Congratulations

. . . to the San Diego Chargers on an ass-kicking playoff game. Way to make those Titans cry all the way back to Tennessee. Good job boys! Do it again next week and take us all the way to the Super Bowl!!!

Engagement Party

Our engagement party went just as planned . . . pure fun. The food was great (thank you Ricos), the drinks were great (thank you booze) and the company was even better (thank you friends). If our wedding is half as fun as our engagement party, we are in for quite a treat.

Thank you parents for throwing us such a great party. The Mattson 2 with special guest Dylan Raasch played an amazing jazz set, then DJ Chris Cote played the best dance tunes ever that got everybody moving.

Our Adventure Continues

So we have been back home in good ole California for almost a month now. It took us about a week to get over the jet-lag from three different countries and three different time zones.

Oh, I almost forgot! Micah proposed our last day in Bali! After five and a half years of dating, he finally did it, got down on one knee, asked my parents before he popped the question and everything. We couldn't be happier. Stay tuned for engagement party shannanigans and photos after the weekend.

I think we officially are living the white trash lifestyle now. By that I mean living in an RV. Uh-huh, that's right, I said an RV. Not really by choice, some family drama I don't want to go into. But, we are making the most of it. I mean, just lifting the blinds from our "bedroom" in the morning and having the beach right there is not too shabby. We even have Christmas lights! This is totally temporary though. We will be moving into one of my parents houses that they rent out soon enough. We will have a real house and a real yard with real grass (no astro turf like we have now in front of the RV).

If anybody would like to come down for a visit, give us a call and we'll tell you the campsite number. We are at Carlsbad now and will be "moving" to Cardiff tomorrow.

P.S. Congrats to our good friends Jason Weatherly and Leah Hsieh on the birth of their adorable son, Ryder Paul.

Kuta Buddha

Bali is such a beautiful place, besides the litter on the streets, the rabid mangey dogs and the traffic, it is truly a treat for the senses. The air smells of incense, temples border dodgy alleys, and the food it quite tasty. Let's see, where can I begin. Lets start with the weather.

Ever heard of hot and humid? Well that does not even do justice to the 100% humidity of the Bali air. The sun is brutal, even in the shade you get sunburned. I tried to go for a jog with Sasha in the morning while the boys surfed Canggu . . . I thought I was going to die from heat stroke. I wussed out and power walked while I watched Sasha's cute little behind jog down the beach and back to me. She's gnarly.

We got back from our sweat-fest and the boys were back shortly after. Micah, Brendan and I went to the water-park in Kuta, called "Waterbom". It was alright, it felt good being in the water considering the unforgiving heat. I went on one scary slide called the "Boomerang" and then watched the boys fly down narrow tubes of water (and probably pee, eww). I used to be so gung-ho when it came to scary rides, but I have officially become a wuss. The "Boomerang" was enough for me then it was off to the "Lazy River" and the swim up bar.

A $3 cab ride back to the hotel and we were ready for food and drinks. We dined on delicious fish and sipped the local alcohol, "arak". It's like a strong sake made from rice and sometimes made from coconuts. The cocktail we took a liking to was called "arak attack" which consists of arak, lime, and honey. Yum-eh!

Shopped around a bit (knock-off heaven) and shredded on our scooters. Off to Padang-Padang tomorrow!

SYD 2 BALI, that's in Indonesia!

Back Sydney, off to Bali

We started our day off flying from Ayers Rock back to Sydney where we were going to meet up with some friends from Encinitas (Benji & Greg) for a little clubbin'. We got a pretty cool room right in Manly Beach, (1/2 hour or so from Sydney). As the night rolled around we put some food in our bellies and proceeded to make party. Got to bed @ 2am.

Waking up feeling like ummmm not that good, ate a little breaky then left for the airport. In the terminal right next t our gate was the first flight of the new Airbus Jet....there was a big party and we got to see it take off.....the thing was f-ing gigantic...two stories all around, queen size beds, bar, and can hold like 500 people.

I hate arriving in foreign countries late at night. Landed in Bali @ about 11pm, customs is sooo confusing, we waited in about 20 different lines and finally made it through. Our driver was waiting on the other side with a sign saying Brok Marcel, so awesome. Checked into UN's (our hotel) and fell to sleep

Woke up, looked out our door across the pool and low and behold was 'ol Brendan Raasch. After a little breakfast we rented scooters and tossed ourselves into the madness that is Bali traffic. No words can describe the driving in Bali. So we scooted around, shopped, went to Kuta Beach and met up with Frankie and Sasha from Enc. They had been in Bali for a week or so already, they showed the hot spots and low spots.

Fun day.

Ay! there's that Rock

Awesome flight from Cairns to Ayers Rock. The Red Center of Australia, it's called this because it's red......wow. And this is where the alien rock they call Uluru lives.

In the "Uluru/Kata Tjuta" park the are two rock outcroppings, Uluru aka Ayres Rock, which is a single solid rock-and about 45km's away is a series of giant rocks called the Olgas or Kata Tjuta. Flat for 1000 of km's in either way around them. Both are very sacred places for the Aboriginal people, and should not be climbed! I was thinking a curse of the Pharaoh type scenario, so I did not climb. People do climb the rock though....pricks, they will get the curse.

The town only consists of 1 hotel, 1 store ($50 6 packs of beer), 1 restaurant, and home to the biggest spiders in the world....think you're hand walking around. Brooke being an awful arachniphobe was not keen on this feature.

So for the next two days we cruised around the desert in our little Hyundai seeing the sights, taking hikes and watching the sun rise and set. Really amazing place.

S.S. Puke

Finally, the Great Barrier Reef. This has been something I have wanted to do my entire life. Considering the GBR is diminishing tremendously by the day and may not even be around in 20 years, I feel very lucky to have seen it with my own eyes.

Being the pirates Micah and I are (or wish we were), we hopped onto the super tough ship that would take us out the the GBR. It was more like a luxury catamaran than a ship, and with a name like "Reef Magic", I guess we aren't such pirates after all. Anyways, the day was nice and sunny, the seas a bit rough, but we could handle it. Micah popped a couple of ginger pills to avoid sea-sickness and off we went.

Ok, so, have any of you seen the movie Problem Child 2? You know that puke scene when they are on the ride at the fair, where one person pukes then another one follows and it's just a giant puke fest? Well, I felt like I was smack dab in the middle of that scene about 15 minutes into the 1 1/2 hour ride out to the GBR. People were puking left and right, running towards the back of the boat with full cheeks and green faces. I know it sounds gross, but it was actually quite comical . . . I think because we were practically the only ones who did not get sick.

We finally arrived at "Marine World" which is an anchored down, big snorkeling platform that lays beside a part of the GBR. Our boat pulled up beside and it was time to get in the water!!!! With snorkels on and fins flapping, we were the first ones in the water and the first ones to get our photo taken with "Wally" the Maori Wrase fish. He lives in that area of the reef and is very friendly. He swam right up to us for his photo-op.

I cannot even begin to describe the beauty of the coral and fish. It was so beautiful and bright, I'm talking full on 80's under the water, not just the temp, but the colors. Everything was fluorescent blue, green, pink, etc. It looked like al the fish were wearing zinc oxide on their faces.

We took a quick break from snorkeling and took a ride in a semi-submersible boat where we got to see more of the reef, the really deep parts and a lot more coral. We stayed out there for about five hours and came back to port feeling great. We dropped off our amazing van and stayed in a hotel where we slept for a few hours, tomorrow . . . Ayers Rock!!

xo

Brooke