Phoenix - Denver

After leaving California I drove down to Phoenix to visit my good friend Tim Franks (nickname DJ Timbits, long story) and his wonderful wife Alicia. Tim is the youth pastor of a church in Phoenix and this past Sunday morning we got up nice and early for an Easter sunrise service, spent the day at church, and watched the Lakers game that night.


From Phoenix I made a 14-plus hour drive to Denver, Colorado. I saw my Aunt Jayne, who made me a great ham and turkey sandwich, and I also got to see my cousins, Zach and TJ.

And now I'm out in the Colorado country, visiting my Uncle Greg and Aunt Joanne. On the road to their house, you can see Pikes Peak (altitude 14,115 ft.)

Here's a place in the area which someone refers to as the "John Wayne Vista View"

My Uncle Greg and Aunt Joanne also have quite a few animals too. I'll post some pictures of the critters and the farm in the next post...

more CA-1 + San Francisco

On my way from Monterey to Santa Rosa on highway 1...

Farm Table. My friend Seth suggested I check out this place to grab a coffee...I also ended up getting a hard boiled egg sandwich.

Avatar Restaurant.

Really tasty pumpkin enchiladas
.

San Francisco houses

I guess I didn't leave my heart in San Francisco, but I left fifteen bucks for a couple CDs. Amoeba Music Record Store on Haight straight.

CA highway 1 - Big Sur / Shrimp vs. Prawns

Growing up, I remember always seeing TV commercials for the "Big Sur Waterbeds" store. Who would have thought that there is actually a real place called "Big Sur" which has amounts of water massively greater than that found in waterbeds.







Eucalyptus corridor. Several times while driving along the highway here I would suddenly smell Eucalyptus and realize these trees were lining the road.


Had dinner with my friends in the Monterey Bay area. We had delicious oysters and fried prawns at a place called A.W. Shucks.



In addition to discussing hockey teams, we asked the chef at A.W. Shucks if there is a difference between shrimp and prawns. He said he didn't know. I copied and pasted this scientific sounding explanation from someone's blog:

Arthropods can be subdivided into several classes, one of which is the Malacostraca.

This class contains about half of the crustaceans. The members of this class have a primitive body plan that can be described as shrimp-like, consisting of of a 5-8-7 body plan. They have a small carapace that encloses the head and the thorax, and have a muscular abdomen for swimming. They also have a thin exoskeleton to maintain a light weight. These general characters are common in all members of the class.

The class can be further divided into the Decapods, which are even still divided into the Duedrobanchates (prawns) and the Carideans (shrimp and snapping shrimp).

The prawns have sequentially overlapping body segments (segment one covers the segment two, segment two covers segment three, etc), chlelate (claw like) first three legs, and have a very basic larval body type.

The shrimps also have overlapping segments, however, in a different pattern ( segment two overlaps segments one and three ), only the first two legs are chelate, and they have a more complex larval form.

Boom. There you have it folks. There is a difference and you must take a side.

Just kidding, you can like shrimp and prawns. :-)

The Redwoods

The Redwoods in Big Basin National Park. These pictures really don't do justice to how massive these trees are...

Monterey Bay Aquarium

I went to the Aquarium yesterday. These Jellyfish are almost invisible in the water so the aquarium shines black light on them to turn them this orangeish color.

This one is less than an inch wide

The egg-yolk jellyfish.

Sardines circling the ceiling.

Okay, today's trivia question is hopefully a little more challenging than yesterday's. What sea creature do you see in the picture below?

Bend, Oregon - Smith Rock

This past Sunday afternoon I went with Tony and Caitlin to Smith Rock.

Tony and Caitlin's dog, Lucy. Can you guess which two breeds she is?

Whitefish, MT to Bend, OR (BONUS CEDAR DESKTOP WALLPAPER)

Chowing down on some of the best BBQ I've ever had with my cousin Nikie and her husband, Billy. There were ribs, a brisket, chicken, and pulled pork.

It's that good

Deep fried cornbread and seasoned potato slices (appetizer)

The place is called Piggyback Barbeque. You'll have to check it out if you're in the area.


Lots of stuff going on in Whitefish, as evidenced by the overstuffed bulletin board. Not the least of which is the "Doug Knudsen Memorial Ride" circled in the middle. Good to know my fellow Knudsens are having memorial rides in their name.

Glacier National Park is close to Whitefish and even though the higher altitude hikes aren't possible this time of year because of remaining snow, we looked around a little. This is at lake MacDonald.

Lake MacDonald

Billy is a conservationist. Here he is explaining the science behind the breathtaking aroma of the great cedar.


Okay the below picture I made my new desktop background and it looks really great. Really compliments the icons. I left it high resolution and uploaded it so you can click on it, save it to your hard drive, and use it for your background too.


After visiting Glacier national park we went elk spotting with binoculars and found this guy. (click to see the bigger picture)

On the Oregon trail. No cholera and plenty of rations.

Arrived in Oregon. This is my friend from Moody, Tony Querio making me an intensely tasty cup of Costa Rica.


Another friend from the school that D.L. Moody founded, Chris Cambell, will be leaving for England to get married and live there for the foreseeable future. I'm glad I'm getting the chance to hang out with him before he leaves.