Hello Wisonsin!

Hooray for the Family Reunion in Madison, WI!  Madison was hot and sunny while we where there, perfect weather to get some lake time in!  The beginnings of a floating party while Rene and Rose tie up to our inflatable kayak.  Laka Monona with the state capitol in the background.

 

 We parked and camped at Lake Farm Park, just south of Madison's border.  This park was Beautiful.  Lakes and wide open spaces and bike trails.  We could bike into downtown from camp in less than 20 minutes.  The trails go through some picturesque fields, which were covered in fireflies at night when we rode home from the Memorial Union or State Street.

A couple more on the lake, as Jan and Dave wow us with their SUP skills and Rene and Noelle wait for the beers.

With such a big family reunion, it's tough to get all the stories in.  I spent a lot of time talking and not enough time taking pictures.  Some of the highlights: Finding Gary's old bar on State street sill in business.  Having our reunion merge parties with another family's wedding reception.  The Greenfields' lovely birthday/graduation gifts.  Jamie and Howard's awesome hosting.  The swarm of kid cousins meeting each other and forming a big posse.  Meeting 11 month old Cousin August and watching him try to figure out the whole standing up thing.

Prologue to the next post:  The Vanagon brakes acted a little funny one morning.  They quickly recovered, but it had us worried.  We searched out a Madison VW mechanic.  He said he didn't work on old Vanagons anymore.  He then went on a tangent about phish heads coming through town...  After learning about our journey and our trajectory, he recommended we stop by a mechanic in Ironwood, MI.  (Although he said Iron Mountain, MI, we figured out what he meant.)

With no pressing events, and longer daylight ahead, we head north... without any planned direction!

The Lost Videos!

Little bit of catchup!  We've been blogging a lot with the Blogger iPhone App.  As cool as it is we can only post videos with the HTML Desktop app.  Here's some great videos we've been excited to share:

Happy 30th Noelle!

Fun with the new underwater iphone case in Ginnie Springs!

 

Natural Waterslides in Asheville, NC.  

Chicago

Everyone loves to post pictures of The Bean in Millennium Park.  So did we.  Can you find us?

We drove into Chicago from Indianapolis.  Indy was cool, with bikepaths and hometown feel.  It was awesome to catch up with Matt and Jason, but I'm sad to say we didn't capture any pictures of the town.  When we arrived in Chicago, it was Friday, July 5th.  I had to drive down the Magnificent Mile, which was PACKED with shoppers.  Our van, Muskey, was quite a celebrity.  We got a lot of pointed interest and smiles from the people in the crosswalks.  Downtown Chicago wasn't really the best spot for a tall van, so it spent most of the time stuck in a garage. 
We transitioned to bicycles, which was a great way to get around!

We had a blast in Chicago.  We bicycled up to Wicker Park, and on the way back, my bicycle chain broke.  No problem! My all-star bicyclist wife, Noelle, towed me back!

We had a great Sunday-Funday with Eric.  Great times with this tour gide!  Congrats on your engagement Eric!

My favorite attraction in Chicago was the lakeshore.  Specifically the concrete "beaches."  No messy sand, and fun jumping into the water.  We were really lucky with the fantastic warm weather. 

We also ran into my cousin Jason.  After rediscovering that you can't bring beer to the lake shore, we went to the top of the John Hancock building for a couple drinks.  What a view!

Another city picture for good measure.
While it's great to be in Chicago, it's not quite the "great outdoors".  :)

We really enjoyed Wrigley Field.  Hot weather, "Old Style" Beer, and no jumbo-tron.  It's the quintessential American ballpark.

  The Cubs won, in an exciting game with six homeruns!

Happy Fourth of July!

The skyline of Cincinnati yesterday. 

We are enjoying an indefinite rain delay today!   It is due to the fact that giants and reds are not scheduled to meet again this season. They are just waiting until the giants plane leaves. 

We are lucky enough to have sheltered tickets.  As such, we are enjoying having a very cool place to have some beers on the road. Some moments  are priceless. :)

Reds fans enjoy their new ponchos. Notice at row H seats have a nice shelter.  We are row M. :) 

Sending our best holiday vibes to friends and family!

Mountain biking at Lake Powhatan

Before leaving the Asheville area we decided to camp for three nights at Lake Powhatan. Surrounding Lake Powhatan is an extensive network of mountain bike and hiking trails.

Our first day we covered a lot of ground on our bikes, tearing from trail to trail. Barreling down the muddy mountain paths on my bike reminded me of biking through the trails above UCSC with my dad when I was kid. We had such a great time I am considering investing in a new mountain bike when we get back to SF. 

Our second day at Lake Powhatan, we biked up old fire roads until we hit the blue ridge parkway (a scenic highway that snakes through the Appalachian mountains). Once we made it to the parkway, we locked up our bikes and and hiked along the ridge. 

It felt great to be outside and using our bodies. After spending most of June eating our way through the South, I'm looking forward to an active July! 

Within biking distance of our campsite was the North Carolina Arboretum. It was definitely the fanciest Arboretum I've ever visited! Lots of pretty flowers and more great views (like everywhere else around here).

Overall we had an amazing time at Lake Powhatan and the Asheville area. Right now we are on the road to Cincinnati, OH. First person to guess why we are heading there for the Fourth of July gets a postcard!

Going where the climate suits my clothes: friends, family and 30th birthdays in Asheville

While camping in the heat of the lowlands, we couldn't help but check out the weather maps of Asheville, NC. Situated in the smokey blue mountains, Asheville just seemed cool, both temperature wise and in terms of the people and culture that exist there. Added incentive for us was the fact that we had lots of friends and family in the area. We knew we wanted to go there.

We arrived in Asheville late Saturday night, a little over a week ago. We were kind of beat up from the late night drive and Ben's back giving him trouble. Our first stop was my cousin Danny's place where we received a warm welcome from Danny, his wife Dara, his two kids Kai and Kadin, and his enormous dog Rosco (his cats tolerated us with typical indifference). We spent the better part of last week recharging, benefitting from Danny's culinary expertise, and checking out Asheville with Kadin as a tour guide. 

Moog factory:

Dara's store space where she sells her clothes and jewelry:

We even managed to get another afternoon of tubing in on the French Broad, the river that runs through Asheville. An added perk of tubing on the French Broad is you can exit the river at The Bywater, a super chill riverside bar, complete with cornhole. http://www.bywaterbar.com/

We stayed with Danny through my birthday.... The big 3-0! It was an awesome day that included omelets, sliding down waterfalls at Dupont state park, and dinner and drinks in downtown Asheville. It even included birthday cake, compliments of a phone in order from Kate and Mo. Thanks to everyone who made it such a great day!

After staying with Danny we stayed a couple nights with my UCSB friend Sarah Jane and her husband Dan in Weaverville. Their property was gorgeous! We somehow have no pictures but we had a great time throwing frisbees, sitting around campfires, and watching fireflies. SJ and I  also had a ladies night out to see an awesome local musician, Jamar Woods, perform in downtown Asheville. 

After Weaverville, we drove about 45 minutes east of Asheville to visit my aunt Paula and uncle Jerry. They live in a really neat cabin at the top of a mountain. We were treated to amazing views and good family time. We had a great time hiking around the mountain, enjoying the scenery of the smokey blue mountains.

The bunk house:

Atlanta and visiting Kelly!

Heading North from Ginnie Springs we cruised on to Atlanta to stay with Kelly, our friend from Santa Cruz. It was so great to see Kelly, who showed us a most excellent time. 

Highlights include:

Epic roll out sessions to help straighten out Ben's back and IT band.

A walking tour of the Atlanta Beltway, old railroad tracks converted into miles of multi-use pathways.

Piper the cat, who lives along the beltway and is happy to receive letters (and guests).

An amazing dinner at Bocado, compliments of Kelly (what a fantastic wedding present!). We will need to return someday for this amazing milkshake as we were too stuffed to order it this time. We also kicked it with some of Kelly's crew after dinner. Overall a great night out!

And last but not least we checked out the Mill, off the Chatahoochee river. Good swimming! This trip also demonstrated the difference between ITP (inside the perimeter) versus OTP (outside the perimeter).

We left Atlanta with a much better idea of what this city is all about. Good times!