Big Sky MT

New Years in Big Sky MT

 I don't have a whole lot to say about Big Sky even though it is one of my favorite places to visit. Big Sky and Bridge Bowl are only 45 min. apart and both offer great skiing and other winter outdoor activities.

 My wife's family and I decided to vacation to Big Sky this past winter to celebrate New Years. After days of snowboarding and enjoying the outdoor air, when it came time to watch the ball drop in Time Square non of us were able to stay awake long enough for the count down.

Big Sky lift tickets are around $100, this might seem expensive for a day of playing in the snow but keep in mind that as of a few years ago Moonlight Basin is also included with that price. Really you are getting to ski two different resorts for the price of one. Getting to Moonlight is very easy as you just ski your way North side of the resort and hop on a chair lift.

1 year anniversary..... Portland Oregon

For our 1 year anniversary my wife and I decided to head to Portland Oregon. I had never been to the West Coast and was hung up on visiting Seattle or Portland. After talking to a good friend about the trips they make to Portland every year we decided to see why they go back year after year.... Now I know why.

 We landed at PDX and easily got our luggage and rented our car for the next 3 days. We stayed in Portland for 5 or 6 days total but only had a car for 3 of those days because of Portland's great public transportation system.

 Our first morning in Portland we awoke to dreary drizzly weather, we would soon learn that this was normal in the mornings. By the late morning early afternoon the sun was always out keeping us warm as we made stops along a scenic highway we were instructed to follow instead of taking Interstate every where. Our first stop was at the Vista House which is just a small building on top of the World. From the Vista house you could see down into the gorges and just soak up the incredible view.

 Of the many waterfalls we stopped at to picture or hike to, this is probably the best known, Multnomah Falls. The hike to the bridge is pretty effortless and very enjoyable, it probably took my wife and I 10-15 minutes to make it to the bridge. The path was paved and a very gradual climb. If you want to continue to the top of the Falls there is another trail that visitors can take for an ever better view. This hike is much longer and a little steeper, I think it took my wife and I a solid hour+ to get to the top.

 A few other streams and waterfalls that we saw along the way to Multnomah Falls.

 One of the days we had our car we had decided to do a "Coast Loop." We visited Astoria, Seaside and Cannon Beach. Astoria is well known for being in a few movies, we visited the elementary school that was used in Kindergarten Cop, saw the Jetty that Willy from Free Willy jumped over and also the house from the Goonies.

 The house from the Goonies, minus Chunk and Data.

 In Cannon Beach, you can park your car and just walk the coast for ever and ever. The rock seen above in the picture was also in the movie the Goonies.

 On our way back to Portland from our "Coast Loop" we decided to stop in at Roloff Farms as it was Pumpkin Season and hoped to get a chance to see or meet the Roloff Family. Taking a tour of their farm we were able to see Matt Roloff drive past on his Mule.

 Zach Roloff was busy manning the Western Town that their father Matt had built for the kids years before.

 My wife trying to move a massive pumpkin.

 After putting on a quite a few miles the day before we decided to slow things down a bit and relax. Our friends that convinced us to visit Portland also suggested we check out their favorite vineyard just south of Portland. We took a tour of the vineyard while enjoying some great Pinot Noir.

 To continue with the relaxing portion of our trip we also visited a Japanese garden, while it was relaxing and enjoyable to see once, I personally don't think I would go back. For what you see the price of admission isn't worth it. We each still had our college ID's so were able to get in at a cheaper rate but was about the only reason we decided it would be worth it.

 For dinner one night we found a Grilled Cheese Bus, you order your grilled cheese at a little side window and then eat your delicious food inside a converted school bus with a very interesting ceiling mural.

 We ended our trip with the Portland Zoo and the Famed VooDoo Doughnuts. My wife got a Gorilla Grape and I had the ever so popular Maple Bacon doughnut.

Spearfish Canyon, SD

Alaska

These are a few pictures from the Alaskan Cruise I took back in 2010, many pictures were taken, only a few made it to the post.

Here we are going through one of the passes/straights which I found crazy. At times shore was only 100 yards or so from either side of the ship, to think that skinny channel could be deep enough to allow a large cruise ship boggled my mind.

A port view of Ketchikan, AK.

There is a huge Salmon run either in the spring or fall, I don't remember which, but I guess the town fills up with tourists and fishermen to see/catch fresh salmon.

One of the excursions I took part is was a Zip-Line tour through the Alaskan Rain Forest. I don't think most people realize that Alaska is considered to be part of a rain forest, the amount of rain they receive each year is crazy. I remember the dandelions and a few other plants looked like they had been fed a mutagen they were so big.

Suspension bridge you had to cross to get from one plat form to the next.

I was also lucky enough to take a Heli tour onto a local glacier to walk around and explore. We were able to drink out of a free flowing ice stream, the water was so cold it hurt my face but tasted like nothing I had ever had before, it was so crisp, clean and pure.

Enjoying some rock climbing at one of our port stops.

Sunny Orlando

My wife and I visited Orlando, FL for Valentines Day back in 2012, here are a few pictures from our trip.

 T-800 at Universal Studios

 Visiting Harry Potter land

 Got to see some aliens and the noisy cricket that Will Smith gets to use in the first movie

 How Universal brings these things to life is beyond me but had a great time. Sorting Hat from Harry Potter was busy telling everyone which House they would belong in.

 Yay for Universal Studios

My wife and I spent a day out shopping around at the different outlet malls. I couldn't pass up a quote from the movie Dumb and Dumber. Swimmy, Swammy, Swenson.......Samsonite I was way off

 I wanted to experience first hand what it was like to run from Raptors and go face to face with a T-Rex. Jurassic park had some great props, they had the Jeep's used in the film, one of their water rides was amazing with dinosaurs popping out from the dark at different turns.

Islands of Adventure for some of the funnest roller coasters I've ever been on. The Hulk and Rockin RollerCoaster.

Bora Bora 2013

Left for Bora Bora (French Polynesia) during their rainy season, it was the only way the pocketbook would allow this trip to happen. I'm not sure what time Bora Bora's rainy season is but was there end of Jan. first part of Feb.

To help with jet lag, after traveling from LAX to Tahiti, we spend 2 nights at the Intercontinental Resort. The staff was very friendly, since we were there during the "off" season there were not many other guests at the resort. The pool was nice but most of my time was spend snorkeling in the lagoon looking at all sorts of fish and sea life. Make sure you get a meal plan while traveling to FP as food is expensive, even if you just get breakfast included.

After our two days in Tahiti we boarded a puddle jumper and took the one hour flight to Bora Bora. Fresh pineapple juice was served during the flight. The airport in Bora Bora is on a north motu(island) and you take a boat from the airport to your resort.

It was about a 15 min boat ride to the Intercontinental La Moana. We were greeted by very friendly crew and given cold towels and even colder drinks to cool us down from the humid weather.

 

After having a quick tour of the resort we were escorted to our Over the Water Bungalow (owb). Ours had a small office space, living area with sliding glass coffee table so you could feed the fish under the owb, california king sized bed, large bathroom and private sun deck.

more to come later...

Manny the Sting Ray that hung out by our OWA the entire trip

 Gecko on some tropical plant

 Snorkeling and checking out the coral and fish around our OWA