The House

Our (Fingers Crossed) New Home!

So we're still anxiously awaiting news on whether or not the bank accepted our offer -
but in the meantime, I wanted to share photos of the house with you all (so you can see what we're so excited about).

Keep in mind that the seller is still living there, and is in the process of packing up their belongings. That said....here it is:

Front Entry Way (with Porch)

We're trying to figure out what kind of tree this is - if any one knows.


Entry way/Living Room

Standing under the arch seen from the entry way

Formal Dining Room - there is a doorway to the
kitchen toward the back left corner of the room.


Kitchen

Downstairs Hall (to left of arch in the entry way)
*Full bath on the left by the blue rug, and a den further down the hallway on the left.

Backyard

Another view of the backyard

Side yard and the view from the backyard -
we're told on clear days there is somehow an ocean view (TBD)

The Stairs and the Upstairs Hallway (3 bdrms & master are upstairs)


Master Bedroom and Master Bath

Master Closet

Reverse view of entryway (AKA Exit)

Tour of California!

Check one off the list! I've wanted to see a world-class, professional bike race in person for years now...probably since I was in college. Well, today I finally did!



(Video courtesy of Mark.)

This is peloton just after the start on Rancho Bernardo Rd. Check out Zaccheus in the tree at the end of the video!

The final stage of the Amgen Tour of California started right here in Rancho Bernardo, and ended in Escondido. Over 90 riders from 17 teams dragged themselves from here, all the way up and down Mount Palomar, and back into Escondido in just a hair over 4 hours. Incredible!

We stood by the rider sign-in station before the start, watched the peloton pass by on Rancho Bernard Rd, went home to watch the Palomar climb on TV, and then shot up to Escondido to see the field pass by about 4k from the finish.

I was so close, I got to smell Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis, and all the rest as they passed by. Awesome!

Here's a couple pics from our spot on Rancho Bernardo Rd.

Floyd Landis on the left (Team Ouch), and Levi Leipheimer (yellow jersey in the middle).

Tyler Hamilton (#162)

The peloton heading east on Rancho Bernardo Rd.

More pictures and video from our spot on El Norte... We were 4k from the finish and there were still tons of people everywhere!

This little girl looks like she's going to be killed. It's okay, she made it!


The peloton approaches!


The GC contenders were in front of the pack, and all strung out in single file. There were working hard and moving fast! But not quite fast enough to catch the breakaway pair in front.


Astana had 4 guys in the main chase group, and controlled the pace all day long.


I tried to get a picture of both Lance and Levi Leipheimer as they went by, but I kinda missed, and all I got was Lance. They were too fast!

Desert Weekend!

Sara gave me a new map for Christmas. It's a Tom Harrison Map of the San Diego Backcountry. It has all kinds of places that I've never been to, and that drove me nuts. This weekend, I finally did something about it. Mark and I set out to go see an abandoned Stage Coach Station near Carrizo Marsh and the Goat Canyon Railroad Trestle. It turns out that we had so much fun discovering other stuff we totally forgot why we went to the desert in the first place. Here's how it went...

DAY ONE

We threw our stuff in the truck, headed east on the I-8 into the land of illegal aliens, Indian Casinos, and windmill farms...

Pretty soon we were in open country, enjoying a clear, crisp winter day.

Our plan was to head out into the wilderness via "Canyon sin Nombre" where we heard there was a particularly nice slot canyon.

Entering Canyon sin Nombre

Mark's guidebook said the best slot canyon was about 1.3 miles in on the western side...

..and there it was! +1 for the guidebook!

We wound around in the canyon for about a 1/2-mile. When we finally reached the top, it spit us out at the edge of a cliff overlooking the Canyon sin Nombre, which we had just driven through.



View from the top of the slot canyon

Our next planned stop was the Carrizo Stage Station. We reached the Vallecitos Wash and headed east. To our dismay, we found that the road, rather than going around the marsh, went right through it.



Although the Tacoma did its best, we were a little reluctant to risk getting stuck in the mud with darkness and 30-degree temps approaching. So much for the stage station!

We headed west, back up the Vallecitos wash, and ended up making a dusk run through Seco del Diablo in search of a good campsite. We set up camp just off the 4x4 trail north of the canyon. We didn't have much firewood, but managed to set up a cheery blaze anyway!

After settling in for the night, I got to try out my new Thermarest pad, which was awesome! (I owe Sara's mom many thanks for a great Christmas present!) From our campsite, we saw only three man-made lights, way out in the distance. This place was really remote!

DAY TWO

Mark and I slept, and slept, and then, since the desert was so calm, and the sun so warm, we slept some more. After breaking camp, we took in the view one last time...

...and drove back into "Seco del Diablo" in search of a few promising-looking slot canyons we saw the night before.



About half-way through the canyon we found what we were looking for...

Up this modest-looking canyon is a maze of nearly innumerable slot canyons, caves, trenches, and impassible badlands. We spent so long exploring the place we had to abandon our plan to see the Goat Canyon trestle. Oh well, this was WAY better!



That was 5 hours of the best slot canyon exploring I've ever done! And that was just ONE of the canyons we could have looked at!

All hese canyons and tunnels are made from sandstone and silt, like this.


KUDOS FOR MARK'S TRUCK

The truck did great this weekend! It took us through sandy canyons, dirt roads, paved roads, and even snow!

This guy had twice as many cylinders, and twice as many drive wheels as Mark's truck, but he still got stuck where we just drove straight through!

Yup. That was a good weekend!