"Always on the move."
Obi-Wan Kenobi

Dad and I have been on a marathon trip recently, and I've been unable to update you, my loyal readers, with the pictoral chronicles to which you are accustomed. As I'm quite backed up on pictures, and don't really have time to organize a bunch of posts regarding these previous exploits, I'm just going to write a bit about them, and post some recent pictures. Since no one reads this page anyway, it's no great loss to humanity. Quick pics from the past: before leaving Colorado, it was time for a farewell ride up Vail Pass with the mom. It was great, as always.


The Dillon Eagle greeted us after the burly 45-mile ride.


Victory!

Anyway, as I was saying, our trip has been a beast. Each leg of the journey has been characterized by a level of intensity that can only be described as maddening. Last Wednesday morning, the old man and I packed up and headed out to Berkeley, a town completely foreign to both of us. Neither one of us had ever seen the place, nor knew anyone there. Yet we were charged with the duty of finding decent housing in two-and-a-half days. The race was on!

The first place we saw was conveniently located, and featured reasonable accommodations, but was populated by the STRANGEST tenants on earth. At first blush, all seemed well. The landlady informed us that one tenant was an actuary-in-training. "Ah hah!" we thought, "a kindred spirit." However, assuming I have anything in common with this man would make me a little sad. He was a forty-something man with long hair and a longer beard (think Old Man River), who greeted us at 3pm in his bathrobe, having been woken up by our arrival. He spoke very little, and smiled not at all. We jettisoned ourselves from this depressing abode and moved on to greener pastures. Long story short ... we found an excellent place walking distance to campus, with a good roommate and friendly landlord. More pictures once I'm all moved in and such.

Berkeley itself is a beautiful town, and shares much in common with Boulder. It's a town surrounded by collegiate atmosphere, and sits right up against the hills (yay!) Campus is lined with trees, and Dad thinks it has an East Coast, 1960's feel to it.




Pretty campus, eh?

In the midst of our marathon househunt, we managed also to see one some of Berkeley's finer restaurants, make a trip out to San Francisco Proper (and to Fisherman's Wharf), visit Stanford to the South, and go an hour Eastward to Clayton to visit Uncle Andy Cuellar. Whew!


Cafe Venizia, just west of campus, looks like Venice on the inside! The food is delicious. Get the mushroom fetuccini.


Looking out towards Alcatraz island. There's a triathlon that starts from that island. Crazy, considering the water is FREEZING and shark-infested.


The famous seals of Pier 39, as seen from the window of Neptune's Restaurant.


The food at Neptune's is great. This is the crabmeat pasta, which was delicious.


The quintissential San Francisco streetcar.


The crooked Lombard Avenue. You can here see two of about a dozen identical switchbacks on this street, graded around 10% ... very steep.


Dad gets his photography on.


San Francisco vendors rented these weird little go-cart things that you can actually drive on the streets! I guess it's fun for a tourist who wants to zip around quickly.


Finally, we went to Uncle Andy's ranch, called Catama. He brands that name all over the place.


This is part of the ranch, where Andy lives with his wife, dog, cat, and four horses. He commutes to work about an hour each way. Looooong way.


We went for a pretty nice hike too...


...which had some pretty nice views.

After the Berkeley visit, it was back to Colorado for one day, and I got to have some nice dinner with Nina and the boys. Apparently, Lincoln likes CiCi's:


Caught red-handed ... and pizza-faced.

The next day, Dad and I started the next leg of the trip: four consecutive days of 6-hour drives, including two days of packing/unpacking an apartment. Last night we packed up in Tucson, and are both thoroughly exhausted. This morning, we'll drive to Los Angeles, spend the night, and then finish the trip to Berkeley where we'll unload. Then Dad continues back to Denver, and then to Panama on Monday, Ecuador on Tuesday. Wow. With Monica in Chile, it seems like everyone but Mom and Nina have flown the coop! Sure you guys don't feel the need to get on an airplane or something? I hear Fiji is nice this time of year. Love you all.