Lonely Dinosaur.com: Transitions

It is hard to believe that The Lonely Dinosaur has already been incorporated for over a year. With each month TLD seems to become more and more of a real business, especially now that Sam and I have to figure out all of this Tax jargon. We are at a point of transition where we want to make the website look a little more legitimate, and kick our Yahoo! Stores dependency. Our motivation for all of this "work" is the prospect of traveling south for the beginning of the summer and possibly hitching a ride on a sailboat in the Yucatan Peninsula.

For now Sam and I are staying at my family's ski house in Sunriver, Oregon, where we have been printing in the garage in the morning, and skiing at Mt Bachelor in the afternoon...not a tough life, but a bit solitary. Happily my sisters brought a whole bunch of their friends from San Francisco up to the house for Presidents weekend, breaking my tedious hours spent watching 30 rock and reading "The Autograph Man".

The skiing of late has been incredible, with all of the lifts open except for the summit. Before the ski weekend I was in Sunriver by myself for 2 weeks while Sam was stuck in Colorado, and good snow could only be found under 2 inches of rime, but a couple of days before presidents weekend, the snow came pouring down totalling something like 11 inches of new powder, making the far side of the mountain finally worth riding.

It is probably going to be more interesting for me to just post a couple of photos to fill in where we left off, so here goes:

San Francisco Family and Friends Ski Weekend

I suppose this time line goes backwards starting with this last Monday. Some of us took a break from skiing to under go a Calvin and Hobbes style transcendental sledding experience

Sledding Solo

Mari and I frantically breaking to keep from hitting a little kid.

Negotiating the steep terrain using the Chinese dragon technique.

Hiking at Wahkeena Falls in the Columbia Gorge
between my Sister's ski weekend and hiking in the columbia gorge, I spent about two weeks alone in Sunriver just filling out orders and skiing, because Sam had driven with Chis F. from Berkeley to Denver, and they were in a car crash in Wyoming which left them fine, but vehicleless. It was some time before Sam managed to make it back, and he certainly has more stories from that missing gap than I do, however you will have to wait for him to tell it.

Dad at Wahkeena Falls

Me at Wahkeena Falls. Rudyard Kipling described the Falls as “penned between gigantic stone walls crowned with the ruined bastions of oriental palaces.”

A short stint in Hawaii on the island of Oahu with my sisters, grandpa, and father
I had previously planned a trip to meet up with my family in Hawaii for a week right after inaguration, while Sam made his way from Oregon to California and eventually to Colorado.

Exploring a lava tube blow hole. Shortly after this photo my camera was dropped in the ocean.

Carrion Flower Stapelia gigantea (looks like a cactus, but it is a succulent from South Africa)

Emi and Mari, intrepid mountain climbers along the steep ridges of Oahu's Mt Olympus

The summit was reached...there was much rejoicing

Very peculiar pockets of Auracaria forests

These trees make me feel like I am walking through prehistoric times.

I don't much care for birds, but I do enjoy getting a good picture of one.

On the rim of the Diamond Head crater

Segueing with the Gramps

Huddled for warmth in the unforgiving tropical island weather

The smallest mouse in the world, and as of late, the richest mouse in the world.

Peacock, proud, pulchritudinous

Berry Blue Berry

Grandpa

Wing Wing Wing...Hewo

Delicious Fruit of the Trees

Giant Kauri Tree

A short jaunt through Forest Park with Sam and David Z.
david and my schedule happily overlapped a couple of days after christmas

Sam's Doppelganger Apparition sneaking up on him

David's stream of consciousness flowing through Sam's

Christmas In Sayulita Mexico
My family as well as Mari's BF Blake met up with the Priests for fun in the sun for a very relaxed Christmas.

OMG! Blake is in Mexico for Christmas

Cool does grow on trees

Disco Lives!

Emi and Nancy SOOOOO EXCITED

SAND CATERPILLAR!

Unicorn crapping a rainbow

I guess there was some magic in that old hat

Christmas Tree

Kelsey P.

Very well written for backwards writing

Love forged in fire

Blast Off!

Are sea caves dangerous? Yes.

The Mom

Raging Bull

No Words

The inspiration for one of our bilingual tshirts: "como estan bichos" (translation: "How are you, critters")

Preparing For Christmas

Printing in my parents garage in Portland while incredibly busy with the Christmas rush as well as preparing to leave for Mexico and Sam for Boston.

Preparing the family Christmas Card (our illustrator, Katie, is modeling her money making drawing hand)

Finished and disturbing card

Photo Shoot at the Beach

The Most Dangerous Animal...its Man!...just kidding, every one knows it's apathy...apathy towards Sharks strapped to Elephants.

Disturbingly disorienting stairs

Wait, these stairs don't lead anywhere.

HALLOWEEN!!!

Not many people realize that Vincent van Gogh did most of his sketches on pumpkins.

Hiking the Columbia Gorge at Eagle Creek

Thousands of Salmon Spawn up the Columbia river between Oregon and Washington while undergoing morphological changes and dying shortly after egg laying and fertilization. I recently found out that the Pacific Lamprey also spawns in freshwater.

Soon to drop Vine Maple leaves

Upper Punch Bowl falls on Eagle Creek in the Columbia Gorge

Falling Water and Leaves

He has no idea how cold that water is going to be

As cold as a witches tit

I haven't been able to identify this one yet, although my first reaction was some sort of bistorta, but I am pretty sure that it's not.

Building up stock in Sunriver

Taking stock of our lives back in Sunriver

Pumpkinstyles.net

YES SAM DID carve Obama's likeness into a fake pumpkin

Bentham Falls in Bend, OR

Rock Climbing With Ben, Sam, and Sam at Smith Rock

Hammocking Climbers

Climbing at Smith Rock, OR with Ben L., Samantha P., Sam S., and myself.

Sam and I hope to write another blog following our travels in hammocks. Oh, and I was watching the movie Swordfish with John Travolta, Hally Berry...etc. and realized that the part where the execute the governer is at Smith Rock!

Ben Belaying Samantha

Why do we climb mountains...because we get to see Ben belay.

Smith at Night

Full Moon Rising

On our way to hike Dog Mountian in the Columbia Gorge

Multnomah Falls

Ben and Sam...AAAAWWWEE

The Columbia Gorge is unique among waterways in Oregon because it is home to 5 unique and endemic species of water beetle. Also it has big waterfalls.

BURNING MAN!!!
I flew into the Las Vegas airport from Thailand, and Sam picked me up with his friend Andrew in the RV, where we immediately began our journey to Burning man.

2:30 and Playa at the Playa-Go-Round

Mayan Temple at Black Rock City, Nevada

L-Wire

Contains so much and so little of the essence of Burning Man...I think it is mainly missing nudity.

THAILAND AND CAMBODIA
We got the RV to Portland, where I left for Thailand and Cambodia, and Sam drove to Nevada to meet up with his family to raft the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately I was keeping photos stored on my iPod, which broke near the end of our trip, so for now I have lost all of my photos from cambodia and many from Thailand.