Home Sweet Home

Well, here it has been about two weeks since we arrived back in the States, and what a two weeks it has been. Friends from out of town, a memorial service, family in the hospital for a few days, reuniting with family and friends, a trip to San Francisco to march in the Pride Parade with the best damn drum corps in Portland, (check out lastregiment. com), and a healthy dose of American reality with an IRS tax audit has kept us fairly busy. Not to mention all the little projects at home, and finding jobs. Yeah, a full plate. So I neglected the blog for a bit, big deal. Here it is, the top 10 from our trip. In no specific order.

1. Cortijo Vadillo
   
2. A float trip down the Nestos river gorge in Northern Greece with twenty good friends
3. The beautiful mountains of Bulgaria
4. Istanbul ( this deserves at least two places on the list)
5. Erg Chi Gaga and the Sahara desert
6. Homemade organic Cretan wine
7. Halkidiki peninsula, Fourkas and Possidi
8. Ancient ruin tomb exploring in Southern Turkey
9. Rome, God what a city
10. The Marinella on the Calabrian coast

The true gem of course was all the lovely friends we made along the way, and really meeting and living in such amazing places. Also the cheese; good lord the cheese.

Now we get to see about culture shock. Oddly, we haven't been too capsized by coming home. We were thrown in the deep end upon our return and maybe all the bustling has diverted our attention. Anyway we are all looking forward to a lovely summer with bbqs, camping and river trips. Hope to see as many of you as we can!

I have not decided yet whether or not to keep this blog alive. Maybe I will. Let's see what the future brings.

Thanks for sticking with this if you did. If anyone has questions, just hit me up.

MM
[Editor's final note: We are full of love and gratitude for our friends and family abroad and at home. Everyone come visit! p.s. Yay for taco truck!!!]

Jamaica Farewell

Here it is. Last post of this year away. Next one will be done back in PDX, enshallah. I am not sure I can convey the feeling, and more than that, I believe it will be some time before we really know what this time away has done for us. So more reflection and that later; now is for red stripe and sunsets anyway.

A few nice bits about this week here: the rain and hurricane squalls stopped and the sun came out nice and hot, Black River cruise with Captain Ted to check out crocodiles and dolphins, my birthday night out with my bros, body surfing, sandcastles and seashells. We have had fun here in JA; it would be difficult to have a bad time. Even in the rain and high seas, we couldn't keep the boys inside.

And everyone liked the river cruise. It is about an hour on the sea in a quick little fishing boat and then another thirty minutes or so through mangroves and real jungly jungle to a small area maintained with shacks and a rope swing into a swimming hole.

It has been great, every bit. However this adventure has run its course and now we head back to our city and a very different reality. I am not sure how it will be at first for all of us, most likely strange and cool at the same time. Well we find out soon enough.

We are really grateful for the experience. Thanks to all who helped us along and encouraged us! The amount of natural beauty in the world is staggering. It seems everywhere you go and which ever direction you choose, you're bound to run into something beautiful. Those things are nice. The real gem of the trip was all the great and different people we encountered along the way. In every place we made great, real friendships, and for this we are the most grateful. The welcome we recieved was absolute. Thank you so much. A very special thank you to Bobby, as our first host and also the first response back to us with a yes; it was you who provided us with the start-off spot. We landed on our feet with Cortijo Vadillo.

As for the future, I can imagine no happier day than when our paths cross again. Take care all of you and much love from the Moylans!!

Calabash Bay

It really was a painful travel day. Ten hour flight delayed two hours. Crazy customs in Miami, like crazy crowded Memorial Day travel crazy. Short flight to Mo Bay and a two and a half hour car ride across the island to finally settle on the South Coast. Total travel time: 26 hours from Germany to Jamaica via Miami. The boys held up like true soldiers and now we find ourselves in this little cove of paradise.

The beach is about 1/4 mile long with small to medium sized breakers rolling in all day... bigger ones when it's stormy, which it has been of course. The sandy beach is great for building sandcastles. It is warm and downright hot in the sun. Also quite powerful; there are more than a few lobstered tourists. Not many tourists in general though as it's pretty quiet down here on the South Coast.

In the ten years since we've been here last, much has changed in our lives. Not so much down here. There are a few new buildings and some of the restaurants we know have switched owners and been renamed. The rhythm and pace as well as the reality of life here is pretty much the same as it was 10 years ago. For example, there's still no working ATM in town and people remain just as friendly as we remembered.

The boys love it here. I swear you could take all the DVDs, computers, video games, and tv, etc. and chuck them in the fire if you have the beach. Now just add warm ocean water. Not kidding, it's like a bath... Cade can stay warm all day. Our ambitions have been small here. We have walked about five minutes in one direction and ten in the other. We relaxing...

Don't worry Portland, Soon Be Back.