Pop The Trunk

No, this is not a detective series being acted out...I am cetoling(varnishing)the wood trim on our boat. "Pop the Trunk" is a song by the Aggralites, a reggae band that will definitely make you smile even if you are varnishing....As I stain trim, John is installing a DYI (do it yourself) watermaker...it is a reverse osmosis deal that will filter out the salt from ocean water so it is potable for us to drink...Pretty cool! The fun of boat ownership! The cool thing about being in the Chesapeake is seeing a lot of friends that have traveled up to this area or that live here. We met a couple in Bimini(Bahamas) and we were able to contact them, we found out that they are right here in this area for the summer. One last thought for the day...remember when your parents said that as you get older time will go by even quicker...THEY WERE RIGHT! Keep moving and love life!

Take Time To Smell The Roses

More land cruising..We are in Washington Dc and there sure is a lot to see. The Botanical Gardens were just reopened after a huge remodeling. The outside Gardens are amazing. See pics of the roses....They also have a small pond with cattails, a garden with orchids, and beautiful lilies....Then upon seeing that the Renwick Gallery (across from the White House)was free admission...of course we had to see what was being shown. The attached photo is of a gamefish made out of toys...see pics...art is sure "all-inclusive"....No matter how many times I have seen the White House, it always affects me, in a good way....see pics....

Tough Commute....

We traveled to the Bandalier National Monument...about 15 miles outside Los Alamos. The park has Indian cliff dwelling that you are able to climb tall wooden ladders to see. The dwellings are purposefully, about 50-100 feet off the ground. The Indians made these cliffs their homes because they were near rivers( drinking water and fish), wonderful, fertile soil and lots of wildlife to eat. The only issue I had was that they would have to cimb, sometimes 2-3 ladders (to get to the penthouse)to get to their ciff apartment. I am sure they had lots of groceries and drinking water, which would make the evening commute a big pain in the butt. The area that surrounded these dwelling were beautiful...near windy rivers and wildflowers. John and I climbed the ladders to get an idea of how this all worked. Their small cliff aprtments were rather sparse and quite low...they must of been rather short. SEE PICS....we also made it to Albuquerque and visited the PLaza...a gorgeous, authentic Mexican/Indian plaza. Lots of great food..hot chile of course. See pics of John's new hat...possibly a 20 gallon...what do you think?

Heaven On Earth

What can I say? I love the ocean and I love the mountains...We arrived in Los Alamos, New Mexico and we found the most perfect place...it's called Valles Caldera. Thanks to Prez Clinton, when he left office he signed off on a purchase of 89,000 acres called Valles Caldera. It was a privately owned ranch that was the most beautiful place on earth. It cost $110 million dollars, and it that was made into a preserve. The year was 2000...Until 2004, unless you were a researcher, you were not allowed into the park. We were able to go on a 4 hour hike that took place on the old 1930's logging roads. The cool part is that the roads were natural ....lots of tall grasses, wildflowers, wildlife and no other hikers becuz they limit the amount of people daily into the park. They have over 2000 cattle, 3000 elk, mountain lions, horses, snakes,chipmunks, squirrels,eagles,hawks and wild turkey. I am sure I have misssed a lot of other wild life. The place is spiritual...peaceful and big...BIG SKIES...See pics...right before we found this place we went through a hail storm...it went from 73 degrees to 53 degrees in 20 minutes...See pics....

Santa Fe Scenery

The great thing about traveling to new places is all the wonderful new sights you get to see. The Santa Fe area has it all. Delicious food, beautiful adobe architecture and this time of year, gorgeous skies and flowers. We drove up to Taos, at about 8,000 elevation. There is a gorge with a bridge that you can drive over, about 10 miles outside Taos. It is a mini Grand Canyon. The view is breathtaking...you can see forever out in the desert. My fear of heights was definitely working against me as we walked over the bridge...its about 650 feet above the Rio Grande River.See Pics. Then we drove back to santa Fe and took in some of the museums in the Plaza area. The adobe architecture is so different from anything out East. The brick colors against the backdrop of the blue skies is memorable. See pics..The holyhocks, cactus and wild flowers are all blooming right now. It is hard to believe how cold this place gets in winter...We visited the Georgia O'Keefe museum. Her artwork is incredible...it is so simple yet incredibly colorful. It is great to view the Santa Fe scenery through her eyes...WOW!

Farming in Santa Fe......

Here we are land cruising in Santa Fe...pretty cool. Visiting the in-laws...having a great time! We went to the most amazing Farmers Market I have ever been to. There were at least 40-50 vendors, all with locally grown food products. From veggies to goat cheese to gorgeous rustic breads....See pics. One of the coolest things is that the wild lavender is in bloom all over the city...as you walk through the market the lavender permeates the air...lavender honey, lavender goat cheese, lavender satchets, lavender body lotion...if it can be made with lavender they have it. I also checked out all the chili pepper dries spices...green and red, hot or mild they have it here. The thing is that when they say mild heat, they mean hot....no wussies here. We also checked out the area os the city known as "Canyon Road"...The area is full of the most beautiful galleries and artwork I have ever seen. The artwork is Indian, Mexican, contemporary and even a galley focused on fantasy art...From $200 to $200,000...One really cool gallery had fountains inside the galley with beautiful roses and goldfish...yeas goldfish..See pics.

Update from Washington DC

July 14th
Solomon's Island, Maryland
I am trying to update everyone so we are all on the same page...up to date with each other. We are now in the Chesapeake Bay...Solomon's Island. What a wonderful place. We did spend a couple of days in the Dc area. We traveled to American University to see an exhibit focused on the Haitiian sailors we met in Bimini. To get everyone on the same page...when we first arrived in Bimini we met a dutch writer, 3 Haitiian sailors and a videographer who traveled on the Haitiian's handmade 21 foot sailboat from Haiti. It is the same type of sailboat that so many of the repressed haitiians try to sail away from Haiti on. The dutch writer wanted a vehicle to try to convey the plight of the haitiian people through the experience of these 3 sailors. They left haiti on March 11 and arrived in bimini on April 11th...Their end destination was Palm Beach Maritime Museum and then onto American University in june and July. We had the previlege to see the exhibit...When we arrived the sailboat was sitting on the grassy area outside the Museum...a small explanation attached. Once inside we saw the wonderful handmade sail that was painted with a "phoenix" by a haitiian artist....It was all pretty cool on many levels. I am so glad they got the focus that is necessary to even begin to explain what is happening in Haiti...See pics..