April 2 - big adventure day to Mayfield Falls and Zimbali Retreat

This morning dawned without a cloud in the sky, which was a wonderful thing to see considering our plans for the day. I woke early and wandered the grounds searching for birds as I enjoyed my first couple of cups of Blue Mountain coffee, and then joined the rest of the crew in the restaurant for a hearty breakfast. After completing our meal, we gathered up our water shoes and towels and met Ashton in the driveway. Our destinations today: Mayfield Falls for a hike up the river, followed by a quick stop for lunch, back to the room to freshen up, and then off to Zimbali Retreats for a very special dinner.

The drive to Mayfield is roughly an hour, depending on traffic and road conditions (read: potholes so deep we have to crawl over them) The entrance has changed since our last visit in 2009, and they no longer have individual changing rooms, we walk a steep staircase down instead of a driveway, and they built a series of small gazebo type tables under thatched roofs where you can leave your belongings with your driver, who will keep a close eye on them. This seems more secure to me than renting the lockers, as the lockers themselves do not always have a solid door on them.

The hike up the river involves several spots to jump into the water, or simply fall sideways... some swimming... a lot of wading... and plenty of photo opportunities. I will let the photos speak for themselves.

This was taken at one of the first "group photo" opportunities.  

This was one of the "just fall in sideways!" spots... I didn't propel myself off the rock so much as I just braced for impact and tipped over.

This is supposed to be a romantic kissing pose... however when I turned to kiss D, the water hit me in just the right way to take my bikini bottoms completely off.  So of course I burst out laughing as I chased my bottoms down my leg and just hoped they didn't end up all the way downriver. (Thankfully I was able to catch them at my knees.)

This is the "lean your head back and make a waterfall over your face" spot.  My sister is holding me into the corner so I don't fly off the rock... this did not prevent my bottoms from coming off again though (under the water, my right hand is gripping one side of my bottoms)

This is the "jump from the sawed off tree... it is perfectly safe, just aim well or you will land on a rock" spot.  D did a fantastic canonball, the tour guides applauded his technique.

Gayle was super brave and jumped off the lower boulder in the same spot.  This is a girl who didn't want to get into a pool right before the trip!  I am so very proud of the huge strides she has taken on this trip :)

G and I are underneath the waterfall, giving the thumbs up.

Family photo opportunity (immediately above the cave G and I were in)

After all the fun in the water, there is a short hike back to the changing area where we all generally did the surfer-dressing-room (wrap a towel around you and strip under it, try to wiggle into your dry clothes without dropping the towel) As we drove back toward the hotel we hit some rain, however it cleared by the time we arrived at Juici Beef. We picked up some patties for lunch, and some fries next door, and settled in back at the hotel to grab our quick lunch and clean up for dinner. I gathered my gear together and we met back in the driveway in time to drive up to Zimbali.

Zimbali Retreats is a new experience for us... it is a farm and hotel/spa/retreat owned by a lovely couple. For their Open Kitchen dinner experience you are greeted at the gate and introduced to the staff, served a fresh juice, taken on a tour of the farm, then back to the open kitchen restaurant. Here you have the pleasure of sitting up at the bar and interacting with the chefs as they create the 4 course meal.

Group meals like this are usually a problem for me, however their care for my allergies was very impressive. When we first walked in they asked us if anyone had any food allergies (my hand shot up, of course) and throughout the dinner I was able to lean forward and double check on the ingredients of things that I had not seen being prepared in front of me. They have an Ital version of their dinner, so I knew I would not starve, but I was happy to be able to have the complete fish dinner. The only change they made for me was the dessert, I received the vegan option.

A view of the farm from the balcony of the restaurant's lounge area

The garden portion of the farm, where they grow a lot of their vegetables.

I played with my optic80 lens again here

Some coconut and plantain trees on the farm

Here are the tiny and incredibly delicious pineapples... one pineapple per bush.

Our chefs, hard at work in the kitchen preparing our first course, coconut sushi

The sushi was completely vegetarian... coconut (instead of rice) carrot, cucumber, and banana. It sounds like an odd combination, however it was incredibly wonderful.  G loved it, and I have never seen her enjoy anything with seaweed before.

Course#2 - Pumpkin Soup.  Amazingly good. (their pumpkin here is more like our acorn squash than our pumpkins)

Our chefs cutting up a banana leaf for the fish dishes.  They steam these by putting them directly on the gas burner to soften them up... they stay pliable once they have been warmed in this way.

Preparing he filling to go inside the banana leaf along with the butterfish

My main course, butterfish wrapped with peppers and onions and veggies, plantain cakes, and salad with a banana dressing.  The plantain cakes are a similar texture to hashbrowns... the chefs had us guess what they use as a binder, and D guessed correctly... they use banana as the binder (not egg!)

My dinner, after I tore into the banana leaf.  I swear, the steamed fish in Jamaica is among the most flavorful fish I've had anywhere.  It never sounds like it would be flavorful, but the combination of veggies and peppers and onions they use creates an amazingly fantastic medley of taste.

My dessert was the sweet potato cake.  YUM.  

I just love being able to eat dessert in restaurants... it is such a rarity for me.

Everyone else had what looked like chocolate cake.  This was another trivia question... guess what is in the cake.  Out of everyone in the restaurant (all adults), it was G who finally got the right answer - black beans.

The night we went was a special night complete with African drummers... when we were done eating G jumped up to join the drummers for a little bit.

Afterward I spoke with the owner just to let him know how much I appreciate the care they took with my allergies. He gave me a huge hug and thanked me... they put a lot of heart into their food (90% of what they serve is grown on the farm itself, 100% organic) and he is happy to hear that they are accomplishing their goals of providing great food to everyone, even those of us who are “restaurantingly challenged” (my phrase)

It was a fantastic night and an incredible dining experience. I highly recommend this to anyone who finds their way to the general Negril area.

Tuesday April 1 - a day at the cliffs

Today was a day with zero agenda, which made for a nice recovery after all the big adventure of the day before. I woke around 6:30 a.m., grabbed my camera with the zoom lens, and meandered down to the restaurant to pick up a cup of coffee. The staff are all kind, wishing me a good morning and keeping their voices low as I pause to look for birds. One of the groundskeepers, Mikey, kept quietly getting my attention to point out birds in the gardens for me to get photos of, and then he would name the birds... “here is a lionsquit... over there is what we call a ground pigeon”. I have seen several hummingbirds in the gardens, however they have unfortunately been far to swift for me to capture on film.

There was a woman staying at the hotel who looked familiar to me, but I could not exactly place her face. For the most part I saw her sitting alone in the restaurant reading her book during her meals. I overheard her speaking to another guest at breakfast this morning about yoga, which is why the conversation caught my attention, and then I also thought her voice sounded really familiar. It turns out she was Karen Allen (the actress from Indiana Jones – Raiders and Crystal Skull) I had heard before that a lot of actors like to stay at this hotel, and the one next door, however this was the first time I ever noticed one in person. I suppose I am too narrowly focused on the birds and other critters.

This heron was hanging out in and around the pool all morning, up until more guests came out of their rooms for breakfast.

Standing on the edge of the property looking north... this is one of my first attempts to use my Lensbaby with the optic80 glass.

This lizard on the next table is what I end up noticing, as opposed to Karen Allen eating breakfast at the table on the other side of me.

This morning I had the pleasure of finally attending one of the yoga classes at Tensing Pen. (I have always missed them in the past due to the timing of our visits) G joined us, along with one of my nieces and another guest staying on the property. The teacher was very interesting... the yoga was a very slow pace and all poses that I have done before, however we entered into each pose in a new way. In addition, she gave us a talk about “body habits”... the way we clasp our hands in one direction and cross our legs in one direction. She instructed us to always do the action, then immediately switch our legs/hand/fingers (whatever is crossed) so that we can begin to find more balance. Otherwise, one side of your body is always longer than the other. One of the reasons I enjoy trying new yoga classes is because I always learn at least one new technique from every teacher.

Most of the rest of the day was very laid back for us all... we walked across the street for food and I had a combination Ital meal from Ras Rody's. Ras Rody is currently living in the US and no longer runs the stand himself, but his kids are keeping up the family tradition.

Lunch... pumpkin soup on the left, then calaloo, mixed vegetables, soy, and another veggie mix on top of a bed of rice and peas.

The afternoon was spent relaxing in the pool for some of us, and swimming in the ocean for others, and generally just enjoying the warm air and sounds of the ocean waves. 

D jumping off the cliff

G was very proud to show everyone how she made the leap to jumping into the pool, all by herself!

 We all gathered back at the house as a wave of rain came in, so we cleaned up and began discussing dinner. Nobody really wanted to travel far, so we sent a few scouts out to grab some food and bring it back to the room. Unfortunately, the first place tried was out of jerk chicken, the next place was closed, and the night ended up being a series of hop-scotches around Negril trying to track down some jerk pork and jerk chicken. Back in the room, I was experimenting with drinks and came up with a nice combo of one part pineapple juice, one part guava juice, and one part coconut rum (but only CocoMania will do... all the others taste like sun tan lotion) As our hunting party returned, foil wrapped packages of jerk chicken, jerk pork, cocobread and festival were laid out in the center island of the kitchen and we all dug in. As our evening progressed, we all dropped off to bed one by one, to be well rested and ready for the next day of adventures.

Monday March 31 - excursion to the Black River and Pelican Bar

Monday was our first big excursion day... we had a fantastic day taking a boat ride out on the Black River, then straight out to Pelican Bar before coming inland for an amazing dinner. In all, our outing was about 12 hours. A trip out to the Black River alone would not normally be so long, however D booked us with a private boat that would take us up the river further than the average pontoon boat can get to, and our captain was a conservationist himself, and therefore eternally patient with my desire to get good photos of any wildlife we might possibly encounter.

Our day started early, with a quick continental breakfast at the hotel before gathering up our gear for the day and loading up into the van. Though I tried to sleep in a little, I ended up waking early due to the sounds of birds just outside our room.  I wandered down to the restaurant for a cup of coffee and spotted a heron hanging out by the edge of the pool... of course I had to run and get a photo.

Our driver for the day was Ashton, an independent drir who greeted us with fresh fruit and tips on avoiding sunburns. (Put pure Aloe on your skin first, and then sunblock, and this is supposed to keep you from burning, and give you a deeper, longer lasting tan with no burning)

Our ride out to the meeting spot on the river was long and bumpy... the main road over to the Black River had a portion which was being repaved, so we took a detour up into the hills to get around the badly potholed road. Along the way, Ashton stopped to pull some leaves off of what seemed to be a laurel bush.. he passed them back to us and asked us what we thought they might be. We immediately recognized the smell as being allspice. Once we made it out to the black river, we all gathered up our gear, slathered on the fresh aloe (from a huge aloe plant Ashton brought for us), then sunblock, then were driven down the street to a pier to meet our captain for the day... Captain Dennis.

For the most part, I will let the photos speak for themselves on this blog post. Rest assured, this is just a hint of a sampling or what I managed to capture... I was extremely pleased with having been able to find 4 different crocodiles on this trip, along with an amazing amount of birds. As I said before, our captain was incredibly patient in allowing me time to concentrate on focusing and shooting, and he had a keen eye for spotting crocodiles and birds that I would have otherwise missed.

G and I in the front of the boat.  This is why I have a strangely shaped sunburn on my forearms, I was pretty much posed like this for the entire boat ride.

We headed up river, pausing long enough for Captain Dennis to point out the multitude of birds near the entrance to the river, and slowing down to creep up on some crocodiles hidden amongst the mangrove trees in the river.

A couple of egrets in the bushes near the riverbank.

One of the crocodiles we encountered... I call this one Charlie.

The mangrove trees along the riverbank of the Black River

Further up river than we've ever been before, the shoreline changes to limestone.  

D and two of my nieces, being cool.

The pontoon boats normally ride up the river about 20 minutes, pause for a beer break, and then head back down to the dock. Being in a much smaller and narrower boat, our captain was able to go further up the river, under a very low bridge (we all had to duck) and up to where the water turns from brackish to fresh, where we paused for a swimming break. Back down the river a bit, we stopped at Sister Lou's crab shack for some of the most amazing crab I've ever had.

Sister Lou serves Blue Crab in the shell... she takes the crab and boils it, then cleans the meat out of the crabs, mixes it with some kind of diced peppers, then puts it back in the shell to serve. One serving is 2 shells filled with crab, all for 400 Jamaican dollars (roughly $3.80 US) Our stop was meant to be a snack, however we lingered so long on the river that our stop at Sister Lou's ended up being lunch. We ordered a tray of crab backs, then went back and ordered a few more servings.

The view of Sister Lou's from the river

Lots of crab!

Our crew hanging out under the shelter waiting for the food

One service of crab.. D put a hot sauce on his (on the bottom)

Our boat for the day, parked at Sister Lou's... we actually went under the bridge in the background, we had to load up the front of the boat with passengers to get the bow low enough to get under the bridge.

On the way back down the river, Captain Dennis slowed in a few spots for me to get some more photos of crocodiles and birds, before heading out of the black river and out into the ocean to head out to the Pelican Bar. Our ride out was surprisingly choppy, and we all noticed the black rain clouds making their way across the island. We arrived at the Pelican Bar, grabbed a few Red Stripes, and generally hung out on the decks or out in the water. The bar is built out of driftwood and sits on a sand bar a few miles off the coast. The area around the bar itself is only a few feet deep, so G found enough confidence in her swimming to take her snorkel vest off and go diving for shells. After a bit of time, our captain came to point out the rain clouds and voiced his concern that we would get rained on soon, so we quickly gathered ourselves together and headed back to shore.

Here we are with Captain Dennis and his first mate, after a successful day of being on the river and the ocean.

Ashton drove down to meet us at the beach and we were not in the van more than one minute before the rain came pouring down in buckets. It was nearing dinner time, and Ashton recommended a local spot for us to stop at, so we headed just a bit up the road and were soon racing out of the van, dodging the huge rain drops, and piled into the little restaurant on the beach.

One of the reasons Ashton prefers this restaurant is because the customer is able to pick out the fish to eat. I don't mean pick out a type of fish off the menu... I mean they will bring the plate of fish out and you and you can pick which specific fish you want to eat. After a bit of conversation, and asking about ingredients and cooking methods (for my allergies), Ashton sized up our group and ordered dinner for us. We sat and watched the amazing thunder storm outside as we waited for our food... with every stunning flash of lightening we witnessed over the water, we all mentioned how grateful we were to have decided to come inland when we did.

We'll take the ugly one on the left.

Curried Conch - much better than it might sound. I expected the texture to be like squid, but it was much closer to scallops

Garlic Lobster.  Yum.  Just... Yum.

Brown Stewed Snapper (the ugly fish in the photo above)

Steamed Snapper.  Normally this would seem like a boring dish, however this snapper was incredibly flavorful... in fact I liked it better than the brown stewed snapper

Bammy... which I've never had before.  This looks like pancakes, but it is made out of shredded and flattened casava.  The texture was similar to an overcooked pancake, and I didn't really enjoy the flavor of it alone.  When I mixed it with some gravy from the brown stewed snapper, however, it was quite tastey

the outdoor seating area of the restaurant, which was rained out at the time

This is the building we sat in... our crew took up all the tables inside.

Cloggy's is the name of the restaurant.

The restaurant also has deck seating outside (which was also rained out at the time of our arrival)

this is the kitchen of Cloggy's... open fire, mostly cast iron and dutch oven.

Dinner was so amazingly good... we ate family style, diving into a little of everything and passing the platters of food around the two tables. The rain let up during our dinner and we were able to open the shades and enjoy the view of the beach as we finished up our food. Dinner being done, we piled into the van for the bumpy ride home.

I cannot say enough good things about our driver, Ashton, and our boat captain, Dennis. The conversations were fantastic, we learned a lot about Jamaican culture, and we all felt very well taken care of. They truly bent over backwards to make our experience amazing.

March 30 - snorkeling and fun

Our first full day at Tensing Pen dawned warm and humid. I woke around 7:00 and wandered out onto the patio to take peek at the activity in the gardens. Birds were busy hopping around in the trees, so I headed inside for my camera gear. Unfortunately I forgot about the condensation problem... I'd left my gear in our air-conditioned room all night, so as soon as I walked outside the lenses fogged over. I had to wait about 20 minutes for the zoom lens to fully warm up enough to shoot. I stepped down to the restaurant area for a cup of coffee while I waited, and then spent about an hour or so wandering the grounds seeking out wildlife. I found several birds and many lizards. I had a close encounter with a Doctor Bird, the national bird of Jamaica, however he zoomed past me and along down the path far too quickly for me to get a shot.

Stepping out the front doors of our house, this is the view... a round table on the patio just above the path, the cove and the bamboo bridge are directly in front of us.

A bald pigeon gathering sticks for a nest

I love how this lizard blends into the background

Our clan woke a few people at a time, wandering down to the restaurant for coffee and continental breakfast. After finishing a satisfying breakfast of toast, fruits (pineapple, papaya, and watermelon), yogurt and orange juice, we lingered at the table and chatted, waiting for our food to settle. Some of the kids headed for the pool to cool down. A few of us went over to the ocean side instead and geared up to snorkel for a bit.

I haven't been in the ocean in nearly 3 years, so my first dip in was a little tense for me. I did have a couple moments of panic when my snorkel plugged up and when a wave hit me on the side of the head... I had to spend a few minutes concentrating on slowing my breathing down, since I was too far from the ladder to just get out of the water.

My feet, the bridge, and the house we are renting (viewed from the water)

As the water wore us all down, our crew regrouped in the house to clean up and head out to find lunch. We'd read a lot of great reviews about a little restaurant down the street, so we took a walk down to Sips and Bites, just about a 15 minute walk down the road.

The food was excellent... I ordered the snapper, which was served in a browned gravy along with rice and peas, a slice of breadfruit, a piece of festival (fried bread), and some veggies on top. I was so hungry and busy visiting that I neglected to get a shot of the food. The cut of fish was interesting, it was a very boney piece of fish and took some delicate flaking to have bites without toothpick-sized bones.

After lunch we walked back to the room and immediately wanted to get into some kind of water to cool down. I spent a little bit of time in the pool, which gave instant relief to the heat, then gathered up my snorkel gear to head over and find some fish.

My second run of the day was far better than my first. I felt no panic, and I even managed to find some really interesting fish. I ended up swimming out much further than I ever have before due to being in pursuit of a decent photo of a little stingray I spotted skirting along the bottom.

This is the stingray I followed for a bit

Some of the colorful fish near the side of the cliffs

Can you spot the flounder in this picture?

The terrain in the cove

We had a late lunch, and felt all waterlogged, so the evening has consisted of mainly showering off the ocean salt and generally chatting and relaxing around the house. We ordered dinner in from the on-site restaurant, a couple of ackee pizzas and jerk chicken pizzas to share, as we visit and play games.

The yellow chunks on the front pizza are ackee, the pizza behind it and to the left is jerk chicken.

March 28-29... getting in and getting settled

The time leading up to are departure was the most frantic we'd experienced... and it was not helped by the fact that I had not reset my watch for Daylight Saving (because I hardly wear it) so I operated under the delusion that we had an extra hour of time up until about 5:00 p.m. But, with a great amount of team work and coordinated effort, we managed to be packed and sitting by the front door a full 5 minutes before the airport shuttle arrived. We hit a little traffic on the way to the airport, but arrived with plenty of time to check bags, print boarding passes, get through security, and have a leisurely dinner at Anthony's in the central hub of Seatac Airport.

The frantic day had in large part been due to the discovery that our flights had been changed without notification to us. Our flights over were pushed out by nearly an hour, but had not had the numbers changed. Our flights back, however, were completely different flights and had been pushed back by half a day. We spent the morning on the phone with the airline trying to understand what happened and why we weren't notified of the changes (they were apparently changed back in December) and trying to ensure that our reservations were indeed secure and we would not be stranded on the island at the end of our vacation. Throughout the day, D suddenly began receiving frequent updates via text and phone about the continually changing flight out of Seattle. All told, we were incrementally pushed out nearly two hours from our original departure time. This turned out to be a good thing, since we were able to push our airport shuttle out an hour and take the time to finish straightening up the house before we left.

Given the disruption of the sudden changes, and to spite the delays, the airline travel itself was incredibly smooth. I was able to sleep on the plane for a few hours, and the Seattle delays meant a shorter layover in Miami. The second flight was not full, so I had the unusual pleasure of sitting by myself and being able to choose between the aisle seat (for snack time) and the window seat (for the view)

Gayle in the Miami airport, catching some zzzz's

Looking back at the engine as we approach Montego Bay

Looking straight down from the plane, a large coral reef off the beach

The flight also landed early, and we ended up meeting up with my sister and two nieces the entrance to the immigration line. After winding our way through the ropes to the counters, down the corridor and through customs, we arrived in the hustle and bustle of baggage claim... half filled with weary travelers looking for their bags, and half filled with energetic taxi drivers looking for a customer. D had arranged for us to be driven by Errol, of Errol Flynn Tours, so he walked ahead of us to meet up with our driver.

Almost everyone who comes to stay in Negril will land in Montego Bay and be driven along the coastline to the beach, roughly a 90 minute drive (or so). This time, though, D had been researching some different restaurants and he heard about a great jerk place up in the hills, so he asked the driver to take us on the inland route to Negril so that we could stop there for lunch.

This is Border Jerk

The girls digging in

We ordered large portions of jerk chicken, jerk pork, and festival (a fried bread) which were brought out to our table in foil pouches along with a few bottles of sauces... jerk sauce, spicy ketchup, and a mixture of scotch bonnet peppers and vinegar. We dove in, enjoying it too quickly for me to get a picture of the food. Once we had reduced the piles of meat down to bone, we cleaned up and piled back in the van for the rest of the journey.

On our way down through the hills, Errol stopped in several places to get us samples of the local fruits. 

Our driver, Errol, jumped out of the van to pick up some fruits for us to sample

 We tried jackfruit, naseberry, and a custard apple. I will have to get photos of the jackfruit on this trip... it tastes something like a dried apricot that has been rehydrated in pineapple juice. The naseberry is a small, brown, round fruit with brown flesh and tiny black seeds... it tastes like a bosc pear that has been cooked in brown sugar. The custard apple was my favorite... it broke open similar to a sour sop, and also similar in appearance, with large black seeds and fleshy white interior. You scoop the fruit outo f the skin to eat it and it melts in your mouth, leaving you with a black seed to spit out. It tastes something like a peppery banana (peppery like allspice, not black pepper) with the texture of custard (hence the name). 

Half a custard apple.. it is better than it looks!

 We also picked up some super sweet tiny bananas, and something called an otaheite apple, which we haven't tried yet as we were warned to wash it before we eat it.

A short drive out of the hills and we were in Negril. We made a quick stop at the cambio to exchange money and pick up a few drinks and snacks at the Hi Lo grocery store, then headed over to our hotel right around check-in time. We had a little wait while they finished preparing the room, and G took the time to show her cousins around the property a little big. Once we made it to the room, bags were dropped and some of our crew headed straight out to the water. I had just taken my camera gear out of the bag when a thunder storm began to roll through... so I put it away and instead spent some time with the unpacking. The fatigue of travel crept through the room, and we took advantage of the down time to unpack a bit more or take naps. We were still waiting for the final 2 of our party to join us (their flights were changed around at the last minute as well) so we decided to just stay on the property and have dinner in the restaurant.

The food here is really excellent... I ordered the jerk shrimp which was amazingly spicy, I believe I drank 8 glasses of water just throughout dinner.

Tonight will be a relatively early turn-in for myself... I had about 3 hours of sleep on the plane last night and no nap during the day. Looking forward to our first full day tomorrow snorkeling on the cliffs.

Landed safe

After the most frantic pre-trip scrambling experience we've ever had, the airplane travel was relatively smooth and we landed safely in Jamaica. I will have a full post with photos soon... just wanted to get this out there now that I've gotten past Blogger's "you seem to be in a different country" verification process and managed to log in.

Gearing up to head out

After more than five months of planning, plotting, researching and dreaming... we have suddenly found ourselves in the final days of counting down to our next great adventure.  There is always a lot of chaos in the last few days before travel - lots of last minute errands and sudden unforeseen roadblocks - but I think that we managed to mitigate a lot of it this time.  We set ourselves some deadlines for online purchases, allowing for shipping time so that we would not need to wait for last minute deliveries.  We pulled out the suitcases weeks ago and started organizing our trip supplies, going through things like sunblock and medications and checking to see what was good and what needed to be replaced.  I've stayed on top of laundry to ease our way into packing (and ensure we will arrive home to at least *some* clean clothing).

We have not taken a real vacation in about three years.  I am not only excited about this trip just for the trip itself, but also because we will be traveling with a good portion of my family from out-of-state, whom I see not more than about once a year, and only for a day or so at a time (my eldest sister, her husband, and three of her daughters)  We are traveling with a group of 8 on this vacation, which means that while we will visit some of the same excursions D, G, and I have seen in the past... this time some of the trips will be more along the lines of a private tour.  The boat ride up the Black River will be in a smaller boat with just our group, rather than the large pontoon we rode on back in 2010, and captained by a conservationist who might possibly be as enthralled with birds as I am. We will also be seeking out new adventures which weren't around on our last trip 3 years ago, spending time up in the mountains on a farm where we can explore the grounds where our food is grown before heading to the kitchen to witness the cooking techniques.  We have a few days with excursions planned, but most of the vacation will be simply relaxing, enjoying the company, and taking local adventures as they present themselves (perhaps a yoga class on the cliffs, or some paddle boarding out in the ocean off the beach)

I am looking forward with great anticipation to the photographic opportunities before me.  I feel that I have a firm grasp on the mechanics of my equipment, far more than I did in the past, and I have been taking some time to study new techniques to employ on this trip... (not only just the basics - like remembering to bring my polarizing filters - but funky techniques like HDR)  I have concentrated on my gear more than I've concentrated on my clothing for this trip - the bathing suits were folded up and ready a couple weeks ago... whereas my gear is still sitting out waiting for inspection as I debate between the weight of a fast lens vs. the portability of a smaller one.  I have always taken too much stuff in the past, with that little "just in case" voice in the back of my mind, so scaling back is my challenge.

That is where I stand tonight... multitasking between updating software on the travel notebook computer and making the hard cuts on my gear.  (or finding a way to make it all fit with creative packing)