Heaven is where the horses are

I have a postcard in my office pinned with a pushpin to the wall. There are 2 white horses in a meadow of tall green grass & yellow flowers. And at the bottom there is a caption: "Heaven is where the horses are".
I think I was there this weekend: Heaven, you know, where the horses are.
I went to Tennessee this past Memorial day weekend, to look at some land. But really out of curiosity. I'd never to Tennessee before. And hey, if Tennessee Recreational properties wanted to put me up and let me go horse riding, then why not check out a new nook in the world. The Cumberland plateau was where we were, 2800 feet above sea level, 2 hours drive from Nashville. No mosquitoes but unfortunately the locust were everywhere. Apparently, they emerge once every 17 years- just my luck. They were harmless but really scary ugly looking creatures. Freaky!




We went riding with southeast pack trips the first 2 mornings. I rode Tennessee walkers both days but they were really lame. Slow plodding along. First day we did Spruce Creek trail which was not very scenic. 2nd day we did the Cumberland trail which did go into Big South Fork state park. It was quite pretty at some points , along the creek and past the bluffs and giant rocks.

During our tour of the gated communities with Blaine, we also visited the East Fork stables campground. The scene was truly inspirational. I was so delighted to see that there are still so many horse lovers in this world. There were so many people and horses there. All sorts of horses! And huge motor home/horse trailer- in-ones! What a life. I can only imagine it. I couldn't live it- there are to many other things in this life I am bound to. Owning horses is a full time hobby. I would love it, but I would hate what I'd have to give up.



On day 2, Mike & I drove up to Kentucky and took the scenic railway to an old coal mining town. We also did a short hike to Yahoo falls in the northern most part of Big South Fork.



On the 3rd morning, Blaine took us out on 2 privately owned horses own by their builder Scott and his wife. We rode for 2.5 hours on the trails around the Highlands. I rode Jake and Mike rode Reagan. Jake was the most amazing horse I'd ever ridden. So incredibly responsive - always listening to the signals. It's like he could read my mind. In dance, we would compliment a great follower for being able to follow any lead. The dance was perfect. And when the Tennessee walker really gets down to do their walk, it is the smoothest gait I've ever experienced. I'm hooked- I must one day have a Tennessee walker! When Jake was in his gait, it seemed like he was tireless and as for me, I could have braved any tight turn & still would have felt secure. But I am told that it's just the tip of the 'gaited horse' iceberg. Apparently ,there are also Paso Finos and other amazing gaited horses to experience. And these horses are so loving. They are affectionate and they really do want to please you. I've never known horses to be like this. In my experience with horses, I have always known it to be a power struggle: my will is greater than yours, so you will listen to me. I suppose horses can be loving when they are loved by their owners. Just like cats.



I don't know if I will buy land there- but I hope that they will be successful in building their equine community. I plan to go back there this Thanksgiving- to experience another taste of Heaven: where the Tennessee horses are.

Honduras

We went to HOnduras in April (2-12). Our purpose was to go to Utila during the whale shark season to see the whale sharks. But guess what, we didn't see any!
We spent the first night at Bannarama dive resort. It was a pretty basic, inexpensive room. Comfortable for what we paid. The diving was good but we only got 2 dives in. The highlight was the huge & very curious black sea bass that I saw. On the morning, we dove a site called Spooky channel- basically it is what the name implies- "Spooky channel"! Yes, narrow crevass & so-so visibility makes for one spooky channel.



The dive trip to Honduras is my first time diving with UW camera & strobe. I've discovered the photos are even more beautiful that what you see UW with your naked eye. The strobe brings out colors that get lost in the ocean. It's a little disappointing to realize that UW photos you may see in a magazine may not really represent what you may see when you dive. The strobe brings a little piece of sunshine into the ocean. Writing about the underwater beauty of Utila is pointless. You have to see the photos:



A word about Deep Blue. I wouldn't stay there again. The rooms were clean ,comfortable and aircon was powerful. BUT... the food was sometimes unpalatable, esp at dinner time. The hostess Jasmine was very moody and very self righteous. She went on a long rant about how we should not eat lobster because lobster is being overfished. The divemasters were nice enough, but not always considerate. For instance, we were taken to the same not so exciting dive site Little Bight twice. There are so many dive sites in Utila, there was no excuse for them to take the same group of people to the same site twice. Apparently, one person asked to have the site repeated but the dive masters did not bother to ask the rest of us if that was acceptable. Secondly, even though we had 2 divemasters diving with a group of 14, both dive masters would be at the front of a dive. On one drift dive, I was last in the group and got left behind. I lost sight of everybody, had to to a drifting saftey stop by myself and to surface by myself to find the boat. The divemasters did not even realize I was missing.

5 Days in Aspen

Day 1 at the Aspen Highlands was about learning to ride down a mountain of ice. Apparently it hadn't snowed in Aspen in over a week. This is me about to go down Gunbarrel.



We had dinner that night at Olives, the restaurant at the St Regis. Best meal of the week. We had the mountain chowder (made with smoked trout), steak crudo ( their version of steak tartare), smoked peasant ravioli ( best and most unique tasting ravioli I've ever had), duck with lentils and the best vanilla souffle ever!



Luckily for us, I started snowing. And it snowed and snowed and snowed....!
Day 2 we went to Snowmass and spent most of our time at the Elk Camp area of the mountain. The trail down Bear Run is really pretty- a very wide run with interspersed trees. It gave the feel that you were going through natural country, not an artificially cleared ski slope.



Night 2 we had dinner at Pinions. Actually there was dinner served with my conference at the St Regis and we stopped by and had some appetizers first- the salmon sashimi was very good. I think Pinions is way over rated! Both the fried oysters and the elk was very disappointing. They were not very interesting preparations and the oysters were all batter, no oyster!



Day 3 we went to Aspen Highlands in the morning and then to Buttermilk in the afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny day but turned quite windy in the afternoon. It was my favorite day of boarding. That evening we went to Little Nells Montagna for dinner. Loved the chicken liver pate ( was a good as any foie gras torchon I've ver had)! The aggplant that came with the home made mozarella was very yummy ( the mozarella itself was so-so). We then had a sampling of their homemade pastas, one ia an elk bolgnese sauce and the other in a cream sauce with crab and Maine lobster. Their pasta dishes were good but did not equal the ravioli at Olives.



Day 4 was blizzard day. We went to Snowmass. Spent the morning at Elk Camp again. In the afternoon we took Park Avenue across to the Naked Lady area. It was snowing so hard that when I fell I was afraid to sit too long for fear of being buried in the snow. Had my first experience of boarding in deep deep powder down Naked Lady. Lessons learn- get speed or you'll get stuck, don't fall or you'll never get up, and just keep you body and knees really loose and go with the flow.
On the way down the mountain, go stuck in waist deep snow and took me forever to dig my way out Bear Grylllis style!



Had dinner at Matsuhisa on that last night. The sashimi dinner was delectably presented in and igloo! The miso black cod and miso eggplant was yummy and so was the new world style wild salmon sashimi ( where they pour hot oil over the raw fish). Nevertheless, I'd still take Ebisu over Matsuhisa if it was to be my last meal ever.



Last day in Aspen: went to Buttermilk. The landscape at Buttermilk is rather different. There are fewer pine trees and many bare branches of deciduous trees. A very barren landscape that has a charm of its own. At times I felt like I was snowboarding in a desert. Spent the morning in West Buttermilk ( the easy green runs). I took advantage of the fresh snow and spent most of my time going down the ungroomed powdery green trail that ran right under the ski lift.



For lunch , we went over the the Highlands to eat at the Cloud Nine restaurant. We had the elk ragout and buffalo tenderloin. It was the best stew I've ever had, and I normally don't even like stew. The buffalo tenderloin was also delicious but how could it not be with the creamy cheesy sauce they poured over it.
The is the view from the deck of cloud nine restaurant.



After lunch, I went back alone to Buttermilk as Mike was too tired. Spent it exploring the Blue trails on the Tiehack side of Buttermilk. Great mountain views on this side and quiet trails with few people. The blacks on this side look pretty easy. Maybe I will try them the next time I return to Aspen.

The Daxy Diet

Daxy's barnacle habits- he just has to lie right up against me, with all 12.6 lbs of weight against my stomach at night. Yes that is now 12.6 lbs. SO now Daxy is on a diet- light cat food. Surprising, he loves his new low fat kibble.

Jackie's birthday weekend

Met Jackie, Dennis and Zoe in Monterrey on 3/2/08. Here are the photos from the stroll on the beach. We still never quite figured out what the unidentified object was in the distance.

February Adventures

February was a month filled with travel and adventure:
First week of February, we went to the Rivera Maya in Mexico to attend the ASCRS winter update at the Fairmont Mayakoba. Unfortunately I was afflicted with the worse flu of my life and had to delay the fun stuff till after the conference. We arrived in Cancun on Saturday evening. Ate at the Cajun restaurant in the Hyatt Caribe named BLue Bayou. Food was supposed exceptional but my dulled taste buds could not appreciate it. Spent Sunday resting by the pool at the Hyatt and had lunch at a Yucatan buffet in town. Monday -Thursday night we were at the Fairmont attending the conference.

Tuesday afternoon, we drove to Tulum to visit the ruins. Best meal eaten the enitre trip was surprisingly in Tulum's very touristy quarter right outside the ruins. We had lunch at a crowded joint- best mole poblano ( mole chicken) and fish verano ever and had local drink 'chayaba' which was a mixture of pineapple juice, chaya( some mayan green leafy vegetable ) and sugar water and maybe some other fruit juices? The Mayan ruins were mildly interesting, set adjacent to the ocean. Perhaps we would have appreciated in more if we hired a guide. Many iguanas amongst the ruins.

ON Thursday night, we went night diving at Playa del Carmen with Diversity Diving. Nice guys but very much a DIY operation. Saw a very cool giant pair of lobster and crab duo on a reef as well as a slipper lobster running in the sand.

The truly exciting diving started on Friday - we went cenote diving with Luis from aquacaves. On Friday, we went to the Gran cenote, Tankha and then to Ponderosa. Gran cenote is a relative small cenote, with a spectacular display of ivory white stalactites and stalagmites- it was our first cenote and it was amazing. The water is sooo clear- 300 feet visibility.

Tankha is a cenote adjacent to the mangroves. It is known that a very shy manatee lives in this cenote system- it is rarely seen by diver and unfortunately we did not get the pleasure of meeting it. Diving in mangrove was another first for me. It is amazing swimming in the root system of the mangrove and the water is inhabited by both fresh water and see water fish and crab.


Ponderosa is known for its haloclines and it underwater disco! A halocline is a layer of fresh and salt water ( like oil and vinegar) and went you swim through it , you vision blurs and you feel like you are passing through dimensions in s sci-fi movie. The haloclines, combined with the underwater disco lights ( caused by sunlight filtering through holes in the cavern ceiling) made the entire experience quite surreal.

On Saturday, we went to the Pit and did 2 dives in Dos Ojos. The Pit is probably the most unique dive of all. It is a huge sink hole 130+ feet deep which connects to an extensive underground cave system. The Pit is Luis' favorite- he says he come diving here all the time- even when he doesn't need to. He has taken archaeologists to this site - they are still working to identify and age and skeletal remains found in the pit. It is a harrowing half hour drive over rocks. We had to take a truck. I don't think even my SUV could have made the trip. On our way, there was a huge snake in our path - some sort of constrictor. Luis ran out , caught it by its tail and picked it up Indiana Jones' style for display to us.

At the Pit, our tanks and BCD were then lowered into the water via ropes while we climbed down with our smaller gear. The descent down to 130 feet took us through a halocline, then a sulfur cloud. At the bottom, we saw some long bones and other ancient skeletal remains including a broken jaw. We then proceeded to slowly circle our way up the peripheral edges of the pit. On the way we found the skull that Luis had been looking for-- it was turned upside down in a crevice. This was another surreal dive- it really felt like I was in a sci-fi movie.

Our next 2 dives were done at Dos Ojos, the first dive being the bat cave. Dos Ojos is probably the most famous of all the cenotes, as it was featured in an IMAX movie. It was also the most crowded with many groups of divers there. The Bat cave has a really spectacular array of stalactites and stalagmites and it truly feesllike 'cave diving'. For most of the dive, I really would not have known the way to the exit ( unlike most of the otyher dives where sunlight was always in sight). It's really dark and all you have is your dive lights - the entire time I felt like any moment now, we are going to run into Batman's underground lair. Towards the end of the dive, we surfaced in a cave to see the bats! Between the 2 Dos Ojos dives, I was busy hand feeding the freshwater fish with the little fruits that were at the bottom of the cenote. The second Dos Ojos dive is somewhat similar to Batcave but I think bat cave was more impressive. Luis is probably the best dive guide I've ever encountered! His knowledge of the cenotes is unsurpassable.
On Sunday, spent most of the day by the pool at the Hyatt caribe. Also went parasailing over the ocean.

February 14th, I went to New Zealand for 5 days. Day 1, took the ferry from Aukland harbor to Waiheke island in the Hauraki gulf. At the island, we joined the wine tasting tour that was sponsored by Mike's partners.

The first winery we went to was cable bay- I didn't care for any of the wines there but the had wonderful sculpture garden featuring the Fulcrum Kinetic Sculpture collection by Phillip Price.

The best wines were at Obsidian. Got a bottle of their chardonnay.

Had dinner at Te Whau vineyard.- Had the most amazing house smoked salmon ever. It just melted in your mouth and was slightly sweet. Had lamb loin and then of course the wonderful sticky date pudding.


Day 2, we went canyoning with Canyonz. we were supposed to go to the Sleeping God canyon, but because there weren't enough people , our trip got cancelled and we ended up going to the Blue canyon instead. This canyoning trip was much less enjoyable that other canyoning trips I'd been on ( such as in wanaka or in Costa Rica). For starters, to get in and out of the canyon required extensive hiking and we had to carry our own gear ( don't remember ever having to do that anywhere else).



Secondly , there were only 3 abseils. The rock walls were extremely slippery and i ended doing face plants into the rocks more that once. Also the ropes were much harder to manipulate that on other abseiling trips I've done. I don't enough about abseiling to know why things were the way that they were, but I found that I had to forcibly feed my rope into the figure 8 ring. Otherwise ,there were many jumps into deep pools of water and there were a couple of slides ( nothing as nice as the one in wanaka). By the end of this canyoning trip, my back was aching very badly and I was having difficulty walking. This a canyoning trip that I would not repeat.

Day 3, in the morning I went to the Auckland museum. For lunch, went to the 'best' kebab shop in a southern neighborhood of Auckland as recommended by our concierge. In the afternoon, we took a drive north of Auckland. Went to the Kauri tree museum at Matakohe, then subsequently went to see the giant Kauri trees in the Waipoua Forest. The trees were HUGE!!! Larger that imaginable. I was expecting to see a huge tree, but when I got there and saw the Tane Mahuta, it was even larger that I thought possible and I was still shocked. That night , we stay in B&B in Tutukaka. Had dinner in restaurant next to the harbor and had John Dory fish.



Day 4 , we went diving with Knight Diver dive operation. We went with them because they were the cheapest. Probably the worst dive operation I've dived with. There was no fresh water to soak my camera. In fact, they even ran out of fresh water for drinking! They did not help with the gear at all. There was no food even though they took us out really early at 8am and didn't bring us back till 4pm. we only did 2 dives but it took a really long time with a LONG surface interval because they took out not only certified divers, but also snorkers and there were 2 people on a 'discovery dive' which they had to take out one at a time after we completed our regular dive.

One of the engines of the boat malfunctioned on the way back and we had to putt-putt our way back to tutukaka. when we got there, the captain had to drive his boat head first into his berth and there was no way for us to get off the boat without jumping to shore and no one was there to help us. The divemaster just took off and left.


Luckily the diving was still spectacular. we did 2 dives- one at Nursery Cove/labyrinth the other at Middle arch. At labyrinth there were several swim throughs. Many fish- blue Moamoas. Beautiful nudibranchs.


Low kelp forest. Few rays. At Middle arch, we surfaced in an air pocket within the cavern in the wall of the arch (neat trick). Didn't swim all the way through the arch though.

Stayed in Kerikeri that night in Glenfalloch B&B. Wonderful place and host is very accommodating. Cute place & cute dog. It was like staying with Wallace and mini- Grommitt!

Went to see rainbowfalls in KeriKeri.

Day 5, we went jet boating with Mack Attack in Bay of Island to the Hole in the wall & to Cathedral cove. It was fun. Kinda bumpy. More of a scenic tour rather than an adrenaline adventure. After the first 10mins the thrill of the high speed wears off. After that it was a drive back to Auckland airport with a stop for a kebab wrap on the way. Did I mention that New Zealand has the best kebab wraps?

Key West

After we returned to Miami on Freedom of the Seas on 12/16, we proceeded to take a drive down the the Keys. Had done extensive research on the diving opportunities in the Keys and had planned to dive at Islamorada on the first day and then at Looe Key on the second day. Unfortunately all diving was cancelled because of the strong winds. :(
So instead we visited the scuba diving museum in ISlamorada -it was quite interesting to see the evolution of diving.
We had lunch at the Islamorada fish company. Stone crabs were in season and we had conch salad ( not so good) & 2 lbs of stone crab claws with honey mustad dipping aioli ( yummy!).
Then proceeded to drive down to Key West, arriving just at sundown.
Had some mojitos and conch fritters & listened to live music at a local joint. Conch fritters basically are corn dogs, etc instead of a hot dog there is conch pieces and instead of being long it is a ball. Not bad! I prefer cracked conch which I had at the Islamorada fish company on the way back to Miami - which is basically deep fried batter conch steaks.
Monday morning we visited the Hemingway house and took a tour. There were about 50 cats living there, all decendents of Hemingway's polydactyl cat Snowball. I'd say about 25% of then were polydactyls.
For lunch, we had a sloppy joe at Sloppy Joe's (touristy and overpriced but quite tasty) & some oysters and buffalo wings somewhere else. Took a walk along the harborfront. At sunset went to join in the sunset festivities at Mallory square, specifically to look for the guy with the cat doing tricks. But unfortunately cat guy was off on vacation. Had dinner at Schooner's- my grouper fish sandwich was fishy and the conch chowder had no conch! Thumbs down.
Drove back to Miami the next day after visit the ecotourist office in Key West.

I think I would like to return to the Florida Keys one day to go diving but I would want to get my advanced open water certification first as the dive operators are very strcit about not taking you to any dive site more that 60 ft. Most of the wrecks are deeper than that. Definitely want to dive Looe Key reef one day. WIll return in the summer as that is the best time in terms of weather and visibility for diving.