Brian and Jackie

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Thanks Azores, It Was Fun

Our little bed and breakfast room

The portrait of the lady above the bed kind of scared me

We got up Sunday morning and decided to take a drive around the island. We were going to go on a little hike but it took us forever to find the start of the trail and by that time, we decided to just take a drive all the way around the island.

Here's Jackie in front of the "fake trail". We hiked up it for about 15 minutes until the road ended

These flowers were all over the island. I liked them a lot

This hill was amazing when we came around the corner and saw it. I turned around to come back and take this picture

(Sunset)

On our last day we had to go visit the last big lake on the island, Lagoa do Fogo. After that we had to go to the last thermal hot spring swimming area and then we spent the second part of the day on the beach. Nice relaxing day.

More brown water to swim in

I felt a little weird in my "American swimsuit"

But not as weird trying to body surf the little waves

Vampire romance

More From the Azores

We awoke on our second full day and headed East on the Island

We came to this little island place. They call it "Anel da Princesa" (Ring of the Princess). It's right off of the city, Vila Campo do Franca. We took a boat out to go swim in the middle of the ring.

It's a truly beautiful place. There's a little lagoon on the island with clear, crisp water. Nice for snorkeling, no mask needed.

Bring water shoes because it is rocky in there

View from the Island

After swimming and hanging out at that island, we hopped back into our little orange car and headed to the city of Furnas, land of the hot springs.

"Stinky!"

Check this pool out. They pump hot thermal springs water into the pool so it was about 85-90 degrees.

The Island in the pool. It was a mellow island.

Leap frog

Here's another thermal hot springs swimming area. Don't wear a white bathing suit, unless you're lucky to turn it brown

"Chillin out maxin' relaxin' all cool..."

"Brrr, I mean HOT!"

Lagoa das Furnas

Town of Furnas

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Let's Go LOTOJA

Lotoja 2008 is in the books and I could not be happier. All of that extra time it ate up training, and even worse, all of that extra time I felt bad that I wasn't training when I should have been. When it came down to either training or doing something else, I always chose the alternative (i.e. tennis, wiffleball, chick flicks). In the end, I was able to ride about 650 miles before my big 206 mile race. Here is a picture of the course from 2007, which was the exact same this year.

To give some of the highlights of the race, I've decided to do it in interview format. I've always talked to myself so I figure, why not interview myself.

Interviewer: Well Brian, first off, congratulations on finishing your third Lotoja race!
Brian: Thank you. Wow, you said third...I mean, I can't believe I keep doing this thing.

Interviewer: What was the main difference between this year's race and of one's goneby?
Brian: I didn't need a potty break before reaching Preston...(under breath) let alone two

Interviewer: Now, you finished in 11 hours and 37 minutes, a little bit slower than your pace last year. What happened?
Brian: Well, you see, last year I wasn't a married man. I was just starting my courtship with Jackie so I felt a lot of pressure to impress. Simply put, I wanted to look good in front of the girl, you know, show her how awesome I was. We tied knot earlier this summer so that means she's stuck with me no matter what. She has to take me as I am.

Interviewer: What was your favorite part?
Brian: Anytime I saw the following sign:

It reinvigorated my soul everytime. Especially after the third mountain pass. (under breath again) dang Salt River!

Interviewer: Where did you really give it all you had, you know, went the fastest?
Brian: Probably down my Grandma's street in Logan. I realized I was about 3 minutes away with only a couple of minutes before my start time. I pulled up to the start line with 6 seconds to spare. After that sprint I decided the only way to recover was to not take any pulls within the first 100 miles of the race.

Interviewer: You didn't take any pulls until 100 miles!?
Brian: Well, I compromised and did my first one around mile 95. In between Geneva and Salt River.

Interviewer: Ok, so what was the scariest moment?
Brian: On the way into Preston, the guy in front of me tapped his brakes, I hit my brakes hard, but the guy right behind me wasn't ready. He brakes, swerves, and goes down hard. He made the loudest "Ughhh" sound I have ever heard before he even hit the ground. When he did hit the ground, it sounded like a shotgun. I spent the next 30 minutes convinced that I had just helped in killing someone. It wasn't until the next group caught us and I found out that the guy was actually pretty lucky. I guess he completely taco'd his wheel though.

Interviewer: When was the happiest part of the ride?
Brian: I saw this sign with about a mile or so to go:

I saw and all that ran through my head was, "You're dang right. You better believe I'm prepared to stop."

Interviewer: What about the worst part?
Brian: (suddenly angry face) Probably the idiot who didn't move to the side to clear his nose...twice! The second time I got sprayed pretty good and that's when I told him "come on man!" or something like that. All he could say was, "oh, did I get you?" I stopped riding with that guy.

Interviewer: Sorry about that.
Brian: Oh, it's not your fault.

Interviewer: Well, any last words?
Brian: Congrats to everyone that did it! I know it's not easy.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Welcome to the Azores

First off...the Azores are amazing. Truly amazing. Just intriguingly beautiful, calm islands. We had a blast everyday we were there and would love to do it all over again.

From London we flew to Portugal (we didn't fly through Spain, as several people had feared) and had essentially another 8 hour layover. We landed at 10:00 pm, got to our hotel at 11:00, we were asleep by midnight and up at 4:00 am to catch our 6:30 am flight to Sao Miguel, the largest Island in the chain.

Here we are changing airplanes. We sat in the plane from about 6:30 to 9:30 while they tried to fix a problem. They served us breakfast and drinks. We finally switched planes and sat in this one for about an hour before we eventually took off, 4 hours after we were supposed to leave.

We liked the word "whilst"

We got in around noon and after taking a taxi to our Bed and Breakfast, we slept for almost five hours. It was so nice. After that we decided to walk into town. Here's Jackie crusing down the sidewalk.

We passed "Big Black Man Street" along the way

We ate at the restaurant at the end of the docks

We had a great candlelit dinner on the dock and asked for the check. The teenage busboy brought Jackie this book and told her she could read it while we waited. He stepped a couple of feet to the side but continued to watch Jackie's puzzled face. The book he gave us appeared to be a 1st grade elementary school book.

Jackie opened the book and sure enough the check was inside. He totally got us. We then went back to our place and slept for about 11 hours. We woke up when the rental car lady arrived and was ready to drop our car off.

We hopped in the car and started to cruise the Island

First stop: 90 to 95 degree ocean water. This little area was amazing. The water nearest to the camera is actually pretty hot. The thermal water is coming up from below somewhere. The area where everyone is swimming around is a little bit cooler and tolerable because it has the colder sea water flowing into it. It was fun when little, cooling swells rolled into the swimming area.