Easter & Bacon

For the past few years we’ve put up Ukulele Christmas carols in an attempt to spread tropical yuletide cheer and hey, to draw attention to an important Christian holiday in a unique way.   As Christians, publicizing Christmas is easy:  There’s already a celebration framework and symbols everyone gets.  Easter not so much.  Really?  Bunnies?  Please.

Unfortunately, being as Easter, not Christmas, is actually the seminal celebration of Christianity and all…well it makes it difficult.

What we need to do is bring out the Bacon.  Seriously, we need to Bacon-ize Easter.  Bacon is, aside from being awesome, a commonly recognized and highly loved symbol of differentiation between Christianity and other major monotheistic belief systems.  Without detracting from others, it highlights something unique about us.  Just like the beliefs we hold specifically surrounding the events of Easter (That whole rising from the dead, Son of God bit.  Kinda where we get our name).

Also, it’s bacon!  Would a sanctioned religious reason to chow down on some crispy goodness that be all that bad?  The bunny already brings eggs, come on, is it asking that much more?

Bacon Peep – Thanks to luckwithacapitalf

and maybe this way the international community will finally figure out the proper way to freaking cook a pig!

Though, speaking of the bunny, we’ve already put up a mythical creature that drops off free chocolate and Easter hasn’t gotten the traction it should in the public eye…but then we are talking about a faith who’s founding cause wasn’t exactly adored by the establishment either.

Publicity aside, conversion numbers aside, in the end what matters is that we who believe know what this day means.  We can have all the publicity in the world but without understanding our faith would be miles wide and only inches deep and sacrificing understanding at the altar of ‘butts in seats’ is a very real danger our churches confront every day.  Christ died and rose again so we can have eternal life.  That’s what Christianity is all about about, it’s also what today is all about.  No matter how you celebrate it, have a happy Easter people!  For us Jesus types, this is the day that makes us who we are!

About the authors

Greg and Tiffany are traveling around the world on sailing yachts and keep a video blog of their (mis)adventures.  If sailing to Tahiti on a 44 ft sailboat, 3-day delays for wine tastings, getting pooped on by seagulls, opening coconuts with dull machetes, sailing past tornadoes and ukulele Christmas carols are for you, then check them out at www.CoastGuardCouple.com!

 

Sailing and Seasickness

The main questions we get all revolve around the same issue:

 

“I am very comfortable on the water. However, I have been seasick twice in my life (both time on rough seas in motorized fishing boats), and I was wondering your opinion of how that might affect me while on longer sailing trips? Does your body adapt? I’m sure it’s pretty different person to person, but I was just wondering if you have some general advice.”

 OR

 I’d love to do this. It’s just a matter of convincing my wife. Unfortunately, she suffers somewhat from the violent seasickness. Any chance she could outgrow it if she sat a boat long enough?”

 

Seasickness, (and its prevention) easily the number one concern we get from those looking to get into volunteer crewing.  As such, we’re doing a 3 part series on the issue.

Tiffany chipped this one over to Greg simply because she has a superhuman cast-iron stomach and has never suffered from seasickness in her entire wild life of deep sea ocean racing, Coast Guard storm rescues and sailing instructing.  Tiffany is part mermaid and bleeds salt water.  Greg, on the other hand, is a mere mortal who dearly loves his aquatic-born bride.  As such, where she goes so must he.  Being mortal he is not immune to the ravages of Neptune’s fury and has learned to actually deal with it.

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New Zealand Interstate

Enroute Dunedin, NZ

The Great Kiwi Roadtrip continues!!


We make it a habit of reporting things to the highway patrol.  This mostly started when Tiffany and Greg’s Mom teamed up on him and forced him to quit stopping for motorists on the side of the highway.  If someone looks like they are broken down but not in immediate danger, they reasoned, it is much safer simply to use a cell phone to report it to the highway patrol than to stop in the middle of nowhere and put yourself at the potential mercy of a carjacker.

The reason we bring this up is when we called in a broken down car to the NZ police, they asked us where it was.  To which Tiffany replied that it was on the interstate southbound a few kilometers from whatever exit we had just passed.

Tiffany was very proud of herself, incidentally.  Using kilometers in conversation.

The police operator chucked and immediately asked if Tiffany was from the States.  A bit confused, (she’d used kilometers!) she replied, “Why, yes.  Did you guess that from my accent?”

New Zealand give way sign

“No, this is New Zealand.  We don’t have interstates here.”

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Silly Kiwis

On the Road, NZ

We sometimes think that travel does, in fact, broaden one’s horizons.  Gives perspective, understanding if you will, of persons individually and peoples as a whole.

For example, we now understand that, as a people, Kiwis are pretty dang witty.

the cure for veganism is baconBillboard ad in Auckland – dude, true that.

As we wander down the length of this great country we should take a moment, if only a moment, to admire the brilliance of the Kiwi advertising agencies…

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Burritos are not square…

Wellington, NZ

interislander ferry new zealand 1The Great Kiwi Roadtrip continues!!

The Interislander Ferry is located in Wellington, the national capital of New Zealand which is situated on the southernmost tip of the North Island.  No, we hadn’t ever heard of it either.  Mostly because, aside from being conveniently located in the geographic center of the country to make it as accessible as possible to all citizens (see, again, Kiwis are just nice people, even to each other) and being the seat of the national government, Auckland trumps Wellington as the international city of New Zealand.  Simply put, there’s no rude nickname for Wellington-ers, like there is for the JAFAs up north.

It’s in the interest of education and making you look important that we use the slur, bro.  Don’t get mad.

Remember when we discussed how sailors spend their 90 days in French PolynesiaIf you wanted to spend a month each on 3 of the islands or spread out to more remote places to spend a week here and a week there?  Though we joked about it at the time, we never flat out asked the question, “What if a week in French Polynesia is all you got?”

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Lone Star Wines

More from the Grog Files:

So spending a month in The Lone Star State helping our friend out and loaning him Greg to do duties as best man gave us only a few evenings to ourselves during which time we explored the local specialties.  Not enough to wander off wine tasting but at least a chance to drop by the local H.E.B. and pick up a bottle or two.  In this installment of our adventures in international drinking we explore some of the wines of Texas.  We know, we know, “What!? Texas makes wine!?”

Why yes, we discovered, yes they do. And oh so much more….

Texas Grog Files

Yeah, That Mount DOOM!

Mt. DOOM, New Zealand

20101212-NZ-road-trip-w-Ronni-27 - mount doom

(oh yes, there.  Right freaking there!  Life Achievement unlocked: Entered Mordor!!!)

The Great Kiwi Roadtrip continues!!

When you tell your friends back home that you’re in New Zealand, there is one reaction you’re almost sure to receive (especially if said friends are big fans of Science Fiction movies and some are actually known to posses the one ring) and question is, “Are you going to Hobbiton?”

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In Search of Castle Kiwi

Auckland, NZ

Mount Eden and the Sky Tower, Auckland, New Zealand

Us: “No, mom, really what do you want to do while we’re in New Zealand?”

Mom: “Oh I’ll just do whatever you’re doing”

We’ve been down this road before with Greg’s mom.  She doesn’t want to intrude.  But we didn’t really think that getting eaten by a Sharktopus (Sharktopi?), canoe drag racing, or crawling up volcanoes were much her thing.  As we’ve said before, this “normal tourist” routine is a bit difficult for us to grasp without the aid of a 20 sided die. So this time we insisted.

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The Power of “Go”

Auckland, NZ

We decided to buy vs. rent because the cost of second-hand cars was really cheap and we figured out that by renting we stood to probably spend more than outright buying and the cost of insurance was very low (finally, an upside to being over 30!!).  Most importantly, owning the car we gave us the power of go, which was critical if we were playing host in a foreign country.

20101206 (5) - NZ license plate - dimwit

Really?  Really!? 

Dude, there’s a reason this vanity plate was available.

The power of go was discovered by Greg several years ago.  As Greg never owned a car before his senior year in college, he spent his high school and university years dependent on someone else (friends, buses, and the ever-loyal Cal train) for transportation.  Upon getting a car Greg realized that he no longer needed to have a plan when he wanted to do something, which is what the “power of go” is:

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Boatless Transportation

Auckland, NZ

With Greg’s mom on the way we realized we had a problem we had managed to completely avoid on our journeys until now: how do we get around?

It sounds odd but for the past several years and about 1/3 of the way around the world our method of day to day travel simply was not a concern.  When working on sailing yachts our office also happens to encompass our primary means of locomotion and accommodation.  As we sailed wherever our captain wanted and stayed as long as they wanted to, we didn’t put a lot of thought into where we would be going or how we would get there.  We just took the ship safely wherever we were told when we were told to do it.  Being land bound now we had to face such difficult questions like, “Where will we go?”  and “Where will we sleep when we get there?”  and the most urgent of these, “How will we get there?”

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