How are things on the west coast?

Seattle is:

- the most literate city in the U.S.
- the city that first played a Beatles song on the radio
- the birthplace of Starbucks, Boeing, Microsoft and Amazon
- home to Pearl Jam. and a number of other bands, but none are relevant when compared to Pearl Jam. Peeeearl Jam
- the city with the longest continuously operating farmer’s market in the U.S. (since 1907)
- where an anthropologist blogger with a citrus nickname has a (very good) pizza restaurant. marta won’t stop talking about her “apple crisp something dessert”. h-e-l-p.

Portland is:

- the greenest city in the U.S. (and second in the world)
- home to The Shins, Modest Mouse and The Decemberists
- a city where sales taxes don’t exist (go Oregon!)
- where I had some of the best Spanish tapas in my life

The Oregon Coast is:

- 583 km long (yes, the metric system still rules my world)
- a good place to spot seals and sea lions, or so they say
- made up of sea cliffs along miles of beaches

Post-thanksgiving morning in Malibu

“Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, presently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863. It did not become a federal holiday until 1941. Thanksgiving was historically a religious observation to give thanks to God, but is also celebrated as a secular holiday. U.S. tradition compares the holiday with a meal held in 1621 by the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is continued in modern times with the Thanksgiving dinner, traditionally featuring turkey, playing a large role in the celebration of Thanksgiving.”

My first american thanksgiving (despite the steak and blackberry pie instead of the turkey) was spent driving the Hway1 down to Santa Barbara, *trying* to listen to good music despite some interference.

Critical Mass is a bicycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month in over 300 cities around the world.

While the ride was originally founded in 1992 in San Francisco with the idea of drawing attention to how unfriendly the city was to cyclists, the leaderless structure of Critical Mass makes it impossible to assign it any one specific goal. In fact, the purpose of Critical Mass is not formalized beyond the direct action of meeting at a set location and time and traveling as a group through city or town streets on bikes.

“this is our house, 72,000 strong” - first (american) football match game!

maryland 13 x 52 cal bears :o)

last week, in between random waves of fog.