Ah ha! I knew I'd find the remaining New Zealand photos (See Part 1)! Here are the last remaining shots, mostly from the Parnell suburb of Auckland and Cornwall Park/One Tree Hill. Obviously, Sergio took many of these.
First, this was the winery directly underneath our lodging.
Enjoying coffee and free WiFi (hard to find!) in Parnell.
This is Sergio's happy place: Renkon.
These next photos are in Cornwall Park, which is something like a hilly Central Park.
Did I mention it got stormy?
On our last day, we figured out logistics for the flight home and I had a chance to catch up with Amanda over Skype. As much as I loved New Zealand, I was looking forward to getting home and seeing my wife!
Whenever we give Gianna a bath, she gets a little sad during the process. She must be thinking, "Guys, I worked hard to get this odor right and now I have to start all over!"
When we take her out of the tub, we unleash a little monster. Border collies don't like to be still, and she must save up so much energy in those 10 minutes of standing that she's ready to burst when she sees a straightaway. Unfortunately, that straightaway is the distance between our kitchen and front door. It's her own little post-bath autobahn.
We don't wonder why our fir hardwoods have so many scratches.
Finally, after three and a half years of being a roommate, my brother Sergio has made a significant contribution to the household. That contribution, the new peace in my life, is the Nespresso CitiZ with Milk machine.
Nespresso is like the Apple of the coffee world. The CitiZ with Milk is like a shiny, new Macbook Pro. The machine has an incredible design and delivers a superb product. You should see the creama on the espresso shot. Oh, the crema! The milk frother can make for a cappuccino or latte in about 30 seconds.
Nespresso came into our lives by fate. When Sergio and I were in New Zealand in February, we stayed at guest house on a winery that had the CitiZ with Milk. It took no time for us to grab an espresso capsule out of the cabinet and witness the magic. We ran through all of the available capsules halfway through our stay -- probably averaging three to four espresso drinks each per day -- and had to find the owners with tails between our legs to ask for more capsules to get us through the remaining days. It was as if we got into the cookie jar before dinner.
Now that we have our a Nespresso machine at home, we can indulge! See the glory in these photos.
Look at that crema!
Look at that foam!
Making an almond milk latte.
The best part of waking up is Nespresso in my cup.
For, oh, the last three years, I've seen a slow evolution of Julian and Sergio's music, from musical critiques (all the time) to learning how to play guitar (2+ years) to writing songs (1+ years) and rehearsing them (6+ months). The boys made the fruits of these efforts available for a small audience Friday night at Anthem in Tacoma as Julian y Sergio. They played all originals, including a couple of songs from Julian's band, The Shrines. Somewhere around Sergio's busy travel schedule, I'm hoping to see another show soon!
Sweet victory! On August 12, I summited Mt. Rainier, reaching 14,410 feet. I'm still in a bit of disbelief that the whole thing went down.
Before I turned 30, I planned to own a home, have a master's degree and have a good job. I hoped to be married (and lucked out there.) I didn't have Mt. Rainier in the game plan mostly because I didn't think I would ever have time to prepare myself for such an adventure. Finding a steady men's soccer team seemed like enough of a challenge.
Of course, my job is in the mountaineering business, so that was the catalyst. Whereas a Mt. Rainier summit climb is deservedly a bucket list for many people -- especially for people who live out of state -- I work with people who summit the mountain weekly for their job or for their love of the mountains and the convenience of Paradise being 45 minutes from the office. The opportunity presented itself through coworkers a few weeks back and I went for it. My Mt. Adams summit the previous week was a good training exercise.
My friend and Whittaker Mountaineering store manager Brian led the group. We hiked four miles and 4,000 feet to Camp Muir on a Friday and camped in the snow there and stayed at Muir all day on Saturday. We took the extra day to acclimatize, rest and wait for a second group that our rentals manager Katie was bringing up the hill. We "woke up" at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday to get dressed for the summit climb, another 4,000 feet of climbing. We took the classic Disappointment Cleaver route, which involved several crevasse crossings at Ingraham Flats, a scramble up the Cleaver and a hell of a lot of switchbacks and more crevasse crossings up to Rainier's crater and 14,410. Here are the photos, and there's a video below as well. Thanks for loaning the GoPro, Scott!
Hiking the Muir snowfield.
Andy with Rick Flair sunglasses and Mt. Adams in the background.
Camp Muir from our camping spot in the snow.
The back side of Camp Muir.
Our base camp.
Camp Muir at rush hour (when guided climbs are coming or going).
We climbed in the dark, so I only got a couple photos on the ascent after sunrise. Through the night, the view was spectacular with clear skies and bright stars.
We summited at 7:15 a.m., after six hours of climbing. Here's a view walking into Rainier's crater.
Ah ha! I knew I'd find the remaining New Zealand photos (See Part 1)! Here are the last remaining shots, mostly from the Parnell suburb of Auckland and Cornwall Park/One Tree Hill. Obviously, Sergio took many of these. 
