It’s finally time to announce to the world the good news: Kim’s pregnant! Most people close to us already know, and we’ve been hesitant to post it on the internet before we told our workplaces and all that, but now that Kim’s over 4 months, we figure it’s okay to post online. Plus Kim’s starting to show so what the heck :-)
March 17, 2010
I’m Gonna Be a Dad – Kim’s Pregnant!
March 10, 2010
Yucatan Mexico
It was time for the sun and fun part of the vacation. We arrived in Cancun, but based on what we’d heard we got out and headed to Playa del Carmen since it was supposed to be a little more laid back. Not really. It was kind of like Las Vegas with a nice beach on the side. One strip with chain stores and restaurants and way to many people.
We got out the next day and went south to Tulum. The beaches there – beautiful. The only downside is the cheap lodging and food is in town which is a 10 minute taxi ride from the beach. Fortunately we had fun at the hostel in town, the Weary Traveler. We met a lot of fun people from all over, played some cards, swapped travel stories. We even found a really good vegetarian restaurant, but it took a while since it was 3 blocks off the main street.
The ruins at Tulum are pretty cool mostly because they’re right on the ocean. You can even swim there at a really cool beach. The beaches are all in front of hotels, but the hotels are spread apart about every quarter mile instead of like at Playa del Carmen where they were every few feet. We even had some absolutely delicious Thai food at a place called Mezzanine. It was a bit overpriced, but a much better option than the other food options which were also all overpriced.
The other thing to do near Tulum is visit the Gran Cenote. Cenotes are freshwater, underground pools. The Gran Cenote has a cave area with cool stalagtites and stalagmites that you can see with with snorkeling gear. Scuba people can actually dive down through and extensive cave system. It’s very pretty to swim in, with fish and cool rock formations.
From Tulum we headed inland to visit some ruins. Our first stop was the Mayan ruins and village of Ek Balam. Chichen Itza gets all the press, but if you to go to some ruins that aren’t overrun with vendors and tourists, and actually be able to walk just about everywhere, Ek Balam is much better. The pyramid is taller and you can climb to the top, from where you can see the other pyramids of Chichen Itza and Coba in the distance. And there were probably only 5 other people at the site the whole time. Very nice. There’s a cenote nearby too which was my favorite to swim in. It’s not as pretty as the cenote near Tulum, but it’s got a rope swing, diving platfrom and you’ll have it mostly to yourself.
Our nicest lodging of the trip was at an eco retreat called Genesis. It’s right in a Mayan village, and beautiful. Our room had a bed that hung from the ceiling by ropes. There was a gorgeous pool and some decent vegetarian food. We spent our time reading books by the pool, walking around the village and relaxing in the gardens to the sounds of birds. There’s even an Italian restaurant with pretty good food that just opened. The village is really small, so you can’t not find it. The village is also known for the quality of the hammocks that they weave, so that was our only souvenir purchase for the trip. We also met with a local lady to learn how they made corn tortillas traditionally with a rock grinding surface and cook them over rocks and a small fire in the hut.
After the village we were relaxed enough to face the tourist hordes at Chichen Itza – or so I thought. We spent the night in Piste which is right at Chichen Itza so that we could see the nightime light show on the pyramid. On hindsight, it’s really not worth it as Valladolid is a much nicer city to stay in even though it’s 40 minutes away, and the light show isn’t that great. The grounds of Chichen Itza really are amazing and impressive, it’s just really hard to enjoy with the constant barrage of vendors trying to sell you crap. And it’s really crowded. But the vendors are by far the worst part. I was fairly amused that Elton John will soon be playing a concert at the pyramid too. Modern wonder or just a major money making spectacle? There’s a really pretty cenote nearby too, but all the tourist buses stop there so it’s so crowded that you have to wait or push through crowds of people to jump in, and you then have to wait in line to climb the couple of ladders available to get out.
We spent a night in Valladolid after visiting Chichen. It’s a nice city with cheap lodging, but there’s not a ton to do without taking day trips to places, so we headed back to the coast. Specifically to a place that we’d heard was pretty awesome from all the other hostelers: Isla Mujeres. This is where we really started to take some time to relax on the beach. We stayed at a hostel called Pocna, which we were told was one of the coolest in all of Mexico. I can see why. It’s cheap at about $10 per person, per night. It’s got free activities and live music everyday and night, a game room, free internet, serves decent food, and has a beach bar that goes until very late every night. And the rooms are quiet despite all this activity since they separate most of them from the common areas. The double rooms are an amazing deal as they’re not much more and include towels and blankets, but it’s probably best to reserve them in advance as they’re in demand. We finally got one the third night there after asking everyday.
We did the snorkeling tour with the local fisherman’s coop and it was a great deal. $20 per person and they provide gear, take you out in a boat to a gorgeous reef with tons of fish, catch lunch from the ocean and then cook it on the beach. We don’t usually eat fish, but they really didn’t have a vegetarian option and we watched them catch it, so we figured it didn’t get much closer to the source than that. And it was barracuda. That seemed to interesting not to try. I had a giant mojito along with that and it was delicious. Another nice thing about going with the fishermen instead of the big tour boats is that there’s only a few other people in your boat instead of dozens. We had a group of middle aged women from Wisconsin who were out to have a really good time. They even brought beer to share! The other people on the boat were from our hostel, and everyone was cool and fun. After the amazing lunch, we went back out to another snorkel spot. There were a ton of barracuda there which was fun to see. Kim got cold pretty easily in the water so had to get out early, but other than that it was awesome.
The next few days on the island we spent partying at the hostel until late, chilling out on the beach during the day, and exploring the island. There was some pretty good food places, and I think our favorite was called Manana and was right next to the hostel. Another fun activity was a turtle farm where they raised turtles of all sizes, including a couple gigantic ones.
For our last night we had to spend in Cancun since we had an early flight the next morning. We ended up staying at a hostel in the guidebook, but it was totally sketch as it was all guys and a lot of older, dirty looking guys. Kim wasn’t comfortable so we got a private room. On the upside of Cancun we found a great local plaza that had awesome cheap food.
The flight back was exhausting. I remember when traveling on airplanes was fun when I was little. I’m constantly amazed at how unpleasant they’ve made the whole airport experience the last few years. I also got a nasty cold on the flight back. Yuck.
Anyway, the vacation was great and it was really tough going back to work the next day. This will be the last major vacation before we have kids. Crazy, huh?
March 8, 2010
Florida: First Vacation Stop
A long overdue vacation finally happened. First stop was Florida to see family and friends. You’d think Florida would be a nice spring break destination, but when we got there it was colder than when we left Portland. It was still great to visit people.
We started off at Kim’s parents and the big event there – baby shower. That’s right, Kim has finally decided it’s okay to announce online: she’s pregnant! So Kim’s mom organized a baby shower and her friends from the mahjong group all got Kim adorable outfits.
From there we went to visit our friends Becca and Michael who used to live in Seattle, but have been living in Africa for the last few years. Michael works with primates, so he’s now the director at a lemur reserve in the middle of nowhere Florida. It was really awesome because we got to go and see the lemurs up close. I brought a guitar and played for them which was interesting. Perhaps the most interesting was when I put the guitar on the ground and a lemur decided to hump it a little.
After a night visiting with Becca and Michael we went to Kim’s grandmas close by. Becca and Michael came with us because it was time to go to the circus! The Sarasota circus was surprisingly good. There was aerial, trained dogs and a highwire act with 8 people on the wire at once! From there we had a couple good days with Kim’s grandma going to beach and eating her homemade lasagna.
From there – Cancun!
February 7, 2010
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-07
- It was a beautiful day for a bike ride into work. Hope the springlike weather continues #
- I'm fasting for 2 days. Been feeling bleh and I usually feel much better after a fast. #
- Fasting is a lot harder to do alone. Kim's not doing it this time and I miss the support. Plus watching people eat sucks. #
- Ending fast early. Too hard to concentrate at work. Oh delicious apple. #
January 24, 2010
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-24
- We had a nice hike to Bagby Hotsprings yesterday. Didn't even have to wait in line. #
- For the third tango class we learned to turn to the right. Ooooohhh… After class though we went social dancing Learned a lot more there #
- Just finished reading Replay by Ken Grimwood. Great book. I love books and movies that deal with "time travel". #
- Can't sleep now. Guess I'll try reading Godel Escher Bach. It's over 800 pages and amazing, but helps me sleep too. #
January 17, 2010
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-17
January 10, 2010
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-10
- Took our first tango dance class last night. It was fun, but a little too basic #
- Brendan visited with us yesterday evening since he was in town for a bachelor party. #
- Went snowshoeing at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood yesterday. Not much snow, but the sky cleared up for a great view. #
- Studying Chinese a little today for fun. #
Snowshoeing Timberline
It’s been too long since Kim and I got out in the snow, but we finally made it up to Timberline Lodge for some snowshoeing fun. Strangely, it was 42 degrees up there at 6000ft, so the snow was melting a lot. As we hiked up higher it got colder, and once the clouds cleared the view was awesome. We even got glances of Mt Jefferson to the south. Ubuntu loved the snow as usual.
December 8, 2009
Friend of Trees
We got some sweet new trees planted in our sidewalk strips this past weekend through Friends of Trees. Kim found out about the program a last year when they had signs up for other trees they had planted. They organize tree plantings in neighborhoods and give you deeply discounted and subsidized trees. It’s a great deal, it’s great for your property, great for the environment, and a great way to meet your neighbors.
I realized most of the benefits, but I didn’t think it would be as much fun to meet the neighbors. It’s hard to get to know many people when you move into a neighborhood without some sort of activity, and this an activity that brings neighbors together since everyone helps each other plant their trees. We started helping a neighbor down the street, and then we moved up the street to our house and had 10 or so people putting our trees in.
We got 4 trees, two tricolor beeches, a strawberry marina and a Japanese snowbell. I can’t wait to see them grow!
November 29, 2009
Lots of Thanksgiving Visitors
We hosted Thanksgiving again this year, with the difference from laster year being that more people came. Dinner ended up being an even dozen people, and most of them were staying with us too! It was really cool that we could fit so many people in our house and that everyone got along and had enough space to sleep. My grandma even made it down.
Kim did an amazing job planning all the food, and we spent a few days prepping food prior to the big day. We didn’t have any meat at dinner which was awesome. I was very happy that my family was so accepting of not having turkey. Instead we had seitan sausages as the ‘meat’ course. Kim made a few kinds of gravy too, including a wild mushroom gravy that had chanterelles that we picked a few weeks ago.
We even had Tofu Phil from Small Planet Tofu with us for dinner. He runs a tofu company in Newport, WA of all places, and happened to be in Portland for Thanksgiving so we invited him and his girlfriend to dine with us.
I think everyone had a good time the day of, and even over the next few days. We played card cames, Taboo and Rock Band in between neighborhood walks and plenty of leftovers. And after everyone left there wasn’t even much to clean up since everyone chipped in to help with everything. Thanks for coming!