Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Lucinda liked riding the horse on Sunday, so we went back to do it again today. This time we did the two-hour trail ride. Elsa was our guide again, and our horses were Gideon and Big Maude.

The ride was very nice. We covered more ground than on the shorter ride, going all the way to the edge of Fallen Leaf Lake before heading back.

After the ride, we had lunch at Lucinda’s favorite little Mexican restaurant. Then we rented bikes for an afternoon ride. Lucinda wanted to try riding by herself. We rode through the woods to the end of the forest trail and back. It was a fun little ride, even if we had to go a little slower than usual because of Lucinda.

Before dinner, we went to the pool so Lucinda could play there for a bit. Then we had dinner at the Horizon Casino restaurant.

Pictures from the day are in our photo album.

Wednesday was our last day at Lassen. We got breakfast from the Mineral Lodge and headed back into the park. The people at the south entrance told us that there was a beaver dam on Hat Lake. This is the little lake that was created by a lahar in the 1914-1917 eruptions. So this was our first stop.

We were hoping to see some beavers, if for no other reason than to continue our streak of seeing animals that begin with ‘B’. We walked around the lake and saw the beaver dam and the lodge out in the middle, but we didn’t see any actual beavers.

The next stop for the day was the Devastated Area exhibit. There is a short trail that shows some of the effects of the pyroclastic flows from the 1915 eruption, including flattened forests and big boulders moved down the mountain. It was impressive.

Our last stop for the day was Subway Cave. This is a bit outside the park in Lassen National Forest. This was an interesting landscape. The whole region is covered in recent lava flows, which just looks odd to us, since we’re not used to it. The cave is in a section of a very large flow that left a lava tube. We brought jackets and flashlights to take the tour. It was interesting and a lot of fun.

After the cave tour, we got in the car and headed back to Tahoe. We stopped for dinner in Reno, and we got back to the house just before dark. It was a very fun side trip.

As always, the photos from the day are in our photo album.

Today’s adventure was to climb Lassen Peak.

It was cold in the morning. The thermometer at the cabin said it was 45F (7C), which is pretty cold for SoCal people like us. It certainly seemed cold for August. We went over to the little restaurant at the Mineral Lodge for breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed up into the park. The trail to the peak starts at nearly the highest point on the road through the park. It was about 8,500 feet (2591M) above sea level. This was a trail that didn’t mess around. It was steep uphill from the start, and it never let up. The trail switchbacked up to the top of the east ridge, and then it climbed up the ridge to the summit. Along the way, we passed a number of snowbanks, and we had to promise Lucinda that she could play in them on the way down.

This was easily the biggest hike Lucinda has ever done. And I ended up playing mule and carrying her for about half the hike. But that was all right. We want her to remember it as a fun time and not as a Death March. And this hike was truly the high point of our trip. 10,450 feet according to my handheld GPS unit, and 10,457 (3,187M) by the USGS map. Either way, it was a tall mountain. The air was noticeably thin at the top, but that didn’t bother us too much. We made the 2.5 mile trip up in 90 minutes, which wasn’t bad for toting a 48-pound live load on my back.

At the top, we saw the big lava dome left by the 1917 eruption. We also had a commanding view of the park and of Northern California. We could see Mt. Shasta clearly off in the distance. It was a perfect day.

There was a lot of snow at the summit, so Lucinda wanted to play in it. We stayed up there for a while before heading down. It was pretty cold and windy up there, so we were glad we brought our jackets.

For the trip down, Lucinda walked the whole way by herself. When we got the big snowbank near the bottom, she met another little girl, and they played together in the snow for a long time. But that was all right, since we didn’t really have anything else planned for the day.

When the day was over, we got dinner at the Mineral Lodge and then went back to our cabin for the night.

Here is the link to all the pictures from the day.

Monday was an interesting day. It began early in the morning. Daylight was just seeping in through the blinds when we heard a strange noise. I got up to look out the window, but I didn’t see anything outside. But when I turned to get back in bed, something flew past my face. At first I thought it was a very big moth, but then I realized it was a bat. I told Cathy, “It’s a bat” and she dove under the covers. Being a good and attentive husband, I immediately ran upstairs and got my camera. I snapped some pictures of the bat as it flew laps around our room. Then I took the screen out of the window, thinking that the bat’s echolocation would see the opening. But it kept flying laps around our room. So I finally just held the screen up in its path. The bat whacked into the screen and grabbed onto it. Then I stuck the screen out the window and the bat took off and flew away.

After that excitement, we all went upstairs for breakfast. While I was cooking, I looked out the window and I saw a bear. Monday is trash day, and the bear was walking from house to house, checking everyone’s trash cans. We all were looking out the window at the bear when it stopped, stood up, and put its nose up to the window. At this point I started to think that maybe it wasn’t such a good thing for the bear to know we were in there. So we all went away from the window, and the bear checked out our trash can before walking away.

Finally, we finished breakfast and got ready to go. Today’s adventure was our side trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park. This is about 200 miles from Tahoe, so we were going there for three days to see the sights.

We left Tahoe and headed over the hill to Carson City and Reno. Then we took 395 north all the way to Susanville, where we stopped for lunch at the Black Bear Diner. We thought we’d continue with our bear theme for the day. The food was all right, and the portions were suitably bear-sized. Then we headed out on Highway 36 to get to Lassen.

We had arranged to rent a cabin in the town of Mineral, which is just outside the park. When we got there, the town turned out to be an interersection with a gas station, a general store, and a little restaurant. The sign said, “Mineral, Pop 90″. The cabin was nice, but it had no TV and no phone. And our cell phones didn’t work there. Bein’ city folk, we were somewhat unsure what to make of this. But the inside was decorated in a rustic bear motif, which seemed appropriate.

After unloading the car, we headed into the park. Our first stop was Sulphur Works, which is a set of sulfur vents and mud pots very near the entrance to the park. Next, we headed farther into the park, stopping at a small snowbank next to the road. This was the first time Lucinda had ever seen natural snow close-up, and she wanted to play in it.

The next stop was the trail to Bumpass Hell. We hiked out there, stopping at a few more snowbanks along the way. When we got there, we got to see boiling mud pots, boiling ponds, and gas vents with sulfur crystals growing in them. It was very entertaining.

By the time we got back to the car, it was nearly dark, and we set out in search of a restaurant for dinner. We had been told that the little restaurant in Mineral closed at 6:00, so we started back down Highway 36 toward Chester, which is a somewhat larger town. Along the way, we finally found The St. Bernard Lodge, which was open. So we went in and had dinner. I had the biggest hamburger I’ve ever seen, and Cathy and Lucinda shared the biggest ribs they’d ever seen. Then we headed back to our cabin for the night. Being that there was no TV, there wasn’t anything for Lucinda to do, so we all just went to bed.

All the pictures from the day are in our photo album.

Sunday was a day of riding. On our way back from the hike on Saturday, we had passed a stable, and Lucinda asked if she could try riding a horse. So I called and found out that the Camp Richardson Corral offered trail rides, and they allowed kids. So Lucinda and I went there on Sunday morning to do the one-hour trail ride. Cathy went shopping, since she does not like horses.

The ride was very nice. Lucinda was riding Scotch, and I was on Parkie. We rode through the woods to no place in particular, but Lucinda liked it a lot. I took riding lessons when I was a kid, and I used to be quite good at it, but the last time I was on a horse was in 1972, so I was a bit rusty. My horse kept wanting to stop to sample mouthfuls of the grass along the trail. Our guide Elsa was very good, and she told me how to get him to stop doing that. After that, Parkie and I had an understanding and the rest of the ride was fine.

After the ride, we all went and had lunch. Then we headed over to Anderson’s Bike Rental and rented bikes for an afternoon ride. This time, Lucinda rode in the little trailer. We rode through town and then through the Tahoe Keys marina neighborhood. We all though that it looked like Irvine-by-the-lake. I guess that’s why we don’t live in a place like that. Still, it was a fun ride.

When we got back to the house, we went to the pool for a while. Then we went and had dinner at Evans, which is still easily our favorite restaurant there.

Today was our first full day at Lake Tahoe, and we started off with our obligatory first hike, which is the trail up to Cascade Falls. We have done this every year, and Lucinda likes it a lot. The last part of the trail is over rocks, so she gets to have some fun climbing on them. I’ve taken a picture of her at the beginning of the rocky part of the trail each year, so we can see her growing.

2003:

2004:

2005:

2006:

This year was also the first time that Lucinda did the whole hike without having to be carried.

When we got to the top, we explored the waterfalls for a bit. I played some more with my new camera. Here’s my latest Canon commercial:

All the pictures from the day are in our photo album.

After we got back from the hike, we all went to the pool for a bit. Then we tried to have dinner at Caesar’s Broiler Room, but we found out that the name of both the restaurant and the hotel had changed. It was now “Ciera” at the Montbleu. But the menu was about the same. I ordered the rack of lamb, but sadly, it came very undercooked. I sent it back and they charred it while cooking it. So in the end, it was barely cooked enough, and black on the outside. For dessert, we ordered the chocolate souffles, but they were barely chocolate. The sauce was all right, but overall, the dinner was disappointing. Particularly after spending $143 on it. So we probably won’t be going back there again.

The first day of our vacation consisted of the nine-hour drive from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe. We left our house at 9:00 in the morning and headed up I-5 through the Central Valley. At Sacramento, we turned east on Highway 50 to go up and over the Sierras to get to South Lake Tahoe and our house there. It was a pleasant enough trip. Lucinda played games on her Game Boy while we drove up the freeway. We passed oil wells in Kern County, and endless farms north of there. Between Stockton and Sacramento, we were passed by a convoy of sheriffs from Butte County. They were all K-9 units, and one had a license plate frame that said, “You Run, You Done”, which seemed like an appropriate enough motto for a police dog.

The trip over the Sierras started out on a freeway, but the road dwindled down to two lanes at the top. Then we came down into Tahoe. When we got the to the house, we unloaded and then headed out for dinner. After dinner, Lucinda watched “The Cheetah Girls 2″ on the Disney Channel. The cable TV at the Lake Tahoe house is a big treat for her. And that was the extent of our day.

This morning when I got to work there were a lot of news trucks parked on the street by my office. Usually this happens after earthquakes, but I knew nothing big had happened last night. But then I found out they were all there to visit Planetary Science because the news had come down that Pluto had been de-listed as a planet.

But the bright side of this is: Back in 1997, when my friend and I attempted to see all the planets in one night, we actually succeeded. We just didn’t know it at the time.

I’d forgotten that Vikki was leaving for Canada to do the Ironman there, so I brought my bike to work anyway, and I went riding at lunchtime. I did the now-classic Lida Loop. It was a very pleasant ride as always. But I didn’t take any pictures, and there wasn’t anything in particular to report. So that was that.

18 miles at lunch, 26 for the day.

There was some filming on campus at Caltech yesterday. They were doing a couple of scenes for “Numb3rs“, but when I saw this truck, the first thing I thought was, “Isn’t this CSI spinoff thing is getting out of hand?”

Remember the last big Internet boom? That was the time when ‘dot-com’ meant ‘instant millions’, rather than ‘miserable failure’. And it was the time of the classic Web Economy Bullshit Generator.

I’ve got a collection of 400 screenshots of dead dot-coms, just in case you want to reminisce about Webvan or Kozmo or any of the others.

And now the web is back, so there’s a new Bullshit Generator:

The Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator

So let’s all harness citizen-media blogospheres. Yow!

I got another one of my old Cold War Civil Defense booklets scanned. This one is about exercises that you and your family can do at home to prepare for nuclear holocaust.

This is the latest addition to our Cold War memorabilia. And it is another from the stash I acquired earlier this summer.

Today’s ride was a very pleasant ride to nowhere in particular.

We started out from Victory Park and headed east. We rode through Sierra Madre and Arcadia to Duarte. Then we took the San Gabriel River bike path up to the mouth of the canyon before turning south again and riding down through Azusa.

Next, we turned east again and rode out to Covina, and then south a bit before heading back west. We took Badillo St all the way back through Baldwin Park to get to Peck Road. Then we turned north and took Myrtle Ave into Monrovia.

When we got to Old Town Monrovia, we stopped for a snack at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf there.

The last part of the ride was straight back through Arcadia and Sierra Madre. When we got back to the park, I had 42 miles, so Ben and I rode down to Caltech. We stopped for a drink at my office, and then headed back.

It was a very pleasant ride, even if we didn’t go anywhere in particular.

50 miles.

Of course, the real fun began when I got home. I noticed that my back tire was going flat. So I took it off and found that I’d run over a tiny thorn. I looked in my patch kit, and all I had was one of those long oval patches. So I cut it in half to make two patches. I patched the tube and put the tire back on. Then, while I was pumping up the tire, the valve broke off. In over 30 years using presta valves, this is the first time I’ve had a valve break off. But the really irritating thing about it was that I’d just used my next-to-last patch fixing that tube. So I got my spare tube and put that in. But while I was levering the tire onto the rim, I suddenly heard that little exhale sound from inside, and I knew I’d just pinched the tube. Crap. I pulled out that section of tube, and there was a little rip in it. Good thing I’d cut that last patch in half. I patched the hole with the second half of my last patch, and then I carefully finished putting the tire on. It’s holding air, but I think a trip to the bike shop is on my schedule for tomorrow.
cycling

I just noticed today that someone is using the email generated by my pet project to feed a blog:

thequakequack.blogspot.com

Now this person is just taking the default mail profile. This is for earthquakes M5.5 and larger worldwide, and M4.5 and larger within the United States. The system allows for users to set up custom mail rules. Maybe I should figure out how to post here by email. Then I can set up a rule to have it display all earthquakes in the Los Angeles area.

No, we didn’t see a bear on today’s ride. But a bear figured in it anyway.

I met Vikki at lunchtime and we headed out to do the Lida Loop again. There was some filming going on up the street from our office today. The crew sign said “ANONYMOUS”, which wasn’t much of a clue. But they had about the nicest portable bathroom I’ve ever seen.

We did the usual route through Old Town to the Rose Bowl, and then up and over the hill. We came down and back into Pasadena, passing JPL. It was near there that we started talking about the relative danger of different careers, and Vikki mentioned that geology is one of the most dangerous ‘white collar’ careers. I’d heard this before, and the danger is usually attributed to geologists having to spend time doing field work in remote areas.

This led to Vikki telling a very long story about a field trip she took years ago that involved helicopters, forest fires, pointed sticks, and a large bear. I can’t even begin to do the story justice here, but it was alternately inspiring and hilariously funny. So this is a reason to come along on the Foothill Cycle Sunday Morning Ride. If you come on the ride and Vikki is there, be sure to have her tell the story about the bear.

When we crossed Lake Ave and the bear story reached the part involving the pointy sticks, Vikki’s chain came off. It wedged itself between the chainring and frame. It was pretty firmly stuck, and it took us several minutes of pulling and twisting to get it unwedged. After it was all over, we realized that this would have been a picture-worthy moment, but by then it was too late.

After the chain incident, we headed back down the hill to the office, and the bear story was wrapped up. When we got back to campus, they were still filming, and there was also a news crew there. It’s unusual for news crews to show up there when there hasn’t been an earthquake. We never did find out what they were doing there.

It was a fun ride, bear and all.

18 miles at lunch, 27 for the day.
cycling

Today was a day for playing tourist right here in Los Angeles.

We started out at the MPAA gallery in Beverly Hills for the “It’s Alive!” exhibit. This showed animatronic animals and monsters from movies. For some reason though, T-Rex from “Jurassic Park” just isn’t all that fearsome when he’s only 10 inches tall. We saw Aslan the lion, from “Narnia”, who apparently has no legs. And I got a picture of Cathy with Mighty Joe Young’s hand and head. It was interesting to see. The actual models were not animated, but they had TVs set up around the room showing clips from the movies that the models had been used in.

After lunch, we went to the Marvel Super Heroes exhibit at the Science Museum. This was really intended to be just a basic science exhibit for kids, and the super heroes were just there to try and get the kids interested. Still, Lucinda had some fun there, lifting the car with Iron Man’s mechanical arms and such.

The last part of the exhibit was about the history of comic-book super heroes and how they have evolved with our culture. There was a large poster of Peter Parker hanging up his Spider-suit while declaring, “and every boy… sooner or later… must put away his toys and become a man”. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought this was very sad.

Outside the museum, Lucinda did some climbing on the rock scupltures, and then she and Cathy both were swinging on the ropes attached to the ‘Big Lever’ exhibit.

By the time we were ready to leave, it was close to 5:00, so we thought we should just go to dinner, rather than brave the Los Angeles traffic to get home. Since we were close to Downtown, we went to Union Station so that Cathy could have her official Birthday Dinner at Traxx. We’ve been there a few times before, and it’s always been good. And this time was no exception. We had a very nice dinner outside in the courtyard.

It was a fun day.

It’s Cathy’s birthday, so we went down to Orange County to her parents’ house. We had lunch and a chocolate cream pie. Then Lucinda stayed there with Grandma and Grandpa while we went out for the afternoon. On the way back, Cathy got to visit with Barney the greyhound.

This was the 21st time I’ve been with Cathy on her birthday. The first was when we were first dating. I lived in a little apartment building at the time, and we were treated to one of the neighbors singing “Free Bird” really loud. We still talk about that. Today was a nice day, but not so exuberantly nice as to make either of us sing “Free Bird”. Still, we had a nice time.

Have I mentioned lately that Cathy is the best?

Route map and photo locations

Today’s ride was a special one. I met Gene and Jon at the park and we rode out to Westwood to do some sightseeing.

We took the standard route through South Pasadena and Highland Park. Then we crossed the L.A. River into Silver Lake, and then on into Hollywood. We rode down Hollywood Boulevard, which is always a kind of surreal experience. Then we took some back streets through West Hollywood to get to the Sunset Strip.

A couple blocks on the Strip brought us to Doheny, were we took a little side trip to see the Garagemajal. Indeed, it was big. I had a hard time fitting it all into one picture.

Next, we rode some more on Sunset and crossed into Beverly Hills. Our first sightseeing stop was at 722 Elm, which was the Menendez murder house. Then we continued on a bit to see the Witch’s house on Walden. Then we came out on Santa Monica Blvd and rode through Century City into Westwood.

The main attraction there was the Pierce Brothers cemetery. We had been there last November to visit Marilyn Monroe’s grave, and today we were there to see Rodney Dangerfield. We also stopped to see a number of others, including:

• Heather O’Rourke
• Bob Crane
• Eric Douglas
• Walter Matthau
• Jack Lemmon
• Carroll O’Connor
• Billy Wilder
• Dorothy Stratten

Pictures are in my Graves Gallery.

When I first came to California in 1978, I spent the spring racing my bike with the Claremont Colleges cycling team. Eric Douglas was a student at Pitzer College at the time, and I remember that everyone there regarded him as being somewhat strange. I thought that this was kind of novel, as I was usually the one the other kids thought strange, so it was odd for it to be someone else.

Dorothy Stratten was the 1980 Playmate of the Year, and I remember her just because she was the first Playmate I ever saw who was younger that I was. At the time I felt that that was something of a milestone. Of course, now I’m old enough to be the typical Playmate’s father, which I guess is also a sort of milestone. But let’s not dwell on that…

Leaving the cemetery, we rode through Holmby Hills to the park so we could get some water. While we were there, Jon bought a burrito from a catering truck. Then we headed up the hill.

The main climb was through Benedict Canyon, which is generally a pretty nice street for riding. This brought us up onto Mulholland Drive at the top of the ridge. Then we rode Mulholland all the way down to the 101 freeway in Cahuenga Pass. This was a small part of the ride that wasn’t so pleasant. Riding 20 feet away from a freeway is not very nice. But it was only for a short distance. Then we headed down the hill into Burbank and Forest Lawn.

At the entrance to Forest Lawn, there was a huge funeral procession. The main road into the cemetery was completely filled, and the line of cars waiting to get in was backed up down the road for about a half-mile. And, since we are in California, about half of the cars had only one person in them.

The last part of the ride was across Glendale and Eagle Rock. I broke a spoke in Glendale, but it turned out to be on the left side, so I was able to replace it right there. Then we took Colorado across Eagle Rock, stopping at Trader Joe’s for some orange juice.

The homestretch was up the Colorado hill and back into Pasadena. It was a nice ride.

65 miles.
cycling

I recently got a new camera. It’s a Canon Powershot S2 IS. My last two cameras were Canons, too, and I was very happy with them.

This morning, I looked out the front window and saw a hawk on our driveway. Hawks don’t usually come this far down out of the mountains, so this was kind of a treat. It was standing there, tearing up a small piece of meat. So I grabbed the camera and went outside. I managed to get pretty close to it. Close enough that the 12x zoom got a good look at it.

Actual nature, right here in the wilds of Los Angeles.

Route map

Today we gave Lida St. a rest. For the first time in a month, we went somewhere else.

We started out across campus and down San Pasqual St to Sierra Madre Blvd. Then we went south, almost to Huntington Drive to get on Monterey Road. Then we rode west across San Marino and South Pasadena.

Just after crossing the Gold Line tracks, we turned north on Arroyo and rode back into Pasadena. We went left on La Loma and up the hill there, then north on San Rafael to Colorado. Then we went left and then right on Patrician Way to go up the hill behind Eagle Rock. We had just ridden down the hill there on the Sunday ride a couple weeks ago, but I’d never been up that way before. It was nice. On the way up, I took a couple of pictures, and I gave the camera to Vikki to take a picture, since I’m almost never in the pictures from my bike rides.

At the top, we went down the winding road down to Linda Vista. When we got to Lida St, we paused to wave at the hill. Then we went down into the arroyo and past the Rose Bowl. We rode up the other side on Washington and back across Pasadena by way of Mountain and finally down Wilson and back to the office.

19 miles at lunch, 27 for the day.
cycling