Skiing December 2012 with Mad and Raisa

Back in Colorado for a few days of skiing before the trip back to my village to delivering the big news. On this trip is Mad you may remember her she joined me last year skiing.

 Last year she only ate donuts and soft serve ice cream. This year she added Mac and Cheese to her diet. Also joining me is Raisa from my sailing trip last yearRaisa is in Colorado investigating the drug trade now the pot is legal Raisa is thinking of opening up a head shop.

So far we have skied one day at Copper Mountain and the snow or lack of snow is just as bad as last year. There are only a few runs open so it feels like we are skiing in circles.

Day two Mad, Raisa and I skied Winter Park, what a difference a day can make. It snowed all day what an adventure we had. Both Mad's and Raisa's skiing skills improved in just a few hours. By the end of the day we were all beat we had skied about 20 miles.

Day three still snowing at Winter Park over 8 inches of fresh powder, and it was still coming down. Ross and Sue joined us on their snow boards. First run of the day they took us down Mary Jane a very hard blue / black full of fresh powder and moguls. Reisa took to the run like a bat out of hell. Mad and I were a little more conservative. Another great day, I think Raisa would still be skiing if it was not for the lifts closing down.

On my way out of Town I dropped the girls off at Red Rocks, the Imagine Dragons Concert.

I am off for a trip back to Africa, I plan to tour Senegal before heading back to Botswana to give the elders the big news in person and take one last tour of the beautiful country.

Cheers,

DUG

South Beach with Alli Ludwick November 2012

My annual trip to South Beach, somewhere between my 10th - 15th time. Just resting up for the end of year and planning for a very exciting 2013, if the world does not end.

To read about some of my more interesting trips to South Beach click on these links:

South Beach 2008 visit to the Everglades

South Beach 2009 Big Bill Ludwick's daughter Alli joins us

South Beach 2010 nothing exciting except dinner with Alli Ludwick

Some highlights of this trip besides spending most of the time hanging at the pool.

Dinner at The Restaurant at the Setai. What a great experience, great service, the most exciting part of the restaurant was the way the flavors of the food were so distinctive.

The girl band I mean boy band "One Direction" was signing autographs at the local F&M store and watching the people in line to get autographs was kind of funny. It makes you think what motivates the human mind.

The biggest highlight was having dinner with Big Bill Ludwick's daughter, Alli Ludwick. You may remember from last year that Alli was planning on going to the Summer Olympics in London. Alli at the time was a Junior at the University of Miami running on both the Track and Cross Country teams, plus she is a very accomplished swimmer. Everything fell into place and Alli not only went to the Olympics she was there for both Swimming and Track events. I think one of the very few collage athletes. We ate at a new restaurant called Juvia, it is on the rooftop of one of the tallest buildings on Lincoln Road. The food was a trinity of French, Japanese and Peruvian cooking. Having great food, great views and hearing all about Alli and the Olympics was the highlight of the trip.

The most disappointing part of the trip was a restaurant in the past we have always enjoyed called the Barton G. The Barton G is no longer up to South Beach Restaurant Standards, the service was great, but the food and atmosphere had a lot to be desired. We have crossed the Barton G off our list of must do's in South Beach.

I am now off for some skiing in Colorado before another trip to Africa where I will be breaking either very good news of very bad news to my village, depending which side of the line you live on.




Cheers,

DUG