summercomfort (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
summercomfort) wrote2009-03-23 11:54 pm
summercomfort) wrote2009-03-23 11:54 pm
Entry tags:
Grand Canyon Fun and Excitement!
Last weekend I didn't have Chinese School! That meant I has a Sunday free. In addition, Friday there was no school, and I was done teaching on Thursday by 10am. So I took advantage of this opportunity to arrange a trip to the Grand Canyon with Jono and Cat.
The photostream is here, with some comments here and there, but there is also narration below.
Now the narration!
We left Mountain View at 11am, and drove most of the way across California by 7pm. We drove by many Joshua trees, some wind-mills, and some abandoned towns and buildings. And some very long cargo trains. It was nice to see that cargo trains are still used. Jono and I read from Godel, Escher Bach (About strange loops and formal systems).
We stopped at the Mojave National Preserve for camping the first night. Though we had some initial problems finding the campsite because we went in on the wrong road, we managed to set up and sleep. On the way, we drove down dry dirt roads that with signs that said "Flooding" or "Icy Road", and there were a series of "Dip"s. There was also a train depot there. Jono said that the mountains looked like cookie dough.
The next morning I got up and took some pictures, since we were mostly driving in the dark the night before. I was very proud of the fact that we used up the wood that's been sitting in my trunk since July last year from Yellowstone.
Then we drove another 5 hours or so and reached the Grand Canyon by 3pm. On the road, I read a bit from Foucault's Discipline and Punish (about systematic torture), and from Cat's Dresden Files book (about a Chicago Wizard getting attacked by faeries). Then we started a Trollbabe session. Jono GM-ed. I was Agatha, a quiet, rational, conciliatory trollbabe mage who was raised by her human cleric father, and on a quest to the Canyon of Death to find her troll mother. Cat was Elvira, a punk with more muscles than Popeye and a bigger fanclub than Shatner who wanted to join and lead the Skullcrusher troll gang in the Deadly Canyon. After pitching camp, Jono and Cat got their first glimpse of Grand Canyon. We ogled at their General Store, relaxed at camp, and checked out the sunset at Grandview point.
Then we had a yummy dinner of hot dogs and a zucchini/corn stir-fry, and finished the Trollbabe session that we started. We succeeded in retrieving baby Lynn from the confused Skullcrushers, and released a trapped troll soul from a golem by defeating Thorgrim the village wizard. Elvira gathered a village fanclub through drinking copious alcohol and arm-wrestling a golem, then proceeded to sit on a troll and stop a zombie.
Then we looked at the stars.
Then it got really cold as our fire died down, so we went into our tents. After I settled in next to Jono, he said to me, "你做我的太太，怎么样？"* And so I said, "好啊！" ** And then I was like, "Wait, does that mean we're engaged?" and he's like "Yeah. Do you want one of those ring things?" And later, "I wonder if rings come in different sizes to fit different fingers..."
* "You make my wife, how about it?"
** "Sounds good to me!"
The next day, we went on two hikes. In the morning, we went on the South Kaibab trail. It's very different in the morning in the spring vs in the late afternoon in the summer. The light was different, and there was a lot more wind. Jono got some nice pictures of the switchbacks, though.
After a lunch at the Arizona Room, we headed down Bright Angel. This one was harder b/c there weren't stairs, but rather an incline plane. And the path was icy and slippery. But there was a rather nice view of the Tonto Plateau. I was pretty pooped by the time we headed back up, and was consistently slower than the others. I got a bit better when I figured out the optimum waddle, though. After we got back up, we took a triumphant picture showing the Red Zone dust we collected on our pants.
Couple things about trails in general:
- cold/hot varied a lot depending on shade/sun
- sunlight makes things beautiful. Some glowing things from last time just looked ordinary this time. And vice versa.
- the step kind is easier on the knees/shock absorption on the way down, but the inclined plane is easier for the waddle on the way up.
- Jono's Canyon Deaths book talked about the difference between Canyoneering and Mountaineering -- Mountaineering is hard at the beginning, so it's really easy to weed out the people who can't handle it, and it's easy to give up and go back downhill. On the other hand, Canyoneering is a slippery slope effect where going down is easy, but when you give up on the going down, you still have to go back up, which is infinitely harder.
- Going down, I'm too focused on stepping in the right place so as not to slip and fall. But coming up, I'm too focused on keeping a rhythm. This means not many photo opportunities.
- The view of the canyon changes very little because it's so big. It only changes when you round a cliff face. Thats why it's easier to focus on the closer rocks.
- There is a clear stratification of the rocks. The top part is the Yellow Zone, and then there's the Red Zone, and then there's the Green Zone. We barely got started on the Red Zone before turning back.
That night, we had all sorts of yummy warm food made from boiling water and pouring it into instant mashed potatoes or this weird freeze-dried sweet and sour pork fried rice dish. Agatha found out more about her mother by traveling to the Canyon of Doom and finding the Bonebashers. Elvira lead a hunting/raiding party into the Misty Moors.
We woke up really early the next morning to catch the sunrise. We felt all right, though, because it was only on the 3rd night that we finally had the right amount of bedding/padding/heat pads to sleep through the night (it got down to freezing at night). That's why we're all dressed silly.
After some sunrise ogling, we packed up the camp and headed on the 12 hour drive home. It was really windy! We got attacked by a 5-tumbleweed-brigade and saw some snow-covered hilltops. Elvira succeeded in leading an attack on the Bonebashers who had gotten Agatha to steal the Skullcrushers' ward runestone. Agatha helped defend the Skullcrushers' cave, found her mother in a circus cage and freed her.
Oh, after I got back, I did a few photo tweaks that entertained me:
Oh, finally:
How he seduced me, obviously:
The photostream is here, with some comments here and there, but there is also narration below.
Now the narration!
We left Mountain View at 11am, and drove most of the way across California by 7pm. We drove by many Joshua trees, some wind-mills, and some abandoned towns and buildings. And some very long cargo trains. It was nice to see that cargo trains are still used. Jono and I read from Godel, Escher Bach (About strange loops and formal systems).
We stopped at the Mojave National Preserve for camping the first night. Though we had some initial problems finding the campsite because we went in on the wrong road, we managed to set up and sleep. On the way, we drove down dry dirt roads that with signs that said "Flooding" or "Icy Road", and there were a series of "Dip"s. There was also a train depot there. Jono said that the mountains looked like cookie dough.
The next morning I got up and took some pictures, since we were mostly driving in the dark the night before. I was very proud of the fact that we used up the wood that's been sitting in my trunk since July last year from Yellowstone.
Then we drove another 5 hours or so and reached the Grand Canyon by 3pm. On the road, I read a bit from Foucault's Discipline and Punish (about systematic torture), and from Cat's Dresden Files book (about a Chicago Wizard getting attacked by faeries). Then we started a Trollbabe session. Jono GM-ed. I was Agatha, a quiet, rational, conciliatory trollbabe mage who was raised by her human cleric father, and on a quest to the Canyon of Death to find her troll mother. Cat was Elvira, a punk with more muscles than Popeye and a bigger fanclub than Shatner who wanted to join and lead the Skullcrusher troll gang in the Deadly Canyon. After pitching camp, Jono and Cat got their first glimpse of Grand Canyon. We ogled at their General Store, relaxed at camp, and checked out the sunset at Grandview point.
Then we had a yummy dinner of hot dogs and a zucchini/corn stir-fry, and finished the Trollbabe session that we started. We succeeded in retrieving baby Lynn from the confused Skullcrushers, and released a trapped troll soul from a golem by defeating Thorgrim the village wizard. Elvira gathered a village fanclub through drinking copious alcohol and arm-wrestling a golem, then proceeded to sit on a troll and stop a zombie.
Then we looked at the stars.
Then it got really cold as our fire died down, so we went into our tents. After I settled in next to Jono, he said to me, "你做我的太太，怎么样？"* And so I said, "好啊！" ** And then I was like, "Wait, does that mean we're engaged?" and he's like "Yeah. Do you want one of those ring things?" And later, "I wonder if rings come in different sizes to fit different fingers..."
* "You make my wife, how about it?"
** "Sounds good to me!"
The next day, we went on two hikes. In the morning, we went on the South Kaibab trail. It's very different in the morning in the spring vs in the late afternoon in the summer. The light was different, and there was a lot more wind. Jono got some nice pictures of the switchbacks, though.
After a lunch at the Arizona Room, we headed down Bright Angel. This one was harder b/c there weren't stairs, but rather an incline plane. And the path was icy and slippery. But there was a rather nice view of the Tonto Plateau. I was pretty pooped by the time we headed back up, and was consistently slower than the others. I got a bit better when I figured out the optimum waddle, though. After we got back up, we took a triumphant picture showing the Red Zone dust we collected on our pants.
Couple things about trails in general:
- cold/hot varied a lot depending on shade/sun
- sunlight makes things beautiful. Some glowing things from last time just looked ordinary this time. And vice versa.
- the step kind is easier on the knees/shock absorption on the way down, but the inclined plane is easier for the waddle on the way up.
- Jono's Canyon Deaths book talked about the difference between Canyoneering and Mountaineering -- Mountaineering is hard at the beginning, so it's really easy to weed out the people who can't handle it, and it's easy to give up and go back downhill. On the other hand, Canyoneering is a slippery slope effect where going down is easy, but when you give up on the going down, you still have to go back up, which is infinitely harder.
- Going down, I'm too focused on stepping in the right place so as not to slip and fall. But coming up, I'm too focused on keeping a rhythm. This means not many photo opportunities.
- The view of the canyon changes very little because it's so big. It only changes when you round a cliff face. Thats why it's easier to focus on the closer rocks.
- There is a clear stratification of the rocks. The top part is the Yellow Zone, and then there's the Red Zone, and then there's the Green Zone. We barely got started on the Red Zone before turning back.
That night, we had all sorts of yummy warm food made from boiling water and pouring it into instant mashed potatoes or this weird freeze-dried sweet and sour pork fried rice dish. Agatha found out more about her mother by traveling to the Canyon of Doom and finding the Bonebashers. Elvira lead a hunting/raiding party into the Misty Moors.
We woke up really early the next morning to catch the sunrise. We felt all right, though, because it was only on the 3rd night that we finally had the right amount of bedding/padding/heat pads to sleep through the night (it got down to freezing at night). That's why we're all dressed silly.
After some sunrise ogling, we packed up the camp and headed on the 12 hour drive home. It was really windy! We got attacked by a 5-tumbleweed-brigade and saw some snow-covered hilltops. Elvira succeeded in leading an attack on the Bonebashers who had gotten Agatha to steal the Skullcrushers' ward runestone. Agatha helped defend the Skullcrushers' cave, found her mother in a circus cage and freed her.
Oh, after I got back, I did a few photo tweaks that entertained me:
Oh, finally:
How he seduced me, obviously:
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Role playing at the Grand Canyon. You guys are such nerds.
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Trollbabe is excellent for driving and sitting around the campfire because conflict is resolved in a single dice roll, and there's lots of storytelling involved. :D
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We're doing just fine, having a decent home life and fighting through school. If it weren't for that we'd be engaged already too :)
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Now I must start planning wedding presents...
yrs--
--Ben
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I'd never have guessed back in anime club that this was how things would turn out. Hell, if memory serves, when I graduated Jono thought he might be asexual. But it's fantastic that everything worked out this way. Two chill people who share a lot of values and experiences. Congratulations and good luck! :D
Oh, and the photos are fantastic, of course :P
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It sounds like you guys had quite an amazing trip... ^^ You guys are my heroes for gaming while vacationing by the by.
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Yay gaming. Will you participate come ACen time?
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The Grand Canyon is beautiful (it looks like you went to the south rim? some of the pictures look familiar to me), and the Arizona Room is one of the best restaurants around. :D
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Congratulations
Re: Congratulations
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