Photo Gallery
Family picture, including a son-in-law and a granddaughter.This is a photo of me and my beautiful bride taken a few years ago. This is me on our first annual 4 Amigos trip in 2002. The 4 Amigos consist of my brother, cousin and cousin-in-law. On this inaugural trip, we rafted the Grand Canyon. The food, the rafting and the people were all great.This is Mexico in 2003. My cousin (naturally the one with his possessive hand on the fish) caught the 264 lb. marlin and wouldn't let us release it. We had been taking 20 minute turns in the fishing chair on the boat and he happened to be in it when the fish hit. He has never let us forget it.This is taken in Placencia, Belize in 2004. Here I am relaxing "con mis dos amigos, los perros". I have no idea if the previous sentence is even remotely correct. That's as good as it gets with 3 years of High School Spanish. In Belize we dove, snorkeled and toured Mayan archeological sites.The 4 Amigos relaxing between dives with a wonderful lunch. We were on an island somewhere off the coast of Belize.Rafting in Costa Rica in 2005. Costa Rica was great fun, although I was mucho sick for a couple of days. This shot was taken post illness. I'm in the front of the raft, can you tell that I am thinner? In Costa Rica we learned to surf (sort of), did some major zip lines and rafted.Here we are taking a break from rafting in Costa Rica.Fly fishing on the Animas in Durango in 2006. Took some lessons and had a great time. I would estimate that I caught about 10 rainbow trout over a 2 day period. None very big, but I won’t complain. The 4 Amigos at a calm spot on the Animas River in Durango, Colorado. Left to right, my brother Randy, my cousin Rick, me and my cousin-in-law Steve.Kayaking the Animas River in Durango, Colorado. We had taken lessons earlier in the summer and this was our first whitewater experience. Photo is of a Class III rapid called Smelter. It kicked my rear end a couple of times before I nailed it.This is me with Rory, our kayak "coach". See, I practice what I preach. On all of our 4 Amigo activities we hire a professional to teach us the ropes.We did a multitude of activities in Durango. Here I am climbing "X" rock. I look a lot better than I really am, although I did make it up and over that little overhang.Biking the Hermosa Creek trail in the Durango area. Wonderful 20 mile ride, but it poured buckets of rain with lots of lightning on us about an hour into the ride. Figured for sure we would be blackened lumps before we were done.From the same Durango bike ride as the previous shot; this photo shows water, frozen in time by the flash, running down the trail over my foot and bike tire.The 4 Amigos went to British Columbia, Canada in 2007. Here we are kayaking on Johnstone Strait off the eastern coast of Vancouver Island. We saw lots of wildlife including many orcas. You can nearly always identify me as the one with the camera in his hand.Again, off the coast of Vancouver Island, I took this photo with my brother Randy and his boat framing the orca nicely. This is the 4 Amigos plus Jay (a Canadian adventurer who signed up for the same trip) and Kate, our guide. This is at the top of Sunrise ski resort in the White Mountains of Arizona. We caught the ski lift up and "flew" down. I biffed 3 times that day and learned that I should have worn more protective gear. I was with a group of Boy Scouts from my church.Again a Boy Scout trip, this was my toughest hike ever. We hiked down Tonto Creek in the Hellsgate Wilderness in Arizona. With no trail, it took us 3 days to go about 10 miles, alternately swimming, wading, rock hopping and hiking. Here I barely clear the rock just below the surface.This is a shot of me, very tired, after having hiked 10 miles down to Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon. Taken in July of 2007, the waterfall in the background is Havasu Falls. There are 3 other beautiful waterfalls, Beaver, Navajo and Mooney in the same area.This was taken on the Outer Banks in North Carolina on our 2008 4 Amigos trip. I am kayak surfing, using a sit-on-top kayak designed for that purpose.My brother and I catching the same wave on our kayaks. I am on the left.Until I saw the photos I would have told you that I was at least 20 feet off the ground. Instead I'm about 4 feet up with the instructor running beside me holding on to a tether. I flew about 200 feet and did land on my feet however, which was rare for our group - Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.The 4 Amigos, unwisely posing under the rocks, after kayaking the Nantahala River in western North Carolina.