Matt is hiking the Appalachian Trail!

 10 days ago Matt decided to hike part of the Appalachian Trail before starting nursing school.  He has cell phone service to talk most of the time, but no internet to upload photos, so I'm going to upload some photos I've found online of milestones along the way.

Here's a photo of the hostel he stayed at his first night in Georgia before being dropped off near the trail.  There were about 14 other hikers staying there that night, and they all started the trail together.  Of course, Matt hasn't seen them since because he is hiking so fast.  =)

The trail starts at the top of Springer Mountain in Northern Georgia (El. 3,782 ft) in the Chattahoochee National Forest.

 This is Blood Mountain, the highest point on the trail in Georgia.

(About Day 3 for Matt)

 The trail is about 2,180 miles long.  It passes through 14 states, numerous national parks, state parks, national forests and wilderness areas.  And it is itself a unit of the National Park System.  

 This is the distance Matt has already covered.  He hikes anywhere from 18-28 miles a day.  He has completed the portion of the trail in Georgia and North Carolina.  He just entered the Smokys today and was pretty excited about it!

 

Appalachia Trail somewhere in Georgia.  =)  

 

Last photos of last Mexcian vacation

Palenque!!

While descending steps into lower levels of Palenque we heard a noise that I thought had to be a recording of a lion's roar blaring from someone's speakers... but lo and behold -- it was a howler monkey. We were actually able to see several of the monkeys up in a tree. Who would have ever thought that they could roar like that? It was so powerful!

Colorful Campeche

Coast to Coast - the Yucatan

Edzna = awesome/empty Mayan ruins outside of Campeche. We arrived just before noon to find the place vacant except for a handful of tourists. It was a powerful experience.

And we ate tamales in the rain on Christmas Eve under the shelter of the portico of the Catholic church.

Feliz Navidad y Feliz Ano Nuevo

We encountered a man that would spend all day carving out a sand sculpture only to watch it wash away the next day. He didn't ask for money; he just seemed to love what he did. gloriously wasteful.

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Christmas, what a wonderful time of year. (my favorite). Matt and I have unintentionally started a bit of a tradition: Latin America during Christmas break. We've actually been in Playa del Carmen for the last two Christmases and before that Lago Atitlan in Guatemala. We had a wonderful time carpe-diem-ing our last big break before Matt starts nursing school. (way to go, Matt!!) We flew into Cozumel and then took the ferry over to Playa, where we stayed for four days. It was so nice to eat fish tacos on the beach by candlelight, running our barefeet in the sand with a glorious breeze. ah-yah-yah.

Here are some photos of our first stop on the trip:::

view of the island of Cozumel from the ferry

How to Paint Laminate Furniture

note the rope handles that Matt made to add rustic-flair at a tiny cost
i love it!

After browsing extensively on Pinterest.com I was inspired to paint some really ugly, cheap furniture we had around the apartment, and I am SO glad I did!

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Step 1: Sand the entire surface with a very fine grain sand paper (I used 250 grit)
Sand until you see white flecks and the shine of laminate begins to fade.
** Note, oil based primers usually don't require pre-sanding, but they are messier to clean up.

Step 2: Wipe the surface clean with a tack cloth.

Step 3: Coat the surface with primer. You may have to do two coats. Here's the hard part: you have to wait one full week for water based primers to cure. As I said oil-based primers cure in 45 minutes, but as I live in an apartment with no extra sink or easy way to clean with mineral spirits, I chose water based paints.

Step 4: Paint!! I did two coats about 45 minutes apart. Voila!

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