roadtrippin'

oh what a spontaneous road trip offers! no expectations, no real road map, no specific time frame. heighten senses emerging around each corner, abnormal amounts of cd listening, all that good stuff. the reason for the trip was to climb, simply climb. oh, and the destination was arkansas.

after some fast decisions, there was no turning back and we set off probably too late but who cares right? there was somewhere to be gettin' to. nothing, not darkness, not sleep deprivation, not even a pitcher of long island ice tea was going to hold us back. i was traveling with a person i could talk to for the 12 hour drive and still have more to talk about after arriving. remarkable i must say. i came to realize a lot of things about traveling and more specifically road-tripping that had previously crossed my mind but never made it to words. life on the road is quite a capricious lifestyle and nothing i have fully experienced. i can tell however it breathes new life into ones soul. i suppose the closest i have come to this is living in rome, but funny enough didn't operate a vehicle for 6 months so no road tripping, just train tripping.

i had never made this drive before so even though the majority was what some would say "the most boring drive in the US" across the flat midwest, i didn't mind it one bit. we caught the sliver of a moon and an uncommonly pink sunrise. pulling into fayetteville and more specifically driving around the university was so odd. just plain odd. it made me happy, sad, nostalgic and maybe a few other things. i should have taken a few hours and walked around campus but choose a nap instead.

the crazy thing about this trip was that i was going back to a very familiar place to do something i had never done there before. we left for horseshoe canyon ranch in the morning and spent 2 days there. we climbed, we climbed in the rain, we made new friends, we watched the rain soak into sandstone and tried not to get too upset about the predicament. even though weather conditions hurt the climbing situation it was still great to get out of the city life and into a slower pace. isn't part of the program in spontaneous action to be accepting of change whether you prefer it or not?
step 1: assess the situation.
step 2: do what you can/want.
step 3: be happy.
if you can't do these things i believe life on the road is not for you. but what do i know? i haven't been there.

citybythebay

did you know that 1/4 of the homeless population alone lives in san francisco? jeepers, i didn't. new news to me. in fact, i learned tons of new things this past weekend. the starting conversation for traveling to san francisco was for an architecture convention, real cool, i know. though at the root of the trip was so much more. a time to check out a new city, meet up and frolic with great friends, surround ourselves with thousands of others in our profession, a three day work week, and to be near the ocean [feeling a little land-locked in colorado].

i do not care what the population of san francisco is, but i relish in the fact that it is the second most dense city in the united states. to be exact 17, 323 people/sq.mile. for some reference new york city has 27,147 yankees /sq.mile and not to hate on texas, i am one myself, and their obsession with sprawling, dallas has 1,391 texans/sq.mile.

san francisco california did not capture me like other u.s. cities i have spent time in and was a little surprised by this. sometimes i think other circumstances can affect our initial feelings and lingering feelings on a particular place. maybe it was the constant mist in my face that was not so desirable, sadly weather and the like can change our outlook on a city, just as i don't have the fondest memory of chicago because of the constant freeze numb feeling that was on my body any and all times i was outdoors [92% of the time]. but as, to me, the best reminder of travel is that it "in fact doesn't matter where we go, but who are with that really counts" and this speaks right to my soul. i was in s.f. with two awesome girls and in chicago with 30 of my closest architecture peers. i could write a short novel on the memories.

obligatory bridge picture

don't get me wrong, i liked s.f., just not madly loved. maybe i wasn't able to grasp the city as a whole and that frustrated me. though a few things i thought were just great was: the public transportation, golden gate park, cultural influence and FOOD. i suppose with a good authentic mix of culture there is bound to be tasty food. we ate food that we choose from a menu written in chinese resulting in a lot of pointing and head nods in china town, bubble tea in japantown and so much more. if i were to ever move to s.f. i would affix my residence in close proximity to golden gate park. when you are in the park you get lost in it and can barely feel that a metropolis is near. this is a huge urban park and lets you escape the city life and play under the dense landscape. american public transportation is trying. in a few cities it works, really works and i believe s.f. is one of them. it was super easy to comprehend and not once did we get lost or turned around, um well maybe once. as a whole the bus system works well with the metro or b.a.r.t. as it is called there and i'm sure this is much appreciated but the san franciscan commuter. maybe i should think about taking public transportation more or even just once in denver. well, as stereotypical as california can be i didn't get that vibe in san francisco and truly admire the city for it's authenticity.

academy of the sciences | renzo piano