St. Nicolas Party - Mikulasska party (12-8-2007)

In the Czech republic St. Nicolas comes 6th of December and brings sweets and small present to all children. Even though we are in Bay area far away from the Czech republic, St. Nicolas still came to visit czech and slovak children! My friend Petra dressed up as St. Nicolas, one of dads changed into devil and I put on angel costum.
PHOTOS

V Cechach prichazi Mikulas 6 prosince a prinasi detem sladkosti a male darky. I kdyz tady v Kalifornii jsme daleko od Cech, Mikulas si stejne vzpomnel na Ceske a Slovenske deti. Kamaradka Petra se prevlekla za Mikulase, jeden z tatinku vzal na sebe podobu certa a ja jsem se mela kostym angela.
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Farewell Party for Petr and Eva - Rozluckova Party pro Petra a Evu (11 - 9 -07)

On Friday we had a farewell party for Petr and Eva. Petr is leaving on Thursday to go back to Czech Republic, Eva is moving south close to LA to start University in January. The party was great, many people came, unfortunatelly among them one or more thieves, who took my wallet, Katka's camera and maybe more.
PHOTOS
V patek jsem meli rozluckovou party pro Petra a Evu. Petr odjizdi ve ctvrtek zpet do Cech. Eva se stehuje ja jih k LA a v lednu zacina studovat na univerzite. Party byla super, prislo hodne lidi, bohuzel mezi nimi i jeden nebo vice zlodeju, kteri ukradli moji penezenku, Katcin fotak a kdo vi, co jeste.
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Sequoia NP - The Lakes Trail (11/3 - 11/4 - 07)

I love backpacking trips in the Sierra Nevada mountains, so even quite cold weather couldn't stop me organizing a trip to Sequoia national park. Our group of 7 people - Efik, Petr, Miro, Igor, David, Jeff (the only non-Czech speaker) and I left about 10 pm on Friday and somehow (mainly thanks to David's driving and to getting lost a few times... without coment :-)) we arrived at 3 am. We quickly put up our three tents on one site, which I found out the next morning was not really camping site at all, but the ranger that arrieved was nice and spared us the fine.
In the morning we sorted out our backpacks, got our permits and at around noon departed for our adventure. The trail to the Pear lake was 6.2 miles long, passing three other lakes, and had one "nice but a little bit dangerous" section. This part is called the Watchtower and it is closed during winter. The reason is that the path is quite narrow just next to the cliff to the valley and when covered with snow it can be really slippery. With a lot of small stops mainly for taking pictures, we arrived at our destination - Pear Lake - at 6 pm. The Pear Lake trail is one of the most popular backpacking destinations, but probably thanks the cold weather in November, we found only one other group there - and no big suprise that they were from Czech republic too! We made a quick dinner, Petr washed himself in the lake and at about 8.30 we went to sleep. The night wasn't so cold, the wind brought some clouds, so we had a good night's sleep. In the morning two more crazy guys went for a swim in the lake - Jeff and David and of course again Petr. The lake and the surrounding mountains it were so beautiful we decided to climb little bit above the lake and enjoy the beautiful views. On the way back we stopped at Heather Lake for lunch and we arrived back at about 5 - 6 pm. This weekend the time changed so we gained an extra hour! Before we left the park we stopped at The General Sherman Tree - the largest (by volume) tree in the world. Our last adventure was our gas situation - there weren't any gas stations inside the park and our tank indicated that we were almost empty... we made it to the gas station just 7 km before out gas ran out. Dinner at Denny's was our last stop and we arrived home around midnight!
PHOTOS
Zamilovala jsem se do vyletu v horach Sierra Nevada a tak i pomerne chladne pocasi me neodradilo od usporadani vyletu do narodniho partku Sequoia. Jelo nas 7 - Efik, Petr, Miro, Igor, David, Jeff (ten jedinny nemluvici cesky) a ja. Vyrazili jsme v patek asi v 10 vecer a najakym zpusobem (hlavne diky Davidovym skvelym ridicskym umenim a umenim se ztratit.... bez komentare :-)) jsme dorazili asi ve 3 rano. Rychle jsme postavili tri stany na miste, ktere jak jsem rano zjistila bylo opatreno zakazem kempovani, ale nastesti spravce parku ktery rano prijel byl hodny a neudelil nam zadnou pokutu.
Rano jsme preorganizovali batohy, vzali si povoleni ke stanovani v prirode a kolem poledne jsem vyrazili na nase dobrodruzstvi. Tura k Pear Lake byla 6.2 mile dlouha, prochazela kolem dalsich tri jezer a vedla take jednim trochu nebezpecnim mistem i kdyz s nadhernymi vyhledy. Tato cast se jmenuje Watchtower a je uzavrena v zime. Duvodem je, ze cesta v tomto useku je uzka a hned vedle srazu do udoli a pokryta snehem muze byt skutecne hodne kluzka. S mnoha malymi zastavkami na foceni, jsme dorazili k jezeru Pear kolem 6 vecer. Toto jezero je jedno s nejoblibenejsich mist v parku, ale asi diky listopadove zime jsme potkali jen jednu skupinku u jezera - a jake to bylo prekvapeni, kdyz jsme zjistili, ze to byli taky Cesi! Rychle jsme udelali veceri, Petr se sel umyt do jezera a kolem 8.30 jsme sli spat. V noci nebyla moc velka zima, vitr pritahl mraky a tak jsem se pomerne dobre vyspali. Rano se dalsi dva blazni rozhodli pro koupel - Jeff a David a samozrejme Petr. Jezero bylo obklopene nadhernymi skalami a tak jsme se rozhodlli ze se pokusime vylezt jeste o neco vyse a pokochame se nadhernou krajinou. Na ceste zpatky jsme poobedvali u Heather Lake a zpet u auta jsme byli mezi 5 a 6 hodinou. Tento vikend se menil cas a tak jsme ziskali hodinu navic! Nez jsme odjeli z parku tak jsme se jeste zastavili u stromu General Sherman, ktery je nejvetsim stromem na svete co se tyce objemu. Nase posledni dobrodruzstvi byla situace s nedostatkem benzinu - v parku nebyly benzinky a kontrolka ukazovala, ze nadrz je temer prazdna... zvladli jsme to ale na benzinku kdyz nam zbyvalo benzinu uz jen na 7 dalsich km. Veceri u Denny's jsem nas vylet ukoncili a domu jsme prijeli asi kolem pulnoci.
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Halloween Run (10-27-07)

I won the women's first place in a 5Km run !!! I have to admit it wasn't a big race, but still I feel good about it! Of course it helped that for first place there was a $25 prize. And since I had only about 5 hours sleep the night before (late from Halloween party) I think it is quite a good achievement. My time was about 25 minutes!
PHOTOS
Vyhrala jsem prvni misto v behu na 5 km v zenach!!! Musim sice uznat, ze to nebyl velky zavod, ale i tak mam z toho radost! Samozrejme me povzbuzovalo vedomi, ze prvni dostane $25. A kdyz k tomu pripoctu, ze jsem mela za sebou jen asi 5 hodin spanku (pozdni navrat z Halloweenske party), tak si myslim, ze je to docela dobry vysledek! Muj cas byl asi 25 minut.
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Halloween Party (10-26-07)

Unfortunately Subby is not throwing his annual Halloween party this year, so I had to find a replacement! Luckily Ryan and Jeff organized a great Halloween party instead! So enjoy the photos!
PHOTOS
Bohuzel tento rok Subby neorganizuje jeho kazdorocni halloweenskou party, a tak jsem si musela najit nahradu. Nastesti Ryan a Jeff zorganizovali uzasnou halloweenskou party taky! Uzijte si fotky!
FOTKY

Olympic 10-24-07

Wednesday night was a special occaision! The famous Czech band Olympic was on tour in the US, and their last concert was in Santa Clara! We heard many songs - from their oldest favorite to ones from their new album.
PHOTOS

Ve stredu vecer jsme tady meli vzacnou navstevu! Olympic byl na turne po USA a zakoncovali v Santa Clare. Super koncert - pisnicky od tech nejstarsich az po uplne nove!
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Monterey Bay (10-21-07)

Our day started really early - we left about at 6 am for Marina near Monterey (about a 1 hour drive) because there was the grand opening of a new REI store. I found out that first 200 people get a free water bottle with a gift card ranging from $5 to $100. We arrived at about 7.30 and nobody was there. It was little bit chilly, so we stayed in the car, but when at about 8 am other people appeared, we took our chairs and positioned ourselves in front of the entrance. The store opened at 11 am, so we had to wait about 3 hours! In the end it wasn't so bad. We got into a discussion with one man who we thought was the child of some Czech immigrants, but then we found out he was "just" an American who lived in the Czech Republic for 3 years and he spoke very good Czech! While we were waiting we got lessons in using a compass, a free cap, and quite a nice breakfast - tea, coffee, juice, banana and muffins. At 11 am we got our free water bottle, all of us with a $5 gift card, except for Tublu who got $25! The store wasn't very big and it didn't have any sales, so we left and went to the 17 mile Drive which is a private drive with several famout golf courses. It has many beautiful views of the ocean. Our next stop after this drive was Monterey Aquarium - we had two guest cards which we actually managed to use for 4 of us (Petra wanted to study, so she didn't go). We did a quick tour around the Aquarium, and saw the main exhibits. This was our last stop - we were pretty exhausted after such a long day with so early a start, so we left for home. Unfortunately I was driving otherwise I would have followed the example of the rest of the car and slept practically the whole way home!
PHOTOS

Nas den zacal velice brzy - vyrazili jsme kolem 6 rano do mesta Marina, pobliz Monterey (asi pres hodinu cesty), protoze tam bylo slavnostni oterverni obchodu REI. Me se podarilo zjistit, ze prvnim 200 lidem daji zdarma lahev na vodu a poukazku od 5 do 100 dolaru. Na misto jsme dorazili asi v 7.30 a byli jsme prvni. Bylo pomerne zima a tak jsme zustali v aute, ale kdyz se v 8 hodin objevili dalsi lide, tak jsem si vzali nase zidlicky a usidlili se pred vchodem. Obchod oteviral v 11 hodin a tak jsme meli pred sebou 3 hodiny cekani. Nakonec to nebylo tak stane! Seznamili jsme se s jednim Americanem, o kterem jsme si nejdrive mysleli, ze je to potomek ceskych imigrantu, ale pak jsme zjistili, ze je to pravy American, ktery mluvil velice dobrou cestinou, a ktery zil 3 roky v Cechach. Behem cekani jsme dostali lekci v zachazeni s kompasem, cepici a docela dobrou snidani - caj, kavu, dzus, banan a muffin. V 11 hodin jsme dostali zminovanou lahev zdarma a poukazku - vsichni 5 dolaru, krome Tublu, ktery dostal 25! Obchod nebyl zrovna nejvetsi a hlavne tam nebyli zadne slevy, tak jsme se brzy vydali na 17 milovou cestu, coz je soukroma cesta s golfovym hristem. Je plna take nadhernych vyhledu na ocean. Nase dalsi zastavka byla v Aquariu v Monterey - mela jsem od rodiny dve karticky na vstup zdarma, ale s ceskym myslenim jsme prosli vsichni ctyri! (Petra nesla, ucila se). Rychle jsem si prohledli aquarium, ale videli hlavni atrakce. To byla nase posledni zastavka - byli jsem pekne unaveni po takovem dlouhem dni s takovym brzkym vstavanim, a tak jsem jeli domu. Bohuzel jsem ridila, jinak bych asi taky usnula jak vsichni ostatni v aute!

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