Sticks and drills

On the worksite, I had several tasks. I worked on framing a second story, siding a house, landscaping a backyard, throwing up a cool foam technology that are both the structure and insulation for the house (foam stacks like Legos, holding rebar in place an then gets filled up with concrete), switching the door swing on a refrigerator (yes, you can do that!!) and chipping wood.

I wasn't expecting to learn so much about construction, but now I am way more confident (could be dangerous).

My next stop is briefly in the bay area before road tripping from Chico to Montana to go fishing. The fun doesn't stop!

Jason

Vaca for charity

Though I am supposed to be on an altruistic mission to help build homes for those that are less fortunate, I get the feeling I am just on vacation with great people.

Our daily schedule is packed. We wake up at the church around 6:30 am to go to work. Due to all the pre- meetings and normal waiting around that happens with a large group, we usually have our daily work schedules by 8:30. We work until 4 with a donor-provided lunch (usually a home cooked meal!). Then we head to the gym to shower (membership also donated). We must move at the rate of the slowest member, so I get in a workout and then a quick shower before we are off to someone's house for a home-cooked dinner. After dinner each night, we usually have some kind of an adventure (biking, hiking, beach sitting, etc...). Apparently, this maximum utilization of the day is common for Alaskans. The sun is up so late that no one wants to go home. So they have bonfires, and go hiking all night long. Rarely was I in bed before 1 am. I am tired...

Through all of these activities, the best part was the people with me. Everyone came with the intention of primarily building houses for others, and we were all pleasantly surprised with the great activities. So, adventurous people with good intentions doing adventurous stuff... And occasional house building. Good times!

Here are the shadows of a group of us with a view.

Jason

Alaskan adventures

The adventures come fast here in beautiful Alaska. Jessica peeled off and flew back to LA, while I head over to Alaska to help build a house for habitat for humanity.

When I flew into Anchorage, I could see about 330 degrees as the plane swung around to it's final approach. In that view, I couldn't see a single building. Just a ton of various forms of landscapes. I didn't know I would be in the midst of those landscapes within two days here in Alaska. I also didn't know what I might learn.

First thing I learned was about the incredible tides. There are 2 tides per day here in Alaska and they are huge. The landscape gets much larger for a few hours as 38 vertical feet of water leave in only 6 hours. Then, they rush back just as quickly. It is a site to see! Then I learned that glacial water looks silty because of all the crushed rock that got caught in the ice. These glacial waters really interested me, so I went in for more research.

I joined the polar bear club and learned what it feels like to have a 100% numbness throughout my body. I am not sure on the exact requirements to enter the polar bear club. I think it is a group of people that submerge themselves in icy waters. I only know that I am now a certified member of the polar bear club. I submerged myself in glacial waters to earn a piece of paper and a whole bunch of camaraderie. After the experience, I couldn't feel my skin. However, my core stayed warm thanks to the nice layer of whale blubber created by all the excellent food in South Africa. In other words, I had been training for this all summer!

After joining the elite club, we went on a walk up to a different glacier where we had a snowball fight and did some sledding... without a sled (our butts and bellies). Here is a picture:

Can I see a menu?

Despite the adventures that we mentioned in previous posts, most of our time in Cape Town was occupied by gastro-indulgence. We found a few foody themes through out this journey: very American palates, without ever saying "American cuisine", but more flavor, more meat options, and less costly. 

We indulged in everything. The moment we walked into our first cafe in Cape Town the "don't eat ..." health lectures became a faint memory. I will take a big bite out of that delicious BLT and chutney sandwich!!! 

Burgers and chips (fries) are a staple here. Your meat, beef, lamb or ostrich, is always fresh, local and organic. Produce is plentiful and you can always order avocado, even on your pizza. 

In the bush we got a little more adventurous with local cuisine. The primary bush cuisine,  Bobotie, was a pasta-less lasagna filled with spiced meat. The crowd favorite was homemade butternut squash soup served nightly around the camp fire. Salad was enjoyed by one of us; you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink! 

Though we never drank the water, we broke many rules. Through it all, neither of us got sick. Jason's first, healthy semi-developing country experience! Jessica's ability to negotiate locations for our next trip just expanded (she hopes). 

Here are some of the apparently safe, beautiful and always delicious meals that we enjoyed:

Fried egg and chutney were common, but usually our burgers didn't have a bite in them:

A roasted veggies "toastie" was also a common option, but rarely so pretty!

Spiked milk shakes need to come to the states! Jessica spiked her mint chocolate milk shake with kalua.

A bon voyage meal of Asian stir fry, sangria, Greek wrap, and beer at the Old Biscuit Mill - where we sat outside on bales of hay. Street food, South African style!

Scrumptious Mediterranean mezzos at a restaurant around the corner from the apartment we stayed in. 

To full bellies,

Jessica & Jason

Sent from iJess

...and that was the coldest I've ever been.

Friends of ours continue to delight us with their memories of Chicago. Unfortunately, most of those stories end with line "...and that was the coldest I've ever been." Well, it turns out that visiting an ocean somewhat close to Antarctica in the winter and then jumping in might be a nice challenge to our friends' stories. Oh, and there were penguins... and sharks.

We went shark cage diving in "shark alley." This was legit, as proven by a fellow guest on the boat. A videographer for Discovery Channel's 25th anniversary of shark week was enjoying the sights along side us. After 3 intense weeks of filming sharks, his idea of a day off was to go shark diving with us... Legit!

The seas were not calm. No boats were allowed out for the 6 days before us, but our captain thought we could make the trip today. With the sea sick pills clutched tightly in her hand, Jessica boarded the boat. As the last people on, we were relegated to the top, windward side of the boat, where we were consistently splashed with boat spray as we went over 6 meter swells! And that's... no, not yet. We had rubber, Lon John Silver coats on keeping the water off us and keeping us in our usual top fashion.

Then, we got to seal island. The best (worst) smelling island ever. It was like a fish market, but worse. The seals played, fought, mated and ate on the island that they clearly owned. Check out the attached panorama for a site of it. (Jason is experimenting with a new "picture stitching" app)

In a small strait between a constant food supply (seal island) and a bigger island with a lighthouse, the sharks have the time of their lives. We watched them chase seals and circle our boat. Then we jumped in... our cage. And that's the... No, not yet. The shark sightings were consistent thanks to the chum being thrown out the boat, a big hunk of fish meat as bait and a foam seal decoy. Some of the sharks would consistently jump out after the bait as it was being pulled away by our boat captain and first mate.

Aside from when our feet and hands would slip outside the cage, we felt completely safe. The biggest danger was swallowing too much salt water. That is not to say that these sharks couldn't get to us if they wanted to. The small, 8ft long sharks could easily ram the cage if they were interested, and we felt like the huge 20ft shark could just eat the cage. But, these sharks were basically full. When you can eat seals as easily as going to the grocery store, why go after metal?

When we were done we got out of the cages, wiggled out of our thick, hooded wet suits & booties and got hit by a blast of wind. And that is the coldest that Jessica has ever been! Jason's time would come.

After a few more sandwiches and shark sightings, it was time to go home. We sat on what we thought was the correct side, Jason in front of Jessica. But, the boat did an unexpected u-turn and got hit with a massive wave, shooting a wave of water up to the top deck soaking every inch of Jason's pants and even got under the rubber suit soaking his body. Then we zoomed home in the cold wind... and that is the coldest Jason has ever been! Jessica laughed herself almost warm. Not even the warm lamb and bean stew or coffee or hot shower could bring either of our cores back to normal.

We will just have to await our summer time adventures back on the northern hemisphere.

Sadly, this is just about the end of our adventurous summer. Soon, we have to settle for new adventures in Chicago.

Look forward to a blog on some of the food we have feasted on along the way. (if we have time with all the eating and drinking we will continue to do for the next 24 hours).

Forks up!
Jessica & Jason

People, dogs and wine!

Into wine country:

Despite stories of road stonings, we decided to rent a car. What pushed us over the top was the airport staff. Our self-proclaimed ex-drug addict of a safari travel guide swore to us that the roads were still dangerous due to road stonings that happened 10 years ago. When it came to our game time decision, we sought second, third and fourth opinions. Everyone laughed at us when we asked (do road stonings still happen regularly?). The airport staff was right, but it added a bit more excitement for us.

Not that we needed more excitement... Jason was re-learning how to drive a stick shift with his left hand while driving on the other side of the road. Jessica got a hand workout on the car's handles. Jason made it successfully. Good thing!

Our first room was a bed and breakfast at a beautiful, classic and large estate. The owners were an English family whose ancestors came for opportunity after the destructive world war 2, and stayed for the weather. They bought a giant estate and subdivided it later. Now, the youngest son makes experimental wines from grapes only found on the original estate. The current owners love to chat and learn about their guests over breakfast and we obliged. But, we also learned quite a bit about them! They met in England when the husband was there for "polishing school" after his "improper" south African raising. He said it was a joke. She was from rural England an never imagined moving to South Africa. The weather, and the estate encouraged them to move. Now they live on a beautiful family estate surrounded by ancestral paintings, old maps, and beautiful country side. They currently raise race horses and have all of their kids living on their estate around them (in separate houses). All together, they have 9 dogs on the estate for their sole source of protection. The father refuses to close the outside gate, which was quite relieving to us: finally, a place in south Africa with less danger. We also learned that they love to go on safaris for a fortnight every year. They had their own exciting sightings to tell and we were enthralled. Their real passion was twitching (bird watching). Such a fun couple! The picture below is one house on the estate.

We later found that dogs were a regular occurrence in wine country. Jessica was in heaven. The dogs mostly roam free and dig as they see fit. However, they have the important job of protecting the land from men and beasts. Even leopards roam these mountains.

Eventually, we drank wine. It was good. The real fun was hearing about the different techniques to make and name the wines. One wine was only from plants that grew on or near termite hills (where there is great soil and great plants, but worse grapes) and some only far from those hills. One wine was named "swallow" after the swallows that would nest on the fermenter. Good stories! One winery literally locked us in when we tried to visit. The sign said, "to get out, call security at.." but we didn't have a phone. Luckily, a delivery needed to be made 10 minutes after we found out we were locked in and the guards were out there opening it up. We wonder what they though about us just sitting and watching them.

Our next and last two nights were spent in a log cabin sitting on a lake with a porch and a fireplace. Jason learned how hard starting a fire could be in a cold environment with moist kindling. Yet, he found success and we both found warmth with our day's wine purchases, cheese and chocolate.

On the way back from wine country, Jessica directed us to a cheetah sanctuary. Pretty animals and quite nice, but very much independent thinking cats, not dogs!

Jason's nose led us to a micro-brewery with our first taste of real hops since we got here. Oh my! We learned that they have to import most of their hops and malts. No wonder it is so hard to find a nice beer here! Sierra Nevada, ready to go international?

Now we are heading back to Cape Town for some cafe sitting whale watching and shark diving!

Cheers!
Jason & Jessica

On safari...

The night before safari, we had an easy night in an entirely unmemorable planetarium show about 12/21/12 (the end of the Mayan calendar). Then, we were up early to catch our flight to JoBerg.

After ~10 hours of traveling, we made it for a night ride where we saw warthogs run out of their holes, and a honey badger that didn't give much hoot about us. The impala were plentiful setting the tone, but not much else graced us with it's nocturnal presence.

The other safari car that went out at the same time as us and traveled similar paths saw a bit more. This would be another theme. Guests carry conversations about what they saw that day as a nightly competition. We learned two lessons. First, the photos are always better on the other 4x4. Second, major safari sightings are like a drug: there are gateway animals like giraffes and elephants and serious animals like black rhino and leopards. The people that got into the nightly competitions would see one and then need to see them all. We happily stayed out of the fray. We couldn't be happier watching the elephants tear down trees and cross the street (pic below has so many babies!), or the giraffes that would watch us as intently as we would watch them. We were filled with adrenaline when we saw hippos on our "bush walk" (or maybe that was fear of being in such close proximity with the deadliest animal out there).

The bush walk deserves it's own paragraph. The lead of our perfectly single file line is a rifle carrying park ranger. He told us to never run if something chases you. Just stand still and look big. There were some exceptions to looking a charging beast in the eye, but the only notable exception about the running rule is hippos. Hippos don't have a need to show dominance. They prove it by killing anything between them and their water hole. Should we find ourselves at the mercy of a charging hippo, our guide instructed us to find a tree... and climb. We were scared, but our guide does this every day. Our fear was analogous to our disgust as our ranger picked up a huge elephant dropping and asked Jason to smell it. Apparently carnivorous dung is dangerous because it holds bad bacteria, but herbivores have dung with a lot of good enzymes and nutrition..especially elephants. This made a lot more sense when we watched the elephants eat tree branches ... straight. Both our fear and our disgust were out of place. Humans used to roam these lands just fine, and even used buffalo dung (an herbivore) as their flooring because of the nice, sweet smell!

We don't have any stories that "compete" with our fellow guests' stories. One of them was in a safari car that got charged by a black rhino. Another followed a roaring lion. Yet another found itself in the midst of a hunting pride. But, we certainly enjoyed hearing about them from all the interesting people on safari with us.

We saw a lot of animals both near & far and big & small. Jason's favorite was the black backed jackal. He is just so impressed that these little dogs survive so well despite limiting their procreation to one mate throughout their lives. So sweet! Jessica's favorite, shockingly, was not the sunbathing, water loving hippos. Instead, she found the elephants to be her favorite. Jason doesn't think this was a fair fight. She saw mostly baby elephants. Can't compare with that kind of cuteness!

Each of our daily adventures was capped with a cold night in our treehouse. With no insulation (or even walling in some places), we slept in the wilderness. It was cold. None of this was helped by the fact that we needed to arise before sunrise each morning. All the interesting animals do their feeding at night and come back to bed for the daytime. So, if we wanted to see anything, we had better be up early and stay up late.

After 4 awesome days, we started the long ride home through a gorgeous canyon and the South African countryside.

Off to the wine country!

Jason and Jessica

Some Quests on Our Quest

On our South African adventure, we are on a quest to hit all the Captonian sites. We have found that Cape Town is full of sub-quests. We found that finding a decent drink of beer in the town is a quest in itself; rugby is a quest upon which many embark; diamonds are the ultimate quest that started this country; and, we met someone fighting the quest for creative liberty, or more broadly, social justice. Here is our story:

The locals drink wine for taste and beer for purpose. The wine here is good, as we mentioned. You can find a wide range of variety, and of a decent quality. The beer, on the other hand, is gold and comes in glasses that are big enough to fill the largest bellies (possibly because there are plenty of large bellies to fill). The populous seems to be after quantity over quality, making it very difficult to find a hop. In fact, when I asked a bartender, do you have any hoppy beers? He said, 'hoppy?'" I then defined a hop as, "a flower added to beers such as IPAs, and other ales to give the beer a slightly bitter taste and floral smell" and he said, "I don't know what you're talking about". Enough said. However, we continue to strive for a decent beer, but we are not holding our breaths. Wine will do.

At a friend's suggestion, we heard that we couldn't miss a rugby game. Therefore, we bought some tickets. In the spirit of the cultural experience, we thought we might ride the train over to the stadium. The fact that it was rush hour didn't help the already chaotic nature within the train station. Honestly, we were scared. One taxi ride later, we were watching the local, first place Stormers beat the last place Lions pretty easily. The multiple scoring game provided significant excitement within which Jessica and I could gain a new education about the sport. So organized, yet so chaotic! The only pre-educatoin we did was about the colors of the teams. We didn't want to be caught wearing the away team colors! The fans reminded us more of 9ers fans than Raiders fans. In other words, it was a very "wine and cheese" kind of crowd. While they were excited that the team won, it doesn't seem like their lives would have been different if they lost. We felt safe and had a great time, but we both wore the local blue just in case.

Did you know that mining drives the South African economy. There are several other components of the GDP, but without mining, South Africa would be a different place. Like the California Gold Rush in 1849, Africa had its own diamond rush in the early 1870s. Specifically, the South African Karoo, was the center of the diamond rush. Side note: Now, that same area is the source of a local fracking debate (Americans certainly know all about that fracking thing!). We are sure that you all know the story of De Beers, how they cornered the market and drove demand through such tactics as propagating the idea of a diamond engagement ring in the 50s. However, did you know that Cecil Rhodes (benefactor of the Rhodes Scholars) was the founder of the de Beers company as we now know it? As Cecil Rhodes started buying all the mines around him, one of the mines that he bought was really well known and affectionately called "The Big Hole" owned by the De Beers family. In effect, De Beers sold out early, but gave their namesake to the future diamond empire! The Oppenheimers went on to run the De Beers company and make it so profitable. We were enthralled. Jessica was distracted by all the sparkles, while Jason couldn't stop looking at the early diamond cutting machinery and mined rocks. Fun fact: did you know diamonds used to be cut with a mixture of diamond dust and olive oil. Now they use the completely unromantic lasers.

The next morning, we had to wake up EARLY! Jessica had to drag Jason out of bed at 8:30am just to get to a coffee date that HE set up. By 9:30, we were chatting with the satirical artist, Brett Murphy. Recently, his gallery published a painting titled "Hail to the Theif" with an Leninistic image of the South African President, Zuma. The controversial part was the fact that Brett drew Zuma with his penis hanging out. This could be read in a number of different lights. Zuma has had 713 criminal charges brought against him and the only thing keeping him out of jail is his political connections. If he doesn't win the next parliamentary election, he might end up with a 15 year sentence, like his bookkeeper. Brett's gallery threw this particular painting in with several other very powerful and deep paintings like a playful 1-liner. The National media, and leading political party strategists chose this simple piece of art to rest at the soul of a political battle drawing lines in the sand about everything from race to the freedom of speech. Brett was in the middle of a massive political battle that put him on the receiving end of everything from subpoenas to death threats against him and his family (including 2 daughters). There is a lot of violence here in South Africa, so death threats are even more scary than they might be in the US because someone really might act on them. A local religious leader went so far as saying that Brett should be stoned in the streets. While we were full of suspense listening to Brett tell his tales, we also stopped to think about what this means about South Africa as a country. On the one side, our American mindset thinks, "how can anyone even argue against the freedom of speech?" On the other hand, at least Brett was never sent to jail. South Africa really is a developed country. In the aftermath, a South African court ruled the art piece as "pornographic" so Brett, nor anyone else, can ever display his art in the public forum. The gallery settled their dispute with the government and Brett's painting was sold for ~$20,000 (mostly going to the gallery). We wish Brett good luck as he may or may not continue his quest for political justice in South Africa.

With a safari planned in the near future, we may not be posting for a little while (no internet). So, we will catch y'all again soon.

Love,
Jessica and Jason

Ain't no mountain high enough!

Our next two days in the new CT were spent destroying our bodies in the name of good experiences.

We started out with a thigh-killing hike up the ominous mountain behind our cottage, Table Top Mountain. After gaining about a half mile of altitude, our thighs were spent, but the view was worth it. 3 hours on the stair master would not earn the same view, but probably would take the same effort. We looked around for a while and then Jessica insisted on taking the spinning, mostly glass, people mover called the cable car down. Jason has a fear of heights. Now he knows this. Think of a chair lift with way more people, no support poles and that forces you to spin the whole way down. That was our ride. It took 3 hours to go up, and 1 minute to go down.

As we limped back to our apartment, we stopped for lunch in our new favorite hood. It may have been the vibe of our fellow patrons, it could have been the enormous and delicious sandwiches, or the spectacular view of the mountain we just climbed, but we think it became our favorite because of the hipster, conspiracist waiter that served our table and had a whole political view to share with us. Even while freezing in a T-shirt, and underneath his Beiber-like side-swept hair, this guy continued to let us in on his political theories about literally every continent in the world. We love him. Side point: Russia Today is what our waiter considered to be the most unbiased news source.

Our next day was focused on replenishing our tired bodies at the expense of our livers and waistlines. We started our morning with some good old wine tours. Yes, morning. South African wine tasting wouldn't be complete without a troop of aggressively sized baboons resting on top of the walls and buildings, or charging through the vineyards chased by bb gun shooting wine makers. Side note: baboons love grapes and cakes. Yes, cakes.

After tasting wines at the oldest and steepest vineyards in the country, we needed to soak it up along the shoreline. We ate at a restaurant that delicately combined upscale ambiance with grease. The delicious food stopped Jason's heart... Twice. Fact: A lamb burger with mixed in chutney and a fried egg might do that.

Until next time, a very fat, drunk, happy and tired Jason and Jessica.

Great views and bad jumps

2 days in and we love our new CT, Cape Town South Africa. We have had some interesting experiences, true to African style, but have really enjoyed ourselves throughout. 

We arrived in T-shirts and shorts after enjoying a great New England summer. The weather was cold and wet. At least we looks good while we shivered. Our apartment and landlord were great, and cold. This will be a nice, not quite cozy, place to stay. Then we went for our walk to downtown.

We walked through some gorgeous gardens, where we saw a rubber tree, baby ducks and aggressive, obese grey squirrels. On our trip through downtown, there were equally aggressive pan handling poor. One threatened Jason with the following dialogue:

"I have a great 64MB flash drive for sale"

"no thank you"

"come on man, I have a family to feed"

"I wish you luck"

"do you want me to take out my knife and take your money from you?"

"what?"

he repeats himself with more enthusiasm

"are you kidding me?"

"come on man! Just buy my flash drive"

"I don't have any cash, go away"

Grumbles

However, the trip to the town was great. The architecture was an interesting combination of Dutch, French and African. We loved the brick walks and cool sites. 

The next day, we went on a "hop on hop off" bus tour to see a bird and monkey estate, a beautiful Hout Bay with independently minded people, and a wonderful waterfront with our first fermented craft-juice experience (a brewery). 

The birds and monkey estate is clearly owned by the animals despite the efforts put in my the 19th century guy who overcame dog and baboon attacks, and government intervention to build his refuge. Now, the place largely takes in injured animals, nurses them back to health and releases them if they are a species that can be released. Despite her persistent fear, Jessica really enjoyed the contact area with the monkeys. She claims this fear is more of a respect to the animal kingdom, but Jason's arm begs to differ. Her fear also may have been caused by a bird that landed on her head. Jason's favorite part was the exercising honey badger. No one was going stop him from getting in his workout, not even the miniature cage they put him in. Go honey badgers!

Hout bay is famous for its independent people. During Apartheid, they manufactured their own passports to separate themselves from the rest of the country. We enjoyed their soul food / American food combination. At least we know the cooks are still independent! Garlic sides on a chicken and cranberry pizza were quite memorable. However, it was the cream spinach and squash that we really enjoyed (this is our weight loss phase). The image below is us attempting a jumping picture in Hout Bay. 

We finished up at a waterfront brewery. It left much to be desired, but the waterfront was beautiful!

A great day an we certainly gained our bearings for a fun trip ahead. 

Jason & Jessica

Sent from a mobile device

So uptown, it's upstate!

We came for a wedding, and we got way more! Driving around Buffalo with Paul (the other best man) taught us a lot about upstate New York since 1800. One surprising set of facts: in 1800, the population of Buffalo was 12, 30 years later, 8,300, 30 years later 83,000, and 40 years after that (1900), 330,000!!! That is some serious growth!!! Through all that growth, buffalo became the place to be (kind of like Chicago now :).

We saw some of the ruins from the original canal, some old parks and waterfalls and some wildlife. In the one creek, baby duckies being taught how to fly through the school of hard knocks and a heron fishing with his coiled neck ready to strike.

Then, we witnessed the athletic prowess of the Hammel family. The bride had 30 immediate family members at the wedding, 7 of them were siblings, and 7 more were siblings in law. All of them seemed to have kids that could beat Jason in football.

After the rehearsal picnic, Jessica relaxed over a white chocolate martini. Buffalo is a good city!

The next day was he wedding day. Jason starte it off with a straight razor shave with Paul and the groom. Jessica had a bridal brunch in pajamas. Then, the wedding was in a simple, pretty chapel. The ceremony had a Croatian priest and a Buffalonian priest. The Croatian had all the personality. He even proceeded to give a standup routine with classic Croatian sexist jokes. Couldn't have been better!

After the ceremony, we head to the reception in a georgeous mansion. A guy named Butler built the mansion using money that he embezzled from a government program during the high times of Buffalo. He got caught and had to skip town immediately and the mansion wouldn't travel. The tax payers were paid back with the house and now the business school at the University of Buffalo controls the mansion (appropriately).

Jessica and I parties and danced all night, then woke up early (for us) to go to the Niagra Falls and then drive to JFK. Upstate New York is so pretty and we soaked it up (aside from a short nap that one of us took :).

Next stop, South Africa!!!

Jessica and Jason

Wings and things

After Tahoe, we each had some family time and a welcomed taste of home. 

Then, Jason cruised to LA to spend time with the Phillips family. We played a mean game of mini golf and learned the art of front yard chipping from Craig. We also saw a celebrity (Jason disputes the claim of such status for Ashley Simpson) an had some delicious food and beer. Then, it was time to move. 

We head to the airport with our friends, Allie, Rachel, Megan and Brian and stopped for dinner on the way. A little beach side dinner and some delicious wine had us prepared for the red eye. 

The adventure (it's in the journey):

Last to board: we were looking at the wrong gate when it came time to board, and it wasn't until we checked to see if the plane was delayed (getting too far past the boarding time) that we realized the plane had already boarded. Luckily, the jetway was still half full!

The delay: 

We fell asleep as soon as we sat down (great wine, Brian!). Jessica woke up about an hour later and saw that we were still on the ground. We found out later that some of the luggage was not loaded. The plane had to turn around while taxi-ing to pick up the rest of the luggage. All this made us 90 min. late. 

Missed Connection: by 4 min!!! The plane was still on the ground with the doors open, but the gate agent would not let us through! 

Cancelled Flight: we were put on a different flight 4 hours later. Then, 30 minutes before departure, as we got up to board, the flight is cancelled. There were blue skies. They put us on a flight the next morning. 

Sweet Talking:

We got United to put us on a US Airways flight to Charlotte and then to Buffalo (from DC - yes, south, then North). Unfortunately, we still had to wait another 6 hours!! So, we continued the sweet talking into the United Lounge. We said, "I have Silver status, so I know I don't get access, but our 6 hour trip has just become a 23 hour trip, longer than our upcoming flight to South Africa, also on United. Will you please let us in?". And that was how it was done. We enjoyed the lounge!!

Wings: 

23 hours later, we had buffalo wings in their place of origin, Buffalo, NY. 

Ahh! Finally!

Jason and Jessica

Sent from a mobile device

The Sun Also Rises

Like negative space in a painting or a picture, Ernest Hemingway wrote the title, "The Sun Also Rises" with the intention that the sun was setting. In some ways, the hot sun of Mexico was setting. With it, it feels like our Summer is slipping away. However, we have some serious adventures ahead!

Jessica and I started our trek back to the states with some apprehension. We were nervous that we might starve if we left the all inclusive. We were also excited about what lay ahead. 

Jessica joined my Mom and I in Lake Tahoe where we pretty much watched sunsets. The we would argue about the colors in the mountains. Check out the video below and let me know (in the comment field) what you think the colors are. 

Other than watching sunsets, we also went to Cal Neva to check out the "tunnel tour", where we learned about the Frank Sinatra & Marilyn Monroe cabins, and the "dead lake" of Lake Tahoe. Apparently, Frank Sinatra bought the hotel resort for a paltry sum from a mobster that owed a lot in back taxes. Frank had a long lived desire of owning the Cal Neva and marrying Ava Gardner. He consecrated this dream with an inscription in the tunnels underneath the Cal Neva in 1946. The same tunnels that JFK walked while he was in the Cal Neva to stay away from the crowds. Cal Neva was spectacular. 

After some fried Zucchini at Sunny Side (a restaurant in the West Shore), Jessica flew off to spend some time in LA and Jason spent another 4 days in Tahoe watching sunsets. 

Cheers,

Jason & Jessica

New discovery made

Sent from a mobile deviceFound: The wonders, mindsets and general loveliness of an all inclusive resort.

First, to start this off, here is a public service announcement. To all of our friends that have scattered around the country, we all have to fly into your wedding anyway. Destination weddings are encouraged.

Back to previously planned programming:

All inclusive resorts put you in a new mindset. You put your wallet into the lock box with all your electronics and your biggest worry becomes the application of sunblock as waiters bring you an afternoon snack amidst the constant flow of fruit punches, drinks and dark beers.

Jessica and I made pacts to prevent the little fat people within us from escaping by forcing ourselves to work out each morning. Then we get our blended coffee drink.

After leaving the hell cone (cone shaped mosquito net blocking all wind and capturing all heat with the sole intention of both killing Jason with heat and saving him from malaria) in Tulum, our room here got our relaxation mindset started off with a swift kick in the sun burnt rear! It was a pure, marbled, air-conditioned, enormous, comfortable bed kind of luxury. We may have been extra appreciative after a fiasco involving a 45 minute search for a gas station while low on gas, or a bumpy, smelly (Jason almost puked) van ride from where we dropped the car off. The result was the same. We were cast off into heaven!

With food, drinks, and room service all free, our first move was to have tortilla soup and two mojitos delivered to the room. The remainder of the day was spent floating.

Jessica's only real world distraction is Jason's continual reflection on the all inclusive business model. How do they allocate their costs? How do they incentivize their employees? Jason continues to wonder .... and float.

The wedding and the culmination of our trip came all to quickly, but it did not disappoint. Set on the shady sea side with a barefoot wedding party, we enjoyed a mixture of Ukrainian, Jewish, and Christian wedding traditions. The celebration continued on a sea side deck where we had diner and danced late into the night. We learned an important lesson that we would like to impart on all our engaged friends: seaside weddings are awesome! We also learned a few cool Ukranian reception traditions. The best was the "10 paces" where the groom stands 10 paces away from the bride and recites one thing he loves about her with every step towards her. Then he gets to kiss her.

With one last pitch to our engaged friends, check out the beauty of our married friends below.

Next stop: Tahoe!!

Jason & Jessica

Does 9 days make us a local?

Sent from a mobile deviceAfter 4 days in the Yucatan, specifically in Tulum, we have continued to face a tension between seeing the great treasurers that would classify as being a tourist and indulging in the ways of the locals.

Although the Coba ruins had us nearly sick of looking at rocks, we had to at least stop by our local ruins on the beach! Coba is by far the best in terms of rocks and construction, however, the Tulum ruins was Disneyland with a view! You just can't beat ocean front property! Location location location!!

These ruins were far less covered up than Coba, so we got a much better idea of what a city might look like within the walls. in other words, Coba told us how a building is constructed, while Tulum educated us about how a city is planned. We loved it! So did the iguanas (hundreds of them)! They basically own the property and just let humans enjoy it as a privilege. A few tried revoking that privilege when Jason walked by. They would sit in front of him and stare him down. They must know something :)

Once we had our full of both rocks and tourists, we head into the main city of Tulum for some grub. Boy, did we find it. Jessica had her first spicy mole over some enchiladas and it was delicious! Jason had a grease pizza full of chorizo, beans, fried bananas (seriously), and topped with butter and sour cream (side note: Jason hasn't lost any weight on this trip yet). All for about the price of an appetizer at a resort near the beach (extra authentic points).

Also in our city excursion, we ran into some bikers with the bright idea of cycling from Cancun to Costa Rica. We found them less than 100km in, and they were still in high spirits despite the 90 degree weather with 80% humidity (seriously).

We finished up the day with more beers on our nice beach cove in chase lounges underneath a straw cabana (we are tourists, let's face it).

The next day had was one of similar tension: snorkeling and local Italian food. While snorkeling, we first met up with our tour guide, a small little fish that loved Jason's chest hair. This little fish showed us an eel, a sting ray (so graceful!) and 4 enormous parrot fish. The parrot fish would make extremely loud chomping noises as they slammed their beaks against the rock to scrape off whatever might be on it. Jessica and I were mesmerized! The hardest part was saying goodbye to that little fish that was our excellent tour guide and had stayed with us for 2 hours.

At the Italian restaurant in town, we had some delicious pizza and a baked pasta (think bacon and peas in Mac and cheese, but better). Jason proudly demonstrated some Italian language skills with the Italian proprietor (who graciously encouraged him - Jessica had to deal with the ego problem later). Finally, we sat next to an older couple who gave us three words of advice: travel, travel and travel. Then we told them of our summer plans, which led to some tips and good conversation.

Our next stop is up to an all inclusive resort in Playa Del Carmen for our friend's wedding. Jason has no hopes for his weight to drop there either (all inclusive = all you can eat and drink and Jason loves horchata and beer, let alone the food).

Below is a picture of the Tulum ruins. The cleared out grass area is the part that makes these ruins more like Disneyland. In Coba, that would be undisturbed jungle.

More to come!

Jason & Jessica

Ohla! It is time for the playa!

Sent from a mobile deviceAs we moved into our new digs, we were pleasantly surprised by the proximity to restaurants, the sound system in our room, the beach in front of our free breakfast, and the fascinating Mayan ruins.

When we arrived, we knew we would not go hungry. Sign after sign was offering us delicious food and sweet drinks. We delighted in such fare in our first hour by going to the best food place on the strip (or as far as Jason's Spanish lead us to understand). Then, we cruised to the best Mojito place. The mojitos were scrumptious, but the people watching took the experience to a new level. Each person represented an internal clash of cultures between US stoners, French kite surfers and Mexican culture. We expected them all to start talking to us about the commune they lived in together.

Then the bands showed up! We were delighted to find out that there would be several bands playing that night. The members of the bands were ... Interesting. They took the culture of the Mojito place patrons to a whole new level. Their descriptions transcend words.

Unfortunately, the rain delayed the concert start time and we are too old to stay up. Thankfully, the sound system in our room kept us involved in the action. You see, our room looks down on the Mojito place, so the sound system was actually the concert below us. We could close the windows, but then Jason would die of heat. So, we listened. They played Bohemian rap, some American punk, and some middle eastern meditation music (we think - who knows what that really would sound like).

Then, we woke up the next morning, went down to breakfast and watched lizards and iguanas battle over the turf in front of us. The iguana won (see picture below). That picture also shows our beach.

After breakfast, we cruised out to the Mayan ruins in Copa to look at some 1200 year old structures. We can't believe how good they look!

We finished up with a few beers and some great books on our hotel beach.

More later.

Jason & Jessica

Putting on the Ritz!

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Our next stop was for our friend's, Julie Stern, wedding at the Ritz in Orlando. There was a minor price increase to go from the Marriott to the Ritz, so we went for the Ritz!

The normal price range is usually much higher, and we could see why! Everything was nicer. However, there seemed to be only a marginal improvement in service... Until we got to the pools. While the Ritz provided someone to "make our chase lounges" complete with 2 towels and a pillow, and handed out 4 grapes in a small plastic cup. The Marriott had a lazy river. You could find us at the Marriott.

The night of our big day there was the great wedding ceremony and reception. The ceremony was held at the Ritz around the corner from the reception. Besides the stringed quartet playing throughout, it had a bishop leading the ceremony joining hands with a Rabbi. There were prayers from the new testament and glass breaking within a chuppa. The son of a bishop was marrying a Jewish girl and we were witness to the meaningful symbolism that ensued. They took all the best parts from each. From the Christians, what is a ceremony without a passage from the Corinthians!? "Love is patient, love kind... Never boasts ... And endures...". From Judaism, they had the open, decorated household (Chuppa) that said friend and family are always welcomed into their home, a glass filled with two mixed wines symbolizing that they will take both the good with the bad (the sweet with the bitter) in their marriage. Finally, they broke the glass to represent the fact that this bond is irrevocable, like the broken glass. Incredible meanings!

Then, the reception... With food! The servers at our event flowed out like a steady river flowing out of a dam. Then, they circled our table like it was a rock in the midst of the stream, and placed each plate down at the exact same time with a loud "bang" adding to the weight of the meal... and the gold plated plates.

After food was a Jewish dancing ceremony with lots of circling, kicking and chair hoisting! I can't believe they let drunk people lift up the two to be honored! The hoisters almost dropped the bride! We wish there was a picture of the crowd when her chair first slipped!

Then, we danced. Enough said.

The next morning, we were on our way to Tulum, Mexico on the Yucatan Penninsula.

Stay tuned!

We moved in!.. to storage

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After the graduation festivities, we made sure to leave ourselves 4 luxurious days to pack. During those days, we made the luxurious decision to procrastinate. So, we packed up an cleaned our whole house in 1.5 days.

Then, we got in a U-Haul and made the 15 hour trip to the Blue Heron Motel in Indiana. What a beautiful place, the attendant said! 800 acre lake right behind it and it was the only motel on the whole lake! Imagine that! We liked it because it was cheap, off the freeway and came with breakfast.

On our way, we were shocked by 1 thing in particular. For the benefit of 1.5 hours of glorious Ohio scenery on a federally funded inter-state highway (80), Ohio charges $25 for U-Hauls our size. While we were not small (17 ft), I am not sure we had $25 worth of girth! That is OK, because Ohio charges $16 for cars! They must think quite highly of themselves. After conferring with my Ohio-an classmates, we have confirmed: they do in fact think highly of the pleasure of driving through their state.

After ditching the puddle, we jumped to our storage unit on the West side of Chicago. The picture below may give you some idea of what it looks like. Jason still feels we could have gone with the size smaller! Ha!

After moving in, we were apartment hunting by the next day. In only one day, we shot our limit. We made up for our New Haven inspired procrastination with some effective hunting. We nailed a spot that hit everything: large 1br, by the beach, sunk in, south facing balcony, stainless steel appliances, walk-in closet, gym inside the building, the best rooftop pool in Chicago, and the high point of our price range (but still within it). So, we will be happy, broke Chicagoans next year!

On to Orlando!

Graduation

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Yes, to all you doubters out there I graduated (and jumped for joy in the picture below - uncle Sam was more jumping out of shock of the occasion).

The family came to town (8 members of them, anyway). Jessica made an amazing brunch before an exhausting day of bar hopping and campus tours with the grandparents & parents and underage little brother. I will miss New Haven.

The next day was Graduation. Despite having a rain plan and seeing a strong indication of rain in the forecast, my dean made the go-ahead decision of the original graduation plan... Outside. It poured. We wore ponchos. Some used umbrellas. Good the speakers were great at speaking, because no one could see them to judge any other aspect. We may as well have been in the shower staring at an umbrella shower curtain listening to the ceremony on a radio broadcast. The only difference was less nudity and more community.

That is ok. We still got our expensive diplomas. Well, those of us that didn't get our diplomas destroyed by the rain were able to get their expensive diplomas. I say "expensive" due to my willingness to pay, not because they cost a lot to make. In fact, They were probably printed out on an black and white HP LaserJet. They had no colors, enhancements, crazy fonts, or even the Yale name (might have to pay royalties or something for the name). Instead, the whole diploma was written in Latin. All this time, I had no idea I was attending Universitatis Yalenesis!

I will still hang it. I had a great time at SOM!

The final day of "the graduation period," my mom, Jessica and I cruised to Newport, RI for some house tours and had an amazing time learning about the Gilded Age! We all formed a few new opinions about personal wealth. We unify in our disbelief that even such rich people suffered from the need to keep up with the Jones'!

'Til next time!

Bangladesh / Vietnam Pictures

These were not my pictures, but they are great and tell the story well (including all the food). Unfortunately, I will have to add the story and context another time.

https://picasaweb.google.com/114299329752342205782/BangladeshVietnam?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPaGq4is_MyF7gE&feat=directlink

Taste of Manilla

During our trip back from Coco Beach, we stayed in Manilla for a night. Our hotel was called "the Copa Cabana" an it was next door to a casino and across the street from two more casinos. Enough said.

We had two delightful experiences to chat about: fast food and fireworks.

The fast food in Manilla includes the obvious (McDonalds, KFC, etc...), the local (Chowking, Jolibee's, Mang Nasala etc...) and the questionable (Kenny Rogers Roast House). Jolibee's and Mang Nasala were both highly recommended for their grilled chicken and unlimited rice. We really enjoyed the Chowking for their awesome spicy rice and iced teas. However, our real experience was the Kenny Rogers fast food place complete with space for kids' birthday parties, silver records (for selling 500k albums like the Kenny Rogers Christmas album) on the wall and plenty of soul food! What a great experience! The food sucked, but who goes to a restaurant for that?

On our way back, we noticed that the Mall of Asia, the largest mall in Asia, was holding a fireworks battle between The Netherlands and China. We were extremely impressed by the sweet fireworks display, but we were far more impressed by the sheer length of the competition (~2hrs). The fact that the battle happens once a week only makes it that much more of an impressive expenditure.

Cheers!

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"What a Burn" in Coco Beach

After Banaue, our travels took us to an island south of Luzon in the Philippines. On this island, we stayed at Coco Beach Resort. To summarize these events, the first thought to our mind is: "What a Burn!"

The most obvious way is the sun. Jessica turned red and Jason turned black (guess who is writing this one). So, I say to her, "what a burn!"

That brings up a separate tale, competition. We found a game that can only be defined as horizontal skee-ball. You roll a lopsided, wooden ball (no two balls are alike) up a ramp and it falls left whenever it feels it might be appropriate, where it runs across a set of holes, hopefully going in the one worth the highest points. When we first arrived, Jessica had found her calling. Jason didn't have a chance. Jessica told me, "what a burn!" by the middle of the trip, we were both raised to the level of "island expert". Sometimes, it is amazing what will entertain us... For hours.

We didn't just sun bathe and roll wood, vacationing with us is hard work. We traveled into "the town" where we expected a nice dining experience, and maybe some shopping, etc... "What a burn!" We told the boat driver that we wanted ~3 hours to explore, but in 30 min we had seen the whole town, including some interesting grade school singing, amazing views from public viewpoints, and more new types of food than we could track! Luckily, the boat driver had not finished his in-town purchases yet, so he was still around to drive us back to our horizontal skee-ball championship.

We went kayaking throughout the lagoon to check out beaches, homes, etc... When we got back, we figured out that Jason dropped the key at one of our beach adventures. Oops! The only free way to get it back was to take the kayak back out and get it, so that is what Jason did after a whole day of kayaking before that. What a burn!

Finally, we were certainly burned at finding out two instances that make even us nauseous: 1) fine dining on a revolving platform that constantly jerked due to aged gears (the picture) 2) hitting the very high seas in a tiny boat on our way back.

Partially because of these minor burns, we had an amazing experience seeing the island culture of the small town, checking out the sweet homes while kayaking throughout the small bay, sun bathing on our own, private beach (at least while we were there), learning about new, cool drinks at happy hour, fine dining around the resort, etc... Our only regret was not having enough documentation on the iPhone such that we could put a sweet picture on this blog. What a burn!!

Bonsai Manila!!!

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Only had a few hours in Manila, and we made the best of them! We hired a driver / guide to show us everything... Literally. The highlights include:
- largest park we have ever seen (Jess particularly enjoyed this when everyone requested a picture with her because they thought she was a US celebrity... Everyone!)
- The old city held lots of interesting treasures including a Jesuit-constructed fort from the 15th century and an Agustine church where a wedding was being held.
- We also found a few former forts that still had bullet holes from world war 2. Seriously intense stuff!
- Finally, our guide pointed us in the direction of a garden (part of the formerly Jesuit fort) where we concluded our Bonsai Manila adventure in a bonsai forest. Jason was just trying to help out in the picture below.

Until our next post...

The Trycke

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We enjoyed:
- a 10 hour bus ride (each way)
- relaxing and beautiful views
- excellent service at our hut-hotel
- hot springs
- interesting engineering of irrigation systems (ok, just Jason on that one)
- friendly people from Iowa
- shockingly good "garlic rice"
- etc...

But, the real joy was gained from the most ridiculous form of transportation we have ever experienced. How are tricycles a sustainable method of travel, you ask? Well, after the first ride, we can tell you that it is all downhill. Once you know what to expect - extremely slow, bumpy travel over dirt roads (with extra bumps), loud 80s American music from our friendly driver while he asks us to move forward in our seats to keep the vehicle from flipping backwards, a shower curtain (literally) keeping the rain off you (but not off your bags), and as the icing on the cake, 2 people in a seat made for 1 while enduring the bumps - you start to look forward to the hour and a half long rides. They are a promise of adventure. Who knows, you might just breakdown on this ride. Then you have that much more time to enjoy the multitudes of small stores on the roadside, the views from a different angle, or native village men in undersized depends asking if you want to take your picture with them (the women were far more conservatively dressed). What an adventure!

Until our next post...

Against all odds

Hello again on another wild adventure of ours. Against all odds, we lost a bag before even walking into the airport. Someone else in our shuttle took our bag AND their own. We have to believe she figured it out once she tried to walk.

Then, against all odds, we had a very relaxing and easy plane flight to Hong Kong. We ate way better than we expected to (or, looking back, wanted to) and the movie selection was broad and decent. Against all odds, after our great dinner and decent wine, we managed to fit an ice cream drumstick into our stomachs.

Now, we are enjoying some awesome pork buns in the Hong Kong airport. Here we go!

Jason & Jessica