Chilling at the Grand Papagayo

The weather has been fantastic.....sun, sun and well...more sun. How can you go wrong with that? The resort is also fantastic. The staff are very friendly and pretty attentive. The wildlife at the resort is incredible. Each morning we are woken up to the sweet sound of birds chirping. The temperature has been hot... highs of 33-36C and lows of 25C. Even first thing in the morning (ie 6am) there is no need for anything more than a tank top and shorts. There are plenty of activities to participate in if you want to keep yourself busy or relaxing on the beach or poolside. Playa Buena is the beach by the resort. All beaches in Costa Rica are public beaches. The tides vary each day and if you want to sit on the beach you have to be there during low tide otherwise the high tide covers all this beach's area. The sand is very compact and wet given the tide movements and at the water's edge you can find beautiful shells and unique small rocks.

With the resort being an all-inclusive you have access to free water activities such as stand up paddle boarding and kayaking. On our first day here Z went SUPing and had a great time until a boat pulling a banana boat created a large wake....needless to say Z ended up in the water and unfortunately also lost a very good pair of sunglasses to boot. Another benefit of staying at the resort is they have beach bar service delivered right to your beach chair, and the drinks here are poured quite generously.

There is some pretty awesome snorkelling right off the beach. During low tide, the water isn't that deep and you can get pretty far out and still stand up on the ocean bottom. Being in a bay the water is quite calm. We saw some pretty cool fish, including rainbow fish, puffer fish, and a water snake (and I didn't even freak out). The water isn't as crystal clear as you would find in other places but visibility was still pretty good. The water was amazing, bath water warm and there were several pockets pretty far off the beach that had quite hot water; we weren't sure if there were natural hot springs in these spots or what caused these pockets. It was strange because you could swim just a few feet over and the water was back to warm.

We enjoyed a sunset walk one evening to a look out point located about a 15 minute walk off the resort property. This vantage point provided the ideal spot to watch an incredible sunset with the ocean as the backdrop.

The serene setting of the resort leaves you with no cares in the world, only complete relaxation.

The Journey to the Occidental Grand Papagayo

What a journey to get here...no weather delays but our flight out of Toronto was delayed by an hour apparently because of an air traffic control staffing shortage in Cuba...at least that is what our pilot told us. After an hour delay as we were all already boarded on the crammed Rogue flight, the pilot comes on again to say we had to have the computer system rebooted after a mechanical issue. What I couldn't understand is our plane was at the airport long before our flight was originally scheduled to leave so why could they not have fixed the problem long before we boarded and not caused a further delay? Oh, Air Canada....you are a necessary evil and can get away with it!!

Our flight to Liberia, Costa Rica was pleasant. Not sure I like the Rogue flights....the seats have 2 inches less space so any tall person has a very uncomfortable time and the seats themselves have no cushioning in them so you can end up getting an unwanted "massage" if the person behind you is rather restless. The pitch of the seat also force you to sit with your neck pitched forward which is really uncomfortable. The worst part of this journey was the inability to sleep despite having some very comfy seats on the leg to Toronto. Needless to say I was quite exhausted when we arrived.

Oh the warm tropical weather was just what Z and I needed. Stepping off the plane you could just feel the welcoming warmth of the sun! The immigration process was a breeze and our luggage was out pretty quick too. I can now say that I've been to all Americas!!!! We booked through Air Canada vacations so our ground transportation to the hotel was taken care of. We are staying at the Occidental Grand Papagayo all-inclusive adults only resort. The drive from the airport was about 25 minutes. We got to the report around 5pm....there were about 20 people from our flight that were staying here and the check-in process was a little chaotic but in the end it all was fine. They gave us a tasty tropical fruit juice drink as we waited to check in. The resort is built on a hillside and so we were driven to our room which is located at one of the furthest buildings from the lobby. We have a fantastic ocean view room on the the top floor...it's only a 2 storey building. The resort property is situated amongst a tropical jungle and on the Gulf of Papagayo....the best of both worlds. We choose (let me be honest Z choose) this resort because of this feature. He read that we'd be able to see a bunch of wild life and so far we haven 't been disappointed. So far we've seen a bunch of different birds, a white-nosed coati aka pizote, a member of the lizard family, and howler monkeys. A couple pictures below, with more to come...

The vegetation around the resort is so lush. There are plenty of palms trees, bamboo trees, and hibiscus flowers to name a few. The dry season has just started so the greenery will soon turn desert brown and come mid May to early June be back to its marvellous green once the rainy season starts.

The Great Escape to Costa Rica

Next stop....Costa Rica. While a lot of people's focus today was Boxing Day deals, we were busy packing and organizing for our great escape from this dreary cold weather. Admittedly there was a quick Boxing Day sale that we went to that got me a new pair of running shoes and a new running gadget (definitely no excuses now), but our focus was packing and organizing for this trip. Normally I'm packed well in advance and don't leave to the actual travel day, but we were on a red eye to Toronto so there was plenty of time without panic kicking in.

Travelling during the Christmas holidays and over New Years is a new experience. The roads were quiet getting to the airport and the airport itself is like a ghost town....the fact that our flight is a red eye probably contributes a little to this. The airport is decked out with some Christmas decor.

With no direct flight to our final destination, we're traveling through Toronto, which has been experiencing some unusually warm weather for the season. Thankfully we shouldn't experience any weather related delays.

Why Costa Rica? Well neither Z nor I have been there before and we thought why not head somewhere tropical where we'll have a chance to soak up some vitamin D, experience a new culture, enjoy some great coffee and most importantly just relax and forget about real life for awhile.

Who runs 2 races in 24 hours?

What brought us to Vegas in the first place was to participate in the Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon, 10k & 5k races taking place in the span of 24 hours over a weekend. Preparing for 1 distance run takes enough work, but preparing for 2 races back to back? Who does that? Well....evidently Z and I. Now I'll admit my back to back races were the shorter two distances, but even still it took quite a lot of effort especially considering I posted my best 5k time. I had a little motivation on this one....


I started this race with Z and another friend; both run faster than me and so I really wanted to keep pace with them because it is sometimes nice to be running with people you know instead of always on your own. This race started at the event grounds by the SLS Las Vegas where they had music blasting and handed out light batons to the runners seeing as the race was a night race. The route was OK... we ran a path along the fair grounds towards one of the streets and ran a u-loop on the street before entering back onto the fair grounds and zigzagging the grounds for the remaining 2k. They had a couple music stations set up blasting some good tunes to keep us going. A decent amount of spectators cheered us on along the way too! This was my first night race and it was pretty cool. About 9000 runners participated in this one. 


The next day, late afternoon I made my way back to the SLS Las Vegas which also served as the start line for my 10k race. Here I was greeted with a concert by an 80's cover band. They were actually quite good and we were singing and dancing in the street while we waited for the start. This race had about 6000 runners. The course was a street course and it took us through downtown Vegas, past a couple wedding chapels and with a short distance along Freemont Street before heading onto Las Vegas Blvd towards the strip. The really cool thing about the Vegas Rock'n'Roll races is that they shut down both sides of the strip to traffic and pedestrians to accommodate the runners and we all finished in front of The Mirage hotel. There's nothing to describe the cool feeling of running down Las Vegas Blvd and seeing the grand hotels on either side of the road. The half and marathon, had about 34,000 runners (most ran the half). Their headliner concert was Kid Rock!! I'm not a fan of Kid Rock, so not disappointed in the least bit to have missed that concert, but do think it's really cool that they got such a big name to perform. Overall I'd say the races were very well organized and well run. They had a lot of volunteers along the route at various fuel stations....that must take a lot of effort to organize. The expo was quite large and had a lot of exhibitors with some pretty good deals....I picked up my first pair of compression calf sleeves for 1/2 price! Score on that one....wish I had picked up a second pair after using them. 

It took a little different preparation for a night run than other races I've done.  The biggest difference was figuring out the timing of eating because you don't want to eat too late so you cramp up but you also don't want to eat too early so that you don't have enough fuel in you. And what to do all day? We walked around a lot the days leading up to the races and I didn't exactly wear the best shoes  for all that walking so one of my feet was hurting quite a bit. Z is so awesome!! As we were driving back to the hotel from Red Rock he "tricked" me and took me to a shoe store instead and I got to buy a new pair of shoes better suited for walking!! Thankfully we also had an awesome hotel room and we opted for chillin' on race days which definitely helped. 

Red Rock Canyon and The Hoover Dam

We came to Vegas a few days before our races so we could have a mini vacation and do a little sightseeing away from the busyness of Vegas. We took a drive out to Red Rock Canyon where as the name suggests you find large red rock formations. The area is a national conservation area and while we didn't see any wild life, there are signs that indicate you could encounter rattlesnakes and lizards. We stopped in one area that is popular with climbers. The rock here was very smooth in texture and mostly two toned in colour- red and white but the colours were alternately layered on one another. It was certainly a natural wonder. From here we took the 13-mile scenic drive through the conservation area. There are plenty of trails along the way, which if we weren't running in a couple days we may have considered doing one, but we wanted to save our legs and feet for the weekend. The drive really is extremely scenic and there are plenty of places to stop for photo ops. The vegetation for being in an arid desert seemed to be alive and well. This was a very cool place to visit and didn't really take much time out of our day.

Another day trip was to the engineering marvel known as the Hoover Dam. Built in 5 years during the Great Depression, and using over 3 million cubic yards of concrete this structure is certainly worth seeing when in the area. We paid $10 for parking and from there it was free to roam around the dam. You can take a guided tour but we opted to skip that. The Dam is not only used to generate power, but also acts as a water source for municipal and irrigation uses. We also stopped at the Mike O'Callaghan Pat Timman Memorial Bridge and walked to the middle to chat a view of the dam from the front. What an incredible sight!! This arch shaped bridge connects Nevada and Arizona south of the Hoover Dam and rises 890 feet above the Colorado River.

Viva Las Vegas

What to do when you have both a travel bug and a running bug? Travel for a run of course!! We're off the Vegas for the Rock'n'Roll marathon weekend where I'll be running my first back to back race....5k Saturday evening and 10k Sunday afternoon; Z is doing the 5 and then the half. This is one of only two times a year when the Vegas Strip will be closed to traffic so that thousands of runners can run down the strip to the finish line.

Our trip started with Air Canada moving our original seats so that Z and I were not sitting together. How annoying.....we've been fortunate not to have experienced this before, thankfully it wasn't that long of a trip. Unfortunately I couldn't entice my seats mates to trade aisle for window either. The flight was an AC Rouge flight which is very crammed in the back. It's interesting that AC has moved so many of their flights to Rouge....I guess it's all about trying to save costs and cram more paying customers into a plane. Too bad customers just accept this as the norm. In flight service is provided through their app which you have to download prior to flying and the entertainment selection quite frankly sucks! No recent movies available for my viewing pleasure. Again thankfully it wasn't a long flight and it was a means to get us to our destination. Not only did we no get seated together but somewhere along the journey Z's suitcase handle got broken....we're blaming AC!!

Hello Vegas, it's been a few years!! Let's see how you've changed (if at all) since the last time I visited. Had a very pleasant taxi driver take us to our hotel, The Cosmopolitan. Turns out he'll be volunteering at the race this weekend in one of the medical tents; really hope we don't see him again!!

Our check in was easy and we managed to get ourselves a pretty stellar upgrade. At first the desk clerk indicated that hotel management was cracking down on upgrades and people were losing their jobs by giving upgrades that weren't allowed but as we went through the process. We asked for a Bellagio fountain view room which he agreed he could do but it would be two queen beds...we preferred a king bed and as we continued talking and he remembered we were here for the runs, he decided it would be better to put us in the east tower as it was closer to the strip and where the runners' exit would be. Turns out he ended up putting us in a king sized terrace suite with an awesome view of the Bellagio water fountains. Oh yeah, one of the cool things about the Cosmo is that the rooms have balconies, something you don't find at other hotels.

After settling into our room we went for lunch at Milos, one of the many restaurants at the hotel. Here we enjoyed a pre-set three course lunch....the service was fantastic, our server was ever so friendly and made some really great recommendations that we throughly enjoyed. We each started off with a tomato salad which turned out to be a very tasty take on a Greek salad, I had the chicken skewer as my main which included immensely moist chicken breast that was seasoned to perfection, Z enjoyed the sea bass....they fly their sea food in fresh in every day and they actually display it on ice in front of the kitchen area, along with other fresh ingredients....Z really enjoyed his fish, and for dessert we shared the fresh fruit plate and the walnut cake which was one of our server's recommendations. The walnut cake was heavenly......so moist and difficult to keep up my end of the bargain in sharing, but I was good and did somewhat to Z's surprise.

Z had bought a discounted ticket for the High Roller, so we made our way there after lunch. The High Roller is a relatively new attraction in Vegas and is like the London Eye, a big ferris wheel but with enclosed cabins that can hold up to 40 people. It wasn't really busy when we arrived so we only had 9 people in our cabin. The ride takes about a half hour and gives some of the best 360 views of Vegas as you ascend to the highest point of 550 ft. I wasn't entirely sold on doing this when Z first mentioned it, but very glad he bought the tickets anyways because it was a pretty cool experience. The views were stunning and we hit it just at the right time and got to experience the sun setting. Just absolutely breathtaking and hard to describe the light effect on the dessert mountains when the sun sets and you can see that from up high.

Leaving the High Roller we strolled along the Linq pedestrian street and enjoyed some ice cream despite the cool weather. This ice cream place also had cookies and cupcakes and because we are in the city that "never sleeps" they even have a 24-hour cupcake ATM just in case you have a need for a cupcake at 3am.

We capped off our first day with O....an aquatic performance by Cirque that combines Cirque's astonishing acrobatics with a giant water pool that also turns into a dry(ish) stage at various points in the performance. This show is unlike any others I've seen before.....the cast consists of acrobats, synchronize swimmers and divers, all of which end up in the water at some point and usually in a very spectacular fashion. This is definitely a show to be seen. I was amazed at every aspect of it. The only criticism I have is that at time there were so many cool and amazing things going on it was hard to know where to focus my attention. I would highly recommend this one and suggest a seat higher up in the venue so to have a better view of the show without having to constantly be looking up.

Next stop....Vernon

Our supply of canned peaches was running low and so to replenish we needed to make a trip up to the Okanagan. But not just any trip would do.....it would have to be at the right time  when peaches were in season...but not just any type of peach would do...it had to be redhaven or glohaven peaches which are the best for canning. 

So very early Saturday morning on the first Saturday of August, Z was awake like it was Christmas morning!! The alarm didn't even go off! After a quick breakfast at home we set off on our road trip. First stop....Starbucks for a venti flat white which we shared after all that would have been a lot of caffeine for just one person. The drive was pretty non eventful - traffic was pretty good - until a miscalculation of gas to km ratio required doubling back to Merritt to fill up. At least we were only 40km past Merritt at the time this miscalculation was discovered....and we found some pretty cheap gas there! Oh what fun that was!! 

We reached Lake Country, our lunch stop, at around 1:30pm. Z had found a winery called Arrowleaf where we enjoyed a very fresh farm to table lunch from their limited, but very tasty food menu. I was pretty hungry by the time we arrived so I opted to do the wine tasting after eating. The setting was very picturesque with a fabulous view of Okanagan Lake in the background. The winery has a great patio and also a large picnic area in which you can enjoy your food.  We opted for the patio because it was covered and provided some relief from the blazing hot sun. I had the vegan just like a BLT sandwich and salad....instead of the bacon it came with sun-dried tomato pesto sauce, dried coconut chips, lettuce and tomato. Z had the three cheese grilled cheese sandwich and salad. 

I found their Riesling the best tasting wine and ended up buying a bottle whereas Z enjoyed the Solstice Reserve and bought one of those. Arrowleaf winery is just up the street from another favourite winery, Grey Monk and we just had to make a quick pit stop there to buy a few bottles of our favourites. 

Another 1/2 hour drive and we were in Vernon and checking into our hotel. It was still early enough and extremely hot enough for us to head out to Okanagan Lake for the early evening. We ended up going to Ellison Provincial Park which is on the northeastern shore of Okanagan Lake. We accessed the beach through the the campground and a short hike from the parking lot. It wasn't busy at all when we arrived. The beach is more pebbly and rocky than I would like, but regardless it was a great spot to sit and enjoy the scenery. The water was very refreshing and really provided a much needed cool down from the heat. It was still like 30C at 7pm. 

We were sitting minding our business when we heard some noises coming from the trees. When we looked over, we saw a deer making its way down to the beach. It headed straight to the shoreline and proceeded to drink the lake water. The deer didn't seem phased that there were people around, it didn't seem afraid and didn't get spooked as more people took notice of this visitor. It went about its business drinking water ignoring the photos being taken and when it was finished calmly walked away back into the forest. 


That was the first deer encounter of three  on this trip. I've got to say that I've never been this up close and personal with wild deer before in my life. 

Not much else could top off that beach experience!!







Sunday was another hot day and it was off to another lake for some R&R. This time we were heading to Kalamalka Lake. But we didn't just want to go to the most popular beach where everyone else would be going. No we wanted to go somewhere a little more secluded. Z found just the spot....and it included having to hike there which bodes well for our desire to be active! Cosens Bay beach cannot be accessed by vehicle. You either have to hike in, ride a bike or horse, or have a boat. The hike was a relatively easy 4km one-way journey (mostly down hill) taking us through some beautiful forest and along the cliffs above Kalamalka Lake. The views were nothing but breathtaking and really make me reflect on how lucky we are.

The beach was practically deserted when we arrived and we got to enjoy this serenity for some time before more and more boats started to arrived. At one point the horizon of the lake looked like we were under attack with the number of boats making their way to shore. The beach here was sandy, much to my delight. The sand carried on into the water which again was extremely refreshing from the heat. There were a few logs scattered along the shoreline which made great resting/leaning spots and so we just scooped out the best one and set up for the day. Our only regret was not packing a lunch so that we could have spent the entire day here. 

When it was time to go we decided we'd take a different trail back. Seeing as our way to the bay was mostly down hill, the way back was mostly up hill. For the most part the trail is decently signed, however there were a few places where we thought better signage could have avoided us doubling back and adding about 2.5 extra km's to an already very hot hike. Not complaining though because along the way we once again encountered a couple wild deer. This time they were on the same path as we were hiking so after a bit of a stare down, they went on their way down the hill and we continued on our way up. 

Vernon is home to Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery. Here we got to sample some locally crafted liqueurs and spirits, and the tasting was free to boot! How sweet is that? It's a pretty cool establishment and worth checking out. They've won quite a few awards for their products. 

Our last day we decided we'd spent the day at the popular Kal Beach. It wasn't too busy when we arrived in the morning and with the day being a little more overcast than sunny it didn't really get overly crowded; at least not compared to a previous day when we drove past it and said there was no room on the beach anymore. Z really wanted to SUP and he found a rental place by the beach and ended up renting it for 4 hours....because we could share it. My last SUP experience was OK, but it was in Maui on the ocean which isn't exactly the calmest of waters. Needless to say, I tried it there but couldn't stand up. So on a calm lake one would reason that I shouldn't have too much difficulty. And that's exactly what happened. So after Z enjoyed paddling around for an hour, it was my turn to give it a try. He's so patient with me, gave me a few pointers and helped me get on the board. After that it was pretty smooth paddling. It got easier the longer I did it, but it is tiring, or I'm just a wimp. Either way, I managed to stay out for about a half hour, didn't fall and really enjoyed it. It's a really cool feeling being on top of the water like that. 

Strangest chance meeting happened one morning while we were having breakfast at our hotel. We bumped into one of our friends and her son while they were also having breakfast. The funny thing about this is they live in the same neighbourhood as we do and we've never bumped into them and it took Vernon to bump into them. 

The morning we were leaving we decided to go for one last walk. Z found a trail by Swan Lake and it appeared that we could almost walk there from our hotel. But turns out we were a little incorrect. So after trying to walk there, we turned back and took the car instead. The cool thing about this area is that it's a wetland and is a breeding, nesting haven for many different bird species. We had the awesome pleasure of seeing an owl perched on a pole and it stayed there for quite some time before giving us a flying demonstration before disappearing in the horizon. This is also where we had our third encounter of wild deer. We were coming around a corner and lo and behold there were three deer on the path. They gave us the stare down again and if I could operate my camera a little better I would have gotten some better pictures, but instead they turned out blurry. Talk about frustrating. After a few minutes of trying to figure out whether we were a danger or not, they went on their merry way, bounce hopping away like only deer can do. 

All in all this was a great road trip. And this about sums up our Vernon adventure. Our last stop before hitting the road back home was at Davison Orchards. We picked up some amazingly sweet cantaloup, a very tasty yellow watermelon, juicy nectarines, local pure apple juice, sunrise apples which were juicy and tasty, and difficult to have to share apple cinnamon bun and a peach pie. Of course, we also got the peaches I had come to get in the first place. These were some of the sweetest peaches I've ever had and I'm looking forward to being able to enjoy them throughout the winter. 

Road trip to Whistler

We decided to take a road trip to Whistler for Canada Day and enjoy a couple extra days of just hanging out.  The drive on the Sea to Sky highway is a favourite of mine because it's so beautiful and scenic and always reminds me of how fortunate we are to live in such a gorgeous country! We left early enough to miss any major traffic but even still the highway upgrades made for the Olympics have helped to keep traffic flowing at a reasonable pace regardless with enough 2-lane stretches and passing lanes.

Our first stop was Porteau Cove only because I've never been there before and wanted to check out what this popular divers' spot is all about. It wasn't overly busy when we arrived but by the time we were ready to leave there wasn't a parking spot left. We got to see a couple divers coming back from their underwater adventure, someone practice flying their drone, stand up paddlers, and just a bunch of beautiful scenic nature. I can see why this is a popular place to spend the day or even camp.

The rest of the drive up was quite pleasant and we arrived in Whistler around 11:30am. Luckily our hotel room at the Hilton was ready so we checked in, dropped off our stuff and drove over to Day Lots 4/5 which are free. With it being the start of summer break and Canada Day the lots were already quite full but as we circled someone signalled a spot that was opening, so we waited a couple minutes for them to load up and grabbed the spot....sweet, free parking for 2 days! By the time we parked the Canada Day parade was getting underway so we walked over to the parade route and watched as many of the local businesses showcased themselves with their floats. The local firefighters manually pulled one of their firetrucks along the route. The village was quite busy with tourists. 

At 3 o'clock the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra was giving a free performance at the Olympic Plaza so we walked around a bit after the parade, searched for new Canada gear and just enjoyed the village before refreshing our sunscreen and waters and heading over to the plaza. The concert starting with Oh Canada, how fitting, followed by about an hour of 

spectacular music by Canadian composers, one being Marcus Goddard - a horn musician with the symphony, and more well known composers such as Strauss, Vivaldi and Tchaikovsky. It was an incredible performance and just so awesome that the VSO puts on these free outdoor concerts in the summer. 

It was nice to see that there was some snow remaining on the peaks of the mountains, though it was a lot less than normal given the extraordinarily warm winter we had. Given how hot it has been lately I'm not sure the snow packs will last very long unfortunately. 

Whistler/Blackcomb has the best of both winter and summer activities. The mountain has positioned itself well to accommodate skiers in the winter months and mountain bikers and hikers in the summer months. It was quite cool to be able to hike on the same mountain at the same time as some hard-core skiers were still skiing in July! 

We took the Whistler Village gondola up to the Roundhouse Lodge and then took the Peak Express chair lift up to the top of the world. The views from here were absolutely incredible with mountain ranges as far as the eye could see. We encountered a little bit of snow here, but it is melting fast! Seeing the village from atop of the world is pretty cool too. I had never been on the Peak 2 Peak before so this was something new for me. As we lined up for the gondola we noticed that the next glass bottom gondola was only a few minutes away so we decided to wait so that I could get the full experience. 

The Peak 2 Peak is just an engineering wonder to me. The gondola connects Whistler and Blackcomb mountains by the world's longest free-span at 3.03km between ropeway towers and at its highest point is 436m above ground. The total length of the connection is 4.4km and the ride is only 11 minutes. What a neat experience to be that high off the ground and to be able to look below at the forest. Once at Blackcomb we took the complimentary shuttle bus to the 7th Heaven Express chairlift. But why take the chairlift up when you can hike up? 

We took the Tree Line trail straight up the mountain to connect with the Lakeside Loop. The Tree Line hike/climb up took us about 20 minutes. We discovered quickly that most people don't go up this trail but rather go down it, but we don't like following what everyone else is doing. It was quite a nice hike up through the old growth forest. We heard a lot of birds and thankfully did not encounter any bears. Total distance is about 1.1km with an elevation gain of 235m and I could feel it in my breathing. At the intersection of the Tree Line Trail, Lakeside Loop and Overlord Trail we decided to take the Lakeside Loop to Blackcomb Lake. The Lakeside Loop is about 1.3km with an elevation gain of 43m. By this time the elevation change no longer phased me. It was quite neat to see and hike through all the different areas that are actually ski runs with Z pointing out numerous times where he had previously skied. 

There were plenty of wildflowers to admire and the one thing that really stuck out was just how peaceful it was up there....all you heard was nature and your footsteps...no hustle and busy of city life. It was so calming!! The views of the different mountain peaks and glaciers was truly breathtaking. The sun was sweltering so at Blackcomb Lake we made the wise decision to dunk our hats in the lake before continuing on....the sun quickly dried any moisture so we twice dunked our hats again in the glacier runoffs flowing along part of the trail. Our way back was on the Overlord Trail which took us all the way back to the Alpine Walk back to Rendezvous Lodge. The Lodge was closed for renovations and unless I head up here another summer won't see the finished project. The hiking difficulty level on these trails was moderate and if we didn't have an early dinner reservation or if the weather had been a little cooler we probably would have completed the Decker Loop too but I just didn't have the energy for that adventure. All in all it was a great day!!

We enjoyed incredible dinners at 21 Steps (just as the name suggests that's the number of steps to get up to the restaurant) and Trattoria di Umberto which capped off each of our awesome 2 days. We experienced great atmospheres at both restaurants and would highly recommend both. All in all this was a great mini vacation. 

Whale of a time...

We took a whale watching tour one morning with the hopes of getting a closer glimpse of the incredible humpback whales. We decided to go with Hawaii Ocean Rafting, a smaller whale watching outfit for the simple reason that their raft only takes out 16 guests max per tour, so you're not stuck on a large vessel with tons of people. Also, what also excited me about this tour is they take you out on a 30ft hard-bottom inflatable motorized raft and so you feel like you are right on the water.  

The morning we went out it was rather windy and the water was quite choppy. We started out nonetheless and at one point our captain said we may have to turn back because the water was only going to get worse, but in the end he decided the heck with it and we continued on. Good thing, because about 5 minutes later we found a spot where the water was a little calmer and pretty soon thereafter we spotted our first whale. Turns out it was a momma whale and her calf. We followed them for quite some time and they entertained us by breaching, slapping their pectoral fins and tail flukes on the water. We learned a bit about  humpback while on this trip. These whales migrate to Hawaii from Alaska in the winter to give birth and to breed. This would explain why as we followed momma whale and her calf we also saw a couple other whales, presumably males, chasing her. 

Most of them choose to hang around Maui and I think this shows their intelligence in picking such a great spot....if you're going to travel thousands of miles why not a beautiful, warm, sunny place like Maui? While in the Hawaiian waters, the whales actually do not eat and just live off their fat reserves. Once they head back up to Alaska for the summer, they will start feeding again, mostly on krill and small fish. They can reach up to 50 feet and weigh up to 50 tons. We had one of the whales swim towards us and right under the raft. Surprisingly no one aboard panicked and we got to see this massive whale up close and personal. It's a good thing it decided to remain under water while under our raft but I have to say I was a little disappointed that when it came through the other side that it didn't come out of the water at all. I guess it must have been aware of our boat and the other one nearby. 

This was the reason for coming to Maui this time. It was really worth it and the tour did not disappoint. And to be able to see them from the beach too was just incredible. What a fantastic once in a lifetime experience. 

To travel is to live....until next time...life is good!