Kings Peak - 2009 Hike

Well the time came again for another trip home to Salt Lake for my now second Annual hike to Kings Peak.
For who and what, please see the previous hike from last year.
http://willsinsandiego.blogspot.com/2008/09/kings-peak-day-1.html

Unfortunatly Tyler was unable to attend with us this year, but we did add Ryan, so it ended up being me, Ryan and Dylan.

This trip started off well, got off to a great start on Day 1, we hiked up to the exact same spot we camped at last year, but got there really quick as we were all pretty motivated. Throughout the night unfortunately though, Dylan was a little restless in the tent next to me, and I could tell he wasn't getting much sleep.
When we got up the next morning his hip was really killing him, (an old biking accident) but nonetheless we started up and going to summit and peak. Dylan made it about a mile, and then just couldn't go on and unfortunately had to turn back. So it was to me and Ryan to Peak the mountain. As much as I really wanted to just go with Dylan at this moment, I felt bad as Ryan got the time to come with us, and I thought I could make it.
Anyhow, Ryan is a Hiking BEAST, he seriously was amazing, and my poor little Sea Level Lungs just had to slow down and take their time to get up the mountain, so I held him up, but we ultimately made it.
After we hit the peak we took a look to our South, and saw some huge clouds rolling in, so we tried to get out of there quick. We start coming down, and it starts Hailing and Snowing while we're still well above 12,000 feet. It was brutal, not to mention a slip I had off a nice rock which resulted in a half twisted ankle and a nasty cut from my ankle to near my knee.

So me and Ryan hoof it back through the treacherous weather and get back to camp with Dyl, we talk about how it's only going to get worse, so we warm up by the fire, have a quick bite to eat, pack up and hike out. So basically me and Ryan did one day of 20 miles on the second day to just get out of there. Tough 2 days out of a normally 3 day hike, but it was well worth it once we got home and had a nice warm shower and beds.
Another great time and great trip though!

California is Burning

(Photo from Huffington Post) - www.huffingtonpost.com , don't hate me Republicans...

Sooo, California is on Fire again, it happens about every year this time, but these ones are pretty north of me. But it never ceases to amaze me how huge these fires are, when they're talking about thousands of acres burning.


Note, I live wayyy, down south there, by those Little League World Series champions, (ok not that far down there, but closer to them than the fires.) It's about an hour and a half north up burning LA.

Another Softball Season comes to an End

And another championship is in the books!

(Left to Right starting in the Back Row)
Me, Marcus, Mark, D-Ron, Steve, Jamey (crouched), Plato.
-Front Row Heather, Ashley, E-Fong and Kim.

Coach Jamey accepting his Coach of the Year trophy, only to be upstaged by some non-sense from Heather and E-Fong on our team!

More great times with some great friends, and in the mean time we were winning some softball games. Didn't start the day off well, as we needed to win 2 of 3 to pull it out, and we lost our first game, so we made a long day of it out there, but eventually pulled out the victory!

Cubs Padres Game

Ok so last Tuesday we got to catch the Cubs and Padres game, not only was it against my Cubbies which makes the Padres almost bearable(haha pun..) but we had PHENOMENAL seats. For getting MVP of my softball league last year, we got Box/Field level seats to any game I picked. So of course I picked this game against the Cubs. Little did I know, these seats were going to be First Row! We were right up front, literally steps from the Cubs Bullpen.

Here is the view from our seats, literally right next to the Bullpen, watching Aaron Heilman and Sean Marshall warm up in the pen as Dempster was busy blowing the game out on the field.

Here is how close I was to the bane of my existence and of my fantasy team this year, Milton Bradley. Literally he is everything that I hate about baseball, immense talent, but just a big fat contract, doesn't hustle, doesn't back up a play and just doesn't even seem to care about the game. Case and point, and I really wish I could find the Kyle Blanks inside the park homerun YouTube video, but anyhow he could have easily been stuck at least at third if Milton would have backed up the play. It was horrible. Except I saw my first Inside The Park Home Run.

Me and Ash, posing in front of our seats.
Great times at the ball park except that the Cubbies lost to the lowly Padres!

The Weather Here is Sweet!

I can't help it, I find myself amused by these Peyton Manning Commercials! Combines my hotel background, and a San Diego comment, he just cracks me up.

Perspective

Just read this little quote in an article today which really makes you put into perspective when you're pressing for that 3 dollar an hour raise to make sure you don't go without HBO this year!

Multiply the population of the US by three. That’s how many people around the world live on about a dollar a day.

Do it again and now you have the number closer to $2. About forty percent of the world lives on $2 or less a day.

What’s that like? What happens to you when you have two dollars a day to live on. It’s almost impossible to imagine. I mean, $2 is the rent on your apartment for about 35 seconds. $2 buys you one bite of lunch at a local restaurant...

And yet, two billion people survive on that sort of income.

Congrats Lil Blue

So Lil Blue, driven off the lot with 7 miles on him, has now officially reached 77,777 miles. Just a little shout out to my Honda Civic and the good times we've had. Multiple trips from San Diego to Salt Lake, countless episodes with friends, dozens of moves. Dings, dents, scratches full on accidents. We've been through quite a bit, but it is still getting 30ish Miles Per Gallon and keeps on truckin day in and day out with no problems. (Knocks on Wood.) Just a happy little milestone for a good friend!