Hittin' the Road

Kyle: It's Friday 4/29 and we are hittin' the road earlier than expected. The van is packed and ready to go. Our first stop will be down at Lake Nacimiento. Only a short 1.5 hour trip but a start none the less. The next stop after that will be SLO town which is still just another short trip but we are not in any hurry.

Our "Kids"

Jen: The opportunity to do this trip couldn't come at a more perfect time in our lives. Almost every person we have told about our planned adventure says, "Do it before you have kids!" And we agree, this kind of long road trip would be much more complicated if we had more than ourselves to worry about. But saying we only have ourselves to worry about it not entirely true. Anyone who knows us, also knows our 3 cats: Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin and Fluffles (AKA Moli). As our plans started to develope, what to do with our "kids" was top of mind. We were so grateful when my parents agreed to take them in  for the 3-4 months we plan to be gone. The car ride with all 3 cats in the van from San Juan Bautista to Oakland was not fun (imagine 2 hours of nails on a chalkboard), but it was a small price to pay to know they are safe, happy, fed and being loved. This weekend we visited my parents (and the cats) - probably for the last time before we leave on our extended vacation and I am happy to say that they are well adjusted and ruling my parents house as they did ours. It is one of those loose ends that now feels tied up and will allow us that much more feeling of freedom as we embark on a journey of a lifetime.

Fluffles

Jerry Garcia in the walnut tree in my parent's back yard

Kyle with Janis Joplin

Furthur Summer Tour Announced!

June 3-4th, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA, CA

July 14-17th, All Good Festival, Masontown, WV

Sat, Jul 16th, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY

Sun, Jul 17th, Nikon at Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY

Tue, Jul 19th, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY

Thu, Jul 21st, Comcast Center , Mansfield, MA

Fri, Jul 22nd, Gathering of the Vibes, Bridgeport, CT

Sat, Jul 23rd, The Mann Center, Philadelphia, PA

Sun, Jul 24th, PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ

Tue, Jul 26th, Constellation Brands - Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center, Canandaigua, NY

Thu, Jul 28th, Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek, Raleigh, NC

Fri, Jul 29th, Charter Amphitheatre, Simpsonville, SC

Sat, Jul 30th, St. Augustine Amphitheatre, St. Augustine, FL

Sun, Jul 31st, Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, Alpharetta, GA

What shows will we make????

Our Future Van

Kyle:

This is bad-ass!

I hope they make these someday.

Phish Summer Tour Announced

Last week Phish announced their summer tour schedule. We know we won't be able to see nearly all the shows, but the prospect of getting to see any of these shows (as they are all located on the East Coast) is really exciting! Today they announced "Additional summer announcements will be coming. Following the Summer, the band has no touring plans for the remainder of the year." They have not released the 2nd leg of shows yet. Tickets go on sale next Friday for the first leg of shows. And the shows are (drum roll please):

PHISH 2011 SUMMER TOUR
5/27 - Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY
5/28 - Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY
5/29 - Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY
5/31 - PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ
6/01 - PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ
6/03 - DTE Energy Music Theater, Clarkston, MI
6/04 - Blossom Music Center, Cleveland, OH
6/05 - Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH
6/07 - Comcast Center, Mansfield, MA
6/08 - Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Darien Center, NY
6/10 - Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ
6/11 - Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD
6/12 - Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD
6/14 - Verizon Wireless @ Encore Park, Alpharetta, GA
6/15 - Verizon Wireless @ Encore Park, Alpharetta, GA
6/17 - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Charlotte, NC
6/18 - Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion, Raleigh, NC
6/19 - Ntelos Pavilion at Harbor Center, Portsmouth, VA

Big Sur Daytripping

Jen: This weekend we took a day trip to Big Sur/Andrew Molera State Park and went for a pretty awesome hike. It was 5 miles round trip, 2.5 to the top and 1300 foot climb. The day was beautiful - sunny, crisp and cool - great hiking weather! It has snowed the night before at sea level and we still saw traces of it as we drove down the coast. Once we got to the top, it actually started snowing on us! "This is better than rain!" we said, as the tiny snow balls bounced off our clothes and landed on the ground. And then for the decent... you don't realize how hard you've worked your body until you start using those muscles to brase yourself as you go downhill. Within minutes of getting to our car there was a huge downpour of huge wet drops of rain! We made it back in the nic of time (as my mom would say)! We dried off and changed (in the van of course) and headed down the coast a bit further to have lunch at one of our favorite restaurants of all time - Napenthe! Two Ambroisa burgers please and a warm seat by the window! Gorgeous, vast ocean views, a glass of wine (or beer, in Kyle's case) and the feeling of accomplishment. On our way back we both were feeling full from lunch and warmed by our beverages, so we decided to park the van at a look out along the coast and take a nap! Yep, my first time sleeping in the van. I was a little sceptical that I would even fall asleep, with noise and distraction from the wind and passing cars on the road... but that didn't seem to be an issue.
Here are a few photos from our hike...

Our Summer Plans

Well it's official. We're going on the road this summer to tour the United States (and hopefully some of Canada)! Our plan is to start our travels between May and June and be gone for a few months. We're waiting to hear the summer tour schedules from Furthur and Phish before we decide where we are headed first but at the top of our list of things we want to do are:
1. See a show at Red Rocks Ampetheatre in Colorado
2. Go to a baseball game at Fenway Park
3. Visit historical sites in New England
4. Eat lobster in Maine
5. New York!
We also want to visit as many National Parks as possible (with our National Parks Pass of course!) - at the top of that list is Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Tetons, Everglades, Grand Canyon & Zion.
I think the only place we don't want to go is Texas! I've driven through Texas before and it feels like it will never end. In New England you can drive through 5 states in a day... so I don't think Texas will purposely make the list (Sorry "W", guess we'll have to meet up another time :P)
We're anxious to be job free, although there will be hard work at the other end of a very nice break. We're both in the frame of mind that our vacation will be much needed and we will be more than ready to shell out the hard work required to re-establish ourselves in a new town when we return to California. It's all a little mind boggling at this point, but it's becoming more and more real every day. We're also so thankful for the support of our families. It wouldn't feel as right if we were doing all of this without their blessing.