Browse Category: friends

Freeways, Friends, and Family

I must be in Southern California because I drove over 100 miles today. I went to Irvine to visit the neighbors but no one was available. I also went to the birdhouse and our new tenants were in the middle of moving in. So, I introduced myself and even got to go inside the house to walk them through some stuff.

It was nice to be able to check on the house myself.  I sure do miss it.  It was good to see that my Japanese maple is still going strong and everything else was also thriving.  The new tenants are a married couple and two dogs.  They just moved from Florida and they seem like a good “family” that will take care of our house and fishies too.

The next stop was my old preschool. I got to catch up with some old co-workers and hang out with everyone in the clinic. It was fun to see how things have changed and yet so much has stayed the same after one full year. For lunch we went to Lee’s Sandwiches and it was nice to hang out with old friends again.

In the evening, I drove from Irvine to Cerritos, then to Santa Monica to pick up Brother, and then to Beverly Hills for an early birthday dinner at Lawry’s. It’s still as good as I remember and it was a tasty tasty meal.

Vball Superstars

It was a beautiful day in SF and a perfect day for some beach volleyball.

We watched Olympic gold medalists, including Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, play in our backyard today at the SF stop of the AVP Tour.

It was a lot of fun watching the matches between the top competitors in the sport while sipping Bud Light in the stands.

Bang was inspired and got to test out his mad hops. It’s too bad that he’s 15 years older and more injury prone. With all his hopping around this afternoon, he hobbled home with a slight limp.  Good luck with him, Vyl.

Double Memory Lane

Yesterday I had to take the day off from work to go to Employee Health and HR for my teaching job.  It was the first time I was back on campus since graduation 7 years ago and it was pretty neat to wander around the halls again.  In between my two appointments, I stopped in on the first day of class.  I was asked to stand in front of about 40 grad students and introduce myself to everyone, which was a little weird.  I guess it’s a good thing that I’m not scheduled to give my two lectures until mid-November.  I should know everyone by then.

That same afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from Yoon!  It said that she was cleaning her apartment and found some old photos that she’s been holding onto for 7 years.  Along with the letter were several photos of the day that Jes proposed to me, which also happened to be on my graduation from OT school.  What a great way to accompany my walk down memory lane.  Thanks for the photos, Yoon!!

Food with Friends

On Labor Day, we had an impromptu BBQ.  Dayantha and Krissy were in town for a family event and came over on Monday to hang out and sleep over.  We prepared some of Susie’s mom’s spicy pork and bulgogi along with some chili lime wings that Jes prepared.  We grilled on the fourth floor and used the common area to enjoy our meal and watch the Bruins win their season opener in overtime.

Later, we brought everyone back up to the condo so that Koa could show off his toys to Kona and Smush.

7 months and Good Friends

We are at the end of Month 7 in our “We Have No Car” Experiment.  This also marks the time in which a car will be occupying our parking spot once again.  I will be starting my teaching job on September 8th and the Sokol-Juns have kindly allowed us to borrow their car for the next 4 months.  Thanks guys!!  We bought insurance, registered the CR-V under our names, will be purchasing two new tires, and will gladly babysit Jack as needed.  It’s going to be weird having a car again but I’m sure I’ll get used to it very soon.  🙂

Crossing the Border

Wow, it poured on Tuesday night. I was awoken by thunder and a huge downpour that lasted at least a couple of hours. I was so worried that it would continue to pour during our tour through the jungle. Fortunately, it stopped by sunrise and the temperature was milder and the air was much more comfortable. Phew!

On Tuesday, as we walked around San Ignacio, we found a guide at Casa Blanca Guesthouse. A very sweet but shy woman kindly showed us a list of tours that they offered. She spoke very little English but we got the information we needed. The price they were offering for a full-day Tikal tour was much more reasonable that others that we found and it turned out that the guide was the woman’s husband. He was also the only legal Belizean guide who could take you all the way from Belize, through the border, and to Tikal, which is in Guatemala. Apparently this is a big deal since usually Belizeans can only take you to the border and then they either hand you off to a Guatemalan guide or you’re on your own.

So, on Wednesday morning, we were picked up at our hotel by Elias at 7:30 am. We initially thought that we were the only ones on the tour but it turned out that a pair of girls also staying in our hotel booked the same tour right after we did. So, we had company. Yay! They were both very nice and originally from Toronto.

The drive to The Guatemalan border was about 9 miles. Then we had to get out, go through immigration and customs, pay a US$37.50 departure tax and meet the guide on the other side. We all got into a different van and had a new driver. We also exchanged some US dollars for Guatemalan quitzals (7q for US$1) from some guy hanging out at the border. Our guide sat shotgun and gave us some tidbits along the way to Tikal, which would be about a 2-hour drive.

The roads were pretty rough but the scenery was awesome. We drove through rural towns and saw corn crops, little schools, children playing in the river, and beautiful trees and lakes. The most interesting part was watching all the pigs, horses, dogs, and cows just wandering the streets. They seem to rule the road and we had to yield to them. We made a stop along the way for a bathroom break and to buy water. They had some really cool stuff to buy but everything was really expensive. So, I just took photos of everything and bought a bottle of water.

Once we arrived at Tikal, our guide took us through a 3-hour tour of the ruins, plants, and animals of the area. We basically walked through an old Mayan village that was once paved and clear of trees. It is now mostly jungle, wildlife, and a bunch of ancient pyramids that were excavated by archeologists. The structures were amazing. They were so tall and complex. Some were tombs, some were offices, and some were residences for the high and mighty. We learned about their culture, rituals, and architecture. We also got to climb the tallest structure (Tower IV) and got a grand aerial view of the jungle and other towers peeking out of the trees. It was pretty awesome.

Through the jungle, we also got to watch spider monkeys swinging from tree to tree. We even witnessed a fight between a group of monkeys and an anteater up in the trees. There was also a howler monkey that sorta got in their way.  Check out the photo of the toucan!! I love my lens!!  It actually doubled as binoculars sometimes.  Elias also pointed out a bunch of bugs, plants, and picked some all-spice berries for us to smell. The bug spray really came in handy but I still managed to get one little bugga that was stuck to my calf and engorging himself on my blood. When it was pointed out to me, I swatted it off and ended up with blood all over my fingers. Gross. Apparently this guy has a numbing thing that he uses first so I didn’t feel a thing and the puncture point on my skin was a tiny red dot and it hasn’t itched or anything. Weird.

After our long and tiring tour, we had lunch at the nearby restaurant. The grilled chicken was pretty tasty! I was also starving though. We totally lucked out on the weather today. The couple that we met in Caye Caulker was telling us that they opted for a sunrise tour of Tikal because the heat was too unbearable during the day. But, we had some nice rainclouds to shade us all day and the humidity was not as bad either. It only sprinkled once the whole morning and the only time we really needed sunscreen was at the top of each tower that we climbed.

The ride back to Belize was just as rocky but just as entertaining. I ended up shooting at least 80 more photos just on the way back. We stopped at a shop midway and Jes got beer shirt #1. We had some Guatemalan Gallo beer with lunch and so the beer shirt was purchased. Now if we can only find a Belikin Beer shirt…

Once we got back to the hotel, Elias offered to buy Jes’ water shoes but we decided not to sell them since our trip was only half-way done. We said our goodbuys and it was time to shower. Ah…it was so nice to clean off the layers of sweat, dirt, bug spray, and sunscreen. For dinner, we went to the Stork Bar for a bunch of appetizers, rum punch, and billiards. Our favorite bartender, Julia, was working and took good care of us. She would not only take our order and make our drinks but she would change the big screen tv channels and play some music for us. Our tour buddies also ended up there for dinner so we got to hang out all night until it was time to call it quits.