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Click to read
our individual diaries:
Meghan
Danielle
Rory
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Meghan McDonald
New York,
NY
Birthday:
June 21
Hometown:
Nashville, TN
Bio:
Click
here
Contact:
Meghan@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 |
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Week 6
June 20 - 26 |
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DATE:
June 20 |
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ENTRY:
So we rolled into San Fran this morning.
We're getting really far too comfortable
with driving through the night with only
a few hours of restless car sleep.
This time it was too bad because we may
have missed some of the most impressive
scenery of the trip-Yosemite!
Driving at night through the park, we
may as well have slept through it.
The one thing I could pick out was the
random snow piles scattered along the
road. That was an unexpected
sight. Next time we'll be sure to
plan this part of the drive a bit
better, but who knew it took that long
to drive across California, apparently,
not us.
Rory
flew out to Idaho this afternoon to
spend a little bit of time with his
family (and to give us all a bit of a
break), but we'll meet up with him
really soon. Have fun Rory! |
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DATE:
June 21 |
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ENTRY:
It's my b-day!!!! I woke up to messages
from lots of friends and family and it
really made my day. Thanks
everyone. I saved them all! I've never
really done much for my birthdays in the
past, just tried to enjoy it like any
the other day. Today was special
though- my mom came to San Fran just in
time to take us out to dinner : ) We
didn't do anything special necessarily,
just a really great day all around.
One thing
we did do today is climb at one of San
Fran's many many indoor gyms. This
place was huge and they had some crazy
good climbers there! It seemed like
everyone was sending something hard
everywhere I looked. Maybe it was
because it was the b-day, but I had tons
of energy and sent some cool problems
myself. Ratings in climbing are so
subjective and it messes with me. It's
hard jumping on a v2 and feeling like
you're just going to flail off one
minute and the next you get on a v5 and
send it like it was nothing. Maybe
one day I'll get to where ratings don't
matter anymore, but for now it feels
like the only way to measure how I'm
doing- and it feels good to get
something you've never done before!
I'm
excited for the next few days with Mom.
She's an old Berkeley-San Franciscan
from back in the good ol' days and she's
ready to show us all the beatnik spots
of the past and present. Let the
tour begin.
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DATE:
June 22 |
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ENTRY:
The day after my birthday. Hmmm,
yesterday may have been the longest day
of the year, but it definitely didn't
last long enough. Maybe I'd be better
off declaring this my birthday week.
Yeah, that's better. |
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DATE:
June 23 |
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ENTRY:
I am apparently not made to be a smoker-
Danielle bought me the cutest Tennessee
Titans lighter (I'm a big fan) and I
can't get it to work! I used to
have the title of official camp stove
lighter and now no more. Can
someone please teach me how to use it?! |
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DATE:
June 24 |
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ENTRY:
The fog out here is
unbelievable. One minute you're
looking at a blue sky and the next you
can't see more than a few feet in front
of you and it keeps going and going. For
us it made for a messy morning today.
We couldn't find any camping around
Berkeley except for Blue Gum- a group
campsite. Since the ranger station
was closed for the weekend, we couldn't
get any reservations, so we drove as far
as we could to a gate in the middle of
the woods and set up camp. The
area was about twenty feet below the
road and in the middle of hundreds of
Eucalyptus trees. The scent was
powerful. My mom picked up a fallen leaf
to take along so she'll always have the
smell with her. Well, for a few days
anyway. Everything was great
through dinner and everything until we
got into the tents for bed. Then it was
a little eerie. The Eucalyptus
leaves were dropping all around from
such heights that you couldn't tell the
difference between their noise and the
animals or whatever else might be out
there. After reassuring each other over
and over that the noise was nothing at
all, we finally fell asleep only to
awaken to more noise, even worse than
the first, rain. Actually, not
rain, but it may as well have been rain.
It was just the fog, but all through the
night we heard the drip drop of the
water. That was the mess in the
morning- very wet tents. But at least we
had the lovely smells of the forest. |
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DATE:
June 25 |
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ENTRY:
Great timing for an email today.
We heard from a friend back home telling
us to check out Indian Rock in Berkeley
right when we were in the area. (Thanks
for all the advice!) It's crazy!
There are piles and piles of boulders
right on the top of this huge hill in
the middle of a nice neighborhood and
there are no access issues at all.
Apparently these rocks have been the
home to many a climber, and now us- for
a day : ) We got there early in the morning and
the place was all ours but within a few
hours it looked like the climbing mecca
of the world. Who knew, right here in
the middle of Berkeley, California! I
sent my third v5 and fell off of just
about everything else.
We stayed at the most amazing campsite
last night. It is tucked away off
of Highway 1 close to the beautiful
Stinson Beach. We were incredibly
lucky to get the site- the last one left
in all of the Bay area. You have to get
the code to get in through the gate, so
it has the feeling of being a private
residence. Then after following
the windy roads along-side yellow
wildflowers growing everywhere and
bunnies popping their heads up all over
the place we pulled into the small
parking area and grabbed our
wheelbarrow- that's right, they had
wheelbarrows for everyone to push their
gear into their respective areas. For us,
campsite 4, or Pelican as they call it.
It was a haven from the wind sitting
below the bushes and a beautifully
curved tree. Just footsteps away
was the most amazing view of a
rocky-lined beach. There was a lot
of erosion so you couldn't get too close
to the edge, but the view was
remarkable. Unfortunately all our
batteries died and we only got a couple
pictures, but we'll be sure to post them
soon.
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DATE:
June 26 |
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ENTRY:
Yesterday was San Fran's Gay Pride
parade. We showed up and had a great
time. It was pretty powerful seeing so
many people in support of LGBT rights.
I wish it were like that everywhere.
I had
to say goodbye to my mom bright and
early this morning. We had an amazing
week- you were a real trooper with the
camping, climbing, and dirty living mom.
Love you. Thanks for everything.
After
dropping off mom I headed back to the
motel and tried to get a little bit of
sleep but these birds had nested in
between the ceiling and the roof of our
room. I'm sure they were pretty content,
but with all that noise it sounded like
there were hoards of them stuck and
trying to get out. It ended up
great because I got up in time to turn
on some soccer. I can't believe I'm
missing so much of the World Cup!
Sometimes I forget how much I miss
soccer. Today we watched Australia
and Italy. We were pulling for the
Soccerroos (Danielle wouldn't have it
any other way!) The ending was
gut-wrenching, a loss in the 95th minute
from a PK. The neighbors were excited,
we could hear them cheering even above
the bird chirping.
We just
found out that we are definitely meeting
up in Colorado with one of the first
people we met on the trip, way back at
the Rendezvous- she's Kim with the
(almost) endless supply of Gobstoppers :
) We can't wait! |
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(The writings in these
blogs are our personal
views, not those of any of our sponsors,
so
please don't send them any nasty
emails!) |
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