Sunday, March 25, 2012

Following Spring

Spring has finally arrived in the northern hemisphere.

It was on March 9th somewhere near Todos Santos, BCS, that Juliet and I looked at each other, sunburned and sweating with no shade in sight, and decided that it was time to begin migrating North again. We had successfully followed fall. We followed it for 7 months and it took us more than 3,000 miles from home, but we did it. For once in our lives we had a snowless, frost-biteless, winter.

And to all of our friends and family back in Minnesota, let us assure you that warmer weather is on the way.

It took us about a week to make our way back up Baja. We stopped at the Bay of Conception to enjoy the crystal clear water and were fortunate enough to see a whale shark swimming off one of the islands there. From the Bay of Conception we continued North until the clouds began filling the sky. They turned grey and the wind began to howl. The air temperature dropped by 30 degrees and it rained for three days until we finally reached San Diego. Yep, spring was upon us.

We took our climbing gear out of the storage unit we had rented for two months and headed back to Joshua Tree for a few days of climbing.  We will then weave our way up the West coast, saying hi to old friends we haven't seen for a long time and new friends that we've met along the way.

Whereas winter challenged us to stay warm, spring will find us trying to evade rain storms and biting insects. 
One of our favorite past times was to pose in front of hotels we couldn't afford to stay in.

Another such hotel

Being a gringo in Loreto

Gaining a bird's eye view of the Bay of Conception

The fanciest camp toilet we had seen in two months.

A uhaul outside our storage locker which featured the Kensington Runestone of Minnesota

On our way to grab some pizza in Little Italy, San Diego.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Surfing: a metaphor for life

With all corniness intended, surfing is a metaphor for life.

There you are, bobbing up and down in a vast expanse of space.  You know that something is out there- in fact, you are certain that an overwhelming number of somethings are out there- things you can't even begin to imagine.  The ocean hosts a multitude of microcosms that are both living in symbiosis while at the same time unable to comprehend the complexity of all that surrounds them.

And there you are, bobbing up and down in a vast expanse of space.  You can make out something on the horizon, some subtle change, the butterfly effect of a winter storm off the coast of Alaska thousands of miles away that happened weeks ago.  But it's hard to be certain how this might impact you in this instant or the next, because as you are bobbing up and down in a vast expanse of space, you can only catch fragmented glimpses of these nuanced changes.

As your legs dangle in the crystalline waters below you they cease to be a part of your conscious world and they enter an oceanic netherworld whose residents make the fairyland absurdities of goblins and elves seem as everyday as traffic jams and income tax.

The culmination of a million factors beyond the collective comprehension of the most astute chaos theorists is a single wave.  And it is coming right for you.  Your legs are employed to join your conscious realm once again as they,  accompanied by your arms,  execute a sort of wild and spastic pre-surf dance ritual.  The wave raises you towards its apex, tauting gravity to show its strength by tearing you back down into the trough.

But you're ready.  You stand up on your board and use the inconceivably mighty forces of the ocean and the Earth to do your bidding by propelling you forward.  You smile with a Cheshire grin as the wave breaks behind you, toppling the magic balancing act that had allowed you to defy the very forces of nature that weaves together the fabric of space and time. 

And once again, there you are, bobbing up and down in a vast expanse of space.

Cross training

SUPing (Stand-up paddling) - the new rage

Fish 1 - Jon 0

An old fashioned fiesta

I spun him around maybe 15 times :)

Let it rain! (note that we stopped using blindfolds to expedite candy consumption)

By day 10, we upgraded to a legit long board

Ten days of hard work

Looking bored on the small stuff

Jon enjoying a (very rare) lone moment at Los Cerritos

The taste of success is o' so sweet

Another full moon in baja to the East
Another perfect sunset to the West