Vegas Baby! - DC

Still trying not-so-successfully to catch up on the blog... On memorial day weekend, we went to Vegas. It was nice of my mom to remind me before we went that “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” Therefore, that’s the end of the post.

Just kidding.

It’s about a 6 hour to drive from Santa Barbara to Vegas. The drive itself is pretty dull but for us, the first drive through desert was pretty interesting. Seeing the odd tumbleweed rolling around, Joshua trees and signs for Death Valley were pretty cool. At first, we bypassed Vegas to check out the Hoover Dam. Quite the feat of engineering and pretty cool, even for me! It’s obvious that Adam loved it, he’ll stop to take a photo of any interesting bridge, so bring him to the Hoover Dam and well, he doesn’t know what to do with himself. The dam was really cool and there’s a new bridge above the dam too which was pretty impressive. We managed to spend time in three different states that first day, as we started in California, drove through Nevada and popped into Arizona while at the dam.

We went back to Vegas for the evening and wandered around taking in the sights. The extravagance of Las Vegas is pretty numbing. It was somewhat disturbing but also really impressive at the same time.

The next day, we left the city behind again and headed to Red Rock Canyon. There is an 11 mile scenic drive with several stops along the way. It seemed quite unusual to have toll booths to access nature, only in America. We brought plenty of water with us (remember, we’re in the desert), slapped on some sunscreen and headed out. The nature of the rock makes it apparent how it’s quite a destination for rock climbing. We could even see the odd bolt glinting in the sun. After about a couple hours clambering around, we were happy to revisit the air conditioned whip. As we were coming back to the whip, we overheard a few different people reminding their friends/kids/families that the farther they walked towards the rocks, the farther they’d have to walk back to the car… we were only about 50m from the whippark. Yikes.

Back in the city, we dipped in the pool then more mind-numbing Vegas. We did a bit of gambling, Adam has a much better knack with the one-armed bandits than I do. At one point, before going to the bathroom, he gave me 5 bucks and said “don’t lose it all before I get back” haha - I did. With his guidance though, we ended up about 40 bucks up. The next day we headed back to Santa Barbara via some back roads and no name towns.

Whip* Shopping - DC

We were amazed with the amount of bike paths, including many paths completely separated from roads, upon arrival in Santa Barbara. There are even bike traffic circles and bikes have the right of way over pedestrians! We were very lucky that Tim made it his mission to find us some bicycles. That was a main mode of transport for several weeks while we (mostly Adam) combed Craigslist for used cars. After a couple test drives, we were wondering why on earth people sell cars with the check engine light on. We certainly weren’t interested in purchasing a car that seems doomed. There were several stints of long bus rides followed by short test drives and then another long bus ride. A russian guy was selling a VW Jetta, when we said we weren’t interested he offered us to look at a different car. He shook a heavy key chain and said he had 5 cars that he was selling. Huh? Who has five cars! It was pretty strange. Eventually we found a guy, Richard, selling his 2001 Mazda Tribute (think Ford Escape). When the sale was complete, Richard was so sad to see the car go that he hid behind his house so that he wouldn’t see us drive away. It was pretty cute.

Now that we have wheels, we’ve been exploring a bit. We saw a rocket launcher up in the hills (Adam thinks it might be a water collection tower, but I’m positive it was a rocket launcher). We also went on a hike and came across a 4ft snake lying across the trail. It wasn’t interested in moving out of the way until after I poked it with a stick.



*Disclaimer: Apparently, according to Adam and his "street skills", a whip is a car. I thought that I'd better translate cause a whip is a silly word for car... *

Dr Crowe - DC

Yesterday afternoon Adam defended his PhD. Through a 3-way Skype session between New Zealand, Australia and America. I got him access to a little conference room, the “Rothman Sanctum” and let him loose to defend. His reports were AMAZING. Really really positive and with only minor suggestions (e.g., “take out the indent after your equations”). The defense was a little under 30 minutes! Like I said, very positive.

I’m very proud of him, for what he has accomplished and the quality of his work.

After a bit of bubbly in the lab conference room, we headed out to the local brew house for some dinner and beers. It was a lovely evening.

Congratulations Dr Crowe.

Santa Barbara: The American Riviera - ACDC

We rolled into town on a sunny blue sky Friday afternoon, got access to our apartment and unloaded the truck (crystal mostly). The flat is quite nice, old but well maintained. Two story, two bedroom, three balconies, one bathroom, and one kitchen. Sounds pretty exciting, three balconies!!?!? But two of them are barely large enough for a chair! We unpacked the crystal (thankfully for Davon, unbroken), got a Costco membership and then proceeded to browse craigslist for items other than crystal. Costco is a wholesale store where you buy large quantities of items for (usually) low prices. Everything from meat and cheese, to toothpaste and BBQs. We even got our cell phones at Costco. It was several days before we had anything to sit on and we slept on a couple of camping mattresses for about a week. There are frequent farmers markets close to our place which is excellent. The summer fruit is starting to come in. Each time we go to the market, there are new varieties of oranges or apricots or berries.

The day after we arrived, we went to explore the downtown Santa Barbara area with Mom and Tim. Downtown Santa Barbara is next to the beach and the wharf. It’s pretty lovely. A popular tourist spot with a lot of restaurants at the very tip the wharf. There are also numerous bike rental places around. Adam and I decided to rent a tandem bike to trip around on the beach front. At first, Adam was the driver. We went along a bicycle path that followed the beach. It was pretty stunning with the waves coming in and the palm trees lining the waterside park. Out on the wharf, we were amazed at all the people, cars and restaurants. After a quick stop off to admire the view of the Channel Islands, I decided that I wanted to have a turn in the front seat. Well, it was certainly easier than it looked. When I was in the back seat, it seemed like Adam just pedaled and we were off. However, when I started trying to get going it was a different story! Did I mention that there were many parked cars and buildings and people everywhere? I started to bike with Adam in tow behind and ended up careening down the wharf, somewhat out of control. Weaving around the roadway, trying desperately to avoid any collisions. After we got off the wharf, we needed to cross a busy road then continue on the bike path back to the shop. I barely managed to get us across the road, but when we needed to turn the corner it just got too much and I hopped off the bike, rather quickly I might add, much to the enjoyment of people in passing cars. It was rather difficult and I had a new respect for the innate tandem bike skill that Adam seemed to possess.