A Little Give-Away for the Long Weekend

[image via Po Campo & Planet Gear]

Longing for something lovely, US-made and free to go with your celebration of freedom from monarchy this week-end? How about aPo Campo Spare Pocket fromPlanetGear?This curious item is a water-resistant mini-purse that attaches to your wrist, ankle, or bicycle handlebars. The fabric is a beautiful "contrast damask" with reflective bird detail. I am not one to carry a purse, let alone a tiny purse, so that whole genre of accessories rather mystifies me! I can see attaching this to the handlebars though.



PlanetGear is a women owned retail club offering discounts on gear, clothing and travel destinations, as well as referral programs and monthly specials. I am not a member and am not affiliated with the company, but it looks interesting and hey - if they want to give you free stuff, how can I stand in the way?



If you would like the Spare Pocket, simply post a comment describing your week-end cycling plans (if you don't have any, make some up!) and I will then pick a random entry. US entries only for this one, and please include your contact information in the comment. Recipient will be chosen on Friday July 8th, and you may enter any time up till then. Thank you to PlanetGear for the give-away, thank you everyone for reading, and enjoy the holiday!

Death Valley :: Ubehebe Crater

Wednesday, March 7th - - After stopping at Zabriske Point and the visitors center I drove the 60 miles or so to the north end of the park. On my last visit the road was under construction with long delays and I didn't have the patience to deal with it. I spent the night at Mesquite Spring Campground, which as rustic as it is, is one of the nicer campgrounds in the park – the campgrounds at Texas Spring, Sunset, and Stovepipe Wells are little more than parking lots with the campers lined up side by side.



Thursday, March 8th - - I was still quite tired from the drive on Tuesday and slowly got myself up and around this morning. Since I had never been in this area of the park before I took a look at the Visitor Guide. I knew Scotty's Castle was only a few miles away but wasn't aware that the Ubehebe Crater was even closer. (Ubehebe is pronounced u-bee hee-bee.)



The crater was formed about 2,000 years ago when hot, molten rock turned groundwater into steam. The intense steam pressure built until the superheated combination of steam and rock exploded. The explosion spewed shattered rock over a six-square-mile area, in some places to depths of 150 feet. Ubehebe is the largest of many explosion craters in the area – it is a half mile across and about 600 feet deep.





Several trails lead into the floor of the crater. I didn't even attempt to go down. You can't see them in the photo above, but there are two people down there.





See, there they are... barely visible at full zoom!

A trail also follows the crater rim, how long it is I don't know. I did follow the path up to another smaller crater, which according to a sign was half a mile distant.





A panoramic view of Ubehebe Crater. The parking lot is down that path on the left side of the crater, about half way into the picture. Be sure to double-click on the photo for a larger version, then click again when it opens – it is an incredible landscape.

Virginia Living Museum

The last two times we were in this area, we said we wanted to visit the Virginia Living Museum. We drove over one weekend day just to find out they had already closed by the time we arrived. Since I was in recovering mode and couldn't do a whole lot of physical activity, we figured today would be a great day. We were not disappointed in our choice.



I'm not sure how to describe this place. It is part museum and part zoo would be as good of a description as I can come up with. The outdoors area has an area with water and boardwalks.





There are many animals out here to see.



The inside area is part museum displays and interactive learning fun and then has more animals too. Their website says they have over 250 animal and plant exhibits there. They also have a planetarium which we did not visit. We loved this place!



On a side note: the pictures are not great in quality or number because I only used the camera on my phone to take them. I could not bear the thought of lugging the big camera around today. I stupidly thought when they released me and said no restrictions beyond heavy lifting that it meant I would be up to doing anything but heavy lifting. Uh...no. I really was shocked how sore and tired I was after surgery. So this was a short trip and a laid back trip for us, due to my body telling me it did indeed have some restrictions!



Living the life in Virginia!

The “Happy 101” Award

The “Happy 101” award is making the rounds in geneablogger land and I'm happy to say that it has been given to me three times! I've received it from Carol at Reflections from the Fence, Harriet at Genealogy Fun, and Bill at West in New England.

I'm also happy to accept the happy award! By accepting it I am obligated to name 10 things that make me happy and pass the award along to 10 more bloggers that brighten my day.

Here are just 10 of the things that make me happy:

1. Being retired.
2. Traveling.
3. Sunshine and blue skies.
4. Meeting geneablogger friends.
5. Keeping in touch with family.
6. Warm weather.
7. Walking in the woods or along the seashore.
8. Writing.
9. Photography.
10. Watching the sun rise and set.

And the 10 bloggers to receive the award are:

• Jasia at Creative Gene
• Apple at Apple's Tree
• Denise at Moultrie Creek
• fM at footnoteMaven
• Ruby and Cheri at You Go Genealogy Girls
• Donna Pointkouski at What's Past is Prologue
• T.K. at Before My Time
• Debra Osborne Spindle at All My Ancestors
• Leah Kleylein at Random Notes
• Greta Koehl at Greta's Genealogy Bog

Dubai is a sauna and the view from my hotel’s rooftop

Sauna is probably the best fitting word to describe Dubai during the summer months. My skin felt lovely actually; you know, when you get out of the sauna, you are not only sweating buckets but you reap this pampered effect of having soft fresh skin and rosy cheeks. That’s Dubai for you in the summer. And that’s probably the only positive thing out of this oppressive heat in the city.







The fog is not a camera issue or a trick, this is Dubai during the summer months. Misty, er I mean, steamy.



Free sauna in Dubai



My first experience of the sweltering heat was when I stepped out of the rooftop of my hotel early in the morning. The temperature was a soaring 40-something degree celsius. I was caught off guard when I opened the metal door to the rooftop pool area. The heavy hot air instantly confronted my very startled I-did-not-expect-it-to-be-this-hot face. Humidity was skyrocket-high and I was sweating in seconds. My hairs started to annoyingly curl under my neck and ears as well and I began to worry if my light makeup will melt. I know it's petty but a lady does not want to look ridiculous, right?



It was really too hot to be walking on the rooftop of the hotel but I endured the sizzling dilemma just to take pictures, even if the lens of my point-and-click Sony camera was fogged up due to the steaming temperature. I am sure that if I break an egg on the floors of the rooftop, the egg would just cook by itself. Because of the humidity, there is not much to be seen from afar. Water in the air. Steam. Mist.



What can I say? The city is indeed a one big sauna oven and I can never thank Wills Carrier enough for having invented modern-day air conditioning!









The water in the pool looks very refreshing but it is too hot to be swimming on the rooftop in the summer. No way!

















Traditional trading boats docked on the Deira harbour along Dubai Creek.









That is Hilton on the left. But last minute I switched to Samaya because of their offer.









A mosque on Al Rigga, Deira district, just beside the hotel.







Samaya Hotel Deira



I stayed at the Samaya Hotel Deira because I want to be in the old part of Dubai. I only have a day in the city and the places I wanted to see were mostly in Deira and Bur Dubai. Luckily, both historical places are located beside each other and are only divided by the fascinating Dubai Creek.



For a better understanding of the city, I will give an overview of the districts of Dubai in my next entry.



Initially, I had my eyes set on the Hilton, until I saw Samaya offering a much lower rate. Samaya is a 5-star hotel that have seen better days, which is quite obvious in the hotel’s lobby and reception, however, the hotel rooms were still very nice, spacious, elegant and well maintained. Totally worth the switch I reckon.



I was also right with the location; it couldn’t have been any better. The hotel is just a stone’s throw away from the Gold and Spice Souks, the Abra (traditional wooden boat) station and the historical Bur Dubai district. However, during the sauna months in the city, it is almost impossible to be walking outside, thus one would need a personal chauffeur or a taxi to get to these places. Taxi fares are cheap in Dubai anyway, at least from a Dutch-Euro stand point.












The hotel has a glass capsule lift.








UAE currency: Dirhams. 1 EUR (Euro) is 4.8 AED (Dirhams). Taxi rides cost between 10 Dirhams to 30 Dirhams within the city. A 30-minute ride would probably cost about 40-50 Dirhams. That's nothing compared to the Netherlands where a 3-minute taxi ride can cost you 10+ Euros and a half an hour ride between 80 and 90 Euros.



In addition, the hotel is very close to the airport. You’d be surprised that there is traffic in Dubai, after all the city is constantly evolving, bringing new contruction and expansion sites, i.e. new infrastructure, new architecture and new road works that sometimes invites traffic.

Mt. Si

Mt. Si is the big hill, with the rocky top, right behind North Bend. For the most part, it is a hike on a dirt trail in the shade of tall evergreens. There is an inviting feature at the top called the Haystack. It consists of a few hundred feet of easy rock scrambling. It is fun to weave your own route to the top. For some reason it seems steeper on the way down.

The clouds rolled in as we reached the top. Pictured are: Dennis, Sabrina, Dave, Cody, Doug, Bethany, Danielle and Jim.

More traditional Greek villages in Lesvos: Vatousa and Antissa

Greece is a favourite summer holiday destination of ours and we have become regular visitors to the mediterranean islands in the past years. In Lesvos Island last summer we did a lot of island village expeditions with our rental scooter. Dutchman and I sped on the highways, took the small country-island roads, the tiny narrow village streets and even the off the beaten tracks.



One of the many lovely villages we visited were Vatousa and Antissa in the eastern part of the island.



Vatousa









This traditional village looked so nostalgic from the main road. It reminds me of a place with secrets. Pandora’s box? Elegant, beautiful from a distance yet eerie.







Antissa



Not very far from Vatousa is Antissa. It’s a much bigger town, has more facilities, as well as a thriving local community of old men hanging out in the village square in the afternoons.



This is very typical in the Greek Islands to see men of age gathering together, playing cards, backgammon or whatever games they get their hands on, and drinking coffee. While the older women get some afternoon fresh air by sitting outside their house’s doors.











Here we lost our way (lots of one-way streets!) as we navigated the scooter through the village centre. I like it that the village square is very cozy. The trees have definitely given a different ambiance to the whole place.



Then a local man driving a white Hilux pick-up car came to our rescue. He knew we were lost as we were going around in circles. He motioned us with his hand to follow him. Just before we reached the intersection that would lead us out of the village, I managed to take a picture of him. He has this wide grin across his face as he waved his arm approvingly at us. I hurriedly shouted, ‘Efcharisto!’



Greek people in the islands are very helpful and friendly!













We cannot wait to go back again this summer to the Greek Islands!