Seattle is one of of my favorite cities on the planet. Not that I’ve been to many places on the planet. But Seattle currently stands as a favorite regardless.

In college, I would take my spring breaks and, instead of going to the beach or on a cruise like everyone else, I would go to Seattle. I cared much more about the inevitable adventure I’d encounter in an unfamiliar city than the inevitable sun poisoning I’d acquire after being on a beach for more than four hours. You can read about some of my old washington adventures in my old blog entries.

I hear the weather is pretty shoddy in Seattle. I have never really had issues with it. For the most part, it was beautiful every time I was there.

Anyway. Seattle greets us with black skies and freezing rain. This must be what I’ve been hearing about all these years. I don’t care. This city is still amazing. We head straight to the house that is to host us for the night – The Beery House, which apparently hosts many great shows for Seattle music lovers. Tonight we are the guests of honor.

We enter the house to find a feast waiting for us.

I was too busy with smoked salmon to notice the 40 or 50 extra people that had filled the living area by the time I looked up.

I don’t have much experience with house shows. But I like them. It’s so fascinating to me. People opening up their home to dozens of total strangers (the majority of these people were here for Mark alone and had no personal connection whatsoever to the owners of the house), offering food and drinks, and hosting guests after the show. Door is (in our case) donation based, and people are way more generous than I could have fathomed. Musicians can easily surpass what they would make in earnings from a traditional music venue (not to discourage you from playing them – I’m just saying, there are options out there).

So yeah, that being said, the show went incredibly well.

More highlights of our stay in Seattle:
- Being told to go into the Beery House bathroom and pick any rock that I want to take with me. I picked a nice orange slug-shaped one. Apparently it was a gift from Brazil. It’s sitting in my orange room now.
- Waking up to a giant pile of bacon + a breakfast torte that measured what seemed like 2′ in diameter.
- Mark’s great + talented friend Billy joining us for breakfast, and bringing pear butter with him. Pear freaking butter. Who knew?
- Mark receiving a complimentary trumpet and hand-sewn bird (carrying a miniature banjo) as a going-away gift.

Thank you Beery House! Now, off to Portland.

I feel like I would normally pack a significantly larger amount of observation in my descriptions of these places, but it is a winter tour, and everything is dark, all the time.

Highlights of Portland:

- Eating an overwhelming amount of home-cooked chicken parmesan, fruit, oysters, cheese, bread, salad and cheesecake at new friend Justin Mackewich’s house. Justin has actually known Alex for years… me only for a few hours or so. It was great hanging out with his wife and family nonetheless.
- Mississippi Studios. One of my favorite venues to pass through. The space is spacious and complex, the lighting is great for photos, and the music I hear here is always incredible. 3 Leg Torso opened and blew. my. mind. Apparently the bassist, Mike, was playing his last show before moving to Los Angeles. (update – Mark and Mike now play together regularly in LA).
- Having Justin play violin on stage with Mark and Alex for the set, having only been told he would do this a day ago. How you manage to master that amount of material that quickly without being dysfunctionally nervous, I will never know. I was so impressed. Preston Howard, a Chico-based friend who recently moved to Portland, joined in on Uillean pipes. Wow.
- A quoteable point from our friend/host Genia: “Moby’s not a great DJ.” “He probably not a great long-distance runner either, but that’s irrelevant, isn’t it.” Well said, Genia, well said.
- Meeting Genia’s incredible little lady, who is already holding intelligent conversations at 18 months. Yeesh.

We say our goodbyes to Portland, then head south. Next stop: home.

We drop Mark off halfway at his Thanksgiving retreat in Northern California. I fall back asleep immediately. I dream that I am in a high-speed car chase for the next few hours until I wake up at my front door, much earlier than expected. Apparently Alex hauled ass to get us back to San Fran so he could finally meet back with his ladies at home.

Another tour ended. I’ve gotta say, I’ve never toured with a more appreciative, kind couple of fellas. They were great company and it was great to get back on the road again. I met so many interesting people and can’t wait to cross paths with them again next time I’m wandering around the PNW.

If you haven’t yet, check out Mark HERE and Alex HERE.

END!

Tour day 2.

We awaken in Chico, CA, greeted by heavy freezing rain. I am quickly becoming acquainted with how lovely winter touring conditions are in the northwest. We say our goodbyes to our gracious host Sara Rose and prepare to head on our way.

We take a quick tour through downtown Chico, in which Mark had previously lived for a bit, stop at a grocery store to restock our fruit supply, and pay a visit to Naked Lounge, the local coffee/tea spot. It is here that I discover “The Vietnamese Hammerhead” – a double espresso topped with coffee + condensed milk. My dreams are finally realized. Alex gets a quad-mocha, only to top it off later with two tall energy drinks from the gas station. Truly impressive.

A day of driving later, we arrive in Eugene, OR. Alex spent a few years here getting one of his degrees (he has his pHD, so it could be one of many), so we were expecting a warm welcome from Alex fans.

Mark & Alex were playing an in-store performance that night. Things began to develop in a most interesting fashion… setup became an epic battle of performance vs. feng shui.

By the time we had finished setting up, all I had to say was this. And I’ll leave it at that.

[6:42 PST]

Rargh. These are the times when I sort of wish I still had a relatively small, little-known email list where I could post detail after ridiculous detail of my tour stories. I suppose I still could, but I have unfortunately started to develop some sort of tact-filter in my effort to avoid posting any sort of blatant negative material. Alas.

Next task: find sustenance. We decide to go to the nearby mall and find some food.

We find ourselves in the middle of a department store, completely overrun by crowded store displays and agitated families, the children completely jacked from of the abundance of edible samples every few feet or so. People are looking strangely at Alex, who happens to be carrying a human-sized cello case on his back. Mark and Alex and I weave through the chaos, grabbing cheese samples as we went. Alex almost accidentally takes out a child with his cello. I am the only one who notices.

We find ourselves in the middle of the food court. It is still oddly crowded. There are children in costumes everywhere. I feel like I’m in the twilight zone.

Mark wanders off to explore, and Alex and cello and I sit down to eat our delicious food court meal. Next thing we know, we are in the middle of a holiday dance recital. Yeah. In the food court. Dozens of children dancing to The Nutcracker within the confines of a 10′ x 12′ space cleared out among the food court tables.

Here’s to another normal night of tour.

Back at the venue, the show begins, and the listening room is so packed that people are overflowing into the side retail area. People were astounded, whether they be old friends of Alex, or old fans of Mark, or curious newcomers who happened to read about the show as “pick of the week” in the local paper.

After some post-show grub with old friends at a local brewery, we head to our night’s final destination – the Cortesia Sanctuary.

Hm. Where do I begin. Cortesia Sanctuary is a beautiful, secluded 22-acre property located in the woods of Oregon. It’s owned by Dr. Forrest McDowell and his wife, Tricia Clark-McDowell. Both are renowned best-selling authors of countless books, launching international movements in gardening, and becoming popular speakers at conferences around the country. They are also internationally-noted authors and contributors in the field of herbal remedies and philosophy.

I of course had no idea about any of this upon my arrival.

I knocked on their front door to be greeted by Forrest and Tricia, who I had not met until this moment. I found myself in the middle of an incredible, rustic but architecturally complex cabin, adorned with high ceilings and lofts, both of which I have a weakness for (I am an architecture nerd and originally planned to be one for a living – I’ve changed my mind approx. 80 times since then).

Forrest and Tricia were prepared for our arrival. They pulled homemade cookies out of the oven immediately and told us to feast. And that we did.

We all ended up sitting comatose around the living room, discussing life and our careers and aspirations until the wee hours of the morning. I finally decided to retire, and was led by Tricia to my own personal yurt, a domestic pod of sorts, located behind the house, for me to sleep in my own privacy. This place gets more amazing by the minute. I left the guys to play music together for the rest of the night (apparently they didn’t go to bed until 4 or so in the morning).

Morning arrives. Forrest cooks us a wonderful breakfast. We take a minute to explore the incredible property and gardens, located 1000 feet over a valley bank, then pack up our bags and say our goodbyes.

So ends another normal town adventure. Next stop: Seattle.

To see a bit more about Forrest & Tricia’s property, visit their website – onesanctuary.com.

Greetings from Northern California. I’m writing to you from the back seat of the tourmobile, in the middle of a heavy rainstorm, en route to Oregon.

The tour posse:

Mark Growden – musical mastermind/reason why all of this is happening.
Alex Kelly – cello prodigy/giggler/noise maker extraordinaire.
Helena Price – record label representative/doer of business-related tour tasks/photogger/myself.

I love my crew. We are eating fruit and listening to the Porto Franco Sampler. Mark just poured a rather large quantity of water all over his pants while driving. Things are going well.

Night one found us in Chico, CA. It was a fairly quick drive… only a few hours including some delays due to San Francisco outbound traffic and a few wrong turns along the way.

The venue was hidden quite well in what appeared to be a giant industrial vacant warehouse storage area. The exterior lot was pitch black and scattered with empty cargo trucks. Alex and I were fairly convinced that this would be where our lives would end.

However, we soon found ourselves within the venue, and my faith was restored.

The Frame. It was exactly what I previously mentioned – a giant warehouse space – but it’s been renovated into a wonderful open lofty venue area and film studio. One Night Music, a SF-based project, was presenting + shooting the show that night.

One Night Music films and showcases live performances by indie musicians around the country, incorporating quality HD film, photos, and illustration for a very Daytrotter-esque online presentation.

So yeah, One Night Music seems pretty awesome. The guys behind it certainly are – I know that for a fact. Ryan, Ian, and their Chico crew – Skylar, Daniel, + others (including the pug stage hand) – were great company and I can’t wait to see what they produce. I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted when it’s released.

Small world note – I was browsing One Night Music’s website, looking at their contributors, and who do I see other than… my good friend Scott Boone?? What? Scott and I went to college together in North Carolina. Scott was riding his bike across the US at the same time as I was driving across this summer, and we both ended up settling down in San Francisco. Looks like he found himself a good crew to work with. Crazy.

We knew it was going to be a good show, as Mark used to live in Chico, so this was a homecoming of sorts for him. And a good show it was. We hung around the venue for a good bit, then said our goodbyes to our new (and old) friends, then headed on our way to friend Sara Rose’s for post-show times.

The house was quite large, and conveniently happened to have three vacant bedrooms for us to sleep in. I crashed immediately, having spent my day packing for tour + working on projects + meeting with Porto Franco + going to grad school + taking a quiz + driving to Chico + all of the above. I would probably have additional day 1 stories for you otherwise. I heard there were hot tubs involved.

On a side note –

Random projects I’ve started on the road:

Creating a photo collection called “tour diet.” Subjects generously provided by America.

Collecting and forming a general appreciation for finding two-word combinations that wouldn’t logically go together but somehow work in specific contexts. Today’s example: “dollar spicy.” It’s a grammar revolution.

On another side note –

A few ironic things to share with you.

I’m on the road with my laptop. I am shooting RAW files with my camera. I forgot that my laptop does not have the necessary software to edit and convert RAW files. So…. I can’t edit any of the photos I shot the first night! Hooray! I’ll post them once I have the means. Hope iPhone photos will suffice for now. **(Update: the regs photos are up, obviously).

END!

I took some fun photos this weekend, and would love to post them tonight, but I can’t find my camera charger or extra battery. So they are stuck within my dead camera for now.

Instead, I thought I’d post my favorite photos from this summer’s phototour, as well as a couple of photos that I never posted. As much as I love San Francisco, my heart aches for the road.

Enjoy!

There are all from my six-week phototour with Bowerbirds + Megafaun. If you haven’t actually looked at my tour site yet, just go do it. I bet you might like it. All of Tim’s wonderful photos are there as well. Click and enjoy. www.welldonetour.com.

Hopefully a new blog post involving SF photos will be up tomorrow, depending on if I find this elusive camera charger. Until then…

END!

After a particularly long drive, thanks to my accidental detour through some random southern California cities, we arrive in San Francisco. At 5:30 AM…. most awkward arrival time yet, especially when I have to wake my new roommate up in my new San Francisco house, neither of which I have seen or met, to move my stuff in. She was awesome though, especially considering the strange timing.

I now live in San Francisco. Holy mother of god.

Adjusting to your completely new hometown isn’t so bad when you are surrounded by former-hometown-folk to keep you occupied. Tim is here for another week or so, and my friend Brandom happened to fly in on the same night we arrived.

So began adventures with Brandom.

We started things off at Boogaloos, who I have already deemed my favorite brunch in San Francisco. Not that I have come remotely close to trying 10% of the brunch spots in San Francisco, but I AM obsessed with Mexican food and eggs in combination right now and they do a damn good job at providing me with it. We split a temple-o-spuds and a polenta + eggs plate. The day is a win already.

I decide that it will be best to drive Brandom to all of my favorite places in San Francisco, as I am not adjusted to the walkability of the city yet (aka I am lazy) and I figure that if I keep the car moving, I will reduce the number of parking tickets I’ll inevitably acquire. So… first stop: Twin Peaks.

Twin Peaks is the biggest hill in SF. You can see everything. You just have to make sure it’s a clear day, because 80% of the time it’s foggy and you can’t see two feet in front of you. Today we can see!

I wanted to take a jumping photo but it was so windy we thought we may die just standing up. So we took some normal photos and went on our way.

Next stop: Crissy Fields. Fun park and beach with a nice view of the Golden Gate. I’ve taken many a photo here before, so it’s fun to see how they end up changing every time I come back.

I wanted to drive Brandom around the west side of the Peninsula, where the road lines the hills and you see nothing but water below you, but we got lost and ended up at the Harold & Maude graveyard. This happens to be one of if not Brandom’s very favorite movie, so he freaked out and demanded we go in and take photos. And so we did.

By this time, the day had passed and we were tired. And so ended adventure day with Brandom.

Fast forward.

With Brandom and Tim both leaving the next day, I decided it was necessary to take everyone to Land’s End.

Land’s End is this somewhat secret location that a lot of SF folk seem to know of, but have no idea how to find. And somehow I managed to find it last year, by following really vague directions given to me by my SF veteran compadre Nick.

Basically, you take several disjointed bus rides to the Legion of Honor parking lot, wander through a golf course directly behind the property, hope you take the right path until you see another path going into the woods blocked off by a gate, walk around the gate, continue until you see a staircase, walk down the staircase until you reach a dirt path, walk up the dirt path until you can’t walk anymore, because you are standing on the edge of a cliff where the ocean meets the bay.

So me, Tim, Dakota, Brandom and Lewis found the cliffs once again. It was pretty foggy and overcast, which at first we thought would be a huge visibility problem, but it ended up being quite cool actually. The fog rested on top of the hills and actually rested on top of the Golden Gate, leaving a clear hole underneath it that you could see through. Brandom described it as a hole out of purgatory. If purgatory were an awesome oceanfront array of cliffs and giant rocks and waves.

I said my byes to Brandom, then went out for one last night of welldonetour-dom with Tim and company. My fellow road warrior is off to Raleigh tomorrow. Our 2009 phototour adventure has come to an end.

I would have some sort of profound synopsis for you here, but I really haven’t had any time to process all of the ridiculous incredible things that have happened to my life in the past six weeks. Maybe I’ll have have my brain reassembled by then.

All I can say now, is that tour made me grow in so many ways, as a PR professional, as a photographer, as a planner and a thinker and a friend and a person. I don’t think I’ll have a grasp on the amount I’ve learned through this for quite a while, but know for sure that I am definitely a different, better person leaving this tour. I got to spend my summer with some of the most wonderful people I’ve met in years. I love Bowerbirds and Megafaun and Tim and Sarah oh so dearly and can’t wait to see them again, and I’m going to stop typing now before I get emotional in the middle of this coffee shop.

END!

Tuscon: Well Done Desert Birthday Adventure

We arrive in Tuscon a few hours past midnight, as per usual. We found fauns and tapes scattered about our temporary desert hotel – the home of Matt Huggins, who happened to be out of town for the night. They have beer and Doritos ready for us. Night 1 Dorito party continues until we all fall asleep.

Tuscon Day 2:

Day off! We have absolutely nothing to do. It’s wonderful.

Brad, Phil, Sarah and I set out to find a pool. It is not long before we stumble upon the neighborhood waterhole. It looks great. However, it is locked. After some suspicious hovering, we manage to convince a nearby sunbather to let us in. By the time we are done with our swimming for the day, we realize that we are actually now locked IN, with no one around to help us out. We quickly learn that it is fairly easy to climb the wall and fence and hop down to freedom. We are feeling crafty and triumphant.

My birthday is at midnight. We have dubbed tonight the first of two celebrations: Tequila Birthday Hot Tub Fiesta Night. Invited: Well Done Media, Megafaun, Hometapes, Matt (our host who is not here). We would have invited Bowerbirds, but Mark and Phil were off camping in the desert wilderness, and Beth was in Raleigh for a wedding and flying in an hour or so before the show. Sorry Bowerbirds.

Sarah and I go stock up on a plethora of supplies. Shortly after we return, our host Matt arrives! He is great. Apparently he was at the Phoenix show and I was standing only a few feet from him for a large portion of the night, and somehow managed to not meet him. Oh well, now is the night. I make him a celebratory margarita.

Tequila Birthday Hot Tub Fiesta Night continues with more pool. more hot tub, more margaritas, more fiesta….

Tuscon Day 3:

I wake up feeling pretty bad.

Brad is up, cooking a Well Done Birthday Breakfast. He refuses to let anyone help him. This is his project and his only.

On the menu:
- Breakfast potstickers. Filled with breakfast sausage, onions, mushrooms, and cheese. Served with maple butter cream sauce. Jesus.
- Brad’s super signature roasted potatoes.
- Fruit salad with berries, citrus, and mint.

Good birthday so far.

More fun news – Megafaun gets word that their album was given a four-star review in Rolling Stone today! Rolling Stone! We find the magazine and gaggle at the page for a while. It’s beautiful.

We all take a break to do some work for the afternoon, then part ways so Megafaun can go soundcheck and whatnot. Tim, Matt and I remain.

I ask them what they want to do. They tell me that it’s my birthday, so I have to choose. I choose exploring and sushi. So that’s what we do, but not before I go outside to try and capture yet another incredible desert sunset with my camera, with marginal success.

So we head downtown.

[Birthday hard hat, compliments of Matt. Safety First.]

First stop: Hotel Congress. It’s the venue where Bowerbirds/Megafaun are playing that night, and it also functions as a coffee shop, restaurant, bar, night club, and, as the name implies, a hotel. It’s really an incredible building. I could live here.

The show has been postponed, as Beth is on her way back to Arizona from a weekend in Raleigh, and her flight was delayed. We find the remaining band members in the corner banquet room where they are set to play. Tim makes everyone huddle around his laptop, where he plays them the stop-motion Megafaun music video he’s been assembling for weeks now. They love it. We head to find sushi to celebrate.

We find sushi, we eat sushi, then wander back to the venue to find Megafaun about to start their set. They are not hooked up, but apparently this is intentional. They randomly decided to play tonight’s set completely acoustic and unplugged. After coercing the crowd to snuggle up and sit down as closely as they could, Megafaun played an incredible intimate set, full of extra stories and random conversation with the audience. They also gushed for a while about us and the work we’ve been doing, and made us wave awkwardly as they did so. It was neat.

Beth finally arrived, and the Bowerbirds began their set, which was plugged, unlike Megafaun, but wonderful nonetheless. They also made me awkwardly participate in a mid-show birthday conversation where I had to yell across the crowd to answer their questions about where I was standing and why they couldn’t see me and confirm how old I was. The show continued, and me, Sarah, Carson, Megafaun, Matt and Tim danced around and drank cider and generally enjoyed ourselves.

Very good birthday so far.

Once the show ended, reality started setting in about the fact that this was the last show we were seeing on this tour. We gave our last hugs and final goodbyes to the Bowebirds, as they were staying in the Hotel Congress for the night, then headed back to hotel Matt for hot tub party number two. The celebrations continued until it was daylight again.

Tuscon Day 4:

We all wake up a bit groggy and determined to find a proper breakfast burrito. Google points us to Viva Burrito, a cheap fast-food-ish establishment down the commercial highway. The burritos are only two dollars, so assuming that they are relatively small, Tim and I each order two. Turns out we were quite wrong. We now have four very large burritos to consume, and most of us are too hungover to really consider eating one. So I take a few bites and stash the rest for later.

It’s time to say goodbye to Megafaun and Sarah. What better place than a Viva Burrito parking lot. We take some photos, give lots of hugs, and bid farewell to our wonderful bearded road compadres. We will miss them dearly.

With a quick stop back in Phoenix to re-visit Andy + Arielle, we head back to our final tour destination, San Francisco.

More photos + tour stories at our official phototour site: www.welldonetour.com.

After randomly deciding to continue our tour over lunch in San Francisco, we are on our way back eastward, en route to the desert. We will be in Phoenix in 11 hours.

These drives really don’t phase us anymore. It’s just time to edit photos, or write stories for the blog, or listen to Harry Potter on CD, all from the comfort of our little tourmobile.

By the time we arrive in Phoenix, it’s pretty late… around 3 in the morning. However, we are not remotely ready for sleep. Arielle is awake and ready for us. So is Guitar Hero.

Fast forward 5 hours. Andy gets up to make breakfast. Tim and I are still playing Guitar Hero. We take a break to eat with him. Tim goes back to playing Guitar Hero and I go to bed.

Highlights from Phoenix Phase 1:

- Cartel Coffee’s “cup of excellence.”

- A great Bowerbirds/Megafaun show, packed with fans. Dry River Yacht Club opened. An at-least-7-piece with an accordion and horn section, and a saucy lady with one hella voice. They were a perfect opener, embodying a lot of elements of Bowebirds/Megafaun’s style but with a clear southwestern mariachi-esque influence. I dig em. During Megafaun’s set, Mega Brad managed to successfully organize a next-day basketball game from the stage. He was ecstatic.

- Well Done Dinner night – A collaboration between master chefs Tim and Megafaun Brad. Curried ground turkey + guacamole burgers with roasted potatoes and other fun things. Holy mother of god.

- Taking whiskey shots from shotglasses made from ice, then smashing them on the ground because we can.

- Watching musicians try to play Guitar Hero.

- Bonding with Arielle & Andy’s cats. I will be forever obsessed with Turtle, the most appropriately named cat I have ever met.

We finished off Phoenix Phase 1 with a sunset excursion to a nearby mountain. The view was epic. The lighting was epic. We all played around for a while, took some photos, then sat in silence together while the sun set. It was pretty awesome.

After our successful mountain excursion, we watched Megafaun pack their things and leave for Tuscon for more desert adventure. They suggest we follow. Next thing we know, we’re on another late-night road trip across the desert to Tuscon.

More stories + photos at our official tour blog: www.welldonetour.com.

After what could possibly be the best tour weekend ever, we reluctantly say goodbye to Shaun & Margaret and depart for our next destination – San Francisco. I was particularly excited about this stop, as this is where I will be living for the next three years. It’ll be nice to catch a show in my new hometown.

As many of our drives do, we had some choices as to what route to take. We could take the scenic 101 down the coast (Shaun demanded we do this at least for the Oregon stretch), or the more efficient HWY 5 route. Having slept in a bit too late, as per usual, we were logically forced to choose route 5. It was a 9-hour vs. 13-hour decision, and we had to get into town by the time that Bowerbirds + Megafaun took the stage at Cafe du Nord. We were barely going to make it.

Well, what do you know. More traffic. That + my fairly poor ability to take proper exits turned our proposed 9-hour drive into a 12-hour drive after all. Needless to say, we missed the show. Fantastic.

We did make it in time to have a beer with my dear friend Dakota, who was housing us for the night. As I’ve said in previous posts, after any drive longer than 10 hours, no matter how tired you are, all you want to do is go out, have a beer, and do something social, as you have spent your entire day sitting in the same car seat looking at the same highway. So we stopped by 500 Club, had a beer or two, then headed back to Dakota’s to crash.

The next couple of days were a swift kick in the hind for me. As previously stated, this tour was also a process of moving me and my life to San Francisco. Upon arrival to the city, I realized that I had spent so much time focused on tour that I had put several important projects on the backburner, such as finding somewhere to live, or finding a job. Both quite important.

So I took a small hiatus to hide out and figure out my new San Fran life, while Tim went off and explored the city and caught up with friends.

Things that make San Fran different from North Carolina:
- It’s colder here. Like, way colder. Between 60 and 75 most of the time. I had already discovered this last summer, but while packing for tour, I had only included clothes that were appropriate for summertime in the rest of the country. Basically, I have a few long-sleeved shirts to rotate until the rest of my “winter” clothes are shipped over. I also have no jacket. However, I am very excited about finally being able to wear boots and scarves every day of the year.
- You can be a foodie for cheap. Local/organic seems to be the baseline for food standards here, when in NC, it seems to be the exception. I have also recently realized that I have an obsession with eggs and Mexican food eaten in combination. Cannot-function-without-it obsessed. I blame Boogaloos.
- Beautiful hills, cliffs, ocean sunsets, blah blah beautiful scenery blah gorgeous awesome stuff to climb and look at etc. You can expect plenty of photos of all of this in the next three years (the time that I will be living here).
- You can’t have a car in this damn city. You just can’t. Unless you have a garage and you never ever let your car out of it.

It did not take long for me to become intimately acquainted with San Francisco parking law enforcement.

I was sitting at Dakota’s, bumming her wireless internet while she was at work. I hear a bit of streetside commotion directly outside her living window. I pay it no mind. However, after a few minutes, I become curious. It seems to be coming from exactly where I parked my car. I casually glance out the window.

There’s my car. A tow truck has attached itself to it.

Panic. I run outside. Tow man is trying to break into my car door. I vomit apologies and frantic pleas to let my car go. He ignores me.

I notice a road cop not car from me, viewing the situation musingly. I run up to him.

“I AM SO SORRY I AM NOT FROM HERE I DIDNT KNOW CAN I PLEASE HAVE MY CAR BACK I HAVE MY KEYS I CAN TAKE IT RIGHT NOW”
“You have your keys on you? Right now?”
“YES THEY ARE RIGHT INSIDE THE DOOR”
“If you go inside and get your keys, and get back out here before he breaks into your car, you can have your car back.”
(I run inside and grab keys)

By the time I get back out, I see the road cop talking to the tow guy, ideally about how he should let my car go. I take no chances. I jump in my car, still fully attached to the tow truck. I roll the window down and continue to plea from within my vehicle.

Apparently this worked. The tow guy slowly and reluctantly unhooked all of the intricacies lacing our vehicles together, and went on his way, leaving me in my car, still hyperventilating, still in a state of severe but reducing panic. I park it a block away and head back to Dakota’s with my brand new $73 parking ticket (another distinct difference between San Fran and NC… give me a $12 Raleigh ticket any day).

Fast forward to lunch a couple of days later. Tim and I are faced with a big decision: end tour here? or continue on to Arizona?

We had planned for San Francisco to be the last stop of tour. But, seeing as we missed the show, we were feeling like there needed to be some better sort of closure for this tour. We also knew that Megafaun wanted us to come down to do some more projects with them. We also knew we had places to stay and lots of fun things to do. I also liked the idea of not having to park in San Francisco for a while.

So we discuss the pros and cons over this at lunch, and by the time we pay, we have made a decision. We are going to Arizona. Why the heck not. We pack our things and are on the road a few minutes later. 11 hours til Phoenix!

More stories + photos at our official tour blog: www.welldonetour.com.

10:00 AM. I awake to find Tim and Shaun missing, but there is a note waiting for me. They have gone to get brunch supplies. We are to do a series of tasks before they return, including “be awesome.” On it.

We have planned a Well Done Brunch. Invited: Bowerbirds, Megafaun, Hometapes crew.

We took this project pretty seriously. It’s the first-ever Well Done Brunch. We can’t let the people down. We have menus and everything.

Let me just give you the rundown of what we created.

Iced Coffees.

Mimosas.

Bloody Mary Bar.

Egg frittatas with bacon, white cheddar, garlic, herbs and veggies from the garden.

Blueberry corn pancakes, topped with maple butter.

Curry breakfast potatoes.

Roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary. (compliments of Megafaun Brad)

Fruit salad.

Shaun was busy preparing a brisket to cook for the next seven hours, I played waitress and took everyone’s order, while Tim shelled out frittatas at a blinding rate. I’m not entirely sure how he did it. He has breakfast superpowers.

We ate like champions, then watched the boys play in the water hose. Just a typical day in tour land.

As if this wasn’t enough to call it a day at 4 PM, we all decide to drive to Washington state for the afternoon to play in the river and jump off cliffs. And that we did.

Finally, nighttime arrives, and it’s time to celebrate Adam’s birthday at the Hometapes abode. We run back to Shaun’s house and prepare yet another epic meal: beef brisket with raspberry BBQ sauce, sweet potato salad, brown sugar baked beans, cabbage slaw, gluten-free peanut butter cookies with fresh strawberry compote, and ice cream. This is getting ridiculous.

We head to the celebration. Brad has french braids in his hair. Mark is wearing Beth’s jorts. More eating like champions. Everyone is comatose by the end of it. We decide that the best day ever has to end at some point, and head back to Shaun’s to retire from yet another glorious night in Portland.

So that ends one of the best weekend of my entire life. Can’t we all just stay here forever?

More stories + photos at our official tour blog: www.welldonetour.com.

Shaun took me brisket shopping.

Such a large mass of meat is worthy of its own blog post.

More stories + photos at our official tour blog: www.welldonetour.com.