St Maarten/St Martin

Early Monday morning we departed Las Vegas for the Dutch and French Island. Our flight was a long one - it took almost six hours to get there. Although we left at 7am, we didn't arrive on the island until about 5pm due to the 4 hours time difference. We finally landed and checked into our hotel which was located right on the beach.



Unfortunately I didn't have a direct view of the ocean from my room - but it wasn't too shabby either:





The coolest thing about the location of our hotel was that we could watch the planes landing over Maho Beach. It's famous for the very low flying aircraft over the beach before touching down in St Maarten. Here is a video of Air France's Airbus A340 that lands every day around 3:20pm.



You'll notice a bunch of people standing directly under the plane as it lands on the runway just a few hundred yards away from them. I had seen a few jets getting ready to take off and people were being blown onto the sand and into the water by the jets blasts. There are big DANGER signs next to the runway, but people didn't seem to care. The jet engines are so powerful on takeoff that it doesn't only blow sand, but large rocks as well. I couldn't believe people were actually standing there. I was a too chicken to go stand directly under the plane while it landed, but still a cool thing to see nonetheless!

We spent 4 days on the beach, relaxing mostly and enjoying the warm weather and water. We enjoyed a few good dinners downtown of steak and seafood.

The water was so blue and inviting:



There were a lot of private yachts around the island as well:



and a view of our hotel from Maho Beach:



It was a great trip, but was happy to get home to celebrate Eric's birthday one day late!

Christmas in South America

Eric and I had quite an interesting December. We spent the first couple of days in New York City - it was FREEZING. I don't know how every winter I always seem to forget how cold New York is. This time though I was prepared and brought with me my boots, sweaters and warm wool coat. Work told me that New York was where I would be spending a few days - so we scoped out the city and all of it's Holiday madness. The tree at Rockefeller Center, the window displays at Saks, Cartier, the luxury hotels. There is something special about New York during the Holidays. The last day I was in the city, huge snowflakes were falling from the sky and New York felt so peaceful. Little did I know that this "peaceful" snowfall would cause me to spend the next 18 hours at JFK airport trying to board my short flight to my parent's house upstate. The funny thing about it was Eric flew to Angola Africa from St. Lous in the time it took me to take that 40 min flight. Here is a picture of the Jet Blue terminal at 4am when our 10:40pm flight was finally cancelled:



I was able to spend a few days at my parents house - eating homecooked meals, playing with my dog and enjoying spending time with family. I found out that instead of flying back to Vegas, I would be meeting up with Eric in South America for Christmas. Of course I was excited, but it's summertime in South American and the only thing I had to wear were warm winter clothes. Thankfully I was meeting Eric in Brazil and he had some time to stop back home in Vegas and throw my bathing suit and a dress in his suitcase. If you notice that I have the same dress on in three different countries because that was the only summer outfit I had to wear! Oh well.

After an overnight flight out of Newark - I finally arrived in Rio where it was very hot and humid. It really felt like summer hit me in the face as soon as the door to the plane opened. My driver took me to the hotel that Eric and the other pilot were staying at - only a block from Copacabana Beach! Rio is absolutely breathtaking. I really can't compare it to any other place I've been. Eric compares it to Yosemite National Park, but on the ocean. Once I got settled and changed into my dress, we decided to head to see the one attraction that we've talked about visiting for years - Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado mountain. We boarded a cute red tram that was to take us up to the top of the mountain - 2,300 ft above sea level where the statue was. The tram ride was really cool because it went through the Tijuca Forest National Park. We saw tropical trees that towered over us and even saw a monkey jumping from limb to limb!



Once we got to the top, we stood overlooking the entire city of Rio de Janeiro on a perfectly clear and warm Christmas Eve day. We decided to stop and take in the view before walking up more stairs to the statue. We had a drink at a little patio table and tried not to bake in the hot sun.





We walked the rest of the stairs to the top and were both surprised at how enormous the statue was. We tried to get a good shot of us in front of it, but it was hard to fit anything in the camera viewfinder. From the top we had views of Ipanema, Copacabana, the Lagoon and Sugarloaf Mountain. Helicopters were flying above giving other visitors amazing views.







There have definitely been some tourist attractions I've been to that didn't nearly live up to their hype. Being at the top of the mountain overlooking Rio de Janeiro - the pictures didn't do nearly enough justice to the beauty and the view surrounding us. It was getting warm so we decided to have our driver take us to the beach. We decided to stop at Impanema Beach - which is a little more hip and less touristy than Copacabana Beach. It was Christmas Eve so the beach was packed full of Brazilians sunbathing, playing soccer, paddleball and building the most intricate sandcastles I've ever seen!







The people of Brazil definitely enjoy being active on the beach! Another fun thing we did in Rio is go to a Brazilian steakhouse or a Churrascaria for dinner. It was so much fun. Basically you sit at a table and you have a little card that has red on one side and green on another. When you flip it to green, the waiters come by your table with knives and a skewer of some sort of meat like beef, filet, ham, sausage, lamb, etc and cut the meat off of the skewer until you tell them enough. Then, a different waiter will come by and offer a different kind of meat. It was so much fun and it was so yummy.

After our time in Rio, we hopped on the plane for Santiago. Here is Eric right before we left:



It was about a 4 hours trip and it was empty so I got the chance to hang out and take pictures in the back while we flew over the Andes! It was amazing. The mountain tops were snow covered and some reached as high as almost 23,000 feet! We were able to see the tallest - Aconcagua as we flew into Chile.



Landing in Santiago was quite spectacular because as we flew towards the Pacific Ocean over the mountains - we started descending into Santiago where it reminded me a lot of Napa Valley. There are many famous Chilean wines that come from this region and the contrast between the Andes and the greenery of the wine country was impressive.



Once we landed, our driver said it was a great time to be in Santiago because during this time of the year there is little or no smog. He said normally there is quite a pollution problem in the city. We arrived at our hotel in downtown Santiago. Our room had windows alongside both walls and had views of the Andes. We went up to the club level for some drinks and appetizers and realized that from the 20th floor - there probably wasn't a better view of the city in all of Santiago. We decided to order our Christmas dinner right there since we practically had the entire room to ourselves and the menu looked amazing. Eric and Matt had the lamb chops while I had to try the Chilean Seabass. The hotel provided a great selection of local Chilean wines which topped off our Christmas dinner in South America perfectly.





We were supposed to spend three days in Chile, but plans changed as they always do and we found out that we were going to be flying to Grand Cayman instead. I couldn't complain too much about that although I was dying to see more of Santiago and the surrounding towns. Our flight to Grand Cayman was about 8 hours and it went by fairly quickly. Once we landed, Eric and I knew we were on our own time for a few days before we flew home. We only had one thing on our mind once we got to the island - the beach! The water in Grand Cayman was so crystal clear. We booked a tour to go to Stingray City for the following day. In the morning, we took a walk to a beach near our hotel and had the entire beach to ourselves. We swam a bit and enjoyed the warm sun.







We headed over to where we were supposed to board our boat for Stingray City. The gentleman at the desk said that nobody else had booked a tour that day - so we would be the only ones on the boat! Eric and I boarded this 70ft boat with two crew members and had the entire boat and tour to ourselves! This is where our boat stopped:



We brought an underwater camera to take pictures of the stingrays. It was absolutely amazing. The water was so clear and our guide allowed us to hold the stingrays. It was the most surreal experience. They are such beautiful and gentle animals, although I'm not going to lie. I was pretty freaked out when one of the stingrays that was about 6feet in length started swimming towards me. We also saw a sea turtle and a morey eel!



Our whirlwind tour was fun, but we were sure glad to be back in our own home.

A Tiny Piece of Heaven

Alaska has always been one on my "must see" list. I remember back in the early 80's when I was a kid, my parents had a wallpaper mural in one of the rooms of our house (how 70's of them!). The picture was of beautiful autumn trees dabbled between evergreens. Beyond was a majestic snow covered mountain and a placid lake which mirrored it. I always wondered where that place may be, if it even existed.

As we drove along the Seward Highway (AK-1) I was reminded of that mural from years ago. The mountains sometimes soared above the clouds so high that they seemed to pierce the sky. The water was calm and glistened in the morning sun and patches of fog cropped up between the valleys. We started off out of Anchorage around 9am, waking up to a breakfast of strong coffee scrambled eggs and reindeer sausage. We looked outside, and the mountains were already snow covered. The locals said that this was a little unusual this time of year and the snow often doesn't start accumulating until a bit later in the season.



Along our drive, we stopped for any reason we could. The first few times just to breathe in the brisk fresh air and to take some photos of the steep mountain ranges, glaciers and fall foliage.



Another time was to try to get a glimpse of the Beluga whale that we saw in the bay as we were driving. I was amazed at how easily it was to spot wildlife and how freely they roamed in their natural habitat. Around every turn in the road, it seemed like there was a better view. Snow capped mountains and powerful waterfalls in the distance, bald eagles soaring above.



We arrived at our destination in the Kenai Peninsula. There are a lot of tours that go out of Seward for wildlife and glacial viewing as well as fishing trips. We decided to stop and have lunch at a place on the water called Ray's. We had a great view of the fishing boats as well as a large sea otter popping in and out of the water, probably looking for his lunch as well. I ordered the fish and chips with cod, red snapper and halibut. It was awesome! Probably because I was eating it in a small fishing village in Alaska.







After lunch we decided to head to the Exit Glacier in the Kenai National Forest. I had seen glaciers before, but never had the chance to walk right up and touch one. For some reason, I expected the glacier to be like packed snow. I was completely wrong. It literally was a block of solid ice, slowly melting away. Here are more photos of the view from the park:



This is where the glacier used to reach in 1926:





A solid block of ice:


A little piece of history melting away:



On the way back to Anchorage, we stopped at a wildlife conservation center where injured animals are either rehabilitated or kept if they are unable to go back into the wild. For example, we saw a Bald Eagle who had lost a wing and could no longer fly. here are a few photos of the brown bears and black bear high in the trees!







I wanted to see a moose all day - he was pretty chill (no flared nostrils):



So much to see and do in Alaska. It is truly beautiful here.

66° North

Eric and I had the chance to explore a small city located 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Kefavik, Iceland is definitely the furthest north I'd ever been and not a place I'd ever thought I'd get to spend any amount of time. Both Keflavik and the capital Reykjavik are frequent fuel stops for the jet when going to Eastern Europe or the Middle East. Usually we are there in the middle of night during the snow, gail force winds and driving rain. We picked up our passengers in Las Vegas and their final destination was Lebanon. It was too far for the pilots to fly the entire 14 hours there, so my crew got off the plane in Iceland and handed the plane over to another crew who would take it the rest of the way. When we landed around midnight, this time was no different! When we got off the plane, it felt like we were walking into a hurricane. By the time we got to the car that was taking us to our hotel, we were soaking wet.

We stayed in a cozy hotel with the thickest down comforters I had ever seen. Eric had stayed the night in Keflavik once in December and said it was absolutely frigid. I'm sure those comforters come in handy most of the year. We settled into our room and decided to go see if there were any restaurants or pubs open at 12:30am. Keflavik is 7 hours ahead of California, so it was just about dinner time on our clocks. We headed to Paddy's Irish Pub a few minutes down the road. It was cozy inside with candles lit all around. Although they didn't serve food, it was nice to get out of the driving rain. We sipped our beverages and listened to the patrons speaking Icelandic to each other in conversation.  

The next morning, we woke at 8am and had a mission. To get to the famous Blue Lagoon spa. We had to be really determined to go to this spa because the weather was horrible. It would have been so much easier to stay in the cozy bed, protected from the wind and rain but we figured we may not have a chance to go again. The lady at the front desk informed us that the bus was coming at 11am to take us to the Blue Lagoon, but we had to wait outside and flag it down when we saw it. Here is Eric taking one for the team and standing outside in the cold rain:



A video would have been better, I was almost surprised the roof didn't fly off the building with how windy it was. We finally boarded the bus that took us on a windy road to the lagoon. We knew we were almost there when we saw the glowing pool of water next to the road:






Once we arrived at the spa, we grabbed our towels changed into our bathing suits and headed out to the lagoon.  We dipped our toes into the hot, steaming water and jumped in.  It was a comfortable temperature especially because it was so cold and windy outside.  We explored our way around the lagoon, spent some time in the steam room and applied the goopy silica mud to our skin.  The Lagoon's water composition is not found anywhere else in the world and comes from holes as far as 6,000 feet deep.  It travels through porous lava which increases its mineral content and has blue silica which is an antioxidant.  My skin has never felt so soft!



After our short day at the spa, we headed back to the airport to catch our Icelandair flight back to New York.  While waiting in the terminal, we noticed some interesting lights hanging from the ceiling. Upon further inspection of the lights, we realized the coverings are actually gutted fish with light bulbs inside.  How chic!

We grabbed what we think is a dark chocolate candy bar made in Iceland.  We weren't sure though.  Eric told me he'd give me $1,000 if I could pronounce the word on the wrapper; unfortunately I didn't even know where to start:

Although our trip to Iceland was brief, the Blue Lagoon was definitely worth seeing.  We are back in L.A. already and our last two days almost seemed like a dream.  We left on Thursday morning and got home in time to sleep in our own bed on Friday night.  Our upstairs neighbor asked what we had been up to since we last saw her on Wednesday night.  I thought about telling her about our trip to Iceland and going to the spa at the Blue Lagoon, but I'm sure she would have thought I was joking since she just saw us leaving home about 48 hours before. 

Touring Buenos Aires & D.C., Simultaneously!

No, I didn't have a sudden career change. During a recent trip, Karen and I practiced our anchoring skills at News Channel 9 in Washington D.C. Dan works the camera and master controls at the news station and let us view a live taping of the newscast while watching him in action. It was really interesting to see how everything is put together during the live broadcast.

Dan working his magic at the controls....



During the four day trip, I was finally able to see where Karen in Dan live. We ventured out shopping in Georgetown and hit up some other fun neighborhoods around town. I loved driving around and seeing the lush trees, quaint streets and the beautiful homes! On Saturday morning I was spoiled with a hot gourmet breakfast and fresh coffee that Karen had just brought home from Rwanda. They certainly know how to spoil their guests!


Meanwhile, over 5196 miles away in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Eric was enjoying a consistent menu of steak, red wine and dulce de leche. I wanted Eric to write a "guest entry" about his cool trip to South America, but instead I'll just post some of his photos.



View of the city from Eric's hotel room...



A very random statue he found along the way...



Eric had good luck shopping in Argentina. He brought home some high quality leather goods, a plush sheep skin rug and some dulce de leche for me!