Hillbilly Housewarming Ho-Down

Our Kitchen

Our little fireplace, our sole source of heating our house... it really cranks up the heat though, so much that it is unbearable at times!

The BB Gun shooting contest

Apple Dunking Contest, C and J

Go T!! You can even see our faces underwater

He Haw!! You can't see it but R has an awesome mullet going on!!


Some pics of our new place and our housewarming party! It was awesome, complete with a BB Gun shooting contest, apple dunking, a game called corn hole, and another called "cinnamon bear spitting contest" (complements of M who saved the day when there were no watermelons with seeds to be found anywhere!)

The return north

Here's a few pics from our return up north.

Just a nice little valley. I'm afraid that most of our pictures so far have misrepresented the vast majority of Baja, which is hot, flat and covered in cactus. A little like this.

Back to misrepresenting. We drove back up entirely along Hwy. 1, and hit a few spots along the way that we had missed on the way down by trying to stay along the surf spots on the Pacific coast. This is near Mulege, which is on the Gulf of California side, has no waves, good fishing, and quite a few empty white sand beaches with warm water. We enjoyed everything except trying to sleep at night, which was near impossible in the back of our truck due to the heat and humidity.

Another shot Camille took during the drive up. It was hot, but thankfully our truck performed admirably. Not even a flat tire.

Camille took eight pictures of this boat, (she likes bright colors), so I figured it would be a bit of a travesty to not show one of them. Plus, it really is a nice photo.

Taqueria. Good food and a host of flies. What more do you really need?

Our last night in Baja, we spent at a beach just a little south of Ensenada. However, this particular beach is a little different, as natural hot sulfur water comes up through the sand at low tide. You just mosey out, dig yourself a hole on the beach and have an instant hot tub. If you dig too deep the water will literally scald you, but a nice medium depth tub is fantastic. And since the weather is so much more temperate on the Pacific side, you can actually be comfortable in hot water.

Final picture. Here we are in the tubs, the night before our return to the states. Hope you enjoyed the travels so far, and we'll keep you updated on our future plans. Who knows, maybe we can make a career out of this...

San Jose Del Cabo

Here are a few pictures from our time spent in San Jose Del Cabo. We spent almost a week living in the driveway of our friends Jeremiah and Shelly. We really can't thank them enough, as they were so gracious, particularly as they are in the process of beginning to build their own home while living in a trailer and raising two young boys. We feel so fortunate to have such incredible friends.

This picture is out of order, as it is of the wave we surfed during our camping trip with Jeremiah and Shelly. I didn't get it loaded right, though, so you get to see it now. The surf was definitely pretty fun, and bigger than anything else we got on the trip. Although there was a longer right point just around the corner, we did most of our surfing on the peak as we were the only people to surf it, and it was directly in front of the place we were camping.

The older son, Owen. He is two and a half years old, and already exhibiting all the traits of a good engineer. Likes his trucks and "dumpy," organizes all his toys in neat rows, and thanks to a little time in the backyard with yours truly, now enjoys spanning small dirt ravines with small wooden bridges.

And then there's Elias. 9 months old, and this picture really does a fairly good job of capturing his biggest trait, constant movement. When he's not trying to get away, he's looking to get a bit of whatever you might be eating. And the impressive part is that we couldn't find anything he wouldn't eat. He'd even suck on straight limes, and managed a pretty good job of finishing off a whole calzone by himself, (sans cheese), complete with onions, mushrooms and black olives.

Here's a little place in Cabo Jeremiah and Shelly turned us on to. Killer tacos and quesadillas, eight types of salsa, and flan for dessert.

Over the weekend we headed out on the east cape near Cabo to see if we could find a little surf. It was incredibly hot and humid, so shade and beer were in demand. We came prepared for both. Here's Elias, proving once again that if something is going into your mouth, he wants a piece of it too. He even has the fridge and cooler dialed in. As soon as they open he makes a beeline over to see what might come out.

Elias making his "ooh" face. That's the one that really shows how much he wants something.

Here's Owen. I really have to say how good both of these kids are, and how encouraged we were to see Jeremiah and Shelly and their obvious parenting skills. We took notes.

Here's the whole family, cooking dinner on the beach. Although Jeremiah and I tried our best to spear some dinner as well, it always seemed like the water was perfectly clear when we were out surfing, but all clouded up and messing when we were out swimming around. Oh well, maybe next time. I probably would have shot something poisonous anyway.

A friendly family of burros that new how to work the handout wagon. They were well fed, which judging by their amiable disposition, was probably more a result of generous campers than native food sources. Also, it took some serious convincing to get that one from the back of the truck.

South to Scorpion Bay

Driving the dirt roads in Baja, trailing Christian and Jasmine. No more washboards for me for a while.

Sunset at Punta San Antonio.

Driving back to Hwy. 1 shortly after realizing we didn't know where we were, and shortly before coming back out to where we wanted to be.

Parked at Punta Abreojos with Christian and Jasmine. Enjoying the sunset and airing out the laundry.

C enjoying the beginning of what looks to be another 200 yard wave at Scorpion Bay. Nothing close to the epic size we heard so many stories about, but definitely good, clean longboarding waves.

Check that out, showboating on a knee-high wave. Pathetic.

And here it is, the morning surf check. Sit up, see if it's worth it to get out of bed, and either surf of find something for breakfast. That was a tough couple of days.

Christian, Jasmine, C and myself shortly before we parted ways. Christian and Jasmine headed back north to meet some friends, and C and I continued on to Cabo. We really did enjoy our time with these two.

Our return and the promised photos...

As of this morning, Camille and I are back in the good old U.S. of A. This morning we drove across the border early, got through quite easily, and are now up at her parents house, resting and getting ready for our return to San Luis Obispo. The necessity of our return has been minimalized a bit, though, as I found out this morning that due to the housing market slowdown, there will not be a place for me back at Cannon Associates. Although this may sound like bad news, it is actually a blessing for Camille and I, as we had really been praying for direction upon my return and had sensed a bit that although I felt committed to Cannon as they had allowed me this time off, perhaps there were other avenues I would be better off pursuing. So now we get to see which of those will pan out. But in the meantime, more vacation! And we are definitely looking forward to seeing and spending time with our friends and family, Nathan and Vanessa, and having a bit less stressful move into our new rental home.
But now on to the good stuff. I promised pictures, and I will deliver the goods. However, as there are a few I have decided to split them up into a few different sections of Baja, and it may take me a few days to get them all on here. But for now, a teaser...

Ryan

San Jose del Cabo

Here we are, at the southern tip of Baja California. We arrived here Saturday night, slept on the beach, then went about trying to find the home of Jeremiah and Shellie Blackwell, friends from San Luis Obispo who moved down here a little over a year ago. We found them after driving around there neighborhood a bit, (they bought Camille´s old car before they left, so we looked around for that), and have been camping in their short driveway since then. They have been incredibly gracious, as they have two young sons, (Owen, 2 and a half years old, and Elias, who is 9 months), and we will likely try to find a place to camp tomorrow and the next night on the beach so as to get out of their hair a bit. We have plans to go camping with them up the east cape of Baja this weekend, so we won´t be driving back up, but we could do to give them a bit more space.
Overall, though, our time here has been great. It is definitely an interesting town, with a strange mix of old fishing village being quickly changed into high end condos. I´m not sure if I have ever seen a place with so much construction happening so quickly, but I guess that is how it works. Jeremiah and Shellie actually have a piece of property on which they are living in a trailer, (of high quality), and plan to being on the foundation of their new home in the next couple of weeks.
It has definitely been a new weather change for us these last few days. This part of Baja is much more humid and warm than the rest of the trip down has been, so the last couple of days have been fairly uncomfortable. The nights have been just cool enough to sleep, and last night we actually did get some sleep as we finally figured out how the mosquitoes were getting through our net curtains and were able to stop them.
We´d better get going, as we have volunteered to watch the kids tonight and we need to get a little dinner first before we head back to their place. We´ll keep you all updated, but for now all is going well.

Ryan and Camille

Todos Santos

Well, here we are a week later, and much closer to the tip of the Baja peninsula. We just drove into the smallish town of Todos Santos, and now find ourselves about 100 miles from the southernmost point we will reach. We plan to stay here a couple of days and then move on.
Overall, we have had a great trip down. Our second morning we met another couple headed the same way and proceeded to travel with them for the next week and a half. Driving out through the desert proved to be much nicer with another car along, and we were able to explore a few points at the end of some long dirt roads. Although we didn't find a lot of sizeable surf, we got a few days of good longboarding at Scorpion Bay for Ryan, a few good lefts for Camille at Punta Conejo, and a change of air filter for the Toyota. The truck has held up admirably, and we haven't had any problems other than having to find and reattach all the bolts holding the camper shell onto the truck bed. After 100 miles of dirt roads all but two of the bolts had rattled off.
Not too much else to say other than that Camille and I are doing fine, and will post some pictures when we get a chance. We are both healthy, tan, and actually looking forward to being back in San Luis for a while. We have been realizing lately that we are definitely ready to get back to our friends, and look forward to the return. Of course I'll have to work again...

Ryan and Camille

Baja Surfing

Quick update to let everyone know that we are doing fine. We are now in a little town called San Ignacio, about halfway down the Baja peninsula. It has been a really nice trip down so far, although we haven´t had the best luck getting surf. We have had a few small days, but have yet to come across that 200 yard long right point.
We joined up the second morning with another couple going the same direction as us, and have been traveling with them since then. Their names are Christian and Jasmine and are pretty easy to travel with. Also, Christian speaks fluent Spanish, so between him and Camille we are doing well.
We aer headed toward Scorpion Bay this afternoon and are looking forward to maybe getting some good longboarding waves, but even if it doesn´t happen the experience has been well worth it.
Also, we are planning to meet up with our friends Jeremiah and Shelly down in Cabo San Lucas next weekend. They moved down there a couple of years ago, and we figure it will be nice to see them and spend some time with them and their two kids.
I´d better go as we have a few hours of dirt roads to navigate this afternoon. No mechanical problems yet, so we will hope that we continue along like that.

Ryan and Camille

Colorado to California

From Colorado and the quick trip west through Utah and Idaho, we went and visited Ryan James in Portland, Oregon, picked up Dave to do some fly fishing, then watched Ryan's dad race in the national triathlon race in Oregon. What a privilege to see him race. From there, we went to visit Camille's long lost sister and old babysitter and great friend, Christina in Bend Oregon and spent a night in their wonderful home. Down through Redding and Northern California we fished, until at last we landed at Ryan's families cabin in Chester. We ran a 5k there (where Camille, Dave and Tom all won second for their age group and got great medals), watched the fourth of July parade and fireworks around Lake Almanor. Traversing down further, we spent the night with Camille's first cousins, the Frietas family, who were gracious enough to open their home to us on short notice. Our car-weary legs were soon put to the test as we joined Matt and Shellie Sytsma on the John Muir Trial, completing 88 miles, 40,000 feet in altitude change, in 5 days. Blisters abounding, we hiked out, feasted on pizza and landed shortly thereafter in San Luis Obispo to refuel and check in before heading off to Southern California and Baja, Mexico.
... two and a half weeks, covered in a brief paragraph...
The End


Stuffing ourselves with pizza after the big hike

Ryan and Matt fly fishing at Rae Lakes

Ryan crossing the "one person at a time" suspension bridge

Ryan, Camille, Matt and Shellie at the top of Mather Pass, 12,000 feet.

Camille's Uncle Doug thought this "Peace, Love, Flowers" was an appropriate addition to the truck.

Camille's cousins, Aaron and Joshua Freitas (the third, Jacob was not there).

Ryan flyfishing during the famous "hex" hatch at sunset.

Lake Almanor Sunset

Ryan, Camille, Janet and Tom Hayes at Tom's race at Hag Lake, the National triathlon race in Oregon

Isaac and Jessie Hansen, this portrays their personalities very well, they are beautiful kids we love them.

Visiting Christina and Steve Hansen and their two little boys in Bend Oregon.

Amazing Roses in the Rose Garden in Portland, this is the dark red rose

Camille, Ryan and Ryan James in Portland

Colorado to Oregon

1,200 miles, that’s how far we’ve traveled since our last entry. 7 different campgrounds, 300 bug bites, and some 100 fish bites later, we have paused for a brief moment to record our travel stories here once again. Thank you so much to everyone who checks this and is interested in our lives, we appreciate your comments and prayers so much!
From Katherine and Creighton’s house, we drove through the Colorado mountains and fished on the Cochatepa River. They were biting at everything we threw at them, jumping out of the river as we hunted them down in their little holes (and this coming from Camille so you know the fish were pretty desperate). Ryan and I trekked through the tall grasses and muddy grounds, enjoying the abundant wildflowers. The river had perfect casting conditions, snow-capped Rockies in the background, and the setting sun made the fields glow as we experienced the adrenalin rush of the fish biting our lines (and the mosquitoes biting our bodies unfortunately). We were blessed to visit Ryan’s “grandmother in-law” (his Uncle’s mother) and we spent a day visiting her cabin in the mountains and feasting on berries and homemade cinnamon rolls. We traveled to the neighboring town of Ouray, hiked to an abandoned mine and went to church. We camped in the forest on the west fork of the Cimarron River exploring the 60+ mile dirt road and finally settling down right by the river in the forest with no one around for miles. The fish there were absolutely beautiful and ready to “be educated” (since we throw them all back, we figure it’s a learning experience for them ; ).
From Colorado, we hurried through Utah into Idaho where we camped in the mountains with natural hot springs about 100 feet from our camp spot. After soaking under the stars, in the early morning light, and every other chance we had, we were ready for the road, drove to Oregon and here we are. As for us personally, Ryan had a pretty bad sore throat which has since subsided and we are realizing more and more that a huge highlight of our trip has been seeing and communicating with all of our friends and family. Hope we’re not boring you all too much. Maybe next time we’ll throw in some really exciting stories just to keep you interested…they just might not be true…

Sending our love,

Ryan and Camille

Camille enjoying one of God's gifts to mankind on a hot summer day.

The hot stream and tubs we camped next to in Idaho.

The desolate but stunning section of Southeastern Utah.

The beautiful country side driving into the mountains.

The windy dirt road out in the Colorado Rockies where we camped.

Camille fly fishing on the Cochatepa river

Forgotten pictures

Well, yesterday Camille did a fine job of updating the blog, but she forgot a very important reason that we post the blog in the first place - showing off. Somehow it slipped her mind to put the pictures of us proudly holding our fish, so I've decided to add that feature myself...

Camille had been on a bit of a dry spell, so she was pretty happy about this guy. Notice the death grip...

Beautiful coloring

The West Bitterroot River - our chance to fish the infamous salmonfly hatch.

Yellowstone Cutthroat - my biggest fish of the trip