Mt. Teneriffe Snowshoe, March 2012

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Mt. Teneriffe
Date: March 16, 2012
Difficulty: 7 out of 10
Distance: 11 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,838 ft.
Time: 5 to 6 hours
Location: Near North Bend, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass
Trail Conditions: Wet to very deep snow
Hiking with: Rick Massie & my wonder dog Macho

The Cascade Mountains was getting dumped on by the snow gods and I have been missing the snow action due to my travels and I wanted to get another big snowshoe hike in before I traveled out again. Rick Massie drove over to my house and we loaded up my Bimmer and took off towards North Bend, Washington.

Due to all the snow, the avalanche danger was high….so we decided to snowshow the service road on Mt. Teneriffe. This road is wide and has elevation gain of over 3,800 feet, perfect for a snowshoe work-out and safe too. There was only one other car at the trailhead when we started and we caught up with the two of them about two miles up; one of them had a broken snowshoe and we ended up giving him a couple of straps to fix it. As we passed them, Rick and I were breaking snow and it was getting deeper with every step. After fifty yards of plowing through the deep snow, our legs would start to burn; we took turns taking the lead to give each other a rest.

With the trail already broken, the other two caught up with us around the four mile mark. We let them pass us, but…within twenty yards, there were already exhausted. All four of us ended up taking turns taking the lead. We ended up having lunch at the five mile mark, it’s my favorite part of the trail….a long stretch of the road that is exposed and has big views. After descending and total exhaustion we stopped at our usual spot, North Bend Bar and Grille for a beer and food.

Buenos Aires Trip, March 2012

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This trip was solely based on Linna’s 40th birthday on February 28th; we wanted to celebrate her special day in a warm country and a new place we have never been before.  I flew in from Sao Paulo on Friday and Linna flew in the next day, February 25th.  I warned Linna about a $140 entry fee for first time foreigners; this payment is like a Visa expense, but you pay it right before you step in-line to customs.  We both had to take a taxi from airport to Hilton and I waited for Linna outside the hotel for her to show up.  What are the chances for Linna and I to have the same taxi driver on two separate days…well it happened.  She was charged 180 pesos and I was charged 170 pesos.

First day out we headed to the world’s widest avenue “Avenida 9 de Julio” with 18 automobile lanes.  At the center of the avenue is a mini Washington Monument called “Obelisco”.  Still on foot we headed to the outdoor market in Recoleta and purchased a few items.  We wanted to visit the Recoleta Cemetery which was in the same area, but….it was closed by the time we got there.  We stopped by a couple of outdoor cafés before we made it home that night. 

Next day was off to another market, Feria de Mataderos….Linna thought there would be a small parade and a huge market, but we had the wrong date.  It was pretty much empty streets with a few low scale vendors; we ended up having lunch in the neighborhood at cute outdoor café “Los Campeones”.  Since we missed the Recoleta Cemetery, we taxied back and looked for the famous Eva Perón tomb.  We probably walked around 45 minutes before we decided to head to the entrance and look at the map for Eva; even after looking at the map it still took us 10 minutes to find her tomb.  That night Linna booked us a tango show at El Viejo Almacen, I recommend at least seeing one show….now that I have, I am good for a while.

Fourth Day: Like most people, Linna and I decided to take one day excursion to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay via a speedy ferry boat which took one hour. This is more of a tourist town then anything, but…still worth the visit. We decided to walk through-out the city and we really regret not renting a car or even a golf-cart that are available. We were so tired of walking in the heat….it took all the fun out of the day (now we know!). Within a short walk you can check out some really old architect in the historic quarter like the city gate and wooden drawbridge and lighthouse nearby. The Basilica of the Holy Sacrament is really cool, it was built by stone in 1808 by the Portuguese. After a few more historical sites we stopped for lunch before we decided to walk to the Plaza de toros Real de San Carlos. It was built in 1909 for bullfighting, but it only had 8 fights before the country banned bullfighting in 1912. The building is fenced in due to the decomposing structure, but Linna and I found a hole in the fence and checked it out. It was this attraction that we walked over two miles in the hot sun to see that did us in for the day. The ferry ride back was up in the VIP seating which I highly recommend. The seats are much bigger and they start you off with a complimentary glass of Champagne.

Fifth Day: After a few days in Buenos Aires, we wanted to adventure out to the countryside, so we found an Estancia (large ranch) about 60 miles outside of Buenos Aires in the Pampa’s region called La Bamba www.labambadeareco.com Linna and I took a taxi back to the airport to pick up a rental car from Avis. I find that you really can’t explore a city or country without driving through it. Of course, without navigation it would be almost impossible so I always get a TomTom or Garmin to help me along. From the airport we winded through neighborhoods before we finally hit a highway. The road from the highway to the estancia was a dirt road, but…since it had rained days before, it was a mud road.

Sao Paulo Trip, February 2012

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I usually make a trip down to Sao Paulo, Brazil every year and as always….walking off the airplane in Sao Paulo is usually the exact opposite from walking off the airplane in Seattle. Warm air greets you unlike the cool wet weather of Seattle. My good friends Afonso Fernandes and Desmond Simoes were waiting outside of customs for me. The drive from the airport to my Hilton Hotel was unusually quick due to the national holiday Carnival that I just missed. Any other day it would have been another slow going commute; Sao Paulo is well known for having some of the worst traffic in the world. After getting checked in at the hotel, I got caught up with emails and had time for a snooze before we headed out for a late lunch.

We headed to a typical Churrasco style restaurant and as usual I indulged way too much on the various slices of beef and lamb. I always follow Alfonso’s recommendation when selecting piece of meat from the Passadores (server).

Next day we headed up Piracicaba, a smaller city Northwest of Sao Paulo. There are many restaurants along the Piracicaba river, but this trip we had a great lunch in a German restaurant with my Renata Tabai and a few of her co-workers.

Mt. Si Hike, February 2012

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Mt. Si
Date: February 11, 2012
Difficulty: 6 out of 10
Distance: 8 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,400 Feet
Time: 3 to 4 hours
Location: Near North Bend, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass
Trail Conditions: Wet to packed snow on top
Hiking with: Rick Massie, Andrew Whitford & my wonder dog Macho

I and two other co-workers, Rick Massie and Andrew Whitford from Ipswich, UK decided to hike Mt. Si. It really didn’t matter what hike or peak we chose, there wasn’t going to be a view due to the soupy cloud cover. We met at our usual spot in North Bend, Washington and then headed to the trailhead. As we all know, Mt. Si can be quite busy on weekends, but….it wasn’t so bad this morning. I parked in my usual spot near the service entrance and we got geared up.

For February, it was actually not so cold; I just wore a dri-fit shirt to the top. Near the summit it started to snow, but only for 10 minutes. This was Andy’s first Northwest hike and I think he was exhilarated by all the spiraling trees, ferns and moss. At the top I boiled up some water for some instant Starbuck’s coffee, the hot coffee reduced the wet chill in our bodies.

At the end of the decent, I gave Macho the wonder dog a bath in the creek near the trailhead. After getting out of our wet gear, we met with my wife Linna Wei at Blue Ginger in Bellevue, Washington for some Korean barbeque.

Paris Trip, January 2012

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I usually fly Delta Airlines direct into Amsterdam when I am visiting Europe, this time I had the urge to start my trip off in Paris and end in Paris. I flew Air France direct into Paris early morning and took a taxi to my Hilton hotel near the Arc de Triomphe. My room wasn’t quite ready, so it gave me time to catch up on emails and have a little breakfast in the excutive lounge. After getting settled into my room, a nap was in order; I slept a couple of hours before my co-worker Martyn Crouch met up with me later at the hotel. Martyn took the Eurostar train www.eurostar.com from London to Paris, a little over two hours of stress free train ride. It’s common knowledge that the trains in Europe rock….lots of comfort and speed.

We headed out for dinner, a ten minute taxi ride to the Notre Dame Cathedral neighborhood. We had dinner at Mon Vieil Ami www.mon-vieil-ami.com, a very cozy place. In fact, it was so cozy that we were seated so close to people that we were literally touching elbows. The food and atmosphere more than made up for the tight seating. After dining, we headed for one of the most famous monuments…..the Eiffel Tower. I was surprised that Martyn living in the UK and just a couple of trains away, this was his first time visiting the Eiffel Tower in person. The last time I was here with my wife Linna, we just missed the last elevator ride to the top, but I didn’t miss it this time. This was my first time heading to the top and it was incredible. It was a clear night, but it was extremely cold; France was getting hit with an artic blast coming in from Russia.

Next day was a train ride to Grenoble, France….a city in southeastern France, known as the “Capital of the Alps”. When you are in France, you ride the TGV trains www.tgv-europe.com. French trains maintain the highest average speed, they move up to 322 kph (201 mph). With Paris as its hub, this high-speed French network interconnects throughout Europe making it an attractive alternative to the plane. Due to traffic and a slow taxi driver, we missed our train departure and had to catch the next train. We had a meeting in Grenoble that I had to move out to the afternoon. After our meeting we headed to the Park Hotel www.park-hotel-grenoble.fr, I have been staying here for the past 10 years. This is an older but eloquent hotel and they serve a great breakfast. After checking in, we heading out for dinner. Due to the extreme cold, we didn’t walk to the center city where I love to wine and dine at all the many restaurants and shops. About four blocks away from our hotel we landed at this this pizzeria that was fabulous.

Next day was another TGV train ride to Lille, France. Martyn and I met up with another co-worker at the Lille train station, Sophie Brouillet a French native that has lived in the UK for the past 14 years. I rented a car from Avis at the train station and we headed toward our hotel Au Tonnelier www.autonnelier.com located in Bergues, France…a very northern city. The next day I was in the UK visiting Ipswich and Leicester. I finished my trip off with a train ride back from London to Paris followed by an Air France flight back to Seattle the next day.

Winthrop Ski Trip, January 2012

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Jim Darmiento, Rick Massie, my wife and I planned a trip to Winthrop, Washington for some cross-country skiing. Much of Washington didn’t have the normal snow fall for this time of year and our ski trip wasn’t looking good. This all changed a couple days before our departure from Seattle, we received a major snowstorm that hit the whole state. Luckily Jim drove his F-250 4-wheel drive truck over with 500 pounds of sandbags in back. After two mountain passes and numerous white-outs we made it to our cabin after 4 hours of driving.

Since our cabin was just across the river from Winthrop, we had dinner in the small village our first night at the Old School House Brewery www.oldschoolhousebrewery.com. This place is a local favorite and also attracts all the tourist too. The second night was Chinese hotpot that Linna Wei put together, after our first day of skiing nearly ten miles, spicy hotpot was the answer. Before we went out the second day, Linna and I cooked up some fluffy pancakes and thick bacon. We headed right out after breakfast and skied nine miles. After another great day out in the winter wonderland, Linna and I headed back to the cabin for a nap and other activities. For dinner, we headed back into Wintrop and hit the Old School House Brewery again, this time there were two guys playing music, Tim Snider and Redwood Son www.bit.ly/z2E4TP. I didn’t record this video, but found it on You Tube and it was the night we were there…I remember the lady dancing in front of us.

Sunday, was pack up and head back to Seattle. Since it was still snowing and the passes would be nasty, we decided to drive one pass via Stevens Pass versus Blewett and Snoqualmie. It was slow going over Stevens, but as we descended….snow become rain and then we just had wet roads home. After unpacking and taking a quick shower, Linna and I ended our evening at the Paramount Theater seeing David Garrett www.david-garrett.com.

Gold Creek Snowshoe, January 2012

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Gold Creek
Date: January 15, 2012
Difficulty: 5 out of 10
Distance: 4 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2,000 feet
Time: 3 to 4 hours
Location: Exit 54, I-90
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Snowpark Pass
Trail Conditions: Fresh Snow
Hiking With: Jim Darmiento, Rick Massie & Macho

After a few weeks without any new snow in the mountains, it started to dump fresh snow and continued all day. I just flew back from San Francisco the night before, but….with the new snow, I wanted to finish the weekend off with a trip to the mountains. I met up with Jim Darmiento and Rick Massie at Starbucks in North Bend, Washington. Our plans was to snowshoe Source Lake near Alpental Ski Resort, but….because the new snow, every skier/snowboarder was out and there was no parking to be had at the trailhead. So we headed off to Cold Creek snowpark which was only a couple of more miles down the road.

This snowpark (really just a side road to park) requires a permit that you can buy for $50 for the year or a daily permit at $20. The trail itself is pretty much a service road, but…it’s still has elevation, beauty and it’s very serene. We stopped for lunch and boiled up some water for coffee and pouch Teriyaki Beef & Rice that we all shared. We ended the day at North Bend Bar & Grille for a couple of cold beers and hot food.

San Francisco Trip, January 2012

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Linna and I got lucky this weekend in San Francisco with the weather and had a chance to soak up some sun for a couple of days. This was a short trip down South for a little shopping and of course some wining and dining. We flew late afternoon on Thursday and both of us were upgraded to First Class on Alaska Airlines; no dinner was served, but we did munch down the cheese plate with a couple of glasses of wine. Since we flew into Oakland due to lower cost flights, I booked our hotel in Concord, which was ½ hour East of Oakland. On our way to the hotel, we decided to have dinner at this Italian restaurant that I found on OpenTable during our flight from Seattle using the airline internet GOGO. Ottavio www.ottavio.com, is a local favorite in Walnut Greek and the place is so cozy…the Chef would come out to check on you.

Friday was pretty much a shopping day in San Francisco followed by dinner at a hip Japanese restaurant in Oakland. Ozumo www.ozumo.com is a lively young cool place serving authentic Japanese dishes along with premium sashimi. I would recommend using the valet, parking in the area was a challenge. Saturday was sleep in day followed by a visit to the Golden Gate bridge. Of all the visits to the Bay area, I have never actually walked on the bridge; actually you get more of a sense of the size, age and discoloration of the bridge. We flew out late Saturday afternoon to make it home to see a little snow in Seattle.

Mailbox Peak Hike, January 2012

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Mailbox Peak
Date: January 7, 2012
Difficulty: 9 out of 10
Distance: 5 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 4,000 feet
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Near North Bend, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass (new for this hike)
Trail Conditions: Damp to Packed Snow (only on top)
Hiking With: Rick Massie and my dog Macho

I was due for a brutal hike and Mailbox Peak was the fix. I asked Rick Massie to join me on this steep but short hike. We met up at Starbucks in North Bend, Washington and got started at 10:00 a.m. at the trailhead. There was only 6 cars in the parking lot, which meant there wasn’t a lot of people on the hike today….as it should be! The trail was good up to the opening, where it became packed snow. I was happy to see an inch or two on top of the ice, if not…it would have been difficult. Right before the opening, we put on our gators and mini-spikes. We made good time to the peak where it was cloudy, but no wind. We spent 15 minutes changing out our wet clothes and munching down some food.

The descent was the usual beating of the legs and knees and we both agreed, it’s almost easier to hike up than coming down. Rick Massie had a date later that day, so we had to make the stop at North Bend Bar & Grill short.

Costa Rica Trip, November 2011

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Linna and I decided to spend our Thanksgiving away from the wet skies of Seattle and spend it somewhere warm and sunny. We flew on turkey day to spend four days in beautiful Costa Rica. A good friend of ours, Mike Curry gave us a ride to the airport; surprisingly there were no lines at the airport. From drop off, baggage check in and through security….it was maybe 10 minutes! The flight from Seattle to Atlanta was 4 ½ hours and only 3 ½ hours from Atlanta to San Jose, Costa Rica. Linna found our hotel through Groupon, Asclepios….a wellness and healing retreat www.asclepioscr.com. This place only has 12 rooms, so it’s not your typical large International hotel. Our hotel guide took us to our room, well there was already a guest inside….a huge 4 inch spider on wall overlooking the bed. After contemplating we asked for another room, but it was smaller and on ground level. We put our brave hat on and asked for our original room back, the spider was still hanging on the wall.

The next morning was beautiful, started off with a small breakfast followed by a spa treatment at the hotel. After a relaxing massage, we took a taxi into San Jose for some exploring. Asclepios is a great hotel, it’s the location we had a problem with, it’s outside the city. This hotel had no bar, coffee, meat or Wi-Fi….plus there was nothing around this hotel. It was the reason we took off in the morning and came back late at night. On the other hand, if it wasn’t for the Groupon hotel deal, we would have never consider vacationing in Costa Rica. We hit a local spot in San Jose for lunch and for dinner we walked to Café Mando http://bit.ly/tNdkEG. This is a popular dinner spot with the locals and tourists too. Even though San Jose is the largest city in Costa Rico, there really isn’t much to see compared to other capital cities.

Next day after breakfast we picked up a Hertz rental car; this is the only way to really explore a city or country. It wasn’t your typical American or European rental car, it was a beat up, rough riding Japanese Daihatsu 4 wheel drive with bald tires. We headed off to the Doka Coffee plantation for a full tour, this was very informative and enjoyable; I would definitely recommend a coffee tour in Costa Rica. Our coffee guide stated that 60% of their coffee beans are exported to Starbucks….which I thought was pretty cool. Our next tourist event was the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, at $35 per person it was a spendy tourist attraction. It turned out that Linna and I had a very entertaining time and you could easily spend 4 hours there. For dinner, we found this Tex Mex restaurant Jalapeno’s that was featured in Frommers located in Alajuela, a few miles from our hotel. The owner Norman Flores was cool and friendly, he was born in Columbia and grew up in New York.

We got up early the next day and took off early to see the Volcano Posa. If you don’t get to the top by morning, the afternoon clouds roll in and ruin any chance for a beautiful view. So….we did our job and got up early and made it to the volcano park entrance at 7:30 a.m., but the park doesn’t open up until 8:00 a.m. We had some time to kill and on the way up the windy road I noticed a place to have some breakfast. Turns out this was a very small charming hotel www.poaslodge.com, Posa Restaurant & Lodge ran by two brothers, Mark & Oliver. It was almost like being in a rustic cabin and they served up a lovely breakfast. Now only a few miles away, we headed back up to the entrance gate and it wasn’t looking good, it was damn cloudy. So, it didn’t matter how early we were….the clouds were waiting for us anyway. What’s cool about the entrance at the Volcano Park, if there isn’t a view due to the clouds, the park service people will tell you not to waste your money and not buy an entrance fee.

Now that we wasn’t exploring the crater or volcano, we had time to drive to the coast. This only took 1 ½ hours from the middle of the country to Jaco, a pacific coastal city. After Jaco, we headed to Puerto Quepos to visit the Manuel Antonio National Park, this was all hype and no glory. After the hot, humid coast, we started driving back to our hotel. I wanted to hit some back country roads and drive through some small villages, but….the road I chose ended up to be a non-paved and very potted road. Ended up turning around and going back the way we came. We didn’t know but, everybody is driving back to San Jose on Sunday from the coast, so it added another hour to our drive. I look forward to coming back, but…with so many more countries to visit who knows if I will ever be back.