Merry Christmas to All.

A frosty day in Prague August in Monument Valley, UT

This is me being lazy and frugal. This is my Christmas card for 2009.

2009 can be summed up in one word for me...new. January 1st found me on a train from Zurich to Freiburg, Germany and December 31st will be spent amongst my second family. In between this is everything NEW:

...places - Zurich, Milan, Prague, Joshua Tree, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Moab, Bryce, Zion, Houston, New Orleans, Mississippi, Smokey Mountains, Asheville, Savannah, Florida.

...niece - Julia Marie was born in February. She is amazing. I spent February, March and April staying with my sister and brother-in-law, helping everyone getting ready for and then adjusting to the new addition. I am now closer then ever to my three beautiful nieces. I am very lucky.

...loss - Mom passed away from Metastatic Breast Cancer in April. We miss her but before she died she got to meet her new granddaughter and spend quality time with her family and friends.

...roommate - Trevor, my friend's brother, moved in when Karen moved out. Trevor is a great roommate and Karen and Eric have a beautiful baby, Brandon as their new roommate.

...jobs - I spent January 20th standing in 20 degree weather on the Mall in D.C. with my high school tour group and 1.5 million or so others watching the new President be sworn in on video screens. Then, instead of returning to Alaska this summer, I started a new adventure with Intrepid Suntrek leading 13 passenger tours, camping and hiking our way around the United States.

...people - My work with Intrepid Suntrek introduced me to some wonderful trek leaders that I now consider good friends. As trek leader I got to know people from Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Switzerland, Denmark and New Zealand. I feel privileged to have met them and shown them around our beautiful country.

Of course, in addition to the new, was the presence of old; my great family, which I am closer to now then ever, my close friends in Davis and the Bay Area that are always there no matter how much time I have to spend with them and my love of travel which will take me on a month long trip to Thailand just seven days into 2010.

I hope that you all experience a joyful and prosperous 2010.

Diane

Easter in Ukiah Julia's first Christmas

Best Laid Plans.

December was all about great plans but for one reason or another most of them fell through. Doing things, getting out of my house, seeing people this is what I wanted to do this month. It is very easy to sit around and not do much when you aren't working, I have many tour director friends that can back me up on this.

I had big plans to go to LA to visit KH, who had just moved out to the west coast and was moving into her own place. We were both excited about it, we hadn't been able to hangout since the beginning of July. The weather was worrying me a bit but I figured I would be fine with my trusty Subaru. First however, I had to run up to my sister's to drop some new clothes for the baby and spend some time with them before I was gone for a 2 weeks. As I drove up there, it started snowing, but usually it doesn't last very long and rarely do they get much snow in December. The next morning we woke up to over a foot of snow and still falling. It was going to be very difficult to get out of there and once on the road the conditions were going to be awful. So I postponed the trip until February, I later discovered that the Grapevine was closed due to snow. Good decision.

The following week, Carrie, the girls and I were supposed to travel to Reno to visit our aunt and uncle for a few days. Unfortunately, again, the weather was threatening and it was decided that to keep certain men in our family from worrying themselves sick, we postponed this trip also. This time the weather would not have been and issue but it turned out that my family in Reno had a medical situation that would have made our stay inconvenient.

Finally, this last weekend was supposed to be full of festivities and I ended up with a cold. Saturday was our Davis/Folsom family dinner, which had been on the calender for months but instead of risking infecting the kids and the future mom, I decided to stay home and get myself healthy before Christmas. The following day was the twins birthday, which I missed last year while in Zurich, however, since the house would be full of kids, I again decided the best gift I could give them would be keeping my germs to myself.

I did do many great things this month; my first Sharks game with Michelle, playing in the snow with my nieces, reliving some of the good times of Zurich with the Watson's, cutting down my first Christmas tree with MW, the fantastic Christmas party at the DePaoli's, and getting my running endurance up to 28 minutes, among other events. January is all about Thailand, that better not get disrupted.

Thanks for reading.

Flashback: Prague

The final destination on my six week trip was Prague, a city that I had heard so much about but had yet to travel. We knew it was going to be cold, temps were predicted for the teens and twenties for the weekend we were there. I was worried it would alter my feelings for the city. Though I am sure if I had visited in spring time my feelings toward Prague would have been stronger, it didn't take long to fall in love and catapult this gem to #2 all time city. If the weather had been better Paris may have felt some heat for it's #1 spot but as of now the city of light remains firmly in first place. Our apartment was in the heart of the Josefov, or Jewish Ghetto, less then 5 minutes from the heart of the Old Town and amid many good little restaurants. This turned out to be a bigger benefit then usual for us. Generally, the W's and I prefer to wander about and luck upon a small restaurant, that more often then not would have great food and the perfect atmosphere. However, with such cold weather, when we left the apartment for dinner we wanted to know exactly where we were going and take the shortest route. During the day we did explore and definitely liked what we saw. The city is way ahead of Budapest in recovering from the Communist years, the buildings are well restored, services such as trams and and buses are full speed ahead and the tourist infrastructure is in place. We did our best during the day to wander the streets, visiting whatever struck us as interesting, persevering despite the weather. We spent much of the time in the heart of Prague, between the Old Town, Josefov and Mala strana, so we were never too far from home and a chance to thaw out.

Our first destination was the unusually crowded Charles Bridge and after crossing we found a great little cafe. The shop had tea and specialty coffee drinks, we enjoyed it so much we returned a couple of days later. We visited the Alphonse Mucha museum, he is one of the most famous Czech artists and MW is a huge fan. It was a wonderful little museum and I gained a new appreciation of the artist. One of his very famous works is in St. Vitus Catherdral in Prague Castle. The window was beautiful, full of color and his Art Nouveau style made it stand out from the standard religious stained glass window. We spent a few more hours exploring the castle complex, one of the largest in the world. The 10th century Basilica of St. George was a beautiful contrast to the gothic St. Vitus Cathedral and just as impressive due to it's age. Of course, we are always on a mission for good drinking so we made sure to visit some of the local brew pubs and enjoy some true pils. I enjoyed the Czech beer we taste much more then the beer from our Germany trip. We also tried the local mulled wine while we explored the beautiful old streets and did some shopping. We ventured out to see Wenceslaus Square, which is the main shopping area of the town center. It was filled with chain stores for all wallets but nothing you can't find in any other big city. The view to the National Museum was very nice though. Near there we did find a place with great Czech beer and food where we took shelter for a few hours.

Though we did much more, the trip was mostly about discovering a beautiful city. I can't wait to get back and visit when 3 layers of clothes aren't required.

Thanks for reading.

To see the photos from this city, visit my Flickr Prague set.

Postponed

JMA's first snow and not sure

she likes it.

CEA's snow angel CMA

I was very excited to head to LA and visit my marvelous tent mate from this year's Suntrek training. KH and I spent 3 weeks sharing a tent and were the only women in a group of 11 trainees but still came out of it great friends. She moved to the west coast after the end of our tour season and now has her own sublet. I was hoping to help her get settled in the new place. However, Mother Nature had other ideas. Yesterday, I swung up to Foresthill to see the nieces before heading to LA today and while sleeping last night 14 inches of snow fell. Of course, I knew that a storm was scheduled to come through but we rarely ever have cold, snowy weather in December, that happens in January or February. I figured the meteorologists were going to be as accurate as usual. So I waited through the morning hoping the snow plow would come by and the restriction of 4WD with chains would be lifted. It was eventually but the weather all the way to southern California was going to be ugly and I preferred to be safe then sorry. So here I remain, in Foresthill, and if I didn't know better I might think that CMA had something to do with the weather. She kept saying how sorry she was that I couldn't go to visit my friend and then would snuggle up a little closer to me with a big smile on her face.

Thanks for reading.

The Running Thing

The faithful shoes taking a well deserved rest.

I started running again for the millionth time. I often take up running for exercise and then give it up because of sore knees or lack of motivation. This time I have good motivation. MW started the Couch to 5K program and I thought this might be just what I needed to get moving again. Not only would I have a slow build-up that would guard against knee pain, hopefully, and keep me from getting discouraged. Also, MW and I would keep each other on track. So far the program is working great and my stamina is better then I thought, I even did a 5K early on in the training. I will get done with the program just before I leave for Thailand and though I won't run a 5K organized run right then, I plan to do one upon my return and then start working towards a 10K. Another plus of running over biking is that it is a lot more portable on tour. Of course, then I just need to find time to run during those 12 hour days.

Thanks for reading.

Back on the Bike

...of course it may not last long since the rain is due to arrive any day but it had to be done. For some reason I have avoided my beautiful two wheeled living room decoration since early spring. It has sat under the stair collecting dust and mocking me while I sit on the couch and watch reruns. To avoid the guilt, I have done many things: drove tourist around the U.S., gone to Foresthill to be with the nieces, spent time in the Bay Area adventuring with friends and taken up running. So after spending the last few days thinking about what a waste of time my last month and half has been, at least while at my house, I decided I needed to start with more physical activity. I have been running but that is only 3 days a week and the beaches of Thailand are looming. So today I pumped up the tires, put on the spandex and headed out into the California sunshine. The sun wasn't as warm as it appeared but I was ready to go. It was a good ride even though technology let me down. First, I realized that my speedometer wasn't working, which I would have remembered if it hadn't been 9 months since my last ride. Second, my new toy, a heart rate monitor that I bought for running, is impossible to use while riding a bike. I should have listened to the reviews that MW read to me but I was so excited to find a heart rate monitor at Costco right when I decided I wanted one. I will be testing Costco's return policy soon. What did work for me was the one thing that is always consistent when I ride...the unbounded thinking that usually results in clarity on a topic that I wasn't concerned about. Today was no different. I also remembered how much I love to ride so watch out my lovely black and silver companion, I am back in the game. If the rain doesn't ruin my new found motivation.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. I do not have memory loss, I realize that I have casually ignored the last nine months. I will do my best to update the blog before I head out on my next adventure.