Jo + Joel

We'll we're posting again so that means:

1. we took some more pictures
2. we are in a hurry to go somewhere where we'll be out of computer range for a bit

So let's recap...

HOLIDAY ROADTRIP 2006-07

Hopefully most of you got the Holiday memo for this past holiday season. It included a bit of our roundabout trip to Denver during the massive snowstorm(s) that shut down the airport for a few days. The short version of this story is that as we came in for landing at DIA on the morning of the 23rd, the winds were too strong to land so we went to Salt Lake. After a few hourse on the tarmac there, the airline decided to take us back to Dallas, where we had originated, unless of course you count the flights from La Serena and Santiago. Anyway, without a way to get on another flight until the 27th, we had to rent a car and hit the road.

At first, we thought we were heading to Denver. By Amarillo, this clearly was not gonna happen. The weather and road were still awful and the thought of getting to Denver only to turn around and head back to New Mexico wasn't pleasant. The next day we bee-lined it for Taos.

My good friend Jayson lives in a beautiful adobe in Arroyo Seco (below), just outside of town and strategically located near Taos Ski Valley. He hooked me up with some gear and we got some nice turns in under blue bird skies. It was a great visit. I also bumped into a good friend from the Colorado College days who's relocated back to Taos, where he grew up. Jake taught me a thing or two about skiing during that one year in Colorado Springs and it was great to see him, hang out and meet his new wife and babe. Of course, I should have taken more photos. I don't have one of either Jayson or Jake.

For Christmas Eve and Day, we had plans to meet up with our friends Heath and Shanti at their super comfy new home in Sante Fe. Our friend Brandon also joined us from Portland. We spent a good deal of time getting caught up with our mutally busy lives and then proceeded to cook and eat. Well, some cooked more than others (everyone but Joel), but that's largely because I doubt they'd care too much for a meal I prepared.

We had a lovely stroll down Canyon Road gawking at art and enjoying the luminarios and lights brightened by white snow...

And went for a late dinner at Maria's for the traditional pasole and tamales. Delicious.

Christmas Day was a feast of Chilean empanadas for lunch following by cornish game hens and numerous accompaniments in the evening. Heath captured the moment well with the family seated all around...

By the 26th it was time to say goodbye and head north to visit our friends Stacy and Mike. Stacy's Dad graciously offered to let us stay at his wonderful new home in Bayfield, CO, about 15 east of Durango. Thanks again Steve! It was fun getting caught up with those guys while dodging out-of-control Texans (no disrespect intended to my fellow rednecks) on the slopes at Wolf Creek.

We also had a chance to get to know Dutton (Stacy and Mikes beautiful chocolate lab) well. What a great pup. In between runs we were able to hit the refreshing Pagosa Hot Springs. Very relaxing. At some point we need to visit these guys at home in Socorro, New Mexico.

Next on the agenda was Denver. Until the second snowstorm put an end to that idea. Better find a place to stay, quick, New Years is just around the bend. Then the thought hit me. I got a hold of friends Bret and Keri. Just a few years back they found a condo near the base of Crested Butte. As luck would have it, no one was renting for the next 3 days and we were in! How cool are those guys? Thanks again! You can check out their view from the balcony below.

Jo and I had a nice romantic dinner out on the town following by an old-fashioned throw-down by local funk band Full-Stop Funk supported by the super boogiefied Children of the Horn. Although the snow conditions weren't ideal, we had blue skies on the mountain and enjoyed a great day of cross country skiing during the first day of 2007.

As we made our way back to Denver, we couldn't resist the temptation to soak at the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs. So we lounged in the thermals on the side of the river before succombing to the calls of work.

VANCOUVER - WHISTLER JANUARY 2007

We headed back to Chile on Jan. 4 and worked for a few weeks before heading back up north for the Roundup Mineral Exploration Conference in Vancouver, BC at the end of January. We capped off the busy and fun week by skiing a few days at Whistler where friends from Seattle, Portland, and Nevada met us, stayed and played. Good times. Unfortunately we have hardly any photos from this 10 day trip. I did manage to get a good one of our friend Kevin, who's a new Master's student at the Mineral Deposit Research Unit at UBC in Vancouver. You'll find Kev in some other photos from Mongolia (likely with a beard and mad look in his eye), he worked with us on several different projects over there. We commented to each other several times that it was nice to get to know one another after having showered.

BACK TO CHILE

On February 6 we left Vancouver, spent a night in Denver, then headed down south. Looks like we be working down here until at least May, maybe a bit longer. We're likely headed to a project in Mexico for 3-4 weeks after that. At some point we'll make it back to Denver for a short time before heading back to Alaska for at least part of the summer.

WANTED - WEDDING PLANNER

And in the middle of all this craziness is our wedding!

SEPTEMBER 22, 2007

As many have pointed out, I made an error in my email with the attached Holiday memo. The wedding is in fact THIS year, we are not yet married.

Jo has worked hard to solidify accomidations for 250-300 people in Copper Harbor, although we'll be impressed if we fill all the rooms.

I've had several people ask how to get to Copper Harbor by air. The easist route is to fly to

Hancock, MI (adjacent to Houghton) (~45 min. from Copper Harbor, airport code = CMX)

However, alternatives are to drive from:

Marquette, MI (~ 2 hrs. 15 min. airport code = MQT)

Duluth, MN (~ 4 hrs. 45 min., airport code = DLH)

Central Wisconsin airport in Wassau, WI (~ 4 hrs. 45 min., airport code = CWA )

Flights are probably cheaper to Minneapolis or Chicago, but the drive would be quite long (~ 7 hrs). We are planning on providing a shuttle from the airport in Houghton/Hancock to Copper Harbor to avoid the need of a car rental there. We're hoping this and the affordability of the hotels will offset some of the airline costs for those who must fly. Look for further details on the blog or the official invite that we hope to have out this spring. On that note:

PLEASE EMAIL US YOUR MAILING ADDRESS!

hopefully you know the email, I'm not going to post it here for fear of phishers and spammers.

Hope you're all well!

Well leave it to us to wait until 2 hours before we leave the country to report on it. Better late than never I guess! Jo and I have found Chile to be a bit too comfortable and suspect we may enjoy spending more time here in the future. Below is the view we have to put up with while mapping rocks in the Andes.

The people we work with are fantastic and we had lots of fun at camp. Our manager threw a Navidad barbeque for the gang so we had a local, and certainly free range, goat cooked up. No offense to the Mongolians we worked with, but this was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than any sheep. Here's a good shot of Jo and the boys:

And one of camp:

For the last week or so we've been back in La Serena. We had a chance on Saturday to do a little Christmas shopping and wander the streets:

Sunday we hit the beach. We decided to take a short road trip about 30 min. south to the smaller fishing village of Tolgoy. Now, when you go to the beach, do you bring a towel or blanket to sit on? Well not us. We brought pillowcases. Yeah, that's right, pillowcases. Don't ask. Now to top it off, the only sunscreen we had was the magnesium oxide; you remember, that stuff from the 80s you'd put on your lips that makes you look you stuck your head in a bowl of flour because it's so white? Yeah that. Well I tend to burn so I had no choice since Chile is sin ozone layer. We call this one mime on a pillowcase: