Oktober Fest in Atlanta

10/15/11

After a relatively late night at the dance club, we slept in a little and missed Bill's road race. He told us that he ran well. By the time we rolled out of bed, Jayne was already busy preparing brunch. Nothing beats the smell of bacon frying on the stovetop! Mónica and I helped to prepare some scrabbled eggs. Gladys was able to join us for it and when the French toast casserole was ready from the oven, we took our plates full of food outside to their patio and enjoyed the beautiful day. Over breakfast, Jayne and Bill suggested that we might drive to Helen, Georgia, about an hour north of Atlanta, for their Oktoberfest. Lots of beer and good German food? Count us in! 

The weather was perfect and so soon after brunch we got in the car and made the trip to Helen. The roads were clear until we were about 3 miles outside of Helen, at which point cars were backed up and were moving at about walking speed. Evidently this Oktoberfest is pretty popular. The town had a German Alpine theme for all of the buildings, it was fun. We found a nice restaurant to stop at and have some German food and beer. They even had non-alcoholic beer for Jayne. Behind us at the restaurant there was a group of Germans who were signing along to the German music, it made the scene feel very authentic.

After eating lunch, we walked through the town and met Gladys and Ramon who arrived later as Ramon had to work that morning. We then went to a local chocolatier to sample some of the chocolate.

Finally, we stopped at a bar with live music and bought a couple 32 oz beers. And for some reason, we needed a bathroom stop on the way back to Atlanta!

Back in Atlanta, we grabbed some Thai takeout and went back to Jayne and Bill's apartment. We made it an early night since we were leaving early the next day for St Louis. Overall, we had a wonderful time visiting our family and friends in Atlanta. Thanks so much to Jayne and Bill for providing such great accommodations. Thanks so much to Gladys and Ramon to taking us around the city and making it a priority to spend time with us. We love you all!

Friday in Atlanta/ Loca Luna

10/14/11

On Friday we woke up late. It was nice to catch up on some sleep in a cozy bed. We hung out with Jayne for a little before she went to work and then had the afternoon to explore Atlanta. Monica had already visited Atlanta a couple times and had seen the Aquarium. She agreed to drop me off at the Aquarium as she new I would really enjoy it. While I was at the aquarium she explored down town Atlanta. The aquarium was really awesome. They have some incredible exhibits of sea life. The most spectacular is the ocean tank. There are whale sharks, manta rays, sharks, jacks, sting rays, grouper and a variety of tropical fish. It is amazing that they can transport some of these creatures and maintain them. One of my favorite creatures at the aquarium was the dragon seahorse. Look them up on google if you have a chance. These things are really cool.

After the aquarium, Mónica and I explored Atlanta for the rest of the afternoon. We returned to Jayne's apartment and prepared to go out for the evening. Jayne and Bill made an excellent recommendation of Taqueria de Sol for dinner and we were joined by Gladys and Ramon. Later we went with Gladys and Ramon to Loca Luna, a fun Brazilian dance club. The DJ played a nice mix of Latin and American music and we danced the night away. 

Arrival to Atlanta

10/13/11

We hanged out with Ivana, Stanko and Katka this morning before we left. We drove about 8 hrs before getting to Atlanta. Traffic was really bad in road 85, apparently something happened but we took a detour after being stuck for 45 min. The detour allowed us to get back to a flowing 85. We got to Atlanta at 7pm. We were received by my sister Jayne and Bill her husband. It was an exciting time to visit Atlanta because Jayne and Bill recently announced that they are expecting a child in May! We arrived at their house and had a great time seeing their new apartment and hearing about their experiences with the pregnancy. Jayne cooked a delicious meal of pork, squash and salad with home made apple pie for dessert. It was great.

After dinner, Jayne and Bill retired for the night and we met Gladys and Ramon for a couple of beers. Gladys is one of Mónica's best friends from undergrad and Ramon is her fiancé.

While in Puerto Rico we were fortunate to witness Ramon's proposal, hence we were eager to share some time with them after the fact.  I know Mónica was really excited to get to spend more time with Ramon since Gladys was probably her undergrad friend that had spent more time with us as a couple at the beginning of our relationship. They picked us up and took us to a bar called The Porter, apparently Beer Advocate rated it as one of the top bars in the country. They did have a fine selection of beers and we sampled some very tasty ones. At bar time we went to their apartment and Ramon showed us some videos of his family in Brazil. Thewe seemed like a fun family and we hope to one day meet them at their wedding. Before finishing up the night we dusted the guitar and vocal cords to sing one or two song. Unfortunately due to the time of night Ramon could not play his percussion. We hope to have a jamming session in the near future. 

North Carolina with great friends

10/12/11

Today we woke up to the giggles and laughs of Katka and Stanko. I (moni) woke up first and went to meet Kataka  immediately. She was soooo soooo beautiful and "comible" (like you can eat her).

But after taking different gender sociology classes in undergrad and reading bunch of different articles about gender I have try as much as possible to stop using traditional adjectives used with girls and boys.  Why? because those pave the road for a perception of inequality amongst genders that is perpetuated in society today. The only true is that girls can be brave, strong and boys can be sweet and emotional and vice versa. So, why only call them one or the other. If we keep doing that we limit each human being to a small dimension of itself and run into the danger of spoiling their potential. 

Because I don't surround myself with many kids I took this opportunity to practice. I told  Katka,  you are so strong and brave. But I was not wrong, this kid was strong, she would latch at you to stand up and do all sorts of maneuvers in order to get to her mom. 

I truly appreciate Ivana. I lived with her for 2 years in grad school while working to earn a doctorate in Genetics. Grad school is not easy and it requires and extreme amount of self-confidence.  I believe living with Ivana helped me gain a less stressful perspective of grad school and brightened my days with easy living. She was not the type of student that tried to hide the fact that a PhD is hard,  but she was equally not the type to keep complaining about it; all of that with a positive and sunny attitude.  In addition, she brought a lot of cultural insight to my life. Ivana is from Slovakia, an Eastern European country. She would cook a smoked sausage soup with cabbage that was so comforting. She would make simple and delicious green salads and drink tons of tea during winter. She definitely turned me into tea, although she might not know that. Imagine, my symbolical self, how exciting is to visit her and hang out with her kids.

Not only that,  North Carolina has more goodies waiting for me. For some reason a couple of my friend from WASHU ended up in Durham- Raleigh. In the view of us coming here I had contacted Jane and Javier but did not gave them another heads up until the same day. Fortunately they were available to meet, so we planned to see each other that night.

In the mean time I became good friends with Stanko and was the only one allowed to built the trains tracks for him. Also we got into a mood of car photography. Paul had much more luck with the girls and spent some time charming  Katka with different toys. 

We decided on a dinner meal to cook. We went to the groceries to get the necessary items, in our way back we were joined by Mica my other Washu/NC friend. Luckily for me it was Mica's day off, hence, Ivana and I got to catch up with her. She is such an inspiring woman. On her own, she has ventured to many wonderful places in the world not just to look and take pictures but to make a difference. 

Paul and I prepared a simple meal of chicken wrapped in bacon and Gouda cheese with roasted potatoes. While doing so OTČE (father in slovak)  arrived. There was such a commotion for Jacobs arrival that I imagined -that- to be Jacobs best part of the day. Stanko got so excited, just at the sound of the car approaching that he waited for his dad in the front door. Once OTČE arrived he hugged and jumped on top of him.  

We all (including the kids) sat at the table and ate the meal talking about the hardships and gratitudes  of an anesthesiology residency. Later we had a bit of a photo shooting, cars included. 

It was time to get together with the Revollo's so we parted to Moonberries. Unfortunately for some reason the GPS gave us the wrong address so we got really delayed. Finally we got to the right place. Again, Javier is one of those people (like Ivana)  that I will always keep in a special place in my heart. He was along with Ericka, Abhi and Tejas one of the  persons that help me to establish a healthy social lifestyle  in WASHU. They were my family. It is difficult to describe Javier because he is such a wonderful person, but he influenced many aspects of my life ranging from open-mindedness and philosophy to lab rotations. I was really excited to see them. It was very delightful to sit down, talk and laugh with them. Obviously, a big part of the conversation we spent talking about our friends in WASHU and Paul and I tried as much as we could to give them an update. The best part was really talking about all the possibilities of fun in Bolivia and the fire in Javier's eyes as he talked about the  wonderful place who saw his birth. I was really please to see they were so happy and carrying away with their lives so successfully. 

We got to the Nadler's residence and went to bed. 

Drive to North Carolina

10/11/10

This day we woke up rested and started driving towards North Carolina (NC) primarily to visit Katka and Stanko ( Ivana's and J's babies). We decided to do it this way because our penultimate stop is Atlanta and I've been hoping to go out dancing with my friend Gladys, something you mostly do on weekend. 
Despite of Atlanta being closer than North Carolina we decided to go to NC first and then backtrack to Atlanta for the weekend. 

On our way to NC we passed other parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and finally we arrived to North Carolina. We lost one hour of time change and arrived super late (1am).  Arriving at Ivana's was a bit quirky because we could not find the phone to call her. We probably spent about 10 min looking around the car. Finally she let us in and we immediately went to bed. 

New Orleans

10/10/11

We woke at about 9 am after a well deserved rest. Immediately we went to Cafe du Monde for our cafe au lait and beignet fix. Although the place was unbearably packed we managed to get seated and served pretty quickly. Despite I told Paul one serving was enough I knew he secretly desired 3 whole beignets for himself so I ended up ordering 2 servings which meant I also inevitably ate 3 huge beignets. We were very pleased.

Since it was Paul's first time at New Orleans and Monica's third, we decided to just walk around with no definite plans. We enjoyed the architecture and multi-culturality  of the place. New Orleans, Luisiana most commonly known as NOLA is definitely a place with many influences from the beginning of its history.

As the story goes New Orleans natives were the Chitimaca tribe, but of course Europeans, in this case French, always come with their diseases and wiped out some of their population. New Orleans then was established as a French Colony  in the 1700's, then it was ceded to Spain who had it for more than 30 years. It returned back to French control in the 1800 and it was finally sold by Napoleon early that century to United States. England tried to invade once right after the Louisiana Purchase but was unsuccessful.  After hearing all of the people that mingled there at the turn of the century I started to understand the influences you see today in NOLA but it does not end there. Another important immigration happened that brought thousands of african descent-Haitians to the area. These group was looking to establish the second colony of free blacks in the continent. This gives us perspective of why Luisiana played such crucial part during the civil rights movement. The biggest concentration of free african descents was contained in New Orleans. Ironically, as many as free, many more slaves were trade in the same port.  

All of these influences made Luisiana a multicultural place and shaped the food they are so famous for, now a days. We went for another coffee at Royal blend Cafe in Royal street and right before getting there, street musicians were enlightening the streets with their awesome recreation of The 20' jazz song  "I 'm going away just to wear you off my mind". 

After strolling around we were ready for some seafood. I read Deanie's Seafood would have the freshest catch.  We were not disappointed. We sampled their complimentary whole potatoes boiled in crab water and seasoned salt. Next got the charbroiled oysters , they were the best of this place. Subsequently we order blackened redfish, fried crawfish and crawfish étouffée.  The etoufee was our second favorite.

After an extremely full belly we walked to the river and got the Algiers Ferry which takes people to the Algiers area across the Mississippi river. From it we got a nice view of the New Orleans skyline. 

After the ferry we saw the Fountain Spain gifted NOLA and we sampled the famous pralines candy.  For some reason cigars are big in New Orleans, therefore, we entered in a cigar factory and saw the workers rolling some cigars, this is called -hilar tabaco- in Spanish. This was interesting to me because my paternal grandmother  used to work doing this in her youth. My imagination went off thinking of her. 

After all this activities we took a nap. We woke up just in time for another beer-in-hand-stroll and dinner.

This time we made it to Tujegue's. The dinner was a pre-set dinner of 5 courses. First we ordered New Orleans traditional drinks. Paul got a sazerac cocktail and I got a pimp's cup. Immediately they served the appetizer which was shrimps in remoulade sauce. Next they brought the gumbo which is a soup with rice, chicken, andouilee sausage and seafood. Their gumbo was just delish and my favorite of the night. Next they brought a piece of boiled beef with a horseradish sauce. It was perfectly cooked. You could choose between 4 main dishes. Two of them were seafood and since we had gotten seafood earlier we decided to pass on those. We both ordered the veal in blue cheese sauce. It was really good. To finish they brought a bread pudding in caramel sauce. These bread pudding was unlike the American versions, it resembled much more the type of bread pudding we make in PR. 

At the end of the huge meal we were really tired so we went off to bed.

Arrival to New Orleans

10/9/11

We woke up at the random motel in Wichita Falls and immediately started our 660 mile journey to get to New Orleans. We drove through Dallas. For lunch, we stopped for BBQ again just before we exited Texas. This part of the road was really boring and no mountains or landmarks were around it. We finally made it to New Orleans. After Monica spent a lot of time figuring out which hotel to stay we decided to drop by one of them. That was great because we found a jewel. The hotel was French Market Inn, as the name suggests the hotel retains the charm and architecture of the once French colony. In addition, the location is almost impossible to beat. Most importantly it was not expensive, the price was moderate, we ended up paying about 75$ a night. Try getting a place close to that in PR for that price, impossible. 
http://www.frenchmarketinn.com/

We settle in our room, refreshed and went out to enjoy the brimming city. Because we arrived so late (9pm) Monica's plan to eat at the famous Tujague's was not possible. We looked around and went to another restaurant nearby. Paul said he had to try the Po' boy, the New Orleans retaliation of a sandwich in a bread similar to French. I got the Jambalaya, a traditional Cajun rice dish with sausage, and seafood.  We both had a local Blonde Ale, we forgot the name but it was a well balanced one. 

Finishing our dinner we asked the waiter where to go for good music. He suggested Spotted cat (http://www.spottedcatmusicclub.com/) Before heading there we decided to get some beers from our cooler, after all is the only place in USA where you can walk in the streets with a beer in hand. So Paul's wish came true, stroll free in the streets of his country beer in hand. You would think this simple freedom should not be regulated in the "land of freedom".

We entered into an area borderline between the French Quarter and the Marigny area. Apparently the place were the locals hang. The waiter was right on, spotted cat was the epitome of NOLA's jazz culture. A bunch of misfits, people of different ages and abouts. We got to see the band Pat Casey and the New Sound ( http://www.patcaseymusic.com/html/showcase.php). They were really great.

While listening we sample a local beer from the Abita brewery called Restoration Pale Ale. Made only with cascade hops, Monica though it was too mild for a Pale Ale. Anyhow while sipping we met a bartender from NOLA's renowned draft bar named Bulldog. The guy, knowledgable, about NOLA's beer scene, did not recommend Restoration pale ale from that brewery but did recommended their seasonal brews.  

The band ended up playing at about 2 am. As we strolled back to our cozy european room in the heart of the French Market we saw many cool bars, one of them called Paul's attention and we entered to have a PBR. Inadvertently  we ended up having a conversation with a aspiring film maker. at the end we went to bed.

1st day of drive to New Orleans

10/8/11

Today was a driving day. We had free continental breakfast at the motel and then headed to the Toyota dealer in Flagstaff as the car was due for a tire rotation. We hit the open road at about 9:30, destination unknown but in the direction of New Orleans.

The scenery for most of the trip looked like a western movie. Desert, mesas, sand dunes and buttes. We stopped somewhere in New Mexico for lunch at a place that claimed to have some Native America cuisine, Virgies. It was mostly southwestern food, but they did have a Navajo taco on the menu that we sampled. It was basically a taco that had a fried bread tortilla.

We then passed through Albequrque which brought fond memories to Paul of a trip he had made there as a child to visit his Aunt Sarah and Uncle Bill. We were then on a collision course with Texas, the lone star state. As we made it into Texas, we were surrounded by flat plains. The sun was setting behind us and we were treated to a beautiful sky. We had lost two hours by driving East into the Central Time Zone that day. When we pulled over for some Texas barbecue in Armarillo at Tyler's Barbecue, the place was actually closing. Fortunately they had some chopped beef left and the servers were more than happy to serve us a couple plates. It was delicious. One of the workers sat down with us and told us about the restaurant, Tyler the owner, and Texas. Apparently, Texas is a pretty large state. He said we could make it to Wichita Falls by midnight and find accommodation there for the night. We were thankful to the kind folks at Tyler's Barbecue and continued on our way.  Rain slowed us down for the rest of the night and we pulled into a motel at Wichita Falls around 12:30, ready for a good night sleep.

Grand Canyon ascend

10/7/11

We woke up at 5:00 at the Bright Angel campground so that we could get an early start for the long hike back to the rim. We made a breakfast of instant oatmeal and packed up camp. We were able to hit the trail by 6:45. It was light out, but the sun had not yet rise above the rim to shine its rays directly on us. The first couple miles of the Bright Angel trail took us along the Colorado River and did not climb much altitude.

As we began climbing altitude, we made sure to take it easy. We took breaks every hour to eat food, hydrate and rest our legs. We also made sure to stop and enjoy the views. The trail going up seemed easier than the trail going down. There was more shade and it was a more gradual climb. This trail had more water and bathroom stops than South Kaibab. Indian Gardens campsite is one of the landmarks with such amenities and marks roughly the middle of the hike. The Indian gardens area is the one with more vegetation of both trails and we suppose the reason for it's name.

As on the other trail, we encountered many other hikers and took time to chat along the way. At our lunch stop we were surrounded by a number of fat, aggressive squirrels that we had to continuously scare off to keep them from our food. We guess that they are often fed by the hikers on this route. We tried to keep an eye out for one of the 75 California Condors that now inhabit the Grand Canyon. At one time, these creatures with a 9 foot wingspan, were the rarest bird on earth, with a total population of only 22. In 1996, a group of condors was reintroduced to the Grand Canyon. We were happy to hear the ranger report that they have begun to reproduce naturally in the Grand Canyon again. There were three nests this year, one of which came from the original group of reintroduced birds. Unfortunately, we were unable to see one.

We reached the top of the Canyon and finished our hike at about 1:00, making for about 6 hours of total hiking time. We considered this to be great time for ourselves and felt great about completing the hike.

In the afternoon, we left the Canyon for Flagstaff as we needed to take the car in for a scheduled service the next morning. We ate some burgers at a cool place in Flagstaff called Diablo Burger. Afterward, we got a beer from a local brew pub. Sitting in Flagstaff, enjoying good food and beer and sleeping in a warm bed, we felt worlds away from the bottom of the Grand Canyon where we had started the day.

Grand Canyon descend

10/6/11

The Grand Canyon is truly a geologists paradise. The canyon exposes over a billion years of history in the different layers of rock as one moves from the top to the bottom. During our stay, we learned a little about the geological history of the canyon. Millions of years ago, the collision of two continental shelves caused the Colorado plateau, location of the canyon, to rise. For perspective, this same event created the Rocky Mountains. After the Colorado Plateau rose to high altitude, the Colorado River began to carve it's path and create the Grand Canyon. This erosion event has taken 6 million years to carve the Grand Canyon as we see it today. Apparently, it carves out a depth each year equivalent to the thickness of a sheet of paper. Today, from the rim to the Colorado River, the Canyon is about a mile deep.

So, we began our two day, overnight hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back out. Our itinerary had us descending the South Kaibab Trail, camping at Bright Angel Campground and ascending the Bright Angel Trail. 

Standing on the ledge at the South Kaibab Trailhead, one cannot see the Colorado River, over 5000 feet below. Apparently, the South Kaibab Trail is one of the most famous in the country. We set out at 11:00. Hiking the Grand Canyon is the opposite of climbing a mountain. You start out going down and finish going up. So, the first day down the South Kaibab trail was relatively easy. It provided a great opportunity to enjoy the spectacular views of the Grand Canyon.

The hike down was steep and we were glad we were not taking this trail back up. A couple other groups were hiking down at about the same time and we saw them periodically during the trip.

We arrived at the Bright angel campground at about 3:30, the hike lasting a little over 4 hours. The campground is located at a beautiful setting along a small creek that flows into the Colorado River.

From this location it is impossible to see the canyon rim or anything outside of the canyon save the night sky. We read that people can feel very claustrophobic within the canyon walls, but for this one night we enjoyed our view.

Soon after arriving, we set up camp. We had a brief crisis when we brought out the tent and realized that we had melted some large holes into it by putting it in the drier earlier in the day. Fortunately the rain fly was intact but our tent was now open to any critters that wanted to join us.

In the camp area there is a ranger station and a small lodge that are kept stocked by daily mule teams. In the evening there was a ranger event that we attended where one of the rangers told mysteries about the Grand Canyon. After that, we went to the lodge to enjoy a cold beer and hot tea before going to bed. When we returned to the camp, Paul noticed a sand trail of footprints of a small animal in the tent. He waited until morning to tell Monica so that she would not lose sleep worrying about more small animals coming into the tent during the night.

Permit, Preparing and Ordeals before GC hike

10/5/11

We woke up really early on Wednesday because we had to be at the backcountry permit office by 8am in order to get one of the permits left for the last minute walk-in people. Only 10 % of these permits are set aside for walk ins. Otherwise you are supposed to reserve your permit with 4 months anticipation via fax. We had tried to get one a month ago but found out on Tuesday we didn't got one (of course). 

We arrived at the office at 7am just to be extra careful. Other people equally desperate for a permit started to arrive.  Luckily, us and the second group that arrived were able to get a permit for the next day. We almost could not believe it, we had a permit yeiiiiiiiiiii !

We were happy we had a day to prepare because after reading Ron Adkinson's GC (grand canyon) hiking book we were a little scare of the prospect as first timers. Basically you have to be somewhat fit, and specially in the summer, have to be extremely well hydrated and eat 4000 to 5000 calories or more. Luckily we are in autumn but still the book scares you pretty well. 

We decided to do the recommended backpacking hike for first timers that are fit. This hike starts at the South Kaibab Trail in the S Rim. This trail is 5 miles long, all steep, all the time going down, with no shade. You hike this trail on day one to the Bright Angel Campsite. You sleep there over night and leave the next day for the Bright Angel Trail. The Bright Angel trail is 8.1 miles and is mostly going up. The hike is described as strenuous in Adkinson's book. The change in elevation is ~5,200 feet. In the picture of the topographic model you can appreciate both hikes. 

We stopped at the south rim scenic turnouts and saw for the first time the amazing Grand Canyon. The pictures don't make justice to such natural marble. We were so pumped to get down to it and connect with such nature.

Next we went to have breakfasts at the GC General Store and had huge breakfast burritos for 3.50$, we were pretty pleased. At breakfast we made a list of food. Conveniently the General Store is also the super market so we immediately got the groceries. We went back to the park and pre-packed all we could for the next morning. While doing that we had visitors (aka, the wildlife) came and entertained us. During the trip we have been able to identify plants and different animals by using field books that Paul got from the Milwaukee's library. Similar to Yellowstone's Mammoth area the Mather campground had Elk roaming around in rut.

Here a Mountain Chicadee, and we also saw various white breasted nuthatchs (not pictured)

Luckily Mather campground has showers so we showered after 5 days, and did laundry. We went for dinner at a awful "Mexican" restaurant and went to bed just in time for the storm that was coming to begin. 

We had predicted our basic tent was not going to stay dry, therefore we used our expensive, super nice, 3 pounder,  backpacking tent to cover the gaps. The fix worked and we did not get wet in the 40 mph wind storm that happened that night. Unfortunately when we woke up the day of the backpacking trip our backpacking tent which we needed to use for the trip down the river, that morning, was completely wet.  Not only that, the storm which was unlike anything I've experience before, (remember I come from hurricane world), kept us awake all night at the fear we had to run for our lives at any point.

We still got up and decided to quickly fix the tent issue by drying it in the laundromat drier. All of this while snowing. We were a little desperate and uncomfortable, therefore, not really thinking through (or so I want to believe). Drying up the tent turn out to be a terrible thing, but we didn't realized until later so, we will tell you about that in another post. 

Finally we were ready to start the hike at about 10am as supposed to 8am as we had planned. We drove the car to the Bright Angel trail parking were we could take the bus to the South Kaibab Trail head. In mid way realized we had forgotten the permit. We had to ride the bus about an hour to get back to our car and recover the permit. We were once again delayed but our spirits were not broken. We finally started the hike at about 11am. The next entry will talk about the greatest hike, I just wanted to mentioned all the really Unusual stuff that happened that morning to leave the GC hiking post to be about all positive. 

Drive and arrival to Grand Canyon

10/4/11
We woke up at 5am and left the Lodgepole camp site to drive to The Grand Canyon. The drive was about 10 hrs but we stopped on the way and it took us close to 12 hrs.  Paul drove the first half. Coming out of Sequoia the road was extremely winding and Monica was trying to read the news, after reading out loud to Paul for some time she got a bit motion sick , but fell well quickly after she stopped reading.  The next part of the road was very boring because we were driving through the desert. We entertained ourselves by reading news, writing the blog and hearing to Latin radio stations. As I mentioned, we passed the Mojave Desert, a barren place, no much of anything there. Hence, we were happy we decided to skip it for another day at Sequoia NP. The mojave desert is within California and Nevada and we found out that although barren, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. You wanna know why? Well, Las Vegas is in it. 

One interesting scene on the road was when we saw a huge wind mill farm, the biggest we have seen yet. It is always great to see green energy projects happening. 

Before arriving to the GC about 20 miles from it, Monica was driving a little too fast and got stopped by the police. Fortunately the policeman was nice and gave her a 79$ ticket instead of a 300 dollar one she deserved.  Ironically the ticket violation given was for -excessive use of gas- so much for driving a hybrid. Later at the park, Monica drove all other visitors crazy by abiding all speed limits. BTW this is the first driving violation for Monica in more than 8 years and first ever in USA.

Since we had reserved the campsite at Mather we were able to arrive and set up camp. We went for pizza in the nearby Tusayan neighborhood and bought beer and milk, the essentials for any good living. Interestingly at many Parks  you can buy an assorted 6 pack of beers.  Surprisingly many Parks have a good selection of micronbrews and even international brews. We are proud to say we have tried beers from Grand Teton brewery, Gran Canyon brewery and many more. 

Sequoia NP 2nd day

10/3/11

In the morning we took it very slow probably because we wanted to let the sun warm up the day since we had promised to swim in the river. We cuddled up. Once awaken we kind of cleaned up camp and changed into our bathing suits. We went to the river and not thinking it twice jumped right in. It was probably the coldest waters Monica has experienced, but she warmed up to it and dove 3 times more. This was certainly a lot of fun. Next, we build  up the camp fire and warmed water for instant oatmeal, thanks to Jhon Mehuler's technique we were able to eat the oatmeal from the pouch without making further mess.  

We then drove to the Sequoia National Park. In between we tried contacting the backpacking office of Grand Canyon to see about our permit without success. In our way we stopped to see General Grant Sequoia tree with the widest diameter on earth. Funnily it is also the USA national Christmas tree. It's diameter is 28 feet at 6 feet above ground. Next we drove to Lodgepole Sequoia info center and got more food and info of trails. We  then headed to the Giant Trees Grove  which houses the world's largest tree named General Sherman. Once there we stopped to admire General Sherman and took the Congress trail hike which advances to the heart of the  grove. The trail name comes from the name of the different trees and of groups of trees. For example, president tree and the senate group. 

Sequoias are extremely impressive. Compared with redwoods sequoias are wider although redwoods can grow taller. The oldest Sequoia tree in the grove is > 3000 years, which led Paul to compare it with the fact that it was here before Jesus Christ had a story. 

Sequoias are able to live so long  due to a combination of advantages. Their bark is thick to resist forest firewood and they produce tannings which repels insects. This, combined with accelerated growth gives the sequoias their long life. Ironically their main reason to die is due to toppling. Their roots are measly 10 feet deep to support a total length of 250feet tall, which renders them susceptible to wind and falling. 

Then we returned to camp and made a delicious corn beef and hash topped with eggs in our trusty iron skillet. It threatened to  rain so we retreated early to sleep.