Utila Bound!

Our spring break starts now. Jenny had her last day of teaching today. I finished a draft of my next thesis chapter/paper on Fairmont Hot Springs. And our second room of renovations is 95% done. So to celebrate, we start our honeymoon tomorrow. In about 12 hours, we'll be leaving our home in Whitehorse to head to the Honduran island of Utila for 2 weeks (About Utila). We'll be staying in a 1-room cabin right on the Caribbean. The cabin is about a 10 minute bike ride from the town of East Harbour, population 2500. We'll have about 24 hours of airplanes and airports, then an hour long ferry ride to get there. The island is 11 km long and 4 km wide, but 2/3 of it is mangrove swamp. There is also a narrow canal that goes from one side of the island to the other (where the clouds are in the middle of the GoogleEarth pic below).



Our plan is to have a relaxing time on the beach with some sun, snorkel, scuba, and swim. We may even go for a little hike or kayak, too. And if all goes as planned, we'll get to finish off our trip by attending a full moon beach party 5 minutes down the road from our place.


If my blogging history is any indication, then you will probably see the pictures from the trip some time next winter.

I also got a pet Otter...

Seeing as how Jenny and I are renovating and personalizing our condo, she wanted to get me some nice art as a b-day gift. On the day of my birth, we checked out the work of the local artisans, and I chose this Natalie Parenteau print, "Sea Otter and Volcano" from the "North End Gallery" in Whitehorse. Natalie is a popular Yukon artist and her works are ubiquitous in these parts. This is piece I had never seen before, and it caught my eye right away -- the layering and reflections of the mountains and water to give it depth, the volcano spewing ash across the sky as the Earth recycles its old skin, and that ash leading your eye to the crescent moon and stars that are just about to be swallowed up by the day coming on the horizon,
and all of this being enjoyed by the sea otter, kicking back in the ocean, just watching the magic of the world. Who wouldn't want to be that otter?

I got crabs for my birthday

Well, I got 1 crab. And I gave it to myself. But it was a really big Alaskan King Crab! There is a seafood store in Whitehorse called "The Wharf on 4th" and once or twice a year, they get in a shipment of live King Crabs from Juneau, Alaska. The crabs were supposed to arrive last weekend (the weekend of my b-day) but ended up being delayed. That seemed to work out well though, because Jenny and I devoured the entire thing ourselves. And no, we didn't have to kill it. The fine folks at the Wharf killed and cleaned it, then gave us the legs to bring home and boil for 8 to 10 minutes. So tastey!