Pictures that should be inserted to previous posts!

So I know it was probably a bummer to read those posts about Europe and have no pics to go along with it, so here are some!!
And I don't think I need to specify where this one is! :)


Coolest day ever in Holland visiting original and still in service wind mills!



My buddy in Holland after we went to the wooden shoe factory



Crooked handstand but I'm still proud of it...I mean its in front of the freakin Colosseum!!!!



Oh yeah

We're back! And we have been back for 10 days now. Sorry for not posting anything about our trip until now. It was crazy busy the last 2 weeks there, and super fun. We left Bremen, Germany and headed to Berlin. Unfortunately we were only able to stay one full day, but we had a sweet place to stay, thanks to my friend in Krefeld. His brother lives in an appartment complex (the whole building) and they still have a few units that were not remodeled into part of his house. So we had our own appartment to stay in for two nights. It was great! European hospitaltiy is the bomb.


This is the family we stayed with in Bremen, Germany. So good to see them!

Berlin is a pretty cool city. I liked the vibe there and there is a lot to see. The friend we stayed with showed us around a little bit in his two collectors cars. One is a Yellow 60's Chevy truck and the other is a brand new Land Rover Defender. Its strange for europeans to have such big cars, but this guy loves it and it was fun to ride around in them there cuz you definitely get some funny looks. We got to see parts of the Old Berlin wall, the famous Brandenburg Gate, a Holocaust museum, and much more. Its amazing just how much history lies in this city...you could spend weeks there and never get to see it all. Hopefully one day we will be back.


Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

From Berlin we went to Opole, Poland where we met up with some of my Dad's friends. He has known them for some years now and we have met them a few times in The States. They were so amazingly generous and took us out for traditional Polish perogies (sp?) the first night in town. Yummy!!! Let me just say that out of everywhere we went in Europe, Polish food was by far our favorite. Now, don't get me wrong. Italy holds a close second with all the pizza, pasta, and gelato. But Poland wins with its fried potato pancakes, cabage soups, stews, and salads, hearty meats, fried fish, perogies, cabbage rolls filled with pork, crouchettes, i mean seriously..the list just keeps going on. And all the restraunts we went to were buffet style with the most food I have ever seen. It was better than a wedding. OMG sooooooooo good.


First night in Opole, Poland with our friends who introduced us to perogies!

Enough about food. Poland was very different than the parts of Western Europe we had been in. I have heard that there is a huge difference in Western and Eastern Europe, and that we should visit both. I am glad we did as it was a great learning experience. The first thing I noticed was that not as many people speak english there, and the language is WEIRD! In the other languages you could attemp to pronounce them and sometimes get it right. But in Polish, a handful of the letters sound nothing like what they do in english. For example, a letter Z sounds like a J, and a letter W sounds like a V, and there are many more like this. So good luck trying to communicate and prounounce Polish words with someone who speaks no enlish and you don't know how to say the words of their language correctly. It just doesnt work. I am thankful we were with friends most of the time! Some of the hardest times we had were on the trains because they do not announce where you are when the train comes to the stations! On all other trains we had been on throughout Europe a nice little voice comes over the intercom and tells you where you will be and which side of the train to exit on. Not the case with Poland. They expect you to know, or you better make sure you watch where you are. Don't fall asleep or you will miss it!

It seemed less stuffy in eastern Europe, and a little bit more laid back. There were a lot of advertisements on the roads and it wasn't quite as clean and crisp as the other countries. But it was still beautiful...the old buildings and architechture. And it got even more beautiful when our friends took us down to Zakopane for the weekend, which is a little mountain town on the Czech border. They set up an incredible weekend for us by finding the cutest bed and breakfast for all of us to stay in, and two tiny dogs greeted us as we drove in. It was fun to have little dogs running around, and two sheep in the yard next door, oh and horses pulling carriages down the streets out front...oh and the mountains all around. It was like a fairy tale! We spent three nights there and ate the best food we have ever had, and hiked off all the calories during the daytime with 2 epic 6 hour hikes to the tops of tall mountains with views unlike anything I have ever seen, and I have seen some pretty amazing things this year.

We left Zakopane and st0pped through to see Krakow (pronounced Krakauff), went home, and the next day went for a visit to Auschwitz conentration camp. Auschwitz is the last and largest concentration camp built, and was the place where approximately 1.5 million people were killed during the Holocaust. As hard as it was, we are both glad we had an opportunity to see that. I think that one cannot grasp the severity and size of the operation until you have actually been there and felt what the energy is like in that place. We were overwhelemed with how huge the camps were, but that is just a small piece of it all considering the stories of inhumanity told and hearing personal accounts of people who actually spent time living in that place. Its inconceivable, just totally impossible to actually beleive that inhumanity like that could actually happen. But I beleive it could happen again, and perhaps is still happening and we don't know about it. Looking back, both of us feel that we were so overwhelemed with everything that we had no choice but to shut overselves off emotionally. I think you have to, or you would not be able to make it through the tour. Even today its something that I cannot quite wrap my head around. I would recommend a visit there if you ever have the chance. It will change your life forever.


Hiking in Zakopane

After Auschwitz we headed up to Wroclaw (pronounced Vrautswauff, strange, huh?) where we met up with some more friends of my dad who we had actually just met in the States about a month before! We had a great time with them as they showed us around town and one of the most beautiful downtown squares I had seen in Europe. We did lots of cool historic sightseeing and more eating of delicious food. And I must add in that we also drank the best vodka I have ever tasted. It can only be found in Poland, and its called Zubrowka bison grass vodka (pronounced Jabroufka). I'm not a huge vodka fan, but this stuff is amazing! You mix it with apple juice, which is strange, but it ends up tasting kind of like delicious tea. I have great memories now my favorite mixed drink in the world. Too bad that I will just have to go back to Poland to get more! But we had great talks and fun times with our friends who thankfully took us to the train station to help us get on our train to Prague (thank goodness because otherwise we would not have found the right platform...argh...Polish train stations...).
Sweet little David in Wroclaw riding the little bronze statues of a memorial for animals that Polish people eat everyday.



And later I will write about how amazing Prague was. But for now I must go and this time I will leave some pictures of Poland and Germany!! :)

"This is your REAL life"

When we were leaving our friends in the Netherlands a few weeks ago I said that when our trip was over we had to go back home into "real life." My friend said something profound that has stuck with me ever since...she said "This ís your real life." And its true, she was right. This is our real life. The entire last year of traveling and exploring the world has been our real life, and not something I should discount so quickly as júst some time off, or a long vacation. It has been the best year of our lives in so many ways -from meeting some of the greatest friends we will ever know, to first hand experiences of different cultures, this is a year to remember, forever. And never again will I qualify anything I say with that term "real life" again, because I want to learn to embrace every moment I have been given.

And becuase of this we have been eating mounds and mounds of delicious and unhealthy food and drinking more wine than ever before! Haha, this sounds funny, but it is actually very true. The saying "when in Rome" means (to my understandig at least) that when you are in Rome, you do as the Romans do. And we have been trying to follow that rule since we have been in Europe, so in each country, we will do as they do. We will eat what they eat, drink what they drink, and try to merge with the culture as closely as possible to get a feel for how others live.

This is of course more easily done when you live with and know the people of the country you are in. So since we have been staying in Germany our diets have consisted mostly of Croissants for breakfast (often times more than one), sandwiches for lunch, cake and tea in the afternoon, and somehow, every night for the last week, we have had Italian food for dinner. Our friends have treated us like we are royalty! Its been quite nice actually. They have fed us every meal, cooked us dinner, and even taken us out to some very nice Italian restraunts. Oh, and wine...every night...very good wine.

Our day trip to Duessledorf was very nice. Its a beautiful city, and even though it rained on and off the whole day, we still got to take a boat ride on the Rhine river and walk around town to see the old sights. The next day while we were in the Krefeld area our friends took the day off and drove us around to towns nearby. It was a lovely day and the land is so beautiful and the little towns are all so cute and old. And of course we had to stop and get our afternoon tea and cake in a little town called Hittengen. But the company was what was the best...it was such a wonderful time to be in their home with their family. So very good to see them, and we had a great time the last night looking at slides from the early 90's! I cant beleive it was 20 years ago that we were all a little "family."

We left our friends in Krefeld to go visit more friends in Bremen, which is about 3.5 hours North of Krefeld. Once again, its been an amazing time catching up with these friends too. They took us on a walking tour of downtown Bremen (which is actually a very beautiful city with lots of character) and then later on a bike ride around the outskirts of the city where there were beautifual thatch roofed houses and lots of animals on farmalnd. Oh, and of course tons of people out riding bikes, jogging, or even riding horses!!

They have fed us so very well here that this morning both Ryan and I feel like we never want to eat again. We are still full from yesterday! But seriously, how can you pass up what is put in front of you that makes you feel like a kid in a candy store?? For breakfast there are literally two baskets on the table full of pastries, croissants, and rolls that have been freshly baked, plates of various meats and cheeses, and dont forget the Nutella!! The table is also filled with liverwurst, butter, variuos jams and jellies. Oh and you have your espresso and cappachino as well...orange juice and boiled eggs. But as if that is not enough, you must go to the bakery later on to pick out which piece of cake you want to feast on a few hours later. You get to choose from 20 different varieties that all look like they have been prepared for the king. After eating this cake you take a nap (because thats about all you can even manage to do) and wake up and there are appetizers on the table! Procuitto and melon, delicious french cheese, and of course bread. Then one hour later at the Italian restraunt comes the bread and wine, followed by the main course, and then of course dessert! And its rude not to finish everything on your plate...so of course you must stuff it all down. And right when it feels like you cant fit anything else in your belly or it will literally start coming out of your mouth again, you are offeredmore. We learned that if you are the last table in the restraunt (apparently a German/Italian tradition) you get served a round of shcapps on the house!!!

All this was well worth the overindulgence. The company was wonderful, and did I mention that the food was good too? Yes, its been great. And Im sure the scale will agree when we get home. But you know what they say...............................When in Rome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More Adventures

Hello friends and family! I am writing you from Germany, just outside Duessledorf. We are again with another good friend who was actually an exchange student of my familys' who came to study in the States when I was 9!!! I cant beleive its been that long, but we have gotten to see him over the years here and there, but its just very cool to be in his house with his family this time.

So unfortunately I will not be able to ever post any pictures from the first two weeks of our trip because our camera got stolen...it was in Ryans backpack which got stolen from the train the day after we left The Netherlands. Yes, this is quite a bummer, but that is probably the most valuable thing we lost, along with our travel book, which was just really inconveient to loose. Oh well. It happens! Luckily i have my i phone which i had been taking some pics with too, so we have a few on there. But the theif was sneaky because it was the morning and we had just boarded the train and put our bags on the overhead rack, like everyone else did since the train was quite busy. We were wide awake and talking, so we had no idea how it got taken. It was within 15 mins of being on the train, probably on the second stop it made someone just grabbed it from behind and ran off the train.

Actually, after leaving the Netherlands we felt in a slump for a few days there. Before we lost the bag we missed a train to our next really cool location. Because i am not used to telling time on the 24 hour clock, i caused us to miss our train to Coppenhagen. Not to worry thought, i now have my iphone set on a 24 hour clock so i am getting really really good at it (and i know i will NEVER hear the end of it). Anyhow, it was a night train, and a 12 hour ride. So we decided not to take the train there during the day the next day, but instead keep exploring on shorter train rides closer by. We visited Luxembourg, Heidelburg, Germany, and Trieburg, Germany (part of the black forest). Those days were tough because we felt alone and violated with the bag being taken, but we had fun nonetheless and looked very forward to being with our friends in Germany.

In Luxembourg we got to go shopping!! We actually tried to make it a fun time. We shopped on a street where there were pretty nice stores that Ryan would never buy clothes at, like H and M and some private designer stores. But we had heard that there was a mall close by, so we took the bus there to see if there were any cheaper shops, and there happened to be what is the equivaltent of a european walmart in that mall! So ryan got everything he needed there, even though we had bought some nice jeans at another store. we went back to return those jeans and they would only give us a store credit, so I got to do a little shopping of my own!! nothing fancy, just a new dress, tank top, and some underwear. but we had to spend that money there, so we had fun with it!

Luxembourg is such a small country no one ever thinks to visit there, but its actually a beautiful place. Its like a fairy tale land where you would imagine Cinderella running around with her one glass slipper. The town is built around a huge castle and giant walls that used to surround the old town, and there are newer buildings all inside these walls. and by newer i mean not 1500 years old, but maybe 800 years old. this is Europe! Very neat place to see.

Heidelburg is beautiful as well, with the main focal point being a giant castle and a nice river running through the town. Here we had some very traditional (and might i add delicious) German food...fried fish, roasted potatoes, brautworst, and saurkraut. Breakfasts in Europe have been amazing too...meat, cheese, and bread, and of course my favorite being yogurt and granola! After heidelburg we traveled south to the black forest which was beautiful too and we went to a spot where we saw Germanys largest waterfall and hiked for a few hours before we got a little quaint hotel and ate a quiet dinner.

Today we will take the train into the town of Duesseldorf to explore and take a boat ride along the Rhine river to see the nearby sights and castles. I should run, but I will try to write more stories very soon. Miss and love everyone!!

To Italy and Beyond!

Hello friends and family! I am finally in a place where I can sit down and write a blog post without it costing me what Ryan and I would both pay to eat a meal. Argh....its expensive here! Oh, and sorry for not having pics...i did not bring the correct attatchments to load pictures. :(

So after leaving Zermott, Switzerland (home of the Matterhorn), we took the train to Florence, Italy where we stayed for two days. We got off the train and wandered the streets looking for the nearest hostel and found one very quickly! The old Italian couple that owned it didn't speak any english, but we got a private room for the cheapest rate yet (22 euro per person, per night)! We spent a few days wandering the streets of beautiful Florence and visiting the sights, and both decided that while we were in Italy we needed to eat gluten again.

Every other store on the street sold either pizza, pasta, sandwiches, or gelato. And let me tell you, everything you see in those food cases looks absolutely amazing. We both ate things niether of us had eaten in months, committing ourselves to the ill effects we knew it would have on us later. But I think it was worth it to experience the culture and amazing quality of the food. Let me tell you, they've got gluten down! Man, was that pizza good!!

We both fell in love with the culture there, and vibe people give off. Its a very free and open culture where enjoying yourself is priority. Be it eating delicious food, sitting at a cafe for hours with a friend, or basking in the warm sun anywhere you want, Italians are good at enjoying life. And as a whole, Italians in general are an extremely attrative group of people, both the men and the women. And its lovely just to sit and listen to them speak. The language truly is beautiful to an intoxicating level.

With Ryan's gluten induced head congestion and my gluten induced intestinal discomfort and weariness, we headed to Rome with a stop in Pisa first. We decided it would be fun to at least see the leaning tower while we were there, and I wanted a picture doing a handstand in front of it! We did just that, saw the tower, took our pics, and were on our way. There isn't a whole lot else to see there, but we did get to see some beautiful Italian coastline since the train took its time and went the long way down along the coast.

Rome was pretty freakin cool. We spent 3 days there, and while there was a lot more we could have seen and done, we both felt satisfied with all that we saw. We visited the Colloseum, Forum, Palatine, Pantheon, Vatican, Spanish Steps, various fountains, and a boat load of cathedrals... along with more pizza and gelato vendors all along the way! Its so awesome to see things that are 2,000 years old! I love learning about the history. Everything in Rome is so big and grand, and quite beautiful as well. I was suprised to see that there was a lot of grafitti throughout the city, and it wasn't the cleanest place either. Everyone in Italy smokes...I felt like I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day while we were there...and there are cigarette butts all over the streets. While i don't love grafitti and smoking, it was strangely attractive because I think it fits perfectly into Italian culture and it was all part of the bigger experience!

We had another very interesting hostel-mate while we were in Rome. He was definitely a highlight to say the least. He was a self-proclamied "loner" from Belgium who studies Irish church history. When we walked into the hostel room, he was very kind, but immediately told us that he gets hot when he's around beautiful women, and he was getting very warm. He was very taken abback by Ryan's tattos...almost scared of him. He asked a lot of questions to make sure Ryan was a safe guy. Over the next 2 days he kept us laughing under our breath, as he would walk around the room in his collared shirt and tidy widys, telling us story after story. He made Ryan stop using his deodorant because it was the wrong color, and gave him his own. He asked Ryan to help him put on a neclace and to put a bandaid on a blister on his heel that he coudn't reach (all in his underwear, mind you). And after sharing a bottle of wine with him one night we learned even more interesting things about him and all the self-taught energy work he does, and even showed us. There is more....but its much funnier to tell in person as we can demonstrate his accent and demeanor.

From Rome we took the train to Venice and spent a day getting lost in the town as we explored its sights. Ryan loved it there...it was old and falling apart, buildings sinking into the water and kind of a creepy, dark, chalostrophobic vibe (sp?). That is why i didn't love it, but it was really cool to see it. I knew there were canals in Venice, but I didn't realize that there are no cars, and that everything actually takes place in the canals like the trash service, taxis, store deliveries, etc are all done on boats. Everyone else is on foot! It was really neat to watch that from the 2nd floor of our SWEET hotel room! We found it when we were lost at night when we got there and it was just the same price as all the hostels we have been staying in. It even had a bedee! (again, sp??)

We both decided that we had to quit eating gluten since we were feeling worse and worse, so leaving Italy altogether made that a tiny bit easier :) From Venice we took a long train to Paris where we spent the day, and eneded up walking 10 miles around the city! We only had one day there so we wanted to make sure we saw as much as we could. What a beautiful place! The architecture is beautiful, along with the Sienne River and all the beautiful bridges. We visited the Louvre, climbed the Eiffel Tower, and saw the famous Paris Catacombs where millions of bones from sick people are stacked into artfully designed piles six stories below the street level. Creepy!!

We headed from Paris to Amsterdam to visit a friend of mine...an exchange student my family hosted while I was growing up. He is the first of 3 I will get to see while I'm here. Its so amazing to come to HIS home and stay with his family...quite a role reversal. And its so nice to have some home cooked meals (gluten free!!) and get to see his children. He has been quite the tour guide taking us to some beautiful Dutch sites and cities-our favorite place being the site of old Dutch windmills which are still in use! We got to go in and watch the sawmill-windmill and it was probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen (Ryan was in awe). They also had oil-windmills, and cheese-windmills (of which we got to sample some amazing Dutch cheese). The culture here is great, as everyone rides bikes everywhere, and its a beautiful place too with canals and boats everywhere, but there are streets with cars and trains too, unlike Venice.

Tonight we are taking the night train up to Coopenhagen where we will stay for a few days, then over to Sweden. After that we will head back down to Germany to visit some more exchange student friends! This trip has been great so far, but I do miss everyone back at home. Look foward to seeing you guys and I will try to post again soon!

Last Leg...A European Adventure

First thing first, i apologize for the punctuation, or lack there of. but european keyboards are a pain in the ass. its gonna take me a hour to write this post...haha. anywho, we are here and we have spent the last 4 days in switzerland. this has to be one of my favorite places on earth. its so freakin beautiful here.

we flew into zurich and spent the whole first day exploring...we went on a hike to view the city from very high up on a mountain and even went on a boat ride around the lake. its a very cool city, but we were both in a pretty bad jet lag induced fog that whole day. we took the train the next morning to lucerne, walked around and got lunch. that place is totally rad. similar to zurich, but smaller and prettier. we got lunch at the market and got back on the train and headed to Interlaken. ok, by far (and so far) favorite town i have ever been to. ryan seconds me on that :) small, but not too small...the culture is just like that of lets say Santa Cruz California. people ride bikes everywhere, eat outside, walk to work, and enjoy all the outdoors stuff to do. i cant even begin to tell you how beautiful it was. we took a train to a town where we could see a moutain with a glacier on top. so RAD. will post pics soon hopefully.

now we are in zermott, where the famous matterhorn is. this place is freakin insane. huge tourist-ski destination but it feels like you are in a fairy tale. we did a 4 hour hike today and had a view of the matterhorn the whole time. there are no cars allowed up here, you must get here by train or gondola. super clean and crisp, and weather is great. just like all of switzerland. people really take care of their countrz here. i love it

we have had great hostel experiences so far, they have all been very clean, nice, and fun. funny story from the one here in zermott last night. we shared a room with a mute man...well maybe not mute, but we said hello and he said hello back, but he wouldnt talk to us after that. maybe he didnt speak english, which is fine. but he was werid. he had two of the same pairs of shoes, two of the same towels, and two tubes of toothpaste. everything was laid out perfectly. can you say OCD (insert question mark here). haha....anyhow, in the morning he spent about what seemed like 3 hours packing his bag as loudly as possible. it was rediculous. once he was gone we got up and realized he had taken my towel. we ran out to the dinning room to find him and he wasnt there, so we ran down to the main lobby. no dude. walked outside a bit to see if we could see him. nope. but when we walked back in ryan spotted my towel sitting on a coffee table in front of the couch in the reception. what in the world (question mark) such a weird guy...such a strange thing to do. ok...gotta go. more stories later. i like this symbol for a happy face ö

goodbye from switzerland

Back Where We Started

Well we left for our last leg of the trip (in the U.S., that is) and made our way back to Grand Junction! Upon leaving Seattle, the original plan was to visit Vancouver and Whistler in Canada. Luckily we had only gotten 30 min away when we learned that we needed immunization records for our dogs to cross the border (thank you i phone!) So we headed to Mt. Rainier national park instead. It was a beautiful place, of course, but I actually enjoy the view of Mt. Rainier from Seattle better because when you are right up on it, it just doesn't look so big. But we were lucky to have probably the clearest day since we had been in the Pacific Northwest...not even a cloud in the sky and it was warm, even at the top...or the closest to the top of that monster volcano that the road takes you!

From there we had some long miles ahead of us to get to Yellowstone, but they were wonderfully scenic! I have always heard Idaho was beautiful, and the rumors are true. We drove right along Coeur d'Alene (its a lake) and goodness gracious I have never seen a lake like that. Like so many things we've seen, I just can't even describe it. Even pictures won't do it any justice. But I actually didn't take any :( I don't remember why. But after 2 days of driving we made it to Yellowstone and camped, or poached as some might say, our first night just outside the park in a campground that was full. But it was awesome because 5 other people were poaching as well, and it was an epic campground on top of a mountain with a rad view, and we were like the campground outcasts. We all sat around a fire that we made out of brush and drank beer together. It was a cool experience!

So Yellowstone is beautiful, yes. Not quite as epic as some of the things we have seen, but by far probably the most interesting thing we have seen yet. So a large chunk of the park sits on top of a volcano, and the land is rolling and green, with lakes and trees and tons of animals, then all the sudden there will be section of boiling mud pots and holes with steam coming out of the ground! There are sections that look like hardened volcanic lava formed a small mountain and all this sulfur water is flowing out of it, and my oh my does it stink! It smells like millions of rotten boiled eggs, but you have to stop and look because its so bizarre. And of course we saw Old Faithful errupt...very cool. There were hundreds of people waiting around to watch its erruption, which takes place every 90 min, give or take 10 min. One of my favorite parts was gettning to see a black bear AND a grizzly bear! We also saw Bison/Buffalo, Elk, and some other cute little things and I don't remember what they were called.

We spent 2 nights in the park, then made our way towards Salt Lake City. On the way we got to drive through the Grand Teton National Park/Jackson Hole Wyoming-another amazingly beautiful place. Those dang states are so big that you think you should be a lot further along than you actually are, and it took us forever to get to each destination, and poor Ryan hadn't been sleeping while we were camping. So I wanted to explore Salt Lake a little but Ryan had no energy at that point, so we decided to just drive onto Junction. Its about 4 hours away, and we could feel the heat building the closer we got. I belelive the day we got into town the high temp for the day was around 101!!! Quite a change when we came from being in Seattle for a month wearing jeans and longsleeves all the time, not to mention the very pale skin! :)

But it sure is great to be back here. Its where the trip began, and we loved it when we were here and made some amazing friends. This time around we are having so much fun. The first week we got to go mountain biking 5 times and loving every second of it. And our buddy Jeff was so kind and generous to open his home up to us this time around, and with its convienent location to downtown, Ryan walks to and from work everyday (he is working for the 3 weeks that we are in town)! I have been doing some stretching with the people at the crossfit gym (for trade) and it feels soooooooo good to do some body work again. I feel alive! It makes me realize how much I have missed it and how much I am looking foward to being settled enough to do that on a more regular basis.

My friend Ellie invited me to go with her and her dad to the front range to hike a 14,000ft. mountain last week and I got to go!!! There are 54 14ers in Colorado. Ellie's dad has hiked 20 of them now! It was so much fun. We drove up the day before, ate dinner and slept at a hotel, to wake up and 4am to get ready for the hike. Of course we did not hike from sea level, we started at 11,000 ft. But the hike was all in all about 8.5 miles, and took us about 7 hours total (stops included). We topped two 14ers actually...Gray and Torres were their names. We climbed from the parking lot to Grays, then over a "saddle" to top Torres, then down the other side. The view was epic and the weather was perfect. I will never forget it! Then two days later I got to go tubing down the Colorado river with my buddies and about 300 other people. It was great, ...sunny and warm, but a nice breeze on the water, beer, music, and good company. Its gonna be hard leaving Colorado with all this fun outdoors stuff to do. Not terribly excited to be back in Atlanta, but excited to see everyone for sure!!!!

Europe is only 4 weeks away, i can't beleive it! Don't know how much I will be able to update our blog, but I will try. Until then, we will be here for 2 more weeks, then Atlanta for 3 weeks. After that we are looking foward to settling back down in Atlanta for a little while so Ryan can finish his schooling at GA Perimeter. I have a sneaking suspision (sp?) that we will be moving from there again tho in about a year...the West coast just has too much to offer for us to pass it up! Who knows. Until then........

Still Loving the Rainy City

Sorry for not posting more regular blogs, but we have been without internet in the new place we are staying in Seattle. I made it a point this morning to make this happen today, so I took a nice bike ride up to Capital Hill where I have heard of a lovely tea shop called Remedy Teas. I am sitting here drinking from my pot of tea as I write to update my blog, looking out the window at cloudy and drizzly sky. We have had some wonderful weather since we have been here. On the clear days you are able to see the most amazing views of the Olympic and Cascade mountains, and the epic view Mt. Rainer is breathtaking every time you look at it. But its still the pacific northwest and its cloudy most days and drizzly sometimes. But despite the weather, we have truly fallen in love with this city.

Neither Ryan or I have ever been to a city before that is so close together that you can ride your bike around wherever you need to go with ease and very little time. In fact, the bike culture here is so condusive to our lifestlye that Ryan has a vision of opening a bike shop here one day. And the culture of natural medicine/yoga/green living is right up our alley as well. This place just feels like the vibe we have been searching for. Sarah, Jared, Kate and Ellen have been wonderful hosts-showing us around the coolest spots and views all around town, and opening up their homes to us. Thanks guys! You have made this a wonderful experience.

Two weekends ago we got the opportunity to go over to the Olympic peninsula with Sarah and Jared and camp. What a beautiful place that is!! First, its fun to get there because you have to drive your car onto a ferry and take it across the water. That is something we had never done before so it make for a great experience in and of itself! Once on the other side, we drove through Port Angeles and down around Cascade Lake (i think thats the name) as we headed towards the Hoh rain forest. Thats right, there is a rain forest here, and we got to see its beauty! I can't even begin to describe what that looked like. And Jared has all the good pics on his camera because I forgot mine. But it was soooooo green and bright, and everything was covered in moss. Every square inch of forest from the ground to the top of the trees was swimming with green life in one way or another. I could have spent days in there (with proper rain gear of course) but we had to go check out Rialto beach next. That was unlike any beach I had ever seen. There was no sand, instead, black and grey pebbles made up the ground of the beach. The shoreline was littered with beautiful, enormous old and white tree trunks, and the just beyond the waves in the water were huge rock formations covered in green moss. It wasn't a warm beach, but it was a beautiful site.



And for those of you who know about the Twilight movies, the stories take place in this exact part of the country. Forks is where Bella and Edward live, and La Push is where Jacob lives. We actually stopped into a grocery store in Forks where I took pics of all the cheesy, touristy things they have capitalized on with the whole vampire thing. And we actually camped about 1 mile from La Push, the Indian reservation. We did NOT go there to see these places, they just happened to be on the way. But I did read the books (and saw movies too) so it was kinda fun to take pics of it and send them to my other twilight fans. :) The funniest thing was on the way home the next day we stopped at a Mexican place in Port Angeles to have lunch after about an hour of searching for a place that looked somewhat decent to eat. It was a horrible meal and started out with the chips having a giant black hair in the basket. But we ate anyways and then walked across the street to get coffee. Only then was it that was it that we saw a marquis on the side of the building that said "try our German dishes." We knew at that moment why that meal was so bad. What kind of mexican restraunt attempts to cook German dishes anyways?

Oh, and I can't forget to mention the Solstice parade in Fremont! So the solstice is the longest day of the year. Fremont is a really cool pocket in Seattle...very artsty and free kind of place, and every year they celebrate this with the Solstice parade which starts out with a huge naked bike ride! All the bike riders paint themselves in the most amazing paint designs, but naked of course. And they ride through the thousands of people that come out for this parade, children included (which i thought was really neat). Then the parade starts and last for about 2 hours...people work so hard on this. It was a great thing to see, and made us love this city even more. Just the freedom, aliveness, and desire to celebrate life that people seem to have here. Its so different than anywhere we have been!

Its awesome to have friends that live in the town you are visiting, but its also awesome when freinds from home come to visit us in the town we are visiting!! Becky and Andrew were here last weekend and it was so great to see them. They came into town to run the Seattle Rock and Roll half marathon with Andrew's friend Will. They all ran great, and Ryan ended up walking the full marathon! He walked 26.2 miles in 6:36! I have never seen him so proud of himself before, and I am so proud of him too! He worked so hard on his poor metal-laced ankle that he couldn't walk for about 3 days. In fact, we had to go buy crutches so he could get around. But the swelling went down, and the ankle is almost back to "normal" (normal for that ankle means being able to walk, but very little flexibility and always pain). Good job Ryan, Becky, Andrew, and Will!!



Becky and Andrews stayed with their friend Will, who luckily lives 5 minutes from where we are staying, so that made it easy to see them as much as we wanted! Will has lived here for a few years and has become friends with some people that sail on Lake Union in the regata, knowns as the Duck Dodge, every Tuesday night. He invited us to come and of course we agreed, as that is an opportunity we could not pass up! It was an amazing experience to be able to see the city from that view on the water. There were about 10 people on the boat and it was a blast to be on the lake racing with that many other boats! After two laps around the race, all the boats tied up next to eachother in the middle of the lake and it was a big party! Traditionally the "virgins" of the Duck Dodge must walk from boat to boat and kiss the captains of every boat. So Ryan and I did just that, holding wine in one hand, using the other hand to navigate over the sailboats. After going on about 6 boats (there were about 30) Ryan decided that after a few glasses of wine and still not being able to walk on his ankle that it wasn't a good idea to keep going, so we turned around and went back to our boat. :) That is a night we will never forget.



For now I am really enjoying the time I have to spend with my dearest friend Kate. We had a lady date the other day where we rode our bikes to all these beautiful parks around the city and then saw a movie together (Eclipse). Then we got to hang out again with Will and some of his friends for a pizza and wine night! One of my favorite things in traveling is getting to meet aweosme people who invite you into their homes and lives-these are experiences I will never forget. Tongiht Katea and I are going to an acro yoga class together...something I have always wanted to do! Maybe one day we will end up in the circus together. We have decided that Greg, you have to come too!

We will be leaving here on July 6 as we head to Vancouver and Whister to spend a few days. Then we will make our way over to Yellowstone and then to Salt Lake City to visit some friends. Then we will be back in Grand Junction for about 2 weeks before we head back to Atlanta. I cannot believe its almost been a year since we left. We have seen some of the worlds most beautiful sites, met some of the greatest friends, and experienced our own selves in ways we didn't know were possible. I can't wait to see what is next! It may be a while before we can post again, but I will do my best! We love you all. Thanks for reading our blog :)

Seattle is BEAUTIFUL!

We finally made it to Seattle from San Francisco, but it was an adventure. Anywho, I had a wonderful birthday in San Fran. We got up and went for a bike ride in Golden Gate Park which is an amazingly beautiful park in the city that feels like a rainforrest almost. It even has a botanical garden in it. We found a delicious taco stand close to the park, then headed home to get our razor scooters and make our way down to the Peir 33, where the boat leaves for Alcatraz island. It was really a cool place to visit (did you know that it's a National Park?) , and we really enjoyed the audio tour that came with the trip since it was narrated by the former prison guards and prisoners of Alcatraz for the short time that it served as a maximum security prison. After that trip, we got some yummy birthday sushi at Sushi Rock, got seranaded by the Japanese servers, and they gave me a free drink and 5 scoops of ice cream on the house! But that ice cream wasn't quite enough. We had to stop by the diner that was connected to our hotel for a special birthday sunday! I LOVE me some ice cream.




So the next day we left for Seattle. Our plan was to take our time getting up the Oregon coast since its supposed to be beautiful. Northern Cali and the wine country was amazing, but the further north we got, the worse the weather became. Once we hit the last town in Northern Cali it began pouring down rain and it wasn't letting up. We drove on through Oregon, and could barely make out the awesome view of the coast. We had to find a campsite though, and we did, luckly right when the rain stopped. However...it started raining again, so we got into our tent early. But that rain turned into a huge storm that shook our tent the entire night. It was pretty scary, especially since there was a sign in the bathroom warning campers of the dangers of earthquakes in the area, followed by tsunamis. It had instructions to wait until the earthquake was over, then make your way to the highest peak of land by foot since tsunami waves would be coming in minutes after the earthquake! Scary!

So no earthquakes, but we did wake up with all of our camping gear soaked to the core. We decided to just drive straight to Seattle since the weather was so bad. But we didn't make it very far before we got a rear flat tire (in the rain of course). Ryan put on the spare, but we found out in the next town that it was unrepariable, and since our tires were so old we had to end up getting two new rear tires. Not a huge deal, we were just ready to be in our destination. So about 10 hours of delirious driving later, we made it and were welcomed into the city by our lovely friends Kate and Ellen and some more delicious Sushi! Haha...and woke up the next morning to a front flat tire! Haven't gotten that fixed yet. Argh....




Our first day here Ryan and I and the dogs all went for a bike ride all over the city (the dogs were in the trailer behind Ryans bike and did great!). We hit most of the main pockets, loving how condensed this city is. Its so different from Atlanta or LA. The different parts of town are between 2 and 3 miles apart from eachother, and its INCREDIBLY beautiful here. It really is the most beautiful city I have seen on this trip! The next day we got to spend with our friends Sarah and Jared who gave us an awesome tour of the city to see places we didn't know of and they even took us on a ferry ride. It was the clearest day and you could see the Cascade mountains, Olympic mountains, Mt. Baker, and the gigantic, epic Mt. Rainier. It was all so incredibly breathtaking. Aside from the notrorious rainy weather, I can't imagine a more beautiful city with the huge moutains, water, and vibrantly green foliage everywhere.


I will end this blog post with a pretty cool story from our first day, which I want to remember and share with everyone, because who knows what it means. So we were in the Capital Hill area, and rode past what looked like a beautiful park. We decided to turn around and let the dogs go run around. While we were standing there in the green, green grass amongst the tall evergreens and flowers, two classic blue and red swallows began to fly around us. Their flying was so beautiful neither of us could take our eyes off of them. This continued for about five minutes straight. They just kept circling us, just us, round and round, and it felt like a fairy tale. It really was a very surreal experience. We began to wonder if this was a sign for something, as swallows have a traditional meaning of completing your journey. So when they flew away, we walked over to our bikes and sat down on the benches. Right at our feet was something we had not seen. It was a compass designed into the concrete. It was beautiful and decorative, with some writing on a plaque in the middle. The first sentence of the plaque said that we were in the approximate center of the city of Seattle, listed the latitude and longitude as well as the direction of all the beautiful landmarks around the city (Mt. Rainer, Cascade mtns., etc.)



So here's the kicker: This entire trip is about us trying to find the place we want to live. We are open to whatever God and the universe has in store for us. So when we were in California, Ryan got a tatto he's been wanting to get for a long time. Its a blue and red swallow that is carrying a rope in its mouth, and the rope is attatched to a compass. On the compass it says "get lost," in memory of something meaningful that Becky gave Ryan at a trivial point in his life. So what in the world does this mean??????? We have no idea, but we thought it was really cool, and pretty ironic that we happened to end up in the very center of the city of Seattle and were gretted with swallows. That may have been a sign for us to live here. I am not sure. But nonetheless, its a cool story. And maybe it just mean that we are where we are supposed to be today, at this point. But I want to remember that forever. Until next time, I hope everyone reading this will go "Get Lost."

On the Road Again

So we left LA on Tuesday. Wow, today's Sunday already! We have seen soooooo much. Both of us are totally enamored with how amazingly beautiful California is. We drove down the pacific coast hwy last summer, but it was so foggy that we couldn't hardly see the coastline at all. It was a big disappointment. But this time it was so clear and so beautiful. I can't believe this is the U.S.

We stopped in Santa Barbara for lunch, then drove on to camp in Big Sur for the night. Wow, those trees are beautiful-the Redwoods. Very large around the bottom, super tall, and red like my hair :). We got to hike the next morning and see a waterfall and some beautiful views. After leaving there, we made our way to Monterey, Carmel, and Santa Cruz. Monterey is a very cool town. Its a small city but I feel like its a place we would totally fit in. Its not super ritzy, it has a downtown, and lots of outdoor parks. Carmel, on the other hand, is a place that we would not fit in. But oh man is it a sight to see! There must be some kind of architechture code mandatory to live there because all of the houses look like gingerbread houses mixed with a European style. I am not sure what the name of that style is, but its amazingly beautiful, and it all right on the shore! Santa Cruz is much like Monterey, but a little bit more of a young crowd, lots of hippies. I guess we might fit in there best since we would be considered modern day hippies! :)

We camped in a really cool place in the Santa Cruz mountains that night, then made our way to Yosemite the next day. Apparently Yosemite campsites get reserveed within minutes after they open for the season (6 months before the high season). Not knowing this until 2 weeks ago, we were unable to camp in the park, but we found a spot just outside the park that was right next to a beautiful river that we got to enjoy the day we got there. The next morning we got up early to drive into the park and had no idea what we were about to see. We rounded a curve, and there it was. Yosemite Valley. We could not beleive our eyes. Hands down this place was the most amazing place we've ever seen. You are looking at super tall granite rock mountains with waterfalls everywhere falling down into the green valley that has a beautiful river flowing through it. As we drove down, the view changed, but our awe over it did not. Its unbeleiveable from the top as well as the bottom being in the green meadows and tall trees, able to see the waterfalls all around you. Oh man...we only spend about 4 hours in the valley (there are very few places dogs are allowed in the park), but I want to go back one day and spend at least a week there. Its that amazing. Who wants to come with?

Then......later that day we went to the Mariposa forrest to see the giant Sequoya tress. Holy cow, I have seen pictures of these things, but its not the same until you see them in person. And these things are between 1400 and 1800 years old! One of them was the same size as a 747 airplane and or the statue of liberty! The coolest thing to me about being in this forrest was being able to feel the energy of the forrest. It was like you were walking into someone's home...a home that you were welcomed into, but an unfamiliar one. The deeper into the forest we got, the trees got bigger, and the energy I felt became stronger. It felt like I was being held. I don't know any other way to describe it. And the trees were so grand I expected them to start talking to us. It reminded me of The Lord of the Rings tress...wise and loving. That place too is one that I want to spend a lot more time in! :)

The next day we got to see Hetch Hetchy, a very similar sight to the Yosemite Valley, but they made a damn to catch all the water for the waterfalls and there is this huge beautiful lake in the middle of all the granite mountains. The water from this damn supplies water to the city of San Francisco. How cool is that?

Ok, I realize this post is getting long, but I haven't been able to write in so long I have to get this stuff down. I like it that this blog spot is a way for you all to see what we are doing, but also way for us to keep track of some of the things we have done. There are so many little things that I am leaving out, of course, or this would be 100 pages long. But I know the memories we are building on this trip are irreplacable and something we will carry in our hearts forever and ever. I feel so lucky and blessed to get to do this with Ryan and our doggies. They are loving it! Especially the camping!

So now we are in San Francisco. Wow! What a change from being in Yosemite. Its a huge, extremely dense city. But its a beautiful city! It was amazing to be able to shower after 5 days of camping and not bathing! Also nice to eat some real prepared food. PB & J's are awesome, but they get old real fast. So does canned soup for that matter. Haha...so anways, today we rode Razor scooters all over the city, the shopping district, down by the water and tourist areas, and the business district. Then we came back and got our bikes so we could ride down by the beach and across the Golden Gate Bridge. What a cool experience that was! Its soooooo beautiful! I only have pics from my iphone....left my camera at home. But our camera wouldn't do it any justice anways. :) We are about to shower up and go walk to some food and drinks on the street right outside our hotel. More stories to come as we continue our journey up the coast on Tuesday. But tomorrow we are going to celebrate my birthday and stay here one more day!!!! :)

This is a post that has no pictures so i will try my best to paint a picture of the story you are about to read. We went out last night. Kristen, Malia, Pablo and myself went to scope the nite life in santa monica. It was a Great Time!! We found ourselves at a local bar where the young professionals go. Very trendy, very yuppy, but we thought it would be a fun experience. After paying 45 dollars for 3 long island ice teas, we sat down in a back corner by the D.J. who was actually pretty good. We laughed and talked and joked about spending more money there on 3 drinks then we did at dinner where we had a pitcher of margs and food!! Anyways, there was a group of guys sitting next to us for a while. After a bit, they all got up and left. After they were gone for a while i looked at there table and noticed they left most of an awesome looking panini. I am all about dumpster diving and eating other people's leftovers and i thought i had just hit the jack pot. Sandwiches are my favorite food. So i leaned over grabbed the sandwich and ate it! it was so good! i put the crust back on the plate and carried on with the night. Soon after i went to the bathroom, and when i returned i found kristen, malia and pablo all sitting there staring at me. I also noticed that the group of guys were back at there table. They too were staring at me. Turns out, they never left at all. Rather, they collectively as a group went to the bar for drinks. Upon returning to their table, for which i was in the bathroom, they asked pablo, malia and kristen if i had enjoyed their sandwich.
I of course begged for forgiveness and offered to buy them another sandwich or round of drinks when i learned of the error of my ways. They refused, and we all had a good laugh!! Thank goodness they were your typical meat head bar guys. I will have to say, that is probably the funniest thing i have ever done on accident. I also learned that if i am going to be a "freegan" or dumpster diver, i'll need to use a little more caution, and perhaps allow for more time to pass after the food apears to be abandoned.

On the left is the afters, the right is the befores. The green room behind where Ethan is standing is now where the kitchen is. Below, the views are taken from opposite sides of the room, but you can tell that the walls are different and that all the furniture has been re-arranged. I wish the pics did it way more justice because Malia did a great job designing it, and Ryan did an amazing job putting it all together! Such a cool space :)

Hello everyone! I'm sorry its been so long since we've posted a blog. We have been having a blast in California and have gotten to do some GREAT things in the last few weeks. First, we visited a good friend who has temporarily moved to San Diego, and we fell in love with it there. She is living in Mission Bay....what a beautiful place. She took us sea kayaking to some totally sweet caves. None of us had ever done it before and realized that it was way harder than we thought, but a great workout and incredible experience! The rest of the visit consisted of bike riding all around Mission Bay, getting Ice Cream, sitting on the beach, and finding some delicious half off sushi. But I must not forget to mention, as amazing as this day was, it was severely dampened when my brand new iphone fell in the toilet at a fish taco stand on the beach. Yes, I have had it for 2 weeks, had it in my back pocket, and it went straight into the toilet. It never did come back to life (unlike so many stories I have heard) so I had to buy a new one. Luckily I still qualified for my rebate/new customer price. And 0n the way back to LA, we passed the Oscar Myer weiner mobile on I 405! I have never seen Ryan so excited!

When we returned to LA, we finished the garage appartment! We put in some hard days of work and now Malia has what feels like an Ikea showroom display! It is so sweet...a space of about 650sq ft, with a kitchen, bedroom, and living space (no bathroom). Its complete with new floor to ceiling paint and trim, all new pergo flooring, and of course an entire kitchen installed. It feels so nice not to be living in a construction zone anynmore, and to get to enjoy the fruits of our labor before we move on. We are so happy for Malia to have this space for herself. What a gift!

Before Ryan's birthday (which was the 18th), we got to go to the beach a few times and do some more amazing yoga in Santa Monica. Then, the kids threw Ryan a pirate party where we were all served delicious food and pirate punch, and got to do a scavenger hunt which ended in Ryan digging up 2 tickets to Disneyalnd! On Ryan's birthday, Malia and I suprised him by taking him to a tattoo parlor in Hollywood. The two of them had been talking about getting a tattoo together since we got to California, so we decided to make it happen! They were able to both get them that day, but it was a long day followed up by a birthday dinner for Ryan at a delicious Mexican restruant in Hollywood called El Compadre. Oh-and we saw Snoop Dog walk right in front of hte tattoo shop!! We were sitting in the waiting area and there he went down the sidewalk with two of his buddies! It was me and Ryan's first famous person spotting since we have been here! Then, we all got to go to Disneyland the next day and had a blast, althought it may not have been the best idea for Malia to do that since her tattoo is on her foot and she had to be on crutches the whole time! We were suprised how much smaller it is than Disneyworld, but it was still a fun day, especially to get to be there with kids.

With Ryans birthday week slowing down, we are enjoying some down time to do some bike rides and enjoy ourselves before we hit the road agian. We are planning our Europe trip and plan to buy tickets wtihin the next day or two! That finalizes things!! I cannot wait for that trip. And right at this moment we are sitting on the couch watching Planet Earth on DVD. What an amazing production and an amazing earth we live on!

Sorry about the horrible photo layout...it all got posted and then the computer was needed before I remembered to edit the photos. Next time will be better :)

Summer days in LA

Got to spend the whole day today with an amazing friend Michaelyn from Atlanta...on the beach! It was a beautiful day, but I got very badly sunburned. I put on sunscreen...but missed some spots. Woops! You would think that being a red-head I would have learned my lesson by now. :)
Then she took us to her favorite lunch spot on Main St. in Santa Monica called Panini. Deliciouso!!!

Earlier this week we got to go down to Huntington Beach to visit some of Ryan's old riding buddies. It was a blast, great to see them all, and very nostalgic for Ryan. He hadn't seen some of these guys in close to 7 years, but they picked up right where they left off. This photo includes some of the best bike riders in the world...just to throw some names out there: Jared Rando, Carter Holland, Pablo Tafoya, Kyle Strait, and of course Ryan Smith :) We hope to get to see these guys a couple more times before we head further north.

The kitchen is almost done. Its actually totally functional! There is running water and a fridge. The only thing left is a little bit of paint touch up, and Ryan is working on the tile back-splash. It looks freakin incredible...totally modern, Ikea style. Great job Malia on your design work. Its amazing how much space is in this tiny little space, thanks to some smart minds who did the design work, and Ikea for making things work in small spaces! I will post finalized pics in a few days, but here it is as of today. Next up, the living room...needs a new sliding glass door, trim, new floors, and new paint. Then we will be DONE! More time to hang out on the beach :)

Its going to be a good day! Just got home from an amazing yoga class in Santa Monica with the famous Brian Kest. I learned about yoga by trying one of his tapes about 8 years ago and fell in love. He is an amazing and well known instructor all over the world. And I didn't even get into any traffic getting there!

We had a blast in Atlanta. It was really great to see our family and friends, as always. It was very surreal to be back there, but not live there. Its so beautiful and green and lush...and springtime in the south is always so colorful. My parents are amazing cooks and love cooking for us when we are home, so we were fed so well that it felt like we were home for the holidays! So much has changed in our relationships over the last 4 years, in a really good way, and it was so special to get to spend that time with them. Got to spend lots of time with my sister and her hubby too...thanks family for all going in together to get us home!









Itwas AWESOME to be back at Elmyr again. Its our place "where everybody knows your name," its our "Cheers!" What a fun and crazy night, and after visiting many more places, they STILL make the best margarita around. Thanks to all who came to play, we had a blast with you guys. That is a night I will never forget. As expected, it was hard to leave and say goodbye to everyone...again...but we are still so excited to be on the journey that we are on. We have so much more we want to see and do on our little adventure. Like perhaps a stroll along the beach today!!!!??????!!!!!! :)




This is not a good picture of the renovation, but it gives you an idea of the style and color scheme. The before picture shows the bedroom mostly, and we tore down the wall that separated that from what is now the kitchen (the green wall.) So Ryan built a new wall and put a closet in (what you see in the new pic) and the dresser and the door to the bedroom are in the same place in the before picture as they are in the after picture. There is also a lovely new floor which you cannot see. More pics to come as things get finished. It will be soon!