Drop & Roll Montage

Music by Brian Abelson and Sandy Gilfillan.
Editing by Sandy Gilfillan and featuring the Gilfillan brothers, Whitney Lewis, and Kyle O'Connor.

Edited with a lagging iMovie, yet again... Sorry for the ending. Didn't really have a decent outro during our jam.

Enjoy!

Major Hiatus Part II

And I'm back...

Upon my arrival back to Pittsburgh from SoCal for an 80th birthday celebration and a fam + friends party down in Mexico, my good friend Aaron Myers' parents house was to be a new home base for the intro to part II of my travels. Aaron is currently the sculpture TA at Bucknell, and with Pittsburgh being not insanely far away from Lewisburg, he made the very understandable decision to stay at school all summer to use the studio. This being the case, my second visit to Pittsburgh was not to see any of Aaron, but to see more hanging out with Claire, visiting another old friend Brian Swed, and random musings through Pittsburgh with Aaron's parents (and dogs).

The Myers' home was really perfect to be in. With all their kids now being out of the house, I got to utilize the whole third floor and be out of their way whenever necessary. Up in my room I got to put together ideas for what I wanted as my album artwork, so the isolation was good for my productivity. Otherwise, while everyone was working, I'd make my way towards the beautiful park nearby to get back into my running routine.

Brian Swed, another music enthusiast I know from Bucknell, was a new face for my Pittsburgh stay. Brian and I, more or less, had overlapping circles of friends but didn't actually get to hang out much in school. I do remember, however, seeing his iPod once and immediately befriending him based on his clearly awesome taste. Brian plays in a band and has a really great basement that they jam in, so for one of my nights I brought over my gear and we all got some jams in. The night ended just right -- and by that I mean with us watching Piranha.

A few different times, Mrs. Myers and I saw ourselves walking the dogs together -- using each other as incentive to get outside and active. Frick Park was a really beautiful location for one, and the other, the great commercial areas near their house in Squirrel Hill.

Once I got an invite to go to a party at Tara Hankinson's in Brooklyn while I was in Pittsburgh, I finally had a real push to get myself back on the road. On the way there, I would book it to Washington D.C. first to stay with one of my good friends, Alex Caughron.


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Alex lives about a twenty minute walk away from Dupont Circle, where another one of my friends, Brittany Singer lives. The first couple of nights staying with Alex were great, as they always are, since Alex and I can debate anything longer than most folks I know. Some nights saw bedtime far later than Alex probably would have preferred if we hadn't gotten carried away...

More of my day activities in D.C. continued on the goal of getting my album prepped for release, so daytime activities were less spectacular. Also, after going out to eat lunch with my Dad's cousin Anne and her husband Larry, I realized I would be able to stay in D.C. for all of August(!) to housesit for them. What an amazing deal! This being the case, there was far less urgency to take care of all that D.C. has to offer right up front for my first visit. Regardless, I did make my way out to see Brittany and a couple of other Bucknell faces who happened to attend the bar with her as well. I didn't realize how many of them were in this city...

more soon....

Major Hiatus - Late post from late June...

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For various reasons, I have lagged on keeping the Drop and Roll blog going. Kyle leaving the trip in late May left me to find different kinds of excitement each day from what we'd had for the trip up to that point -- now activities mostly come in an isolated manner with me recording music, prepping album artwork, and such for my Yes Know project. I never got to really writing anything about Chicago when I was there, and since, I have been in Pittsburgh, California, Mexico, and now, DC. So, something's gotta be due.

In short, Chicago was outstanding. Gabriel's apartment is located right by the lake on Eerie St. in the area where the Northwestern Hospital is. He's just around the corner from the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, which Kyle and I visited on one of our first days there. There is an incredible view of the lake and the skyline from the rooftop of his apartment building of 60+ stories, and just a walk/run away are the numerous parks that line the shore.

When we got there, the weather was a bit cool and foggy, but for our first weekend, everything flipped and we got two days or so of intense heat and sun. Exercise along the lake was especially awesome these days as the Chicago summer weekend excitement was in full blast. Beaches and parks were filled to the brim with swimwear, volleyballs, frisbees, and beach towels and for a minute I thought I was back in Southern California...

During the week, Gabriel was often busy taking care of his final first-year med school course, so for much of the time Kyle and I were left to scour the city ourselves. Early in the visit, we made our way out toward Wicker Park to see Tortoise guitarist, Jeff Parker, play his free weekly club show at Rodan. We also made our way out to The Empty Bottle to see Crystal Stilts play their show, which was great, as Gabe decided to join us for this one and Kyle and I were finally getting to see the grimier, more underground of the Chicago club scene. The DIY ethic comes in fuller force at places like these which offers a unique excitement we both really respond to.

Other amazing ventures included the Art Institute of Chicago (definitely as exciting as people hype it up to be), Millenium Park with its awesome bean, the Zoo, Navy Pier, and more parks.... Chicago really is one of the cooler big cities I've been in, but I'm still somewhat skeptical of its overall awesomeness as it's got a pretty treacherous and long winter...

After Kyle left, I got into my music zone to complete a new electronic track and do some photo editing. Nearing the end of my trip, however, I got more socializing in with an old friend, Tommy O'Brien from Bucknell Water Polo.

Tommy's originally from the area and lives in Wrigleyville, where Wrigley Field is. I stayed a night at his place to keep out of Gabe's hair while he needed rest for his test the next morning, but also because Tommy said he'd probably not have any work to do the next day. My last full day in Chicago was a Friday and consisted of some awesome times meeting loads of Tommy's friends, BBQing, guitar-playing, bar-hopping (with some batting cage time at Sluggers Bar), and making lots of authentic margaritas.

Downtown and the shoreline from Gabe's apartment building rooftop.

Kyle and Gabe above the clouds.

Me.

Kyle underneath the bean.



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Finally, Memorial Day weekend meant I needed to be back on the road for my first extended trek without Kyle in the car. This time, to Pittsburgh to stay with Claire O'Hanlon (check the guest post!), an old friend from California via Harvey Mudd College. Kyle and I had made an extremely quick stop by Claire's before going to Bucknell earlier, so this time I was excited to really give Pittsburgh its due.

Claire and her boyfriend, Mike, also extremely chill, both had me in for some really solid plans that Saturday night. As soon as I finished off my ten hour drive and got a shower in, we all went out to a monthly funk night at Shadow Lounge. Amazing old R&B/Soul/Funk records filled the speakers all night while everyone fought for space near the fan to dry the sweat. Dancing is easily one of Claire's and my favorite pastimes, so it was good to get some moves in.

Next door to the club is the Waffle Shop, which is only open during strange hours and houses the talk-show stage for their online TV show. Apparently the show is a Carnegie Mellon Art professor's project...

The Waffle Shop is a neighborhood restaurant that produces and broadcasts a live-streaming talk show with its customers, operates a changeable storytelling billboard on its roof, and runs a take-out window that sells food from countries engaged in conflict with the U.S. The shop is a public lab that brings together people from all walks of life to engage in dialogue, experimentation and the co-production of culture. The project functions as a classroom for students from Carnegie Mellon University, an eatery, a TV production studio, a social catalyst, and a business. Our customers are our funders, audience, and participants as we film during open hours, inviting interested patrons to express their unique opinions and personalities.
The Waffle Shop is supported by the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University, The Center for the Arts In Society, East Liberty Development Inc, We Do Property, Sota Construction Services, the Sprout Fund, Whole Foods, and the sale of waffles.

And onwards... Other Pittsburgh entertainment included the Dormont pool and park where I bit the dust and came up with a couple of bloody cuts to my leg, Brillobox bar for drinks and trivia, and a couple of different houses for meeting Claire's friends.

Finally, the first section of the trip was to come to an end as June 2nd was time for my flight to SoCal to attend my Grandma's 80th birthday extravaganza and enjoy an awesome trip to Mexico with family and friends. A vacation from my vacation... Time to recoup and get the worst sunburn ever..

Time in California and Mexico saw the pampering that life at home with the Gilfillans can often be. Rancho Santa Fe for my Grandma's birthday and amazing meals, awesome relatives, margaritas, pool time, etc. provided for an awesome reintroduction to the Southwest after my 2+ months away from it. The next weekend in Mexico was no less.

Dammit I love the West.

From Gabe's apartment window..

Chicago High-Rise

My latest. Share it people!

Chicago High-rise by Yes Know

Kyle's Final Juggling Update

If not for this trip, Kyle's juggling skills would equal zero.

Enjoy Alaska, man. Don't get eaten.

Saturday Chicago

Got some timelapsing in over the weekend...

Assorted Photos

Travels from Salt Lake City all the way through Bucknell saw loads of fun activities, beautiful sites, new acquaintances, and old friends. When these things happen, trip documentation continues while blog updates wane, so here's some catching up...

In chronological order:

Salt Lake City, UT. Click to enlarge.

Mr. James Sawaya -- our couchsurfing host in Salt Lake City. This man seriously knows how to drop and roll. He decided to join us for a week of our travels just 20 minutes prior to our departure from his house.

Kyle and the mounted GoPro camera. On the way to Denver.

James again.

Our hike to the top of Lookout Mountain in Golden, CO. This is after our three free beers from the Coors Brewery.

Lake Mendota. Madison, WI. Go there. The city is really awesome.

Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, WI. Apparently modeled off of the U.S. Capitol, just smaller....and still gigantic.

Bucknell folk. Michelle, Will, Aaron, Jameson, and Kyle.

Aaron trying to fix the free VHS player he picked up.

Michelle, Aaron, and Yoko Ono poster.


Annnnd......

Woah. From Gabe's rooftop in Chicago...

More Chicago coming up... And, oh yeah, Kyle leaves tomorrow.

On Aaron's stereo all week...

Chicago + Arcade Fire

VHS FLIX!

Want Netflix, but don't have a DVD player? Behold, VHS FLIX!

Timelapse at Aaron's.

Madisonites

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Madison. Outstanding.

After our recoup in La Crosse, WI at James' parents house, we made our way on the four hour drive to Madison. Our couch request had been accepted by Alison, a University of Wisconsin-Madison senior, and approved of by one of her roommates, Liza, also a couch surfer. Liza and Alison live with Steve, a guy who's from Minnesota, and have a great apartment with a kickass porch down the street from the Madison capitol.

Madison was really an awesome place to be. Minus the hectic construction that seems to go on all over the place as the city pulls through its insane winter, the city is beautiful. Madison is located between two awesome lakes, one of which is where the school and student union are located, and the other, where you can find their Frank Lloyd Wright terrace. School was just finishing up for all their students and finals were getting started on the Sunday of our stay. Some folks were more or less done and others had maybe a paper and exam to finish up.

Spring was in, and it was made abundantly clear to Kyle and myself that Madisonites know how to enjoy good weather and sunshine. One of our days there comprised of extensive wandering through the city, lake dwelling, eating at the amazing farmer's market, juggling (obviously), jamming (obviously), beer (obviously), heavy doses of fresh air, and James Brown breakdowns to finish it all off. Outstanding.

People in Madison, it would seem from our stay, are just all insanely nice and genuine. Liza, Alison, and Steve were the perfect hosts, too, as their apartment is a social hub of sorts -- and neither too intense nor too muted of one. Javi, Dusty, Ricky, Page, Cole to mention a few . . . were all new acquaintances met through our hosts and all were very upstanding and extremely fun to be around. Around the time James Brown's "Cold Sweat" was finishing up during our evening, Ricky promptly came in to ask, "Yo, can you play more of that James Brown?", only to be instantly followed with a "Hellls Yeah!" reply and some busted moves. Ricky and his brother Javi (Bears Climb Mountains) threw down like few have ever done before. Solid, solid shit. What a place to be...

Bucknell. 1:30am.

The Jay Birds

A recent Bucknell acquaintance of mine, Jason Brown, is fighting the good fight. Lend your ears.

Bears Climb Mountains

Some kickass friends of our couchsurfing hosts in Madison. Show 'em love -- they're solid folks.

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University of Wisconsin, Madison WI

A Long Time Comin'

So now, here we are. Wisconsin.

Lots to cover…

After finally making our way away from the west coast with our drive from Vancouver to the Madame Dorion campsite in southeast Washington, we finally landed ourselves in Sun Valley, ID. Right up front, I want to send a HUGE thanks to my parents for treating us to our time there. The west coast was quite a social ride with meeting couch surfers, seeing relatives, and just plain happening by random folks so some solitude in Sun Valley was extremely good to have.

First day in Sun Valley saw some exxxtreme relaxation… The day was a good time to finish up with a Vancouver post and throw up some good photos from the first 25 days on the road. We also got a good high altitude run on the bike path and were both pretty satisfied with our abilities considering the difficulties of eating well on the road. Around the end of the day, we did the little drive down to Hailey for some groceries and to get some time by the Big Wood River. We had hoped to fish while we were around, but unfortunately found out all the nearby rivers were closed for the season. Too bad, as we had been really looking forward to making a camp dinner with some fresh catches...

Our first day of mostly relaxation had us pretty energized for day two. We decided to grab the bikes and ride up to Ketchum to check out the town and look for some outdoor apparel for Kyle's upcoming trip to Alaska. After checking out the sale racks at four or five outdoor stores, Kyle finally found his pick of a puffy jacket and me, a pick of a kickass cowboy/indiana jones hat. Finally we decided to make our way back to the house to get ourselves set for some racquetball and jacuzzi…

That night we were blasting The Replacements, and it occurred to me their song "Treatment Bound" was extremely simple chord-wise, plays in the key of C and therefore in the key of my harmonica, and fits somewhat with the new flannel + folk hat style I had just acquired for myself. I promptly put together a portable studio with my field recorder and microphone both attached to a hiking pole. The result of my efforts can be seen in The Wilderness Tapes section on the right. Hopefully I'll get some time to elaborate more on the setup soon.

After some more racquetball and jacuzzi time, we finally figured out some more of our travel agenda. Time in Sun Valley was ultra comfortable and it was about time we set ourselves back on the road for a bit more grit. Originally we had planned on doing Jackson, WY after Sun Valley, but due to bad weather and a car hardly set for such conditions, we decided to head south towards Salt Lake City. Kyle did some couch surfing there a few months ago, so we had a contact there. Jen, a friend of Kyle's SLC host, told us she was moving out and that there was a goodbye party for her set to go down at some couch surfing friends' house. Perfect for Kyle and myself as we had gotten our fill of being asocial in southern Idaho.

We arrived to Salt Lake City around the time of the party and immediately met Jen and some other friendly couch surfers and Westminster students. Lots of joking went around about Utah's 3% beer and explanation of our travels. Only very few of the folks at the party knew anyone, so we were by no means out of place.

Our hosts were four, though only two were really present for most of our time in SLC and involved in couch surfing. The first, Zak, has put in loads of effort to become the SLC Ambassador for Couchsurfing.org and has loads of friends and references on the site to back his efforts. The night before we left, he went through his list of friends on the site so we could have a clue of who to ask for couches if we went through certain places he'd been. Zak was a great find, as he is extremely easy going and a good talker -- when Kyle was speaking to him about our thoughts on staying a second night, Zak promptly interrupted with "whatever", taking no care about whether we wanted to stay longer or not. No obligation to leave and no obligation to stay -- pleasing to hear as leaving things up in the air is quite the style of Kyle and myself.

After one more night and an outstanding breakfast the next morning, we got to talking about where we were headed next. The second couch surfer host, Zak's roommate James, asked us of our plans to which we responded "Denver then Des Moines then Wisconsin." James is originally from La Crosse Wisconsin, is currently unemployed, and had a friend in Denver who had couch surfed with him before. He had been looking to do a road trip for a while and our route sounded so good to him that he decided 20 mins prior to our departure that he'd join in. Outstanding choice, as he'd get to finish off at home in La Crosse and treat us to his parents home for a night.

We set out for Denver a little later than planned and, fortunately, avoided severe weather along the Continental Divide but, unfortunately, missed out on seeing the pass through the Rocky Mountains by daylight. Too bad, but I'd seen it before on my drive after my sophomore year. A very highly recommended route. Along the way we made it past Vail, my Dad's old stomping grounds...

Finally we arrived at Courtney's to quickly meet her and her dad before going to bed. The next morning, James, Kyle, and I all drove out to Golden, CO to take a tour of the Coors Brewhouse while Courtney finished her last day of work. It was interesting as there is some extensive history involved with Coors, however, it probably doesn't quite match up to the New Belgium Brewhouse tour that we had originally wanted to see. Regardless, we did get three free beers before we left so no complaints.

Before leaving Golden we decided to see about finding a trail to hike. The most promising option sounded like the Lookout Mountain Trail that goes up towards Buffalo Bills grave. We found the trail and took it all the way to the top over about three hours time. It was nice and rejuvenating to get some activity in us after such a long drive from the day prior.

That night we met up with Courtney, her coworkers, and her dad at a bar back in Denver for a few drinks. Her coworkers left promptly, but the rest of us decided to sit for a few more beers and to discuss the significance of Osama Bin Laden's newly announced death. Finally, Courtney insisted we stay the next day since she hadn't gotten time to hang out with us because of work. With our plans being so up in the air still, we agreed it would be fine to make it out to Des Moines after another Denver day.

Our second morning in Denver saw a great meal at Illegal Pete's and a quick tour through the Tattered Cover bookstore with Courtney and her Dad. Kyle had been talking about Illegal Pete's since Sun Valley, so it was good to finally get it in our systems. Next we went out to Washington Park to throw some frisbee and get as much time in the sun as possible before seeing the documentary I Am at a local independent theater. After the day's activities, we made our way back to Courtney's and Kyle put together some great Chicken Alfredo for dinner.

In the morning, we gave our goodbyes and thank yous to Courtney and her dad and made our way to Des Moines Iowa. After the eleven hour drive, we met our new host and good friend of Zak's in SLC, Mark, in downtown Des Moines and went for a little bit of bar hopping. As it was Tuesday night, there was little activity going on, but more than enough energy for James, Kyle, and myself as Mark is a very energized guy and nearly all of the time. Practically nothing can slow the man down so we quite easily got a good fill of Des Moines despite our stay being such a short one. The next morning, Mark took us out to get some great tacos before then taking us back to our car to bid farewell. And off we were to La Crosse, WI…

Finally, after our drive through the rest of Iowa and then some of Minnesota, we came across the Mississippi River and into La Crosse, WI just yesterday. It was great to have another very relaxed, extremely comfortable spot at James' parents' house as the last one we had had was way back in Sun Valley. Couch surfing is really outstanding as a way to live cheaply and keep things exciting, but everyone needs a bit of a balance here and there to recoup and really homey places like James' parents' in La Crosse, my parents' in Sun Valley, and Cynti & Steve's on Bainbridge Island offer just that. Kyle and I promptly got some good exercise, a great lasagna in us, and a good night sleep. James' mom was a real joy to meet as well. It was great talking with her as Kyle and I were reason for James' unexpected visit home…

James was outstanding to have along our trip. We hit it off right away when we met him in Salt Lake City and we very much enjoyed our time talking music and film while we were there. We were extremely excited also to see him so quickly decide to extend our time together by joining in on the travels. And what's more, he had the patience to deal with the bickering, agendalessness, and long hikes Kyle and I like to spend our time with. So, props and peace out, James.

Now for Madison….

So far...

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Been in Denver, CO for the past two nights. One more night tonight with Courtney, a couch surfer, and her dad. On our way to Des Moines tomorrow morning. Long haul ahead.

The plan:
Des Moines, IA -> La Crosse, WI -> Madison, WI -> Cleveland, OH -> Lewisburg, PA -> back-track to Chicago, IL...

Finally time for Midwest.

Coors Brewhouse Tour, Golden, CO

Soundtrack: Velvet Underground, Pavement, Cut Copy, M. Ward, The National through beautiful west Colorado, Mississippi John Hurt, Willie Dixon, Charles Mingus' Black Saint and Sinner Lady, Johnny Greenwood's There Will Be Blood score, and....

NEW MATERIAL TO THE RIGHT! --------------------->

Frontier Dinner. Sun Valley, Idaho.

Food: Kyle
Photo: Sandy

Soundtrack: Cut Copy, Suicide Commandos, Billy Bragg, Menomena's Mines, Jerry Jeff Walker (not to Kyle's taste unfortunately...), Claude Debussy, Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest, Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield/Stephen Stills' Super Session, The Replacements...

Vancouver Folks

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Vancouver is quite a good looking, international, extremely friendly place. Perhaps due to it being Easter weekend, however, couchsurfing.org proved quite difficult for finding places to stay. After lagging around in Seattle at Kelly's before leaving, we finally decided just to book it north to figure things out from there. Online we had found that a hostel might be a relatively cheap option that could also provide some interesting socializing with other travelers. Sounded fun. The Cambie Hostel downtown was our pick and, right off the bat, we worked in some good introductions with some internationals over a few drinks. Nationalities included Germany, France, Australia, Canada, USA, and Ireland.

One of the folks, Markus, was from Munich and wandered the neighborhood with us to see a bit of Vancouver's nightlife and talk with us about our respective travel plans. Markus' plan is quite grand -- he's circling the globe . . . but his plans are quite open-ended, as ours are, so we really had a great time talking travel philosophy with him. He was really great with his English and always was extremely excited with our ability to understand him with harder German-English translations. His excitement was pretty contagious. Upon running into him again around the end of our stay, he offered to drive us out to where we had parked our car across town. Markus rules.

Markus after driving us back to our car.

Internationals.

After getting hardly any sleep due to our Thursday night excitement with Markus and others, Kyle and I went for the discounted frontier breakfast at a sister hostel before driving the car across town for free parking. The area we chose was Hadden Park across the Burrard Bridge from downtown. The beach was filled with dogs and sun and was a perfect spot for a bench nap. Eventually we passed by Lily, a stranger who had called out as we walked past to see if we had a cigarette. Lily and her friend, Wayne, are Vancouver natives and frequent this particular spot as they live very closeby. Both are extremely welcoming people and for this very reason, having no agenda for our day, we chose to sit and hang out with them. Our relaxation and conversation with them extended all through the day to the evening. Wayne's friends came to join us and I pulled the guitar out for some blues and Neil Young songs. As dinner time arrived, we made our way over to hang out at Wayne's for a few drinks before finally heading back downtown to check into our hostel for another night.

Vancouver panorama from Kit's Point.

Wayne.

Lily.

Vancouver Crew minus Lily.

It was quite a long and interesting day socializing with so many new and friendly folks. Kyle and I were really exhausted. With our new hostel room being just above the loud pub, we opted for a night cap while the The Whiskey Dicks, a local Irish drinking band, finished up their set downstairs. We had planned to pass out a little earlier than usual...BUT......

...Terry, the man seated in the the neighboring booth, turned to us after The Whiskey Dicks finished their set and sparked up some conversation. Terry was older and had just seen the Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks concert and was elated having gone. He joined us in our booth when he realized that, despite our age, Kyle and myself are actually quite knowledgeable about the 60's and 70's music and are young travelers. Terry had decided to fill the night with beer and activities instead of a hotel room since his flight would be leaving back to Whistler so early the next morning. Man are we glad those were his plans. The man bought two pitchers instantly for us to enjoy, no questions asked. He was extremely fun to be hanging around. He had been a roadie for a few different bands in the eighties and was pretty familiar with the Vancouver scene. Recognizing our own love of music, he opted to take us right across the street to the Railway Club where he quickly paid all of our covers and treated us to another few beers while a great local indie band Free City Collective finished their set. It was awesome to see the high energy of their close and to finally get some quality live music on our trip.

The night began to come to its end around 3 o'clock as the club started to close. Terry gave us his final recommendations that we head up to Whistler, wished us luck, and headed off with good wishes from us. Though Whistler has not ended up as part of our plan, our outstanding times in Vancouver should be quite enough encouragement for a return trip in the future. Perhaps Whistler will have to wait until I have my snowboard with me.

And back in the states now. Camped out in the Southeast Washington along our drive to Sun Valley, ID. Time to get back to some creative projects...

Assorted photos of our first 25 days on the road...

Drop & Roll in Vancouver

Me along one of the creeks at Sol Duc, Olympic National Park, WA. Click to enlarge.

Northeast Oregon on a two day trip between Vancouver and Sun Valley.

GoPro maintenance. There are lots of these. This one on the way through Southeast Washington.

Shelter along one of the Sol Duc hikes, Olympic National Park WA.

Me at Cape Blanco, OR.

On the road in CA before passing into Oregon.

Chickeree, Simone and Keeba's dog.

Rainy drive on the way to Eugene, OR.

Drop & Roll plus Cynti. Awesomeness.

Falls along the Sol Duc trail, Olympic National Park WA

Kyle at Simone's near Garberville, CA. Simone in the background.

Soundtrack: Howlin' Wolf, Herbie Hancock, The Smiths' Meat is Murder, Spoon's Kill the Moonlight, The Specials, Beethoven, Talking Heads, Toro y Moi, Four Tet, Grizzly Bear, Bob Dylan, Apparat and his side-projects, The Mekons, The Replacements, Califone, Red Red Meat, Flipper, Flaming Lips' Soft Bulletin, Beck's Mutations, House of Love's "Shine On" and others, and T54...

From Vancouver




Towards Vancouver.

Basically spent all of Saturday hanging out on the beach. We came across some great individuals while wandering for some sights and ended up hanging out with them for a good seven hours or so. Bigger post coming...

On to Sun Valley, ID

Soundtrack: Led Zeppelin "When the Levee Breaks" and "Hey, Hey What Can I Do", Beatles "Tomorrow Never Knows", The Who "Magic Bus", Rolling Stones "Honky Tonk Women", M. Ward, Califone's Roots and Crowns", Pixies' Surfer Rosa. Efdemin, Pantha du Prince, and U.N.K.L.E., and Superpitcher for our night drive near Walla Walla, WA.

D&R Soundtracked

Kyle called this "cheesy". I call it all I could manage to pull together with scattered footage, a laggy iMovie, some original music, and two morning hours at Kelly's. Thanks, Kyle.



Also...

Mariners vs. Tigers

One Gigantic Post

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So here I am, way way behind on "updates of substance" for this blog because I'm always off the map at some campsite or busy editing photos or without wifi or just plain tired. But now that Kyle's driving us on the way back from Olympic National Park, we'll see if I can bring us up to date…

Soundtrack - Elliot Smith's Either/Or

After arriving to Bainbridge Island via bridge rather than ferry, Kyle and I got our stuff all pulled out of the car and into my aunt and uncle's garage apartment. Two huge beds and loads of comforters and pillows for us to sleep with… Awesome. Cynti returned home early from work to get some time to hang out with us and cook pasta for dinner. It was nice to see a family face again. It was also really awesome to finally be back to the Puget Sound again. I have some very fond memories of this area. Around here is where I had great times visiting cousins while growing up and where I had two awesome summers at Four Winds Camp up on Orcas Island.

After dinner, Steve and Cynti suggested we get our asses to the bar as it was getting late and Bainbridge bars don't stay open very late. Kyle and I then left for the mile-plus walk to the nearest one only to arrive twenty minutes past its closing. It wasn't even midnight yet and it was Friday… Anyways, the walk to/from was really nice regardless. I've enjoyed getting more activity on my feet and public transportation along the trip. It's something I wish I had done a bit more when I was in Silicon Valley.

Saturday was easily one of the best days of the trip so far. Finally we've gotten a good opportunity to utilize Couchsurfing.org for some quality socializing. Kelly Thompson, a Texan graphic designer our age who has traveled much of the world and for a series of reasons is now settled very happily in the city of Seattle, was our guinea pig as Couchsurfing.org + Drop and Roll is concerned.

And Kelly is awesome. With Kyle and myself usually not having an agenda of any kind, it was good to follow Kelly's lead and get in some good Seattle sights and great conversation. We really hit it off right from the start as she is very creative (and skilled) and personable and enjoys just taking it easy in cool places just as much as we do.

First up for our Seattle tour was Gas Works, a park on Lake Union that surrounds an old rusted gasification plant. We all got some good time throwing the frisbee, juggling, and taking photos. Kelly did a photo shoot for a lot of the time. Guest post of photos forthcoming...

Kelly said she thought I was a mix of Emile Hirsch and Paul Newman. "Awesome", I said.

Gas Works with downtown visible in the distance.

After Gas Works, we headed downtown to grab some mochas and chat for a while. Kelly told us loads of stories about her travels through Europe, Asia, and Australia and what places I should stop by when I head through the south. Sounds like I should hit San Marcos... After that, we headed to her place to meet a roommate and ready ourselves for some noodle dishes for dinner. Smith, a bar not too far from her place, ended the night right with a short meeting with two of her friends. Talk of books, coffee, religion, Seattle, and travel filled the rest of the night until we finally settled for bed on her futons.

Sunday, on her way out Kelly took us over to see the Experience Music Project since it was on the way to her church. The new exhibit on punk and Nirvana was really sweet. Kyle and I jotted down the names of bands we hadn't heard of since they're all sure to be to our liking... Lots of Nirvana instruments, original photos, Kurt Cobain drawings and letters, videos, and all that good stuff was there to view. After that and a little bit of a tour through the Jimi Hendrix section, Kyle and I went upstairs to play in one of the jam rooms so I could get my fix of the drums.

Experience Music Project and Space Needle, Seattle, WA

After this, Kelly picked us up and we headed out to lay in the sun by the cherry blossoms at University of Washington. There we had more time to toss the frisbee and perfect our juggling skills. LOTS of juggling went down and it was some serious excitement for other park goers. I was probably stopped four different times by little toddlers who planted themselves close by so they could watch. Finally, we'd gotten enough sun and Kelly took us back to the ferry terminal.

University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Juggle everywhere.

Back on Bainbridge, we got a bit more time to enjoy with Cynti and Steve and decided we would head out to camp in Olympic National Park for Monday. We chose the Sol Duc campground out past Port Angeles where 101 turns from your standard freeway into a crazy windy forest road lining the edge of Lake Crescent. The bluest water I've ever seen, although Kyle says he saw bluer in Switzerland...

Wow. Lack Crescent, WA

Camping at Sol Duc was great, as we had come fully prepared this time to make our fire with charcoal rather than moist wood surrounding the site like we'd tried while unprepared at Cape Blanco. This morning we opted for a long hike through the woods towards Deer Lake, but decided to turn around about 2.5 miles in since we were having to wade through snow a little more than we were willing.

Got some fun long exposures in the forest...

Another...


Left my camera out of sight so I could get this time lapse of the clouds while we were out hiking.

At the moment, we are back on Bainbridge and in time to see the Mariners game tomorrow. It's been really awesome weather since we've gotten up here (weird, as this IS Washington State), so we've opted for a day game to chill out at. Hot dogs, popcorn, garlic fries, ice cream, and beer -- perfect spot for Kyle as he eats very little else. Who knows, maybe the Mariners will actually win.

Next (major) stop, Vancouver.