Sitka Boating (Favorite Memory)

August 2009 was a good month for us. Isa and I were falling ever deeper in love. We took a few days off from work in Juneau to go play in Sitka with Mike (Isa's dad). We went boating and hiking.

And I asked Mike for his blessing to marry his only daughter.

Isa doesn't like boating because she gets seasick. But she was a good sport and came out anyway. And Mike and I bonded and fished and caught salmon faster than they do on tv shows. And I caught the biggest salmon Mike had ever seen. And I lost it. And it broke my heart. :(

We took the boat out to Sea Lion Cove, to an uninhabited island - scratch that - uninhabited by people island.

recent bear tracks

We hung out on the beach for a while and I raced Dawson to the far side of the beach.

Isa, Dawson, and Mike 

Then we hiked around for a while, me looking for bears and Isa, the trained tracker, looking for "bear scat." Yum. We hiked along the beach and forded a river to confuse the bears following our scent. (Why else does one ford a river?) (Did I use that word right? "Forded" sounds weird.)

Our quest to track the bears proved fruitless, but our photo shoot afterwards was a huge success.

Trying to pull off an "American Gothic" fisherman parody.

All in all it was a fun trip and one of our favorite memories from the before part of our relationship.

Merry Christmas from Australia!

Maybe it’s because it’s not cold here. Maybe it’s because Australia has a Christmas song about Santa getting too hot so he takes off his suit and goes for a swim in the billabong (which is Australian for a water hole). Maybe it’s because Australia (or at least Surfers Paradise) doesn’t seem to think Christmas is that special – it seems like it’s just another day. Or maybe it’s because there are no decorations around us, and very few reminders that it’s Christmastime. Whatever it is, Christmas in Australia does not feel at all like Christmas. :(

So Isa’s parents decided to fly out to Australia for a few weeks, and they spent a few days with us to help make it feel like Christmas. One of the first orders of business was that we needed stockings. Isa’s mom went to the store and bought oven mitts, since real stockings were not available. She also bought glitter-glue, and we decorated them to make them our own. I think they turned out pretty great:

If you’re wondering what that blob is next to the Christmas tree on mine, it’s supposed to be Australia. And with the present and the candy cane is a heart and mistletoe. Yeah.

Mike and Melanie (Isa’s parents) had rented a car, so we were able to take off for a couple days and go on some adventures. The first day, we went up to a glow-worm cave. They don’t let you take pictures inside because they’re very sensitive to light – you can’t even open your cell phone in the cave. It was something amazing, though. Click here for a picture from a random website of what it looked like.

On the way back, we stopped for a little hike out by Mount Tamborine. It was only about a 1 km hike to Curtis Falls. The trail was really pretty, as it cut through the tropical rain forest with really lush green foliage. The falls were pretty too. So we took our family Christmas picture there:

We also went down to Currumbin to that Ecovillage we visited on my Golden Birthday. Mel tried to get as close as she could to the Kangaroos:

It turned out to be a really fun Christmas, and we’re really glad Isa’s parents could make it out. They’re still bouncing around Australia, visiting everywhere from Perth to Darwin to Sydney. And we’re still in Surfers – the most Americanized city in all of Australia. Oh well, Isa and I will come back in the future and do the month-long country tour some other time.

Merry Christmas to everyone back in the states! We love you all and hope you had a great day!