anja's blog: July 2009

Rock-climbing at Silvermine, SA 7/23/09

I met two climbers on the SA online climbing forum, and Ann took me climbing at the local Silvermine sport crag. The rock was so gritty, that we were able to climb in the rain! It was somewhat steep and pumpy, and the views were amazing!

Ann starting up a 21 (10d).

IAS conference in Cape Town, South Africa 7/15-7/22/09

The flight to Cape Town was very smooth and all planes were on time. On the longest leg from DC to Johannasburg, SA, I was fortunate to sit with a very interesting person. Catherine May was a physician and professor who was on her way to Malawi to volunteer time and medical supplies to an orphanage. I'm looking forward to hearing about her adventures via e-mail.

We stayed at the Protea President hotel in the ritzy part of town. It is absolutely gorgeous! The large windows in my room overlooked the ocean, mountain, and beach houses.

We were kept pretty busy with the pre-conference session on Friday and Saturday. It was a bit tough for me because I had a cold and didn't sleep at all on the 30 hour trip to SA. When we had our first break I slept until 1:30pm!

There were 21 of us at the pre-conference seminar, and Jemaine organized a trip up Table Mountain (1067m, 3563') by cable car.

The opening ceremony of the conference was packed with entertainment! It reminded me of the shows we saw on our cruise ship, only with an AIDs theme. There was an aerial dance show that was really cool.

Pre-conference seminar.

View from my hotel (facing the ocean) at night.

View from my hotel window facing Lion's head (669m, 2195').

Figuring out the taxi fare to Table Mt. at the waterfront. Left to right: Denise, Hera, Jemaine, Angela, Amil, Marie.

Table Mt. cable car station.

View at the top.

I ran out to Maclear's Beacon at the opposite end of the plateau. It's the highest point and is marked by a pile of rocks.

Photo album on picasa:

IAS conference South Africa, 7/15-7/22/09

Sean Streck & Tracy Gibbons, NJ 7/11/09

It was awesome to see Sean get married to such a great girl! The best part of the ceremony was when they had trouble lighting the unity(?) candle. The priest stepped in to help, and Tracy says "We'll keep him on speed dial". The reception was beautiful, and it was a blast hanging out with the Strecks. Congratulations Sean and Tracy!

Sean & Tracy, 7/11/09

Trip to Vermont 7/7-7/13/09

This was a whirlwind trip because I was only in VT for 2.5 days. I stayed with my dad, saw Kyle's new house in Huntington and took the boat out for a spin. On Thursday night I went to Mary Carty's book signing at the Phoenix bookstore for her first book "Perfect Marriage Aptitude Test (PMAT)". Friday morning, Kyle, Alexa, Mom and I drove down to New Jersey for Sean Streck's wedding.

Trip to Gummie's farm in Iowa (by way of Lincoln) 7/5/09

Gummie owned a farm in Iowa that is rented out by a family. Ken's mom inherited it, and we made a trip out to check in with the renters and take a tour. It's a corn and soybean crop farm that mostly produces animal feed. It was the first time I visited a farm like this, and it was pretty cool to check out the equipment. My favorite was the new crop sprayer truck. It stretched 90' across when the arms were extended. The renters also owned the farm next door to Gummies' where they raised pigs (notice the pork bbq truck in the picture below).

Trip to Lincoln, NE 7/3-7/7/09

Ken and I flew to Lincoln to visit his parents and help them get Gummie's house ready to sell. Conveniently, Gummie's house was only a few blocks from Ken's parents' house. We also visited Ken's highschool friend Layne who is very into computers and technology. He had a theatre room with a projected picture on the wall (like my Dad's). His bedroom was set up with a ceiling-mounted large screen tv and surround sound.

On the 4th we saw the free town fireworks show which was accompanied by an orchestra. It was amazing! We also went as Layne's guests to the country club for an amazing dinner and another fireworks show. I didn't attempt to capture the fireworks with my cell phone, but here's a picture of Layne's bedroom entertainment system and Ken in his old boy scouts uniform.

Overall, the fresh corn and fireworks make Lincoln a pretty prime July 4th destination.

Sierra's backpacking trip, 6/20-6/28/09

Ken organized a backpacking trip that started at Bishop's pass trailhead and finished at Lemark trailhead. There were seven of us at the start: Ken and me, Adam and his dad who flew in from NY for the trip, Lorinda and Evo who Ken met online, and Paul. Unfortunately, Paul injured his back hiking and had to hike out on the third day. We were very bummed to lose Paul and worried about his hike back (which fortunately went smoothly and only took a day). Our trip mostly alternated between climbing peaks and moving camp, so we had two nights at each camp spot. My favorite peak was Thunderbolt because it had about 20' of 5.8 to reach the summit. It was too tough to pull in mountain boots, but fortunately there were bolts on top with a piece of webbing attached. Here's an overview of the trip:

View 9 day trip - Bishop Pass - North in a larger map

Sat, 6/20: Hiked in from Bishop's pass ~ 10 miles
Sun, 6/21: Ken, Adam, and I climbed Thunderbolt peak – (14,003)
Mon, 6/22: Moved camp to
Tues, 6/23: Lorinda, Evo, and I climbed "Mt. Lorinda" (~12,300)
Wed, 6/24: Moved camp to
Thur, 6/25: Ken, Adam, and I climbed Mt. Goddard (13,568)
Fri, 6/26: Moved camp to
Sat, 6/27: All of us climbed Lamarck peak (13,416) except Ken who had climbed it a few times before and was needed for marmot duty (a marmot had chewed Adam's unsupervised pack). The peak was only a short distance from the pass, so after summiting we hiked out to the trailhead and went to Adam's favorite Bishop Mexican restaurant: La Casita.

Ken and I posing in front of a waterfall on day 3, hiking down to Le Conte meadow.