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Danielle Jablonski
New York, NY
Birthday:
September 13
Hometown:
Townsville, Australia
Bio:
Click here
Contact:
Danielle@alt9.net
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Diary
entries: |
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Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12 |
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Week 6
June 20 - 26 |
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DATE:
June 20 |
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ENTRY:
We drove into the San Fran area in the
morning but stopped outside the city to
check internet and let Rory pack up his
stuff before we drove in. We dropped
Rory off at the airport to head back to
Boise for some r&r and we headed out to
a national park across the Golden Gate
bridge to find camping. We checked in to
The Golden Gate Recreation Area
campgrounds and then headed straight to
the nearby beach to relax. It was so
cold that we only lasted about half and
hour on the beach before heading back to
the car, definitely no swimming. We did
some more reading and then drove into
Sausalito to check it out (thanks for
the travel advice Rebekah!). We walked
around Sausaltio for a bit and after
decided that a $6 ice cream cone was a
little excessive we headed to the
campgrounds.
The park
here is really amazing. It is so close
to the city but it is so removed. And it
seems that locals really make use of it.
We got there on a Tuesday afternoon and
the place was packed with cars. People
come out here to walk, run and cycle. We
packed up our gear and did the nearly
mile long walk to the campgrounds and set
up. Then we headed back to the car area
where we met some really cool women who
told us to drive up the coast and check
out Pt. Reyes and Gualala (hopefully we
will). We had grand plans of making a
nice big dinner but it was so cold we
ended up making the fastest meal we had
and retreating to the car to watch a
movie on the laptop. After deciding it
was far too cold to actually leave the
car again we crashed for the night. |
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DATE:
June 21 |
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ENTRY:
Happy Birthday Meg!
We woke up sore from sleeping in the car
and went for a run! What a good way to
start the day (and only mild sarcasm :).
We went climbing (bouldering) at an
indoor gym in San Fran for about three
hours and did some really cool problems.
There were a lot of weird ones that you
seemed to need secret beta for in order
to finish. Cool but also kind of
annoying if there are no "locals" there
to tell you all the tricks. I did
a V3 that is now one of my favorite
problems. Crimpers and small pinchers on
an overhang. I couldn't work out the
last move but I kept trying and then I
just went for it - I jumped up off two
small crimps and one low foot and just
lunged for the top - and I got it! Such
a rush to actually get a move like that!
And it gives me confidence to go for
harder jumpy moves generally.
After
climbing we went and picked up Meg's mom
Carolyn at the airport and then we
headed to North Beach (a suburb, not a
beach) and had Italian for Meg's
birthday dinner. Then we all crashed at
a motel for the night (only our second
motel of the trip!) |
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DATE:
June 22 |
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ENTRY:
We got up this morning and headed to
Haight-Ashbury. Carolyn is going to be
giving us a guided tour of San Fran and
Berkeley for the next few days :).
Haight-Ashbury was really cool. We found
a nice cafe and I had amazing pesto
spinach veggie lasagna for lunch. We had
a good time sightseeing all day and then
headed home in time to catch some soccer
on tv (on the Spanish station so I
didn't pick up that match) and to see
that Australia has made it to the second
round for the first time in I don't know
how long. Go Aussies! |
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DATE:
June 23 |
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ENTRY:
We spent the day today checking out
Berkeley and walking around campus. This
is also a really cool area and the
campus is really pretty. We found a
great vegetarian Indian restaurant for
lunch and ate way too much, as usual (Rukhein,
you'd be proud of what we ordered),
followed by ice-creams later in the day. |
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DATE:
June 24 |
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ENTRY:
We just had lunch in a cafe in Berkeley.
It seems like all we do is eat :) We ate
at a "live" food restaurant. Live food
is a great idea and the food was pretty
good although overpriced but the place
was a bit pretentious. Why is it that
those kinds of places usually are? I
wish I could find a place that was a
little more down to earth...
We
climbed this morning at Indian Rock
which was pretty fun. It's the most
climbing we've done outdoors since
Flagstaff.
We
camped in a great nature park in
Berkeley last night. We were surrounded
by giant eucalyptus trees and heavy fog.
The fog is crazy - it comes in really
suddenly and gets so thick you can
barely see between the tents. We woke up
to find everything covered in water - if
I hadn't known otherwise I'd have sworn
it had rained all night. We dried off
the tents in the sun when we were
climbing today. Ready to get wet again
tonight! |
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DATE:
June 25 |
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ENTRY:
Last night we ended up at the most
amazing campsite I've ever seen. I would
LOVE to spend more time here if we
could. Except for it being colder than
I'd like, it is perfect. I've actually
never camped so close to the ocean
before and the sound of it crashing
against the cliffs was really soothing.
I think we all slept pretty well.
We got up super early (for me) at 6:45
and packed up camp and headed down to
Stinson Beach. Apparently the beach
doesn't really open until 9am (why?) but
we found a side alley and made our way
down to the sand. We walked up the beach
to the rocks at one end and Meghan had a
climb on one of them. Then we headed
back into San Fran to catch the Pride
parade. We ended up getting prime seats
on the ground in front of the crowds and
all ended up sunburned.
After the parade we headed to the
festival and bought $7 burritos (which
were actually very big and good,
surprisingly) and wandered around for a
while before calling it quits for the
day and heading back to a hotel to crash
for the night. We're taking Carolyn to
the airport at 6am in the morning so we
thought it wouldn't be a good idea to
camp out. |
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DATE:
June 26 |
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ENTRY:
We dropped off Carolyn and headed back
to the hotel to catch up on some sleep.
After that we headed back to the gym to
get back on some of the problems we'd
tried last week and to get in a bit of a
workout seeing as we haven't been doing
as much climbing as we feel like we
should have. Meg and I both jumped on
some cool new problems. Meg sent a
really cool V4 and I worked for a while
on a really hard V5. I didn't finish it
but it felt good to work it and get get
further and further.
There
were a bunch of amazing young kids
climbing (maybe the team?). They were
working 4's and 5's! It's amazing how
good kids are and it's a little
disheartening when a 10 year old comes
over and flys up a problem you've been
working on all day. It puts climbing
back in perspective a little though -
we're doing this because we love it and
want to get better but we're not ever
going to be the best (and that's ok). It
seems to be like everything else, the
younger you start the better you will
be. I just have to be happy with
climbing well.
We're
heading up the coast now to Humboldt to
check out some beach climbing. I'll try
to get some photos from San Fran up the
next time I'm online. |
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