Shopping Galore!

Yesterday I went to San Francisco to do some sight-seeing and shopping with Wynne and James. We went to Haight-Ashbury, which was a first for me, and hit some vintage clothing stores. We also went to Amoeba records, which is the coolest place ever. You can find absolutely anything there. I bought 5 shirts, 1 wallet and 4 cds... which is some pretty decent retail therapy if you ask me!

What I've Been Up To Lately

You can tell I am supposed to be studying by the fact that I'm doing the things I normally put off, like cleaning and updating my blog. Here are a few of the highlights from the last couple of months.

My Birthday:

Keegan and James bought and decorated a cake for me, I almost cried it was so nice.

It coincided with a beer-tasting party, which was tasty! I brought Maudite and Fin du Monde.

School:

Marc and I looking like a vine's worst nightmare.

The lab for my "Viticultural Practices" class is usually out in the campus vineyard pruning and training vines. It's my favorite class, I love being out there.

Keg Parties:

It wouldn't be college without the occasional keg-stand

Sightseeing:

I had a great day exploring San Fran. This is the Palace of Fine Arts

Coit Tower, just one of many sights I can show people when the come visit (that's a not-so-subliminal message)

Devo:

I've been busy with our student organization, helping make fundraising t-shirts and stuff. I volunteered to help plan our student trip to France this summer, which is very exciting. I'm having memories of the Hale trip to Spain!

Multi-tasking at the Craft Center on campus.

Immersion Trips:

Twice a year DEVO plans long-weekend trips to wine regions. We visit 2-3 wineries/vineyards each day and usually get to meet the winemakers. This picture is from Navarro, which is pretty much my favorite place ever.

Bonterra Vineyards

Best Ski Days EVER!

I made it up to Kirkwood for my first days of skiing in the Sierras last weekend. Well, I tell you what, it was incredible. They had a major storm come through and dump up to 10 feet, that's right FEET, of snow in a few days. I got there just after they opened the road and got two days of fresh tracks through thigh-deep powder. I've never been so exhausted from skiing in all my days.
I had been a little nervous about the quality of the hill. I've never been so happy to be wrong before! The runs are short (in comparison to Louise, which isn't really fair) but there is great terrain off each lift. Yay!

Winter wonderland. Just outside Placerville where I had to buy chains for my car. The power was out so we did all the business by flashlight.

Rolly with his chains on

Coming down highway 50 towards South Lake Tahoe

Entering the resort area
So much snow!

The view from my room

View from my favorite run


They had just opened this area
All the fresh lines to be had on a bluebird day!

Rolling

Can you believe UC Davis has a bowling alley on campus? We even have a varsity bowling team! And since it's finals week bowling is half-price so I managed to roll a couple frames today for the low low price of $3.50. I think I'll be hitting this up more often in the future.

Pictures From Campus

I had my camera on me the other day so I took some pictures of things that are uniquely UC Davis as I roamed around lost on my bike.

Bikes as far as the eye can see. Davis is known as the city of bikes, with more bikes per capita than anywhere else in North America. It is the main mode of transportation in the city, and especially around campus. The campus is quite large, so having a bike to get from one class to the next is pretty much a necessity. It makes walking a bit difficult, as most bikers won't stop for you at a crosswalk, you either have to wait for a very long time or just make a run for it. I've also seen a couple bike-on-bike collisions already, both cases involving Freshman. I guess for a lot of kids this is the first time on a bike since they were little.


Cows. UC Davis started out as an agricultural school and to this day has a large Ag department. In fact, the department I'm in (Viticulture and Enology) is part of the College of Agriculture. The campus also has a highly renowned veterinary school. Apparently they even have cows with windows on their sides and you can actually see their inner workings.

The Arboretum. Putah Creek runs along the west side of campus. It features different collections of plants and trees from around the world, and a few different flower gardens. Bike paths run along both sides of it so it's a pleasant way to get around.


Water tower. It's just pretty. That's all I have to say about that.

Remainder of Cruise America Part Deux

My intention was to post every day of the trip like Part Une, but slow or non-existent internet connections prevented that from happening. So, here it is in one shot, which I will keep brief as I know people don't like reading long posts.

On day 2 we crossed the border and I officially got my F-1 Student Visa. From there we drove through Washington during a rainy day with not much to see. The highlight of the day was the inadvertent detour into downtown Seattle, and subsequent tour of Pike Place Market. I took a wrong turn and ended up right there, so I figured we could have lunch there as Mom had never been. After the delay we made it as far as Cannon Beach, Oregon and decided to hotel it since the weather was yucky.

Goodbye Canada
Hello America

The famous Pike Place Fish Co.

Since our hotel was right on the beach, Mom and I took a stroll down to Haystack rock in the morning. It was cloudy and yucky but luckily the skies soon cleared up and we had a great day for sight-seeing on the Oregon Coast. We stopped at Tillamook, Cape Meares, Cape Lookout, the Oregon Dunes, and Yaquina Head. We called it a day and camped at Bullard's Beach State Park near Bandon, Oregon.

Mom at Haystack Rock, Oregon

Mom at Cape Meares Lighthouse

Oregon Coast

Seastacks at Cape Meares

Dunes

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

While Mom was showering the next morning I discovered that we had a flat tire. So, as I am an expert now, I changed the tire before mom even got back to the campsite. Since I only had a donut on I had to go inland to a tire shop to get it fixed. Rather than double back to the coast, we decided to check out the Umpqua National Forest and Crater Lake instead. Good choice! Crater Lake was stunning! I highly recommend it for anyone traveling this way. From there we crossed into California. As we were driving, we came over a rise and suddenly saw Mt. Shasta looming before us. Another incredible sight. It was mostly shrouded in clouds but what we could see was gorgeous. We camped at the base of the mountain for our last night on the road.Umpqua River

The Pumice Desert near Crater Lake

Crater Lake

Mom and I at Crater Lake

Wizard Island, in Crater Lake

My new home away from home

Mount Shasta

We arrived in Davis the next afternoon and have been getting stuff done since then. Yesterday we took a trip to the Napa Valley to do some wine tasting. We only stopped at a couple of places and then took the scenic route back.

Our picnic lunch in Yountville, Napa County

Tasting at Sequoia Grove Winery

Grapes in Rutherford (Soon I'll be able to tell you what kind of grapes)

Mom at Luna Winery

Mom left early this morning and now I am alone in a new city. I have a lot of school stuff next week, and classes start next Thursday, so if I can stay busy over the next couple of days it's bound to get better.

Spruce Meadows

My company sponsors one of the events at Spruce Meadows so we got free tickets. Katie, Will, Shannon and I and one of our friends from work headed out there on Wednesday night for a beautiful evening of show jumping. It was cool to do something different.

Shannon, Katie and Will