Africa, Morocco
Jonathan Jung
THE SAHARA

September 27, 2017

Today was a looooong drive from Fes to the Sahara just outside of the city of Merzouga. A friend of a friend runs the Sahara Garden. Brahim coordinated everything for us and welcomed us upon our arrival with open arms. Truly an amazing human being. We were welcomed with dinner and singing and dancing around a bonfire.

THE SAHARA
Africa, Morocco
Jonathan Jung
CHEFCHAOUEN

September 24, 2017

Our second stop in Morocco was the blue city of Chefchaoen. A small city located up on a hill, wandering thru the medina surrounded by so many shades of blue was quite a different experience from Tangier. We stayed at Casa Perleta, a small bed and breakfast recommended by our friend. It was perfectly located within the upper hill area of the medina. The blue hues of the walls of Chefchaoen are believed to have originated when the Jews came while escaping Hilter in the 1930s. The blue is said to serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life while symbolizing the sky and heaven.

CHEFCHAOUEN
Europe, Iceland
Jonathan Jung
ICELAND - CHASING THE AURORA BOREALIS

September 11 - 15, 2017

Enroute to our close friends' wedding in Greece we found a cheap flight to Paris via Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to take advantage and do a little stopover in an effort to (fingers crossed) see the northern lights. We decided to restrict our few days to just the southern highlights along the coast. The first thing we noticed was that even though it was supposedly shoulder/low season in Iceland there were significantly more people than when we came the year before in August.

ICELAND - CHASING THE AURORA BOREALIS

Oregon

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BEND, OR FOR FLEMMETTA FEST

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BEND, OR FOR FLEMMETTA FEST

Our good friends, Matt and Kate, finally got married this past weekend. These two were the initial inspiration for our extended time off to travel. After traveling for 9 months, they settled in a little town in Oregon called Bend. Most people haven't heard of Bend, but after visiting them three times over this past winter, I think we're hooked. We were told getting a house on the Deschutes River was a must, so we squeezed three couples into a little place right on the river. It was worth it. So we floated the river as a massive group, BBQ'd and brought back A/C sliders, jumped into Crater Lake, watched two amazing people get married and danced the night away. 

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SHASTA/CRATER LAKE/BEND/MT. BACHELOR

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SHASTA/CRATER LAKE/BEND/MT. BACHELOR

To start our US/Canada winter trip we decided to head north first. First stop, Bend to ski Mount Bachelor again. On our way, we passed Mount Shasta and stopped in on Crater Lake. Both extremely beautiful in the winter time, definite must sees! During our time in Bend we got to see Matt and Kate again and an old friend of Allie’s from LMU, Justin. We were also treated with some incredible sunsets while visiting. Unfortunately, no new snow, but this time we were actually able to ski the summit and could actually see the amazing view.

Until next time, next up we are meeting up with some good friends in Whistler for the weekend.

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BEND

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BEND

We FINALLY made it up to Bend to visit our good friends, Matt and Kate, and skied a couple days with them at Mount Bachelor. After skiing, we may have bit off a little more than we could chew. We decided to start a 4.5 mile hike at 4 PM, knowing that the sun would go down at around 4:30 PM. Let’s just say that it was pitch black by the time we got back to the car. We did get to see some nice colors in the sky right around dusk though.

Note to self … don’t hike in the snow in the winter when its about to get dark.

- Jonathan

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OREGON DUNES!

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OREGON DUNES!

We’ve spent the past few days exploring the Oregon Coast and making regular stops to see what each area has to offer. The first few photos are from the Oregon Dunes just footsteps away from our camp site in the forest. Then, we stopped in Newport for some fresh seafood at Local Oceans Seafood (Jonathan had the Rock Fish Sandwich and I had the Crab Cakes. Not pictured, a yummy Garlic Dungeness Crab Chowder) then did a quick hike to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse where we saw a mamma whale and baby whale come up a few times. Our last stop along the coast was Haystack Rock; Jonathan had to stop here because The Goonies was filmed there.

Next stop is Olympic National Park for a couple nights.

- Allie

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CRATER LAKE

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CRATER LAKE

I came to Crater Lake with my parents when I was 3 years old and hiked Wizard Island, apparently in Chuck Taylors that were too small. I wasn’t really sure I remembered coming here except that I was always told that story time and time again.

Coming back was incredible. Crater Lake’s insanely blue waters are simply beautiful. It is the deepest lake in the US (7th in the world). We were lucky with a sunny calm day on the boat tour which gave us some amazing views. The Phantom Ship (the third picture) on the east side of the lake had almost no wind and made for an awesome reflection in the lake. My dad also spotted a bald eagle on the lake which was cool too.

Next stop…the Oregon coast.

- Jonathan