Sun rays

as the sun was setting, sun rays were just crossing these peaks in anza borrega state park, near san diego. it was so very pretty.

at the subway stations in boston they now continuously announce that you should report anything suspicious. they did this when we just arrived 3 years ago, but the past year or so i didnt hear it that much, until last monday. there is also more police on the streets and the national guard patrols the subway stations; at some places they inspect bags before you can enter, but so far not at "my" stations. some 12 blocks remain closed off to the public entirely, as well as the subway station close to where the explosions occurred. the thought that we walked that street so very often, and that we were watching the marathon last year around that area is just weird.

i can only be glad that neither me nor anyone i know was there when it happened, but so many others were not that lucky.....

From Boston

this is from last years boston marathon, and i was very enchanted by the shiny thermal blankets all the runners received at the finish.

today's finish became quite a different one. i planned on being there, right at the finish like last year. right around 2.30 - 3pm as then some participants me and my colleagues knew were likely going to cross that finish line. but labwork got in the way, and we never walked over to have a look. the first online news site mentioned "explosions, finish and boston marathon" just 10 minutes after it happened. at that moment nobody had any clue what was going on, if something was really going on and what it actually meant. but pretty soon photos, videos and reports from people at the scene were surfacing and we were all just shocked. i am glad i didnt manage to go there, and can only imagine the horror and chaos all those people there at the wrong time and at the wrong place must have gone through.... :(

Not me!

this is a picture from last year of someone who just finished the boston marathon! last year it was really hot that day, around 30C (90 F or something?), and i got tired just from walking a bit... :) imagine running 26.2 miles.....

tomorrow its time for the 117th boston marathon, and it wont be as hot as last year. it actually hasnt been warm at all this year yet, as opposed to last year, when we had a crazy hot day somewhere in march, and where april (i just looked at my pics from last year) was very nice too, from the beginning.. now its just gloomy, quite cold at times and rainy..... 

in 2011, the fastest boston marathon was run; in 2 hours and 3 minutes....! im happy when i manage to run 3 miles without stopping, and even that i dont manage every time (i did, however, once run even 4 miles!), so im very certain i will never run a marathon... but its fun to watch, so perhaps i will stop by tomorrow and take some pics...

Green fields

yesterday i was about to post a picture when i tilted my laptop screen a little and it went black... :( this has been happening quite often the past few days, so i am afraid that my macbook wont be with me that much longer. sometimes it gets back to normal when i tilt it back or even further, but i also have had to restart it a few times before it got back. buhuhuhuhuh... also, it does not want to connect to the internet anymore whenever i close it. only after restarting it does..... the past week i have perhaps restarted my computer more than in the past few months!!

i actually have been meaning to buy a new laptop since i came to the us (so, since 3 years), but either they were too expensive, or not what i wanted, or actually my current one was still ok enough, or... or.. and even now im still not sure which one to get when this one gives up....

above yet another picture of our road trip! i have not been taking any pictures here, lately.... this was on highway 101 1, which mostly runs right along the coast, but right after bodega bay it goes a little further inwards and you are treated to this beautiful green rolling hills with sheep, horses and cows.... and no computers in sight!! :)

Another beach

this is quite another beach compared to the one from yesterday in washington. this is much further down south, in california... so pretty! we had a little picknick in the sand. the rocks kept all the wind and cold away....

Ocean shores

in ocean shores, washington, we enjoyed a pretty sunset. it was, however, quite windy and i was so very very cold!! but it was still nice... we were the only ones actually walking on the beach. the few others enjoying the sunset just had driven their cars right up. there was not really a road, just mostly sand and lots of holes, so our tiny rental car would probably not have made it... i found half a sand dollar, which i kept in the car for our entire trip (this was the second day). when we turned in the car, i took it but was afraid to break it or something, intended to look for something to wrap it in, and then forgot it entirely... :( buuuuhhh.

ocean shores looked extremely touristy, but we were clearly there in the non-tourist season, which was more than fine with me. it was quiet, we got a cheap hotel with a 24hr accessible pool that we got all to ourselves...

Blooming desert

in california we drove a bit through the desert (i like that so much!), and the cacti were blooming, so very pretty! so red, yellow and purple..

Kalaloch beach

since i havent taken any pictures since we got back from our trip, and i took plenty during... here another one! this is still on the olympic loop in washington. that drive was just so magical. one momet the skies would be dark and cloudy, and the next the sun would shine and at some moments the sky would even turn blue! somewhere along the route we wanted to take a hike to a waterfall, but just as we got out and ready on the trail it started to snow/rain quite heavily and so we turned back to the car and had lunch instead, while overlooking the lake (glacier lake, i think). then there were the mossy trees everywhere, and not too many other people.... here we were suddenly treated to an amazing coast! when we got out of the car it was raining and the sky was so dark!! my lens kept getting wet, so many pictures have raindrops on them... :( but out of nowhere that sky turned blue, its really funny to see my first picture from the above scene where its all grey, until we were ready to get back to the car again, and it had gotten all blue!!

the above rocks were huge, very impressive to see.... i couldnt decide which photo to post. my other option was one with raindrops :(, but tim next to that rock in the middle... hes really tiny there... tim, i mean.. :) 

Coffee drive-through

on our trip we were very charmed by all the tiny drive-through coffee places... there were lots in washington and oregon, and california had some as well. never seen them in or around boston... (and as mentioned before, tim now wants to start one in the netherlands... :D ) perfect when you are on a road trip! no need to get out of the car, just a quick drive around and you have your coffee! we had some good ones... :)

we didnt go here, but of course this one was not to be missed. this is probably one of the coolest we saw. its in sequim, and was photographed before by sequim-resident kay, as you can see here! while we drove by, it was a little more cloudy, and i can see that the sausage, egg and cheese muffin has increased 30 cents in price since 2011... :)

Self portrait

oooh, its well after midnight and im so tired! so just a self portrait. this was in washington, when we drove the olympic loop... scenerey was amazing there....

Road sign

along the highway you see a lot of signs for food. some just to let you know about their restaurant, sometimes even 30 miles ahead, or more. or less. or like above "worth every calorie". since i goto the gym, where all the machines count each calorie you have burned (although i know they are not accurate, and you probably usually burn a little less than they say), i sometimes think in calories too. many restaurants list how many calories each of their dishes contains, so then i all i think is; ooh, for just that cookie i have to bike 30 minutes! or run 3 miles.... not always, but sometimes it helps not having the cookie... :)

the coffee place in the hospital also lists the calories of all their pastries, and many of the muffins, brownies and (giant) cookies are easily 400 calories, some even 600-700!! just a muffin... nowadays i only get their coffee, and just watch all the calories i dont have to bike off.. ;)

Rough road

this is a road somewhere in oregon. i would need to get the map to see where exactly it was... :) anyways, we had driven in a beautiful forest, didnt see any other cars and just enjoyed our morning on the empty road. too bad the ranger station was closed to ask for advice regarding the route we wanted to take, but hey, we knew where we were headed and we knew which roads to take... no highways as those are boring and everything but scenic (although in some cases they actually are!). we didnt, however, know that some roads were closed off due to snow, and that other roads were unpaved..... i was actually driving and it all went fine (had some practice doing curves, driving up a somewhat steep grade, etc etc), until... the pavement suddenly stopped... ah well, we thought, perhaps somewhere it starts again? there was a car behind us and we let him pass, hoping to signal that we had a question, but he didnt stop. a little later on he did, and he asked whether we actually knew where we were headed....? well yes, but... would this road ever become paved again?! nope, not for a while and there would be snow. he advised us to turn around and directed us to another road. the first part would be a little detour as the actual road was completely destroyed during a recent storm (!!), but after that we should be fine. we thus turned around and took the detour. which turned out to be unpaved as well, and much, much worse than the road we had been on. there were quite big rocks on the road, and downed trees (as you see here) and soon we hit some snow. that was the point for us where we decided this was crazy. our only option was to go back entirely, from where we had started in the morning!! but it was more than enough adventure for us and we preferred that over this road, without cell phone reception, other cars, etc etc.... besides, driving the same road the other way gives you still another view!

and guess what. today also marks 3 years me doing this blog, and thus also that we have spent 3 years in the us of a!! according to IRS we still have to file our taxes as "aliens", but i do feel less an alien than i did 3 years ago.... ah look at us, here in my very first blogpost (which was actually april 6, so 2 more days for the blog anniversary). the road was bumpy sometimes, but there were at least as many highs as there were lows... :)

To boring!!

when we drove from portland to our next destination (when we left portland we didnt know yet what that destination would be, only that it would be somewhere more south...), we passed by boring!! actually it was not the road we had to take, but we decided to drive the 4 miles to see what boring looks like. i hoped for a nice sign "welcome to boring!" but nothing of that sort... (perhaps it gets stolen too often?). apparently 8000 people live in boring. and it was named boring after william h boring, and early resident of the area, who died in 1932. thats actually a little boring, but well...

we found the boring post office and were surprised it was open on a saturday (around here they are often closed, or only open in the morning), so we sent some postcards. unfortunately not with pictures of boring, since the post office didnt have any cards for sale, other than entirely white ones, prestamped. ah well... i was excited to visit boring, oregon, even though it seemed that there was not much going on...

Cattle feedlot

during our last big drive we passed by a lot of weird things. deserted buildings. empty desert. forgotten statues and even an entire town, abandoned not too long ago. usually we just drove by, saw something weird, stopped, took some pictures and drove on again. sometimes that was a little scary, as we had no clue whether the places were really deserted, or whether we were allowed to walk around, etc (not that we did anything illegal, just looking, from a distance.. :) ). so, sometimes it was just a drive-by shooting, like above. we would turn around, and from the window of the car i would take some pictures... here, we suddenly saw literally thousands of cows on a very small place. something i never have seen in my life. just alongside the road. the cows were obviously curious when we drove by slowly and took some pics, but i didnt dare getting out of the car and inspecting it from a little closer. 

i just looked it up. this is a "cattle feedlot", and this particular one, named "superior cattle feeders" (the name alone, yuck!), houses 80,000 cows. 80,000!!! can you imagine? i actually had never heard of a feedlot, but wikipedia tells me that the cows here most likely have spend the first months of their lives on a normal pasture, eating grass, until they are around 300 kgs. then they are transferred to such a feedlot and are fed mostly corn by-producsts, which makes them gain weight (and especially fat) very quickly; about 180 kgs in the 3-4 months they are in the feedlot. when they are fat enough, they are brought to the slaughterhouse...

we dont eat too much meat. i guess thats better for both the cows and us...

Easter colors

some easter colors for easter sunday! this is actually named the artists palette, in death valley. isnt that amazing? these are volcanic deposits colored by mineral pigments. just a little further outside death valley we actually saw many green mountains. so funny to drive through such a wonderful landscape that is constantly changing..

it was very hot there, around 94F (almost 35 C!!), but in the coming months it will only get hotter here.... 

happy easter!

Desert roads

we drove quite a bit through the desert both yesterday and today. i cant get enough of it.... this is on the way to death valley, close to the little town olancha.

California hoax

yesterday we visited sequoia national park in the sierra nevada mountains, where we looked at giant trees. here you can see part of such tree, with me next to it, to indicate how huge they are... ;)

these trees are around  50–85 m (160–279 ft) in height and 6–8 m (20–26 ft) in diameter. and the largest trees have been measured to be 94.8 m (311 ft) in height and over 17 m (56 ft) in diameter!! and they can be as old as 3500 years! its just so weird to imagine that they are standing there that long... having survived forest fires and whatnot... many trees actually have burn marks from fires that occur every now and then and in fact are necessary for new trees to grow. the cones of the tree need the extreme heat to open and release the seeds, and fire also clears the ground of debris and other plants etc that compete for growth!! so... years ago fires were always put out, until researchers discovered that it inhibited growth of new trees... now they let fires roam, and sometimes even set fires intentionally to restore natural growth...

the other funny thing i learned was even though a tree was cut down, chopped into pieces and reassembled at the 1893 world fair in chicago, some visitors did not believe those trees really existed! they called it the california hoax... :D

Craaaaaaazzzyyyyy lady

yesterday we were in yosemite. some roads are still closed due to snow, and not all trails are open either. still, it was rather crowded, so i can imagine that in summer its crazy here. im happy we went now! we hiked up to the vernal falls, then a little further up even for really breathtaking views, and down again. above we are on top of the vernal falls. to the right is the water falling down with immense force some 317 feet. and as you see, some absolute moron decided to walk along the wrong side of the trail, she is standing at the absolute edge of the falls, taking pictures. we saw her coming and assumed she would turn around and get to the right side of the fence. but she just went on and on. and then even further, as you can see here. at this point i didnt dare telling her she had to get away from there as i was afraid to somehow startle her and she would loose balance or whatever. so the few people watching her were just staring at her in total silence, all shocked, holding their breath. after she had taken her photos, she returned, smiling. saying "ooh, that was a little scary". really, i cannot understand why people put themselves in such danger!! it was so slippery there, and i am sure her pictures were not better because she was on the other side of the fence, nor her view.... 

anyways. nature was stunning there, and my pictures a little disappointing. i yet have to look at tims, and perhaps another time show you more! in the meantime you can watch this video about climbing half dome... we only admired it from a distance. it is still impossible to climb half dome, as it is still closed for the season. anyways, im not sure i would dare to undertake that climb. not only because its so high up and takes about 12 hours roun trip, but also because of idiots like the lady here that could screw it all up for you...

Bodega Bay

yesterday we arrived in bodega bay on highway 1 just after sunset. we had had enough of the driving for a little while already, but there was really nothing along the way. such a beautiful area, but also so very remote! lots of abandoned places. some houses on perfect spots, but no motels or hotels.... then we arrived in a small town with a motel that we found too expensive, but at the gas station the guy mentioned bodega bay would have more options. we found a nice looking motel at the bay. at the front desk i saw a picture of hitchcock and a barbiedoll from the movie the birds, both signed by hitchcock! turns out this was the hotel he stayed at. and... that movie was filmed at bodega and bodega bay. ofcourse, we had no clue, hahahaha (just like we drove through Forks in washington, where apparently the awful twilight movies were filmed...) so... we watched the movie that night (only half, we were too tired), and last night the second half. above the store in bodega that appeared in the movie, and as you see, a lifesize doll of hitchcock is still standing around.....

Shoreline highway

yesterday we drove through the redwoods (amazing! picture another time), and then along the coast of california, on highway 1, also named the shoreline highway. winding roads with tight curves, sometimes right along the shore. high up and then down again. and up. and down. curve after curve after curve. i didnt drive, i wouldnt have dared. the roads were narrow too. we didnt go too fast, and also stopped at every amazing vista (there were too many), and took some little detours to see even more, like this lighthouse above.

this coast is really so different from the east coast!! i think i prefer this one....