Snow is for lovers!

Today Charlottesville, VA got about two feet of snow! And it's still snowing!!! We drove around in it last night but decided to stay in today for a true snow day.

Our busy agenda:

1. Measure snow in morning
2. Attempt to make a snowman riding on the scooter
3. Discover the snow is too fluffy to pack down and switch to making a ground snow woman
4. Build snow woman. We named her Lola.
5. Build snow squirrel army (that's right!)
6. Hike up to the neighborhood playground
7. Jump off of the swings into the snow (Kaycie got about 5 feet of air)
8. Go down the play ground slides at about 60mph! Go slippery snow pants!
9. Try to slide down the hill on our shower curtain (this failed, surprisingly*)
10. Have hot chocolate, chili, banana bread, and play Phase Ten with our awesome neighbors.

We're safe, warm, and happy! Go snow days!

Love,
Kaycie and Merrill

*Merrill's Edit: unsurprisingly.

Merry Christmas!

Brownielocks and the Three Bears...and one crawfish

One day, little Brownielocks was hiking through the forest with the her hubby, Prince Charming P. Awesomeness III. (I come from a long line of Awesomenesses)

The Prince practically oozes awesomeness

It was fall and the air was clear and crisp. The trees were competing to see who could have the brightest colored leaves. The birds were chirping and flying around Brownielocks, the squirrels were playing on her shoulders. It was basically a Disney show minus the overt racism.

"Why is the Red Man red?"

As they were walking through the forest following a beautiful stream...

Picturesque

...Prince Charming P Awesomeness III noticed a black bear through the trees.

Bear at maximum zoom.

Brownielocks and the Prince watched the bear snuffle through the woods looking for snacks. This was the first time that either of them had seen a black bear in the wild. (The Prince had wrestled a few grizzlies in his day) After a few minutes, the Prince noticed that he no longer had feeling in his left arm. Brownielocks had his arm securely crushed in a white knuckle death grip. The bear ignored the two people and went on through the forest in search of food. "That bear is too big." said Browinelocks.

After the Prince put his now broken arm in a sling, the two continued walk along the stream. Soon they came across another bear only a little way off the trail. "POP!" went the Princes' arm as it broke in another place. "Ouch!" yelped the Prince. "Oops." said Brownielocks. The bear, hearing the kerfuffle, was startled and ran up the nearest tree. Once it got to the top, it realized that there was nothing to fear. The bear didn't want anyone to know that it had been scared by a couple of humans so he started looking for snacks in the tree like that had been the whole reason why he'd gone up in the first place. Luckily for him, it was an oak tree full of Haycorns. Bears love Haycorns. He happily rustled through the tree munching on Haycorns. Brownielocks and the Prince were unable to get a good picture of the bear as he was hidden amongst the leaves and branches. "That bear is too big." said Brownielocks.

The afternoon started to wear on, and Brownielocks, eager to get home and make brownies for the Prince, decided it was time to head back. They walked and walked back the way they had come. Then, up ahead, they spotted a third bear.

If you look close, you can see the claws

As soon as the Prince saw the bear he braced himself for what was coming. "POP! POP!" went the Princes arm. The Prince just clenched his teeth. Brownielocks watched the bear look for food on a rock. "Food doesn't grow on rocks, silly old bear." said Browinelocks. The bear, not finding anything to eat on the rock, shuffled on into the forest. "That bear is too big." said Brownielocks.

As they neared the place where they had parked their means of conveyance, they saw a crawfish walking speedily down the trail.

The crawfish was going so fast because he knew that Brownielocks loved nothing more than to eat crawfish after they had been boiled alive. She especially loved to break them in half and slurp out the juices from their heads. This crawfish had nothing to fear though. "That crawfish is too small." said Brownielocks. The crawfish breathed a sigh of relief, but kept motoring down the trail, just in case Brownielocks changed her mind.

When they were driving back to their one bedroom castle, Brownielocks asked "Why are you driving with just one arm, Prince?" The Prince held up his arm. It flopped around uselessly, the bones making grating noised where they ground against one another. "I don't think your arm is supposed to bend those ways." said a very insightful Brownielocks. "No," replied the Prince, "I don't suppose it is."

THE END

Only 6 Months Late

So six months later, I'm posting all about the final stop on our trip, Italy. FishCakes and I were playing heated games of speed scrabble and after getting smoked, Kaycie decided that it was high time that I finished the blog. Can't really blame her though, it's hard to compete with words like aardvark and herpes. Have you ever seen an aardvark? They're awesome. Arthur is an aardvark. Cakes wants me to point out that she also had good words like swervy and recondite.

Anyway, Italy, though devoid of aardvarks, was fantacular. The night before we left Interlaken for Italy, Kaycie learned how to use a can opener on a pocket knife. Even though we couldn't actually get the stew out of the can, her first attempt was a great success.

Rawr!!

After leaving Interlaken, Switzerland, we drove through scads of tunnels to Italy. Those Swiss love their tunnels. Also, I learned something important when speaking German. Schweiz, pronounced shvytz, is not the same as Schweiss, pronounced shvyss. The first means Switzerland, the second means sweat. But I'm sure that old lady understood that I didn't really think that the sweat was very beautiful.

Back to Italy. We drove to a little town called Pinzolo in northeastern Italy. A tiny villiage surrounded by vineyards with a quaint little chuch on the hill above it. We got there in the evening and while the mountains were beautiful, we were a little underwhelmed. We were expecting the Alps, like in die Schweiz. Here there were pretty big forested mountains with clouds on top. Well, right before sunset, the clouds parted.

We felt a little better after that.

The next day we drove up to a slightly bigger town called Madonna di Campiligo higher up the valley. There we planned our trip through the many viae ferrata (how the heck do you pluralize via?) for the days we were there. We decided to do a two day hike through the tops of the mountains. We started by taking a tram a ways up and after hiked up to the ridge of peaks. We hiked along this ridge, going over and around the peaks, alternating from trails to via ferrata.

Kaycie going up one of the longer ladders

Same ladder

Shrine at the top. Apparently,
it's a dangerous ladder

After a rest at a "hut" (they call them huts, but they are more like little hotels because you can get a bed, a hot shower, a cold drink and a steak. Europeans know how to rough it when they backpack.), we went on a second via ferrata to the next "hut" where we spent the night. It was in a little hanging valley just below the tops of the mountains below what is left of a glacier. We got a bunk bed in a room with two other people and a big dinner of spagetti and meatballs, steak and fries and chocolate mousse. We figured we deserved it after doing 12 miles in that rough terrain, a third of which was on via ferrata. We slept really well, and by 8 the next morning, we were back on the trail. (We completely forgot to get a picture of the hut we stayed at.) We continued along the ridge trail for another 8 miles before making the 5 mile trek back down to the little town in the valley.

Kaycie mumbling curse words at me under
her breath for making her do this.

Some of the via ferrata had tricksy bits.

I had just come across that wire

When we got back to our campsite late that night, we showered and then went to the only restaraunt in town, which luckily was right next to our campground. They made all their pasta fresh everyday there. It was some of the best food we had on the trip.

Then we made the trip down to Venice. Venice was really neat, with all the canals and stuff. It was also hot, crowded and expensive. I ate a lot of gellato though, that was only a euro for a big cone.

After one day in Venice, we left to go back to Hukeswagen. We spent a night in Innsbruck, Austria and had some of the best pizza ever and saw a fantastic sunset.

Once we got into southern Germany, I decided to see what our little fiat could do on the Autobahn when Cakes was napping. I managed to get to 170 km/hour. For us Americans, that's only 105 mph. I was getting passed constantly by BMW's and Benz's.

We were excited to get back and see the Olenders' after two weeks of camping. They are such a great family. Ziggy and I watched Formula 1 race which was cool, Eva's food and hospitality were amazing, Margarete was tons of fun and a great tour guide while we were there, and I spent most of my free time playing with Boni the cat. Boni always wanted to come into our bedroom. He would sneak in when we'd open the door and hide under the bed. Then he'd swipe at our feet from under the bed skirt. He scared the crap out of Kaycie a few times. Thomas was a great guy and took us to a latin concert which was great fun. Moritz, Margarete's boyfriend, was a lot of fun to be with.

The Olenders. Not pictured: Thomas and Moritz.

Notice Boni the cat staring right at Kaycie. She was his
favorite target.

Wha' Happened!?!

Hi Family and Friends!

We are guilty of blog neglect! We flew back to the USA on August 18th, and life since then has been non-stop graduate school, moving, unpacking, job-finding, etc. According to our blog, we are still in the Philippines! Whoops! Much as we'd absolutely love to be back there right now, we are finally settled in Charlottesville, VA and ready to post our last travel bits on Europe.



We spent our last days in the Philippines in Manila, and were able to attend a session in the Manila temple with Brother and Sister Sabio, Bro and Sis Cangas, Sister Bautista, and Sister Magbanua (who Merrill had the honor of baptizing on his mission). The Manila temple is absolutely gorgeous in every way. It felt like being in heaven to sit there with the sisters, with so much joy, and to reflect in such a peaceful place on our lives and what we are doing, and how much things would change in a few weeks. We cried when we had to say goodbye, and that night we flew from Manila to Germany through Doha, Qatar. We slept and read in the airport for four hours through the night before getting on another plane to make the connection to Germany.


At the top of the Koln Cathedral

We got into Germany, and hopped immediately onto a four hour train ride from Frankfurt to Huckeswagen. By the time we reached our friends, we had been up and traveling for 36 hours! Ouch! How I managed to speak German after two years away and on no sleep for two days is a wonder to me. We spent our first two weeks in Europe resting, eating (we miss Eva's dinners), and seeing the lovelies of the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium, with our friends the Olenders. We had a great time with them and are so grateful for their hospitality. We felt very at home, and played some wicked intense rounds of Siedler von Catan (settlers of Catan).

We enjoyed walks around the Olenders small cobble-stone lined town of Huckeswagen, bought a Christmas pyramid after climbing the cathedral spire in Koln, went to a Spanish music and dance festival at our friend Thomas' university (it was like a Corona commercial in a deutsch basement... awesome), and ate more Doner than one probably ever should (oooohhh Doners....). Doners are my absolute favorite thing to eat out in Germany. They are like a super gyro, with tons of lettuce, tomato, tzatziki sauce, and special spices. On more than one occasion, we had to stop, right in the middle of a walk or plan, just to buy and eat one. I think I could live on Doners for the rest of my life. Our two weeks with the Olenders were, in a word: wonderful.


Walking in Dusseldorf


Hiking in the Alps, Switzerland

One day, after a round of settlers, Merrill and I decided that it would be fun to see the Alps while we were in Europe. Why they hadn't crossed our minds during the eight months of planning and booking before our trip, I don't know, but last minute as it was, we decided to spend our last two weeks hiking in Switzerland, Italy, and Austria. We rented a car online, got hold of the only English alps book available at Koln's largest outdoor rec store, borrowed gear from the Olenders (thanks, Margarete!) and set off on our journey. Merrill and I drove nine hours south to Interlaken, Switzerland. We found the cheapest, most rustic camp site there, which happened to cost 30 Euros, and house mostly large campers with refrigerators and tvs, multiple shower/bath buildings with a billiard room, Internet cafe, indoor kitchen... all of this making us think at the time that Europeans don't do "roughing it" so much... (we were corrected in the Italian dolomites). We looked a little out of place next to all of these campers, parking our Fiat and tiny tent, and cooking on the ground using a back packers stove and the car floormats, but the cool weather and view of the mountains at sunset made up for it.



We spent a week hiking in the Jung Frau region of Switzerland. It was incredible! Go to the Jung Frau region!!! Just go! We saw glaciers, rolling green hills, larger than life deep blue mountains, including the Eiger, and lots and lots of friendly cows with bells on their necks. I only had one run in with a cow, who sort of ducked his head and charged at me, since most of the tourists kindly feed the cows as they walk through the fields and I didn't know about that... dang animal conditioning...I screamed, blushed pretty dang hard, and blamed it on my red back pack.





Most of our hikes were eight to nine hours of up hill relaxation, but the most challenging day in Switzerland included a "Via Ferrate", or "iron way," where we scaled the top of a mountain using climbing harnesses and repelling gear that clipped into iron cables and ladders. Why would anyone ever do this? A ten hour hike, where at one point you scale thirty feet of vertical ladders bolted onto the side of a cliff, literally hanging several hundred feet above the ground? Because I'm married, that's why. But luckily, just as in scuba diving, loving Merrill and letting him pick our adventure that day proved to be a wonderful experience. I loved hiking the via ferrate! I didn't look down...ever (I have some of the worst vertigo of anyone I know), but I enjoyed the views by looking out, not down, and it was spectacular.






Look closely at the top to see the ladder systems on the via ferrate


Going up!


And up!


View from the top



We had such a great time doing the via ferrate, that we decided to spend four days hiking the best via ferrate in the world, in the very northern mountains of Italy. So, the next week, we packed up the fiat and drove to Trento, Italy, to the small city of Madonna di Campiglio. Merrill will post our last travel pics from Italy this week! So stay tuned.

With Love for our Family and Friends,
Kaycie and Merrill

Palawan II

So, we're a little behind on the blog right now. Were actually in Germany and will be home in a few days, which makes us both happy and sad. However, we will still be putting up posts of all the places we've been on the trip and we hope to catch up in a few weeks.

Anyway, back to Palawan. While we were in El Nido, we decided to go scuba diving. It took a little convincing to get Kaycie to do it, but in the end she agreed. She didn't like her first time much, and every time I told her we should get certified and go on diving trips, she'd give me a funny look. This basically sums up her opinion of Scuba http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkxfnrLlNLo . I was really excited to go. Since we have each been once before, our dive master, Barry, took us out for an open water dive instead of going from the shore. Since I was all excited to go, I went in first. After falling backwards off the boat into the water I met Barry around the front of the boat where we decended into the water. I had to come up a couple of times to adjust my mask cause it kept getting water in it (a problem I had throughout the whole dive). When we finally started to go down deep, my left ear would not pop all the way no matter how hard I tried. I could get it to pop enough that it was bearable while I was underwater, but once we got down to about 30 ft, I didn't change depth much because of my ear. I swam with one hand on my nose trying to pop my ear most of the time. It was really fun, and I saw a bunch of fish and rays and huge hard and soft corals. When I came up, I my ear still hurt and I had bruised the tip of my nose from pinching it so hard and had gotten a little bit of a nosebleed. Kaycie saw the blood and looked less than happy about what I had gotten her into. She gamely went over the side and down in the water. I assumed that she would be back in a few minutes and that would be the end of our scuba adventures together. Well, and hour and twenty minutes later she comes up and before she's even on the boat she starts talking really fast about all the neat things she saw; the fish and rays and soft corals and turtles, and we all know how Kaycie feels about turtles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y . Barry told me that he had trouble keeping up with her, every time he looked away she'd be off chasing a fish or looking underneath a rock, or diving down deep to get close up looks at neat corals. Basically, she was like a five year old with a scuba tank. She got onto the boat and told me that we had to get scuba certifited and told me about all the places she wanted to go diving and such for the whole ride back. I spent the ride back trying to get my ear to pop.

I look hot in full body neoprene.

That was our last day in El Nido. The next morning we took the 5am bus back to Puerto Princessa. We'd flown up, but they only had a few flights a week, so we had to take the bus back. You know all those things you think about when you hear "third world bus ride?" The chickens and pigs, people riding all over the bus, someone with the large basket of some not so good smelling fruit, the bus flying around curves on the edge of huge cliffs, the guy carrying a lifetime supply of machetes? It was all that. Ask Kaycie for all the details. She was not happy when she got chicken blood all over her legs.

Back in Puerto, we went to the Sabang Underground River (http://www.new7wonders.com/ ). Or tour guide was named Jasper, and that is another thing to ask Kaycie about. Really. Anyway, we rode in a van with AC and then a boat to the entrance of the cave where we had to sign in and wait for a canoe with a guide to come and take us a few km's up the river. While we waited, we were told to watch out for the monkeys.

Their cuteness belies their devious nature.

These little guy were all over and liked to steal things from people, especially food. While we were waiting, and despite the signs and repeated warnings from the workers, we say one guy lose his hat, another his bag of chips, and a third almost get pooped on twice. (Monkeys don't approve of being teased.)

When it was our turn, they put us in some sexy lifevests and hardhats and took us 1.5km up the river.

Smokin'! That is the entrance to the cave on the right.

There were tons of bats and birds in the cave. Our guide told us that if we got dripped on and it was cold, that was alright because it was just water. If it was hot, it was bat poop. He loved that joke and said it about 5 times. He was also very polite, starting and ending every sentance with "SirMa'am" or "Ma'amSir."

One of the few pictures in the cave that turned out. This is the "heart" of the cave.

The little brown dots are bats. Gotta keep your eye on those buggers.

The exit, which is also the entrance.

We also went to the beach by Puerto Princessa around sunset for fun. We kept noticing that in the twilight the beach in the distance seemed to be squirming. We would walk over there, but when we got there, the beach seemed normal. Then we would see another part of the beach squirming and walk over there and it would be normal. Well, we stood there for a few minutes wondering what was going on when we heard an odd squelching/clicking sound. We looked down and the beach around us seemed to be bubbling. and then we saw the first of thousands of crabs that were coming out of the sand all over the beach. They would feel us walking and bury themselves, but if we stayed still they would come up in swarms. For some reason though, Kaycie couldn't seem to stay still when they would boil out of the sand all around her flip-flops.

This was the best pic I could get in the low light. The ones that showed many more crabs were all too blurry. Just try to imagine the top half of the picture covered in crabs

A close up of the cute little guys.

So that was most of Palawan, next up is Europe. We will probably be in Virginia when we write that one.