short, but sweet.

Hot Springs, Arkansas

i flew into Little Rock airport thursday afternoon and by saturday at noon, i was gone. it was a short but sweet visit to be sure. one of my cousins and i went to visit our grandfather and family who live in Hot Springs. in the past, i have hiked through Hot Spring national park, visited the famous bath houses, admired the local pottery makers, and enjoyed the races. but with our time constraints on this trip we only did a morning tour: walking around the historic downtown and sampling some of the tasty fresh (HOT) spring water. the downtown area is filled with interesting shops and boutiques on one side of the road and bath house row on the other. i'm not a shopper buy any stretch of the imagination, although i do have to admit that i had a lot of fun exploring shops with my cousin. especially the sweet shop (called the chocolate factory) that let us sample about 5 kinds of fudge. mmm... ;)

while walking you can see the look out tower at the top of the hill in the distance and arlington hotel which looms over downtown in an almost ominous way. but one of the most beautiful things i noticed on this trip was all the lovely flowers popping out for spring (you can check out some of my floral pix @ strawberry moon). the rest of our time was spent visiting with family, which was absolutely wonderful. i also enjoyed traveling with my cousin and giving our grandfather a chance to see all his grand-daughters together which made it particularly special. you know, every trip is memorable, but i do have to say that even with as brief as this trip was, it was definitely one of my favorites. :)

one of the unique bathhouses:

memory: slippery when wet...

Loiza, Puerto Rico

The drive from Loiza to San Juan in northwest Puerto Rico is a beautiful one. It's a tiny 2-lane road lined with natural beaches and local food stands. I suggest giving yourself plenty of time for a leisurely drive to enjoy the beauty and frequent stops in the sandy pull offs. It was at one such random stop that my friends and I discovered a gorgeous beach with no people and cool rocks along the water's edge.

This is where our fun trip took a sharp turn. Maybe it was the Gasolina (a strong Puerto Rican tasty beverage) that was consumed that morning or just a complete lack of worry that comes with being on vacation. But for whatever reason we decided to walk along the rocks to get some cool shots (and we did). To say that was a bad idea is putting it mildly. As it turns out, flat rocks don't mix well with shallow water (a thought that may have seemed more obvious had we consumed less of said tasty beverage). It was comical really. One of my comrades slipped and fell on the rocks. Hilarious, right? Well the first fall was (save for the fact that her camera lay at the bottom of a mini rock cavern filled with water). It was the second, or maybe it was the third, that done her in. She ended up crawling out of the water.

It still seemed quite funny, she was laughing, we were laughing. All was good right? Au contraire mon frère. It was actually your's truly who noticed first. Both of her knees were bloody, but that wasn't what made me stop laughing and tell the other girls to look at her knee. My friend looked at me too afraid to look down and see the damages as all our other friends gasped in surprise. Her knee had already swollen to the size of a softball.

Alas, this lead to a completely new adventure: the local hospital. But first we had to find it. It felt like we were in an old episode of The Benny Hill Show, as we drove around not knowing where we were going. We finally ended up at what we thought was an emergency clinic, which turned out to be a completely different kind of clinic (for females only if you know what I mean). Fortunately, they were able to point us in the direction of the 'real' hospital. Where the only person who spoke english was a big burly guard. But that is a whole other story. In the end, my friend felt the results of our misadventure for the rest of the trip. But she healed. And now we lood back and laugh at our crazy day in Loiza.

So what did I learn from this experience?
Beware of hidden dangers that are concealed behind a beautiful facade. Sure.
Remember, rocks are slippery when wet. Of course.
And above all, Gasolina and the beach do not mix. :)

UPDATE: new posts...

i've decided to start a new line of posts for memorable trips, experiences, or just some of the places that stick out in my mind. i have previously discussed this but had never decided on a format. from here on out, all posts starting with MEMORY are exactly what they claim to be and all else is current. so hopefully i can really get this thing going as i've always wanted it to be. :)

as always, you can check my other blog for more pix.

thanks! :)

peace. love. travel.

-g2

not just another day at the beach

one of my many resolutions for 2009 has been to appreciate what i have... one of the ways this has manifested itself, is trips to the beach (something that i know i take for granted, and yet it is most people's fantasy place to be). so far this year i have taken several trips to the beach and just absorbed its beauty and calming effect. here are a few photos of the beach from my visit this past weekend. i hope you gather a sense of calm when you view them.

a weekend getaway: Disney World

one of the many benefit to being a Floridian, aside from all the natural beauties, is the theme parks. not only are there many close at hand, but fortunately if you are from here there are discounts and special offers. this past weekend, i took advantage of one of these: Disney's Florida residents pass. and as WDW is just a quick 2 hour drive from SRQ, it is totally doable for a fun weekend getaway. Disney is one of those magical places that can bring out the kid in me (though it is hard for some to get past the crowds). to me, it is magical in the sense that most people are happy to be there and tend to act just a little 'goofy' themselves: i like to buy character ears and/or hats whenever i go to wear for the day (this time i chose a pirate gooft bandanna for MK and a safari hat for AK ~ too fun!). even if you are not planning to fully give yourself over to the idea of the Disney celebration, it is hard to avoid the excitement upon entering a park (especially if you have kids in tow). and i was lucky enough to go with my 2 nephews on their very FIRST trip to Disney (their joy was palpable). tlak about feeling the magic!

T-Rex Cafe @ downtown Disney

awesome fireworks display @ the Magic Kingdom

the entrance to the Animal Kingdom

for more photos of Disney World, go to Strawberry Moon.

appreciating what you have (part 2)

Sarasota, Florida

in a recent day trip around sarasota i really got the sense of reconnecting myself with areas of my community that seemed to have been previously placed on the back burner of my mind. i set out that day with purpose: to rediscover some of the things i enjoyed as a child and to avoid tourists (if at all possible). well, i guess one out of two ain't bad. ;)


i started the day with a trip to the local grove store. it's funny, you know it's only about a block away from where i work but i couldn't tell you when was the last time i visited. but, to my joy, it had not changed. same green shingle roof, same smell, same free orange juice samples. mmm... there is nothing like fresh orange juice during season, so good. so i sampled my orange juice while i explored the store and topped off my visit with a orange/vanilla swirl cone (a childhood favorite to be sure). after taking a moment to reflect and swing on the porch swing outside, i was on my way.


my next destination was downtown to the park on the bay, where i took in the fabulous scenery and admired the art pieces along the bayfront. these art pieces change from time to time, but this year a previous piece was brought back (supposedly under controversy, if you talk to the locals - however, the interim statue looked like a huge tooth to me, so i personally was pleased to have the previous piece back in place). the piece was a recreation of the famous photograph of a couple kissing on V-J day, which was built into a larger than life statue and placed again at the north end of the row. while taking some fun photo shots around the statue, i ran across a few interesting characters, one of whom was an artist painting the statue (talk about remembering a moment in time: a painting [shown right] of a statue of a photograph of an actual event from over 60 years ago). another man (whom i took to be a semi-local, or a snowbird), was very friendly and starting giving me the complete background of the statue and the controversy behind it. he was so into giving his tutorial that i never had a chance to tell him that i wasn't a tourist, but he enjoyed the telling and i was pleased to hear him. after a while, i walked back towards island park, making sure to read the names on the boats parked along the row as i went (some were pretty amusing). at island park i took brief respite on a bench by the bay where i watched a few kids make some humorous attempts at sailing.


from there i headed to the north end of siesta key, as there are a few secluded beach access areas (ie. less tourists). i only stayed about a half an hour or so, and i didn't even walk all the way down to the water, but i truly appreciated it while i was there. i took my shoes off, walked in the powdery white sand, and people watched. unfortunately, i had to head out and ended up leaving before the beautiful sunset. but i was able to catch the sunset a few days later, because here beautiful sunsets on the beach happen almost daily. and for that i am most appreciative. :)

on a more serious note...

another hiccup in my travel postings. i cut my sarasota blog into parts because i unexpectedly had to go out of town. i traveled with my entire family up to south georgia to attend my uncle's funeral. it has been a very sad time, but having blogs has actually been a good outlet that has allowed me to remember him well.

a beautiful pecan orchard
i will try and start posting again soon.