»»» Living > Blogging May 9th, 2006:
If this website was my kid, it would have been taken away by Child Services long ago. A friend pointed out that I still haven't added to the site all of my photos from my Eastern European trip, a trip I took two years ago this month. Treating kahunna.net in this way hasn't been done on purpose, though. Life gets busy. And until I refurbish my blogging with some sort of publishing platform (right now it is all coded by hand), things might continue to be slow. Nonetheless, working slowly is better than standing still.
With that said, I'm here to provide you with some quick updates. Below are some short summaries to the noteworthy trips I have taken in the last few months. Click on the title to be taken to the photographs.
Joshua Tree National Park - March 26-27, 2006
Friends Phil and Tony and I drove to JT for a short weekend camping trip. Being their first trip, I wanted to slowly acclimate them to the harsh environment by car camping at Ryan Campground. However, not only was Ryan filled to max capacity, but all of the official campsites were packed. No problem! Plan B had to be implemented: an hour hike into the wilderness carrying minimal gear, then another ten minutes bouldering up into a box canyon. Since discovering the location on one of my first journeys into JT a few years ago, I've learned that I could always count on the calmness and serenity it offered. While hiking out to the canyon with friends, I enjoy sharing with them a story on just how remote it is: Hiking the canyon in January 2004, I dropped my favorite pocket knife somewhere in the canyon. I had thought it was lost forever. However, four months later I returned to find it exactly where it had dropped! Friends have suggested that I name the place Kahunna Canyon since it appears that I am the only frequent visitor.
Tony and Philip easily handled the hike and camp preparation. Neither had done any camping since their youth and yet they had no problems at all setting up a two-man tent. When night fell, we sat closely around a stove cooking S'mores and watching the flame from the gas stove reveal large granite boulders in a calming blue light. I introduced them to my favorite camping companion: the night sky. Big city boys like us tend to see more stars in Hollywood than those in the sky, so pointing out the Milky Way to Tony and Phil was an excellent moment. Both couldn't recall ever seeing it before. The next day, we hiked out and took the long way out of the park, through the southern entrance.
Bend, Oregon - April 10-16, 2006
My trip to Bend to spend a week on vacation and celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday had a rough start. The shuttle company I relied upon to get me to the airport on time didn't live up to their end of the deal and I missed my flight by about 20 minutes. Friday rolled into Saturday without a wink of sleep and by Saturday afternoon, I realized that the guest pass my airline-employed friend gave me wasn't going to fly on the first weekend of spring break. I ended up having to buy another ticket from priceline for a flight out of Burbank. I arrived in Bend, Oregon, and was greeted by my parents, whom drove up the week before from Southern California. I left my camping gear at home due to forcasted bad weather, but it ended up being better than expected and it rained just once or twice during the otherwise sunny week. This gave me more time time to see family and sip Chai teas at the cafes in the Historical center of town. I realized that Bend is my Elizabethtown. A place I needed to go for a vacation to excape from the pressures of life, but not a place to permanently live.
I have wanted to move to this small High Desert town for many years, but a week in Bend made me realize that I've had it good all along. Prior to going up to Bend, I came to the realization that I need to make Los Angeles more of my home before leaving it. Being the second largest metropolitan area in the US you can imagine that it can feel like one big mass of humanity sometimes, making it difficult to find niches to call one's own. But I've made it a goal to find some niches and hope to share them here on the site.
I'm going on an unexpected trip next weekend, but I'll save the details for the next entry later this week. 
