Guaymas

Trip to guaymas Octo 2015

As I look out the airplane window I see a thick blanket of clouds below me. 

I feel a surge of motivation. Inspired to write, and to ponder what will become of this weekend ahead. 

I'm on my way to guaymas, Mexico with a volunteer group called  Los medicos voladores- the flying doctors.  

I didn't think I wanted to go. I thought I wanted to stay home to rest. To go climbing, running, and mountain biking. I wanted to organize and plan some projects for the house. 

I was afraid to fly.  I was worried about the weather, or the plane malfunctioning. I was making things up. I was trying to envision this trip but all I could see was a hole. It was a dark hole and it was all I could see. 

While I had all those feelings, I started preparing for the trip. I bought some tools on the list I had compiled the last time I volunteered as a PT.  

I didn't get everything, but I'm glad I was able to get a few things. 

Another pilot, bill, had to cancel. Something was wrong with his plane and he couldn't go. 

I realized I could offer my spot to someone in his plane. Maybe this wast chance to stay home and bail without being a flake. 

It turned out, everyone had already made alternate plans. 

After all of that, I sit on this plane feeling exciting. As I start to anticipate the trip, the black hole is gone. 

Instead, I think envision the patients I might see. I question, How might I help? I day dream about the past time I was there. 

I wonder, Should I have them announce that I can treat certain cases of vertigo?? 

If there are people with bppv, I could really help them significantly!!

This trip help me learn and pushes me to think. It more work than it is fun. It's not relaxing. But, when it's done, I now know that it will be worth my while. 

I'm still sad not to be staying home. But, I'm excited to learn and meet to people. I look forward to prioritizing home time in November. 

Free bonus vaca day

When we arrived in Fairbanks, the leaves on the trees were changing into a sweet yellow color. The views were stunning! While mountain biking, I would look out into a clearing of bunches of aspen trees glowing in the distance interspersed with patches of still green spruce trees. After a 2 days it was noticeable there there were even more yellow trees. A beautiful, bright, schoolbus yellow. From there they turned golden, giving off a warm glow as you would round a corner and catch the vista of all the lovely trees grouped together. 

The winds started to blow and the leaves fall gently to the ground in layers on tops of each other. I was told that in the next week the trees will be bare and fall would be over. 

I was lucky to be here during this lovely weekend. Arriving on Thursday and leaving on Wednesday, I was able to see the progression of the season before my eyes. 

On Tuesday, I got up early!!!  My flight was supposed to leave at 6 which meant getting up at 4 to be able to leave for the airport at 4:30. 

I had slept outside to catch whatever glimpse of the northern lights that I might see. 

It was quite cold getting ready standing out there as I reluctantly got in the car to head to the airport. it was winter weather for this gal who grew up in San Diego. 

It ended up that the flight was so delayed that I wouldn't make my connections. 

Lucky for me, I gained another day of vacation. What a treat! It allowed me to catch one more day mountain biking amidst the gorgeous trees!

I make my way home and I am thankful for such a wonderful adventure spending time with wonderful old friends and making new ones along the way. It was a treat to explore such beautiful places!!!

Alaska

The sky is just Beautiful here.

We had a slow day when we arrived. 

We played outside with the girls, enjoyed some grilled cheese sandwiches and some amazing smoked salmon. 

Ashlyn's mom has a little farm so for dinner we had almost everything home grown including the chicken. What a treat. 

The next day had a slow start. I was stoked to be able to get out and do a little mountain biking. There is some great single track not far from where Ashlyn lives. Ester done single track. 

I started feeling low energy in the evening when sheree and I went to first Friday art gallery openings and woke up this morning with a fever. 

I've been in bed for hours. Here is my view of alaska today. 

The sky is beautiful. The photo Durante do it justice. Womp. Hopefully, I can bike again tomorrow...it's not looking good 

Holy smokes-flight path-whaaat

Aw, I'm always sad to leave. I have enjoyed meeting new people, learning new climbing skills, and playing at the beach. It's tough to leave a great city like San Sebastián. 

But, we have twins to transport to Alaska and duties to perform. 

We flew Bilbao-Frankfurt. 

Now we are on our way Frankfurt-Fairbanks via Anchorage. 

The Frankfurt airport is huge and wacky. I feel like I am in some sort of 1984 themed move and I'm being watched over. My decisions are being made by someone else as a going in elevators that go one floor up and then to moving walkways to more elevators. I think I'm looking for some gate c-19 as I move through this weird space. 

From here we get on a flight direct to anchorage. Apparently there are enough to people to go direct to Alaska to run a flight once a week this time of year. 

I witted things post from the plane as I watch a sleeping baby so that she doesn't roll off the seat. Sleeping baby!!!! So lucky so far! I hope I don't eat my words!

As I sit here and watch the flight path map on the seat in front of me, I realize where I am going. Holy smokes, we are going north. We go Past Copenhagen, where I enjoyed exploring by bike last week. We pass Gutenberg where I did some climbing with Niels. We fly over Oslo, and then zoop, over the Arctic Ocean. Looking at a map, it seems quite LOCO en la cabeza!!!

Well,here I go toy last little bit of adventure to Fairbanks. I had wanted to do some outdoor adventuring but might just learn woodworking skills from Ashlyn's dad instead. We'll see if Charley want to teach me a few things ;)

Im hopeful. 

Hugs to all! Arielle 

Last day in Spain: full of adventure

What a treat that Ashlyn and I were able to at least go check out the basque culinary center. Sadly, we weren't able to partake in the fancy meal the student chefs make because school was not in session. 

We took silly photos just the same!

From there, we went on separate missions. Ultimately, I went climbing and ash packed and took care of the kid. 

We head out tomorrow for Fairbanks. 

That will be a totally different adventure. 

I climbed with Gonzalo on the east face of "dos hermanas". It was supposed to be a 6-7 pitch climb. See below for info. 

But, we ended up on a super challenging climb to the right. One really long pitch of slippery limestone. My climbing shoes felt like ice skates. 

We may it to the top of that pitch safely only to find that there were no more bolts above us. So, we rappel led a short distance down and left and decided to do 2 pitches of the climb we intended to do in the first place. 

Amish more doable! At that point , our daylight hours were ending and we had to head down. 

It was a fun adventure. Gonzalo caught an awesome photo of me when I had dirt in my eye. Do I look hardcore or what?!?!?!

Well, getting back to town at 9:30 made me late for a party keypad frirnd was having and I found my way home in time to eat shower and pack. 

Sadly for me, it's time to leave beautiful donostia and head for Alaska (it would be so nice to stay here a while!). 

Big hugs and thanks for reading. 

Following others around

DI'm thankful to be connected with people while I am here in San Sebastián. 

My friend, juanxu, who took me mountain biking yesterday. 

And Gonzalo, married to one of Ashlyn's coworkers, tooke to his climbing gym. We wanted to go outside, but the weather did not cooperate. 

We did try! He took me a to a place called Santa Barbara just outside of town. It's a limestone crag with short climbs. 

The gym was small, but challenging. Lots of tough routes!

I was invited to enjoy lunch with Ashlyn's friend and family which was so nice. 

From there, i Went to the beach!!!

What a gorgeous beach!!!

And from another vantage point. 

If I only had a camera with me to take a photo of the view from the water...what a beautiful photo it would be!

Well, this town is hopping at night, even on a Tuesday!

So I explored the different bars, but eating pintxos is more fun with others...so I had a tortilla espanola and then headed for home. 

Too hot day 1, too hot day 2

Well, as it happens, it gets hot here, very hot...I had this thought/hoped that the north of Spain was exempt. 

Yesterday we decided to go to the small town of zubieta ("thubieta" if you want to speak like a spaniard). 

We went to play fronton, a basque style racquetball/squash game. 

We were probably there on the hottest day of the year and it was so hot we just couldn't do anything. The babies were crying and we had to drench them in water. Big mistake to leave the house. 

Lucky for us they fell asleep in the car and Kepa had the honor of driving them around for the entirety of their nap. 

Today, we were smart!

 We went to an area called Aralar where we went for a hike and had a nice picnic. The babies slept in the car on the way there making the walk and picnic a pleasant outing. It was much cooler in Aralar:)

From there, We went to a small town of lekumberri where they have an old "rail to trail" pathway and a "camping". 

Lucky for us, there were toys and things to play we in the shade. Exploring with babies is different, very different. -I now have first hand experience as to the whole new dimension of what makes a nice place to go. 

Anyway, it was a smart move because we got away from the heat and humidity of San Sebastián! Phew!

Above, you can see a photo of the old buildings in town and a sweet little garden.