Chillin' in the Heat...

Ahhhhhh.... warm temps... sand... ocean... food & drink whenever we like... it doesn't get much better than this!! We arrived late Wednesday into Cabarete, and the past few days have been beautiful!!! The resort is pretty nice and the people are great!! But... there has been very little wind... and in his usual panic to ride this morning when a storm blew through (can you say OCD), Todd got caught in the massive shore break and ended up with a destroyed 13m kite. **SIGH** Another one bites the dust. **SIGH**

Obviously he is not the first person to wreck a kite... because within about 15 minutes, there was someone on the beach, offering to take the ripped-up mass to a local lady for repairs. We bartered in my very limited Spanish and agreed to a price, so hopefully by this time tomorrow, he should be good to go again.

Tonite we are meeting Pete & Sandy and family at a local BBQ-slash-pub... and perhaps we'll be going on a dive trip or taking a waterfall tour this week sometime... The wind forecast isn't looking great, so we may be doing more sightseeing than Todd would like... but anything is better than being back home! Yeah!!

Anyway, internet is hard to find here, so I won't be posting any pics for a few more days.

Cheers!

A Day In The Life Of

As homeowners, these are the glamorous types of things we occasionally have to deal with...

 

Replacing the seal on one of our toilets was on the agenda for today, which actually didn't take very long. Todd can be extremely handy when he needs to be. Heh heh.

And to show my appreciation for fixing the leaky toilet, I was the one who made supper. Chili. Mmmmmm. It was actually very hot, not chilly. Heh heh.

Yes, I cooked this ALL BY MYSELF!!

Then there are the things we don't have to worry about...

 

Notice how there is no snow on the porches, steps or sidewalks... Gotta love it when somebody else shovels - this alone is worth every cent of our condo fees!! Especially since it has been snowing non-stop for the past week and it is -25C outside!

So, aside from the fact that a 9am phone call reminded me about a training day I had scheduled (but totally forgot to show up for), and my complete stupid Cheryle trick of backing out of the driveway with my brand new extension cord still plugged into my car, well, it was a pretty awesome day!!

Cheers!

What a year!

Wow, it's been quite the twelve months - Australia, St. Lucia, BVI/USVI, Puerto Rico, Maui, Hood River, La Ventana, and now... Dominican Republic! Yesss! We're heading out at the end of November to spend a couple of weeks in Cabarete. Our friends Pete & Sandy and their daughter Caiti, as well as another great buddy of ours Chris, will all be there at the same time, so it should be a blast! I am starting my new job on January 4th, so this will be my last regular long stretch of days off, and we thought we should take advantage of it! Not to mention, it is -20C and there is now about a foot of snow on the ground here. Winter showed up literally overnight. Boooo.

Anyway, I think I can survive the next 12 days, most of which will be spent at work. Then off to the sun and more beach fun!!! Yeah!!

Cheers!

Gained another hour!

We rolled into Red Deer around midnight last night, officially ending another fantastic holiday. **SIGH** The time change however (again! we had a time change in La Ventana also!!) was a huge bonus - I woke up this morning at 9am, and it was only really 8am! Yeah! Love it!!

In the end, the vacation didn't go completely without a hitch. Since Heather and Court live in Phoenix, we decided to spend a couple of days there on our way home from Mexico... and during that layover, Todd's carry-on bag ended up misplaced... which wasn't a big deal in itself, as it contained only a few pieces of clothing and a dead iPod Nano. But then I remembered that our car keys were in it... D'OH!! That threw a bit of a wrench into getting from the Calgary airport back to Red Deer. Luckily, I have the hands-down BEST friend on the planet - Toni - and she stopped at our house to get the spare key and then dropped it off where our car was parked. I can not thank her enough for doing this for us!! I owe her big time.

This afternoon, I met up with my friends Mona and Ron for a fun little photo session. I had been checking the weather intermittently while we were gone, and in all honesty the forecast did not look good for this weekend. But the day turned out to be a glorious one, making it hard to believe it is November! They brought their poochies, and their kids Karen and Terry joined us as well. Watch for a sneak peek of the sesh on my photo blog.

Well, I guess I'd better get editing... I've got an 8-gig card full of pics from La Ventana to get through and a couple of hundred shots from today... Life is good!!

November 7, 2010

Cheers!

An extra hour...

The clocks went back an hour here, on Sunday night... so basically I've been an hour out this whole week!! D'OH!! Oh well. I made up for it today. I've been lounging around since 6:00am, because I thought I was actually getting up at SEVEN... and in my newly-found-out-about extra hour this morning, I went for a walk, collected some more cool sea glass, and stopped for an iced latte at Baja Joe's.

 

There may not be any kiting today by the looks of the wind direction - it is straight onshore. However, even if it doesn't happen today, I think Todd still will say he had a great time - he rode nine days in a row, plus he scored a surfboard!!

I'll probably sort out my collection of beach finds and start to get stuff packed up, since we fly to Phoenix tomorrow to visit Heather and Court. Then it's home and back to work next week. Boooo for work!

It's been so nice to enjoy one final stretch of warm temperatures before prepping for winter. The one great thing about going back to snow is the fact that snowkite season will soon be underway - I can hardly wait! Water kiting isn't quite my thing just yet, but kiting on the SNOW certainly is. Bring it on!!

Cheers!

Baja randomness...

Another couple of windy days were enjoyed by all, here in La Ventana! And as well, the first major boo-boo of the trip occurred... Todd's 13m Ozone C4 ripped after he crashed it onto the water yesterday, and it was a gooder!

The kite is less than four months old, so we've sent an email to Ozone to see if they can provide any compensation for this little catastrophe. It will be moderately disappointing if they choose not to stand behind their product; I'd like to think this was a freak defect and that Ozone will offer up some sort of fix.

Anyhow, other than that... I got the Lensbaby out and snapped a few random shots today and in general tried hard to stay out of the sun. Yesterday I kind of lost track of how long I'd been lollygagging in the blistering heat, and I ended up a bit lobster-like. Oooch.

 

 

Tomorrow isn't supposed to be quite as windy, but it will still be warm. If the bay is calm in the morning, perhaps we can get out on a paddleboard or kayak... it's a great way to start the day, for sure, and we haven't been using them the last little while due to the winds coming up early in the day.

Cheers!

Downwind Goodness

Today was down-winder day! El viento not only came up much earlier than it has this past week, but it was substantially stronger.  Our fabulous host Kurt (http://www.kurtnmarina.com/) offered to drive the kitesurfers among us to the hotsprings north of El Sargento, where they would be able to launch for a 10km downwind ride. Can you say EXCITED??

I helped Todd, Mike, Jen and Remi get their kites in the air, and then Kurt and I (and Perla!) toured around the El Sargento area, checking out some of the real estate developments which are underway. We made it back to our beach at about the same time as the kiters, and an afternoon of stellar wind was enjoyed by all.

Tonight we feasted like kings on some of the Dorado which was caught yesterday, and tomorrow is looking to be pretty much a repeat of today. **SIGH** It doesn't get much better than this!!

Cheers!

It was a busy day!!

This morning, we got up at 6:30am to join our great new La Ventana friends for another day of fishing - and what a day it was!! Our live bait collecting (or I should say, Guadalupe's live bait collecting) was a much more fruitful event today; we ended up with more sardines and toros than we really needed... so no plastic lures were required this time!

 

  

We fished in a different spot than we did on Thursday, and it yielded us two Needlefish, two gorgeous Dorados, and an amazing striped Marlin! Yeah! What a haul! Literally - Kurt hooked the marlin, I reeled until I thought my arms were going to fall off, and then Todd finished by getting the massive fish to the boat.

Once the storage bin in the boat was full, we headed back to the beach just in time for Todd, Mike and Jen to catch a little wind. While the three of them ripped it up on the water, I combed the beach for seaglass and unique shells, and of course I came across some other interesting creatures while searching.

 

 

  

Well, no fishing tomorrow. But otherwise, it will be much of the same here in La Ventana - sun, sand, heat, rum... and that's in any order, repeat as required!

Cheers!

We have wind!

Yesterday was fabulous!! It started out with a most fun fishing trip along the coast north of La Ventana. At 7am, a local hombre named Guadalupe picked us up out front of our place.

  

 

 

We cruised for about an hour, looking (unsuccessfully) for live bait but still enjoying the beautiful views... and then we moved to the backup plan - giant squid-like plastic lures. Within a half an hour, one of the rods was hit hard - by a massive Marlin! Unfortunately, it got away. (How's THAT for a fish story!! but it's true!)

Anyway, over the course of the morning, we caught two fiesty skipjack tunas and saw hundreds and hundreds of frolicking dolphins. The dolphins were the best part of the day, for me anyway.

 

 

By the time we were finished fishing, the winds were picking up nicely, and Todd, Mike and Jen all got out for some riding.

 

 

As well, Todd got a new toy from a shop here in La Ventana - a Slingshot 6'0" Coupe surfboard - so he was stoked to try it out!

  

Today, the forecast is looking to be much the same, wind-wise, so after some yummy huevos rancheros I think we'll be hitting the beach!

Cheers!