Long Butte Fire

I had a great productive weekend on the house, and was planning on going tubing Sunday when I got a call to go to a fire. It was the Long Butte Fire outside of Twin Falls, ID. When I got there that night it had already burned close to 300,000 acres in the first 30 hours and there was fire everywhere.



The next morning a lot of it had burned out. There was still work to do and stuff was still burning, but it didn't significantly grow in size. It was a good bit of work and I got to go up in a helicopter to map unburned islands within the fire. Pretty awesome way to see it.

We would have been done by Friday, except Thursday night we got a huge lightning storm and 4 new starts in our area. We could see one of the columns of smoke from camp and everyone got pretty excited. I grabbed some pictures. We almost had them wrapped up Saturday, but the fire crept across the line and blew out another couple thousand acres.

Marguerite's Wedding

Marguerite got married in August at the beginning of August. I met Dave a few years ago and I was excited to go. I was also looking forward to show Eve around Winnemucca.




We got to Winnemucca and went to the Martin, it's still delicious. We stayed with my friends Matt and Amanda. Saturday morning we were at the golf course at 8am for a round of golf. We played a scramble where we played whomever had the best shot. It had been a decade since I tried golf and I started out horrible. As the round went on, I got better, and finally on the last shot I made the long put to give our team an eagle. It was enough to make me want to go back.







After the golf game was the marriage at the tee box. It was a nice simple ceremony and real cute. Afterwards they had the reception right there and everyone had a good time. I had to go back and take a nap. That night was pretty slow and we hung out with Matt and Amanda and some of their mining friends.








Sunday we took the long way home and went by the playa and ran into Justin. Then we headed over to the Burning Man fence to look in. Looks like it's going to be a dusty year.

NOLA Bachelor Party

My good friend Matt is getting married in September, so we had his bachelor party the first weekend of August in New Orleans.

We had a great time, but unfortunately my camera died sometime saturday so I didn't get pictures of the amazing dinner at Emril's, our classy breakfast at Brennan's or the smaller dinner at August. All were excellent with lots of wine to drink. We stayed at the Omni, which happened to be having a wrap party for the Real World on Sunday. Who knew?

So what did I get pictures of? There are a few from the street the first night and some from the bus tour we took of New Orleans on Saturday. We stopped by Columns which I would highly recommend, and get whatever the bartender recommends. I think it was the sazerac.








We all had a great time, and I can't wait for the next one. Who else needs to get married?

San Francisco

Eve and I took a weekend trip to San Francisco, to escape and explore.




We left in the afternoon and dealt with traffic on either side of Sacramento, but the bay bridge wasn't the worst I'd seen. We got into the city in time to check into our hotel, the Embassy. It was a neat 30's art deco building. We lucked out and got a corner room, and if you book on hotels.com there's free parking. The continental breakfast is not a lot, but it's on the same block as world famous Brenda's French Soul Food. Think creol, New Orleans style. Beignets and great grits.




After moving into our room, we went to AT&T park and watched the giants game. It was the first in the series against the rival LA. It was a good game that they almost lost in the 9th, but closed it down to win by one.




We strolled back to the hotel and through union square. We were sitting watching a couple people on roller blades when all of a sudden dozens of people showed up on skates pushing a stroller with a boombox. They had organized dances to song, mostly versions of the electric slide. But we were treated to Thriller on skates. Quite unexpected.




Saturday we got up and explored. It was going to be a very art intense day. I had saw online about the Scott Nichols gallery and wanted to check it out. When we got there we found the entire building was art galleries. It's on 49 Geary and I highly recommend it. It reminded me of an art co-op, but filled with world class works. The Nichols gallery was our favorite with a window into the framing room, pictures stacked on walls and a great series of important images. Other galleries were more formal and organized, but they were all free and all for sale. Everyone was real nice and would tell you whatever you wanted about the art. I really liked it and will be back there anytime I go to Frisco.

From there we headed over to the SFMOMA. They had a great exhibit celebrating their 75th anniversiery so they pulled out all the best works they've acquired since they've opened. Some real classics I was glad to see in person. My favorite was Diego Rivera's Flower Carrier.


Diego Rivera "The Flower Carrier" It was much larger then I expected.

Frida Khalo

Matisse

Mondrian

Braque

Margritte

Lichtenstein


They also had a show called "From Calder to Warhol." The Calder was poorly lit and an uninspiring display. There was no movement or flow. The Warhol stuff was really good and impressive.




I didn't know the Elvis' were this big.


From there we went up to the Orpheum theater to enter the raffle for tickets to Wicked. Eve's was the first name called, so we got tickets for 25 bucks. We quickly changed in the room and went out for dinner at the Heavan's Dog chinese food. It was quite impressive and put to shame any chinese food I've ever had. We had the roasted duck and the scallops. The scallops were the most amazing. Desert was a caramel mousse on a cocoa streusel with a homemade caramel pecan sauce. It was heavenly. The show was great. I hadn't seen a broadway show in years and this one was perfect. It's the back story of the Wizard of Oz. Where the traveling characters came from, why the witch became the wicked witch, and why the wicked witch was green. I would highly recommend it.




The next morning we met up with Eve's brother and his girlfriend at Brenda's for brunch. We walked around the Civic center and saw them shooting a Mitsubishi commercial, then headed home. In Sacramento we had our first experience at IKEA and was as impressed as everyone promised. It is an amazing store. On the way home we experienced some horrible traffic on 80. I think it's easier and quicker to drive in the winter with the snow, minus the construction.




I hope the next time I go to San Francisco, I'm there for a week.