off to Nepal!

... but before we go... I wanted to share a few pics from the last month in the US... it wasn't really part of our "travels" so laid off the blogosphere for a bit...

Matt & Elena driving off to their honeymoon...


Next week, headed back up to Mendo for Lincoln & Amy's wedding (gotta get as many Mingie pics as possible)...


On top of Pilot Rock... near Ashland, OR


The next day, we met up with Smitty (on tour with Albino!) and went rafting down some class IV rapids


After one night in Berkeley, I headed down south to explore a canyon... here's funk flying in... the entrance to the canyon is a 50 ft jump...


A group shot....


Taken from here...


The rainbow room


...and the exit jump...

...and rode up to Tahoe with Nick to retrieve my neglected car... a new battery was all it took.


I stuck around a few nights and did some mountain biking during the day...


after finally getting back to Oakland, I found time to do some mtn biking with Funk.


... all the while Kimbo went to a bachelorette party, power to the peaceful, and sailing...


Kevin & Laura's wedding...


Ahhh... just like the cosplay girls in Akihabara.


... and remember... if you want to get out of the cold and on to a beach... say in Southern Thailand... come meet us in November!

Portland!!! (Sept 5 - 8, 2009)

We decided to head up to Portland after visiting Ashland and hearing that Jasper had an extra whitewater kayak, Louis has hops growing in his front yard (and a home brew on tap), and because we're on vacation.

We also found a reason to go back to Portland...


Home of the Cheesus Burger


... need I say more? And you eat inside a converted school bus...


Since we planned to go whitewater kayaking the next day, we borrowed Lou's neighbors canoe from his shed... where he was incidentally curing ham...


And took it out on the slough... that's Kimbo wearing a neoprene hoodie... NOT a ninja trying to steal Mingus.


... and taught Lou how to roll. He did get it once before he got too cold and we turned around to head back.


That's a dry suit Lou gave me that he had found at a garage sale...


We also had dinner with one of Kim's friends, Molly from Cornell, who started a winery in the area.


The next morning we loaded up the Volvo (4 people, one dog, and three kayaks... Mingus wasn't too happy.. as you can see).


And went to White Salmon, WA. On the way there, Jasper was thinking... maybe I'll do Husum Falls (class IV)... but when we arrived, this is what we saw...


Mingie ready for the class IV


... but we suited up and peer pressured Jasper into going...


... and he nailed it.


Lou managed to stay upright through some of the class III rapids, but fell over in excitement right after.


Jasper and I playboated in the last wave for a while...


... you can click here to see what happens next...


... then met up with Kimbo for the ride home... BUT the adventure didn't end yet. As after we went to a brewery in Hood River, we stopped to look at some fish some Native Americans were selling on the side of the road.


We went to the first stand, looked at their biggest salmon, and they said 30$... we didn't really say much for a bit... then he said 20$. The rest is history.


It's hard to pass up a 35+ lb salmon for 20$... especially when your neighbor is an amazing foodie with an professional grill.


We ate some sashimi style, grilled, saved some for smoking.... and here is Lou preparing lox with the other part. We even saved the head, tail, etc. for making broth later.


On the drive back from Portland, we took a detour to one of my favorite swimming holes... About 0.5 seconds after this picture was taken was the last time I had my wedding ring on my finger.

many delays...

So yeah, I've been slacking on the posts... my bad... but I'll quickly update y'all on where we are, and what we are planning.

Korea was great... I'll have to go into more detail later (expect a few posts), as I love Kim Chi and I miss not having it for every meal. Our laptop has died again... but it's being repaired (my excuse for the delay)... but all the pics are backed up, so we luckily didn't lose any.

We are back in the US of A right now for three weddings (we got bumped to First Class on the flight over... that's our desert below). The two that we have attended have been beautiful, and I'm sure the third will be as well.


Oh, and we got to see mingus! When we ran up and startled him, he barked, but he started whining as soon as he recognized us and whined for a good 5 min. Definitely the longest he's ever whined.


After the second wedding in Mendocino, we road tripped up to Arcata (where we met Stujo's boy Amaru...) and did some surf kayaking. From the surf, we went to whitewater in Ashland where we spent two nights with Cam, and cruised up to Portland for Labor Day weekend where we did some more whitewater with Jasper and Lou.


OUR PLAN:
We are headed to Bangkok on the 22nd of Sept... and to KATHMANDU on the 26th of Sept. We've decided to do some tea house trekking in Nepal for a month, so we'll be back in Bangkok on the 26th of October. If you want to join us, get your ticket now... or if you want to join us in SE Asia think about coming in November. While it gets colder and colder in the states... and the mountains don't have enough snow to ski... we'll be sitting on a nice sunny beach in SE Asia...