Goblin Valley State Park

Sandi and I left at 8 AM on Sunday morning for Utah. We had planned to leave Saturday, but the weather in the mountains was not good. The roads on Sunday were good, and we drove with relatively few stops. Glenwood Canyon was impressive, as was the Utah desert, with its book cliffs. Our longest stop was in Grand Junction, where we bought fuel and groceries at the Walmart Neighborhood Market.

After Green River Utah, we turned off I-70, and drove south, with the San Rafael Reef on our right. We arrived in Goblin Valley State Park about 5:30, and set up camp. The small campground is kind of whimsical, with rock formations everywhere, and many kids treating it as a giant playground. Our campsite has a toadstool rock formation, a covered picnic table, and a large concrete pad for the RV. The campground was full. We learned that there were two weeks of spring break in Utah, and this is one of them.

On Monday we drove to the entrance station; Sandi bought gifts and postcards for her grandkids. The young ranger suggested that we hike the Curtis Bench trail, which included an overlook of the Valley of the Goblins. The rock formations were amazing, and even hiking in the desert was interesting.

We had the trail to ourselves until we turned around to go back. We had a nice conversation with some Quebequois retirees from Montreal. They were on a grand RV tour of the US, starting in Florida.

Late in the afternoon, we walked in among the Goblins. Goblin Valley is a area with many toadstool type formations, created by weathering of sandstone. The goblins can be whimsical. There were many adults and kids playing in and around the Goblins. We kept walking further into the field of Goblins well beyond where the other visitors were. Richard was interested in following the drainage; Sandi was looking at the plant life. We had been watching a rainstorm to the north, hoping that we were safe. As we walked back to the parking lot, we were peppered with cold rain, wind, and a little sleet. The wind woke us up during the night, shaking the camper. Sandi noted that in the book she was reading, Edward Abbey talked about strong spring winds in this area.

On Tuesday, we headed for Little Wild Horse Canyon, a popular slot canyon. Because of rain the previous night, there was a very large pool of water where the canyon started to narrow. The trail went high along one side of the canyon. Richard casually scrambled up, hands in his pockets. Sandi was terrified, but pushed through it, and we reached the valley bottom, and the entrance to the slot. The pattern of the water carved rocks was amazing. We went in about one mile. In many places, the slot was so narrow that two people could not pass. This became an issue when we turned around at a large stone, and started to go against the flow of traffic. Sandi was impressed by the small children who were fearlessly climbing the rocks.

We returned to the camper for lunch, and then decided to explore the other side of the San Rafael Reef. We stopped to see some petroglyphs, and the historic Temple Mountain uranium mining area. We then turned off the main dirt road, onto the Chute Canyon Road. From the back side, you can see the many layers of rock which make up the reef. The area is full of off road vehicle trails, but we did not see many vehicles

We headed back to the camper for dinner. After dinner, we took a stroll out to where we could take advantage of the evening light to take pictures of the impressive San Rafael Reef.

Sea Kayaking in the Everglades

Jud organized a Rocky Mountain Sea Kayak Club trip to the 10,000 island region of the Everglades, on the gulf coast of south Florida.

Six of the eight folks decided to save money by flying the Frontier redeye to Miami, getting on the plane before midnight, and arriving about five AM.   This did not work out as well as they had hoped, with several people swearing never to fly Frontier again.   They also had to wait hours for the rental car company to open.

Bernie and I were not enthused about the redeye, so we flew in the day before, and stayed in the very comfortable Cambria Suites hotel for about $100, my first use of Priceline.  Bernie flew on his United retiree benefits, and I flew on American miles.  Bernie picked up a rental car, and later picked me up at the airport.  We were happy with our decision.

Bernie and I had breakfast at a Latino restaurant on our way out of Miami, after a grocery store visit.   We stopped in the Big Cypress Preserve visitor center, where we learned a bit about alligators.

We drove through Everglades City, and met up with the group at our campground, Chokoloskee Island Park and Marina.  The campground was reasonable, although most folks were in RVs, not tents.  The boat ramp was a busy place, mostly fishermen.  We had dinner at the Camillia Street Grille.

We picked up our boats in Everglades City on the 24th, after stopping by the Everglades park visitor center to reserve our campsites.

Mangrove Tunnel

We had decided to paddle up Halfway Creek, through the mangrove tunnel, and then down the Turner River, which took us back to Chokoloskee.   The bugs were fierce; I was very happy to have and use my mosquito net headnet.   We met a guide taking some tourists up the tunnel; he said that obviously it was not our first rodeo, perhaps noting the mosquito  headnet.  I flipped my kayak trying to get under a low branch.  All in all, it was a pretty hard day.  We had a nice dinner at the Havana Cafe.

On the 25th, we paddled across Chokoloskee Bay to Indian Key pass, a busy channel.  We stopped at a small shell beach, and watched the dolphins fish.  If you see several fish jump through the air, look for the dolphin they are trying to escape.  We also saw a couple of manatees.   We had to fight a tidal current as we headed out to the Gulf, and later a headwind, to make our way to Picnic Key, our beach camp for three nights.   Yes, there were mosquitos.....

On the 26th, we decided to take it easy, and paddle to nearby Tiger Key, where we relaxed in the shade, with just enough breeze to keep the bugs away.   It was really quite pleasant.  We paddled over to Camp Lulu Key, just outside the park, and then returned to Picnic Key.   Clark saw a huge sea turtle on the way back.

On the 27th, we headed for Fakahachee Key, which at one point was a tomato farm.  We had an easy paddle, with the current.  We found several gravestones, as well as a cistern.

Cistern

Like many of the islands, it is largely made of shells, discarded by the Calusa Indians over thousands of years.  We decided to circumnavigate the island, but when we turned towards home, we ran into very strong currents.  It was all we could do, paddling as hard as we could, to make slow progress against the current.   The speed of the current was substantial in certain spots, less in others.   The wind turned against us later, so we were tired when we got home.

Note the shells and the mosquito headnet

On the 28th, we headed back to Everglades City.  We had to go around Stop Keys, due to low tide, but generally had an easy paddle, with the current, back to Chokoloskee Bay.   However, by the afternoon, the wind picked up, and we had a tough paddle across the bay, against the wind, to get back to the marina.  We turned in our boats, and started the two hour drive back to Miami.

In Miami, we checked into the Ramada Springs hotel near the airport, where we were happy to take a shower, and had dinner at the sports bar.

On the 29th, I had a later flight, so I decided to see Wynwood Walls, an area with many murals.  I said goodbye to our group after breakfast, and took a bus to Wynwood.  I took a walking tour of the murals, which was somewhat interesting.  Most of the murals were not to my taste, but many of them showed real skill, especially considering the size of the murals.

I went back to the hotel, picked up my luggage, and took a cab to the airport.  The flight left on time, but we learned midway that the Charlotte airport had been shut due to bad weather.  We landed in Charleston to refuel, and then had a very bumpy ride to Charlotte.  I made my connection, which was also late, and ended up in Denver at 1 AM.  Sandi was good enough to pick me up at the airport, as I had missed the last bus to Boulder.  She had opted to stay home and bond with the house and cats.  Sandi reported that the cats were strangely silent while I was gone.

All in all, a good trip.  I was the new guy in the group, and one of the younger members.   I hope to paddle with them again in the future.  We all learned that we need to plan around tidal currents.   We all got warm for a week or so, having missed some snow in Colorado.

Curacao, Bonaire, and home

In Curacao, our ship docked at Willhelmsted, a UNESCO world heritage site, a Dutch colonial city. It is considered to be part of the Netherlands. The town has its original forts, as well as a unique appearance. Think tropical colors with architecture from Holland. We arrived about 2 PM, so decided to limit our explorations to the city.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the town is the pontoon pedestrian bridge, which swings out of the way to let ships pass. The bridge effectively has a motor driving a propeller at one end, and a hinge at the other. When they want to open the bridge, they start up the motor, and power the bridge off to one side. For smaller boats, they open it partway, but for ships they open it all the way. They run a pedestrian ferry when the bridge is open.

The forts have been redeveloped into shops and restaurants, retaining the original walls. We noticed a Greenpeace ship in the harbor, apparently for repairs.

We chatted with a local artist, who was working on a mural.

We liked Curacao better than any of the previous islands that we had visited.

In Bonaire, our ship docked at Kralendijk, the only sizable city. The entire island has a population of only 19,000 people. The main street had a range of shops, and was tidy. We were met by Renee, our snorkeling guide. She is an older lady who first arrived in Bonaire by sailboat from South Africa, with her late husband, and fell in love with the place. She says that life on the island is expensive, and that if you see something that you like you buy six of it, as it may not be available again anytime soon. She was an excellent guide, snorkeling with us, pointing out various fish, and even a Moray eel. The turquoise parrotfish were spectacular. One interesting animal looked like two small sea fans, anchored in the sand. When they sense any motion, the fans suddenly disappear, as that is how it captures food. She only takes out four people at a time. Bonaire is known for snorkeling and diving off the beach, and that is what we did. One odd coincidence was that Clayton and Donna, who usually sat next to us at dinner, were also on the tour! There is less than a thousand to one chance of that happening.

We walked around the town a bit, and bought a small painting by Janice Huckaby, a lady from Texas who moved to Bonaire. The shop was recommended by Renee. The main street was tidy, with various shops, including a good gelato shop. The whole place was laid back; we loved it. This was definitely our favorite island of the tour. The Dutch islands, as part of the Netherlands, are more first world than third world.

On Wednesday morning, we woke to 3 meter seas, and an uncomfortably moving ship. It was tricky to move around in the morning, but the seas calmed down in the afternoon. We enjoyed a couple of talks during the day, including the captain's talk, and a talk on crossing the Pacific in a catamaran sailboat. We took a Rumba class in the afternoon.

Richard took a behind the scenes tour of the ship, including the galley, the engine control room, and even the trash sorting and handling facility. They separate and recycle almost everything, incinerate most foodstuffs, and have their own waste treatment facility. I learned that the ship has two gas turbines, which generate electricity to power the two azipods, which hang below the ship and provide propulsion. The ship runs one gas turbine at sea, which provides enough power to move the ship at about 19 knots, but can use both turbines if they have a need for speed. They use a boiler and steam turbine to recover waste heat from the gas turbines, and have two diesel generators that they use while in port. They also have a small emergency generator. Wednesday was our final formal night.

On Thursday, we woke to moderate seas. We can see the coast of Cuba to our south, although our cabin was on the other side. We took another Rumba class. We have really chilled out, after ten days on the ship. Richard, ever frugal, admitted the merits of the balcony room. We took another rumba lesson. We packed up to get ready to leave the ship. Sandi, at least, was sad to leave.

On Friday morning, we got up early to leave and head for the airport.

Nice sunset from Atlanta airport

We changed planes in Atlanta, and arrived in Colorado to find cold weather.

We each added six new countries to our country count, and found one place, Bonaire, which we would like to visit again. Sandi goes back to work, and Richard will start applying for paddle permits.

Looking back at our trip, we learned some things and formed some conclusions. Unplugging from email and the internet is a good thing. We were not able to check our email 20 times a day, and that was OK. We did not buy the ship's expensive internet package, which many people complained about, and used free WIFI in ports. Richard realized that balconies are nice, at least in warm weather. We did not like "mytime" dining.  It seemed rushed, and the wait staff was not able to be as attentive as in traditional cruise ship dining.  They turn over the tables 2.5 times, instead of twice in traditional dining.  We were seated with different people, as often as not.  

The continuing problems with the Venezuela economy are likely to affect these islands, as they are closely tied to Venezuelan oil and other commodities. The cruise ship is a very international world; the crew came from 60 nations, and the passengers from 40 nations. The cruise ship had many “Save the Waves” signs; the oceans are worth saving, and snorkeling reminded us of that.

Barbados and Grenada

In Barbados, the cruise ship terminal is part of the commercial port, so it is some distance from the town. When we got off the ship, we took a shuttle bus to the cruise ship terminal, and then another bus into town. 

 We walked up to the Anglican cathedral.

The graves were especially interesting, many dating from the early 1700s. From there we headed to the Roman Catholic Cathedral, which was some distance away. The Catholic cathedral was relatively new, as the Catholic church had only been there since the 1800s. It included regimental symbols from various units which had a connection to Barbados, including the Royal Scots.

The day was a bit of a long walk, not through the best neighborhoods, but we did get to see something of the town.

We were warned twice to keep a close watch on our bags, a friendly reminder.

We kept walking to find the Garrison and the Barbados museum. The Garrison is the UNESCO world heritage site. We walked and walked, and saw some signs for the garrison, but no garrison. We asked for directions several times, and finally reached the Barbados museum, without ever seeing the garrison. The museum itself was moderately interesting, but nothing to write home about. The museum is in the old military prison. When we left the museum, we started to see the garrison, generally red brick buildings around what is now a horse racing track.   The buildings date from the early 1800s.

But by then we had walked enough. We continued long enough to find a coffee shop, where we rested our feet, and ate a bit. At that point, Sandi said she would not walk any further, and wanted a cab. While looking for a cab, a van/bus stopped, and we got on. We were definitely with the locals.  The lady behind us in the bus was chatty, and told us about the 50^th anniversary of independence, and explained the commemorative monument that we saw, including a large flag.  The bus dropped us at the open air bus station, near the center of town.  

We walked a few blocks, and hired a taxi to take us the rest of the way back to the ship.

In Grenada, the ship arrived at 7 AM and left at 2 PM, not allowing much time for tourism.

We trudged straight up the steep hill to the 8AM mass at the Cathedral. The elderly bishop said mass; they are waiting for a new bishop to be appointed. The bishop appeared to be well loved. During the traditional Catholic sign of peace, the bishop went down the aisle shaking hands, and many crossed the aisle to great each other. We do not typically see this in the USA. This appeared to be a close knit community. There were many well dressed church ladies, including some in white, as you would see in an African-American church in the USA. There was a Calypso choir, with a drum. Sandi claimed the mass was two and a half hours, but it was really about two hours.

After mass we asked a policeman about WIFI, and were directed to a nearby bar, where we saw many people from the cruise ship staring at their phones. We also saw a local man persuading tourists to buy him beer. We walked through the low one lane tunnel to get to the Carenage (sic), the old port, where we saw colorful fishing vessels. The town was basically closed for Sunday. We were told that the unemployment rate was 39%. We perceived Grenada as poor, and not as prepared for tourism as Antigua or Barbados. Venezuela funded the city market, which was virtually empty. The people were hawking their wares, but were polite. Sandi missed visiting the spice plantations; we had read that they were closed on weekends. Grenada is known as the spice island; we did not buy any spices, although they were being sold everywhere, because we were not sure if we could bring them back to the USA.

Antigua and St. Lucia

Richard watched the ship come into St. John's from the top deck. 

Richard had booked a tour from Lawrence of Antigua. We met him on the dock, and learned that he has three vans. Lawrence was our tour guide. He has earned a good reputation, although he seemed a little bored, after 25 years in business.

We headed through the center of the island, towards Nelson's Dockyard, a UNESCO world heritage site. We stopped at Shirley Heights, which were part of the system of British fortifications.

Nelson's dockyard itself is a natural harbor, including an inner harbor. In 1784, Horatio Nelson was assigned as second in command of the Leeward Islands Station, years before he became famous at the Battle of Trafalgar. The dockyard is the only Georgian-era dockyard still in use. The dockyard has been restored, including the capstans that were used to careen (tilt) the ships for maintenance. The dockyard is still in use for yachts, so tourists and yacht people share the space.

We headed back on the southeastern coast. Lawrence tried to tempt us with a pretty beach, but no one was buying, so we went back to St. John's, and the ship.

Sandi and I went out walking in the town of St. John's, including a stop at the Anglican Cathedral, which was being repaired. There were numerous graves from the early 1700s. We also stopped at an internet cafe, where we checked our email and called home. We found out from the neighbors that schools in Boulder were closed, due to 18 inches of snow.

We tried out Richard's new GPS from the top of the ship, and looked at the chart showing the ship's route plan. We called it a night early.

On January 6^th, we landed at Castries, St. Lucia. Sandi was up early enough to watch the ship arrive, and turn around in the harbor to point out. When we left the ship, we had to go through a large shopping area owned by the cruise line. Richard was not happy about their attempt to hold us captive. Royal Caribbean clearly does not want us to go to town. We walked to town through an industrial port area, and found a taxi driver to take us to the Caribelle batik factory, which is far off the beaten path. We watched a demonstration of the batik process, and then Sandi did some shopping, including a bright blue tropical shirt for Richard.

Gregory, our taxi driver, urged us to take a tour from him, so we agreed to a three hour tour.

Our next stop was the Eudovic art wood carving studio, where we bought a turtle carved by O'Neil Perry, who we watched work. He signed the piece for us.

We continued down the coast, most notably to the village of Anse-La-Raye, a colorful fishing village.

The area was very green, although the dry season had started. We also went through a large banana plantation, which we were told is a kind of a co-operative. The bananas are protected by blue plastic bags.

The roads were extremely twisty, and we were glad that we had decided not to drive all the way to the Pitons, twin peaks which are the symbol of St. Lucia. This is a volcanic island, and very mountainous.

Our general impression was that St. Lucia was an ecotourism destination, and that it was more third world than Antigua. They have a new prime minister, and the people are eager for change, as the previous prime minister had not kept his promises. The language is primarily Kweyol, a French based creole language, although the official language is English. It was often a challenge to understand our driver, through his thick accent. He pointed out Massacre Hill, where slaves had been killed. He was very proud of his country, and we enjoyed listening to him. We learned that he had five children, and that he owned his taxi, which he bought used from Japan. Apparently most cars are imported that way, as they are much cheaper than new cars. Tourism is clearly the primary industry.

We returned to the ship for a late lunch.

We watched the ship depart from our balcony. The excitement was when the man working the ship's lines, tried to cast off the lines from the buoy, but the lines snagged or jammed, so he had to go back and rearrange the lines. After the second try, and a hard pull from the ship, the lines finally came off the buoy.

As we were leaving, we noticed the airport runway. They had to shut down the airport to let the ship pass, as the runway ended right at the entrance to the harbor.

Fort Lauderdale and the Sea.

On New Year's Eve, we got up early and took the bus to the airport. 

Denver International Airport

We were headed to Fort Lauderdale for two nights before our Caribbean cruise. Our flights, on Delta via Atlanta, were unevenful. We took a taxi to the Aqua hotel in Fort Lauderdale. The Aqua is a retro type two story hotel, and had a nice feel to it.

We walked to Lulu's Bait Shop for dinner; thanks to Mike for the recommendation. Lulu's is a large informal restaurant, and full of people. Given that it was New Year's Eve, there was a party atmosphere. After dinner, we walked back to our hotel, and were in bed before midnight. It had been a long day.

On January 1st, we spent the day on and off the Water Taxi, which is rather like a hop-on, hop off tour bus. The tour pointed out the 20 million dollar houses, and the superyachts with prices over $100,000,000 US. The excess was palpable. These folks are the 0.001 percent. A significant fraction of the owners were in hedge funds.

Superyacht

We were traveling on the intercoastal waterway. Fort Lauderdale calls itself the Venice of America. The land that the houses were built on was constructed with seawalls and dredging and backfill. This land was previously mangroves. There were finger canals going off from both sides of the intercoastal. We did not observe any barges or other commerical traffic, due to the holiday. There were many drawbridges, which opened on a schedule. Richard chatted with the captain, and learned that our water taxi used a "Z Drive", which was a propellor that could rotate 360 degrees. If the captain needed to go in reverse, he simply rotated the steering wheel to aim the prop backwards.

We got off at Las Olas street, and walked up and down a bit. The street was busy, and was clearly the center of local tourist activity. At one point, we saw three Ferraris in one block! We had an excellent dinner at The Boarding restaurant. We were the only customers, which seemed strange, given that the food was so good, and the Yelp reviews were 4.5 stars. The waitress gave us directions to a nearby gelato place, also excellent. We took the water taxi back to our hotel.

On January 2nd, we took our first Uber car to the cruise ship pier, Port Everglades, in Fort Lauderdale. The driver was a retired army man, driving Uber to make money for a European vacation, which his wife had requested. We stood in various lines to go through the boarding process, but finally got on the ship, the Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas. One of the other ships boarding that day was the much larger Allure of the Seas, which held 5000 passengers compared to our ship's 2500. We watched luggage being loaded on our ship up to our scheduled 5 PM departure, and then watched the Allure of the Seas head out in front of us. It was impressive to watch such a large ship maneuver, with bow thrusters, but without a tugboat. We left after the Allure, while a Holland America ship left behind us. We settled into our room, and went to dinner.

Our room attendant is a cheerful Haitian man, Jackson, who is happy to have a job. He misses his wife and two children.

On Day 2, we were at sea, going through the Bahamas, on our way to Antigua. We explored the ship, and settled in to relaxing. Richard, the frugal traveler, was learning how to enjoy a balcony. The crew is very international; the captain is Polish. Almost 50% of our fellow passengers have cruised with Royal Caribbean before.

Richard spent some time playing with his new GPS, a Christmas present from Sandi. Unfortunately, the GPS does not work in the room, due to a limited view of the sky.

We are using Mytime scheduling for dinner, different than the traditional two seatings. We were seated again with the same couple as the first night; he is a heavy equipment operator from Ohio, who likes trip research as much as Richard does.

We finished the evening with the headliner show, the Las Vegas Tenors.

On Day 3, we had a second sea day; the ship was north of Puerto Rico.

In the morning we attended a frequent cruiser event, where they honored people who had cruised on Royal Caribbean for many years.

We attended a brief Cha-Cha class in the afternoon, and continued to explore the ship. Richard took his anti-seasickness pills and started to feel better. Sandi finished her second book.