9,360 km
A short post for a short stay in
Santa Cruz, California. After a great few days in San Francisco, it
was off to the small coastal city for some partying and polo time! It
was a pain getting there as all BART(SF's Metro system) employees
were on strike, but at least the connections I had to make I could
wait in the sun and enjoy the sights in Oakland, CA. Here are a few pictures of my wander to and through Oakland.
After a full day of commuting I
arrived at Brandon's house just in time to catch the last number of
rounds of the World Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships from Ft.
Lauderdale, FL. We live streamed the tournament I the big screen and
drank beers and had laughs.
The next day my Aussie friends
Niki and Lachie accompanied me on a bike ride down to the famous
Santa Cruz Boardwalk. It was a weird carnival type place and fronted
onto a nice beach. While we were there they convinced me to ride the
Giant Dipper, America's 4th oldest roller coaster, which was so much
fun and I regret nothing!
We proceeded to play polo in the
afternoon and then had some beers that night. In the morning it was
off to SoCal, Irvine!
Thanks Santa Cruz for the
hospitality!
W
After a great 4 days in the
outdoors in Northern California it was back to the city life in the
capitol, Sacramento. The vibe that I got right away was like being
back home in Ottawa, it was a seemingly sleepy and quiet government
town. This city was not without a certain nostalgic charm, grand
beauty, and lots of great new friends.
9,090 km
One of the first things I noticed
when I rolled into town was that it had a lot of bike lanes. It was a
great city to have a bike as my form of transport as the entire
downtown has an extensive bike network which helped me see a lot of
the city. My new friend Mike and I spent a few days biking around,
grabbing some eats, and checking out the gems that Sac has to offer.
A few of our stops included interesting neighborhoods, Old
Sacramento, a great coffee shop, the State Capitol Plaza, and the
birth place of Capitol Bike Polo "The Ruff House".
The "Ruff House"
The State Capitol plaza was
really cool and planned out with a large avenue lined with government
buildings that lines up perfectly with the triumphant golden "Tower
Bridge". The plaza grounds themselves contain approximately 1140
trees in the park (not including shrubs) representing over 200 types
of trees. Mike and I stopped to try and knock down some fresh oranges
out of one of the trees, but they were all a little past ripe. The
plaza is also the home Apollo 14 Moon Tree, planted as a sapling in
1976 that was grown from a seed (among hundreds) carried by command
module pilot Stuart Roosa during the 1971 mission.
Old Sacramento was really cool,
and wonderfully preserved waterfront town and the architecture is
primarily of Spanish style buildings similar to that of Havana, or
San Juan. On the river in Old Sac is where the Delta King Steam Boat
is docked. It was cool seeing a steam boat for the first time in
person, although now it operates as a hotel. Old Sac is also a great
place to walk down the river to the Tower bridge to get a close up of
this awesome feat of engineering.
The rest of my time in Sac was
filled with cappuccinos, beers at Track 7, and even a day trip to San
Francisco. My friend Joe and his family were kind enough to put me up
during the time I was in town and it was priceless as always to have
the local knowledge to hook me up with all the best spots in town. It
was also so great to have friends in Mike, Christine, and Capitol
bike polo to show me around and a great time at the polo courts! It
was a great and relaxing time in Sacramento, and can't wait to visit
again in the future!
Be sure to check out my FYI:
Sacramento & Northern California blog post coming up soon!
6,485 km
Hey everyone, sorry for the lack
of bloggage, but I have been busy in the United States of America! As
of September 22 I embarked on the next step, or lets call it 'Phase
II" of my world journey.
Phase II began at the 49th
Parallel North(The USA/Canada border) and ultimately will take me to
Los Angeles by November 5th. So far I hitched a ride down to
Portland, OR with my friend Kayla in her sweet Dodge Apollo motor
home.
During my first 4 days in
Portland I spent most of my time biking around and taking pictures of
the beautiful homes, the old industrial and warehouse districts, and
the downtown area. While I was in town I was staying at the
Polo-haus, a residence that is rented by polo players and provides
out of towners a convenient place to crash.
On my last night in Portland a
bunch of us rolled down to a marina on the Columbia river and had a
few drinks at a friends marina bar. Beers and fun times were had
while watching the sun set over Vancouver, WA. In the morning I was
off to Everett, WA to visit my friends Jared and Heidi, as well as
the Everett polo crew.
Here are some photos from my
visit of Everett.
On the Friday I was off to
Seattle for the Westside Invitational Polo tournament, which
unfortunately was cancelled due to an impending rain storm. I went
down and stayed with my friend Ryan anyways and did a bunch of fun
things as well as play some very wet and cold polo.
On the Friday night I headed down
to Studio 7 and saw one of my favorite bands, Alcest play. Here are a
few photos.
The rest of the weekend was
filled with shenanigans, dice, lots of drinking all day at Lost Lake
Diner, Canterbury, and Auto Battery. Here are the photos of my last
weekend in Seattle.
Hope you enjoyed my post, next up
will be Cascadia Part 2, Portland, Cannon Beach, Cape Lookout State
Park, and hopefully Smith Rock State Park.
Peace, W
