Weekend in the Country

We took mini road-trip (about 5 hours) to our old stomping grounds in Northeast PA over the weekend. We stayed with our dear friends Gwen and Art in Milford, where we co-owned an art gallery with them. Milford is a historic little 1-light town (there is literally only one traffic light in the entire town) on the Delaware river.

Milford is a mellow place. It makes for a lovely weekend trip (you can do pretty much all there is to do in town in about a day and a half; two and a half if you venture out for some canoeing down the Delaware LOL). This was our first visit in about 5 years. While not much has changed, it was nice to see a few more art galleries and art-inclusive shops in town.


Crossing the Delaware.


Our gallery was located in this building; historic Forest Hall.



Gwen and Art's storybook stone house.


Breakfast in the back garden was a true B&B-like treat.

Xel-Ha

During our Mexican vacation we spent a day at Xel-Ha. An amazing eco-aquarium. Everything is natural, the fish are not in tanks (nor are they afraid of you ). SOOO cool.






We swam in a cave.




I dove (jumped, actually) off a cliff a few times.




We tubed down a mangrove path and swam down a "lazy" river.
The water was amazing.








Xel-Ha is an all inclusive park. $105 per person (through our tour company at the hotel) covered transportation to and from, rental of all snorkel equipment (bring $20 deposit for snorkel equipment, you'll get it back), towels, lockers and all you can eat and drink (including beer and cocktails). The only added expense (besides the shopping I did on my way out) was purchasing their bio-degradable sunscreen. Being an ecological preserve, standard sunscreens are, understandably, not allowed.

For extra fees you can do things like swim with dolphins, manatees or go on an underwater "sea-trek". While they all seem fun, these activities will take up part of your day. We were perfectly happy to simply explore the park on our own on our first visit. Even with this approach there were a few things we didn't get to do. I guess we'll just have to visit again.

I Left My Liver in Mexico

I'm baaaack!
Tony Bennett may have left his heart in San Francisco, but we all left our livers in the Maya Riviera. We arrived home on Sunday morning from a wonderful family (Ron, my aunt and I) vacation to the Maya Riviera (just 20 minutes outside Cancun). We stayed at the wonderful all-inclusive Secrets Silversands Riviera. We loved it there and would return in a heartbeat.


Cocktails NON-STOP!!!



The room and resort grounds were beautiful.












The beach out front was lovely.






The restaurants and nightly shows were great.










I even won a Bocce Ball tournament and got pulled up on stage.



Hair courtesy of Mother Nature and Jose Cuervo:

Did I mention how much we drank???

I am now tanned, relaxed and most importantly recharged with colorful inspiration.
I am ready and eager to get back into the studio!