tribe tubbs

Easter Island, YES Easter Island……….I’ve been longing to visit the island for about 10 years and I can’t remember what first inspired me, but whether it was a TV documentary, a National Geographic, or just browsing through pictures on the net, I just couldn’t talk myself out of visiting this intriguing tiny island.  So my coolest wife on earth encouraged me to plan a trip and my brother and I were off on this amazing adventure.  The island is only 15 miles by 7 miles but has an astounding 897 Moai (statues) which are mostly on the coast and/or concentrated in the quarry (400 are still there and were awaiting delivery).  The draw to the island are the Moai which all have a unique personality of their own, but after visiting, Rich and I realized there is so much more to see on the island.  There is also a lot of mystery surrounding the island due to very little written history about the island from the natives and unfortunately, a loss of the verbal history when slave traders invaded the island in the 1860’s.  Subsequently smallpox and tuberculosis epidemics were also introduced to the island at the same time and by 1872 there were only 111 people on the island.

The island is very beautiful everywhere you look.  The waves crashing on the volcanic coastline, the small quaint city, the master crafted Moai, the Ranu Kau volcano crater, and the massive lave tube caves were just outstanding.  I couldn’t even begin to tell you what my favorite sight was to see, but the cherry on top of our trip was spending time with our new found friends on the island.  We spent all week with Kimba who worked at our hotel and is originally from New York.  She has been living on the island for about 20 years and is beautifully vivacious.  Her boyfriend, Hugo is a Rapa Nui native, a gentle soul, and is very proud of his heritage.  They both lovingly welcomed us into their home, cooked an amazing native nanue fish stew and we shared about our lives like we were long lost friends. Hugo just loved sharing the history of the island (just as much as we loved hearing about it) and his ancestor’s legacy with us.  Rich and I couldn’t express enough how thankful we are for our priceless time with them at their home in the rolling hills above the city (not to mention all their insiders tips about sites to see).  The island is amazing and I don’t think even any little detail could have been planned better than it just worked out for us.  What a priceless week to experience this amazing place and spend so much time with my awesome brother!

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I took my $40 Holga Pinhole camera with me to Easter Island and caught a few island photos through the F138 hole before the base unfortunately fell off of it and I could no long mount it to my tripod.  Anyhow, what do you expect with from a cheap camera.  I love these photos, there’s nothing like the old look of film through a no lens exposure.  Hope you enjoy these also.

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Oh my!!!………. Shad, Kyle, and I went on one of the most stressful adventure of our lives.  We left our homes confident middle aged men and came back humbled old men!  Shad has been searching for this well kept secret cave in southern San Diego for a long time with aspirations of finding it and exploring it completely.  We found the location pretty easily, but once we took the 80 foot repel down inside, it quickly became evident that it was more of a crack than a cave.  It took us about 3.5 hours to get through the crack, doing all kinds of contorted moves and technical climbing skills, often literally squeezing through holes we shouldn’t have fit through.  Sometimes, we would go through a tiny hole and then find a 15 foot drop off right out the opening which we would rappel down, or climb down very carefully.  The walls were granite, but water worn and very slick, so when we would chimney or try to hold on, it was usually more like a controlled slide to move around.  The highlight inside was near the end when we came to the cathedral room and rappelled down the 80 foot limestone glazed waterfall.  Fortunately, there was no running water right now, otherwise it would have been a frigid trip.  Getting to the end of the cave was literally only half the battle.  It ended at a 9 inch wide crack which opened up to yet another 15 foot drop (with sharp rocks at the bottom), but we could not figure out any way to get down safely.  Therefore, we had to trace our steps back up through the way we came in which took another 3.5 hours.  Part of returning back through the way we came was ascending 2 80 foot ropes which is very hard work.  We were a bit cold, and with all the technical moves and squeezes through tiny holes, and the constant danger of slipping down into crevasses or onto sharp rocks it was a very very stressful escape.  But, we made it out and each of us had our full cup of humility to drink that day!  I would never do the cave again, but as always, it was fun to have an adventure with my great friends, Shad and Kyle!

search tags( Thunder Cave San Diego, Thunder Cave, Thunder Cave Jacumba, McCain Valley Thunder Cave, San Diego County)

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We made a mad dash to see Indian Hill and the Blue Sun Cave out in Anza Borrego Desert.  I’ve been trying to figure out where this cave is on the planet since hearing about it, but noone gives proper directions on the internet.  Mostly just bad clues to throw you off of the trail.  The lack of directions and few visitors has kept this cave pristine.  Beautiful color of the Petroglyphs and no signs of modern graffiti (that I can tell anyways).  There are also lots and lots of morteros carved into the rocks where they would grind grain and also many “yonis” which are carved rocks to represent good fertility.

We spent the night afterwards in Julian and did the Eagle Peak mine tour which was quite impressive.  Lots of touring the actual mine and we got to find some real gold in the panning troughs.  All in all, about as good of a 24hr period as we have had!

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We had the honor of hosting the Tubbs family christmas party this year and we set up the Photo Booth for my goofy family to act goofy!  Here’s all the photos, the good, bad, and ugly…..

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A few close friends of ours went out to pretend we were all young for just a night 🙂  Rich and Laural, Jacob and Shannon, Sophia and Justin, and Jordana and I took a limo up to LA to visit CRAFT restaurant.  We had an amazing night!  Jordana wanted to prove we weren’t old yet, so we left Vista at 7 up to LA for 9:30 reservations.  We ate and laughed heartily until about 12:30.  By the time we got home at 3am, we just successfully proved we were all old because boy were we whipped!  The next day was a doozy and made us feel old because we could barely get off the couch all day since we were so tired……..but, we wouldn’t have traded it for the world!  The night was phenomenal with great great company and the food was tasty beyond explanation.  What a fabulous way for Jordana and Sophia to welcome in their 40s.

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Our good friend Greg had his first art show on September 5th, 2013 to celebrate his recent American Citizenship, and because he’s an artist!  There was a huge turnout to see his work with people piling in the gallery for 4 hours.  Some of his works included documentation (and the bike) of his bike ride from Miami to Santa Barbara when he first arrived in the US, several cool american themed Holga prints, a hand-painted California flag, a bottlecap relief map of the US, and his ring making expertise!  He also had a good old classic working payphone in the lobby !  Very creative, classy show.  Great job Greg!

The show will be up for another month, so stop by Gallery 27 at Brooks institute in Santa Barbara to see his works.  Sorry, I already bought the 25mm coke top artillery shells 🙂

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What more can I say, perfect weather, sleeping in, snorkeling, laying by the pool.  The whole fam had a great week on Maui!!

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The gang made a mad dash to the incomparable Death Valley National Park to see all of the natural wonders.  We were greeted the first night with a crazy snowstorm heading up the Cajon Pass which turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because the storm passing through California dusted the charcoal kilns with 5 inches of fresh snow to play in the next day.  How beautiful the kilns were with that white coat and this turned out to be the kids’ favorite part of the trip as they got to play in the fresh snow until their digits were numb.  We traveled up to Scotty’s Castle which is a really cool huge spread in truly the middle of nowhere.  I guess when you have lots of money you do some crazy eccentric things with it!  From the castle we made a quick stop by a volcanic explosion crater and then down a long 4×4 road to the mysterious walking rocks.   Levi decided to take a few for a ride, but he was saddened to find out they only move a couple of inches per year 🙂  That night, I drug Elijah out to the sand dunes for a 45 minute star trails shot.  I think we saw about 15 shooting stars while we were waiting for the picture to take.  God really likes to show off his controlling stars talent!  The next day we played in the dunes, visited the artist’s palette and then we were sent off by the local coyotes.  They were waiting by the side of the road and when we pulled over, one stayed still, eating some chips we threw out for him while the other guy circled our car over and over again.  Pretty cool.  It was as if that was their routine…….one eats while the other one patrols.  Awesome weekend and always amazing to see Gods handiwork up close!

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Jordana had the idea to run to the mountains for an impromptu snow day.  We burned rubber up to Big Bear to do a bit of sledding and in high hope to find some active snow fall.  We found it and had a great day of crashes, eating snow, pizza, and a few snowflakes 🙂

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