This is one of the first photos I ever took with my camera...adorable.

 

This photo is from Twin Falls, ID when I was working for the Nature Conservancy.  Pictured is an absurd climber, Beau, who is holding on to practically nothing but some how still moving up.

Bear Creek, CO whilst creating a geological survey of the area 

A photo of sam at Mt. Bachelor, OR.  Whenever I see this photo all I can think of is that it looks like Sam sneezed a whole bunch of trees. 

 

Canyonlands, UT taken from my sleeping bag very early in the morning...hence the crookedness

 

Heart Lake in Olympic National Forest, WA on a backpacking trip with my friend Nathan.  Why do we climb mountains?  Because, I mean, look at that lake.  While hiking up here we ran into a group of 60+ year olds using pack llamas, one of who knew my Grandfather (a person, not the llama).

 

Mustaches are back at the Portland Saturday Market!  

Utah

 

This photo is from a block break sophomore year with Nao, Melissa, and Sam where we spent a couple of days camping in Canyonlands, UT.  I like to believe this is the border between Colorado and Utah...Snow and Canyons.

Pool in the Gobi Desert

Well, now that we are back in the States I am overrun by T-Shirt business, which is fantastic, but I have very little time to post everything that I want to, so instead I am just going to post a cool photo I find from my photo library instead of 100 photos at once. Who knows how long I will keep even this up...I am notoriously absent minded.


This is a photo I took the summer of 2004 during a month long class taught in Mongolia. This is specifically taken at the Flaming Cliffs...famous for its bright orange color and as the first place where dinosaur eggs were found. It was not uncommon to find pool tables out in the middle of nowhere in Mongolia(maybe because it is so flat and dry).

The Kingdom of Tonga

Well, our trip is finally coming to a close, Sam and I made it back to San Francisco with a brief stint in the tiny island Kingdom of Tonga. Below are the photos from the last three weeks. Enjoy!

Checking out the view of the Kerikeri bay of islands. We saw a pod of dolphins from our vantage.

Hanging out on our host's boat

Chasing sheep to get to caves

Incredibly these caves were free if you could find them.

Emily by a very large stalagmite

A glow worm next to its silken strands

Glow worms lighting up the ceiling

Glow worms with the cave ceiling partially lit up

Silk strands next to dripping stalactites

It was very humid in the cave and felt just like the book Journey to the Center of the Earth

"Star" Gazing

Our last day in NZ we spent camping near the cave in high winds and heavy rains without a chance of washing off the mud from spelunking. That morning we shoved our wet tent and muddy shoes in our bags and boarded a plane for the Kingdom of Tonga.

An awesome beach resort we visited on our second night to see some traditional Tongan dancing and feast

the band

the bar

redundant mustache

Some random festival where all of the school children dress up in uniforms and march

the king was supposed to be there, but I guess we missed him.

the two hour ferry we took to the island of 'Eua

Preying Mantis

Preying Mantis

Preying Mantis and friend

Giant Spider!

"Smoking waterfall" goes straight down 70m

weeeee!

Big Banyan Tree

Tongan Gas Station

Big leaf? or tiny Sam?

Another giant banyan tree but with a cave below it.

giant vine

feed me

Bad hair day

Monarch Caterpillar on milk weed

blue tailed skink

green hillside

Fanta and crackers

Fox Bat

Rat Cave on the side of a cliff

Extreme Hammocking

The bathroom...at night!

Kava circle (kava is the traditional drink of the Polynesian islands that is made from the root of the kava plant and has very mild tranquilizing effects). A Kava circle is only composed of men except for one woman to serve the kava, but there is some taboo about having relatives of the woman as part of the kava circle.

Kava bowl

The circles go late into the night and all of the men will play music and sing.

Filtering the kava into a bucket

You can see the profusion of caves even from this vantage

One of the few beaches on any of the islands

Climbing with puppies

and backpacks

Petrified coral

Goin' Coco Loco

Juggling...poorly

big cave

Bon Fire on the beach

Moon rise

Tree Climbing Crabs

Coconut eating crabs

Dog Vs Crab

Sea Snake or Moray Eel

Hermit Crab

A group of dancers from Colorado College who we happened to run into on a beach on Tongatapu
Here is some perspective

Fox Bats

Armando biking

kayaking to a very small island

Hard Core Peace Corps volunteers

Sam with our CS/PC friend Ashley

This is why there are very few beaches on Tonga, the coastline is covered with terraced reef pools

the white areas in the foreground are blow holes under the reef

It got a little dangerous to keep taking pictures

Each pool was about 3.5 ft deep

snail!

walking along the small island, pangamotu

Dead puffer next to a live star fish

there were hundreds of starfish imprints where the star fish had burrowed under the sand

very cool colored crap in a mangrove swamp

Brittle starfish

rope swing that doesn't go in the water

A wreck that has become an artificial reef. We went snorkeling around it, and it was totally creepy.

Our last day in Auckland at the base of the sky tower

People always think it is a lot bigger than it is

Katherine and Taylor in San Fran

Carloooooo

Katie!

After 2 1/2 months traveling around New Zealand and the Kingdom of Tonga with Matt, Devin, Emily, Sam, and the many other people we met on the way we were sad to leave them, but happy to come back to the states and see all of the friends we had left behind. We have spent the last 4 days in San Francisco hanging out with the sisters, and a bevvy of CC grads, although we will be leaving tomorrow morning for Portland, where once again we will start the tshirt business back up. Once we get back to Portland Sam and I will be joining Chris, Ian and Gabe to look for a house for at least the next 6 months, so hopefully we will see you there!