July 26-27 Oregon

After leaving Ashland in the afternoon we barreled up I-5 looking for a decent place to camp, passing nothing but places called "Lazy RV Village" and "RV Heaven". Expectations low, we pulled off the highway past Eugene and stumbled across Brownsville. Brownsville is a rare thing in the American West, a historic town void of kitsch. While driving up the California coast you are inundated with offers to buy a "Giant Redwood Indian" or stop by the "Trees of Mystery". This doesn't really detract from the majesty of the redwoods, and some might go as far as saying they add to the coast's charm, but I'd rather do without them. Brownsville is a real town with real people, celebrating their past while living in the day to day, without any attempts at self-marketing. We had a couple pints at the saloon, before camping by the river, next to two family reunions. Thankfully they gave us a little space.



The next morning we decided to sample some Oregon wines before making our way up to Portland. We took a wrong turn at Tangent, OR and stumbled across an antique car show. There were probably 300 people in the middle of nowhere, showing off their beauties while others were line-dancing and women were serving up a pancake breakfast. I (Nader) was excited by the photo opportunities.

Continuing on, we stopped at a couple Willamette Valley vineyards (now midday and a reasonable time to sample some wines) and tried the locals pinots. A much more laid back feel than either Napa or Sonoma. We had some award winning wines from Yamhill Valley Vineyard and the tasting room was in the owner's house.




Driving on, we arrived in Portland in time for a late lunch. Having only spent a few hours in Portland and only downtown on a Sunday, our impression of Portland was that it is decidedly bizarre. Within two minutes on one city block we passed a protest rally claiming the Environmental Protection Agency is corrupt, some Hari Krishnas ringing their bells, and overly pierced street kids with signs offering "Instant Karma". Walking through the park we stumbled upon a 30 person adult Alice in Wonderland party, everyone taking their characters very seriously, playing croquet with bowling balls and sledgehammers. We went to the open market and chatted with a cigarette smoking, guitar playing, jewelry maker who also happens to make hand-crafted bows and another guy who for a few bucks will make a ceramic representation of your face. I like Portland. It's kind of a smaller, weirder San Francisco.

A few more hours on the road and we were in Seattle, where Tim and Marnie have graciously let us take advantage of their beautiful home, while ironically, they're in San Francisco.

July 24 - 26 Oakland to Ashland

We had a few delays on our departure out of the Bay.... You know, the usual setbacks. First Nader had to bleach his hair (don't worry Nahed, the mohawk here was just a transitional phase :). Then we had to take a two hour detour back into San Fran to get the title to our car in case we want to sell it when we get to Alaska. But four hours and one in-n-out stop later we were officially on the road.

Our first night was spent on the Lost Coast in Northern California. A beautiful spot that we discovered together several years ago, it was great to make another visit. This time we camped near Shelter Cove on the southern side of the range (last time on the beach near Petrolia which we would recommend highly for anyone making the trip).

Yesterday en route up the coast we stopped for a beautiful hike in Redwood National Forest (after the obligatory tourist picture in front of "Big Tree"). From there we continued into Oregon where gas prices dropped by 20 cents and you can talk on the cell phone while you drive! We're now chilling in Ashland for the afternoon after breakfast with Tim and Melissa who were in town for the Shakespeare festival. Life on the road is treating us well so far...

7/15-7/23: Bay Area

We've spent the past week back in the Bay Area reconnecting, regrouping and celebrating. A huge congrats to both Josh and Regan AND Hillary and Tony for their weddings this past week... Hurray!!

Coming back to the bay and all the wonderful people who live here reminds us that even as we travel the world, this is our home.

We're launching off for Alaska and everything in between tomorrow morning. Assuming the subaru can make the drive, fun pictures and stories to come!

Exciting News

No, Allison´s not pregnant. But my sister just got engaged!

Al and I had some celebratory cervezas last night as we watched the Red Sox-Yankees game at a local bar. Small world.

Congratulations, Dina and Greg! Much love to you guys from down south.

6/25 - 7/14 Nosara

Half way through our time in Nosara.... This town is great (thanks to both Molly and Kate for the recommendation to set up shop here). It's been the perfect place to slow ourselves down a bit as we transition into the year.

We rented this cute little studio apartment just off the main strip in town. Our days are scheduled by the tide charts and yoga class schedule (well, Nader would prefer that Allison wasn't scheduling the days at all but it's a start!). Allison's been spending a few hours each day up at the Tree Tops studio of the Nosara Yoga Institute. Gazing through your downward dog at monkeys in the trees while the sun sets is a pretty sweet way to end the day.

Nader's been rocking it on the surf board and Allison has caught the bug too. She finally decided to rent her own board yesterday. It's pink and really cute. The waves here are perfect for learning.

That's about all there is to report.... Surfing, yoga, reading, sleeping. Definitely chill.

Oh, on the topic of reading -- as we listened to the fireworks last night and reflected on celebrating July 4th in a foreign country we found ourselves yet again discussing a book that we both just recently read. American Vertigo by Bernard Henri-Levy. If you have a chance, we highly recommend checking it out. He does an amazing job of painting all that is good and bad about the U.S. It helped me (Allison) frame my own views about what I feel about being an American in this world as I travel through it.

6/22 - 6/24 Manuel Antonio

Palmar Norte isn´t a town that you need to spend more than about 10 minutes in.... So to see the friendly face of our dear friend Scott Braman calling from around the dusty corner where the bus had dropped us off was a wonderful surprise (we thought he wasn´t picking us up for another few hours, but never underestimate Scott´s early morning motivation).

After our journey into Osa and Corcovado, the next few days were a perfect stop. Scott and his mom Sukie drove us back to Manuel Antonio where we chilled with the whole Braman clan (most importantly, cute little Athena - Scott´s 18 month old niece).

We stayed at the newest Scott-Chip (Dad)-Barbara and Jim (Aunt and Uncle) endeavor... The Blue Banyan Inn (http://bluebanyaninn.com). Part of an emerging eco-finca up in the hills, the place is amazing. For any of you looking for a little rest and relaxation, you need to check this place out. Barbara has some amazing monkeys that you can visit with during your stay. Chip and Scott still have some land and in-progress villas for sale if you´re interested in something more long-term...Email us if you don´t know Scott and we´ll make a connection. Seriously, if we weren´t spending most of our savings on this little year of adventure, we´d be considering it ourselves :)

6/19-6/21 Corcovado National Park

We decided to kick start our travels with a journey into the depths of Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula . Corcovado is the last original tract of tropical rain forest in Central America. To say that this place is remote is a bit of an understatement. Getting to the trail head took about 3.5 hours from the closest town of Puerto Jimenez (which itself took 9 hours of buses to reach). An hour bus ride, followed by 30 minutes in the taxi, followed by 2 hours on horseback.

We then begin the hike into the park... the seriously muddy hike into the park. 3 kms in we almost turned around because it was so muddy in fact. But after passing through Los Patos ranger station (there are four ranger stations at various ends of this park), the trail improved somewhat. And so we continued deep, deeper and deeper into the park. Having never spent much time in the jungle, Allison was VERY impressed that she didn't freak out as we traveled deeper into the depths-- she even calmed down after awhile about the potential peccary (endangered wild boar) attacks:)











19 km later, we arrived at a little slice of heaven in the midst of the jungle. Sierena station is located right in the middle of the park in the best location for viewing wildlife. After our 7 hours on the trail, it was a pretty idilic place to stumble upon -

Upon arrival we met the self proclaimed "Indiana Boys"... Two 22 year olds from Indiana who are aspiring to become the next Crocodile Hunters. They're spending 2 full months in the park filming themselves while they attempt to catch crocodiles, snakes and other animals. They took Nader out on a night hike where he got to see their antics first hand. Although a little insane, these kids were great to have around for our time in Sierena as they really did know just about everything about every creature we saw.

The next full day was spent chilling and exploring -- We saw spider monkeys, caputin (sp?) monkeys, howler monkeys, two baird tapirs, some little jungle deer, jungle racoons, scarlet macaws, and crazy looking rainbow crabs. Nader had a brief ocelot sighting on his night hike with the crazies from Indiana.
Day three was another 19 km hike.... Although the terrain was much mellower than day one. We were walking mostly in the jungle close to the beach with a few stretches along the beach. From there is was a long bumpy "collectivo" (translation, back of a pick up truck) back to Puerta Jimenez. All in all, such an amazing journey... a good start for our year.