Trip to Greenbay

Here are a few photos from last weekend. I went to Green Bay to visit my friend Julie Kroll, ok that isn't here last name now that she is married but that is still what I call her. We went to high school together and used to guide canoe trips together...actually we went to grade school as well.

Anyway she had a baby this summer so I had to head over and meet the little guy Luke

Julie, Luke and I out on a hike on some trails in Green Bay, It was a little chilly out, but we bundled up the little guy and was happy as long as her could look out

Julie and Luke

Luke being tortured by his mother and being made to sit in the tiny chair in his room. For those of you who are wondering he just turned 4 months old this past week, he is a little small because he was a preemie

A photo of Luke and I by the Quilt/Wall Hanging that my mom made for Julie... julie loves turtles and animals so when my mom and I saw this pattern we knew that it would be perfect for julie

Julie and Luke

Luke Hanging out in his swing

Julie and I bought some pumpkins at the local farmers market so we decided to carve them one evening, we figured that we better include nick (her husband) since he had to put up with us all weekend

The pumkinsThe Pumpkins outside Nicks Pumpkin

Back to the old one

for some reason I can't get access to view the other blog or to post to it from the gov...it worked before but now it isn't.....so that means I will put a post up on here. Don't know if anyone will ever see it but at least this way I can say I posted.


so this computer is just retarded and wont let me do anything I want, so here a a few for now


I think I am just going to make this post a few of my favorite photos from my brothers wedding

Movin

Nope not me

My Blog

So I have decided to move my blog.

Go here to check it out, I just decided that it was time to have some stuff protected, I am not going to delete this blog, so don't worry it will still be here. I just wanted the option of protecting stuff if I feel the need to.

so come on over for the move

Blah blah blog

yep thats how I feel about my blog these days. I love reading everyones blogs but I just feel blah about writing mine. Maybe its because I have worked 13 of the last 14 days. Im not complaining about that it just means that I have been busy. I just got back from the village of Nulato, it really is one of my least favorite villages that I have been in so far. Stebbins is a nice village, it right on the coast and it is just a nice little village. I got a really cool basket while I was there. I should take a picture of it and post it, but that would mean finding my camera.

I am not off to any villages this week, but I will be in training all if this week. I do have the weekend off and then I have another training the week after that and then it is off the another village and then the week after that we will be in a different village every day for the next 2 weeks and then its a quick trip home for my brothers wedding a nd then more training when I get back...my work schedule is full until almost the end of may and that doesn't even have anyfires in there......

Stebbins

I am off to Stebbins Alaska for the next 4 days, 5 of us from work are headed out to teach S-130/190 which are the basic fire fighter training classes. Hopefully it is a good time and we dont get stuck out there because of bad weather...that has happened before

Hopefully all goes well!! The best part is that it means that I get to earn some overtime, nothing like a little OT on the first paycheck of the year

Way up north

Well I made it back to the great northern state of AK.

The drive was pretty good. I had a little bit of bad weather here and there but nothing to horrible.
I drove up what is called the cassier highway and it was beautiful. Not a road for speed but beautiful. I didn't take many pictures because there wasn't really anyplace to pull over and take pictures, there was a ton of snow along the sides and I didn't want to stop and then get run over.

This weekend was pretty eventful...well more eventful than the weekends when I am in Hibbing.

Fri: went to a wine tasting for 35 dollars you got to sample over 100 wines and eat lots of yummy food, plus you got a gift certificate for 10 off a bottle of wine. I tasted some wines that I probably would never have tasted if I hadn't been at this tasting....like the $100 bottles...I will probably never buy them but they were good. After that we headed over to check out some ice sculptures...well the world championship ice sculptures, like that kind where they use chainsaws and are super detailed. Then after that we went over to the bar on campus and hung out for a beer

Sat: Didn't do much during the day hung out at the bookstore for a bit, then that night a group of us went to see the Vagina M@nol@uges, they were pretty good, some funny some that I thought were kind of stupid.... but overall a good time. Then we headed to the irish bar in fairbanks where we had 2 beers and then left because the music was way to loud.

Sun: Went to sunday brunch at a local resturant then to the grocery store, next I am going to go for a run since it is above freezing and not snowing

Mon; I have to go to work booooooooooo!!!!!!!

on the road

I am about to be on the road north....I am getting ready to leave Seattle and head up towards prince george, bc or at least try to get that far today. Then I am headed up the cassiar highway and then on to alaska from there.

Wish me luck (for good weather)

Driving

I have spent the last 2 days driving across the country. I am now in Missoula MT. The drive has been good. Nice weather (thats for you dad) no snow or anything, actually i have been suprised how little snow there has been on the ground. I expected more in the mountains

here are a couple things I have noted

1. I love the mountains, love, love love them. I in my opinion, once you have lived in the mountains you will always miss them when you don't live in them

2. I love pomegranate.......


3. I hate people that don't know how to set there cruise control

4. I miss my satellite radio subscription.... I didn't renew it this fall cuz it doesn't work in AK but am really wishing I still had it

Well I am going to go out for a run......and then head over to finish up this leg of my drive. I am off to visit my sister and to make sure that dana really is still alive

Randomness

opps I just posted nothing, got a little to happy with the return key.

anyway I can't believe how nice out it has been. I am so ready for spring, but eventhough I am ready I don't think fairbanks is.....maybe it will be warm by the time I get there....yeah right it was -20 there yesterday...oh well

I have been busy packing and cleaning. Although I am thinking I am getting this packing thing down.....or at least that is what I tell myself.

I am glad it has been nice I got the chance to vacuum out my car and it needed it.
I went up to the hunting shack with my dad this weekend. They got a bunch of snow last week. so that meant shoveling. Here are a few pictures plus some random ones of me and Andrew

Time is up

my six month vacation is almost over:(


but I do have 2 weeks left, so I am going to go visit my sister and then head up to work.

yep I am driving, I decided I just like having the freedom of my car.

so I am leaving for WA on wed and then after spending the weekend with laura and craig I am driving up the Cassiar(sp) highway and then up to fairbanks

so that means that I really need to start getting my stuff ready, but I am slacking, really I shouldn't have much to pack, I left some stuff up there so that should mean I don't have to take as much

I am headed up to the cabin with my dad tomorrow, he isn't sure if the road will be plowed all the way there since it just snowed and they are done logging. If it isn't plowed that just means that we will have to ski in

Lately I have an obsession with jelly beans.......if I buy them I just cant stop eating them, I try to not buy them and i had been doing so well....but today I had to go to wally world and there they were just staring at me and begging to come home with me so I buy them they were .78 so its not like I was spending all my money....but now the whole bag is almost gone. granted it wasn't that big of a bag, but I just cant stop eating them

Answers to comments in last post

Answers.
1. I am pretty sure that they are pigs feet
2. The chickens weren't quite dead yet they moved around
3. I think that most of the food we ate came from markets like this, it is actually much cleaner than it looks, you would think that there would be tons of flies but there isn't..

You just try not to think about it when you eat and make sure that everything that you eat is fully cooked.....not much else you can do since it is the only way to get food

The market

Here are some photos from one of the local markets we visited. I would write about the photos but I think that they speak for themselves.

Although the first to pictures on this post are just random photos from one of the cities we were in

Seriously Slacking

Yes I know I am seriously slacking on posting.

Don't know why I have had plenty of time to post.

I think I have 2 or 3 more posts to write about my trip to Ecuador. I will get there eventually

What else is new?

well I am trying to decide if I should drive, fly or hitchhike my way up to Alaska

I start work again on March 30, yes my 6 month vacation is almost over, yes it is earlier than in the past, but I also get done earlier

My car is making new noise so I am going to get it checked out this thrus, hopefully it is nothing.

Today my nephew is coming over after school so that is always fun

I went for a run outside yesterday, why is running outside so different than running on a treadmill. ok maybe it is the 50 degree temperature difference that makes it feel harder when outside, or that fact that the roads were a little snow covered so it was harder to run, all I know it just seemed a little bit harder.

I also have pictures to post of the house projects that I have been working on. soon I promise

Off to the beach and boobies

After leaving Banos, drove on some pretty crazy roads, at one point we were on the highest paved road in Ecuador. The bus rides were pretty cool, but not as cool as the guidebooks made them out to be.

Eventually we made it to the beach town of Montanita...View of Montanita (from beach)

Can I say crazy. I was totally not expecting a town like this here on the beach. Total party town. I knew it was a surfing town, but I didn't expect there to be so much of a party atmosphere. we could hear music from our hostel room until like 3 am and then we could hear people up ina room above us til like 0630am.. it got a little annoying but we were super excited to be at the beach so it was worth it.

Surfers

By party I should say i think that it was mostly European tourist or something, most of the people that we ran into didn't speak english but they were white and not ecuadorian, we saw lots of dreadlocks, lots of hippy type, lots of surfer dudes and much more.

Cows hanging out on the beach

It was really nice to hang out on the beach and to be in the warm sun. Even though it was a busy town there was still a ton of beach there so you could just chill. We watched surfers and spent a lot of time just on the beach.



After we left montanita we headed up to the town of Puerto Lopez, which was a small beach town/ fishing town. It was nice to chill there and have a more relaxing atmosphere.



We then headed out to Isla de la Plata or the poor man galapagos.

We had to hire a guide for this trip and we headed out about 50km to the island( which is part of a national park). Once we got there we hiked around the island. There are only 2 trails on the island and one of them was closed due to a mating season of one of the islands birds.

so we hiked around and saw lots of Boobies...

Blue footed and masked that is. anyway here are a bunch of photos from that trip



Blue-footed boobies

View of cliffs along island

Masked Boobie


Wide angle view of a beachDid I mention we saw some turtles (they were awesome)

Banos

So those of you who know spanish know what that Banos means bath, but it is also the name of a really cool city in Ecuador.

So we left the jungle and headed kind of up into the mountains to the city of Banos. Banos is somewhat of a touristy town, but it was still cool none the less. Banos is very near a volcano that is currently quite active, the last time that that city was completely evacuated was in 2006. So we were hoping to get a view of this volcano. It is also known for its hot baths (aka it name), really good hiking, and much more

We go into Banos, and found a place to stay, and then decided to head out and explore the city, there was all sorts of stuff to explore and all sorts of little shops. We found the local tourist center and got a map of the town and the local trails around. We decided to do what appeared to be a fairly short hike. well we started out an found what we thought was the trail. We start walking and it just gets steeper and steeper and the trail starts petering out. At times the only way that I can keep going up is grabbing hold of the plants and grass that is next to me and just hoping that they don't let loose.

Eventually we got to a spot that flattened out, found a road and then ended up on top of the hill at a big cross (where we wanted to be). There we found another awesome view of the city, the whole way up we had an awesome view of the city below us. After we got to the top we found the trail that lead down no problem and started back

We found these crazy looking trees. I so wouldn't want to run into one of them, yes those are like little spike coming out of it

We got up the next day and found ourselves some real coffee (it was hard to do here they often served you instant). We decided during coffee that we would do another hike and try to hike up and try to get a good view of the volcano, we hiked up a trail this time, the first part of it had like 650 steps to get to a statue of the virgin and then after that the trail just keeps going up and up.


There were really cool views the whole time, it was so green, tons and tons of different shades of green everywhere. We went up forever it seemed, we were looking for a small village the trail was supposed to lead us to. we ran into a very nice old man who lived up there who found my limited spanish quite funny, but we were still able to have a conversation even though he knew no english, he was nice enough to keep it simple so I could understand.
We realized that we had hiked above the village that we wanted to go to, but we still couldn't see the volcano because of the low clouds and fog, so we kept hiking in case it cleared up. We couldn't see it but we could hear it. Every now and then we would hear this rumbling off in the distance and it wasn't thunder
After a while we stopped and just enjoyed the view for awhile and sat in the sun, we then headed back down, this time taking the road and hooking up with a trail that took us back to town

By the time that we made it back we had hiked I don't even know how many miles we walked and lets just say the baths felt way good when we decided to go sit it them later.

The river that flows by Banos
A view of the old bridge from the new bridge
If it was clear you would be able to see the volcano we thought we saw a glow from it one night but weren't sure

After banos we hoped on a bus and took a bus ride on the highest paved road in ecuador, which lead us to the town of Gruanda where all we did was spend the night and then the following day we got on another bus and road it to the Guayaquil( the largest city in Ecuador) spent about 15 minutes in the bus station that was bigger than some airports, and then headed off to the beach