Inspiration

I was recently catching up with a dear friend of mine, a writer and world traveler, and I expressed my frustration at trying to blog and “keep up”.  Keep up with what she asked?  My own expectations and perfectionism of thinking I had to be posting all the time or never.  Keep up with knowing what to write.  Wanting to write.  Picking what to write about from the many options that I have.  Being inspired.

Her advice to me, keep it simple!  Write something, even if you don’t feel like its amazing.  Choose a photo, a single photo, and write a quick bit of info about it and share it; even if it isn’t a perfect masterpiece.  Remember, this was supposed to be fun?

So I’m going to do just that, choose a photo and share the story behind it.  For now it will be a weekly thing, but we’ll see where it goes from there.

I loved the trees at this beach on Maui.  The bleached standing trunks stood out against the blue of the sky and water and the green of the jungle, giving them an elegance the landscape around them didn’t have.  They also have a sense of longing, for what I was unsure but on a small beach on the way to Lahaina I could feel it.

Bleached trees on the beach in Maui

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Filed under Photo, Trips

Hike: Gun Beach to Tanguisson

Finally took the time to get in on a Boonie Stomp with the group of the same name.  Today’s hike was from Gun Beach to Tanguisson beach.

It was an awesome walk across beaches and reef flats.  We saw brittle stars, sea cucumbers, fish and clams.  And even walked back in the rain, which if you know my love of rain in Washington you’ll know is a big change for me!

We walked right below Two Lovers Point

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And out across the reef flat

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We also stopped at a village site with latte stones still standing.

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Filed under Guam

One week down, 155 to go

We have officially lived on Guam for one week, its still kind of surreal but I’m in love! I keep telling Everett that it feels like we are on vacation and will be leaving soon. Its times like these that I have to pinch myself because it can’t be true that we live on a tropical island.

At Dadi Beach

The last week has been a bit of a blur of paperwork and getting the basics settled. Lacuna’s quarantine and paperwork finished, check! Cell phone, check! Mailing address, check! Commissary trip, check! Mel back to work, check! House, well we’re still working on that one but news soon.

Gab Gab beach

While it may sound like lots of busy-work, we’ve taken the time to relax and enjoy as well. Last night was the night market at Chamorro Village. We ate tons of great local food and enjoyed local performers. I’ll take better pictures next week, its every Wednesday night, but we were really more interested in being immersed in the experience than taking ‘good’ pictures.

Below: Takoyaki, Everett enjoying a buko pandan drink

TakoyakiEverett and his buko pandan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We slipped away from the market for a bit at sundown to check out the small beach at the Southeast corner of Paseo de Susana Park. Sunset was beautiful, but we also got to see two racing teams practicing rowing in reproductions of traditional Chamorro boats. We’ll be watching for when we can see the actual races.

Below: The sun sets over the Govener’s Complex, Rowing teams practice

Sunset at Paseo de Susana  Rowing practice

One of our big accomplishments in the last week was visiting 5 different beaches in 6 days. We’ve been to Gab Gab beach, Dadi beach, beach in front of Jimmy Dee’s Chamorritaville, unnamed beach on the East side of the island in Talofofo, and at Paseo de Susana Park. The best part of the beaches of Guam, is that they all have a different feel and environment. Gab Gab had narrow sand but access to WWII pillboxes while Dadi seemed much more wild with few people and hermit crabs everywhere. The beach at Jimmy Dee’s was powder sugar white sand with lots of shallows to wade out.

Below: Beach at Jimmy Dee’s, Dadi beach

Sunset from Jimmy Dee's  Dadi beach

Below: Hermit crabs

Hermit crab  Hermit crab and Everett

We’re excited to keep exploring, this weekend holds hiking and an adventure into the jungle!

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Filed under Guam, Uncategorized

The Rainforest, The Beach and the Adventure Trailer’s First Outing

Merry Christmas 2014 – the Adventure Trailer’s first trip!

We went out to the Hoh Rainforest and Kalaloch Beach on the Olympic Peninsula.  The weather was beautiful for the 4 days we were out there and it was great to try out the trailer to help with finishing details.

First was the Hoh Rain forest, best part of it there were only 4 other groups in the campground that during the summer would be packed.  We hiked up into the forest on the Spruce Nature Trail and into the Hall of Mosses.  The trees were huge and beautiful and while out on the Spruce Nature Trail we saw spawning salmon in the creek along the trail.

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The week before we visited the rain forest there had been several storms including a strong wind storm.  There were several places on the entrance road where we saw trees had been down across the road.  At one of the pull outs, there was a Sitka Spruce that had been blown down that had an interpretive sign saying that it was 300 feet tall.

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After a couple of days in the rainforest we headed a few miles south to Kalaloch Beach, surprisingly pronounced Clay-lock.  The beach is wide and sandy, it was so relaxing to fall asleep to the waves crashing.  On our way to the beach, we stopped at the Big Cedar Tree trail and walked out to the tree.

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Kalaloch beach from our campsite

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Lacuna watching the beach from the bluff above the beach, the beach and a floating tree

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Ruby Beach and the Destruction Island Lighthouse

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Driftwood on Kalaloch Beach

On the way home, we stopped at the Storm King ranger’s station and hiked up to Marymere Falls.

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Marymere Falls

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On the shore of Lake Crescent

See the map: http://ow.ly/JLy3m

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Filed under Trips

Trailer Status Update

So a lot has gotten done on the trailer since October and it has been on its first trip as well.

First we got up the finished paneling and stained it.

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We installed the floor.

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We installed a roof vent with a powered fan to keep the interior ventilated.  It was a bit nerve-wracking to cut a large hole in the ceiling but it turned out ok in the end.

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The frame for the murphy bed is installed, but sill needs to have the finish paneling and table installed on the bottom side of the frame.

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And last but not least we got the heater installed.  Another terror inducing, huge hole through all layers of the wall; but it works great.

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Next on the list are the kitchen amenities!

Upcoming post about the Christmas trip to the Hoh Rainforest and Kalaloch Beach, maiden voyage of the Adventure Trailer.

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Filed under Projects

Insulation, done!

So it has been a much slower start on this project that I wanted or expected.  The weekend after we got the trailer home, we did an Ikea trip to set up much of the inside of the trailer.  I think this got me set to be finishing out the project… but we are so not there!

It was an EPIC haul from Ikea:

The haul

The haul

Everything... AND the kitchen sink!

Everything… AND the kitchen sink!

This brings us to last weekend and finishing up the insulation.  I have found a new skill for use in another lifetime, laying out and cutting styrofoam insulation!  I know it’s what every girl wants to do.  But in all seriousness its a puzzle to use the sheets as efficiently as possible so it was kind of fun.  That added to the fact that I was able to plan the pieces more efficiently than when we bought the insulation, allowing us to return a sheet, made for a good day.

My new profession, cutting insulation

My new profession, cutting insulation

Ready for insulation

Ready for insulation

As you can see all of the rough interior sheeting is back up in the trailer with 1″ of weather protection hiding behind it, I may not freeze when we get out there!

Insulation installed

Insulation installed

Siding back up and ceiling done

Siding back up and ceiling done

This weekend will see the finished sheeting going up and getting stained and getting the floor in.

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Filed under Projects

Building An Adventure Trailer, it starts

If you know me at all, you know that I like the outdoors but do not like being wet or cold; both of these creating major issues for winter outdoor adventures for me.  Especially living in the pacific northwest!

So Everett has been on a kick to find a trailer for me that will have enough amenities to be useful, be big enough so that he can fit but also be small enough to keep me from feeling like an asshole for giving up my tent.  Keeping this project in a reasonable budget seemed nearly impossible.

We had a Goldilocks dilemma… when we looked at the tear drop trailers, they were too small and a bit of a joke for someone who is 6’5″ and neither of us wanted to stand outside in the cold to use the kitchen.  Then we went to an RV dealer to look at camp trailers and they were all too big to feel like we were enjoying the great outdoors, they seemed like portable mansions with far too many things that we didn’t need and didn’t want to pay for.

But then we may have found our just right, we’ll see if we both survive the conversion project: the cargo trailer!  Behold, the Adventure Trailer

Cargo trailer = great adventures?

Cargo trailer = great adventures?

As I write this it sits with all of its insides stripped out waiting for a trip to our neighborhood Lowes store to purchase styrofoam insulation.  As Everett was dismantling the interior is when it hit me: this is so much more of a project than I had really thought it would be.  In my mind we would throw our futon in there and magic would happen.  Guess I have to go find my wand still.

Any way, as this project moves along this will be my bedroom:

Bedroom in Adventure Trailer

And this will be the kitchen:

Adventure trailer kitchen

You’ve got to work with me here and REALLY use your imagination!

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Filed under Projects