Three Days at the Beach

Last year Beth and I fell in love with Sunzal, a beach and little surfing community in El Salvador. I think we went four times between January and June. But when we came back from summer break in 2008, for some reason we never got around to going again before Christmas. We finally made it back this past long weekend and immediately fell in love with the place all over again.

Friday morning we caravanned with a group of teachers (12 at the time, though 3 more met us at the beach later) to the beach. One of the reasons we like going so much is that it's the easiest drive to make of any of our usual destinations. The road out of the city is much better, and the highways in El Salvador are leaps and bounds better than Guatemala's, not to mention it's quite scenic.

Of course, there really isn't much to report of our time at the beach. We did a whole lot of swimming, reading, eating ceviche (like a shrimp salad) and pupusas (stuffed tortillas), drinking fruit smoothies, and just hanging out with our friends. We spent our mornings over at a nearby small hotel/restauarant overlooking the ocean, our afternoons boogie boarding, watching the surfers (in absolute amazement -- it looks so hard and intimidating!), and the evenings playing pool and playing music.

Breakfast at Miramar -- the greatest view in Sunzal

Gimme a B-E-A-C-H!

Playing pool on the beach

Don't worry - I cleared the table, then sunk the 8-ball in the wrong pocket -- and scratched!

Beth, Jean Ah, and Wendy

James and Mike

Wishing sunset wasn't over

We had several musicians with us: Mike, Andy, (guitarists) David (guitarist/keyboardist) and Reid (banjo-ist). And we struck gold by inviting a nice surfer fellow to join us. Stephen was a Talent. He could pick up the guitar or banjo and pull sound out of it that you didn't think was previously possible. He also knew tons of Beatles' songs, and Beth was in her element, singing along to every song he played. She said it reminded her of being at home around her Dad and her dad's musical friends.

Mike on the guitar and Reid strumming the banjo

Stephen! Surfer and Guitarist Virtuoso -- we all wondered what he was doing on a beach and not in a band

My favorite song he played and sung:
Something in the Way She Moves by James Taylor

The bad news? It looks as if many of us got food poisoning/bacterial infection on some level. James and I had rumbly tummies for a few days, but some of our friends were much sicker, and one friend ended up going to the doctor and finding out she had e-Coli bacterial poisoning.

Warning: Pupusas may be hazardous to your health! But don't let that stop you. :)

.....but wasn't it all worth it in the end, to spend three days at the beach?

Bottling Night at Mildren Brew. Co.

After anxiously waiting and waiting the last two-and-a-half weeks, my beer was finally ready to be bottled. Last night after Spanish class, the ever-helpful Beth assisted me in the process. I really would have been lost at a couple points in the brewing process if it weren't for her mathematical skills. Since I ended up with less beer than I had anticipated, I had to adjust the quantity of the priming sugar we mixed in last night. I would have just eyeballed it if I were on my own, but Beth actually guided me in measuring it all out and doing the proper conversions.

So, I boiled the sugar in a little bit of water and then poured it into an empty and sanitized water jug. The reason for adding the sugar is to give the yeast in the beer a little more to eat on while in the bottle which will create a natural carbonation and up the alcohol percentage a bit. While the sugar was boiling, I dipped all my clean, empty bottles into the sanitized water solution to prepare them for the beer. Next I siphoned out the beer from the fermenter into the jug with the sugar. I gently swirled the sugar into the beer (careful not to swirl too hard as oxygenating the beer can hurt the flavor) and then prepared to begin bottling and capping.

Siphoning the beer

My brew kit came with this neat bottling wand and it's just a narrow tube of plastic with a little tip on the end that when pressed down will release the beer (it's connected to the siphon). So I just put it into the bottle, press down, and the beer starts flowing. When the bottle's full, I pull up and the flow is cut off. Beth set out the empty bottles for me to fill and kindly capped the full ones. She did a great job and I really appreciate her getting into this hobby with me.

Filling the bottles

Once all the bottles were filled and capped, I counted up 31 12-oz. bottles and 1 22-oz. bottle. Not bad! Especially since I ended up with about 40% less than I should have. Now I'm supposed to wait another two weeks before drinking them. But, I'll probably try one in about 10 days as I'd like to have our soon-to-arrive guests, Matt and Erika, try it. I'll be sure to follow up on the flavor.

Capping the bottles

Mildren Brewing up and running!

This past Christmas, Beth's parents got me a brewer starter kit from Bachus & Barleycorn in Kansas City. I've had some interest in doing homebrewing for a few years now, but living in craft beer-starved Guatemala for the past year-and-a-half was the impetus I needed to begin making my own beer. I brought back two ingredient packs, one of which was a gift from my good friend, Adam (who is also beginning to homebrew), and each one will yield around 5 gallons of beer (45 or more 12 oz. bottles of beer).

On Saturday, I started to make an English porter, which is a black beer with strong malt flavors and low hop bitterness--an easy-drinking ale. I'm calling it "Pacaya Porter," in honor of the active and black cooled-magma volcano, Pacaya. Using instructions provided by the homebrew shop as well as information from my copy of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, I started to brew!

First I steeped a bag of pre-cracked grains in the water as I slowly brought it up to a temp of 170F.

Then I brought it to a boil, added the two cans of malt extract and hops and boiled it all for 45 minutes, checking often so as not to have a messy, sticky boil-over.


In the final 15 minutes I added more hops and a little Irish moss for additional flavoring and aroma. After an hour of boiling, I allowed the pot to cool for 30 minutes before then submerging it in a sink of ice to bring the temp down rapidly. Everything went surprisingly smooth, but then here's where things got messy...

I was supposed to transfer the "wort" (cooked ingredients) to my fermenter (in this case, a 5-gallon water jug). The trouble was that I needed to strain it as it went in. But since it was passing through a narrow neck, it was hard to accurately pour into the opening, as well, the strainer kept filling up and the wort spilled off the sides. In the end, I spilled a lot of valuable wort and made a BIG mess. Beth and I were pretty flustered, but we eventually got it all transfered over. We then had to calculate how much wort was lost and recalculate how much water to add to it. In the end, I went from making a 5-gallon batch to 3! Oh well. It's part of the learning process and everyone says something will go wrong during your first few batches.

After the water was added, I added the liquid yeast (which eats the malt sugars and converts them to alcohol), and attached the airlock (which allows the carbon dioxide to expel while keeping out all air-born bacteria and wild yeasts that could ruin the beer).


After sitting in the dark in our closet over night, I checked the fermenter and could see "kraeusen" forming on the top. This is a result of active yeast and a good sign!


The beer needs to sit for another two weeks to ferment. My next step will be to siphon out the liquid into another container and then add a sugary concoction to it. I do this right before I bottle the beer so that the yeast has more sugar to munch on while in the bottle so that it will create a natural carbonation. After sitting in the bottles for another week or two, the beer should be ready (assuming everything went accordingly!). I'll definitely post a follow-up to let you all know how it went.

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After a long afternoon of brewing, Beth and I were treated to a gorgeous sunset and BBQ dinner at our friend Kris' place.

Holiday Break and White Elephant 1, 2, and 3

Holiday break in the U.S. was long, relaxing, and satisfying! We flew in December 10 in order to be able to make the famous annual Pennington and Company Christmas party (the company James does freelance work for).

The P & C gang

This was a fun time not only because James got to reconnect to coworkers that he hopes to work with again in July, but also because we got to see so many close friends! P & C is such a great place to work, and many times they allow their employees to work remotely. On the other hand, this means many of our closest friends have moved away and won't be there when we return. But they all made it back for the Christmas party, and it felt as if nothing had changed!

NEOSHO After a few days in Lawrence spending time with close friends, we then spent 10 long days of luxury in Neosho, Missouri, where Mom and Dad Kenny (Beth's parents) had recently built a new house and got a new baby pet pug, Mitzi! The house was awesome and comfortable, and watching TV on a giant HDTV was surreal.

The Kenny Family

Christmas Eve-Eve Evening

John, Paul, Ringo, and George

Tim, Natalie, Robin, and James

We spent our days playing video games with Beth's brother and sister, reading, eating Cheez Its, sitting in the hot tub, and drinking good beer, of course! Christmas in Neosho was magical, fun, and we celebrated with presents in the evening, a new tradition for the Kennys. James' big gift was a beer-making kit, which we dragged back to Guatemala. We hope it will turn out well!

WEST PLAINS After 10 great days, we went to West Plains to spend 10 more great days with Mom and Dad Mildren (James' parents)...and our cat, Mia! Again, there is not much to report since we just did so much relaxing! Christmas Day at the Mildren house is a fun time, and we especially enjoyed Mom Mildren's cookie-baking.

The Mildren Family

Mark, Lynda, Gabby, James

Our beloved Mia

Our beloved Lynda

SPRINGFIELD New Years Eve was celebrated in Springfield, Missouri, with some more close friends, the Pypers, and our friends Adam and Molly.

Adam, Stan, James

Happy 2009!

KC Then, to end the visit, we spent a few days in Kansas City relaxing with more friends. It was a great break!...but did we mention it was freezing cold?

Friends in Kansas City

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3 White Elephant Parties

6 ridiculous gifts

James' contribution poster to our Guate party

While we were home, we had two white elephant parties, where everyone brings an already-owned gift they don't want anymore and then you trade, steal, and end up with, well, who knows! :) Then back here in Guate, we hosted one. We love white elephant parties because we get to be creative and funny and get rid of our junk we don't want anymore. It's also fun to see what others have been hiding in their house all year!

Side note: The BEST white elephant gift we have ever received was the squirrel toilet paper cover from Jake and Amber, from Amber's grandmother (2007).

White Elephant I: Journey Group Party

Dillon, Cara, Kristin, Pat

Lucky Pat!

I hit the jackpot

This gift was so bad it deserved the fireplace!

White Elephant II: P & C Christmas Party

Aaron is excited about his new mask!

Robert scored the Gallo

Isn't everyone looking to add to their VHS collection?

Mandi can rock that hat in L.A. for 2009

White Elephant III: Guatemala CAG Teacher Party

So many great gifts!

I think Mike brings a mustache to every party...

James has been needing a new cell phone purse

Poor Mike. He just got stamps.

Nina got a "hippy kit" of incense

We can't wait for Christmas 2009!

We're back! But it wasn't easy.

Beth and I finally made it back to Guatemala yesterday afternoon and soon we'll have some posts about our Christmas vacation. For now I will share our nightmare of an experience getting home...

So, Beth and I booked some pretty terrible times to fly home and return to Guatemala for Christmas break because we were able to save $1,000! On Monday evening we flew out of Kansas City on time at 6 p.m. We arrived in Chicago with no troubles and immediately met up with Beth's sister Robin. She was nice enough to come pick us up and then drop us back off at the airport just for dinner. Our flight from Chicago to Guatemala City wasn't schedule to take off until 2 a.m., so it was great just to get out of the airport for a couple hours.

After dinner, we came back to the airport and checked in at 10. We found our gate and just hung out, watching some TV shows on my MP3 player, reading, and eventually napping from midnight till 1:15 or so. Boarding began on time probably around 1:45, but then suddenly an announcement came on alerting us that the pilot had been rushed to the hospital. We would not be able to leave until he was released from the hospital. So, not only were we at the mercy of the hospital and doctors' schedules, but then we were supposed to have a pilot just discharged from the hospital fly us back? That didn't sound too appealing.

So, the hours dragged on and on, with no updates or any idea of when we could leave. All I could do was try and sleep away the night. Curled up on the floor using a backpack full of books for a pillow, I managed to sleep off and on. Beth was too worked up to sleep for hours, and both of us were cold, and neither of us had a heavy jacket to keep warm in.

Once stores reopened at 6 a.m., Beth bought some Tylenol PM which helped us both sleep better for the next couple hours. Finally at 9 a.m. we were told we would board at 10 a.m.--eight hours later! We did board at 10, but we never took off until 11:15 as the plane and runway had to be cleared of snow and ice.

The flight home took 4 hours and 15 minutes and it was the longest feeling flight of our lives! Time just crept by, even with napping here and there. In addition, the plane was hot, multiple babies were crying at various times, and two people sitting directly behind us threw up during a bout of turbulence (which we had a lot of throughout the flight).

We finally got in to Guatemala City around 3:45 or so. We had been traveling for nearly 24 hours. Thankfully all our luggage arrived and we were able to get home with no problems to a clean, quite, and comfortable apartment. We slept great last night.