Last hike

This past week, after 9 years, 2 continents, 1 re-soling, and a ton of miles, my Vasque Sundowners made their final hike. When I bought them, I paid $170 and hoped dearly that they would be worth it.

They carried me through many miles with my friends Will, Mark, and Tanner in college, and more recently, with my lovely wife. I would certainly say they were worth it.

Here are pictures from last week's hike, a week-long trek at 14,000ft in western China that was a fitting last waltz:

Fog rolls into the valley

Climbing the ridge over a glacial lake

Whiteout fog made it hard to see anything past 50ft.

Stacy and I on the banks of the lake

Fresh snowfall on our 4th morning

Someone makes ordering shawarma *POP*

And it's me! You're welcome, Lebanese food...

Someone makes an evil glare *POP*

And I married her!

Someone makes a waterfall in the mountains *POP*

And I married her!

Someone makes Hong Kong Harbor *POP*

And I married her!

You've been warned.

I'd like to thank our university, not only for preparing us for any contingency - such as a return to the 1950s and a need for air raid sirens... but also for rolling it into one easy to handle concept: disaster. 

Now I know that if I hear those sirens again, while the nature of the disaster may be varied and veiled, the basic facts are clear: disaster is upon us, please keep calm.

Coming soon to America

BBC news had an article this week on adult playgrounds (the picture above is from the article).  Apparently the UK, inspired by China, has decided to add adult playgrounds to parks.  Click on adult playgrounds to go to the article.

I hope that one day I can make a similar video in America to the video we posted on an earlier blog about adult playgrounds in China.

虎跳峡 Hu Tiao Xia, Tiger Leaping Gorge

Have you ever mentally thought that you could do more than your body is physically able to, but didn't realize it until your body was forced into one of three things: passing out, pooping your pants, or throwing up?


That's what happened to me last week.  Aaron and I went to Yunnan Province to Tiger Leaping Gorge (the deepest gorge in the world) to do a couple day hike through the high trail.  Aaron had been before 5 years ago and after seeing his pictures I really wanted to go.  So last week during our International Labor Day Holiday Aaron and I did the hike.  When we got to the start of the trail there were a lot of other people joining us, so of course, I wanted to pass them.  I didn't want other people on my quiet, get away from the city and other people, trail.  So I pushed hard (or at least hard for me).  And then about 30 minutes into the trail, I asked Aaron if we could stop for a break.


Then I sat down.
"I think I'm going to pass out....."
"....I may poop my pants...."
"....Can you sit down next to me?"
Lean my head on his shoulder, then immediately bounce my head back up, turn away from him and throw up down the trail.
Twice.


I had to sit there and watch as people I worked so hard to get in front of walked through my vomit.  Whoops.


I'm not sure why I threw up actually.  That part of the trail isn't that hard.  It wasn't too hot.  I was going fast for myself, but not super fast - I mean, Aaron kept up without throwing up.  We were at 7,000ft which is higher than we live at, but we had been at the elevation for a couple of days already and I felt better after I threw up.  I may have drank too much water or not enough....not sure.  But I threw up.  We sat for a minute, then we kept going.


And we still beat everyone we started with to the Halfway Guesthouse.

on the way to the gorge

not too long after the throwing up incident.  feeling better.

at halfway guesthouse
what a hottie.

Now back to good part

Aaron says that I must be getting bored with the blog because I haven't posted in a long time.  In actuality I put this pressure on myself to have something interesting to post about and most days I think, "that wasn't that interesting."  OR we travel as much as we have in the last two weeks and then it makes posting a blog the last thing on my to do list, because i play catch up on other areas of my life when we get back home (like studying for that Chinese exam we had on Wednesday this week).


The last couple of weeks have been really good - despite the busyness of travel.  Aaron and I feel like we're learning a lot in this stage of life and the trips that we've taken have helped spur on some of that growth.  A few weeks ago we went and visited some friends who live in a small city in southern Sichuan province.  We stayed up late eating shao kao one night (shao kao is grilled meat or vegetables on a stick.  it's a low cost, favorite late night snack of locals), went to some hot springs (read: natural hot springs that had been diverted to be the source of what looked like normal hotel pools), spent some time in the sunshine by a lake, and were encouraged by the conversations we had with friends over the weekend.

Pretty much straight from there we spent a week in Hong Kong and got some time of rest, refreshment, and got to hang out with our friends James and Laura!

Next stop: Kunming to say goodbye to Daniel as he heads home to get married!!  Also - I'm going to learn a bit about video editing :)

He went to Hong Kong again

I got to get some more hang out time with Asian Kate, as she let me know when her husband was going to be gone again.  Unlike last time where we made dumplings together, this time we ventured outdoors - to the peach blossom festival.

The peach blossom is a beautiful blossom.

However, this peach blossom festival takes that beauty and puts tents on and around them (literally some of the tents had the trees inside of them) while the vendors sells chinese snacks, and tea so people can enjoy playing mah jong under the trees.

Aaron got invited on this outing, and we found out once we started going that this trip was less about the trees and more about a photo shoot.  Kate brought her friend, and a change of clothes and the two of them took turns taking pictures of each other doing different poses.  I heard her friend say at one point when Kate was a taking a picture of me and Aaron, "foreigners just stand in a line when they're in a picture."  She was noting it as odd, because I don't think there was one time where the two of them just stood still while taking pictures.

Learning how to pose and not just stand in a line.

Those are actually rapeseed flowers behind us - what we get Canola oil from.

We took off early from picture taking when we saw that is was about to downpour on us.  I wonder what we'll get into the next time he takes off for Hong Kong.