Well, we're at the point in the tour where we're following signs that say "East," but we still have a ton of shows left to play before we return home. We had a GREAT time at Mountain Sage last Saturday. We were excited to have the chance to share the stage with Blue Turtle Seduction from Tahoe and play for some rowdy Yosemite-ites. (We'll have some photos posted soon. . .) It was wonderful to see some return folks from last summer's excursion, have some delicious hearty food (thanks again!) and get pointers on where to spend our Sunday in Yosemite. One of the places was this beautiful mountain lake-Chris enjoyed a stroll along the beach at about 6000 ft. above sea level.
We started the drive towards Salt Lake yesterday and passed this seemingly Star Wars themed exit in Nevada. . .
We just got some pictures from our Hutington Beach show a few weeks ago--thanks to Erik for sending these along!

We started heading up the California coast for Oregon last Saturday and got to make a quick stop at the ocean, which was freezing.

We heeded the warning and made sure to stay the hell away from the huge icy waves.
After our show and house party in Arcata (where it's just as chilly and foggy as San Francisco) we headed inland a bit to the Redwoods National Park. We stopped off at Corkscrew Tree
and got inside.
After spending some time feeling really tiny, we floored it up to Crater Lake National Park, which we definitely wanted to experience on one of our days off. Crater Lake is so high up that it's just now springtime and the snow is still melting. We took some time for a quick snowball fight. . .

Then there was this bear who has the weirdest fetish....
Alright, it has become a damn vaca slideshow. New pics and video from shows coming next time, promise!

We crossed into California last Thursday after lots of driving, little sleep, and much heat. That night we played at the Blue Cafe in Huntington Beach, CA and were coincidentally paired with Brown Shoe, a band from Folsom, CA that we played with in Chicago on our last tour. . .crazy. . .Friday we played a show at the Good Hurt in LA (where all the wait staff dresses in short nurse-maid outfits) with our old friends and their new band, Pet the Dog. After much catching up, partying, and general mischief, we headed out of the city to Redlands on Saturday. Playing at the Vault was as much fun as we remember it being last time we were in Oso Rey country. The crowd was super-enthusiastic and danced all though our sets. We had a blast having Spiro (the one, the only Spiro) up for some tunes.
Monday we left for points North and headed up California Rt. 1, ocean-style. We passed through many beautiful and interesting towns, including the artichoke capitol of the world. Note the large artichoke feature of this building:
We hit Hayward, CA on the way into the city to play at the Bistro, the best beer selection in the most, um, "up and coming" area we've hit yet. Once we hit San Francisco on Wednesday, we made a point to drive through Chinatown on our way to the venue, Grant and Green, which, ironically, was located at the intersection of Grant and Green right outside Chinatown. We had a great show with some more old friends playing under the name Otto Mobile.
Yesterday we went on a hike around Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve in the hills outside of Oakland. We stumbled upon this really interesting labyrinth in the bottom of an old quarry.
Once we got back from our hike, we crossed the Bay into San Francisco to play an in-store performance at the Apple Store. It was really humbling to play the same stage the the Counting Crowes have played on and it was great to reach a whole new group of people with our music. We found this picture online with a caption that read "Musica en directo en la Apple Store de San Francisco. The StereoFidelics, me estan gustando mucho y son muuuy buenos. Macs y musica en directo igual a EPIC WIN" (thanks so much for the kind words and for taking/posting this shot!!) We had great sound and really enjoyed meeting and chatting with everyone after we played.
On to points north!

We spent our two days off relaxing in Mesa Verde National Park and looking at some really old buildings.
The view off the mesa was absolutely stunning as well.
Today we headed down to Durango a little early to walk around and see the downtown . When we were loading in, this guy was taking a break from things and relaxing on a bench. Chris found this very amusing.
We had a great show this evening at the Summit in Durango. We played with Aftergrass (actually, we played after Aftergrass) and in the middle of our first set, Will from Hendersonville, NC showed up out of the blue. It was a total suprise for everyone involved!
We took some time to catch up a bit after the show was over, and then packed up and hopped in the car to start the trek to Huntington Beach, CA tonight. . .

We got to Colorado on Wednesday and hurried into Boulder for our show at Pearl Street Pub. After seven hours of driving, our three and a half hour show went by so quickly! We reconnected with an old friend I hadn't seen in about six years and got all caught up at set break (he's now playing banjo with members of String Cheese Incident). At the end of our show, we caught wind that Vince Herman from Leftover Salmon was in attendance that night--a pretty exciting way to start our string of Colorado shows!
On Thursday we made the trek into the mountains to Jamestown, where the London Broil Steak Dinner was fantastic. We enjoyed visiting with the Jamestown folks again and always love playing for such an enthusiastic, genuine audience.
We had a great time on Friday in Nederland, CO at the First Street Pub with our friends Longest Day of the Year. Keep an eye out for video from that show as soon as we get it uploaded. . .

We were busy on the 4th of July, first we joined Longest Day of the Year at their show at the Boulder Farmer's Market (which is actually more like a bi-weekly street festival), then we played some on Pearl Street, and in the evening we played our show at the Laughing Goat. We were thrilled that folks decided to spend their 4th of July evening with us!

Yesterday we headed down to Conifer, CO to record a little bit at Sole Sound Recording Studios; we'll be finishing that little project the beginning of August and then. . .hmmm keep an ear out this fall (that's all we're at liberty to say right now). . .

This morning we crossed the Continental Divide and stopped at a great overlook to cool the brakes down. We've got our first day off today and tomorrow, so we'll be relaxing and enjoying the area for a

We finally got the video online. Please excuse the poor visual quality; we promise to learn how to use our camera better in the future. In the meantime, please enjoy our gas-station-surveillance-style record of part of our show at Kirby's.
Now that all that's done, we're headed out to enjoy the mountains this afternoon. . .

So since you all in blog-land have waited so long for an update from us all at the StereoFidelics camp, we're going to not only post some fun road pictures and show pictures, but also a video. That's right--we have both still pictures and moving pictures!

On Saturday we were in the Lake of the Ozarks, MO braving the oppressive heat to play at Donna's. We love going back there every time we drive through and it's always a surprise to see what we're paired with. Saturday it was pork tenderloin, as you can see. . .delicious and fun. . .
On Sunday and Monday we played both Jerry's Bait Shops in the greater KC area. The pizza at the Lee's Summit location is AMAZING and playing both nights with the Lonely H and the Stolen Winnebagos was on par with the pizza. . .

Last night we returned to Kirby's Beer Store in Wichita and had a blast. Yesterday was exactly one year since the first time we played there. Weird. The crowd at Kirby's is always so enthusiastic and rowdy, even on a Tuesday night--we're excited to be getting back to Kirby's in almost a month on the Eastward bound leg of our summer tour.
Today we drove through Hays, KS on our way west. I was very suprised to see that the official name of the shopping mall in Hays was "The Mall." I guess there's only one shopping mall in Hays.
We always keep a lookout for interesting and strange signs, sights, and smells, and since we found the camera a few days ago, we were able to snap a shot of this thought-provoking truck cab. Hmmmm. . .