Monthly Archives: December 2012

You may have noticed a recent decrease in the blog updates, but there was a good reason…

Our original plan for this year was to spend christmas in cocoa beach with cindy’s family. Cindy’s sister had to work on christmas, so we started to think about changing our plans and possibly switch locations, since we would be celebrating with them after new years day. Swapping locales was something we wanted to do anyways, as it would put us back in sync with our cousins since we alternate holidays with each family. A few days after we returned from new zealand i checked into flights to chicago. Found a good deal into milwaukee, so we booked it.

Planned to make it a surprise visit, so started making up stories to my family about our xmas plans in cocoa beach. Did well in leading everyone in chicago to believe we were not coming this year. Flew out of Orlando on xmas eve and arrived in milwaukee that evening, then took an amtrak train down to glenview, illinois and finally a cab over to lake zurich. We had learned that my family was over at my brother-in-law’s parent’s house.

Pulled up the house and unloaded our luggage, then knocked on the door. SURPRISE! Definitely surprised everyone at the party, but quickly learned that my mom had gone home sick, so we’d have to rethink a plan to surprise her. Drove home later that night and planned to get up early on christmas day for our next surprise. Mom came downstairs around 9am, where cindy and i were sitting at the kitchen table. SURPRISE! Always a joy to see the reactions, which usually include a double-take and that split second where seeing you seems normal, but then the brain catches up and realizes you weren’t supposed to be here.

The surprises continued on christmas evening at the schaul family get-together and last night for the smith-gallaugher-erickson get-together. Once again cindy and i were able to pull off a great surprise visit, even with facebook updates normally informing everyone immediately.

Headed down to the city today to catch a show called “book of mormon” by the dudes who created south park, then off to dinner. A nice blanket of snow going by on the train ride this morning, definitely looks like Christmas. Based on our upcoming travel destinations, looks like this will be our only winter weather for this year.

Happy hour at Fleming’s in downtown Chicago before the Book of Mormon show nearby

Headed over to orlando tonight with the kasimier guys, while cindy and her mom stayed back at the house for arts and crafts.  Been watching a lot of magic games on tv lately and nice to see their newish arena.  Hopefully the magic get a win tonight!

Had a nice surf session late yesterday and today.  Still a bit chilly, but the wind died down yesterday afternoon.  Some nice size waves rolling thru both days and real glassy today.  Hopefully get in another good session tomorrow too.

Came back to the house around 1 and grilled some more oysters we had purchased yesterday.  Made a tasty veggie chili, cornbread and appetizer of oysters for dinner last night.

Post surf session starvation

A great way to spend a day in late December.

While being back in Cocoa Beach for a little while, we wanted to help out and do some volunteering for those in need. Found a place which serves free food to the hungry in Melbourne called Our Daily Bread which was happy for us to come in and help prepare and serve their meal for the day. We arrived at 7:30am and were put to work opening canned vegetables and making 8 large containers of salad, which I thought was an appropriate job for a dietitian:) We completed our tasks early and had some time to relax before our guests arrived. We were then put to work busing tables and serving tea (I knew all of that experience waiting tables would come in handy someday)! We served more than 200 people. It was a great experience with a great organization run by wonderful people!

Cindy and I are headed to Costa Rica in mid-January. We always enjoy our time in that country and would like to give something back on this trip. For anyone that’s ever been, you know how friendly the Tico’s are and how special a place it is.

While Costa Rica is considered relatively richer than other countries in Central America, there are numerous basic needs in many rural areas. We plan on bringing any donated items on this trip which we can hand out over our 3 week trip. For any cash donations, we’ll purchase items from a local store or Goodwill here in Florida and bring with us.

Items needed include:
Shoes
School Supplies
Books (in Spanish especially but also in English)
Clothes
Learning English books and tapes
Educationally oriented items
Games
Toys (non-battery operated ideally since batteries are expensive)
Baby supplies, office supplies, umbrellas, rain ponchos, coats, boots, tarps

If you are interested in donating, let us know by email or leaving a comment below

Really nice to be able to relax in warm weather this week.  Been enjoying various activities around town with a nice daily routine: surf check, breakfast, running, surfing or kayaking, lunch back at the house, complete some chores, siesta, dinner prep, discussion of the day’s events over dinner with mom and dad, dessert, tv time, book reading and bedtime.  Reminds us of being kids on summer vacation 🙂

All the surfing and running should get us in good shape for Costa Rica.  Been known to have 4-5 hour surf sessions down there when conditions are favorable.

A great dockside view for the Christmas boat parade

Peney has settled in well here in Cocoa Beach, she even put up her own sign

Been going thru photos for xmas cards this week and came across some gems.  Always entertaining to look back thru photos and reminisce.  Hard to believe how much different I look from 7 years ago.  The last year of daily exercise and a diet minimizing meat intake has really done well for my health and fitness.

A great 2005 trip to Banff, but quite a belly to carry around a mountain all day.

Nice to be back in Florida in December.  Hard to complain about 70 degrees and sunny with decent surf at the beach.  Got back into some surfing, running, fishing and kayaking this week.  Nice to catch a fish again while kayaking the thousand islands area yesterday.  Water here feels great after trying our best in the frigid NZ waters.  After all the driving we did in NZ, it’s been a pleasure not using our car here in cocoa beach, since most everything is walking distance.  Quite a few things to take care of when we returned stateside.  As expected: lots of bills, not a lot of checks 🙂

Enjoyed some spectacular fish tacos at the Sandbar for Taco Tuesday (1/2 price tacos and drafts).  It’s well-known that the Schauls like a good deal.  If you are ever in the cocoa beach area, check the place out for awesome mahi tacos, cold beer and live music.

Hopefully the surf stays up the next few weeks, so we can get primed for Costa Rica.  Had CR on our list of destinations, but hadn’t booked anything yet.  JetBlue was running a sale this week, so we booked out trip!  Headed down there in early January, just before our birthdays.  Hopefully lining up our accommodations this week as well.  Been a couple years since we last visited Nosara and definitely stoked about returning!

Other planning underway is for the upcoming bareboat sailing trip in the british virgin islands in mid-February.  A mid-90’s family spring break trip was the last time I’ve sailed the BVIs.  Looking forward to the trip with a great group of friends and family.  Biggest rental catamaran yet at 47 feet, since we have 9 people.  Signed up for a couple more ASA certification classes in early January, so it’s time to put the brain back to work.  Possibly considering going after my captain’s license in the near future as well.

Anyone in interested in bareboating or in need of a captain or cook for a sailing trip, let us know!

Back in Cocoa Beach for a bit. Guess I was a little jet-lagged because I slept in until 11:30 this morning. Figured I missed the good surf this morning, but Chris was still out there so I walked down to the beach to at least paddle around a bit. Chris was coming in as I arrived, but the surf still looked pretty decent. Chris decided that he’d had enough sun and headed back to the house and I paddled out. Caught about 5 or 6 pretty fun waves before the onshores picked up. Walked back to the house and decided to go for a short run, then lunch. Afterwards, we helped my mom and dad decorate their Christmas tree, and really started getting into the Christmas spirit listening to some Christmas music and drinking egg nog! After 6 years of marriage and having our own home to decorate for the holidays, it seems sort of strange to not have that this year. Looks like I’ve gone full circle, back in my childhood home helping my parents get ready for Christmas! Of course, I wouldn’t give this adventure up for the world! And so grateful for my parents for taking us in for a bit!!

This 20 minute video sums up our excellent New Zealand campervan adventure!

New Zealand from Chris Schaul on Vimeo.

Woke up this morning for a surf check and it was looking good. 2-3 foot and mostly glassy. Low tide was at 830, so walked to the beach around 930 for a sweet session. Cindy joined the fun about 1030. Caught a bunch of rights and lefts. Glad to be back in our Florida waves and 68 degree water, just baggy shorts and a wetsuit top. Worked up a nice appetite for lunch, so a bike ride over to mainely lobster for tasty fish sandwiches and brews.