Hola from Xela!

After a long overnight plane trip, we arrived in Guatemala City at 4am. Luckily we already had some Quetzals (Guatemalan money) and there was someone there to pick us up because there were no phones and no banks. We had a nice breakfast at the hostel who picked us up and then I very happily slept throught the 5 hour bus ride to Xela. Greg said there was a strange moment when we were stopped for 1 hour due to construction and people came onto the bus to sell us goods.

We´ve been in Xela for about 1 week and life is pretty good so far. Not surprisingly, i got sick over the weekend and Greg is sick today, but luckily Cipro seems to cure all in 24 hours.

Our host family is very nice and pretty wealthy for here. many of the other host family only have an income from hosting students. But our house is beautiful. We have 2 huge gardens in the middle of the house. the rooms are situated around the garden-plazas. We have our own room with 1 double bed and 1 single bed and our own bathroom. they also have 2 live-in maids who are indigenous. And, the family keeps talking about a ¨rancho´´ or costal house that they have (we´re not sure if this is one place or two, but we´re hoping to visit!) The family consists of 2 grandparents (probably in their 50s), a mother, and 3 children-- a baby boy, a 10 year old girl, and a 13 year old girl. Greg and I have an on-going game of soccer with the 2 girls (and they usually win!)

Our favorite activity so far has been going to the natural hot springs. The Fuentes Georginas were first created for a past president´s wife. But, they later became public and were given to the city of Xela. It was a perfect way to relax on the weekend. We also went and saw Prince Caspian in Spanish and understood just about everything. Of course it helps that I already know the story.

Sakribal, the Spanish School has been great so far. We´re both surprised by how much we understand when people speak and by how much Spanish we already know. We can understand almost everything the maestos (teachers) say and speak pretty well with our family. I´m jealous that Greg knows Italian, because it is helping him greatly with both speaking and understanding. We mostly need to learn our grammar and more vocabulary. I´m also excited for next week´s potluck dinner at the schoool, which is also Greg´s birthday.

There´s always much more to talk about, but it´ll a have to come later. Hopefully, we´ll get a chance to put pictures up too. Adios!

We're off to Guatemala!

Now, we're all packed up for our 9 week trek to Central America with only 2 small backpacks and a daypack. We fly out of Portland tomorrow evening and start our adventures at 4am when we arrive in Guatemala City.

Wish us luck! (or is it... "Buena Suerte"!)

Lots of Sun in the Rainforest

My parents, Greg, and I went up to Quinault Rain Forest on the Olympic Peninsula in Northern Washington. Although we were expecting a lot of rain (it IS a RAIN Forest), we ended up with 3 beautifully sunny days. We took long hikes through the forest, saw 3 of the largest trees (of their species) in the US, explored the rocky beaches (Kumlock Beach is only 45 minutes from out lodge in the middle of the forest!), and played lots of games. It got so hot one day we even went swimming in the glacier fed Lake Quinault-- well, we jumped in and ran quickly out of the frigid water. Without telephones, internet, or cable, we spent every night playing Youker, Cribbage, Ticket To Ride, and Bananagrams (like Scrabble). It was the perfect way to get away from the city, all responsibilities, and relax before going to Guatemala.

Mother's Day Brunch

On Monday, I planned a huge Mother's Day brunch for 18 of my family and friends. Greg and I had an awesome time coming up with the menu, especially since breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. We ended up with so much food, that we ate leftovers for every meal for 3 days. We even made pizza with the leftovers! Thanks to Laura and all the cousins for helping out.

Drinks:
-Mango-Orange Mimosas
-Kir Royale
-Fresh Strawberry Lemonade
-Mint Limeade
-Sun Tea with Honey
-Coffee

Appetizers:
-Bacon wrapped scallops
-Shrimp Cocktail
-Asparagus, Tomatoes, Cheese and Crackers
-Fruit Salad

Entree:
-Smoked Salmon, Chive Cream Cheese, Boursin, Marionberry Cheese, and Olive Bread
-Grilled Vegetables in Balsamic marinade
-Baked Challah French Toast with strawberries and Cardomon-Nutmeg Whipped Cream
-Leek, Mushroom, and Gruyere Quiche and Sausage, Pepper, Onion, and Cheddar Quiche

Dessert:
-Poires Belle-Helene (Poached Pears with ice cream and chocolate sauce) -- This is Greg's specialty

... needless to say, we were stuffed for days!

6,500 Miles!

By the time we reached our last stop, Portland, OR, we had traveled over 6,500 miles! Woo Hoo. We love road tripping!

San Fran

Garlic Ice Cream... Yum. And, check out all the left-over go-cups we found outside one of the apartments in Santa Clara. Perhaps we don't want to live next door to all the frat boys!

On our way to San Francisco, we stopped in L.A. to visit Jaione for breakfast. Somehow, we managed to miss the almost mythically bad L.A. traffic (probably has to do with us using the carpool lane). I'm already looking forward to meeting up with her again for a camping trip in central Cali in August (Jaione, be sure to keep me in the loop for this)

On our way north, we finally stopped at In-N-Out Burger, one of our favorite fast food restaurants in the US (Greg still thinks the burgers at Five Guys, in DC, are better). We had the Double-Double Animal Style (of course), Fries Animal Style, and chocolate milk shake-- yup, we were really healthy. But, man those animal style onions, cheese, and sauce are just SO good.

We diverted to Berkeley to pick up my sister, Laura who had just finished her PhD oral exams making her an official PhD candidate. She had been drinking since 1pm, so needed a ride home to San Fran. Unfortunately, it took us about 1 hour to get from San Jose to Berkeley and another hour to get to San Fran-- looks like we'll have to learn to deal with traffic when we're living in the South Bay.

The next day we celebrated Cinco De Mayo (even though it was the 3rd of May) with a gourmet picnic lunch in Dolores Park. We all got very sunburned as we listened to great Mariachi bands and saw Mexican dancers. We also talked to a Boston native who assured us there are over 400,000 Red Sox fans in the Bay Area and even offered to give us a free subscription to the NY Times or San Fran Chronical. That made Greg feel much better about moving away from the east coast sports culture. On Sunday, we finally made plans with the Spanish School in Guatemala and went out to eat to celebrate Laura's successful exams (thanks to parents for sponsoring this amazing meal). We stuff ourselves with scallops, lamb, raw tuna, duck confite, wine, sidecards, crepes, sorbet, and crisp.

On Monday, we treked he 45 minutes to San Jose to explore our new hood. Greg is officially going to Santa Clara for Law School starting on August 11! Santa Clara is a stone's throw from San Jose so we'll probably live near downtown San Jose. We were of coursed incredibly depressed by the high prices and crappy apartments, but, at least we found some cute neighborhoods. We'll have a big job finding a decent place to live when we get back from Central America.

To forget our apartment woes, we went out for big burritos and beer in the Mission. We met up with Emi and Mari- both of who just found very nice 1 bedroom/studio apartments for a decent price, so that gave us some hope. It'll also be awesome to already have some friends in the area when we move.

The next morning, we headed off for Portland. After a few random stops at Harry and David's outlet store and a random Southern Oregon winery, we made it to the end of our road trip, Portland, OR.

California here we come!

Greg and I have been loving our restful week with his parents in La Jolla. It's nice to sleep in a real bed, veg out in front of a huge TV, and eat breakfast on the porch in perfect weather every day. La Jolla is a very cute little town north of San Diego with the most perfect views of the beach.

I played golf (not the mini-sort) for the very first time and actually did pretty well. My 2nd round of golf, I actually hit par on 3 holes. I only know how to use the 9 iron, Sand wedge, and putter, but that's enough for me. I even beat Greg and his dad hole for hole over 9 holes (with a 1.5 hole handicap, of course).

Greg and I had brunch at a very fancy hotel out on their deck looking over the ocean. It was, hands down, the best meal we've had on our whole trip. The buffet was loaded with beautiful ice sculptors, chocolate fountains, crab legs, and eggs Benedict. After 2.5 hours, Greg successfully ate 6 plates of food and I had 6 glasses of mimosa. Obviously, we had to walk off our big meal by walking along the beach and watch others being athletic (it was the morning of the San Diego Half Marathon).

The rest of the week was spent taking Nelson (Greg's German Shepard) to the Dog Beach, cooking delicious meals (we made the tomato mussel dish for his parents), getting addicted to Lost, and loving the California sun. We also went to the Wild Animal Park where we got to take a train around an open exhibit with lots of African animals-- very cool! This is going to be a great state to live in!

The Beauty of the Red Rocks

Greg and I decided to high-tale it out of the southwest and make it to San Diego in one day's drive. Greg was anxious to spend time with his parents and we were exited for some R&R at his parent's house in La Jolla, CA. First, we had hoped to visit White Sand National Park which is basically huge Sand dunes that you can "surf" down on sleds-- but it was a 4 hour detour. Then, we decided to see the Grand Canyon, but after having lunch in Flagstaff (a very cute outdoorsy town) we also chose not to drive that 3 hour detour. So, after much debate about where to spend our one stop of the day we eventually chose Sedona.

We weren't expecting much as we headed into the forested cliffs. Then, almost suddenly, we started seeing the most incredible views we had ever seen. We passed beautiful camp site after camp site and instantly knew where our next trip was going to be-- a camping trip to Sedona. When we reached the small town of Sedona we were literally shocked with the views in every direction. Even the free parking lot had million dollar views. We can't wait to go back.

After leaving Albuquerque at 7:30am and 2 stops by the boarder patrol (Good thing I didn't tell them I had a Frenchie in the car-- they might have thought he was an illegal immigrant), we finally reached San Diego at 11pm. A good day's drive...

Albuquerque and Sante Fe

Once we hit New Mexico, we finally felt like we were in the West, not South. We stayed with Shana's family friends, Jamie and Terry, in their absolutely beautiful Adobe house in hills outside of Albuquerque. We even had an Adobe Casita (guest house) to ourselves. We felt like we were staying a first class hotel-- they stocked our fridge with beer and drinks, made fajitas and fresh guacamole for dinner, and took us out to a place with the best view of the city on our last night.

While in Sante Fe for an afternoon, we tried their specialty, Frito Pie (which is basically Nachos using Fritos instead of chips) -- Greg's favorite. We also had delicious Huevos Rancheros in another restaurant downtown. Yeah yeah, we went to two restaurants for lunch ... you got a problem with that. We then went to see the New Mexico State House, where Greg worked for a summer. Before leaving, we of course got some souvenirs at one of the bizillion souvenir shops. Our guidebook had correctly warned us that everyone in Santa Fe was either a tourist, or someone trying to sell them something.

Our only regret from New Mexico is not trying Najavo Fry Bread Tacos ... as if our cholesterol needed any more company.

The Texas Panhandle

On the way to Albuquerque we drove for a LONG time through the desolate Texas Panhandle. The farm lands had a few cows and an occasional windmill, but that's about it. We don't think the farmlands were boring, let's just say they were... consistent.

After miles and miles of flat nothing, there was a canyon. In fact, Palo Duro canyon is the 2nd largest canyon in North America (but, it's really nothing compared to the Grand Canyon). We camped the night at the bottom of Palo Duro, which was absolutely beautiful. In the middle of the night either a wild hog or several coyotes licked the side of our tent-- Greg told me it was hogs so I wouldn't get scared, but is pretty sure they were coyotes. I still think they were hogs!

We went on a nice hike through the bottom of the canyon the next morning. The rocks had layers of incredible colors of red, brown, and white. We liked all the different types of cacti, too.

For lunch that day we went to the BIG TEXAN RANCH AND STEAKHOUSE in Amarillo, TX, which confirms every stereotype of Texas. They are famous for serving their 72oz steak for FREE if you can eat it and all the sides in 1 hour. Greg's new life goal has been defined. We shared a delicious 8oz RibEye and headed on our way west. Of course, we had to make our first stop at the field where one farmer "planted" 10 old Cadillacs.