Boobies, Beaches and Beer

So I have finally found the time to sit down and write my first blog post. Kari has done an excellent job of keeping you all up to date, but I decided to expand on my travels and our most recent adventures here in Portland.

In January I started my new job with Island Conservation and after a week in Portland for training, spent a few weeks in Ecuador on my first project. This was my first time visiting Ecuador and I was very excited to see some of this diverse country. We flew into Guayaquil and then drove to the small coastal town of Puerto Lopez, which was quite a tour as we went from big city to very rural towns. The poverty levels in some of the small towns we drove through reminded me of the prosperity we enjoy back in the States and how we should not take it for granted. After a day in Puerto Lopez spent finalizing our gear and supplies, we were ferried out to our final destination Isla de Plata. The "Poor man's Galapagos" as it is often called, is part of the Machalilla National Park and is an important breeding ground for several seabird species. In fact, traversing around the island consisted of wading through colonies of birds, who often were standing directly in the middle of the trail. Blue-footed and Nazka (masked) boobies were quite common, as well as Magnificent frigate birds and Red-billed Tropic birds. The island also hosts two species of Albatross (including the Waved, which is critically endangered) although they were not present during our time there. Additionally there are numerous passerines that were continually showing up on the island and a few residents that provided daily entertainment, such as the local mocking birds. In all, the island is a magnificent treasure with diverse flora and fauna that seemed to have something new to show you everyday. Our conservation work there should have a very positive impact on the bird life and our hope is that our efforts will aide in helping the island return to a more natural state.

After returning from Ecuador, I spent my time off moving Kari and our belongings across the country to Portland and unpacking boxes in our new home. Unfortunately I was not able to help with all the unpacking and settling in as I left again on my next tour, bound for Puerto Rico. This time our destination was a small island off the NW coast of Puerto Rico called Desecheo, which is part of the US National Wildlife Refuge system. Historically this island hosted the largest nesting colony of Brown Boobies in the world and several other seabird species, however the booby colony is now reduced to a sparse few that only roost on the cliff faces and other species visit infrequently. The island also has several endemic species including a species of anole that was quite prevalent. For this trip we flew into San Juan, drove across the island and parked it in Boqueron for a few days as we prepped for four weeks in island. On our departure day the weather decided to not cooperate and the wind shut down our helicopter operations (the easiest way to get on/off island is by helicopter). We were shut down for two extra days waiting for better weather, which I spent working hard on my tan at the beach. However, the weather finally cleared and we were off to work, not to return to civilization for four weeks. Our work there should have major impacts on all species and should aid in the restoration of the islands fragile ecosystem.

Now, you know about the months spent surrounded by boobies and the beaches....on to the beer! Kari and I joined two other couples last weekend for a nice trip to Portland's Spring Beer and Wine Fest. Portland is home to many breweries and the PacNW is a great place to be if you love good beer. Oregon's wine country is also situated close to Portland and many a local winery made the treck to share their lovely creations. We hopped on the Tri-Met (no drunk driving!) and headed down town. There was an amazing selection of breweries and vineyards, not to mention eateries and specialty foods (such as my fav. pickled garlic!). Needless to say we spent the entire day there and got our moneys worth! Kari enjoyed her wine sampling, while I stuck to beer. Although, there were also a few distillers, that had some specialty liquors. I would highly recommend Ben Distillery's "Mazama Infused Pepper Vodka", it is simply amazing. Also, Kari found a strawberry lemonade vodka cocktail (pre-mixed), called "Hello Lovely", that she enjoyed. Anyway, too many good beers to remember.....er maybe too many good beers equals loss of memory? Either way, we both enjoyed tasting the different varieties and had a great time. Check out some pictures from my travels at http://picasaweb.google.com/karibonham/SlideShow#

Smelly McGee and Chatty Chatterson

There is really not too much going on, but I felt the need to blog today. Jake is still in Puerto Rico, but returns home in just under two weeks. This project seems longer than the last time he was gone, but I was busy packing and getting ready to move last time, so I was not thinking about it so much. Life is good though. I am still adjusting to working from home. It is very quiet, but at least I can get laundry done during the day so it isn't taking up my weekend.

On Friday I met with a girl that also works for UPG and lives in the area. It was nice to get out of the house and be social, even if it was only for an hour. I am sure we will hang out again. Friday I also decided to head to the DMV and get my Oregon license. I had been putting this off because when I looked online I found out that you have to take the written test, even if you already have a license from another state! What if I don't pass, how embarrassing! I decided Friday was the day, because the current office is just down the street, but April 1 it is moving farther away. So I headed out with the many required documents and figured it would not be too crowded because it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon. WRONG! Turns out that about a million kids in Beaverton were turning 16 on Friday! So I took my number and found a place to stand. Finally I was called to the payment booth, then you have to take your application to the testing booth and wait again. As I watched a few kids come out of the testing room with heads hanging down, I started to wonder if I was going to pass this test! I mean, these kids have been reading the handbook and sitting through driver's ed for who know's how long and they are not passing. I on the other hand have not taken a driver's test in over 8 years! The pleasant (not!) lady behind the desk called me back for my test and I found the assigned computer. Of course I was seated right between Smelly McGee and Pregnant Lady Talking to the Computer! The first few questions were not bad. Then I missed a couple, but seriously who knew that you can turn left on a red light as long as you are turning to a one way road! When I learned to drive red meant stop. None-the-less, I finished the test and received a passing score. This required more paying, and waiting to get a picture taken. After all of that, they do not even give you the license on site. I have a piece of paper and will get the license in the mail in 5 to 10 business days. Thankfully my KY license plates don't expire until next January, so I will not have to go back there again for a long time!

In other news, I have decided that I need to read more so I don't waste my life away watching re-runs of TV shows I have already seen. I have added the list of recently read books to the side-bar to keep track of what I read and to recommend to others. Enjoy! So today I headed down to the library and got a card. I have not had a library card in a very long time, but with the lovely state of the economy, I figure getting books for free is a pretty good way to go. As I am looking at a book a girl in the same aisle is walking closer and closer to me while looking at the shelves. I thought to myself "she must know I am here because she just walked by me 30 seconds ago". Not so much. I took a few baby steps to the right in hopes that the motion would get her to pay attention. Again, not so much. She literally walked right into me. To her this must have meant that we were supposed to be friends because instead of apologizing and moving on with our individual searches, she decided to strike up a (rather loud and one sided) conversation with me. Now I know I am in no position to reject friends at this point, but I now know way more about this person than I ever wished to. She is really into sci-fi (obvious by the looks of her) but trying to branch out, she recently paid for 4 ice skating lessons and only attended 1, and she was mad because her husband broke the umbrella she wanted to use today. During all of this the only words to come out of my mouth are Oh, really; Ah-ha; and Right. At this point she was also reading the descriptions of books to me. She mentioned wanting a funny book so I quickly recommended Jen Lancaster. This suggestion was for 2 reasons - 1) her books seriously are hilarious and 2) that meant she had to go to L and we were currently in A. Worked like a charm. Off she went. All in all my first Beaverton Library experience was an interesting one, but I will definitely be back, and watching out for Chatty Chattersons.

Wine, Doughnuts and One Way Streets

That pretty much sums up my weekend. My wonderful friends Michelle and Kevin decided last week that they were going to drive up from Utah to see me for the weekend. That's right, an 11 hour drive each way for a weekend trip! Much to my surprise, when they arrived in Beaverton at 4:30 Saturday morning my amazing little, Sara, was with them! Needless to say, after they got here everyone went back to sleep. We then spent the rest of the day being tourists. After a very long detour, many u-turns and wondering how we drove right past it: we went to a local vineyard - Ponzi. We did a wine tasting and I actually found 2 wines that I liked! The first one we tasted was a 2007 Pinot Gris and it was lovely. Another we tried was the dessert wine - a 2006 Vino Gelato. Wow, is all I can say about it. We decided it would be great with vanilla ice cream and a peach. We had a lot of fun and it will be a must see when Jake is back in town.


After the tasting we headed to a local diner that we had stopped at earlier to ask for directions. It turned out that the place had only opened the day before. It was very mom and pop and the food was pretty good. We decided to head to downtown Portland and check out a few sights. We quickly discovered that downtown is full of one way streets and none of them seemed to be going the way that we needed them to. On the positive side, we went on a great little tour of Portland. Our first stop was Powell's Books. This place was totally overwhelming! The building took up a full block and it was 4 stories of every book you can imagine. A Pike, Brian, that Sara, Michelle and Kevin know is from Portland and was home for Spring Break so he met up with us there and played tour guide. We then headed to Voodoo Doughnuts for a sweet treat. It was a tiny store and there was a line out the door, but it was totally worth the wait. They do crazy things with doughnuts - adding cereal, Oreo's and even bacon on top! It was delicious. After a little more walking around we decided to head to Brian's house to just hang out. We had dinner and a few drinks and just enjoyed relaxing. We even found the stash of old toys that Brian and his sister used to play with and had a blast from the past with all the Barbies!


Sunday was spent at the Portland Saturday Market (Sunday's too). It is an open air craft market downtown that sells everything you can imagine. Getting to the market was yet another adventure including more u-turns and issues with one way streets while trying to find the light rail stop that actually had parking. We finally made it downtown and saw many interesting things both along the way and at the market. The doughnuts from the day before were so good that we decided to go back again because we were so close to the shop. A little more wandering around town, back on the train and we were home again. It was a low key night cause I had to work the next morning and they were driving back to Utah. So we walked to the Chinese restaurant up the street for dinner and watched a movie. Overall it was a very fun weekend.

I loved having visitors! Thanks for coming to see me guys!

Life Update

So, we finally have real internet (not a wireless connection from the neighbor!) and I can update the blog. It has been a while and a lot has changed since the last post. Jake arrived safely back in the country (he will post more about that later) and his travels did not end there. He flew into Portland from Ecuador. Left Portland the next morning to head to Cincinnati. Had a day off of travel and then we started the 4 day drive across the country. The drive was long, but we did not have any real weather trouble so that made things much easier. In just our luck fashion, Murphy came down with an infection the morning before we started driving, so he was not feeling well the whole drive and spent the vast majority laying on Jake's lap. I was glad he was behaving, but felt bad that he didn't feel good. We arrived in Beaverton and I got to see our new apartment. I must say that Jake has a good track record for finding a place for us to live without me being there. I have not taken any pictures, but I will work on that this weekend.

Our stuff was with a moving company and they were not arriving until the next morning. So we went and got a key to Jake's work storage unit from his boss and found a sleeping bag and camp pillows to use for the night. At this point Murphy was still not acting like himself so we decided that we would look for a vet and take him in on Monday. The moving company came early the next morning and our living room filled up quickly with all of our belongings. We spent our first day here beginning to unpack the essentials - bed, shower curtain and kitchen things. The day went by quick and we made a lot of progress. The next morning Murphy seemed to have gotten worse over night and we decided that he needed to see a vet that day. It was a Sunday, so the only place that was open was the emergency clinic, so we got in the car and were on our way. This turned out to be not such a great day. After a few hours at the clinic we learned his kidney's were failing and we had to make one of the hardest decisions and we had him put to sleep. I keep reminding myself that it was the best for him, but he is definately missed. We had lots of fun with him and will never forget about him.

Murphy in one of his favorite resting spots.

We stayed busy the rest of the week trying to get things unpacked and set up before Jake left for his next project. We also enjoyed getting to know our way around town and even went out for dinner and drinks with a couple of the guys that Jake works with. I took Jake to the airport on Tuesday and he is now enjoying himself in Puerto Rico. Yesterday we finally got internet and I could actually work. I am still getting used to working from home, but enjoying it so far.

That is about all the excitement from Oregon for now. Come visit if you would like!

Birthday and Boxes

Since Jake was out of the country, my loving mother scheduled her flights for the month so she would be in Cincinnati on my birthday. I was excited to see her, even if she was only going to be here for one night. Then, a couple weeks before she was coming, I was talking to Sissy and was having a slight freak out about packing (or the lack there of). So she let the surprise out early that she was coming into town for my birthday and staying for the weekend to help me pack. I was even more excited! Sadly though, this was highly de-motivating for my packing. I did not pack one thing between the time I found out she was coming and when they actually got here.

On my birthday, Jake had planned to have flowers delivered to my work. He is just so wonderful! I left work early to go pick up Mom and Sis from the airport since their flights were arriving about the same time. We went out to Brio's for dinner (very good Italian food). It was fun because that is where Jake and I went the night we got engaged, and it was likely the last time I would be there. One of the lovely sights of the evening was a woman dressed in a hideous outfit, that we were sure she thought looked really good. We found it hard to believe that a gold lemme shirt with a short fur coat was fashionable, but hey what do we know? Sis got pictures on her phone, but I do not have any to share. We then proceeded to blind the restaurant with Sis's bright flash taking many pictures of ourselves.

What do you mean family resemblance?

We spent the rest of the night just hanging out at my apartment. Sadly, they are both allergic to cats, so it was less than ideal. Murphy says he is sorry for being hairy.

We took Mom back to the airport the next morning so she could finish her trip. Sis and I headed back to start packing! I have learned that you don't realize how much stuff you have until you have to put everything into boxes!! Our first cross country move was pretty easy, we had very little furniture and hardly any stuff. This time around we have more furniture and all of the things we acquired by getting married which has drastically increase our stuff count! Sis is a pro packer though and we made great progress. Now my living room looks like a storage unit, but that is better than Jake coming back and nothing being packed. Thanks Sis! Murphy has enjoyed all of the new things to climb on and get inside of, so he has not really cared that it is a disaster zone.


Things are going well though. This coming week will be my last in the office. My job is great and is allowing me to work from home in Oregon at least until the summer. I have never worked from home before, so it will be interesting. I know I will miss the people I get to see everyday, including my Kentucky mom. Jake gets back to Portland next Saturday and I can't believe he has been gone for 4.5 weeks already, time has gone by so fast. I am very excited to see him and ready to get this move done with and start settling into our new home.

Back to Blogging

Ok, so Jake sent the computer back to me so it was not just sitting while he was away, and I am very glad to have it back. I have missed writing and reading blogs (I know it is a little pathetic), even though I really should be packing and getting organized. Jake made it to Oregon on the 10th and starting looking at places for us to live. He had training during the day for the next week before they left for Ecuador, so it was a little difficult to find places that were still open at night. Thankfully he found an apartment in Beaverton, and the manager even opened the office on a Saturday for Jake to sign the papers. Hooray for having a place to live! Now comes the fun part of packing and actually moving across the country. In other news, Jake made it to Ecuador, but I have no idea what they are doing because I have not heard from him since they left the main land to head to the island where they are doing their work. He will be back in Portland on Valentine's day and then will come back to Kentucky the next day. We will finish checking out of our apartment and the movers will be here on the 17th. It all seems like a long time from now, but I have a feeling it is going to get here before I know it.

Last Post..... for a while

Well despite being on a blogging kick, this will be the last post for us until about mid February. The reason, you might ask? Well we are MOVING (again!!). That's right, packing it up and heading west to Portland, Oregon. Jake is starting a new job on Monday and is leaving to begin the drive tomorrow, taking the computer with him, so blogging will be put on hold. His new job requires a lot of travel and he will be in Ecuador beginning the 19th and back on Feb 14th, so I will be holding down the fort here in Kentucky and starting to pack until he gets back. When he gets back to KY we will finish packing and make our way across the country. Hopefully it will be less eventful than last time I drove across the country, which involved a flat tire in the middle of Wyoming and a speeding ticket in Nebraska! We will have the added joy of our furry baby crying in the back seat this time. Murphy does not mind the car ride really, or the carrier. In fact we leave the carrier open under the bed and he often sleeps in it. What he hates is having the door on the carrier closed, limiting his ability to wander around freely. It will be interesting to say the least.

So, that is it for now. Portland, here we come!