Kayaks and Craps

The holiday weekend in Vegas was fantastic. My co-pilot for the drive to and from Vegas, and my paddle buddy, was my coworker and friend, Steve. We left Saturday morning bright and early. We covered the long, boring desert drive to Vegas without much traffic, or at least less traffic than I expected for Memorial Day weekend, and arrived in Vegas pretty close to ETA of 3:30 p.m. It's a six hour drive. We did encounter amazing winds that were screaming across the desert flats and whipping up pretty thick sandstorms. We made a pit stop for lunch and gas at some desolate place in the middle of nowhere. When I opened my door, the wind instantly slammed it shut. We heard later that winds were estimated at 50 mph that day. All this wind did not bode well for our river trip on Sunday. Last year's kayakers encountered strong headwinds and had to constantly paddle. It was not a leisurely float down the river and folks who had been on that trip were not going to go through it again.

But luckily, Mother Nature was kind and could not have given us a more perfect day. We all met at a Von's grocery store in Boulder City at 7AM. That's early. It was a cool 60 degrees, but very clear and sunny, and almost no wind. Just a gentle breeze. We bought lunch and water, and then headed to the Hacienda Hotel & Casino just near the Hoover Dam where we met the outfitter. The outfitter drove us down a bumpy, rocky, narrow, and winding road to river level. We saw bighorn sheep along the way and we'd see many more when we were on the river. I had a very good eye for spotting them thanks to the practice I've had when visiting Susan out in the boonies. (Thanks Susan!) Our launch site was literally as close to the foot of the Hoover Dam that civilians are allowed. I've looked down the Hoover Dam a couple times, but looking up at it is completely different. It's 700 feet high and it just looms. We had a group of 30 people, which meant 15 two-man boats. We all launched successfully and set off letting the current and the gentle tailwind do most of the work. For lunch, we stopped at one of the several "beaches" and did a short hike up to a hot spring. The river water was 53 degrees coming out of the dam, so the hot springs and their jacuzzi hot temperatures felt great. After a leisurely lunch and water gun fight, we hopped back in the boats and continued on. The Colorado River has a lot of minerals and other things in it that make it very clear and very green. We were riding the part of the river that goes through what is called Black Canyon. We poked into a couple small caves where the lighting made the water glow emerald. We also played the fun game of how-many-kayaks-can-get-in-the-cave-and-then-turn-around. About six is the answer. We wore our PFDs the entire time and reapplied sunblock liberally. The temp never got above 82 degrees and I hardly broke a sweat. We really didn't have to paddle too much. Often, two or three boats would link up and we'd float down together sharing snacks, jokes, and other tidbits. We met a few people who were paddling upstream (why upstream, I have no idea. Don't they know downstream is less work?), but essentially, we had the entire river to ourselves. During the eleven miles we were on the river, we saw nesting cormorants, trout (huge!), lizards, ducks, the aforementioned bighorn sheep - some even right down at river level getting a drink, hawks, and swift-like birds. Our end point was Willow Beach in Arizona. Thanks to the fantastic conditions, we were about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. The outfitter took a bus of tired but happy paddlers back across the Hoover Dam to our cars. Almost everyone fell asleep on that ride back.

I actually didn't spend a dime on gambling. The weekend cost enough without spending money on gambling. We did walk the strip Saturday night and went in and out of a few casinos. The best thing we saw was a car that had been pulled over by two policemen on *horseback.* The LVPD was out in force Saturday night. I think there were police every block. They were in cars, on bikes, on foot, and on horse. How does one get pulled over by a horse? Of course, traffic was only inching along, so I guess it's possible.

The kayak trip has been an annual event for the past three years, but the trip organizer retired from Harcourt on Friday, so next year's trip is questionable. He said he wants to continue to organize a Memorial Day trip (he has family & friends that come too, so it's not just Harcourt people who do this), but it might be a white water raft trip. That's fine with me.

The drive home on Monday was just as I expected - copious traffic with unpredictable speed up-slow down pockets. Once we passed the 15 and 10 juncture, it was smooth sailing. All those Angelinos who clogged up the freeway went their way, and we went ours.

It was a very good weekend.

Continuing Life

Things here in San Diego have been gloomy. Usually the grey, constant marine layer doesn't happen until June - "June Gloom." But today is a gorgeous, clear blue sky day. Warm, too. I have the windows open, the music on, and laundry going. Tomorrow I'm going out to the Wild Animal Park with a friend from work. I've only been to the park once, with Susan about a year ago. Mom and Dad visited SD while I was in Chicago, and went to the park. They loved it. It is really fantastic and I like it better than the zoo even though the zoo is pretty cool, too. It is the San Diego Zoo after all. Not too shabby.

I'm also going to drive around and look at neighborhoods and houses. Mom and Dad totally surprised me by recently urging me to buy a place instead of continuing to rent. So I'm looking into things. I'm a little daunted by owning something as big as a house, but gotta take that plunge sometime. The state actually has several assistance programs for first time home owners and my salary is still low enough that I qualify for all of them. So that's something on my mind. My lease is up July 1, but I know that letter to renew will be arriving sometime very soon. Not sure what I'll do yet.

What else is new? Hmm. Not much. Susan sent me a huge book called ANIMAL published by DK for the Smithsonian Institute. It has sections for each animal class (Mammals, fishes, amphibians, etc.) and is chock full of photos and information. I've been looking at a section a night. Thanks for the b-day present Susan!

Summer movies are here but I haven't seen a one yet. Kayaking in Vegas next weekend. Robert Earl Keen is here on the Wednesday after Memorial Day. Looking forward to that, too. More later peeps.

Ashes and Snow

Over Easter weekend, I went up to LA. While I was there we went to what has turned out to be one of the most memorable art exhibits I've ever seen. The exhibit is called Ashes and Snow and features photographs of artist Gregory Colbert. The subject of each large-scale photo is people with animals. Animals such as elephants, cheetahs, hawks, lions, whales, apes, and more. When looking at the photos it's hard to believe they were not created in Photoshop or manipulated in any way. Nor are they stills from the three films that are also part of the exhibit. There are photos of women with lions, children with cheetahs, people with elephants, and a dancer with a hawk. In none of the photos does it look like the animal is attacking or dangerous to the human. As mom said, the animals look protective of the people. The photos are not labeled to titled, so the viewer can draw his or her own conclusions. Each photo has an element of the surreal and there is something mystical about the relationship between the animal and the human.

There are also three films that are of people and animals, too. Two are shorter and one is an hour. The films are sort of extensions of the photographs. Seeing the interaction on film completely erases any lingering doubts about the validity of the photos. One of my favorite sequences is of an Egyptian dancer with a hawk. The still photographs of her are stunning and then to see the film of the dance with the bird swooping above and around her is really amazing. The entire sequence is graceful and full of unexpected beauty, with just a touch of danger because you don't really know what that bird is going to do. The dancer keeps dancing as if she is completely unaware the bird is even there. That's actually how many of the people behave in the films. The people are sitting, walking, dancing, or whatever with the animals all around them but not directly interacting with them. And everyone - the people and animals - are so calm. In one part of a film, there is a boy/girl laying down on a sand dune with his/her eyes shut surrounded by panting cheetahs.

The exhibit space for this show is equally as unusual and also demands some of the viewers attention. The space is called the Nomadic Museum. It is constructed out of "152 steel cargo containers stacked 34 feet high combined with largely recyclable and reusable materials to form the structural elements." Really do click on the link above to see photos of this structure and the inside of the exhibit. Go to "Exhibitions" then to "Nomadic Museum" then to "Santa Monica Pier" to see what I saw. The interior of the space is dark and one can't help but whisper because it resembles a cathedral. The noisy ouside world completely disappears. It's dark with only the photos lit with spotlights. The photos are not framed, but suspended in midair by wires. The museum is built on the beach right next to the pier, but we weren't walking on sand. There is a boardwalk surrounded by black stones. Extremely minimalist decor.

The Ashes and Snow website doesn't list any more US dates yet, and the show has closed in Santa Monica. It is going to Japan next. I told my friends at work about this show and one of them did go up on the last weekend to see it. She was so glad she did. She took her husband, eight year-old daughter, and in-laws. All of them loved it.

It's really an exhibit that you come out of feeling like there is something different. Actually, the reentry to civilization in the parking lot at the noisy, neon, Santa Monica pier is somewhat jarring and an interesting foil for the calm, dark, peaceful experience. Walking among the evening crowd at the pier when we had finished, I felt like I had just been part of something extraordinarily special that they had no clue about. Yet, it was so close and all they had to do was walk across the parking lot to experience it for themselves.

Maybe the Nomadic Museum will come back to the US and all of you can experience it too.

Catching Up

Since it's been so long since I updated this, here is the down and dirty version of what I've been up to in the last month or so.

-Preparing for Texas Library Association & International Reading Association conferences
-Going to the aforementioned TLA and IRA conferences (they were back-to-back this year, lucky me) in Houston and Chicago
-made it through sales conference three days before leaving for Houston and had lots of fun hanging out with work chums both in SD and from NY
-Celebrated my 29th birthday on the road in Houston
-Visited Tom, Holly, and new baby, Ellie, in Houston
-Visited College Station for the first time in five years, by my calculation and recollection
-Attended my first game at Minute Maid Park with publishing friends on my birthday, Astors vs. Dodgers
-Easter
-Attended three Padres games so far this season and it's only the beginning of May
-Hanging out with friends
-Went to the Shedd Aquarium during my semi-free day in Chicago
-Visited the amazing photography exhibition, Ashes and Snow, in Santa Monica (review to come)
-Watched the entire Freaks & Geeks series
-Haven't had much energy to read, but I did just polish off the sequel to Twilight, New Moon. Vampires, werewolves, teen romance=so good!

It's been busy. But all is good. No colds, injuries, stress-induced breakdowns, or the like. I'm in the home stretch now. I am now turning my attentions to preparing for the American Library Association annual conference at the end of June in New Orleans. Should be a snap after the last two weeks.

I also am looking forward to a kayak trip in Las Vegas over Memorial Day weekend. Two nights in Vegas and a lazy float down a river. Should be nice.

Hope all of you are well and I'll write again soon.