Christmas in Las Vegas: 24-30 December, 2001

We went for the holidays to Las Vegas. Stayed at the Sahara, at the northern end of the Strip. Greg brought a table-top plastic Xmas-tree for the room, very fitting.
Had a great time wandering around, checking out the other hotels and casinos. Had planned to rent a car for a day trip, but all were booked. Went to see The Blue Man Group. GREAT!
Very few white faces in Vegas on the 24. and 25. The place got more and more crowded towards New Years. We left before then.

Thanksgiving in Reston: 22-25 November, 2001

We spend Thanksgiving with Greg's Family in Reston, Va.

Visit in Germany: 7-21 November, 2001

Andrea went to see friends and family in Wegberg, Aachen and Berlin, and met her little nephew Matias for the first time (3 months old).
She flew back to the East Coast to spend thanksgiving with Greg's family (see next post).

Backpacking in the Carson Iceberg Wilderness: 20-22 July, 2001

For Andreas birthday, we went backpacking in the Carson Iceberg Wilderness (Central Sierra Nevada) for three days. We followed the Paradise Valley Loop as described in "100 Hikes in Californias Central Sierra & Coast Range".

We started at the Gardner Meadow Trailhead (8575 ft), off Hwy 4 west of the Ebbetts Pass summit (the steep, dirt access road was somewhat taxing for Greg and his little Golf...).
We followed the Pacific Crest Trail for a while, turned off towards Adams Camp, and headed back across Upper Gardner Meadow.

The first day we were very very slow, averaging only about 1 Mile/hour, which surprised us, until we realized we're walking around at ~ 9000 ft (high point of the trail was 9340 ft, i.e. ~ 2800m).
On the second day we got lost a little and had to rely on Greg and his compass to get us back to the trail.
The third day was easy walking through a very pretty meadow.

According to the book it was a total loop-trip of 15 miles and 2170 ft elevation gain.
A great birthday-trip!

Trip to Washington D.C. and the New Jersey Shore: 14-27 June, 2001

We went to the East Coast to spend two weeks with Gregs family.
First we were tourists in Washington for a couple of days, wandering around the Mall etc. and Greg showed Andrea around Alexandria.
Then we went with the family to the beach in New Jersey, somewhere south of Atlantic City. We spend the days lazing on the beach, went for a night out to Atlantic City, etc.

First Backpacking Trip: 12-13 May, 2001

On our very first backpacking trip we went to Kelly Lake in Henry Coe State Park.
There are no pictures....;-(

Lya visiting: April, 2001

Lya came to visit us in Palo Alto.
We did some sightseeing in the area, went to to the City and of course to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Skiing in the Sierras: January-March, 2001

We went for several ski trips to Bear Valley (day-trips during the week) and Lake Tahoe (long weekend).
Bear Valley had a great 2for1 deal on Wednesdays. It's a quiet, small and nice resort on Hwy 4, just a 3-hour drive from Palo Alto.
At Lake Tahoe we stayed in a cabin and skied Mt. Rose (or Alpine Meadow?) and Northstar-at-Tahoe.