madrid

woke up in lisbon, packed the car and took off driving. the drive took about 6 hours, with a few stops, so 7 hours total. Highlight of the drive was the truck of goats that we passed, then pulled over to wait for, since laurie thought they were so cute. we did not pull over long enough and they were still behind us, so i slowed down to a crawl to let the truck catch up, cars were flying by, cursing us and a bus almost hit us. we pulled over again to let the truck catch up and this time we let it pass us. we then stepped on the accelorator to catch up and right as we caught up it turned off the fwy and we did not want to get lost so we did not follow.

we got lost driving in madrid, but i grabbed the map and got us going in the right direction. We were following yahoo directions in spanish and we did pretty well, but one wrong turn sent us toward plaza sol and the small streets. we arrived at the hotel not sure what we were getting ourselves into. we had got it on price line for 65 dollars and it had said 5 star hotel. it was a little off the beaten path, but had a subway station right nearby. we checked in and went to our room. our room was hot and the air was not working well. did i mention it was 105 degrees in madrid. Our bags took forever to come up and laurie just went down and grabbed her bag off the rack. I guess when a woman grabs a bag in the lobby and starts lugging it up , they get off their arses and do something. we were not very satisfied, but we were paying 65 dollars. I called down about the air, and they sent someone up. he worked on it, a little and told us to give it time. we went out exploring to buy some water and find some dinner.

when we returned the room was still cooking. we sat there in the room so tired, and exhausted and just upset. we called down, and they said that they would move us to a smoking room. We hate the smell of the smoking rooms, so we just asked the hotel if they could give us a fan and we would tough it out. The manager and very nice man, felt so bad, and could hear in our voices our exhaustion. He came to our room with a bottle of champagne and escorted us to their best room in the house. we thanked him. we looked at the room, which was beautiful. Went to the bedroom cracked the champagne and went to bed. we slept great, it was pitch black and cold in the room.

we awoke, packed our stuff up . the hotel asked us to do this, in case they could not fix the air and had to move us. we left the hotel around 10am. first stop breakfast at the open air market near plaza mayor. Laurie started her trend of gazpacho at every meal. I had coffee and a boccadillo con jamon. we walked in plaza mayor, and then over to the prado. we explored the prado museum for a few hours. we grabbed some lunch at a few different tapas bars. tapas are so expensive now. laurie had gazpacho again. started off walking to the modern art museum which we found was closed on tuesdays, so instead we walked around the big park in the middle of town. its the central park of madrid. Laurie was accosted by a guy with his shirt off, she just ran and caught up to me. she was walking along a creek and i opted for the dirt path. we got a good laugh out of it.

we then walked over to another big art museum near the prado. we must have looked funny moving through the museum so fast. we were art museum out after the prado and not sure why we went to this one. we then grabbed a few beers over looking gran via, and headed back to the hotel.

at night we found ourselves in the gay area of madrid, near cheuca. It was a blast. We found a great tapas bar. Laurie loved how the bar tender would just splash beer all over the place as he filled a glass and then threw it our way. Laurie had her third bowl of gazpacho. We walked over to another place and had paella. we grabbed a few more beers in a random plaza and then made our way home.

the air was working well and we slept well. The hotel had put a bottle of red wine and snacks in our room , for the inconvenience of having to pack our stuff up and not having air working. they were so nice, and the manager was so sweet to laurie when we called down to thank him.

the next day we took off to the modern art museum. Laurie had gazpacho for breakfast again. we had a bag of clothes we wanted to donate with us, and the museum wanted to charge us a dollar to store them while we walked around, so we just stuck them by a trash can outside. The museum was great. Still my favorite. We spent a few hours there and a lot of walking, since laurie made me take the stairs. Clothes were still outside the museum when we left. we walked over to la senorita, or nina, for tapas. I had some strange items, laurie had gazpacho and clams. I think i had stomach and snails. we left the clothes at a subway stop, we saw some homeless people nearby. we then walked over to the palace . We walked through the palace and the nuestro cathedral. Both were fabulous and had some great views. we then walked up to gran sol, and had a few afternoon beers, and did some shopping. we made our way back home, to shower and head out.

dinner was tapas crawl. we started near where we had lunch. as we exited the subway we spotted lauries sweatshirt and now buzzed from prefunking in the room, we got a good laugh at the site of the sweatshirt. we started off at a great little place, and we would have stayed longer except for the strange man grabbing mine and laurie's arm. how do we always find these people. we then found a few more tapas bars. Ended with beers in a random plaza and off to bed. we must have walked ten miles today. our feet hurt, but we got one more day.

The last day we shopped and just did some strolling, our plan was take it easy, get rid of all extra stuff and eat more tapas. we had dinner in plaza mayor and it was a stunning sunset. we found a street performer who made noises at people as they walked by. Laurie and i loved it, since he had a stuffed real sheep head on top of a wild colored coat. as people would walk by he would whistle and make the mouth of the sheep move. we must have watched for 30 minutes just laughing. The sheep spotted us just watching and waved us over. So i gave it a kiss and the crowd clapped.

Laurie and I walked around plaza sol and gran via and back to mayor where we had a last kiss and said our goodbyes to madrid. All the young couples were making out, so we did too. It felt very european.

we woke up at 4 am , and were in the cab at 5 am . surfboards put on board. we beat the crowd, and 18 hours later we arrived in lax. My surfboard is beat to heck. Probably 300 dollars in damage. Gigi picked us up and it felt good to be home. I have to say there was a moment in frankfurt as were connecting to our LA plane that we thought about just taking back off to the road.

I guess we now have to wait a few years and start part two of the blog. Honeymoonsurfwithlittleones.blogspot.com

lisbon

we arrive around 2 pm, after taking the roundabouts a few times to get our bearings. we find a quaint little place, and they can take our boards and show us where to park. we get lunch at a little cafe and i face my fears and eat bacuala (salted cod). Its good but heavy. i say face my fears because this fish got me sick in Porto.
we take off walking and our five hour journey takes us through downtown, to the water, then up a hill, to a some grand buildings and the famous church "Se" of Lisbon. we hike up to the castle getting lost on the way. how we got lost i am still trying to figure out. its at the top of the hill. we got so lost that we found a place to have a beer and think about what we did wrong. this bar has the most amazing views. once in the castle we walk around and see lots of stray cats . The views are amazing from the top of the hill. in the castle we get the most amazing views of Lisbon, well worth the hike up the hill. we take our time walking down through Alfama and back to our hotel. we have been offered pot and hash about a dozen times. I guess we look the type. Laurie just runs away when the men come toward her. our legs are exhausted and we got a lot of walking out of the way. we have a traditional Portuguese dinner.

next morning we wake up and stretch out our legs. with a little coffee and breakie, we head out. we first go to modern art museum, but they only have a small exhibit going and want 8 euros , forget it. so we walk around the area and decide to cab it to the tile museum. we loved the tile museum. laurie is now in love with tiles. she loves the blue and white ones the most. we then walked to lunch. i have pork ribs and laurie had a steak. we had a cute little lady helping us order, she spoke no english, and i would just nod my head and smile. she enjoyed our company. we adored her back. she told laurie to protect her purse on the metro. we walked over to the Fado museum. fado is the blues of lisbon. Its absolutely beautiful, usually just a singer and a guitar. it always sounds sad. we then walk around alfama some more and sneak in and out of stores. i find a great pastry shop and have an amazing walnut cake. i love my sweets. we head back and shower. drink a few beers in the room and blast vh1. we walk to dinner. I try a local specialty of sepia (big squid) with tinta (ink). its intense and the man who i ordered from feels bad for not warning me and gives me apple dessert. laurie has a nice steak and egg dish, her go to menu item. we then walk up the hill to barrio alto and have some beers. happy and tired we head back to our hotel.
day three i wake up more sore than the day before. laurie once she has had her caffeine fix is ready to hit the day running. she never takes escalators and runs up the stairs to keep up with me on the escalator. people just look at us. sometimes i take the stairs. when i know i will get to shower soon. we head out to east lisbon to the Oceanario . its their big aquarium. laurie falls in love with the sunfish and then stalks it for pictures the next 45 minutes. they have one huge tank and a bunch of small tanks with three floors of live seafood. seeing all fishes made me hungry so we quickly go through the water garden near by. laurie and i play on all the water wheels and pumps. we then get lunch at the mall. we find a surf shop and laurie finally gets her portugal surf shirt. she has surf shirts from all the countries she surfed in. we then bus it to the big bridge. Ponte De Abril . we find out you can not cross it, so we settle for a beer under it. we then head back to town. get offered pot twice. shower up and head out to dinner. find a seafood place, and we have garlic shrimp , amazing, clams, amazing, crab, good, and bbq tiger shrimp, very good. we get a few beers around and then decide to crash out. legs tired, stomach filled, lisbon has been great. great place, great people, great vibe.
in the morning we pack up , say our goodbyes, and head off to spain.

off to the castle and the beach

we drive south to a beach laurie saw on her surf map called playa grande. We find a cute little Residencia to stay in with an amazing view. the price is cheap and we are happy. we check out the surf, but it does not look so good, so we go into Sintra the town near by. Sintra is known for its castles and palaces , so we decide to hike around the hills. we head up the hill to a castle at the top. the views are amazing and the wind is hollowing. it was a real adventure. Laurie was scared since the wind was pushing her around on top of these perches at the castle. there are no guard rails so you grab on anything you can. we spent a few hours at the top before heading back down to the beach. we grab a great dinner, of bbq fish and bbq octopus. we walk around town and meet the local icecream maker. we talk to them for a while and head off to bed.
the next day the surf is huge and we do not dare go in, so we went back to Sintra to see what we missed. we see the national palace and then go to the Quinta da Regaleira . both are stunning , but the quinta is something else. the property has hidden tunnels all over and it took us three hours to walk everywhere. we had a blast, i hit my head about a dozen times in these little passages. i could only imagine what it would be like to be a kid and play hide and go seek here. we had walked about five hours so we decided to grab some lunch. i could not resist and had the pig ear salad. it was delicious. we then took a drive to the other coast , and saw the last of the surf spots. nothing looked too inviting so we just cruised the coast back to our hotel. we found a neat spot where wind surfers and kite surfers were catching huge waves. we took a look at the two local spots, still double overhead no mercy waves, so we just took a walk on the beach and brought out a smash ball kit we had bought back in spain. we played about an hour before my cheap racket broke and we called it a day. we got some beers, sat watching the ocean and waited to go out to dinner. on the way to dinner i ran into a local fisherman who had his picture up in the icecream parlor, i shook his hand and had a translator(local girl) let him know that i saw his picture and that i was impressed with these two huge fish he had. He was so delighted to be recognized by two americans . That night we saw him at the icecream parlor where his picture was up. I guess he felt the urge to visit, since he was now famous with the americans again.
we woke up gave hugs to the little ladies who ran the place we stayed in. They loved laurie, with hugs and kisses on both cheeks, and grabbed me and once again marveled at how big i was. they kept grabbing my arms and lauging and smiling.
we drove off toward lisbon.

find more surf in portugal

well we awoke to find a beautiful day, and Laurie got that "lets move on vibe, so we did". We checked out a few spots on our way down to Ericeira. Nothing look too good. we arrived in ericeira to find great waves, great weather and a great place to stay at. We got some lunch, and took off for surf. I was eating again, and now feeling better. Laurie paddled out at Ribeira d'Ilhas Beach. What a gem of a beach. There is a punch right point break, then an a frame break, and then another a frame mostly right break. all in the span of three football fields. Plus the beach is so beautiful , with the back drop being these cliffs that you look at out in the water. we both caught some amazing waves, and this is turning out to be my favorite spot , maybe in the world . The weather is perfect, the water is crisp and refreshing. We had a great session, out in the water i was talking to a guy who I felt i recognized. In the pizza bar there was another hawaiian looking guy that looked familiar too. I found out from a spanish guy i started talking to in the line up that i was talking to members of peal jam. They had played there last concert in lisbon and when they are here, they like to surf. Pretty neat. I own two of there albums, and now i can pick out one of the memeber since i have surfed with him.
we quickly made it back to our hotel to watch the world cup final. It was fun watching with a bunch of europeans, they are so into there futbol. we walked over to a nice little place and had seafood and rice for dinner. It was fabulous.
The next day we did the same routine, laurie surfed twice and I finished my book second book of the trip. I had really picked up my reading. My first book was heat, given to me by Dean , and my second book was a Hemmingway, "Ror whom the bells Tolls". Laurie has read a library so far, all surf biographies, if I get one more Layne Beechley thought or quote, i may throw the book over a cliff. so we surfed twice, and we had more pizza. this pizza place is a woodfire pizza at a bar, right at the beach. Two belgians run the pizza joint, and i have befriended them both. When they take breaks, they are out in the line up shredding it on their longboards. what a life. we headed back to our hotel that night and found a resturant that serves fresh, really fresh fish, bbq with olive oil and salt. Laurie wants fish every night now.
we awake again, and follow the same routine. this time out in the line up i meet joy a very nice local who tells about a few resturants that are reasonably priced and amazing. He is so nice that he drives us to both to show us where they are. we have a beer with him while eating clams in an olive oil, and lemon sauce. Laurie's other new favrorite food. it kills me to pay 10 dollars for the clams, since they will be free when we get to birch bay , washington. I try sea snails, which are meaty and delicious.
we then surf again, and head back home. We go light on dinner and just have something easy. In the morning we scour the rocks for since the tide is going far out. We love watching the men out in the tide flats with their sticks looking for crabs, octopus, almost anthing they can pry from a rock. We walk along the flats for an hour. lots of sea urchins and neat looking seaweed. we see a man pull an octopus from the rocks.
we decided to pack up our stuff and head to another beach. so once again on the road. I wanted to stay since i am now in love with ericeira.

off to portugal

We decided to drive to Porto. We drove around the city for what seemed like hours trying to find a hotel. our spanish was no help, and nothing was in english. the damn information sign led us in circles. we found a hotel finally and were happy to have our stuff somewhere. i thought about driving us out of town. we first walked to the main cathedral . we then found another church to check out. we then followed the walkways down to the river. We found a huge bridge that kids were jumping off of. it was intense. It must have been 50 feet and these fearless kids were jumping no problem. it was great when they would do the father son and holy spirit crossing and then kiss there hand , look up and then jump. laurie started stripping down to do it herself, which i talked her out of . We went in some of the most beautiful churches. church san fransico was stunning. it was worth paying for it. On top of one of the churches we saw a baby seagull. the mom seagull was trying to teach his baby how to fly. The seagull did not like us there so it flew up and then darted down towards our heads. we quickly ducked and screamed. it tried to attack us!!!! We looked at each other in amazement and then the bird came toward us again trying to get is again!!! we quickly got out of there. we hiked up a huge hill and then down to the center square. That night we watched the worldcup outside on the big screen. it was fun and huge crowd got into it. we then finished watching the game at a cute restaurant where the food was yummy. i was not feeling well since i ate some weird fish ball earlier in the day and he then drank about 7 beers and a pitcher of sangria.
the next day andrew awoke sick, we think food posioning. he was beat up so we drove out of town and to a cute surf town called peniche and stayed at a famous surf spot called Baleal. we have been here for a few days. i have been surfing and andrew has been recovering. i have not seen him this ill in a while. today while surfing these portuguese men accused me of surfing too close to some girl and then did the point at his eyes and then at me 5 times!!!. one guy then said"you don't even want to know what will happen to you if you hit that girl" then two other guys tried to vibe me. The wierd thing was i wasnt even close to hitting that girl with my board. i just surfed around them and stared them down. i was wishing andrew was out there. i know andrew would have just smiled at them, and they would have paddled away. well one more day here in peniche and then on to another surf beach in portugal.

spain again

we drove from hossegor all the way to mundaka. Mundaka was flat and a little bit of a scary city. so we decided to drive on. we found a cute little town and cute little hotel run by the cutest little lady. we stayed right on the beach in baiko. we went for a swim and drank some beers at the local little bars. I exchanged an American dollar for a euro ,with a local who was heading to costa rica and said it was the closest she will have been to the USA. we made it back to our hotel, for the most expensive and least satisfying meal of our entire trip. I miss france's food. everything i order and laurie ordered in france was amazing. Spain has been not so good and i am not sure why.

we woke up checked out the surf and then drove onward west. we stopped and surfed a great spot called lineres. i stayed with the car, and met the locals but laurie surfed her heart out. she caught some great lefts at a rivermouth. the Spaniards would cheer her on. I talked with the life guards and drank coffee with a referee for the world surf circuit.

we stayed at a local camping and hotel spot that caused us to have one of the most uncomfortable events of our trip. we wanted to put our boards in our room, but this old man said we needed to put them in this market room. no one spoke english and our spanish was failing. we kept asking him if people came in this room and he had put our boards about five feet up on this little shelf. i could not stomach getting another ding, since my board has been beaten so bad already. we ended up sneaking the boards out of the room and up to our hotel room.
we then were accosted by him when sitting down to dinner in the bar. he grabbed my arm , and in my face was yelling at me and i said no thank you, no thank you, until i gave him a manimal look and said" no mas" "no me gusta "and gave him a little shove. i had to show the machismo. we then walked in the rain away from the bar to another to find dinner. the food at both places was yucky. we miss france. laurie ordered a hamburger and got a ham burger, she is sick of ham so this did not work.

in the morning we woke up early and jetted, we did not want to run into this old man, who we found out was the crazy dad of the owner of the hotel.

we checked out the spot we surfed the day before but it did not look very good , so we drove onward. the weather had turned for the bad and we decided to just make it to a city and hunker down for the night. we stayed in gijon at a hotel above a sideria. we walked around town trying to find a laundry place, since i was now out of all clothes. i had been asking laurie to do laundry since france. it was now 5 days later. we found out that it was a holiday and nothing would be opened. so we decided to just walk around. we have now figured out that spain has weird eating hours. you can eat from 11 am till around 4 then everything clothes till 9 pm. this does not work so well for laurie and i. we are always hungry and order just horribly. we decide to get dinner at our hotel and watch the game later that night. we ordered nicely for once. we had paella and salads. the world cup spain game was a blast, we watched it with big crowds, and to make the night better spain won. everyone was out in the streets. gijon parties and we only saw the beginning of it. we went to bed at 1 am. we thought that we must have woke up again, cause it was so loud out. but i looked at my clock it was now 2 am. then at 4 AM, still loud, it did not get quiet till 8 am. i went for a walk at 9 30 am and saw a club letting out. people looked worked over.

we had breakfast and went off on our way. we found a cute little town called Tapia to have lunch and surf in. the waves were big and friendly,hah, you just had to get over the drop. we surfed for a good while. three men yelled cuidado when laurie went for her first wave. we then drove on.

we found a great hotel in Cediera where we stayed for two nights. the hotel reccomended a seafood bar for dinner. we drove ten minutes to the little place. we had clams, octapus, mussles, long clams, small cockels which laurie loved, and gooseneck barnacles the speicialty of the region. the food was amazing. so fresh so clean, it was the best meal we have had in spain. to top it off the bar gave us a free bottle of wine for it being our honeymoon. we went home happy, got a great night sleep in, and went surfing in the morning at a famous place called Pantin.
the surf was big ofcourse and had some nasty rips. i was happy to make it out. i was cocky and did not put on my wetsuit at first. i hit the water took about 5 steps and ran back up to the car and put on my suit. it was cold. we had a great session. we then got some lunch and headed to another spot.
at Dos Ninos beach , i walked out to find barreling nasty fast waves. laurie encouraged me on, but i know my limits. this was like zuma with a BAD ATTITUDE . i watched from the beach. no longboarders out in the water for a reason. i watched laurie just get thrown into the waves and thrashed a few times. she was getting worked and loving it. she looked like a pro out there. i think all this surfing and reading of surf biographies has changed her style. she is no more laid back , but a charging thrasher.
we got back showered and went to dinner. it was ok, we missed the bar already from the night before.
in the morning we said our goodbyes to the hotel owners and made our way to Santiago. we hiked around the city, taking in all the sites. its a very beautiful city and the church, is stunning. we went to a few museums but really just had fun walking around. we watched the world cup game in a bar and then took to the streets again. i found a restaurant that served tripe. Laurie had clams, her new favorite food. we went to bed happy and with a great view of the old city.

hossegor

we arrived in hossegor to get a surf session in . On the way out to the water we met a german named marc who told us about a cute little hotel. we surfed les bourdaines for about an hour. I caught no waves since the wave would jack up and give an el porto like throw. Laurie went zooming by on about ten waves, before i mustered up the guts to go for one. Water felt great and the weather was perfect. People in the water were nice to laurie, she gave the place two thumbs up.

we then went to the hotel, where we found a cute little room for 40 euros. we had a snack in the bar, and a few beers. we met up with are new friend marc and had dinner. Marc told us about his surf journeys and the difficulty of being a german surfer, since there is not much surf around. we walked around after dinner and made plans to surf in the morning.

we checked out a few spots in the morning but decided on surfing les bourdaines again. this time it was much better for me. we surfed for about three hours and laurie and i caught some great ones. we got a good laugh that marc on his stand up board managed to run into both of us. laurie at the first spot got a head on marc and i got a board on the back of the legs at the other spot. we kidded him about it. we told him that when he gets to la we will take him out surfing, but that he has to keep his distance while out in the water.
we walked around town, laurie loved every hossegor surf shirt she could get her hands on. we then went to the outlet, and met up with marc for dinner. we had diner at rock food a famous surf hangout in hossegor. we walked around, and made a plan to check out surf and outlets in the morning.
in the morning the surf was flat so we decided to go to the outlets and then head off to spain. we said our goodbyes to our new friend and off we went back to spain.

bonjour france

we left spain around 10 am and headed out of town. Not sure what hwy to take or how to get there, we just followed what we thought were the right signs. The surfboards were a little more secure this time since we got a different rack. We knew we had taken the right route when going through a toll booth , the lady said "merci" Laurie got so excited, she said back "merci, merci , we are in france" the lady laughed.

we drove in to Biarritz and not sure where to go, we found a cute little hotel. it really was the first hotel we could park at, since the streets were filled. we found out there was a festival down on the beach, that night. we had a fabulous lunch. I had a salad with tuna and anchoives, laurie had a fish plate with three different kinds of fish, two huge prawns, and a bunch of muscles. she ordered nicely. we went back to the hotel, saw the surf and decided it was time to go surfing. I was going to swim, and laurie surf. So we marched down to the ocean and we got ready to surf, and we were told , no surf. The waves look good, there was one person out , we asked, "why no surf" . The young man said red flag. well the red flag means its to dangerous to go into the ocean. in biarritz they created a break water and the high tide does not allow you to make a safe exit from the water. even though we were both good swimmers it was not safe, due to the side current and the lack of exits . they told us to come back at night.
we walked into town and found the surfboard repair shop. we then went back and had some drinks at a cute little place with a view.
that night laurie put on her wetsuit at 8:30 and i put on a shirt and shorts. she went surfing, and i went to the festival, they were in the same place. The surf spot is called Cote des Basques. Laurie caught some huge waves, i watched her fly down the faces, as i drank good belgium beer and ate french tapas. we were both happy. I saw her get out of the water , so i chased her up the stairs. we showered up and went to dinner at 11 at night. it was not dark till 10:30 which laurie was so impressed by.

The next day we surfed in the morning. I rented a board and then went body surfing. the waves had punch like el porto and i would watch laurie go flying by, as i pearled after pearl. i decided to bodysurf. The water is pretty dirty. Lots of plastic and junk in the water. Its pretty gnarly. Laurie remembers paddling into a plastic bag. we will need our anti-oxidants on this leg of the trip. we took my board in for repairs. It was a german guy, who kept saying he did good german work. we then walked all around town, and out to the sea rocks, and up and over the hill. It was just beautiful. The scenery is amazing. Laurie is in love with the hydragenias growing wild everywhere, with huge flowering stalks. we had a nice dinner and then we settled down to watch the world cup. Today we head to hossegor for some more surf. Laurie had read two australians surf biographies and they both talked about hossegor.
ovrua

the car ordeal and san sebastian

we take a bus to the airport to get our car. The place is crowded and when we get to the front of the line and there is mess up. they offer us a non automatic , but we do not know how to drive manual, if we did we would have been in a campervan. so they feel bad for us since its are honey moon and they find us a car. they give us the price we were quoted. We go down to pick up the car, and find that we are now driving a mercedes. a nice mercedes. we get to the hotel, strap surfboards on top the mercedes and take off. the racks that we have bought are not so good and we stop about a dozen times adjusting them. we finally just cross our fingers that they do not fly off the car and drive. we arrive in san sebastian 7 hours lateer to find another festival and another surf contest. Laurie is in surf heaven. San Sebastion is such a cute town and very romantic.
we find a cute hotel, that has parking. We shower up and head out to the streets. Its about 10 pm and the town is in full party mode.

we are not sure where to get dinner, but laurie is starving so we find a place that looks ok. The bar tender who has the most amazing deep voice was very nice and the waiter was super sweet, so we decided to stay. I had a few tapas from the bar. The big thing in san sebastian is the tapas, and how they just are put out on the bar and you grab what you want and you pay for it at the end. . laurie had a very nice steak, i had squid. the high light of the meal were the most amazing fried peppers, with salt and garlic. we have a few drinks and head back to bed.

The next day we hiked the mountain in the center of town for some amazing views. there was a cute museum and church on top of the mountain along with a castle. The hike up was difficult but felt great. we then hiked down and had lunch. we walked along the river , laurie and i holding hands. we decided to make out since every other couple was doing it. Laurie kept saying"its so romantic in spain."
I ate more tapas , almost every tapas could get my hands on. They are very different tapas, and there is a lot of variety. we walk all over town for hours. It is such a beautiful town. we walked down to the beach, where Laurie kept calling out waves that look good, and i would point out the topless women. All of sudden i heard some giggling from laurie and i looked back and she was now topless too. So i pointed at her and said topless. She would go about 5 minutes before putting her top back on, and then i would ask a question while walking and discover she was topless again.

We then decided to go for a swim in the Atlantic Ocean. Very refreshing. We couldnt believe how crowded the beaches were. the water was cool, but the weather was hot, which made for good swimming. we swam way out to the floats and did a little sun bathing. we then swam back shore.

We watched the first half of the usa game in bar till we could not take the smoke any more. i swear they just blow it right at laurie . I loved when in one bar she gave out a huge loud argghhh sound when this guy blew smoke her way, i quickly looked her way, he made eye contact with me, and i never saw a guy move so fast toward the door. we decided to leave spain the next morning and head to france.

barcelona

not sure what happen to the computer. so we arrive in barcelona at 11 in the night. we had left seoul at 1 pm. we have been in transit for 16 hours. we then wait an hour to get our boards. My board is damaged. surprised. we get a taxi, get to our hotel and hunker down for the night. laurie sleeps fine, i am up at 6 am wide awake.
In the morning we wake up, put a bag together and head out walking. The coffee is good and strong in spain, and the bakery goods are delightful .
We start off by doing some laundry at the laundry mat. I talk laurie out of letting the hotel do it, since they charge by the piece. Its nice to have clean clothes again. we were down to nothing.

we then set off to the familia sagrada. A wild looking church that is barcelonas most famous site. Laurie loves it, and it was how i remembered it from my trip in 1998 , which is fantastic. we then head over to the ramblas and walk into the market for lunch. The food looks so fresh. I get some bocadillos and laurie gets a lentil dish and a pasta dish. Both are fantastic. we then walk around the old city. jet lag has its claws in me and i need a double espresso. Laurie gets a churro y chocolate. We both laugh since that is the name of our high school spanish textbook. with caffeine in the body we charge on. we go to see gaudi's botllyo house. I saw it 12 years ago and it was even better the second time around. Laurie now wants to decorate our house gaudi style. we walk back to our hotel and i tell laurie i want a little nap. i then pass out at 7 pm and do not arise till 4 am . Wide awake at 4 am. I sit there wishing i only took a short siesta.

day 2 we have our wings under us and we hit the road running. we find out that we are there during a festival. so all the rentals cars are filled and we might be stuck in barcelona through the weekend. we go to the local surf shop, where we buy some roof racks for a car, since it does not look like we are getting a van.
we then go sight seeing. we go to park gruel and the harbor and to the famous church in the old city. 　laurie is not feeling well , so she crashes out, and i go searching for strange tapas. I find octopus salad. fresh and salted sardines and a few other local delicatesins.

we then watch some world cup and call it a night.

we stay one more night in barcelona and we get together the neccesities for our trip . we get maps and translation guides. we buy some little things, and we walk around town. we rent a car that we are to pick up the next day. we go have some tapas. I get snails in a spicy sauce, and squid cooked in its own ink. Laurie has a salad and gaspacho. we then get a few more little tapas and head to bed.

ｋｏｒｅａ ｓｐａｉｎ

when we arrived in the lobby we explained we wanted the shuttle over to the other hotel to catch the bus to the airport. They told us we could walk. I told them i wanted the shuttle they offered. It was hot out and if I carried all our luggage , I would be covered in sweat and i would sit on an airplane for 11 hours covered in sweat. heck no. I put a little LA stink face on and we got our way.

Airport went sort of smooth. They wanted to charge us 600 dollars for are surfboards. We bargained it down to 125. We were off. Good bye korea hello lufthsansa. The flight was full to frankfurt. You know someone loves you,, when they share　ｔｈeir　ｓｅａｔ　ａｒｅａ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｙｏｕ　ｆｏｒ　１１　ｈｏｕｒｓ．　　Ｌａｕｒｉｅ　ｒｏｃｋｅｄ　ｏｕｔ　ｔｏ　ｔｅｃｈｎｏ　ｍｕｓｉｃ，　ｗｈｉｌｅ　ｉ　ｗａｔｃｈｅｄ，　ｔｈｅ　ｂｌｉｎｄｓｉｄｅ，　ｉｔｓ　ｃｏｍｐｌｉｃａｔｅｄ，　ａｎｄ　ｔｈｅ　ｔｏｏｔｈｆａｉｒｙ　ｓｔａｒｉｎｇ　ｔｈｅ　ｒｏｃｋ．　　ｓｏｒｒｙ　ａｂｏｕｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｆｏｎｔ　ｃｈａｎｇｅ，　ｔｈｅ　ｂｌｏｇ　ｄｏｅｓ　ｍｙｓｔｅｒｉｏｕｓ　ｔｈｉｎｇｓ　ｗｈｅｎｉ　ａｍ　ｗｒｉｔｉｎｇ．　ｉｔ．　Ｉ　ａｍ　ｇｏｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　ｓｔａｒｔ　ａ　ｎｅｗ　ｏｎｅ，　ｓｏ　ｉ　ｃａｎ　ｇｅｔ　ｒｉｄ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｔｙｐｉｎｇ　ｓｔｙｌｅ．　

last day in Korea

james picked us up at eleven. He drove us to a nice new suberb of seoul, that reminded him of irvine. I having never been to irvine, will have to take his word on it. Seoul is growing so fast that these new little just pop up. We ate a nice little japanese/korean fusion bento place. I finised my bowl first , then i ate lauries , then i ate james leftovers. James was amazed . we then got some coffee , and took in the nice day. weather was perfect. Overcast and breezy. It was nice to not have the heat and humidity of the past few days.

James then took us for his favorite dessert. Its crushed ice with either coffee or cream, and red beans and ice cream. Perfect dessert. I will be looking for this one in k town when i get back. We then drove to see james condo. He showed us the elementry school he attended and the middle school he would have attended if he was not told to pack his bags one june and shipped of to the states. He had a day to pack as he remembers . The view from his place is fantastic. The surroundings at the base of building are spotless. Kids running around everywhere.
We then went down to the beach. aka River. we walked along the river, learning more about seoul. Seoul in its rush to grow, forgot to put in greenery, so now it is trying to replace some of the concrete with green. Seoul is like LA meets new york with no parks. The river park seems to go for ever, and we saw tons of bikes on the bike path along with roller bladers and runners.
we then went back for a quick clean up and out to dinner with james and his girlfriend.
He took us to his favorite shabu , shabu resturant . food was good and clean. we loved it.
we took a tour of the university at night. Looking for the pelicans. I found a mouse ,which i pretended to pick up. Everybody believed I had it and took off running as i approached.
We said good bye heyoshin, james girlfriend, and james dropped us off.
James you were an amazing host. We hope to see you both soon in LA.

hanging out with tor and becky and eating live octopus

first stop was the kimchi museum. Laurie had been talking about this museum since we arrived in seoul. We finally found it, with in the coex mall. This mall is massive. Museum was not very big but very informative . We read about the different styles of kimchi, the different vegetables, meats and fruits used, and how it was prepared in the old county and now. We were so impressed we bought a dvd on how to make kimchi and will be attempting it when we get back.

Walked around the mall, getting lost a few times. we then took a subway to the fish market. we arrived early , and walked around a little. I called tor and told him we were at gate two. But we came off a different subway and realized the one he was on, had no gate two. Laurie starving tried some deep fried seaweed rice logs. she was in heaven. i asked for a second little piece which she denied. thanks.
we went over to the subway that tor and becky were coming in on. I was keeping my eyes peeled since i had told them gate two and there was no gate two.. A few minutes later I see them both , and they are asking someone on a bridge where gate two is. I quickly grab lauries hand and run over toward them and shout it, "there is no gate two". Tor shouts back , I just found that out.
we introduce everyone and we are off to the fish market.
tor and becky have left portland and are teaching english in a suburb of seoul. they had been to a fish market a month earlier in busan, and suggested we try it out today. The fish market was great. We saw everything that was ever in the ocean and more. we walked around taking pictures and trying to figure out where to eat. somewhere there were suppose to be restaurants. A chinese guy took a liking to me, and wanted me to arm wrestle his friends. As we were walking becky and laurie took the lead for about two minutes, till the men swarmed them and they fell back behind tor and I. I guess tor at 6'3 and me at 6'5 made good blockers for the women. we were confused on where the restaurants were and finally asked directions. A man walked us to a place. we were not sure but it looked clean, and they had what we wanted.
we sat on the ground and the hite beers, and appetizers came out.
i was disappointed cause i thought these ten dishes were all we were going to get, and i was starving.
so far we had kimchi, some other vegetables, some skary looking fish, mackeral, tofu, salad, muscles, and quail eggs. I thought this is it.
next thing i know the doors open and two huge plates of sushi show up, we had some white fish, tons of it, and then we had tuna, sea squirts, abalone, uni, clams, crab, yellowtail, egg, shrimp, friend tempura like veggies, salmon, squid, everything was there.
so the lady then showed us how you should eat the fish, she took a piece of lettuce, stuck some fish in it, put some red miso looking stuff , put some fresh garlic in it, a little chilli, and then wrapped it up, made a gesture towards her mouth and then looked at me and shoved it in my mouth. it was heavenly.
Next to come out was octopus, still moving with sesame oil and salt. you know its fresh when it is still moving. its wild. as you eat it, it sticks to your mouth and is still moving around.
we loved it. even an hour later in to our meal , when you would grab a piece it would still move.

completely full, we walked out into seoul and started strolling around town. we walked to the subway and caught a train to a market laurie and i wanted to see. it happen to be next to a man made creek so we walked in the creek drinking beers . we got to hop rocks over the creek, and tor and I stared down the fish, wishing we had a pole.
we then went on a hunt to find a restroom, which took us to the third floor of a closed market. it was hostel spooky. Tor and i decided to try chicken feet, pork skin, pork face, and pork kidney. we sat a market stall, drinking sochu and beers and trying to figure out if it was polite or not to spit out the loose bones we found in the chicken feet. the food was amazing . we feared for our stomachs, but i was fine that night and the next day. we bought some more beers and hung out near the river again. we then decided to find some more food , before parting. we found a chicken and beer restaurant, had some good chicken and some good beer, before making our way to the train station for the final train of the night. my stomach was in shock of what i ate. I felt like i was andrew zimmerman.
thank you tor and becky for a fun day.

more palaces and james takes us to a buffet

woke up and walked to coffee bene. I love how they take the name of something popular and change it a little . Coffee bene looked similar to coffee bean.

we then jumped on the subway and headed to a group of palaces we did not get to visit the day before. Weather was humid, but mild, i was worried about sweating through my clothes in the first twenty minutes. Laurie loves humidity and was practically running around as i slowed to a turtle pace not to soak my clothes.

The palace was beautiful. There are three palaces connected and they cover a great deal of ground. Laurie has found an appreciation for doors and now takes pictures of every door she comes across. we toured the first palace about an hour and then walked around the second palace. The second palace was much bigger and contained a green house and two large ponds. We loved the ponds , because as you stood near the edge , this monster looking creature in the water would start swimming toward you. the monster turned out to be giant koi. we finished in the grand palace and then headed out into the street.

we were so hungry we ate at the first place we came to. I went safe with bim bim bop. Laurie had a spicy octopus fried rice concoction . we then walked to the local art market and strolled through watching the street performers and checking out all the shops.

I ate some fried street sweet dumpling, laurie would not even get near. we then walked down the street looking for a subway to make our way back. we took a wrong turn and ended up in an alley with tons of food stalls. I wanted to try everything but laurie reminded me were going out to dinner with james, and it was going to be a buffet. We were most intrigued by the barrel of black centipedes. they were huge, and we wanted to ask if people ate them or used them in medicine but the man not happy with us staring , then shooshed us on.

we decided to walk to dinner and it was a great idea, till the thunder kicked in and the skies opened up. It was also warm out. we arrived early to dinner soaked. Dinner was fabulous. we got to try a little of everything. We also got to talk to James girlfriend more, who we just adore. she gave laurie a lovely gift she had picked up . James we are waiting. we finished dinner and decided to walk around. James took us to a bar that over looked seoul. we then walked over to the food stalls , and we were pointed out what was good and what was not.
the rain started coming and laurie and i took a cab back. Another great night in seoul.

korea loves their football and the palaces and markets

woke up and got after it early. we found a coffee bean, and had our favorite drinks. we jumped on the subway and took it to the seoul city bus tour line .. Laurie has been talking about bus tours for days now and she wanted to do one. we made it to the bus, and jumped on. we then went 200 feet and got off, since the first sight was the first stop and we wanted to see it.

we walked around the deoksugung palace. We just loved it. so open, so beautiful. the colors of the korean palaces are brilliant. we walked around the palace for about 45 minutes, and then headed to the front for the changing of the guard ceremony. we loved it. took pictures with the guards, and then jumped back on the bus.
next stop korean national museum. we had lunch at a little cafe. Laurie had kimchi friend rice, and all you can eat kimchi. the lady kept saying , something in korean , like "no way your eating more." i had a nice soup.

museum was huge and we fell behind schedule so we moved through it quick. Laurie loves korean paintings. Our favorite was a waterfall painting. the water fall was left blank but both sides were painted and the sky above it. symmetry was perfect.
we then jumped back on the bus . we drove up the seoul tower mountain. then jumped off the bus at the korean traditional village. Laurie tricked me into sticking my head through a traditional korean womean photo cutout. which all the locals laughed when seeing me stick my face through it.
we walked around the village , learning about ancient life in korea.
back on the bus we headed to dongdaemun market to find korea t-shirts for tonights game. the best we could find was an xxl that was really a xl. the market was huge and there was tons of street food. i held off since i did want to see the game that night and was not sure if it would give me problems. I did hear the voice of ken sackman in my ear, saying "do it , do it" ken is my food guru.

not finding any 3xls. we decided t try the american market near the us base. so we subwayed over to the market. i did find some big and tall stores, but no korea shirts. we saw a lot of american soldiers in the area, and we got back on the subway and headed home.

we made plans to meet james at a bar to watch the game. we walked to the subway and then to the bar. we were wearing are red shirts and the koreans loved it. the place was getting fired up. everyone was wearing red and the streets were getting packed. we saw on tv , that they had shut off street and put up huge tv screens. we knew if korea beat argentina all hell was breaking loose.

the bar was great. the game not so much, since korea loss. Laurie and i loved the bar food. dried squid, beef jerky, peanuts, raisins , seaweed sticks , and banana chips. I looked at james, with a what the heck look. he just smiled and said, its good, and its korea.

we got to meet james girlfriend, and she is just fantastic. we then walked out together and down to the subway , making plans for the next night.
james was spent, work all day and then he really let it all hang out with the game. he was leading cheers in the bar, and i could tell he was upset at the loss.
laurie and i jumped back on the subway, and we headed to the late night food area around our hotel. we had spicy pork and sweet beef bbq. laurie tore through the kimchi like it was going out of style.
food was great, we walked home satisfied and tired.

Korea day 1

laurie and i got our own rows on the flight from auckland to oskaka. Once again air new zealand was fantastic. we then switched planes in osaka to air asiana and flew into seoul. It took 3 hours to get out of the airport. I decided to put our surfboards in storage at the airport instead of lugging them around.

we found a bus that took us to our hotel. i was glad to be in the bus with air conditioning . we have left the winter of the southern hemisphere and we are now in summer and it is hot and humid.

We decided to go to korea to visit my good high school friend james ahn . Its his busy season with work but he was excited to have us visit, and especially during the world cup. The hotel he booked for us was super nice, and he is refusing to let us pay him for it. he keeps telling me its a korean hospitality thing, but i keep telling him , i met him in high school in the states, so that falls under states friendship, but he decided we have a worldly friendship and we agree we just have a really great friendship.

once in the room we decided to head out and get some lunch . we walked into one restaurant and were not sure what was being sold. I have decided to eat there on my last day, since we now wave at the owner when ever we pass it.
we walked around this back street amazed that it was packed with restaurants. we did not know what place to head into, and after walking back and forth a few times we just chose a busy place. They spoke no english, but we pointed to dishes on the menu, and smiled and bowed a lot. We lucked out, because we got a beautiful cold noodle dish and a hot beef bulgoi dish. laurie started inhaling the kimchi, she just loves it. they give you all these amazing side dishes. we shared a hite beer. we loved it so much. I tried tipping at the end of the meal and the lady thanked me and then gave it back. they just do not tip. we did a lot of bowing and smiling and rubbing our tummies and headed out the door. we went back to the hotel and then walked around the area.
That night james took us out on the town. we started at a beautiful resturant that had a waterfall. we had the most amazing korean bbq. we just kept laughing, that we were finally in korea. we drove around seoul. traffic puts the 405 fwy to shame. we had coffee at 10 at night, and the night was just warming up for seoul. james works early mornings teaching kids how to take the sat's and toeffl. so we called it a night.

closing up in new zealand

well we woke up checked out the surf and then decided to head to the peninsula near christchurch. its a windy road in that took us through a mountain, up over two , and down two more. we got to a cute little village where we had lunch and then set off driving up the the mountain and down the other side into some beautiful bays. We tried our hand at fishing but got no bites. Laurie wanted to camp in one of the bays but i got a spooky deliverance feeling. we ended up camping back in akeroa.

In the morning we did a little walk through the city and got off on the road. we stopped by a cheese factory, where cheese was over priced and not very good. we felt bad they opened up a bunch of cheeses for us to try but we did not like any.

we had a breakfast lunch back in town , i decided to try polynesian food , corn beef, banana fritters, and these delicious noodles. laurie wanted indian too, so we ate indian lunch special for 4.99. We were stuffed and decide to check out the surf on the chance it was any good. It had been ok so far down here.
we arrived at the beach to find it pumping. Huge waves just rolling through. We paddle out through the boat launch and were put right into the line up. The water was colder than anything i have ever been in. I was scared to put my face under the water it was so cold. my neck would cramp when i had to dive under the waves. We caught some beauties . the beach was called sumner and its known for being a longboard spot, but you could ride any board today. felt like a beach break sunset, with both lefts and rights. sunset being the one in LA, not hawaii. we surfed till we could not feel our limbs anymore and then we drove to some hot showers and hunkered down for the night.

next day we surfed again, but it was not as good. we checked out town and we found a new campsite to try out. we walked to a local tavern to watch the all black beat up the irish. we then went next door for dinner.
we had dinner at a nice steak house called lonestar. the walls covered in a history country music, new zealand sport and culture and what ever else the owners wanted up. after eating dinner and drinking a few beers, we decided to head home, but on the way i started talking to two nice gentlemen.
Our introduction and talking started off a three hour country music , beer and rum and coke drinking extravaganza . The owner of the restaurant knew his country music and gave us a tutorial in it. Laurie was in heaven, since she knows and loves country. I other than lady antabelum and johnny cash was completely lost. I grew listening to hip hop i kept saying. But we had fun listening to these great tunes, and hanging out with these two great guys. We closed the restaurant down and i laughed when both guys called for a cab. Laurie and I walked home through the freezing night , 31 degrees. we crashed. What a great end to our christchurch segment of our trip.

the next day we turned in the campervan, and headed up to auckland. we walked around auckland . It was a beautiful day . Boarded our airplane and headed to Korea.

south island day one two and three

we woke in the morning and drove hundred yards to the ferry. boarding was fun. we went on the bottom with the trucks. the ride was rocky but fun. we played cards and drank coffee. we arrived in picton to pouring cold rain. we found a great bakery and had lunch.

on the road we got. when we arrived in kaikoura , we found a surf contest going on , so we stayed and watch. coming into town we found the seal colony and laurie fell in love. baby seals are cute.

they also smell.

found our campsite and made dinner. we ate the last of our fish and read up on news and e-mail.

in the morning laurie surfed mangamanu. she got some great rights and was the only girl out. it was too cold for me, so i read my book and took pictures. we then went fishing wear i caught a shark. not a big one. only about foot and half. we then went back to our campsite and laid low. it was freezing. The next day we woke up and went back to the surf spot. no one was out and the wind was howling . we found a waterfall and hiked back to it. In the water fall were a hundred baby seals playing in the current and waterfall. they were so cute. we watched them sliding down the rocks and playing around. laurie was in seal heaven. she wanted one to get in the van. we then went back to kaikoura and decided to leave. we headed south towards christ church.

we found a little cafe where i had a toasted cheese sandwhich with spaghetti and laurie had a toasted bagel with her choosings on it. they were both delicious. we got to christchurch and went right to the surf spots. they did not look very good. so we headed back to our campsite. had a great dinner and went to bed. its now freezing. i mean 32 degrees freezing.

today we woke up and checked out the spots. we went back over to the other side of the bay. it was low tide and not looking very good.
i found out today my 96 year old nona has passed away. she loved my travels around the world, and always loved the post cards i would send. She is fantastic. I called home and wanted to say hello to everyone. she had been holding on for as long as she wanted. I guess it was time. she kept pulling through the last few years. she reminds me that anything you want is possible. she was always up for a good gathering and where i get my love for hosting others to good gathering.

We decided to surf one , in her honor, and we hit the water at 1 pm . The water was colder than anything I have ever been in. I and laurie caught some great rides in nonas honor.
and that bring us to today.
Today was good. I am glad my grandmother gets to see her love again. I am with my love. She never remarried and always smiled when she talk of papa nick. he was a fun one. He was her best friend. Yet she carried on for 26 years with out him and never once did she complain. I hope he has been working on his tennis game, because i know my grandmothers knees are going to be feeling pretty good when they hit the court somewhere out there in the universe.
laurie and I love you nona.
we miss you.

Lauries biggest wave of her life.

we woke in the morning to find the surf much bigger at oakura. we then drove to sky williams and mangahume . Well we found surf. It was huge, sets were double overhead. Phil and laurie were first to get in the water. Lorna thought it was too big and decided not to go out. I took my time and decided to get a surf in.

I watched phil and laurie make a nice entrance into the surf and paddle out. I on the other hand did everything wrong getting in. I saw laurie catch a huge wave. The phil caught one, then laurie again. I paddle out to meet them. The waves were so big i could not see them and thought they left the spot for another one. i was cursing them both in my head. These waves were huge.

at sky williams there were only 4 people out. phil,laurie, I and guy. it was scary. Once i met up with them, i was not a happy camper. these waves were big mamas and i was out of shape. Plus right when i got there , laurie told me, "don't get caught in the washing machine" , what the heck is that. Phil called outside, my least favorite word, and i looked up to find just 5 monsters rolling our way. what did i get myself into.

I paddled my heart out but i did not make it, and i just ditched my board, cursed laurie and phil, out loud and in my head, thought how smart lorna was sitting up on the cliff taking pictures, and then i dove down as deep as i could, felt the wave over me, my foot being dragged back by the leash, and then trying desperately to make it back to the surface, thinking this may be the day i drown. But relax andrew, relax. back to the surface for air and looked again down the face of another mama about to break on me. again , i dove. This was a 5 setter so , five dives. I saw phil again, and i said WTF.
phil said to think positive thoughts. i flashed him the bird.
laurie was swept away and it was phil and i out in the middle of this bay with huge surf coming. i turned on a few waves but i was scared. ten minutes later laurie showed up again. who knows where she goes when she gets washed away. she said the washing machine got her.

laurie caught a few more, before no goodbye, no warnings she just paddle off to another spot. phil asked me where she was going, and how did she have the strength to paddle so far. i just shrugged my shoulders. i told phil i was going in, and i went for a big wave. i caught it and i was off to the races. i was flying down the face of this wave, i finially got up, got about three seconds of wave and then lost control doing a flying face plant in to the wave. its all on film thanks to lorna. i got to replay my facial and sinus cleansing when i got back to the car. i then got stuck in the washing machine. f laurie and phil a few more times, paddled into the middle of the bay and slowly made my way in. i then saw rocks under neath me and thought oh boy. made it to shore, kiss the ground and waited for phil who followed in. we then saw laurie catch a huge mama at the other spot called mangahume and then saw her get washed around till she came in .
lauries description of the biggest wave of her life " i started paddling for the wave. i was going, it was my turn. as i was paddling i heard two guys start whistling like this was a big one. i felt the wave jack up and i started flying down the wave, my goal was to do a bottom turn and ride back to the top. instead i shot down the face and when trying to turn was shot forward even f aster and then was shot into the whitewash. no turning for me. i just road it out. I then tried paddling back out but gave up since i was heading for the rocks. "
Laurie came out so stoked, that she ran back to the car and cracked a beer. she was just glowing and singing its good to be alive. she was giddy.
we then went to breakfast with lorna and phil. we saw the great pictures lorna took. lunch was good. we decided to check out another spot. When we got there, phil and i backed out, too big, lorna was not in either. Laurie was in her wet suit and paddling out before we could say wait.
i made tea and coffee for us land lovers.
we watched laurie as she paddle way out to sea . she caught two great waves. one was a very long wave. the spot was called arawhata. we said are goodbyes to our new life long surf friends . we heard the strait was going to get bad from wellington to picton so we needed to get down there. it was sad saying goodbye. but lorna and phil were planning on going to peru soon and they needed to stop in los angeles. surf club get ready .
we drove through the night getting to wellington at 9 pm. we found this parking lot to stay in. paid our 12 dollars and went to bed.

The big fish.

we made a plan to meet up later with phil and lorna in opunake. We said if we catch anything we would have a fish fry.

we met paddy, his son mark and estefan from new mexico at a maui station road. we then drove down this road and parked on the side. we grabbed the gear and hiked through sand dunes to a fishing spot.

for the first hour and half we were hooking sharks. it was fun, laurie and i both got a try. Paddy was getting angry with the shark and wanted us to lay into them, now that we were on steel leaders.
I was pulling in this fish, really aggressively, until paddy got a glimpse of its tail and realized i had a new zealand snapper on the line . He then coached me into how to land this big fish. It took twenty minutes of reeling this fish in. i had to walk with the fish down the beach when the surf went out and then pull again when the surf broke. Finally the fish got landed and paddy came running over for a high five and hug. I was in shock. only ten percent of people in NZ catch this fish. Everybody was so stoked. we then through our lines out again and caught some sharks, this time landing one. we then went to the weigh station, where we found the fish to be 9.02 kg. thats a 20lb fish. more high fives. Paddy and mark were fantastic guides. They just loved fishing. we went to paddys dairy farm , where we met his family, and laurie and i got to see his garden and play with his dogs. he filleted the fish and we had a grand old time hearing his fish stories. we called lorna and phil and let them know we would be eating fish tonight.

we drove to the campsite where phil and lorna were. we showed pictures of the fish which no one could believe.. we ate fish, and ate fish, and ate fish that night. it was fantastic. we drank beers that night and prepared for big surf in the morning.

Taranaki Surf---the big fish, and the swell is coming

In the morning we were skunked and decided to exchange numbers and meet up later for surf, if we found it.

Laurie and I once again drove down the coast looking for surf. Phil and lorna had to get supplies for her teaching gig.

we bought a fishing rod and decided we would surf and fish where ever we went.

we drove up and down the coast looking for surf but did not find anything. I called phil , who said they had settled in at oakura beach. We decided to meet up with them. when we arrived the surf looked pretty good and i thought this was time for my first surf of new zealand.

laurie was dressed in her wetsuit when i opened my surf bag to find my board dung in two spots. laurie had a loose fin and the fin key was not to be found. Phil and lorna were catching waves so we decided to quickly take our board to the shop. we got a fin key and i dropped my board off at csa board shop to be fixed by the next day. I got laurie back in time to join lorna and phil and she surfed while i fished.

They got some great waves and I got no fish, but we had fun and my board was being fixed. We had fun that night exchanging stories and hanging out in the parks kitchen, with the cookers and oven on full heat to warm the place up. Phil brought out the teachers scotch and we had a great night.

In the morning the surf looked good again and lorna and laurie went for a session. Phil had done a header into the sand the night before and was not feeling the surf. I fished for two hours but caught nothing.

we went to see if the surfboard was ready, which it was not. so i took laurie to back beach where she had a good session. Laurie went in and had a good session, I hung out with the locals. Laurie got some great waves, while i drank beers and talked about growing up in taranaki with a guy name trim. it was getting near 5 oclock and we needed to pick up the board. trim said we should surf here in the morning, so we made a plan to meet up around 9.
we went back to oakura and had dinner with phil and lorna and drank into the night once again. Phil was predicting big waves , so we decided to find some surf in the morning.
In the morning we drove to back beach where i had my first surf. It was perfect size and we all had a good session. Phil took the morning off and got some great pictures of us surfing. I made friends in the water , and performed my mayor duties well .
we had made arrangements to go fishing with a guide at noon and we were behind on time. Laurie wanted a surf t-shirt so we drove back into town and found one. we then hauled ass down to opunake to meet paddy for a fish.

coast to coast--- and new friends

we woke up and went to the local camping store. i bought some thermals and laurie bought some gloves. we decided to head to the bay of plenty to see if there was surf. about an hour later we showed up to mt. manganui . Cute little town with some good surf shops. we went over to the beach, where we found an ocean flat. depressingly flat. we thought about hiking the mt, but laurie wanted surf. So in the car we got and we drove across the country all day to the east coast. we reached a cute little camper park right on the ocean. this area was known for surf, but we found a rain storm. The night would be 50 mph winds and rain. In the morning more rain. We woke up late, got a late start and drove two hours to fitzroy. we checked out a lot of spots none of which look that good, and we found ourselves back at fitzroy.

At fitzroy we walked in to the kitchen , to see two people , one playing guitar and the other ｄｒｉｎｋｉｎｇ　ｈｏｔ　ｃｈｏｃｏｌａｔｅ．　ｉ　ｓａｉｄ　ｈｅｌｌｏ　，　ｈｏｗ　ｄｏｅｓ　ｉｔ　ｇｏ，　ｍｙ　ｎａｍｅ　ｉｓ　ａｎｄｒｅｗ．　　Ｔｈｅ　ｇｕｙ　ｐｌａｙｉｎｇ　ｇｕｉｔａｒ　ｓａｉｄ，　”ｗｅ met already. "
I thought when.
It then occured to me that we had met in raglan and i thought these two were very unsocial, i would soon find out, i made a wrong decision　ｏｎ　ｔｈｅｓｅ　ｔｗｏ. Laurie made her way into the kitchen. And the couples of andrew and laurie , met the fellow surf couple　ｏｆ　ｐｈｉｌ　ａｎｄ　ｌｏｒｎａ．

ｗｅ　ｄｒａｎｋ　ｂｅｅｒｓ　ｔｈａｔ　ｎｉｇｈｔ　ａｎｄ　ｍａｄｅ　ａ　ｐｌａｎ　ｔｏ　ｈａｖｅ　ａ　ｓｕｒｆ　ｔｏｇｅｔｈｅｒ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｍｏｒｎｉｎｇ．　

Rotorua , blue lake and cheif of the maori

woke up and got on the road. we drove 3 hours to rotorua. we arrived early and decided to get lunch and head out to our campsite. rotorua is very touristy. we did a two hour hike around blue lake, that was cold and crisp and beautiful.

we were picked up by our maori tour around 5 pm. driven to their head quarters where laurie practiced dancing with these balls on a string. i read up on my maori history. we got on a bus, where laurie raised her hand for me to be chief. i led the bus in some canoeing chanting.

when we arrived i was seperated from the group and had to stand in front on the meeting house. warriors came out and did a war dance in front of me, threating to hit me with sticks and weapons. i was not to laugh or smile. all the time laurie was giggling over behind me. at the end they put a stick on the ground and i go pick it up and then we lead the group into the village. in the village you learn about maori culture. its freezing out and these poor actors are in loin cloths and little tops. we then go inside for a dance and song. we then go to dinner.
laurie loved the food. i was left asking for more flavor. they offered lamb , chicken and mussles. laurie was in food heaven. bland was my call of the food. i much prefer the hawaiians wayof cooking . we then went home where i led the bus in a singing of the oregaon alma mater. laurie sang marymounts alma mater.

we got home and froze are butts off again.

glow worms,surfing, hells burger and cold weather

we woke up and drove straight to the break. a few guys were out so laurie decided it was time to get in the water. she has been itching for some surf. i decided to stay dry and take pictures.

The weather was horrible. freezing cold, windy, rainy; i found myself in the car with the heat on watching laurie surf. she surfed for about two hours and while i was warm in the car, i looked up and did not see her in the surf break. i started to get worried so i got out in the rain and started walking over to the sea. she was no where to be found.

finally she appeared walking over some rock cliffs. her foot gushing blood and a big smile on her face. she had that super stoked face going and had to start describing the waves to me . she cut her foot on the rocks when she went right on a wave and took it too far. her foot look like a meat lever had gotten to it.

we dried off and drove to bridal veil falls . it was now pouring rain and laurie could not wait to run down to the falls . i wanted to wait out the tidal wave of rain, but laurie was out running the path. i followed. the water fall was beautiful. since it had been raining all night , it was really gushing. so much so, that it scared laurie to be out on the plank looking over it.

we then decided to drive to waitamo. we arrived at around 3:3o pm and i was going to try on a suit for the next days tour. when i asked a guy how was the cave tour he replied we were about to go on it. i asked if we could join the group. they said to quickly go pay.

we put on our wet suits, and booties, they supplied. got in a van and were off . first stop was a platform to practice jumping off , simulating what we would be doing inthe cave. i went first. we were about 6 feet in the air. we put the tube on our butt and jumped backwards. water was ice cold.

we then got back in the van and drove to the cave. at the entrance you climb down a hole in the ground with water rushing around yourfeet. into the dark you go. we first climbed around limestone staglaglites, which looklike icicles . we then got in our tubes and floated in thedark. we then jumped off a waterfall in the dark. floating along we turned off our cave lights and youcould see the glow worms on the ceiling . really neat. we then jumped off some more waterfalls in the dark, saw more glow worms and went down some rapids. when we left the cave it was dark. the gal leading are tour had done a year at ucsb. what a small world.

we got back to the black river tubing headquarters and took warm showers. we then headed for our campsite. it was ice cold out.
what a good day. we got two things done in one day.

new zealand day one

got the campervan and took off to piha beach. Took about an hour to get there. The beach was beautiful , and there was surf, but it did not look that good. Kind of blown out and very santa monica-ish. so we got back in the van and decided to head to raglan.

Arrived in raglan right at dusk and went straight to the beach to see what the waves looked like. FLAT.

It was beautiful. manu bay looks like it has potential. I met two brits in passing in the kitchen.

the rain is setting in and we are going to bed. its cold.

sydney goodbye , hello auckland

Took a bus out to mantraville, where i walked half of a mile in the pouring rain. Did not even bother opening up the surfboard bag to see if it was ok. Called a cab, to get back to the hostel. Laurie was waiting in the entry area, reading her book and looking very warm. I was soaked through to the bone and cold. Thats what i get for riding a 9 foot board.

We got dressed up for our last night in australia and headed out on the town. Had a few beers at the oldest pub in sydney , down near the harbor. We then had dinner at the 4 seasons. We were given a gift certificate as a wedding gift. I enjoyed the sweetbreads, which laurie would not try. Laurie loved the scallops and our lamb was good. We just share everything. I think we look like starving animals when we eat. We can not help but make a mess of the table.

In the morning the cab showed up as planned, we loaded on the surfboards and off we went. At the airport its never easy. We took our boards lugging them around to one place then another, then we were told the wrong directions and had to walk back across the airport, all worrying that our flight was boarding in ten minutes. THrough customs we went. Laurie having forgot to pack some bottles in our luggage, was very upset to lose her dial antibacterial body wash and her hawaiian tropics sun screen. The angry side of laurie was coming out on this poor airport man. I took a step away. So in all we lost facial wash, body soap, sun tan lotion, and a 12 dollar bottle of red wine.

We were flying on air new zealand , but we did not know what to expect. We get on board, and it is the nicest airplane we have ever been on. THere coach is uniteds first class. Oh how we got screwed over having to fly united from LA to sydney. I am definately writing a letter. I watched a movie on my personal tv, while laurie danced to techno and read her new book, Laine beachleys , how i became a world surf champion.

We took a bus to our hostel, and took a walk out to the city center. Found a cheap little indian place . Good night for our first night. I got us lost getting back to our hostel, and its ice cold.

in the morning we took a cab to our campervan place

crocs,birds and waterfalls

Woke up and took one last shower outdoors and decided it was time to head to cape tribulation. The humidity is killing me, although all the locals say its just beautiful, and that i should have been here a month ago for hot and humid.

We headed north to cape tribulation. You have to take a ferry across a croc infested river. Once across you are thrown into the rainforest. Laurie was in LOST, JURRASIC PARK Heaven. The rainforest is beautiful. We did a bunch of forest walks and then made it out to the cape. We turned around and headed to the daintree.

In daintree we did a croc boat trip, which laurie pulled me into kicking and screaming. The humidity was wearing on me, and I had a caffeine headache. I loved the trip more than everyone and even spotted a lizard. I was praised by the boat captain. We saw, birds, pythons, crocs and cattle. Laurie loved the welcoming swallows, who would fly next to the boat.

We decided to head back to cairns and check out the waterfalls.
We asked for are same dog smelling room at the hostel. After talking to the front desk put our ac on and i was in heaven.

Next day we headed out. we drove up a mountain , winding around , we both felt nauseous . At the top of the mountain we hit the tablelands, and i was back loving australia. The humidity was gone and it was cool. We hit our first waterfall milla, milla. I dove in to the ice cold water and swam around. Laurie was too cold and did not come in. Next water fall was beautiful, zilla. You could not swim in this one or the last one of the circuit, but they were all beautiful. We had lunch in a little town, and then decided we needed to head back so we could turn in the car by five.
On the way back we saw josephine falls. I asked laurie do you want to go. SHe made a last second choice of yes, and so i hauled ass down the back roads to get there. We speed walked down the path to the falls, and found the most gorgeous swimming hole and water falls. There were huge rocks that the water fall had carved our and there were two parts to the falls. Laurie found a way to get up the rocks and next thing we know everyone was climbing the rocks and sliding down the moss covered rocks in the falls. we lost track of time were having so much fun. We ran back to the car in our flip flops, and sped for cairns. We were not sure if we could make it to budget in time. We had to be there by 5 15. we made it there filled up with gas at 5:12. We walked back drinking beers in the street. took a shower did laundry and walked what felt like an hour to dinner at a nice little korean place. we wanted vegetarian indian but when we got there the building was condemned. we took a taxi home. I took another shower, since i sweat through all my clothes on the walk.
woke up today and headed to the airport. We are back in sydney and i pick up my longboard tomorrow night. one more full day in australia and we are off to new zealand.

Great barrier reef and back

Woke up early and had our toast and coffee. Wavelength picked us up at 8 am and drove us down to the docks.

We were asked who got sea sick and a few hands went up, but laurie and I thought we would be fine. I guess surfing helps out, since you are always rocking on your board.

We take off and the seas are little rough, i felt a little queasy , but only when i look back into the boat. Laurie was running around the boat, hanging out up top, on the front, and she brought her A game sea legs. We were handed our fins, mask and these little sun suits which we both loved. Took about an hour and forty minutes to reach the first spot.

We dove in. Laurie and I took off together and we were in a whole new world. The reef look great and the day was windy, but with clear skies. Very good visibility. The coral was beautiful and we saw the little nemo fish and the parrot fish, and angel fish, and giant clams. We kept pulling at each others fins to point something out.

We got back on board for coffee and muffins.
Next spot had a giant fish waiting for us. THey called it a maori fish. THis huge green blue fish was so personable. He just hung out near us and would swim around us. He took an instant liking to laurie , who took an instant liking to the fish. She is now talking about getting a maori fish one day. We have some great pictures with are new friend. This spot had even better coral, and we explored the different chunks of coral.

Back on board we had lunch. buffet style. Laurie not liking buffet lunches where people could touch things, opted for packaged crackers and tea. I ate her portion.
Next spot had turtles and sharks. I got caught in a current and taken far away from the ship. I looked up and i was all by myself. whoops.

We got back on board and headed back. On the boat we met two Canadians from vancouver island. One carlo looked just like anthony. We are set to meet up with them again later in the summer when we go surf tofino. We had beers with them and invited over the captain JR and the marine biologist Mike for beers. We drank beers for about two hours and made a plan to meet carlo for dinner.
The captain JR runs a boat to swim with whales in august. Laurie wants to come back and swim with mink whales now. He was so nice and offered to store laurie's surf board while we headed up to cape tribulation and the daintree.
Dinner was at a little thai restraunt. FOod was ok. My favorite was when i asked for one large soup for the three of us. INstead he brought three large soups for each of us. Thats a 16 dollar for one and 48 dollar for three mistake. I was good in a good mood, so we did not say anything. SOup was good, not 50 bucks good. but good.

said goodnight to carlo and then drove to the gas station , since laurie was craving chocolate ice cream. went through a drunk driving check point. glad i did not have a beer with dinner. Got home and continued our ping pong battle. we ended up tied 5-5 in games, but i call that a success against laurie aggasi miller.

Hiking with the snakes.

We stayed at a dumpy little hostel in cairns our first night. Since we were delayed 5 hours and ate and drank at the airport in Brisbane, we were just ready for bed.

We open our door , and found two twin beds, and the smell of wet dogs. Good to be home.
I have to say, I was so disappointed in the hostel, but after falling a sleep at midnight and not waking up till 9am, this little place with a little engine who could air conditioner and its pitch black no window room, gave me the best sleep i have had since the wedding.
We woke up and got our free coffee and white bread toast. We decided to head to port douglas.

We choose a nicer place in the lonely planet and decided to splurge a little. We choose the Pink flamingo . Laurie was sold at outdoor shower and the jungle in the background. It just happened to be the gay friendliest accommodation in Oz. We got a mini tour of the pool, game room with ping pong, and our villa with outdoor bath and shower, and lauries favorite pink bar with a disco ball and cher playing on a little stereo.
We decided to live it up and the pink flamingo through in a bottle of champagne for us. We lit some candles and started drinking , bathing, laying around in the hammock, and watching all the birds and bats flying above.
Day two we drove to mossman gorge and took a swim in a beautiful creek with boulders and rushing water. Laurie made friends with a tour guide , who showed her how to scale rocks and jump into the rapids. I was chased around by a black fish who tried to eat my pinky toes.
Refreshed we hiked home to outdoor showers and more hammock swinging. It was carnival that night so we headed out on the town. THe streets were packed, and we had a nice seafood dinner. THe energy was electric. We were having a blast.

Next day i handed over the planning reigns to laurie, and she decided hiking was the call of the day. First hike, up a creek bed to a waterfall and swimming hole. Well we had trouble finding the start of the trail. I parked on someones front lawn. they looked gone. We hiked down a dirt road and found the creek. There were no trail makers, so we just winged it. we started first trying to make our way around the side of the creek. 30 minutes of climbing through vines and jungle, thinking about snakes every step. Laurie opted for just hiking through the knee high water. I was more a land man. We would shout to each other when we got out view. About two hours in I decided one more bend in the river and if we did not see a water fall we were going back. My shoe had a come apart and the sole of my shoe was flapping around. Thank you 200 dollar lowe hiking boots from a16, bought 4 years ago and used twice.
Well no waterfall so we turned around. Laurie was afraid of snakes so she just hung out in the river. I liked land with my broken shoe, so i hugged the side. FInially i found an abandon road and decided it was better than going through the bush. We ended up in some tall grass. I was being attacked by mosquitos. Laurie had a cut on her arm that had swollen up. we made it back to the car and decided to try the other hike.
WE could not find the other hike so we asked at the croc farm. Laurie made friends with this lovely lady who scolded us for not wearing long pants and not carrying a snake kit and an ace bandage if were were to hurt ourselves. SHe smoothered on some random ointment on lauries arm. Laurie came back to the car and relayed the news on to me. that the hike was close by, but we had to go through two football fields of over grown snake grass , with two of the deadliest snakes in australia in the area. We decided to go check out the beach, with the no swimming signs , due to salt water crocs. Home we went, back to outdoor baths and candles.

THe Longest Day, thank you jet star.

Wake up and clean the van. I even dumped the toilet waste on the van for the first time in three weeks. We gave away all our extra stuff (food, cleaning supplies, etc. ). We made good time, and decided to get up to the airport early to check in.

Get to the airport around 12 pm. We take all our stuff. Two bags each and two surfboards to the check in. Its about ten minute walk lugging all our stuff. I get a hole in one of my bags some how. Get to check in, and we find out our plane is delayed to 9 pm at night. There goes dinner in cairns.

We then find out my surfboard is too big and they will not take it. We find out we can not check in this early either. F U jet star right now.

A fire alarm goes off and they all have to evacuate , so they do not even give me help on how to get my board to places.

I call sean knight a friend of Dave and mindy cunningham my cousins. He and his dad, give me a number of a guy in sydney they know. I call him, and he concieves a plan to ship him the board via a company i have no clue where they are in brisbane. We have two hours to turn in the van. Laurie starts driving in the city, which she does not like, but she drives great. I am on the phone trying to figure out how to get this surfboard somewhere.

we find the place with an hour to go. I walk up with the surfboard and the guy looks at me like , WTF. TRucks are flying by, since this is a huge shipping company. I mean big rigs.

They say i have to go back and get the campervan and drive up to the window. SO we drive the van in with the big rigs and circle this huge shipping center. ITs really surreal. We park next to a truck and i walk up to the counter. I am wearing a bright orange safety vest. Company rules.

The Australians and the company NQX were so nice, they could not believe that jet star would not take my board. I got a shorter board so it could fit on plane flights. Well in the board bag I said goodbye to my board. It was being shipped to a guy in Sydney whom i never met.

We then barely make it back to the maui center to turn in the van. We then pay 30 dollars for a cab ride to the airport. They make an exception to check us in early at 4 pm, for a flight that was at 5 :30 now at 9 pm.
We spend about 100 dollars on dinner and drinks at the airport and make the best of a long long day.

Flight went smooth and our hostel picked us up from the airport in cairns. Are room was dark and we got a great sleep in. We are now ready to start the adventure again. No surfing but some rainforest to see and some reef snorkeling. Maybe i will get to eat some crocodile and mud crab while up here.

Laurie loves it here so far. Its like the amazon and hawaii put together.

up and down

Noosa was a flop for waves. It was flat, cold and rainy. We missed a swell down south at snapper. Our camper site in noosa was sad and crammed. Wde decided to head south again.

we got down to kirra again, and the swell had passed. what do you do when there is no surf and cold weather? you shop around. we picked up skype head phones, and still can not stomach paying 90 bucks for an ipod radio tuner. the radio in australia is sub par. you get one station out side of the big cities.

we decided to make big dinners at night, and went all out. first night we had fresh big prawns and mullet. both were superb. second night we had tiger prawns, mud bugs, kingfish and a fish i have never heaRD of . mud bugs are like stretched out craw dads, that look like they are from the dinosaur era of time. look up morton bay bugs. they were good.

so we drove south to balina , where we found some surf,but also a memorial to a 17 year old who was taken by a shark two years ago. we decided to watch. we then checked out every spot from balina to snapper, and they were all flat. we decided to go to the airport an move our tickets up a few days. we are headed north to Cairns, the reef and the rainforest.
we did get a surf in at duranbah , it was waist high and quick. laurie killed it, i got lots of sand in my shorts.

surf and hike

woke up in burliegh head, and it was flat. Laurie still wanted more surf so we headed back to snapper rock. Got a good 3 hours of surf in and then were left with the question what to do next. A couple on the beach suggested going inland. After some reading and info booth talking we decided to go up into the hills to mt warning. stayed the night at mt warning, where it was cold. Morning we hiked the hour and half up the mt., to great views and fresh air. Part of the hike involved using a chain and scaling rocks . laurie loved it. I sweat through everything i owned. we had lunch at the parrot cafe. Laurie's choice. she was sucked in by the tourist trap pamphlet.

we got back downin the mt record time, and decided to drive to noosa.

gold coast

we surfed the rainbow bay area for three hours. laurie paddled over to snapper rock, where she fought teenagers for waves. we mostly hung out at green mount.

currently in buriegh head,

byron bay

we actually spent the night in lennox head but laurie did not like the looks of the wave so we went to byron. no breakfast just coffee we surfed for four hours.
first ten minutes we see a guy get pushed off a wave and told to f off. we then see another guy shout , i should punch you in the face.
yet another then tells laurie and i , if you don't like get the f out. its the topanga of australia.
but i met heaps of great people and they think have some trash here and so you turn your head and you bring goodvibes.

we are loving it here. we can here the waves from our capervan, and as laurie puts it. WE ARE HAVING THE TIME OF OUR LIVES.