Our first night in SLO, we hung out at the Farmer's Market, watching Carl and his roomies promote themselves - you can see pictures of their efforts on their website: http://www.bikeusa05.com/
Then it was hanging around their place (which I failed to get pictures of). Real estate in SLO is ridiculous, so to be affordable these guys have been living in a two bedroom duplex for the last three years - one room is the shared bedroom, then other is the shared living space. They've done great with the limited space they have - a testimount to their friendship. We thought it would be easiest if we just set up our tent outside to sleep, to stay out of their way and enjoy the fresh air. A true sign that we are now old, we failed to remember what it's like in a college town at the end of finals week. Pure chaos in the streets. OK, that's an exaggeration, but it was quite loud out there - lots of drunken yelling, people peering into our tent, etc. So finally at about 2:00 AM, we moved our stuff inside and crashed on the floor of the living room.
Next day, we hiked up to Bishop's Peak - which gave us a great view of SLO and the ocean:
Carl was then off to take his last final, and Keith and I drove out to the coast, and up and through scenic See Canyon. That evening, Orb's parents showed up at the house, and we all cooked up a bunch of food for the graduates, and sat around and chatted - talking about organic farming, naturopathic remedies, and parasites in SE Asia (naturally our upcoming trip is fodder for conversation, so we get plenty of advice on dangers, remedies, etc.). Our most interesting to date is to eat a good size chunk of ginger each day to keep the system rolling.
More visiting throughout the night, then the rest of Orb's family showed up (two brothers, one nephew, a sister, and a significant other), all of who were also going to be staying in this tiny place. So the rent payers of the place were forced to sleep out in the garage as the family members took over the inside. I got a better night sleep that night as I claimed a very comfortable couch for myself.
The next day was graduation day, but Carl had decided not to walk, so we took the morning and went out to the coast and did some spectacular sea kayaking out of Shell Beach, CA. We risked the breakers, and explored caves, "surfed" the waves, watched seals, and befriended birds. A great time, and beautiful scenery. Keith was the only one to capsize and did it in a rather hairy part of one of the caves. Needless to say, I was the timid one and chickened out on some of the caves as the mixture of crashing surf and sharp rocks, and lack of deft kayak skills did not appeal to me as much.
Back at the house we tried to help repair a window which fell victim to a flying lotion bottle, then got cleaned up and headed to campus to watch Tory graduate in the smaller, more "intimate" ceremony. Sitting in the stands, watching all his Physics compatriots living it up in their black garbs, you could tell Carl was wishing he was down with them. There were lots of empty seats, so we encouraged him to go down and sit with them anyway - it didn't take much encouragement....
Can you find Carl in the above picture?
He proceeded to fill out his information card and actually walked! Onstage and everything, no one blinked an eye. The folks sitting behind us said something like, "Typical for a physics student..." referring to the lack of formal garb. It was great. And I think the Dean got a kick out of it as well.
That night was spent visiting with Tory and her awesome family, eating lots of good food. And the next day we drove out to the country to celebrate some more at Kyle's parents beautiful new home, with more good food and nice visiting. A final farewell to these guys as the shove off to embark on their journey.
From there Keith and I took off to the Kings River to meet up with Elizabeth at her summer place of employment: http://www.whitewatervoyages.com/rivers/kingsriver.html
For a small fee, some quality beer, and a couple stints doing dishes, we got two trips down the river, lots of good meals, and met some more quality people.
Our guides and hosts for the weekend.
The river was running extremely high and fast this weekend because of all the snow California got this past winter coupled with the fact that they were experiencing their first truly hot days - so snow was melting fast, making for a fast run, and lots of big water.
Elizabeth has been guiding for three years now, and I have to say I was very impressed with her skill and command of the river. Confident, and she knew exactly how to get us into the biggest water and in the safest way. However, we did fall under the "family and friend" curse. We flipped. Everyone in the boat out, and the boat upside down. This was only the second time this happened to her, and it happend on a relatively small rapid. At any rate it happened in a good spot as there was a long stretch of calm water to get the raft turned upright and get us all back in. She handled it beautifully and we didn't need assistance from any of the other boats.
The second day, we all stayed in, but one of the other boats in our group had a bad spill and lost some of the riders, including the guide. Those left in the boat were shellshocked and frozen in place, with no one taking charge. So Elizabeth went to the rescue and guided us over to them to assist in cleaning up the "carnage" and get the other raft to shore - again she handled it in a very calm, collected manner - taking charge of the situation. If any of you ever raft with Whitewater Voyages, ask for Liz to be your guide!
Here are some good pics of us on the river:
