No, this isn’t a rant. This has nothing to do with my starfish throwing, tree hugging, vegetable eating, or bread line waiting political views…. but in case you were wondering, liberal is not a bad word. Anyway….

We all know that I love Michael Dukakis and his feisty wife Kitty, but though they made a valiant attempt, they never quite made the big move into the White House. That’s not really bad news though, because no one likes to move. Stuff is bound to break accidentally along the way and what on earth would they have done with a set of 8 teacups and 7 saucers?

Anyway, President Clinton is having a bit of a summit this week for the Clinton Global Initiatives organization where he intends to connect idea people and money people. I heard him say in an interview today that he started this organization because he was tired of sitting in meetings where at the end people just left, nothing was getting done, and no one really expected anything to be done. All the folks at the annual meeting have to make a commitment before leaving and keep it to be invited again next year. This seems like a really wonderful way to make some good change possible in the world… I’m not confident enough to say make change happen, but I would say that at least the door down the hallway towards change is ajar.

Have a look at www.clintonglobalinitiative.org to see what it’s all about or make your own commitment at www.mycommitment.org.

I’ve posted a few pictures from the trip so you guys can meet my friend Sherman and see how dirty an eight hour hike makes my sneakers! Enjoy!

Today was our day in the park! We started bright and early (which isn’t all that hard to do considering the time change) with a hearty breakfast… “Where” you ask? At the Wuksachi Lodge of course! After a delicious breakfast we headed down the hill into Giant Forest to meet Sherman.

General Sherman is the biggest tree in all the land, or the world, or maybe just most of the world. The funny part about Sherman is that he is not the tallest or widest tree in the land/country/world, but as he is still growing (after more than 3000 years) he still produces some crazy amount of wood every year. The challenge for many a forest ranger, is that there is some controversy regarding our friend Sherman. Apparently the postal service issued stamps last year that featured some plants or something, but they claimed that another tree is the largest in the world. That tree’s special skill is that it grows new trees not from seeds, but from it’s roots and they can spout up all over the place while still growing large. Our friendly ranger addresses this “controversy” (his words, not ours and yes he said it with all seriousness) by defining the largest tree as one tree, and one seed. Under that controversy-free definition, Sherman is both large and in charge as the big man on…. well, everywhere. During our friendly ranger’s informative briefing where he discussed the facts and the controversy, a bear wandered up behind him and kept on walking. In case you’re wondering, this is the point in the presentation, where the tourists stop pretending to pay attention, whip out their cameras, and run after the bear. “Isn’t it dangerous to chase a bear” you might ask? Why yes it is. That bear, luckily for us, was nervous about the human stampede and walked/crawled/meandered away.

After learning all about Sherman, we walked the Congress trail where we were out-hiked by a couple that couldn’t have been any younger than 73 years old. As I stopped many times to catch my breath (I kept blaming the altitude) poor Frank wanted to catch them and show them our fitness and youth. Because I have lead in my khakis we did not catch them. 1-point for the old folks, 0-points for the wipper-snappers. Embarrassing. Once we took the slow trek through Congress we walked the trail of the tall trees. They are both really beautiful trails to walk but we had worked up quite a hunger so we took a short trip back to the Lodge for lunch and to charge our camera. Our afternoon plan was to make it to Moro Rock for sunset (as it was recommended to us) so we saw Beetle Rock and then started the journey up the mountain toward our vantage point for sunset.

The trip was going to be a bit longer than usual because a key road (that cuts out about a mile and a half of the trip) was closed for construction. We left ourselves plenty of time and along the way we saw many more big trees and an older gentleman with a walking stick who was on his way back from Moro Rock who told us it would be worth the trip. He also mentioned that it was a long way and we had just started so we continued the walk up the mountain. We were feeling like we might be almost there when Frank froze. I saw him extend his camera arm and whisper that there was a bear. I quickly swore at him telling him to put his camera down and back away slowly. We were the only people on that side of the mountain and the bear was looking right at us, clearly staring us down. He could probably smell the power bar in Frank’s pocket, and our delicious salty flavored clothing. The bear huffed and hissed at us while we backed away slowly and I passed gas. Bears give me gas. I think I’m allergic. He did not eat us. I’ll bet you were worried, but have no fear, there’s more blog to come!

We made it to the top of hanging rock and then finished our trip to the base of Moro Rock. We were told that there were 420 stairs to the top of Moro Rock and thought it’d be fun if we checked it by counting. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the “in my opinion” about the stairs because the only opinion that I have is that there are a hell of a lot of stairs and we lost count so that we could catch our breath. Breathing seemed infinitely more important (and harder to do than count) at that moment. We made it to the top safe and sound to discover natures wonder and have a bird’s eye view of the surrounding mountains, majesty, and their sunset.

Once the sun had set it occurred to us that there would be very little light left for the journey home and as we had traveled on a lightly marked trail through the woods for at least an hour to get there, we might experience a bit of a hiccup on our walk back. We climbed back down the rock (down all of those stairs) and it had already begun to get dark. We opted to walk the road path, even though it was closed, because the idea of navigating the bear-filled forest in the dark didn’t seem like a very good plan. We walked, and we walked, and we walked and we walked. We encountered many scary noises and obvious sounds of “something” tracking/following us while we walked. This time Frank and I both had gas. Apparently we’re both allergic to bears. Anyway, after cursing the ranger-girl who recommended the lights-out forest tour, we made it back to the car safely. I said it at the time but will say it again, thank you God. We appreciate you not letting anything eat us.

Back on the ranch, we stopped at the front desk to “thank” them for this invigorating experience (a real life stair-master if-you-will) when the fellow who checked us in asked us in all seriousness “Why didn’t you bring flashlights? They didn’t mention anything about flashlights?!??!” Needless to say, he apologized and mentioned that we probably would have been fine and that area really doesn’t have any mountain lions anyway. Mountain Lions?!?!?!? OMG. Because of all the “Be Bear Aware” signs, we didn’t even think about mountain lions. We shared with our front desk friend that we are delicious and practically covered in marmalade – something that all bears enjoy – and that perhaps flashlights or warnings should be shared in the future. Holy crap. We headed back to the room, finished last night’s bottle of wine (time for something to calm our nerves) and closed out the night with dinner at the Wuksachi Lodge.

I love that place!

We woke up at the ass crack of dawn. I don’t swear much here in the blog but it was rootin’ tootin’ early. It was so early, that the ass crack of dawn didn’t show its ass crack until I’d been up for about three and a half hours. Ridiculous. Anyway, I fashioned Frank a healthful sandwich of peanut butter (scooped from the container with a pen cap – desperate times and all….) on two old chewy pieces of bread leftover from Disneyland. Only the finest for us! He did his best to wrestle through the gourmet treat I provided and we headed back to Zuma for the race. Frank set up his bike and many other swim/bite/run accessories for ease of outfit change between sections of the race. He took a quick dip to test out the water to find it lovely and refreshing. 60-degree water can be very refreshing at 6am before the sun comes up!

Frank swam/biked/ran well. I cheered well also (and made a few friends who helped too). I also cheered “The Shoveler” from Mystery Men, who has a very shaggy haircut right now, and Topanga’s father in law who’s hair is not shaggy but grey and thinning. I also had the pleasure of seeing a full harem of ladies swarming David Dukovney (sp?) as if he were young, handsome, or involved in a current/successful program. Ridiculous. I saw some man who is apparently in a show called two or three and a half men that I’ve never seen. He beat the “stud” David Dukovney and this is apparently a decade worth of competition finally completed. Regardless of the victor, the ladies did not care, they love X Men or X Files or whatever he was in with the aliens and Scully or Mulder or that show where he played one of those people and never got around to kissing the other…. In more important news, Frank finished in under two hours which was his goal so he’s the ultimate champion in my eyes and even though he’s 30 now, he’s still younger than those men or any of the gold digging ladies chasing them. “Silicone beauties” as described by Frank! After the race was through I had my hair cut for a generous donation by the fanciest man alive who introduced me to his boyfriend (or sweetie as he referred to him). Yes, of course, my hair looks great.

Frank re-charged and we headed north to the Sequoia National Park. The drive was long but by the time we reached the Park Entrance the sun had started to set. It was recommended that we have reservations for dinner but since cell phones don’t work in Sequoia country we had to stop at the visitor’s center on our way up the hill to use a pay phone. I remembered my Kanga Velcro-pouch shoes that always held my trusty in-case-of-emergency quarter vividly as we tried repeatedly to make a call on the seemingly easy-to-use payphone. The third time is the charm because that’s how many times it took us to figure out how to use the pay phone. Also, in case you were wondering, it now costs 50 cents to make a local (7-diget) call. Ridiculous. We made it up the hour and 20-minute hill 23 mile trip (it’s crazy), which includes a 20-minute siesta light (anything is possible in California) in time to see the sun set during that drive up the steep and winding hill to check into Wuksachi Lodge, our new home away from home… at least for the next day and a half. Though the drive was truly ridiculous, it was well worth the trip. The staff at the Lodge were really, thoughtful, friendly, and helpful. A second story room in the nicest building was recommended so we agreed and checked in.

The lodge itself was rustic, beautiful, and was thoughtfully placed underneath more stars than we’ve ever seen. We closed out the night by enjoying a delicious dinner in the only restaurant at Wuksachi Lodge (and on that side of the mountain) with an accompanying bottle of locally made Riesling and off to bed we went.

Sleeping time! G’night!

This morning we started our day with a delicious (translation: expensive) breakfast. Fortunately for the expense, it was really actually quite delicious (but how on earth they rationalized 3.50 for a glass of chocolate milk, I don’t ever want to understand). Once we properly digested (at least 45 minutes, just like when I was little) we headed to Malibu, specifically Zuma Beach. Apparently it’s a real place, not just a catch phrase on the E channel and MTV… another thing I didn’t know. This trip is full of fun new facts for me! Frank checked in for his race tomorrow and touched base with the tri-team folk where he was very popular with all the muckety-mucks (translation: he’s bff with the race director).

We checked out the event tents and after trying rather fruitlessly to talk the Toyota people into giving me a complimentary Prius we headed off to see Point Dume (Dume, not doom – the only danger we were in was of twisting a toe on the many rocky trails). We read that whales and other sea creatures can be found there so we were very excited to extend a hand of friendship to our West Coast comrades. Unfortunately, none of them saw us that way and stayed too far away from us for the handshaking to commence. The whales stayed so far away, in fact, that we didn’t actually see them…. BUT a seal swam pretty close and checked us out from afar. I think the surfing boys actually, scared them more than my eager shouting of “eeeek – loook!” At least that’s what I’m telling myself so that I don’t feel too guilty for squealing like a…. well, Andrea.

We closed out the day with a trip to Jamba Juice. Gosh their smoothies are delicious! Hope you’re all having a great weekend and we’ll write more soon.

Good Luck on your race tomorrow Frank!!!!! We’ll all be cheering for you!

We arrived in Sunny California yesterday (Thursday) and headed south to San Diego. Apparently San Diego is south of LA…. I didn’t know that before yesterday but apparently it practically touches Mexico – who knew? Just something I learned that I thought I’d share with my interested readers! There are so few things I don’t know – especially about geography – so it’s nice when I can be enlightened and in turn, enlighten those around me. You’re welcome.

Anyway, we went to visit our friend Bahram who showed us a great time all around the area. He took us to La Jolla (where we’re definitely going to move once we stumble on a big sack of galleons), which was really wonderful, and to Del Mar to see the sun set. To close out the night he took us to a wonderful restaurant called Chart House which sat right on the beach (near where he lives) where Frank tried (and seemed to enjoy) calamari and closed out the night with the most delicious chocolate lava cake we’d ever had. It was filled and covered with Godiva liquor, which we learned makes everything more delicious, so you all know what I’d like for my birthday next year!

Today we visited Disneyland and California Adventure today. Frank is, of course, a Disney park expert so he showed me around. We visited my friend Ralph (hi Ralph!!!) at the Aladdin show where he did a wonderful job! They’re lucky to have such a talented performer in their ensemble! We also saw the new Nemo ride which was super duper cute!

Finally, we made it to Burbank for the triathlon kick-off dinner (which was delicious – especially the cake) and then to our hotel (yawn) for the night.

I don’t really understand time travel and the zoning of time but I do know that it makes me sleepy! G’night!