11/30/09

san diego zoo..

went to the san diego zoo (thanks liz!) to check it out on friday.. for a zoo it was awesome.. tons of cool topography and walkways.. plus it was huge.. maybe im getting soft but i def felt bad for the animals.. especially the birds. some of chels' animal compassion must be running off on me (she went to the art museum instead!).. plus i hate feeling like a tourist so i concluded that if i want to see these animals again, going to their habitat will be a little more my speed!



Posted by Picasa

museum of man...

to me one of the most fascinating things about being a human is our ability to ponder the past... the museum of man was a wonderland of the latest research on topics like human migrations out of africa, evolution, dna study (mitochondrial dna research), anthropology, and procreation... for a long time these fields have really intrigued me and has led me to be interested in religion... i enjoy studying religions impartially (especially eastern religions).. As i walked thru the museum of man i thought about western religion's stance on the theory of evolution (in science a 'theory' means a conclusion supported by many many facts.. see: 'the theory of gravity').. and even though the pope gave a speech on charles darwin's birthday glorifying his findings and the 150 years of research that followed, many people claim that the bible is a 'literal' truth on all of earth's history.. they believe in a worldwide flood, a 6000 yr old earth (it's closer to 4.5 billion!!), and that the earth is the center of the universe... as someone who is very passionate about exploring the world around him, these claims intrigue me..
i've concluded that if these people decide to reject these scientific observations then they should reject all scientific findings, technologies and ways in which science makes our lives better.. cars, telephones, computers, etc.. but people of faith disputing science based on genesis is nothing new, scientists have been murdered by the church for suggesting things like a round earth, and that the earth might revolve around the sun and not the other way around.. this time period is appropriately remembered as the dark ages.. at the time that the bible was written the sun and stars were thought to revolve around a still, flat earth and there was no study of geology or findings of paleontology so the age of the earth was naturally thought to have been around the time writing was invented.. so all of genesis made perfect sense at the time, but the more we learn about the world we live in, and it's immense history, the less we will need to rely on mythological explanations.. i for one take pleasure in understanding how small we are in such a vast mysterious universe, and how closely connected we are to all life on earth.. please feel free to leave your opinions in the comment box.. thanks!



Posted by Picasa

rainy day in balboa park, SD

someone told us that it was the first rain in 100+ days... not sure if that's accurate but i wouldnt doubt it.. the architecture was really cool in balboa park.. felt very old world spanish


Posted by Picasa

coast to coast

friday nite we finally hit the coast.. we treated ourselves to a cheap room and a nite out in a small beach neighborhood called ocean beach... standing knee deep in the ice cold water was almost surreal... after our journey we've determinded that the u.s. is really big!

Posted by Picasa

11/29/09

tree house

anyone who knows me knows that im typically not too fond of human beings until they reach an age of reason.. but frank and liz's kids are soooo cool that i had to do a post about them.. we hung out all morning in their tree house 12ft up, shielded from the sun by a draping pepper tree, listening to their stories about bugs, treasures, fruit, and other things important to kids.. they are so adorable and mild mannered.. i found myself a little jealous of them remembering when i was a kid and things were this simple.. except they get to do it on california hillsides up in the trees eating homegrown grapefruits, while i usually sought solitude and exploration in abandoned warehouses and industrial train tracks... C'est la vie!!





turkey day with frank and liz

we stopped about 25 miles outside of san diego to spend thx giving with some of chelsea's family.. frank and liz were so nice and we really enjoyed our time with them.. frank was a diver for the navy and had some really cool stories.. after an amazing turkey dinner (turkey smoked w mesquite!!) we hung out and watch some home movies and such.. then we celebrated our coastal quest with champagne and pomegranate, i guess you can do things like that when you have pomegranate trees in your front yard!





thru the coastal mountains..

serious climbing.. at 80 miles from the coast we were at 0 ft elevation.. ten miles later we were at 4000!!! then down to 2000 and back up a couple times... finally we began a 15 mile decent at 6% grade into the outskirts of san diego.. lots of fun pushing 40 mph but the wind was so strong it broke my helmet and i had to stop after a few miles because i was dizzy and my face and hands were tingly (is that a word?)






yuma to california!!




11/28/09

friends of the road...

on our way thru arizona from gila bend to yuma, we ran into a local cyclist named david.. a native new yorker who gave us some advice about the road to come and the terrain, etc.. about a half hour after running into us, he ran into a young swedish couple (who rode out of nyc on the exact same day as me!! sept 3rd) who are riding up to alaska and then thru canada.. anyway long story short he gave them our blog, they emailed us and we met up the next nite and camped behind an abandoned gas station in the desert, did the fire thing and i made some form of fajita with some veg, beef, and refried beans... the next day we got a call from daniel who is cycling from texas to wash state, we met daniel at a rest stop back near el paso and he caught up to us so we camped and did the fire/hotdog/keilbassa thing.. awesome

linda and martin made us a killer breakfast consisting of pancakes and jelly
check them out at bikeforfuture.se

daniel just left a 7yr stint in the army to get on a bike and ride for a while.. really cool guy, super interesting with tons of insight. wanted to hang with him more but spared him from listening to chels and i hash out some of the weeks issues.. hope to reconnect with him for another chapter for sure.. maybe on another continent?
http://vagabond-couchsurfer.blogspot.com


david seemed like he was on the verge of dropping everything and heading out with no real destination.. hopefully running into 4 people doing just that within an hour was a sign and sparked him to make the move!!

computer issues

in sandiego w some comp issues... ill hve a bunch of new posts up by tomorrow...

11/24/09

the vekol wash

on our 180 mile trek through the desert to yuma.. the first nite we set up in a wash, which is a dried up river and seems to have a lot more trees and life than the rest of the desert.. a couple bulls came up to us but we were too horrified to grab the camera so i put a pic of the rest of the family...