Category: US

Food and fun in Birmingham, AL

May. 20 Eastern US, Hiking adventures, Other adventures, US no comments

What do you think of when you hear “Birmingham, Alabama?” Do you think of the Old South and Steel Industry or do you instead see a city of rolling hills and great restaurants being remade in the model of New South? Birmingham is a surprise for those who haven’t been there. If you look around, you can find decaying symbols of a southern past but there are also many more signs that this city is one of many across the South that are on the rise.

Chez Fonfon

Our adventure started as soon as the business meetings ended. We spent our first evening dining in the Five Points area, and specifically at Chez Fonfon, a French-themed restaurant in a trendy part of the city known for great food.

With one of us from France and the other having spent a great deal of time there, we are tough critics of restaurants that dare call themselves French. Chez Fonfon is undoubtedly the best we’ve encountered outside of France. The charcuterie entrée (the actual French word for appetizer), moule frites, swordfish with beurre blanc and strawberries and cream dessert were fantastic. The Sauternes digestif we chose with the meal was the perfect compliment to our choices. Day one ended with one of the best meals we’ve ever had.

Farmers Market

Saturday morning started with the Pepper Place Market, an open-air farmers market not too far from downtown Birmingham. It was obviously very busy as we approached and parking took a few minutes. Our first encounter was with Steven Febres-Cordero, “The Spoon Man” who managed to sell us a tropical hardwood replacement for the wooden spoon we destroyed in the blender just a week ago. Hopefully the harder wood will survive our poor utensil practices.

We continued through the vendor stalls to find the Chilton County peaches recommended by a friend from that famous peach-growing place. We also picked up fresh plums and perfectly ripe strawberries to take on a hike planned for later that day. There were plenty of dogs, a bluegrass band and even a nut vendor dressed in a giant peanut outfit. Though the sun was strong, the day was not very humid and it was the perfect place to be that morning.

Ruffner Mountain

Once stocked up for our hike, we made our way to the outskirts of the city to Ruffner Mountain, the first of a series of ridges that mark the beginning of the Appalachian Mountains. We grabbed a map at the gorgeously architected Visitors Center before striking out on the network of trails that covered the ridge top. We made our way through the quiet forests and along old quarries and easily forgot that we were only a few miles from a city.

The high point of day, literally, was a rock outcrop that gave us a great view of rolling hills to the north and Birmingham’s Downtown to the south.

Cajun style

Cleaned up and energized, we spent the afternoon at a crawfish boil hosted by two families that brought in 150 pounds of live crawfish from Baton Rouge, LA. Both were LSU alumni that stuck close to their roots in Cajun country by having the annual event that brought together many friends to enjoy steaming piles of gradually spicier crawfish, corn, mushrooms and sausages. We were warned about the mushrooms’ ability to soak up the spices, but were surprised to find that the corn on the cob actually was a strong competitor for ‘hottest item.’

We arrived with few expectations and left with a series of great memories of a weekend spent enjoying a historic Old South city. If you get the opportunity to spend time in Birmingham, let us know and we’ll be happy to give you our recommendations for how to get the most out of it.

Driving to Mammoth in January 2012

Jan. 28 Skiing, US 2 comments

One of our tamer adventures has to be skiing. We try to make it a few times every season, which seems crazy for life-long skiers, but there are so many things in Southern California that compete with skiing in the Winter. The months of October to May are ‘red tag’ season, when dirt bikes that aren’t quiet and polite (our kind) can be ridden in the many off-road areas around Los Angeles. Those same months are also the ideal time to hike and climb. It is hard to live somewhere with so many competing activities. But we must ski…

Packing up

Mammoth is a five-hour drive from the LA Basin, through the Coastal Range, across the Mojave Desert, and then up the Owens Valley on the eastern side of the state. It is a gorgeous drive that passes through so many climate zones that that it has the scenery of thousands of miles. It also makes its way from the very modern city of LA to a land that time forgot, where sagebrush tumbles across Highway 395 and roadside stands sell homemade beef jerky. Entering Owens Valley means passing the highest peak of the Lower forty eight states and also seeing the turnoff for Death Valley, the lowest point. It is a trip of extremes.

Mojave Desert

The Mojave Desert sits in the rain shadow of the Coastal Range, the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains. Funny to read that the definition of the Mojave versus the Sonoran Desert is the presence of Joshua Trees, that crazy cactus-looking ‘tree’. Most people are surprised to find out that Las Vegas is part of the Mojave, which also includes a slice of Arizona. It has an average July temperature of 100 degrees (43.6 degrees C), making it much more interesting in the Winter months. Heading for Mammoth means crossing the northern part of the Mojave before turning north to the Owens Valley.

Owens Valley

An enormous valley that runs 75 miles (120 km) between the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range and the White Mountains, the Owens Valley is in the rain shadow of two major ranges. It is dry but has the Owens River running down the center until it is diverted to provide half of the water supply for Los Angeles. The California Water Wars were fought over this river and the backdrop for the movie China Town. It is a gorgeous place with mountains on each side often called “cathedral peaks” for their snowy grandeur.

Mammoth

Once through towns like Lone Pine and Big Pine and past the old-west look of Bishop, the highway climbs quickly to seven thousand feet and snow appears on the sides of the road. It becomes more alpine forest than sage brush just as the turnoff appears for Mammoth Lakes. Within a few minutes, the snow becomes deep and the condo appears. You’ve made it to skiing paradise. The mountain is appropriately named as it covers 3500 acres and has 31 lifts. With 30% of the terrain categorized as expert, it something for everyone in the family. Time to ski!

Kennedy Space Center in January 2012

Jan. 15 Inspiration, Other adventures, US 3 comments

A business trip to Orlando gave us an excellent opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Less than an hour from the Orlando Airport, the Center is an easy day trip into scientific reality so close to a city full of theme parks selling a world of fantasy. Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong instead of Mickey Mouse and Goofy. We stayed at one of the many hotels in nearby Cocoa Beach and planned to spend a full Sunday at the Space Center.

Exploration

For a government facility, it doesn’t come cheaply; adult tickets are $43 apiece. What you get, on the other hand, is to stand in the place where the greatest explorers of our time launched into Space. This is our modern equivalent of where Columbus departed the Old World, Shackleton stepped off for the South Pole, and Hillary departed for the summit of Mt Everest. Going into the unknown is something only a select few humans have ever done, and not all have returned to talk about it. It is the sort of adventure that is quite different from anything we do on our typical trails and peaks. We needed a visit to the Kennedy Space Center to get an idea of how these things are attempted.

Kennedy Space Center

The first thing to learn at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC, locally) is the enormity of the property itself. It takes a few miles of driving through Florida scrubland to reach the Visitors Center, which is still a few miles from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), one of the largest buildings in the world. It is large enough that there are coach buses as part of the tour.

We started with the IMAX Theatre and a surprisingly good film about the history of the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. From there we walked the Rocket Garden with its outdoor display of the various rockets used for space missions from the program’s start in the 50′s.

Launch Center – 39

Leaving the Visitor’s Center on NASA’s white buses, we made our way to LC-
39, home of the Observation Gantry, where 30 years of Shuttle launches were watched from a safe distance. It was a brief stop with a movie about the dedicated ground crews that made the Space Program so successful despite the difficulty and setbacks.

From there we boarded a different tour bus with a talkative and distracted driver who crossed the center line and nearly went off the shoulder as we careened toward our next stop. He managed to avoid an oncoming bus on the narrow road, and we were relieved to make it to the Apollo/Saturn V Center.

Apollo/Saturn V Center

The best film of all was the one we saw upon entering the Apollo/Saturn V Center, our third stop. It was a short but a very inspirational film about the Space Race and Kennedy’s commitment to land a man on the moon (and get him back safely–the part many forget). It covered the triumphs and the terrible tragedies the program experienced on the way to the Moon. There were several clips of rockets blowing up on launch, turning toward the earth just after lift off, and rockets off course needing to be remotely destroyed. They covered Apollo 1‘s tragic fire during a test and Apollo 13‘s “successful failure” when the crew was able to figure out how to survive multiple system failures and make their way back to Earth safely after Lovell’s famous, “Houston, I think we have a problem.” By film’s end, the viewer had a very good idea of just how heroic the engineer’s, mission planners, controllers and the astronauts really were.

Leaving the small theater gave us a big surprise as we looked up and realized we were at the bottom end of an enormous Saturn V rocket lying on it side…all 111 m (363 ft). Each of its 5 engine nozzles were 6 m (19 ft) across and the nose cone of the rocket was far, far across the building. Walking the length of the rocket and reading the information about each stage and how it fit together as a single spacecraft took around an hour. This was truly the most fascinating part of the day and also the most crowded with tourists.

Besides the rocket, there were also examples of the Moon Buggy, the Lunar Landing Module, Apollo 14′s command module and various versions of spacesuits, including early models looking like they came from Buck Rodgers’ wardrobe. There were moon rocks in glass cases around the facility, including one that visitors could actually touch. These displays, unlike the Space Shuttle, were a part of a glorious past that seemed more from another time than the more recent Space Shuttle missions.

Far more than a touristy place, the Kennedy Space Center is a very well-documented display of the greatest achievement in exploration. The best time to visit is Sunday morning when the whole story can be digested without distraction and fully appreciated. Save plenty of time for the Apollo/Saturn V Center, too, as it has the most to take in. This is an inspiring place and you will leave with a different perspective on what was truly achieved. Don’t be surprised, however, when you are asked to exit through the gift shop.