West Coast

Los Angeles, Ca

Our first stop was LA for the wedding of Josef Bray-Ali and Susan Wong (Josef was Alex’s roommate in college). We stayed at our favorite LA apartment courtesy of Stanley Cho. The wedding was absolutely beautiful, the scenery was stunning and the weather could not have been any more perfect. As weddings often are, it was a wonderful opportunity to see old friends and spend sometime catching up with everyone.

 

the new family

the groom

the bride and her father

married couple

Kevin Webster, Andrew Mutz, Alex Kahl, Stanley Cho

 

 

Now for those of you who don’t know Josef, he is a bicycle enthusiast to say the least. He has formed a non-profit called the “bike oven” where locals get together to fix up their bikes and bond over bikes. Plus he and his brother have joined forces to open a bike shop. So it came as no surprise to anyone that Josef rode his bike to the wedding (over the course of a few days, it was 40 miles away) and he and his new family participated in a celebratory bike ride following the wedding. Who needs cars anyway?!

 

 

the wedding bike complete with “just married” sign and cans on the back

 

I made a short film from some footage that Alex shot at the wedding. This is Josef and his amazing bike in action.

 

 

Denver, Co

First wedding down and one more to go. After Josef’s wedding, I jumped on a plane to Denver for the wedding of Jolena Mitchell and Trevor Mackie. Jolena is a close friend from when I was in nursing school at the University of Rochester. I met my old roommate Nicole, also from nursing school, at the airport and we rented a car and drove down to Castle Rock where the newlyweds now live. It had been a few years since we had seen one another so Nicole and I had the weekend to play catch up on our lives. The following day while exploring downtown Castle Rock we happened upon the town parade. It was such a hoot, I felt like I was in such a small town, cowboy boots and all! This is me waving to the parade participants.

 

 

 

 

Nicole & I got ourselves gussied up for the wedding (yes, I am wearing the same dress) and got to sneak a quick chat with the bride prior to the big moment. The weather held for the wedding minus a little wind and the setting was lovely. Jolena’s friend Cami performed the ceremony and virtually every detail had been decided upon and created by Jolena herself. She did an incredible job and was a beautiful bride with a radiant smile the entire day.

 

 

Nicole & I before the wedding

bride and father

 

 

dancing bride

those flowers came from Josef’s wedding the day before

 

 

As usual, my visit felt way too short. However, we managed to sneak in a quick stop at Jolena and Trevor’s beautiful new house prior to heading to the airport. Of course, Jolena has already done a wonderful job setting up her new home. After a super quick brunch with the beautiful yet tired bride, we were off. Nicole went back to San Diego and I headed to San Francisco where Alex was waiting to pick me up. While I was gone, Alex spent the weekend with the boys and then headed to Palo Alto to stay with Bryan and Jane.

 

Next stop was my mom’s in northern California. One of the best parts about staying at my mom’s are the amazing weiner dogs, Norman & Sophie. 

 

me & Sophie, Alex & Norman

 

Typical Alex & Elizabeth style we tried to pack a whole lot into what little time we had at my moms. We made a quick trip to the Russian River Brewing Company in “downtown” Santa Rosa and stocked up on beer for our journey. The next week we would be seeing our friend Brennen and this is one of his favorites. We enjoyed a run in Annadel State Park which is always a highlight of any Santa Rosa trip and Alex spent some time working on corrections for his thesis, while mom and I spent the day bonding over shopping. 

 

me & Mom

for what appears to be the exact same photo of my mom and I, refer to this earlier post

 

Earlier in the summer, I had a chance to see my sister between her move from Colombia to China. We spent  4 or 5 days together and ended up with a few good “sister” photos at the request of my mom. We also had a chance to spend the morning catching up with good family friends Caryn & Wayne. It is very rare to get my sister and I in the same place, at the same time, but when we are together, Caryn & Wayne’s is one place we both love to be.

 

Leonardis Sisters

me, Wayne, & Sarah

 

Sarah is now living and teaching middle school at an International School in Shenzhen, China. She has been there for about 2 months now and reports so far that she loves it. Alex & I are hoping to make it out there next summer after we return from Antarctica. Yes, my sister puts us all to shame when it comes to exploring and traveling around the world. She has traveled to something like 50 countries and lived in about 5 different countries in her mere 30 years of life. She is really quite amazing, my sister.

 

Our last stop in California was one more trip to my dad’s to drop off the car we had borrowed. We had been driving my dad’s old mercedes stationwagon, which I love, and when we returned it dad noticed a rattling noise in the engine. We had thought this was always there, but after a trip to the mechanic we discovered that Alex & I had destroyed another engine. So that was the end of my dad’s beloved biodiesel mercedes, as it was not worth the money to fix it just like the truck. We just weren’t meant to drive a car. So we were forced to pack up everything for the next year of our lives and start heading north on public transportation. We did have one more car journey to Eugene, Oregon for which we rented a car. Fortunately, there were no blown engines on this journey. 

 

northern california coast

 

oregon highway

 

Eugene, Oregon

We headed to Eugene to meet Alex’s family. It was his turn to say his goodbyes. Alex’s family had organized a small reunion at his Aunt Shannon and Uncle Rick’s house in Eugene. In addition to his Aunt and Uncle, Alex’s Grandma Betsie lives in Eugene and his parents made the trip up from Phoenix, AZ to see us. That weekend more of his extended family came down from Vancouver, WA including Betsie’s 94 year old sister Mildred. Betsie is the younger of the sisters at 91 years old. These two are amazing and it’s so much fun to see them together.

 

“ladies-man” Betsie, Alex, & Mildred

 

the sisters goodbye kiss

 

Dr. Kahl

 

The family reunion was also a party to celebrate the new Dr. Kahl. It’s hard to read, but the poster has a quote from Alex’s advisor Oscar when he introduced him before his thesis presentation. He was remembering when he first heard about Alex, “…..weird guy out in Santa Barbara, might be kinda bright…” They definately got that right.

Alex & I had the opportunity to run some beautiful trails in Eugene and just relax for the weekend. It was nice to not have anywhere to go for a few days and just enjoy the good company of Alex’s family. We managed to delay our use of public transportation a little longer, and scored a ride with Lauri and Leonard to Portland.

 

Lauri, Leonard, Alex, & me

Alex & Betsie

Lauri, Leonard, Rick, Shannon

 

Portland, Oregon

Our friends Camilla and Matt recently moved to Portland from NYC. They were neighbors with Debra and Brennen our good friends from the city. Conviently, our visit coincided with a race that Brennen was running outside Seattle, WA and they were starting their trip with a stop at Camilla and Matt’s. So we all got to see eachother again, this time on the West coast (I think that we all agreed the better coast). Alex & I left the next day to catch a train to Vancouver, BC but we would all reunite at the race Cascade Crest 100, that coming weekend where we would all be crewing for Brennen. 

 

Camilla & Matt

Debra & Camilla

 

Vancouver, BC

So in our rush to leave in the morning, we left our camera battery conviently charging in Matt & Camilla’s electric socket. Therefore, we have no photos from our first stop in Vancouver. But not to worry we went back the next week. Posts just aren’t nearly as cool without photos. This trip was a quick 4 days where I was able to meet with the program director of nursing at University of British Columbia. I am applying for Fall 2009, to continue my nursing education and pursue a masters degree to become a nurse practitioner. For all those who don’t live in the States, a nurse practitioner is an advanced level nurse who can diagnose, treat and prescribe medications for their patients. Comparable to a physician, but a different kind of education. The interview process will likely be while we are in Antarctica so I thought it best to introduce myself now and get an opportunity to check out the program and the campus. I loved it, which I thought I might. We also took the time to check out the city and make sure it is somewhere we could both live. Confirmation there as well. We both love it. We stayed at our friends Katherine & Ryan’s house on the eastern side of the city. They were visiting Katherine’s parents in Montreal so we missed them this time around, but were able to spend time with them on our next trip to Vancouver. We left some of our stuff in Vancouver and headed back to Seattle for Brennen’s big 100 mile race that weekend.

 

Seattle/Easton, WA

Another person we love to see is Alex’s cousin Kasha who lives in Seattle. We stayed at her place before and after the race and were able to squeeze in a little time with her during her first week back teaching. The race is just about 1 hr ouside the city and starts at the fire station in a small town called Easton. We all spent the night at a hotel the night before the race (I think that this was the only hotel room that Alex & I actually paid for our entire journey) and saw Brennen off the next morning at the start of the race.

 

 

pre race: Alex, Camilla, Matt & Brennen

 

 

Brennen

 

pacer dog

 

I’ll give you a quick tutorial on ultramarathons (any race over the normal marathon distance of 26.2 miles) for those of you who have never heard of them. First off, you have to be kind of crazy to run these races, especially the 100 mile ones. They are usually run on single track trail, crossing over big mountain passes, and going through the night. There are many of these races all throughout the country and even a few abroad. Alex & Brennen usually train for these races together, although Alex hasn’t done one for a few years now. The last 40 miles or so, runners usually get to have a pacer to help motivate them and keep them going through the night, that is Alex’s job. Brennen does the same for Alex when he is running these races. The rest of us are the crew and we follow Brennen around to different aid stations tucked back in the woods and cheer for him, fill his water bottles, and give him any extra food or clothing that he needs. 

 

Brennen’s enthusiastic crew

waiting for our runner

Brennen arrives to aid station smiling, mile #35ish

Alex & I took a short hike to find this awesome view

 

One of the best parts of participating in these races is the amazing views. The runners get to see these mountains with the sunset, sunrise and everything in between. For us, we were able to pull over on the side of a mountain road to snap off this shot of Mount Rainier looming over us at 14.411 feet. 

 

Mt. Rainier

 

Alex starting running with Brennen in the early evening and stayed with him until the next morning when he finished the race. The rest of us got some sleep in the cars back at the fire station in Easton and awoke the next morning to hit up one last aid station at mile 95. Then we were all at the finsih line to cheer him in. Here are a bunch of photos from the 25 hours that Brennen was running.

 

Alex & Matt having a beer right before Alex starts pacing Brennen

the lovely Debra

Alex showing Matt his bulging biceps

such a wonderful couple

“the crew” at mile 95 around 9am the next day

a tired Brennen with 5 mile left to go

a slightly less tired Alex (he had only run 42 miles at this point)

only 5 miles left

running backwards to the finish

 

So Brennen successfully finished Cascade Crest 100 with a time of 25 hrs 36 minutes. Unfortunatley, due to some redneck assholes who vandalized the trail markers in the middle of the night, Brennen actually ran about 104 miles. So he should be a lot closer to 24 hrs which is that magic number that all ultrarunners strive to run a 100 mile race in. But we are all very proud of his 17th place out of 77 finishers (no one is more proud than his wife Debra). Great race Brennen, let us know where we need to be next year!

Alex & I had an extra day in Seattle so we did some hiking in the Snowqualamie Pass area before heading back to Vancouver. It should have been a rock climbing day if Alex could have had it his way, but the weather just wasn’t cooperating. A good day for a hike though.

 

 

 

 

 

Vancouver, BC

Back to Canada…this time our friends Katherine and Ryan were home and they were amazing hosts! We spent our last week on the west coast with them exploring the city and the surrounding area and eating very well courtesy of Katherine’s wonderful homecooking. It was great having locals show us around the area and they took us to some wonderful spots. We were able to head up to Squamish, BC which is halfway between Vancouver and Whitsler (where the 2010 Winter Olympic games will be held). There is excellent rock climbing and hiking in Squamish.

 

Howe Sound Inlet

 

 

Katherine & Ryan are both excellent rock climbers so they took us out to climb some of their favorite routes. Ryan lead all the pitches while the rest of us followed him. Alex & I were really out of shape, not having climbed for a few months, and climbing cracks was very different then the climbing we were use to in the gunks. Needless to say, Alex took a nasty fall while attemped to sport climb a route that Ryan had lead, and I took a nice header into the rock as I was belaying him and wasn’t tied into anything. Since Alex is much heavier than me, I usually tie in, but not this time. Lesson learned. 

 

Katherine climbing a crack “Mosquito 5.8″

Katherine & Ryan

Alex cleaning the route

Alex

view from the cliffs

 

Ryan leading

me climbing at “Octopus Garden”

 

On another day Katherine & Ryan took us to climb the Grouse Grind, a popular hiking trail that takes you to the top of a local ski area. We took a variation of the main trail so we could avoid the hoards of people and so we could take Jed the amazing yellow labrador with us. Jed’s owners are good friends of Ryan & Katherine and when they are out of town, Katherine usually takes in Jed.  Katherine is as crazy about dogs as I am, so she takes every opportunity to hang out with Jed when he is available. 

 

Jed & Katherine

Ryan & Alex

view of Vancouver

 

Ryan & Katherine are also avid mountain bikers, in fact that is how they met. They generously loaned us their bikes for the day and we rode out to the Endowement Lands at the University of British Columbia. There are numerous trails for hiking and biking that are perfect for a beginner like me. Alex sent up the camera to take our photo as we were riding down the trail together, it turned out really well.

 

Alex & I 

 

downton Vanocouver skyline

 

In addition to Katherine & Ryan, we have friends Reuben & Rosalyn that live in Vancouver. We met Reuben & Roz when they couchsurfered at our apartment in nyc a few years ago. We had a chance to catch up with them over dinner one night and lucky for us, it looks like they will still be there next year if we decide to move to Vancouver. I think the photo above gives you a good idea as to why we are so eager to move there.