Shaving Ounces - January 2008

Loni (friend and fellow pilot) emailed Shaun that he had shaved some ounces by drilling holes in his step. Not to be out-done, Shaun and I embarked on drilling even MORE holes in the step on his cub. "Wait 'til Loni see's THIS!"
Shaun doesn't do anything half-way. He's tapping out an intricate pattern with his axe (yes, an axe) before drilling. We discussed patterns ,and proper placement of each hole was measured, evenly spaced, "so as not to disrupt the strength and structural integrity of the bar". Gotta love this man... :)
The ceremonial first hole...

Moonlighting as Super Cub mechanic.

Sweet... power tools!!
The beautiful finished product. Barely shaved a few ounces, but we WAY out-drilled Loni so it was a success!

Fallbrook and more - January 2008

Boredom struck us... what to do? Take silly self-portraits with Shaun's laptop!

Cheeeese...

Day 2 of silly portraits - Ok - we gotta get out!!!Shaun and I were craving guacamole - so, he decided to fly us to Fallbrook, the "Avocado Capitol of the World". "If the woman wants avocado - we'll get her avocado!"

The Fallbrook Air Park
We had to cut cross-country and hike into town. This is not going as planned...
Found an avocado company - perhaps we should have checked to see if avocados were in season before flying here... oh well, hindsight is always 20/20. Fun day nonetheless!!

Day 4, Shaun throws an impromptu marching trumpet show :). His laughter made it a little hard - but he pulled it off beautifully. Had me crying...Never a dull moment!!

There really is nothing he can't do! Day 5 - we invented games involving dancing moves, balloons, and an intricate scoring system. Shaun won - even when I cheated and invented 'girl rules'. It was worth it, watching Shaun leap and dance about the house in order to create the unbeatable sequence. Another great trip!

The Baja Peninsula, Mexico - Jan. 2008

Shaun invited me to go down the Baja and volunteer with him in a clinic. Shaun is an anesthesiologist at a hospital in Loma Linda, and volunteered to work in the O.R. for a few days in San Quintin Mexico, with a group of physicians and nurses called The Flying Samaritans. I got to tag along and had an amazingly cool time doing it!

My handsome pilot... headed south off the coast of Mexico.

Saying Hi to the sea cliffs...

The Piper Super Cub with the Cessna's on the airstrip of San Quintin.

Since the cub has no locking doors (or locking anything for that matter), Shaun decided that a bike lock on the prop would surely deter mexican thieves...

I got to squeeze the bag-thing and breathe for this woman during her surgery. Granted, Shaun had to continually fix my technique so she actually DID breathe, but she lived so it all worked out. :) The good doctor... being a good doctor.
Notice Shaun took over the breathing bag...

Blood shooting everywhere... dogs and cats, living together - MASS HYSTERIA! Playing with sharp instruments inside another human's body... ONLY in Mexico... hee hee.

After spending a few days in San Quintin eating questionable Mexican food from street vendors, we flew south...

We have now established that Heidi and Shaun can read and write - but their accuracy with numbers is in question... 2008.

Another candid shot because Heidi is incapable of judging the allotted time in self-timer mode.

The beach off of some exceptionally windy point on the pacific side of the peninsula, headed south after San Quintin.

Mexican toilets leave splinters...

We found dinner as we walked along the beach... AND some replacement crowns - who needs a dentist??

Shaun's artisic shot at sunset in Alfonsinas. Notice the moon rising behind Shaun's shoulder - beautiful eve.

Another artistic shot - "Hey look over there and act really interested..."

This photo looks rather benign, but it's completely misleading. The water you see around the plane is what remains after a night of flooding and ridiculously high winds. The plane is parked here on the 'runway' in Mexico. When we landed, we were told some stories about a plane being stolen here the week before. And since the supercub is probably about as easy to steal as my bicycle, we felt a little skittish about leaving it unattended for the night. We decided to pitch a tent next to it on the runway and spend the night watching over the cub. Shaun carefully assessed the tide, but noted that due to the full-moon we might experience higher tide than anticipated. We found the highest spot available to us (about 3 inches higher than the rest of the ground) and thought it to be the perfect spot for us to pitch our tent. For some reason, a hurricane decided that THIS was the night to visit Alfonsinas, Mexico. So, we pitched our tent in the growing winds, knowing full-well that sleep would probably be elusive that night. We lay in our sleeping bags, continually marveling at the almost-frightening winds that threatened to bend the poles of our tent. Around 11:30 pm, the winds died down for about 10 seconds. In the quiet, we both heard water lapping... CLOSE water lapping! We peeked out of our tent to discover that the ocean was about a foot away from our tent and closing in quickly. We of course scrambled about, trying to throw all the heavy stuff back out of the tent so we could actually move it - all the while, battling winds that were high enough Shaun was actually concerned it might over-turn the plane! Anyway - I'm waxing a little literary here - sorry - in a nutshell... we moved the tent, and moved the plane... layed around for several more hours, commented on the fierceness of the wind, wiped more sand out of our eyes... Then around 3 am realized that we were again about to be one with the ocean and moved the plane and tent yet again. Sands got worse, wind got worse, the floods got worse... but alas - the not-so-wise men DID pitch their tent upon the sand - it was just higher sand, and we happened to survive. After a COMPLETELY sleepless night, with sand now embedded in every crevice, opening, and pore of our bodies, we hopped in the plane after the gorgeous sunrise and waved goodbye to Alfonsinas, Mexico. Adios.

Sunrise in Alfonsinas.

It was a surprisingly calm morning, and a beautiful sunrise after the hellish night of winds and flooding.

Sunrise - Alfonsinas Mexico. Heidi and Shaun.

Shaun and Heidi were walking along peacefully and he just SNAPPED! A scuffle ensued and he took off after he beat Heidi mercilessly... Don't let the baby face fool you.

Beach strip of Alfonsinas Mexico - GORGEOUS! Until the tsunami anyway...
By the way - all of the Baja pictures are courtesy of the ever-so-handsome Shaun Lunt. He's becoming quite famous for his gorgeous photography taken during his 3-month stint flying around the wilds of Alaska this last summer. Check out his pics at www.shaunlunt.typepad.com