During our recent visit to Minnesota, my sister-in-law suggested we try a segway tour for Dan's Dad's birthday! We have always been curious and we jumped at the chance to try it. The tour was absolutely great and maneuvering the two wheeled machine proved to be pretty easy. Check out our family pictures as well as Kelly's article about the tour in the Minnesota Monthly: Minnesota Journeys Blog.
This summer we have been staying busy with weddings, baptisms, birthdays and driving Tri-state to visit family and friends. Did we mention we already put on around 3,000 miles on the car?! Good thing the Honda gets great gas mileage!
During our recent visit to Minnesota, my sister-in-law suggested we try a segway tour for Dan's Dad's birthday! We have always been curious and we jumped at the chance to try it. The tour was absolutely great and maneuvering the two wheeled machine proved to be pretty easy. Check out our family pictures as well as Kelly's article about the tour in the Minnesota Monthly: Minnesota Journeys Blog.
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Every season we collect lots of team merchandise to remember our time abroad. This past season was a little different because instead of our typical team t-shirts and scarves we were able to snatch up lots of different goodies... teddy bears, keychains, buttons, and wrist bands just to mention a few. Not only did the Sendai 89ers have great merchandise but they also had some neat advertising around the city. It is long overdue that I write an entry to brag about my amazingly talented wife! She has supported me in my career and followed me around the world, somewhat putting my basketball career ahead of her own photography career. Despite moving around the globe every season, she has managed to build her photo resume into something pretty extraordinary. Aside from all her personal artistic photography, she has been hired this past season in Japan and all this summer in the U.S. to shoot for many different people and companies. Families, baptisms, models, sports supplement companies, newspapers, sign companies, dance festivals, etc...her career as a professional photographer is taking off! Below are a number of her photos that were published nationally while she was hired by the Japan Times Newspaper to cover the entire Japanese league for the 2011-2012 season. I am so proud of what she has accomplished so far in her career. Like me, she made a career out of her passion, which is something to be admired! I know that this is only the beginning of great things to come for Dominika! Check out the Dan's interview about life and basketball overseas in the latest Marquette Magazine! Meeting up with other Americans abroad is always fun! A while ago I was invited to join a group for wives and girlfriends who have the same basketball lifestyle as we do. The group is a great resource for those going to new teams, new countries, having babies abroad or just having a much needed venting session. (If you are interested in joining and are a wife or a girlfriend of a player please message me!) I was fortunate enough to meet a couple of great friends through the site and in March we all decided to meet up in Tokyo. Its always fun meeting up with those that you have been talking to for months via email but never met in person, a part of you feels like you totally know them but another part is excited to meet new people. The six of us along with six kids met for lunch in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo at a great Indian restaurant. We talked and laughed for hours until the servers gave us a nice hint to go somewhere else. It was truly great to meet up and be a part of such a special group of ladies! Let's hope for one more Tokyo meet up in the future season! Talk about a small world! April and I met in Germany when her husband and Dan played for Ratiopharm Ulm together. We instantly became great friends and met up all the way across the world in Japan. It was an amazing experience! Small world indeed! I messaged Julie about a year ago because I heard she was a photographer in Tokyo and I wanted to know how she adjusted her business practices upon moving to Japan. She was very helpful and is a very talented photographer, check out her website. I never thought we would be able to meet up in person! Talking about nerdy camera gear was a great bonus! The next day a couple of us met up at Yoyogi Park. The park is huge and attracts an interesting crowd on Sundays; hippies, hipsters, teenagers practicing dance moves, fashion subculture fans, and Tokyo Rockabilly Club were all out in full force. The random people actually reminded me of a State Fair crowd where people from all walks of life come out one week a year to celebrate. Definitely fun to people watch! We were in the park on the one year anniversary of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, at 14:46 there was a moment of silence and the Japanese national anthem was played over the loud speakers. Very surreal experience.
Below is a photo of Hanna (Ana's daughter) enjoying her lunch while listening to the national anthem. Every country has their own traditions when it comes to food at sporting events and since we spent the majority of our lives in the States we were used to the western way of dinning. Hot dogs, pizza, nachos, and beer were all items we would pig out on! In Japan it was a little different, the first time I attended Dan's game I thought I was going to gag when a fan unwrapped raw fish eggs with rice next to me. So different! At least they still sold cold beer. Normally you could find noodles, bento boxes with fish or chicken, rice balls, chicken skewers and lots of different types of tea. At the end of our stay in Japan, I loved munching on a tuna rice ball and some unsweetened green tea during Dan's games!
We have been meaning to blog about the last trip in Japan for quite some time but with our crazy summer schedule we lagged behind. Round one of the playoffs brought us up north to the City of Akita. Our good friends, the Takahashis were gracious enough to let us stay with them at their family owned restaurant, the "Viking." My teammate Ken grew up in Akita, and invited us to a couple private dinners at their authentic Japanese eatery. Before dinner one night, there was a mini festival going on outside. We got to experience a fun Japanese twist to a street festival. Pictured below are some of the activities we gave a try, including goldfish and baby turtle fishing, some bizarre foods to try, and random kid toys to purchase. My teammates kids loved it, and I enjoyed winning a baby turtle for Joe Takahashi! Below is a picture of the Takahashi family and I in the entrance of the restaurant where they have a shrine of their first born son, Ken's professional basketball career. It reminds me of my parent's house as they love to show their support for my career as well as my siblings. Dominika was taking the picture, but they were very good to her, letting her stay with them for the weekend. We made life long friends with the Takahashi family, and loved to get an inside look at their family life.
From one traveler to the next, check our out friends' adventure down the Mississippi River. Very cool documentary! To view more episodes check out their YouTube Channel or their website. The rustic escape we have been dreaming of..... a week full of doing nothing just sunbathing under the Thai sun and enjoying island specialties! We flew out of Sendai on Friday evening knowing full well that we had a lovely 25 hour journey ahead of us but we couldn't care less! It was vacation time. Three connecting flights as well as a night at the Singapore airport (seriously, an awesome airport with lots to do, even at 3am) brought us to Koh Samui, Thailand on Saturday morning. From there it was a quick 30 minute speed boat ride to the Santhiya Resort and Spa on Koh Phangan. We couldn't believe how beautiful the resort was! Simply stunning! Rustic, traditional, quiet, and had amazing Thai details everywhere! The resort is located on the northeast part of the island, the area is called Thong Nai Pan and offers a very laid back atmosphere. We were happy to spend the majority of our time at the resort but also explored a beach and village located close to the resort. We split our meals between two local restaurants where you could order $2 beers and delicious pad Thai for $5. A couple of times we went into town, a small village, to buy aloe vera as well as some $1 beers. Who would have thought that two people who haven't seen the sun in 9 months would burn, on the second day nonetheless!? We both did! The village was a bit rough around the edges but the locals seemed nice and there were lots of little restaurants as well as Thai massage places along the street. We got an awesome one hour Thai massage on the beach for ten dollars! Talk about getting a lot for your money! We spent a lot of time hanging out at a nearby beach. We were fans of the soft sand and cheap Thai meals! Plus, the taxi boats were absolutely beautiful. Elephant trekking The resort offers quite a few activity packages, one of them being elephant trekking. We were absolutely thrilled to try it. Who wouldn't want to ride an elephant on an Thai island?! We were in. Since the resort tour was all booked up the front desk suggested we book through the trekking company. (For those venturing to the resort, its half the price if you book straight through the company.) An unmarked vehicle picked us up at the resort, gee it didn't feel shady at all! The Toyota pickup with a friendly Thai driver wearing slick blue Ray Bans took us on a 40 minute ride through the rugged terrain of the island. The driver manuvered past pot holes the size of boulders on tiny dirt roads. When he came up to a turn he would honk to alarm the oncoming traffic and at times even drove on the opposite side of the road to avoid holes. It was very impressive to watch but also a bit nerve-wracking. Scooters jetted past us sometimes carrying two adults and a small child in the front basket. How did these people do it?! Steep mountains, narrow dirt roads and a hell of a bumpy ride. We read that motor bike accidents are the most common type of accident on Koh Phangan and scars from such accidents have become known as the "Thai tattoo." Glad we didn't rent a scooter! So there we were, in an unmarked vehicle on the roughest roads we have ever been on - sounds safe, real safe. All I kept imagining was a news story about two American tourists getting kidnapped in Thailand. We kid, we kid, well sort of. Thankfully we arrived at the elephant trekking spot in one piece. The area had a few huts where (we assume) the owners lived and four elephants were chained to trees. One of the tour guides grabbed Babar, the king of the elephants, and brought him near us. Man, those are some massive animals! You don't realize it until you are standing inches away from them! The guide then climbed up on his trunk and sat down behind his ears. Lucky for us we were told to climb up on a wooden platform and didn't have to perform acrobatic moves to sit on the elephant. We spent the next hour joy riding around their property, up hills and through the jungle. The guide took our camera and kept taking pictures of us while telling the elephant to pose with his trunk up. We couldn't help but to laugh but when the elephant wouldn't follow him it seemed he would say, "get your ass over here boy" ha! He made the elephant do little tricks, such as crack a coconut with his foot and we both took turns riding up front on its neck. Riding such a big animal felt surreal and we are both glad we could experience it! Check that off our bucket list! Back at the resort, we enjoyed a late dinner with some furry friends. There were dogs everywhere on the beach and we still don't know if they were strays or actually belonged to those that ran the restaurants. They were all friendly and even took a nap at Dan's feet while we ate dinner. We really couldn't have imagined a better honeymoon! Sun, beach and complete relaxation! Thai fun facts, aka an etiquette guide from the Santhiya Resort and Spa.
Check out a video of Dan competing in the 3 Point Contest during the BJ League All-Star Weekend in Saitama, Japan. Dan starts shooting at the six minute mark. |