Christmas in Antigua (Leaving the Island)

Our last day. :( We had nothing to do but enjoy our last beachfront breakfast, pack, check out, and catch our shuttle to the airport by 11am. We had our last breakfast at Bayside. I had my last hot english earl grey tea, my last toasted english muffin (I know I can have these products at home, but having them here made it special some how. I just know hot tea or english muffins won't taste the same...) and my last fresh black pineapple (that only grows in Antigua).. And what a GREAT day to leave vacation. It was pouring rain and dark gray clouds over the entire sky. I just felt better knowing I was leaving on a day like this instead of a perfectly beautiful sunny gorgeous day. I did feel a twinge of regret for the new arrivals, after all, we had near perfect weather. But honestly, it made leaving paradise a little bit easier. We strolled back to our room after breakfaat and took our time packing up. Check out was easy, we loaded up in the shuttle with another (British) couple and drove off towards the airport.

We were dropped off right in front of Winn Air and considering we were the only people there, thought check in would be easy. WRONG! Winn air informed us that our layover flight to St. Martin was canceled. Not sure if they were going to fly out today or tomorrow. (WOW....probably due to the politcal unrest or the strike). Luckily we were on island time. We just looked at each other, shrugged, it didn't phase us. We just decided to relax. Fly out today, fly out tomorrow... whatever..... It was 11:30am, and the rep said she would see if US Air could take us to St. Martin around 4pm, but that their office wasn't open til 12:30pm. Ok, we can wait an hour, talk to the US air rep at 12:30pm, get situation, and then grab lunch over at the Sticky Wicket (a restaruant across the street and at the Cricket stadium which sounded pretty good). Well.... 12:30pm in island time really means 1:30pm. We were pretty chill about the time, but the British dude was flipping out, getting really angry and loud. We found out they were flying into Philadelphia. (Figures..... if you know people from Philly, then you know what I'm talking about. Hot tempered, working class, loud, all around crude. City of brotherly love? HA! yeah right.... Sorry if this offends, but I can say these things cause I got an Italian Uncle from Philly ;) and he would agree with my assestment.) Figures the Brit with the hostile attitude is flying home to Philly. I guess I would be pissed if I lived in that hole too. :)

Anyways.... so back to island time. The US Air rep's didn't show up til 1:30pm. We are in line and when we walk up to explain our situation, they tell us (and the Brits) to step to the side and they will get it straightened out with the Winn Air rep. For two hours we watched them take care of all the other US Air passengers. By this time, the airport was packed! I mean crazy lines. Boo was getting a bit frazzled. I was just chatting up all the people coming thru the line having a good old time, while the Brits were getting louder and steamier. The man finally popped a blood vessel, broke down and demanded that they get checked out. Just then, the Winn Air rep comes back and calls my name. The Brits were livid and ask Boo why I was called first. I just smirked and walked up to the counter to get my ticket. Well guess what..... the flip flop name issue came back to haunt me again. Winn Air couldn't change our names on the ticket so the US Air rep had to hand write our tickets. Another rep checked out the Brits and boo, while my rep was still struggling with my name issue (first name was last, and last name was first, not matching my passport Oh... I forgot to mention that Boo talked to the US Air rep and got us a direct flight home instead of flying us to St. Martin for a layover. YAY Boo!) Well, the flight was for 5:pm, it was almost 4pm and we still had to pass thru customs AND security. I finally get my ticket and we get in line for customs. In front of us were a couple of really silly couples from London. They had the skinny jeans, tatoos, emo shaggy hair, and the Cockney English accent. (think Dick Van Dyke's character from Mary Poppins). They looked like some London punk rock band, smoking marlboro reds and drinking red stripes. They were so friendly and funny. One of the guys overheard Boo tell me that we may not make our flight and the Brit asks us when is our flight. I tell him 5pm. He said, (in a thick Cockney British accent) "well wot time is it now?" I tell him its 4pm and he goes, "oh fuck no, your not making your flight." Hahaha! I burst out laughing, nudge his arm and tell him to not say that! Boo remembers we have to pay our emigration tax to leave Antigua so he goes off to take care of that and I wait in line with the hip and stylish Londoners. Boo comes back 20 minutes later and I realize we have not eaten anything since breakfast, will probably not have any time to grab something, and I refuse to buy an overpriced, awful, airline meal. There is a little snack shop where Boo buys a couple of snicker bars, a bag of combos, and a coke. (The Londoners buy another red stripe). After 45 mins. we finally get thru customs AND security, only to find out our plane will be delayed another hour. We head for the cafe and I grab a hot dog and a diet coke, boo gets a club sandwich and a coke. We finish up in time to stand in line to board the plane. Well..... the pilot comes on the speaker and says plane does not have permission to take off. (whats with getting permission to take off? shouldn't the plane be scheduled to take off?) It will probably be able to get permission in 1 hours. We are holed up on the plane for another hour. We finally land at our home airport around 11pm. We breeze thru customs, pick up our luggage, and are headed to the shuttle area to get a ride to our car. As soon as we step outside, we are hit with a frigid blast of cold air. My caribbean sun kissed skin goes in shock and I have chill bumps all over my arms! We flag down a shuttle, are taken to our car and immediately blast the heat on. The 15 min. drive home was pretty silent. Our brains were still in the Caribbean, still on Island time. :)

Christmas in Antigua (Sandals resort)

This vacation was full of sailing, snorkeling, lounging by the pool, beach napping, trying all kinds of icey tropical concoctions and just plain chillin'. Sandals Grande Antigua is a beautiful resort and we enjoyed everything it had to offer. Since most of days were pretty much the same. Breakfast, sailing, lunch, napping by the pool or beach, hot tub, dinner, evening show. I'll just hit the highlights.

Shell Daddy. Our first day on the beach, we had the pleasure of meeting "Shell Daddy" A local Antiguan gentleman that dives, cleans, and sells these beautiful, huge spotted conch shells. We were interested in the shells, but being on the beach at an all inclusive resort, we didn't have any cash on us. "Shell Daddy" told us he would leave the shell with us and just pick up the $$ in 2 days, when he would be back near our resort. This is how our first adventure begins. We wonder how we are going to get $$ out, since there are no ATM on the resort. The concierge tells us we can use our credit card to get $$ out, front desk says it can only be used for resort purchases. Ok.... but they do tell us there is a casino right outside the resort property. BINGO! After dinner that night, we head over to the casino. Picture this; a beautiful marble floored, crystal chandelier, new casino slot machines, plenty of roulette, blackjack, and poker tables and no one there but us. hahaha! Boo only gets $100 bucks out in chips and they charge us 10 percent for using a credit card. Well.... we are not big gamblers, infact, I have never gambled. Only watched Boo play roulette a few times. I wanted to try my hand at blackjack. So we walk over and take a cushy seat at the $5 table and let the games begin. I whooped and hollered like little kid each time I won $5 back. HA! After 20 minutes of ups and downs, we finally left UP. $10 up to beat the house. Pretty good night. :)

The Pools. We loved the Mediterranean village main pool. It was beautiful, new, spacious, sunny, plenty of chairs and floatys, a huge hot tub for relaxing, and had a fun swim up bar where we tried everything from Banana Sip Sops, every flavor margaritas, pina coladas, cool runnings, a drink called the Miami vice, rum concoctions, and what I have come to discover is that I am a plain glass of wine or a classic Bourbon and Ginger Ale kind of girl. No frou frou drinks for me thank you. Boo on the other hand. Loved them. It's funny, whenever we go out to eat and order drinks, I'll get my standard Bourbon and Ginger and he'll order some umbrella drink and it never fails that the waitress always puts the "girly" drink in front of me! hahaha! I wait til after the waiter/waitress leaves to switch drinks, cause I know Boo gets a bit embarrassed. :) Anyways, the MV pool was awesome. We really enjoyed spending time there. The Caribbean Grove side pool (which we dubbed the porn pool) was not so enjoyable. Since we stayed on the CG side, we figured we should at least try out our pool. As we are walking up to it, we hear some 1970's disco song BLARING, I mean playing super loud. We look at each other and go "oh... no..." We walk up to the pool and the 5 people that were there are all over 70 yrs old and lounging on the pool chairs with sunglasses on. (the pool was shaded due to all the tropical plants and trees.) Everyone stops to look at us. Our first instinct is to bail. But we decide it would be rude to walk in, then walk right out, so we pick a spot from the many pool chairs available. Decide that the only way to suffer this loud disco nightmare is to get a drink ASAP. So we slip into the pool, grab a couple of floaty's and pull up to the swim up bar. I think we may already be a bit tipsy, because we start laughing and I can't remember who coined the term "porn pool" but it just makes us giggle even more. After 10 minutes, Boo was like, "lets get the hell out of here." We didn't even finish our drinks, collect our towels, and head over to a private hot tub we discovered to warm up and relax in before dinner.

Hot tubs. Now normally, I am not a hot tub person, but they seemed to be really relaxing this vacation. There was a

hot tub at the "porn pool", one at the MV pool, (that I really liked) and a private one that Boo and I stumbled across, when we went exploring the resort. It was down the hall from our room, and right infront of the Spa. Each time we went to soak in the tub there was never anyone there. It was actually three tubs. A bubbly whirlpool hot tub, a hot tub and a cold tub. I think the purpose of the hot and cold tubs were to refresh your skin. You were suppose to dip in to the hot tub to open up your pores, then dunk into the cold tub to shock your pores closed. All week long, Boo and I tried to make it into the cold tub. We would soak in the bubbly hot tub, then dare one another to jump into the cold tub to see who would get more of their body into the cold water. (the water temp was around 35-40 degrees) I think we both just made it up to our thighs. You should of seen us run into the cold tub, then leap out screaming. hahaha! Yeah, we are goofy sometimes. :)

We sailed, ALOT. While researching Antigua, we knew that it was a huge sailing island and not so much a scuba diving island. All three of our scheduled scuba trips got canceled due to strong winds and bad visibility. Which was not a problem for us, because we got our sail on! By the end of the week, the watersports guys got to know who were were! Boo got really good at maneuvering the boat by the middle of the week. My favorite memory of sailing, besides going really fast, feeling calm, relaxed and peaceful out on the water, was a James Bond moment, sort of... (If you've ever seen the movie, "Die another Day" with Halle Berry as the bond girl, you'll know what I'm talking about....when she emerges out of the ocean. ) Anyways, I may not look like Halle Berry, or sport that famous bikini she wore in that scene, but it didn't stop me from feeling like her. We were sailing one morning when Boo decides we should hang out at the pool the rest of the day. Ok... well, the watersports area and is on the opposite side of the resort to where our beach papala was. I told boo to just get us as close to shore as he could and I would jump out, get our stuff, and meet him at the pool. He gets the boat close enough for me to swim just a few yards. (By the way, the boat is moving pretty fast) I swing my legs over the side, and in one swift move jump off and plunge into the water. I pop up to the surface, find my sunglasses, put them back on, and turn to see Boo sailing away. I wave, signaling that I'm ok, and he waves signaling he sees me. I swim to the beach and emerge from the water feeling like Halle Berry. As I walk up to our papala, a British guest at a neighboring papala, takes his sunglasses off and goes. "Did you just jump off that boat there?" I flash him my best bond girl smile and say, "I sure did." Pick up our towels, camera, and flip flops and saunter off to meet Boo.

The Beach. Dickenson Bay was the beach the resort was on and it was a beautiful beach. Perfect trade winds for sailing, clear Caribbean blue water, and white sand. When we spent the afternoons on the beach we would always find a nice papala to sit under if we didn't want too much sun. Normally, the afternoons were used for Boo to nap and play on his I-phone and for me to read, relax, and soak up the sun. I loved our little stretch of beach. The thing is, no beach in Antigua is private. All beaches are public. So on 2 occasions, (Tues and Thurs), the cruise ships that would port at English Harbor would drop off bus loads of cruisers right onto our pristine breach. On these days, we just opted to hang out at the pools to avoid the crowds.

The weather. We were lucky enough to have near perfect weather. It did rain almost everyday, but just a quick 5-10 minute tropical rain that came in quick and blew over just as quick. We were fortunate enough to see two rainbows over the Caribbean sea. Very pretty. The worst day, was the very last day we were there. It rained the entire morning during breakfast and on the way to the airport. The weather stayed around low 80's in the day, but you didn't feel the heat because of the constant ocean breeze, and low 70's at night. Perfect vacation weather.

The restaurants. Breakfast was easy. We rolled out bed, slipped out of our back patio door and walked the 10 feet to Bayside. An open air, outdoor, right on the beach restaurant. Simple American and Caribbean buffet. Like the 70% English tourist on this resort, I got to drink earl grey hot tea every morning with breakfast and I loved it. I'm not a tea person, well, not a sweet tea person. So discovering I liked hot tea was pretty cool. We went to Bella Pizzeria once for lunch and had a nice beer, long wait, but a good pizza. The rest of the time we had lunch at our favorite spot, Barefoot. Barefoot restaurant is a right on the beach, toes in sand, reggae music kind of place that serves a refreshing icy Wadaldi (local Antiguan beer), and yummy cheeseburger with a killer view of the Caribbean sea. After spending all morning sailing and working up an appetite, we would glide in our hobie cat and walk 20 feet to Barefoot. Dinners were really good on the resort. We loved the Italian restaurant, Marios, so much we ate there 2x for dinner. Kimono's is a Japanese steakhouse restaurant, where you eat with a group of 10 people and the chef cooks right in front of you. Very good. They have a sushi restaurant below Kimono's that we went to for appetizers. Well.... (I know I've been saying this alot) but I'm not really a sushi person, or so I thought. It was so fresh tasting, and so yummy we actually went back another night for appetizers before another dinner. We loved Eleanor's the gourmet Caribbean restaurant. Very romantic setting. OK Corral was just OK. (Growing up in Southern California, I knew what good Mexican food should taste like. Granted we were in the Caribbean and not Mexico. So I should of known not to expect too much. It was honestly, pretty disappointing. So much so that we left and grabbed a late night dinner at the English Pub.) Which leads me to Cricketers English Pub. We had dinner here 2X, once was the day we arrived, it was the only thing opened late, and the second time b/c we didn't like our OK Coral meal. It was pretty good. The pub was cool. It was like a bar, good music, and pool tables. Boo and I played a round of pool, sipped on some rum and cokes, and caught some great steel drum bands in the outdoor stage.

We really enjoyed the island of Antigua and the resort and both agreed that we would be up for trying another Sandals resort in the future.

Christmas in Antigua (Getting There)

aaaaahhhh..... back from caribbean island ofAntigua (pronounced An-tee'ga) and I'm sporting a sun kissed tan and a relaxed "island" attitude, (as in, no worries, slow paced, relaxed mind set) Well see how long it lasts!

Antigua is an island in the west indies. It's the largest of the English-speaking Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, is about 14 miles long and 11 miles wide. It has 365 beaches (yes! a beach for every day of the year!) and was once Great Britain's most important Caribbean base. They have a cricket team and stadium, tourists consist of 70 percent British, 25 American, and 5 everything else, oh... and Prince Charles and Camila honeymooned here.

The trip started out pretty hectic. Last minute repacking, getting the dogs to the kennel on time, then checking in at the airport (which I thought would be a breeze since we were flying out on a Friday instead of Saturday). The airport was a mad house. Seems as if US Air canceled several flights up north due to the crazy bad weather that came out of nowhere all of the sudden. Lines were out the door, Boo looked at me and said "be prepared, we might miss our flight." I was determined to get on that plane anyway possible! After an hour in line (and 45 minutes to get thru security and to our gate) we finally get to the ticket counter. There was a big sign saying international check ins were being taken at a different counter. I choked down a bunch of curse words and was prepared to have the ticket agent WALK me over to the, now riduculously long lines for check in. (Oh... and I tried to print out the tickets online before hand, but b/c it was international, US Air would not let me) She didn't make us switch lines :) However, there was a problem with the tickets. Seems as if when I purchased them, I put in our last names as our first and our first names as our last, so it didn't match our passports. Oops.... Ticket agent was able to fix Boo's, but had a problem with mine. He got his both of his boarding passes (we had a 2 hour layover in St. Martin) and she was only able to print out my boarding pass to St. Martin. I had to stand in line in St. Martin to get my boarding pass to Antigua. aaaarrrggg! I'll worry about it later... I'm officially on vacation.

Flight over to St. Martin was a breeze. The island itself looked pretty nice and the airport was really small, so as soon as we got off, checked through customs and security, off I went to get my boarding pass from Winn Air. Well, same issue. They could not print out the ticket b/c my name didn't match the passport. After 30 minutes, they just decided to let it go and print it off the way it was. We had 20 mins to board the plane so and it had been 7 hours since we had anything to eat, so we decided to split a small pizza and a couple of beers at the little restaruant in front of our gate. We ordered two "Presidente" beers and waited for our super small pizza to come out. Boo was like "what the hell." It literally looked like a bagel bite. So small that the four slices it was cut into could easily be one bite. I just laughed and promised him a 4 course dinner when we got to our resort in 40 minutes. Well, we checked in at the gate (no problem), were taken to the tarmac, (no problem), walk about 1/4 mile out to our plane (no problem), were boarded onto this tiny propeller plane that seats 12 (scary! I've never been on a plane so little, let alone one with propellers!!!) we get buckled in (no problem) oh... and I forgot to mention, when we left, it was around 35-40 degrees so I was in long pants and a sweater. St. Martin was a nice toasty 85 degrees so I was pouring sweating and the plane had no AC. (Here comes the problem) After 20 minutes, the pilot (whom I can see 5 feet away from me) gets on the intercom and tells us that St. Martin is not giving permission for Winn Air to fly out tonight and that we may need to fly out in the morning, or possibly, if they can talk to the air traffic controllers, get us out of here in 2 hours. (WHAAAATTT!!!!!!) They make us deplane, walk the hot tarmac the 1/4 mile back to the airport, and back to the waiting area. Boo and I decide if we have 2 hours, we'll just walk around the duty free shops and look for a better dinner place. Well as luck would have it, the shops were beginning to close up for the night (6pm). We were on the otherside of the airport (now granted the airport is small, we can see our gate from the other end) when we hear over the intercom that our flight has permission to fly out, but we must board immediately. Boo and I look at one another, I check my watch (it's only been 15 minutes) and take off running to the gate. We are the last people to check in, everyone is already loading on the plane while we are huffing it down the tarmac. Because we were the last ones, we weren't able to get a seat together on the plane. So Boo sits with this little Antiguan girl that falls asleep on him the entire 40 min flight. I got to sit up front (close enough to reach out and touch the pilot) next to a British dude that has nothing but snippy comments to make about the situation. (in my best British accent) "all this political unrest in St. Martin is just aaaaaawful. This bloody strike is becoming a sore...." and on and on he went. I wanted to tell him to stowe it and just relax, it's typical island stuff. But being the polite American that I am. I smile, say nothing, ignore him, and start flipping thru my Marie Claire Magazine I brought. Whatever, I am on vacation and damn if I'm going to let a little delay ruin my mood.

So the puddle jumper wasn't as bad as I had envisioned. No bouncing around in the sky, no loud wind whizzing through the plane, and the propellers didn't break down in mid air causing our plane to spiral dive into the caribbean sea. We made it to Antigua, go thru customs, and find our Sandals rep who whisks us away to our resort. We arrive 15 minutes later to a steel drum band greeting us at the entrance. The front desk rep hands us a chilled glass of champagne while the bell hop takes our luggage. Before I can finish my glass of bubbly, we are checked in and floating to the beat of the steel drums down to our room. We find we have been "upgraded" in our room category and are excited to see our new (beachfront!!!!) room. After we check out our rooms, we decide to grab a late dinner at the British pub called Cricketers, on the resort. It's quick, easy, and lively. The pub is decorated in dark wood, green upholstery, and cricket memorabilia. Exactly as I would picture an English pub to look like. Boo gets a coke and I order a local Antiguan beer, Wadadli and a goat cheese and carmelized onion croquet appetizer. We sit back and enjoy the pub atmosphere. Lots of people are already tanned and having a great time. We gobble down our appetizer and order dinner. I had prime rib with yorkshire pudding (which I've never tried, but really liked). I wanted boo to try "bangers and mash" because the name sounded interesting, or the "fish and chips", but he got Tandoori Chicken which was really spicy! We were so wiped out, we decided to head back to the room and crash, but not before we dipped our toes in the ocean. We walked down to the beach, took off our shoes, and walked along the shore back to our room, letting the cool water lap around our ankles. Imagine our surprise when we discovered we had turn down service while we were out to dinner. Nice touch. More about our week in the next post.

Moms Birthday

Today was my mom's "38th" (again) birthday. The woman refuses to celebrate any other year, so for the past.... I don't know how many years, we have always celebrated her "38th" birthday. hahha! She is NOT one of those grow old gracefully type. She will fight it tooth and nail to the end. But she isn't the face lift, botox type either (if I am lucky enough to look as good as she does at her age I will count my blessings.) She is just young at heart, silly, funny, flirty, goofy, and playful.

Boo and I decided to spend the day with her picking out a Christmas tree, decorating it, having dinner, and ending with a champagne toast dessert. We arrive at her house around 11:30am and she already has lunch made. I tell her it's her birthday and WE should be cooking for HER. (But I'm secretly glad b/c I love me some home cooking. YUM!) After lunch of roasted pork tenderloin, green beans, rice and gravy, and biscuits, we put my dad on dish patrol while we plan what tree farm to visit. I know Dec. 13th is late for buying a Christmas tree, but ever since I could remember, we always decorated our tree on my mom's birthday. Since all of us (my siblings and I) have moved out the house a long time ago, my mom and dad still keep up the tradition. Before we left, I asked my dad to bring down the Christmas boxes from the attic. (After he finishes the dishes of course ) Well, we ended up going to 4 different places for a tree. Pickings were slim this time of year, but we scored at Lowes. My mom even got a discount on the tree, just for asking. She paid $24 for an 8 foot tree! We finally get home, turn on the stereo to the all Christmas music channel, and we decorated the tree for 2 hours. My mom was loving it. She was singing, laughing, and having a great time. It was nice to see her enjoy the holidays, it's been pretty tough for her since we all moved out and away.

After the tree decorating, it was dessert time. I started making Tyler Florence's (food network guy) cranberry champagne cocktails. (Really easy recipe. Some cranberry or pomegranate juice, champagne, and a squeeze of lime.) Now my mom isn't the traditional birthday cake person. She didn't want anything sweet, but come on, what's a birthday without a bite of something decadent and sweet? So Boo and I decided to get a few different desserts for all of us to share. My mom loves the white chocolate fruit tarts, my dad and boo like carrot cake. Me? I personally love the 7 layer chocolate cake :) With Christmas music softly playing in the background, I put out the assortment of sweets and the champagne cocktails. We sang the birthday song, toasted my mom and all had a bit of each dessert. (Oh... and my mom and I had no problem polishing off a bottle of champagne.) ;) Happy Birthday mom! I love you.

Amicalola Falls (2)

(Soft, rhythmic drums humming in the background) pa-dah pa-dah pa pa, pa-dah pa-dah pa pa.....) I slowly wake up, thinking it's my heart that I hear beating. What a nice easy sound to wake up too. The drums were just loud enough to wake you up, but not so loud they disturb your restful sleep. The Inn does this every single morning, all year around. Around 15 minutes before sunrise, an employee walks around the bunk house strumming a bongo drum softly as a "natural" wake up call.

I looked at my watch and its 7am. Wow.... I slept like a rock! I had about 15 minutes to catch the sunrise. I slipped into my crocs, slid on my down vest and fleece, grabbed my camera, and headed out the door. I walked down to the star base area and caught the most serene sunrise eventough it was a chilly 28 degrees out and the ground was crunchy with frost. After several snapshots and a few minutes of introspection, I headed back to my room to pack up b/f breakfast. I changed back into my hiking clothes and boots and took apart the bed linens. My pack was packed and ready to go at about 7:55am, just in time for breakfast. I grabbed my mug and cup, scooped up my linens in the other hand, headed out the door, and dropped off the linens in the laundry bin along the way to the dining hall. As soon as I opened the dining room doors, the heavenly aroma of bacon hit me like a brick wall. My stomach did a happy flip in anticipation. :) I filled up my mug with fresh coffee and topped off my cup with lemonade before taking a seat. Everyone was slowly filing in still in their P.J.'s. Then the food started come out the kitchen and the chatter started to rise. Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, hash browns, coffee, and some sort of raisin skillet bread. After breakfast and some conversation. I decided to walk around the Inn one last time before I started my 5 mile trek back to my car. I took a few minutes to take in the views, trying to burn them into my memory.




Well, it had warmed up to a nice 31 degrees! YEAH! (sarcastically rolling my eyes. hahhaha!! ) Man, I have never experienced such bone chilling weather, than I have in the usually swamp hot state of Georgia. It is brrrrr brrrr, teeth chattering cold. Even with all my warm layers on, I know I still have to hike fast in order to keep warm. Even though most of todays hike is down hill with a few PUDS, it was windy like you wouldn't believe. I head up to my room, put on my gloves, my pack, and click my trek poles in to place. I look over the room one last time and then close the door. I turn my key over to Muddbutt to check it back in for me, since its 8:45am and check out is at 9am. (No, I couldn't wait 15 more minutes. hahaha!) Then, I was off. I hiked down the first two miles in about 30 minute (pretty fast even by my standards). Then came the uphill ascent up for a mile. I ran into two very nice older gentlemen who are out for a day hike. They didn't have a map so I gave them mine, since I wouldn't be needing it any longer. They were so excited to hear about my stay at the Hike Inn (especially about the food) hahahhaa! I humored them, then they switched the subject to gear. They were such gearheads. They even made me spin around to check out my pack! :) We spent 15 minutes (remember its brutally cold!) discussing everything from boots, to packs, to trek poles. They got a kick out of my thermometer/compass/whistle combo that hangs from my pack. It was a great talk, but when my teeth started chattering, and the sweat on my back started turning into icicles, I knew I had to graciously say goodbye. Nice men though. Had to be at least in their 60's and one was even wearing shorts! I hope the map helps, I even told them about a loop hike they could do by taking the Appalachian Approach trail back if they didn't want to back track the same trail. Well, I finally made it back to my car in record speed. I was snug as a bug in my heated seats, and flying down the road home bound by 11am. I had a wonderful time and I hope to make it back to Amicacolola Falls Hike Inn again, this time with Boo and sometime in the spring or summer. ;) Til next time, GET OUTDOORS!

Amicalola Falls (1)

You would think that I would of had enough of the Georgia mountains by now, right? hahaha! Nope, not quite yet. I had a wonderful weekend hiking with the trail dames once again. Our destination was: "The Len Foote Hike Inn at Amicalola Falls State Park. It is one of the newest and most unique of Georgia's state park facilities. If you enjoy wilderness hiking but prefer a soft bed, hot showers, and great food instead of camping, the Hike Inn is for you. The Inn is accessible only by foot over a moderate 5 mile hiking trail which originates at the top of the Amicalola Falls." (taken straight from the website http://hike-inn.com/ ) This place was so cool. It's a rustic, basic, charming, evironmentaly friendly, little Inn. Complete with solar panels, composting toilets, rainwater harvesting, and vermiculture (recycling organic waste using worms and worm beds.) I learned so much about the earth friendly Inn from the guided 1 hour tour that they provide to all guests. Nice to see how much work and dedication went into this Inn. Definetley makes me think that there is certainly more I can do for the environment.

After checking in at the Parks visitors center, (to get a map, and to find out where to park my car), I met Renee (a trail dame) and she was meeting S.H.O.E. (whom I hadn't expected to see, but was so glad I saw her again.) They were only hiking in 3 miles and then hiking back out. It was about 40 degrees and around 10:30am when we started and I hiked with them a bit. It was nice catching up. As soon as I got my trail legs, I took off. To be honest, I like hiking alone. I mean, I like hiking with a group, but hiking alone in that group... does that make sense? I enjoy the social aspect of being of a group at the end of the hike, (at camp), but I really like challenging myself and pushing myself sometimes. I tend to stop ALOT, to snap photos every few feet. :) Plus, I just don't like slowing anyone down, or having to wait on anyone. I totally take to heart the motto " hike your own hike."

The trail is only 5 miles , and in true Georgia fashion, had some PUDS. However, the trail was well graded and well marked. I was enjoying following the mile markers, snapping my photos, and pushing myself up each PUD. I caught up to the some of the group who started at 10am around mile 3. I said a quick hello and told them I'd see them at the lodge. I continued on and around mile 4, I met Latrice and we hiked the last mile up to the Inn together. What a great site, to round the top of the mountain and finally see the Inn! It is 1:30pm when we check in, got our keys (I was in room 7), linens, and towels. The front desk clerk tolds us to make sure we turn up the heat all the way in our room, b/c it takes a while for the heater to warm up. The room is pretty basic, a bunkbed, a little open closet, a shelf with a mirror and that's about it. Oh... a fan, but I would imagine that would come in handy in the summertime. It was freezing in the room, so I crank up my little heater, threw down my pack , and made my way to the dining hall for some hot chocolate and a snack. In the dining hall I find North Star and McGuyver and was so glad to see them again! We exchange hugs, hellos, and caught up. I poured myself some coffee, mix in some hot chocolate, and sipped on a glass of lemonade. This is when I learned that I was to label both the mug and cup because I would be using the same mug and cup my entire stay at the Inn. How enviromentaly savy is that!

After warming up a bit, I decided to take a quick tour of the property, so I went back to my room, deposited the labeled mug and cup, grabbed my camera, and off I went. I walked down to the Star Base. "Star Base is our celestial calendar, marking the movement of the sun through the seasons of the year.The large "V" shaped rock with the hole in the center marks the fall & spring equinox, the time when the sun crosses the equator, making night and day of equal length in all parts of the earth." (from the website.) I checked out the sun room, which was a community room full of books, board games, comfy chairs and tables. I snapped a few photos of the amazing views and headed back to my room to unpack and make up my bed up. The room was still freezing, so I finished up my chores and took my book to the main lobby to read by the warm fire and wait for the 5 pm, 1 hour guided Inn tour. After the educational property tour, dinner was promptly served at 6 pm. I rushed back to my room to retrieve my cup and made it back just in time to grab a seat at one of the 2 long tables. Dinner was sooooo good! We feasted on roasted pork tenderloin, mashed potatos, green beans, mixed vegetables, green salad, and a cheesey skillet corn bread that, alone, was worth the trip up to the Inn! It was so good, but, you had to be careful to not overload your plate. As part of the "conservation tips", you were instructed to only put on your plate what you would eat. Any and all left overs were weighed to see what the total waste would be. If we (all the guests at the Inn that night) kept it under 4 oz, our group was given a smiley face on the dining room board. Well, I am proud to say our group weighed in at 2 oz of waste.

After dinner, came dessert! A big brownie and a cup of decaf coffee with baileys irish cream. (courtesy of Muddbutt) Oh my, it was so good and a great way to top off dinner. Afterwords, we all retired to the sunroom deck. We sat in the adirondack chairs overlooking a spectacular view of the mountains. We sipped on baileys irish cream coffees, and Scottish whiskey (courtesy of McGuyver) We watched the stars light up the sky, covered ourselves in wool blankets, and had a great time just laughing and catching up. Around 9pm, we went inside to warm up by the fire and I played a couple of rounds of scrabble with Cindy, Aissa, and Latrice. Fun times. I finally made it up to my room around 10:30pm, decided to take a nice hot shower, call boo, and then go to bed. I knew I would be awaken the next day by drums (Yes drums!) to catch the 7:15 am sunrise. Breakfast will be at 8am, and then back down the mountain to head back home. It was such a great trip and I had so much fun I can't wait to do it again. I hope I can take boo next time so he could experience the Hike Inn as well. Til tomorrow! Sweetpea going to sleep in her bunkbed!

Turkey Day!

Turkey Day 2008 began with a train ride into town for the 10 am Thanksgiving parade! Boo and I found a great spot along a wall that we could sit on and view the colorful floats, bands, clowns, and just people watch. After about three hours, Santa finally brought up the rear and the parade was over. By then we were famished! Off to find a quick bite for lunch, but nothing to heavy because we had a feast planned at 6:30pm. After walking thru some of the buildings and discovering them already decorated for Christmas, we sort of got into the holiday spirit. We spot our lunch spot, a corner hotdog stand claiming they are "real" NY beef hotdogs. We'll see. Having been to NYC for Thanksgiving back in 04, I think we'll be able to tell if the hot dogs are truly NY hotdogs or not. :) Boo swears it tastes like the dogs we had in Central Park. I on the other hand don't... but I could be comparing it to my favorite Grays Papaya hotdogs in the west village, near Washington Square instead of the regular NYC street hot dogs vendors. Either way, it was a good call for a quick lunch. Boo and I each get a dog and split a diet coke. We continue walking the city, catching the sites, enjoying the distractions. After an hour, we venture back to the train station to hop back on the train and back to our suburban lives. We barely have enough time to change clothes to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner. This year we opted to enjoy the holidays with about 20 friends at one of their lake houses. Everyone is bringing something to share. I've elected to bring green beans in a butter sauce and asparagus, Boo is bringing a pumpkin and a cherry pie. We head on over to the party and arrived just in time to miss the boat. Literally! We missed the afternoon boat ride around the lake. :( So we just sit on the deck and relax, taking in the views and enjoying the beautiful day. In a short while, the rest of the party arrives and the boat pulls back in. After rounds of drinks, we decide to go on a little hike to rev up our appetites. Nothing major, just a lovely rolling 2 mile stroll through the woods. About 10 of us, with fresh drinks in hand, and two golden retrievers, venture out and make it back just in time for the sun to set over the lake. While we were gone, the others decided to get everything ready for dinner. We came back to candle lit tables, and a buffet that could feed an army! We refreshed our drinks, gave a prayer in thanks, and began loading our plates up with turkey, ham, two types of stuffing, salad, green beans, asparagus, rolls, cranberry sauce, gravy.... and the list goes on and on... Don't get me started on the dessert! I think there was more dessert than dinner! hahhaa! We took our seat along the LOOOOOONG table and as I looked around, I couldn't help but notice what a diverse group we were. We were Irish, Mexican, Chinese, Persian, Indian, South African, and American. In a strange way, it reminded me of what the Pilgrims and Indians so long ago must of felt like. Different cultures enjoying each others company while sharing a dinner. Of course I am not comparing the two events, but it was very nice to see how far, we as a country, have come, and what a melting pot America really is. It was probably the most stress free Thanksgiving I have ever spent. It was nice take in the parade, sit on a deck overlooking the serene lake, taking a nice stroll in the woods, and to just sit back and relax with friends.

Bossa Nova

Bossa Nova: According to Wikipedia "is a style of Brazilian music that evolved from samba but is more complex harmonically and is less percussive. The influence on bossa nova is jazz styles such as cool jazz " (Think.... Girl from Ipanema.)

So you are probably wondering why I am bringing up Bossa Nova. Well, it's not quite an outdoor adventure, but I enjoyed it so much I'm going to talk about it. :) I've always loved the soft sounds of Bossa Nova. So imagine my excitement when reading our local paper online about a FREE Bossa Nova music event featuring two guitarists straight from Brazil. I put my hiking plans to the side and decided to make it a date with my boo. We grabbed some brunch from a healthy-organic-free range-sustainable produce type place before taking in our mini concert at the cool-little-worldly-arty-coffee shop type place. And to be honest, my french toast was awesome! Had a nice slight orange taste that went perfectly with the crunchy toasted almonds. Boo had a yummy southwestern omelet with black beans. After we brunched, we had an hour to wait so we decided to venture in some of the funky little shops. The reggae store, which was supposed to be opened, was not. (Later on we saw them opening up about 1 hour late. Typical Jamaican time. Hahaha! I miss Jamaica) We went into this small antique shop and I found some great vintage glass cocktail swizzle sticks that would go perfect with our bar set at home. So I got them. :) We saunter into the little bakery, but don't have any cash on hand to walk out with some fresh scones. Finally make it back to the little arty shop in time for the afternoon show. We walk all the way to the back and thru beaded doorway curtain that separates the art shop from the coffee lounge side of the store. I see a few comfy looking couches, lots of chairs, and a bar area with stools. We decide to "lounge" on a comfy couch for the show. When the performance began, we were the only two people there, which was a bit uncomfortable, then later on we would hear the clackity clack of the beaded curtain, letting us know others were sliding in Jamaican time. :) The performance was great. Soft, sultry, jazzy voice singing in Portuguese with fast moving fingers on the guitar made for a nice, romantic, relaxing Sunday afternoon date. I felt like the 2 hours flew by. Thanks for trying a new adventure with me Boo. I Love you.

Georgia on my mind (3)

Day 3: After a cold, rainy night sleep. I woke up around 6am, watered the leaves, and then snuggle back into my warm, 15 degree, down sleeping bag. I love my bag. I just lied there, dozing in and out of sleep for an hour. Finally got up around 8:30am and start deflating my thermarest sleeping pad, rolled up my sleeping bag, and packed up my pack. I dreaded putting on my cold wet hiking clothes. I knew today would be a tough day. We were climbing the highest peak in Georgia today, Blood Mountain (4,461), and it was a freaking 27 degrees outside, (see my gloved hand checking out my thermometer). But on the bright side, it was not raining, just cloudy. I climbed out my warm tent and see that most people are out and about making breakfast. I chit chat for a bit, eat a cliff bar, drink 1/2 liter of water and finally changed into my cold clothes and pack my tent. I leave my fleece b/c its just too cold to hike without it on. It's 9:30am and Leslie is ready to go too, so we start our ascend from Jarrads Gap (3,250) towards Blood Mountain (4,461). We start up Gaddis Mt. (3,540) descend down to Horsebone Gap (3,450), climb up Turkey Stamp Mt. (3,770), and down to Bird Gap (3,650) all within 2 miles. We ascend the western side of Blood Mt. and reach Slaughter Gap (3,800). I look to the right, and that's when I see them. Stairs, stairs, and more rock stairs going up, up, and more up. I take a small break and eat some gorp at the bottom of the stairs, b/c I know what's in store for me. The next mile will be a steep climb to the top of Blood Mt. (4,461). I start the ascent and it's switch back, after switch back of stone stairs and steep graded trail. All of the sudden it starts to rain. I have to decide, do I take off my warm fleece to keep it dry or leave it on and stay warm til its soaked? Well, I take it off and the wind is whipping thru me like crazy,(remember my clothes are still wet from yesterdays hike in the rain.) I decide to just hike faster uphill to warm myself up. THEN it starts to hail!!! NO JOKE. I'm in short sleeves, my arms are freezing, and hail the size of bb's are start beating down from the sky and stinging my arms. I am physically shaking from the cold, I am in pain from the hail, and I am about to loose it when I see the little stone structure on top of Blood Mt. I made it! I run inside, pull out my fleece and try to get warm. I wait out the hail for 35 minutes, knowing I need to keep moving in order to stay warm. Once it has stopped, I venture back out onto the AT. NO VIEW on top of Blood Mt. Oh well.... it just wasn't meant to be. My only goal is to get down the mountain, and back to Neels Gap and the hiker hostel as fast as possible so i can get warm. Fantasies of hot chocolate propel my feet forward. The backside of Blood Mt. is no joke. It is 2 miles of steep, bald rock with narrow stone stairs, that are hazardous when wet. Thank goodness for my trek poles, b/c I almost ate it like 4 times. My foot would slide on the slick rock surface and I would loose my balance for a quick second until my poles steadied me. Well, it started to hail again! I didn't care, I left my fleece on and just decided to deal with a wet fleece later on. I make it down the Mt. so fast that I didn't realize I was so out of breath until I came to Flatrock Gap (3,452). I check my little trail description data and see I have just 1 mile left to get to the hostel. So I stop to eat a quick snack. I pull out a wheat tortilla, a single serving of cream cheese and smear it on, layer it with pepperoni, roll it up and munch away. I also pull out a single serving of cheddar cheese and eat that as well. I had no idea how hungry I was! It's still really cold (thermometer says 37 degrees) so I hurry. As I pack up my food bag I notice a cool looking rock. I check my trail data again and see that I'm at "Balanced Rock" in Flatrock Gap (3,452). I snap a cool picture and continue fantasizing about that hot chocolate. I get back on the AT towards Neels Gap (3,125). I was there in record time, I think it took me like 15 minutes to do that last mile. As I rounded the last bit of trail, I could see the hiker hostel. I almost started crying with anticipation. I have never been so glad to see a building in my life. Then it hit me. This is what it must feel like for northbound thru-hikers to come to this exact point on the trail and see the first hiker hostel on the AT after hiking the first 30 miles of the AT. Wow, I totally get it. I entered the warm hostel where Pirate greeted me with a huge smile a fresh pot of hot coffee. I threw down my bag, quickly changed into a dry shirt and my warm down vest. I pulled out raspberry hot chocolate and took up Pirate on his offer of a hot cup of coffee. Once I got the mug, I just poured my cocoa powder into the coffee and wow, it was the best tasting cup of coffee/hot chocolate ever! I was the second person to make it to the hiker hostel. Leslie got here about 20 minutes ago. It's only 1:30, but I feel like I've been hiking all day! At this point I have decided that two days on the cold, wet, rainy AT were enough for me. I would wait for the others to arrive and see what they wanted to do, but I knew I had had enough. Well, I had to wait 4 hours for the rest of the group to show up. Seems as if a group 6 of them never even made it up Blood Mountain. The hail made it too treacherous and scary for them so they opted for the bail out trail. They were at the base of Blood Mountain when it started to hail on them and decided it was just to much. Well, everyone had pretty much the same idea as I did. The consensus was a good cheeseburger and our own warm beds tonight. So we all packed up, drove down the mountain to Turners Cafe, had an awesome cheeseburger and fries and I drove my happy warm self back home to boo and my dogs. :) All in all it was a great trip. Even the rain, cold, and hail were good learning experiences for me. It gave me a taste of what the AT could really be like. I was glad I had a chance to live like a thru hiker for a brief time. It was so surreal to meet some real southbound thru-hikers and lastly, I realized that I COULD do it. I made it over that mountain thru rain, hail, cold temps, (and someone said snow flurries.) Til my next adventure, GET OUTDOORS!