Sailing Lessons 101

29 05 2009

Lesson #1:  In sailing, all ropes have names

Lesson #2: Do not turn left when you mean to turn right

Lesson #3:  Try not to flip the boat over the first time you sail it and scare everyone half to death

The Rocky Comfort has landed, and we went out for our first sailing trip last night.  At the Jefferson Beach Marina, Nathan, Lynn, Loyd and I successfully got the boat into the water, into our slip and sailed our first sail in the Great Lakes.  It was a fun first trip out, and I may have scared everyone when I took the helm and we keeled over so much that it looked like I knew what I was doing.  It turns out that when Loyd says, “this boat will NOT flip over. When it keels over too much, the sail will dump out the wind and right itself” he’s right, and I definitely put it to the test. 

Cheers to the Rocky Comfort!

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Sailing 221

My first step onboard.


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Categories : Detroit

Land of the Sun God

27 05 2009

Built on a bluff facing the rising sun and crashing waves, is a spectacular Mayan city built in the honor of the Sun God, named Tulum.  It is one of the very few walled cities that ancient Mayans ever built, and we were lucky enough to get an up close and personal tour during our trip.

After an hour and a half trip out to the ancient sites we were introduced to Tulum by our tour guide, Victor, who took us through every single building, ruin and stone.  He even found us some pieces of old Mayan glass and pottery from the site.

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It is amazing that after thousands of years, these structures are still standing in mostly full form (with the exception of all of the stones that were stolen through the years to built other people’s homes) and that you can still see hand prints on the buildings.

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We traveled through these ancients paths, along with many many iguanas, and learned the significance of all of the different temples and the importance of the placement of all of the buildings in relation to the position of the sun.  Each building had a small window on the top, which was the foundation of their calendar, since they were able to determine what time of year it was by the position of the sun in these different windows.

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Our guide took us to this one spot that was bare, really just a small incline covered in gravel.  It was nothing spectacular to see, and most of the other people there were passing it by.  It turns out that this spot was the most important spot in this ancient Mayan city.  This was the reference point for all of the other buildings.  From this point, you had a view of all of the temples in the city.  From this point, you were able to determine the position of the sun in relation to the buildings to keep track of the yearly calendar.

tulum

One of the interesting things our guide mentioned, was that the first calendar was found here and that it ended on December 21, 2012.  There are a lot of spectulations as to what this means, and some say that this date is the end of the current cycle and that the world is meant to restart and begin its next cycle (the dark (black) cycle) at this time.

After these puzzling thoughts, it was time to head to the beach that ran along the cliffs of this Mayan city.  The water was clear and turquoise, the waves nearly knocked me off my feet, and it was all a beautiful sight!

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Categories : Mexico

Water Baby?

26 05 2009

Now, I wouldn’t say I’m the most comfortable in the water.  I’m definitely not a ‘water baby’, and my preference is never to be in water where I can’t touch the ground.  So it’s safe to say that I frolick in the water and I have a mean doggy paddle.  So with this being said, it makes ABSOLUTELY no sense that I would be off in Mexico snorkeling, kayaking, sailing and scuba diving.

But, that is exactly what happened.  We went out snorkeling twice and saw some amazing parrot fish and coral.  We were able to snorkel 5 minutes away from our resort at the 2nd largest coral reef in the world.  We saw a young sea turtle swimming along by itself, live conch shells, moray eels, baracudas and held baby star fish in our hands.

We were lucky enough to enjoy all of these water excursions by ourselves with just our guide.  Our snorkeling guide was Jaime (pronounced Hi-May) and all week he kept asking us if we wanted to go scuba diving.  Finally on our last day there, he said, “Traci, just admit it, you’re just scared.  You’re fine, so I’m going to bring the equipment to the pool and you can practice with all of the gear”.  So, Nathan went off to drink, and I frolicked in the pool with my flippers, my mask and my tank and respirator.  Let’s just say, I looked pretty cool.  So cool that I had a crowd of little mexican children swimming around me as if they were little fish trying to get in my way.

The pool practice worked and within the hour we were back in the boat and on our way to 25 feet under the water.

nathan on boattraci on the boat

It’s a good thing that we had another private excursion, because I definitely needed some one on one attention.  It appears that my body is very bouyant.  I had all of my gear and an 8 lbs weight belt on me, and no matter what I did I kept floating to the top.  I was following the lessons, breathe in to float up, breathe out to sink.  I got rid of all the air in my lungs….and nothing.  At one point we were maneuvering in between coral reef beds and with Jaime leading the way we followed.  Jaime looked back at us and looked past Nathan and all of a sudden zoomed over Nathan’s head, arms stretched out as if trying to catch a runaway balloon.  That balloon, would be me….  So he dragged me back down and pushed me forward.  Little did I know that he was adding weights to the back of my tank.  All of a sudden I started descending.  I didn’t know there were more weights on my tank so I started filling my lungs to give myself some lift.  I couldn’t get any more air inside me, and I was still sinking.  I had to exhale, and then I hit the sea floor with a not so graceful thud.  And that was it.  I couldn’t get myself going again and I was lying spread eagle on the bottom of the sea floor.

We spent 50 minutes 25 ft under water and it felt like 10.  We saw a huge lobster, crabs, trumpet fish, baby starfish, and unwittingly I pretended to be an injured fish to attract the attention of a 5 ft barracuda (I thought it was just another hand signal….apparently not).

I apologize that we don’t have any photos of our underwater sights, but here’s a video from one of our kayak trips to give you an idea of our surroundings.


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Categories : Mexico

Oh Mexico, How I miss you

22 05 2009

Let me set the scene:

White sand, turquoise water, bright blue sky, ocean breeze and no people. 

Cancun1 063 Bright blue pool, poolside bar, Bali beds, and no people

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We woke up at 3:30am to get to the airport for our 6am flight.  Almost got trampled by a bridezilla and her family (all wearing matching outfits) at the airport, and went through a health check to ensure we weren’t arriving to Cancun with any flu-like symptoms.  But, as you can see from the photos, it was all worth it. 

When we arrived at the resort, “Hurricane Influenza” had struck and we were two of 20 guests staying at the resort.  If you’ve ever gone to an all-inclusive Mexican resort, you know this is unusual.  I had expected to see row upon row of sunscreened bodies baking in the sun by the pool, and even more on the beach. I expected to hear the infamous Activities staff on the PA system speaking in spanish/english about water polo, dance lessons, pool tournaments, etc.  I had expected to hear the screaming of kids splashing in the pool, a bunch of college guys and girls heckling each other and yelling ‘dos cervasas por favor!’  Instead….it was quiet.  Serene.  Empty.

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Who knew we had actually bought our own resort for the week…


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Goodbye Brooklyn…

8 05 2009

Okay, let’s get serious now and talk about the real Brooklyn experiences. 

It’s a whole different culture over there, where the most popular male clothing size is a 38 pant and 2XL shirt, where everything is  “hey mama, how you doin“, and the girls talk about how their “booty’s kickin and their boobs are poppin’. ” It always amazed me how many things the women could hold in their bras.  I would be ringing up sales, and all of a sudden out pops a cell phone, and then out pops a whole envelope of money.  I had to take a second glance, and in my head I was thinking ‘how did that fit in there?’.  I honestly don’t get it! 

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Another thing about our Brooklyn experience – EVERYONE knows Jay.  We had a constant flow of traffic coming through of people who used to go to school with him, who babysat in the same building that he lived in, that used to work with him way back when, even his ‘third cousin Monica’ said “waz up?”. 

Let me tell you about the day of all days.  It shall forever be known as “The Day We Couldn’t Leave Brooklyn“.  Everything starts out very normal that day.  We were going to head into the city via NJ transit and catch a cab into Brooklyn to get the truck all wrapped up and drive it back out to Jersey.  The bus ride went smoothly.  As soon as we got into a cab at the Port Authority the cab driver said, “It’s my first day“. Not a good sign.

First we got stuck in some crazy traffic on 34th street. The cab driver was fiddling with his GPS unit, in the end, we ended up programming it for him.  But you really can’t rely on a GPS in the city – no satellite reception.  So, just when I think we’re heading in the right direction, our cab driver gets yelled at by a pedestrian who tells him to get out of the bus lane so they can get on their bus.  So flustered was the cab driver, that he ends up almost squishing another cab driver in between his cab and the other.  The GPS finally starts working, but the driver doesn’t listen to it, and we miss our turn onto the Brooklyn bridge.  Once we get over to Brooklyn we point out the big black truck on the left corner.  That is our destination.  Turn left here.  He turns RIGHT.  OK, this isn’t going well. Finally Nathan says, ‘just stop the car.  pull over right here!”  The cab driver was surprised when he didn’t get a tip. 

We take care of the truck easily, and we’re off.  Only to get stopped 5 minutes into our journey because the Interstate is blocked off due to a Tri-Boro Bike Race.  So we get redirected in the other direction, take the first exit, and end up in the middle of CRAZY traffic.  People were actually trying to put their cars in reverse and back down the on-ramp. 

Just when we thought we were on the right track – the Interstate was blocked off in this direction as well and we were getting dumped right back where we started.  But this time we couldn’t take the turn as easily, and there might have been some strong words with the police and illegal cone touching.  Anyway, we ended up lost in the tiny streets of Brooklyn until we get into this narrow construction zone on our way to the Interstate (for the third time).  I look up and there’s an underpass…. 12′ ~ .  Twelve foot squiggle??  We’re 13’ 6″, this isn’t going to work.  For whatever reason the underpass wasn’t marked right, just as we go under I hear a ‘crunch, crunch, crunch’. 

Turns out a little Toyota turned her wheels to get into our lane and our tires bumped.  She knocked off 3 decorative caps off our tires, and she gets to be the lucky person that gets hit by an 18 wheel tractor trailer with no damage! 

After 4 1/2 hours, we finally make it out of Brooklyn and back to our hotel.  We drove a total of 41 miles.


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Categories : New York City

“Hello Brooklyn”

29 04 2009

It has been almost one month since we first landed in New York City. 

Who knew that we would live the life of regular New York locals – living in Jersey and taking the Lincoln Tunnel commute every morning. 

Who knew that we would become familiar faces on the streets of Brookyln, get preferential treatment at a local bagel shop, and recognize people around the city. 

It’s been a fairly uneventful stay so far, but it has had its moments. 

1)  Nathan and I are becoming Street Fighter Champions (during those slow periods at the pop shop, what else is there to do but to play Street Fighter on the X Box, although the customers are now taking turns beating me at the game)

2) One rainy weekday morning we had a surprise celebrity visiter.  Ed Lover came to visit and get some free clothes.  Now, personally I really had no idea who he was, but Nathan recognized him as the infamous Ed Lover from MTV Raps, previously of the Ed Lover and Dr. Dre combination.  He’s now a big radio personality

3) We were invited out to dinner at Wolfgang’s, a very good steak restaurant inTribeca, during the Tribeca film festival

4)  We’ve booked an all-inclusive vacation for 9 days in….you guessed it – MEXICO.  We’ll see what we end up doing with that or if we change our destination.  You can’t go anywhere now without someone talking about Swine Flu.

5)  We’ve become experts in the retail industry.  I now know how to ‘paperfold’ shirts and have learned all the merchandising tricks of the trade.  Nathan has been doing his part by specializing in the exclusive ladies line and talking about the ‘extra bling on the shirts’ and the ‘colours that pop’. 

All in all, it’s been an interesting time in Brooklyn.  Sorry for the lack of photos, but there really isn’t much to see in the middle of the Brooklyn hood, at what used to be an empty construction lot.

One last hightlight – we ended up in a place called Teaneck, NJ in search of a Dairy Queen for their Midnight Truffle blizzard.  The place was an old-fashioned barn style building with line ups down the streets – who knew Dairy Queens were such a big deal?


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The Parade of the Easter Bonnets

14 04 2009

After a very rainy and dreary Saturday, Easter Sunday morning came through bright and sunny.  Nathan and I decided to head into the city and see if we could crash some easter egg hunts in Central Park.  But alas, all those eager, chocolate-hungry kids beat us to the hunt, so we settled for a nice lunch at The Empire State Building.

After lunch we wandered down 5th avenue, battling the crowds that were soaking up the sun on the sunny side of the street (I think I may have seen tumbleweeds on the other sidewalk that was shaded by the buildings).  It was really sunny, but the wind was kicking and it was freezing!  We spent some time soaking up the sun on the steps of the NYC Public Library.  As we sat there it started getting a lot busier, then there were whispers of an Easter Parade.  Well, after sitting for a while and realizing that the streets were definitely not closed, we took off…to be greeted by closed off streets.  Pedestrianized Streets! My favourite kind – I love walking in the middle of streets.   Now, I’m not sure if we just missed out on the Easter Parade, or if there is at all, but we happened upon the Parade of the Easter Bonnets.

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Pretty much anyone who wanted to could get dressed up and put on a big hat and people would want to take photos of you.  One woman had dressed her child up in an Easter Bunny costume and was yelling “Help the Easter Bunny go to college – $1 donation!“

Needless to say, it was a little crazy.  We finally did make it to Central Park, where we watched little kids slide down these rock cliffs on their bums – entertainment has definitely changed since I was young.

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For Easter dinner we ended up at The Palm Steakhouse (www.thepalm.com), which has original cartoons drawn on the restaurant walls.  The story is, the original restaurant was right near the New York Times, and the cartoonists from The Funnies would go eat there, and although they couldn’t afford the meal, their payment would be a cartoon on the wall.

Fantastic Meal!  We both had charbroiled New York Strip steaks! Buzzing off steak, red wine and too much of a good thing, we headed back Jersey.


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Categories : New York City

livin’ like locals

11 04 2009

Now, if you read my previous post you may be asking yourself  “WHY, were you not there for Beyonce?” 

I know, I know – I’m kicking myself too.  But rather than stay at the truck all day when it was definitely not necessary, Nathan and I decided to enjoy the local flavour.  We took ourselves on a walk and enjoyed the day like many other Manhattan locals. 

Probably 5 minutes into our walk we (well, Nathan) got distracted by all of the fancy cars that were showing themselves off in the Meat Packing District.  Bentleys, Mercedes, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, etc.   Let’s just say, everyone was out showing their Sunday Best.   la-botegga

10 minutes into our walk, we got distracted by the allure of a rooftop patio with something called a “Bloody Maritime” and the wildest wild mushroom thincrust pizza we’ve had.  There was a twig/branch in the pizza – definitely not expected, but it didn’t dampen the enjoyment of the afternoon. 

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 After our lunch we headed to the water. We enjoyed a nice sunny spring afternoon by walking along the Chelsea Pier amide the rollar bladers, bicyclists, runners, walkers, dogs, etc.  We saw this one lady who seemed to be a kind of attraction, however I don’t think she knew that she was.  She was a small asian woman walking 2 little fluffy dogs, but she had on this HUGE feathered hat that was blowing in the wind.  At first I thought, well, it takes all types, but then when people randomly came up to take pictures of her and/or her dogs, I thought, should we know this person?  Is the strange hat like the crazy swan dress that Bjork wore to one of the award shows? 

 

By now, it was getting to be about 5pm so we stopped for a snack at a coffee shop and, tired from our very busy day of car watching, eating, and pier strolling, we decided that it was nap time.   Off came the shoes and on came the sunglasses.  There’s nothing better than taking a nap on the grass and basking in the light of the fading sun. 

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 After a nice nap and some picture taking, we brushed ourselves off and headed back to the truck.  When we got back, THAT is when we found out that we had missed out on the excitement of the afternoon.  We had to console ourselves with mini cheeseburgers and milkshakes at Pop Burger (www.popburger.com), a self pro-claimed ‘glamorous burger joint’. 

 

 


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Categories : New York City

Jay, B & Me

10 04 2009

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I start off with this photo because this, my friend, is the money shot.  Let me set the scene for you:

New York City….

5:00am….

Pouring Rain….

The Meat Packing District…

Amid all of these narrow one-way streets and decorative marshmallow shaped boulders, rolls a big black 18 wheel tractor trailer.  Little would anyone think that no more than 12 hours later, the streets would be packed with paparazzi (well, let’s say 10 paparazzi), the RW pop shop would be filled with the new summer men’s and women’s line and Jay would be hanging out playing x box with me (and when I say with me, I actually mean I helped set the system up, chatted with him for a couple of minutes and then got the hell out of the way, because who are we kidding – I don’t know how to play x-box!). 

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So everything went extremely well with the event.  The Meat Packing District would exactly be the target market, BUT we definitely made an impact on all of the european tourists that were around. 

Two days later the streets really were flooded with paparazzi.  (note the limited edition bag that was made specifically for the pop shop)

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Now… if only we had been there to see the craziness that their lunchtime visit caused…


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They Call it “Hotlanta” for a Reason…

2 04 2009

But I definitely did not see it. We just left Atlanta, Georgia after spending four nights and three days in the supposed “Hotlanta”. I think we hit right in the middle of a storm so we experienced a lot of wind and rain and that drizzly mist that reminds me of fall, winter, spring (and some summer) days in Vancouver. 

We were there for an industry event for the Atlanta Apparel Exhibition, a large tradeshow for urban and streetwear.  I was the hit of the show, because you just have to think urban streetwear when you see me walking down the street. Kidding, kidding.  I definitely don’t have the street cred to pull off the urban look and sound legitimate when I say “hey girlfriend” with a little snap at the end.  But let me tell you, I did have someone educate me on the religious practices of the korean culture (thinking that I was korean) and  I had an up and coming clothing designer outfit me.  Very fun. 

So Nathan and I had a very eventful weekend there.  We went into the city and visited the largest aquarium, where you actually walk through a tunnel in the water with whale sharks, hammer head sharks, manta rays, and other ocean fish swimming around you.   It was a Saturday afternoon, and if you saw this place you would say “what recession?”  It was sooo busy you could barely move without stomping on someone. 

aquarium We spent a lot of time looking at the beluga whales, where it is very apparent that the aquarium staff is hoping for a baby beluga whale.   There was desperation in the commentator’s voice when he told us that the water is a perfect 55 degrees – the perfect temperature for mating!   It seemed to be working, because Nico, the male beluga,

was showing his junk for all the world to see – not very camera shy at all! 

aquarium-tunnelNow, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Sea World when you were younger, where there are these shallow pools of water with sting rays and other fish that you can stick your hand in the water and touch.  Well, I have definitely dipped my fingers in these pools before, enthusiastically and without any doubt.  This time around, I started rolling up my sleeves (Nathan ready with the camera), and I hesitated.  I looked around the pool and saw all these kids, leaning so far that half of their bodies were in the pool, ready to manhandle all of the fish.  I decided to roll my sleeves down, because this wasn’t fun anymore…..this was fish cruelty!  So I kept my hands away from the sting rays and brown and white shrimp and left them in peace. 

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Our next step was the Coke Plant, only we didn’t have enough time for the full tour, so we just went to the gift shop.  We came out with some lovely apparel, a new coke hat for Nathan, which will become part of his self identity, and 2 bottles of coke that cost us $6. coca-cola

Last thing I’m going to mention about our Atlanta trip.  I made my very first 911 call.  We were on our way to pick up a colleague at the airport and someone rearended another car and they both went into the center median.  The car that had caused the crash had so much speed and momentum built up that he hit the wall and skidded right back across all lanes of traffic and ended up in the ditch.  This happened right in front of us.  Nathan stopped the car and got out to help one of the drivers, and I called 911.  No one seemed to be seiriously injured, but the women in the car was disoriented, both airbags had deployed, and her grandson had a cut on his head.  The other car, which was in the ditch, was being helped by other people who had stopped, but they just kept unloading car seat after car seat.  They probably had about 4 kids in there.   Definitely scary.

and on that note…


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