Dog sledding in Ely, Minnesota

This was one of the best adventures ever:
4 days over MLK weekend, we ventured out to the small town of Ely to go dog sledding with the Wintergreen Lodge crew. Ely is into Minnesota, in the far north, right at the Canadian border. The trip to get there is not easy, but well worth the effort. First you fly in Minneapolis, then drive 4 hours north to Ely.
We stayed a log cabin in Timber Creek lodges.
After just recently reading Gary Paulsen's autobiographical book 'Winterdance: the fine madness of running the iditarod' ( fabulous book by the way), I had dreams of iditarod swimming in my head all the way there.



We spent three days learning about the dogs and dog sledding. Our guides Ellen and Bria took us on a adventure each day. Their stamina is amazing- how do they keep up with the dogs on their skis?
The first morning harnessing up the dogs was quite a challenge and was quite the work out holding on to the dogs and not letting them run off with you.
But by day 3 I was I pro at the harnesses.





So we'd head out, just Mike and I driving our own sled of dogs. This is no Disneyland joy ride. The dogs will take off with or without you so you got to make sure you are on the brakes at all times. Got to get off and push on the uphill and duck to avoid the tree branches. Yes the tree branches got me few times and I fell off the sled. Yes our sled got stuck a tree once too.



On day 2, we had our superstar team: Steve and Sweet Pea as our lead dogs, the puppies George and Jupiter as our wheel dogs in the back and in middle Clark and Fudgie.
These dogs were such gunners, we could barely control them: 3 loose sleds and we each probably fell off 6 times that day. Our superstar team had to take on the role of breaking trail as we ventured into unbroken territory.



The first loose sled occured as we followed Bria off the icy road, sharp left turn up the slope, couldn't slow the dogs as the brake did not work on ice and sled flipped over.
2nd loose sled, down the hill to the lake: right after lunch the dogs were so gung ho, could not slow them down. Mike fell off first, I'm hanging on for dear life, the dogs take a sharp turn on the lake and leave me behind as they traverse the lake on their own at full speed. Ellen had to go a long way after them on her skis.



3rd loose sled was over the 4x4 terrain , breaking trail, got bumped off. Luckily Bria was ahead to stop them.
We returned that night at dusk, traversing the lake in the dark to return to our cabin. It was so beautiful.
We had lunch out in the open on days 2+3, having flatbread pizza's cooked over an open fire in the snow. Lot's of hot cocoa. Here's me cuddling Izzy while Bria fries up a pizza (in butter):



Each evening, we'd return to simple but delicious meals cooked by their French chef Bernard. How can it not taste good when everything is cooked in butter?

The dogs: They are so funny. They are so loud when you come down to greet them in the morning - howling, singing , barking. They are so excited to see me this morning: (look at the frozen lake behind our cabin in the background)



I LOVE George ('Georgie' to me). He's a handful to harness, but this little 1 year old puppy is so cute and so diligent. He is always ready to pull and the first up and at attention when we yell 'hike'. On breaks, he is always rolling in the snow and always has snow on his cute little nose. His tongue hangs out so far.



On day 3 after lunch, I decide to promote my Georgie to lead dog & he lead our sled with such enthusiam. He's a super star!



His brother Jupiter is love bug. He needs lots love and attention. He's always offering up his belly for a rub.

Steve with the red fur is the boss of all dogs. If there's a dog fight, he's probably involved. He'll put the other dogs in their place.
Here's Steve picking a fight (again):



Sweet Pea is in love with Steve. She's always offering herself to him!
Poor Fudgie- she's always being bullied. She's terrified of Steve. And she got dragged and stuck in a tree. But guess who is nice to her? Georgie of course! They lead well together though half the time, George was pulling her along.
Clark- I recognize him from the way he carries his tail down. All the other sled dogs have their tails up.



Yes, we learned a lot about dog sledding- some of it the hard way, eg which way to lean on the curves so you don't fall off. We learned when to bail and jump ship eg, when big log is approaching full speed towards your face. I also learned that I could never survive the iditarod- so much for the big dream.



So that's it. What a great adventure! I miss the dogs, especially Georgie. Can't wait to round up all my friends and go back next winter!

Budapest : October 2008

We arrived in Budapest to find the entrance to our hotel blocked by an army of SWAT police in full gear prepared to keep order for the upcoming protest against racism. That afternoon we followed the protesters down Andrassy Boulevard, the main boulevard that was closed off for the protest. We visited the Terror museum. Our hotel hosted many of the pure bred dogs that came to town for the dog show. The dogs we encountered were amazingly gorgeous and unique. My favorite were the French Papillons in the hotel lobby. The next day, we encountered an animal rights march lead by a llama gathering outside St Stephen's Basilica! During our stay in Budapest, we visited Castle hill in the Buda district, relaxed in the Szechenyi hot springs (I particularly enjoyed the whirlpool), sampled Tokaji wine and ate plenty of sauteed goose liver.

SWAT police:


Animal rights protest in front of St Stephen's basilica:


Contestants in the dog show:


Szechenyi bridge:


View from Castle Hill:


Mathias fountain at Buda Castle:


Horse carriage ride in Castle Hill:


Fisherman's bastion:


Central Market hall:


Hero's Square:

Braving the mule trip into Bryce Canyon & canyoneering in Zion

Over Labor Day weekend, we went to Utah to visit Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. On Saturday, we arrived in Bryce Canyon and set up our tent in the campgrounds. After that we head out to the canyon rim at sunset viewpoint.



I don' think I was prepared for Bryce Canyon. I didn't expect it to be sooo... fantastic!! I have seen many great sights in this world but Bryce canyon truly took my breath away. It's like fairlyland: the colors- red, orange ,yellow are so bold and brilliant. The hoodoos- these formations are so bizarre and quirky, sculpted by gnomes, surely!


Looking into Bryce amphitheatre from the top for the first time is amazing, but OMG, wait till you start hiking down amongst these crazy hoodoos it s just unbelievable that this can really exist in nature! Bryce Canyon should be on everyone's "MUST DO BEFORE I DIE" list.



On our first day, the thunderstorms were approaching from the distance. And we got to watch the lightning storm out in the distance in the canyon- can it be anymore magical?

That night the storms arrived. We woke up to find Bryce Canyon engulfed in heavy fog.


We decided to leave Bryce that morning to visit the neighbouring baby sister Red Canyon which we saw on the drive in. We took a very pretty hike called the Arches. which took us along an exciting trail to see a multitude of funky arch formations. At the time I had stated that this was the most interesting hike of my life- but I hadn't hiked in Bryce Canyon yet, had I?





In the afternoon, the rains stopped and the fog started to lift. we decided to take that intimidating hike into Bryce Canyon. We chose to hike down the Queens Garden trail and then up the Wall street portion of the Navajo Loop. Within the first 10mins of the hike, I was just in awe! The view from the top of the canyon into Bryce amphitheater is fabulous, but the views up close and personal when you penetrate the canyon is just unworldly!





Coming up out of the canyon through Wall Street, I got to experience my first slot canyon. In retrospect the views would probably have been better going up the other side of the Navajo loop, but I was just so obsessed with seeing the slot canyon. Who knew that I was going to see more of them and more interesting ones in Zion.
Nevertheless, this hike is Bryce is now the BEST hike I have EVER taken.






LAbor Day morning, we finally get to take our mule ride down into Bryce canyon. The tour takes us on the Peek-a0boo trail, yet another fantastic trail with fantastic views and formations.



These mules are funny, they like to walk right at the edge of the trail, inches from the drop off. Scary! Don't look down. My mule, Little Johnny, was such a bully- he'd kick the mule behind him and bite the one in front ,every chance he got.



On our traverse of the canyon floor, one of the mules behind us got stung by a wasp and spooked and started freaking our and kicking. Got several of the mules spooked including mine and Mike's. My heart was just pounding away when this happened. I know how dangerous a pack of spooking equines can be. Luckily everyone stayed on and good thing we weren't up on a cliff.




We arrived in Zion National Park on Labor Day afternoon. Compared with Bryce, Zion is like the serious sombre granddaddy. It has towering ( and I mean TOWERING!) sheer cliff faces of orange and yellows. It is so hot. The thought of hiking here seems really intimidating- how can it be possible to scale any of these rocks, how is possible to penetrate into them?



We settle for hiking in the Zion Narrows- first a half hour walk along the Virgin river on a paved path, and then we wade into the river and continue upriver into the Narrows canyon. The hiking is difficult as the river bed is rocky and treacherous. I fell once and bruised myself. Mike's make shift umbrella walking stick broke and I had to give him one of my hiking poles. The sheer canyon walls are colorful and beautiful but was never quite make to Orderville Canyon where past it the reputation is that the canyon truly gets 'narrow'. We penetrate another hour before turning back- it was getting late.



That night we stayed in the very adorable touristy town of Springdale in the Desert Pearl Inn. Gorgeous desert resort with huge rooms. We sat in poolside hot-tub that evening and admired the view of Zion as the sunlight petered away.




We had dinner that evening a the Spotted Dog cafe- best meal in Utah. The dishes were complex and flavourful. In Bryce the meals were disappointing. We ate 3 times in the Bryce Lodge restaurant- food there reminded me of a school cafeteria and 3 times the price.



In the Zion vicinity we went canyoneering with Jeremy from the Zion Rock & MOuntain Guides. It was a fantastic experience and definitely unique for us. We explored the Yankee Doodle canyon and did not see anyone else at all on our adventure. We did 2 abseils, the first was about 40ft from the plateau into the canyon. The second abseil was 100ft and absolutely fantastic!


After that, we did a few rock scrambles, downclimbs on rope, mini rappels, sloshing through mud and squeezing through narrow slots in the canyon. We met a pair of canyon toads ( so cute) and swarms of ravenous blood sucking mosquitoes (arrrgh- why is my mosquito repellent sitting in the car?).




The scenery was gorgeous and exciting as we never knew what was around the next turn. When we got to the bottom of our journey, Jeremy surprised us with saying we now have to climb over a rock. Turned our that 'rock' was wall at 60 degree angle. So thank goodness I had some experience with the artificial rock climbing walls. So it wasn't a vertical rock face, but still, it was a first for me- this rock climbing business and it was very exciting.

We returned to Las Vegas that aftenoon. At night we had dinner at my favorite L'atelier du Robuchon. It was restaurant week in Vegas and they were offering a 4 course meal for $50. Everything was delicious. Even the boring sounding vegetable napoleon appetizer was delicious. The scottish salmon was perfect with it ketchupy tasting tomato sauce ( best 'ketchup' ever). There serve a french brie from Normandy that was the most amazing brie I'd ever had- it was tangy and complex. Who ever knew of brie being complex? And of course, my favorite- souffle for desert. Wine pairing was lovely too- the Trimbach Pinot grigio was a winner!

Lava Caves National Monument

We took a road trip over July 4th weekend, north to the Ca- Oregon border to go spleunking in the lava caves.



On our way we stopped by to see the town of Klamath Falls in Oregon. The town was having a July 4th street fair and parade. Stopped by in one of the street side cafes that was selling home made ice cream sandwiches specially for the occasion. It was the best ice cream sandwich ever- warm ginger snap cookie fresh out of the oven sandwiching cold vanilla ice cream! It was huge and just $1! I love small towns- you can always find some little surprise there.



AT the street fair, the wild bird rescue people of oregon were there - we almost visited their sanctuary a few years ago during our road trip to OR but unfortunately the sudden snow storm on Grant Pass precluded our visit.



Lava Caves is a pretty special place. You go to the visitor center to get a map and check out some lights. Then you get to explore the multitude of caves all by yourself!




Some of the caves are big and wide and you can just walk in. Other require you to get down on your hands and knees to crawl through the narrow tubes. All the caves are lava tubes, formed by the hot flowing lava in this volcanic area eons ago.



Some of the caves were circuitous and maze like- you really have to pay attention to where you are going or you can get lost in the cave and never find your way out again- sometime it felt like we were going in cirlces.



In the back of some caves, there is hydrophobic bacteria on the walls that shimmer in purple and gold when you shine your light on them- beautiful! Some caves had old Indian paintings in them. It was bat breeding season when we were there and some of the caves were closed for the breeding bats. Nevertheless there were more than enough for us to explore.



We also visited Captain Jack's stronghold in the area and took a drive around Tule Lake to check out the wildlife. Saw many water birds including there beautiful white pelicans and also one bald eagle on the lake.



One July 4th night, we had BBQ ( trip tip) at the Fairgrounds and then watched the fireworks show at the fairgrounds in the very small town of Tule Lake. Surprisingly decent fireworks show for this little town. After that we set off our own fireworks that we had purchased in OR on the road outside of Fe's B&B where we stayed the night.
On our drive home ,we drove through the mountains past Mosquito lake and the Mount Shasta vicinity. What a beautiful area! Mount Shasta is truly an impressive sight on a clear day. I definitely would like to came back here to go camping one day.

On the morning of the last day, we visited the Giorgi Ranch. Mr Giogi took us out on his quarter horses to visit his ranch land. I rode City Girl who was a great horse- very responsive. I got a feel of what a cattle round out might have felt like when I sent City Girl off in a canter towards the herd of cattle.

The French Laundry Restaurant

Ah the coveted reservation at the French Laundry restaurant- finally got one at 9pm on a Wednesday, 2 days before my birthday. 9 courses- Every item was cooked to perfection. Every little vegetable on the plate was so sweet and the meats and fish so fresh.




You experience the root taste of every dish: for example, the seared foie gras is cripsy on the outside and warm and pink on the inside, the Maine lobster tail is cooked to perfect sweetness and tenderness, the duck breast & beef medium rare yet tender.




However, as perfect as the 'cooking' was, the dishes lacked creativity. There were no mind blowing sauces, no imaginative constructions, no perfectly balanced pairings. If anything, some of the pairings & constructions seemed incongruous. For instance the cheese course paired the fried bacon bits was odd.




The wonderful caviar with oysters sat on a bed of smooshy tapioca balls- texturally this just did not work. The flounder sashimi with cucumber was very mild and subtle- it needed somethin' somethin' more to bring out the flavor. The duck breast, the sturgeon and beef as perfectly cooked as they each were, they could have used a more exciting sauce pairing (this is French cuisine after all- it's ALL about the sauces- oui?).





As for constructions- the sweetbreads stuffed in the rabbit shoulder was unique. The most memorable course ironically was the nectarine sorbet- I could have eaten a whole bowl of that- it was such a concentrate burst of nectarine flavor- YUM! 2nd most memorable was the lobster in the carraway sauce- I love lobster what can say!





The deserts were disappointing- nothing special there. And the foie gras terrine was OK- certainly not worth the $30 supplement.




Service was impeccable as it should be expected. The interior decor suprising bare bones: white walls, low celings, no paintings, no floral arrangement beyond the little posie of white flowers on the tables. All I can say is- yes finally, I've been there and ate that and now it's time to move on.