250 Words of Me.

Here upon is the first entry in a void of blog-less days.  Here is the first of my May blog Challenge.  Here is: Describe yourself in 250 words.


Vagrant. Vagabond. Searching. Wandering.

I was born in the Philippines, adopted at 4 days old and whisked away to the States as a mere babe of 2.  I spent my childhood jumping home to home -- Wisconsin, New Delhi, New Jersey, Ohio, then suburbs of Chicago.  High school was fairly stable; 4 years at the same school -- made friends, explored the city, got really into music and the local scene, frequented used CD shops, basement shows and the Metro.  College took me to Wisconsin where I spent 3 years getting to know and breaking the heart of my first love.  A move to Madison turned me into a worker bee at a big time software company.  Two years later, my wanderlust itched and I sold my belongs to travel the US looking for a new home; cross-country in two months (more new friends, more new experiences), 3 months in SF, 3 months in Maui.  Then, in a whirl, it was back to Wisco for the love my life.. but when winter struck, he followed suit and left behind work/home to journey to SE Asia for a season.  Travel tired, we settled in San Francisco and here we have made our new life.  Here is where our home is: our kitten, our house, new/old friends, sun, city and adventure.  

Yet I am still wondering.. Where next?


Thanks to Natalie for the inspiration: Looking Through the Lens

anniversary camping!

since i was away for our first anniversary, i surprised josh this past weekend with an anniversary camping trip!

we drove down the coast on the beautiful coastal highway, winding up, down, and around the sheer cliffs overlooking the magnificent pacific ocean. we randomly found a camping spot at the quaint san simeon creek campground, a little bit south of hearst castle. our campsite was nestled in the trees, nice and private on the first night with a vacant site on our left and a site housing ghost campers (gone all evening!) to our right.

because we love food so much, we prepped some tasty meals for this trip.

night one: grilled pork chops accompanied by parmesan basil orzo.
night two: fresh pasta topped with chicken and a sun-dried tomato basil cream sauce.

delicioso!

our secrets to gourmet camp cooking:

1. plan a grill night (burgers, pork chops, chicken) -- something easy to throw on the grate and go
2. pick easy to prep sides -- pasta and rice are easy. potatoes, less so. we did orzo cooked in chicken broth and water. the chicken broth added a lot of flavor with no extra work. topped with fresh grated parm and fresh sliced basil, it was delicious!
3. prep at home -- for our fresh pasta night, we cubed and cooked the chicken ahead of time. we also chopped the garlic and sun-dried tomatoes and ziplocked them together with the red pepper flakes our recipe called for. lastly, we made sure we had grated up a bunch o' parmesan for our orzo and to top the pasta.
4. make something with wine/beer -- there are a lot of good recipes that call for wine or beer. it adds a lot of flavor and then you get to drink the leftovers!

our recipe is an adaptation of this one.

happy camp cooking! :)

niagara falls disco, part 2

we embarked bright and early for our nine hour drive to boston. i made quick evenly spaced stops on the clean well-maintained new york state turnpike. we arrived on time.

my group wasn’t feeling group dinner so i let them loose on the city. i gave them a quick overview of sites and prepped them for their free day. told them i would meet those of them tomorrow without baseball tickets for dinner/drinks across from the ballpark. i ate dinner with harry and chris at a thai place around the corner from our hostel. the food was tasty but spicier than expected. drops of sweat dabbed my cheeks as i sipped my first beer in two weeks.

when we met up again, the group again split off to a table away from myself so i conversed with lindsey and her group. i had an expensive whiskey on the rocks and a half-price burger.

then, the weather changed. furious phone calls made - me to dan, dan to lindsey, dan to me, lindsey to dan. a hurricane was coming up the coast. and was headed right towards us. with a departure for nyc in the future and the whole east coast on tornado watch, we were forced to make changes to our original plans. plans and rumors filled the ears of our passengers. another game of telephone carried the news to our hostel where, unknown to me, my pax started panicking.

a missed phone call. another. and another. all in the span of five minutes. when i called the mystery number back, it was rachel, almost in tears. her, paul, lydia and charlotte were worried about reservations, hotels, flights and money. i rushed back to the hostel. in a flutter of conversation, tears and split second decisions, the four decided to leave the trip. they signed some forms, packed their bags and departed on a late night bus trip into the city in order to beat the storm. i let them go with apprehension. i slept poorly.

in the morning, we scrambled with reservations, rearranged rooms and tried to rebook flights. we drove inland toward a small town in massachusetts. the group spent the day in an outlet mall -- movies, internet, shopping. the evening was pizza, beer and weather channel. the group was loud. i was sober. when they finally left our room, i slept soundly.

we gathered late in the morning, ate, and decided to head into the city. the early driving was wet and windy. gas stops were met with frustration - power outages, no bathrooms, empty gas stations. but finally, we were back! i left them in a strong wind on the streets of ny. they left me with garbage, crumbs and thank you cards.

tonight, i sleep at the motel six trying to recover from a trip gone on too long.
tomorrow, i start it all over again.

niagara falls disco, part 1

my niagara falls tour was quick out of the gate. we met up at 8am in the lobby of the columbus circle hostel, my pax filtering in slowly, mingling in and out of the mix of hostellers and fellow trek passengers. after a flutter of papers and introductions, we drove off to philly for a lunch stop to sample the famous local cheesesteak. i followed directions i was unsure of. i scanned worriedly for parking. and after dropping aimless wanderers, i settled on lunch myself at an unsuspecting pizza place. surprisingly, almost everyone was there. i ordered a hot slice and inserted myself awkwardly into the group. conversation was short, answers curt. in a crowd of early 20-somethings, i felt like i was back in high school; unsure, uncomfortable, starving for acceptance. i ate quickly and excused myself, claiming to look for my last 2 passengers - an older couple from australia already on their 30-something-th year of traveling the globe. my stomach in knots, i wandered the streets of philly until it was time again to pick them up.

we pulled into washington dc early evening and i circled the one-way streets to find the best drop off place for my people. they scattered before i could address them. i telephone-passed a message to meet back at 6 for dinner. at 6, we met up with our paralleling group in the lobby and, with a 24-strong group, we crowded the sidewalk and bus to make our way to georgetown. stuck at the end of a long 12-person table, i conversed with harry and chris as they regaled me of their years of travel. i strained to listen to talk farther down the table to make connections with the rest of my group.. to no avail. i nodded and laughed appropriately.

i announced a meeting at 9am in the morning to hopefully get more of a hold over the group. they agreed and split up after the meal was over -- lindsey’s group still chatting, drinking and generally getting to know each other. i met up with austin and summer, having a beer or two on the second floor of an open air bar. we chatted about where we’d all been in the last few years -- surprised at how much time had passed between our last meetings.

in the morning, i awoke as lindsey (occupying the bunk below me) was getting ready to meet her passengers. “oh,” she remarked offhand. “a few of your passengers are coming with me since i was actually able to get more spots on the capitol tour this morning.” i inquired as to how many but she didn’t know. i asked if everyone knew about it and if everyone had the opportunity to go on the tour. again, she didn’t know. i hopped quickly and bleary-eyed out of bed and went on a mad hunt for everyone. i tried knocking on room doors and scouring the kitchen. i did this for close to a half hour. in the end, it turned out everyone was going on the tour. by now, i hadn’t brushed my teeth nor eaten and it was time to head to the capitol. i grabbed my bag, wallet and maps, and piggybacked on lindsey’s walk/tour of dc. as she spouted amazing knowledge and tidbits, my self-consciousness squeezed at my insides and i felt inadequate.

after dropping them off and leaving lindsey to eat with her friends, i sat down and cried on the capitol steps. the washington monument mocked me in the distance.

i wandered through a random sculpture garden and dried my tears. i spent the rest of the day trying to put together a shopping list that would satisfy my random group of travelers -- trying to appease their tastes, trying to stay within their tight budgets. i napped for ten minutes and woke up exhausted.

in the morning, my copilot - rachel - helped collect our $20 food kitty and opted out herself. i adjusted the list last minute to accommodate the fact that people just wanted to do group dinners.. not all meals. i split up the remaining items and handed out slips of paper for each of us to buy. unbeknownst to me, a slip or two fell under my feet. our drive was long -- longer than expected -- and we reached the finger lakes around 4:30 in the evening. the group was tired and weary. as was i. they split up immediately as the van doors unlocked, leaving harry, chris and myself to unload the van, the cooking equipment and our gear. they headed for the water and to tan in the sun. i sat atop a picnic table and talked with harry as he sipped his whiskey. we stared out at the calm lake cayuga. in front of us, chris curled up on the shore and stared at the slowly lapping water.

that night, i slept alone in a cabin for two as outside a party raged. i was awoken by the drunken laughter of the cabin next to mine. i tried to roll over and rest up for my long drive the next day. 6:30 came too fast.

the next day brought: a short drive to niagara, getting soaked under the magnificent horseshoe falls and making phone calls in the hot hot heat of my sun-baked van. that evening, at the koa camp, we cooked out - none of them knowing how to simply cut up veggies and boil noodles. the girls sneered at every turn. scowled at the final result. in the end, they went back for seconds. i snuck in on a game of cards, semi-feeling included, semi-feeling pitied. we retired when the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. i slept in the back of the van, the wind and rain beating hard on the metal roof. the sky lighting up and the thunder rumbling.

into the fire.

tour number one began with circles around the 2-block radius of union square scouring for parking or loading zones to accommodate my 15-pax van.  my first passengers stood, side by side, behind large luggage in front of the hotel stratford, eyes scanning for their pickup.  the woman - shoulder-length blonde hair, short stature, aging but vibrant good looks - recognized the logo on my vehicle and motioned to the main next to her.  he - shorter in statue and donning a black cowboy hat, cigarette in hand - acknowledged and nodded in my direction.  as i wrapped up their paperwork, a third joined - young, long blonde hair, full makeup and amply breasted.  and lastly, our final straggler - thin, long face and tired eyes - arrived.  we exchanged 'hello's, loaded up their many (heavy) bags and quickly headed out of the city.  

my speeches were short, the car rides awkward; i worried they could see how green i was.  dropping them off at the santa cruz beach boardwalk, i made a mad dash downtown for a mission impossible-style bank errand.  complications arose, tempers flared and i panicked.  tears. on a rescue mission later in the day, my pax roamed downtown SC while i attempted to finally accomplish my goal.  an hour later -- success!  

two hours down california's pacific highway, we stopped at monterey's cannery row and split up.  lisa (the young german au pair) and i hit up the expensive but nice aquarium.  together we stood inside a giant wave, pet sting rays and stared amazed at the glowing neon orange jellyfish.  for dinner, we all dined randomly at the boar's head in carmel, a restaurant owned by none other than clint eastwood.  lisa, penny (the aging beauty) and i all tried the dirty harry special.  frances (tired eyes) perused the menu for something she could eat -- no eggs, no meat, no fish, no cheese -- and finally settled on locally farmed artichoke soup and salad.  roger (our own personal cowboy) removed his teeth and gnawed on his pork chop dinner, washing it down with 5 cold budweisers.  

at night, i stayed up later than planned arranging details for the next day.  my eyes closed to the comforting sounds of my long lost food network.

day two started with a $2 banana and an equally priced hot chocolate.  after multiple photo stops on the picturesque big sur portion of the CA-1, we turned down the long, one-lane road to our picnic lunch stop.  the van bumped uncomfortably and we stopped often (and treacherously) to make way for oncoming traffic.  our destination was a wonderful pocketed beach area surrounded by sharp volcanic expanses of large rock.  the waves splashed forcefully through the large openings in the rocks as we admired the vast pacific ocean behind them.  the group vetoed lunch on the beach so we ate in the parking lot - our cooler as the prep-kitchen, our laps as our table.  

another long silent van ride.  lisa slept in the passenger seat as the radio station she had selected faded more and more into static.  we arrived in san luis obispo in only enough time to barely walk the main street before the sun set.  we suppered at a local thai place with a multitude of vegan fare and a never-ending supply of buds for roger.  as we left, he lovingly kissed our waitress on the cheek.  surprised and with both hands full of food, she ducked, squirmed and shut her eyes.  the restaurant watched our group as we walked past the window to our hotel.  

again, the soothing sound of ted allen lulled me to sleep.

day last, i ate a well priced $3 cheesy egg plate to kick-start my energy.  we hit the road in order to arrive in santa barbara at the perfect lunch hour.  the day was sunny, hot.  

for lunch, we ate leftovers out of the side of the van.  our cooler prep area spilling into the sidewalk.  by the time we left, it was 2PM.  as we approached the timesuck that is LA, we were met with slow crawling traffic in malibu.  towering multi-million dollar houses and vast ocean views pacified the pax.  worried about time, i bit my nails and nervously drummed on the steering wheel.  once we hit the highway near hollywood, traffic was a standstill.  frances called her airport shuttle to reschedule but we denied.  we inched down sunset boulevard.  0.7 miles away from the shuttle, we were still 10 minutes too far.  they graciously deigned to wait.  by now, it was 7PM and we had just sat through 3-4 hours traffic.  

i cringed on the inside at the disappointed looks of my left pax while i told them we wouldn't be able to finish our hollywood tour.  over promised. under delivered.  i left them with a plethora of apologies.  i left them alone with their luggage in front of the motel 6.  

more traffic to my hotel.  tired, i entered my room to a non-talkative roommate who was glued to her smartphone.  i ate my cold leftover thai food in silence and worried that my pax hated their tour.  more work.  more papers.  at 12:15 i set my alarm for 5:30AM.

cross-country.

so i left the midwest (again.. eep) and arrived in lovely san francisco last night. hoping to figure things out, get a job and settle down here for a while. ::fingers crossed::

on the way, i stopped in omaha, nebraska which was a pretty decent little town. not much to it, but i did get to drive on saddle creek drive and happy hollow ave which amused me much. (fans of bright eyes, the faint, cursive, etc will get these references.. ) the downtown was pretty small and easily navigable (minus the random construction) and there seemed to be a lot of chill intimate venues for popular saddle creek acts which i am envious of.

i also briefly rested in salt lake city after a long 13-hour drive which i found very nice as well. during my first visit to slc i found myself confused and a little put off, but this time i drove in with the backdrop of the sun setting on the mountains and decided to give it a second chance. it is apparently a good spot for those who love the outdoors, camping, rock climbing, and hiking so someday maybe i will check it out more thoroughly than overnight. mormonism has placed some strict laws on alcohol but i have met a few home brewers which i think allows for a lot of cool variety on beers and wine.

finally, after another long day of driving (11 hours!) i made it to san francisco. california immediately greeted me with green grass and clear skies. i drove with the windows down and the stereo up. even stuck in traffic, i was so elated to be back in this beautiful city.

a week in the desert.

on a whim, the night before my friend eric took off for the desert, i decided to accompany him to the craziness known as burning man. without really being prepared and not knowing much about the event at all, i followed my companions into the desert.

i cannot really describe the experience fully.

it was a community. it was a party. it was an art exhibition.
it was a celebration.
it was harsh living conditions.
it was a task.
it was a joy.

i barely got to take pictures because i was constantly in awe of everything.
those that i did hardly gave justice to it.

in addition, i also got to experience/see ridiculous dust storms (lasting for hours), extreme heat and cold, a double rainbow, and a meteor shower.

the final burning of the man and the burning of the oil derrick was just amazing.
there are videos of the oil derrick burning that barely begin to touch on what it was like. look 'em up though. the mushroom cloud alone is worth it to see.











more pictures here.

the waters of santa fe

after taking off from colorado, i made my way south to santa fe.
i met up with my friend eric and hung out at his pad for a few days.






his friend paul took me to abiquiu lake, where we ate lunch to some pretty scenery and went cliff jumping.






we also went to some nifty mineral infused hot springs called ojo caliente. that was relaxing and soothing on my dry skin.



the next day, i crashed a wedding with eric.
i also helped him prepare to go to something called burning man.

i didn't know what that was so i watched a documentary on it and found it to be very intriguing.
eric offered me room in his camp if i wanted to come with..

.. so i agreed.

more about that to come.

pictures of santa fe, here.

rocky mountain high.

i am so behind on this travel journal.
i am now currently in a coffee shop in santa cruz, ca.
i will tell you about colorado, however, instead.

i spent a week in estes park, co with my relatives reg and judy guy.
they were amazing hosts and i had an amazing time.

we were located right next to rocky mountain national park so i got to go on some really beautiful hikes and see some great views.

reg also took me to a few random museums and to see the stanley hotel (the hotel that inspired stephen king's the shining and where they actually filmed some of the tv miniseries). judy also took me up trail ridge road and to the continental divide so that was sweet too.

also, having a week of home-cooked meals was divine.
judy and i dined on leftover gourmet manicotti for lunch a few days which was delicious. :)











more pictures here.

later.

yellowstone

so i'm actually now in santa fe, but i have still yet to tell you about yellowstone.

oh! yellowstone was amazing!
just driving into the park took my breath away.

i arrived a lot later than expected since the east entrance was closed (due to forest fire) so instead of planning out my next day, i retired in a private room and passed out almost as soon as i arrived (although it was already pretty much 11pm).

when i awoke, i transferred to a shared room, where i met dianna. she was a nice lady -- but she was an interrupter.
very interesting.

i headed into the park early and did the big loop -- stopping quite often for a good view or two.

i saw all the sites including old faithful, tower falls, the canyon area and mammoth hot springs.







after a long day, i went back to the hostel and fell quickly to sleep.
i awoke the next morning with what i assumed were mosquito bites all over my arms. it was horrible. and itchy.

i went into the park again and took a few short hikes, drove to see the tetons,



felt ill due to lack of water and spent the rest of the day back at the hostel reading and hanging out.

i met kristen (another girl in the shared room) that night and we had dinner together, talked about our experiences in hawaii and traveling by ourselves (she's 25 and traveling solo!), and had gigantic ice cream cones!

i left early (6:15) the next morning to get to estes park in time for gourmet italian dinner. i left in time to see the sun rise over yellowstone and to see the geyser steam at its fullest.



all in all, yellowstone was an awesome experience.

more pictures here.

rapid city, south dakota

well, i'm in colorado right now.. but i have so much to update you with so i'm going to do this in chunks.

i left madison on the 10th of august and drove 11 hours to rapid city, south dakota.
it was a long drive (especially through south dakota. that state gets very boring in the middle there) but i made it safe and sound. and early too!

my kind host, bill, took me for a hike on the first day around sylvan lake. we then checked out some native american art and chilled out at a coffee shop.



on my second day, anna and emma joined us on our adventures. we went to see mount rushmore,



crazy horse (this is awesome. the scope of this is just amazing.),



custer state park (we saw sweet rocks, mountain goats, buffalo, antelope and a ga-jillion prairie dogs),



and wind cave (the fourth longest cave in the world!).



eventually, i will upload all my pictures on webshots..
but i have stuff to do today so you, patient readers, will have to wait.

until then, i bid you adieu.

more pictures: here