3wing

Sawa-dee Ka from Chang Mai, Thailand!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:26:00 +0000

So we left the sand and sea to head north into the jungles of Thailand. Recommendations brought us to a city named Chang Mai. It's definitely not a small city but very relaxed with a lot of fun things to do!

We arrived by plane and headed to a guest house that two separate people have recommended along our journey. Man were we spoiled!! For very cheap we had a huge room, air conditioning, hot water and a TV that even played shows in English! Sripoom Guesthouse for all you traveling to Chang Mai!! It was so good that we just kept extending our stay and even extended our flight by dropping Hong Kong off the schedule. It'll have to be a separate trip.

Our first day in Chang Mai we signed up for a Thai cooking class!! YAY!! We both love Thai food and now we know how to cook it and cook it well (so come visit and we'll cook for you!)! We were picked up and taken to a local market where we learned about different types of rice and how to prepare them. Also about picking out our other ingredients. The class was held 30 mins out of the city on an organic farm that grew all their own herbs, which we learned about and picked. We spent the day learning how to cook from a cute little Thai lady and then we ate and ate and then cooked some more and ate. Then we took our LEFTOVERS back to the guesthouse and put them in our little fridge (can you believe it, we had a little fridge in our room!!)!! Eventually we ate all those leftovers for snacks and breakfast! YUMMM!!

Our next day in Chang Mai we spent being Mahouts, which means elephant trainers! We were picked up early from our guesthouse and brought to a wholesale banana market to get bananas for our very large friends. I have never seen that many bananas in one place, but we left with buckets full and lots of sugar cane too. From there we headed north for about an hour to a small elephant camp. This place was unique because they only kept 6 elephants and didn't use them for endless tourist trekking but instead used them to train us, I mean we train them no no wait they train us.....So anyway, we spent the morning first gaining the trust of the elephants, insert bananas and sugar cane, then we learned how to get on and off them and next we learned commands to drive our elephants! Kinda like houseback, I mean horseback riding!! This was all very tiring in the hot sun so we took a break for lunch and relax time. After lunch we hopped up on our elephant and put our new skills to use. Did I mention that we had to learn all the commands in Thai? luckily, we had a real Mahout walking near by to help when we couldn't get it right. At the end of our walk we took the elephants right to the river for a bath, their favorite part of the day and ours at this point too. It was sooo hot! We were able to jump right in and scrub the pachyderms while they splashed and sprayed water back. It was a wonderful day!

The next day we were sooo sore from elephant riding that we slept in and relaxed. The afternoon we spent walking around to all the local Wats (temples) and exploring. We even took in a movie at the Cinema, which is a great experience because first, they over air condition the place so that you're shivering and getting hypothermia by the time the previews are done. Second, Thais LOVE their king, so before the movie everyone stands and watches a 5 min. movie about the king, then the real movie plays.

The next day we again took it easy walking around to all the markets and exploring. Mark's tummy wasn't feeling very well so we've been just laying low. Last but not least today we just completed a Thai massage class taught by a little lady named Aree! We learned a ton but left with books and a DVD to learn more. We both need lots of practice so we could use people to practice on when we get home!!

Today we got our visas to Cambodia and plan to head there on the 24th. In a couple hours we're going to hop on a night bus to Bangkok, stay there a day and then catch a bus to Cambodia to explore Angkor Wat (one of the seven man made wonders of the world). We'll be staying at the Golden Temple guesthouse per Nikki's recommendation!! After a few days touring the temples it's back to Bangkok for us then a couple days later home to the good old U. S. A!!

So here they are.....THE PHOTOS!! Enjoy! http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/ChiangMaiThailand

PHOTOS!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:12:00 +0000

Finally found a computer that works!!

Ko Phan Gan, Thailand:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/KoPhangan

Ko Phi Phi, Thailand:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/KoPhiPhi

Railay, Thailand:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/RailayThailand

Perhentian Islands, Malaysia:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/PerhentianIslands

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia (and the end of Bali):
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/CameronHighlands

Happy viewing - don't forget your tea, coffee, or drink of some sort!! There are a lot of photos! COMMENT ON THEM TOO!! Or send us an email!!! We miss hearing from everyone!

Catching up...

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:43:00 +0000

So we have a really good excuse for not keeping up on our updates.....we've been on the islands and the internet is expensive and slow (tough life, huh). So where to start...I guess where we left off.
Malaysia-
from Singapore we jumped on an overnight bus to the Cameroon Highlands of Malaysia. We left the city and woke to sunrise of steep foggy lush green mountains. We jumped off the bus at 6 am ready to be surrounded by touts trying to bring us to their hotel of choice like usual but instead we found peaceful chilly empty streets. We actually had to search out our own guest house. So after getting lost and ending up at a convent we found a wonderful little guest house set up on a hill.

From there we did a jungle trek to Robinson waterfall our first day even though after walking all over Singapore we decided to walk some more, then hitchhiked home with a very nice man who caught us up on Malaysia's political situation.

The next day we rented a motorbike and scooted all over the valleys. Our first stop was one of the many tea plantations. This area was occupied by the British at one point and we all know how much the British love their tea! It was beautiful to see the tea growing on every available inch of hillside and learning about how it is harvested and dried and packaged all in the same place. From there we broke the scooter shops rule and drove up the highest mountain in the area (this scooted had more power then the one in Bali and lucky for Mark there was no walking involved on the up hill!). We caught a quick glimpse of the area before the clouds moved in.

We headed down the mountain to tour around all the quirky roadside attractions all afternoon. We stopped by a butterfly garden which didn't have much in the way of butterflies but had many beautiful flowers and strange tropical jungle insects (yuck!) Somehow a friendly Malay man decided to put a huge scorpion on my shoulder before I got to say no. It wasn't horrible, I just thought it was going to crawl down my shirt! By the way did you know that scorpions don't have eyes? Crazy! From there we drove on down the road to a hydroponic organic strawberry farm. It was great! We picked and snacked on berries while it down pored outside. At this point of the trip we have entered southeast Asia monsoon season, which we knew was coming and hasn't been that bad. Once the rain stopped we made our way to a neat little Chinese owned orchid farm (if only we could grow orchids like that!!) tucked away that we had hiked by the previous day. It was amazing and we took way too many photos so we'll have to pick out the best of the best. We may have picture of every flower in the joint, they were all so beautiful!
By this time it was getting late and had to return in the scooter and sit down to some fabulous Indian food. The next day we loaded into a series of cramped hot mini buses to headed out to our next Malaysian destination.

We then went to the Perhentian Islands where I got a bit sick - a cold and then some bad #2 related most likely to some curry. I dove regardless being that that was why we had gone there and I ended up not having the best dives - having a stuffy nose and a bloated stomach doesn't make for a comfortable dive experience 60-90 feet underwater... we dove a wreck and a large underwater pinnacle - plus the visibility wasn't incredible and we've been quite spoiled with our dives. The Wreck was cool though and we did see some eels and a 3 legged turtle that they call Tripod. We met a great couple from the Czech Republic (who unfortunately also ate the same curry) and had a great time having dinner with them every night. We also met two American girls (Americans have been few and far between on our travels) that we ended up making the long trek west that I'll describe next:

We then had a long journey to the west coast of Thailand completely circumnavigating south eastern Thailand due to the unrest and violence there. What really happened was our direct thru mini bus stopped and dropped us at a tourist desk in a totally random city -we were scammed!! our 5 hour trip turned into 9 with a two our layover with many other pissed off foreigners at this tourist desk. Once we were picked up we did rounds around the town for an hour till the driver filled the van, then we drove north. This is a common scam in Thailand with the bus companies. I do think that we're getting better at dealing with the hasslers though. Thailand doesn't seem to be as bad as Bali, we've attributed it to Bali being in tourist high season and Thailand being in off season.
- it took almost 2 days but we finally ended up in Railay Thailand which is famous for its rock climbing - which we did a good bit of - it was fun to rent shoes and gear and get back into it. And Liz had a blast which is always good for me! She led a route 6b route (similar to a 5.9 at home) and cleaned the entire thing - it was great to watch - I was proud!! Let me (Liz) add that Mark also jumped right up there and led a bunch of routes also with no fear and no problem. The Thai climbing guides climbing near by all complimented Mark's skill. I was proud too!!

We also did Deep Water Soloing - which is when you climb a cliff face that is overhanging deep water with no ropes - when you can't go any further - you jump off into the water - it was scary, nerve wracking and incredible! Went to a Thai kickboxing match as well - that was interesting to see. Plus we met some fun girls from Colorado there which was great to have a bit of interaction with people that know and love the mountains.

We then went to Ko Phi Phi (pee pee) where it rained and rained - but we hung out with the American girls from CO and played some UNO and partied a bit. Ko Phi Phi was ground zero of the tsunami but you would never know. They have rebuilt it up completely, kinda crazy to imagine. On our last day we decided to dive and the weather cleared up beautifully - the visibility was great and the sites were pretty spectacular - plus it was just Liz and I on the boat - which made for a pretty ideal day of diving - other than a REALLY LOUD long tail boat - which is a wooden boat with a car engine strapped to the back - with no muffler).

We left Ko Phi Phi on the west coast of Thailand to the gulf coast on the east. It's rumored that if it's monsooning on one side the other with be sunny and dry. We found it to be true. We hopped and bus to our first overnight ferry experience. We originally were a bit skeptical but it turned out great. Think mats on the floor all in a row. We applied the earplugs and were rocked to sleep by the waves! We woke at 5:30 am on the island of Ko Phan gan.

Ko Phan gan is know for it's Burning Man like full moon parties each month on the beach. We happened to be there at the right time, so when in Rome......It was an all night party with glowing body paint, sand buckets full of drinks, dance music and fire! We made it till 6 am while the party continued to 11 am the next day.

Lucky for us we found a great cheap bungalow within walking distance from the party but also tucked far enough away around a breezy rocky point (I think I failed to mention that there are also pre, post and half moon parties that happen. Party all the time!).So we spent the next day laying low on our hammock and didn't partake in the rage the next night so we could dive the next day.

So we were sad that this was our last dive of our trip but excited to go to this spot. Sail rock known as the best in the area with a vertical swim thru called the chimney which was fun but the visibility was not so great, lot of plankton in the water, kicked up from a recent storm. There was not much in the way of fish and coral viewing and we were diving again in the same spot after lunch on the boat. Our group all geared up jumped from the boat and followed the divemaster to the entry point. She had asked Mark and I to bring up the rear because we had a bit more experience the the rest of the group. As we descended waiting for the group to move along behind the divemaster we turned around to come face to face with a 33 foot long Whale Shark!! It was amazing and not a common sight. It swam a few curious circles around Mark and I within arms reach while the rest of our group was realizing what was there and swimming back towards us. It was one of the coolest experiences we both have ever had and we were so lucky to be in the right place at the right time!!! And just as quick as it appeared it was gone into the cloudy water. Mark, with the camera tried to follow, but got a little too overexerted. While diving you're supposed to use as least amount of energy as possible because of the carbon dioxide exchange and nitrogen in the tank. Mark went for a full out sprint, and felt it. We came up after that for a much needed breather.

The whale shark was the ultimate cap to our wonderful diving adventures, like it knew we were on our last dive, it came right to Mark and I kinda crazy, almost ran right into us!! We have been pretty lucky along the way seeing sun fish, manta rays, sea turtles and the rarest of the rare whale shark!! WOW, we might have to go from ski patrollers to dive masters!!

Now by night ferry, bus and plane we have made to the far north jungle of Chang Mai, Thialand. We're doing well - we're starting to get a bit anxious to be home - but not quite ready yet (although we're bummed that we're missing The Heard http://www.myspace.com/theheardrecords (the band from our wedding) play a huge show at the Eldo ( a bar in town ) for the Vinotok festival (pics from 2 years ago)- the one where they burn the grump... pretty big deal that they're headlining that night - we're proud - and sad to not be there. We miss Charley too....:(

We're taking a Thai cooking class tomorrow - mountain biking on Friday and working with elephants on Saturday... it should be fun. I think we'll then head to Cambodia for 2 or 3 days and then head back to Bangkok to fly out to Hong Kong and then back home - can't believe it's almost over!

Again we have a massive upload of photos to go along with this massive posting.
ENJOY!!

Here's a small dose of pictures: Gili Trawangan - Lombok Indonesia
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/GiliTrawanganLombok

Slow computer led to a picasa glitch so we'll get more every night as we have time.

Liz and Mark

As we promised - a deluge of photos

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:19:00 +0000

Consider yourselves immersed! Our guesthouse had Picasa - yay! We uploaded the rest of Bali today and a few more to the end of Australia. We still have a lot of photos on our camera from Singapore and Malaysia so far - but we'll have to get to those later.

We leave the Cameron Highlands today for the Perhentian Islands (the links lead to google map locations). There should be nice beaches and supposedly some of the world's best scuba diving - and it's cheap! Our room tonight will cost us $9.00 - and it'll be beachfront. Not too shabby.

Here they are - your long awaited photos - there are LOTS so sit down with a cup of tea and enjoy:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/Bali

Mark and Liz

Bali - Gili Trawangan - Apa Kabar? BAGUS!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:38:00 +0000

We're here in Singapore - only for two nights. It's quite the clean city - and being that we're not really city people - we're off to Malaysia tomorrow.

Still no internet cafe that allows Picasa - but we will find one - oh yes we will... one of these days.

So - after we left Ubud - which we loved by the way - we made our way to Amed. A sleepy little black sand coastal town. We found an incredible deal of a place that gave us a great accommodations (with a pool) and 8 tanks for Scuba diving... the contract clearly stated 4 nights + 4 tanks x 2 PAX - which is how all the dive shops would write four dive trips for 2 people. All for $157 US... not too shabby. Well - as it turned out - the owner wouldn't live up to his word or his signed contract and only gave us 4 tanks total which is only 2 dives x 2 people - oh well - despite all of my arguing I couldn't convince him that he was not a man of his word. It was too good to be true. The diving though was incredible - we dove on the USS Liberty - which was an American freighter torpedoed during WWII by the Japanese - it was a huge hulk of a wreck and we were able to even get inside it in a few places. The fish were amazing and our first experience diving a wreck was one we'll never forget.

From Amed we took a SLOW boat across to Gili (which means Island) Trawangan. The scariest boat trip that either of us have ever had. We should've known when just before departing a wave broke on the front of the boat and snapped off a large piece of wood - nothing mandatory for the ensuing trip though so our departure was not delayed other than by the impromptu rigging of the engine with some twine - the aforementioned wave also snapped a part of the engine mount. I bailed water out of the bottom of the boat with the help of the first mate and our 2 hour tour was underway! There were times that the waves were so big that I was looking down at Liz who was on the opposite side of the boat from me in order to keep it balanced. 650,000 Rupiah - (a bit more than $65.00) - not too bad for almost dying - needless to say on the way back we paid the 1.3million (little over $140) for the safe speed boat back.

Gili Trawangan was by far our favorite part of the trip so far - except for all the diving we've done. We spent a week doing absolutely nothing - learned Indonesian and met a great group of Indonesian tomans (friends). Apa kabar means how are you - Bagus - is Good! We partied a bit more than we have the rest of the trip and had many a memorable sunset. Our Spanish friends from Nusa Lembongan had suggested we try this place out and we're sooo glad that we did! We whiled away our days reading books, drinking beers, ate pizza and some great pizza toppings, and twirling fire around the nightly beach bonfires. We were sad to leave.

The plan is to head to the Cameroon Highlands in Malaysia for some jungle trekking - then off to the Perhentian Islands of NE Malaysia for some more crystal clear waters, white beaches, and world renowned scuba diving.

Greg added an abbreviated group of photos from the wedding (not sure if I already mentioned that or not) - let us know if you've done the same - or if you have any video from the lovely day.
http://picasaweb.google.com/gewing/MarkAndLizSWedding

For those that appreciated meeting Steve and Robert at our wedding - be sure to check out their webcast - www.uvnu.net

Ok - we're off to have a late night snack. Good night

Bali Hi!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:17:00 +0000

http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/Bali/photo#5233958547857940290

Howdy from Bali - things are going well here - though we haven't found an internet cafe that has picasa enabled - so for now you get ONE photo of us diving... more to come later - MANY more!

The rest of Oz was great - we loved Sydney and ended up seeing Band of Horses play - which was so much fun! Had to sing along to our first dance - we're cheeseballs.

Bali has been interesting so far - Kuta was ridiculous - we hated it - lots of crowds and lots of people pestering us for anything and everything - and no one telling the truth about the price. Getting off the plane - we lacked the necessary visa - thanks to our travel agent for not saying anything about that one - we were able to get one but it was incredibly frustrating and put us at the back of a line of 500 people getting off our plane for customs... oh well. Then - coming out of the airport one guy wanted to charge us 300,000 rupiah (about 30$) for a cab ride - then the next offered 150,000 - it took us till the third time to find the price of around 55,000 that our hotel had told us it would cost... craziness. The first rule of Bali is that there are no rules... and that everyone lies about the rules.

We left Kuta quickly after arriving and went off to Nusa Lembongan - a small island off the coast that has WORLD CLASS diving - it was incredible! We're happy to have our underwater case for the camera and we've taken lot and lots of photos! For now you get one! We saw a Mola mola - which is a sunfish and they're exceedingly rare to see - it was about 3m tall - or about 10 feet tall HUGE - so weird looking. Maybe I'll try to find that photo too... and Mantas and incredibly hard currents for some impressive drift dives where you simply find your buoyancy (not so simple really) and then just float and watch the reef and the world go by - awesome way to dive.

We're in Ubud now - pampering ourselves with a bit of spa time - massages are cheap here - we each had an hour long massage followed by an hour long body scrub - followed by a soak in a flower filled tub with ginger tea to sip on - all costing a whopping $12 or so each. Ahh now that's nice. Our room is $10 a night! Our Motorbike is around $4 a day. Beer is dirt cheap and juice is even cheaper than that - what's cheaper than dirt? Rocks? Mud? Who knows - but it's GREAT! MMMM banana juice. The monkeys are crazy too!!! Again - we'll send pictures when we find a place that doesn't charge per upload...

We're doing well - our health is holding out - despite a bit of a cold on my end. The bugs haven't been bad at all either - knocking on wood...

Ok - thanks again for all the love and support - we told you that your donations would be put to good use!!!

Love Mark and Liz

G'day mate from Downunder

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:45:00 +0000

Here we are in Australia! Melbourne was great. We saw Wicked which was wicked cool! We went on a day trip down south to the Great Ocean Road. It was cool - the pictures don't do it justice - especially cause you can't tell how WINDY it was!! We saw Koalas and Kangaroos on the Great Ocean Road. The kangaroos are just like deer here - they're all over and they have signs for them on the roads. There are herds of them in the fields munching on grass - funny things. The wild parrots were cool too - though they figured out quickly that we didn't have food for them!
We had some incredible coffee and spent time exploring the city. The food was a marked improvement over Fiji! We saw The Dark Knight at the Imax theater - it was awesome! It's winter here so we're wearing all of our layers at once...

We're in Sydney now and we're wearing our friend's clothes... we met a very nice couple in Fiji that lives here and they have graciously taken us in, given us a bed right on the beach in Coogee, cooked us meals, provided a laundry machine, warm showers, and just all in all a truly wonderful time. We're lucky to have met them! Thanks to Ruka and Nina!!

We've been wandering around Sydney - including a tour of the Opera House and a ferry ride out to Manly Beach. We're thinking that we may head back to the city today and explore some more. Band of Horses plays tonight in downtown (they're the band that plays the song from our first dance - No One is Going to Love you More than I do.) - the show is sold out - so we'll see if scalping happens in Australia... we're counting on it.

We've walked all over and Liz got her hair cut last night! She looks gorgeous. Her new do is chin length and light and airy - she loves it! I'm happy that she decided not to Buzz cut it;)

We're off to Bali tomorrow for 3 weeks! We have absolutely nothing booked - so maybe I'll end this post and go book a place at least for tomorrow night!

Hope you all are doing well - be sure to comment on our pictures or on the blog here and let us know how things are in your lives!! Miss you all!

Mark and Liz

And the part you've been waiting for - NEW PICTURES:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/AustraliaMelbourneAndSydneySoFar

BULA!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:24:00 +0000

Hello Everyone! First thing I have to say is.....Pizza!! Tonight we're in the main island of Fiji,
Viti Levu and we just ate Pizza. I know I know, we've only been away for 3 weeks but it was very exciting to be able to choose our own restaurant and our own meal (we'll get a little more adventurous tomorrow but tonight was just pure comfort food!) Let me give some back ground....we have been traveling between many small islands (like small enough to hike around -which we did) and the only food is what you're given for each meal. For example; lots of donuts and starchy foods and let me tell you it's really hard to find the meat on the neck cut of lamb. So, Pizza was fabulous!
All food aside, Fiji was wonderful and beautiful. We last wrote while at Oarsman's Bay Resort where we did 3 more scuba dives - one with our first shark encounter!! From there we made our way to Manta Ray Resort where we had a chance to swim with Manta Rays- which are huge and look like birds soaring in circles underwater, it was amazing!! There at Manta Ray we did more snorkeling and loads of beach laying!! Manta got our vote for having the best food of the 3 week trip!! From there it was on to Sunset Resort where we encountered more bugs in our bure then we had seen in the whole of our trip! We also made a little doggie friend that slept on our floor and kept the cockroaches away! We hiked around Waya Island where Sunset is located and did a whole lot more beach laying! From Sunset we planned to hike across to the next island resort. No Fijian could understand why we would ever want to do that!! After much explanation we were on our way. 2 hours later we arrived at Wayalailai Resort where not a single Fijian could understand where we were coming from and why we were not on the boat. At least we gave everyone a good laugh! Let me say we have heard some of the best laughing ever in the past three weeks, the islanders we've met just don't hold back, it's infectious! So, back at Wayalailai they were full even though we had a booking - there was no room at the inn. So because they were sympathetic to us being on our honeymoon and didn't want us to sleep in the dorms, they set us up the nicest palace of a tent! it was swanky! Check out the photos!! The second night of our stay they put us up in the fanciest cottage where we spent the rainy day finishing our books.

This morning we hiked to the top of the island - it was gorgeous - we then caught the boat back to he mainland and that brings us back to the Pizza...

And finally what you've all been waiting for: MORE PICS
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/TheRestOfFiji

Enjoy!!

Love Liz and Mark

Fiji and the trip so far...

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:53:00 +0000

We finally made it to Fiji after a long couple of days of travel. We left Crested Butte Monday for the long drive to Denver followed by a number of shopping trips in the big city. Michael and Vindya kindly put us up for the night and fed us lots of incredible Indian food - what a blessing that was before our departure!! We left Denver Tuesday evening and arrived into LAX for our flight to Fiji... departed at 11:30pm on Tuesday night and didn't arrive until 5:00am on THURSDAY!!! We completely lost Wednesday - hope you had fun cause we never experienced July 9th... so we're both that much younger... weird stuff that date line!

It's winter here in Fiji!! Brrrr!! Just kidding. We went from the longest day of the year (our wedding day) to short short days in the Southern hemisphere! Though it is winter and it has been a tad windy... the weather has been gorgeous despite the blustery conditions and a short-lived shower here and there. We've spent our first 7 nights at the Nabua Lodge on the island of Nacula in the Yasawa group of Fiji. The Nabua Lodge was a fun taste of real Fijian culture with mandatory participation in the Bula dancing every evening, good food served family style, and friendly fijian characters to help us along the way. They've taken us snorkeling in the blue lagoon, hand line fishing (we didn't catch anything), shown us their traditional dances, sold us jewelery, cooked us dinner in their traditional Lovo (earth oven) and gave us a tour of their village.

We're officially certified!! Our dive course was incredible, we had two of the most amazing dives (though we have nothing to compare to quite yet except posters and books - and these were both JUST like the posters or better!!) We've seen incredible species of fish and coral and crystal clear water! We're sorry we didn't buy an underwater camera - but we'll most likely splurge on one for our next dive which is on Saturday (we'll be feeding sharks!!!). Even our "confined water" dives which normally take place in a pool were held in the Blue Lagoon made famous by the Brooke Shields movie.

We've met wonderful people so far with time at each meal to meet people from all over the world (not many Americans traveling so far). We loved meeting Renee and Brigit from New Zealand and Germany - sorry we didn't get to say goodbye - unfortunately our final exam ran over... yuck exams on our honeymoon!! We both passed with flying colors!

We've just now arrived at our next stop down the island chain - we're at Oarsman's Bay Lodge which is a bit swankier than our last digs - hence the internet access.

We're going tomorrow to watch the village rugby match - but besides that and the shark dive we have nothing planned other than laying in the sun on the beach! The white sandy beach here is absolutely amazing with incredible snorkeling right off the beach... including a little pod of squid that live out there - they're pretty neat.

Check out our pictures from the past week here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/FijiNabuaLodge

We love you all!

Getting Ready to Leave

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:21:00 +0000

Oh the trials and tribulations of getting ready to leave for 3 months. We've spent the last week or so getting everything organized for our trip. If you haven't heard by now, Liz had a slight mishap on her bike Thursday after our wedding.... to the tune of her getting hit by a car. An ambulance ride and a long night in the ER with a full CAT scan of her back proved that she just had a very sore butt (what a pain in the ass;) - so long story short - she's ok - we're dealing with some legal issues that I won't go into here - but hopefully it will all be sorted out upon our return... not quite what we wanted to be dealing with just prior to our trip!

So thanks to all of you again for making the trip out here - we loved having everyone here and we're still basking in the afterglow of having such a loving group here to celebrate with us!!!

So Fiji has proven to be a bit more taxing than we thought it would be - we were initially going to simply book the first week or so and then wing it from there - but as it turns out - it's peak season and the places we're going only have 4-10 beds per island... so here's our itinerary as it stands:

http://www.fiji-dive.com/ this is the dive company we’re learning to dive with during the first week. We'll be certified then to dive for the rest of the trip.

Boat to Nabua

10-16th Nabua
http://www.fiji.hotel-pictures.com/offshore-islands/nabua-lodge/index.html

Scuba lessons start the 12^th. We lose the entire 9^th to travel because of the date line.

Hike from Nabua to Oarsman
17-19th at Oarsman
http://www.oarsmansbay.com/
Oarsman is quite expensive… so we’re only staying there a short time. The beach here is supposed to be the nicest amongst all of the islands of Fiji.

Boat to Manta Ray
20,21 at Manta Ray
http://www.mantarayisland.com/
Manta Ray is known for its dives with the Manta Rays… also expensive so we’re only there a short time.

Boat to Sunset
22-25th at Sunset
http://www.fiji.islands-resorts.com/resorts_ex.cfm?Memberid=377
We’re staying here for a while – it’s going to be nice – it came highly recommended by Carson and it’ll have great hikes and snorkeling at our front door. It sits on a spit of land so both sunrise and sunset are visible over the ocean... and during low tide the spit becomes a bridge that we can hike to the next resort...

Hike to WayaLaiLai
26,27th at WayaLaiLai
http://www.bcdi.ca/wayalailai/
This one is supposed to be great too – and will be our last two nights on the Yasawas in Fiji.

28th in Nadi so that we can catch our flight to Australia the next day.

So far the plan is to rent a car in Melbourne and drive to Sydney over the course of 5-6 days. We'll see.

Love you all!!! Hope you all are doing well!

Mark and Liz

We got married!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:26:00 +0000

Here are some pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/BeforeTheCeremonyGettingReady

http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/Ceremony

http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/CeremonyPosesAfter

Thanks to everyone that came! We had an incredible time with you all and we sincerely appreciate the effort you made to come join us in this remote destination!!! Hope you all enjoyed Colorado! Come visit again!!! Liz and I love you all - thank you so much for being a part of our lives and for supporting us through everything! We wouldn't be here if it weren't for you all.

THANKS!

Flobots on Jay Leno

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:43:00 +0000

Wedding SIte is Melted! Marriage License, Etc

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:51:00 +0000

The wedding site is finally melted out - it's going to be a blast! Now we just have to work on getting electric out there... hmmm....
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/WeddingSite053008

We picked up our marriage license! The photographer is going to be our good friend Kate Seeley! There are more gift options under the registry section of www.lizandmarkgethitched.com if you're not so into the Donation button ;)

Now for all the rest of the details...hopefully we'll be ready by the time you all get here!

Skiing Mt Ruby

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:43:00 +0000

Went skiing on June 1st! Snowmobiled out to Ruby and did laps. All of the pictures can be found here - there's a lot of em...
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/MtRubySki060108

Claire's Dedication

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:37:00 +0000

The same weekend as Greg's Graduation was Claire's (my niece) dedication. It was a nice ceremony. Pictures can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gewing/ClaireSDedication

Greg's Law School Graduation

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:15:00 +0000

Greg's Law School Graduation from Catholic University in Washington DC was on May 23rd - Liz and I flew back for the event and spent almost a week getting to hang out with my brother and his family - it was great to have so much quality time with his two daughters!

Pictures can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/GregSGraduation0508

Or a more thorough account can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gewing/Graduation

Flobots Killing it - Live on Carson Daily

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:28:00 +0000

Oops

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:41:00 +0000

Apparently the Flobots are on tonight and not last night... Check out NBC - Last Call with Carson Daily.

Phil's Visit - more Flobots - Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:35:00 +0000

Liz's brother - and my soon to be brother-in-law - whoa - came to visit this weekend for his birthday. We took him snowmobiling, fishing, and had a general ol' good time. Snowmobiling pictures can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/SnowmoWithPhil

The Flobots are officially blowing up - checkout the latest Billboard top 100 - they're #3 in the Hot Modern Tracks chart - #55 in the Pop 100 - and 64th on the Billboard Hot 100... not too shabby. Oh and 39th on ITunes for their single - Handlebars. OH and 12th for their album Fight with Tools - they were 15th the other day - steadily rising.

They're on Carson Daily tonight - so if you're still up and reading your email - watch it! Or just watch it on YouTube tomorrow. You can watch the new music video for Handlebars now as well:
http://video.universalrepublic.com/?plid=1481452858&v=1534502575&aid=0

We've picked out the menu for the wedding! Be sure to check www.lizandmarkgethitched.com for updates.

Ceremony Site as of 05/14/08

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:18:00 +0000

Charley and I went for a walk this afternoon to assess the progress of the snow melt out at the top of Peanut Lake Road where the ceremony is going to be held... it's snowy... I'll let the pictures do the talking...

The day's photos can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/WeddingSite051408

Wedding Honeymoon Donations

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:06:00 +0000

It may be tacky but Liz and I have decided to not register for much of anything being that we largely have all the things that we may need to establish a nice little home wherever we end up. We've decided that what we would most appreciate instead of blenders and bedding sets would be help for our honeymoon. We've added a Donate button to our Wedding Website - it's listed under the Gift Registry section of the site and conveniently accepts all major credit cards along with a number of other payment options... So please do forgive our tackiness - but we greatly appreciate your help!! Feel free to come up with creative ideas like: Here is one night's stay at an all-inclusive resort in Bali - or here is a nice dinner for two on the beach in Tahiti...

http://www.lizandmarkgethitched.com

Ben Garthus

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:50:00 +0000

For those of you who know Ben Garthus - he's one of my Groomsmen - and was the reason that Liz and I met. Liz moved into Ben's house as Ben was moving out - and it was at Ben and my Birthday party at Gallery Sovereign that Liz and I first spoke and became interested in one another.

He has since moved to Minneapolis where he is a graphic designer - working on a lot of the consumer product packaging that you've grown to love in the grocery store.

His art work has progressed immensely since the days of Gallery Sovereign - so I wanted to share with you his new artist statement and a link to some of his new work at the Rosalux Gallery in Minneapolis. It's impressive - and I'm proud of him!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24824788@N07/
"The major focus in my work is consumer culture, over-consumption, and the byproducts produced. The United States is the embodiment of this. We do not have the long established cultural history of most other countries so consumer capitalism often seems to define us.

Over the last four years I have worked as a packaging designer for large multi-national food corporations. As a result I have an intimate love-hate relationship with consumer packaging. I experience it not only from its birth, in the design process, but to its ultimate death, as it is consumed. Although I enjoy the creative process, I am conflicted about contributing to the excessive packaging and the distortion of truth that many large companies propagate. One of my earlier series, “Confessions of Consumption,” investigates this phenomenon. Focusing on the refuse I generate allows me to make personal work using impersonal subject matter.

“A Commemoration of Convenience” also stems from my work in the packaging industry but not from the perspective of graphics; the cast plastic sculptures investigate the forms themselves. This piece is a documentation of the containers that flow through my life. It acts as a personal reminder of how much I actually participate in the consumer culture that I am critical of. Many of these objects are imbedded in our society and are difficult to avoid. It is for this reason that they are important.

Reconfiguring my artistic practice to fit my current work situation is crucial to my art. By embracing my day job and using it for inspiration, I have been able to revamp it into something more desirable. In one of my newer pieces, I used my commute to work as an art-making activity. With “Emission Control,” I attached canvas to my exhaust pipe and stained it while driving, furthering the idea of efficiency and reuse. I enjoy the daily ritual of making art even if only for short periods of time; it is a way of reclaiming the day.

In the past I considered myself to be a painter but many of my recent works are headed in sculptural direction. The more concept driven my art becomes the less important it is for me to make a distinction. I am interested in how different materials communicate ideas. I enjoy the process of learning how to create with unfamiliar substances. Each time I adopt a new material, new obstacles arise. In the process of solving those problems, different aspects of my work are brought to light.

In confronting the things that frustrate me, both in my life and in our society, I can find peace in the process. By using materials and subject matter that are a natural by product of my life, I am transforming them into something that is relevant."

Fun Video

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:48:00 +0000

Here's Damien skiing from Monday:

We're back

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:51:00 +0000

We returned Friday from our separate adventures. Liz went back to MI for a Bridal shower, to try on her wedding dress, and a bachelorette party amongst other things. She had an incredible time and came back with a new haircut and a fresh glow about her that I find incredibly attractive (Liz will have to login and write more about her trip). I, on the other hand, returned from a week in CA with a sunburnt forehead - not quite the glow Liz was hoping for... and now it's peeling. Sweet. Aforementioned sunburn was achieved while driving around San Diego in Shawn's little Alfa Romeo convertible. We saw some of the Red Bull air races, helped Jackson decompress from his POW training with the marines, laid on the beach, ate some fish tacos, watched some surfing from the pier, played some football on the beach, and received a personal tour of a Harrier up close and personal with First Lt. Aaron Frey (Jackson) aka Call Sign Amber.

I then flew to San Francisco to see Eric and Sarah and their new daughter Mica. What an incredible new family - Mica has an adorable little personality and at 16 months she's quite the talker and attention hog - I loved getting to hang out and dance with her. It was fun to see Eric and Sarah too... ;) We went to the MOMA - which had an incredible photography exhibit. We met up with Damien's dad at his bagel shop in Sonoma and then went for a wine tasting. We went sailing with Schulyer and cruised around Alcatraz and past the Golden Gate Bridge - it was a breezy blast!

Upon return to CO we were met with a large muddy mess as the snow begins to melt in Crested Butte - we're contemplating having a back-up location in case our outside venue is still snowed-in - and with the forecast calling for 6-12 inches tonight it may be awhile before it melts out.

Went snowmobiling Saturday - there was 6 inches of fresh - and it was some of the best snowmobiling I've ever had - until it wasn't. Got the sled stuck against a tree and ended up having to come back the next day with some friends to get it out. Went mountain biking today... rough life.

All the invites are sent - and the reality is sinking in - it's soon!!! Woooeee!! Wedding planning - lots of fun final details.
Shawn and Meghan enjoying the sunshine in San Diego.Mica and Sarah ham it up.The Golden Gate bridge from our luxury sailing yacht....The trolley in downtown San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge.
The sled track down to the tree... the broken stump in the left foreground was 5 inches in diameter - somehow the sled still works... just a few broken plastic panels...Sled worked enough to tow Eric and Damien to the top for a number of laps.

Eric drops a nice one.Damien airs in.

Birthday, Flying, Traveling, Invites

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:32:00 +0000

Spent this past weekend in Moab, UT celebrating the 29th Birthday of Me... it was a blast. We had a large crew of people from Boulder and Crested Butte. Liz surprised me with some Strawberry Shortcake in the desert with candles and everything - it was quite nice.

We mountain biked Saturday and Sunday and much fun was had. Thanks to everyone that called and emailed on my birthday! It's April 26th - for those of you that didn't know - now you do - so no excuses next year! ;) The pictures from the trip can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mhewing/MarkSBdayMoab they're mainly mtn biking sequences... didn't get a single picture of me... but I'm not the good looking one of the two of us - so that's ok.

The first batch of invites went out yesterday - the second batch will be a week or so behind them as the printer screwed up the quantities... oh well. Everyone should know by now that they're invited... we're in the process of refining our honeymoon plans - we're trying to find places that have the best exchange rates and the best cost of living - right now we're leaning toward: Fiji, Tahiti, Bali, and Thailand. We'll let you know how things progress. We're still planning on not registering for much and simply asking for help for our trip.

I'm flying tomorrow morning for my second Biennial Flight Review - hard to believe it's time again... time flies - ha - no pun intended. The BFR happens every two years and is required by law for all pilots to prove their proficiency... hopefully I am - I should go to bed instead of writing in the blog... bummer thing is that the flight school where I fly is ending their plane rental as of tomorrow - I'll be looking for another way to fly here shortly - sounds like there may be at least two options - but nothing as easy as having one at my disposal whenever I wanted.

Aerial photography has picked up again - been getting calls and emails left and right - which has been nice. Spring and Summer are always the busiest.

Liz and I are both heading off to travel on Thursday. I leave for CA to visit Steve, Jackson, Jenelle, Robert, Shawn and his beautiful wife Meghan and then head to San Francisco to see Eric and Sarah - I'm excited. Meanwhile, Liz is traveling to MI for a bridal shower and to have her wedding dress fitted - exciting stuff! I'm sure it'll be gorgeous! I pick up my wedding tux tomorrow - hopefully it looks pretty stylish!

Ok - off to bed - good night everyone!