A thoughtful gift is always better to receive than any tangible, mass produced, item. It was a great pleasure to receive this from my friend Danny: The Iceland Album.  It is a few, well edited, videos of our trip to Iceland last summer.  It captures the pleasurable moments that are fond to those on the trip and it exudes the quality and spectacles of Iceland.

World, I urge you to put more thought and kindness into your gifts.  And I dare you to send (via mail or email) surprises to your close family and friends in 2012.  There is nothing better than a surprise, with history and/or meaning.

Confluence, its a pretty cool word.  I first learned of it, when someone mentioned it to me as a point of reference for the Gros Ventre & Snake Rivers.  When applied in everyday living, it can make for great experiences.  I was fortunate enough to be a part of a great confluence in the pacific northwest.  Two close friends and I set out on a small San Juan 28, named the Canard.  We left Seattle on Friday afternoon and motored across to Kingston, on the Olympic Peninsula.  En route, we encountered our first hazard.  We hit a massive log, adrift in the Puget Sound.  I have sailed in a lot of places and I have never heard of that happening to someone.  Between the shipping lanes traffic in the Strait of Juan De Fuca and random logs in the sound, we were now fully aware that staying alert was essential.  The next day we set sail around Whitby Island and through the strait, for a wet and intense sail to Anacortes Island.  Unfortunately, the weather kept us in Flounder Bay for two nights and held us back from sailing to Lopez Island.  Eventually, we navigated our way through Deception Pass (a very dangerous tickle, with extreme tidal power).  We sailed through Skagit Bay, wing and wing…as the only boat in the entire bay.  It was a wonderful day.  Our last night was in Langley, on Whitby Island.  4 days in the Puget Sound, with some squalls, some close friends, some brisk, and some solitude can make for the perfect confluence.

Lately, I have been on a productivity kick.  Call it a “phase” or call it a change.  I have been trying to be optimal with my time, diet, and general approach.  My roommate Matt and I have turned it into a bit of a game, with points.  It started with a large list of some things that we have wanted to do, but continually put off. Getting to Yosemite and climbing Half Dome was on the list.  we had both been to Yosemite when we are young and have fond memories.  With the park in our backyard, we set out for a jaunt.

Our first stop was Turlock, Ca. There we cruised to Ballico, Ca. to see my buddy Damon’s almond factory.  Damon’s family runs a farm that produces Almonds, Peaches, and Walnuts.  It was like a field trip, being able to see the process behind almonds.  Once they are brought from the farm (a whole process, in itself) they have to go through a series of machines to pull out the seed.  It is kind of amazing.

The next morning we drove to Yosemite.  We got a bit of a late start and some people warned us about leaving too late.  However, that only gave us more incentive to get up there faster.  We ascended about 5000 feet in 3 hours.  We took the Mist Trail up and the Muir Trail down.  From car to summit, back to car…it took us about 7 hours.  Thats pretty good timing, considering that we weren’t really in a rush.  Although, coming across some people can be a little discouraging sometimes…I tried my best to give most happy hikers a smile and a “Howdy.”  National Parks are amazing.

Its been a bit and I have been straying away from the posts and updates.  Sometimes, that is a good thing. I pride myself on being offline.  After a variety of travel over the summer (NY, Iceland, LA, Mexico, NY, Chicago, Seattle), it has been nice to get back into the groove in California.  It was amazing to reconnect with a lot of my friends that are scattered across the country.  Everybody seems to be progressing in their own right.

Thoughts, Prayers, emotions…..its palpable.

The sun never set on us in Iceland.  It would linger on the horizon for about 2 hours and then just sorta pop up and it was a new day.  That would be one of the cool facts about traveling in Iceland in the summer.  Besides the distortion and the birds chirping all day everyday, it made for a wonderful setting.  Extended dusks and dawns.  Four of us managed to enjoy a nice little trip.

Danny spent the year in London working for some bankers, although he is a lawyer.  He set this things up.  We all met in this GeoThermal land and created a little more than a jaunt.  We climbed a glacier (where Jules Verne wrote was the gateway to the journey to the centre of the Earth), took a ferry to Fjordland, made it close to the arctic circle, and camped out on a volcano.

I like to travel and I typically leave a place wanting more and plotting my return.  The Point is…this country is definitely a place that I want to come pack to.  Below are some pics.  I usually post my own, but these are all Danny’s.

California has a Lost Coast.  Its pretty big and its definitely impressive.  If it were on the East Coast, it would be inundated with developments, boats off the coast, and homes.  However, the Lost Coast is in California and considered the backcounty.  We ventured up there for the Memorial Day weekend of 2011.  Below are some of the pics.

I took a little bit of time off between jobs and headed back east for a bit.  I went home for a bit and then headed up to Cambridge to see some people.  Brian Gault and I took a brief jaunt up to his place in York, Maine to enjoy re-connect in an old place that we have spent a lot of time together.  Our families have been heading up to Maine throughout our youth.  Although, we dont get up there much, Maine still maintains a lot of great memories for the Gulottas and Gaults.  Ironically, on this trip it was just the two Brians.  We managed to have a great day…surfing on Long Sands beach, followed by bocce on York Harbor Beah and then a lobster bake.  Below are the pictures.