Burning Man 2008, Black Rock City, NV

Lafayette, CO. - Ok... August was busy enough. We had the ski condo renovations to finish up, we had our wedding to plan, and Suwei had volunteered to make the wedding cake for her friend, Jackie's wedding (on August 23rd), so there was a lot of trial cakes to make & taste test (she cooked, I ate). On top of all that, Suwei had agreed to let me go to Burning Man this year... right smack in the middle of the madness. It was to become my week-long bachelor party. So while she was baking, I was busy tearing up the garage look for Burning Man detritus from years past, assembling a makeshift shower, and eating cake.

On August 22nd, Gary, my fellow burner, flew in from Ireland. He was a little jet lagged and a little more upset when the lovely, profession people at Jet Blue told him that the bag he paid $120 extra dollars for in New York (it was "overweight") did not actually make it to Denver. Not only that, but they had no idea where it was and had no way of finding it until it showed up somewhere.

On August 23rd, we dumped Gary in Boulder to shop for last minute hippy gear while we attended Jackie & Hank's wedding. Gary ended up making friends in a kite shop and bought out almost their entire stock of solar-powered, blinky name tags... except... he can't find anyone's actual name, so he assigned names (mine was Dude and it's still sitting on our coffee table, blinking away.) As of 10 pm that night, Jet Blue still had not located Gary's bag. Gary went ape-shit on the lovely, professional people at Jet Blue. We delayed our 6 am departure time, hoping for one more chance to get the bag before we took off towards Nevada.

On August 24th, we gave Jet Blue an early morning call. They had found the bag. It was still sitting in New York, right where they had left it 3 days prior. Jet Blue agreed to fly it to Salt Lake City, where we picked it up when we passed through. By 9 am we were on the road. The bag, luckily, arrived in Salt Lake City about a half hour before we did. It took a bit of effort to wedge the massive sack into our already bulging truck, but we managed. Early, early the next morning we waited in line at the event gates.

This was my 5th year at Burning Man. Although, I've missed the last two. Gary was on number 7...he hasn't missed one since we were Burning Man virgins together way back in 2002.

Friends have asked me what Burning Man is like...what's it all about? And well, it's not easy to describe. I usually talk about the fact that it's an art-fest and a massive party and an event like none other, and a... blah, blah, blah. They nod and go "uh huh. Yeah, I see." But really, you can see that they don't. So, I usually tell them they need to see it for themselves to really understand. And although Burning Man is not for everyone (far from it) this still rings true. You may go and hate it or love it or not care one hoot one way or the other, but you will understand better what the event is about...for you (and it's different for everyone.) My point... I don't want to describe Burning Man here. I'm hoping the pictures do most of the describing for me.

How was it this year? How was the art? Who all went? These were the questions that came from past burners who couldn't make it this year (of which there were plenty). To them I mostly answered, "different". And it was. And that's a really good thing.

To summarize:
- We came to the event from Denver instead of San Francisco.
- There were less of us in camp (just Gary and I till Thursday when Randy and his friend Todd showed up).
- I met a lot of new friends. There was Hilda and Karla at Quixote's Camp. Gary had met them at Nowhere, an burner type event held in Spain. Matt (whom Gary had also met at Nowhere), his boyfriend Cary and the rest of Yes Please Camp where they were staying (and where we spent most of our chill time). And let us not forget Skeleton Man... aka. Adam, aka Michael... the multiple personality Dutchman.
- The art was on the light side. Me thinks it might have something to do with a sagging economy.
- The Burn was delayed and almost canceled due to high winds. We ended up watching it burn from afar instead of fighting the hoards.
- More people. There were over 10,000 more people attending than the last time I went in 2005.
- Everything was further away. The whole layout of the playa grew to accomodate the growing number of participants.
- More flurry. The playa was riddled with sand traps, making it very difficult to ride bikes.
- Upon Gary's recommendation I volunteered to work as a temple guardian. It was nice to feel somewhat connected to at least one amazing piece of creativity.
- I was at a very different stage in life (ie. engaged).
- We stayed longer than I ever had before (8 days).

Friends

Clockwise - Gary / Hilda/ Karla & Michael / Matt & Cary's Wedding / Randy, Gary, & Todd / and one more of Hilda & Gary.

Looking Playaward From Center Camp

The Basura Sagrada Temple

Sunrise on The Playa

For much, much more check out the slide show. Just click the link below.

Burning Man 2008, Black Rock City, NV

Dora Lake Hike, CO

Lafayette, CO - Boy howdy, it's been a while since I posted to the blog, and boy do I have a lot of photos to go through now. It has truly been a crazy, crazy month or so. The big news, as most of you know, is that Suwei and I got married at the end of September. We had about 60 friends and family come all the way out to Zion National Park in Utah for the event, which really, really surprised us. We were completely jazzed to see so many of our friends out there. It made our day.

So....quite a few of the folks that weren't able to make it have already requested photos. Believe me, there were plenty taken at the event, but we just got back home this morning and I haven't had a chance to sort through them yet. Besides that, we have other prior events that I have to sort through. So...please, please be patient. Photos are coming....soon-ish.

In the meantime, I have a few photos from a hike Suwei and I did back in August...before the world went mad. I present to you, Dora Lake & the Gore Range, Colorado.

Surprise Lake

Dora Lake

Check out the rest of the photos in the slide show below. Picasa Web has re-worked their format a bit, so don't forget to click on the slideshow link (the pictures look much better there).

Dora Lake Hike, The Gore Range, CO

Aida's Trip to Colorado

Lafayette, CO - Wow... two days of solid rain here in Lafayette. Gives me some time to catch up on blogging. I have one week before all kinds of craziness starts happening so... I better get posting.

The photos in this post go back to July 14th, when our friend Aida Aftandilova from Kyrgyzstan came to visit.

Suwei & I met Aida on a bus from Tuktogul to Osh in Kyrgyzstan last summer. Aida is a student at the American University in Bishkek & she was on summer break. She was in Tuktogul visiting family and was returning to her hometown of Osh with her mother, her little sister, her cousin and her baby brother. In Tuktogul they were all trying to figure out how to fit all their stuff and a kid's bicycle into the very full bus while Suwei & I were trying to figure out where the heck the bus was going. Aida ended up helping us out with Kyrgyz to English translations and we helped get the bike in the bus.

During the next few days Suwei & I were treated to an incredible amount of Kyrgyz hospitality. The most I have ever experience from strangers in all my travels. Aida & family helped us make the bus transfer in Jalal-Abad, at another stop they bought us a watermelon, they invited us to their home for dinner, they borrowed a friends car and took us on a tour of Osh, they gave us souvenirs, treated us to snacks, took us out to eat for lunch and dinner. It was crazy. And although we were extremely grateful for all their kindness, we were also a little embarrassed, as they would not let us reciprocate. Here is a link to our blog entry on Osh if you want to see some pictures: http://somehowlostagain.blogspot.com/2007/07/bishkek-to-kashgar-our-return-to-china.html

Well, here it is one year later and we hear that Aida is coming to the United States. Her school, The American University of Central Asia, has a work travel program and about 70% of the students in her class were planning on spending the summer working in the US. After some confusion we learned that she would be working in Cincinnati, OH. Suwei & I debated driving out there and meeting her at the airport. However between the high gas prices, a long boring drive between here and there, and no flight information, we decided to scrap our plans. That's when we thought it would be pretty cool to show her a bit more of the states than just Cincinnati. So, when Aida was able to take a break from work, we got her a ticket to Denver for a week long visit in Colorado.

I'll have to ask Aida what she enjoyed most, but here are some of the things we did while she was here:

- Shopping in Boulder
- Ate at a local Tajik Restaurant.
- Bike Riding at Dillon Reservoir up near Keystone
- Lunch in Breckenridge
- Checked out the views from Vail Pass and took a backcountry route to the small town of Red Cliff.
- Wandered around Denver's Downtown.
- Saw an IMAX film about Greece at the Museum of Nature & Science
- Met up with one of Aida's friends from school (Ibragim Merzahmedow who is working here in Denver in the same work travel program), joining him for dinner and an evening stroll.
- Took a day trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park.
- Forced her to meet all of our friends at a Sunday evening BBQ at the house.
- And finally... more shopping in Boulder.

I really hope she had a good time and hope that we were able to return some of the hospitality she and her family showed us while we were the travelers.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Here is the link to the slide show:

Aida's Trip to Colorado.