Trip to Seattle I was fortunate enough to work on a contract through our company that happened to be located in Seattle (Bellview to be exact). The day that I landed in Seattle turned out to be one of the largest blizzards that they had seen in a long time. Needless to say, it was a very good thing that I got a navigation system with my car rental because I desperately needed it to avoid the hours and hours of traffic jams that had built up around the city.

Richard Hefferon Party After my grandfather's funeral (Richard Hefferon), there was a party for him over at the Victorian Rose Team Room Cafe in Rome, Georgia. Evidently he was a part owner in the establishment, a cafe with good food and costume-like clothing (hats, scarves, and the like).

The G Household Gracious as always, Dave's parents, Kathy and Bob G., allowed Nick, Ruth, and I to shack up in their lovely house just north of Malibu (outside of Los Angeles). I wound up doing some computer networking for Mr. G in return, but I thought it was a pretty fair trade. They even went so far as to let Ruth stay with them for an extra day as all of us had different flights out of L.A.

Arriving in San Francisco Our first few hours in San Francisco were filled with fun on the beach overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. I tried to give Nick and Ruth some time alone to hang out there and so wound up trying to take a number of self pictures. One of them (the one featured as my gallery front) happens to be one of my more favorite ones.

Nick's 26th Birthday After driving all day long through Nevada, Death Valley, and southern California, we stopped in a little town called Bridgeport to celebrate Nick's 26th Birthday. The people were lovely and we wound up having a very nice home-style cooked meal in one of the local restaurants. ...complete with a few bottles of wine mind you.

Death Valley National Park This was one of the cooler parts of our Kiwi road adventure, Death Valley. I think one of the joys of driving through the desert with the mini-van-esque vehicle we were in was that it had an outside temperature gauge. We kept watching the temperature climb higher and higher, reaching a maximum of about 110 or 112 degrees Fahrenheit. To anyone that has NOT driven through Death Valley, I would highly recommend it.

Hoover Dam After visiting the Grand Canyon, we continued out west through Arizona and then up into Nevada. We stopped at the border to enjoy the Hoover Dam and getting there right around sunset made for some great pictures. This was the first time that I had been to the Hoover Dam since my trip to Las Vegas for the millennium new years with Putt, Quack, and a few other guys.

Driving Through Arizona This was probably one of my more favorite days of driving with the Kiwis. I'm not sure why I find the vast deserts of the United States so interesting, but my suspicion is that what really interests me are the random stops along the way. ...always trying to figure out how people can actually live in such vastness. We stopped at a number of places along the way from rock canyons, to Indian thrift stores, to you name it.

Kiwis at Trudy's Having told both Nick and Ruth about one of my more favorite Austin restaurants, we met up with Araceli at Trudy's north and proceeded to have the maximum allowance of our Mexican martinis. I vaguely recall it, but I put on a little music performance for everyone once we got back to my apartment around 2am.

Brooklyn Bridge The day before I was taking off from New York City, I met up with Alison on the Brooklyn Bridge. Seeing on how I had never been there before, it was a nice little adventure. The only disappointing point was having to leave Al's company.