Nine days in Victoria

July 2nd was our first travel day of our big Summer Canadian extravaganza. We took a taxi van to the airport and then flew into Victoria via Vancouver with about a two hour stopover. It was a full day for the kids but they were so chilled out. Austen just adored the planes and the airports requiring little else to amuse him. He did watch part of his movie and was pretty thrilled with the presents (a bouncy ball, stickers and wind-up toy) I had wrapped and tucked into my bag for a dull moment. Caelen literally just slept the whole way there. We were able to use the double stroller to get them up to the gate despite some confusing warnings from the airline website saying they don't gate-check double strollers. I think it's at the discretion of the person checking you in.

Despite the efforts I made to streamline our packing we were a hot mess of luggage at the airport because at the last minute Joel needed his bike...

Do not travel like this

Austen did carry his own carry-on bag #winning

Austen also used my phone to take pictures along the way

Our week and a half in Victoria has gone by faster than we could have anticipated. We gave each set of grandparents three days each to plan for us and have divided our time between them that way with a couple of rest days in there for good measure. The kids have enjoyed the beaches, Butchart Gardens, walks around Oak Bay and time with their grandparents. We haven't even taken them into Victoria's downtown at all this trip. 

The weather has been cold, damp and at times windy. I'm ready to turn up the heat with the weeks ahead in Montreal and Ontario.

Tour de Bintan year two

Joel is just finishing up the final stage of the Tour de Bintan which has been running for the past two days. We have been staying at the host resort, Nirawana Gardens this year. Not as clean or as comfortable as the Bintan Lagoon Resort we stayed at last year but much easier to deal with all the race stuff staying right at the location of registration etc.

Joel has been riding with his team here and despite the incredible heat, everyone is holding up ok! He was ecstatic about nearly getting the KOM this morning... If only he hadn't dropped his chain at the last second. Ah the lament of cyclists. Anyway, final short race is starting around now. Then we are racing back to Singapore to see how Kopi-o is managing. He didn't spend the whole weekend alone, our helper went over yesterday to feed him but he's sure to put on a good show of displeasure when we get back.

Singapore from a mountain bike

This is a little bucket list of things Joel's seen from his mountain bike while riding the trails around Bukit Timah. (The photos are linked from wildlife sites as Joel is never holding a camera while riding).

Long Tailed Macques

Monitor Lizards

Wild Boar

Joel's [Annual] Post

FYI:

I raced my mountain bike today in Johor Bahru, Malaysia; Something I do frequently with my fellow expat and Singaporean friends.
The race was hosted at the Sales Gallery, a glass box in the middle of a field where happy young first-time property owners will congregate to be wowed into purchasing a condo between a freeway, high powered electrical lines, and a pretty nice looking hill adorned with classic radio towers ( why are there always two? ) poking out of its top.

Awesome bike trip in Colorado

After New Zealand I flew to Colorado to do the Triple Bypass ride through the mountains with friends. We stayed in a really nice place in Vail and psyched ourselves up by watching le Tour in the mornings.

Triple Bypass was a pretty fun ride to do. The first hill was 11,000' the second hill was 12,000' and the final hill was 10,500'. 120 miles in total with no flats but the hills were extremely gradual. We were worried about rain but it held off until the last ten miles.

-Joel

Meanwhile in Wellington NZ...

Just finishing up a three week work trip here. I miss Singapore!

-Joel

A Sunday ride

7:30am Bum boat ride to Pulau Uban this morning for a mountain bike ride

Karapoti 2011 in Wellington, New Zealand

In case anyone thought Joel was neglecting his bikes while he's on business here's a little taste of what he did over the weekend.

 

 

Bikes and stuff

I finally got my new road bike in April, The Precious is a Cervelo R3SL equipped with Sram Red. I've got my Quarq power meter in my carbon fibre crank set (on my second one since I wore the one I got last year out) and I've still got my Mavic wheels I bought last summer. So that's my gear geekery out of the way.

I've been riding all winter under the supervision of my coach and started this racing season in February as a Category 3 rider - another jump up from last year. I decided to do mostly stage races this year which are 3-5 days of racing several different stages (like they do in the tour de France). In May I raced in the Sram Tour of the Gila, which was literally in the Wild West of New Mexica. And I did two races in Oregon later on, Mt Hood Classic Stage Race and the Cascade Classic Stage Race.  I placed high enough in those races to earn "upgrade points" and made the jump up to category 2 a few weeks ago!

Now I have to try to not die in the last few races of this season.  Category 1 and 2 riders are often lumped in with the pro riders so this is a whole new and much faster group of riders. Pretty excited to get out there and give it my best though.

-Joel

Familypalooza continues

While Marcel was bombing around the Fairfax trails and refilling his jug of beer at Iron Springs Brewery, Alan and Adrian were driving down the coast on their way to our house. They stayed at a couple of fine B&Bs and did some father\son bonding. They arrived yesterday a few hours after Marcel took off on his flight back to BC. My mother Susan flew in later that day.

Today is Dad's 60th Birthday! It's a brilliant sunny day (of course) and we're off to brunch in Fairfax.

The arrival

Here's the end photo taken this morning. Joel with 7 days of beard and Marcel with 31.

Safe and sound

I picked the boys up from the airport this evening. They fell asleep before I had a chance to snap a picture of their beards. More to follow!

Helena, timeless icon of style

The boys camped out on a mountain top last night and then hit the road again today for their final mountain pass. Joel says they arrived in Helena, the state capital, quite early and have been making friends with the locals. People are pretty interested in who they are and where they came from. At this very moment the boys are on their bikes part way though a "tour" of all the local bars. They were just passed on the road by the "Helena Limo" which is a 6 door suburban with an animatronic deer on the roof that dances to music. You can't buy class like that.

Day 4: Wild Horses

The boys left their campsite at the crack of dawn (so they could avoid paying for their campsite) and headed across flat flood plains. Joel described the amazing experience of riding right through a herd of wild horses.

After the plains they crossed a river and then rode over a mountain pass and arrived in Lincoln, MT in the afternoon. Now they're checked into a crappy motel to get cleaned up and recharge some gear. So far all their equipment is holding out, even after a river crash. Tomorrow they ride to Dead Man Creek Campground and the following day they ride into Helena where they plan to spend a couple of nights before flying back here.

Day 3: mosquitoes larger than Grizzly bears

Joel and Marcel just arrived in Ovando, MT and are currently warming the bar stools at Trixie's Saloon. They left the Palm Lake Campground at 7:30 this morning after a night of torrential downpours and lightening. Their hilly ride began at 2000' topped off at 7000' and then they "bombed down some gnarly single track trails" to arrive at 4000'. Thus far they are doing the triap at double the speed of the guide they brought with them and may have to figure out some ways to kill time before they get to Helena. Joel made the shocking suggestion of a rest day but also thought they might add a side trip in somewhere.

Their ride today took them past "Grizzley Basin" but they didn't see anything but a few deer. They are being "eaten alive" by mosquitoes but all in all are in good shape and are having the time of their lives.

Day 1 & 2 Recap

I just got off the phone with Joel and he has instructed me to write this little recap of the past two days.

Day one, yesterday, they set out at 1:00 and actually did twice the amount of riding their guide book suggested (about 120km). Along the way they were chased by dogs and stole "the most amazing cherries ever" from someone's yard. Marcel actually took a whole branch. They got into Cedar Creek Campground at 10 at night and shared a hot night with some extremely friendly insects and hungry mosquitoes. Sounds dreamy.

Today they did a shorter ride, 60km of rolling hills. Some of it was gravel roads and the rest was single track mountain bike trails. They ended their day at a swanky hunting lodge called Holland Lake Lodge. They just had an amazing multi course meal and a bottle of wine and are now looking out over the lake as the sun goes down.

Tomorrow they are heading straight uphill right into Grizzly territory. They have an air horn and Joel also has assured me that his real goal for the trip was to "sucker punch a bear in the neck." A well thought out plan I'm sure.

That's all for now!

11:30am Day One

A short voicemail from Joel came in letting me know he found Marcel and the two are waiting in the airport for Joel's bike to arrive.

Neither of the boys had any idea if the significance of this starting location before planning this part of the bike trip. Kalispell, Montana was the original location of the DeStaffany family homestead. This is where Joel and Marcel's Grandfather, Gus DeStaffany came from. Gus was an explorer in the North and tales of his travels are the stuff of survival legends. While he unfortunately didn't live long enough to meet Joel or Marcel I think we can see where the adventure bug originated. So this morning, at the beginning of this trip lets raise a glass to Gus DeStaffany. Wherever he is I'm sure he would approve of any kind of adventure.

Joel & Marcel's Ultimate Bike Trip

For over a year Joel and his brother Marcel have been planning to ride the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from Banff to Mexico. If you are not a Pennington by blood this might sound like hell on a bicycle but to these two, it's pure rugged heaven. Riding till your bones hurt, sleeping on the ground, eating dehydrated stuff. In Joel's words, "It's the perfect holiday." I'm sure that's what you were thinking too.

At the beginning of June Marcel set out from Victoria by bike, heading across the country to the trail head in Banff and then headed South over the border into Montana. Tomorrow Joel will fly from Oakland to Montana to meet Marcel and then the two will spend the next seven days riding from Kalispell to Helena. That's about 400 bumpy miles of that stuff heaven's made of.

I'm going to post some updates from their travels whenever I hear from them along the way. To send along any wishes just reply to this post.

-Stacey

Devils Punch Bowl

I've been continuing my 4 days in LA/3days in SF schedule flying back and forth. This weekend Joel came home to ride in the Devils Punch bowl race. I'm pretty used to these weekend race days. We're up at 4:50 or 5am, off driving for hours to some tiny town or truck stop in the dust bowl sector of California. This race was in Pear Blossom. I did not make that name up. There were a lot of tumble weeds Joshua Trees and stuff that's just hard to explain.

Lets not forget the bike race! Joel came in 8/75! Go honey.

Along comes November

 

 

 

It is finally cool enough that sun-dresses are frowned upon and our flip-flips have retired to the closet. Still, it is sunny nearly all the time and perfect weather for running and cycling.

Joel hired a cycling coach and has just moved up to category 4 elite for this year's competitive season with his eye on sliding into category 3 as soon as he can. His appetite for protein drinks is astonishing.

School has been less than fun this semester. I knew this was going to be rough but I'm at my limit for all-nighters already. I had a painting chosen for the winter art show -- not what I was expecting as a non-painter but other than that I think this has been mostly a survival semester and not particularly useful for portfolio building.

My mother, brother and grannie were down here for a week earlier this month. Everyone seemed to enjoy their time here. They did day-trips around Marin and out to Sonoma and San Francisco. Grannie sat in the sand and waded into the waves like a local. 

We have booked our flights home for the holidays and are eager to see family and friends again.