*Lots of people have asked me if they could buy pictures. Pictures are now for sale here.*
Piazzas, gelato, pasta, heat, churches, wine, and soccer. Anne and I experienced large quantities of those things and much more as we traveled around Italy’s mid-section. On a side note: it was hot. Too hot. For instance, one day it was almost 110 degrees! When we left Seattle, it had not yet reached 75 degrees in well over 7 months!
*Lots of people have asked me if they could buy pictures. Pictures are now for sale here.*
Anne and I visited her parents in Bessemer, MI for the 4th of July. They live about 20 minutes from Lake Superior and Black River Harbor.
In Bessemer, they used to shoot the fireworks from right in the field where everyone sits. The fireworks would explode right above the crowd, and for many years everyone thought that this was best way to do fireworks. Then one 4th of July, a firework malfunctioned and went into the crowd and exploded, hurting many of the town’s residents. Now they shoot the fireworks from off the bluff, where is it much safer.
Wally is legendary as the best roofer in the Bessemer, MI area! He also drives a really cool truck. In the winter he builds beautiful all-wood canoes. He said that building canoes keeps him from going crazy.
Hiking around Presque Isle
Minnesota Mel is known in these parts for the elaborate custom building projects he does, and his nearly encyclopedic knowledge of traditional Scandinavian music. You’ve got to wonder about a man who brings his accordian, and a few warm Schmitts to his current project which is a sauna/outhouse. That’s right, one building that contains both a composting toilet, and a sauna. I bet you don’t have one of those.
We continued to make our way up the coast. This time, we stopped in the tiny fishing village of Santo Thomas. We had to drive about 30 miles of rough gravel road to get to this out of the way location. Due to my ninja driving skills, our rental VW Jetta loaded with 4 full-grown men and luggage only bottomed out once! However, we got a puncture flat on the way back out.
In Santo Thomas there was a small hotel, but no restaurant. Thankfully one of the locals hooked us up with some raman noodles. Staying in a little shack on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean was quite an experience.
Big thanks to ProPeninsula and Lonely Planet Magazine for purchasing and publishing multiple images from my trip! How awesome is it to actually get paid to travel! (Yes, that was bragging.)
Sunrise the next morning.
Heading to work for the day. One of the fishermen told me that he would take me fishing for about $5.
After a few days of R&R, we had to start making our way back up the peninsula. We crossed through the desert again, and ended in the small fishing village of Santa Rosalilita. The pictures don’t really tell the story of what it was like to end up in a small village where nobody spoke any English and where there was not a restaurant or a hotel to be found. My two brothers and father wanted to turn and try to keep going, but I knew we could not leave. This is where the adventure would begin.
Soon, we found a lady who worked in the town’s only market, and who invited us into her home and cooked us the best fish tacos of our entire trip. It was great to meet her family, and get a feel for what it might be like to live in a small fishing village that only got electrical power less than a year ago! We also located a four-room hotel that was just finishing construction. Though it did not yet have a sign, my brother Mark was able to knock on the owners door and negotiate a room for us.
I’ve never seen a church with two shells on the outside of it like this one.
February in Seattle is not pleasant by most accounts. The holidays are long over, but the cold rain mixed with snow persists. I had to go down to Mexico to keep myself from getting seasonal affective disorder. Somehow, I talked my father and two of my brothers into also going with me. Something about 1 week of sunshine for a total cost of less than $400 seems to convince most people
We flew into San Diego, and took the bus to the border, where we walked across and took a cab to our rental car. No problem! Then we simply started driving south as far as we could get by sunset. By the next day we were at our southernmost destination, Mulege.
Snowbirds
Different kind of bird
Tres Amigos – two of my brothers and I!
I bought freshly squeezed OJ from this guy, and we sat and talked for a half hour or so. Of course the topic of taking his picture came up sooner or later (I can be so sneeky. The only reason I bought OJ from him was for a chance to take his picture.)
I found these birds out walking one morning just before the sunrise.
Driving through the desert there was mile after mile of cactus. This was my first time seeing cactus like this and I thought to myself that the Baja has cactus like the NW has pine trees.
My family drove down to Santa Ana to visit my brother Isaac and his wonderful wife Andrea. You know that your brother lives in a nice place when they have an avacado tree with tons of avocados all the time, right in their yard. It was so great to be down in So. Cal over Christmas. While Seattle was getting snow, I was standing on the beach in flip flops and a T-shirt.
by P-Lo
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