Christchurch, NZ

Couple of days visiting Appley, Darryl and Skye in Christchurch, NZ.

Cancer warnings are a little more extreme here than in the US.
View from plane over South Island mountains.
Kiwirail, from CHC to Greymouth on the west coast.

End of CHC pier @ Brighton beach.

Cathedral in town.
Tram through the mall.
Big arse tree.

Hybrid duck-goose. Doose.

Snow Canyon Half Marathon & Mountain Meadows

Finished first ever half marathon! Snow Canyon, just outside St George, Utah. Beautiful scenery down the canyon, then across a lava field. ~1200 people, training went perfectly, fun run, felt fantastic. Hopefully a lot more to come in 2010, assuming this winter running thing works out (neg 20F is pretty cold).

Mountain meadows:

Lower part of the canyon, you can see the track down the middle.
I was pretty tired when this was taken at around mile 12. Finished in 1:54:26.9. See.

Cancun, Mexico

• Cancun with Dane & Jaci.
• First time ever in Georgia, even if being in transit doesn't count towards the number of states i've been to.
• First time ever in Atlanta, huge airport, need to take a train to get to the next terminal. So excited, i saw planes flying to Madrid, Lima and Cleveland, mmmm Cleveland.
• Sit down for lunch at the airport, order a beer, server asks 'would you like a shot with that?'. Shocked looks ensue, we have been in Utah too long.
• Arrive in Cancun, feels like 38 degrees and 120% humidity, order what would be the first of many margaritas. Stay at the Hilton.

• Breakfast at the golf course, sign says something like 'look out for crocodiles on the course, especially now since they're currently giving birth'

• Mojitos, Margaritas, beers and a coco loco at the pool bar (in a coconut!)

• Beer is better when served in a bucket of ice

• Dinner in downtown Cancun, unsurprisingly chose the place that didn't hound us for their business as we walked down the street. The staff put big hats on us, were probably laughing at us, stupid tourists.

• Bus drivers in Cancun are scarily similar to drivers in Richmond, BC, Canada.
• Lost sunglasses in the Caribbean Ocean. Twice.
• Mexican highways have speed bumps! Sure way to slow you down.
• Iguanas are cool. Always. Even the 700th one we saw was awesome.

• Tulum = lots of interesting ruins, and another 10% humidity above Cancun


• Xel-Ha is awesome, go there.

• Free alcohol does not mean drunken debauchery, Utah take note. Xel-Ha had free everything all day for the 1000 people there, free alcohol + hot sun + water = not one person was even close to drunk, or drowning.
• Dinner at the fancy restaurant was highlighted by the couple next to us that spent 30 minutes with the guy taking photos of the girl. Then moved to the pool for more photos. Weird.
• I saw both boobs and butt, but on different people. Maybe spring break time would be different.
• Mmmm, Tequila.

• Americans take note - siestas are good, the metric system is logical, Celsius is a perfectly acceptable temperature measure and the United States of Mexico is a generally happier place than Estados Unidos.
• Ohio people suck. Flew back via Cincinnati (new state, new city), security there are just painful smart arses that knew we were in a hurry, yet wasted 10 minutes of our time telling us we were security risks with a smirk on their faces. Who cares in our bag was checked under Dane's name, if we were security risks we wouldn't be telling you the story in the first place, i'd be far more discreet and normal looking.
• Mojitos on the plane are good.

Birthday 2009

July 18 @ Fiddler's Elbow in Sugar House, Salt Lake City.

James & Michelle
Erin & Tina
Eric & Casey
Toni & Jeff
Kim & David
Michelle, Chris & Jeremy
Chris & Heidi
James, Tina, Mapu & Eric
The table

Weekend of Golf - 1st time under par

A normal golfing weekend started pretty average, with an 82 on Saturday at Wingpointe.

We then foolishly booked a 6.30am tee time for Sunday at Bonneville. Turned out to be a very good idea! Shot a 1 under 71 off the stick.


First game under par ever. Have been playing for 20 years, handicap never better than 4 (currently 5), had a few chances with 72s at Glendale and Rose Park (both in SLC), 73 at Kellyville (Sydney), but this was the first time actually under par.

Portland, Oregon

Long weekend means quick trip to a new west coast city! This closed out the mainland-west coast-proper city tour, we've now been to the major ones in California, Oregon and Washington. We need to get to Alaska, then figure out how to see the Pacific from completely new angles - like South America and Asia.

Portland, awesome, smallish, best walking neighbourhoods i've ever seen, great food, great bars, great weather (pics make it look more overcast than it was), greater river waterfront, and has that near the ocean vibe which we so miss here in Utah. Not very touristy. We'd live there in a second if an opportunity came up. Day trip to Sea Side and Cannon Beach. Recommended!


Why so serious?
Michelle with beer and water at a pub.
Cannon Beach.
James, and yes, i am aware of what the sign says.
Powell's Books, lots of books, seriously.
Yes, we were in Oregon.
Random purple octopus.

Random photos from the last few weeks

We took up curling:

James went skiing:
Went to the beach:
Mich went to Seattle:

How to write off a Volkswagen Jetta 2002 1.8T

Driving back from Moab, just east Green River, Utah. Sudden change from road to ice from a spring storm, going around a bend, car goes sideways, hits the side and flips a few times.

Thought process:

- what is that?

- oh crap, it's ice

- driving fast on ice is silly, some drivers should be more careful

- wait, i'm driving, this is really really dangerous

- why am i going sideways?

- we're going to have an accident, i wonder what it'll be like, interesting

- having an accident will suck, stupid insurance, i like this car, grrr

- this might be serious, shit

- give up trying to control the car due to the angle of car direction and car alignment to road direction

- 'i love you'

- loud noise, take out a few bushes

- hold head in, make sure it doesn't touch the roof, spinning

- my face is full of dirt

- everything stops

- 'warning sign' by coldplay continues to play on the radio, creepy

- are you ok? yes, yes. seriously ok? yes.

- why are we not injured? oh well

- how do we get out of here?

- crawl out back door after getting the keys (cause someone might steal an upside down car you see....)

Call 911, nice people stop and see if we're ok, police come, take the report (i'm not cited which is nice, it's technically a no fault accident), tow truck guy comes and has a lot of trouble, gives us a lift to Green River while telling us his brother flips his car all the time and saves money on new tyres in the process, we have lunch and wait for the Greyhound bus to take us back to SLC, see a drug bust, get back to SLC, cab from bus depot home with a dodgy looking cab driver who had his mate in the front seat, go to sleep and wonder what just happened.

Photos, car was write off.