Easter

I have not been very good updating my blog lately, but finally, here is some pictures from the last part of eastern, which was spent in Eresfjorden with Kristin, Stian, Mari, Per Kristian, Anders and Martin.

First day, Thursday, was a really misty rainy day, and we just went halfway up on Ryssdalsnebba.

Friday, the weather turned beautiful, so Kristin got to use the cool white sunglasses and I got really sunburned...


Mari, me and Martin went to Skjøvdøla, which is the last of the 1711 meter high mountains that I hadn't been on. It is a really awesome trip with a lot of nice views and spectacular scenery. However, it is also quite long, and we used 9 hours and got down quite exhausted.


Martin on the way down.


Saturday we had to rest a little, and went to Goksøyra, which is not that short, and not really rest. However, I think we spent over an hour at this rock in the sun :)


Kristin and Anders desperately seeking snow :)

Monday, Martin turned 30, and we made a cake with Skjorta with skiiers on!



After last trip on Sunday, already planning next trip :)


My second cousin Torgeir on the way to Skjorta Sunday, in shorts and down jacket :)


Anders playing ukulele on the top of Skjorta, Sunday.

Spelling 1711 on the top on Skjorta 1711 meters above sea.



Lunch on Goksøyra

Christmas in Utah and Arizona

An update on the last part of our trip, which went: Moab - Gooseneck canyon - Sedona - Grand Canyon - Hoover Dam - Las Vegas - And back to Palo Alto

The coolest ride of our whole trip was in my opinion Porcupine Rim. This is a ride in Moab, which we did as a loop from town, riding up the gravel road and down the trail. The rain poured down, and it was awesome! :)

Martin on Porcupine Rim.

Martin on Porcupine Rim, riding along Jackass Canyon.

After a full day biking in Moab, dinner and beer at the Moab Microbrewery was awsome. Cozy cheap place with good food and great beer :)

In Moab we stayed at a cheap motel. They had bike wash area and bike cleaning rags at the room. Kind of used to mountain bikers around there :)

Christmas eve day we did (parts of) the most famous trail in Moab, the Slickrock trail. This was really cool, but a bit to hard for me... Biking on the steep rock i found kind of scary...

Martin however, did not really suffer that problem :)

For Christmas eve we drove south, and (actually randomly) stopped at a view point called Gooseneck point. There we had Christmas dinner consisting of beef and potatoes, gingerbread and gluwein from Ikea, chocolate from home and presents.

We woke up Christmas morning to this view...!

And sunrise. Before driving on to Sedona.

First day in Sedona we biked with a group of people we met at the local bike shop. Fun to meet other people after mostly only talking to each other for a week. The next day we biked at Broken Arrow trail, an area where many Western Movies are shot.

Me looking focused...

Martin and a Cactus he got acquainted with... Worst thing with desert biking was picking cactus needles out of his ass....

Cathedral rock. Apparently it is some energy vortexes here. New Age people and also others pray in them and make stone circles because apparently they give you more energy and luck or something like that, we didn't really catch exactly what they do. I think it is originally based on some Native American traditions. But I admit it really is pretty!

After a couple of days in Sedona we drove on against Grand Canyon, and slept there, together with this guy.

Next day was our big touristy day. We started out with morning coffee with the view over Grand Canyon.

We then drove all the way to Hoover dam to stand in line (first to get into the area through securety where we were stopped and our car searched because it was so messy, then to park, then to get into the visitor center) and watch a dam... It's big, and the brigde is pretty. But i kind of preferred the more quiet nature of Moab and Arches national park.

Then we ended the day in Las Vegas staying at the Flamingo casino.

Where we lost a dollar each on slot machines, and ate a big buffet dinner.

The last days and new year eve we spent in the bay area. We got to see the fire work at the pir 14 in San Fransisco. And first day of 2011 we went to the Tech museum in San Jose. Really fun museum. They let you build things like this fish feeder, where toys are coupled with sensors...
My last day in US we spent kayaking in Santa Cruz. We paddled up the Elkhorn Sloght in pooring rain.
We saw a lot of otters and seals.

And birds (no idea which species...).

Moab

Our US Christmas roadtrip now has brought us to Moab, Utah. We checked the weather everywhere, concluded it was bad everywhere and decided we most wanted to see Utah and all the weird sandstone there, so we went there anyway. With the exception of a horrible long drive here it is awesome! We actually used three dayes to get here. The first day we used 3 hours getting our car from Avis, who has a mixed up computer system.... Then we slept in Mojave desert, drove to Vegas next day. We then decided to drive on against Utah after checking the weather forecast, realising that neither really wanted to see the strip (and that I can't climb due to my stupid knee) and setting our watches to Nevada/Utah time (according to Martin). Well into Utah and the mountains the temperature drops to just above 0. We stops in a town called Richtfield and eats, and also discovers that the time is 9pm and not 7pm.... Also that the road ahead is even worse. So we sleeps there and reaches Moab the day after.

Moab has the best mountain biking of the planet (according to Moab), and that is totally the case. We have now biked three days and sight-seen one, and we both love it! Every other minute while biking Martin is yelling "wow! look!". The only bad thing is that I really miss Norwegian Christmas and my family and Mo i Rana and snow... I don't really get much Chrismas feeling here... The little town is also awesome though! (even though it's not really Mo i Rana :) It has a really nice Microbrewery with good beer and really nice cheap food. And a cosy little cafe called the Love Muffin! What more do you need to make the perfect biking place?!

Martin biking up slikrock, Poison Spider trail.

Me and Utah!
Biking on the edge :) - Eagles Perch trail

Bagels for lunch, Martin taking the photo and focusing more on my bike than me, and also mocking me for biking in yoga pants, Long Johns and knee pads....
Martin at Gemini - Eagles Perch trail

Martin imitating Balance rock and Balance rock, Arches National Park

Men working....

Us and Delicate Arch
Us under Delicate Arch. It was a lot larger then I thought...

Americanization

Life back in San Francisco bay area with Martin is good. Although I must admit I really miss Norwegian December... No snow here... And no real advent... After growing up a place where there is lot of snow and no sun at all in December, sunny and green doesn't really feel very Christmasy. However, it is really nice not to freeze :)

Other than that, days goes by, me working from the apartment in Menlo Park, Martin working at Centre for Design research at Stanford. We also got a trip to Pasadena, Los Angeles because I had a meeting there, and we have seen San Francisco and celebrated Thanksgiving American style.

San Francisco!

Thanksgiving at Greg's parents place. I like that holiday, just about being happy and eat :)

We also whached Stanford-Oregon State in American football with Greg. Oregon state lost.. a lot.....

Since neither of our parents bothers to make us advent calendar when we are so far away, me and martin made for each other :)

Biking in the hills of the Peninsula. It is REALLY nice biking there. Only problem is that it is about 25km to bike on road to get to the nice mountain biking.... Totally worth it, but still, a bus going there would have made more time on trails, less on road...

Old Woodside on the way to bikeing

Me biking in Corte de Madera creek park

Fancy American Christmas decorations (the threes are huge!)

Washington

This weekend I went to Washington visiting my cousin Håvard, who lives in Colombia, Maryland, aka suburbia. Very nice to stay at a place with a proper nice bathroom for a couple days! (the one where I stay in blacksburg sucks...)

Amy, Håvard and the national mall. Which is basically one big monument/museum with no residential area, no shops, no restaurants (excepts in the museums). Weird in a very typical American way.

And I bumped in to these two at the train station!

If you look very closely, you can see some blinking red eyes in the top. This proves that this is actually an alien artefact supervising the white house and the national mall. If you look closely above, you can also see an UFO flying around, belonging to the same aliens.

A Morpho at the museum of natural history!