Tag Archives: Holiday and Travel

San Francisco Federal Reserve Building

I should have taken a picture while I was inside the building, but I didn’t.  Not sure why.  I took a load of other silly pictures while I was in SF yesterday and today.  But what I want is to know how any average citizen can get into the building if he isn’t supposed to be?  (I should have asked while I was there.)  They have a neat education center, called the Fed Center, where they have on display all the money that has ever been printed by the United States.  (Not each and ever dollar, but one of each style.)  Interesting to see how it’s changed over the years and also to read why it may have changed.  Like the Hawaii dollar during WWII — it would be easier to identify and remove from circulation in case Hawaii was invaded by Japan .

Anyhow, the point being that I’m not sure how it’s made available to the public.  (the education center.)  Security was tighter than trying to smuggle water onto an intercontinental flight.  Wait.  What?  Well you see what I mean.  I even had to ask someone to let me out of the building.  You can’t just walk in and out off the street, you need to have a badge of some sort.

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Caribou Wilderness Camping/Backpacking

Well, we made it!  As I mentioned back in mid-June, Thompology and I made it out through the Caribou Wilderness.  (Our route is highlighted in the picture.)  Accompanied by my dad and Thompology’s cousin Jesse, we set out for several days of good times, and let me say — mission accomplished.

Just a few of the details:  We established base camp at Echo Lake, which is not in the Wilderness area (lower right of photo.)  We started the trail at the North end near Cone Lake, an elevation of 6,739 feet.  We made our way south, stopping to camp for a night on the West side of Long lake, where we set up camp, took a dip, and were visited by an unruly attack deer.  (We made it out alive.)  The next morning, we took off and made our way to Hay Meadow on the South end of the trail, an elevation of 6483 feet.

Overall, the trail is roughly twelve miles if you don’t wander off the trail, get turned around, and start off in a wrong direction, which we did on several occastions.  (We like to explore.)  The total elevation change is less than 700 feet, so it’s a mild walk.  Not too technical, and easy on the lungs and legs.  The path is very well marked, but for some reason we still found a need to consult the map at least seventeen times in the six hours it took us to make it from one end to the other.

Upon our return to base camp, the resident Ranger found us and said the Cypress Lake trail was the one to check out next time we made the trip.  “Some of the most gorgeous country.”  Perhaps we will check it out.  As for now, it’s time to settle back into the working world of daily life.  Maybe let the bug bites heal, as well as the sunburn, and get ready for the next adventure.  I think it rhymes with Portland.

April Fools’ Day

What is that, anyway? An April Fool? I don’t get it. Generally I can’t, for whatever reason, get interested in this holiday of non-holidays. A day of joke-playing and practical pranks. Elaborate hoaxes. Maybe it’s just that I’m upset at never having been the punchline for one of these laughable scenarios. I don’t believe that, but let’s leave it at that for the sake of not having to think about it any longer.

Even though I’m not a fan of the practical prank/joke, I do enjoy an unexpected outcome. While moving through the day with my boss, she received a call from her son where he told her that he’s engaged to be married to his girlfriend. His mom, my boss, is not immediately jumping for joy with excitement, the response I’m sure her son was seeking so he could then holler “April Fools!” Instead he was met with the sound of fear in his mother’s voice and the dreaded “Why?”

It was all I could do to keep from laughing, and I wasn’t on the call. Needless to say, my boss was much relieved (and jumping for joy) when she found out the engagement wasn’t real. At which point she directed her son to tell his girlfriend that “she was excited” when she heard the news and “let down” when she found out it was just an April Fools’ Day joke. Ha!

I’m not sure which of the three characters is the true butt of the joke, so we’ll have to wait and see how the story plays itself out. Until then.

St. Patrick’s Day

bike crash

It’s the international American holiday of get drunk and crash your face while riding your bicycle drunkenly at two in the morning, which technically is the next day. It’s a glorious holiday, one I’ve been doomed to miss this year as the result of a terrible cold by-product. We’ll call it chest pain.

I’m sure with all the bicycle-riding pedal-pedants I know, at least one of them is also doomed — doomed to crash his face while riding drunkenly. It’s to be expected. They celebrate pretty hard, and are proud of that. I hope none of them is hurt badly. While it can provide for great entertainment, including side-bursting gut laughter, it’s kind of a drag if you have to take your pal to the emergency room at two in the morning. Undoubtedly, on this particular holiday, the emergency room will be filled with other drunken face-crashers, some more severe than others, and there will be no where to nap comfortably without getting a hollering from the nightly nurse who’s tired of drunk people all together. Good luck, she says.