I spent the past three weeks on the West and East coasts of the US Mainland. I love Hawaii and wouldn't trade my time here for the world, but sometimes it is nice to get away, especially when the get-away includes a week of learning how to live in the woods with nothing more than a poncho and knife.Despite my love of the woods, I have never had the opportunity to actually learn how to "survive" in them. My time always included more than enough supplies to get me through. This time around I was out there for 6 days and didn't bring any food. The only thing given to us was a rabbit, which we had to split between 10 people. Happily I was not the one to kill and clean it, but I have killed a fish, so I don't think I would have been completely incapable. The nutrients I got, besides the rabbit broth (they ran out of meat before they got to me) came from the plants around me: raw acorns for protein (luckily my stomach is pretty strong- the tannic acid can pose problems for some people), Sugar Bush for vitamins (although just thinking about it causes me to gag. That was the worst tasting plant I have ever eaten.), and cactus when I was bored (the pricklies make it too much work for the return). In the end I didn't come out much worse for wear and I had a great time. Hopefully I can demonstrate some skills the next time we go to Lake Superior.
On a side note, I will admit without shame, that as soon as I got home I went to McDonalds for the first time in years. I destroyed the dollar menu. Even now I get a little emotional when I think of how happy those McChicken sandwiches made me.
After my time living outside, I met up with some old friends from college, Ross and Erin. I rowed with Ross (we were often in the same boat and he was my navigator on many many road trips; however, our roles were reversed in the picture below. Interesting, sort of.) and Erin played on the volleyball team. Erin is now playing professionally. On Saturday, Ross and I spent the day at the beach watching Erin and Paige win a local tournament. You can't argue with a day at the beach, especially when the people you at the beach to cheer on end up winning the tournament. It was great catching up with those guys. We even planned a whitewater rafting trip in Colorado in June. Hopefully we can make everything come together for that.
On the down side, about halfway through the day on the beach, I started shivering and got really tired. I came down with some sickness and a week later I am just starting to get over it. Not eating for six days could have been a contributing factor.
After that I made my way to Baltimore for some meetings. The meetings were actually pretty productive and there was very little PowerPoint. In the weakened condition I was in, I think PowerPoint may have killed me, so hooray for speaking directly face-to-face. While there I was able to spend some time in downtown Baltimore. Overall, the city is a bit old and tattered, but in a good way. If I ever move out to the DC area, I could definitely see myself living in Baltimore (I would never live in DC). I guess the old cliche about a rough place having "character" applies to Baltimore. There were some spots where I felt I could be jumped at any second, but I got over it.
At any rate, I am back in beautiful Hawaii and good news abounds. My friend Derek, who fell into the coma two months ago, began speaking again. Before he left Hawaii, the doctors gave a very grim outlook. His family has been at his side this whole time and has been so positive. It has been so amazing to see their strength throughout this whole ordeal. I will be able to make my way out there in June and can't wait to talk with Derek and see the progress!
