San Diego Airport

A few days after Thanksgiving 2014, we started our Indonesian adventure from Lindberg field in San Diego. The flight was going to be a long one and we got to the airport super early so we decided to go have a few drinks at the bar before our flight.

Normally, 11am would be way too early to drink, but what the heck, we were on VACATION! 

After our first bloody mary, a guy sauntered up next to us at the bar and ordered a drink. He was clearly either the Most Interesting Man in the World or a close relative, so we struck up a conversation. 

After a short time, we found out his name was Paco and he was from Chicago. He was on his way back from a family vacation and revealed to us that he owned his own executive recruiting business and was of Greek Ancestry. Why his name was Paco is a mystery, but either way, we became fast friends and he ended up teaching us how to play a card game called "Casino" and bought us a few more drinks. 

We will probably never see Paco again, but he was super cool so we decided to name our beta fish "Paco Mcgillicuddy" after him. We don't know his real last name, but we figured that if a greek guy could be named Paco, his last name could be just about anything. 

Planning Our First Overseas Trip Together

We had known each other maybe six weeks. I had plans of traveling to Cambodia alone, but then after meeting Helmut, I decided we HAD to travel together. The decision to go to Indonesia was over text. Something like:

Margarite: Cambodia is too much of a downer. Let's go somewhere more romantic but still adventurous.

Helmut: Ok, where?

Margarite: How about Bali?

Helmut: Ok.

And just like that, we had plans to go to Indonesia. The next 2 and a half months were spent summiting to work out the details. It was pretty simple. We consulted Air B&B and Trip Advisor quite a bit.
In the end, we decided on Canggu and Ubud on the island of Bali, and the west coast of Lombok.
International travel was going to be a true test of our relationship!

Luchedores en Tijuana

We went through a company called Tourista Libre and went down to Tijuana to see some Luchedores wrestling. We had a blast!  We got a ride from the border, legit tacos, stopped to get some rad souvenir wrestling masks and then had ringside seats to one of the craziest cultural experiences ever! Highly recommended!

Gregory

This is Gregory. We met Gregory at a random dive bar in El Cajon, Ca while we were playing Raiders of the Lost Ark Pinball.
Gregory was VERY friendly... and drunk. He seemed to have no concept of personal space. The worst part about that was he smelled like he had just taken a dump in his pants.
"You guys have been married a long time haven't you?" Gregory asked us with a whiskey soaked slur.
We glanced at each other while trying to hold in our laugher. This was our third date.
"Yeah", we responded.
"How long you been married...like 20 years?".
I can't remember what we told him. Maybe we said 15 or something.
Gregory was the quintessential dive bar drunk. We sure got a kick out of him though.

The Adventure Begins

Helmut and I met not so long ago. It became very apparent very quickly that we loved spending time together and shared a knack for meeting interesting people and getting to know their stories.
On our third date, we went to Ali Baba restaurant in El Cajon, CA. We spotted a group in the corner who seemed to be celebrating something. Then, one of them got up and walked past us and we engaged him in conversation. This was difficult to resist because he was wearing a garment I had only heard of but quite honestly didn't think they actually existed in real life, a Utilikilt! (I had seen their website but thought it was a joke...kind of like the Lap Giraffe site.)

This was early on in the relationship and so my recollection of the conversation is somewhat fuzzy, but this picture represents the very first time we used our super powers to attract the unusual characters that usually go unnoticed by most people.
There were so many things about Utilikilt guy that we loved. Helmut especially loved his mustache (he has a fascination with mustaches as you will soon realize), and I loved his t-shirt that says "It aint ALL bustle honey!"
We are so happy that we had the presence of mind to get a picture with him....because this is really where it all started!