New year. Part I.

The New Year.
We were ready for this one,
more so than most other years.
We had holiday time with both our families,
and then we booked a bed and breakfast in Old Saybrook,
a little old mariner town in Connecticut.
Hiding for New Year's Eve is our thing.
And while in Japan a few years ago over the New Year,
we fell in love with their celebrations of "firsts".
Like the first visit to a temple in the new year,
or hatsuhinode, the first sunrise of the new year.
And so, every year we try to be somewhere special for that first sunrise.
Meryl's been talking about estuaries
(where fresh water meets salt water)
with her poetry collective,
and Old Saybrook point is where the Connecticut River meets the Long Island Sound.
There are also two lighthouses right there,
Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse
(the one pictured on all the 'preserve our sound' license plates)
and Lynde Point Light, the one we were next to on the docks.
I love lighthouses, sunsets and sunrises,
and new years.
2013 was off to a beautiful start.

So let the party and the sounds rock on

Amy and Jaime heard there was a "Best Visitor" competition going on,
(or maybe they didn't)
but they showed up with a dozen vegan Portland doughnuts anyway,
a box of Sweet Life vegan cake,
and some handmade antler treats.
And that was the first day.
It's been non-stop funtimes since.
I drove to Crescent City with them, too,
and found where the big trees were hiding.
Coastal Redwoods are no joke.






















Then I got to visit Battery Point Lighthouse again,
but this time there was a little more daylight,
and when it's low tide (it was)
you can walk to it (i did)!
So sexy.
And so here's a better, closer photo.

















We also got some tattooing in,
and worked on Amy's antlered birdhouse sleeve.
She sat for a few hours,
and we outlined the whole rest of it.
Then we started shading, too,
and got some of the squirrel filled in.
She made it 5.5 hours before an evening on the couch with
Thai food and Rocky Horror Picture Show was calling her name.






















Here's my gift from Jaime,
a business card holder cut from an antler.
She knows antlers are the answer,
and now all of my clients will, too.
Good thing my new cards arrived the very same day.
It's so fresh.

















We have a few days left before we have to say goodbye,
and we have lots more plans.
I'm playing hooky and going lighthouse hopping on Friday.
After being stuck in Minnesota for so long,
I can't get enough of the ocean.
10,000 lakes don't have shit on the Pacific.

Company.

Handsome Adam gave us a week head-start,

and then arrived in Grants Pass ready for serious hangout time.

He knew no one was going to try and visit us our first week here,

and so showing up on day 8 was a safe bet for First Place.

Adam is a damn good house guest.

He's up for whatever,

down for anything,

and does dishes till you tattoo his hands.

He helped us explore and get acquainted with our new surroundings since pretty much everything was new to us.

He's like the Lewis and Clark of houseguests,

scoping it out and paving the trail for future visitors.

If you come and stay with us here

(and don't run out of gas in an unpaved national park),

you'll owe Handsome Adam a thank you.

Here he is in a treehouse we found by accident.

We did some drives and hikes through Grants Pass and the rest of Southern Oregon,

the redwoods, and all the way to the California coast.

If Minnesota is the land of lakes,

Oregon has to be the state of rivers.

So many.

Nothing ever gets a chance to dry out,

so moss just grows on everything.

Telephone poles, highways, roofs,

everything just gets sexier with a little moss.

Sometimes it's the only color around.

On the day we drove to Crescent City, CA,

we bumped into Battery Point Lighthouse at the perfect time.

Apparently there's a second lighthouse in that town,

(two in one town?! c'mon...)

so I'll be headed back there next week when the new guests arrive.

It was a bummer seeing him off this morning,

but he threatens to come back again before we leave in April.

Awesome.

Quality and quantity.

Handsome Adam knows what's up.

On vacation.

Hawaii, kids.

It's a love/hate relationship.

I love the ocean, but hate the beach.

I love islands, but hate the people that flock to them.

Meryl has family living down here for a year,

and she had never been before.

And she's also moving out to Oregon just for me,

so......Hawaii for the holidays!

You know I don't even own a pair of shorts,

but so far we're doing well.

Day two and I already have two different lighthouse visits.

This first photo is at the top of a mountain Meryl and I climbed to get to Makapuu Point Light the really hard way.

There's a two mile paved path winding around to the lighthouse,

or an unmarked, not-at-all-legitimate super steep climb up to the top and then over.

It got dark before we even hit the top,

it was scary windy,

and some Hawaiian dude kinda told us we were screwed.

But we did it,

and it was so rad.

Here's a view of of the Makapu Point Light from partially up our hike.

At our destination we met this couple who were both biologists working in Hawaii.

We bonded over our shared love of dead birds

(i was wearing a 'dead birds are sexy' shirt)

and they brought us out to dinner and drove us home.

And since their jobs include working with sick and dying birds,

we're about to have some amazing additions to the I love dead birds blog.

So awesome.

This morning I woke up early

(which isn't hard to do with a four hour time difference)

and took a bike ride with Meryl's mom, Colleen,

out to Diamond Head Lighthouse.

Then a few hours later,

Meryl, her sisters, and I hiked the Diamond Head crater,

and got to see the lighthouse from above.

We then ate lunch at the top in a coastal artillery bunker built in 1908.

Tomorrow we fly to Maui,

and get to see some stuff out there for a while.

Rebecca and the Cucch are living on that island these days,

so we'll have some hang out time with them.

And New Years happens while we're there.

Luckily, I was prepared,

and shipped those 30 Japanese floating lanterns to myself.

I don't know who else will be there,

but I will be saying my goodbyes to 2011 in style,

and making sure 2012 gets kicked off right.

the first of the 11s

Pat helped me kick off my 11s project today,

getting this hermit crab/lighthouse morph on his right arm elbow area.

He sat like a rock,

and was all about the 4 hour block of Black Keys we listened to.

(the rest of the night is all Honeyhoney,

which is awesome,

but they only have two albums.

It's been a HH sing-along since saturday night)

But anyway,

I'm happy to finally have this project under way.

One tattoo down, ten to go.

400.

This is my four hundredth blog post.
Which sounds like a lot,
until I realized I've been writing since early 2007.
And then I just felt lazy.
Ha.

Casey had the big wedding this weekend,
and all the family came out from everywhere for it.
It was on a riverboat on the Mississippi,
and everything was really nice.
I found out that there's a kind of pretend lighthouse
hanging out on the shore of the river in MPLS.
I mean, it's real, and has a light,
but if you need it for navigational purposes,
you should probably not be driving. anything. (ever)

Here's Meryl looking all matron-of-honory,
and timed just right for the lighthouse.



Also, the next guest spot at Off the Map has been set!
January 2nd-7th, 2011
I'll be starting to take appointments this week,
but I'm booking it slightly differently this time.

If you want to get tattooed,
email me your idea with all relevant info:
size, black and grey or color, body area, etc.
Preference will be given to tattoos that best fit my style,
and I'd like to work in 4-6 hour blocks of time.
Once we set a date,
you'll have to call OTM and give them a deposit.

I just realized I didn't book my stay at Maynard House yet,

so I'm off to do that.

email me if you want in.

shawnhebrank@gmail.com

Solemente tres dias

I didn't have too many expectations for my 3 day visit to Peru.
I figured as long as I got to see some lighthouses and dead birds,
(and didn't completely starve)
it'd be a successful trip.
It was such a strange and short adventure.
Lima is a city dealing only in extremes.
A coastal city that's also a desert.
It is always grey and foggy,
but never rains.
Old building next to new ones,
with Incan ruins right in the middle of the city.
A business hub surrounded by excessive poverty.

Here's the Faro de la Marina Lighthouse in Miraflores,
only blocks from our hotel.

Lighthouse - check.

Miraflores (part of Lima) from the "beach".

We found dead everything down there,

including some birds.

Dead Peruvian birds - check

Adam and I aren't very proficient in Spanish,
but we got by.
And I found a fully vegetarian restaurant that catered to vegans,
so of course I went every day.
Not starving - check

The rest of it was just icing on the cake.

Lots of sexy old government buildings, churches,

museums and ruins.

We did a lot of tours,

by bicycle, van, taxi, walking, etc.

The best, by far, though,

was inside the Church of San Francisco.

There's catacombs under the church,

with the remains of over 25,000 people.

They didn't allow photos,

but here's a link to exactly what we saw.

So dope.

Most of the world resides in the Northern Hemisphere,

so it was exciting to cross the equator.

Thanks to Adam for figuring out the trip,

and inviting me to join him.

Now it's back to work tomorrow.

Back East

Meryl and I made it to the East Coast,
and are hanging out with the Hebranks.
(it's a loud time here, for sure)
Today we did some forest trail hiking,
then went to Baltimore's Inner Harbor for dinner
and a lighthouse-turned-museum visit.
This is a screw-pile lighthouse built in 1856,
and was relocated to Pier 5 in 1988.
That's my mom and I, photo by Meryl.



This is the second lighthouse trip in a week,
but the Wisconsin ones were fresh water.
And this, my friends, is the Atlantic Ocean.

We're headed up to Brooklyn tomorrow,
and then Long Island
(where I hope to see at least one more).
Then north to Northampton, MA.
We're staying at the Maynard House, of course,
while I do my Off the Map Tattoo guest spot.
I have 6 super packed tattooing days lined up,
with some of the most fun tattoo ideas I could ask for.
Then to CT for a few days before heading back to MD.
Two weeks, kids.
We don't mess around.

(if you ALSO think lighthouses are sexy,
you can visit this site for a comprehensive listing of them.
and if you go visit some, let me know.)