the whole atmosphere. The pubs within the hotel are open to the public and serve as gathering place for families that live in the neighborhood. It's great to be around people who are active and having fun, sometimes living in Humboldt County gets a little tiring. The night ended with a long soak in the outside soaking pool.

On Saturday we headed to the Oregon Zoo to check out some animals. I can never turn down a trip to the zoo, I guess it's just ingrained in me. The Oregon Zoo was great, it's probably the coolest zoo I've been to yet. The exhibits are huge, but somehow the animals were always right next to the glass. We ended up spending the whole afternoon at the zoo, walking around and enjoying the festive atmosphere. 

One of the many great exhibits was a lorikeet cage that you could walk through. For a buck you could get a cup of nectar that the lorikeets go absolutely bonkers for. As soon as the birds notice that you have a little white cup in your hand they swoop in a start to lap at the nectar. Justine was the bird whisperer, at one point she had four or five birds fighting for her attention.

I love penguins. This little guy stood there and stared at us for a while. I think he knew that I was a big fan of his.

On Saturday night, we stayed at the Northwest International Hostel in downtown Portland. It seems like there is a certain stigma about staying at hostels among people who haven't ever stayed at one. They are usually great places to stay. We always get a private room and it's usually a third of what it would cost to stay at a hotel. They are clean and unique, the difference between a private room at a hostel and a hotel room is that at hostels you might have to share a bathroom with another person and you don't get a TV or iron in your room.

After we checked into our room at the hostel and got our bearings, we set out to find some grub and head towards the Holiday Ale festival. We were hoping to spend a couple hours at the festival and then head to a bluegrass concert that we heard about from some friends. On the way to the festival we stopped at Henry's Tavern for some grub. Henry's Tavern is one of Portland's most famous watering holes. We were pretty surprised at how great it was. They brag about their Happy Hour deals and they have every right to brag. Each day they make a Happy Hour menu, it features gourmet food for really cheap. For example...crab cakes were $3, orange chicken $4, burgers were $5, and soup was $1. It was really great food too! Needless to say, we stuffed ourselves on killer grub and pints. After dinner we walked to Pioneer Square for the festival, I guess the rest of the city had the same idea. The line to get into the festival wrapped around the entire city block. Justine and I got in line and prepared to wait. After a few minutes in line, we had had enough. We didn't come to Portland to stand in line! We rationalized leaving the line with the knowledge that Portland is a town of microbrews. You could walk into any pub in town and find beers that you won't find anywhere else, besides, we had tickets to a kick-ass bluegrass show. 

We headed towards the venue, The Doug Fir Lounge. The Lounge is a really cool venue, it has the feel of a huge log cabin. There are fireplaces everywhere inside and outside in the courtyard there are fireplaces which encourage people to gather around them and shoot the breeze.

Trampled by Turtles and Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank were the two bluegrass bands we saw play. They were really good. Hobo Nephews was more of a rocking bluegrass, while Trampled by Turtles was more of a traditional bluegrass sound. I would definitely go out of my way to see both bands play again.

After the show it was late and we were tired, we didn't feel like walking back to our hostel, so we figured we'd try to catch a bus back. Earlier I said that catching public transportation in a new town is a team building, well catching public transportation at night when you're tired is a team building exercise in spades. As usual Justine and I figured it out and made our way back to the hostel and our nice comfy bed.

After a solid breakfast on Sunday morning and little walk around the neighborhood, we started our drive back to Eureka. Seven hours later we were back home and already reminiscing about the weekend. Looking back on our little trip to Portland, I can honestly say that Portland is one of the best cities I've been able to visit. If it were closer to the beach I would definitely move there. The city is clean, the infrastructure is great, the people were friendly and I don't know if you'd ever run out of stuff to do. 

Do you want to visit Portland and see some places that we saw? Here are some links to check out and plan your own trip...

http://www.mcmenamins.com/

www.bluebirdguesthouse.com/

http://www.nwportlandhostel.com/

http://www.oregonzoo.org/

http://www.powells.com/

http://horsebrass.com/

http://portlandmicrobrews.com/

The next several weeks are going to go pretty quick, our time in Humboldt County is winding down. We've been here for almost 2 1/2 years and this place holds some pretty good memories. There have been great hikes, camping trips, surf spots, and the culture. We've been living and working out here, but it feels like the honeymoon is in full swing. This winter is going to bring some changes...There's going to be a new town, house, and fun stuff to do.  

A Look at the Weekend

A LOOK AHEAD

Well folks, it's been a long few days since my last long weekend and I'm ready for some more time off. Justine and I are taking an early weekend and heading up to Portland for the Holiday Ale Festival and some general merry-making. The Holiday Ale Festival is going to be awesome. They set up a giant, clear tent in the city center, throw up a bunch of heaters, get some holiday choirs, and have three dozen of the best micro-brewers in the Northwest craft beer specially for the festival. It's a kegger Christmas party with a couple thousand of your closest friends.

http://www.holidayale.com/index.php

Before any teetotalers start furling their eyebrows at our plans, be assured we are taking in a number of non-beer related activities while in Portland. We are also making time to visit the Portland Zoo, which has a sweet frog exhibit for the time being and is lit up with Christmas lights when the sun goes down. We have to enjoy the froggies while they last, I've been reading plenty of literature talking about how many species of amphibians are going extinct due to habitat change and some nasty viruses.

http://www.oregonzoo.org

We're staying at some awesome hotels and hostels while in Portland. We're spoiling ourselves one night and staying at a McMenamin's. We stayed at one in Bend last winter and had a fabulous time. These brothers turn old, falling down historic buildings into great unique hotels/pubs. Go to the website and check out some of the places. My favorite part of the hotels is the Turkish Soaking Pools! It's a great way to wind down after a hectic day sampling microbrews and singing Christmas carols.

http://www.mcmenamins.com/

A LOOK BACK AT THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

I've been walking around for the past weeks with a giant Cheshire cat grin on my face. I just can't help smiling most of the time. Life is good and I am so thankful for everything I've been given. Thanksgiving Day always is a good day. Our Thursday was filled with solid home-cooking and friends, next year we're hoping to add family back into the mix. It was our third Thanksgiving out here in California and our turkey just keeps getting better each time. Our secret is in the brine. 

Anyway folks, that's all for now...I have to go open up the bar. As Red Green would say, "Keep your stick on the ice". Have a good week.

A Few Pictures in Passing

I tried to get the cat to take a sniff of the crab, but he was smarter than that. I was giving the old crab one last stretch before he went into the pot. 

Sunset sail on the Bay.

The ladies are enjoying the view from the bow.

Mark and Ben debate whether or not there is enough wind.

BOO! Check out our lame  Halloween costumes...I'm the 'Pulp Mill' and Justine is dressed like her mom 20 years ago....

All is Well in Humboldt

I don't want to rub anything in, but we have had some good surf around here for the past week or so. It has just been fabulous W/NW swell out there, it's been long swell lines and glassy conditions. The size has been in the chest to occasional over-head bomber waves. I've been surfing some seriously quality waves lately and I haven't surfed with more than a handful of guys out the entire time. 

On Saturday morning I drove around for almost an hour before I found a spot with another guy out. I ended up at the little rocky cove up north surfing 6-8 foot waves with two other guys. It was good to surf some juicy waves with consequence, I was starting to get a little lazy with workouts. There came a point on Saturday when I was caught inside during a sizable set. I could tell that there were several waves to roll through still and the large, barnacle covered rocks along the shore looked rather unpleasant to make contact with...I was pretty much running on empty and there came this voice in the back of my head that said, "I told you that you should be doing more push-ups". I ended up taking the rest of the set on the head and paddled back out for another hour or so of waves.

Since Sunday, the swell has been perfect for the beach right by our house. I'm sure it's still breaking as I type, but I needed a morning to catch up on news and reading. I really need to be on top of my game, events and politics wise, so I can keep the banter at the bar going.

Life has been good around here though. The past days have been great. I'll surf until almost noon, warm shower and then head into the bar for a day of shooting pool and pouring beers. Weekends are filled with beach days, sailing, and grilling out with friends. Last weekend my buddy brought over several dozen oysters and I was given some petrale sole. Nothing is quite as tasty as fresh, local seafood grilled out with good friends after a day filled with waves and sailing. 

I've been getting lucky lately with the food freebies. In the past few days I've been given two turkeys, dozens of Dungeness crabs, and more fresh fish than I can handle almost. Thanksgiving is going to be a good combination of classic Hoosier fare and fresh, local seafood.

I've been going on and on about how good things are here in Humboldt County, but apparently things are falling apart elsewhere in the world. I guess it's a combination of the usual bullshit of the world, typical media over-hyping, and gross government ineptitude. I won't piss and moan about things though, there are plenty of people doing that already. Plus, I start to feel like a real jackass when complain about all the wrongs in the world and overlook all of the great things that are happening. The US economy may be in the dumps, but we're all still way above the average person in the world when it comes to ease of living. Whenever the media hypes every little problem into the next world ending disaster and almost brings me to the point to total despair, I think back to the words of Hunter S. Thompson (I'm pretty sure)..."Pay attention to the media sparingly and then only for entertainment".

Election Day 2008

Happy Election Day everyone. Get out and vote. Or if you're like me and already sent in an absentee ballot, sit back and watch all the people wait in line on TV. Enjoy listening to the media bemoan how certain voting precincts have lines causing people to wait in line for hours and hours on end. Of course those horrible lines are caused by evil Republicans hoping to disenfranchise poor minorities and young people. It certainly couldn't be the fault of the individual election committees and certain precincts being organized and staffed by incompetent nincompoops. 

Our choices this year stink, or at least the two main party candidates stink and it'd take an act of God for one of my beloved third party guys to win. By the time I leave the bar tonight (working not drinking), the media is going to let us know who the President Elect is and I'm not excited about the prospects. It really sucks that the media pretty much blacked out any exposure for third party candidates. I don't know if you guys really looked over your ballots, but out here in CA I had the ability to vote for a number of non-mainstream candidates. Great thinkers and politicians like Bob Barr, Alan Keyes, Ralph Nader, and Cynthia McKinney (she's  kind of crazy) ran for President...but didn't get the nod from the media or any air time. I mean, honestly, the 24/7 media says the same damn thing dozens of times a day. Why wouldn't they recycle their clips less and get some different ideas out there. Nader and Barr were polling nationally at 5 or 6 points a piece and they didn't even participate in the debates. It's absolutely stupid that 'Joe the Plumber' gets to run his mouth on every station for a couple weeks and actual third party candidates can't buy five minutes on TV. I mean how silly is it that those guys are placed on the ballots in most states and they aren't even allowed to participate in public debates. These debates are even set up by the government (Presidential Debate Commission), but I digress...

It always boils down to Republican or Democrat, but the two major parties are so diluted and weighed down by phoney-populist ideas and corporate cronyism that nothing really ever changes. I mean, if you're serious about Republican ideas, i.e. smaller government, less government interference in your personal life, etc...then you should have voted for Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate for president. And if you are serious about Democratic ideas, i.e. bigger government, more social programs, etc...then you should've voted for Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney. If you are an 'Independent', then Alan Keyes is your man. If this is the first time that you've even heard that there were more than two candidates running, then I'm sorry to tell you this,but you've had your head up the mainstream media's ass for the past several years. I suggest that you immediately turn off CNN or Fox and seek out other sources for information that are not controlled by large multi-national corporations.

I'm sorry to go political on you guys. I'm just getting frustrated with the status quo and I'd like to see things get mixed up a bit. The debate has just become so mundane and dumbed down. It's all about sound bites and knee-jerk reactions. Oh well...I guess the beauty of America is that anyone can make the change happen and get the ball rolling. It all starts locally.

If you're still reading, thanks for letting me rant and vent. If you think I'm crazy, then you should go to the link at the bottom. It's my favorite author's publishing companies website. Read through some of his essays.

Stay tuned for more adventures. There is a solid NW swell filling in and the weather is clearing up around here. The weekend is almost here and I have a feeling that a trip is in the works.

http://www.banditobooks.com/ezine/home

A Quick Trip To San Francisco

A couple weekends ago we decided to take a spur of the moment trip down to San Francisco. We decided on Friday afternoon to go and took off early Saturday morning. We went with our good friends Mark and Casey and scored a sweet hotel right in the Union Square district. Our hotel window looked right out onto one of the busiest tourist streets in the whole town. We had cable cars, taxis, and all kinds of craziness going on 8 stories below us. It was a funny experience. It took all of my restraint to not drop a water balloon or something down on someone. While in the city, we crammed all kinds of fun stuff. For some reason the pictures never seem to do the trip justice, but here they are anyway...

Justine and I have taken tons of trips down to the city and we'd always seen this bar, high atop the city skyline in the Drake Hotel...Harry Denton's Starlight Room...We finally made it there on this trip and enjoyed a cocktail, some dancing, and the view. The skyline of the City is pretty amazing.

An activity as simple as walking through the streets at night can be quite exciting. There are all kinds of sights and sounds. San Fran is chock full of weirdos and free-spirited people. We spent Saturday night bar hopping and looking for some good salsa music to dance to. 

After a night of rubbing elbows with more Californians than you can shake a stick at we were ready for some breathing room and a cheap beer. Our hotel room had an awesome view out the windows, but the window over the bathtub was especially great and well suited for swilling beers and people watching. The cheap beer wasn't actually that cheap though, a six-pack of Redstripe ran around $18. You can drop $100 in a few hours in the city. 

Alcatraz Island...It doesn't really look like any place I would want to be stuck. After a good breakfast Sunday morning at the best breakfast spot in the city, we walked around Fisherman's Wharf and took in some views of the bay.

Mark and Casey both skateboard, so it's only natural that we'd take our boards with us. After a night crammed in with a bunch of people we decided to visit Golden Gate Park and go for a skate on the paths. Golden Gate Park is San Fran's equivalent to Central Park, but a bit bigger. Within the park is an area called the 'Japanese Tea Garden', we'd always wanted to check it out. It's well worth the time. 

The nice Japanese guy that ran the place warned us not to skate...but they needed a picture. Notice Mark in the background pondering the beauty of the place. The whole 'Tea Garden' is set up really nice and is landscaped beautifully.

There were several of these pagodas in the garden. Apparently a monk would live in one and ponder existence until he figured things out. They are all exact replicas of one in Japan. The park was originally built in 1894 for a California Exposition, many of the pagodas from that time still survive.

More pagodas, looks like Justine is taking time to read the sign and admire the little coy pond that ran along the paths.

Most of the garden was landscaped in this manner. It was pretty spectacular. The pictures don't really do it justice. It'd be awesome to see that park in the spring when everything is blooming and green. 

This bridge is sweet. It's been around since the 1890's, it was built in Japan and the brought over to San Fran as a gift. 

After the Tea Garden and some more skating around, we headed for our last stop...the Haight and Asbury district. The district is kind of the spark for the whole counter-culture movement of the 50's and 60's. The Grateful Dead called this place home, as well as a host of literary giants. People like Allan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, and Neal Cassidy lived and wrote here...Writers, I would argue, mainly responsible for the whole change in our culture during the 60's. It still has that flavor, but the genius has been mainly replaced by wanna-be hippies and bums. For me, it's kind of disheartening. All of those writers were into the whole drugs and alcohol scene, but they didn't let it take hold of them. They used that energy to create a whole new literary genre and movement. The people who are there now are into that same drug and booze thing, but they are little more than bums parroting 40 year old ideas and begging change off people. I just want to slap a few of those hippies with copies of 'On the Road' or 'Sometimes a Great Notion' and tell them to get off their asses and go have an adventure.

After Haight-Ashbury, we were ready to head back to our peaceful home in the redwoods. A trip into the City isn't complete until you stop for the best fast food ever though, In and Out Burger. It's honestly the best burger I've ever had anywhere. I'm seriously going to miss In and Out Burger (it's a West Coast only franchise). We stopped at one outside the City and provisioned for the 4-5 trip through no man's land. I had to get 4 burgers to make the trip.

It really was a great trip. The pictures don't do it justice at all. After a while, you just forget to take pictures and just enjoy the ride. It was great to take a trip with another couple. Justine and Casey could do all the shopping they wanted. Mark and I would just pop into a nearby pub and grab a frosty brew and bullshit about life until they were ready to mosey on down the street to the next shoe store.

Stay tuned for more adventures and ramblings. We have some good trips in the works for our last couple months in Humboldt and then it's across the country and onto the next adventure. God Bless.