Three Weeks in!

 

We are getting to know our way around a bit more, baby steps for us, we kinda keep close to home mostly!  This is probably our favourite morning coffee shop!  It's a 3 minute walk from our place.

I went out for an early morning bike ride, I've been hitting the off road trails much more than I have done in a long time.  I'm rather enjoying the variety!  In St. Albert, I usually do about 2 hour rides and log about 45 to 50 km per ride.  Here on the trails, I do about 1 1/2 hours and log about 20km.  I am expending significantly more effort on the trails than my St. Albert rides!

I've been exploring a number of trails, a few lead through some ravines.  With honesty and humility I admit that I have had to step off the pedals a few times to make it up (and down!) some of the trails.

The other morning I was attempting a particularly taxing trail (for me!) and about halfway up my chain broke!  I did not have my chain repair kit with me so had a nice walk the 8km home!

I stopped by Bicycletes the next day to pick up the chain repair parts, and Pacco insisted he supply a new chain!  Cheers to mi amigo Pacco!

Did some more exploring, this time along the salt ponds.  Too much deep sand!  Made for an max excretion ride!  But I did find el toro! Flamingos too!  

El Toro!

Just minutes from our condo

The other morning we went down to relax on the beach.  It was a bit windy, but this provided us with hours of watching wind surfers, kite surfers, and the newest rage, foil board wind surfing!  The foil boards just fly, however after watching some newbies taking lessons it was very apparent there is considerable technique involved!  At one point I counted 26 wind surfers, 6 foil boards and about 8 kite surfers.  A fellow arrived and set up his new board, a foil board wind surfer!  The difference between his and the other foil board surfers, is, his has a mast attached to the board, the others you hold a "wing sail".

masted surf board with hydofoil

hydrofoil board, no mast

I have mentioned that Munchie has been feeding me well, she has stepped into the little galley kitchen and produced some amazing meals!  She has always said, appearance and plate setup count, and for me it does add to the whole dining experience, it looks great and tastes fantastic (and even though our good friend Dan says my endorsements of Munchie's cooking can't hold too much weight because I have been known to eat everything, trust me when I say, her cooking is awesome, yes Dan, even coming from me!).

Just some of the feasts I've had the pleasure to experience!  Not to mention the fresh muffins and cookies!  The cookies have been a bit of a challenge finding the ingredients Munchie is used to using, an example: molasses!  That and brown sugar, the kind made with molasses!  So my ginger snaps have a new Espanol style, and guess what?  I like them!  Kudos to Munchie's ability to adapt and overcome these baking roadblocks!

Carlos & crew (Carlos is beside me in blk shirt)

And since I'm on a bit of a foodie phase here, I have to mention the "Bar Quesada".  This is Carlos' family restaurant, about a 10 minute easy stroll from our place.  We walked over for dinner the other evening and were not disappointed!  They specialize in locally caught fish, I had the dorado and Brenda had swordfish.  Carlos is the fellow who drove us to the bus depot.  

On one of our beach days, it was a tad overcast and I could tell Munchie is getting acclimatised as she had to use a towel as a blanket!  I walked down the beach to a spot that rents paddle boards, wind surfers and kayaks and rented a kayak for an hour.  Fortunately it wasn't very windy and the paddling was not too strenuous! 

That's me out there!

Signing off on this post.  Back next week!  Cheers to all!