Ashes and Snow

On Valentines Day, we attended the most amazing photographic exhibition with Jill and Perin, Kristy and baby Charley. We drove through Malibu to Santa Monica.

Ashes and Snow is the name of Gregory Colbert's fine arts photographic exhibition currently at the Santa Monica pier in LA. The artist is Canadian born and he began his career in Paris.

He photographs man with animals in their natural habitats. His work has been done in many locations including Egypt, India, Antartica, and Borneo.

The photographs and film show the artist swimming with elephants, man cohabitating with jaguars, leopards, lynx, elephants,whales, and exotic birds.

Colbert's mixed media photographic artworks marry umber and sepia tones and are presented on handmade paper.

The 56,000 square foot museum that was designed by Shieru Ban is constructed of 152 steal cargo containers created in a checkerboard pattern with a fabric membrane in between. The lighting and music create an amazing ambience.

There is talk of the exhibit going to the Vatican. If this should happen it would be the first time that the Vatican has presented non religious work. It is difficult to find the words to describe the work.

Amazing & Awesome

Lunch was at a great restaurant named Malibu Seafood across the street from the ocean. Their slogan is "We aren't open for breakfast because we are busy catching lunch." We sat at picnic tables in the 80* warm sunshine.

In the afternoon we golfed at North Ranch hoping to work off some of the calories from the ahi burgers, clam strips and fish and chips.

Dinner was leg of lamb, endive salad, and great wine and that set us up for watching the Olympics.

It was a great Valentine's Day.

The Johnson Ranch

Well here we are in Thousand Oaks LA at Jill and Perin's wonderful home. Sean and Susan and baby Brooke visited in the morning. Brooke is adorable and just wants to walk, walk, walk.

We golfed yesterday at North Ranch. we were back home at 4:30 and had dinner guests at 6:00.
Bicky and Steve, and Ann and Joel came for dinner. We hadn't seen them 20 years and it was so cool to get together and tell all of the stories. Jill cooked an incredible meal of tenderloin on puffed pastry topped with arugala and carmelized onions. Yum.

This morning Jill was off to the barn to feed Integrity (the horse), and the chickens, and the wild barn cat that Jill has tamed. Jill"s horse is 25 years old and looks great.

We are off to Santa Barbara today to do a little shopping. The weather in LA is warm and wonderful and we just love being here with the Johnsons.

Opequimar Club de Yates

Amigos,

Two more days left in Mexico and then on to Los Angeles. This evening we will go to a cocktail reception at the Galleria Dante with our new friends from Tennessee. Joey and Carroll Shanks. Claire Guarniere owns the gallery and she has a daughter studying fine arts at UBC. The Shanks have known her for 15 years. Then we are off to dinner at Trio.

Tomorrow we are renting a car and going to Punta Mita and Nayarit up the coast to the north. There is a new Four Seasons in Punta Mita that is supposed to be very nice so we will check it out. We will most likely stop in to Bucerias en route. Our flight leaves at 8 pm so we have all day to explore.

One of the Celebrity ships, the Mercury is in port today. It seems strange to go out on the balcony and see the familiar X of the Celebrity ships.

We will miss Opequimar Club de Yates and the yachts coming and going, great food, and unlimited internet access. We have become friendly with Diego who runs the place and will post his picture when we get home.

It will be wonderful to see family and friends.

The Green Flash

We had the most incredible hot red sunset and waited patiently for the green flash. The Lumix camera was on the tripod and we carefully watched the sun descend onto the horizon and then started a burst of pictures.

Voila, the sky changed from red to green just for a couple of seconds and then back to red. I have been researching the green flash or mirage. There was an article written about the phenomenon in National Geographic. I will post the pictures when I get home and hopefully by then will have a clear understanding of why this occurs.I am sure everyone is watching the superbowl today. The Marina has lots of places with big screens so that is where we will be.I played an hour of tennis singles today and my rotator cuff appears to be holding up I think we will try some golf tomorrow morning early.

Puerto Vallarta

Another sunny day in P.V. Life here is so easy. I found the best disguise to keep the time sharing people away and that is to pretend talk on your cell phone. Between the phone and the tan, they think you are a local and leave you alone.

Every night the pelicans do the fly by in formation and we call it the Mexican air force.

The buganvillia and hibiscus growing outside our windows is beautiful and I just lean out and pick it and put it into my vase everyday.

I understand that it is still raining in Vancouver. The only good thing about that is that the snow is great at Whistler and we look forward to spring skiing. In the meantime corona lime is good and the margueritas are not so bad either.

Puerto Vallarta

Life in Mexico

February 2, 2006

Club Regina is fantastic. it is so relaxing to be here. The gym is well equipped and with the jacuzzi on the balcony it is like being at the spa. Breakfast is at the Club Yates (yacht club) and dinner is at Victors in the marina. The weather is perfect everyday and we are not missing the rain in Vancouver. When we get home it will be time for spring skiing. We undestand that the now at Whistler is fantastic.