Our time in Paradise - Pemuteran

I met Made, the wife, on a walk through the very small village. She and her husband, Ketut, started this small restaurant (warung) less than a year ago. For dinner they serve the fresh fish which is caught that very afternoon. Notice their altar in the background.

This beautiful Infinity Pool was right on the edge of the ocean. We spent many hours sitting in the shade of the trees, reading, watching the waves, and listening to that heavenly sound of surf.

Diah was the girl who took care of our reservations and made certain that our stay was perfect.

Butu served most of our meals and, one night when we got locked out, he went all the way up to the lobby to get us a key. We didn't ever lock our room, so we never brought our key with us. That night the staff had gone into our room to put down the mosquito netting and to spray the room. Of course, they locked the door as they left!

This man visited the altars every morning and every evening with offerings and incense.

We met this darling Dutch couple when I asked him about his "racquet". It turned out that he and his wife were once local tennis champions. The racquet is a bug zapper! Also, they were both in German concentration camps. He still has a shirt which was given to him by a Canadian soldier. He sang tenor in his church choir and treated our little restaurant to a whole Dutch song! He is 85 years old and an absolute kick!

This monkey was watching the traffic as we went up into the temple. He didn't bother us. I don't trust monkeys very much.

We walked up to this temple. There were good views from the top.

We were thrilled with our outdoor shower! We never once took an inside shower. The weather was so warm that we much preferred being out in the heavenly air. There were many plants and smooth black rocks around the garden area.

Our bunglalow was in the very best location. It was close to both the restaurant and the pool.

We discovered this hairy sea star when we went tidepooling one morning. Notice (when you enlarge this) that we also found a little green starfish. We took a beachwalk once a day.

On our last walk, we met this woman who was collecting plants and grasses for her cows and pigs. The beaches here are black sand. Notice the large footprints on the beach side. A cow escaped from its grazing area near the beach. We followed its path, and it had even wandered through the beach restaurant area of a very fancy hotel. That must have been exciting!!

Our Time in Paradise - Ubud

This is out of order, but Siti and Alan took us to a night market in Gianyar, east of Ubud. This woman is selling little baskets for offerings. Everyone who is Hindu begins the day by making an offering. All homes have small altars. Every shopkeeper places an offering on the walkway in front of the shop, and all drivers place an offering on the dash of their car.

Chuck enjoys a Bintang on our balcony in front of the beautifully carved door to our rooms.

We enjoy a view of the pool as we wait for our delicious dinner. The food was divine. Siti and Alan give cooking classes for those who are interested. If only we had had more time!

Our balcony had a view of lush trees and foliage. It was like living in a tree house.

This is Alan's pet monkey. Everyday he puts him on a long leash so he

can enjoy swinging through the trees. Alan is Dutch, but he lived in Canada for 20 years. Siti is from Java. They were both

fascinating to talk to .

Siti shops in the Gianyar night market for some new fish for her ponds.

This woman sells some typical Indonesian foods in the market.

There are rice fields everywhere in Bali. These are on the way to Amed.

Our Time in Paradise - Amed

Amed is our very favorite place in Bali. It is where we feel the most at home, and the snorkeling is the best we have found anywhere. The water is warm, shallow, and clear, the fish and coral are abundant and colorful and there are schools and schools of fish. My favorite fish was the Oriental Sweetlips. It was white and black-striped with black fins with yellow polka dots! I also saw a blue linkia star fish, trumpetfish, Moorish Idols (schools of them), parrot fish, and more.

Marcel and Uni own Bayu Cottages. They are very fun and interesting. Uni is the first female PADI dive instructor in Bali. It is a great honor for her. They came for a visit and brought Milan, their adorable 2 year-old son. He didn't like to get his picture taken, but I caught him a few times.

This is the sight which greeted us as we sat on our porch in the early morning.

These are a few of sweet, happy, friendly people who cleaned our rooms, cooked our food, and always made us feel welcome. These are the same guy and girls we met when we visited Bayu Cottages in 2006, and they remembered us!! They are very special. All the girls are now married and all have children, except one, who is pregnant.

Chuck is cooling off in the infinity pool. It is salt water and very refreshing on a hot day.

We shared our Ayam Betutu (a special chicken dish) with Aneka, a Dutch woman whose specialty in growing and improving crops and plants in countries around the world. She and her family were imprisoned by the Japanese from the time she was 4 yrs old until she was 8. At that time, she and her family were living in Sumatra. Very interesting woman!

Another scene from our balcony.

Barb by a jukung, a traditional fishing boat. These boats go out everyday. They mainly catch mackerel. All are very colorful and have multicolored sails.

Our Time in Paradise - Sanur

Sanur was our last stop. We stayed in a beautiful cottage with a large porch and a large pool. To get to the beach we walked through this bonsai garden. This is a bonsai banyan tree.

This man sat everyday, trimming and training the trees. Some of them were for sale.

We ate lunch at the Bonsai restaurant. In the background are the altars for offerings and the beach chairs for us by the ocean.

Unfortunately, we were only there two days, but both mornings we began our day with a nice, long beach walk, watching the people and listening to the music of the gamalong. (sp?) I couldn't figure out how to transfer the video.

This is a family in traditional Balinese dress. They were happy to let me take their picture.

Christmas Memories

I took these pictures of our wonderful family during the days we spent with everyone in Utah and in Idaho. I am a ghastly blogger, but wanted to share these with everyone before we take off for Bali tomorrow. Since there were so many, I wanted to do a slide show, but forgot how, and Chuck couldn't remember either, so here it is. Hope it comes out when I publish it. Sometimes, everything jumps around, and I don't have time to redo it.

Portraits of our Family

These are pictures of some of the family couples. Granddaughter Susan with Greg, Daughter
Beth and Gary, Son Mike with Julie, Granddaughter Rachel with friend Tod, Chuck and Barb, Grandson Jake with Jen and Seth (also have Shea), Daughter Mary with Jeff, Son Pat with Jennifer.

The road to Salt Lake

We are trying to give a perspective of the drive from Valley Springs to Farmington. It took us 12 hours this time which is pretty fast, because the roads were clear of snow, except through the Sierra Mountains.

The first photo is outside of Carson City and shows how people just build a house in the middle of the desert.

The second photo shows a power coal fired power plant. It is located in the middle of nowhere because there is a coal mine close by.

The third photo tells how steep some
of the downgrades are. This area of Nevada is called Basin and Range. It is formed because the Sierra Mountains in California and the Wasatch Mountains in Utah, are pulling slowly apart. This makes faults in between which forms the big hills and valleys.

The fourth photo shows the Hoodoo

structures along the road.

The next two photos tell about the top of a large rise and the decent on the other side.

The next photo is a view of the Bonneville Salt Flats beyond Wendover on the Nevada/Utah border.

The next photo is a sculpture some guy put up in the middle of the Great Salt Lake Desert.

And the last photo shows us coming close to Salt Lake at sunset. I love this drive.