Kuntz Family Vacation

07.29.2009 - 08.05.2009

Although I was a but skeptical about this "Kuntz Family Vacation" it turned out to be filled with endless laughs, funny nights and of course lots and lots of kayaking.....because when you are traveling with my family nothing is quite normal.

July 29th-Arrived in Seattle, went to the Seattle Mariners vs. Toronto Blue Jays game, they won 3-2, got lost going to the ferry, took the Brainbridge ferry from Seattle to Paulsbo, went to Uncle John's house in Paulsbo, WA, made a 40ft slip n slide down a huge hill out of tarps, added soap to the slip n slide and send a kayak and sleds down it, made a trip to Wal-Mart, Josh (Younger Brother age 13) got a pellet gun, Keith (Cousin age 16) and Haley (Friend age 16) went to get marshmellows, Keith threw his down the isle and it broke a sign, Haley threw hers and it went over an isle to the juices, coming out of Wal Mart Josh jumped ontop of a car thinking it was ours, it wasn't, on way back home stopped at the church to ring the bell, it doesn't ring, came back and made smores.

July 30th- got up and went to Uncle John's Shop (Olympic Outdoor Center), helped stuff all the Paddle Kitsap envelopes with packets and t-shirts, went down to the dock, learned safety stuff, got into our wetsuits, jumped in the freezing water, Keith and I got ontop of the kayak shack and jumped off into the water, got into the kayaks and kayaked in the harbor, learned how to get back into the kayak if it capsizes and get all the water out, went to Kingston to pick up registration packets that we filled earlier, ate at Cuerta Varetta, mexican food, the plates were twice the size of our heads and we went home with 7 boxes of left-overs

July 31st- woke up at 5:30am to get ready for Paddle Kitsap (http://www.paddlekitsap.com/), drove to Port Gamble and headed out with 43 other people for a long day of paddling, paddled for 5 miles, rest stop, 4 miles (very wavy and rocky), lunch stop, 4 more miles, rest stop, we were supposed to go for 4 more miles but Haley and I called it quits and headed to Kingston, waited for everyone to get there, had dinner of crab stuffed chicken breast, potatoes, beans and salad, went back to Uncle Johns house and hung out

August 1st- woke up at 6:30 to get ready for Paddle Kitsap day 2, paddled 18 miles total today, all with the current, had a good lunch, ended in Paulsbo and got viking hats, paddle was way easier than the day before, had bbq chicken pitas for dinner, chilled out at night

August 2nd- woke up at 6:30 to get ready for whale watching, drove to Port Townsend to catch the boat, was really foggy out so drove straight to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, stopped for lunch and ice cream, got back on the boat, went to the whale sites, saw 3 whales but were dissappointed, slept and ate on the boat, beautiful views, back to Uncle Johns, had a bbq, boys fished down by the water, Haley and I wet suited up and swam in the freezing cold water to get the snags out, had cake for Brian's (Cousin age 15) birthday

August 3rd- finally got a day to sleep in, laid around and watching a movie on tv, went to the Point No Point beach, fished, went on the Hobie (sit on top kayak) with Uncle John and went way out into the Tidal Rip, huge waves crashed over us, caught one small fish while out there, had to paddle really hard to get out of the 2 currents, went to Uncle Johns and had tacos, hung out and watched Step Brothers

August 4th- woke up to a Uncle John's homemade breakfast of bacon and french toast, headed to Bainbridge ferry, got to Seattle, had fish and chips at Ivan's on the water, walked around Seattle, walked thru crazy Pike Place Market, saw the guys throw fish, bought souvenirs, got ice cream, took the Monorail to the Seattle Center, went up in the Space Needle, walked around and took pictures at the top, got Starbucks, back on the Monorail, ferry back to Paulsbo, got pizza, talked to Katie (Uncle John's girlfriend), watched Christmas Family Vacation, Dad caught a huge salmon, cooked it up and ate it for dinner

August 5th- woke up and packed all of our stuff, drove to the airport, headed back to Sweet Home Chicago

Words on a screen can't really describe how exhausting paddling countless nautical miles on the Puget Sound is, how much fun you can have at Walmart, how breathtaking it is to see whales in person, and most of all how important it is to spend 10 fun-filled days reconnecting with your family.

C.E.P. Work Trip 2009

03.20.2009 - 03.28.2009

I just returned from a 8 day trip to Southern Mississippi and New Orleans for a work tour helping re-build houses for hurricane Katrina victims. I left on Friday the 20th from Western Springs around 5pm with 24 other high schoolers and 8 staff members from my leadership group called C.E.P (Community Extension Project). We do many events throughout the year with surrounding communities as well as hold many leadership conferences.

We drove to Effingham,Illinois and stopped at a hotel. We got up Saturday and drove all day till we got to our camp in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi also called Mission on the Bay. We stayed on the property of the Christ Episcopal Church.

We dropped our stuff off and headed an hour away to New Orleans to spend the day shopping, eating and site seeing. We were there all day and shopped in the best French Markets and also on Bourbon Street. We had a traditional southern dinner of jambalaya, gumbo and corn bread at Johnny Whites on a balcony above Bourbon Street. New Orleans was absolutely beautiful city, basically re-built after Katrina. But once you drove 5 minutes outside of the city you saw the devastation of the hurricane. It has been 3 and 1/2 years since Katrina and some people still don't have homes. We saw countless numbers of destroyed houses; concrete slabs and steps but no homes there.

Monday through Wednesday we worked. There were 3 work groups who all went to different sites. My group went to a women's house who's name is Lori-Ellen. She was a middle-aged women with 2 sons and a daughter. She luckily wasn't home during Katrina but her house was demolished; her roof was ripped off, house completely flooded, and walls ripped apart. She basically had to start over after the hurricane. So right now she's living in a double wide trailer which is crammed with enough furniture and stuff to fit 5 trailers.

What my group did while we were down there was hardwood floor most of her house (kitchen, hallway, 2 bathrooms and a bedroom), clean and organize 2 sheds of stuff, paint as well as hang doors and put trim around her entire house. We worked 8am to 4pm everyday and managed to accomplish all of our tasks. It was a sad goodbye but we knew we did all that we could. After work each day we went back to camp, ate dinner, then did some fun activity such as playing basketball, going to the beach (which we did everyday sometimes twice), bowling or having a bonfire with smores.

One of my favorite moments was when we went bowling on Tuesday night. All 32 of us went bowling at a local bowling alley and we were talking to some of the locals. They were so happy that we were down there helping with all that we could. They couldn't express their gratitude in words to us. One man that we were talking to who had his house gone completely invited us all over for lunch on Friday. We were so sad that we were leaving on Thursday and couldn't go. We asked him why after 3 1/2 years, things still weren't back to normal. He said that most people were just sick of trying to re-build. They put all their time, effort, and energy towards re-building that they just did not want to do anymore. These people have been living like this for 3 years and some of them aren't even back in regular houses, yet they are so willing to give whatever they can and do whatever they can to somehow pay us back for our volunteer work. We all wanted to stay another week but everyone knew a stack of spring break homework was waiting at home.We left with a sad goodbye Thursday morning and returned home Friday around 6pm.

If you would like to see more photos from this trip please visit my Flickr.