April - One week after returning home, which was spent gorging myself with burritos and pizza, I drove down to Santa Barbara to stay with my favorite philosophizing surfer, Kevin (The Philosurfer Manifesto). He hosted a killer private surf-camp and accused me of being good luck because my arrival usually coincides with that of good surf.
I also got a job in my old lab at SF state. It was really sweet deal but I had to plan on couch surfing in the city for the whole summer, which I did, thanks to Gavin, Caitlin, Karina, Tyler, Billijo, Nan, Young-jin, Sandy, Chris, and Bea.
May - I took a trip up to Yerington, NV with Dad and Grandpa for a little high-altitude desert motorcycle riding. I don't have much to say about it, except that it totally kicked ass.
The following weekend I went back to the desert (Movaje) to support a family friend, Jim. He started desert racing this year and plans to do the Baja 1000 in 2 years. Unfortunately, Jim broke down and couldn't finish the race, but not before I got to go for a ride at 70 mph over a rocky dirt road with 3-ft-deep trenches. And then we drank a lot.
Can you guess where I went the weekend after? That's right... the desert. I went to Saline Valley (inside Death Valley national park) with my good friends Dave, Laura, and Nan. The main attraction was the hot spring oasis, but we also got to play on some dunes, found a cold spring, and drove (slowly this time) on some really rough roads.
The last weekend in May was the first of MANY trips to the houseboat.
June - June had two good trips and a visitor from Japan. The first was Hawaii to see some friends. I got in plenty of surfing, hiking, cliff jumping, and socializing. But I just realized that I accidently erased those pictures. bummer.
One day after returning from HI, I went back to the desert for another of Jim's races. This was a 400 mile race that took over 8 hours! This time he got 3rd (out of 8) and there was much less drinking.
The day after getting home from the desert I picked up a friend, Sari, who was visiting from Japan. We had an extremely busy week which included touring SF, the houseboat, Yosemite, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the county fair, and my parents' 4th of July BBQ. She owes me big time.
July - Houseboat and lab work. That's it.
August - Boston! I took a flight out in early August and immediately started meeting people. Everyone I've met has been extremely nice and helpful... so now I'm just going through the process of separating the friends from the acquaintances.
That just about wraps up the summer. I've got more to say about Boston, but I'll save that for the next post.
