Browse Category: go beak go

You’re gonna hate me tomorrow.

Jes’ goal this year is to ride a Century. My cousin, Pish, happens to be training for the same thing but is a little ahead in mileage. The other day, he called Jes and invited him to go along on long ride today. Jes, with only 25 miles under his belt, agreed and off they went. They started in Aliso Viejo, went through Santiago Canyon (really hilly), past our house in Irvine, and ended up back at Pish’s house for a total of 50 miles. Woo hoo!! You’re half-way there, guys!!

And so it comes to an end…

It’s 11:54 pm on the last Sunday of my Spring Break. I just got back from a 4-day trip to Northern California that was really fun. On Thursday around noon, Jes and I packed up the car, dropped off the dog at my parents’ house, and drove up north. We stopped at the Gilroy Outlets for some shopping and arrived at Ryan’s new loft around 8:30 pm for dinner. He’s got a cool place with lots of neat ideas for future construction. We also got to see Ryan and Michelle’s photos from their 2.5-week Asia trip. They were such a mess, coming home with the remainder of an upper respiratory infection and a stomach bug. After the Bangs said goodnight, we bid farewell to Ryan and Michelle and headed to our hotel. We stayed the W, which was one of the nicest hotels I had ever stayed in. It was pretty fancy with the name brand amenities (all for sale at a premium), corner room with a nice view of the city, and complementary bottled water, apples, and newspaper.
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On Friday, we got up late and had breakfast near Union Square. It was a gorgeous sunny day in the city so we walked around and took in the sights before meeting up with Jimmy at Houston’s for lunch. Thanks for lunch, J! Afterwards, we went for a scenic drive to the GG Bridge, crossed it toll-free, and got some cool photos of the bay and the skyline. Next, we drove up to Tahoe. On our way we stopped at Costco for discounted Kirkwood tickets and arrived at the Blue Jay Lodge by 7. I actually did the drive up the mountain on the curvey roads of Hwy 50. It was a lot of fun and much easier than the drive to Big Bear. That night we walked around in the casinos, lost $5 to a slot machine, and ate at Cabo Wabo Cantina.
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The next morning we met up with Bang and Vyl at Kirkwood. The snow was great and it was nice and warm. This was our first time back to Tahoe since December and it was fun to have Vyl, a fellow-skier, around. The first half of the day was mostly spent on the backside. However, we did go up to “The Wall” where at the top they have skull-and-bones flags warning that this was for “experts only”. Yup, I got stuck at the beginning where my legs became petrified and needed gentle coaxing to turn as I repeated to myself “turn, you can do it, turn”. I finally got off that initial lip and the rest was fine. At 12:30 we met up with Jimmy and Eleen for lunch. Afterwards, the six of us headed back up the mountain for some gullies and a crazy half-pipe slalom that we weren’t supposed to take. It was super-fast but really fun! I tried a couple jumps but ended up on my butt. By the end of the day, the snow got pretty slushy and my ears were burnt. We finished the day with beers at the lodge and sushi back at the lake.
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This morning rolled around and Jes and I decided to head over to Alpine Meadows with Jimmy. We’d never been and it was worth the trip. I got stuck again at the top of the first run but the rest of the day was smooth sailing, except for all the traversing!! Overall, we’ve all gotten better over the season and I even took a couple jumps and landed them this time!! Woohoo!! Too bad today was probably our last trip of the season…boo. After lunch, we headed home. The drive was a long 8 hours (including stops) but well worth it for a fun-filled weekend.
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Now it’s time to rest the car and slow down on the mileage. We’ve had the X3 for less than 3 months and have racked up about 6600 miles! And so, my Spring Break is now over and it’s time to go back to work…can’t wait for Memorial Day weekend.

Going on a road trip!

It’s been fun hanging out at home these past days but it’s time to get on the road. Yesterday we finalized our plans for the rest of this week. We’ve decided to drive up to SF today to hang out with some old friends, do some shopping, and get one more day of skiing/riding in Tahoe. What a nice way to end my Spring Break. Pray for good snow conditions!!!

Butterflies everywhere!

Just got back from Mammoth. The snow was great and it was sunny and warm on Saturday. We tried riding June Mountain this time and it was nice. The runs were a little short but it was so empty! We also got to watch Johnny take the terrain park down but unfortunately one of the rails jumped up and bit him – leaving him with a nice scrape on his forearm and a week’s worth of whiplash.
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Spring was definitely in the air this weekend…we saw lots of pretty wildflowers, geese flying back home, and ducks “gettin’ it on” in front of the Best Western. On our way there and back, we got up-close and personal with the new spring butterflies. They were splattered all over the windshield, stuck in the grill, and one even flattened onto one of the side mirrors.

Slushy but good

I went to Snow Summit with Jes and my brother today. We got up pretty early and was on the first lift by 9. The snow was pretty hard and loud at first but as the day went on, the snow got soft and powdery. By the end of the day, it was slushy but still good. I guess the worst part of the day was that my iPod crashed on the drive up. So, no music today…maybe that’s why it seemed like my skiing seemed louder than usual.

My Tour of LA

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had a pretty tiring weekend touring Southern California/LA. On Saturday, Jes and I went to Snow Summit for a half-day trip. The snow was nice and we finished by 1:00 to get a $15 voucher for our next trip. We got back to Irvine by 3 and packed up for the Bike Tour. With the bikes on our car, we drove up to the LA Convention Center to pick up our bibs. We were so late and I had to make a quick dash to the expo in heels. We later went to dinner in Beverly Hills. The place was called Mastro’s and was next door to Spago…your typical LA scene. The restaurant was voted “The Best Steakhouse in LA” so it was worth checking out. We even saw Warren Beatty as we waited for our table. The ambience was upscale casual and the dining room/bar was pretty boisterous. Overall, it was a cool experience but I probably won’t be going back any time soon. We didn’t get back to our motel room in the USC area until midnight where we stayed overnight with my cousin and his wife.
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With only 4 hours of sleep, Sunday started really early. We woke up at 4:45 am and the LA Bike Tour started at 5:45 am. Supposedly there were 17,000 riders this year! It’s no wonder why there were so many crashes. With lots of amateur riders weaving and cutting people off, I felt so lucky to not take part of any of the crashes. We rode through Crenshaw, Wilshire District, K-town, and parts of South Central. The 22-mile route was cool and very reminiscent of my LA Marathon experience in 2003. I was just glad to be on a bike this time. On our way back to Cerritos, Pish and Debbie followed our Acura CL with two bikes on top with their CL with 2 bikes on top. It must have been a funny thing to see on the road. The Acura LA Bike Tour should have given us some discount for the free advertisement today. When we got back to Cerritos, we took a nice 4-hour death nap before dinner…a good end to our Super Southern California Weekend.