SoCal - Day 6 - The Grand Canyon

"In the Grand Canyon there are thousands of gorges like that below Niagra Falls, and there are thousands of Yosemites. Yet all these canyons combine to form one grand canyon, the most sublime spectacle on the earth." -John Wesley Powell, 1895



Here is my roommate Justin. He is chilling on the Canyon Wall. You can see the Colorado River in the distance. I have wanted to visit this place for such a long time. We stayed on the South Rim in a hotel called The Red Feather Inn. It was about 6 miles from the National Park gates.

The South Rim is at an elevation of 7,129 feet and the North Rim is at an elevation of 8,145 feet. The average width from rim to rim is 10 miles. And the Average depth from rim to the Colorado River is 5,000 feet. So it is a long fall:


We stayed at the park until the sun went down. We got a better view at that time. The problem is that there were many forest fires in the area and the smoke was creating a haze in the canyon.


We ended up watching the sun go down, then we returned sometime in the middle of the night to watch the stars. We even came back for sunrise in the morning. Marcus has a wicked story about how we almost killed a pack of deer on the road. The skid on the road must have been 30 feet long.

This place is amazing.

SoCal - Day 5 - USS Midway

Today I spent a good part of the day on the USS Midway. An Air Craft Carrier that was launched in 1945. Although this ship is extreemly old, it has much to say about world events today. Through its lifetime it fought in Vietnam and shot down Migs and had the first angled deck for airplanes to fly off of. It patrolled both Atlantic and Pacific.

This ship even brings us to 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait. The Midway helped protect Saudia Araia from an Invasion from Iraq. When Iraq would not retreat from Kuwait the United Nations gave Iraq an ultimatum deadline of 15 January 1991 for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. President George H.W. Bush addressed the nation on 16 January 1991 at 9 p.m. EST and announced that the libration of Kuwait from Iraq, Operation Desert Storm, had begun. The Navy launched 228 sorties from Midway and USS Ranger in the Persian Gulf, from USS Theodore Roosevelt enroute, and USS John F. Kennedy, USS Saratoga, and USS America in the Red Sea. In addition, the Navy launched more than 100 Tomahawk missiles from nine ships in the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. At 9 p.m. EST on 27 February, President Bush declared Kuwait had been liberated and Operation Desert Storm would end at midnight. Midway departed the Persian Gulf 11 March 1991.

We started our tour in the flight hanger underneath the flight deck. I allways wondered how they store the airplanes.


We toured all through the ship, we saw the post office, doctors office, kitchen, Flight Control It was amazing. Here is a picture from the Flight Deck of the Control Tower. It was massive. This place is so complex. I can't believe they could manage it during combat.


After we left the ship we took off from San Diego on route to the Grand Canyon about 5 hours away! it is really HOT !

SoCal - Day 4 - San Diego

San Diego is known for having the best weather in America... They were right.

Me and Marcus got up earlier than everyone else because we had several major destinations to hit. We drove through downtown San Diego and through Balboa Park and then went to the University of San Diego. This campus was amazing, in my opinion it was very comparable to Stanford. Imagine going to your lectures in the building below. Wow..


The next Stop was Ballast Point Brewery. San Diego is a Major Hub for the brewing industry and there were several locations that Marcus wanted to check out. This brewery was closed so we didn't get to taste anything.

University of California at San Diego is massive. They even have beach property and it was littered with surfers. I think that they have a very strong Marine Life Program there. There was even a building there called Galbraith Building but I don't think it had anything to do with the Engineer.

We headed inland and it was HOT. Its not long before the conditions go from lush green to desert like. Ale Smith Brewery was our next stop. This place was open and we got to go into the brewery and see where they make their famous beer. We bought tasters, and it was really good beer. Marcus really liked it too ... I drove after that. haha.

On our way back to the hotel we drove through Miramar. Miramar is a Marine Corps Air Station. This is where the famous movie TOP GUN took place. The highway goes right in the middle of the base but you cannot see anyhthing from the road. It is all behind the mountains.

Our afternoon was dedicated to soaking up the sun. We went to Coronado Beach which is a penninsula in the middle of San Diego bay. This was beach is HUGE and very nice. There is a Military landing strip at the end of the beach so we got to see some cool airplanes land there too.

San Diego has a few Major Military Installations, Air, Land and Sea. Remind me not to get into a fight with America.

Mission beach was our last stop and this place reminds me a lot of Wasaga Beach. There were tonnes of young people just hanging out at the beach. Everyone is having a great time.

As sun went down in San Diego we got the most spectacular views. Nothing more to be said.

SoCal - Day 3 - The OC Beaches

Today connects you from Santa Anna, just south of Los Angeles to San Diego at the South Western tip of the United States.

Newport Beach is very famous because "The OC" is filmed here. The OC, which stands for Orange County, is a hit TV show... I have never seen it but apparantly it is pretty good. Also Green Day came from this area. Below is a picture of the Beach with the Pier in the background. The beach is huge and we played a good game of Touch football there. It would be amazing to live in those houses facing the beach.


We then went to "Fashion Island" in Newport which is a really Fancy Mall. It was cool because it was just like Square One but there were no roofs. Everything was outside. One thing which was weird to me was that there were escalators outside. Anyway..

Lastly we went to Laguna Beach. We knew about Laguna Beach as soon as we got to California because there was a huge landslide there. The landslide demolished many Multi Million Dollar homes. It was pretty tragic. Laguna is very beautiful place. I am glad I got to see it. I didn't see any demolition from the Landslide. Below is a picture of the beach. Pretty Secluded.


As the sun set we drove off to San Diego about one hour away.

SoCal - Day 2 - LA

Day 2 begins on the road to Los Angeles from Santa Barbara. We continue to take highway 1 south along the coast. Below we stopped to take a few pictures when we are greeted with a stream of Ferrari's. There must have been 100 of them. You can't really see but every car on the road is a Ferrari.


Our first major stop was Malibu. Malibu has about 21 miles of coast line and every single part is being surfed by surfers. It is fun to watch them surf, and I really wanna get a board myself.

The next major stop was Santa Monica. Santa Monica has a huge Pier and we went out on it. The picture below is taken on the Pier. Another interesting part of the beach is that one part of the beach was covered with crosses. Every single cross represented a soldier that died in Iraq. What I found interesting is that some of the crosses were not crosses but stars or moons.


Next stop, LA. The first place we went to in LA was The Getty Research Institute. This place is an architecture marvel. Jean Paul Getty was an American Industrialist and founder of the Getty Oil Company. He was one of the first people in the world to have a a fortune over $1 Billion. When he died, his money was used to build this Research Institute. You can see the smog in LA TOO !


From The Getty Research Institute we picked up Sunset Blvd and took it across the city. We drove through UCLA and through Beverly Hills and saw Belair. We took Rodeo Drive and saw a bunch of fancy stores where the stars shop. This part of LA is really rich and fancy. We then continued on Sunset until we saw the most photgraphed celebrity in LA:

It is suprisigly far away. It was hard to get a good picture.

Our next stop is Walt Disney Music Hall. Another architecural marvel (By the way, there were two architects with us on the trip) This building is really cool.


After we saw the Music Hall we head over to Dodger Stadium to check it out. We then drove around the city a bit, we saw Staples Center and we went through china town. And finally we headed to Santa Anna to spend the night. Santa Anna is a city south of Los Angeles. What a day that was !

SoCal - Day 1 - Highway 1

I have a tale for you.

10 Days in Southern California/Arizona/Nevada. Today we start with Day 1.

"Stretching 644 miles along the coast of California, Highway 1 stands as an asphalt metaphor for the Golden State. It links the "Baywatch" beaches of Los Angeles, the sheer cliffs of Big Sur, San Francisco's Golden Gate and the charm of Mendocino."

We begin our journey on Highway #1 near Monterey. Highway #1 is one of the most beautiful drives in America. It wasn't long until we were struck with the amazing sights like the picture above. (Many car comercials are filmed on the bridge in the picture.) We drove south through Big Sur State Park and kept curving around until we reached Santa Barbara.

We started with 19 People and 5 rental cars. Our convoy is in the picture below. Let me tell you, it is not easy coordinating 5 cars through major cities and highways. Someone always misses the exit. Good thing we all had cell phones. The yellow Focus and its driver were heading to San Diego alone. The other 4 where aboard for the whole trip. My car is in the front and it is a Grey Grand Am.


The coast is absolutely beautiful.


We stopped at Hearst Castle along the way. William Randolph Hearst lived there and Citizen Kane by Orwell is loosely based on him. Hearst was born in 1863 and turned the newspaper into a combination of reformist investigative reporting and lurid sensationalism. It was pretty interesting to see what kind of power he had by controlling communication and how relavent his biography is today.

We reached Santa Barbara around dinner time and proceeded directly to the beach. We had a good round of volley ball and took a trip to the end of the pier. We then drove through downtown Santa Barbara and we were quite amazed with the night life. We found a hotel up the highway a bit, stored our bags and turned right around to come back to downtown. We spent the night in Santa Barbara and it was a lot of fun.

SoCal

We are about to embarke on a Huge Southern California Trip. We leave Saturday the 25th in the Morning for 10 Days ! This is going to be great ! Below is the planned route.


Here are our Major Destinations:

1) Drive Along Highway #1 from Monterey through Big Sur State Park
2) Drive through Santa Maria and Santa Barbara
3) Los Angeles
4) The OC Beaches
5) Hollywood and Sunset Blvd.
6) Highway #1 to San Diego
7) San Diego Beach, Gas Lamp, Beach Club
8) TIJUANA
9) Cross into Arizona and see the Grand Canyon
10) Drive across the Hoover Damn into Las Vegas
11) 3 Nights in Las Vegas at the Luxor
12) Finish off the trip with July 4rth, Independance Day
13) Done

This is pretty "Ambitious". But its going to be one hell of an experience.

Yosemite

Today we climbed Half Dome at Yosemite National Park. Half Dome's Peak is 8,842 feet above sea level. We began our Hike on the Yosemite Valley floor and we gained 4,800 feet to the peak. Below is a picture of Half Dome. It is pretty daunting looking up at it.

This was our agenda for the trip:
1) 5:00 pm Friday. Drive for 2 hours to Merced, the half way point to Yosemite. We got caught in traffic due to an accident and it took us 5 hours.
2) 11:00 pm Friday. Sleep as much as we can at the hotel.
3) 3:30 am Saturday. Wake up to drive to Yosemite National Park.
4) 6:30 am Saturday. Start Half Dome Climb from Yosemite Valley.
5) 12:30 pm Saturday. Reach the summit of Half Dome. Rest !
6) 3:30 pm Saturday. Start our descent back to the base.
7) 8:00 pm Saturday. Reach the base. Rest !
8) 9:00 pm Satruday. Start 4 hour drive back to Mountain View. This was dangerous, too tired.
9) 1:00 am Sunday. Back home.

The hike was very tedius, and long. From the base to the peak was 8.2 miles. The park is very beautiful, the snow is melting and there are waterfalls all over the place. Here is one of the biggest falls.

The hike was well worth it but it was physically demanding. I took breaks frequently and I had to tune into my iPod during the most challenging parts to keep my mind off of it. BUT !!!, then came the last 200 feet. The last 200 feet was taken by a steal cable up a near vertical slope. I think that I am affraid of heights because I was getting real nervous. This is what we saw before I went up. You can see the line of hikers up the face.

Here is another picture looking up from the wall. Marcus took this picture and Dan is going up infront of him. I can't believe I did this. If you fall, you are going down,.. All the way down. Crazy !

But I made it, reaching the top was well worth it. The view was spectacular. My lungs hurt a lot because I pushed myself pretty hard and the air pressure was lower. My body felt like after the CN Tower run. Check out the view.

The last time I was up this high was at Whistler. It is great to get back up in the mountains. I missed them. There was still snow at the peak so we could make snowballs. And the clouds slowly swept through us. It was great. We rested up here for a while, I fell asleep for atleast 30 min. Then we started the long trek back. That was not easy at all, But it was faster. We were all really tired, we slowly made it back to the base.

This was a great experience.

Geoff

Happy Birthday GEOFF !!!!

Yo man, I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday. Wish I could be back there to celibrate it with you. Party it up bro !



California is getting rocked:

- Thursday night, a magnitude 6.4 quake hit 127 Miles off of the Northern California coast near Eureka

- Thursday afternoon a 4.9 quake shook San Bernardino County near the town of Yucaipa in Southern California

- Tuesday a 7.2 quake hit off the Northern California coast near Crescent City, prompting a tsunami warning that was later lifted

- On Sunday a 5.2 quake shook Riverside County in Southern California

Whoa, I didn't feel anything. Check it out: I am headin to Yosemite this weekend. Should be back with some wicked picks. Catch you guys later.

Mystery Spot

Before we went to Santa Cruz, all 19 of us stopped of at Mystery Spot. Don't, I repeat, DON'T go here. It is so "Cheezy". Quote is from the Santa Cruz Visitors Center. Anyway, its fun to go with a bunch of engineers who think they can figure it out. Anyway, Some farmer puchased the land a long time ago and he built a cabin on the top of a hill. The cabin ended up sliding down the hill and hitting a tree. After that, the house starting tilting to one side. From then on, it has been a tourist trap. Check out me..

Walking around in this place really gets you really disoriented but it was fun. DON'T GO.

Yo guys, Check out my buddy Divya and his Motorcycle trip from Toronto to Ottawa. This is really cool, and I am so glad that he made the trip, and safely. Divya literally told me about how he was going to go on this trip EVERYDAY last year. And it is so cool ! Click Here

Wicked man.

Graduation

Congratulations Michelle !

Today is Michelle's Graduation Day from the University of Guelph. This is such a great acheivment, Michelle put in so much hard work and long hours. We are all so proud of you.

Santa Cruz

Today, 19 of us went to Santa Cruz !
It was great, Vollyball on the beach ! It cannot get any better. While we were there, there was a tournament going on for 18,000 USD (2 on 2). This is the 2nd time I have been to Santa Cruz, last time we went to Natural Bridges on May 29th. This time I am going to bring you a wicked picture of the beach, boardwalk and amusement park. This is California's only seaside amusement park and its located on Monterey Bay. Check out the picture I got from the pier:

There is a roller coaster there called The Giant Dipper, it is white and red and it is near the right of the picture, and it is in several movies like "Dangerous Minds", "Sudden Impact" and the most famous "The Lost Boys". I have only seen Dangerous Minds. It was built in 1924 and now it is a National Historic Landmark. Some say that it is the best wooden Roller Coaster in America. Cool.

Later that evening we went into San Jose to have a few drinks. This is the first time I have been downtown San Jose and it was pretty intense. There were police everywhere and the guys who were showing us around were wondering why they didn't have the riot gear out this time! The entertainment district in San Jose reminds me a lot of Toronto's Entertainment district. Many people in the GTA head to Toronto to party, same thing in San Jose area. It is very busy in San Jose just like Toronto. We had a good time and it was good to check out the city. Cool.

iPod Shuffle

I recently just opened an account at a bank, As a nice present they gave me an iPod Shuffle. Sweet. I am really liking it. HAHA, now I know why Eric is obsessed with Apple products. I heard that Apple is around here so I went on a little exploration. I found out that they are headquartered in Cupertino which is a city just south of Mountain View. They have a huge Campus at "1 Infinite loop". Also if you drive around a little there are buildings all over the place with little apples infront of them. This one below had a green apple infront of it.

The funny part was that many people walking around had iPod Shuffles hangin from their necks. I must say, they definetly have a style of their own, And thats why they won Brand of the year beating out Google.

Berkeley

To start off the day we drove accross the Golden Gate Bridge into a small city of Sausalito. It is a very small town on the bay with lots of sail boats in the water. From there we drove along along the highway, And thats where I saw the sign for SAN QUENTIN. I didn't know that the prison was that close to here. I thought it was in Los Angeles. That is the prison that is featured in the Metalica song St. Anger. It was interesting to actually see the prison because from a distance, it doesn't look that much different than Alcatraz, except one is on an island and isn't used anymore. When we crossed the bay on the 580 we went through the city of Richmond and then stopped at University of California at Berkeley. The first thing we had to do was check out the Engineering Complex. Justin is trying to break in below, he must really miss UofT.

Suprisingly, UC@Berkeley reminds me a lot of the UofT campus. They even have an EngSci program of their own there. There was a lot of expansion occuring there and the layout of the campus reminded me of UofT.
After checking out the Uni, we headed down to catch an Oakland A's Baseball game against the Blue Jays... The Jays lossed. They play in McAfee stadium, it was cool to see the stadium.

New Place !!!

Guys, I am really excited about this. MARCUS, JUSTIN, BRYAN. We have just signed a 12 month lease at Greendale. It is a housing complex and it's the most amazing thing I have ever seen. It blows my last place out of the water, in your face Victor Ng. There are 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a huge Living Area, a nice kitchen and a huge balcony that you can see in the picture in the top right that looks over the pool and hot tub.

There is also a nice plasma TV room, another pool, Fitness center and Billiards tables on the property. We also get a few parking spots. This is awsome, Marcus, Justin and I are really excited about this and I can't wait for Chris and Caroline to come check it out (hopefully). You guys will be the first from Toronto to come out here to join the party. We move into this place June 19th.

Again, I wanna thank Tony for putting me up for number 1 in the power rankings, thats awsome, I have a whole list on my page of things that I wanna do, so the pictures are still coming. I am going to see as much as I can out here.