Sunday, November 28, 2021

Aruba!



Long overdue for a return trip since our last in 2014, Rebecca and I joined my brother David and his girlfriend Lisa on the Saturday following Thanksgiving to fly to Aruba. By the afternoon, we were meeting my father and his wife on the beach!



I arranged two activities for our time in Aruba. The first was a kiteboarding lesson at Aruba Active Vacations.

Since I'd taken a lesson in North Carolina, I figured this time I'd be out of the water and possibly catching some air. Unfortunately, the wind wasn't blowing especially hard and I only managed to catch a strong enough gust to get me out of the water a couple of times. It was a little frustrating, but those things are simply up to chance I suppose.



Our second activity was one that the four of us could enjoy - renting UTV's to explore the island!

I made reservations with Arubiana to rent two side-by-side UTV'S for an eight hour period. The company was great at explaining the conservation areas to avoid, some highlights of the island to visit, and proper use of the machines. They even had an app which helped us navigate to areas of interest.

After a briefing, Rebecca and I headed back to La Cabana to get Dave & Lisa. Soon we were loaded up with groceries for our daylong excursion, heading on a clockwise tour of the perimiter. Despite the island's relatively small acreage, there is plenty to see. Even with several hours at our disposal, we had to choose some landmarks to skip in order to return the UTV's before close.



On our final day there, we again returned to the beach in front of our hotel. A few hours spent soaking up the sun and floating in the turquoise waters before heading to the airport to return to the reality of life on the mainland...



Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Follow

Sunday, November 21, 2021

Bryce Bike Park (Basye, VA)

It's been a while since I've ridden at a bike park. After selling the DH bike, I've sort of shied away from the more punishing runs on my carbon fiber Enduro rig. Bryce, though, is one of the more tame parks near us, with generally smooth trails with less gnarly rock gardens than can be found at Snowshoe or other more race-inspired parks.

For this visit, I was also testing out my new GoPro MAX camera. I fitted a mount to it for tying a floaty (for its eventual use in the water). I'm glad I tested this, too, as the mount did show up in the footage and would need to be nixed.



Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Follow