Mr. & Mrs. Link

A few days after Phantom, we headed down to the Verizon Center in DC to cash in Mrs. Link’s birthday present, tickets to see John Mayer’s Continuum Tour with Ben Folds. Mrs. Link is a huge John Mayer fan but she’d never been to see him. I had heard that he played a mean guitar.

I bought tickets on eBay and they were supposed to be front row right off the stage. The tickets included an explicit statement that cameras were allowed, so I was excited to bring my big ol’ camera to take some concert shots. As it turned out, not everything was quite as advertised.

When we got to the venue, they searched my camera bag and notified me that “professional cameras” were not allowed. They defined “professional” as any camera that had a detachable lens. Flattered as I was, I wasn’t really pumped about their demand that I check my camera in an expensive locker for the duration of the show. And so, banking on the stupidity of the average person, we tried a different approach. I took the lens off the camera and stowed it separately from the camera. No modular lens, no “professional” camera. We never got to try our strategy out though since they didn’t even bother to check our bag at the next entrance we tried. The seats weren’t quite first row either. That is to say, we were the first row in the stadium seating off of the main floor, so no one was really in front of us but we weren’t on top of the stage either.

The show was really good and Mrs. Link loved it. Ben Folds was amazing – the guy had a ton of energy and played a lot of different instruments. He also danced on top of his piano. Mayer was, in fact, very good with a guitar. All the 13-year-old girls loved him and Mrs. Link didn’t mind him that much either if you know what I mean. Overall, it was a fun night.

A little while after that Chris, Mrs. Link and myself did our final hike before the great summit of Granite Peak. It was a little trail along the Potomac River called Billy Goat. The trail follows a tow-path (which is a pathway that was once used by mules to tow barges up the river channel through a series of locks) for a mile or so and then up and down over the rocks on the banks of the river. There’s not a lot of vertical challenge, but we did all 3 paths so we covered some good distance.

There was one place in particular that involved scaling a rock face on a diagonal fault.  It wasn’t too difficult, but it was the toughest part of the hike by far.  The fault wasn’t wide enough for people to pass, and when we got to the bottom, there was a large group descending from the top so we had to wait.  The last lady in the group, a middle-aged  Cuban woman provided one of the more memorable quotes of the summer.  In a thick Cuban accent: “Ooh, if my mother could see me now, she’d say look at that Cuban billy goat!”

As days go, July 21 was pretty action-packed.  We woke up bright and early to drive up to Ohiopyle to conquer the Lower Yough River.  Then, after hurrying home, we got dressed up and drove down to The Kennedy Center – DC’s premier theater of the arts – to catch The Phantom of the Opera.

The evening was put together by the USC Club of the Nation’s Capitol largely because a Trojan Alum named Kyle Barisich was in the show and able to hook us up with House Seats and a backstage tour.  Kyle was in the ensemble, and was the understudy for the leading role of Raoul who sings “All I Ask of You.”

Our seats were amazing.  We were front and center about 7-10 rows back (not too close which strained the neck, but close enough to see details in costumes).  Those were the best theater seats either of us have ever had.  The show, of course, was fantastic.  The amazing thing about Phantom is that it’s staging and effects have not changed since 1986, and yet the story is still powerful and the music is beautiful.

After the curtain fell, the USC group met up with Kyle and he escorted us backstage where we got to see the show behind the scenes.  Of particular interest to us were the costumes – the dresses that Christine Daaé wore were more detailed than it was even possible to see from the audience – the wigs and the props.  We got to get up close and personal with the chandelier, as well as some of the props from the underground river scene.

It was really a night to remember.  Fight on!

While my ankle hurt like hell in the days after it sprained it, it actually healed really quickly. It was pretty sore when, about a week later, we conquered the Lower Yough River in an unguided rental raft. Well sort of unguided, as in we didn’t have the pro in the boat steering us and telling us when to row forward and when to “take a break.” We did have some help from our friend Adam the river genius who guided us from his kayak.

A little background on whitewater rafting. Back in ’06 a lot of us went on a USC Alumni “whitewater” rafting trip that turned out to be more of a “okay, now push the boat off the bottom ’cause we’re stuck again” trip. We were all pretty disappointed, so when Adam asked us if we wanted to do the Lower Yough we eagerly agreed.

Judging from the warning signs in the image, you can tell that the Lower Yough has some risky rapids. They made us watch a safety video before we could put in and they used the word “drown” a lot. In reality, the number of fatalities was pretty inflated since it covered over 20 years and included people who had heart attacks and other non-drowning related problems but died because they weren’t at a hospital. Per-capita, it’s probably a lot safer than living in Baltimore or South Eastern DC, but the point was to respect the river and we did.

So it was four of us in the raft and Adam in the kayak. We knew what was coming since we’d seen the river maps (which included specific lines for each rapid) – and in particular the infamous Dimple Rapid invoked some fear. Put in was just a few hundred yards downstream from Great Falls which is off limits except when there is an ambulance on standby. Of course, Adam goes back when the ambulance is there.

The water level was controlled by a reservoir upstream; they release more water on the weekends for the whitewater activity.  The trick is, the water from the reservoir comes from the bottom of the lake, meaning it’s the cold water left over from winter that been as far away from sunlight as possible.  The water was a cold 50 degrees, but the weather was warm enough to compensate as long as you didn’t spend too much time in the water.

We were certainly not ready to take on the falls, but we were going to tackle some some Class IVs. Just to make life interesting many of the tougher rapids were at the beginning of the trip. Understand that the guide who sits in the back of the boat and tells you when to paddle and steers the boat is very, very helpful. When you’ve got four newbies who don’t really know how to work together to steer a boat, things can get interesting fast.

The first big rapid was Cucumber, which was also where the third-party photographer was camped to catch any spillage that she could find. While we didn’t flip – somehow – we did do the rapid backwards while the raft willed with water (we had to beach it to empty it out when we were done) and all four of the pilots got bumped into the middle of the raft and rode it out holding on for dear life.

We did a couple of rapids like that, and then there was a nice 3 mile rest before the infamous Dimple Rapid. Katie was particularly worried about this one, and so we put out, walked up and looked at the rapid so we’d know the line we needed. Fully briefed, we got ourselves into position and, operating on adrenaline we hit the line perfectly. No carnage.

After that, we were a well oiled machine – sort of. We got our butt’s handed to us on River-s End, which had a pretty tough horizontal shift with a famous rock called “snaggletooth” if you didn’t get horizontal enough. We got hung up on snaggletooth, almost flipped and started taking on a lot of water. There were a lot of people watching and in between laughing at us, someone suggested that we bounce up and down to get ourselves off of the rock. It worked.

Later on, we got a delicious dinner at an Ohiopyle restaurant. The waitress was really nice, and for some reason, she had some crazy power over me which forced me to buy whatever she recommended (including a gigantic carrot cake which is weird since I don’t really like carrot cake). Afterward, we stopped by the photography store, and spent way too much for two shots of us doing terribly on Cucumber. Some sweet talking got me the actual digital files on a CD.

It was to be a busy day. Mrs. Link and I hurried home, changed into some formal gear and headed off to the The Kennedy Center to catch a little play. More on that later.

We had some drinking fun in 2007 too.  Both ended with Mr. Link in pain.

The first big one was a relaxing tube float in the Shenandoah Valley.  My friend Abby did most of the organizing for this one and she did a great job. At 9 am, we boarded a chartered bus (a Keg Bus) with coolers and more beer than we really needed.  I was joined by some people from my new office and we had a nice collection of Bud Light and PBR.  We started drinking at 9 and we were pretty rambunctious right away.  Once we got on the river, things were pretty nice.

The only problem was that the water was cool and as a result I didn’t feel the heat of the sun on my unprotected gringo flesh.  As I got more burned, I drank more beer canceling out any ability to register what was happening to me.  It wasn’t until that night that the pain of one of the worst sunburns I ever had began to sink in.  I was in bad shape for a week after that.

A few weeks later, we headed up to Baltimore for a “drinking team party” with some of Mrs. Link’s MD/PhD friends.  They live in a little street way off the hidden beat that we call Narnia because of the fact that the surrounding area is urban hell but their tiny cobblestone street is a quite suburban.  Chris, Mrs. Link and I decided to rock the party in our Trojans gear.  It was a really fun night, but at the very end I got hurt again.  The back yard has a raised garden terrace – a good 2 feet above the lower walkway level.  I missed the down-step and landed on my ankle really hard.  Next day, it was all swollen and I just knew it was broken (which really sucked since Granite Peak was six weeks away).  We went to the hospital got it x-rayed.  Turned out it was just a bad sprain; I got crutches and an ankle brace.

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For our 1-year anniversary, we didn’t get the top of our wedding cake (some mixup at the bakery I guess) but we did get to spend a day in Miami. We flew down the day before, and flew back the day after, but for one glorious and rainy day we had North Beach all to ourselves in our white Mustang convertible. Tiffany got to do some shopping and bought a few dresses including one of my favorites.

We had such a great time climbing Old Rag the last time that we decided to do it again – and this time we invited a lot more people and camped in Shanandoah the night before. So we picked a campsite that had quiet hours beginning at 10 pm. Our group required 3 separate sites, but we all congregated at one site for a delicious dinner of steaks, hot dogs, s’mores and an entire platter of vegie shiskabobs. We also had a little beer – not a lot – maybe 1 or 2 each.

So we were all sitting there having a good time – and yes, there were a lot of us and we were not quiet as mice – when at 10:05 a Park Ranger stopped by and told us that we had to be quiet or he’d call the police. So we tried to be quiet and within 25 minutes – a mere 30 minutes after quiet hours – we had put out the fire and everyone had returned to their tents.

Mrs. Link and myself were actually in our sleeping bags when a flashlight beam lit us up and a command followed to get out of the tent. We were surrounded by no less than 10 of Virginia’s finest – who we’d later discover had been called right at 10 o’clock expecting us to be a problem. What made this funny is that they pulled us out of our tents where we were going to sleep to tell us that we were causing problems – and to emphasize it they shined their powerful flashlights into campsites all around us to demonstrate that there were people what were being disturbed.

They asked for our IDs and checked us for warrants or outstanding parking tickets or anything they could make stick. They made Mrs. Link crawl on her hands and knees pick up a little bits of charred marsh mallow that had fallen around the former fire. Ultimately, since we’d done nothing wrong, they had to let us go.

The next day, we learned that one of the other two sites had been raided too, and that upon seeing a lighter (“Why do you have this?” “Hello? Camping!”) they assumed that we must have been doing drugs. And so, with permission from our friend Ben they proceeded to search the campsite for contraband. Of course since they were dealing with Johns Hopkins med students and some responsible young people their efforts were in vain.

The next day, after the police left without so much as a ticket written (like I said, we didn’t do anything wrong) a Park Ranger came by to tell us that while they normally welcome people back, she wouldn’t mind if we never returned.

And all of that because we went 30 minutes past quiet hours in a site we picked because it was on the very edge of the grounds and far from almost everyone.

The next day, we hiked Old Rag again and it was just as fun as I remembered. As a testament to the training program for Granite Peak, Chris, Trisha, Mrs. Link and I actually ran the last 1-2 miles (which are on a country access dirt road). Mrs. Link and I were tied neck and neck racing toward the end. There was a creak with a bridge over it and Mrs. Link made the fatal mistake of using the bridge while I just trudged through the stream. The shortcut created a deficit that could not be overcome and I won in the final minute by a hair. Not that anyone is keeping track.

I am sure that many of your are concerned about me considering recent menu developments.  Your concern is not only appreciated but it is well-founded.

Eating in the House cafeteria is now a bit like sitting through a pretentious lecture from a boss whose job you could do better than she does – complete with full color flat-screen electricity-run monitors telling you just how good that utensil that doesn’t quite work is for the Planet.

While the food may taste more like tofu (i.e. less like food), at least I have the comfort of knowing that it’s also more expensive.

And while you’d expect to see the private restaurants around here high-fiving each other the new “fair trade” approach seems likely to impose a tarriff on foods imported to the office from outside sources – including sack lunches.

Pray for me – while it’s still legal!

So back in 2006, Mrs. Link and I invested in a tent and some sleeping bags for a nice little camping-fishing trip. The idea was to re-discover Mr. Link’s great outdoors roots while introducing Mrs. Link to an activity that she had never actually done.

As 2007 rolled around, and plans began to solidify for a grande summit of Granite Peak a training regime sprung into action. It began on April 1 with a gentle running program. By May 5 – Cinco de Mayo – it was time for our first climb, and ye Old Rag Mountain seemed to fit the bill.

Old Rag Mountain in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia rests separate from the Appalachian range. 2-3 miles up, 7 miles round trip, it doesn’t tower over the surrounding landscape, but it does have some vertical. But what makes Old Rag memorable and fun are the rock scrambles during the last mile of summit. And what added to the fun of the rock scrambles was the fact that it began to rain in earnest as soon as our group got to the first scramble and continued raining for more or less the rest of the day.

Old Rag was a memorable climb – and when we were all done, we went out to wish Ali safe travels as she was leaving DC to further her education in Colorado.

A few weeks later, we made use of the tents and sleeping bags again, heading off for a weekend camping trip in the panhandle of Maryland. This was a camping-only destination and as you may have guessed, it rained a significant portion of the time.

Our first two bouts with the Great Outdoors got rained on.

I thought I’d posted out our trip to Rome last year. It was a Valentine’s Day surprise for Mrs. Link – I told her to pack for a road trip that was going to last for 3 days and that it might be cold. The road trip was actually to Dulles where we hopped a jet to Rome via Paris.

It was a whirlwind tour, and we did just about everything there was to do except rest. Food was great, sites were impressive and the surprise was executed perfectly. She didn’t even have a clue until we pulled into the long-term parking at the airport.

You can see the full gallery here.

The pages from the Yearbook are below:

That last page includes a group shot from a March 24 Paintball outing in Leesburg, VA. This was our second time out there – this time with a number of my Heritage Foundation co-workers, a few former Burns staffers and some random friends from around DC. Both times it was humid and wet – not ideal conditions for wearing a mask and goggles.

I was an editor of my high school yearbook way back in 1998, and I had a blast doing it.  Yeah, I was a yearbook nerd – the one  that took more pictures than anyone else which was a pretty good precursor to my future overindulgence of photography.  Oh that I could employ some of my new-found skills in photography and photo-editing for a high school yearbook it would be quite extraordinary.

In any case, 2007 was a pretty incredible year – one to rival 2006 which is saying something.

In the interest of preserving some memories, I put together a yearbook for 2007.  You can view it here.  I’ll also post the pages in hi-res over the next few days.

Let’s start with the front and back covers with the first and last pages:

Front cover and title page

Last page and Back Cover

As always, click on the images to see viewing options including full-size.  Be aware that the full-size images run around 3mb.