People often ask me, how do you do it? How do you live a life of adventure? How do you move around so much and experience so many different things? The truth is, honestly, I don't know. I am not quite sure how I have come to do so many things in my 28 years on this planet.
We never traveled much when I was growing up, which was fine by me. I didnt know any different. I was quite content exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest. You could spend a lifetime exploring beaches, parks, hiking trails, and mountains, not to mention the cute little towns from Leavenworth to Winthrop, La Conner, Friday Harbor and Westport. We skied on the weekends in the winter and went to "the beach" on Whidbey Island in the summer. Our first big out of state trip was to Southern California and Disneyland when I was in 9th grade, then a road trip back up the coast. I fell in love with Harmony, CA with it's population of 18 and wanted to grow up and move there. Although I did end up in California, it wasn't the small town of Harmony.
Growing up I told myself that I never wanted to live in California and I never wanted to live in New York, later on I told myself that I didn't want to live in Florida. Goes to show you. Don't ever tell yourself you don't want something, you may end up with it. Us Washingtonians have a perception of California and New York, as many people have perceptions of Washington with its rainy weather and eternal gray skies. Yes, it does get sunny in Washington, despite the rumors. Our perceptions of California and New York were indecent amounts of people, gridlocked traffic, smoggy skies, crowded beaches, and strip malls and freeways stretching as far as you could fathom. My idea of California basically summed up LA and my New York image summed up New York City - with regards to the amount of people that is. I had no idea that a whole state almost the length of Washington was attached to the New York City. I assumed Albany was a just a suburb. But as Dave always reminds me, if you assume, you make an ass out of u and me. Turns out, much of California is beautiful open space from untouched coastline to vineyards to the majestic Sierra Nevadas. And the majority of Upstate New York is rural with an incredible amount of rolling countryside and farmland. Goes to show you, don't make assumptions about a place until you've been there. Like Jimmy Buffett says "Don't try to describe the ocean if you've never seen it, don't ever forget that you just may end up being wrong."
My next experience with travel was Mexico for my high school graduation. We went to Puerto Vallarta as a family and stayed in a nice resort just outside the city. When I left on a backpacking trip to Europe with a girlfriend after college, I'm sure my parents were a nervous wreck. My travel experiences were very, very limited. Fortunately there is an entire community of young persons doing the exact same thing. The just-out-of-college-trying-to-figure-out-what-to-do-with-their-lives trustafarian urban hippies. Packs of intercontinental groups of 20 somethings traveling together with a common bond of exploring the unknown. In hostels, on trains and in bars you could find other like minded folks from Australia, New Zealand, South America, Europe and Canada. We had our money belts and locked up our belongings. We watched our backs and were never too quick to trust anyone. But with your only possessions crammed into a monstrous pack, you were free to roam, let your feet take you where they will. That trip was the gateway to my addiction to travel.
So again you ask, how do you and Dave do it? I guess my best answer is believing in ourselves. We never once let ourselves think we can't do something. If we are led to believe we can't do something, it just pushes us harder to prove them wrong. Take for example our sailboat. It started out as an innocent flower pot savings fund during those cold Buffalo winters. We plastered this large brass flower pot with magazine cutouts of sailboats in exotic anchorages surrounded by white sandy beaches and palm trees swaying in the trade winds. We threw loose change in the sailboat fund, each time it clinked with the rattle of change as we added to it, we would exclaim "For the sailboat!" The additions grew to dollar bills and $10's and $20's and even the odd $50 or $100. We had no idea how we would get our sailboat, how we would get to that pristine anchorage, we just knew we would. And you know what? We did. It wasnt until several years later, but we found ourselves one gorgeous morning at a picturesque marina in Bimini, having just made the crossing from Florida and headed further south. We looked at each other in disbelief, but somehow we always knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that we would be here. There were many obstacles along the way. And it didnt happen overnight, but boy howdy, we did it.
A great quote out of a great book (which Dave and I have a little excerpt in, by the way) is from Mel and Bob Blanchard's book Live What You Love - Notes From An Unusual Life. We began emailing them after we had read their inspiring book A Trip To The Beach - where they sold everything and moved down to a small Caribbean island to start a restaurant. We had the chance to meet them at a book signing in Toronto. They liked our spirit and included us in their new book. But their words and life experiences have greatly helped us follow our unique path. "Have the courage to let your life and stories and experiences be both odd and wonderful. May you be blessed with an unusual life."
It just not quite warm here yet and I'm still feeling the hearty wintertime meals on the menu. I took dinner over to Gram, Aunt Janet and Uncle Carl last night. As of a year ago, I had never sailed to the Bahamas, as of last night I had never made beef stroganoff. I'm always up for trying something new and beef stroganoff sounded good. It was quick and easy, ready in about 20 minutes. I had done a quick search on Saveur.com and this one popped up. So if you like the creamy zingy taste of a beef strog, this is a quick fix for your craving.
Beef Stroganoff
Serves 4
1 1/2 lbs filet of beef - I used round steak
6 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp chopped green onion
1/4 cup white wine
A1 and worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 cups sour cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper
cooked egg noodles
Cut the beef into very thin slices, or chop into very small cubes. Marinate beef in a sprinkling of worchestershire, salt and pepper for 3o minutes if you have time.
Heat 4 quarts of water for the noodles and cook noodles by directions on package (should be about 10 minutes).
Meanwhile, melt 4 tbsp of the butter and olive oil in a medium pan over medium high heat. Do not burn the butter, but get the butter as hot as you can. Saute the beef very quickly. When it is just browned on all sides (this only takes a minute or two), remove the beef onto a hot platter. Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining butter to beef drippings and melt. Add the chopped green onions and cook for a minute. Add white wine and simmer for several minutes until the alcohol cooks out, but do not reduce the sauce. Add a dash or two of A1, I add about 2 tbsp, but that is my taste. Add the sour cream and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well to heat through, but do not boil or the sour cream will curdle. Cook for several minutes more to thicken sauce a bit. Add beef back into sauce to reheat. Serve noodles with beef and sauce on top. Sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley if desired.
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