The Great Salt Lake and The Avett Brothers

by James Walker

Day 10 - Thursday, June 28th, 2012



Our stay in Park City wasn't really planned. Due to the fires throughout Colorado, we had changed our plans so we would spend less time there and more time in Utah at the end of our trip, giving us time to see something we hadn't considered before. This was great because instead of running into Salt Lake City as fast as we could, then running out again the next morning, we had time to roam. The only down side was that for our extra night in Utah, we chose to stay in Park City. While it was clean and had some great gluten-free pizza, we were in another Ski Resort town in the middle of one of the hottest summers on record, and there was nothing to do.

While that's not entirely true (Alpine Coaster, Park City Museum), we chose to spend our time in Salt Lake instead. The drive is pretty short and we soon found ourselves cruising confusing streets like East 500 South and South 700 East. Look it up and you'll find that those are the cross streets where Trolley Square and Whole Foods are located. Drive down these streets as a newcomer to Salt Lake City and you'll definitely make a few wrong turns.

Today was an open day, though, and we had time to get lost. Our only solid plan was an Avett Brothers concert that night, so we wandered around town, seeing a few of Salt Lake City's biggest landmarks. First, we stopped at Trolley Square for a bite to eat at Whole Foods, and afterward walked through the courtyards at Temple Square. Here sits a massive temple for those of the Mormon faith, surrounded by a complex of buildings associated with the religion. While we were not here for religious purposes, the temple itself is amazing and well worth a visit.

Sitting behind the temple is a great hall with the Mormon Tabernacle Organ inside. By chance we came when the organist was performing a recital, so we went inside to see the big pipes play. Next we found ourselves at the Hogle Zoo, watching everything from giraffes to polar bears suffer through the hot June sun. Here's a little video. Eventually the time came to check in to our hotel and make our way over to the Avett Brothers show.

At this point, Erinn and I were both fans of the Avett Brothers, but neither of us had heard too many of their songs. Erinn had somewhere around 20 of their songs and we listened to them throughout the trip in anticipation of the show, but we knew going in that most of the songs we'd hear that night would be new to us. What I hadn't anticipated was how much fun the show would be or how much I'd like all of the rest of their songs. It was an absolutely fantastic show down at the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake City. The venue had a big concrete stage surrounded by grass with big steps to sit on and while it was nice to lounge on the grass before the show, everyone stood up and started dancing once the Avett Brothers came on stage. Those songs we did know, Erinn and I sang along with. Those songs we didn't know, we fell in love with.

It was a great show and a wonderful way to end our trip (sort of). While this wasn't the last night of our trip, it was the last new city we would see on our adventure. The next day we were going back to Las Vegas, where it all began for us just ten days before. Neither of us were excited to head south toward home, but ending our adventure with an amazing concert in Salt Lake City one night and some random gambling in Las Vegas the next was a fun way to bring it all to a close.

After the show we walked back to our hotel, singing songs and dreaming of anything but home. Many months later, we're still listening to the Avett Brothers, partly because the music is great and partly because it reminds us of the time we spent on the road and all the amazing sights we were able to see together.

Our Route:


View Larger Map

San Francisco, A Few Months Ago

We went to San Francisco back in May and I had been planning on making a video for it. Well, I finally did it! Here's a snippet of our fun. For more info, go to the post called San Francisco, May 11-13, 2012

Grand American Camping Adventure: A Look Back

The very first picture of our trip. Headed to Las Vegas

We were gone for roughly 12 days and in some ways it seemed so much longer than that. In other ways it seemed much too short.  On our trip we visited national parks, big cities, small cities, and everything in between. Every moment seemed packed with adventure even when we were just driving across an empty valley with hardly much more than a few barns and windmills. It was amazing. Erinn and I keep wishing we could pick up a little silver bullet trailer and stay on the road indefinitely.

The week that we've been back has been full of its own surprises, mostly good, but it has been tough getting used to the daily grind after being so fully swept off our feet by our travels. Someone asked me recently how my trip was and I responded by saying "It was great. Now I'm just getting used to being home again." As quickly as our trip went by and as short as 12 days really is, it sometimes felt like we had been gone for months. Life at home has a very different rhythm from life on the road.

The truth is that we were pretty tired after our trip. The long days driving do take their toll on you and I was looking forward to having some time to recoup. But as soon as we had unpacked, we both wanted to pack it all up again and head out on the road.

We both started and ended our trip in Las Vegas, mostly because nice hotels are cheap and it was close to where we were headed to/coming from. That first night we were anxious and excited and couldn't wait to get moving. The last night we were holding on tight to the very last hours of our vacation. Really I don't think either of us even viewed our trip as a vacation. I saw it as an opportunity to see states I had never seen before and spend time with my best friend.

Original Posting:
http://themanylivesofjules.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/grand-american-camping-adventure-a-look-back/

Disneyland with Erinn's Family, Lunch at Club 33

It's been nearly two months since we went to Disneyland. The demands of school and work have taken their toll on my extracurriculars, but I put together a short video from our trip and I hope you'll enjoy it.



Original Posting:
http://themanylivesofjules.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/disneyland-with-erinns-family-lunch-at-club-33/

San Francisco, May 11-13, 2012

I hadn't been to San Francisco to visit my sister (Megan) and her husband (Dave) since before they were married. That time, I had come up for a quick trip and the three of us saw a Ben Folds concert. It was pretty great, but I let myself get busy and never went back.  I'd always talked about going up to visit some weekend, but that never seemed to materialize because while I'm good at dreaming about running off someplace nice for a weekend, I'm pretty bad at making that happen. Erinn, on the other hand, is not.

A few weeks before that weekend, Erinn told me she was going to take me out of town, just as a fun trip for the both of us. She told me to request a few certain days off and she would do the rest. What I didn't know was that she had been messaging my sister the whole time, setting up a trip to San Francisco to visit her, Dave, and the city. We had a great time, I fell in love with the weather, the atmosphere, and the countless things you could do in a beautiful place like that. We went on hikes, ate fishwiches at Salty's, drove around town, saw the Palace of Fine Arts, and lots of other stuff.

What we didn't know then was that Meg'nDave were thinking about packing up and moving south. It turns out we picked one of the very last times we could have visited San Francisco with them living there, so thank goodness for Erinn planning a trip up there!

I'm just really glad I got to visit. I would have been bummed if they moved and I never got to see them and tour the city with them like we did.

Here's a bit of what we did.

Fisherman's Wharf - Boudin's Bakery, took a picture of a gold painted living statue, got frustrated with all the people there.

Drove up and down the streets of San Francisco - saw so many beautiful buildings, got just a bit lost but had fun doing it, eventually made our way to...

The Palace of Fine Arts - we were planning to just drive by, but it was too good to pass up, we walked around the lake and followed a path under the big dome, followed another path out and sat under a tree on the grass next to some flowers wishing we lived somewhere as great as this... what? Oh, I got lost there for a bit.

Golden Gate Park - it was nice, but we didn't stay very long and didn't get too attached to anything in particular there. We walked around Stow Lake for a bit.

Legion of Honor - we made our way to this museum after taking a snapshot of the Golden Gate Bridge from the nearby Land's End park, we walked right past a cast of Rodin's "The Thinker" without notice, ate a delicious sandwich in the museum's cafe, and roamed around the corridors for a few hours.

Drove to Meg'nDave's place - sat around for a few, went to an Indian-Burrito-Fusion place called Curry Up Now, I had deep fried ravioli and Erinn had a vegan burrito, both were covered in curry and were very tasty, we drove to some park where we could watch the airplanes land and laugh at the local guys fishing and making fun of each other, did a quick tour of their neighborhood, and came back to their place.

Bonita Point Lighthouse - in the morning we drove up through downtown San Francisco again, drove across a very foggy Golden Gate Bridge, went through a single-lane tunnel, and meandered through the Marin County countryside to the Bonita Point Lighthouse. We got there a little early and couldn't go in yet, but it was too beautiful to complain so we just watched the seals on the rocks below and enjoyed the cool weather. Eventually, we walked through a tunnel, across a bridge, and checked out the lighthouse. Inside was a map of the area with marks where ships had wrecked before the installation of the lighthouse. It was quite foggy that morning, reminding us of the need for such a lighthouse in past times. On the way out we stopped at the Visitor's Center and grabbed some chips for snacking. Dave took us out a different way than we came in, giving us a fantastic view of the Golden Gate Bridge before crossing it back into San Francisco.

Salty's Famous Fishwich - After the lighthouse we ate lunch at Salty's and the living statue was back again, this time painted silver. We forgot to go to the Musee Mecanique, which has lots of antique arcade machines and music players and whatnot. Next time, I suppose.

After that, I don't remember the order of things, but we went to Castro, got some cookies from Hot Cookie, drove to the top of Twin Peaks, but couldn't see anything because it was so foggy and windy, and went back to Meg'nDave's.

We had a lot of fun that day and relaxed that evening with some pizza and House Hunters.

It was a great weekend. I got to visit my sister, Erinn and I got to peruse the city on our own for a while, and Megan and Dave showed us around to some great places, giving us an idea of what it's like living there.

The next morning we took our time driving back to Bakersfield. We stopped at the Gilroy Outlets, snagged some tasty fruit from Casa de Fruta, and meandered home, watching the scenery turn from green to brown and the temperature go from beautiful to blegh.

Wishing for someplace new is a common theme of my posts. I'll keep dreaming about moving and I'm sure Erinn will help us get there.

P.S. Here's a little video I made. I'll be extending it soon.



Original Posting:
http://themanylivesofjules.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/san-francisco-may-11-13-2012/

Bishop Peak, The Hunger Games, and Avila Beach

It might come as a surprise to some who know how much I love to sleep in till noon, but I really love the early morning. The air is crisp and clean, the sun is soft, and everything seems so fresh and inviting. And on top of all that, there typically aren't very many people out and about just after sunrise, so the world is all yours. This is how we started the day in San Luis Obispo and it was wonderful.

After a quick breakfast, Erinn and I drove to the trail head for the Bishop Peak trail and got started. The first bit of the hike is an easy stroll under some trees with a lot of wildflowers along the side, but just a few minutes later the incline changes pretty dramatically. To be honest, I thought I would do alright. I've been going jogging recently and I'm definitely in better shape than I was a month ago, but this first incline was a subtle reminder that I still have a long way to go. Nevertheless, Erinn and I continued, undeterred.



We did get a little lost early on when we came across a sign that read "Trail", but had arrows pointing in two directions. Neither of us were sure where to go, so we took the right fork, which was definitely the wrong way to go. We ended up on a horse trail and had to keep a close eye on where we were stepping. The good part is that we were ultimately headed to the top of a 1,500 ft mountain, and it's impossible to get truly lost with the peak right in front of you the whole time.



After going around some barbed wire and a cow pond we found ourselves walking through a nice grove of trees, which brought us around to the south side of the mountain. This is where the trail begins to wind back and forth as it takes you more directly up to the peak. There were lots of eager hikers here who were much quicker than we were and less out of breath. Lots of "Good morning"s were exchanged and quite a few dogs were on the trail. As we got closer to the top, we could just make out the ocean, which is right around 9 or 10 miles away.



Bishop Peak is not the hardest hike we've ever been on, but it's also not the easiest. Going up that mountain was a nice workout and gave us a very rewarding view from the top. Once we got to the peak we took our time resting and sat down to enjoy the view for a while. On the top, there are two benches to sit down on and lots of big boulders to climb around on. Erinn and I found our way to the top of one of the boulders and took in the view.

]



Eventually, we scrambled down off the rocks and began the hike down the mountain. By this time it was mid morning and there were a lot of people on the trail. There were lots of golden retrievers, a couple dachshunds, and a giant group of people that was carrying a cross up the trail. Going up, I only had to carry my own weight and that itself was enough to keep me out of breath. I can't imagine how much harder the climb would be with a full sized cross on your back. I'm sure they traded off, though. There must have been 80 people in that group. For a few minutes we stood on the side of the trail letting the group pass and then continued on our way. It was a very pleasant stroll down.



It ended up being a 5.5 mile hike round-trip and it took us just over 3 hours. We high fived each other and drove to downtown San Luis where we ate pizza and watched The Hunger Games. A note about that: Solo Pizza has a delicious Pesto Chicken Pizza. I recommend it.

To finish off our quick trip, we drove to Avila Beach to stroll along main street, watch the waves, walk on the pier, and get a snack. We stopped at a candy store and I got the tastiest caramel apple I've had in years and Erinn got some toffee and coffee ice cream. It was a nice way to celebrate the end of a very busy ten weeks of school. It was good to have this trip to look forward to and we had a lot of fun.

Can't wait for the next one.

Untitled from James Walker on Vimeo.


Credit: Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood

Original Posting:
http://themanylivesofjules.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/bishop-peak-the-hunger-games-and-avila-beach/