We Made it!

I´m happy to say that this is my first official post on our blog. Thanks Michelle for all the hard work you´ve put into this over the past year.

So, we´re finally here. It´s funny how an idea can feel so different when you actually put it into action, and also how you don´t realize what it will take to accomplish it. Selling things, moving essentials into a storage unit, and travelling to central America didn´t sound that challenging. Our move out of the house and into the storage unit proved to be more than we expected. We had more items than we thought and even though we kept selling and selling on Craigs list, our house didn´t seem any less cluttered. It finally came down to the wire and we were able to sell just enough to where our necessary items fit in the storage unit.

All of our friends helped us so
much in the process. Shane helped us pack up the Uhaul, Nadine took one of our cars to store, Paula took our computers, Heather drove us to the airport, mailed a bunch of college things for me, and put up with our last minut rush to get everything done. Mike in Mt. Shasta graciously took our other car, Roberta took care of last minute items for us, and helped sell a washer and dryer that we were unable to take care of, and this just skims the items. Thanks everyone.

Here Shane and Stone are taking a break with some of our fun gear. Thanks again you guys for helping us move!

So a quick update. We made our flight out of Redding (Barely) and spent the night in Vancouver Washington with Christie Lochrie (thanks Christie!) who picked us up and dropped us back off @ Portland Intern. Airport. The next morning, we missed our flight and ended up having to spend the day in Portland and take the next morning flight the following day. This was a great start to our trip. If I had a meeting to attend or some pressing engagement, I would have been bothered I´m sure, but Michelle and I were happy to go explore, happy to let the trip take us where it would. We took the MAX red line from the airport into downtown. Everyone was so helpful that we spoke with and the transportation was so easy to figure out. I´d always heard that Portland was a nice city, but now I know why. We truly had the best day walking around exploring the town and occasionally hopping on a different train or bus, but mostly walking. People were easy to approach, people were eclectic, people rode bikes everywhere, people rode the train, the bus, or just walked. I´ve never experienced such a large city with such a small and safe feel to it. There´s also a bookstore in downtown called Powells which is an entire city block. You can literally get lost in it. I also ran into a guide that I met at Mountain Bike Oregon last summer when I was a guide. We spoke for a few minutes and I used his cellphone to locate Michelle in the Powells. We made the happy hour at Mcminemans the Crystal Ballroom for cheap food and a beer, and the best of all was that we ran into a set of friends who we keep running into in strange places. We originally met these guys at an amazing beach way south of Acapulco several years ago. Then last summer, we were on a mountainbike trip near Oakridge, Oregon and took a dirt road for 20 miles to take a back road to the highway, and stopped at a swimming hole from a tip we received from somebody else, and who else was there than our old friends Scott and Jamie. That was crazy, but even crazier was to run into them at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland. They were excited to hear about our trip down south (of course they could relate).

This is a photo of Voodoo doughnuts. I ended up getting a captain crunch doughnut. They specialize in wierd combinations such as a banana split fritter....lots of wierd shapes and sizes, and of course, many are Vegan.

So last night we stayed at Mcmenamins White Eagle bar which had a good deal on rooms. The music was loud till 1 am but we knew that going into it, so it was ok. We were actually so tired that we both fell asleep around 8:30 and slept right through the loud jazz music. The previous 2 nights we had only gotten about 2-3 hours of sleep, so we were running on a deficit. This morning we woke at 4: walked 1/2 a mile along the Max yellow line because it wasn´t running yet, and caught the red line to the airport around 5: We arrived with even enough time to sip and enjoy a corporate, yet dependable Starbucks coffee.

So now, we´re here. Took a bus immediately from the airport to Playa del Carmen and in the manana wé´ll decide if we´re going to bee line it to Guatemala or languish in Mexico to wait out the Santa Semana week (next week) . We´re working hard on our spanish and wow.....we are rusty and I feel so pathetic talking to people, but we´ll get better fast. I am confident we will learn this! Thanks for checking out our blog.

Ps. also check out our other photo website at http://goplay.shutterfly.com. We´re experimenting with this website, and it will probably have more photos. You can also click on this on the side of our blog under ¨´mark and michelle go play´´