A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Skateboarder

Last Sunday, Timon and I went to Jacob's birthday party. Jacob is (hold on to yer hats) Timon's cousin Tess and her husband Chad's boy. Being the offspring of Tess and Chad, Jacob is destined to excel at All Things Physical, and at 2 years old he pretty much kicks my butt in the following: rock climbing, sprinting, biking and now skateboarding. Never mind that he can barely [sit still to] pronouce the word "skateboard", the little guy took one look at his birthday present and hopped right on.

Click here or here to see Jacob in action.

And of course, the joys of parenting:

Ride 'em like an Indian

Yesterday Timon and I went horseback riding. Timon was carrying the camera, at least until it flew out of the saddlebag while he was galloping across a field on top of a mountain at 10,000 feet. But luckily as I was flying behind him my horse didn't crush the camera, and so we retained the photos of me grinning like a fool for nearly three hours.

Timon was riding Mr. Ed, and I was on Bandit. Bandit and I had some issues, culminating in him trying to buck me off twice (no, Timon didn't manage a photo of that). But I held on, and managed not to get thrown. When I got Bandit back on all four feet and turned around, our guide, Todd, looked at us and merely said, "You looked like a freakin' Indian riding that thing." I'm not really sure if that was a compliment, or pointing out the lack of skill in controlling my horse, but anyway, a sentence relating me, bucking and Indian is yet another reminder that we ain't in New York City anymore.

Doc Holiday and me

The best thing to happen to us so far occured last night, and I'm so giddy about it I can't really get it out. We went to this bar, called the Silver Dollar, and its located in Leadville (yes, LEADVILLE - we are living in the wild west). The backdrop to this poor deserted mining town is a massive snow-capped mountain range with little brightly-painted colored shacks in front of it. And then smack in the middle of town is the Silver Dollar bar, established in 1879. With original tile, mirrors, cash registers, and the walls covered in paraphanalia of people crossing the rockies for the last 120 years. In fact, DOC HOLIDAY WALKED ON THE SAME TILES AND SAT AT THE SAME BAR STOOLS AND LOOKED IN THE SAME MIRRORS that Timon and I did yesterday. Now, maybe I wouldn't have cared too much a few months ago, but damn, it really feels like history out here, and a very fucking cool part of american history to boot.

Arrival in Colorado

Sitting on the balcony watching the sunset.

We were forced to drink the best bottle of pinot that we brought back from the honeymoon in California when the pressure from the altitude pushed the cork open just a little...

Where we are staying

Road Trip

Here are a few pics from the road trip out to Colorado, on which we took a detour through the Badlands in South Dakota. I'll be doing more extensive posting as soon as I can tear myself away from the great mountain playground outside our doors.

Driving to Wine Country

We woke up early due to jet lag and went for a swim in the pool.

left the city via Golden Gate

and in less than 2 hours we arrived at Tim n' Tony's little cottage in the Russian River Valley.

We couldn't possibly imagine what the directions meant when they said, "Don't stop driving until you see the Donkey!"

but there he was.

Dinner at Quince

Mika sent us out to one of the best meals of our life, at Quince.

Everything was incredible, from the wine and cheese to the perfect service. Thanks Mika! We toasted to having you for a sister, how lucky we are!

Honeymooning

We arrived in San Francisco on Saturday afternoon and were promptly met by the elusive James. Actually, he's not too hard to find - just head straight to the bar.

The view from our room at the W.

Mt. Kailash

As soon as we arrived at Mt. Kailash, Timon and I threw on our packs immediately and hired some lovely porters to help carry our oversized Tibetan camping gear (in our defense, the drive to Kailash continually climbs in elevation, so even though we were adjusted to altitude in Lhasa, we were another 3,000 feet higher out here, and in no shape to carry 50 pound packs). The snowy peak in the distance is Mt. Kailash, and it took us 4 days to trek around it. Tibetan Buddhist and Bon pilgrims do it in one.

For more info on Mt. Kailash, click here.

Our campsite on the first night.



A passing herd of yaks across the stream from us.

Beauty

The trip only got more spectacular the further west we drove. This is the Bramhaputra River, which we followed all the way to its source, Mt. Kailash.

To give some sense of the scale, there is a telephone poll in between these two nomad tents, each probably the size of a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Several people might sleep, eat and live in these tents during the summer months, as they move their herds of yaks and pashmina goats across the Tibetan plateau. Far beyond these tents are ever-present mountains, capped with snow.

Our driver stops to wash his hankerchief in the stream.

Another campsite along the Bramhaputra River. Here we discovered the joys of popcorn and a bottle of cheap Chinese wine, after ferocious declarations that I was done eating chemical soup (but oh, I wasn't done). It also started getting much colder in the evenings and we needed to fortify ourselves with liquor, naturally.

Sunrise. And yes, that is toilet paper hanging out of my pocket.

Breakdown #2

It didn't take long before the truck stalled again, this time very far away from anything resembling a town. But at least we weren't alone, a few truckers had some troubles too.

You can take the boy out of Indiana, but you can't take Indiana out of the boy.


But it was a beautiful day, so there were no complaints.

Breakdown #1

While we waited for our truck to be fixed, we met all 7 of the local kids, who happily helped us practice our Chinese and Tibetan.

We hoped that the truck would be fixed before nightfall, when we might have to stay in this hotel.

our first night camping on the kailesh trip

This was not the first cup of Chemical Soup - I mean cup of noodles - and most unfortunately, it would not be even close to the last. In fact, this was the start of two solid weeks of noodles, noodles, and the occasional respite of a dinner of popcorn and red wine.

We're still relatively clean in this picture.

Like a white stallion waiting patiently in the mist, our trusty truck. Sort of. At least it would be trusty for one more day.

the drive across tibet

We've spent the last two weeks driving, camping and hiking across western Tibet, and after lots of talking about how to describe it to other people, we've concluded that its indescribable, in a strange strange way. Its very beautiful, grasslands and sand dunes and snowy mountain peaks all right next to each other. But the main thing that is incomprehensible is the size. Its so huge that your mind kind of blitzes out to fill in the space and then there is just massive massive calm. My mind has never thought that large before. I think it must be akin to going to outer space, where you suddenly get a glimpse of how gigantic the universe really might be. Western Tibet makes Lhasa and even the drive to Everest seem like a city. The mountains, plains and sky just get exponentially larger and more spread out.

Some yaks walking along the river.

Here's a small town on the beginning of the trip, where there was still some green.