Top Chefs, tasting menus and coming to the rescue

Today was a very long, wonderful and odd, last day. The trip went by too quickly as most amazing trips do, but I feel as if I could travel much more and much longer with al, of these guys. Aaron and I travel really well together so it makes it easy too! Anyway, I'm trying not to be sad but it's hard not to be! Being in Iceland and seeing the European culture again makes me happy. It was raining sideways when we woke up and for the first time all trip, I had to to take out my rain pants and rain jacket! It was also the first time I didn't feel like a complete marshmallow!

Aaron got an email this morning from a friend who lives in NYC and she and three other girl friends were arriving in Iceland and were someone stuck at the bus station with their luggage because they couldn't check into their air bnb until later, so he offered to store their bags in our RV until they could check in in the afternoon. So after we organized, started packing up our rv's and finding a gas station to pee and brush our teeth, we headed into Reykjavik to the bus station to pick up the luggage.

We didn't really want to drive around Reykjavik so we decided to park the rv's at our hotel and walk to our lunch reservation that Aaron had made at the number two restaurant! It was a gorgeous place! Grill market. We all had the tasting menu which was delicious! Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling too well, so maybe couldn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked, but it was delicious and five courses and dessert later, we were pleasantly stuffed. Then we explored more of the city, did a little shopping and went to the main church where Aaron and I went to the top to admire the view! It actually felt as if we were in a Russian city from up there... Everything is concrete and colorful, on the water with mountains as the backdrop. The architecture is quite modern and beautiful too.

The Viking boat, sun voyager.

Shopping for Icelandic hats!

Finally, it was three o'clock and we could check into our hotel! We stayed at the hotel klettur on the fifth floor with a view of the ocean and a comfy bed and private bathroom. Ahh! It's the little things. It allowed us to reorganize, pack, play clash (we are way too addicted), and text the chefs to see if we were still on for dinner!

Well the chefs story is probably good to describe now. So, in the lagoon yesterday, we met two chefs and a pilot. I am usually not super outgoing but Aaron and I actually make a really good team, because I asked to take their photo and started small talk and then aaron was able to continue and get more out of them. They, with a bunch of other chefs, photographer, and some groupies were all planning ongoing on a snowmobile trip in Norway and there was a pilot strike, so they ever made it. It seemed that they all just decided to head to Reykavik instead and on their first full day went to the lagoon. One of the chefs was a top chef in Finland and the other was in the competition as well. Kimmo was the more outgoing one, or more drunk, who knows, and invited us to try some reindeer that he had brought with him for their trip and now had to cook. Of course we didn't have anything to write their numbers down in the lagoon so I thought it would be a good idea to video their numbers so we could text them from our Icelandic numbers later. Kimmo thought that was great and started doing a report with the video with Aaron, too funny! Anyway, a while passed and we were all having a great time in the lagoon, but then we left and told them we would text. So today, I did and the other chef and Steve responded and they welcomed us for dinner! Willie and Alan went out and bought a bottle of wine to bring over- yay! And I made sure Aaron and I could bring them along too! They were renting a gorgeous apartment about four blocks from our hotel, so we walked over in the snow storm around 7:30. We weren't sure what to expect, wore the only nice clothes we brought with us, and knocked on the door to the apartment with excitement and trepidation.  The chefs were in full chef mode, welcomed us, served us wine, and we met everyone else... The other chefs, photographer, Steve, the southwest pilot. All super nice guys from Finland.

And so the evening began, and course after course kept coming out. We had raw reindeer, seared reindeer, squash with pumpkin seeds, incredible caviar, dried cod with butter and then a shot of bringvellur, and amarone wine. At one point in the evening, kimmo had me be the sous chef and he taught me how to cook the reindeer, cut it, sear, etc and then serve. Wow... To be taught and cook with a top chef! Amazing!! So many more fun things happened that evening too, and I'm sure as I remember more. I will add to this post, but I'll post some phone photos for now. Aaron brought his camera and I had my little one so we have many videos and photos from the entire evening. The boys got tired around 11 ish and we made our way back home. Everyone else was going out for music and more drinks, but we kindly declined. Thanked our hosted for a wonderful evening and will hopefully meet up with them in NY or Cali in the future! I will be happy to be a taste tester of any kind in the Future!

To top it all off too, aaron and I got back to our hotel room and had white chocolate covered Oreos. Yum! Lol. :)

The Snuffle Peninsula and an amazing relaxing afternoon!

Even though sunrise is around 8:30 here, we always seem to wake up tired (could be the time change!- seeing that for me 8:30am is really 3:30 in the morning and for the boys it's 12:30 at night! Nevertheless, it was slightly snowing and blowing hard, but it looks as if the clouds would break for us for a little bit to shoot the sunrise over the gorgeous mountain. We shot for about an hour or so in a few spots and then saw another storm coming in, so decided to start to make our way south towards the blue lagoon in the hopes of shooting sunset there.

We decided to go the long way so we could see more around the country and wow, I'm so glad we did. It was absolutely breathtaking. The mountains, glaciers, farms, all right next to the black pebble beaches are just amazing.  We had to stop at the nice N1 again as well on the way to get Pepperoni pizza too! (It had mushrooms and peppers and yumminess on it too). It wasn't quite as windy today and I didn't need the guys to hold me down so I wouldn't fly away again, but it was still windy!

The blue lagoon was a place none of us really had any expectations of going to as it seemed too touristy and pricey to go too. When we arrived, we explored the walking trails around the man made mistake and the blue water was actually beautiful. None of us could resist not going in! So we got out bathing suits and some clean clothes and entered the abyss of the lagoon. It was a tad bit pricey, but worth it! We bought our tickets and headed back towards the changing rooms. I don't know what the male one was like, but the female one was huge, and we were given wrist bands to use for lockers where you put your stuff in the locker, close the door and then have to scan the wrist bracelet to lock it. In all the hot pots in Iceland, you have to shower naked first before entering. This lagoon was no different. Showering naked, then putting the bathing suit on and then you can exit the changing rooms. Aaron and willie were waiting in the first pool and then Alan came in after me. There was a little door within the first tub that led us outside. The pools were huge, and there were hot spots and cooler spots throughout. We walked around in the pools for a while and then found the first mask area where we put on masks! So cool. They had to stay on for 5-10 minutes and then when they started to dry, we dunked our faces and washed them off. The package we paid for included a drink and an extra aloe mask. So we ventured to the bar and Aaron got a beer, I got the green smoothie and the other boys got strawberry smoothies. All pretty good! We got our aloe mask at the bar as well and had to warm it up in our palms first and then put it on our faces. This mask felt much better than the other one and actually softened and moisturized us! We continued hanging out and relaxing in the pools and then everyone seemed to disperse a bit. I started to follow them slowly, but these two large guys came towards me with amazing hats and I wanted to take a photo of them! So I did and then they started talking to me. It turns out that they are top chefs in Finland!! To make a very long story short and I will get into more details eventually. They invited us over to their apartment in Rejk for a special tasting of some reindeer meat! Aaron and I talked to them for a while actually. 

The sunset looked as if it wasn't going to be good, so we stayed longer in the pools and then eventually got out, showered, with extra conditioner (the properties of the lagoon make your hair dry), and went back to our vans to cook some dinner. Spaghetti with sauce and red peppers and couscous!  We slept in the nice hotel parking lot of the blue lagoon and were more protected from the winds than we had been the whole trip!

Hurricane force blizzard

Well, today was supposed to be a travel day from our beautiful bed and breakfast on the golden circle up to the Snaefells peninsula to see kirkurfell. When we left, it had started snowing the night before so the roads were already covered in snow and ice, so we know it would be a long, slow drive. We weren't prepared for the hurricane force winds that accompanied the blizzard. The roads were not good, snowy, wind blown and we couldn't see five feet in front of us for most of the start of the drive. We made it an hour in and stopped to photograph a frozen, neat waterfall in Pingvellir national park called Oxararfoss. Hiked up in the blizzard to it and took a few shots, then slipped our way back down the trail to the campers.

Aaron was a trooper today. I drove yesterday so he drove today in the blizzard... We made it another two hours and had to pull over to rest as it was exhausting not being able to see in front of us and feeling like we were going to be blown over at any second.

We made an executive decision to stop in the next town we got to, which was Borgarnes. It ends up being a cool town with lots of history as it was one of the first settlements in Iceland and there are a couple of museums and nice petrol stations here.  We are currently holed up in the N1 petrol station relaxing and using the free wifi while we wait out the storm. We will stay the night here and then if the weather permits, make our way up to Kirkurfell in the morning.

Well it seems that while we were sitting in the N1, I had many thoughts, but one of them was... I'm in Iceland, I'm probably not coming back here anytime soon, so let's try and make it to see what I really would like to see and we only have a few days left! So, all the boys were in and I started driving. Oh, I should mention, we ordered a pepperoni pizza at the N1 that was delicious! That was dinner :)

After lots of wind and rain...the snow changed to rain, sleet, grapple and more along the way, we made it over the mountain pass and to kirkurfell where the clouds actually started breaking up a tiny bit and allowed us to scout out the area for a sunrise shoot! It is currently blowing around 30 mph outside the van as I type this which is a bit nerve wrecking, but we are sleeping next to the mountains and next to a lagoon; can't get much better than this!

Golden circle

Sunrise was decent at skogafoss, though we may have just looked through our window of the van instead of shooting it! :)  Sometimes Photographers need a break too! We were leisurely this morning and went to a cafe near the falls and had coffee and used their bathrooms. Then we headed out for the golden circle! It took us a couple of hours to get here and when we did the boys tried the gas station hot dogs, eh!, and we found our bed and breakfast, which is awesome! We couldn't check in yet so we decided to see everything on the golden circle trail. Starting with the geysers- apparently this was the first geyser ever and all others were named after it. Pretty cool. Then to gullfoss, which was magnificent and by far the most touristy place we've visited.

We shot sunset at Bruarfoss, a beautiful hidden waterfall that took us a bit to find but so worth it. The blue glacial water was gorgeous and it just flowed effortlessly. Truly amazing.

Our bed and breakfast is super quaint and really nice. I'm very excited to sleep in a bed tonight.

From the top of skogafoss.

Guilford

Bruarfoss

Hot pots and snow

Today was an in between day for us as we now have to make our way back to the west coast. It began soon after we stopped shooting the aurora. We got an hour of sleep then woke up, had breaky, and drove back to Hofn (pronounced hoppin). Had to stock up on a few items... Snacks, bread, fruit and skyr, which is yogurt. 

Then off we went to try and find the hot springs. We found them 12 km away down a dirt road.. No one was there so we called the number to see if we could use them and a nice woman picked up and gave Us brief instructions. 500 krona each to be placed in a little tube by the tubs. There was even a changing area that we could use. Wow, were they hot and amazing! There were five of them and each were quite hot yet a little different temperature for each. Coincidently, the Colorado girl, Kabri, drove in just as we were about to get into the tubs. How strange, funny and ironic. We decided after this point of bumping into her just about every day that we needed a photo together! 

I should mention that the only photos I can upload from here are from my phone as none of us have laptops here. So when I return home, I'll add photos to these posts with some other shots too.

We all felt really refreshed and clean after the springs and that made it easier to drive to Vik to spend the night there. We photographed the sea stacks at sunset and then tried to get to the campground from where we had slept a few nights earlier but it had just snowed about six inches (the drive to vik took longer because we drove in a snow storm) and our vans suck in the snow, so we made some amazing reindeer chili in the parking lot of the gas station so we could do the dishes and brush our teeth in the sink there. 

We adapt to what we have! Instead of staying in Vik, we drove to skogafoss and stayed in front of the magnificent waterfalls in the hopes of catching the aurora and sunrise. It was freezing there, but well worth it! Aaron and I got some really neat shots with a moon bow too! And we actually got some sleep.

 

More ice caves and aurora!

Two things on our must see list were ice caves and aurora (and for me the ice beach and lagoon as well). Having checked both of them off in one day, and celebrating with pretzel m and m's, we were all very happy. So today started out by sleeping in, having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that Alan made (he was our sandwich maker) and then we drove to Fjallsarlon to see another glacier lagoon. It was so windy and freezing that we quickly walked down to the lagoon to take some photos and then came back to the car to warm up! One of the few things we pre arranged was an ice cave tour and today was the day at 3pm! We were meeting or tour guide, Oscar, at the other ice lagoon so we drove back there and hung out at the cafe which had Wifi.... Hence why I could post anything so far!

3pm rolled around and we boarded a massive snow vehicle. Huge wheels and a big engine. We drove for about twenty minutes out to a cave called Crystal ice cave. This cave was huge! You couldn't walk through like the other one, but it was cleaner ice, not as much black and stunning as well. A bit harder to photograph, but still wonderful. Oscar brought his daughter to the cave too because it was Sunday! So this cave had a few sections and then at the end it was super shallow and you could duck too go further in. We spent about am hour and a half photographing the cave. It was so cold that our camera batteries were quickly dying and my phone died so I don't have many from inside on my phone. Willie, Alan, and Aaron liked the other cave better, but I enjoyed this one a lot because I could take many more abstract shots. I should also mention that the cave yesterday had beautiful columns which made it very interesting. This cave did not, so it was nice to see the differences. I sat in the front of the massive truck that took us out there so got to talk to Oscar for the whole time. He gave me great recommendations for dinner in Hofn, which we knew was known for langostine and for where we could go for the hotter potters (hot springs!).

After the tour, we made our way to vesterhorn, where we were hoping to shoot the aurora and the sunrise. This was the furthest east we were traveling. Though I wish we could do the whole ring road we don't have the time.

Dinner was in Hofn at the kaffi hornid, coffee cabin, known for their langostine. All three boys got that and I had salmon because the langostine was super expensive! I still tried some and it was delicious. My meal was terrific and the chocolate dessert was incredible. By far the best meal so far!

After dinner, we filled up with gas and headed to vesterhorn, about twenty minutes from hofn. 

When we arrived we drove out onto a little peninsula to find the best angle to shoot from. As we were exploring, the aurora started going off so we grabbed our gear and started shooting. What an amazing sight they are. The greens, reds and purples are just unfathomable and so awesome. Aaron and I started jumping up and down in awe and excitement!

They died down a little while later so we decided to try and sleep a bit as we knew it was supposed to get stronger. We woke up almost every half an hour to check. By around 3:30, after Aaron had been outside many times, they started getting really strong. So he grabbed me out of my warm comfy sleeping bag and outside I went. We stayed out shooting until the sun began to rise! It was incredible.

Ice caves, beaches and aurora

6:45 am wake up call today, for what was to be a twenty hour day of shooting, though we did not know it before!  The evening before we tried to go to bed early, but Aaron and I weren't super tired so went for a walk along the ice beach where we camped and danced next to the icebergs on the black sand beach. How cool!

Waking up next to huge waves and icebergs and glaciers surrounding us was certainly awe inspiring and magnificent. We had arranged with Colby and joe the night before to meet a few minutes down the road for them to take us to an ice cave a few miles inland. We found the unmarked road and parked and waited for them. We were going to shoot the sunrise at a reflection pond along the way, but it was totally frozen and so all of us decided to go shoot the sunrise at the ice beach... Which ended up not being great, so we went back to the unmarked ice cave road and 7 of us squeezed into a huge hummer that Colby had and threw our gear in the trunk. Photographers have a lot of gear! We drove a few miles inland towards the glacier with a few frozen river crossings and fun 4 wheel drive action. No way would our puny happy camper van have made it very far down this road! I was also sitting on a lap and didn't have much room to move at all! I thought it would be cold and windy in the ice cave, so I prepared for that with layer upon layer of clothing and almost had so much on that I felt like a big marshmallow or the Michelin man and a bit clumsy!

We were so lucky to have run into Colby and joe and fortunate that they took all of us to this amazing ice cave. When we arrived, we had to hike in a bit, but it was magnificent when we got there. You could walk through the ice cave and then it opened up to the full glacier, rivers, awesome other caves and mountains! We spent about three hours with them photographing, exploring, crossing the rivers and getting our socks wet, putting yak track equivalents on so we could explore a deeper cave that was super neat right at the base of the glacier and also enjoying the sunshine for a bit too! 

The ice cave was stunning. The color of the cave was not just ice color, but blue, glacial blue, and the cave was formed by the wind and the rivers and so the abstract shapes were incredibly neat. It was so cool to be able to walk into the cave!

After we were all done in the cave, we jumped back in the hummer and went to our vans where we proceeded to spend the next four hours scouting where we wanted to shoot the aurora that evening as it was expected to "blow up." We drove forty minutes west to a glacier to see if it was worth driving to it later to shoot. It was beautiful and we put it in the list in case it got cloudy where we were. We also checked out the glacier lagoon as a spot and a place right near the place we were staying for the evening... Which was the first hotel we stayed in. 

 That evenings sunset was a pretty one and we shot it at the ice beach for a while. Then decided to checkin at our hotel. We had briefly stopped there earlier and the guy said that he had moved our reservation to another hotel with a room with a private bath, so we actually lucked out and had private bathrooms! (Uncommon here). So we checked into the new hotel, unloaded our stuff into the little cabin rooms, showered and then went to dinner in the hotel. As soon as we sat down, everyone went running outside, including us, because the aurora had just started! It was very faint at first and just a white line across the sky, but soon it started getting stronger and the green appeared. Aaron ran and got his camera, while the rest of us ordered food. He took some shots, we scarfed our food down (which was pretty good) and then quickly changed into warm clothes and headed out to shoot.

The first spot we stopped was very close to our hotel and we shot there from about 10-12, where the aurora was just amazing! Then we decided to change locations to get a different composition and went to the ice beach. Willie and Alan shot there and Aaron and I went across the street to the ice lagoon to shoot. We all shot there for a while, then decided to go back to the original spot and shoot some more from the other side of the street because the aurora was in a different direction. Auroras are amazing. If you ever have the opportunity to see them, do it! They were literally dancing in the sky in front of us. Everyone I had talked to always said that and I didn't know what they meant until I saw it with my own eyes.

We finally stopped shooting around 3 and went home to sleep in the the first nice bed we've had! We slept in a bit :) overall, an amazing day was had by all.

First full day

Yesterday was a long day.. With an overnight flight and then a full day of driving, looking at waterfalls and such. Today we started the day in Vik and explored the sea stacks and a beautiful black sand beach. It's very windy here, but such a beautiful country, even in the wintertime. This is a photo trip, so much of our time is spent scouting spots out for sunrise, sunset or aurora shoots. There's not much time to see too much of the culture, though where we are there isn't much else except for the occasional gas station, which actually has quite decent food. Vik seems like a cute, quaint town on the ocean. It's been super windy here and the waves and current are unlike any I've ever seen. The roof of the church is a beautiful red too... In fact, many of the homes are quite colorful and the Scandinavian feel is very evident here.  People are friendly, but also rigid.

We got a bit of a late start from Vik as we ran into this girl from Colorado who got her rental car stuck in the snow near us, and all four of us helped her push it out... We were unsuccessful and luckily a huge 4x4 truck (which are everywhere here as that's the only way to get around inland) came by and helped pull her out. She's here for three months just exploring and we keep running into her at every stop. We were surprised that she's from Colorado and had no idea how to drive in the snow. Lol. Oh well.

Oh, I should mention that our cars are all stick and they are very fun to drive! :)

So after Vik beaches, we made our way to the ice lagoon and ice beach, which were two of the things I most wanted to see on this trip. They did not disappoint! We arrived around sunset, explored the lagoon and then went to the beach, where we shot as long as we could into the evening! We then decided to make dinner there and sleep on the ice beach!  Aaron, being the friendly and awesome guy he is, ran into two photographer friends he knew that were here exploring as well. They offered to take us in their hummer to an ice cave the following morning after sunrise to shoot with Them! What luck! 

We cooked on our camp stoves (oh, I forgot to mention our grocery shopping adventure on the first day... Fun and everything is imported which is why it's so expensive!). We got some premade meals for the first night and just had to heat them up on the stove. Steak stir fry and a noodle dish, with some yummy digestif cookies for dessert. Alan did the dishes, thank you! :)

I should also mention that I'm here with three other amazing photographers, all based out of SF and we have two camper vans. Willie and Alan in one, and Aaron and I in the other!  We have enjoyed finding bathroom spots among the ice beach too.

We finally slept well that night without the howling winds of Vik, and woke up at 6:45 somewhat refreshed and ready to meet Colby, Brian and Joe for our amazing outing! More to come soon...  Off to an ice cave now. 

Arrived

After a three hour delay, a long security line, and not very friendly checkin people, I finally boarded my Iceland air flight to rejk. Lucky me, I had the whole row to myself; of course, none of the arm rests went up, but at least I could stretch out and try to sleep since it was an overnight flight. We left jfk at 11:20 and arrived in Iceland 4.5 hours later.

There was a bit of a time mixup with the RV company, so luckily, the three guys I was meeting in Iceland could wait for my delayed plane and then we all headed off with the Happy Camper guy to get our rv's for the next ten days!

We drove with the happy camper guy for about 40 mins into rejkjavik where we went through all the components of our amazing cute and small camper van. It fits two of us in the car seats and then a little bed in the back where we are keeping our gear and sleeping.  I'll post some photos of it.

Once we went through everything and signed our lives away and got extra gravel protection (I'm happy we did), we were on our way! Aaron started out driving and I was navigating with the help of Google maps which is great here. We knew we wanted to try and make it south fairly early in the trip, so we began the 3 hour drive to Vik. We stopped at some beautiful spots along the way... Along with a blizzard, sunshine, and lots of wind.

Selfoss

Seljalandsfoss

Skogafoss

The Eyjafajallajokull glacier

And finally Vik, where we Checked out some spots for sunset shooting and then camped in a parking lot... We didn't sleep very much as the wind was howling most of the night, but it was still nice.

I've learned that there is not much wifi as we had originally thought where we are in the southern part of Iceland, but we are getting by just fine!

A trip underway!

My next adventure starts today. And boy, is it an exciting one! I am heading to Iceland for ten days to photograph the beauty and splendor of the country.  There are four of us heading over and three have already boarded their flights from the west coast to venture there. Of course, leaving from JFK, my flight is three hours delayed... Already! Joys :) that just adds to the adventure, however. I will make it eventually even if it's way past when I wanted to arrive!

I will try and update this as often as possible along the journey... Knowing that we may have wifi in the gas stations around the country. So stay tuned!

Goodbye US, next stop, Iceland!

San Francisco Adventures

Spent 4 wonderful, fun filled days in the bay area this past weekend! I've been to San Francisco a few times before and almost went to graduate school there (but for many reasons, decided not to), so I've always loved the city and the area. This time however, even though it was a whirlwind trip, I was able to relax a bit more than in the past and actually see the city and more. The first day, we went to Santa Cruz and ventured to the Redwood Canopy Tours to go zip lining. I had never been zip lining before and it was an amazing experience. I was nervous about the heights, but after some excellent teaching and getting my feet wet, it was incredible! I can't wait to do it again very soon! The redwood trees are also breathtaking and gigantic and I always love seeing them, and hugging them.

After zip lining, we went to the Mystery Spot.  What a bizarre, touristy place, and oddly as smart as we are, we couldn't figure some of the mystery out.  It made us nauseous in the house, but was fun to see what the hype was all about.



After all the fun, we ventured into San Francisco and went around Fisherman's Wharf and became tourists for a while.

Saturday started with cloudy, rainy skies, but soon became a glorious day and a perfect day to head to Alcatraz. I was excited about this adventure because I really wanted to see the Wei Wei exhibition in the prison.  It didn't disappoint. What a talented artist with so much to express.

 That evening, I was taken to a great spot under the Bay Bridge on Treasure Island to photograph the bridge and the orange lights on top of the TransAmerica building; the Giants were playing right across from us! It was such a neat experience.  The real image from this trek is located on my fine art website (www.rebeccasternphotography.com.)





After that wonderful evening, up to Napa for terrific meals and fabulous wine. Also, some photo shoots in the vineyards! This area is beautiful.

A wonderful trip was had by all! Thank you, thank you for everything.  :)

Miami

For various frustrating and complicated reasons, the trip that was planned in the previous post never actually occurred. (sadly). To make up for that trip not happening, for some strange and wonderful reason, I decided to go to Miami for five days recently.  The only time i've ever stepped foot in Florida was when I was ten years old and went on a medical trip with my father; which meant seeing Disney after hours when there were no crowds and it was so fun!  The only other thing I slightly remember about the trip is that our luggage got lost on the way down there, so dad had to buy me a plethora of Disney paraphernalia to subsist on.  I still have Minny socks (obviously much to small) and a painted Mickey t-shirt with my name on it.  How I ever wore that, I have no idea!

Back to Miami then.  My image of Florida was the image I receive from TV: the news, TV shows, life in general, all the older wealthy Jews retiring, no one speaks English, the heat, etc.  I was expecting all of that. On the plane leaving LGA, I thought that and saw that on the plane.  As soon as I landed in Miami and was picked up by a friend, everything was thrown out the window.  I experienced almost none of those stereotypes.  The only true one I felt was the oppressive heat and the fact that we couldn't even go outside during the day!  For anyone who knows me, that is horrendous!  I couldn't really exercise for 5 whole days! WOW!  I was left doing push-ups, plank, and pacing around the house.  We did go out of the house everyday for various fun adventures too.  Paddle boarding on Key Biscayne was really fun, albeit windy.

 

And we found some huge starfish!  Bigger than the ones I experienced in the BVI.  Oh which reminds me as I side track, that I've never posted that trip on here.  Hmm, maybe in all of my spare time, I will do that eventually.
I learned what hurricane glass was (pretty cool), checked out some terrific marble for counters and floors, and made some terrific meals with friends. It seems I find myself looking at materials for homes more often than not these days.  For those of you reading this, I've been remodeling a kitchen and home for 9 months now, so it's been a consistent endeavor.

 

From someone who loves seasons and the weather in the northeast, I was pleasantly surprised that I fell in love with Miami and the people.  One person was nicer than the next.  Now if only I can figure out how to live in both places, there and here, I actually would be a really happy camper. Any thoughts on that predicament?!

Planning a Trip!!

Stay tuned... A wonderful photo trip is in the planning stages!  Oh, and the last few trips I have not put up here yet, but I will at some point.  This trip is more exciting however... :)  Here's a little glimpse:

Next adventure....

Ok, I know I may be slacking a bit in the blog department and I've been on many adventures recently.  I will try to be better, I promise.  :)  My next adventure is a sailing one.  Prepping for it now:

Exciting!!! A four day trip along the eastern seaboard.  According to the weatherman, it's supposed to rain heavily for two of those days.  Lovely.