As I was cleaning up some folders and files on my hard drives, it occurred to me that I have so many images I haven’t blogged, especially from fun things like our travels. And since I’m daydreaming about when we’ll get to travel next (we have a few things in the works!) reminiscing about past adventures helps me to pass the time. So I’m going to revisit some of those trips and post more images, in no particular order starting with Alaska. One of our stops on the trip included the cutest mining town called Skagway. Perhaps the most popular tourist attraction in Skagway is to take a narrow gauge railroad to the Summit of the White Pass, but Chris and I had done so many excursions in the previous days that we decided just to do our own walking tour of the town. We’ll just have to go back someday! 
Category: travel
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Skagway, Alaska
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Virgin Gorda – The Baths
If you are planning a trip to the Virgin Islands (U.S. or British), The Baths on Virgin Gorda is an excursion not to be missed. It was one of the highlights of our Tortola trip! Huge granite boulders form caverns of sheltered pools along the edge of the beach, and you can hike, wade, and climb your way through the massive awe-inspiring maze. If you’re not staying on Virgin Gorda, it’s easily accessible by ferry, a tour group, or charter boat.
The first time Chris and I went to St. John, I chickened out of visiting The Baths with the rest of our group because I was afraid to snorkel and for some reason I thought the caves would be dark and full of creepy sea creatures. I’m shaking my head in shame now that I know better, and I’ve learned my lesson on carpe diem-ing these opportunities. The second time we planned to see The Baths via the Bad Kitty tour after I decided I was brave enough, a tropical storm cancelled our tour. Sigh! So third time’s a charm, right? On this trip to Tortola, Chris and I were fiiinally able to see the awesomeness that is The Baths. We decided it would be easy enough to just hop on the ferry out of Road Harbor and grab a cab once we arrived on Virgin Gorda, and it did turn out to be very simple.
Our ferry ride over to Virgin Gorda from Tortola was beautiful. The weather was a little cloudy that day, but happily I think it made a difference in the crowd level. We heard morning was a good time to avoid busy tour groups, so we arrived around 11am and didn’t find the caves or the beaches to be crowded at all. I had also checked the Port Authority schedule to see what day would have the least cruise ship passengers in port (we picked a day with no cruise ships in port), so that helped, too. Photography note: morning is also a great time to get the best lighting for photos.
From the ferry dock we took a taxi to the top of the Baths – you can either arrange for a taxi as part of your ferry trip, or just grab a taxi waiting at the ferry dock. It was about a 10-minute ride to Spring Bay where we were dropped off at The Top of the Baths – an area with restaurant/bars, shops, and the kiosk where you pay visitor entrance fee to the park ($3 per adult). From the top, it’s a 10-15 minute sandy hike down to the caves. The trail is well-marked, you can’t get lost, and as long as you don’t have mobility issues it’s not a particularly challenging hike. I wore water shoes, but Chris did the trip in flip-flops and he was fine.
And just to ease the concerns of anyone who imagines The Baths like I did, it’s not creepy. I promise. The caves are nice and bright, and the water is no more than waist-deep (I’m 5’7″) in most spots, free of any sea creatures. Also, the boulders are so huge and tall that I didn’t feel trapped in a small space or anything. There are a few tight areas, including one that you have to crawl through to enter the caverns (see photos of us in the crevices below for perspective), and there’s a bit of an incline climb towards the beginning that requires assistance of a rope “rail,” but other than that, this isn’t a super physically demanding activity. If there’s anywhere you can make it look like you’re starring in an Indiana Jones movie though, this is it!
I hate saying this since I’m a photographer, but photos just don’t do this natural phenomenon justice. You really have to be in the caverns to understand the scale of these massive boulders.
There are plenty of tour groups that offer guided tours of The Baths, but it’s something you can see on your own if you don’t want to go with a big group. We didn’t have guides, and well…full disclosure, we did get a little lost for a few minutes, but that’s only because we climbed up out of the caves and on top of the boulders and sort of wandered off the beaten path. Obviously we found our way out!
After exiting the caves, we spent some time snorkeling around the boulders off the beach and it was SO FUN. This was the moment I realized snorkeling isn’t terrifying, and it’s actually quite fun. We saw friendly colorful fish in shallow, easy to access water right off the beach. Some of the footage in this video is from The Baths (from 1:36 to 1:57), and might give you a better idea of how things looked from the inside. All the photos and this video were taken with my Canon S95 in a waterproof housing.
Tortola 2013 from Susan Marks on Vimeo.
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Tortola 2013
Hi friends! Chris and I are back from spending an amazing week on Tortola, BVI. We’ve been planning this trip for a year, and were especially excited to go back to the Virgin Islands after last year’s trip to St. John was affected by Tropical Storm/Hurricane Issac. I was also really disappointed that our side-trip to the BVIs was cancelled due to the weather last time, so this year we figured we’d go straight to the British side of the islands to see what it’s like, NOT during hurricane season. We rented a beautiful villa above Brewers Bay called The Refuge, and spent the week visiting Tortola’s beaches, eating and drinking in fun little beach bars, and we even took a day trip over to Virgin Gorda to explore The Baths. The weather was absolutely gorgeous all week long – it couldn’t have been more perfect. Here are a few photos of the house, our view, beautiful sunsets each night from various beach bars, and our snorkeling adventures at The Baths and Smugglers Cove (and if you make it to the end of the post, there’s a video!):
So, I brought my SLR, a point-and-shoot, a GoPro Hero 2 AND my iPhone (overkill), but I actually ended up taking more video clips than still images if you can believe it! So (and please keep in mind that I’m a photographer and not really a videographer) here’s a short video I put together of our adventure:
Tortola 2013 from Susan Marks on Vimeo.
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Colorado Recap: The Obsession Continues…
Chris and I were in Colorado for Christmas a few weeks ago, and while we were there we took a trip out to Steamboat Springs for some snowboarding with my sister and brother-in-law. They are locals and longtime skiers, and they love Steamboat so we decided to give it a try with them. The resort is huge, and the skiing/snowboarding was amazing. They had just received something like 14-inches of new powdery snow, so it was definitely the softest, snowiest ride we’ve ever experienced. And it was COLD. The base of the mountain was 12 degrees, so you can imagine that as we went up (and up and up) the lifts, it got really chilly even with lots of layers on. Plus there were flurries throughout the day. Here we are, smiley but cold!
The view from the lift was just so pretty. The view down the mountain:
And the view up the hill. Plus an action shot of me! I’m happy to report that my skills are improving vastly – I can link turns consistently and make it down a run without really falling. I do still have a little trouble when the trail is really really narrow – that kind of spooks me because my turns are wide, but I’m sure I’ll continue to improve this season. We have several trips planned – I’m obsessed with our new hobby.
Most importantly, while I was in Colorado I got to spend quality time with my family for the Christmas holiday. I love them so much! We chatted a lot, and I personally ate a lot, so thank goodness for the snowboarding to burn off the calories.
And I got to see my nephew, Andy the Weimaraner (pictured below), and my niece, Fiona the Snowshoe Siamese kitty! So that’s always nice.
Counting down the days to our next trip out there!
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Shredding the Gnar
It was (almost) around this time last year that I started to learn how to snowboard! It’s something Chris had tried a few times before and he wanted to get back into it, so I thought I’d give it a try so it could be something we could enjoy together. Though I admit I was pretty scared to try it – having both of your feet stuck to one board that you can’t easily detach (like skis) while barreling down a slope seemed like a bad idea to me.
The first time I went was in Colorado where we signed up for a private lesson with one of the instructors at Eldora Mountain Resort. I was warned ahead of time that the learning curve is quite steep, and that’s an understatement! But I was immediately* in love with it, despite also being so frustrated with how HARD it is. I think it took me about five snowboarding trips and many many bruises before I really “got it.”
*Edited to add: Chris just reminded me that I wasn’t quite immediately in love with it. I was pretty flustered with the first few hours of the lesson. Our instructor had us practicing on a small hill, where we’d ride down and then climb back up with the heavy board strapped to one foot. It’s probably the most exhausting thing I’ve ever done! So actually, I think I said, “I hate this,” when we were on break.
Our instructor, Amir, was awesome. He was patient and really focused on the basics and a good foundation. He pushed me to challenge myself, but not too far past what I was comfortable with, alhough I did take a hard fall at the end of the day when he let me go down the bottom of the trail by myself. I’ll never forget laying on the ground looking up at the sky when Amir rushed over and said, “That was AWESOME!” Apparently I had linked turns a few times at the end of the run (by accident) right before I fell. Okay, awesome, but painful! My tailbone still isn’t quite the same.
I left with a few skills under my belt (and a very bruised tailbone), and once we were back home I immediately went out and purchased my own board, bindings, boots, helmet (critical!), and goggles.
We went nearly every weekend to Whitetail Resort in Pennsylvania to practice, practice, practice. Thank goodness for the small hills and gentle slopes of a PA mountain, unlike the “real” mountains of Colorado. Much better for a beginner! Though we don’t have much in the way of real snow here – it’s mostly man-made snow over a hard layer of ice, so there are pros and cons. (Falling on ice is a major con.)
Here I am taking a short break on the side of the beginner trail. In addition to the learning curve, snowboarding as a beginner is exhausting! Thankfully all those waterproof layers allow me to sit in the snow off to the side and rest every once in a while.
I finally learned to connect everything together once I actually got OFF of the bunny trail, and went to a more difficult but less populated green trail. Look how crowded that bunny hill is! So many people to run into. Once I had a little more room, everything just clicked, and I started linking turns – this time on purpose. Yay!
And with that, I crossed off #49 on my old 101 in 1001 list for prosperity and to you know, keep it official. I’m really looking forward to our second season, hopefully with fewer bruises! P.S. We don’t really say, “shredding the gnar” except to joke around, but snowboard slang is pretty fun. “Sweet cherry cherry pow-pow” means fresh, untouched snow (powder). And there were a few occasions where I “scorpioned,” meaning I fell face-first downhill with my board overhead. There are no pictures of that, thankfully.
So what about you? Are there any new hobbies you want to try? Want to give snowboarding a try?! It’s (apparently) one of those things that you have to push through no matter how hard it is at first, and if you’re patient (and stubborn) enough, everything will just click and it gets really fun! Let me know if you decide to try it! And if you need any advice on protective crash gear, I’ve done TONS of research on pads, helmets, wrist guards, etc. And I’ve done lots of crashing, so I can vouch for what works. 🙂