Missed Me?

I love traveling but it's great to be back home, especially to be able to sleep in my own comfy bed.  I've had an adventurous two weeks and just too tired to get into it right now.  Here's a few photos to highlight pieces of the trip:

Beautiful Budapest (pronounced Buda-Pesh), Hungary. 
Buda is the area on the west bank of the Danube River and Pest is on the east bank.



Forgot the name of this little town we stopped at on the way to Prague.
It's so traditional and conservative but the people dressed so trendy,
especially the many young, sophisticated moms pushing around the baby buggies.
None of the vendors spoke English!



This shot was taken at the spot that called "The Most Beautiful View of Prague".



We had to visit the John Lennon Wall in Prague since my kid is a huge Beatles fan.
When he was assisinated, a huge mural of his face was painted on this wall.
Since then, many other artists added to it and you can no longer see the original picture.
Most of the art on the wall is a tribute to John Lennon and the Beatles.

The Jewish Monument is an enormous park with these artistically placed cement pieces,
signifying all the Jews who died in the Halocaust.

This is only a small piece of what's left of the Berlin Wall.  It's a fairly long wall,
stretching a couple of blocks.  Artists were invited to paint murals on it.

Entrance to Auschwitz... it was an overwhelming experience being where so many
were held captive and executed during WWII, the Halocaust.



The Salt Mines in Krakow(pronouned Krakov), Poland.  We had to walk down 100 flights of stairs
to get to the bottom.  Minors created many works of art out of salt during their free time. 
The figures above are made of salt.

I have many more photos and stories I'd love to share.  I know there aren't SUP-related, but hopefully you'll enjoy reading my posts none-the-less.

Remembering Those Who Perished in Auschwitz

Today we had a walking tour of Krakow. What a beautiful old city that holds so much history. I didn't know too much about Krakow prior to this visit. Most of the people here are Catholic (95%) so it's surrounded by many extraordinary churches. Pope John Paul II was
From Krakow. I loved the copper-patina cuppolas. I wish I could upload some photos to show you but it may have to wait until I get home.

Czesc (hello) from Poland

What an exhausting day of travel. We drove 7 hours to get to krakow, Poland. We took a quick lunch break in Slovania, which didn't go so well because the vendors there did not speak English and definitely did not cater to tourists. I have tons of beautiful pics but can't upload any of them to post because I used my new canon g12 and I'm blogging from my iPhone. Tomorrow we'll take a tour of the city. I'll try to take a few shots with my iPhone to share with you tomorrow. So please be patient and pics will be up soon.

Hello From Hungary!

Wow, what a crazy few days I've had.  Time just flies by when you're having fun for sure.  Well, it did take a couple of days to get here in the first place.  We left for Budapest on April 9th and arrived on April 10th.  I would have blogged last night but I couldn't figure out all the security questions I was being asked because it was all in another language!  Anyway, I just got the receptionist to translate and viola...

We had a layover in Chicago and I ran into this huge advertisement on the wall with a Stand-Up Paddler.  So cool but it only made me miss being in the water even more.

The toughest part about being on vacation is trying to stick to the training diet.  I think this one came close enough... Chicago's deep dish, spinach and tomatoe pizza!

I also made up for it today by having a fresh-squeezed carrot and orange juice smoothie while walking through the flea market in Budapest.  It was delicious!  Although... I do have some more making up to do.  I had nutella-filled dumplings, a rasberry cheesecake and chocolate fudge cake covered in a rich, dark chocolate coating!!  Of course not all at one sitting.  But this is only our second day here and I've already damaged by health diet drastically.  I'll have to step up my cardio workouts for sure when I get back. 

Budapest is a beautiful city.  We rode a boat this evening down the Danube River, which separates the Buda and the Pest (therefore the name).  I thought to myself that it would be a great river to SUP.  Everything looks much better in the evening because all the large monuments and significant buildings are lit up. 

I'd love to send more posts but I can't promise.  I'll just have to wait and hope that the other hotels I stay at have internet access. 

Going to Miss SUPing

I'm looking forward to this 2-week trip I'm commencing tomorrow, but I'm not looking forward to no SUPing throughout this time.  I'll have to rely on practicing visualization.  If you're a follower, you may have read my post regarding this a few months back.  Basically, I'll have to mind surf or mind race to satisfy my cravings for SUPing and hopefully keep my skills sharp (of what I have so far).  I'm going to rely on push-ups and sit-ups for strength exercises and we walk miles every day so I know I'll still be burning calories.

My perspective on water has totally changed since I started stand-up paddling.  I'm sure I'll imagine being on my board whenever I see a body of water.  Hey, it's a global sport.  You never know... I may run into some SUPers?

Stay tuned.  If I'm lucky enough to have internet access, I'll post some cool photos during the trip.

Soul Surfer

A couple of month ago my daughter and I visited the WOW (Women on Waves) Exhibit at the Oceanside Surf Museum.  We were floored by the huge chunk that was missing from Bethany Hamilton's surfboard that was bitten off by a 14' tiger shark in Hawaii, along with her left arm.  Amazingly, the 13-year-old returned to surfing in just a few weeks.  She had to learn how to rebalance and surf with one arm.  Her courage serves as an inspiration to many and her story has been made into a movie called Soul Surfer.

Bethany Hamilton and AnnaSophia Robb at a favorite surf spot in Hawaii

 “I realized that telling my life story could change people’s perspectives on hard times they’re going through,” says Hamilton, 21, who has published five nonfiction books that reflect her strong sense of spirituality. During one humanitarian trip to Thailand in 2005, the same year she won a national surfing championship, she led 50 children, many orphaned by the tsunami in late ’04, into the water for the first time. “Helping them overcome their fear of the ocean was a great opportunity,” she says. “There aren’t a lot of good role models out there, so it’s cool that I could be one.” www.bethanyhamilton.com

Soul Surfer comes out tomorrow.  My kid has been anxiously awaiting for this movie to premiere so we'll be standing in line to watch the movie tomorrow evening, even though we need to be at the airport 5:30AM on Saturday to fly out to Budapest.  Hopefully I'll have internet access through the next couple of weeks on our travels and you can follow along our journey through Budapest, Prague and Krakow!

Getting the Right Shot

I love my new camera!  I recently purchased the Canon G12 and am still figuring out all its functions.  I'm especially loving the function where you can highlight a certain color and only that color comes through while the rest of the shot is in black and white.  It's especially useful when you want to highlight something significant, such as my Boga 9'2" Bullet in this shot!

Or the beautful pink flowers on this tree:

Or the cool fire red garage doors on this firehouse:

PB, no locals... not Pacific Beach- Pismo Beach

My mom has these photos of me from when I was a toddler playing in the sand under a pier.  She told me it was Pismo Beach, a place we often visited when we went up North to visit my Aunt.  Last month, on my way to a conference in Monterey, I was able to visit Pismo Beach for the first time as an adult.  It's a long strand of beach where you can surf, fish, camp and ride dirt bikes.  

There's the infamous pier in the background.

I love that you can drive right on to the beach.  Just be careful though, don't get overconfident and get stuck in the sand like these boys almost did.

That truck you see there is not moving.  His wheels are turning but...
He eventually got out.  The campsites are on the other side.
It looks like you'll have to cruise through some water to get there.
Hopefully you have a raised truck or an amphibious one!

My good friends are "desert rats", while I'm the "beach bum".
Check it out guys.. a compromise?
Pammie- RSVP at Pismo Beach and we'll all be happy campers!

My 7-Miles Endurance Training

Today was a true test of my strength and endurance for Stand-Up Paddling.  Coming into the Seaside Slide race this morning, I was more fearful about getting through the surf rather than paddling the 7-miles.  I guess it was a good distraction to start with because after I got through the surf unscathed I was feeling okay.

Check out the background.  You see why I was nervous having to get past those waves?

The first half wasn't so grueling. I followed everybody going way outside to the buoy.  It was a windy day and we got it from the back towards the buoy.  So you know what that means when we turned the buoy.  We had to take the next 3.5 miles going into the wind.  On top of that, I heard someone before the race say it was fastest to come back on the inside through the kelp beds.  This wasn't such a great idea for me.  It slowed me down big time having to deal with my fin and paddle sometimes getting caught.  Well, one time I tried to paddle through one of the kelp beds and it actually stopped me in my tracks, making me fall off my board.  I jumped back on with kelp in tow.  I also pulled up my leash that had additional kelp to make things more exciting for me.  It was disastrous.  I started to get frantic because I had a tough time getting all the kelp untangled.  I had to take a moment to compose myself as I almost broke into tears thinking, "What the hell do I do now?!"  I finally took a breather and patiently untangled the kelp one by one until I finally was clear.  At this point, I was over paddling through the kelp beds and went back outside.  I finished the race with a sore back from using a paddle that was too short.  I need to get another paddle for racing now that I have the raceboard because it sits about 4" higher above the water than my surfboard.

This has been the most challenging race thus far.  I learned a lot from it and will make some necessary changes to improve my game.  Miraculously, I finished 4th in the woman's division.  (Not bad out of 6 females and now I know why not many women enter this race but it won't stop me from coming back next year.)

Here I am with my contenders.  Terri Plunkett taking 1st place.

There's the Boga Board on the far right waiting to hit the water.