escape from the hotel

We escaped from the utter shite "America's Best Value Inn, St. George" with its lax attitude towards hygiene and scary caretaker guy and checked into the wonderful Ramada inn, St George. After moving our stuff and stopping by the excellent gear shop (The Outdoor Outlet), where we bought a tent for Zoe to play in, we drove to the Chuckawalla Wall and off to the Turtle Wall, which none of us had been to yet. After setting up the tent



and warming up on the 5.8, Chloe and I led Director of Human Affairs





and the 10s to the left of the Banana Dance cave

and then on to Banana Dance, which was really fun. Almost horizontal moves on big jugs for miles. Unfortunately, I forgot that my phone was in my pocket, and it fell out of my pocket and smacked the red sandstone after a 15 foot fall. Amazingly, the iphone survived yet again, with just a small crack in the LCD. After seeing my phone fall to what I assumed to be it's demise, I pulled myself together (with some tough talk from my belayer) and sent. That's definitely up there with my proudest climbing-focus moments along with the time that the front of my shoe blew apart on a a climb in Omblexe but I still finished the climb. You have to celebrate the small victories, I guess. Here is chloe seconding the climb:





A crew of Germans on a worldwide climbing trip were on the next climb over, which ended in a somewhat startling stem

We ended the day by unlocking the sequence of Tortuga

after a few tries, and then going on for a sweet end of day RP


Chloe also got on it and was inches away from getting the crux


Amy also gave it a valiant burn


We packed up, but not before leaving a chalk tattoo on chloe

and letting ZZN sleep for a little longer

limestone, woooooo!

Today we headed for the Woodbury road crags in the Utah Hills, but were stopped in our tracks by the fact that the road had been demolished by some kind of giant Caterpillar with a road sawing attachment. I took the subie as far as I could, but had to reverse down a large section of the road to avoid getting highpointed in the soft ditch dirt that the road saw had cut. We were all set to park and hike the remaining couple of miles to the crag, but the environmental engineer for the crew (which turned out to be laying fiber optic cable, of all things) told us that if we parked there, in an hour or so the road saw crew would happily cut the road behind the cars, leaving us in a Donner Party situation. Instead, we headed back down the road and to the Soul Asylum. We did the fantastic 160 foot Red Cloud

Vision Seeker (Excellent, but hard -- next time!!), and finished on Petrified. It's a small but fun crag, but not baby friendly at all -- very few if any level places. During one of my baby duty stints, I did manage to find a semi-flat area and set up a little blanket for zoe to play on


We were treated to a nice sunset on the walk back to the cars:

St. George, Day 1

We started the day by vowing to avoid another greasy spoon breakfast, and instead went to the Venetian, to Thomas Keller's bistro called Bouchon. My parents had given us money to treat ourselves to some nice meals, and after a night poor in sleep but rich in Zoe antics (chloe took the brunt of this one), I figured we deserved it! Getting there and parking is so easy that I'm sure it will become a standard destination when we are in Las Vegas.

The food was superb: we had the signature french toast, Belgian waffles with caramelized walnuts and fresh strawberries, and beignets (donuts) straight out of the fryer with a pot of jam and nutella.

It also came with a decent demi (not as good as Acme Bakery), and some excellent butter (but not a good as plugra). The french toast is quite unique and is almost a bread pudding.

If you're torn between the french toast and the waffles, I think the choice is clear: go for the french toast! From the Venetian, we stocked up on staples at Trader Joe's, and then drove to St. George. We stopped at the Target in St. George, where we noticed that the average family is just a bit larger than the average family in the bay area. After checking in to our somewhat grim hotel, we headed north to the Chuckawalla wall for a few burns. Our brilliant plan was to sit Zoe in the pack and play while we climbed some routes. It turned out that Zoe was not 100% on board with this plan, and we ended up having to wait for our friends Amy and Mark to show up with their son Charlie, and take the kids for walks. In the end, we managed to get on three of four routes. I was very happy to finally get on Second Coming.

It's a cool line with fun moves on big holds. Chloe and Amy also hopped on it,



while I fed stolen cheerios to zoe

and then we packed up and headed into town to look for food.

Oakland to Vegas

Today we made the long drive from Oakland to Las Vegas, spending most of that time on my most un-favorite freeway : I5. Although the day started somewhat inauspiciously with the CHP shutting down 580 for some unknown reason,


we made good time, and Zoe was in a great mood. Eight hours after we left, we found ourselves in a strong dust storm on 15 near Barstow. We could actually see the desert sand and pebbles skittering down the asphalt,



and at one point I was almost outrun by a soft drink cup trundling down the freeway at high speed. The land sailors were happy, though!

We eventually arrived at one of those casinos 30 minutes east of Las Vegas and declared it "far enough" after almost nine hours on the road.


Edit: the freeway was closed because of this, and it turns out that if we had left just a few minute earlier, we would have missed it :
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/05/BAKI13BJJC.DTL&hw=580&sn=001&sc=1000

The Green Day Letters

A few from the past couple of weeks. We get 1-2 of these every day

more house shots

downstairs office/bedroom


Baby room with a fantastic mural by the parents

Breakfast with Zoe

I went to breakfast with the parents and Zoe, who has really started enjoying toast


We also stopped by a wonderful toy store that I used to go to as a child called Mr Mopps


And then back to the parents house for bath time

Unpacking

getting there!

Green Day

Right before moving in, I discovered that fan mail for one of the member of Green Day was ending up at our new house. I talked to the former owner about this, who explained that overzealous fans had assumed that she was this band member (because she has the same initials). This has led to a lot of mail, many phone calls and her having to change phone numbers a few times.
Since moving in, we have also received ~4 or 5 fan letters so far, and I have been diligently taking pictures of them and sending them to my friend Taras, who claims to be some kind of fan of theirs. I should clarify this last statement and say that despite the temptation I don't actually open them, but return them to sender.

The Later life of Squirrel Nutkin?

While out for a walk with Zoe, I came across this strange and somewhat uncanny sight: A dead squirrel on the side of the road with a dollar bill clutched between its paws.

Another promising career in nut gathering and cat evasion cut short in the pursuit of the almight buck.
queue "Deception" by Blackalicious

The next day the squirrel was still there, but had been despoiled of his $1 (I wonder what the currency exchange rate is to squirrel bucks -- maybe he was a squirrel millionaire!).

Megawindowwasher

Nissan GTR

I saw one of these bad boys on the way to work. They don't look like much, but damn.

Zoe enjoying our fabulous new garden