A few of my favorite trip pics...

1st night at Jackson Lake

I decided to post a few of my favorite pics from our recent trip. We went to Jackson Lake, Yellowstone, Coeur de Alene, Seattle, Crater Lake, the Redwoods, San Francisco, and Newport Beach. It was the most fun and relaxation C and I have had since we got married.

C and I went out on the lake on a sea kayak, and then I discovered she didn't know how to skip rocks. If my grandpa T knew about that when we were dating, he would have made it a point to teach her before she was allowed into the family. To be safe, I took care of it as soon as I found out.
You can see Grand Teton in the background. This was taken on what was deemed a "mountain bike trail" - yeah right. It was a dirt road that was supposed to lead to a river, which we never did see because it started to rain and we were about 5 miles away from our campground. We took off quick.
The obligatory tourist photo at Old Faithful.

Mystic Falls, Yellowstone
I joked with C that these Falls were lulling me into a Mystic surrender without the shanai.
This is Natural Bridge, also a supposed mtb ride which turned out to be a road. Cool views.

This was a really cool part of east Yellowstone. There were lots of buffalo here.
I have no idea why that came up as a hyperlink, but I can't get it to go away.

Some buffalo in artsy sepia (Picasa is pretty cool.).
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
Some rad mountain goats on a hike we did. See those clouds in the upper left hand corner? They turned into a wicked storm. How wicked? It was blowing so hard on top that when a gust came, it moved both of us, holding hands a good two feet. It also moved the tree in the picture below.
This was standing on our way up. You can't tell from the picture, but this is a good 25' tree.
The picture doesn't do this justice. It had to be a good 3' from point to point on this sucker. He was absolutely huge, and just chillin' about 15' from the roadside. Everyone was pulled over looking at him, and he could have cared less.
Our first night in Seattle, K , K and family took us to the ghetto to experience some Ethiopian food. It was really good. You grab pieces of the spongy, gray sourdough like tortilla thing called anjara and scoop up what ever you want to eat. I loved it. Some people in Utah think that anything west of state street is ghetto. They would be wetting their pants if they even got close to this neighborhood. In fact, it was right next to an apartment with a notice on it that read "This location monitored frequently by the Seattle PD for drug activity", when in actuality, it is not often monitored, and is a known drug trafficking location.

This is Alki beach, about 15 minutes from the Ethiopian place. It was really pretty.
C, Me, B, C, K and K at Alki.
I miss ocean sunsets. This was ok, but I miss my island sunsets.
Wakeboarding the next morning for my first time on lake Sammamish.
Pike's Place Market.
The guys at the fish stand gave us some alder smoked salmon. It was awesome.

Cream Tangerine (Beatles cover band) at the park on the water in Redmond.
Crater Lake, OR
It looks really cool, but you can't really get down to the water and there isn't much else to do there. If we did it all over again, we wouldn't have stopped here.
This was pretty hilarious. We woke up in Crater Lake and went to shower. C just about forgot her towel and I kind of made fun of her a little. Then, I had the awful realization while naked and lathering that I had forgotten my towel. There was only one other guy in the bathroom, but the door to the outside was wide open. I didn't want to get dressed again in all of my dirty clothes or get my clean ones wet. I b-lined it commando style for the door and shut it before anyone saw, and then spotted the paper towel dispenser. I only had time to grab four before the guy next to me started to get out of his shower. I got completely dry with four paper towels and couldn't resist a picture.
This was our first stop in NorCal, at Patrick Creek. We got bored and decided to check the creek out. The water was really clear and really cold. I spotted a few water snakes and tried (unsuccessfully) to catch them. Hey, so what if I am easily amused.
I am at the bottom near the road for scale. The Redwoods are insane. If you have never seen them, you need to. It is hands down one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
This is the pier in Crescent City, CA.
C and I were driving through Crescent City looking for lunch when we spotted a bunch of seriously expensive classics - like a Rolls and Bentley. We followed them to a cool free car show where I found this all original '61 Coupe de Ville.
After over 7 mind-numbing (notice appropriate hyphenation AK) hours in the car, we hit the not so golden Golden Gate bridge.
Chowda at Boudin in Fisherman's Wharf.
Bay Bridge.
Ghiardelli Square from the water. Ghiradelli Square was one touristy thing I could have done without. I paid $7 for one of the worst ice-cream sundaes I have ever had in my life.
Alcatraz
C enjoying her dumplings in Chinatown.
Bay Cruise
Balboa Island
Huntington Beach