The Adventures of Tank and Cara

2011-08-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

Home Again Home Again, Jiggity Jog!!!

We've arrived back to Austin two months after starting this awesome adventure. On our way back from Washington we stopped with friends and family in Portland, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Houston.

We are thankful for the time we spent with old and new friends and the time we were able to just check out for a bit in the wilderness. We are excited to get started with a new school year and bring our new experiences into the classroom.

Until our next trip...

T&C

2011-07-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

Petersburg

Our second to last stop on the Alaska Marine Highway took us to the small fishing town of Petersburg. Except for the fishermen, life seems to amble on at a slower pace here compared to many southeastern towns we've been to. No large cruises dock here and they have a well developed fishing, canning, and logging industry base so don't depend on tourism as heavily. Which means they don't cater to tourists as much which means we had a fun 4 days pretending to blend in with the locals. Our shoes always give us away though; if you're not wearing rubber boots here you're clearly an outsider. I can see the benefit of the rubber boots after 4 days of pretty constant rain.

Hello, Dolly! Dolly Varden trout (actually in the char family) is found all over Alaska in both fresh and salt water. Our first night in Petersburg at Ohmer Creek campsite we luckily happened upon Chris, a retired teacher, who had caught too many fish that day and was looking to give some of it away. So we fired up the campfire, rubbed some olive oil on those suckers, and feasted. Very similar in taste to salmon...mmmm!

The remnants of our Dolly dinner and an aptly named wheat beer to go with.

Petersburg is the "Little Norway" of Alaska and plays up their Norwegian heritage to distinguish themselves from the other southeastern coastal towns (Interesting fact: at the end of the 19th century there were significantly more Chinese residents in Petersburg than Norwegian). All over town there are Norwegian flags, rosemaling (the curly floral design common in Norway), and Norwegian sayings ("tussen tak" and "vilkommen" are all over the place). I couldn't stop thinking of Kristiane and an awesome trip we took to Norway together in high school. Good memories!

Ravens Roost cabin, our weekend getaway. We were really excited about Petersburg because we had reserved a United States Forest Service cabin for the weekend. The USFS maintains a bunch of cabins like this (that are mostly out of commission fire lookouts) and rents them out to people for $10-35 a night. Many of them are remote and only accessible by boat, plane, or a hike. Ours was a short 4.2 mile jaunt from town up a mountain. Although we started on a beautiful sunny day and got some great views of the Wrangell Narrows, clouds promptly blanketed our little hut and we didn't leave the cabin for the next 48 hours. Luckily, we were well stocked with an I-pod and travel speakers, wine, playing cards, plenty of food, and lots of reading material. The only negative was sharing the cabin with a family of mice that made lots of noise at night, leading to a few restless nights of sleep. Another highlight was Mike seeing two wolves right outside the cabin. I am still bitter because I was inside and they were gone by the time I came to the right window.

View from our cabin window of the muskeg ecosystem surrounding Petersburg and far away Wrangell Narrows.

We did a lot of stretching and yoga while reading.

Muskeg is unlike any environment I've seen before! It looks like something straight out of a Dr. Suess book. The best way I can describe it is an Arctic swamp, but it's unlike tundra (since there's no permafrost and lots of trees present). Very boggy, full of little ponds, gnarled stunted trees, and low broadleaf tropical vines and plants.

Old growth tropical forest on our way up the mountain to our cabin.

Petersburg docks. Petersburg is home to the largest home based halibut fishing fleet in Alaska. In all of the southeastern towns it has been absolutely fascinating to talk to and observe the fishermen/women. It's such a unique profession and attracts a very diverse and interesting group of workers. Such a neat subculture. This was the view from our much needed splurge night in a bed & breakfast. The bed and breakfast were both incredible.

Today, we woke up early to workout then milked the B&B for all it was worth before heading out on the town. It didn't take long to do that since there's basically two streets, so we decided to suck it up and fully embrace life like the locals on our last day in town. So we went fishing in the rain.

There are three hike-in lakes near Petersburg that are stocked with an outrigger boat for anyone to use. We hiked in, loaded up the boat, and started on our fishing adventure only to realize in a panic not two minutes later that we were quickly filling with water. So we anxiously paddled back ashore, put the plug in the boat (duh), and went out for round two.

Just a boy and a girl in a little canoe. No fish caught, but absolutely gorgeous environment to hang out in the rain with someone you love. And it was fun to embrace the local attitude of nonchalance regarding the constant barrage from above.

We're off to Ketchikan early tomorrow morning on the ferry...last stop in Alaska!

2011-07-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

Juneau!

The Green Dragon (our two door, 16 year old, Easter-egg green Honda Civic with 220,000 miles on it) has been doing some good hard work. In honor of her service, in order to see southeast Alaska (accessible only by boat or plane), and so that we could take a different route home down the west coast, we booked tickets on the state run Alaska Marine Highway. Our first leg was Haines to Juneau, the capital of Alaska. Originally the plan was to go on a 4-5 day kayaking trip, but that was condensed due to weather. So we spent the few sunny days hiking and kayaking, and the rainy ones in the library writing curriculum for school, reading, and going to see Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows Part II (omg!).

We thought this sign posted on the ferry dock was pretty funny. "Everything is normal people...FREAK OUT!"

Juneau from above. Not a great view, but downtown Juneau is tiny and is basically built into the side of this mountain. A walk around town involves navigating steep little streets and staircases.

We finally saw spawning salmon in a creek! These salmon are King Salmon, one of the 5 types of salmon found in Alaska and the US northwest. If you aren't familiar with the life cycle of a salmon, here's the short version. Salmon are born in fresh water streams/creeks where they live for a year or more in the safer waters until large enough to venture out into the ocean to spend their adolescence. After 3-5 years of frolicking in the open ocean, they begin their death march back up the same exact stream that they were born in (in a high percentage of cases) to spawn. I say death march because as soon as they begin to venture back up the stream, they stop eating and their bodies undergo the most incredible body modifications ultimately ending in their death. The hormonal changes triggered during this stage cause them to change color (in many cases turn a bright, neon pink) and change shape (the males grow a hump on their back and their snout turns into a gnarled hook). The females lay their eggs in the gravel of the bed at various points along the stream, and protects them until she dies. The males vie with each other for fertilizing rights and then promptly die. The dead salmon fertilize the surrounding riparian ecosystem, the eggs hatch, and so begins anew the life cycle of the salmon. Scientists aren't sure how exactly the salmon know which stream to go back to, but the prevailing theory that we've come across in museums and literature is that it somehow involves the distinct smell of each stream. Salmon are amazing...and soooo tasty.

Mendenhall Glacier is about 10 miles from Juneau and visible from the "burbs" of Juneau. There is a lake at the bottom with floating chunks of ice. We heard it calve (break off) and it sounded like a loud gunshot and felt like an earthquake.

Cool reflection of the clouds and bergs in Mendenhall Lake.

We met a few girls in a hostel we stayed in the first night that made martinis with the floating ice chunks. I wonder how that giardia is treating them now?

Neat reflection picture of Mike in his explorer pose.

Nugget falls, a gigantic waterfall that leads into Mendenhall Lake. Those are people gathered at the bottom on a silt bar.

Seemingly divine omen of the good weather to come after 3 straight days of rain.

We rented kayaks and took them out into Mendenhall Lake to explore the icebergs and glacier up close. This top heavy iceberg was floating in front of Nugget Falls (in the background).

Mike at the foot of Mendenhall Glacier in the back of the two person kayak.

Can't get enough pictures of the icebergs. The different shades of blue and textures were mesmerizing.

Oh yeah!

We then took our kayaks out to Auke Bay to paddle around a few islands in search of wildlife. Our rudder broke on the way out though, so we spent a hilarious and frustrating 3 miles getting back on a zig zag course.

In between these adventures we ate the most amazing crab, camped in a semi-tropical rainforest, watched the US women's World Cup game (booo, but good for Japan), worked out, threw, and explored the city. It was a restful and productive 5 days. Next stop is Petersburg, where a mountain cabin and some unlucky Dolly Varden (trout) await our presence!

- Cara

2011-07-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

Haines Makes You Happy!

Just 17 hours drive from Anchorage, backtracking on the Alcan, is the beautiful laid back coastal town of Haines, AK. This was one of the cities that came highly recommended before our trip. Thanks Matteo, it was awesome!

Its a small town where you can park anywhere and walk within the 10 block grid system to the local bakery, hippy grocery store, library, and bar. It has an extremely relaxed atmosphere. One thing that helps Haines keep its small town charm is that it receives less massive cruise ships, which means about 3000 less octogenarians sporting fanny packs and visors walking around the town at any given time. Many of the other cities along the southeast have several cruise ships dock daily, so you have to play the game of timing your trips into the town to avoid the slow walking, jewelry seeking, perfume drenched cruisers. Ok, we're being harsh, but it really does make the towns feel quite different. Don't get us wrong...we're anxiously awaiting cruising in our twilight years but sans fanny packs, visors, and perfume.

We stayed in a cabin being built by one of Luc's friends about 25 miles north of town. Luc is a new Achorage frisbee friend and nature/adventure junkie; this guy is hard core and either just finished or is currently still doing a ~130 mile trail run (check out his blog at thingstolucat.com if you want to feel lame). The mosquitoes were viscious, but thankfully it had a completed roof, floor, and windows with screens to keep them at bay.

After a long day of driving we woke up to the most beautiful blue skies. We took advantage of the gorgeous day and after buying a sandwich at the Mountain Market we headed to the Mt. Ripinsky trail. The following photos are from this hike. The trail was well defined and after two hours and four miles we reached the summit and gorgeous 360º views of the mountains, ice fields, and glaciers surrounding the city. The weather held and after eating our lunch we relaxed and napped before heading down.

A picture of Haines from above.

Heading up the trail.

At the summit.

Alpine tundra makes a soft bed for napping.

The wildflowers are in bloom! Turns out Texas doesn't have sole claim over Lupines. These are Artic Lupines (part of the same genus, Lupinus, as bluebonnets which are Lupinus texensis), and they are bigger than Texas Bluebonnets. They are also everywhere! Along the road sides, trail sides, covering alpine meadows. Makes us feel at home.

This photo was taken while driving into town. We call it a lazy man's waterwheel fish catcher. No idea what they are really called, but these were used by the natives and are ingenious inventions. You anchor it in the river and the fish are scooped up and slide into buckets on the side. It's much more impressive in real time watching the arms slowly rotate with the force of the running water.

Our journey south on the ferry system begins. First stop is Juneau, then to Petersburg, and Ketchikan which is our last stop in Alaska.

2011-07-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

Kenai Peninsula (pronounced "Key-nigh")

After the wilderness of Denali we were ready to enjoy the finer things of an urban environment: libraries (Cara worked on her curriculum for the fall, museums, and of course movie theatres to see Cars 2). It was a beautiful day in Anchorage and nice to hang out around the city. One day was enough, we were ready to head south for more outdoor adventure on Kenai Peninsula.

We arrived in Seward, AK and booked a one day ferry into Fjords National Park to see tidewater glaciers and A LOT of marine life. We camped at the Exit Glacier campsite and cruised the following day. On our six hour cruise we saw: humpback whales, dall porpoises, stellar sea lions, harbor seals, puffins, and a pod of killer whales!

Within the first 30 minutes of setting out from the Seward harbor we came upon 4 hump back whales. You can see the dorsal fin of one of the whales on the right side of this photo. Their was a newborn who was taking lessons from mom on how to slap the surface of the water with it's fins to scare their food into easily eaten tight schools. We also saw a few breaches, which was amazing!

Ashley and I taking in the icebergs in Aialik Bay. All of these chunks of ice dislodged from Aialik glacier.

Aialik Glacier. The scale is hard to tell in this photo, but it was about 0.7 of a mile wide and 300 ft. high where it flows into the water.

After our cruise I had some energy to burn so I ran/hike the famous Mt. Marathon which overlooks the city. It is about 3,000 feet up to the summit in a little over a mile. So pretty much it is straight up. After reading the warning sings posted at the base of the mountain about the runner's trail I headed up. It was a beast, but well worth the effort for the great view and also the thrill of steep scree running on the way down.

Kenai Fjords NP is unique because most of the park is made up of the Harding Ice Field (the largest in North America) and the glaciers which flow down from it and is only accessible by one trail or by water. Amazingly, the whole park is free. There is no entrance fee and the one campsite at Exit Glacier is also free.

A view of the wild flowers and Exit Glacier on our way up to the Harding Ice Field. It was a 4-mile trail hike up to the ice field.

The Harding Ice Field. Can't tell the scale here either so here are some stats:

Named after President Harding because after a visit to Seward he expressed his love for the area.
Over six miles long and a mile deep in some areas
Receives between 400 and 600 inches of snow per year

Team MMR loves ice fields!

Our next stop was Hope, AK. A small town just off the Seward Highway on the way back to Anchorage. From Hope we rafted 6mile Creek with a river guiding outfit. It was fun getting into some white water and the views from the canyon were amazing. Best of all, they had complimentary hot cocoa and a hot tub for us to use after. We justified the cost by thinking we paid $99 for a hot tub soak and received a free river trip.

After the river and hot tub we found this amazing campsite in the Chugach National Forest overlooking Turnagain Arm. Ashley built us a raging fire and we enjoyed our last night of camping together reflecting on our journey.

This is what 11:30 pm looks like in Alaska.

Huge thanks to Ashley "River Otter" Black for joining us on this part of our Alaska adventure. Her perfectly timed singing, jokes, hugs, and magic tricks made this a memorable journey. We sincerely look forward to our next adventure as Team MMR.

On to Haines to begin our journey down the southeast coast of Alaska and back to the contiguous.

-T

2011-07-08T08:47:00.001-07:00

Mt. McKinley...

The only downside of our trip in Denali NP was that we never got a view of Mt. McKinley. It was always too cloudy and the peak never revealed itself, which is pretty typical. However, on our drive south back to Anchorage it was a beautiful day and the mountain was in full view...and it was huge! Here is a photo of the mountain as well as a few more from Denali which we didn't include in our first post.

Mt. McKinley a.k.a. Denali! (20,320 ft.)

Another shot of us on the biggest glacier we crossed during our hike.

Just before crossing the ice bridge across the glacier stream/rapids. You can see the ice bridge we crossed in the background, back right.

After a night of hot showers, pizza, and beer we came back to the park to see the visitor center and attend a free sled dog show! We got to pet the dogs before the performance where they leashed up 5 dogs to pull a ranger around a dirt track. These dogs, Alaskan Huskies, are bred for long legs, big paws, thick coats, and friendly dispositions because they interact with all types of visitors. Brownie, not pictured was our favorite.

A regal Alaskan Husky

My favorite photo from the trip taken just after completing a pass.

More to come...

2011-07-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

Denali National Park

In college I subscribed to Backpacker Magazine, and every year they would do a "best of" issue. Denali National Park was consistently on the top of these lists, and after a few years of thumbing through the pictures of wide valleys, raging rivers, and misty mountains it became a life goal to visit this motherland of all National Parks. The home of the tallest mountain in the U.S (Mt. McKinley, or Denali to the native Athabascans), Denali is like no park I've ever been to; Edward Abbey's vision of how a National Park should function is alive and well here. No personal cars are permitted in the park beyond mile 15 of 89. Instead, you park and ride buses in. The most obvious difference for us however was that in the backcountry there are no established or maintained trails. You get dropped off nonchalantly on the side of the road and you hike into the wilderness with a topo map, compass, a bear bin for your food, and your own common sense and determination. In the interest of managing the park to preserve the wilderness (and the perception of wilderness), the park is divided into districts; a maximum of 6 people can be within a district on any given day.

We talked to the backcountry rangers and came up with a plan. We started in district 8 and would make our way through miles of tundra, river valleys, up and over multiple mountain passes, over glaciers a mile across, through raging rivers, down steep scree slopes, over snow bridges and glacial rivers, and finally back to the road through district 12. Over 6 days and 5 nights we endured a lot of rain, some sleet, freezing temperatures, and not enough sun. It was AWESOME!

Total mileage: 28 miles
Total elevation gain: 7700 ft.
Total time hiking: 30 hrs.
Total time spent in the rain: 25 hrs.
Number of other people we saw: 0

We're going to have to increase the size of our parks board at home to make way for all of these awesome sign pics.

Yes, people are working. For example, at this point we were working on looking good, packing our bags for the backcountry trip, and drinking coffee. Suckers. =)

Usually we take a picture at the beginning and end of the trail, but since there was no trail, we just took a picture when we got dropped off. We started out hiking straight behind us over about 2 miles of tundra and into a valley to the right of us and out of sight in the picture.

Our first river valley up to Polychrome Glacier.

Mike hiking in the tundra. It might appear nice and solid, but tundra is not easy hiking. For the most part, you are knee to waist deep in thick stunted willows and boggy mosses while every high step you take you sink down to your calf before extracting your foot from the overly padded ground.

Our second night we camped in a Dall Sheep graveyard. We found 3 Dall Sheep (relative of the big horn, hence the curved horns) skeletons next to the place we decided to pitch our tent. Evidence of bear activity, but we didn't see any bears that night. On our first morning, we did however wake up to a caribou with a huge rack about 100 yards from our cooking area.

Me on the precipice of one of our many mountain passes.

Our third day was tough. A few extreme mountain passes and then hours of slugging across a mile wide glacier, and navigating across a few glacial streams only to come to the relatively flat expanse on the topo map that we wanted to camp at and realize that it was on the glacier too. So, we camped right next to the glacier, which you can see in the far distance and then closer to the left of Mike (it's covered with scree, but it's a huge chunk of ice).

Preparing for one of our many river crossings. The water in these streams is a frigid 36 degrees, so we brought tennis shoes to cross in the interest of keeping our boots dry.

Crossing a stream with proper upstream and sidestep form. Ashley "River Otter" Black, our dear friend and travel companion, grew up frolicking in the rivers of the Sierra Nevada mountains and therefore was incredibly knowledgeable in river safety and helpful in finding good places to cross.

One of the many scree slopes we trudged up. For every step you take, you lose about half that step to sliding rocks, so progress is slow and painful.

One of the glacial streams we had to find our way over, leading up to the beautiful glacier in the background.

Ashley overlooking yet another incredible glacier.

Mike hiking up part of the glacier that was not covered in rock debris. The backcountry rangers were well aware that we did not have crampons and ice axes, but this was the only part of the hike that it would not have been a bad idea to have them for.

Soaking and freezing because the last two days were pretty much nonstop drizzle, we hiked out back to the road and took our "after" shot at the road.

No better way to celebrate America than explore its greatest natural wonders. Happy 4th of July everyone!

One of my life mantras and classroom mottos for World Cultures is "It's a wonderful world... explore!" So when I saw this sign at the Eielson Visitor Center (where we came up to the road), I was pretty stoked.

It was an epic backcountry trip. There were periods of exhaustion, sheer joy, borderline boredom (a day stuck in a cloud in the tents), and personal challenges. But the whole trip was permeated by a intense sense of awe at what an incredible planet we live on, as well as the amazing relationships we have with each other. I was so happy to achieve another life dream of hiking in Denali with Mike and Ashley. Ashley is an incredible friend and was pivotal to our safety and emotional well being on this trip with her constant singing and relentless jokes.

We're all safe and sound and plan on spending the day exploring the visitors center and viewing a dog sled exhibition in Denali before making our way back to Anchorage tonight to refuel before hitting up the Kenai Peninsula.

2011-06-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

Anchorage and the Ultimate Rebellion

After our Chilkoot Trail experience we were ready to head back to civilization, Anchorage. Besides visiting the city we also arrived in perfect time to play in Jamboree, Alaska's big summer tournament. Not really having a plan, we started emailing frisbee friends and the TD of the tournament to try and arrange a place to stay for the weekend and find a team to play with. A forwarded email from Beau and a few hours later we had a team to play with and a floor to sleep on with David Popiel once again proving how incredible the ultimate community is. David and I actually played against each other in college as well as club and is a player I have respected both for his skill and spirit on the field. It was awesome getting to know him and his wife, Jess.

We'll come back to the tournament later. Our first night in Anchorage we stayed in the Arctic Adventure Hostel, which was a great stay because it had a huge kitchen, wifi, and they provided a full breakfast in the morning for a good price. Thursday morning after a workout and breakfast, we went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center to learn about the indigenous people, the First Nation. The center was great and had walk-in replica houses that are built by the different tribes as well as song and dance performances and even an Alaska native sports exhibition.

After a hearty breakfast at Snow City Cafe we went to Kincaid Park to play disc golf and moose watching. I borrowed David's bike and while riding their along the Coastal Trail saw three moose! Unfortunately, the girls weren't with me so they are still searching for the ubiquitous and yet allusive beast. When David and Jess returned home from work they took us to a quiet beach on the Cook Inlet and we played Stick Rock while the sun attempted to set.

At the Alaska Native Heritage Center, these bow head whale jawbones are used by the tribes in the most northern part of the state as land markers because it is so flat there.

Cara, enjoying a Vanity Fair with David and Jess's cats, Stanley and Arthur.

Bull moose near Kincaid Park. Although I was only about 15 yards from this guy he was quite content to keep eating and didn't mind me snapping a few photos.

We amazingly didn't loose a single disc in the dense summer brush.

Cara "Air Jordan" Crouch finishing hole #18 in style.

View of Anchorage from our private beach.

David and Jess playing Stick Rock. This was definitely a home run! We decided we should take our Stick Rock card photos.

David "Slugger" Popiel, #44
Founder of Stick Rock and the most feared power hitter in the league.

Jess "Fleet Foot" Popiel #11
Jess is known for her speed and leads the league in stolen bases. Unfortunately, she's on the DL due to a sore foot from a half-marathon ran the previous week.

Michael "Buntington" Natenberg #18
Never scared to lay down a devastating bunt with a two-strike count.

Cara "Cannon Arm" Crouch, #5
Stealing second? Not with Cannon Arm behind the plate. Her savvy pitching signals and ability to crouch behind the plate for hours makes her the most feared catcher in the league.

Ashley "the Kid" Black, #22
Known for her chocking up batting style, she can always be depended on for a base hit. Don't let the smile fool you, she will send that rock screaming back at you with an up the middle single.

The Jamboree Party theme was tacky, and Cara and Ashley did an amazing job of finding these clothes on short notice. We partied like champions in these threads.

Alaskan Jamboree Champions of 2011!

After our 15-13 win the finals against the Alaskan, Hawaiian, and Californian combo team. After giving up an early break, we trailed the whole game by one or two before scoring the last 4 to clench the win.

Massive thanks to David and Jess for opening their apartment to us, Chris, John, Drew, and the rest of Ultimate Rebellion for accepting us on their team and being such awesome people and players. Winning the tournament was just icing on the cake of getting to meet and hang out with such a great ultimate community.

-T

2011-06-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

The Chilkoot Trail - 33 miles of history and awesomeness

From Skagway/Dyea, this trail leads over the Chilkoot Pass and into the interior of the Yukon territory where the gold rush occurred in 1898. It's a unique back country hike because along the way the trail has historical displays to tell you about the different camps and crossings which were established when it was in use. It's kind of like a history lesson while you are being careful not to run into the path of a bear. We learned that stampeders would have to haul up over 2,000 lbs. of goods in order to be aloud into Canada. It was humbling caring our ergonomic 40 lb. packs. Some stampeders would make over five trips in one day over the pass caring supplies to be cached. The trail was only used for two years until the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad was built.

Another unique thing about the trail is that it crosses into Canada after you climb the pass, which means you have to bring your passport in order to get back to Skagway. And finally, it is the first U.S. back country trek we've done where their were cabins to cook in at most campsites. these cabins were perfect for keeping the mosquitoes away (Sheep Camp), getting out of the cold rain (Happy Camp), or building a fire for the fun of it (Lindeman Lake). It reminded us a lot of the New Zealand trails.

Team MMR, cautiously fearless since 2007™
Ashley Black, on the left, is our best hiking buddy. She joined us on some of our favorite hikes in New Zealand and has a massive amount of camping experience and is super good at knots! She'll be traveling with us for the next month, and we are super pumped to have her along.

Snow! We hiked 13 miles our first day after getting a late start. Day two lead us up into the snow towards the pass.

This was a great section of trail through beaver ponds. The NPS did a great job setting up these boards to walk across. A lot of fun, but no beaver sightings.

Feeling a bit sluggish after hiking the first ten miles on Day 1, we decided the best way to motivate our bodies to keep moving was to take a generous pull of Yukon Jack liqueur. The last three miles were a breeze, it did the trick.

Cara and I loved our rented hiking gaiters (red "socks"). You couldn't stop your boots from getting wet, but the gaiters definitely helped keep your socks dry.

Ashley making her way on all fours up the pass. This is not a crazy angle, the pass was unusually steep this year because of a persistent northern wind throughout the winter which built up the snow. Whenever your boot slipped out of the hole you just kicked in, it got a bit stressful. Adrenaline was definitely pumping and it felt good to get up and over.

On the Canadian side, making our way through the snow to Happy Camp.

After hiking over the pass most stampeders loaded their supplies into boats to be transported across the connected lakes which eventually lead to the Yukon River. There are artifacts, like this ship hull, all along the trail.

At our last camp, Lindeman Lake. LumberJane chopped some wood for our cabin's stove.

The trail is a one-way hike ending at Bennett Lake and a great two hour train back to Skagway. The White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad, built in 1898.

Back in Skagway we enjoyed a few Alaskan Whites (our favorite beer so far), some pizza at the Red Onion, and a hot shower. Our adventure continues in Anchorage.

-T

2011-06-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

The Alcan: “The Last Great Road Trip in North America”

At least that’s what all the brochures say. The Alcan, truncated version of Alaska-Canada Highway, was built during WWII because of the perceived threat of the Japanese who were busy taking over the Pacific and threatening the Alaskan coast. Built in record time (8 months!) the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began building it without permission from the Canadian government at first, who later graciously complied since it was already being built. Oh, Canada. It starts in Dawson Creek, BC and officially ends in Delta Junction, Alaska. In total the 1,512 miles wind through the expansive fields of northeastern British Columbia, the northern Canadian Rockies, the seemingly endless boreal forests of the Yukon, and finally…Alaska (not sure what that part looks like yet). We took 3 days to drive from Calgary, Alberta to Whitehorse, Yukon and here’s a list of what kept us busy.

Things that you can do on a 1500-mile road trip in the middle of nowhere:

· Take dorky pictures to prove that you took a 1500 mile road trip in the middle of nowhere

· Stop at Tim Horton’s whenever possible to see how many Timbits can possibly fit in your stomach before tossing your Timbits

· Talk to Canadians in Tim Hortons and be tickled by their accent

· Listen to books on tape (Tina Fey’s Bossypants and currently, Outlander), This American Life, Moth podcasts

· Stop and attempt to do a work out, but realize that your legs are catatonically stuck in the sitting position, making it impossible to even walk

· Study the Canadian money with a pang of envy, both for it’s value and its color spectrum

· Admire the governmental buildings from the comfort of the fountains out front. It was like their Barton Springs…people just hung out in the shallow water features in front of the Edmonton capitol building.

· Camp by pristine alpine lakes

· Try to avoid wrecking the Green Dragon on bison on the highway

· Watch the parade of animals outside your window (porcupine, black bear, caribou, bison, rock sheep, brown bear). It seriously felt like those rides at Universal Studios where you are in that little train and you just roll by the different animals. The wildlife here is mind blowing.

· Stop at the signpost forest and nail a Frisbee to a tree to leave your mark

· Pitch your tent in broad daylight at 11:30 p.m. and then wake up rearing to go at 4:00 a.m. because that damned sun is playing tricks on your mind.

· Boil yourselves like live lobsters in a natural hot springs that is definitely an unhealthy level of hot

· Try to avoid potholes

· Drive through hailstorms

· Struggle with mental math to convert kilometers to miles.

2011-06-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

Calgary

Big thanks to Elliot, Tanis, and Ramone! In less than 24 hours we have been fed, showered, and have laundered our clothes. Last night we were treated to a great dinner and this morning we got to meet the smiling Ramone, their 1 year old little boy.

We first met Elliot and Tanis when we came to Calgary in 2005 for H0-Down and picked up on his team, The Lawn Party. Thanks again for welcoming us into your home.

Onwards north into the woods. We plan on taking about 3-4 days to reach Alaska. Here we go!

-t

2011-06-12T08:46:00.000-07:00

Yellowstone National Park

Finally...the motherland of National Parks! I feel like I've finally graduated to the upper echelons of National Park visitors. Yellowstone was the first land protected by the U.S. government (est. 1872) for the "benefit and enjoyment of the people". And enjoy it we did.

We started out by getting our backcountry permits and visiting a few road side hydrothermal features, wildlife, and waterfalls. It was too late when we got to our trailhead to hike in that night, so we slept in the GD until the next morning, when we embarked on our two day backcountry hike. After emerging from the trail the next day, we did the typical Yellowstone-by-car route to see the hydrothermal events.

Documentary director Ken Burns is right; the national park system is undoubtedly one of America's best ideas. Below you will find visual evidence supporting this statement.

Yup...another park sign to put on our "life list" board!

Unlike us, the Green Dragon was loving the snow. Good thing because, in much of the park, snow cover was the norm. Like most of the country, the weather this winter was unusual in that they got a lot more snow than is typical. Because of that, our backcountry hiking options were limited to the northern part of the park due to the lower elevation and warmer temperatures.

Sweet waterfall picture in front of Lower Falls.

The Yellowstone River winds its way through the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

There really isn't anything cuter than a baby bison. Spring is calving season, so there were baby bison everywhere. It was amazing to see the bison roaming the plains and imagine what it was like back before the white people almost drove them to extinction. Before the reintroduction program initiated by YNP, there were only 23 identified bison in the entire Greater Yellowstone area.

Teetering on the edge of doom at Mammoth Hot Springs. Part of what makes Yellowstone so special is that it is the only place in the world to have all 4 kinds of hydrothermal activity: mudpots, geysers, hot springs, and steam vents. Although they are all caused by pretty different processes, they all occur because YNP sits right on top of a hot spot, an area where the mantle of the earth is very close to the crust bringing with it of course lots of heat. Heat causes conduction, convection, pressure build up, etc. Add gases, fissures, and groundwater and you've got a perfect recipe for some sweet hydrothermal action. And for some very uncouth noises: burps, belches, plops, hisses, and the noise of gas exiting a small hole (I think you get the idea).

On our backcountry hike into Blacktail Creek. We slept in the Green Dragon the night before to hit the trail early. Luckily, it gets light around 5:00 a.m. so it's not hard to get up early. We were instantly greeted by a bison herd, lots of gophers, and a few elk in the open rolling hills before descending into the Blacktail Creek valley and eventually into our site next to the Yellowstone River. We then set up camp, grabbed our day pack and set out on a 10 mile day hike up the Yellowstone River Valley.

Mike on our hike a little further down the Blacktail Creek before we decsended into the Yellowstone River Valley. It was only 5 miles to our campsite from the trailhead, but he's a champ and carrying most of the weight since my knee is not fully cooperating. These hikes have been the perfect artistic inspiration and training ground for the creation, improvement, and utilization of our bear songs. Let me tell you, these songs are pure gold. I'm thinking of recording all of them and selling them for people who need more creative inspiration on the trail besides clapping and saying "Hey bear!" Boring.

It's not a tumor! The elk and moose lose their antlers in the spring before growing them back during the summer in time for rutting season (when they play their male games of butting heads and antler wrestling to determine who will reign over a harem of female ungulates). Because there are so many elk in the park, the antlers are common. I thought I had a lot of weight on my head with my huge brain and long thick hair, but the moose antlers can weigh up to 50 lbs per antler!

Our backcountry site was near this alpine lake, Crevice Lake. We attempted some dusk animal watching at the lake, to no avail.

On our day hike we strumbled across this awesome rock outcrop higher up the side of the Yellowstone River Valley and proceeded to take a nap.

Mike makes fun of me, but I absolutely love looking at National Park lodges. Their architectural style amazes me and is different than any other buildings I've ever seen. The Old Yellowstone Lodge was built in 1904 entirely of lodgepole pine harvested near the location. There are 5 stories, with a crows nest up at the very top where an orchestra used to play while people danced in the lobby below. How romantic is that?

Old Faithful geyser is serious business for the YNP. There are hundreds and hundreds people anxiously awaiting this explosive action every 90 minutes. The parking was worse than downtown Austin. We happened to see it twice and it was pretty neat, but I was mostly impressed with the consistency of the timing between eruptions. There was a much more impressive geyser going off in eyesight (Riverside?) that looked taller and was much longer.

Opal Pool at Midway Geyer Basin. We saw Grand Prismatic Spring too, the huge one that is often shown from above because of its awesome colors, but it was too steamy to see much of anything except glimpses of color. The brilliant colors around the springs are due to thermophiles (oranges, pinks, and reds), algaes (greens and blues), and deposited sulpher (yellows). Add to that the blue from the water and you've got a pretty amazing color spectrum.

DOUBLE RAINBOW! Right over our campsite the last night in Yellowstone, at Mammoth.

The original stone entrance at the North entrance to the park. It reads "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people".

We're off to Calgary, Alberta tonight to stay with an ultimate friend for the night before heading off on the Alcan for 3 days of solid driving to Alaska! Looking forward to a shower (we haven't showered in 5 days!) and washing clothes as well as a comfy warm bed.

Cara

2011-06-12T08:33:00.000-07:00

Grand Teton National Park...Huge Boobs!

We started out Monday morning at around 5:15 a.m. and booked it to Denver in one day. It was awesome to be on the road again together with the Green Dragon. We stayed with our standard Denver billet, Matt Rutstein, my good friend from high school. Matt has shown us amazing hospitality in years past when we've come through Denver, and this year was no different. We went out to eat at a local sports bar with him and his girlfriend Crissna before crashing from the 16 hour drive and early morning rise.

Denver's weather was perfect in the morning, which made it even harder to leave in the morning, but Grand Teton NP and Alaska were not getting any closer so we headed north. [Peter...did I punctuate that sentence correctly?]

Yet another NP sign to add to our life list bulletin board!

The Grand Teton range which was created from uplift, one continental plate heading up and one heading down. Grand Teton was named by French fur trappers, which basically translates to "huge boob."

Picture for the grandparents in front of Jenny Lake.

Look out point above Phelps Lake our backcountry destination. We had plans to hike up Paintbrush Canyon, but when we arrived at the permit office they looked out the massive windows framing the snow covered Tetons and said it wasn't possible unless we had snow shoes and ice axes. We decided to hike the trail that was mostly snow free.

The weather was a bit of surprise. Whenever the sun would disappear behind rain clouds the temperature would drop into the 40ºs and 50ºs. When the sun was out, it was comfortably in the 60ºs. In the morning, it even snowed on us while we were eating breakfast. At night, the temperature fell to near freezing in the 30ºs. This was a good warm up to Alaska, but we are still hoping it is getting warmer as summer progresses.

Cara's natural lounge chair at Phelps Lake

The view of Death Canyon from our favorite huge sitting rock.

Breakfast with David and Laura

When preparing our dinner the first night we ran into our first backcountry snag. The gas canister sold to us by a reassuring REI employee did not fit our stove. Because we were only a few miles from our car it wasn't an emergency and would have just resulted in a few less than average meals. Lesson learned, always check your gear before heading out.

Instead of eating our planned cous cous and chick peas meal cold, we asked to borrow the stove of the only other hikers also at the lake and thus met two awesome people, David and Laura from Bloomington, Indiana. Laura turned out to be an ultimate player that played at IU and knew Noah B, and David turned out to be awesome and newly married to Laura. We had a great evening hanging on the huge sitting rock as night descended. Congratulations to our new Hoosier friends and thanks again for the use of your stove!

Animals sighted:
1. Black bear (200 yards up the hill from our campsite at Phelps Lake. Very cuddly at a safe distance.)
2. Moose (splashing along the opposite shore of Phelps Lake)
3. Marmots
4. the Orange eyes of ??? on our way back to our tent at night after hanging with David and Laura.

-T

2011-05-30T16:46:00.000-07:00

Alaska...The Last Frontier!!!

In less than a week, Cara and I will be hopping in the Green Dragon to begin our road trip adventure north to Alaska. We have our gear ready and a pretty good plan. After traveling through European city after city last summer, we are ready to enjoy what mother nature has created and slow down the pace a bit.

Our first stop will be with Matt in Denver, Colorado. After just a night we are off to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Park for a short stay before heading north through the vastness of Canada.

Here we go open road!
-M

2010-08-13T12:18:00.001-07:00

Kabak Valley: relaxing like kitty-cats

During our incredible home-made Turkish dinner with Asu and family, they recommended we visit a small beach town on the Mediterranean Sea near Fethiye, due south of Istanbul about 10 hours. They promised clear water and peace and seclusion. It was time for us to get out of the busy city, so we boarded a night bus from Istanbul on our way to Kabak.

Much like Southeast Asia, the main mode of travel for locals are buses. The more luxurious companies provide all the comforts of an airplane flight, with stewards providing drinks and snakcs throughout the trip. Additionally, the buses have personal TV's on seat backs as well as wi-fi. However, there is no toilet so you stop about every 2 hours for restroom and food breaks. There is a whole economy for late night bus travel as pictured below.

We had a 30 minute hike down into Kabak Valley to reach our lodgings, Shanti Garden. For about $25 a night, we had a private bungalow with breakfast and dinner provided. From our bungalow we had a 2 minute walk to the beach! Relaxing, reading, eating, laying in the sun, and swimming...I was in heaven. We had mountains surrounding us, so Cara was happy too and was able to relax. We spent 2 days and 2 nights relaxing and recharging.

Bust stop at night. Shopping, eating, and toilets. What else could you need.

Cara on our hike down into Kabak Valley where Shanti Garden was located just off the beach.

Our private beach. :-)

Mike enjoying the crisp blue water of the Mediterranean.

Another view of Kabak beach.

Cara enjoying her book while relaxing in a hammock. We enjoyed a few hours reading under this pavillion with a beautiful view of the cove.

Nearby is "Butterfly Island" an even more secluded beach (not an island) which can only be reached by boat. I was reading Lacuna, an amazing book by Barbara Kingsolver.

On our hired boat from Kabak Valley to Butterfly Island.

View from Butterfly Island beach. The water was very calm here and made for good swimming.

The towering cliffs that enclose Butterfly Island.

Cara hanging out by a waterfall which plunges directly into the sea from the cliff above.

The cabanas at Shanti Garden.

2010-08-13T10:39:00.001-07:00

Istanbul, Turkey: Beyond all Expectations!

Once again, Cara has broadened my world and opened me up to new and exciting experiences. Before leaving on the trip, she insisted we visit Turkey while we are in Europe. Knowing very little about Turkey and just reading about their recent conflict with Israel over the Gaza aid ship, I wasn't too excited about going. I'm glad she insisted because Turkey provided us with an amazing opportunity to experience a Muslim culture. It also, provided me an opportunity to learn more about a country I had never really considered.

Turkey is located between the Western European mainland and the Islamic Middle East. Istanbul is the major city at this border between Europe and Asia. Because of its location, Turkey is influenced by both western and Islamic culture. While walking through the streets you will see women in western style clothes as well as full robes covering head to toe only allowing a slit for their eyes. You will also hear the hundreds of mosques located around the city blasting their call to prayer from the minaret, five times a day. The first call to prayer is around 6am and the last call to prayer is close to 10pm.

The people were friendly, and the city itself reminded us a lot of the big bustling cities of Southeast Asia. Similar smells and chaotic traffic.

Anne, our friend from Texas Ultimate days, is currently a professor and researcher of linguistics at an Istanbul college. She was able to arrange a friend's apartment for us to stay in while visiting the city. Her friend is an international teacher finishing her two year assignment in Istanbul who was traveling Europe for the summer before heading home to Canada. The first picture below will give you an idea of how amazing this hookup was. It was great to catch up with Anne and Sasha. Thank you for the hospitality, dinners, and recommendations. Good friends can really open up a new city.

We had 14 days to explore Turkey. Below are the sites we saw while in Istanbul. Enjoy!

Sunrise over the Bosphorus Straight and Bridge. This was the view from our apartment! The east side of the straight is the Asia side of the country. We are on the European side.

The Blue Mosque with 6 minarets. The minarets are used to amplify the call to prayer 5 times a day.

Ancient obelisks that we transported from Egypt, thousands of years ago.

Ablution station outside of the blug mosque. Muslims clean their hands, face, and feet before entering the mosque for prayer.

the Blue Mosque is a still a functional mosque with prayer services held 5 times a day. It is open to the public whenever services are not being conducted.

Blue tile work inside the mosque.

Cara, infront of one of the four 'elephant columns'. As you can see these are huge columns that support the massive dome.

Mike in front of the Blue Mosque

Hagia Sofia, just across from the Blue Mosque. Just as huge and impressive.

Cara inside the Hagia Sofia. The Hagia Sofia is now a museum and does not conduct any religious services. It began as a huge cathedral during the Roman/Christian rule of Istanbul. After the Turks captured Istanbul, they converted it into a mosque. Instead of destroying the delicate Christrian mosaics, the Turks plastered over them and decorated on top. Historians have carefully removed some of the plaster to expose these detailed mosaics. During the mid-twentieth century, it was converted into a museum for everyone to enjoy.

A view of the Blue Mosque form within Hagia Sofia.

One of the detailed Christian mosaics.

Inside the main prayer chamber under the massive dome in Hagia Sofia. The large black and gold circular signs are representations of different Sultans names.

The dome of Hagia Sofia.

The Basilica Cistern. The fresh water traveled over 15 km from the forest outside of the city to be stored for use in the sultan's place, Topkapi.

Horse drawn melon cart. We didn't see many of these, but thought they were pretty awesome.

Turkish nargile (hookah or water pipe). We celebrated Cara's birthday with an apple flavored nargile and a few beers while playing Backgammon.

Fortune telling rabbits! After picking a rabbit to tell your fortune, the man in charge places the rabbit near small pieces of paper. Whichever piece of paper the rabbit "chooses" is your fortune. These were like inserts to fortune cookies. The rabbits were extremely calm and seemed content to just hang out on top of that box.

Beach tournament on the Black Sea. Anne is sitting in the center stretching her hamstrings.

Dinner with our new friends after a day of beach ultimate. The beach tournament was Asu and friends first time to play in a tournament. After giving us a ride back to Istanbul, they invited us up for an amazing meal in their home.

Crowded streets near the Spice Bazaar.

Huge blocks of turkish delight in the Spice Bazaar.

Spices!

The entrance to Topkapi Palace, the home of the Sultans.

An archway in Topkapi Palace. It was extremely crowded on the day we visited this site. Very difficult to take a picture without many new friends walking through.

Beautiful tile work in Topkapi.

2010-08-07T04:40:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Zürich

July 26, 2010
We arrived in Zürich from Interlaken to the welcoming flat of Rem and Christi. Rem was a member of Team USA with Cara at the World Games in Taiwan this past summer. Shortly after Taiwan, they moved from San Francisco for Christi's post-doc in super smart environmental science stuff.

Switzerland is another amazingly bike friendly country. Most trains had special places to store your bike for the trip so that when you arrived in your destination you were ready to ride from the train station. Zürich also had a free bike rental program and extensive bike lanes and bike specific signs throughout the city. For 20 swiss francs you were able to borrow a bike for the whole day. Upon return, you received your deposit back and could do this as often as you wanted.

We picked up our free bikes and rode into the city center for a walking tour of the sights. Our free iPhone app (recommended by Rem) provided the route and important information on all the landmarks we visitied. This was a great way to see the city and allowed us to do it at our own pace without a tour guide. It lead us through beautiful neighborhoods, past gorgeous buildings, and most importantly to the amazing sweet shop, Sprüngli.

As we were walking around we noticed a lot of fit looking people limping through the streets. Upon further inspection of their clothes we realized they were all finishers of the IronMan triathlon staged the day before. After emailing Dave to encourage him to put this race on his future training schedule, he informed me that he had just wrecked on his bike and broke his elbow which required surgery. We are hoping for his speedy recovery.

On our second day in town, Rem joined us for a visit to the Swiss National Museum. We needed to clear our heads after about 3 hours of reading and learning, so went for a swim in the Limmat River. A canal is built to the side of the river which provides a free public "lazy river" for the locals to use during the hotter months of the year. Because it was an overcast day and a bit chilly, Cara sat out this swimming endeavor and took some photos from the deck. Two floats was enough for Rem and me. That night we played pickup with the local frisbee club.

Huge thanks to Rem and Christi for opening up this amazing city to us. We didn't quite know what to expect of Zürich and came away impressed with the city's unique charm of narrow cobblestoned alleys as well as wide modern pedestrian shopping streets. It also doesn't hurt to be located on a beautiful lake in the mountains.

The clock of St. Peter's church, the largest clock face in Europe. It surprisingly didn't look that big, but was rather comely.

A view of the Limmat River looking towards Lake Zürich with Grossmünster on the left, the largest church in Zürich where the Protestant reformer Zwinli preached.

Luxemburgerli from Sprüngli. These little treats may look like mini sliders, but they in fact are melt in your mouth meringues with flavored filling in the middle; they were incredible. My favorite was the citrus, while Cara prefered vanilla bourbon.

One of Cara's many "window" shots. She seems to have mastered this technique on this trip.

A recent political poster on display in the Swiss National Museum, used to convince the Swiss to vote for a law that would prevent the building of minarets anywhere in the country. This law did pass. It was part of a larger exhibit on how the Swiss have been and are still very protective against immigrants and new culture. Before the trip, I always thought of the Swiss as innocent and friendly neutralists, but the museum gave some interesting things to consider about the Swiss mentality.

Rem and Christi, Our wonderful hosts, preparing the handmade dough for the best pizza we had on this two month trip. While food in Switzerland is wicked expensive, groceries are not bad. We gorged on salad, four different pizzas, and wine before playing "pants down" our new favorite Swiss card game introduced to us by Flo.

The Swiss National Museum. The most interesting thing I learned was about the important role the Swiss people played in furthering The Reformation, the Protestant movement begun by Martin Luther in Germany and championed by the Swiss Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, and Guillaume Farel. They also had an interesting exhibit that talked about the worlds response after WWII towards Switzerland and their choice to remain neutral. And... you could also make your own Swiss Army Knife! They had one on display that was about a foot wide!

Floating down a canal of the Limmat River with Rem. Unfortunately, the sun was hiding behind clouds this day so our swim was not too long. Shortly after we shivered on the deck before heading back to the apartment.

2010-08-07T04:39:00.001-07:00

The Hills Are Alive with the Sounds of Cowbells

Switzerland
We reluctantly left Hans and Sabina in Bavaria and headed south by train. We were on our way to visit Rem, a Team U.S.A. teammate and his awesome wife Christi in Zürich, but had a few days to burn. Luckily, our new friend Flo came to the rescue. We met Flo, a Swiss ultimate player at Rü´s party and he offered a place to stay in his beautiful home in the picturesque little Alpine town of Sachseln. When the mountains call, we do not decline.

Flo and his wife Femke (along with her mother who was visiting at the time to help take care of their newborn daughter Carlota) cooked us an amazing veggie lasagne meal the first night...delicious!

As we were eating dinner, a very short rainstorm passed over and honored us with our very own atmospheric lights show. This is the view from Flo´s porch...not a bad view to wake up to every day, especially since there is a milky green alpine lake if you look in the opposite direction.

Flo´s family has part ownership in a cabin up in the Alps not too far from his house, so he offered to house us there for a night. We jumped at the opportunity to hit the trail for two days, but were skeptical of the storm clouds that were headed our way on the doppler radar. We knew it was supposed to rain but tested our luck anyway and headed out early for our 6 hour hike to the cabin. The above pic is Mike and I on the "trail" from above Sachseln.

The trail was very well marked in some points, and very well hidden in others. Because there are cattle all over the mountains, when the trail wasn´t well marked it was very difficult to discerne between cattle tracks and human trails. More than once we found ourselves following those tricky cows, and having to reorient using the topo map Flo had provided us. It was really fun to dust off the old orienteering skills using the topo, but luckily we didn´t have to rely on them too much.

There are Swiss flags and crosses dotting the mountain tops. Mike looks like a crusader or missionary soldier here. Interesting historical side note break!: As most of you know, Switzerland has maintained a "neutral" stance in many of the world´s tiffs since the early 1900s in an effort to maintain its sovereignty. But they do have a standing army, and take their potential defensive capabilities very seriously. Crosses, Swiss flags, and happy cows are not the only thing that dot the mountain tops; all over Switzerland there are bunkers filled with machine guns, explosives, and other weaponry in case an emergency need to defend arises. Not only that, but every male is required to serve in the military and, until they are middle aged, spend 2 weeks in basic training a year (which their employer covers and does not take away from holiday time). After serving your introductory two years, every male is given a semi automatic machine gun to take home. So I feel comfortable saying that even though they are politically neutral, they are not messing around with their defensive military capabilities. Their national plan is to run to the mountains!

More fun mountain pictures. The clouds are moving in at this point, but we still had great views and at this point were almost to the cabin. Raising milking cows is obviously a huge industry in Switzerland with all the delicious cheeses they have to offer, so we were entertained by more cow bell symphonies on our hike.

The plan was for us to do the 6 hour hike and then Flo was going to meet us at the cabin with his motorized bike (you can take a small vehicle almost all the way up). We arrived just before the rain and clouds came, so although we couldn´t see all the beautiful peaks that surrounded the hut and nearby lake, we made it to shelter just in time.

A cool picture of the still lake right below the cabin.

The lake is stocked with fish since it is jointly owned by a few families in a fishing club, so Flo and Mike did a little fishing while I read my book as the cloud bank moved in. Unfortunately, the fish were uninterested.

The clouds finally parted long enough for us to enjoy what was around us and snap a picture from outside the cabin porch.

Flo and Mike raising the Obwalden flag at the cabin. Obwalden is one of the 26 Swiss cantons. Switzerland is split into 26 cantons, which are represented by their congressmen and senators in their federal government much like the USA. We learned from Flo that Switzerland's constitution is modeled after ours.

Drinking "Alpine farmer coffee", an absolute treat and very traditional mountain drink. Here is the recipe (passed down for centuries =). Bring a large pot of water to boil. When boiling add 3 tsp coffee grounds, stir, and take off heat. Add 1 cup of cold water and then open and slam the door (very important!). Pour into thermos to enjoy for next 6 hours. Serve in a bowl, add 2 sugar cubes, and a splash of Swiss moonshine (kirsch plum liquor with rare Swiss alpine flower that, if ingested enough of, has hallucinogenic properties).

Flo also treated us to Alpine Macaroni, which was a delicious twist on regular mac and cheese, with potatoes and onion mixed in. We had a wonderful night of playing Swiss card games, learning about the Alps and Swiss geography (Flo is a geographer who has written books on the waterfalls and alpine lakes of Switzerland!), and hanging out while watching a mini thunderstorm pass. We slept like babies in the loft and awoke early to a downpour. We were planning on hiking down, but instead we hiked down to the nearest village and hitched a ride with a produce van that had just arrived and was going all the way to Sachseln...sometimes I just can´t believe our luck.

When we got down, we bid Flo and family adieu and hopped on a train to Interlaken, in the heart of the Swiss Alps. Andy and others had highly recommended it, and we still had two more days until Zürich, so why not enjoy even more beautiful mountains? Well, it turns out that it is hard to enjoy mountain vistas and hikes when it is raining 20 hours a day. So with hiking, appreciating mountains, and other adventurous ventures out of the question, we were left with only a few options. So, of course, we ate our faces off. Our first stop was cheese fondue (above), which was obviously delicious and the closest thing we have had in a month and a half to queso (so it fulfilled some deep seeded need for melted cheese).

And of course you can´t go to Switzerland without eating the chocolate...so we did. Every day, we spent about 10 Swiss Francs on various types of chocolate. Well worth it.

The Aare River that runs through Interlaken is full of glacial flour, giving it the milky look.

So we slept, we waited out the rain with fingers crossed, and we bought food at the grocery store to make back at our hostel. We couldn´t do much else since the internet was 18 dollars an hour (wtf!?), and everything else was so freaking expensive. Seriously...I don´t know how they sustain those prices, but just to give you an idea, the BigMac Meal at Smack Donalds was over 12 USD. If McDonalds prices are in the teens, you can imagine how much a proper meal would cost.

Finally!! Our luck prevailed once again, and on our last day in Interlaken the clouds parted and we could finally see the mountains. We decided to venture into the mountains for half a day to see what we could find, so we took a train to Grindelwald, a small city nestled even further in the Alps.

Since we didn´t have enough time to hike (or appropriate clothing), we decided to take a bus up to a mountain hut and have a nice lunch looking over the mountains. This is a picture from the busride up to the hut.

I can never get enough pictures of mountains. The snow dusted peak in the distance is Eiger, one of Switzerland´s most popular mountains after the Matterhorn.

One of the few remaining and quickly retreating glaciers of the Alps.

When we got to the top of the mountain, much to our delight, there was a very small traditional Swiss festival going on.

Complete with competitive rock throwing.

And Swiss sumo wrestling. Mike and I like to call it that, but it is really a very old folk wrestling sport called Schwingen (sounds a bit like "Swingin´"). They wear potato sack "belts" (which look like diapers) and hug while giving each other wedgies for a few minutes before someone finally gets the other guy to the ground and pins his shoulders. Very amusing to watch as an outsider.

Cool color contrast on the walk down.

We did a short one hour hike to a nearby gondola and rode it all the way back down to Grindelwald. The views were incredible!

My new best friend, Monsieur Croissant. If you haven´t noticed in the blahg so far, we like the huge paper mache food items that they have everywhere. And we have been eating our weight in croissants since U.S. bakeries can´t really compare.

We left Interlaken for Zürich finally satisfied, well rested, and certainly well fed.

2010-08-01T02:40:00.000-07:00

Bavarian Road Trip

July 20, 2010
Thıs trıp has just confırmed the fact that traıns and planes, although often more economıcal and certaınly more eco-frıendly, just aren´t our happy place as travelers. Beıng the product of our socıety and Texas especıally, ın our mınd there´s nothıng quıte lıke the freedom of beıng able to hop ın an automobıle and go wherever the hell you want on your own schedule. The huge appeal to thıs ıs beıng able to make last mınute spontaneous decısıons. So after a lot of traın and plane jumpıng, ıt was tıme for a good old fashıoned road trıp. My parents took a road trıp ın Bavarıa ın 2007 so we mıned them for helpful tıps, hopped ın our brıght pınk Panda, and hıt the open road of Southern Germany.

Our trusty Fıat Panda. No flats or car sıckness thıs tıme!

Our fırst stop was Füssen, a lıttle town ın southern German Alps. That was our base for vısıtıng two of the famous mountaın top castles of the mad Kıng Ludwıg II.

A beautıful alpıne lake ıs the vıew out of the bathroom wındow ın Hohenschwangau, the castle that Ludwıg´s father buılt and he grew up ın (below).

Hohenschwangau was buılt by Maxımıllıan II of Bavarıa ın 1837. It ıs pretty tasteful compared to Neuschwansteın (below).

Ludwıg II had Neuschwansteın buılt as an homage to Rıchard Wagner, a famous German composer and frıend. Apparently, thıs castle ıs where Walt Dısney got the ınspıratıon for the desıgn of the DısneyLand Castle, whıch ıs not suprısıng when you go ınsıde ıt sınce ıt feels just lıke DısneyLand. Thıs ıs because Ludwıg commıssıoned a stage set desıgner to desıgn the castle, not a typıcal archıtect. So the whole place has an aır of beıng over the top and gaudy. My Aunt Faye would absolutely love thıs place. Everythıng ıs covered ın gold and murals and statues of swans (hence new-SWAN-steın) are coverıng every ınch of every room. He also desıgned a small room wıth paper mache to resemble the ınsıde of a cave, so you feel just lıke you are ın Carlsbad Caverns for one room just for shıts and gıggles. Dıd I mentıon he was apparently crazy?

Front fascade of Neuschwansteın Castle. It ıs on the top of such a steep hıll that you can´t really capture the full thıng ın a pıcture when you are up there (hence the really terrıble and far away pıcture above from the other castle).

Awesome vıew of another alpıne lake from a wındow at Neuschwansteın.

We found a lıttle known traın leadıng down from Neuschwansteın that runs through a gorge and along a rıver. It provıded a much needed break from the hourds of tourısts at the top sınce almost no one knows about thıs one. A local let us onto ıt.

Couldn´t resıst takıng a pıcture of thıs tree seemıngly eatıng a bıg boulder on our gorge hıke.

After weeks of fruıtless searchıng, Bavarıa fınally came through wıth the ellusıve ıce cream we had been searchıng for our whole trıp. Yuuuuummm.

We were plannıng on sleepıng ın the car to save some money, but we came across a nıce lıttle affordable hotel on our mountaın Alp drıve from Füssen that had one last open room, so we decıded to treat ourselves to a shower and proper meal to rest up for our bıg day of hıkıng ın the Alps the next day. Our plan was to hıke Germany´s tallest mountaın, Zugspıtze, but the clouds started rollıng ın and we arrıved a bıt too late to do ıt safely and not be shrouded ın clouds when we got to the top. And wıthout the vıew, there´s really no poınt ın clımbıng a mountaın. So we adapted.

At home ın the mountaıns, at last! Instead of hıkıng Zugspıtze we dıd an amazıng lıttle 5 hour hıke up to an alpıne lake rıght next to Zugspıtze, but low enough to be below the clouds and stıll provıde excellent vıews of the German and Austrıan Alps. I trıcked myself ınto thınkıng I was ın ok shape after Prague, but when mıddle aged women wıth tıny lıttle lap dogs and 70 year old men started passıng us on pretty vertıcal scree pıles and scramblıng up rocks that requıred holdıng onto metal ropes they provıde to hold onto so you do not fall to your death, I realızed ıt had been too long sınce we´d hıt the traıl.

When we got to the top, there was a beautıful alpıne lake and about 100 head of the happıest cows we have ever seen...of course I was happy to justıfy the truck loads of meat we were eatıng ın Bavarıa. That was our fırst experıence wıth a cow bell symphony. You see, dıfferent cows wear bells of dıfferent shapes, sızes, and materıals so they rıng out ın dıfferent tones ın thıs ıncredıble ımpromptu symphony that echoes off of the mountaıns and runs down the valleys. It ıs actually really pleasant and relaxıng to lısten to.

That nıght we drove back south of Munıch to attend Rü and Mel´s epıc annual ranch party. Mıke met Rü, an ınternatıonally reknowned ultımate player and organızer, ın Perth ın 2006 and we had both run ınto hım agaın at ınternatıonal tournaments lıke Paganello and Leıout. Rü and hıs awesome gırlfrıend Mel also were ın Taıwan helpıng out WFDF. Beıng so awesome, they throw a huge party every year (somethıng lıke 30 + kegs and two utılıty trucks full of rotısserı chıckens) at hıs brother´s ranch house south of Munıch, and we were somehow lucky enough to be ınvıted. Unforunately, ıt raıned that nıght, but ıt was stıll an epıc dance party ın a barn wıth tons of great musıc, great food, and great people. Walch (from Doublewıde) and Scott Wetzle (from Texas State) hıtched to meet up wıth us there sınce they were hangıng around ın Europe for a whıle. In the pıcture Mıke, Walch, and Pretzle are hangıng out on the frınge of the late nıght dancefloor.

We had the car for another two days and no plans so we made an ımpromptu decısıon (hooray for cars!) to drıve north of Munıch, whıch turned out to be the best decısıon ever. I was pretty ıntent on goıng to Nürnberg for some dorky hıstory stuff, so we packed Walsh and Preztle ın the Panda wıth us to gıve them a lıft to theır next hıtchıng poınt and poınted the Panda north. It was a long day of drıvıng through teensy German towns wıth a quıck stop to soak ın a lake and be harrassed by swans. After droppıng off our temporary travel buddıes, we decıded to go a bıt off the track and vısıt the tıny walled cıty of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It was a quaınt lıttle vıllage, though heavıly developed for tourısts, wıth a thıck 10 meter hıgh wall runnıng all the way around the town that was buılt ın the 13th centruy to protect the cıty. Above ıs a tower along the wall.

Mıke beıng contemplatıve on the wall ın Rothenburg.

The real reason for headıng north was to vısıt Nürnberg and the Nazı Party Documentatıon Cetner and Rally Grounds Museum (Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände ın German). Nürnberg was essentıally the headquarters for the Nazı Party durıng theır rıse to power durıng the 1930s. The museum ıtself ıs located ın the huge 50,000 seat colluseum that Hıtler commıssıoned to be buılt for Nazı party rallıes, speeches, and celebratıons (but was never used due to constructıon slowıng durıng the war and ıt not beıng fınıshed). The rest of the museum ıs the open aır Nazı Rally Grounds, where for 6 years Hıtler held offıcıal Socıalıst Party Rallıes and celebratıons. There ıs some absolutely hauntıng footage of these rallıes, wıth hundreds of thousands of people hangıng on every word.
I thought the exhıbıts on the causes and consequences of the rıse of the Natıonal Socıalıst Party (Nazi) were fascınatıng, well desıgned, and very well explaıned. It also had an awesome sectıon on the Nürnberg Trıals (the ınternatıonal trıals prosecutıng 22 Nazı party members for war crımes wıth lıve footage of the trıals and explanatıons throughout. The Allıed Powers chose to hold the post war trıals ın Nürnberg specıfıcally due to ıts prevıous ımportance to the Nazı Party, a bıg mıddle fınger to post-war Germany.
Travelıng ın Eastern Europe and Germany and tryıng to soak ın as much of the hıstory as possıble ın such a short tıme, I am stıll constantly suprısed/appalled/confused/dısgusted that such an atrocıous serıes of events happened such a short tıme ago.

St. Lorenz church ın Nürnberg, buılt ın 1270. Nürnberg ıs also a walled cıty, but larger and more ınterestıng (ın my opınıon) than Rothenberg.

Cool pıcture of the a statue ın the maın square wıth St. Lorenz ın the background.

Nürnberg ıs famous for these lıttle grılled fınger sausages over beech wood, so you know we weren´t goıng to mıss that. Delıcıous!

We were plannıng on sleepıng ın the car for another nıght, but I was less than excıted after a restless nıght before ın the Panda. By a stroke of ıncredıble luck, my father´s chıldhood German penpal Hans, who he had reconnected wıth on hıs vısıt ın 2007, had sent me an emaıl sınce my dad told hım we would be ın southern Germany around that tıme. We dıdn´t have anywhere to stay that nıght, and Hans only lıved a lıttle over an hour from Nürnberg! So we managed to get ın touch wıth hım last mınute, and drove down to theır tıny town (Kurchberg) about an hour northeast of Munıch. Hans, hıs wıfe Sabına, and theır daughter showed us true Bavarıan hospıtalıty. We drank our weıght ın beer (wheat beer!! ı love Bavarıa!), ate more than our weıght ın meat, and had many pleasant conversatıons overlookıng theır beautıful garden (see below).

Sabına, Hans, and I sıttıng ın theır jungle of a backyard. Over our two nıght and three day stay, they showed us around the really neat nearby walled cıty of Landshut, fed us delıcıous home cooked meals, and Hans entertaıned us well ınto the nıght wıth hıs ıncredıbly extensıve collectıon of Amerıcan country musıc! My dream come true! If only I was a nıght owl too. He even has a letter, handwrıtten and sıgned by Johnny Cash, from the 1960s thankıng hım for the complıments on hıs musıc and sendıng hım a sıgned pıcture.

Hans the grıllmaster cookıng up some more fınger sausages to force feed to us. =) Sabına has been a teacher for over 30 years and ıs retırıng thıs year (congratulatıons!) and they both love campıng and travelıng, so between the musıc and all of those thıngs we had some great conversatıons. We dıdn´t want to leave, but we had to move on to Swıtzerland. Plus, they promısed us they would make a stop over ın Texas when they come on theır post retırement trıp through the U.S.A. next year, so we get a chance to return the amazıng hospıtality, Texas style (meanıng cheap and not nearly as delıcıous beer and a lot more beef).

Bavarıa and Bavarıans seem to have a lot ın common wıth Texas and Texans. Munıch remınded me a lot of Austın ın layout and vıbe, and both places are more ınclıned to tell you they are themselves fırst and part of a larger whole second (Germany or the U.S.). They are defıned by theır own culture and hıstory, and they seem to be ıncredıbly proud of that. If only Texas had the Alps.

2010-08-01T02:10:00.000-07:00

Munich: Beers, Brots, Bikes, and Stecklefisch!!!

July 13, 2010
After Prague, we arranged to stay with frisbee friends from Munich. Rü and Mel welcomed us into their apartment and also lent us their bikes and maps to freely tour the city. Munich, like Berlin, is flat and very bike friendly. The weather was perfect for riding, sightseeing, swimming, and biergartens! Huge thanks to Rü and Mel for their hospitality, we are sure to see you again on the field, but hopefully we'll see you in Austin as well.

On day one Cara and I visited Marienplatz, the main square of Munich. A beautiful space of buildings and fountains. Our next stop was the infamous Hofbrauhaus biergarten. We enjoyed a beer each and shared a pretzel. Bavarian beer is by far my favorite. Brewers are not allowed to use any preservatives our flavors in their beers, only the raw ingredients: water, hops, and barley-malt. Furthermore, wheat or rye beers must be top-fermented. Not sure what this means but it amounts to delicous beer!

While at the Haufbrau, we stopped to take a photo with Munchen pensioners enjoying beer out of their own steins which are kept at the biergarten. After the photo, my new friend insisted I chug the rest of his beer before returning it to him. After finishing the beer (rather quickly by my standards) they asked if I was from Australia. Aussie friends be proud, your drinking prowess has reached Bavaria.

With smiles on our faces, we checked out the TeddyBear Museum next. This unfortunately did not live up to our expectations, but we did get some good photos of some unique bears. We then hopped back on our bikes and pedaled for the Englishgarten, a massive park in the city with canals and green fields perfect for swimming and sunbathing. Here we saw canal surfers, went for a swim, and then stopped at our second biergarten near the lake. That night we attended Munich Ultimate practice in Sauerlach, the home of the Woodies and Ru's family.

On day two we spent the morning planning our upcoming trip to Turkey before an afternoon bike ride to the BMW experience, olympic park, the Nymphenburg Castle, and the Hirschgarten. This biergarten was recommended to us by Rü for their beer, steckelfisch, and deer watching. We had an early night to prepare for our upcoming Bavaraian roadtrip starting the next morning.

Marienplatz

more beautiful Marienplatz

Our first biergarten experience at the Houfbrauhaus. Cara loved the Bavarian wheat beer or weisbier.

Local pensioners enjoying an afternoon in the biergarten. Not a bad way to spend your retirement.

Teddybears!

X-rayed Teddy

Surfing on the River Isar (not Cara), while this is supposed to be illegal it is thankfully not enforced.

Contemplating Earth Sciences and how I can better teach weathering and erosion to my kids. 30 minutes playing with and studying the smooth rocks on a river bank would go a long way towards understanding how powerful flowing water is.

Nymphenburg Castle

Hirschgarten. The beer, steckelfisch, and deer did not dissapoint.

There really were deer...a lot of them.

2010-08-01T01:31:00.000-07:00

Kutna Hora: Czech Republic Day Trip

July 12, 2010
Following Worlds, we stayed with Amanda, Scotty, Ashley, Hanna, Salad, Kiran, KG, Crystal, and Casi in an apartment in dt Prague for two nights. We decided to take a day trip and see what the Czech Republic has to offer outside their major city. We found a church filled with human bones arranged artisticly and a water park all in one day! We also experienced and lived the Czech culture of not having to wear your shirt...anywhere. Having beer and chips in a pub at 2pm with no shirt on is what Czech is all about, if only we could have ordered goulash as well.

Special thanks to Scotty, Amanda, and KG for putting in the online research to find our apartment in Prague.

Bones!

Tank, Ashley, Cara waterslide train. Just behind us out of frame is Amanda followed by Scotty and Kiran. Our plan to go six at once didn't quite workout. After splashdown, the lifeguard gave us a whistle and a thumbs up. We weren't quite sure what this meant. Good times had, no harm done.

Bone chandelier

There were 4 pyramids of bones within the church. This is Casi, Cara, Amanda, and Ashley enjoying one of them.

St. Barbara Church (not the Bone Church), but this is a Unesco World Heritage

Still trying to guess our famous person, plastered to our forehead, on our way back to the train station

2010-08-01T00:34:00.000-07:00

Czech it out!

Prague's beauty was no lie. It was an amazing city to just walk or paddle boat around in. Cara and I arrived a couple days before the tournament began to get in a few sites. On our first day, we couldn't pass up taking an evening paddle boat in the Vltava River.

Day two, we took a walking tour of the city to learn some Czech history and about the historic buildings. We learned about the "Velvet Revolution", the Czech Republic's non-violent separation from Communism in 1989. That night we met our frisbee friends for dinner.

The next day we checked into our accomodations for the week-long tournament, WUCC 2010. Frisbee for a week!

Pre-Worlds paddle boating in the Vltava River

We really liked this sign!

Prague from the river

Prague castle on the hill, which overlooks the city

View from Charles Bridge

the infamous astronomical clock of Prague. Every hour it does a little underwhelming song and dance that attracks a huge mass of tourists.

posing in front of the Church of our Lady Before Tyn, a dominating gothic church in the Old Town Square

Cara straddling the 50th parallel. The lattitude line that covers the most landmass on Earth, mostly because it runs through all of Eurasia and North America.

Clock on the Jewish Town Hall with hands that run backwards because Hebrew is read from right to left.

Prague skyline

Showdown team dinner

Hanna, Nat, Fran, and Tina throwing "Ps" on the shuttle bus

World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC 2010)
Doublewide Recap:
DW entered the tournament ranked #6. In our initial pool play games we beat Cotarica (Italy), CUUP (China), and Euforia (Columbia) as we tried to find our rhythm. Next we were seeded into a "Powerpool" of 6 teams in which the top 2 would advance to the quarterfinals. Our first loss came against #1 seeded Chain Lightning (USA), our South Region rival. Our next game against Skogs (Sweden) was rained out. On day 4, we won on ultimate point against Skogs and then beat Freespeed (Switzerland) and Mephisto (Canada). This set us up to play Viksjöfors (Sweden) in the game to decide who advances to the quarterfinals. Although we were heavily favored in this game, we lost a heartbreaking ultimate point game to ViF who played well. Our run to break seed was over. After a night of celebrating AmandaB's upcoming birthday and drowning our sorrows a bit with plenty of Czech beer we still had two games to play the next day. We won our first game in the morning against Karhukopla (Finland) and then beat Clapham (England) in a brutally hot game on the turf to finish the weekend 8 - 2, in 9th place. Although different from Perth, WUCC 2010 was still an amazing experience. I hope DW can put the work in to qualify for the next worlds in 2014.

Showdown Recap:
Showdown entered the tournament as the 7th seed. After a strong start to the weekend, Showdown lost in the pre-quarters to the Woodchicas (Germany) and finished the weekend 6 - 4, in 15th place. Not the result they were hoping for, but the fall season is right around the corner!

2010-07-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

Cheerio, Mate!

June 30, 2010
We didn´t have much tıme ın London sınce we came to England as a sıde trıp to coach ın a frısbee clınıc about an hour north, but we had a few days to look around and hıt the typıcal tourıst sıtes, as you can clearly see below. In all, we found London to be frustratıngly expensıve and culturally less ınterestıng after our tıme ın Eastern Europe, but we got a great dose of hıstory through some of the museums (hıghlıghts ınclude the Churchıll War Rooms museum and the Brıtısh Museum) and really enjoyed our tıme wıth our hosts Bıxler, Karen, and Lee. Overall a sucess!

British Parlıment buıldıng, sıttıng rıght on the Thames River.

Westmınster Abby from the back.

Cool pıcture of Bıg Ben from afar.

Buckıngham Palace, sometımes home to the Queen.

Mıke went on a solo journey to see the sıtes one day whıle I took a nap and snapped thıs pıcture of Trafalgar Square.

The Brıtısh Museum was absolutely incredible! We could have spent days there, but unforunately only had a few hours to rush through. Hundreds of years of imperialism led to the most ımpressıve collectıon of world wıde artıfacts I´ve ever seen. I couldn´t believe the swath. Of course many of the countrıes are askıng for theır artıfacts back (most of the fascade of the Parthenon ıs sıttıng pretty ın the Brısıth Museum for example and Greece has ınquıred multıple tımes as to when they wıll be gettıng ıt back).

The Rosetta Stone!

We came to England to coach ın a weekend long frısbee clınıc ın Loughborough, England. It was very tırıng, and very rewardıng. There were hundreds of people and we had a blast talkıng about ultımate for two days straıght and hangıng out wıth all the other coaches and players. Many were teammates from Team U.S.A. so ıt was great to see them on our one year annıversary. Thanks for housing us Brummie!

Our frıend Amanda, who was also travelıng ın London before Worlds to meet up wıth husband and frıend Dylan Tunell. You mıght recognıze Amanda from pıctures from Taıwan sınce she traveled wıth us there as well. We went ın search of the all ınclusıve "Englısh Breakfast" and were not dısappoınted. Beans, sausage, roasted tomato, scrambled eggs, toast, coffee, ham, and bacon. Yummm!

Our camera dıed shorlt after this shot, so unfortunately you don´t get to see my dorky pictures from Mike´s Iphone from the Royal Oberservatory. Here we learned about the race for longıtude ın World Cultures and how the Royal Observatory and the Brıtısh government were pıvotal ın developing a way to calculate longıtude at sea. Latıtude ıs obvıously easy to fınd usıng the sun, but longıtude was much trıckıer and can only be observed astonomıcally through a very complıcated and tıme consumıng chartıng of the heavens that untıl thıs tıme was not fully developed or consıstent. The observatory had a nice exhıbıt on the progressıon of clocks that eventually led to the dıscovery of a consıstent way to navıgate on the open seas. Yeah for John Harrıson!!

Bixler, our gracıous host whıle we were ın London and frisbee frıend from my days ın Atlanta. We had a really nice grıll on the patio of his Chelsea apartment...la tı da! He also came to Worlds to watch Chain play so we got to hang wıth hım ın Prague as well. Before the clınıc we also stayed wıth Karen and Lee, who hold the record for housıng us ın the most countrıes. We stayed wıth them orıgınally ın Melbourne after Perth Worlds when they lıved there.

Big Ben clock tower from the bridge. We arranged to meet Jınny, Sam, and Ben Spears there but the apartment buildıng they were staying ın caught on fıre! So we just sat around people watchıng for a whıle. There are, of course, a mıllıon tourısts and they were shootıng some kınd of scıntıllatıng ad when we were there wıth a scantıly clad Brıt ın a saılor outfıt.

Tower Bridge, commonly mistaken wıth London Bridge.

The Yeoman Warders guard the Tower of London and are more famılıarly known as Beefeaters (like the gin) and wear incredibly funny hats while marching around.

2010-07-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

Berlin!...did not disappoint

June 23, 2010
The next stop in our Euro adventure took us to Berlin. After we failed to communicate with the local frisbee scene we booked a hostel. Unknowingly, this set us up for a great couple days because our location was ideal! We arrived on the summer solstice and the city was full of Berliners riding their bikes and drinking beers while listening to outdoor DJ's and bands. You were easily in the minority if you did not have a half liter of beer in your hand as you walked around. After watching the most amicable tourist vs. local bike crash, we knew we were in for a friendly good time.

On our second day in the city we spent the money to go on the Fat Tire bike tour (not associated with the beer). We were able to see a lot of the city easily (Berlin is very flat) and learned about a few places we wanted to check out in more detail later. While bike touring we met Fabricio and Julia, our new friends from Sao Paolo, Brazil. After Cara and I played some Berlin co-ed pickup, we met Fabricio and Julia for dinner and an exciting East Berlin hunt for a techno club. After we learned the club we sought was closed, we settled on a club we came across earlier. An hour or so of sweaty and smoky dancing and we were headed home.

Our third day brought us back to the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building. For free you can enter the dome at the top of the building which offers great views of the city as well as a good history of Germany's political past. This was our first experience of learning about the events leading up to the rise of Nazism and how Hitler gained his power. After the Reichstag, we walked to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial which was very powerful. We found curry-wurst for dinner and then watched the World Cup matches in a gutted East Berlin factory (Freunde 11) with hundreds of locals. It was set up for the World Cup and had great energy. After the exciting USA win of Algeria we watched Germany beat Ghana. Both must win games for our countries. Without say, they were going nuts!

The next morning we were off to London. Thank you Berlin, we hope to be back.

A part of the Berlin Wall now a km long art piece

Berlin Wall art from a different angle

Jewish Holocaust Memorial. In an honorable effort to address the past head on and also placate their post war guilt, there are war memorıals located all over the city to different groups of people. There are multıple memorials to the Jews, Roma, Poles, handicapped, gays, etc...the list goes on and on. Apparently now the lesbian and other groups are lobbyıng for their own monuments.

World Cup watching in a dilapidated East Berlin building.

Mirrors at the top of the Reichstag dome. These actually adjust as the Sun moves through the sky to maintain the temperature and lighting of the room year round. These German engineers were smart.

Wıth Fabricio and Julia during our East Berlin techno-club search. Thanks for the great night, we hope our paths cross in the near future.

A government lıbrary buıldıng near the Reichstag. The cloud reflectıon off the buildıng was neat, not to mentıon the sıgn over the door ın large letters readıng "Re-Reeducatıon".

Fat Tire bike tour stop at the Reichstag, theır Parlımant buıldıng that was burnt down ın February 27, 1933 apparently by the communısts but wıdely today consıdered to have been commıtted by the rısıng Nazı party. The ensuıng melee allowed the Nazı party to take almost complete control over the Parlıment over the next few years. Notice the huge glass dome in the center.

Brandenburger Tor, the statue at the top was once stolen by Napolean and brought to Paris. When the statue was brought back to Berlin, they changed the name of the square to "Parıser Platz" as a burn on the French.

Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous entrance to the Amerıcan sector of West Berlin after the 1961 constructıon of the Berlin Wall. Also the site of a tank stand off between the Soviets and Amerıcans.

Inspıratıonal Berlin Wall art.

more ınspıratıonal Berlin Wall art

The beautiful bridge near our hostel.

Berlin's eastern skyline with the TV Tower

ps With Turkey's cheap Internet cafes, expect more posts soon. :-)

2010-06-20T03:01:00.000-07:00

Krakow, Poland

June 20, 2010
We apologize for the delay in posting again. Our trip has been thankfully and tiredly non-stop. Nonetheless, after Budapest we trained north to Krakow and visited our Texas frisbee friend Witty who is working a one year assignment for Shell. Thanks Witty!!!

These photos are a bit out of chronoligical order, but still enjoy!

Following our night of dancing and drinking, Cara and >I went to the market to use Witty's amazing kitchen for the first time. Breakfast goulash even Cookies would be proud of.

The local market with extremely cheap produce

Strawberries (Witty's favorite fruit) are in season and can be purchased for about 1 USD per pound

Dragon drain off of the church at Wawel Castle

Cara and I had an early morning hill workout before the tourist crowds came up the hill leading to Wawel Castle. This photo is taken in the courtyard of the castle.

The piece by piece church at Wawel Castle

A statue of our favorite Pol, Kosciuszko. The highest mountain in Australia is named after him and he also fought as a colonel in the American Revolutionary War.

Pope John Paul

Our first communist themed bar. The juxtaposition of young adults rocking out to 80's hair band music in a room full of communist posters is an experience.

A little break to enjoy what America has contributed to Krakow...Roosters, a knockoff of Hooters with American license plates all over the walls.

Hooray for cheap beer!

Massive wooden sculpture of the 12 apostles at St. Mary's Basilica located in the main square

St. Mary's Basilica

The outside of St. Mary's Basilica, also wear the bugler plays every hour.

Market Square, the biggest in central Europe

Our first experience of being in a European town with a massive amount of tourists.

'Milk Bars' are still around from the communist era. These restaurants do not serve alcohol, but instead provided a cheap meal to the workers. Now they are a great way to experience Polish food for very cheap. These are definitely not set up for tourists so thankfully a friendlz local translated the menu for us and helped us order. Unlike Spanish, we have had very little success guessing or figuring out food names.

Local student's art for sale.

An old gate which used to be part of the wall that protected the city

2010-06-20T00:45:00.000-07:00

Bacon and Budgy Smugglers in Budapest

Doing the typical "backpacking" type of travel isn't really our cup of tea, jumping from hostel to hostel and, because of that, hanging out with people of every other possible nationality besides the one you are currently trying to explore in depth. Doesn't really make sense to me, and we were lucky enough in Budapest to be staying with Denes, an incredible host well versed in Hungarian culture, the provision of warm and comfy beds, and all things pork related.

Denes taking a shot of Palinka from the "Don't Mess with Texas" shotglass we brought him.

Our last few days in Budapest were full of exactly the type of travel that we love to do. Hanging with locals, learning about the endless and different perpectives of their culture and history from their perspective (not only the national museum's perspective), and reaching that sometimes elusive level of comfort and familiarity with a people and culture. Now, I'm fully aware that one week is nowhere near enough time to truly delve into a place or people, but we're on the fast track, and I think we did a pretty great job scratching the surface thanks to our hosts (Meetesh and Barbara, Denes, and Benedec, among others). Monday night ended with us hanging out with some of Denes' co-workers at the same make shift bar (basically an open plaza that serves alcohol from a stand) that we went to with Meetesh on our first night. This made for good people watching and quite a bit of Palinka tasting.

We spent Tuesday morning exploring the Hungarian National History Museum, a one stop shop for the official state story of Hungarian history. It included such historical bias as the period placards declaring 1900-1914, the "Happiest Time", A.K.A. "The Time Before We Got Screwed by the Treaty of Trianon and Lost Most of Our Land". That noted, we observed an undeniable pattern in the defensive position that most Hungarians take when talking about their history, and this was even reflected in the museum exhibits. The gist of the WWII exhibit section was essentially "The Time When We Were Forced to Decide Between Being Occupied by the Nazis or Winning Our Trianon Treaty Land Back". Now to be fair, both of those things were slight possibiities, and geographically they were in a pretty shitty place (although they've got nothing on shitty geographic luck during WWII compared to Poland, who resisted occupation on both sides), but still. But despite the defensive WWI and WWII exhibits, they had some excellent exhibits on Hungary during the Middle Ages and an impressive collection of Communist propaganda posters and paraphenelia.

After the museum we ran a killer fartlek in the pouring rain and rewarded ourself by checking out another famous bath, the Gellart Baths, which proved, despite some pretty cool architecture, to be entirely underwhelming and overpriced. The "hot" pool was tepid at best, and there were not enough pot bellied old men in budgy smugglers (speedos) playing chess in the pool and drinking beer, as there were at Szechenyi to satisfy our curiosity.

We then met up with Denes, who had a sand volleyball tournament in an outlying suburb of Budapest, and we decided to come along and heckle him. Volleyball, both indoor and outdoor, is incredibly popular in Hungary, and Denes and his teammates have been playing together since college (15 years) in a compeitive city league. The highlight of this tournament was the huge pot of goulash being cooked over an open fire by 2 old Hungarian guys. It's the traditional way to cook goulash, and it was mind blowing.

Goulash simmering over an open fire.

We then made our way back to Denes' flat. He had a huge block of pork in his fridge, that I at one point attempted to eat thinking it was some crazy Euro cheese. Shudder. It's basically a block of fat, not much meat, similar to bacon with no real streaks of meat. He introduced us to another typcial Hungarian tradition of eating this chunk o' pork raw with just a piece of bread and raw onion. So after the traditional shot of Palinka (or two) we gorged ourselves on raw bacon for a good hour. I would like to say I felt guilty eating all this pork, but there wasn't a guilty bone in my body, and this brings us to another Hungarian tradition that I am determinded to participate at some point in my life.

Once a year, duing the frigid Hugarian winter, Denes and a group of his friends drive to the country, to a "pork cutting". They eat lots of good food, take a few man shots of Palinka, and then ceremoniusly kill a pig with their bare hands. At first this sounds like some barbaric dude fest (which apparently it kind of is), yet this intrigues me greatly and makes tons of sense. I don't eat meat because the industry is so messed up, dirty, and far removed from the actual process of how animals should be raised and killed. This is exactly how I want to eat my meat, if I can manage to steel myself from all emotion and harden my heart enough to kill Babe, the star of my favorite movie.

Maybe someday.

2010-06-14T03:37:00.000-07:00

Szia from Hungary!

We've stayed busy exploring Budapest. We've been filling our days with wandering around, working out and training with the Hungarian National men's team (thanks to Meetesh and Denes), eating and drinking plenty, and watching World Cup games. I'll let the pictures (and silly videos!) do most of the talking.

Our shout out to all the happy cows and pigs in Europe. Mike is eating some kind of meaty, supposedly-but-not-really-Hungarian, meal at the Nagycsarnok Market. I had the goulas, a meaty tomato based stew...delicious! We've temporarily thrown vegeterianism out the window in the interests of experiencing the true cultural cuisine of Europe.

Party pic near the liberty bridge that crosses the Danube River and connects Buda on the west to Pest on the east.

Nagycsarnok Market, a huge indoor market on the banks of the Danube.

Szent Istvan (Saint Stephen's) Basilica, a roman Catholic church completed in 1905. Many historrians consider St. Stephen to be the first king of Hungary, after achieving independence from the Holy Roman Empire in 1000 CE. He was most known for strengthening Christianity in the region and for acquiring the land that is now Transylvania (which until post WWI was Hunagrian land, along with parts of today's Slovakia). Today, Transylvania and Slovakia still have large numbers of ethnic Hungarians.

A look from the back up to the altar of St. Stephen. Similar to other Catholic churches of its size, there are pulpits further back so that the people in the back could hear the service as well. Also, we could not believe the size of the organ pipes.

A beautiful high dome dominates the center of the basilica and everything is bathed in gold. Goooooold.

St. Stephen at the altar. Someone mentioned that this is the only Roman Catholic church in the world that has someone besides Jesus at the altar, but that is uncited information. The mummified remains of St. Stephen's hand are housed at the church and available for viewing.

Video of St. Stephen's Basilica.

The Great Synagogue of Budapest, built in 1859. By area, it's the largest synagogue in the world! Temple Emanuel in NYC can seat more people, but this one is bigger by cubic meters. Amazingly it has served as a Jewish temple ever since it's opening (even though badly damaged during WWII) since it was located in the Jewish quarter of the city.

Mike admiring the inside of the Synagogue. Usually synagogues are not as ornate as this one, but the wealthier Hungarian Jews were already seen as outsiders, so they wanted to build a temple that would fit in with the local architecture and be respected by the Hungarians.

The inner courtyard of the temple was forced to be used as a cemetery, even though according to Jewish tradition cemeteries cannot be in such close proximity to a synagouge (so technically the Great Synagogue is not kosher). In the fall of 1844, the Hungarian fascist party (Arrow Cross) took over and started swiftly eradicating Jews from the Budapest ghetto to "work camps" or i some cases just killing them outright. The Jews that were left in the ghetto were forced to endure one of the coldest winters on record, so many died from lack of services and food. Since the ground was frozen, they could not bury the bodies of the dead, so they had to wait until the ground thawed in the spring. By that time, there were thousands of dead and upon Soviet "liberation" of Budapest in 1945, they buried the people in the courtyard of the temple.

A wall of the ghetto was left by the Soviets to memorialize the ghetto. It still has the barbed wire on top of it.

A view of Parliment from atop Castle Hill on the Buda side of the Danube.

Parliment is a beautiful building right on the Danube, and apparently the first building in continental Europe with "air conditioning" since the architects build special rooms in the basement to house large blocks of ice and a ventilation system that runs throughout the building.

View of Parliment from Castle Hill, near Matthias Church.

Széchenyi Chain Bridge was the first permanent bridge in Budapest, build in 1849. You can see the huge St. Stephen's Basilica dominating the skyline in the distance.

Meetesh and Denes demanded that we go to a very old (est. 1827!) little bakery (pekseg) called Ruszwurm for a Hungarian dessert called Kremes (pronounced Kremesh). You don't have to tell me twice to go eat dessert, so we hit it up on our time in Buda on the hill. It was mindblowing...basically a layer of two crispy wafers with rich creme (best compared to the custard of a creme brule, but much fluffier) in between. Aghhhhh...

A view of the Royal Palace from the Citadel, the highest hill on the Buda side.

Whit and Claire, this one is for you!

Another picture of Parliment, the Chain bridge, and the Danube from the Citadel.

Pedro, a frisbee friend we met on Friday while training with the Hungarian men's team, (Benedec is his real name) is a traditional Hungarian dancer and had a performance on Saturday night in a small village outside of Budapest. He was kind enough to invite us to go see the performance, which included his troop of adult dancers, and also performances from the little kids in the classes that they teach at the local dance school.

After the amazing performance, there was a party in the courtyard of the small village, and we ate Hungarian sausgae, dessert, and drank beer while the band continued to play and the audience danced. His family was incredibly welcoming and filled us in on all of the cultural and historical details of the dancing style. Then we watched U.S.A. play England in a basement bar in the village. Unfortunately, we didn't meet up with Meetesh like we were supposed to because he came down with a really bad fever.

Heroes Square, built to commemmorate the 1000th anniversary (in 1896) of the Magyar (Hungarian) conquest of the Carpathian Basin (area that is now Hungary) under Arpad.

The Szecsenyi Baths. Hungary is full of thermal baths! We spent a few hours rotating between the hot/cold/warm baths until we had shriveled up to half of our original size. Many of the baths have Turkish influenced architecture from when the Ottoman Empire ruled over Budapest (during the 16th and 17th centuries).

Party pic in front of the Parliment building. There was a marathon going on, so we cheered on the runners as we walked along the Danube.

We finished up the night by going for a jog on a beautiful park island in the middle of the Danube with Denes and his school friend Corine, grabbing a few beers, and throwing the frisbee in the middle of St. Stephen's Square in front of the Basilica. Beautiful!

A few more days in Budapest, and then we're off to Krakow to visit Witty!

2010-06-11T01:12:00.001-07:00

Hungarian late night food, Langos (pronounced Long-goash)! It's a super fried piece of chewy bread with sour cream, garlic sauce, and cheese on it. All of Cara's favorite food groups!

Taking shots of Palinka with Meetesh and Denes, our hosts. Palinka is a local Hungarian digestive. It's traditionally taken upon the entry of a guest into a house, and before and after meals.

Playing with Danny, Meetesh and Barbara's son, before dinner.

Mill - Vienna Garden Restaurant near our hostel.

Arriving in Vienna!

Vienna and Budapest

Vienna welcomed us with blue skies and 80 degree weather. We arrived around 6pm, and after taking a short bus trip into the city we found our hostel (Hostel Ruthensteiner) with the help of a friendly local. After settling in we asked for a dinner recommendation from the hostel staff, which lead us to an Austrian restaurant settled in a beautful garden courtyard.

We will return to Vienna at the end of our trip to fly home, so we decided to spend just one quick day exploring before heading to Budapest. Our day involved a workout in the park, figuring out our train logistics, and taking a quick tour of the inner city of Vienna.

The inner city of Vienna has all the museums and historical buildings. The centerpiece is Stephansdom. It was built in the 13th century is huge and intricately designed. We then walked around a bit before heading to catch our train to Budapest. We are excited to revisit Vienna at the end of our trip.

After a 3 hour train ride, we were greeted at the train station by the awesome smiling faces of Meetesh of Danny. While they were happy to see us, we later learned that Danny loves trains and Daddy also bought him an ice cream. The later lead to an awesome amount of energy to run off in the apartment before dinner.

After a welcoming shot of Palinka, we had a delicious meal of paprika mushroom and pasta that Barbara prepared. Paprika is the word for pepper (any pepper, similar to chile for us), and peppers and the traditional spice paprika that we are familiar with is used in many Hungarian dishes. Following dinner Meetesh drove us to Denes's (pronounced 'Day-nesh') house. Denes is a long time frisbee friend of Barbara and plays on Meetesh's team. His apartment is located in the southern central part of Pest and very close to the action.

We got to know Denes over another two rounds of Palinka shots followed by a beer for me and wine with sparkling water for Cara and Denes. After our starter drinks we made our way into the city to have a few more beers and hang out. We started at a huge outdoor square which is a massive gathering of locals drinking and relaxing. From their we went to one of Meetesh's favoriate bars which had a massive courtyard. The highlight of the night, is shown above. To settle those extras beers and Palinka we had our first taste of late night Hungarian food. While I had the falafal I've been craving since we landed in Europe, Cara went for the local fare of fried dough with sour cream, garlic butter, and cheese. Pretty much a massive savory funnel cake!

Thank you friends new and old for a great welcome to Hungary.

2010-06-09T02:22:00.001-07:00

We have arrived in Heathrow airport. It was a bumpy ride over the Atlantic but we made it! Another few hours until our flight to Vienna. We did book a hostel, so we have a place to stay. Nap time.

mike

2010-06-07T21:16:00.001-07:00

Europe 2010!

Cara and I head out tomorrow afternoon to begin our two month European adventure. We fly out of Houston, so I've had the last weekend to hang out with my parents and also my hometown friends for a night. It has been a great weekend.

Our adventures begin in Vienna and then quickly onto Budapest. We have a good idea of our travel plans before Worlds July 3 - 10th. For the month of July, we'll see.

Here we go!

2009-08-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

Austin Scoober Article by Mike

http://upla.austinultimate.org/august2009/worldgamescara

Cara and Team USA bring back Gold!

By: Michael “Tank” Natenberg

10,000 cheering fans, stadium lights, locker rooms, trainers, masseuses and chiropractors, managers, instant reply on the Jumbo-Tron! The players at the 8th World Games hosted in Kaohsiung City, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) experienced all of this. From July 19th thru 21st, Ultimate Frisbee was on display in the main stadium specifically built for the World Games; think a smaller but no less impressive Bird’s Nest. 6 countries: USA, Japan, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and Taiwan competed for the medals.

Although Team Canada came into the event with the #1 ranking, many believed Japan and the USA were the teams to beat. The three-day tournament was a round robin format to medal rounds, 6 total games. Each day was split into a morning and evening session. While I was there to support Cara, I also worked as a line official for WFDF (World Flying Disc Federation). This was an amazing opportunity that gave me a sideline view of all the games and access to the World Games venues and Team USA.

USA faced stiff competition on the first day winning a close game 13-11 against Australia in the morning and playing a near perfect game under the lights against Canada, winning 13-6. On Day 2, the USA easily took care of Great Britain and Chinese Taipei. The first upset of the tournament happened under the lights on Day 2 when Australia pulled out an ultimate point win over Japan in one of the most entertaining games of Frisbee I’ve ever seen. The morning session of Day 3 was the last round of pool play, while the evening would be the medal round. Japan and the USA faced off during the latest round in the morning in blazing heat. Team USA played short-handed after Cate Foster started to show signs of heat exhaustion, and lost a close game. I was inspired to see how quickly Team USA was able to move on from their loss and regain their swagger and confidence in preparation for the Gold medal round.

The USA absolutely dominated in the finals to earn their Gold Medals with a 13-6 win over Japan. The men and women out played their match-ups every point. I was most impressed with the chemistry and winning culture Team USA developed in the short time they were together and the focus they were able to bring to the big games.

Cara made Austin proud with steady play as one of Team USA’s main handlers. Besides seeing Cara celebrate with Team USA after the final goal, one of my favorite memories of the trip was watching her come down with a great grab over her defender and poaching male defender in their first game against Japan. Fortunately, I was not officiating this game so I was able to celebrate and cheer from the sideline.

For photos and videos recapping Team USA’s time in Taiwan check out this link: http://upa.org/programs/intl/worldgames2009/updates

Picture above is from the UPA's flickr feed.

2009-07-31T19:59:00.000-07:00

27 in HK!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I kept forgetting it was my birthday so not only was it a nice reminder, but it was nice to hear from so many friends to make it a little less weird that I was so far away on my 27th birthday. It turns out it was a great excuse to eat dessert 20 times in one day. I ended up meeting up with some HK frisbee players for a run though, and we went out for some delicious and dirty street food.

I spent the next day going to Lantau Island with my new local friend and frisbee player, Kat. We took a ferry over to the island and then a bus up to the famous Pin Lu Monestary. Their claim to fame is a ginormous bronze Buddah statue on a mountain top. The view of the surrounding islands was spectacular. Then we ate lunch at the vegetarian restaurant that the Buddist monks run. Last night I attended a HK UPA (frisbee governing body here) meeting and then went out to some not so swanky (Club 7-11 consisted of drinking beers on the street outside a very popular 7-11 convenience store) and then very swanky bars (26th story of a high rise on a hillside with amazing view of skyline at night).

Today I'm off to Lantau again to play some beach ultimate and camp out on the beach. Tomorrow I'm helping to run an Ultimate clinic for local beginners, then practicing with the local team to help them prepare for a tournament in Singapore next weekend. Frisbee fun!

2009-07-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

Solo adventure in Hong Kong!

It's been a long time since I've traveled alone, so it took a while to get back into the groove of things, but I've hit my stride and am enjoying my time in Hong Kong. I'll spare you the long winded text and go for pictures.

2009-07-29T19:19:00.000-07:00

Taroko Gorge, Taiwan

Below are pictures from our time in Taroko Gorge National Park and on the east coast of Taiwan. For further explanation, see the previous post, sans pictures.

The entrance to Taroko National Park. The roads were very narrow and in most places only one lane. Which made it interesting when huge buses full of tourists had to get by each other. Complicated by the pretty constant debris from falling rocks...made for an exciting drive into the gorge.

Typical trail picture. About to hit the Baiyang Trail to a sweet waterfall. The trail ran through a series of long and very dark tunnels.

Mountains! Weee! This was the road down to the tiny town from our hostel.

We instantly made a frisbee friend and threw with him and his family outside in their driveway, which they lit with a floodlight.

The incredible family that ran a homestay. They gave us dinner, mangoes from their tree, and hooked us up with a local man who had a room to rent since they were full.

Mike and I took a break on the trail to go swimming in the river. It was a very nice break from the heat and we didn't have to worry about crocs this time.

The huge multi-tiered water fall at the end of the Baiyang Trail. It was beautiful.

A view of the coast from our train window.

Lunch on the train. Cold noodles with a really yummy peanut sauce. This was the day that I finally got my appetite back from being sick. Mike, unfortunately, was still feeling really badly.

In case you can't see her shirt, it's a LoneStar shirt! She had no idea what Lonestar was.

Yet another beautiful waterfall on the Baiyang Trail.

A night market in Taipei our last night there. Lots of people, colors, and unidentifiable meats.

2009-07-25T20:02:00.000-07:00

Frisbee and Whisbie

The last two days of the World Games had us playing Great Britain, Chinese Taipei, and then Japan on the last morning of pool play followed by the medal rounds. So it turned out (since Australia beat Canada) that we would play Japan twice in the same day. We woke up that day with almost all of the women on Team U.S.A. coming down with a wicked cold/flu. Gwen and Chelsea were feeling particularly bad, but as soon as they stepped on the field you couldn't tell...ballers! The first game against Japan (last game in round robin) was tight, and we made some very uncharacteristic mistakes early on to lose. We were pretty fired up to see them again under the lights for the gold medal match.

We spent the rest of the day resting, eating, and massaging. I don't remember too much of the finals game, other than about every 2 minutes someone on our team would make a sick play and after about 5 of those, I was confident we were going to win. Everyone was so fired up...it was an incredible energy to feel as a team. We hung around for a few hours afterwards for the medal ceremony, to trade jerseys with other teams, sign autographs, and take pictures with fans. Dylan and Bart were especially popular because beards are a hot commodity here (not to mention their stunning good looks).

Despite being sick, we rallied and hit up a bar with the other frisbee teams and proceeded to drink too much. Mike, Alicia, Beau, and Angela took up the slack for the rest of us and stayed up until dawn riding bikes into hotels, 7-11s, and rivers. The pictures are epic.

The next day everyone that was left caught a bullet train back to Taipei and we hit up the Shilin Night Market. More drinking ensued, crazy and delicious food was ingested, and completely unecessary purchases were made. I was still trying to recover from the pig SARS, and Mike was still bragging that he wasn't going to get it. My parents met up with us the next day in Taipei and we went to the National Palace Museum. The most impressive things were absolutely tiny carvings (like intricate little boats with people in them made out of olive pits) that you can't imagine why anyone would spend their time and energy making despite being very cool to look at.

Almost everyone on the team left the next morning except for Beau, Mike and I so we headed for a cheap hostel and adventure. Mike had finally come down with whatever it was that the team had, and Beau and I were finally getting over it. This night can only be explained in pictures but it involved a lot of Vodka and Whisbie (a very shady "energy/health" drink), and Mike was wearing my jeans in a dance club by the end of the night. Adventure!

Beau left us yesterday and we caught a train to Taroko Gorge on the east side of the island and in the mountains! We arrived late at night with no place to stay, no taxi to catch (like we expected), and no good ideas left. Luckily, a man from Taipei gave us directions to walk to a local homestay about 1 km. out of town down a dark and deserted road. I was starting to stress out about having to sleep outside the train station when we arrived at the homestay. They were full for the night, but the incredible family that ran it hooked us up with an authentic dinner of eel and rice noodles, beer, and a friend in town who had a room available for the night. We taught her kids to play frisbee and left our disc with them as a token of our appreciation.

We're about to hit up a hike to a waterfall to go swimming!

More adventures to come...
C and T

2009-07-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

Photos!!! I just found the media room available to athletes and staff. Here are some photos to enjoy. These range from our first days in Taiwan to Tournament time.

The first photo is from the night market. While Cara and Team USA went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse, Amanda, Angela Lin, and our new Atlanta friends Jason and Relah went to the night market to taste the local food. I have now eaten squid, octopus (Octo Balls), tasty tofu, dumplings, and chicken heart. Everything was delicious. I smelled stinky tofu, and stayed away.

Frisbee Opening Ceremonies

Games and color at the night market!

Amanda eating Octo Balls...They are hot and delicious!

The art of making Octo balls.

Line in a Locker!

The Crouches at Beach Handball.

Team USA (less Gwen who was at a press conference)

Globe of Light!

Opening Ceremonies

More to come after tournament,
- Cara and Mike

2009-07-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

4-0!

Should be sleeping, but wanted to update quickly. Since our connection isn't fast, check out Scobel and Josh's pictures on the upa.com site. We've won all 4 games so far against Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and Taiwan. Japan is tomorrow morning and it's a huge game for us since Japan lost to Australia tonight. We have to win to solidify a spot in the finals tomorrow night...also depends on how the Australia/Canada game goes tomorrow.

Having a blast constantly warming up for, thinking about, and playing ultimate...living the dream!

Mike is working super hard officiating and helping out when we are playing...he's doing an amazing job.

2009-07-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

Ni Hao from Taiwan!!!

Luckily, I can't sleep past 6 a.m. so I've got some time to finally make a quick post. So far our time here has been amazing. Mike and I flew through Tokyo to Taipei, where we met up with the team on the night of the 15th. On the 16th, we hit a few quick spots in Taipei including the worlds tallest building, Taipei 101, which rises 509 meters and 101 stories from the urban jungle of Taipei. By then, almost the whole team was together, so we caught a bullet train down to Kaohsiung to catch the opening ceremonies and meet up with Cate, Deb, and Bart. Mike is here as a WFDF (World Flying Disc Federation) official, so even though he has to do some officiating work during the games, it's been amazing because he's been able to come to everything with us.

The opening ceremonies were incredible. Walking into a sold out stadium of almost 40,000 people was intense to say the least. I think I developed a few hundred more smile wrinkles that night. They had a very cool program that we unfortunately didn't get to see because we were being herded under the stadium to wait for our entrance. The countries came out in alphabetical order in the athlete procession, were treated to some entertainment from a handfull of international singing sensations (including Yellow Tiger, who did an interesting rendition of Freddy Mercury's "We are the Champions"), the president of Taiwan declared the games officially open, and then there was an incredible fireworks show.

Other than an hour and a half practice every day, we've been: eating a lot at our sweet catering center and around town; checking out some of the other sports including Dragon Boat racing (we watched the U.S. Dragon Boat racing team intensely battle it out with Germany...Dragon Boat drama!), beach handball, softball, and fistball; renting bikes and getting lost (adventure!); singing kareoke (our team bus has kareoke!); having impromptu dance parties; learning a bit of local language and culture; meeting other athletes from other sports and countries; getting our bodies tuned up; and just hanging out together and attempting to soak it all in.

It is super hot here, mainly because of the 95% humidity. Also, there was a typhoon coming our way that luckily diverted towards Hong Kong, but we've been getting both the wind and the rain from it over the last two days. Should make the games today extra fun to watch for the fans.

We're having a great time together off the field, and I'm confident that that will translate to the field today when we take on Australia at 11:30 a.m. and then Canada tonight at 7:00 p.m. under the lights. I'm thinking of you all back home...love and miss you all! Mike's working 4 games today, including our Australia game, so it will be nice to have him so close, even though he won't be able to talk to us.

Cara and Mike

p.s. Pictures will be up as soon as I can find a connection fast enough. For now, check out www.upa.org for some awesome picture mantages and videos of what we've been up to.

2009-07-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

2009-07-17T03:29:00.000-07:00

Taiwan is incredible! Look for a blog post later tonight/today...we've been super busy practicing and going on adventures.

heart,
C & T

2009-07-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

My heart exploded last night.

Last night, Mike and some very dear friends hosted a happy hour fund raiser for me at Black Sheep Lodge, a new Austin bar owned by Austin Ultimate legend Keith Sandel. The UPA reimburses the team for a certain amount of travel expenses and we are doing team fundraisers, but I was surprised how quickly that stipend was depleted with all the traveling to practices and tourneys.

It turns out that living in Austin does have one drawback; it is geographically isolated from the Ultimate dense pockets around the country and therefore it is expensive and time consuming to consistently reach those pockets of high level frisbee fun. This is not a new development-- teams in Texas have always struggled with having to spend more money and time flying to far away tournaments for good competition-- but involved a lot of traveling within a two and a half month period. Team U.S.A. attended practices, tryouts, or tournaments in Florida/L.A., Denver, San Francisco, Atlanta, Seattle, and two in Ohio over that short time period.

So, that is why I am so incredibly grateful to all the people that have shown support (both physically and monetarily) to this cause. Thank you for working out or practicing with me and pushing me to be a better player and athlete, thank you for helping me attend the World Games and all those practices without going into extreme debt, thank you for teaching me, putting up with me, supporting me, and loving me. I can't thank you all enough, but I shall try. Special thanks to:

TUFF, Sheila Ogden, Bryan Campbell, David Natenberg and Ellie, Sharon and Steven Natenberg, Lindsay Lowe, Laney Bevill, Homie and Molly, Max and Casi Cook, Kiran Thomas, Sarah Blyth, Terry Jungman, Mia Iseman, Lisa and Brian Ward, Lorig Hawkins, Nazish Waliany, Vanessa Wagner, Hannah and Elliot, Rachel Massey, Mariah, Aaron Smith, Mark Krasniewski, Zack Sumners, Steven Alford, Mark Warren, Stoney and Ying, Matteo and Kim, Stephanie Redfern, Matt Clark, Ben Simms, Corina Lucas, Amanda Chisholm, DJ Loskorn, Stevie Franchise, Skizip Hobbie, Chase, Bjorn Schey, Judson, Scott, Wheels, Rory Orloff, Andrew Vickers, Andrew Foley, Don Tom and Judy, Adam Keeling, Marcus Gavin, Julia Echterhoff, Paul (TUFF), Fortner, Dana, Turco, Becky and Karen, Scott Gross, Michelle Ng, Madison Berger, Marjo Manalang, Kyle Kretschman, Rachel Nolan, Amy Kendziorski, AJ Moore, Chris Jew, Darbi Donaldson, Daneil Knoll, Kim Breese, Carlos d'Avis, Todd Geldon, Becca Shelton, Peter Lewis, Ellen Wyoming, Phil Wendel, Alexa Tang, Jason White, Crystal Willis, Kevin Gaffney, Cassey and Michael Crouch, Andy Crouch, Bea Brown, Faye Smith, and many others.An extra special thank you to Mike/Tank and Skizip Hobbie for putting the fund raiser together.

I'll definitely do my best to represent you all on and off the field in Taiwan.

Cara

Party pics!

2009-07-07T11:12:00.000-07:00

World Games 2009

Mike and I are off on another adventure this summer, to Kaohsiung, Taiwan (ROC) to participate in the World Games 2009! The World Games are a sort of precursor to the Olympics for sports that don't have all the necessary qualifications to be in the Olympics yet but still have a significant international presence. Ultimate ("Flying Disc") has been in the World Games since 2001 in Akita, Japan. Check out the official website for more info on the Games and the sports/countries involved (linked above).

I owe my involvement in this whole adventure to so many friends, family, and Ultimate community members that have been so supportive of my Ultimate habit over the years, so I wanted to share the whole journey with you all. I'll be updating from Kaohsiung and beyond with frisbee and travel related posts if I have accessible internet. As far as I know they are not streaming the Flying Disc games, so this might be the best way to keep up with how Team U.S.A. is doing and what kind of crazy shenanigans we are getting into.

Cara

2007-05-30T19:14:00.000-07:00

We spent the last week in Sydney wrapping up lose ends and doing really important things such as: catching up on the 3rd season of Grey's Anatomy, playing Nintendo Wii, fighting colds, getting back in shape for ultimate, sleeping in until noon, and walking around beautiful Sydney. Here it is...the last post of the trip!

THANK YOU!

Cara:

Ever since about 5th grade, I have harboured an unhealthy obsession with Australia. I'm not sure what did it; a school report, a National Geographic documentary, a Crocodile Dundee movie (most likely), but I was enamoured. That obsession flourished during high school, and I got it in my head that I would study abroad in Oz in college. Well, then ultimate fribsee came along and I couldn't go abroad during the spring because it was the college season, and I couldn't go abroad during the fall because that was the club season, so I reluctantly decided I would just have to wait a little longer. Then one day in 2003 while surfing through the ultimate news, I saw that the Frisbee World Championships 2006 were scheduled to be in Perth, Australia...and my life changed. I changed my plans, I changed my goals, I changed cities (moved to Atlanta), and I began to try to get Mike on board. Ozone qualified for World's in '05, and it was certain...I was going to Australia. I worked two jobs and Mike and I spent as little and saved as much as possible. I told Claire and Whit (popular from such blogs as: This Blog and Their Own Blog) and, knowing that they were also hankering to do some traveling, tried to convince them to come. With a lot of hard work and a lot of budget living, everything worked out perfectly in the end. But this trip would have never happened if I didn't have help from so many people.

Thank you to my family for always supporting me and my love of travel and not freaking out when I didn't get a career right out of college so that I could go on this trip. Thanks to Aunt Faye, Granny Bea, Uncle Hoyt, Uncle Faierel, Mom, Dad, my Texas History students at Kealing and their parents, and everyone else who helped raise money or moral for the trip for me. I can't tell you how much it meant to me. Thanks to Ozone and all my teammates from Atlanta for qualifying for World's and making my dream come true while I sat on the sideline with a broken leg. Thanks to all those friends and family who helped Ozone get to World's through donations. Thanks to Kristiane for getting me a stuffed wombat in high school. Thanks to the Roost (Peter, Jay, Cookies) for letting Mike and I move in for three months to save money on rent. Thanks to my college teammates, present teammates, and good friends for supporting me in my crazy ultimate habit and making me a better player and person.

Mike:

The trip has been amazing. After 7 months I'm excited to get home and visit and share with my loved ones all that I've experienced. Thanks to everyone at home and those I've met while travelling. See you in Austin.

Both:

On the trip, thanks to everyone who opened up their homes to us and showed us a real slice of Aussie, Kiwi, or Thai culture. Thanks to all our traveling companions and close friends, Selah, Claire, Whit, and Ashley. Also thanks to all our friends we met on the Oz tour (the Hansen family, Carole, Ida, Gida, Sandra, Peirre, and Kajsa)that we hope to see soon in your respective countries. Thanks to the Ride family in Perth (Whit's distant relatives), Lee and Karen in Melbourne, Nickie and Dave in Melbourne, Whit's family friends in Melbourne, the Wedge in Syndey, Canadian Ed in Sydney, Robbie and Kay in Adelaide, Pierce in Brisbane, Hayden in Auckland, Valerie in Rotorua, Spencer in Christchurch, Alice and Christian in Wanaka, Caitlain in Motukea, and once again the Wedge in Sydney (Em, Nadine, Marcus, Greg, and Rosemary). Thanks for all the barbies, the couches/floors/beds, the free linens, the free transportation, the tips, the drinks, the food, and the good times.

After all that build up, you'd think it could easily be a let down. It wasn't...not at all...it was incredible. And we didn't just get to see Australia, but New Zealand, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia as well. The trip of a lifetime. Now we just have to go home, play more frisbee, get new jobs, and start saving for our next adventure in South/Central America! =)

Love to all,

Cara and Mike

Thanks for reading our blahg. =)

2007-05-28T18:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Scott!
Hope you are having/had a great time in the Galapagos. I miss you and can't wait to see you soon!
Quarter of a century...whew,
Cara =P

2007-05-24T18:26:00.000-07:00

Ko Chang, Thailand

Since a 7 month vacation can be so stressful, we decided to take a vacation from our vacation. We spent three glorious days of relaxation on Ko Chang, an island in Southeast Thailand near Cambodia. We got massages, we read, we rode our motorcycle around, we took long walks on the beach, we watched sunsets, and we read some more. We decided to go out in style, since the rest of the trip was pretty bare bones accomodation for 7 months, sleeping on floors, in a tent, in Fanny (our NZ car), etc.

Our bungalow on stilts was 5 feet from the beach. At night when the tide was high it came right up to the steps.

Chillin' on our porch on the first day.

I set a personal record for longest time without touching a frisbee! It was a little over a month I think. We got back into throwing on the beach.

On one of our long walks on the beach.

Sunset from our porch, facing the Bay of Thailand.

Our bungalow was complete with beachfront swings.

Mike looking sexy in one of our nights out to a fancy schmancy restaurant.

Back to Bangkok, and then off to Sydney again before heading home in June!

2007-05-20T02:15:00.001-07:00

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Outside the Royal Palace, lit up at night. Cambodia, like Thailand, has a current king and we even walked right by his car procession in front of the palace one day. The king got a good look at us as we strolled obliviously through the street blockade in search of dinner.

Inside the Royal Palace. The architechture was pretty stunning, but overall it was unexciting. The famous Silver Pagoda is in the compound, a wat with a completely silver floor, but most of it was covered with carpets to protect it. They did have an Emerald Buddha similar to the on in Thailand, and an impressive collection of small Buddha statues.

Stone sculpted stupa in front of a gold stupa in front of beautiful blue skies inside the Royal Palace grounds.

Before continuing with the pictures below, a little historical context is needed...here's the abridged version. After a period of prosperity and stability in the 1950s-60s, King Sihanouk (of Cambodia) was overthrown in 1970 by the Cambodian military and fled to China. Along with the increasing popularity of communism in the region came the rise of the Khmer Rouge, or red Khmer party. The U.S. (in conjunction with the South Vietnamese) promptly bombed the hell out of Cambodia to try and root out the North Vietnamese (and rising Cambodian) communist forces, similar to what they did in Laos with the Secret War. It didn't work, and the fighting ended in 1975 with the Khmer Rouge and their designated leader, Pol Pot, taking over Phnom Penh. They told everyone in the city to evacuate because the U.S. was going to bomb PP and within 3 days, a city of millions was a complete ghost town. It was an ingenious tactic playing on people's fears to get them countryside, where all citizens were then forced to work for the next 4 years in a huge agrarian cooperative, mostly growing rice to export. Meanwhile, Pol Pot's genocidal regime was systematically killing the intellectuals, artists, monks, ministers, engineers, foreingers, teachers, and students (and their families) of the former Cambodia at S-21 (see below) as they were a percieved threat to the new Maoist regime. In the late 70s Vietnam sucessfully invaded and overthrew the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, forcing them into the northwest jungles where they launched a devastating guerilla war that continued throughout the 80s.

This is the monument at the Killing Fieldsof Choeung Ek, a field 20km south of PP where prisoners of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime were taken after being tortured for confessions to be executed. Over 17,000 people were killed here and buried in mass graves.

This is what you see inside the monument. 14 stories of skulls and bones of the excavated skeletons all the way to the ceiling...very haunting.

The main security compound for the Khmer Rouge was called S-21, made up of multiple buildings used as holding facicilities, for interrogation, and includes the killing fields where they finally disposed of the prisoners. Tuol Sleng, left, was all three things for the Khmer Rouge. It is a former high school right in the middle of the city converted to a center for genocide. You don't have to travel far to observe what happened in the late '70s under Pol Pot.

The metal beds the prisoners were chained to while being tortured are still in the rooms, along with various devices they used to torture the prisoners.

After our intense day seeing the remnants of the Khmer Rouge massacres we enjoyed a sunset on the lake to wind down. The lake was in the middle of PP, and in the middle of the lake was a floating village built on wooden rafts.

Just outside of Phnom Penh on the way back from the killing fields. We rented a moto for the day and had fun melding into the chaos and narrowly avoiding death on the streets of PP. You see, there really are no rules to driving...none. Sure, there are "lights" and "lanes" and "stop signs" that you are supposed to obey, but no one does. Very often you turn left into oncoming traffic and just drive in the wrong lane until you can get over to the right one.

You may be asking why an elephant is walking down the middle of a very busy street in the middle of PP. I wish we could tell you, but this scene was not uncommon; we saw another elephant in our lane the day before.

A Cambodian gas station. The other popular method of distriubtion is filling empty liquor bottles with gas and selling them on the side of roads. It took us a while to realize it wasn't liquor. Occasionally you'll run into a "normal" gas station.

Mike on our moto bike with lots of room to manuveur.

Phnom Penh to the Border: Off the Beaten Track in Cambodia

Forget 7 in a Honey Bucket...try 9 people in a Toyota Camry! Booyeah! We rode with 7 other people (granted two of them were very small children, but still!) in a "share taxi" from PP to the border of Cambodia/Thailand. Altogether a 8 hour journey in class and comfort...or maybe just class.

Luckily, our younger co-passengers were well behaved, relitively quiet, and incredibly (incredibly!) cute. They also smelled better than us...since our supply of fresh clothes was running thin (read: non existent). Their father bought us all kinds of goodies: jackfruit, a "doughnut" like object, and an egg like our little friend is eating.

A sign that Cambodia is still recovering and developing is the unpaved and bridgeless roads. Here's one of the four car ferries we took on our way to the border. Luckily, they had enough interesting foods for sale at each crossing to keep us occupied. Mike had what can best be described as a snowcone with green peas in the bottom and half a can of sweetened condensed milk on top (which he is currently addicted to).

2007-05-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

Cambodia: Angkor

Siem Reap is just south (about 6km) of Angkor, the ancient capital of the extensive Khmer empire. The temples of Angkor are awe-inspiring; intricate carvings and inscriptions adorn each wall and pillar and gigantic moats and reservoirs surround the temples and cities. It's so hard to believe that this incredible architectural feat was accomplished with the use of elephants and human hands alone. Before this trip we knew little to nothing about them so we're glad we visited. It was a "wet season" day but we didn't let it stop us as we pedaled our way to the temples we wanted to visit around the 26 km. complex.

Welcome to Angkor! We were soaked from our ride in the monsoon rain.

Mike in the rain in front of Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious building.

A beautiful Buddha statue at the entrance of Angkor Wat in one of the huge walls. While Angkor Wat began in as a Hindu based temple built by Suryavarman II in the 9th century to honor his deity Vishna, it later morphed into a Buddhist temple with future kings turning to Buddhism. A lot of the temples still have Hindu-esque carvings and sculptures.

A little monkey lives at the top of Angkor Wat. Those intricate carvings manage to cover almost every single wall face of every single temple or building without seeming overdone.

Angkor Wat was a sacred temple to which only the king, servants, and people of high rank were allowed access. Angkor Thom was more like a gigantic walled city surrounded by a large moat and thick high walls that normal people used for everyday life.

Mike and I at Bayon, the main complex inside Angkor Thom. Bayon is famous for it's 216 giant faces carved in the pillars that start down at you with creepy faces.

Carvings and dilapidation at Bayon.

Some temples have been well maintained and the subject of heavy restoration, while others, like Ta Prohm, have been left to nature. This giant tree has taken root as the jungle squeezes in.

Monks climbing over the rubble at Ta Prohm.

Incredible...even in the intermittent rain.

2007-05-14T01:36:00.000-07:00

Siem Reap, Cambodia

**Lots of new posts below. Internet has been incredibly slow for the past two weeks, so we just got caught up until now.

We bid Laos adieu on Monday and caught a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We wanted to travel on land through Vientiene, Laos, but many things were against us; the rainy season makes many roads impassable, a recent U.S. State Dept. bulletin noting insurgent fighting on the highway we were to take, and lack of precious time all contributed to our decision to fly. But mostly lack of time.

Customs in Cambodia at the Siem Reap airport was quick and easy and for only $20 USD you can obtain a month visa on the spot. An interesting fact about Cambodia is that most things are priced in US dollars. Of course you can use Riel (the country's currency), but everything is listed, and can be paid for, with US bills. The current exchange rate is about 4,000 Riel to $1 USD.

Cambodia is recovering from being at war since 1970. They have fought through the Vietnam War, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and then about a decade of civil war which ended around 1999. Of the three countries we've visited, this one is the least developed and trying to catch up. Even with the horrible recent past, there are still a lot of smiles here, although not as easily given in some cases. There are many amputees because of land mines haphazardly set by all sides in the conflicts. There were no maps made at the time to keep track of where they were laid so, like in Laos, remain a threat today. The wars here clearly effected those not involved in the fighting.

One of the days we visited the War Museum, an outdoor collection of leftover weapons from the years of war. Everything from Soviet tanks to US' M-16 rifles to land mines to UXOs (unexploded ordinance - i.e. bombs from planes that didn't explode). Our tour guide, Khom, was educated at a Christian missionary school and spoke very good English. He lost his left arm when he was about 5 years old after stepping on a land mine near where he grew up. He never knew his parents who were casualties or lost during the civil war. He had an amazing attitude and felt he was given a second chance in life. He made the experience incredible and added a personal touch to the war relics.

Following our museum visit, Cara had a great idea to donate blood at a children's hospital. There are beggars and children trying to sell books or postcards all times of the day. We have had a few debates on what would be the best way to help these children without giving handouts which possibly encourages them to beg instead of attending school. We instantly knew giving blood was a good option when we saw the crowded hallways filled with parents and their babies waiting to be treated. Malaria (night-time mosquitoes) is on the decline, but Dengue Fever (day-time mosquitoes) is on the rise in children. Blood is needed for transfusions for severe cases of Dengue Fever. And we got free T-shirts!

Accommodation. The first two nights we spent in a small inexpensive guesthouse ($4/night). At first glance this room looked up to par with the other rooms we've been staying in, but there were a few exceptions (cockroaches, mysterious poop pellets on the bed, relentlessly barking dogs) which sent us looking for a new place the third day. We found our new comfy home for a night at the Golden Temple Villa. Super sweet! It's the closest thing to a fancy hotel we've stayed in on this trip and it was only $9 for the night. You gotta love SE Asia.

Riding in a tuk-tuk, or motorized taxi/palace on wheels, is a luxury we seldom indulge in (we walk almost everywhere). But there are certain times when it is necessary, so we suck it up and take one every now and then.

Next stop, Phnom Penh.

2007-05-13T01:00:00.001-07:00

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOMS!

We love you,
Cara and Mike