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Short Trip to San Diego

Sunset from La Jolla, CAAt the last minute, I decided to take a trip down to San Diego to visit my sister. Initially, I planned on flying there by myself. I even went so far as to buy a plane ticket. Eventually, though, my cousin and his girlfriend decided to go, so I canceled the plane ticket and booked a room at the Luxor in Las Vegas for the first leg of the drive.

We left Salt Lake City at 7:00 PM on Friday, which is later than we had planned to start the drive to Las Vegas, but not a big deal either. Dan made great time. We arrived at around 11:15 PM Pacific time.

After relaxing in the room for a bit, Dan, Wiebke and I went for a walk down the strip to take in the sites. On the way back, Dan and I played some craps at the Paris Las Vegas. We were both lucky enough to walk away with some winnings.

The drive to San Diego from Las Vegas was long, but interesting. The shift from a desert plateau landscape to a more coastal landscape is abrupt. The weather became absolutely perfect almost as soon as we crossed into San Diego County.

As we approached San Diego, I texted my sister and told her that we wanted to go to the ocean as soon as we arrived, so that's what we did. We arrived at one of the beaches near La Jolla just after sunset. The long journey to California felt complete once we were able to look out over the vast expanse that is the Pacific Ocean.

The next day we checked out Old Town, Petco Park, and the Gaslamp Quarter. For dinner, we met up with another cousin, who was, ironically, also in San Diego for the weekend.

The next day, we met up with my cousin's friend in San Clemente, and then started the long drive back to Salt Lake City. Las Vegas is located perfectly to break up the drive, but on this day we only had time to stop for dinner, and then we had to be on our way.

We didn't see nearly enough of what San Diego has to offer. We didn't have time. And the weather didn't cooperate this time, except on the afternoon of our arrival. I came away intrigued by San Diego (and California, in general), but also slightly underwhelmed and most definitely confused. The geography of the region is probably what confused me the most. There were so many hills and valleys, it was hard to figure out where you were. I do look forward to coming back to visit to see more of what the area has to offer.

The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl

Edwin had proposed in August that we all go to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (formerly the Humanitarian Bowl) in Boise, Idaho in December. Back in August, I didn't pay much attention to the idea because it was so far from bowl season. In early December, however, I happened to come across that original e-mail. I decided that I would love to get out of town to go to that bowl game. Edwin was still interested (and had previously already booked a room in Boise). Dan and Mindy also decided to go. And so we went to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

The trip turned out to be really fun. The game itself was an inexpensive ticket, and the game ended up being great. The result was a comeback victory for Ohio University over Utah State. After the game, we even got to walk on the famous blue "Smurf Turf" at Boise State's football stadium.

After the game, Dan, Edwin, Mindy and I went out to a few bars in Boise. We had a great time!

Skiing vs. Snowboarding

Help decide the age-old debate... Skiing vs. Snowboarding.

Wildflowers at Alta

Tonight, we took a drive up to Alta in Little Cottonwood Canyon to take some pictures of the wildflowers. I hope you enjoy the results!

311 - Universal Pulse

Today, 311 released Universal Pulse, their tenth studio album. It's a short album with only eight songs, but each of them is pretty solid. This album, I think, benefits from its brevity. While 311's last effort, Uplifter, was similarly solid, it suffered from having too many weak tracks. Aside from perhaps "Trouble," there really are no weak tracks or repitition in styles on Universal Pulse. The fact that there are so few weak tracks makes this album most suitable as an example of what 311 do best.

Here are my brief reviews of the songs:

  1. Time Bomb - A song about their fans and their live show. It's a good song, but nothing special.
  2. Wild Nights - A great up-tempo song about their younger days as a band. Great guitar solo. It think it would make a good radio single.
  3. Sunset in July - Their first radio single from the album, which, to me, was a confusing choice because there is nothing special about this song. It's a song about playing live shows in the summer while the sun is setting.
  4. Trouble - The weakest track on the album, in my opinion.
  5. Count Me In - Infectious and funky, with a reggae groove throughout and a great rap by Nick at ~1:55. Currently my favorite song on the album.
  6. Rock On - A heavy song with strong guitars, hip-hop vocals, and a cool guitar solo close the song.
  7. Weightless - A song with great guitar work, a good message, and, for better or worse, an unforgettable chorus. The only weak part is Nick's disjointed vocals to start the bridge.
  8. And a Ways to Go - One of 311's most unique songs. Spacey vocals from Nick with slow raps from SA in between. Closes with a finger-tapping bass solo that morphs into an atmospheric and decidedly cheery repeated chant from SA.

Purchase Universal Pulse: CD or mp3 download

Moab!

Mindy's friend, Devon, was in town visiting, so we decided to bring her to Moab, UT to see what southern Utah has to offer. It turned out to be a great weekend. We did some hiking, some sightseeing and photography, and we capped off the weekend with a short whitewater rafting trip down the Colorado River.

Trip to Capitol Reef

Mindy and I escaped to Capitol Reef National Park this weekend.

We spent Saturday exploring the park by car and by foot (once we got our campsite setup). I hadn't been to Capitol Reef before so I didn't know what to expect, but I came away very impressed with the park's geologic features. I need to go back there and, at least, finish the hike up the Grand Wash. It seems that there's so much to explore there.

I was also amazed at night by all the stars visible from this deserted part of the country.

It Was One of Those Days

ALTA, UT — A late-season storm of ridiculous proportions dropped 26.5 inches of snow starting on Thursday afternoon. The timing was perfect for this ski day to be one of those ridiculously great ski days in the Wasatch. In addition to the snow that had already fallen, there was a 100% chance that it would snow all day today, too. In addition to the previous snowfall superlatives, it is April, so many people have already given up on skiing for the season, which would leave the mountain uncrowded.

Despite the early morning road closure to address the potential for avalanches, there was almost no line to drive up the canyon this morning. Mindy and I got to park right across from the main entrance to the Albion lodge.

I started off by skiing a few runs with Mindy on Sunnyside. The place seemed empty. I tried to make it over to the same spot to the right of Race Hill that I had skied a couple weeks ago, but the deep powder prevented me from traversing far enough, so I dropped down into the Vail Ridge area. The powder there was very deep. My run, however, was not great because I didn't pick a good line through the trees near the bottom.

My second run near Race Hill did not yield the same powder snow results that I had found in Vail Ridge, so I went back there for my next few runs.

After some great powder runs down from Vail Ridge, I left Mindy for a run down from Supreme. I could be wrong, but it didn't seem like the Supreme area had as much snow. I also don't know my way around the Supreme terrain--besides Catherine's Area--all that well. (I decided not to ski Catherine's Area for this run because I didn't want to get stuck with that long, flat run-out and I wanted to explore something new.)

I skied through a gate to the right of Challenger, but I decided to skip the steep, tight chutes I encountered. I veered back onto Challenger for a couple unsatisfactory turns before I skied back through a gate to the right again. I skied some decent turns down to a flat spot with two steep, tight chutes as my options. I spotted another option a little further down, so I skied down there. Unfortunately, that third option--another steep, tight chute--came with a "cliff area" warning sign. There was nowhere else for me to go. I was surrounded on all three sides by inclines and the trek up those inclines in two-feet of powder would not be fun. Cliffs, however, can be fun.

I started down that chute, which I think may have been Dogleg or White Squaw, by sideslipping through the tight entrance. After I got dusted by a couple who made quick work of it, I opened up the throttle and ripped a decent run down the rest of the chute. There wasn't too much powder covering the bumps underneath, but it was still fun.

I met Mindy back at the base of Sunnyside. Unfortunately, we got stuck on the lift ride up for about fifteen minutes. They had to unload the lift using its diesel engine, and then they shut down the lift for repairs. The timing wasn't bad, however, because I wanted to stop at Alf's for a drink of water, and we were planning on meeting a couple friends around that time.

We met up with those friends down at the Albion lodge. Mindy decided to call it a day while I skied some Collins runs with them.

We first skied Sunspot, which was very choppy, but fun. We then skied through some trees between the Race Course Saddle and Mambo where there were some soft powder bumps and a few pockets of ridiculously deep snow. I love those areas between the trees at Alta!

While Les went down to swap out his demo skis for a new pair, Sarah and I skied Fred's trees or something nearby until we ended up back on Mambo. There was more shredded snow on Fred's, so we decided to give our legs a rest and head back to Sunnyside where Vail Ridge held much fresher and deeper powder than anything I skied on those two Collins runs.

The snow on Sunnyside was as fresh and deep as it was in the morning, and I absolutely ripped some runs with Les and Sarah. Mindy had also re-joined us, although she stayed on some easier Sunnyside runs.

Mindy and I took two additional runs after Les and Sarah decided to leave. After a relatively subpar run on the first of those two runs, I carefully picked my next line while riding up the lift. From the top of the ridge, I would ski through a gate and ski at a grove of three pine trees, turn skier's right around them and then left into the fresh pocket of powder snow just below them. Face shot. Then I would drop through a band of abnormally steep terrain (caused by a buried cliff band). Face shot. Then I would snake through the trees on one of the lines I had established earlier in the day, pop out of the trees onto Corkscrew, meet up with Mindy, and absolutely rip it back down to the base. Perfection attained.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Trip to Utah

I just got back from a quick, but eventful trip to Utah. I skied two days at Alta and Snowbird. I visited with Steve and Melissa, and Paul and Kim. I met up with a few of my former co-workers for lunch and visited the rest of the them at the office. In general, it was just great to be back in Utah again. View the full trip report.

311 Day

After taking a walk down the strip with Mindy in the morning and meeting up with Sheldon in the afternoon, it came time for me to separate from the group and head to the 311 Day concert at the Mandalay Events Center.

When I arrived, I was greeted by a massive throng of thousands of 311 fans eager to get into the arena. Thankfully, the band pushed back their 7:00 PM start time a bit to allow the crowd to get into the arena. Otherwise, I don't even want to think about the madness that would've ensued had the band started while the majority of the crowd was still shuffling down the hallways trying to get into the arena.

The seats Mindy got me for my birthday were excellent. They were just above stage height, and only a short distance away.

The band started the 5 hour, 60 song concert with Jackpot, a fitting opener given the locale and the fact that the song kicks ass.

Some song highlights during the show included the world premieres of Get Down and Sun Come Through; and the performances of Livin' & Rockin', Nutsymptom, Brodels, Hydroponic, Come Original, Taiyed, Rub A Dub, Hive (as part of a 3 song mash-up), Use of Time, Jackpot, Slinky (a song not performed since 1993!), and Visit.

All told, I saw 19 songs performed that I had never seen performed live before. The only downside to the show was the number of intermissions. I thought they took one or two too many intermissions, which I thought interrupted the flow of the show a bit. Nevertheless, it was definitely a worthwhile experience.