Honeymoon Around The World

After spending a hectic week back in Newport Beach, crashing at Christy’s uncle Sam and aunt Lori’s house, we regrouped for the 2nd leg of our travels-touring the Pacific Northwest with our dogs Harley and Scout for five weeks. We had a very “loose” itinerary to say the least (mostly just which states to visit) and no reservations;  two things Christy is not comfortable with not having.  I told her my usual “Dont worry about it, it’ll all work out” and amazingly, so far it has!  I’m not sure, but I think Christy is almost on board with the “no plans are the best plans for traveling.” 

Our first planned stopped was the Trinity Alps (Shasta Trinity Alps Wilderness) in Northern California, so we spend the majority of the day in the car just getting to Redding!  California traffic never ceases to dissapoint.  After spending the night at a lovely Motel 6, we departed early the next morning for the Trinity Alps.  With our backpacks loaded down with the essentials, the McCrosky clan hiked about six miles into the beautiful, remote wilderness.  We set up camp for a three day/two night stay beside a crystal clear creek.  Our original plan was to camp for three nights, but after two days of hiking, poor Harley’s paws were so raw that he was having a hard time walking.  So, we continued our drive north, stopping for two nights of camping amoung the giant Redwoods near the Redwood National Park.  Those trees were massive!  We were still able to hike in some fairly remote areas of the park and get some really great pictures.  After touring the Redwoods, we crossed the California/Oregon border and drove up the coast, visiting some of the beautiful beaches along the way.  For the next couple of days we camped in southern Oregon near the Umpqua River.  Steve fished for small mouth bass while the dogs enjoyed some swimming.  Southern Oregon is so green and beautiful and there are several hiking trails that lead to waterfalls.  The area reminded Christy a lot of West Virginia so she was feeling right at home.  

Oregon is known for 2 things, beautiful country and lots of rain, and it hasn’t disapointed on either one. We’ve seen some scenery that takes your breath away and also spent a few nights in the tent with rain pouring down outside. West Virginia girls are as tough as nails beacause not many girls could handle camping in the rain for 3 days, and even have fun while doing it.

One thing Christy and I didn’t know about Oregon was the amount of wine produced here!  We spent 2 days driving the Willamette Valley touring different wineries, having a blast.  Oregon’s wine country is “what Napa used to be” and we now believe it. Absolutely beautiful country side scattered with quaint, family owned wineries.  We realized how small this area actually is when we visited our first winery, the owners of the vineyard were the ones pouring us the wine! They told us all about the region and we talked to them about how they ended up in Oregon owning a winery.  Our absolute favorite winery however was a small operation called Reustle.  This winery was unlike any other that we have ever been to.  We sipped delicious wine while munching on appetizers prepared by our host…best of all, it was free!

So, now we are here in Portland for a few days checking out the big city and taking a break from camping.  Tomorrow we head off to a small little cabin we reserved on a farm in Bend, Oregon. The Farm is a cattle farm so Christy is going to feel right at home!

With all of our family and friends gone and the wedding weekend officially over, we began our journey back north to California. Our goal for this leg of the trip was to get some good surf and Scorpion Bay (a.k.a. Punta Pequena) was the place to do it. The only downside-there would be a lot of dirt road driving to get there, 130 miles of dirt roads to be exact! We started our first day off by heading to an area known as the East Cape.  We made a quick stop at a popular surf spot called Nine Palms and then continued on to Cabo Pulmo for some great snorkling (Cabo Pulmo is the most northern coral reef in the eastern pacific).  That night we set up camp at Las Barriles, a small town where the East Cape road ends and Mex 1 begins.  Fortunately for us, there was only one other guy in the whole campsite.  He came rushing over and said “You’re the first set of campers I’ve talked to in 3 weeks!”  Christy and I realized then that we were pretty far off the beaten path.

Ask any surf enthusiast and they tell you that Scorpion Bay is known as being one of the best point breaks in all of Mexico, and it sure didn’t disappoint when arrived Sunday evening.  I could go on and on about what an amazing wave it was, but I know it will just bore you non-surfers to tears.  In this case, a picture is worth a thousand words so check out the one we’ve posted.  Even christy got in on the action, catching the longest waves of her very short surfing life.  After 3 days of non-stop surfing it was time to face the dreaded 100 mile-long dirt road to get back to the main highway.  Ever heard of “BFE?”  Well, Christy and I found it-just follow the 100 mile dirt road to nowhere!  For about 4 and 1/2 hours of driving on this bumpy, washed-out, sandy, winding 100 mile “road”, we didn’t pass a single town or see one other person.  Just miles and miles of rolling hills and mountains, and a dirt road that in some areas had no right to be called a “road” at all.  We both breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the quaint town of San Ignacio where dirt turned to pavement. 

Our final stop in Baja would be Catavina, which is like the Joshua Tree of the Baja.  Huge boulders, cactus and the famous “boojum trees” make up this area.  One of our guidebooks mentioned areas just north of Catavina where one could enjoy free quiet camping amoung the giant size boulders and cactus.  Once out of the town we turned off the main highway onto a dirt road that lead us past huge boulders and into the dessert.  Of course when it sounds to good to be true, it usually is, but in this case, we were NOT disapointed!  We found a remote spot to park the truck and had the whole desert all to ourselves.  We climbed big boulders, hiked among the cactus and had a nice big campfire, celebrating the 4th of July tranquilo style. 

After a year of planning and preparing, the big wedding day has come and gone. It was 5 days of non stop entertainment all located at the Marbella Suites in cabo san Lucas, Mexico. We really want to thank everyone who made the trip and hope you had as much fun as we did. We couldnt have asked for a better way to start our lives together. Standing on the beach at sunset with your 50 closest friends and family saying “I do” to the one I love was something I will never forget and always cherish. The memories and great comedy were amazing.

After 5 trips to the airport and a lot of goodbyes, christy and I have once again put the truck back in “camping mode” and will be heading off for the east cape of baja tomorrow. We’ll spend a few days surfing and fishing before we start heading back north to California and points further on.

We left on this trip with a guidebook that I had from when I drove down to cabo in 1991, and it was 5 years old back then. 20 years after the book was published it was still “spot on” the entire way. We were amazed how little has changed in twenty years. There are areas that have seen tremendous growth, i.e Loreto, La Paz and Los Cabos, but 90% of the entire pennisula is still as it was last time I drove down.

After Bahia de Los angeles we headed for Bahia De Conception. We found our perfect camping spot on a sand spit that connected to a little island. Christy loves hot weather and boy did she get her fill. Our two days were spent fishing, snorkling and hiding from the noon day sun. Luckily we had a little thatched hut to hide under during the hot part of the day. We met a local who came by to our campsite and told us that this heat is nothing, he said “come back in August amigo and you can really experience some sea of cortez heat.” No thanks, this is hot enough for us.”

With food supplies low, I told christy our goal for the day was to catch our dinner. since I dont know how to prepare cooked seagull, we thought it would be best to stick to fish and shellfish.  We started off at 6am hiking to the other side of the island to fish. We were able to catch a few bass but not enough for a good meal. Next on the agenda, dive for clams or anything else edible in these waters. We  threw on the mask, fins and dive knife and snorkled around the island diving in and out of the rocks pulling up a huge assortment of clams. After filling the mesh bag we came back to shore to begin the long process of breaking open all these shellfish with a rock and cutting out the meat. Being the prudent person that I am, I thought it a good idea to ask the local fisherman if these were edible or if we would be in a world of hurt after eating these shellfish. He said we had cholo clams and they were good eatin. We hoped he wasnt playing a cruel gringo joke on us and decided to proceed forward with our meal.  I could tell on christys face she was thinking “theres no  way in hell im eating those alien looking things” But after a little spices some bread crumbs and a nice saute with olive oil, it was a tasty meal and a perfect end to a great day.

 Our first night we camped along the Pacific shore on a beautiful cliff-side campsite high above the ocean called Punta San Jose.  If you check out a map of the Baja, you’ll find it just below the town of Santo Tomas (super cute wine country).  I got some great pictures of Steve surfing.  I’m too much of a wimp for that cold water! 

Yesterday (Monday) we made the drive from Punta San Jose all the way to Bahia de Los Angeles, which took up most of the day.  We arrived here yesterday evening at around 6:30 and are just now out exploring the town…errr, what’s called the town anyway.  There’s not much here, but hey, we were able to find a cute little internet cafe and mini market.  We are doing awesome on our supplies even though we’ve cooked almost every meal.  We stopped on Sunday to taste some authentic lamb and beef tacos.  I’m not a huge lamb fan, but these were actually pretty tasty.  This morning we rented kayaks and cruised around the bay for about two and a half hours.  It only costs five dollars to rent a kayak!  Steve tried to do some fishing off his kayak, but didn’t catch anything…there goes my dinner!  And, our campsite is right on the beach.  The beach here is a bit rocky because there are no waves.  It’s almost like a lake out there instead of an ocean.  But man, it’s beautiful.  Just off the cost here are numerous small islands, each one different hues of red, so they look stunning surrounded by the light blue ocean water.  Our kayak guy said that we could rent the kayaks for overnight if we wanted to paddle out to one of the islands and camp.  We decided not to because of time (we would have to pack up lots of supplies which would take some time planning).  The weather is gorgeous here, much better than the pacific side.  Our first night was pretty darn cold in Punta San Jose, but here on the Cortez, it’s nothing but sunshine!  It’s a good temp though.  Hot in the sun, cool in the shade.  

Just a few miles up from our campsite is an area known as Punta La Gringa (named after an American woman who tried to open her own camp ground).  We decided to spend the afternoon there so Steve could resume his quest to catch us some fish for dinner.  The water here was so clear you could actually see fish swimming below you at five feet or so.  Steve paddled out on my long board with his fishing pole while I fished from the beach.  I really enjoy fishing, except when I have to actually remove a poor little fish from my hook…which of course is the purpose of fishing right?  Honestly, I didn’t think I would catch anything, so when I did, I yelled to Steve that I needed him to paddle back to shore and remove the poor little baby fish that I had reeled in.  He yelled back to me to just take it off, but I refused.  He paddled back to shore visibly annoyed until he noticed that at the end of my line was a puffer fish.  “Thank god you didn’t try to remove that!”  Apperently puffer fish swell up like a baloon and are covered in spikes that slice your skin.  All in all, Steve had a good day of fishing catching a couple Calico bass and we enjoyed his famous ceviche for dinner.  

The truck is packed up, the apartment is full of boxes and were itching to get this adventure started. Its been a crazy two weeks trying to plan a wedding, move out of the ol’ apartment, pack for the Baja road trip, and finish our plans on the “Around-The-World” trip. Somehow we’ve kept our heads on straight and I think we’ve completed most tasks on the never ending “to do” list. On Sunday, June 10th we will head south in the trusty Toyota Tacoma for our week-long drive down to Cabo San Lucas. Once we get the trip started, we’ll be updating this blog with pictures of our travels and hopefully some good journal entries. We’ll try to post blogs from both Christy and I so you can see the different perspectives of places. It will be easy to tell the two writings apart. Her’s makes sense, mine takes you on a literary road to no where. And I just learned this blog doesn’t have spell check, this could get ugly! (But you can thank Christy for the puncuation on this entry)

“I wish we would have traveled more before we had kids.” -something many of us have heard, or maybe even have said. Christy and I have certainly heard this many times and have decided that since there is no time like the present, we will be taking a year off of work to travel throughout the western United States and abroad as our “honeymoon.”

Our adventure will begin on June 10th as we load up the trusty Toyota Tacoma and start our drive from Orange County down the Baja Peninsula to San Jose Del Cabo for the wedding. After the festivities, we’ll slowly make our way back up the Baja Peninsula, camping on the many beautiful beaches along the way. Once back in California, we’ll pick up our dogs Harley and Scout and continue our driving journey to The Rockies and the pacific northwest for more camping, hiking and sightseeing. We’ll then end our U.S. tour back in California where we will drop off the dogs and head for Europe! Our first planned stop will be Iceland, followed by Ireland, England, Croatia and Italy. From there, we will fly to the beautiful continent of Africa to visit Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. A definite highlight will be climbing the infamous Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. This will be a 7 day hike, ending at 19,000 feet. Some say that you are so high you can see the curvature of the Earth! After this awesome climb, we will be joining the Masai Mari tribe for an 8 day safari, checking out the animals and camping with the tribe. For the third leg of our trip, we will head to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos. Last, but certainly not least will be a visit to New Zealand. Our plans are written in “sand” and will most likely change a little along the way, so to help you all keep in touch with us.