Headin' Up Rainier - 2008

Mt. Rainier 2008 - ridin'

This past week my friend Noam (from Ballard HS) and I headed up for our annual summer Mt. Rainier climb/board excursion and this one was a doosey. Up and rolling by 6:15 a.m., our boots hit the trail by 9:45; we had perfect sunny weather all day and fast plentiful snow on the way down (firm base with a couple inches of corn snow on top). A giant avalanche let loose on the Nisqually Glacier about 200 yards from us as we were going up and even though we were in no danger, it always rams your stomach into your throat when you hear the loud "woomph"! The ratio of 4 hours of climbing for 25 minutes of cruising suits me just fine...

Mt. Rainier 2008

The Day Junot Came to Town

It's not everyday that we get to hang out with a Pulitzer Prize-winning author for a day. Mr. Diaz gave two readings and facilitated two creative writing sessions with upperclassmen; during both he was thought-provoking and hilarious. If you have not yet picked up The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao or his first book, Drown, do so immediately. He was gracious enough to sign endless autographs and pose for that one last picture - we were even able to get most our men's book/scotch club together for a foto with the author of one of this year's selections.

27 Waterfalls

Mike and Steve came down from Seattle for Spring Break and I knew this would be a good chance to finally do the 27 Waterfalls excursion. Just south of the town of Imbert, about 45 minutes from Cabarete, lies a giant Brugal rum sign which marks the inconspicuous entrance. Dropping off the freeway onto a dirt road that runs through a sugar cane field, you drive for a few minutes before reaching a very nice and reportedly very new reception area, guide cabin, restaurant, giftshop, etc. -- profoundly more than the ticket shack that existed just a year ago. After securing a guide and deciding on the full 27 waterfalls option, the three of us set off for a 3hour tour up a series of waterfalls and pools stretching appoximately 4km up into the hills. The path crisscrosses confusingly through dense forest, streams, and waterfalls and would be nearly impossible to navigate without a guide. Each of the guides does only one trek per day - ours was great and his gutsy six-year-old son joined us for the fun, adding that element of "well, if a six-year-old just did it..." The largest drop was perhaps 35 or 40 feet, a bit farther (and obviously into shallower water) than usual because of the lack of significant rainfall over the past few months. Ailing, being preggers and not able to join us, advised from her first time at the waterfalls a year ago that we should arrive early in the morning and be the first ones up and down. We did so and didn't see another soul until we were almost all the way down and started running running into the large groups of 20+ people coming from Cabarete as part of the Iguana Mama Adventure Tours. Being there early insured that we were able to do the jumps as many times as we wanted and the guide was able to take his time explaining the flora and fauna to us. I can now share the sentiment with the others I have met who have exclaimed, "27 Waterfalls one of the coolest things you can do in DR."

Family Foto

Ever since Built to Spill's first album came out back in the early 90's (see below), I always wanted to do a dorky "family" photo. Here are the results. The "daughters" in the back row are our friends Tina, Amanda, and Noreen, each of whom is trying to portray a child in a certain family birth order and Ailing and I are being the proud Dominican parents. This was actually meant to be a Christmas card photo but given the mail service here in the DR, you can imagine how far they got...

Baby Richaccia

Niño o niña? You be the judge; we're just gonna wait 'til July and find out. 19.5 weeks along and counting. All systems go and measurements within normal limits - it's like flying to the moon... ;)

36 - you just gotta make it look good

My good friend Stacy (looking short in the first foto) and I have b-days two days apart, so we decided to celebrate 'em together. After a fine Italian meal at Il Capo, we headed over to the famous Embajador casino (where some scenes in The Godfather II were filmed) for some gambling. Roulette was a no go for but blackjack treated me just fine.

10K - Hot and Sunny "Winter" Running

I pulled off my second timed 10k in around 52 minutes, 10 minutes less than my last one. Now if I can just shave off about 7 more minutes, I might actually beat that ba$tard Jeff Dungan (pictured with the donut).

SUPER SUNDAY FLAG FOOTBALL

Every Super Bowl Sunday at CMS is initiated by an early afternoon flag football game followed by a nice trip to Colmado Los Muchachos for some ice cold Presidente'. This year, the good guys in red won and I even pulled down two fairly sweet catches for touchdowns to earn MVP honors (truthfully, my friend Tasha (with the seattle u shirt on) deserved it for her stellar running and catching). Then, the Giants beat the Pats and all was right with the universe.

euro vaca 2

A few more fotos from the Europe. Most of these were taken on short day trips from where Ali and Paul live in the southern Netherlands: a trip to Maastricht and their great Christmas market and then over to Belgian city called Liege which is sort of akin to Glasgow - very industrial, but with an exciting downtown. Liege had loudspeakers set up all over the city center which blasted strange things in French; it was like having an afternoon story teller from on high. The narrator caused the Sunday pub denizens to periodically raise their glasses and say or sing phrases at the top of their lungs in unison - it was surreal. By looking at the last foto I am sure you are wondering... ok, we were tempted but didn't actually eat at "Hamburger Restaurant"!

Euro vaca with ali and paul - Berlin

All fotos are from our first ever trip to Berlin. After a long, long trip from the DR (Santo Domingo -- NYC -- London -- Amsterdam by plane and then Amsterdam -- Landgraff by train - Ailing had already been there for a week after doing Thanksgiving in Denver) we all caught about 5 hours of sleep and then hit the road for Berlin. What should have taken 5.5 or 6 hours from Paul and Ali's place in Landgraf in the south Netherlands took more like 10 because of traffic (needless to say, I was mighty sick of travelling at that point). We rented an apartment for three days, braved the bitter cold, ate copious amounts of brats and pomme fritz, and fell in love with the place.