Andrew Meets "The Man" - Better Late Than Never

Okay, so I drug my feet posting these videos online, but here they are--better late than never: These videos are of my nephew Andrew "meeting 'The Man'". My friend Josh bought a container of very spicy hot sauce from Dixie's Barbecue, and Paul (Andrew's dad) offered Andrew $20 to eat some. These are my first Youtube videos.

Nuestra Luna de Miel en Costa Rica

So we got married, in case you were wondering, and the wedding went off with two hitches. It was great to see all the family and friends who came to town, though it was difficult to spend much time with any of them, since there were always things to be done, places to be, and more people to see. At the reception, Elizabeth and I demonstrated some Lindy Hop for our guests, and we showed off a few moves that we had been practicing, then we had other couples who could swing dance join us for the second half of the song. Costa Rica was beautiful. Elizabeth and I especially liked the Volcanoes. The two that we visited were Poás, which has an acid lake in its crater and Arenal, which is constantly spewing up hot rocks. We spent the night in a room with a window facing Arenal, and we could see red streams of rocks streaming down the side of the mountain, and hear the noise of them as they crashed down and shattered into bursts of red-hot remnants. One reason why we chose Costa Rica is because it's a Spanish-speaking country. Now mind you, the whole country (or at least what we saw of it) seemed to be one big tourist trap, and at all the hotels and stops people spoke English, but Elizabeth is fluent, and I am passably proficient, so we were able to speak to the locals much more freely than most Norteamericanos. As any taxi driver worth his frijoles can tell you, Costa Rica has 7 provinces, four of which are enclosed by mountains, and three of which are coastal. The army was abolished in 1948, and the money that would normally be slated for the military is dedicated to health care, infrastructure, and education. (One of our guides jokingly pointed out leaf cutter ants, and referred to them as "el ejército de Costa Rica.") We also learned from one of our drivers that every town in Costa Rica worth the name has four establishments that are vitally important: the first is a church, the second, a school, the third, a soccer field, and the last (and most important), a bar. We flew into San José airport, which is actually located in the province of Alajuela, and because our travel agent had mixed up our flight times, we ended up hiring a ride to the hotel in the city of San José. The next morning, we set off to Volcán Poás, where we took a short walk to the observation point, and waited for the fog to clear. Eventually, it did, and so we took some pictures and admired the view of the acid lake. The acid was so strong that it bit our noses slightly. Next, we headed to Volcán Arenal. On the way, we stopped at a waterfall that you could walk behind, and saw various animals that our driver spotted and pointed out. We stopped to take pictures of a three-toed sloth, and a cafe with hummingbird feeders, a Goliath beetle, tarantula, and a gold June bug. We decided that day that Costa Rica has the best coffee in the world (Elizabeth, who has traveled to several parts of the globe and sampled the coffee, would know), and also the worst roads, or at least the worst roads that we had ever been on. The main roads were paved and well-maintained, but once you got off the beaten path, it's all clay, rocks, and potholes. We arrived at the Arenal Observatory Lodge, where we had a room that had a wall-sized window to observe the volcano, right from our bed. The road up to the lodge was a twenty-minute bouncy ride over a pothole-ridden dirt road. Thankfully, Elizabeth's constitution held out. We ended up traversing that road a total of four times, since we had to check in in the early evening, and then drive back out to the Tabacón Hot Springs closer to the volcano, back that evening, and then leaving in the morning. In the morning, we endured the aforementioned bumpy ride, and made our way to Lake Arenal, which is an artificial lake that supplies 80% of Costa Rica's power (the other 20% is from wind power). Everywhere in Costa Rica there seemed to be a big push to be "green" and sustainable. We travelled across the lake by boat, and then were driven to Monteverde. On the way, we made a stop at a coffee plantation, and met the owners. We were almost talked into taking a horseback riding tour of the plantation the following day, but in the end our schedule couldn't accommodate it, and so we decided we would have to do that next time we came. Monteverde, interestingly enough, was founded by a group of American Quakers who immigrated there in order to avoid taking part in the Korean War. We decided to get a tandem massage at the hotel spa. Elizabeth was sold on the "healing stones" massage, and so I went along. Ouch. Big mistake. Rubbing hot stones on my legs against the grain of the leg hair turns out not to be such a "healing" therapy after all, and I wound up with rather tender inner thighs and calves. The hairs were almost, but not quite, pulled out of my legs, which was not a pleasurable experience, nor did the effects quickly disappear. The next stop on our journey was Manuel Antonio National Park, which is on the coast near the town of Quepos. Hurricane Alma, (which by now had been down-graded to a tropical storm) was coming on-shore, and so it began to rain harder than before (being from Seattle, we didn't much note the rain previously, but now it was honest-to-God rain). Our river rafting trip was cancelled due to the storm, and so we spent the day exploring the hotel grounds, taking pictures of various plants, which were thoughtfully labeled in English and Spanish. After the storm passed, the weather cleared up, and we woke up to a gorgeous, sunny day. We scheduled a horseback riding tour to make up for our canceled rafting trip, and spent the morning riding up a river to swim in a waterfall. On the way, we saw a 6-foot boa, and Elizabeth encountered a scorpion, which fell out of a tree onto her neck, was brushed off into the saddle bag, scurried across the saddle as she vaulted on her horse making her way toward an island sand bar, and was teased out from underneath the saddle horn by Valentin, our guide. The river was rather high given the previous two days' rain (which was the most rain Costa Rica had had in 102 years), and it had washed away the normal swimming hole, as well as portions of the trail that we followed back. The next day, we went to the beach in the evening, which was very pretty, the water was very warm, and I got to do some body surfing but as soon as the sun went down, the mosquitoes started feasting on us. In the morning, we visited the butterfly garden across the street from the hotel, and then took a taxi to the Regional Airport in Quepos. Our flight ended up being delayed about an hour, so I took some pictures of leaf cutter ant trails in the grass, found a friendly puppy, and wound up knocking down opening coconuts for some kids. They're not that easy to open without tools. The best method, once you split the husk open, is to repeatedly throw it on the ground until it cracks, and then try to save as much of the milk as you can. The kids were only mildly interested in eating the coconuts, but very enthusiastic about breaking them open and having us eat the meat. They would gather the pieces, and bring them to us. When we got on our flight, Sierra (one of the girls--there were cousins: two sisters and two brothers, but one of the boys was a baby) wanted to sit next to us, so I showed her butterfly pictures videos during the half-hour flight. We spent the last night of the trip at the same hotel as the first night, El Grano De Oro in San José. The restaurant in the hotel had excellent food, and featured a beautiful patio (for those of us who weren't afraid of a few drops of rain. They had umbrellas up shortly after the first few drops in the evening.

Elizabeth enjoying fried banana at a restaurant featuring typical Costa Rican cuisine. Aren't we adorable Altogether lovely More pictures

California Pictures

Sarah, Elizabeth, and I went out to eat in Long Beach, and then, because we were in a touristy mood, we went on a hike near the Hollywood sign. It was yummy. I also have Sarah's photos. After Christmas, a bunch of us went trap and target shooting. After the YP events at Buena Park, we had a photo scavenger hunt. My team won Spider-man backpacks full of Reece's peanut butter cups. After the conference, we went bowling, and on New Year's Eve, we went to the beach, and then hung out at the meeting room. Lauren also shot some photos of the aforementioned. New Year's Day we slept in, and ate at The Block.

I Like Huckleberries

I just went on my first actual overnight backpacking trip. It wasn't supposed to be the first; the one before it was supposed to be an overnight trip, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and backpackers.⁰ It wasn't the weather. The weather was perfect for the two days that we had planned out overnight backpacking trip to Gem Lake from Snoqualmie Pass. It was beautiful weather in fact, and the scenery was beautiful to match. We hiked five miles: from the trailhead up over a saddle point and down into a basin and along Snow Lake, then up over another saddle point to Gem Lake. There were seven of us all together: Mike, Josh, his sister Heidi and her fiance Robbie, Chris, Elizabeth, and I. We arrived at our campsite and set up our tents. The weather was so good that the bugs were out enjoying it along with us. This didn't suit us, and so after eating lunch, Mike, Chris, Elizabeth and I went into one of the tents to play cards.¹ After we were done with the game, Mike and Chris left, and Elizabeth and I read Galatians.² After we were done, Elizabeth went to her tent to lay down, and I did the same. Everyone was eager to get some rest, because we had timed the hike to coincide with the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, on a moonless night, and we were planning on staying up late into the night watching meteors. Here ends the portion of the trip that went as planned. Chris was not in his tent. This we discovered at about four o'clock in the afternoon. He was not to be found in the camp, nor around the camp, nor had anyone seen him since shortly after the card game: he had been unaccounted-for for two hours. We split up and searched the immediate area. We spoke with the occupants of the neighboring campsite, we called for him: nothing. Having verified that Chris had not simply stepped out to relieve himself, we re-grouped and formulated a plan: we would split up into groups of two and search for him until nightfall. If we did not find him by nightfall, we would send out for Search-and-Rescue. Mike and I searched to the south; Josh and Robbie searched to the east; Elizabeth stayed with Heidi at the camp.³ We re-grouped after the initial search. We established a system for communicating with our whistles. Mike and I headed around Gem Lake counter-clockwise (we were camped at the south end of the lake). We spoke with some more campers on the east side, and followed the trail around the lake, whistling periodically.⁴ I began to see recent footprints and scuff marks on the trail as we rounded the north-western side of the lake. We followed this trail up to a peak on the western side of the lake, where Mike spotted a blue beanie that he thought looked like it belonged to Chris. I looked through my pictures, and there was, indeed, a pair of shots that showed him wearing a blue beanie. (Mike's photos later verified this with more certainty). The beanie was near the top of a peak with a rather steep ledge on the lake-side, but the tracks lead down the hill toward the camp. (Or did they lead up the hill from the camp? We couldn't tell.) If Chris had come clockwise, this peak would have been early on his hike, and he may have proceeded around the lake to Wright Mountain (northeast of the lake), or possibly to Wildcat Lake (below Gem Lake and to the north). If he had come counter-clockwise, perhaps he had gotten lost or injured, headed off into the woods, or continued hiking past the campsite. In particular, Mike and I noticed that the trail is difficult to follow on the north side of the lake. We followed the trail down the hill towards the lake's outlet on the southwest corner of the lake, and continued whistling and following the trail. We checked the outlet stream as far as we could, and explored the surrounding landscape. About this time, we began to hear what sounded like whistles in response to ours. After confirming by walkie-talkie that the whistles were not Josh and Robbie, we began following them. The whistles lead us south, towards the western end of Snow Lake. After a while, they became intermittent, and finally, we lost them. At some point, Mike lost his walkie-talkie. We continued in that direction as far as we could, until the terrain and the fading daylight prevented our progress, and then headed back to camp. We arrived at camp a little after nine o-clock at night. Chris, for all we knew, had taken no food, no water, and what's more, he was late for dinner! Something was seriously wrong. Most of us were, at this point, pretty exhausted.⁵ We had just hiked five miles and four thousand feet with 40-pound packs on our backs, and then spend the afternoon scouring the countryside for any sign of Chris. We had worked up quite an appetite, and so we cooked up some dinner and formulated our next step. We did not expect that Search-and-Rescue would be able to send anyone until morning, but we decided to try and contact them that night so that they would be geared up and ready to go in the morning. It was decided that a pair of hikers would head down towards the trailhead until they could get cell phone reception, which we expected would not occur until they reached the second saddle point. It was therefore probable that whoever went would not make it back to camp that night. Josh and Robbie needed to stay with Heidi, and Mike, though he wanted to go, was exhausted. I seemed in any case to be the least worn-out of the guys, and so I volunteered to go. Elizabeth at this point absolutely refused *not* to go: she was fed up, necessary though it had been, with sitting still, and wanted to actually *do* something to help. Additionally, she was the one most trained to provide medical care should we encounter Chris on the trail, so the two of us, equipped with trekking poles, head lamps, and light packs with emergency supplies and blankets, headed off down the trail. As we crested the first saddle point over Snow Lake, Elizabeth suggested seeing if we were in range. We had two cell phones: mine, which has AT&T, and Josh's, which has Verizon. To our surprise, we got reception!⁷ Elizabeth dialed 911, and calmly identified herself and explained the situation to the operator. The operator instructed us to stay put where we were and wait to be called back while SAR was contacted. We waited, but didn't get any calls. We called back, and deduced that our reception was too weak for incoming calls. Meanwhile, we notified Josh's girlfriend Vanessa of our situation, and gave her a list of people to call to pass the word. We had to make it quick, because the phone was low on battery, and we needed the line to be available for SAR. As a result of that phone call, literally thousands of people were praying for Chris over the next two days. While we were waiting for SAR to coordinate, Elizabeth and I were able to watch the meteor shower. We were facing towards the wrong area of the sky, but even so, we saw one or two meteors a minute. At about 11:45 PM, SAR asked us to come down to the trailhead to help coordinate, so we hiked all the way down in the dark. Everything that was not illuminated by our headlamps was completely pitch black. I was in the lead, with Elizabeth behind. Every so often, I would miss a switchback in the trail, and she, with her wider-beamed light, would usually be the first to notice. It took us until about 2:30 AM to reach the trailhead. We passed two groups of three Search-and-Rescue hikers going up about 10 minutes from the bottom. When we got there, there was a trailer where the coordinator, a K-9 deputy, debriefed us. After our debrief, another, larger, trailer arrived, and we moved to that. We also got to meet his dog, Wyle. That dog is *highly* energetic: he's like a puppy, only he's *much* bigger and *much* more powerful, and is trained to take the bad guys down. We were told that we couldn't leave until morning, so when they were done with us at about 5:00 AM, we borrowed a couple of sleeping bags from one of the SAR volunteer coordinators, and climbed into the back of Mike's Subaru.8 Two hours later, at 7:00 AM, we were woken up by a helicopter. The search and rescue effort over the next two days was nothing short of amazing. There were over 250 people involved, most of them volunteers. There were 2 helicopters, mountaineering teams, and several teams of tracking dogs. After supplying the SAR coordinators with a picture of Chris from my camera, we were relayed by Elizabeth's siblings to her house, where we crashed. Chris was lost on Sunday afternoon. He was found just before noon on Tuesday. They helicoptered him in to the trailhead, and then took him directly to the hospital. Chris, as it turns out, had left the camp (alone! without telling anyone!) in order to take a quick trip around the lake. He had gone counter-clockwise, and when he reached the south end of the lake had somehow missed the trail to the campsite. He had kept going, thinking that the lake and the camp would be just around the next bend, then the next, and the next. At nightfall, he had seen a trail in the distance, and decided to head for that in the morning. He spent the night sheltered in a rock field, and then headed in the direction of the distant trail. It was farther than it had looked, and he in fact never found that trail, but he did hear the helicopter in the distance, and after one more night in the wild, decided to head in that direction and "in the direction of the mosquitoes". He eventually made his way to a trail, and followed it to an intersection with the trail that we had hiked on past Snow Lake. Shortly after finding the trail, he met another hiker, who "somehow" knew his name, and 30 seconds away was a SAR party. Anyway, that was my first backpacking trip, and if you've been paying attention, I didn't actually end up staying the night in the camp; I spent it in the back of a Subaru. My first successful overnight backpacking trip was this last weekend. Mike, Chris, Elizabeth, and I, along with Keisha climbed up to a campsite at the base of the glaciers on Mt. Shuksan, which is near Mt. Baker and the Canadian border. On this particular trip, no one was lost for days, but the weather was, unfortunately, quite foggy, and on the second day, quite wet as well. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the hike. My calf muscles are still a bit sore, but my knees have stopped hurting. We saw mountain goats, and there were berries all over the place. There were wild blueberries in the forest, and above the tree line, there were fields of huckleberries (which, by the way, are quite delicious). Also, I didn't have my camera. If you want pictures, you'll have to get them from Mike or Keisha.

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⁰ Come to think of it, do people in general know what it is that "they" actually "say" about the best laid plans of mice and men? I mean, we know that phrase of the poem (or a rough translation thereof), but do we really know what it says actually happens to the aforementioned plans? Wonder no longer, my curious friend. ¹ We played hearts, and I lost. ² Yes, the whole book. It was a letter: it was meant to be read in its entirety, although the translation from which I was reading was one which the translator had specifically intended for study, not oral reading, so it was a bit choppy. ³ Elizabeth, who would have preferred to be out searching, was none-too-happy with this arrangement, but we all knew that we needed to keep her, our "medical personnel " centrally located in case we needed to call for her, and someone needed to stay at the camp in case Chris made it back by himself. ⁴ My hiking whistle is so loud and shrill that both Mike and I had to cover our ears while I blew it in order to avoid pain. The first few times I did this, the whistle kept popping out of my mouth because I wasn't adequately gripping the whistle with my lips/teeth. ⁵ Except me, for some reason. I was fine. And the girls of course, who hadn't been doing much of the scouring. ⁶ His walkie-talkie was found the next day, amazingly, by a SAR volunteer, who stepped on it. ⁷ Guess which phone? I'll give you a hint: "Least dropped calls" requires that you be able to make a call in the first place. It was Josh's phone. Yay Verizon! ⁸Hey--I know what you're thinking: don't worry, we had a trekking pole in between us.

My Girlfriend's Brother's Girlfriend's Birthday

Heather celebrated at Chinook's in Seattle.