Johnny Boy

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A few more shots ...

Life in Spain

This is a quick picture of the outside of our new house. I know what you are thinking.... "a pool?" We will be living about 4 blocks from a beautiful beach. Needless to say we fee EXTREMELY lucky to have the opportunity to be living here in Southern Spain. We have several bedrooms for guests too... come on over!There is an amazing farmers/meat/seafood market in Jerez (largest city near us 20 minutes by car) with anything you could want. We need to start taking some cooking classes soon! Neither of us really know how to prepare fish. Everything is amazingly fresh and really fun... sort of have to be aggressive when ordering, and cant let the old women push you around (because they will).

Tricia isnt as excited as I about the fact that Spain is a major producer of olives. You can pretty much get any kind of olive you want. I LOVE it.

Seafood...

Squid

Tricia and Maggie in downtown El Puerto (our new home).

Maggie on her new beach. Ha. She loves being here also. She had a hard journey on the plane ride over. 22 hours total from San Francisco to Spain (including all connections) and no bathroom breaks. Needless to say her crate smelled horrible and she really needed to go # 2 when she arrived!

A view of the beach that is near our house. El Puerto.

We took a weekend trip to Sierra de Grazalema, a small mountain preserve 1.5 hours drive. It snows here in the winter! We are very excited that there are some good mountains near us. The natural preserve has some great hikes from village to village.

Grazelma. Many towns in this area have a very Muslim influence (white washed buildings) and exist on a route called "La Ruta de Los Pueblos Blancos" You can hike from one to the other. I cant wait to explore this area!

Mark on a vista near Sahara de la Sierra (Pueblo Blanco).

This is our rental that we have been driving (Chevy Matiz). It is a fun little car to drive, but not much on power. We are hoping to buy a little Honda or smaller European car soon. Maggie in the back seat... she pretty much lives in the car for now.

Baja California Mexico

Campsite for our first night in Baja ...

Waiting for the "Bufadora" to blow ...

Lista para la lucha libre ...

Not much swell but still fun to be had ...

Kite flying in Punta San Jose...

More fun with the kite ...

Baja ...

The wind was howling at "the wall" but it's never too cold to curl up with a good book...

Sunset

Stops along the ruta de vino ...

Nothing beats camping out at the Bibayoff winery/tasting room ...

Fishy Maggie....

First Tracks...

Oregon

On our return to CA, we decided to make a trip through Oregon's mid section and down the Pacific Coast. We spent 2 nights in the 3 sister's wilderness near Bend OR. Awesome backcountry!

The Kipuka (Hawaiian term for an area of land that was undisturbed by a lava flow around it) ... means "hairy hill". It is really cool to see from a bird's eye view how the lava flowed out of the mountain and around this little hill. Lucky little hill...

Cant remember the name of this peak? Mt. Washington?...

Our last couple of nights we spent on the Pacific Ocean. Our friend living in Eugene (Alison Hopcroft) told us about a cool area called Tahkenitch Creek in the Siuslaw National Forest. Tahkenitch is surrounded by the great sand dunes that line the OR coast. If you have a chance... hit this place up!

View toward the Pacific...

Dunes camp on Tahkenitch Creek...

Mark...

The creek...

Sand crack...

Fishy Maggie: We have become one of "those" kind of dog owners. I have never in my life met a dog lazy enough to sit through something like this. Maggie hits a new low of laziness...

Paul, Mark, and Maggie...

Tricia, Blue, and Maggie...

Idaho Bull Ridin

I never thought I would do this... I have become one of those guys.

Idaho Hot Springs

Traveling through Idaho, one has to take advantage of the many many many hot springs scattered throughout the state. Our first stop involuntarily (wrong turn on wrong Hwy) took us to some really cool hot springs in N. East Idaho.

The Bureau of Land Management maintains Sharky Hot Springs... Great views....

Off Hwy 93 we visited Goldbug Hot Springs. Situated in a high canyon 2 miles from the trail head, these cascading waterfalls were amazing! The pics below look like they're taken of a cold water river... but they're not...

Sacajawea Hot Springs. Maggie was not a fan, but these ranked probably # 2 out of all the hot springs we have visited this summer...

After 5 days in the mountains we came into Bosie ID to visit an few of Mark's friends from Wyoming. Needless to say we went to the bar...

Little bar love...

Bighorn Mountains 2

Mark headed up into the Bighorns on his final wilderness trip with some High School friends from Sheridan. The destination was Emerald Lake...

Tucker sorting out the route... Edelman Trail...

Cody Brantz ...

Tucker calling in the elk... and yes, the animals in the background are cows...

Golden Lake...

Golden Lake...

Good morning sunshine...

One of the smaller fish caught over the weekend. Tucker landed a 3 + lb cutthroat from Golden Lake later this day.

Survival in numbers. These conifers are sticking together in this harsh high alpine climate.

Emerald Lake. We were camped on the small bit of land separating the upper lake and lower (bigger) lake.

Emerald Lake...

Friends (Jay and Codi)...

Steve and Tucker tried out a new bivy sack straight out of the construction site...

Tucker, Mark, & Cody on the way out of the Cloud Peak Wilderness...

Nearly every night lightning lit up the mountain sky. Unfortunately one of the storms started a small fire that has turned into a big fire on the face of the mountain. Looking toward Bighorn Wyoming and the face of Little Goose Canyon.