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| Bonk Sonograms |
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Team Norris is expanding!
I don't mean around the waistline, but that IS happening to one of us. If you guessed that it is me (Josh), you would be wrong. Yep, its Molly that is expanding... but the expansion that I am referring to is *personnel* and not size! Yep, that's right, we're having a baby.
(Sorry if you have read this already via facebook... my Facebook automatically imports blog posts. See: http://teamnorris.blogspot.com if you are reading via facebook)
(Sorry if you have read this already via facebook... my Facebook automatically imports blog posts. See: http://teamnorris.blogspot.com if you are reading via facebook)
So, the quick and the dirty:
- Yep, this is totally a planned pregnancy
- Molly has no symptoms whatsoever
- Currently about 15 weeks along
- The due date is May 25th, 2010
- We don't know the gender yet
- We're calling the baby Bonk for now
- We are both very excited
- The grandmothers-to-be are VERY, VERY, VERY excited
- Molly is *just* starting to show
We have some pictures of the baby (sonograms, of course) and a copy of the movie that we sent out to the family for Thanksgiving to announce the baby. Check it out here:
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| Bonk Sonograms |
Friday, September 18, 2009
Happy "Talk like a Pirate" day!
For all of you fellow Pastafarians out there, I hope that this holy day is a great one for you, too!
ARRRG!
ARRRG!
Monday, September 14, 2009
South Sister Summit
Well, we summitted the South Sister, the third highest peak in Oregon. This leaves Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Hood as second and first respectively for us to summit. However, after South Sister, I'm not sure I'll be summitting anything tall again for awhile.
Its not that I'm sore... well, I am a little bit. It's more the fact that it takes 11 hours to do. At about hour 8 (an hour after you begin the descent) your feet begin to throb. And it just gets worse and worse and worse until you are about to break down and cry like a little girl. Luckily none of that happened... but I began to have my doubts at about 10.5 hours into the hike. When we finally saw the parking lot a wave of relief came over me, but it didn't stop my feet from hurting.
Anyway, as far as the trip goes: Molly and I, Josh and Lindsey drove down to Bend on Friday evening and stayed in a Yurt... which is a very fancy tent. It has electricity and beds. We went to bed early and got up the next morning at 6AM. We started the hike at 8AM.
The mountain is 10,358 ft tall and the trail gains 4900 ft elevation in 5.5 miles.
Lindsey is around 6 months pregnant, but was determined to get Globby (their pre-birth name for the glob of cells growing in her uterus) up his first summit. She is a freaking trooper! We went nice and slow to keep her heart rate at or below 140 beats per minute. We stopped a bunch, drank a lot of water, and all-in-all took it nice and easy. Having said that, however, I wouldn't have wanted to go much faster, because it is a very tough hike.
We summitted at about 2:30-3pm (forgot to look at the watch). We stayed up there for about 30 minutes then started back down. We got back to the car at just before 7pm.
I am SOOOO sun burnt. I used plenty of sunscreen, but missed the spots on the back of my knees. If you've ever been burned there, you understand my pain. If not, trust me, it HURTS every step you take.
For dinner after the hike we went to Red Robin where I ate a burger, fries and had my obligatory Birthday Beer. I was so tired I felt that I would pass out at the table before I finished the beer, though.
We got back to the yurt at around 9 PM.. took a shower at the campground (very, very HOT) then I climbed into bed. I feel almost instantly asleep.
The next morning we got up at 7AM ate breakfast in Bend, and headed back to Portland. For my Birthday, Lindsey and Josh had bought Molly and I (and themselves) tickets to see Patton Oswalt in Portland. The show was fantastic, but we had seen about half the material before. Some of the funniest stuff we saw was the stuff he made up on the spot. Look out for KFC's "Double Down" sandwhich. I'm going to get one ASAP.
Anyway, all in all a FANTASTIC trip. I just won't ever do a tough hike for my B-day ever again.
Enjoy the pictures!
Its not that I'm sore... well, I am a little bit. It's more the fact that it takes 11 hours to do. At about hour 8 (an hour after you begin the descent) your feet begin to throb. And it just gets worse and worse and worse until you are about to break down and cry like a little girl. Luckily none of that happened... but I began to have my doubts at about 10.5 hours into the hike. When we finally saw the parking lot a wave of relief came over me, but it didn't stop my feet from hurting.
Anyway, as far as the trip goes: Molly and I, Josh and Lindsey drove down to Bend on Friday evening and stayed in a Yurt... which is a very fancy tent. It has electricity and beds. We went to bed early and got up the next morning at 6AM. We started the hike at 8AM.
The mountain is 10,358 ft tall and the trail gains 4900 ft elevation in 5.5 miles.
Lindsey is around 6 months pregnant, but was determined to get Globby (their pre-birth name for the glob of cells growing in her uterus) up his first summit. She is a freaking trooper! We went nice and slow to keep her heart rate at or below 140 beats per minute. We stopped a bunch, drank a lot of water, and all-in-all took it nice and easy. Having said that, however, I wouldn't have wanted to go much faster, because it is a very tough hike.
We summitted at about 2:30-3pm (forgot to look at the watch). We stayed up there for about 30 minutes then started back down. We got back to the car at just before 7pm.
I am SOOOO sun burnt. I used plenty of sunscreen, but missed the spots on the back of my knees. If you've ever been burned there, you understand my pain. If not, trust me, it HURTS every step you take.
For dinner after the hike we went to Red Robin where I ate a burger, fries and had my obligatory Birthday Beer. I was so tired I felt that I would pass out at the table before I finished the beer, though.
We got back to the yurt at around 9 PM.. took a shower at the campground (very, very HOT) then I climbed into bed. I feel almost instantly asleep.
The next morning we got up at 7AM ate breakfast in Bend, and headed back to Portland. For my Birthday, Lindsey and Josh had bought Molly and I (and themselves) tickets to see Patton Oswalt in Portland. The show was fantastic, but we had seen about half the material before. Some of the funniest stuff we saw was the stuff he made up on the spot. Look out for KFC's "Double Down" sandwhich. I'm going to get one ASAP.
Anyway, all in all a FANTASTIC trip. I just won't ever do a tough hike for my B-day ever again.
Enjoy the pictures!
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| South Sister - 2009 |
Hummingbird in my yard!
Just caught some pics of the little guy enjoying our Birds of Paradise flowers early in the morning (which is why the color is a little funny).
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| Hummingbird |
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Oregon Dunes, 2009
A few weeks ago, Molly, me, Josh Y. and Lindsey all went to the Oregon Dunes. These are located on the southern-middle coast of Oregon. Most of the Oregon coast is very rocky, and doesn't have much sand. This particular area has a lot of sand, and it blows inland creating very large dunes. Needless to say, this is a very unusual sight admist groves of large pine trees.
Molly and I drove down on a Thursday evening and set up camp. It was very dark when we arrived and had to leave the car lights on to set up the tent. Unfortunately we did not remember to leave the car running as we did this, and after about 10 minutes with the high-beams on, the car battery went dead. Luckily we had the tent up at that point, so we called Lindsey and Josh and ask them to grab some jumper cables before they left to join us the next morning.
Our campsite was literally a 3 minute walk from the dunes. We had some foresight and had packed a bottle of cheap champagne. We grabbed it and a beach blanket and headed to the dunes. We climbed to the top of the nearest large one, popped the cork and enjoyed the moon and stars with the salty smell of the ocean. Once the clouds started to roll in and the champagne bottle was empty, we headed back to camp and went to bed.
The next morning we were greeted to rain.... lots of it. We had expected to get up and explore the dunes for awhile while waiting for Team Yellison to arrive... but with the rain and our dead car we were pretty much stuck. We ate breakfast in the car and prepared for a long wait, as we didn't expect them until about 1pm (it was 9AM). After awhile I remembered that I have a AAA premier membership that I have been paying dues on for like 5 years and haven't ever used. I gave them a call and within 2 hours we had our car jumpstarted. Nearly 10 minutes later, Josh and Linsdey called and told us that they were about 20 minutes away. We drove to meet them and pondered what to do with our day. We eventually decided that lunch and a Movie were in order, and found a nice place in North Bend that had excellent milkshakes and fries. Afterward we saw Julie and Julia, a good, yet forgettable movie. By this time the rain had cleared up, so we headed back to camp to play in the dunes for a little while, play Farkle and get dinner started. We had a second bottle of Champagne, so we did the dune-moon-wine thing a second night.
The next morning was beautiful. We got up early to go visit the Sea Lion caves north of Florence, OR. This is apparently the largest coastal cave by some metric (in Oregon... in the US, in the World... in private ownership? who knows). It is famous because it is generally full of very stinky and loud sea lions. At this time there were none there, so we decided not to spend the $12 to see no sea lions. We, instead, went to a local lighthouse with great views... and a boring tour. There was an older lady and her daughter on the tour with us... both very obese and more than willing to share very personal information with everyone. It made the tour too interesting.
After the tour we went back to the campsite for the big dune hike: from the campground to the ocean! The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, but it was very beautful and involved many different micro-climates.
That evening we played Farkle, ate a nice dinner and sat around the campfire until it was bedtime. The next morning we packed up camp and drove to the Oregon State Fair!
The fair was not great. There were some interesting things to see... but all-in-all the food selections were sub-par. We did try the deep-fried oreos and deep-fried snickers bars. Other things tried were corn-on-the-cob, loaded baked potato, corn dog, Australian potaotes, funnel cake, ice-cream, sausages, onion rings, carmel apples and others.
We got back home on sunday, full, tired and ready for bed.
Enjoy the pictures!
Molly and I drove down on a Thursday evening and set up camp. It was very dark when we arrived and had to leave the car lights on to set up the tent. Unfortunately we did not remember to leave the car running as we did this, and after about 10 minutes with the high-beams on, the car battery went dead. Luckily we had the tent up at that point, so we called Lindsey and Josh and ask them to grab some jumper cables before they left to join us the next morning.
Our campsite was literally a 3 minute walk from the dunes. We had some foresight and had packed a bottle of cheap champagne. We grabbed it and a beach blanket and headed to the dunes. We climbed to the top of the nearest large one, popped the cork and enjoyed the moon and stars with the salty smell of the ocean. Once the clouds started to roll in and the champagne bottle was empty, we headed back to camp and went to bed.
The next morning we were greeted to rain.... lots of it. We had expected to get up and explore the dunes for awhile while waiting for Team Yellison to arrive... but with the rain and our dead car we were pretty much stuck. We ate breakfast in the car and prepared for a long wait, as we didn't expect them until about 1pm (it was 9AM). After awhile I remembered that I have a AAA premier membership that I have been paying dues on for like 5 years and haven't ever used. I gave them a call and within 2 hours we had our car jumpstarted. Nearly 10 minutes later, Josh and Linsdey called and told us that they were about 20 minutes away. We drove to meet them and pondered what to do with our day. We eventually decided that lunch and a Movie were in order, and found a nice place in North Bend that had excellent milkshakes and fries. Afterward we saw Julie and Julia, a good, yet forgettable movie. By this time the rain had cleared up, so we headed back to camp to play in the dunes for a little while, play Farkle and get dinner started. We had a second bottle of Champagne, so we did the dune-moon-wine thing a second night.
The next morning was beautiful. We got up early to go visit the Sea Lion caves north of Florence, OR. This is apparently the largest coastal cave by some metric (in Oregon... in the US, in the World... in private ownership? who knows). It is famous because it is generally full of very stinky and loud sea lions. At this time there were none there, so we decided not to spend the $12 to see no sea lions. We, instead, went to a local lighthouse with great views... and a boring tour. There was an older lady and her daughter on the tour with us... both very obese and more than willing to share very personal information with everyone. It made the tour too interesting.
After the tour we went back to the campsite for the big dune hike: from the campground to the ocean! The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, but it was very beautful and involved many different micro-climates.
That evening we played Farkle, ate a nice dinner and sat around the campfire until it was bedtime. The next morning we packed up camp and drove to the Oregon State Fair!
The fair was not great. There were some interesting things to see... but all-in-all the food selections were sub-par. We did try the deep-fried oreos and deep-fried snickers bars. Other things tried were corn-on-the-cob, loaded baked potato, corn dog, Australian potaotes, funnel cake, ice-cream, sausages, onion rings, carmel apples and others.
We got back home on sunday, full, tired and ready for bed.
Enjoy the pictures!
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| Oregon Dunes - 2009 |
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| oregon dunes2 |
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Saturday August 1st
Norma, Katie, Brian, and Andrea have a plane to catch all the way in Calgary at 2:30pm so they leave at about 5:30am. We were going to get up and pack the car and maybe do one more hike on the way out, but realize how tired we are and go back to bed. We get up eventually, pack and are on the road at 10am. It is another really hot day, so we decided to skip a hike. Who wants to be in a car and then camp sweaty and stinky? Plus, they did some controlled burning and the whole area is fuzzy with smoke and does not offer any good views of mountains. We were going to camp the night at the border of Canada so we could get there with no lines, but it takes us so long to get there that there is no line at 6pm. We cross the border and start to look for camping. Unfortunately, it is about 95 degrees here. There is no way we are camping in that! Plus, if we stop at 7pm, what are we going to do in the heat until dark (10pm)? We make the decision to keep going until the temperature is under 85. Well, that didn't happen until we were an hour away from home. (1am) It has been 90's the whole way. We simply popped in the rest of our Biography on cd about Franklin Roosevelt and listen until just outside of Portland. We get in 10 minutes before 2am. We grab the bare essentials and dive into bed.
Friday July 31st
Last full day in Canada. We head out to some hot springs and take a much needed soak. Then, we drive back to town to do some white-water rafting. We can't believe that we got Norma to go. She is so nervous that she tries to back out at the last minute, but we don't let her and remind her that she needs to live life to the Max. She loves it, as do all of us. We even buy a cd of pictures they took of us when we get back, only to discover later that they have given us the wrong cd. Bastards! $26 and they better give us the right cd. We head back to camp after a shower at another campground (ours doesn't have one!) and then our final dinner. We had a hodge podge of things left from our grocery run so we eat boiled potatoes, mac and cheese, hamburgers and of course s'mores. We re-pack our things, get ready to leave and sadly go to bed.
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| Banff Rafting |
Thursday July 30th
We get up fairly early and head out for a day hike. Our muscles have recovered enough finally to do some hiking again. We head to Mt. Edith Cavell and hike up to some alpine meadows. It is beautiful and sunny and hot, so we take our time and eat lunch at the top. On the way down, it starts to cloud up, so we drive into Jasper for some much needed ice-cream. We head to another lake called Malign which is supposed to be pretty. It was ok because the clouds prevented you from seeing it's beautiful blue color. We take a short walk around and head back to Jasper for Pizza! Brian has been dying for pizza (me too) ever since we thought we were going to order some when we did Mt. Temple (it was closed Monday night!). So, Brian treated us all to great pizza with interesting topings. We head back for camp and play a few hands of Farkel until it finally gets dark about 11:30pm.
Wednesday July 29th
We get up and pack up our things. We are off to camping in Jasper, the park north of us. We get a fairly good start, but traffic is slow and we make it to the Columbia ice-fields late afternoon. You used to be able to walk up to the glacier and walk on top of it, but sadly it has erroded so much due to the environment that you cannot walk on it anymore and can't even walk close enough to touch it. You have to pay $50 to ride an "ice bus" that drops you off near the top where you can walk around. We are NOT about to do that, so we take some sad pictures and head on. We get to the campground fairly early, so we decide to check out Athabasca falls. It is really cool and one of dad's favorite waterfalls. Plus, it isn't far from where we're staying. We go back to make dinner of brats and beans. Yum. We also make s'mores of course...
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| Banff Trip - Wednesday July 29th, 2009 |
Tuesday July 28th
We wake up late. Aubrey offers to take everyone to breakfast, but we sleep instead. Eventually, we get up and Norma fixes everyone pancakes, eggs, and bacon. We can barely move we are so stiff. We scarf down everything we are offered. Josh and I had scheduled deep tissue massage for today and were looking forward to it. Everyone is wearing the t-shirt I made for everyone that has dad's picture on the front with "Live Life to the Max" and "NO MERCY" on the back with everyone's name on it. We decide to get a group photo at the hotel after Josh and I's massage. We love the massage and take a great group photo. It is raining on and off today, so we head to Banff for dinner out. We get a chance to do some shopping and find posters of our hike. Dinner at the Indian restaurant hits the spot. We say goodbye to Aubrey and April, who go stay with friends, and head to the hotel. We watch the RIFF track of Twilight and go to bed happy.
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| Banff Trip - Tuesday July 28th, 2009 |
Monday July 27th, The big hike!
The day of the hike finally arrived. Everyone had been training and working out to this big day. It started VERY early at 3:30am when Norma's alarm went off. Unfortunately, Josh, Norma, and I were awake many times during the night because the alarm was actually Katie's phone and her friends decided to text her many times in the middle of the night (which of course made a loud beeping noise). Plus, I was so nervous about everyone on the hike that I probably only got 1-2 hours tops that night. I was so nervous and under-slept that I didn't eat, but I did make breakfast of bacon and eggs for everyone. We jumped in the car half-awake and drove to the trailhead at Lake Moraine. We got out and going about 5:30am. Later than we wanted, but not too bad. The weather was looking good and the trail was plenty light (even though we all packed headlamps just in case). We started off on the trail which was a series of switchbacks. My pack had 5 liters of water (heavy), the usual just in case stuff (ropes, bungies, clothing, snacks, etc)(not as heavy), and of course my dad's ashes (very heavy) which were in a wooden box with a picture of our climb 18 years earlier at Mt. Eiffel (which showed Mt. Temple in the background). I was VERY slow. My pack weighed a lot. Plus, I didn't eat breakfast, get any sleep, and was still feeling sick to my stomach. After about an hour, Josh noticed that he was getting wet. We pulled out his water pack to discover that it had a hole in it. Unfortunately, we had only used this water bladder one other time and it was the largest, 3 liters. We had no choice but to empty it and put it back in empty. He still had Norma's 2 liter (for Norma) but I very willingly gave him my extra 2 liter. This helped both of us. I lightened my load by 2 liters of water and he lightened by 1 liter. We quickly caught up to the rest of the party.
After 2 hours of hiking in the woods on switchbacks, we got to the valley! It was beautiful and although the clouds were covering our mountain, we could see through the valley to the next stop: a saddle looking spot that was just before the rock scramble to the top. This is where things got more interesting. The switchbacks to the saddle were very precariously placed in rock scree that did not give a very wide or stable path. This is where April and Norma started to get nervous. But, they both made it to the saddle in fine shape and everyone took a nice long rest before heading up the rest of the mountain.
Now, when I say the rest of the mountain, I mean the 5,000 feet elevation gain we had left! This was a very intense rock scramble and this was the 3rd largest peak in the park. 11,626 feet tall. This was not your everyday hike.
Katie, Andrea, and Brian quickly dashed up ahead of everyone. Josh and I stayed with Norma. Aubrey stayed with April at the saddle and told us they would catch up. Well, the rocks were very slippery (imagine walking up large particles of sand very very steeply.) basically one step forward and then you slide a few inches backward. You have to use your momentum to really get up it. The three of us were moving very slowly. Norma was very scared and wanted me to lead, show her where to put her feet, then Josh followed behind as a support to her back to help her realize that she wasn't going to fall. Brian, Andrea, and Katie found a nice place to rest about 500 feet above us (we were about 1,000 ft up so far) and yelled down to us if we were coming. We told them yes, but slowly. Then, we got to a very tricky part where there were solid (ish) rocks that you had to really climb like stairs. They were very steep and Norma really started to panic. We told her that we had only gone 1/5 of the way up and that if she wanted to turn around we could. At that point, we spotted Aubrey below us and yelled to him. He said he and April were coming up to us. So, Norma was encouraged and decided to proceed on. After about 10 minutes, Aubrey yelled back that they were not coming up afterall. We yelled down to him that we were coming back down. As much as I hated Norma to fail, we simply could not keep doing this coaching and slow pace if we were to get all the way up. Plus, if she didn't turn back now, she would have to wait alone. So, with many tears, we started back down the mountain. Well, this took even longer than going up. We were very grateful that we had only made it about 1,000 ft up because it took about 1 1/2 hours to get down to the saddle where Aubrey and April were waiting. Norma did fall near the end (flat on her back) and after resting in that position, we continued to the saddle. Norma was very upset at being left behind, but Damn it, I was going to climb that mountain. Aubrey agreed to take Norma and April back to the bottom (sadly because he really wanted to climb too). April and Norma were too scared to go back alone and too scared to stay there alone. Aubrey sacrificed his climb and headed back down.
Lucky Josh and I got to climb that 1,000 feet again! (we are now in hour 5 of the climb) We got to where Katie, Brian, and Andrea had been waiting for now 2 hours. They were cold and bored but waited for us anyway! We had a short rest and then started to continue upward.
Now, back at the saddle (the first time) we had passed some Swiss mountaineers. You know, the ropes, harnesses, and climbing equipment to pull yourself up the steep rock face of the mountain. We started climbing up and after a while, we saw the Swiss above us. We thought maybe somehow, they had gotten to the top already and were back down (which would have made them the fastest climbers ever). We were at a difficult part and were getting rocks rained on top of us from them above. We stopped to let them pass and asked what they were doing. They told us that they tried to go up, but the high wind, rain, and cloudy conditions (we were in the clouds at this point) were turning them away and back down without making it to the top. This sort of shook us. I mean, why go to the top if the Swiss mountaineers couldn't do it, and why get up there if there were only clouds. Josh and I did that when we climbed Mt. St. Helens and it was very disappointing. We decided as a group to go on up anyway, since we were surely going slower and the weather could always clear. Plus, they were climbing and we were hiking, two very different paths.
A little while later, we got to a rock band (a section of solid rock you must scale up) and could not find a way up. Up to this point, we were following cairns (which are piles of rocks stacked) to lead us up the trail. The huge boulder ahead of us had a spray-painted arrow pointing up, but we saw no way to climb it. The top of the rock was about as high as I could reach my hands. Plus, even if we could somehow be hoisted up, how the hell would we get back down? Up is ALWAYS easier than down, especially with rock climbing. The weather was still foggy and cold, so we were seriously considering giving up.
That's when we spotted another group coming up behind us. We decided to wait and see what this group would do and if we could just follow them. They arrived and it was a person leading a group for his 6th time up the mountain. He knew exactly where to go. We all followed him. It turns out that 8 feet away from the spray-painted arrow was a hidden nook that you squeezed inside and then found a hidden section of almost rock stairs. We were relieved to follow them. They were going MUCH faster than I could possibly go with my heavy load. I encouraged Brian and Andrea, who were very fast climbers, to go ahead of us and follow them to see what other tricks/paths they could find. They would go ahead and Katie, Josh, and I would make our way up. They only needed to stay ahead enough to see their path and behind enough for us to see them. It worked out great. Seeing them above us was encouraging us to keep going, and yet it allowed us to go our own speed.
Now, we had been climbing for over 7 hours when I looked at my watch and saw that it was after 1pm. I thought if we were ever going to get down before dark, we needed to get to the top by 8 hours (or by 1:30/2:00). I set that as my goal and vowed to turn around if we weren't there. Well, that time came and went and we were still not there. But, we could see the first group (and then even a second group that passed us) were already at the top. WAAAAAYYYYYY above where I was resting. It was very encouraging to see they had made it, but also discouraging to see how far up we still had to go. Plus, I was starting to feel those 1,000 extra feet Josh and I covered twice. Still, we pressed on because I wasn't going to get that far and not make it. Plus, the sun had come out and the view was amazing.
After 9 hours, we finally made it to the top. Katie and Josh stopped just short of the actual top because Katie was DONE with hiking, exhausted, hungry, thirsty, just DONE. The top was just after a very narrow ridge with 9,000 ft drop on one side and 5,000 foot drop on the other. The last group that had passed us was about to leave the top so Brian and Andrea encouraged me to hurry the last 60 or so feet. I dropped my pack, scooped out my dad, and hurried pretty hysterical to the very top. I was more emotional than I could imagine. I had worked for over a year training with my trainer Nick and Josh to get to this point. I had hauled dad up with no rest or help. This was the moment I had looked forward to and dreaded the whole trip. The top. It was time to say goodbye to my dad, my favorite person in the world. I was sobbing pretty hard and the people I was passing to get to the top assumed that I was tired and scared but I wasn't. I was with my dad and we were almost to my destination. It was momentous and I will never forget the top as long as I live. Brian and Andrea posed with me and dad for the group to take our picture and then they were gone. Just us Mays were up there now. We took many photos and my hands shook too much to write in the log book that is kept at the top. Brian wrote the date, "in Max May's memory", "No Mercy", and "Live Life to the Max." He signed our names (Brian, Andrea, and Molly). We took photos for posterity and then looked around. We saw a huge grey storm cloud headed our direction and hauled ass back to Katie and Josh. Half way there, we realized that we were stupid and did not write everyone's names. This was dumb because they were every part of the trip that we did, so Andrea (being the most sure-footed and confident and energetic) headed back to the top to add everyone's names and take another picture.
Katie was doing better by the time we reached her, but still not great. We all paused long enough to get some food and water. Then, seeing the cloud was not veering away from us, we started heading down. Down at first was easier because you just leaned backward toward the mountain (which the heavy backpack helped) and let your feet slide in the rocks. But, as we got to the harder parts where you have to climb with your hands and feet, the sky darkened. Then, the thing we all talked about and were most worried about happened. We did not reach the tricky large boulder band before it started to rain. This has very many serious consequences. The small rocks get wet and slide more like mud, streams of water fall like rivers making everything slick. Worst of all, the places where we needed our hands and feet would be the slickest of all because it was like climbing smooth, polished rocks. Then, when we thought it couldn't get worse, it started to thunder, lightening, and worst of the worst it began to hail. We're not talking light hail, but pea-sized hail that hit at an intense rate. It pounded on our helmets as we scrambled quickly for the large rocks. The lightning crashed closer and closer to us, and there was no where for us to seek shelter. Plus, we realized that we weren't sure what the opening for the boulder was and Katie started crying. Then, along came our 2nd miracle. A single hiker we passed earlier was on his way down too. He knew the mountain and despite the fact that he only had a t-shirt and shorts in this storm, he slowed down and showed us the way. Unfortunately, he told us the best way down was not the way we came, but down that huge boulder that was spray painted with the arrow. We had to sit on the top of the ledge, jump off to another narrow ledge straight below and not fall off. This would be scary and difficult if it weren't still raining and hailing on us. He jumped down like a mountain goat, then spotted Brian and Andrea. Katie was next and was frozen with fear. Just below her, if she missed was a very steep 2,000 ft drop. She was tired, hungry, cold, and scared. Brian really stepped up. He swore to her that he would never let her fall, stood on the edge of the ledge (with his heels almost off the cliff)and told her to jump and he would catch her. Josh and I were behind her trying not to slide into her too. We were on the slick rock scree which has a nasty way of sliding down on top of people's heads and almost propelling us down the cliff ourselves. We tried shouting encouragement to Katie (least we slide down and push her off the cliff) and finally using Brian's head as a hand hold, she sort of slid/fell off the boulder and Brian used his hands to quickly push her against the rock wall of the boulder and slide down to where she could touch. The second she realized she was down, she threw her arms around Brian's neck and hugged him like I've never seen anyone be hugged before. "I love you Brian," she literally cried before finally letting go. The best hug I have ever seen. Brian then spotted Josh and I and then followed our buddy (later we found out his name was John) further down the boulders. None were quite that scary, but it was still raining and hailing. John waited for all of us with is face to the hail, getting soaked, until we all passed the difficult spot. He went on faster ahead of us, but said he was going to find a spot to dry out.
It finally stopped raining and the sun came back out just as we finished the hard spot. We relaxed a little bit, but only rested for a minute, then continued down. We caught up to John eventually (drinking a beer!)and got his email and information. We're going to have to think of something nice to do for him. We continued down without really stopping. No one was in the mood to stop since we were so tired and wet and ready to be down the damn mountain. We did stop to stretch our legs just before the switchbacks started our path out of the valley, but otherwise we just dragged on.
The way down is easily as hard as the way up, especially if you have bad knees. We used our walking poles to help with stability, but it didn't stop me from falling twice (scaring the crap out of Josh) and others from falling too. This kind of fall is like a slow-motion fall. Your foot slips and you gently (sometimes) slide the rest of your body onto your butt and back. By the last few switchbacks, we were really getting tired of hiking. Our feet, quads, calves, and knees hurt. Your toes are completely jammed into the bottom of your shoes, hurting your big toe and other toe nails. Your shoulders grow tired of the weight of the back pack. You run out of water (or at least I did). You are hungry for something that isn't an energy bar. You fall silent and your body droops. You think, we've got to be almost to the bottom by now. Then, you catch a glimpse of that beautiful turquoise lake through the trees. You realize that you aren't as close to the bottom as you'd hoped. Then, we saw a rainbow in the mountains over that lake and smile. You trudge on. Then, you finally get to the lake side and see the parking lot. You have to walk up hill a tiny bit and it feels good. You get to the car and collapse inside. Andrea had to drive, poor thing, and we were quiet much of the way. We got to the car after 14 hours and 50 minutes. It is practically dark, but you see more rainbows on the drive back to the hotel. You think of dad and how proud he would be of our teamwork, persistence, and our drive to get to the top and back down. We hurried right back because we knew that Aubrey, April, and Norma had seen the bad weather above and were worried sick about us.
We walked in the door to tacos and hugs. Josh and I raced to strip and get in the hot tub at the hotel. The rest stay behind and tell the tale. Katie starts throwing up and is taken to the urgent care center nearby. She has an electrolite deficiency. She has not eaten or drunk enough. She is taken home and fed gatorade. We stay up far later than we thought possible reliving the hike and smiling and laughing with our family. Bed never felt softer or more comforting.
Enjoy the pictures:
After 2 hours of hiking in the woods on switchbacks, we got to the valley! It was beautiful and although the clouds were covering our mountain, we could see through the valley to the next stop: a saddle looking spot that was just before the rock scramble to the top. This is where things got more interesting. The switchbacks to the saddle were very precariously placed in rock scree that did not give a very wide or stable path. This is where April and Norma started to get nervous. But, they both made it to the saddle in fine shape and everyone took a nice long rest before heading up the rest of the mountain.
Now, when I say the rest of the mountain, I mean the 5,000 feet elevation gain we had left! This was a very intense rock scramble and this was the 3rd largest peak in the park. 11,626 feet tall. This was not your everyday hike.
Katie, Andrea, and Brian quickly dashed up ahead of everyone. Josh and I stayed with Norma. Aubrey stayed with April at the saddle and told us they would catch up. Well, the rocks were very slippery (imagine walking up large particles of sand very very steeply.) basically one step forward and then you slide a few inches backward. You have to use your momentum to really get up it. The three of us were moving very slowly. Norma was very scared and wanted me to lead, show her where to put her feet, then Josh followed behind as a support to her back to help her realize that she wasn't going to fall. Brian, Andrea, and Katie found a nice place to rest about 500 feet above us (we were about 1,000 ft up so far) and yelled down to us if we were coming. We told them yes, but slowly. Then, we got to a very tricky part where there were solid (ish) rocks that you had to really climb like stairs. They were very steep and Norma really started to panic. We told her that we had only gone 1/5 of the way up and that if she wanted to turn around we could. At that point, we spotted Aubrey below us and yelled to him. He said he and April were coming up to us. So, Norma was encouraged and decided to proceed on. After about 10 minutes, Aubrey yelled back that they were not coming up afterall. We yelled down to him that we were coming back down. As much as I hated Norma to fail, we simply could not keep doing this coaching and slow pace if we were to get all the way up. Plus, if she didn't turn back now, she would have to wait alone. So, with many tears, we started back down the mountain. Well, this took even longer than going up. We were very grateful that we had only made it about 1,000 ft up because it took about 1 1/2 hours to get down to the saddle where Aubrey and April were waiting. Norma did fall near the end (flat on her back) and after resting in that position, we continued to the saddle. Norma was very upset at being left behind, but Damn it, I was going to climb that mountain. Aubrey agreed to take Norma and April back to the bottom (sadly because he really wanted to climb too). April and Norma were too scared to go back alone and too scared to stay there alone. Aubrey sacrificed his climb and headed back down.
Lucky Josh and I got to climb that 1,000 feet again! (we are now in hour 5 of the climb) We got to where Katie, Brian, and Andrea had been waiting for now 2 hours. They were cold and bored but waited for us anyway! We had a short rest and then started to continue upward.
Now, back at the saddle (the first time) we had passed some Swiss mountaineers. You know, the ropes, harnesses, and climbing equipment to pull yourself up the steep rock face of the mountain. We started climbing up and after a while, we saw the Swiss above us. We thought maybe somehow, they had gotten to the top already and were back down (which would have made them the fastest climbers ever). We were at a difficult part and were getting rocks rained on top of us from them above. We stopped to let them pass and asked what they were doing. They told us that they tried to go up, but the high wind, rain, and cloudy conditions (we were in the clouds at this point) were turning them away and back down without making it to the top. This sort of shook us. I mean, why go to the top if the Swiss mountaineers couldn't do it, and why get up there if there were only clouds. Josh and I did that when we climbed Mt. St. Helens and it was very disappointing. We decided as a group to go on up anyway, since we were surely going slower and the weather could always clear. Plus, they were climbing and we were hiking, two very different paths.
A little while later, we got to a rock band (a section of solid rock you must scale up) and could not find a way up. Up to this point, we were following cairns (which are piles of rocks stacked) to lead us up the trail. The huge boulder ahead of us had a spray-painted arrow pointing up, but we saw no way to climb it. The top of the rock was about as high as I could reach my hands. Plus, even if we could somehow be hoisted up, how the hell would we get back down? Up is ALWAYS easier than down, especially with rock climbing. The weather was still foggy and cold, so we were seriously considering giving up.
That's when we spotted another group coming up behind us. We decided to wait and see what this group would do and if we could just follow them. They arrived and it was a person leading a group for his 6th time up the mountain. He knew exactly where to go. We all followed him. It turns out that 8 feet away from the spray-painted arrow was a hidden nook that you squeezed inside and then found a hidden section of almost rock stairs. We were relieved to follow them. They were going MUCH faster than I could possibly go with my heavy load. I encouraged Brian and Andrea, who were very fast climbers, to go ahead of us and follow them to see what other tricks/paths they could find. They would go ahead and Katie, Josh, and I would make our way up. They only needed to stay ahead enough to see their path and behind enough for us to see them. It worked out great. Seeing them above us was encouraging us to keep going, and yet it allowed us to go our own speed.
Now, we had been climbing for over 7 hours when I looked at my watch and saw that it was after 1pm. I thought if we were ever going to get down before dark, we needed to get to the top by 8 hours (or by 1:30/2:00). I set that as my goal and vowed to turn around if we weren't there. Well, that time came and went and we were still not there. But, we could see the first group (and then even a second group that passed us) were already at the top. WAAAAAYYYYYY above where I was resting. It was very encouraging to see they had made it, but also discouraging to see how far up we still had to go. Plus, I was starting to feel those 1,000 extra feet Josh and I covered twice. Still, we pressed on because I wasn't going to get that far and not make it. Plus, the sun had come out and the view was amazing.
After 9 hours, we finally made it to the top. Katie and Josh stopped just short of the actual top because Katie was DONE with hiking, exhausted, hungry, thirsty, just DONE. The top was just after a very narrow ridge with 9,000 ft drop on one side and 5,000 foot drop on the other. The last group that had passed us was about to leave the top so Brian and Andrea encouraged me to hurry the last 60 or so feet. I dropped my pack, scooped out my dad, and hurried pretty hysterical to the very top. I was more emotional than I could imagine. I had worked for over a year training with my trainer Nick and Josh to get to this point. I had hauled dad up with no rest or help. This was the moment I had looked forward to and dreaded the whole trip. The top. It was time to say goodbye to my dad, my favorite person in the world. I was sobbing pretty hard and the people I was passing to get to the top assumed that I was tired and scared but I wasn't. I was with my dad and we were almost to my destination. It was momentous and I will never forget the top as long as I live. Brian and Andrea posed with me and dad for the group to take our picture and then they were gone. Just us Mays were up there now. We took many photos and my hands shook too much to write in the log book that is kept at the top. Brian wrote the date, "in Max May's memory", "No Mercy", and "Live Life to the Max." He signed our names (Brian, Andrea, and Molly). We took photos for posterity and then looked around. We saw a huge grey storm cloud headed our direction and hauled ass back to Katie and Josh. Half way there, we realized that we were stupid and did not write everyone's names. This was dumb because they were every part of the trip that we did, so Andrea (being the most sure-footed and confident and energetic) headed back to the top to add everyone's names and take another picture.
Katie was doing better by the time we reached her, but still not great. We all paused long enough to get some food and water. Then, seeing the cloud was not veering away from us, we started heading down. Down at first was easier because you just leaned backward toward the mountain (which the heavy backpack helped) and let your feet slide in the rocks. But, as we got to the harder parts where you have to climb with your hands and feet, the sky darkened. Then, the thing we all talked about and were most worried about happened. We did not reach the tricky large boulder band before it started to rain. This has very many serious consequences. The small rocks get wet and slide more like mud, streams of water fall like rivers making everything slick. Worst of all, the places where we needed our hands and feet would be the slickest of all because it was like climbing smooth, polished rocks. Then, when we thought it couldn't get worse, it started to thunder, lightening, and worst of the worst it began to hail. We're not talking light hail, but pea-sized hail that hit at an intense rate. It pounded on our helmets as we scrambled quickly for the large rocks. The lightning crashed closer and closer to us, and there was no where for us to seek shelter. Plus, we realized that we weren't sure what the opening for the boulder was and Katie started crying. Then, along came our 2nd miracle. A single hiker we passed earlier was on his way down too. He knew the mountain and despite the fact that he only had a t-shirt and shorts in this storm, he slowed down and showed us the way. Unfortunately, he told us the best way down was not the way we came, but down that huge boulder that was spray painted with the arrow. We had to sit on the top of the ledge, jump off to another narrow ledge straight below and not fall off. This would be scary and difficult if it weren't still raining and hailing on us. He jumped down like a mountain goat, then spotted Brian and Andrea. Katie was next and was frozen with fear. Just below her, if she missed was a very steep 2,000 ft drop. She was tired, hungry, cold, and scared. Brian really stepped up. He swore to her that he would never let her fall, stood on the edge of the ledge (with his heels almost off the cliff)and told her to jump and he would catch her. Josh and I were behind her trying not to slide into her too. We were on the slick rock scree which has a nasty way of sliding down on top of people's heads and almost propelling us down the cliff ourselves. We tried shouting encouragement to Katie (least we slide down and push her off the cliff) and finally using Brian's head as a hand hold, she sort of slid/fell off the boulder and Brian used his hands to quickly push her against the rock wall of the boulder and slide down to where she could touch. The second she realized she was down, she threw her arms around Brian's neck and hugged him like I've never seen anyone be hugged before. "I love you Brian," she literally cried before finally letting go. The best hug I have ever seen. Brian then spotted Josh and I and then followed our buddy (later we found out his name was John) further down the boulders. None were quite that scary, but it was still raining and hailing. John waited for all of us with is face to the hail, getting soaked, until we all passed the difficult spot. He went on faster ahead of us, but said he was going to find a spot to dry out.
It finally stopped raining and the sun came back out just as we finished the hard spot. We relaxed a little bit, but only rested for a minute, then continued down. We caught up to John eventually (drinking a beer!)and got his email and information. We're going to have to think of something nice to do for him. We continued down without really stopping. No one was in the mood to stop since we were so tired and wet and ready to be down the damn mountain. We did stop to stretch our legs just before the switchbacks started our path out of the valley, but otherwise we just dragged on.
The way down is easily as hard as the way up, especially if you have bad knees. We used our walking poles to help with stability, but it didn't stop me from falling twice (scaring the crap out of Josh) and others from falling too. This kind of fall is like a slow-motion fall. Your foot slips and you gently (sometimes) slide the rest of your body onto your butt and back. By the last few switchbacks, we were really getting tired of hiking. Our feet, quads, calves, and knees hurt. Your toes are completely jammed into the bottom of your shoes, hurting your big toe and other toe nails. Your shoulders grow tired of the weight of the back pack. You run out of water (or at least I did). You are hungry for something that isn't an energy bar. You fall silent and your body droops. You think, we've got to be almost to the bottom by now. Then, you catch a glimpse of that beautiful turquoise lake through the trees. You realize that you aren't as close to the bottom as you'd hoped. Then, we saw a rainbow in the mountains over that lake and smile. You trudge on. Then, you finally get to the lake side and see the parking lot. You have to walk up hill a tiny bit and it feels good. You get to the car and collapse inside. Andrea had to drive, poor thing, and we were quiet much of the way. We got to the car after 14 hours and 50 minutes. It is practically dark, but you see more rainbows on the drive back to the hotel. You think of dad and how proud he would be of our teamwork, persistence, and our drive to get to the top and back down. We hurried right back because we knew that Aubrey, April, and Norma had seen the bad weather above and were worried sick about us.
We walked in the door to tacos and hugs. Josh and I raced to strip and get in the hot tub at the hotel. The rest stay behind and tell the tale. Katie starts throwing up and is taken to the urgent care center nearby. She has an electrolite deficiency. She has not eaten or drunk enough. She is taken home and fed gatorade. We stay up far later than we thought possible reliving the hike and smiling and laughing with our family. Bed never felt softer or more comforting.
Enjoy the pictures:
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| Banff 2 |
Sunday July 26th
I knew that everyone should do a nice, easy, but longish hike to get their legs ready for the climb tomorrow, so Josh and I found a nice one at Lake Louise. The hike went half way around Lake Louise, then up to a tea-house, then to a waterfall for a short rock scramble.
Everyone looked great and enthusiastic for the big hike. Aubs and April came over during breakfast and said they got in after midnight the night before. Everyone got ready quickly and we made an assembly line of sandwiches for our packs. We headed out and arrived at Lake Louise with no fuss.
The hike was very nice and level at first and then gently climbed to a tea house. Luckily, we reached the tea house just as it was starting to rain. We grabbed some seats and got some nice hot tea. It was still raining, so we ordered another round and sat enjoying each others company. The rain started to clear so we headed on to the rest of the hike. We made it to the rock scramble and quickly climbed up. Even Norma, who was very hesitant, made it up there with little fuss. We ate our sandwiches next to a waterfall and then headed back down. This was a little slower, but careful footsteps often are.
On the way back the sun came out and Josh and I got sunburned on our necks (despite our hats). Oh well, that's what we get for not wearing sunscreen until the sun comes out! We went over to Lake Moraine to try and get some info on our big hike, and also to see how long it would take to drive, and let everyone see how amazing our hike would be. (the main mountains in that valley are not as tall as the hike we were going to do!) We didn't find much information there, but were re-directed to the right place a minute away from our hotel.
We arrived at the information center and talked to a ranger who assured us about the hiking conditions, the bear warnings, and that we could make it. We also rented helmets (which were highly recommended) next door.
We went back to the hotel and ate a wonderful Spaghetti dinner and got everyone's pack ready for the next day. Unfortunately, this took a LONG time and we did not get to bed before 11pm.
Everyone looked great and enthusiastic for the big hike. Aubs and April came over during breakfast and said they got in after midnight the night before. Everyone got ready quickly and we made an assembly line of sandwiches for our packs. We headed out and arrived at Lake Louise with no fuss.
The hike was very nice and level at first and then gently climbed to a tea house. Luckily, we reached the tea house just as it was starting to rain. We grabbed some seats and got some nice hot tea. It was still raining, so we ordered another round and sat enjoying each others company. The rain started to clear so we headed on to the rest of the hike. We made it to the rock scramble and quickly climbed up. Even Norma, who was very hesitant, made it up there with little fuss. We ate our sandwiches next to a waterfall and then headed back down. This was a little slower, but careful footsteps often are.
On the way back the sun came out and Josh and I got sunburned on our necks (despite our hats). Oh well, that's what we get for not wearing sunscreen until the sun comes out! We went over to Lake Moraine to try and get some info on our big hike, and also to see how long it would take to drive, and let everyone see how amazing our hike would be. (the main mountains in that valley are not as tall as the hike we were going to do!) We didn't find much information there, but were re-directed to the right place a minute away from our hotel.
We arrived at the information center and talked to a ranger who assured us about the hiking conditions, the bear warnings, and that we could make it. We also rented helmets (which were highly recommended) next door.
We went back to the hotel and ate a wonderful Spaghetti dinner and got everyone's pack ready for the next day. Unfortunately, this took a LONG time and we did not get to bed before 11pm.
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| Banff Trip - Sunday July 26th, 2009 |
Saturday July 25th
We got up early and quickly packed up. We drove to the first park which is called Yoho. There we saw the spectacular waterfall Takakkaw. We took a little hike and because it was so hot, we made it very short. We then drove to Banff where we bought our year round parks Canada pass. We also got some hiking information for the trip and inquired about trail conditions (very good!). We got back in the car and because it was still hot we decided to head to the hotel to check in. Norma had put our name on the list so we were able to check in before the others arrived. The room was a family-style loft with a bedroom with a set of bunk beds and a single bed (and that's about all that fit in the room!), a kitchen with all the pots and pans, a living room with a Murphy bed, a down stairs full bathroom, then stairs leading to a loft with a queen bed, single bed, and full bathroom. There was no air-conditioning so we opened all the windows and sat a few before unloading the car. That was many trips up and down stairs, but finished quickly. Norma and Katie flew into Calgary (about 80 miles south) the night before, but spent the night and waited for Brian and Andrea to get there at 2pm the next day (today). After they got in, they called us and asked for last minute requests from the grocery store. They made their purchases and headed up. In the mean time, Josh and I realized they would be a while and went to Lake Louise to hike around. We also stopped by Lake Moraine (where Mt. Temple is) to see what conditions everything was in. Everything looked good and we headed on back home. We waited FOREVER it seemed because we were so excited to see everyone. Aubrey and April were supposed to check in to the hotel that day and hadn't yet either.
Finally, Norma, Katie, Brian, and Andrea arrived! We helped them unload the car and I started dinner: STEAK! After dinner, we hung out for a while and then headed for bed.
Finally, Norma, Katie, Brian, and Andrea arrived! We helped them unload the car and I started dinner: STEAK! After dinner, we hung out for a while and then headed for bed.
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| Banff Trip - Saturday July 25th 2009 |
Friday July 24th
Josh and I decided to head up a day early since we wanted more time to really explore the area, do a little hiking, and get accustomed to our surroundings. We tried to leave Portland at 4:30 in the morning, but after a snooze or two, lots of stressful packing of the car, we were off at 7am. The car was so full that we weren't able to see out any window behind the front two seats. We were carrying enough food for a week (except produce which is not allowed across the border, camping equipment for 6 people, hiking stuff, day hiking stuff, and millions of other must-have items. The drive was pretty long and boring. We arrived at our campsite that was reserved just outside of the park. It was HOT, which I did not expect (remembering the last time I was there and froze the whole time). The campground was like a KOA with nasty pool and all (and yes, we did swim in it because it was HOT damn it!) We went to bed pretty early.
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| Banff trip - Friday July 24th, 2009 |
Canada! (the big trip)
As many of you know, Josh and I have been planning a trip to Banff and Jasper National Park in Canada for a few years. This is the home to the mountain that my dad wanted to climb. I first decided to go before dad even got sick, imagining that he and I would climb Mt. Temple together. Then, as we discovered the cancer, I imagined that I would climb it with him after the successful chemo and would probably carry all the weight and help support him along the way (with Josh's help of course). As he got sicker and sicker, I foolishly imagined that I would practically carry him up the mountain and make Josh carry all the supplies. After he died, I realized that I still needed to climb this mountain and wanted to carry him up there so that he could do his last mountain and the only mountain he ever regretted not being able to climb. (time and weather did not allow the few times he went there)Dad's final wishes were to be spread out at his favorite place, the cabin. So, I asked the rest of the family to wait and allow me to bring the ashes up the mountain and invited them all to come with us. Last summer did not work out, as many of us took too much time off of work to take another vacation. Plus, this is a HUGE mountain and everyone needed at least a year to train. (Josh and I had been training, but no one else had)So, it was decided that we would climb the mountain the next summer on his birthday. (July 27th)
Many months of planning and reserving hotels and camping, and endless emails and phone calls later, we were all at Lake Louise, ready to climb the big mountain...
Many months of planning and reserving hotels and camping, and endless emails and phone calls later, we were all at Lake Louise, ready to climb the big mountain...
Canada! (the first time)
Ok, first we went to Canada to go to Scott's wedding (my buddy from the dorms in Madison, Wisconsin). It was held in Victoria on Vancouver Island. We headed up with Linze and Joshy Thursday night and spent the night at Heather's house in Seattle. She wasn't there so we entertained ourselves by hiding some of her decorative knick-knacks all around her house. We got up really early the next day to drive the rest of the way to the ferry. The ferry company told us to get there about 1 1/2 hours early for check-in, so we did. Unfortunately. We ended up waiting the whole time and the check-in only took 5 minutes. Of course, we kept thinking, well, they will probably load us first and then we'll also be the first ones unloaded. Nope. Those ass holes loaded us in the middle and then unloaded us practically last. The last minute people were first on and off. Bastards! Of course landing in Canada you have to go through customs and now have a passport. We waited forever. Linze and Joshy were in the car ahead of us so they went first. They talked to the guy a while and I thought they were going to get searched. No, they just wanted to chat. We went next and the guy was pretty rude. Asked all sorts of weird questions (I thought) like the name of the hotel we were staying at, where the wedding was at. Of course Josh and I knew none of this because we were simply following Linze and Joshy who are much better planners. We told him we were with the car ahead and he finally let us go. Later, we talked to Linze and Joshy and they said the guy made them get out the wedding invitation (because they couldn't remember where the wedding was either) and then had the nerve to ask why we were not staying at the hotel where the wedding was. They told him it was too expensive. And with that he finally let them go.
Anyway, we checked in to the hotel and started walking around the beautiful, very European town, of Victoria. After lunch we went back to meet our friend Adam (also from my dorm) at the bar of our hotel. We had a few drinks and then headed off to dinner. After dinner, we came back to our room and played Farkel.
The next day was the wedding so we only had time to do one thing, visit the famous gardens. We drove a LONG and WINDY road to the gardens only to discover they were $26 each person!!! That night they were having fireworks at 10pm (this was 9am) and they told us if we wanted to see the fireworks (which we didn't) there was no re-admittance! Crazy. How much money could they sponge off people? You pay $26 and then have to hang around all day (or even if you showed up at 8pm, what are you going to look at in the dark?) and probably end up buying dinner there or at least desert. Stupid. But, it was beautiful. We walked around for almost 2 hours (even though many people told us you needed at least 3 hours) and took lots of pictures. Then, it was time to grab some lunch and get ready for the wedding.
The wedding was at 2pm and the reception was at 5, so we decided to do a very Victoria thing in between, high tea. The wedding was in an old chapel and was very sweet and everyone looked beautiful and dashing. We saw the couple off to their photos and we walked a short ways to a tea that was recommended by our hotel.
Wow, anyone who has not done tea, you should go, but go hungry! It was a huge plate of goodies (and we had eaten lunch only 2 hours earlier) but I did my best to eat it all. We were now stuffed so we went to Adam's room to digest and play Farkel. His room was in the hotel where the reception was, so we glided down the elevator to the ballroom. We had some drinks on the balcony and turned down the finger food (since we were stuffed and trying to get hungry for dinner). After a while, the couple came in and we sat down to a wonderful dinner. Dancing was next and we stayed until after Midnight.
The next day, we met the wedding party at a nature park and did some hiking and even a little climbing. It was a nice way to end the weekend. Josh and I hung out with Linze and Joshy in their next hotel room (they were staying longer than us) and the next day caught the ferry and headed home.
I can't find my pictures of this trip right now (I think they are on the photo card I lent Norma) so if you'd like to see pictures, visit Linze and Joshy's blog!
Anyway, we checked in to the hotel and started walking around the beautiful, very European town, of Victoria. After lunch we went back to meet our friend Adam (also from my dorm) at the bar of our hotel. We had a few drinks and then headed off to dinner. After dinner, we came back to our room and played Farkel.
The next day was the wedding so we only had time to do one thing, visit the famous gardens. We drove a LONG and WINDY road to the gardens only to discover they were $26 each person!!! That night they were having fireworks at 10pm (this was 9am) and they told us if we wanted to see the fireworks (which we didn't) there was no re-admittance! Crazy. How much money could they sponge off people? You pay $26 and then have to hang around all day (or even if you showed up at 8pm, what are you going to look at in the dark?) and probably end up buying dinner there or at least desert. Stupid. But, it was beautiful. We walked around for almost 2 hours (even though many people told us you needed at least 3 hours) and took lots of pictures. Then, it was time to grab some lunch and get ready for the wedding.
The wedding was at 2pm and the reception was at 5, so we decided to do a very Victoria thing in between, high tea. The wedding was in an old chapel and was very sweet and everyone looked beautiful and dashing. We saw the couple off to their photos and we walked a short ways to a tea that was recommended by our hotel.
Wow, anyone who has not done tea, you should go, but go hungry! It was a huge plate of goodies (and we had eaten lunch only 2 hours earlier) but I did my best to eat it all. We were now stuffed so we went to Adam's room to digest and play Farkel. His room was in the hotel where the reception was, so we glided down the elevator to the ballroom. We had some drinks on the balcony and turned down the finger food (since we were stuffed and trying to get hungry for dinner). After a while, the couple came in and we sat down to a wonderful dinner. Dancing was next and we stayed until after Midnight.
The next day, we met the wedding party at a nature park and did some hiking and even a little climbing. It was a nice way to end the weekend. Josh and I hung out with Linze and Joshy in their next hotel room (they were staying longer than us) and the next day caught the ferry and headed home.
I can't find my pictures of this trip right now (I think they are on the photo card I lent Norma) so if you'd like to see pictures, visit Linze and Joshy's blog!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The last few weekends
Wow, it has seriously been a long time since we have blogged. Sorry about that. We really hadn't done anything too exciting until the last few weekends. So, here goes...
May 8th-10th: We headed to Seattle for the weekend with Linze and Joshy. We stayed at Linze's friend Heather's house. We brought several nice bottles of Pinot to have a taste test. Friday night we got there pretty late, but Heather does not get of work until about midnight, so we drank some wine while waiting for her. She and her boyfriend Jeff came home just after midnight and we helped them unwind from work with, of course, wine.
The next day, we got up nice and late and Heather and Jeff made us a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs with a very nice cheddar, home-made hash browns, and English muffins. It was so nice and delicious. We headed out to a nice hike just outside Seattle. We packed a lunch (thanks to Heather again) and hiked to a nice set of waterfalls. Heather's dog Navy kept us at a very fast pace and kept our spirits high. After a long loop, we headed back to the car and drove home for a very AWESOME dinner and wine. Heather is quite the cook and made bacon wrapped asparagus with balsamic vinegar, mushrooms stuffed with prochitto (sp?), and fresh baked salmon. We had several pinots from Oregon that we tried really hard to taste blind and name. After one, it was hard to distinguish them. The nice thing was we learned that the $20 bottles tasted just as good (if not better) than the $40 bottles.
The next morning, we woke up, had another nice breakfast and headed to Archie McPhee's, our favorite joke shop, where Joshy and I bought prizes for our classrooms.
Here are the pictures:
May 15th: the first aniversary of Max May (my father) dying. We decided to take the day off and put in a memorial garden. We had a lot of work to do in the backyard to make this happen. It took all weekend, but we managed to plant: roses, red peppers, tomatoes, pole beans, sweet peas, parsley, and strawberries. We also planted a peach tree, a 4 way cherry tree (1 kind of pie cherry, bing, rainer, and sweet on one tree), and a 6 way pear tree (6 kinds of pear including bartlet and bosc). We cut down 3 small trees, 1 very large tree, several bushes, and lots of weeds. We also trellis'ed (sp?) the golden rasperries so that they would grow bigger and it will be easier to pick. (more jam!) Unfortunately, Saturday I got way too over heated and had a mild case of heat stroke that night. I could hardly eat dinner, had a horrible headache, and wanted to vomit all night. I went to bed at 8pm but did not sleep until much later. Stupid hot weather, stupid body unable to process heat! The hard work paid off though, look at a few of the pictures:
May 23rd-25th Memorial Day weekend: We decided to go with Linze and Joshy on a camping trip in the Gorge between Hood River and the Dalles right on the river. It was also right next to the highway. Luckily the wind was so strong that we didn't really hear the traffic that much, but we did get to listen to trains go by every once in a while (including 5am on Sunday morning). It was so much fun. We drove there Saturday morning and got our camp ready. We set off right away with our bikes to bike the old Columbia River Highway, which was turned into a bike/walking park. It was about 9 miles round trip way up above the river and it was very curvy and hilly. The way to there, I found biking extremely hard, which surprised me because I was the only one of the four of us who even biked very often. When we got to the visitor's station, I took a look at my back wheel (which sounded like it was maybe scraping the brake). It turns out, my brake was actually locked on the back tire completely (probaly due to the bike being transported in the back of the car). Well, the way back was a whole different story. It is amazingly easy to bike when you do not have the brakes on! That night we relaxed in front of the fire, and it was very windy, so we had fun keeping the logs going.
The next morning, we had a quick breakfast and headed out for another bike ride. This time right next to the river and downtown in the Dalles (about 10 miles). This ride was a lot easier and flatter, although the wind was stronger, which made it more interesting. Check out the video below of the ride! Next was a hike in the Deschutes River gorge. On the way out, we were along the river and mostly bush-wacking. Eventually, we headed up the gorge (a nice long trek vertically) and walked along the edge on the way back. On one of the pictures, see if you can spot Linze, Joshy, and Josh sitting on a bench among the long tall prairie grass. The area East of the Dalles is very dry, high desert. There are long prairie grass, and a few places where the river greens things up. It was stark, hot, windy, and beautiful.
Finally, last weekend, May 29th-31st. Friday night we went and saw the movie UP. It was soooooo great. We really enjoyed it in 3-D, but you wouldn't have to watch it in 3-D to enjoy it. The next morning we got up late and worked in the garden. We had tickets that night to see Cinamatic-Titanic, which is the guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) making fun of an old bad movie. They also did stand up at the beginning, made us laugh through the whole movie, and answered questions from the audience (Josh's question). We were downtown during the Rose festival "Starlight parade" which was still not over at 11pm (even though it started at 9pm) but the Max (public transportation-trains) was packed! We had to wait a few trains before we finally got on. The next morning Josh and I got up a little late and headed toward the coast to do a really steep hike called Elk Mountain. The guide book writes about the hike as a joint hike with a nearby mountain named King, but that was a 13 mile hike and Josh needed to work, so we took just the Elk mountain part. The reason the book recommends the two mountains together is because Elk is so steep they strongly recommend going UP Elk and DOWN King. Well, that would have been great advice, as the hike took us 2 hours to get up, and 2 hours DOWN! Every single step was trecherous because the loose gravel and dry sand was so slippery Josh and I probably fell about 12 times each. I gashed my finger trying to catch myself and the stick nearly went half way through my finger. That made going down hill really difficult bleeding on the bushes and trees I was desperately trying to hang on to. We went so slowly but every time we let our guard down we would slip again. Plus, it was soooooo hot. I was dying on the way up and down. After the hike, I couldn't cool down and got heat stroke again. I laid down for about 2 hours, but still didn't feel much better. I got another really bad headache and felt nausiated. I didn't feel better until the next day. It was still worth the hike for all the great practice we got in for our hike this summer.
We recieved the best news today! Brian and Andrea are going to make it to Canada this summer to hike Mt. Temple with us! We are so excited to see them and do some serious hiking together!
May 8th-10th: We headed to Seattle for the weekend with Linze and Joshy. We stayed at Linze's friend Heather's house. We brought several nice bottles of Pinot to have a taste test. Friday night we got there pretty late, but Heather does not get of work until about midnight, so we drank some wine while waiting for her. She and her boyfriend Jeff came home just after midnight and we helped them unwind from work with, of course, wine.
The next day, we got up nice and late and Heather and Jeff made us a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs with a very nice cheddar, home-made hash browns, and English muffins. It was so nice and delicious. We headed out to a nice hike just outside Seattle. We packed a lunch (thanks to Heather again) and hiked to a nice set of waterfalls. Heather's dog Navy kept us at a very fast pace and kept our spirits high. After a long loop, we headed back to the car and drove home for a very AWESOME dinner and wine. Heather is quite the cook and made bacon wrapped asparagus with balsamic vinegar, mushrooms stuffed with prochitto (sp?), and fresh baked salmon. We had several pinots from Oregon that we tried really hard to taste blind and name. After one, it was hard to distinguish them. The nice thing was we learned that the $20 bottles tasted just as good (if not better) than the $40 bottles.
The next morning, we woke up, had another nice breakfast and headed to Archie McPhee's, our favorite joke shop, where Joshy and I bought prizes for our classrooms.
Here are the pictures:
 |
| Seattle Hike |
May 15th: the first aniversary of Max May (my father) dying. We decided to take the day off and put in a memorial garden. We had a lot of work to do in the backyard to make this happen. It took all weekend, but we managed to plant: roses, red peppers, tomatoes, pole beans, sweet peas, parsley, and strawberries. We also planted a peach tree, a 4 way cherry tree (1 kind of pie cherry, bing, rainer, and sweet on one tree), and a 6 way pear tree (6 kinds of pear including bartlet and bosc). We cut down 3 small trees, 1 very large tree, several bushes, and lots of weeds. We also trellis'ed (sp?) the golden rasperries so that they would grow bigger and it will be easier to pick. (more jam!) Unfortunately, Saturday I got way too over heated and had a mild case of heat stroke that night. I could hardly eat dinner, had a horrible headache, and wanted to vomit all night. I went to bed at 8pm but did not sleep until much later. Stupid hot weather, stupid body unable to process heat! The hard work paid off though, look at a few of the pictures:
 |
| Max May Memorial Garden |
May 23rd-25th Memorial Day weekend: We decided to go with Linze and Joshy on a camping trip in the Gorge between Hood River and the Dalles right on the river. It was also right next to the highway. Luckily the wind was so strong that we didn't really hear the traffic that much, but we did get to listen to trains go by every once in a while (including 5am on Sunday morning). It was so much fun. We drove there Saturday morning and got our camp ready. We set off right away with our bikes to bike the old Columbia River Highway, which was turned into a bike/walking park. It was about 9 miles round trip way up above the river and it was very curvy and hilly. The way to there, I found biking extremely hard, which surprised me because I was the only one of the four of us who even biked very often. When we got to the visitor's station, I took a look at my back wheel (which sounded like it was maybe scraping the brake). It turns out, my brake was actually locked on the back tire completely (probaly due to the bike being transported in the back of the car). Well, the way back was a whole different story. It is amazingly easy to bike when you do not have the brakes on! That night we relaxed in front of the fire, and it was very windy, so we had fun keeping the logs going.
The next morning, we had a quick breakfast and headed out for another bike ride. This time right next to the river and downtown in the Dalles (about 10 miles). This ride was a lot easier and flatter, although the wind was stronger, which made it more interesting. Check out the video below of the ride! Next was a hike in the Deschutes River gorge. On the way out, we were along the river and mostly bush-wacking. Eventually, we headed up the gorge (a nice long trek vertically) and walked along the edge on the way back. On one of the pictures, see if you can spot Linze, Joshy, and Josh sitting on a bench among the long tall prairie grass. The area East of the Dalles is very dry, high desert. There are long prairie grass, and a few places where the river greens things up. It was stark, hot, windy, and beautiful.
 |
| Gorge Camping Trip |
Finally, last weekend, May 29th-31st. Friday night we went and saw the movie UP. It was soooooo great. We really enjoyed it in 3-D, but you wouldn't have to watch it in 3-D to enjoy it. The next morning we got up late and worked in the garden. We had tickets that night to see Cinamatic-Titanic, which is the guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) making fun of an old bad movie. They also did stand up at the beginning, made us laugh through the whole movie, and answered questions from the audience (Josh's question). We were downtown during the Rose festival "Starlight parade" which was still not over at 11pm (even though it started at 9pm) but the Max (public transportation-trains) was packed! We had to wait a few trains before we finally got on. The next morning Josh and I got up a little late and headed toward the coast to do a really steep hike called Elk Mountain. The guide book writes about the hike as a joint hike with a nearby mountain named King, but that was a 13 mile hike and Josh needed to work, so we took just the Elk mountain part. The reason the book recommends the two mountains together is because Elk is so steep they strongly recommend going UP Elk and DOWN King. Well, that would have been great advice, as the hike took us 2 hours to get up, and 2 hours DOWN! Every single step was trecherous because the loose gravel and dry sand was so slippery Josh and I probably fell about 12 times each. I gashed my finger trying to catch myself and the stick nearly went half way through my finger. That made going down hill really difficult bleeding on the bushes and trees I was desperately trying to hang on to. We went so slowly but every time we let our guard down we would slip again. Plus, it was soooooo hot. I was dying on the way up and down. After the hike, I couldn't cool down and got heat stroke again. I laid down for about 2 hours, but still didn't feel much better. I got another really bad headache and felt nausiated. I didn't feel better until the next day. It was still worth the hike for all the great practice we got in for our hike this summer.
 |
| Elk Mountain |
We recieved the best news today! Brian and Andrea are going to make it to Canada this summer to hike Mt. Temple with us! We are so excited to see them and do some serious hiking together!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Day 7
Finally, sleeping in! We didn't get up until almost 8am. All we had on our agenda was to check out of the hotel (ask them to watch our bags) and do some last minute shopping. We headed out to a market to find a shawl for Linze and a T-shirt for Brian. After that, we headed to the main square, where we discovered a parade forming. We stood watching the parade for a long time. We are still unsure of what most of the costumes and dances were representing. They were very strange looking. After a while, we worried that we were getting even more sunburned (it was so nice out). I spotted a balcony overlooking the parade route that was open for lunch. We quickly ran up and grabbed a table with an amazing view. We watched for hours as we leisurely ate lunch. We left after the parade had been going for 3 hours and was still showing no signs of being over.
We made it to the hotel, used the bathroom, got our stuff, and then our guide picked us up and took us to the airport.
We waited in the airport and filled out postcards. Our flight was on time to Lima, so we boarded at 4:45am. We arrived at 6pm back at our favorite airport. Here we ate dinner of Papa Johns, wasted time, and then boarded the plane at 10:50pm. The plane was nice and we were able to sleep some on the flight.
We landed on time at 5:20am Sunday, and sat in the airport of Miami. We had breakfast while we waited. When we boarded our Miami to San Fran flight at 7:30am we got the best surprise of our lives. We found out that our seats, which were not together (2 and 2)were the best seats on the whole plane. They were origionally for the flight crew to sleep, but had been turned into coach seats. The seats fully laid back and had foot rests that came all the way up. We were given comforters (not scratchy blankets) and fluffy pillows, just like the first class seats! There were no seats behind us or in front of us. We were almost in a pod like space. Since the flight was 6 hours long, we enjoyed our sleep for the whole 6 hours!
We arrived in San Fran very well rested. We waited FOREVER! for our luggage. Finally, we were off to our parking space. Once there, we realized that we could not find our receipt saying we already paid. So, we had to pay again and get a form to fill out later to be reimbursed when we find the receipt.
Then, again, finally we were off to Portland via an 11 hour drive. I drove the whole way and we stopped a few times to eat, but otherwise had a very uneventful trip back. We got home at 10:30pm and collapsed in bed after a very nice shower.
We made it to the hotel, used the bathroom, got our stuff, and then our guide picked us up and took us to the airport.
We waited in the airport and filled out postcards. Our flight was on time to Lima, so we boarded at 4:45am. We arrived at 6pm back at our favorite airport. Here we ate dinner of Papa Johns, wasted time, and then boarded the plane at 10:50pm. The plane was nice and we were able to sleep some on the flight.
We landed on time at 5:20am Sunday, and sat in the airport of Miami. We had breakfast while we waited. When we boarded our Miami to San Fran flight at 7:30am we got the best surprise of our lives. We found out that our seats, which were not together (2 and 2)were the best seats on the whole plane. They were origionally for the flight crew to sleep, but had been turned into coach seats. The seats fully laid back and had foot rests that came all the way up. We were given comforters (not scratchy blankets) and fluffy pillows, just like the first class seats! There were no seats behind us or in front of us. We were almost in a pod like space. Since the flight was 6 hours long, we enjoyed our sleep for the whole 6 hours!
We arrived in San Fran very well rested. We waited FOREVER! for our luggage. Finally, we were off to our parking space. Once there, we realized that we could not find our receipt saying we already paid. So, we had to pay again and get a form to fill out later to be reimbursed when we find the receipt.
Then, again, finally we were off to Portland via an 11 hour drive. I drove the whole way and we stopped a few times to eat, but otherwise had a very uneventful trip back. We got home at 10:30pm and collapsed in bed after a very nice shower.
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| Peru - Day 8 |
Day 6
4am came very early. This last night Josh and I slept better than we had all trip, but still not very soundly. The ground was very hard each night and the mat was not very plush. We pretty much tossed and turned every 30 minutes or so to give our sides a break.
Anyway, it was still pretty dark, so we quickly tried to pack and get to breakfast. They served pancakes!! We got in line outside the entrance to the hike down to Machu Picchu, which opened at 5:30AM. The hike to Machu Picchu was pretty hilly, but we were finally acclimatized and able to enjoy the hills without too much huffing and puffing. We all stayed together, but really booked it to the sun gate. This was the top of a mountain where you get your first glimpse of Machu Picchu. Of course, it was pouring down rain, so we could barely make out the ruins below. After more hiking, we made it to Machu Picchu just after 7am.
The sun broke through most of the clouds and we got some fabulous pictures. Juan gave us a wonderful tour of Machu Picchu and we were in awe of the buildings and scenery. After a while, the clouds started to gather again, so we took a few last photos of each other (glam shots) and headed to the bus as it started to rain. We took a bus down the mountain to the small town of Agua Calientes. Juan was waiting for us at a restaurant where we ordered Pisco sours and pizza. Then, it was to the train for a 1 1/2 hour trip to the beginning of our hike. It felt good that it took so long to take a fast train to the beginning of our trip. From there, we boarded a bus, sans porters, and headed for Cuzco. We got the best views of the snow-capped mountains on the trip (as seen in the photos taken from inside the bus). We arrived back to the hotel at 6pm. We ran for the showers.
After showers, we headed out for dinner next door at Boheme again. It was delicious again. We went to do some shopping to kill time before we were supposed to meet the people from our trip at a bar called Ukukus. However, it was very difficult to find and when we got there, only 1 person (the person who suggested it) was there. We had one drink, gave up on the others and headed back to fall into bed. At this point, Josh was not feeling well. He had both the runs and a bad sinus infection. We slept like the dead.
Anyway, it was still pretty dark, so we quickly tried to pack and get to breakfast. They served pancakes!! We got in line outside the entrance to the hike down to Machu Picchu, which opened at 5:30AM. The hike to Machu Picchu was pretty hilly, but we were finally acclimatized and able to enjoy the hills without too much huffing and puffing. We all stayed together, but really booked it to the sun gate. This was the top of a mountain where you get your first glimpse of Machu Picchu. Of course, it was pouring down rain, so we could barely make out the ruins below. After more hiking, we made it to Machu Picchu just after 7am.
The sun broke through most of the clouds and we got some fabulous pictures. Juan gave us a wonderful tour of Machu Picchu and we were in awe of the buildings and scenery. After a while, the clouds started to gather again, so we took a few last photos of each other (glam shots) and headed to the bus as it started to rain. We took a bus down the mountain to the small town of Agua Calientes. Juan was waiting for us at a restaurant where we ordered Pisco sours and pizza. Then, it was to the train for a 1 1/2 hour trip to the beginning of our hike. It felt good that it took so long to take a fast train to the beginning of our trip. From there, we boarded a bus, sans porters, and headed for Cuzco. We got the best views of the snow-capped mountains on the trip (as seen in the photos taken from inside the bus). We arrived back to the hotel at 6pm. We ran for the showers.
After showers, we headed out for dinner next door at Boheme again. It was delicious again. We went to do some shopping to kill time before we were supposed to meet the people from our trip at a bar called Ukukus. However, it was very difficult to find and when we got there, only 1 person (the person who suggested it) was there. We had one drink, gave up on the others and headed back to fall into bed. At this point, Josh was not feeling well. He had both the runs and a bad sinus infection. We slept like the dead.
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| Peru - Day 7 |
Day 5
Day 5 started off the same as day 4. Hot tea, water, and a very early morning. We had one difference at breakfast. One of the guys on the trip had a birthday, so the chef actually baked and frosted not one, but two cakes! Check out the picture. Can you believe they were able to do that at over 13,000 feet? It was absolutely amazing to eat too! The taste of orange, strawberry, and vanilla. It was seriously good.
After breakfast, we headed off on our "easier" day. It started with gaining almost as many feet as yesterday, but a lot more down. When I say down, I mean break-neck stairs. I guess I should mention that the Inca trail was mostly stones laid in a path, but on the steep part, it was actually stairs, many of the stairs were very narrow, much more narrow than my size 9 1/2 feet. It was brutal.
We hiked and hiked and hiked. There was a late lunch because of the terrain, but they gave us a snack to take with us. Orange, apple, candy, cookies. Yum. We didn't start off very fast because one girl in our group was very altitude sick (throwing up and very weak). The only way to get better is to get to lower elevation. Unfortunately, the only way to lower elevation is to go up, up, up, then down. By the time we stopped for lunch, altitude had claimed another victim.
The hike was interesting because we went through several different micro-climates. It was much like a cool temperature jungle. We saw so many beautiful plants and several ruins.
Despite people not feeling well, we all made it to camp for the night.
This was an exciting campground because it had a bar, shop, restaurant, and most importantly SHOWERS! They were supposed to be hot, but they turned out not to be any hotter than luke-warm. We did enjoy a few drinks and loved feeling clean, although it was freezing to take the shower. After dinner, we had all the porters gather together to present our tip. It was very sweet that Juan had each porter stand up and say their name and how happy they were with us, and us with them. We didn't tip as much as we would have liked, considering how much they did for us.
Everyone was in good spirits and met for a quick drink before bed. We were going to be getting up at 4am to get to the sun gate by sunrise.
After breakfast, we headed off on our "easier" day. It started with gaining almost as many feet as yesterday, but a lot more down. When I say down, I mean break-neck stairs. I guess I should mention that the Inca trail was mostly stones laid in a path, but on the steep part, it was actually stairs, many of the stairs were very narrow, much more narrow than my size 9 1/2 feet. It was brutal.
We hiked and hiked and hiked. There was a late lunch because of the terrain, but they gave us a snack to take with us. Orange, apple, candy, cookies. Yum. We didn't start off very fast because one girl in our group was very altitude sick (throwing up and very weak). The only way to get better is to get to lower elevation. Unfortunately, the only way to lower elevation is to go up, up, up, then down. By the time we stopped for lunch, altitude had claimed another victim.
The hike was interesting because we went through several different micro-climates. It was much like a cool temperature jungle. We saw so many beautiful plants and several ruins.
Despite people not feeling well, we all made it to camp for the night.
This was an exciting campground because it had a bar, shop, restaurant, and most importantly SHOWERS! They were supposed to be hot, but they turned out not to be any hotter than luke-warm. We did enjoy a few drinks and loved feeling clean, although it was freezing to take the shower. After dinner, we had all the porters gather together to present our tip. It was very sweet that Juan had each porter stand up and say their name and how happy they were with us, and us with them. We didn't tip as much as we would have liked, considering how much they did for us.
Everyone was in good spirits and met for a quick drink before bed. We were going to be getting up at 4am to get to the sun gate by sunrise.
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| Peru - Day 6 |
Day 4
We were awakened at dawn (5:45)with a nice hot cup of coca tea. Did I mention that coca tea is made with the leaves that are turned into cocaine? :) They also set out tubs of hot water and soap to wash up with. The bathrooms at this first campsite were probably the worst I have seen, I mean smell, ever. There was no light of course, but worse, there was not a way to "flush" the hole in the ground. You had to wipe, then put the used toilet paper into a wastebasket near the "door." With no light and no flushing, you can only imagine how horrible the stench and sight was.
Anyway, we packed up our things and headed over to breakfast. This also was a nice spread of food. They had lots tea, hot chocolate, and very strong coffee (think of a shot of espresso and a whole cup full of milk unable to water it down). They made each of us a fresh omelet with tomatoes, green peppers, and cheese (I ate around the veggies). They also had jelly and bread.
We stayed together as a group for the first hour or so. It was "easy" for the first 2 hours. I can tell you that it wasn't "easy" for me. The altitude was really hard for me. I was huffing and puffing during the "small" hills. Luckily, Linze and Josh were willing to wait for me and Joshy to take our time up the big hills.
This was a beautiful day and although the hike was one of the hardest I have ever been on. We stopped every 20 meters or so to "take pictures" or "tie our shoes" or anything else that let us stop. All told, we gained 3,000 feet in just a few hours. The bad news was that we had to go back down almost all those feet. So, we died on the way up, but our knees almost blew out on the way down. It started to rain on the way down, which made the steep stairs very difficult to navigate. Linze and Joshy started to book it at this point (for some reason they are very annoyed by rain and always take off to try to get out of nature as fast as possible). The funny part was when Joshy was having trouble keeping up, then slid, fell on his ass, but managed to accidentally get revenge on Linze going too fast, by flinging his walking stick and hitting her in the leg.
We arrived at camp by 3pm, and found we were the last ones there. They had all waited on lunch for us (which was nice and unexpected). We again had a huge feast and enjoyed soup and many plates of food. After lunch, we went to find the bathroom where we had a very interesting experience. We had brought toilet paper, but when you try and poop while squatting over a toilet bowl with no lid, the poop tends to stick to your butt. So, even though I was shaking and shaking, the poop would not fall. So, I had to grab ahold of it and try to wipe clean. However, I did not have enough toilet paper. All I had with me was a map of Cuzco. So, even after tearing it into 4 pieces, getting poo on my hands, I gave up and came out of the bathroom. Linze was up next, she also ran out of toilet paper, yelled from the stall and Josh handed her his old plane ticket. Again, like my experience, a torn up plane ticket does not stop you from getting poo on your hands, or get your butt clean. I rememembered that Dave and Rowan had baby wipes. We went back to camp on a mission to get our backsides clean. They obliged and soon we kicked the boys out of our tents and spent some quality, but cold and slimy time getting cleaned up.
After that, we decided to go and stretch. Man are we true believers of stretching after this trip.
We headed back to camp for tea time where we had crackers and popcorn again. However, we were not as hungry since we had just eaten lunch. We ate anyway of course.
After snack, we walked around and took pictures of mountains and the campground. It wasn't long before dinner, which we were not very hungry for either.
We ate a huge dinner and even managed to eat desert.
Again, we went to bed early since the next day would be the longest hike. Plus, it was cloudy and no stars.
Anyway, we packed up our things and headed over to breakfast. This also was a nice spread of food. They had lots tea, hot chocolate, and very strong coffee (think of a shot of espresso and a whole cup full of milk unable to water it down). They made each of us a fresh omelet with tomatoes, green peppers, and cheese (I ate around the veggies). They also had jelly and bread.
We stayed together as a group for the first hour or so. It was "easy" for the first 2 hours. I can tell you that it wasn't "easy" for me. The altitude was really hard for me. I was huffing and puffing during the "small" hills. Luckily, Linze and Josh were willing to wait for me and Joshy to take our time up the big hills.
This was a beautiful day and although the hike was one of the hardest I have ever been on. We stopped every 20 meters or so to "take pictures" or "tie our shoes" or anything else that let us stop. All told, we gained 3,000 feet in just a few hours. The bad news was that we had to go back down almost all those feet. So, we died on the way up, but our knees almost blew out on the way down. It started to rain on the way down, which made the steep stairs very difficult to navigate. Linze and Joshy started to book it at this point (for some reason they are very annoyed by rain and always take off to try to get out of nature as fast as possible). The funny part was when Joshy was having trouble keeping up, then slid, fell on his ass, but managed to accidentally get revenge on Linze going too fast, by flinging his walking stick and hitting her in the leg.
We arrived at camp by 3pm, and found we were the last ones there. They had all waited on lunch for us (which was nice and unexpected). We again had a huge feast and enjoyed soup and many plates of food. After lunch, we went to find the bathroom where we had a very interesting experience. We had brought toilet paper, but when you try and poop while squatting over a toilet bowl with no lid, the poop tends to stick to your butt. So, even though I was shaking and shaking, the poop would not fall. So, I had to grab ahold of it and try to wipe clean. However, I did not have enough toilet paper. All I had with me was a map of Cuzco. So, even after tearing it into 4 pieces, getting poo on my hands, I gave up and came out of the bathroom. Linze was up next, she also ran out of toilet paper, yelled from the stall and Josh handed her his old plane ticket. Again, like my experience, a torn up plane ticket does not stop you from getting poo on your hands, or get your butt clean. I rememembered that Dave and Rowan had baby wipes. We went back to camp on a mission to get our backsides clean. They obliged and soon we kicked the boys out of our tents and spent some quality, but cold and slimy time getting cleaned up.
After that, we decided to go and stretch. Man are we true believers of stretching after this trip.
We headed back to camp for tea time where we had crackers and popcorn again. However, we were not as hungry since we had just eaten lunch. We ate anyway of course.
After snack, we walked around and took pictures of mountains and the campground. It wasn't long before dinner, which we were not very hungry for either.
We ate a huge dinner and even managed to eat desert.
Again, we went to bed early since the next day would be the longest hike. Plus, it was cloudy and no stars.
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| Peru - Day 5 |
Day 3
We woke up at about 5am and ate breakfast at the hotel. Juan was a little late picking us up, but we got in the van about 6:10am. The van had about 10 people on it, including two girls from our white water rafting trip. We made one more stop to pick up the last people from our trip, and then once again to pick up our porters. I can tell you the smell was one I have never experienced. It was spicy, pungent, and with a slight hint of wet manure. We were on the bus until 10:30, so we really got to enjoy the full subtleties of the smell.
At one point, we stopped to get gas. I went to the bathroom in the "restroom." I had no idea that my experience at the gas station was a preview of what was to come. Of course, I forgot to bring toilet paper with me, so I was forced to use a business card to wipe. It worked about as well as you could imagine.
We arrived at a small town just outside the beginning of the trail. The ladies immediately tried to get us to buy all sorts of things. We settled on buying walking sticks and ponchos. We had a quick cup of coca tea and then were wisked away on the bus again.
The rest of the trip was very interesting because it was a one lane road but two way traffic. So, everytime another car/van came, both vehicles would honk and the one with the loudest or most persistant honk got to go forward, the weaker vehicle would have to go backwards until there was enough space for the weakling to pull over enough for the loud one to get by.
We finally arrived at the start of the trail where we were bombarded again by the local ladies who peddled more wares. We started walking by crossing the Urubamba river. The hike was pretty easy, not much up or down. We stopped at about 1pm for lunch. The porters set up a large tent and cooked food for us.
While we waited (the only day we actually had to wait for lunch) we played with a small booke, where two of the guys with us made a dam. A local little girl came and talked to us and sat while we played with the dam. Our lunch started with quinoa soup (delicious) and chicken. We finished with tea.
We got walking again and stopped after a few hours. The porters had run ahead of us and set up for tea time. They made hot water for tea or hot chocolate and brought out cookies and freshly popped popcorn! We couldn't belive it. After a nice long tea and getting to know our fellow travelers, Juan called us out to look at the sunset.
The "sunset" was really watching the setting sun's rays hit the snow-capped mountains. Which, of course we hated. Just kidding, we took like a million pictures. After the sun went down, it was almost time for dinner, so we went into the tents to get our stuff all ready for bed. Dinner was incredible. We started with soup again, then we had about 5 dishes of vegetables, rice, potatoes, pasta, and chicken. It was sooooooo good.
After dinner, we went outside to enjoy the stars. They were so vibrant and bright. We hit the sack early since we would be getting up at 5:45am to get started on the hardest day of hiking.
At one point, we stopped to get gas. I went to the bathroom in the "restroom." I had no idea that my experience at the gas station was a preview of what was to come. Of course, I forgot to bring toilet paper with me, so I was forced to use a business card to wipe. It worked about as well as you could imagine.
We arrived at a small town just outside the beginning of the trail. The ladies immediately tried to get us to buy all sorts of things. We settled on buying walking sticks and ponchos. We had a quick cup of coca tea and then were wisked away on the bus again.
The rest of the trip was very interesting because it was a one lane road but two way traffic. So, everytime another car/van came, both vehicles would honk and the one with the loudest or most persistant honk got to go forward, the weaker vehicle would have to go backwards until there was enough space for the weakling to pull over enough for the loud one to get by.
We finally arrived at the start of the trail where we were bombarded again by the local ladies who peddled more wares. We started walking by crossing the Urubamba river. The hike was pretty easy, not much up or down. We stopped at about 1pm for lunch. The porters set up a large tent and cooked food for us.
While we waited (the only day we actually had to wait for lunch) we played with a small booke, where two of the guys with us made a dam. A local little girl came and talked to us and sat while we played with the dam. Our lunch started with quinoa soup (delicious) and chicken. We finished with tea.
We got walking again and stopped after a few hours. The porters had run ahead of us and set up for tea time. They made hot water for tea or hot chocolate and brought out cookies and freshly popped popcorn! We couldn't belive it. After a nice long tea and getting to know our fellow travelers, Juan called us out to look at the sunset.
The "sunset" was really watching the setting sun's rays hit the snow-capped mountains. Which, of course we hated. Just kidding, we took like a million pictures. After the sun went down, it was almost time for dinner, so we went into the tents to get our stuff all ready for bed. Dinner was incredible. We started with soup again, then we had about 5 dishes of vegetables, rice, potatoes, pasta, and chicken. It was sooooooo good.
After dinner, we went outside to enjoy the stars. They were so vibrant and bright. We hit the sack early since we would be getting up at 5:45am to get started on the hardest day of hiking.
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| Peru - Day 4 |
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Day 2
We woke up at about 9am and headed to the hotel's breakfast. It was actually quite nice. We had fresh squeezed juice and local fruit. They made us eggs and we made toast. Carlos and Alex, our white water rafting guides picked us up at 9:45 to take us south of Cuzco.
We drove for a few hours in a van with some other people to a nice spot on the Urubamba river. We helped to pump up the rubber rafts and learned a few basics about rafting. Josh was the only person who had been rafting before, so it was a crash course for the rest of us.
We separated into 2 boats (Josh, Joshy, Linze, me, and another girl in one, and 4 girls in the other) and headed down the river. It was so fun. Our guide realized how strong we were (unlike the boat of really skinny girls) and took us right in the middle of strong rapids. We were a little worried about getting many different mouthfuls of water (which was very brown), but stopped worrying when we were having such a good time. Half-way down the river, we stopped the boat just after a bridge. Our guide offered for us to jump off the bridge into the river and swim back to the boat. Of course, Linze, Josh, and I "jumped" at the chance. Joshy was not feeling as adventurous, so he played camera man. (we'll post the pictures later since they were taken on a disposable water camera that has not been developed yet).
After our jump, we rafted further down river to our picnic spot. The picnic was much nicer than we expected. They had chicken, vegetables, bread, Crush orange soda, and hot tea. We gobbled it down, cleaned up, and headed back to the van to go back to the hotel. Unfortunately, we had lots of sunscreen on, but got very burned on our hands (where I didn't even think to put sunscreen). I also got the tops of my feet burned, and my lips. Josh got it the worst. Over the next few days, he developed blisters and today is peeling very badly. My lips also developed blisters and is just now feeling better.
Once at teh hotel, we went to go shopping at an artisan market where we found many more purchases. We then ate dinner at a restaurant next door to the hotel because we were meeting at 8pm with Juan about our hike the next day. The Boheme Cafe was the best place we had eaten yet. Very good Pisco sours and excellent food at great prices.
After dinner, we bought some local wine (the night before we had some local wine that was very sweet and undrinkable). We also bought a back-up wine from Chile in case the Peruvian wine was undrinkable again. We opened it and waited for Juan. He arrived and asked for a glass too, so we drank and chatted about what to pack, what the trail would be like, and what to expect for tomorrow.
Juan left and we got packing. We sorted through our stuff and took more out. Our hotel was going to keep our extra baggage for us so we could leave a lot behind. The company was going to carry our sleeping bags, so that made more room for our stuff.
We went to bed later than I would have liked (about 11) and took one last shower before our trip.
We drove for a few hours in a van with some other people to a nice spot on the Urubamba river. We helped to pump up the rubber rafts and learned a few basics about rafting. Josh was the only person who had been rafting before, so it was a crash course for the rest of us.
We separated into 2 boats (Josh, Joshy, Linze, me, and another girl in one, and 4 girls in the other) and headed down the river. It was so fun. Our guide realized how strong we were (unlike the boat of really skinny girls) and took us right in the middle of strong rapids. We were a little worried about getting many different mouthfuls of water (which was very brown), but stopped worrying when we were having such a good time. Half-way down the river, we stopped the boat just after a bridge. Our guide offered for us to jump off the bridge into the river and swim back to the boat. Of course, Linze, Josh, and I "jumped" at the chance. Joshy was not feeling as adventurous, so he played camera man. (we'll post the pictures later since they were taken on a disposable water camera that has not been developed yet).
After our jump, we rafted further down river to our picnic spot. The picnic was much nicer than we expected. They had chicken, vegetables, bread, Crush orange soda, and hot tea. We gobbled it down, cleaned up, and headed back to the van to go back to the hotel. Unfortunately, we had lots of sunscreen on, but got very burned on our hands (where I didn't even think to put sunscreen). I also got the tops of my feet burned, and my lips. Josh got it the worst. Over the next few days, he developed blisters and today is peeling very badly. My lips also developed blisters and is just now feeling better.
Once at teh hotel, we went to go shopping at an artisan market where we found many more purchases. We then ate dinner at a restaurant next door to the hotel because we were meeting at 8pm with Juan about our hike the next day. The Boheme Cafe was the best place we had eaten yet. Very good Pisco sours and excellent food at great prices.
After dinner, we bought some local wine (the night before we had some local wine that was very sweet and undrinkable). We also bought a back-up wine from Chile in case the Peruvian wine was undrinkable again. We opened it and waited for Juan. He arrived and asked for a glass too, so we drank and chatted about what to pack, what the trail would be like, and what to expect for tomorrow.
Juan left and we got packing. We sorted through our stuff and took more out. Our hotel was going to keep our extra baggage for us so we could leave a lot behind. The company was going to carry our sleeping bags, so that made more room for our stuff.
We went to bed later than I would have liked (about 11) and took one last shower before our trip.
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| Peru - Day 3 |
Day 1
After arriving at 8 in the morning after hardly any sleep, we were picked up at the airport by our coordinator and taken to our hotel. The ride to the hotel was interesting because we were able to see the layout of the city and what it looked like. It was much poorer than I expected (having been to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile). Not that I expected it to be cosmopolitan, but I did not expect to see so many "houses" without windows, tons of random dogs, and general poverty without many buildings that were nice or somewhat kept up. Our coordinator checked us in to our hotel, which was near the main square of town and pretty nice. We settled into our rooms and quickly got back together to do some sightseeing and shopping. We had a great time looking around the main square and finding the local markets. The pictures cannot convey the stench of meat, fish, and other local produce at the "people's market." We did find some cool souvenirs.
We found a restaurant at the square for lunch and all of us tried Alpaca. It is very lean, cholesterol free, and delicious.
The company had a city tour set up for us at 1:15, so we went back to the hotel to be picked up by a sight seeing bus. We toured the main square's cathedral, which was very beautiful and interesting. The Spanish had oppressed the Quetchuan people and converted them to the catholic religion. The local people were trained to paint all the classic pictures of images from the bible to decorate the church. Those sneaky Quetchuan's took classic images and made slight changes to embrace their own bliefs. For example, the last supper painting features cuy (guinnea pig), the paintings of the Virgin Mary feature very large dresses that make their bodies the shape of the local mountains. (they worshiped mountains in their religion, so this image was in several of the paintings). We loved how they subtly stuck it to the man.
After the cathedral, we went to a monistary. Inside the building was some origional walls that were built by the Quetchuan people to honor their gods. The walls were amazing because they were made of huge stones that were hand carved without the use of metal. We also learned more of the history of the Quetchuan people.
We boarded the bus and headed up the hill for a tour of sachsaywaman. Pronounced "sex-ay woman" This is a huge zig-zag wall that was made much like the monistary wall. These boulders were even bigger and moved from much further away. Modern technology cannot figure out how the people built this monument. If you look at the pictures closely, you'll see that the stones fit perfectly together and yet they have no motar between them. They are perfectly placed, smooth, and rounded. It was amazing.
After that, we headed to a gift shop, where we got to try a coca remedy for headaches. The tour bus headed back to the square where we decided to get dinner. We were adventurous and tried some interesting food. Joshy got a whole cuy (guinnea pig) which looked like it was surprised to be cooked. It had an open mouth (complete with teeth), curled toes (with nails), and a crispy ball sack. Josh ordered a sample platter which had beef hearts and cuy. His cuy was exactly 1/4 of a cuy. They literally cut the cuy into a 1/4. He got 1/2 of the head, split lenghtwise down the middle. Again, Linze and I were staring right into the mouth of a cuy while we ate our tamer meals.
After dinner, it was time for bed! We settled in our comfortable rooms, showered, and jumped in bed.
We found a restaurant at the square for lunch and all of us tried Alpaca. It is very lean, cholesterol free, and delicious.
The company had a city tour set up for us at 1:15, so we went back to the hotel to be picked up by a sight seeing bus. We toured the main square's cathedral, which was very beautiful and interesting. The Spanish had oppressed the Quetchuan people and converted them to the catholic religion. The local people were trained to paint all the classic pictures of images from the bible to decorate the church. Those sneaky Quetchuan's took classic images and made slight changes to embrace their own bliefs. For example, the last supper painting features cuy (guinnea pig), the paintings of the Virgin Mary feature very large dresses that make their bodies the shape of the local mountains. (they worshiped mountains in their religion, so this image was in several of the paintings). We loved how they subtly stuck it to the man.
After the cathedral, we went to a monistary. Inside the building was some origional walls that were built by the Quetchuan people to honor their gods. The walls were amazing because they were made of huge stones that were hand carved without the use of metal. We also learned more of the history of the Quetchuan people.
We boarded the bus and headed up the hill for a tour of sachsaywaman. Pronounced "sex-ay woman" This is a huge zig-zag wall that was made much like the monistary wall. These boulders were even bigger and moved from much further away. Modern technology cannot figure out how the people built this monument. If you look at the pictures closely, you'll see that the stones fit perfectly together and yet they have no motar between them. They are perfectly placed, smooth, and rounded. It was amazing.
After that, we headed to a gift shop, where we got to try a coca remedy for headaches. The tour bus headed back to the square where we decided to get dinner. We were adventurous and tried some interesting food. Joshy got a whole cuy (guinnea pig) which looked like it was surprised to be cooked. It had an open mouth (complete with teeth), curled toes (with nails), and a crispy ball sack. Josh ordered a sample platter which had beef hearts and cuy. His cuy was exactly 1/4 of a cuy. They literally cut the cuy into a 1/4. He got 1/2 of the head, split lenghtwise down the middle. Again, Linze and I were staring right into the mouth of a cuy while we ate our tamer meals.
After dinner, it was time for bed! We settled in our comfortable rooms, showered, and jumped in bed.
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| Peru - Day 2 |
Our travel to Peru
Ok, we are crazy to plan this trip over such a short amount of time. Here's the time line for our travel to Peru:
Josh picked me up from school early at 3:30pm. We drove to Linze and Joshy's house by 4pm. We loaded our car and headed for San Franscisco.
If anyone knows where Portland is in relation to San Franscisco, it is a nice long car ride. We arrived to the airport at 2:30 in the morning. Of course, we did not know if the airport would even be open (which it wasn't). So we parked our car at a park-n-ride and rode to the airport. Once there, we realized that the counters weren't open, neither was security. So, we hunkered down in some very uncomfortable seats and waited/tried to sleep. It was a long, uncomfortable wait until 5am. We checked in and headed to the terminal to wait until our flight at 9:25am.
Our flight landed at 10:55am in L.A., we had to go to the international terminal. The L.A. airport is a real hell-hole and under construction, so instead of going to the international terminal via a tunnel or escalator, we headed outside and through a very long line for inspection. Then, it was hurry up and wait for our 1:50pm flight to Lima.
As I said, LAX is a horrible airport and there was only 1 store in the whole international terminal, it was expensive, and the food was terrible. Anyway, we boarded on time and were off to Lima, Peru.
The flight was pretty nice because each of our seats had a t.v. screen and you could chose any movie, tv show, or game to play for free. So, of course, instead of trying to sleep, I mostly chose to watch movies and listen to music. Joshy, Josh, and Linze were able to get some sleep, but I only got maybe an hour.
Unfortunately, we arrived in Lima early! Just before midnight, instead of 12:25. It might not sound like a big deal, but when you have already been awake for over 24 hours, any additional minutes of possible sleep (even if on a plane) is desired over waiting in a closed airport.
Turns out, the Lima airport is awake a kicking 24 hours a day. We found a food court just outside customs where we had to wait until our flight was posted on the bulletin board outside the gate. So, we were waiting until 2AM in the food court. Joshy decided to try and sleep on the uncomfortable chairs all lined up in a row (see the picture). We enjoyed the food choices: Papa John's pizza, Dunken Doughnuts, and Mc Donald's. Instead, we indulged in gelato and Peruvian beer. (it is our vacation afterall)
We were able to get into the terminal just after 2, so we found some pretty comfortable seats and I finally got a few hours of very interrupted sleep. Every 10 minutes or so, the intercom would bing and a very loud voice would announce a flight that was taking place in a different terminal in at least 2 languages. It was very annoying, but at least we were able to fully lie down and sleep in between bings.
Our flight to Cuzco was at 5:50am, but of course it was delayed...So we actually didn't leave until 6:30. We arrived just after 8am and were picked up by the company we booked our travel with. This was the offical start to day 1 in Peru.
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| Peru - Day 1 |
Machu Picchu!
We got home on Sunday night after 10pm, so we have taken the last 2 days to catch up on our sleep and our sanity. Here are the pictures and the diary of our crazy, fast-paced week long vacation!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Update on the Last month
Molly and I have been fairly busy for the past 3 weeks. We have both been working out a lot to try to get in good shape for our Peru hike at the end of March. I'd say that we're doing very well with that. I'm down to 207 lbs, and put on a ton of muscle. Molly has lost a little weight, too, and is getting very strong too.
On top of that, we have been on a budget... in this economy you really can't be too careful. Not that we we're crazy spenders anyway, but we have been lazy about getting the credit cards paid off. We were sitting at 15k at the beginning of December, and we'll be credit card debt free on March 20th... and that is including the Peru trip, and a trip to Atlanta that we added in between there. So we've been playing it all pretty low-key. Eating in as much as possible, not buying expensive wine (it was suprising how much we were spending on that). Quicken really is a life-saver for tracking all of that.
Last night we went out for the first time this month. We had a coupon for a place here in town near our house, and had some movie tickets that we had purchased from Costco last year. The dinner was pretty good... a bit expensive, but it was nice to get out of the house. Afterward we saw Coraline, which is a Tim Burton animated film. It was filmed here in Portland, and it was in 3D... I loved it, and recommend it highly.
On Monday Molly is getting a colonoscopy, just as a preventative thing since she has family history (and personal history) of that kind of problem. So tomorrow she cannot eat anything except clear liquids, and has to take a "sh*t ton" of mirolax. Not fun... but at least its not me doing it :)
Molly flew out to Atlanta for her Mom's birthday over Valentines day (last weekend)... I stayed home because it really was cost-prohibitive... one ticket was $500, and $1000 for 48 hour trip is really out of our budget right now. She said she had a great time and enjoyed seeing her family. She gave her mom some neat gifts. She spent like 5 weeks learning some of her Mom's favorite songs on piano and did a concert for the whole family. She had them down cold here at the house, but said she messed up a lot when it counted. She also put together a cool slide-show of her mom's life to music, and burned it onto a DVD for her. It was very cool.
I've been working my butt off. I've worked pretty much 75 hours a week for the past 5 weeks. I should be working right now, and I'll get back to it right after this. I'm ready to be done with this project, for sure. I'm hoping to be "over the hump" so-to-speak by Tuesday or Wednesday... and I think that is obtainable.
Anyway, I should get back to it. I apologize to everybody that I've been ignoring as of late... its not on purpose. I'm just swamped. I can't wait to get back to a "normal" life of wine-tasting, hot-tub-sitting, skiing and mountain climbing. I love it here!
On top of that, we have been on a budget... in this economy you really can't be too careful. Not that we we're crazy spenders anyway, but we have been lazy about getting the credit cards paid off. We were sitting at 15k at the beginning of December, and we'll be credit card debt free on March 20th... and that is including the Peru trip, and a trip to Atlanta that we added in between there. So we've been playing it all pretty low-key. Eating in as much as possible, not buying expensive wine (it was suprising how much we were spending on that). Quicken really is a life-saver for tracking all of that.
Last night we went out for the first time this month. We had a coupon for a place here in town near our house, and had some movie tickets that we had purchased from Costco last year. The dinner was pretty good... a bit expensive, but it was nice to get out of the house. Afterward we saw Coraline, which is a Tim Burton animated film. It was filmed here in Portland, and it was in 3D... I loved it, and recommend it highly.
On Monday Molly is getting a colonoscopy, just as a preventative thing since she has family history (and personal history) of that kind of problem. So tomorrow she cannot eat anything except clear liquids, and has to take a "sh*t ton" of mirolax. Not fun... but at least its not me doing it :)
Molly flew out to Atlanta for her Mom's birthday over Valentines day (last weekend)... I stayed home because it really was cost-prohibitive... one ticket was $500, and $1000 for 48 hour trip is really out of our budget right now. She said she had a great time and enjoyed seeing her family. She gave her mom some neat gifts. She spent like 5 weeks learning some of her Mom's favorite songs on piano and did a concert for the whole family. She had them down cold here at the house, but said she messed up a lot when it counted. She also put together a cool slide-show of her mom's life to music, and burned it onto a DVD for her. It was very cool.
I've been working my butt off. I've worked pretty much 75 hours a week for the past 5 weeks. I should be working right now, and I'll get back to it right after this. I'm ready to be done with this project, for sure. I'm hoping to be "over the hump" so-to-speak by Tuesday or Wednesday... and I think that is obtainable.
Anyway, I should get back to it. I apologize to everybody that I've been ignoring as of late... its not on purpose. I'm just swamped. I can't wait to get back to a "normal" life of wine-tasting, hot-tub-sitting, skiing and mountain climbing. I love it here!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
A Terrible Weekend
Ok, so Molly and I had a really horrible weekend that I think we should blog about.
It all started out on Friday the 16th of January. We were going to stay at home at eat some leftovers... but we opened up the fridge and discovered that we didn't have any leftovers. THE HORROR BEGINS! We had heard about a restaurant that has this thing like "rat fest" or "crab fest" or something like that. We decided that our day was already in a downward spiral... lets give it a shot. We got in with our friends Lindsey and Josh and had to sit at the bar to wait for a table... and drank martinis. When a table opened up, a whole 10 minutes later we discovered that it was "bug fest"... these giant sea bugs called "crabs". We gave it a shot. It was terrible... this whole crab with long spikey legs and butter, crab bisque, crab cakes... yuck.
The next day we found that it was kind of sunny. Us Pacific Northwesterners don't care much for the sun... we decided to try to escape to the coast. It is January here... so we were expecting 35 degree weather. DAMN IT if it wasn't 70 degrees and sunny on the coast. We had to walk on the beach, sweating our balls off. Then we ate a twinkie glazed in banana icing (gross), ate some terrible seafood (crabcakes, oyster po' boy... nasty) and drank a really cold bottle of wine while listening to the waves crash on the beach. Lastly we splashed around in the tide pools near Haystack Rock. Bleech!
Sunday morning, because we were so tired of the sun and heat, we decided to drive east to the mountains to escape the horrible weather. When we arrived at our destination, Mt. Hood Ski Bowl, we found that the weather was also sunny.... and COLD! The slopes were practically pure ice, making the skiing awful! Slid around for hours and hours and hours... when the sun finally went down, they turned on the lights and then continued skiing for another hour... GOD, terrible.
Monday, back to work... But then Monday evening we discovered that we bought tickets to a Blazers game (the Portland Trailblazers). We ate at an irish pub downtown... you all know how much I hate irish food and beer... and then we hopped the "MAX" to the game. It was terrible.. Portland won, scored 100pts, scoring US a free coupon for a gordita at Taco Bell.
Well, I know the pictures will bring you to our personal HELL we experienced.
Try to enjoy.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Peru Itinerary, per request:
All this for $685 per person, doesn't include airfare.
CUSCO ADVENTURE BUDGET (7 DAYS AND 6 NIGHTS)
*********************************************************
DAY 1: MARCH 22ND CUSCO
Reception at the airport of Cusco and transfer to the hotel.
In the afternoon: Cusco City Tour from 2 pm to 6:30
pm. This tour includes the Qoricancha (Temple of the Sun) and the Cathedral.
The tour drives along the Circunvalacion Road up to famous fortress of
Sacsahuaman, then to Q'enqo, Puca Pucara and Tambomachay with Spanish and
English speaking professional guide. Includes Tourist ticket valid for the
entrance to many museums and ruins as well. Overnight.
DAY 2: MARCH 23RD RAFTING
Breakfast. At 09:00 hrs. we leave for Urubamba river on the Sacred Valley of
the Incas (North of Cusco), where our guide will give a introductory chat on
safety and equipment for our trip running the Urubamba. After lunch we
return back to Cusco, arriving at around 17:00 hrs. Overnight . (B,L)
INCLUDED:
*Private Round Trip Transportation.
*Professional English/Spanish speaking rafting guide.
*Lunch (Meal, salad, sodas, tea, coffee, desert, fruits) *Complete Rafting
Equipment (helmet, life jacket, rain coat, paddle, wetsuit, boat).
OPTIONAL:
Video and Photos Service.
WE RECOMMEND TO BRING:
*Bathing suit
*Towel
*Sandals or running shoes
*Short pants (to use over the wet suit)
*Hat, sun block
*Photo camera.
DAY 3: MARCH 24TH INCA TRAIL 4DAYS 3NIGHTS
PISKAKUCHO (KM. 82) - WAYLLABAMBA
A spectacular early morning drive through the Sacred Valley of the Incas
takes us to our trailhead at Km. 82 of the Machu Picchu railroad. After
getting acquainted with our trail crew we set out, crossing a footbridge to
hike a gentle two hours down the Urubamba canyon, and then visit imposing
sculpted Inca farming terraces and the settlement of Llaqtapata on the banks
of the Cusichaca side river. We then climb a short way up the Cusichaca
valley to Wayllabamba, the last inhabited village on the trail, where we
camp.
DAY 4: MARCH 25TH WAYLLABAMBA - PAKASMAYU
We climb the steep-sided Llullucha valley past a rushing stream and through
enchanted native polylepis woodland. Crossing the rim of a small plateau, we
abruptly find ourselves in the puna, the treeless grasslands of the high
Andes. The trail traverses an open slope opposite mighty mountain crags as
we ascend to the first and highest pass, Warmiwañusca (4,200m/13,776ft).
Here we encounter spectacular views of the trail ahead to the second pass,
and look back to the sweeping snowpeaks and valleys of the Huayanay massif.
The trail to the floor of the forested Pakasmayu valley, where we make camp.
DAY 5: MARCH 26TH PAKASMAYU - WIÑAY WAYNA
We pick up an Inca stairway and ascend again past the small Inca site of
Runkuracay. As we reach the second pass, the landscape opens onto
spectacular new views to the snowpeaks of the Pumasillo range. We descend to
the ruins of Sayacmarca (Inaccessible Town), an intricate labyrinth of
houses, plazas and water channels, perched precariously on a rocky spur
overlooking the Aobamba valley. The Inca trail, now a massive buttressed
structure of granite paving stones, continues along the steep upper fringes
of the cloud forest through a colorful riot of orchids, bromeliads, mosses
and ferns. At the third pass pinnacles topped with Inca viewing platforms
overlook the archaeological complex of Phuyupatamarca (Cloud-level Town).
Pausing to explore the wondrous maze of Inca stone towers, fountains and
stairways that spillins down the mountainside here, we begin a long descent
through ever-changing layers of cloud forest. An Inca stairway partly cut
from living granite leads us finally to our camp by the ruins of Wiñay Wayna
(Forever Young), the largest and most exquisite of the Inca Trail sites.
DAY 6: MARCH 27TH WIÑAY WAYNA - MACHU PICCHU - CUSCO
An early morning hike takes us across a steep mountainside through lush,
humid cloud-forest of giant ferns and broad-leaf vegetation. Suddenly we
cross the stone threshold of Intipunku (Sun Gate) and encounter an
unforgettable sweep of natural beauty and human artistry -a backdrop of
twisting gorge and forested peaks framing the magical city of Machu Picchu.
We complete the final leg down the royal flagstone walkway, past outlying
shrines and buildings and into the heart of Machu Picchu, where we spend the
rest of the morning with a guided tour of the highlights and some individual
exploring among Machu Picchu's multitude of hidden nooks and corners. In the
early afternoon a bus takes us to the small town of Aguas Calientes, where
we board our return train to Cusco Overnight at the hotell.
DAY 7: MARCH 28TH Transfer out
Breakfast, transfer to the airport and end of our services. (B)
CUSCO ADVENTURE BUDGET (7 DAYS AND 6 NIGHTS)
*********************************************************
DAY 1: MARCH 22ND CUSCO
Reception at the airport of Cusco and transfer to the hotel.
In the afternoon: Cusco City Tour from 2 pm to 6:30
pm. This tour includes the Qoricancha (Temple of the Sun) and the Cathedral.
The tour drives along the Circunvalacion Road up to famous fortress of
Sacsahuaman, then to Q'enqo, Puca Pucara and Tambomachay with Spanish and
English speaking professional guide. Includes Tourist ticket valid for the
entrance to many museums and ruins as well. Overnight.
DAY 2: MARCH 23RD RAFTING
Breakfast. At 09:00 hrs. we leave for Urubamba river on the Sacred Valley of
the Incas (North of Cusco), where our guide will give a introductory chat on
safety and equipment for our trip running the Urubamba. After lunch we
return back to Cusco, arriving at around 17:00 hrs. Overnight . (B,L)
INCLUDED:
*Private Round Trip Transportation.
*Professional English/Spanish speaking rafting guide.
*Lunch (Meal, salad, sodas, tea, coffee, desert, fruits) *Complete Rafting
Equipment (helmet, life jacket, rain coat, paddle, wetsuit, boat).
OPTIONAL:
Video and Photos Service.
WE RECOMMEND TO BRING:
*Bathing suit
*Towel
*Sandals or running shoes
*Short pants (to use over the wet suit)
*Hat, sun block
*Photo camera.
DAY 3: MARCH 24TH INCA TRAIL 4DAYS 3NIGHTS
PISKAKUCHO (KM. 82) - WAYLLABAMBA
A spectacular early morning drive through the Sacred Valley of the Incas
takes us to our trailhead at Km. 82 of the Machu Picchu railroad. After
getting acquainted with our trail crew we set out, crossing a footbridge to
hike a gentle two hours down the Urubamba canyon, and then visit imposing
sculpted Inca farming terraces and the settlement of Llaqtapata on the banks
of the Cusichaca side river. We then climb a short way up the Cusichaca
valley to Wayllabamba, the last inhabited village on the trail, where we
camp.
DAY 4: MARCH 25TH WAYLLABAMBA - PAKASMAYU
We climb the steep-sided Llullucha valley past a rushing stream and through
enchanted native polylepis woodland. Crossing the rim of a small plateau, we
abruptly find ourselves in the puna, the treeless grasslands of the high
Andes. The trail traverses an open slope opposite mighty mountain crags as
we ascend to the first and highest pass, Warmiwañusca (4,200m/13,776ft).
Here we encounter spectacular views of the trail ahead to the second pass,
and look back to the sweeping snowpeaks and valleys of the Huayanay massif.
The trail to the floor of the forested Pakasmayu valley, where we make camp.
DAY 5: MARCH 26TH PAKASMAYU - WIÑAY WAYNA
We pick up an Inca stairway and ascend again past the small Inca site of
Runkuracay. As we reach the second pass, the landscape opens onto
spectacular new views to the snowpeaks of the Pumasillo range. We descend to
the ruins of Sayacmarca (Inaccessible Town), an intricate labyrinth of
houses, plazas and water channels, perched precariously on a rocky spur
overlooking the Aobamba valley. The Inca trail, now a massive buttressed
structure of granite paving stones, continues along the steep upper fringes
of the cloud forest through a colorful riot of orchids, bromeliads, mosses
and ferns. At the third pass pinnacles topped with Inca viewing platforms
overlook the archaeological complex of Phuyupatamarca (Cloud-level Town).
Pausing to explore the wondrous maze of Inca stone towers, fountains and
stairways that spillins down the mountainside here, we begin a long descent
through ever-changing layers of cloud forest. An Inca stairway partly cut
from living granite leads us finally to our camp by the ruins of Wiñay Wayna
(Forever Young), the largest and most exquisite of the Inca Trail sites.
DAY 6: MARCH 27TH WIÑAY WAYNA - MACHU PICCHU - CUSCO
An early morning hike takes us across a steep mountainside through lush,
humid cloud-forest of giant ferns and broad-leaf vegetation. Suddenly we
cross the stone threshold of Intipunku (Sun Gate) and encounter an
unforgettable sweep of natural beauty and human artistry -a backdrop of
twisting gorge and forested peaks framing the magical city of Machu Picchu.
We complete the final leg down the royal flagstone walkway, past outlying
shrines and buildings and into the heart of Machu Picchu, where we spend the
rest of the morning with a guided tour of the highlights and some individual
exploring among Machu Picchu's multitude of hidden nooks and corners. In the
early afternoon a bus takes us to the small town of Aguas Calientes, where
we board our return train to Cusco Overnight at the hotell.
DAY 7: MARCH 28TH Transfer out
Breakfast, transfer to the airport and end of our services. (B)
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