1. If you’re going during flower season get there early. Arriving anytime after 10am is pretty risky if you’re aiming for the Palm Canyon Nature Trail. Your best bet: go the night before and either camp out or stay at a local motel! There are other trails, but this one is the most popular and really does have a lot of neat flowers.
2. Walking from the Visitor’s Center claims will add at least 3 miles to the trip. Totally worth it if the Borrego Palm Canyon Campground is full and you want to see the wildflowers (and the Visitor’s Center parking lot isn’t yet full), but that does make it a 6+ mile round trip.
3. Enough about wildflowers: see the slots. The trail to Palm Slot is easy to get to by any car, and The Slot needs just a bit of dirt road driving. They are both really, really cool hikes.
4. Bring lots and lots of water. Also sun protection, more water, proper clothes, etc.
5. Visitor’s guide: “Taken one way (downhill) it is a moderate hike, round-trip more difficult”. Translation: round-trip is straight up. Ride a mountain goat.
6. Visitor’s guide: “Dirt road”. Translation: talk to a ranger. This either means “something your Honda coup can access” or “when your brother-in-law takes you in his four-wheel-drive truck you will barely navigate through bolder-strewn, windy passes and will scrape the immaculate paint job in a few hundred different places from the advancing brush.” The Slot didn’t give us any trouble, the path to Wilson Trail still makes me wince when I think about it.
7. Visitor’s guide: “Some rock scrambling required.” Translation: the trail ends half a mile away from your destination. The rest requires crazy bush-whacking, boulder hopping and many reminders that desert shrub won’t just let you through without a fight. Maidenhair Falls, I’m looking at you.

Visiting Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is the only time I ever wish we had a vehicle that handles really off-road driving, but the trails you can get to from a car are still amazing. Easily one of our favorite parks.

So what were the popular bourbons? The 3 clear winners were:

1. Woodford Reserve – this great bourbon (in a lovely bottle), was the clear favorite. At 90.4 proof it’s not as strong as some of the other contenders and the balance of flavors and sweetness appealed to every taster. It’s generally about $30/bottle at BevMo which is an great price for an excellent bourbon.
2. George T. Stagg – One of my favorite bourbons, this one split our tasters. Those who liked it, loved it. Those who thought drinking 140.6 proof (this is a 2006 bottling) bourbon was like being punched in the mouth (even with a bit of ice to open it up and cool it down), were less enthusiastic. The Stagg is just loaded with flavor, and even while you can feel it warming your body the conversation with your tongue and brain continue. It’s generally in the $75/bottle range (prices vary pretty widely), if you can find it.
3. Elijah Craig (18yr) – This is a single barrel bourbon that’s aged much longer than the average bourbon (bourbons have to specifically label how long they’ve aged in the barrel if it’s less than 4 years. As such, many bourbons are allowed to mature for only a bit over this magic number) but is still plenty spicy. This was one of the first bourbons tasted, so it’s hard to say how much it’s popularity was influenced by it being one of the few clearly remembered, but it’s always been a bourbon I enjoy. It’s age leads directly to it being more expensive, and I typically see it at BevMo for about $45/bottle.

Other bourbons tried (in no particular order):

• Bulleit – a debate opened up on how to pronounce this popular bourbon.
• Four Roses single barrel – Another of my personal favorite bourbons, the Four Roses was well received by some but the strong 100 proof turned other folks off of it.
• Elmer T. Lee – less remarkable than hoped, people generally liked it but couldn’t think of anything that set it apart.
• Eagle Rare single barrel – This one comes with a “hand selected by BevMo!” sticker on it, but none of us could figure out why.
• Russell’s Reserve (10 yr) – has a strong, almost smoky taste that a few of us enjoy but several tasters were put off by.
• Maker’s Mark – this is the bourbon that most folks tend to have in their cabinet, and it’s generally seen as a high caliber bourbon when compared to what else is hanging out on a drug store shelf. It was tried late in the tasting, and unanimously voted as the worst of the bunch. Not that it was bad, per se, but it had a more shallow, sweet taste when compared to the many other fine bourbons in the shootout.

So that’s the verdict, folks! The Four Roses and George T. Stagg remain my favorite, but I’m delighted that Woodford Reserve was so popular as I agree it’s a fine option. I’ll be sampling the Bulleit more in the near future, as that’s a recent acquisition, and continuing to slowly acquire other tasty bourbons as time goes on.

Other highlights of the evening include:

• Pam won “Hero of the Week” for deciding that a Negroni is actually intriguing and kind of tasty instead of just terrible. Pam may just be the first female of my personal acquaintance to feel this way.
• When we started the tasting who are the first over to get it moving? All women. Here I thought it was going to be a manly gathering! Some of the fella’s did meander over and a few joined us for the whole tour, but it was contrary to how I would have predicted the drinkin’ crowd to be.
• Speaking of heroic women: who pushed us to try every bourbon on the table? Amy. Peter and Mirko joined in to complete the Shootout with us but Amy totally wins Badass of the Party.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by, I had a blast and hope y’all did, too. Next in line is probably either a scotch tasting or another Tour of Gin.

• Johnny Cash – I’ll throw a whole mess in, probably including things like Cocaine Blues, his cover of God’s Gonna Cut You Down and who knows what else.
• Tom Waits – it’s hard to resist adding Jockey Full of Bourbon and The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)
• Richard Buckner – A Goodbye Rye – yeah, I know, I know. But I’m not having a rye tasting anytime soon so I’m throwing in other American whiskeys.
• Jesse Colin Young – Rye Whiskey
• Ugly Cassanova – Parasites
• Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’ – I See a Darkness
• Nancy Sinatra – Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
• Charlie Feathers – That Certain Female – Ok, I’m seriously wandering here but what the hell. Fun songs and who doesn’t drink bourbon while watching Kill Bill?
• Gypsy Kings – Hotel California (in spanish)
• Dock Boggs – I’m not sure which song yet, but God help our drunken brains if it comes on late in the evening.
• Lucinda Williams – Jug Band Music? I only have the Ramblin’ album, so something off that.
• Harry McClintock – Big Rock Candy Mountain – and heck, if we’re doing O Brother, Where Art Thou maybe Didn’t Leave Nobody But The Baby. I’m not sure how that applies here, but I like the feel of it.
• Tanya Tucker – Delta Dawn – For those who feel like hollerin’ along.
• R.E.M. – Swan Swan H – sure it’s obvious, but I like it so it’s in.

So it’s a start, but I’ll still need to keep poking around. Probably some AC/DC is required, but what else? I know there’s lots of low hanging fruit (Whiskey River, etc.) but I’m not sure I’m headed that way, yet. I rarely do a mix without an OtR song, so perhaps Trouble. Some old White Stripes, Iron & Wine and other standbys will probably show up, but any other inspired ideas?

More details:

1. I somehow managed to get hitched to the most beautiful woman in the world. I’m still a tad dazed at my luck, but my plan is to enjoy the fact indefinitely. We’re collecting a list of pictures folks took on our wedding website.
2. Christy had an art show recently which went fabulously except that she sold a bunch of her work before we managed to snap any good photographs. It was an amazing show, and, I suspect, the first of many. Very exciting.
3. We’re planning a honeymoon to Machu Picchu. Have any advice? We’d love to hear it.
4. Given that my job involves thinking about student and staff access to online University resources, it’s really time for me to get back into the online world. About a year ago I stopped checking several of my email accounts, stopped logging in to FaceBook, LinkedIn, stopped attending various organizations, etc. My work load hit about 80 hours/week (some weeks less, some weeks a chunk more) so I walked away from a lot of things. Not a particularly well mannered way of organizing my life, but it’s what I did. This weekend I’ve started slowly picking those pieces up once more and trying to re-integrate various digital networks into my busy-but-thankfully-not-that-busy life. I’m still gearing myself up to take on FaceBook.
5. New tools I’m using:
   • Digsby is looking like a really lovely way to push a wide array of digital clutter into a more central feed.
   • MyPunchBowl is a competitor to e-vite and it’s about a million times nicer. I’m using it to organize the Bourbon Shootout and it has features like a Potluck list (what goes better with a bourbon tasting than a potluck, after all?) that I like. I do miss evite’s mix of reservations and response messages all on the same page, though. The Guest Management (a title I cackle at every time I see) screen is ok, but a little to pared down for my tastes (very web 2.0). Anyhow, I’m still on the fence as to whether it’s too much or not, but it’s lovely to see an alternative.
   • I just installed, wp-to-twitter so this post will be the first test of the blog being syndicated on Twitter. Coincidentally, this will be my first twitter post. I signed up for twitter due to a lot of factors, but mainly I’m going to blame Tavern Wench.
6. I’m totally looking forward to The Bourbon Shootout. Details will follow.
7. Also seeking things like a new digital camera, a website for Christy to put her art on, any bright ideas about how to present University resources to prospective, current and future students in a way they’d be interested in (we have a couple of exciting projects underway), new hikes to take in San Diego, etc.

So, how’s life with you?

My photo of a Negroni on Wikipedia's entry for the delightful drink

Hope y’all have a fabulous holiday season and may 2009 be vastly better than 2008.

This morning we hiked up Stonewall Peak which I totally recommend. It’s about two miles each way if you go straight up and back, and it’s an easy hike (almost all of the many hikers we saw involved small kids, which is rare for most of the hikes we take) with a fabulous view at the top. Naturally we took a side road back down which some random book had told us would only be half a mile longer although my glance at a map earlier had me suspecting that was a tad short. We ended up hiking a bit over 5 miles total, which is a great way to spend late morning and early afternoon.

While we were near the peak, we stopped for a bit and Christy took a few minutes to sketch out:

Yeah, she’s good.

In related news we’ve had a number of friends inquire about where we hike, so we’re thinking about getting together groups of people maybe once a month or so for a hike. Our first will probably be next Sunday, so if you’re in the area feel free to join us! Our downstairs neighbor will probably come along and maybe a few other friends and we’re actually thinking about doing this same hike again (probably straight up and back, without the bonus detour). Christy and I have really been enjoying exploring the greater San Diego area and it will be fun to hit some of our favorite hikes again with some of our favorite people!

This is from Let California Ring, one of the groups who support gay marriage. Ohio’s terrifyingly popular decision to ban gay marriage was one of the main reasons I was happy to leave. This is a human rights issue. If you’re a Californian, vote no on Proposition 8.

Laphroaig makes some of the loveliest scotches I’ve ever had the privilege to enjoy. Their 15 y/o continues to be my favorite, but the whole line is worth tasting.

Ok, time to turn off the laptop. Hope y’all are well!

The upshot to all of this is positive income! So of course I spent some of that and purchased a bottle each of Tori Amer and Pimm’s #1 the other day. I’ve now finally tried the Pimm’s Cup which is indeed refreshing. I’m looking forward to drinking more. I wanted to splurge and buy a bottle of Laphroaig 15 year which is my favorite scotch, but BevMo didn’t have any. I really need to find a superior liquor store in San Diego, but so far no luck. There’s always shopping online at Hi-Time Wine which has a delightfully ludicrous selection.

Right, time for bed.