Leeches in Laos

The roosters woke us up at dawn, but Kat and I laid in bed for a little while longer, not wanting to wake the guys sleeping in the main room. eventually we decided to get up once it was a little light out, and suddenly Kat looks down at her chest and sees that she is covered in big blood stains. she holds up her hands and sees one is covered in blood and still bleeding. Thank goodness the blood only got on Kat's clothes (and white jacket!) and not our hosts' bedding. that would have been a nightmare. Kat reported that her hand didn't hurt at all and remembered feeling "something gooey" on her hand in the middle of the night (after we had our midnight wee) and flicking it off. Leeches! well we couldn't sleep after that, so we got our flashlights out (it was just barely light in the room) and searched the bed. the leech was on the mosquito net just over where my face had been! lucky me we woke up before it got hungry again. We patched Kat up and everyone had a big laugh about Kat getting a leech in bed. Then we had a yummy breakfast, sampled a little "medicinal" lao-lao (just a sip, it was 7 am!) and went for a walk around the village with Udon. It had rained during the night and everything was wet and muddy. At one point Kat realized she had another leech on her foot and flung it off in time. Then we all realized we had leeches on our feet/legs and all got them off in time before they attached (except Udon, who had no leeches, and told us to keep moving for goodness sake, then we crazy falang wouldn't keep getting leeches). When we got back Isaac took off his hiking shoes and realized a leech had attached to his foot. He removed it and it bled like crazy, but luckily we had band aids. Then Fredrick found a leech on his leg, already attached unfortunately. a little while later Kat found a leech in between her toes, that had gone unnoticed for quiet awhile. In the end, I was the only one who didn't get a leech attached to me! And everyone thought I would be the first, because I am so accident prone. I always say: being accident prone makes me more cautious. Hah.



However, I did get an innocent enough looking bite on my chest the day before that days later got a little infected and started to look really nasty and you could see 2 huge fang marks half centimeter apart where a rather large spider must have bitten me, so what are you going to do, you can't win them all.

We continued back to Pakse at a leisurely pace after saying goodbye, good luck, and thank you many times over to our hosts and the other villagers. We then went to see some waterfalls, a coffee plantation, a tea plantation, a market where Udon explained the strange fruits and vegetables and encouraged us to buy some outrageously entertaining Lao music videos (which we did, the hip hop being the best that we saw), had another yummy lunch where Udon ordered off the menu venison for us, since by that time he learned we did not want falang food but real Lao food.



We stopped by some road side huts where people were making the knives that the farmers cut rice with (Isaac bought one). The metal of the knives comes from truck struts as nothing is wasted in Laos. It was pretty cool and I got some video of them hammering the steel. None of us noticed what all the anvils they were using were made of until Udon nonchalantly pointed it out. They were huge unexploded ordnances from the Vietnam war. They were literally hammering as hard as they could on the base of the inverted bomb again and again. Obviously at some point someone had taken the charge out of them (or "the boom" as Isaac says, since neither of us are bomb experts). This was not some show for the tourists. Every knife making hut we drove past was using huge bombs as their anvils. And that's about all I have to say about that.

We said a very sad goodbye to Fredrick, Udon, and Aot and exchanged email addresses when we got back to Pakse. As luck would have it, we did run into Udon and Aot again after our 4,000 islands trip, and now that we are in Vientiane and completely done with traveling through Pakse, I am a little sad. I won't be able to think of Laos without thinking of our homestay with Udon, Aot, and Fredrick. Next up: Don Khone and 4,000 Islands!

Bolaven plateau and homestay: part 2

That evening we arrived in the rural Lao village where we were to spend the night, after navigating some of the worst roads I have ever seen. They were so flooded and full of holes and ruts I thought for sure we would have to get out and push, but Aot is a fantastic driver and we never got stuck. Add to this any number of water buffalo, little kids, stray dogs, pigs, and chickens and you can imaging how hard it would be to drive on those roads. I can assure you we held on for dear life in the back to keep from flying up and hitting our heads on the top cover of the sawngthaew.



When we booked our 2 day tour with Green Discovery eco-tours in Paske (and I cannot say enough good things about Green Discovery, I highly recommend using them if you are in Laos, and from the Pakse office you can request Udon or Aot as your guide) The traditional trip had us staying in a guest house. I asked if we could do a homestay in a village instead and the office manager, who was also wonderful, said he would call around and see what he could do, even though that wasn't the way the package was planned. When we got to the village, Udon explained that we would be staying with the uncle of the office manager. He had put us up with his own family! This was beyond generous and cool. Everyone in the village is a coffee farmer (at least for one job, it seems everyone in Laos has at least 2 jobs) and they had only had one other group of falang spend the night in the village, ever. The previous group had been all women so Isaac and Fredrick were the first male falong to ever stay in the village. Ever, people. When we arrived Udon told us that since coffee bean harvesting had just begun the previous day, all of the heads of the households had all gathered for a day long meeting to discuss the harvest, and to celebrate drinking beerlao and lao-lao (rice whiskey moonshine, tastes like Awamore from Okinawa, anywhere from 40 proof to make-you-blind proof) since the morning. Needless to say the atmosphere was festive and friendly. the house was built on stilts with a kitchen, communal room, 3 bedrooms and electricity. The bathroom is outside and consists of a squat toilet (everywhere in Laos) and a large tub of rain water and a bucket to pour the water over yourself to bathe. we all took turns bathing and let's just say it was brisk, to say the least, since the sun was almost down and the Bolaven plateau is cooler anyways. I would say it was in the low 80s upper 70s at that point. The bathing was an interesting experience and I'm glad for it since that's how much of the world bathes. Still, I wouldn't voluntarily give up my nice hot showers when they are available!

They were out of beerlao so they sent someone to get more (on the awful roads, in the rain, no less!) and then Udon said he had a surprise for us. He had been telling us since our tour the previous day that we were special to him, friends now, and he had a surprise for us.



The surprise turned out to be a baasii ceremony, which every Lao person (we were in a Lao village, not a minority village) has before or after a trip, during a wedding, when they are very ill, or other special occasions. They were doing it for us as their special guests, and this village had never done it for falang before.The ceremony was beautiful, moving, and very special for all of us. it was a big honor and it's hard to put into words but I will try to condense it for you. The ceremony consists of the head of the village making a long speech calling our Khwan, or guardian spirits, back to us if they have wandered away because we will need them to protect us on our journey. White cotton strings are placed around a stupa-like arrangement of banana leaves, rice, lao lao, candles, and water. All the adult villagers who were present (maybe 10-15) reach in, touch the arraignment, say something in unison, and take the strings. then they one by one come over to the 4 of us, and Udon and Aot also, and tie the strings around our wrists while wishing us well. the strings stay on for 3 days to bind the guardian spirits to you and then need to be untied, not cut. After that it gets even more festive and we pass around a cup of beerlao that we keep refilling and all drink from, with everyone encouraging whomever is pouring to give the fullest glasses to whomever is already drunk, or whomever is saying they shouldn't have any more, naturally. I guess some things are universal. And keep in mind most of these guys had already been drinking all day during their meeting. Festive! Udon and Aot taught us some Lao drinking toasts and we all talked about our lives and families and got to know each other better, while Thai soap operas and Lao music videos played on the TV. From what we have seen of Laos even the poorest huts have satellite dishes. Everyone likes their TV! The villagers seemed especially interested in what the weather was like where we are from, and what we thought of Lao weather. Natural I suppose, seeing as how they are farmers. The more beerlao that was drunk the more it seemed that that everyone forgot we can't speak Lao so I had some people trying to ask me these questions directly and I had to run over and grab Udon or Aot to translate! Dinner was, as usual, delicious. The men all slept in the communal room, the Lao women slept in the 2 childrens' bedrooms, and Kat and I were given the nicest sleeping room, the parents' bedroom. When we got up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet (which is outside of the main house) the stars were incredible (Isaac saw a shooting star when he went to pee). Apparently, that's when Kat got her first leech, although we didn't know it until the rooster woke us up at dawn. Next up: leeches in Laos!

Bolaven Plateau and homestay- part 1

We had the most amazing 2 days traveling to the Bolaven Plateau with Udon, our guide (from the previous trip to Wat Phuo), our driver Aot (who also speaks English, pronounce "ought"), Kat, and Fredrick from Belgium. Everyone was 23-35 years old and full of energy so it was a great match of people. We rode in the back of a small pickup truck with a roof and bench seats called a sawngthaew, which is pronounced similar to Tsing tao (the beer) so that's how I remember the name. Everyone had great fun listening to my tone deaf attempts to pronounce words in Lao, since Lao is a tonal language. Sadly, I don't think being fluent in Lao is in my near future. We first stopped at an eco preserve near a waterfall where the Lao government has set up several different households of minority groups to live in the same village, each in their traditional dwellings and clothes. This is the villagers' choice, and Udon says the families choose to do this because they get plenty of food and their children get to go to school, which I gather is rare in the minority villages as well as the poorer Lao villages. Udon said even if school is free, which it often is out in the countryside, if the kids don't have money for the uniform, books, paper and pencils they can't go. Also they may be needed to work on the farm or at the family business and therefor not be able to go to school. This eco preserve also helps the minority groups because it funnels the majority of tourists into this manufactured village, where they can take a million photos and see the tribes without damaging the actual tribal villages' culture by exposing them to too many outside influences. Isaac bought a neat but awkwardly shaped musical instrument that we are hoping to mail back home today or tomorrow. I am sitting in our hotel in Vientiane writing this and it has certainly become the proverbial albatross around our neck at this point, albeit a funny one, as we attempt to transport it on tuk tuk, sawngthaew, and my favorite, overnight bus. But I digress. After that we had a yummy lunch at another waterfall, and Udon ordered our food for us so it was delicious. Everything was eaten with sticky rice and we loved it. Soup with lemongrass and tamarind is my other new favorite thing.



After that we rode elephants from the river into the jungle to another village. It was Issac and me on one and Kat and Fredrick on another. The seats were pretty rickety, (Isaac's back/side support was completely broken), so we hung on for dear life when the elephants needed to go up or down hill. I will say that the sun was blazing when we weren't in the forest! We had a great time, with butterflies everywhere and everyone in the village staring at the strange falang (foreigners) as we went through. Not many falang visit the villages that aren't off a major road. Our elephant was pretty hungry and kept veering off course to sneak some leaves, much to the dismay of the elephant trainer. We had just seen her eat a ton of bananas but what can I say, she is a foodie like us. She was pretty slow but managed to pick up speed quiet a bit when she saw a variety of leaves she liked! Kat and Fredrick's elephant kept using her trunk to blow air on them and made sounds that sounded like a dolphin. Truly adorable. We also had a funny moment where I heard Kat (behind me) say to Fredrick "what a weird looking bug OHMYGODITLANDEDONKERRY" at which point I shook my entire upper body, heard a loud buzzing sound, and saw a huge brightly colored beetle fly off my shoulder. Oh, and twice I had the same spider-as-big-as-my-hand in a web right by my head experience as the last time we rode elephants in Cambodia. This is always slow motion scary, almost comically so, because the elephants move SOOOOO slowly, rocking way out of the spider's path and then lumbering back into it. I ducked way down and the spiders scurried away when they saw us coming, so it ended well. Ironically, both spiders were on the side of the elephants that Fredrick and I were on, and we are the two most scared of spiders! Udon later told us that Lao people cook and eat these spiders. No thanks.

After that we continued driving east, into Salavan and Paksong. The weather got cooler the higher into the plateau we traveled, which was a relief, and we stopped by several Katu and Alak villages along the way. The Katu historically carve their coffins way in advance and store them under their raised houses/huts, but since there is a wood shortage we only saw a few concrete coffins. I'm not sure if these are just symbolic now or if they still use these as their coffins. The kids were really excited for me to take their photograph and when I would show them the image in the display they would shriek and laugh and all the other kids in the village would race over and try to get in the next photo.



I must have showed them 10 photos in a row and their screams of delight never seemed to diminish. I could have stayed there all day . I did get a little video of Kat showing them their photos and their reactions after. Incidentally, Aot and Udon love that Kat's name is "Kat" so they renamed her "Meow" or "meow meow", which is Lao for "cat". Everyone keeps thinking Kat is Lao and they don't initially understand that she is American. Udon explained that they never see Asian Americans or Asian Europeans although they do get tourists from other Asian countries. "Falang" refers to white or black foreigners, not asian foreigners. So Udon was explaining to the other Lao people that Kat is secretly "Falang", since she is American. I think Kat has gotten used to the response she often gets after she replies that she is American, which is "but you look like us, where are you really from?". So she just says Korea now when they say that. I am curious to read Kat's blog and see her thoughts on the whole ethnic identity/nationality thing. She has been writing in her paper journal and calling it "blogging" so I anticipate some Kat's Meow blog action when we return. Maybe it's nothing to Kat but I am fascinated by the fact that she is Asian and American seems to be blowing everyone's mind. Next up: Homestay!

Slipshod Slipgate

Here we go. It has been several days since our last post, and much has happened both good and bad. The bad first, to get it out of the way: 2 days ago we had brief internet access and Isaac checked his email. He got an email from his friends at work saying his game studio is shutting down and everyone is out of a job at the end of December (actually, they are out of work now, but get paid until December 31st). This is quiet a shock since everything was going so well and the company even hired several people right before Isaac left. Gazillion is keeping it's other studios, Slipgate Ironworks is the only one shutting down. Obviously there must be some reasons behind this drastic move but everyone just keeps telling Isaac that they will tell him more when he gets back. After the initial shock and requisite panic over money, we realized we will get by with my job and his unemployment check as long as we live frugally. And that's assuming the worst; that he doesn't get another job before the end of the year. Now Isaac is just really bummed that the job he loved and the game he was so proud of is ending so suddenly. Hopefully he won't be out of work long, more from a self esteem point of view then a money one. He really wants to stay in the game industry which will be more of a challenge now that he doesn't have a shipped AAA game credit under his belt; he did however make a lot of contacts and is very talented so I believe it will happen. We've seen many friends in worse situations get laid off and handle it with grace, so we will just try to follow suit. When we were on the Bolavan Plateau (more to come on that soon) our guide Udon heard the fourth member of our tour, a very nice Belgian named Fredrick, lament that is nice SLR camera was stolen in Bangkok and now he has to take photos with a crappy replacement point and shoot his entire trip, and lost some of his photos as well. Udon said that in Laos it is considered good luck to lose a material possession because then later you won't lose something important like and arm or leg. He said that especially on river trips Lao people try to lose a little something in the river! So that made me think of all the "bad news from home" emails we could have gotten, and this one was by far the best. So maybe this will save us from getting worse news later. Plus there is nothing like being in a country like Laos, where most people have lives that are so much more difficult then most Americans, to put how lucky we truly are in perspective. OK, enough with the sentimental talk...

On with the adventure!

P.S. Jim, Isaac showed me your email and I almost peed my pants laughing. Let's hope that you don't need to pass out your resume while wearing the eat AT(Kerry had to stop typing... she's laughing again... and almost peeing), "eat at Quiznos" sandwich board. If you do I hope it's not in the K-mart parking lot. I guess though if it is you and Isaac can take a break from your sandwich board wearing at the K-mart cafe. cheers! Thanks for making me laugh :)

Laos!

Sorry for no picture but we are sitting in an Internet cafe in Pakse, Laos right now. We have had an interesting few days. We took the overnight bus from Bangkok to the border of Thailand/Laos, which is fortunate because we almost missed it. We got an amazing Thai massage and spent way too much time at a cafe overlooking the river (and by way too much I mean just enough) and hadn't planned for Bangkok's massive traffic at rush hour. Our driver told us it would take 1-1.5 hours to get to the train station, and when we told him we only had 50 minutes he finally said "oh, then is highway ok?" This is ridiculous because the highway only costs about $3 more in tolls (which we pay, not him), and took 20 minutes rather than 1.5 hours. I think he wouldn't have even offered the faster route if we hadn't been in a hurry! Anyhoo, crisis averted and we got on the train. Sleep was difficult for me and Isaac because the train was super loud, we had top bunks, and the train was swaying and banging and hopping so much I woke up a few times in the night and literally thought that the train was derailing. Kat slept fine, but she did have to pee a lot (even more than me!), which brings me to my list of new things I now know about Kat:
1. her bladder is really tiny, and like me and Lisa she has to pee RIGHT before bed.
2. she is afraid of cockroaches because she thinks they will crawl in her ear and she will need a doctor to remove them. She said it "wouldn't be a big deal" if one crawled in her mouth. She has been wearing earplugs to sleep because of this.
3. she can drink more booze then me.
4. she is super awesome and chill about traveling like Isaac, and I need to chill out more too. She is being chill about my freak outs too so that's nice.

Oh by the way the malarone is making me a little dizzy. between that and the heat I am riding a boat on choppy seas in the cafe. but I press on! It's been dark for over 2 hours and it is still sweltering. Laos is HOT.
When we arrived in Pakse after a relatively uneventful border crossing (neat Visa for the passport!) this cute old man who had befriended Isaac asked if we wanted to see his home, and we said yes, but it ended up being a wild goose chase because his english wasn't great and he was either mildly scamming us (wanted us to pay for an over priced car to go with him) or he was senile but I think mostly a little senile. Anyway long story short we were hot, tired, and hungry and we promptly got ripped off at the money exchange place, the lunch place, and the hotels we looked at were all way overpriced. Oh and we over packed, again. I know I said I wouldn't but our packs are way too heavy. The place we ended up staying has a cute little porch on the Mekong and is cheap but is pretty grubby. Pakse was feeling like a bit of a border town but we woke up today in better spirits and found a reputable travel agency and we went on a tour of Wat Phou (sp?) part of the ancient Khmer temple sites. It was awesome and our guide is really nice. We had already signed up for another tour with the same agency tomorrow so we asked for the same guide. His English is good so that makes a huge difference. It really lifted our spirits and made us think that maybe heading to southern Laos is a good idea after all. I can't wait to show everyone the photos we took!

So tomorrow we are going to the Bolaven Platue and Paksong. we will ride an elephant into the jungle a bit, and see some minority lowland tribes and stay in a village for the night. The next day we will see a coffee plantation and Tat Fan, a huge waterfall that is very well known. It might rain but we have been lucky so far. There will only be 4 of us taking the tour- the three of us and someone we haven't met. Wild card! so I think we will have a great time no matter what. After that we want to head down to Don Det in the 4,000 islands region for an overnight. we may not blog for several days after this, so our next blog should be a big one! That's what she said.
Peace out,
K&I
PS
Isaac wanted me to add that we ate lotus seeds, had an amazing authentic Lao lunch in a restaurant overlooking the mekong, took a homemade car ferry boat over the river, and saw a ton of monks in their orange robes. And waterbuffelo and people picking rice in conical hats, like oldy times. That is all.

Bugs, noodles, rice, pork.... but not at the same time.

Our first day in SE Asia starts with us landing in Bangkok after a long air trek. Once we landed in Bangkok, one of the first things that hit me was how much things have changed. Gone was the 70's era airport decor and hyper-chaotic crowds. What has replaced them is an absolutely gorgeous architectural structure housing art, and orderly queues... (I know right?!). It was a very smooth few queues and we were off in a natural gas powered cab, (again, I know right?!), from the airport our first hotel, On 8.

Once we were rolling on Sukhamvit it all stated just pouring back for me. Bangkok, while much has been upgraded and there are far more points of exposed technology and advertisements, is still the scent-rich, bustling, and fantastic city.

We got into the hotel, dropped off a few things, and powered on to the Chatuchak market. We knew, as tired as we were, we needed to buck up and keep ourselves up until night to ensure our body clocks are properly reset. The market proved to be a great place for distraction... almost too much! There are many thousands of vendors selling everything from opium pipes to Tibetan skull and silver carved totems, and lots and lots, and lots of clothing vendors. We found a fucking great bar in the middle of the market that provided us with some much needed chill-and-drink time which was desperately needed due to the oppressive heat and zero air circulation amongst the vendor stalls. As cool as the bar was, once we did the mental conversion on the price, we realized it was really expensive for Thailand... the drinks were about 180 baht (6 bucks)!!! For the record, an awesome meal can be had for about 45 baht. Speaking of food, I also had bugs for the first time! Kerry, Kat, and I ate grasshoppers, crickets, tiny lizards (whole), and even some grubs! They were soy sauce flavored and full of crunch. The grubs tasked like polenta to me, (strange, but true), and the easy favorite for all of us the whole tiny lizards, they were really ugly looking, but tasted awesome. Pictures coming soon of the munchies :)

Eventually fatigue took over and we had to take the skytrain back to soi 8 to the hotel. Once back, we had a quick bite to eat and kicked back with a bottle of Sang Som. Good times :)

Tomorrow we will explore more in Thailand... get a massage, and then hop the train over to Ubon Ratchathani to border-cross over to Laos! It is just so great to be here.

Chillin' in Taipei, and by chillin' I mean sitting and really tired.

So the first flight is behind us, and we are, as one might expect, lots of tired going on. The flight was roughly 12 hours and we are now an hour away from the last hop over to Bangkok. The best tidbit thus far was losing our friend Kat on the plane while we were exiting... Just take a moment to let that sink in. A plane, (a 747 to be fair), with two aisles, we are all walking in single file lines... very slowly towards the ONE exit, and somehow... inexplicably, we lost an adult human female laden with baggage, (backpack etc.). After some terribly confusing standing in one place and circling to look around, we were certain that she was either still on the plane, or far far ahead of us. Eventually, we went to the next gate and set up camp. I stayed around to watch our packs and keep an eye out for the Kat, while Kerry went out to wee and hopefully find the Kat wondering around scavenging for some snacks. Turned out, after the wee, Kerry was washing her hands and Kat walked up to her and said, "Oh, hi."... So there we are. We are all back together, just spent a ridiculous amount of cash on terrible food and are now a few minutes closer to Bangkok. w00t!

Packed and ready!

We are packed and ready to call the cab to take us to the airport. A nice glass of single malt, and a final email check, and we will begin our journey, starting the first hop to Bangkok!

Peace Corps volunteer needs your help! (ok, mostly your money, but it will be used to help)

My friend and ex-coworker Andrea has been in Niger as a Peace Corps volunteer for over a year now, and is raising funds to buy textbooks for her students. This is a really good project, so you peeps should cough up a little dough if you can. Even $10 would help. She needs $4000, and I think if we can spread the word then she will get it. She has a great blog (http://nigerafrica.blogspot.com/) but can't post to it right now because her internet connection is spotty. Cause it's Niger, y'all (say it in a Britney voice)! here is the info from her email:

Hello all,
I hope you are doing well and enjoying the last bits of summer. It's mini hot season here in Niger and while it's not nearly as hot as it is during the true hot season, it's pretty darn warm around here (and humid). But, I am doing well, staying healthy, and getting ready for another eventful school year in Niger.
I am proud to finally announce that my project proposal has been approved and posted to the Peace Corps website. So, I am now officially asking anyone who is able to donate to the project - any amount will be incredibly helpful. I'm also asking those of you who are willing to share this email with your friends and family so that I can reach and even broader group of possible donors.
Here are the steps to take to donate to my project:

1. Go to the Peace Corps website: www.peacecorps.gov
2. Click on the Donate Now link on the left
3. Type my last name, Schuitema, or the project number, 683 172, into the search box
4. Scroll down a little and you will see my project, which they have titled: English Textbooks
5. Enter in the amount you would like to donate, click donate, and then follow the directions for entering your information

It's as simple as that! Thank you all for your continued support, I can't put into words just how much I appreciate it. Be well :)
Cheers,
Andrea M. Schuitema

One month + One day.

We have one month and a day until we depart for Laos. I am giddy.

That is all. Thank you for your time.



:D

Found some film! Ummm... developed some film! Finally

I have had some B&W 400 ISO film laying around the house for awhile, staring at me, exposed and undeveloped. And when I say awhile, I mean awhile. Like this-is-embarrassing-get-it-out-of-my-sight long time. I wasn't sure what the pictures were from, and I kind of wanted to just TOSS IT as to avoid the whole "do I get it developed and then what.. get a darkroom? scan it? " thing. I kind of suspected it might be from when we went to Cambodia 2004 so I never threw it out. We brought our 2 megapixel camera when we went to Cambodia and those pictures are shit, because it was a 2 megapixel point and shoot. My color photos from my film camera turned out like shit, because I never learned to take great color photos with film in school and also because I had a commercial lab do the prints. But I suspected that I took some B&W, and I thought this roll might be it. Last week I found a place in the city that still develops B&W film, and will also scan it. Jackpot! pictures of Angkor what that can actually-gasp-be printed on 8x10 paper and not look like ca-ca. yeah! I am so excited!!

been busy...

Hi everyone! been real busy here and haven't had time to post much. so... to get you up to speed... We went to Ed and Ineke's for an after work BBQ and saw stars when the sun went down. In San Francisco. for those of you not living in SF, this is a rare occurrence because of the fog. We dubbed this day "best. monday. ever". We went to a very nice beach BBQ for Isaac's co-worker Malia, who moved to NY. It was beach. It was fire. It was nice.
Then we went camping in El Dorado State forest, near Tahoe, over memorial day weekend with a bunch of friends. more on that later, when I have time to look through those photos...