Roadtrippin'

After labouring in the Grand Canyon for nine days, the best way to spend five days off would be resting and recuperating, right? Nope. Road trips with lots of swimming and very little sleep are the order of the day. I jumped in a rental car with four virtual strangers for a trip to Vegas, Sedona and Lake Mead and ended up having more fun than I imagined.

Da boyz (Jinu, Gregoire and Laurent):



Eunsil:



Poses:



Vegas again:



Sedona:



Lake Mead:



A forest fire we saw on the way home:

Grand Canyon South Rim Trails Part 1

What can you say about the Grand Canyon? It’s a big fuck-off hole in the ground. Pretty doesn’t really cover it. I was lucky enough to work there twice, for a total of 18 days, so I got to see it in all weathers and under many different suns (and sunsets). Pictures can never do it justice . . . but I’ll try anyway. Here are some of the first project and the subsequent crew dinner debauchery. The work mostly involved moving rocks, so I’ll spare you images of that.

Super Happy Fun Time

I had planned on spamming you with copious verbage but I seem to have forgotten how to write. Sorry. The salient points plus a bunch of pics follow.
I arrived in Flagstaff, Arizona (a liberal, outdoorsy, university town about the size of Perth) on 29 May and headed out on my first project on the Tuesday –fencing at Wupatki National Monument. Imagine ten people in a white van living in a primitive campsite (toilet = digging a hole in the woods) and building fences in incredible heat. It was pretty hard to adjust to at first but by day three (after seeing petroglyphs and an amazing sunset) I was sold on the whole thing. I can now roll up barbed wire (it’s harder than it sounds), use a Pionjar and trudge up a very steep hill carrying heavy objects.

This is Wupatki:


This is our worksite:



This is us working:


This is the wire I rolled:


This is a Pionjar:


This is a ruin:


This is us looking at ruins after work:


And finally, Crew Dinner (an essential part of the fun, involving food and far too much alcohol when we get back from project). [Left to right: Matthias, Ben, ATG (supervisor), moi, Julija, Greg, Julian]:



Btw, Super Happy Fun Time is the name given to the supervisor’s morning regime of push-ups and ab exercises. It is not super, happy or fun.

Viva Las Vegas (aka the most original title ever)

I saw opulence, tackiness, Penn & Teller, a dragon (Komodo):


wedding chapels:


famous casinos:


a rollercoaster (which I went on):


lions:


my diary, in which I did a lot of writing:


slots (although I didn’t gamble):


tourists:


me:


and some pale guy with sharp teeth who seemed to be following me around:

Seattleite Heart

After San Francisco was so familiar, it was really strange being in Seattle. Somehow, I just couldn’t get my bearings (geographically and mentally), even with a view of the Space Needle from my hostel bed.


I did a bunch of touristy stuff, like visit Pike Place Market and the Pacific Science Centre (woo! dinosaurs and robots and a planetarium!)




But hanging out with Lisa, her husband Micah and her awesome daughter Zyatah was the real reason I was there. I’ve probably told you all the story about how Lisa and I met last time I was in Seattle, how we share the exact same birthday day and how our lives have diverged since then. It was lovely spending time with her family (luckily I happened to be around for Zyatah’s birthday party) and feeling like a few months rather than six years had passed. Let’s hope it’s not so long next time.

Portland is my boyfriend

This is my new favouritist city ever. I don’t even know where to begin. The moment I got there after an 18 hour train ride (which was surprisingly painless) it started to avail itself to me. The streets are so walkable and easily navigable, the hostel was amazingly helpful and Trader Joe’s is my new favourite supermarket (healthly AND cheap).


I was there for five days and managed to cram a lot in, I think. The days started with coffee and a planning session combing through the free newspapers looking for stuff to do. It wasn’t difficult, since Portland has so much art, music and random culture.

My activity for the first night was to see Frightened Rabbit, who were amazing. The gig was at Berbati’s Pan, a restaurant/venue with a wee pen at stage left for the under 21s. It was nearly sold out and second support band Maps & Atlases (http://www.myspace.com/mapsandatlases) were also great. Since the city is known for its music I headed to Doug Fir, the ‘hippest’ joint in town to catch some local acts. It was pretty disappointing: about 50 audience members, fierce air conditioning and two forgettable bands. The third band was great, though – Soft Tags http://www.myspace.com/softtags) – a lo-fi collective who alternate instruments and singing duties (Laura – I think you’d really like them).


There are a lot of great wee galleries and I was excited to find out about a Gus Van Sant exhibition mashing up stills from his films, but it turned out to be not very interesting. The same goes for ‘Hipsters of the Universe’, supposedly an exhibition of drawings clothing comic book characters in contemporary duds. I did get to check out the Portland Art Museum, though, which had a huge selection of Asian art. The best facet of the art scene is something called the 24 Hour Church of Elvis, which I was shown on an underground (metaphorically and literally) walking tour of the city. It almost defies description. You put money in and press buttons and it does stuff (I don’t even know what). It has exercising Barbies. You can apparently get married there.



But by far the most popular attraction I saw in the city (and a contender for my favourite as well) is Voodoo Doughnut. A tiny hole in the wall that is open for 21 hours a day and always has a queue, the range of doughnuts is staggering. Apparently they used to sell Pepto-Bismol and Nyquil doughnuts until the FDA pointed out that mixing medicines and fatty foods wasn’t a great idea. I got the signature Voodoo Doll and managed to keep it for four hours before eating it on the train to Seattle. Marvel at my restraint.

San Fran Fun

I’m way behind in these due to limited internet access and the fact that I’m now living in the desert for a week at a time, so I’ll try to catch up a bit. I’m now in Arizona but I’ll write about the other cities I visited first. Just pretend there’s a two week delay on the internet between here and the UK.


San Francisco looks the same as I left it eight years ago. It’s nice to get to a city and already have your bearings. I mostly just wandered around all day until the evening when I went to see The Ruse (http://www.myspace.com/theruse) and Honor by August (http://www.myspace.com/honorbyaugust) at the Hotel Utah Saloon.


It was a really weird venue with a tiny dance floor and a balcony the same size that ended practically on top of the stage, so the bands didn’t know whether to look up or down, and I ended up watching the top of their heads most of the time. Both bands were great, especially since they were having last night of tour fun.

By coincidence rather than planning on my part, the next day was Bay to Breakers, a fancy dress run through the city to Golden Gate Park. I wasn’t too bothered about watching a marathon but it turned out to be really fun. It was like a huge gay pride parade without the gay and lasted for at least six hours. I didn’t understand a lot of the costumes, but neon 80s sportswear seemed to be the default and, as seems to be mandatory with events like these, there was one wrinkly old guy who was stark bollock naked (sorry – I didn’t get a pic of him).