Long time, no post...

Sorry about not posting any more while in Bonaire. I had too many problems trying to upload photos with the wireless internet connection at the Divi and then they started charging the second week. I just posted a bunch of photos from the trip on my MySpace if you want to look at them.

The photo on the left is one that I took and submitted in Capture Photo's weekly photo contest and won. The grand prize was a nice hat.

Fun in Bonaire

We are having a blast here in Bonaire. Unfortunately Divi is having connection problems so I can't post any photo's at the moment. I'll try again tomorrow.

Status Update and a vacation to Bonaire.

Hi Everyone! Sorry for going so long between updates. Holly and I are doing well, sticking to our diets and exercising. We both have been maintaining our weight loss, and even losing a little more. When I went to go get new bathing suits for my vacation, I figured that I had probably lost enough weight to go with size XL instead of XXL. I tried on an XL and was never so happy to have a bathing suit not fit. I ended up wearing size Large!

Now we are in Bonaire at the Divi Flamingo.
It was a long five hour flight from San Diego to Atlanta, a four hour layover then another four and a half to to Bonaire. But what a beautiful island. Great diving, great restaurants, great scenery and great fun. The picture of the flamingos is from a drive we took yesterday afternoon. These flamingos were hanging out in the mangroves near Lac Bay. I'll post more later. I'm supposed to meet someone in a couple of minutes to go diving.

Home again.

We stayed the night at the Best Western in Tuscayan AZ. One of the nicer hotels I've been to and a good night's sleep. And then it's off to home. Stopped for gas in historic Williams AZ, where route 66 came close to the Grand Canyon. Still has a lot of that old time feel to it.








Then we drove south through Oak Creek Canyon to Sedona, AZ.











And one last stop at Montezuma's Castle before driving on to San Diego. A long drive, but we made it.

Now it's a matter of settling in here at home. Unpacked, then Holly's off to her brother's to help him out this week while he goes into surgery for his leg. I went out and got some exercise balls, mats and weights to start working out with. I think I'll pick up the elliptical machine from Costco if I can get someone with a pickup to help me get it.

Road Trip!

So it's been some serious road tripping! We did both the North and South Rim road trips of Canyon de Chelly and did the White House Ruins hike. Holly swore that the hike was going going to kill her. All the way down the 600 to 700 foot switchback path she was swearing that she would never make it up. But she did! Thanks Sharon for making everything "funner". A great hike. Boaught a great piece of rock art down at the ruins. There were about six Navajos set up down at the bottom with displays of native American art (both hikers and all the vehicle tours come by there). One of the guys had some acrylic paint on sandstone art done by a friend and his own carved into sandstone art. The cool thing (besides the great art) was that his spot in front of the ruins was his gallery. He carved his art there while trying to sell his and his friend's art. I wish I'd recoded his explanation of all the details of the piece of art I bought. Great day.







Then on Wednesday we started of with a quick visit to the Hubbell Trading Post National Monument. Didn't buy anything, the native American art was way overpriced.










Then it was off to the Painted Desert / Petrified Forest. Beautiful but cold. A cold front entered Arizona and dropped th temperature down to around freezing. Hiking was just out, except for a trip around the Crystal Forest. I did a few more hikes while Holly stayed in the car.







That evening we stayed at the La Poloma Hotel in Winslow Arizona. The coolest hotel EVER! This was one of those artistic hotels designed for the Santa Fe railroad by Mary Colter. It's being restored, complete with awesome art and a great restaurant. This hotel is reason to come to Winslow Arizona. Maybe the only reason to stop in Winslow besides getting gas. I would come back just to stay here.





Then On Thursday, we did some serious travel. We started with Meteor Crater. The plan was to hike the crater rim, but the near freezing temperatures stopped that. Wandered around the museum, saw all the movies and looked out over the overlooks.






From Meteor Crater, we went to Walnut Canyon. unfortunately the Indian Trail was closed due to rock falls.










Next was Sunrise Crater. This volcano exploded between 1040 and 1090 AD. Very cool looking, and the most recent of the many volcanoes in the San Fransisco Mountain range.










From there it was off to the Wukoki National Monument to check out some more Native American ruins.











Then finally the Grand Canyon. Beautiful scenery with a beautiful woman.

Navajo Country

Started yesterday off with a short hike from the south rim of the Grand Canyon to the north rim and then back. At least a couple hundred yards hike. Of course this was over the old Navajo Bridge, not up and down the canyon.








Then we drove across northern Arizona to the Navajo National Monument. Beautiful. Only one hike was open, even if it was a little icy. (Only one of us managed to slip on the ice, and it wasn't Holly.)

This took us to an overlook that looked down on the Anasazi ruin of Bukataki. Can you tell that Holly is getting sick of having her photo taken?


Then it was off to Monument Valley. Their Visitor Information Center was closed, but we went to a small local museum that was pretty cool. Then it was a drive down to Canyon de Chelly where we plan to spend the day hiking.

Strange Day.

Today was a strange day. First, checking out of Fitness Ridge and saying goodbye to everyone there. Great results but sad to leave. I'm looking forward to going back in th fall. Then we road tripped through Zion to Lake Powell. The photo on the left is of Checkerboard Mesa and my Pius with Holly staying warm inside, while I froze my but running around taking photos in shorts and flip-flops. Stopped at the Subway in Kanab, UT for lunch. Then on to Arizona...





While in the Glenn Canyon National Park at Wahweap overlooking Lake Powell, my phone got reception and I received a message. My good friend and co-worker Happy John had a heart attack Thursday and is unconscious in a coma in the hospital. Tried to call Teresa (Happy John's wife) back, both at the hospital and at home but was unable to get hold of her. Unfortunately, our itinerary puts us out of phone reception most of the time. It's strange to be so far away from a friend in trouble, I can't even go visit him or get news. Got to go on and hope for the best. We went down the road and stopped at the Glenn Canyon Dam visitors center then drove on to Lees Ferry.
Lees Ferry is this great little historic site, and also where the Grand Canyon / Colorado River rafting trips start. And a big trout fishing site. The only place along the Grand Canyon where you can drive down to the Colorado River. Very cool. The scenery is impressive. We got there a little too late in the day to take advantage of the great hiking. I'd like to do some hiking here, but in order to keep this roadtrip to less then a week and see all I want to see, I think we'll hit the road tomorrow instead of going back to Lees Ferry and hiking. Hike in Monument Valley or Canyon De Chelley instead.

We decided to spend the night at the Marble Canyon Lodge. A neat little place from the mid-1920s. The restaurant / gift shop was pretty nice with wood burning stoves in the middle of the room supplying heat. A small little hotel room at a great $48 per night rate. Though Holly and I will both swear that the "queen" sized bed is only a full size. A good place to start our grand tour of Northern Arizona's scenery.

Then to add another nasty little twist to the day, when I logged onto the internet I got an email from my Mom saying that my sister is very sick in the hospital. Patty's emails from the other day made it sound like things weren't to bad, just a case of the flu or at worse pneumonia. But things sound pretty bad. A very strange day full of bad news while full of great natural scenery and beauty.

End of week #3: Results

8:15AM: Checkout time. The results are in for the three weeks:

Dave	Before	After	Loss	Holly	Before	After	Loss
Weight	296	285	11	Weight	215	205	10
Chest	53	51	2	Chest	43.5	42.5	1
Belly	55.25	51.25	4	Belly	43	40.5	2.5
Hips	47	45.5	1.5	Hips	50	49	1
Thigh	23	22.5	0.5	Thigh	24	23.5	0.5
Calf	18	18.25	-0.25	Calf	17	16.5	0.5
Arm	14.75	15	-0.25	Arm	15	14.25	0.75
Body Fat%	34.6	28.3	6.3%	Body Fat%	41.0	35.6	5.4%
BMI	39.1	37.6	1.5	BMI	41.0	35.6	4.4

So that's it here at Fitness Ridge. I can't thank the folks here enough for all they've done. Everyone here, both guests and employees have been fantastic. I would heartily recommend this experience to anyone. We'll be back in the fall for two weeks to check up on our progress and jump start our progress.

Saturday Zioninsts

6:40AM: We are getting ready to leave for Zion National Park, and Holly ran into a little problem. Her jeans are all too loose! Oh the horror! Huge gaps around the waist. She dug up her old skinny jeans that she couldn't even button last week, and they fit! Someone is getting skinny....

9:ooPM: We went up to the Kolob section of Zion. Unfortunately all the trails there were still mud and snow covered. A beautiful short drive to the end of the road there. We'll have to go back when there isn't a bunch of snow.

Next we drove down to the main canyon area of Zion National Park and decided to hike the Emerald Pools. We started with the Middle Emerald Pool Trail up to the pools, then took the Upper Emerald Pool Trail to the top, then returned on the Lower Emerald Pool Trail. What a beautiful hike.

Back at Fitness Ridge, Denae showed us the week's video and had our goodbye talk. Then Emily took us to Chuck-Arama for our buffet test. After dinner it was back here to do laundry and soak in the hot tub while Holly did one last workout on the treadmill. Now it's time to get to sleep.

Breaking the Camel's Back.

12:30PM: Holly got up and did an hour on the treadmill today, then went with Diane to do the bottom portion of the Stop sign after breakfast. Breakfast was French toast with fruit.

I went with the groups to Camel Back. Once again I was part of the slow group, but all three groups (slow, medium and fast) met up at the bowl at the top for the group shadow photos.





1:45PM: After the hike, was Aquacise. A small class today because some of the crazier guests decided to do a second hike to burn calories and went to do the Stop Sign. I don't think the 100 or so more calories burnt doing that hike over the water aerobics makes up for the whole body exercise and muscle relaxing effects of the water.

Lunch had a pretty good salad (not as good as the Greek salad, but still good) with some cheesy stuff, olives, nuts, etc. The soup was the most delicious soup yet. I think it was a roasted pepper soup, but no matter what it was, it was good. The main meal itself was a different story. A tostada, but the brand of tortilla they use has an off flavor, isn't fried or baked and is topped with some really nasty tasting beans. Tried to spice mine up, but couldn't make it edible. It doesn't help that they provide mild Pace brand salsa instead of good fresh salsa. Gave up on eating it after a couple of bites. We were sitting there discussing different options for going out to get a replacement meal (Arby's or Subway) when Jerry and Uma walked by with burgers! They had asked for something else since they were allergic to the beans. So the group of us flagged down one of the servers and they were more then glad to get us burgers instead. Holly didn't want one since she doesn't like Boca burgers. Yeah burgers! Amazing how little things like that make you happy. And kept us from running out to get something to eat elsewhere.



8:00PM: This afternoon we had Toning with Exercise Balls taught by Sharon. Excellent, hard and funner! After that was scheduled Hip hop and Tai Chi, but we went to Pioneer Park instead. Pioneer Park is a municipal park in St. George that is in the red rock bluffs overlooking the town. Beautiful scenery, and fun to hike and climb around in. Back to Fitness Ridge in time for dinner. Dinner was Boca burgers with steamed vegetables (I really like the Boca burgers but Holly thinks they are disgusting) and desert was a banana tofu pudding on Grape Nuts. Holly wasn't over fond of it, and neither were a lot of other people, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. After dinner I went down to soak in the hot tub and read, while Holly went to go play a board game with some of the other guests.


Goodnight.

When the Volcano goes...

1:30PM: Holly went to this morning's stretch and toning class before breakfast, while I took my time getting up. Glad I did, since I was dead on my feat by the end of today's hike. Breakfast was just a bowl of oatmeal with a little side of fruit. Then off to the hikes. Holly did the lower half of the Stop Sign twice round trip with one of the other guests here at Fitness Ridge. I went on one of the Volcano hikes (the slow one...). There were three levels of the hike today, depending on how fast you were you went either to the top of the volcano, to the side of the volcano, or to the edge of the desert leading to the volcano. All three groups climbed to the top of the mountain that overlooks Snow Canyon, then down the ridge towards the volcano. In the photo below, you can see the intermediate group trudging through the middle of the valley. That was about as far as my group got. Below and to the right you can see part of the advanced group up on the volcano rim. This was a long hike, so we ran a little late to Denae's Aquacise class. Lunch was oriental soup, spinach and mushroom stuffed pita with a side salad with pine nuts and blueberry's.




6:15PM: Oh treading! The agony! The exhaustion! Ugh. Luckily Michelle's Yogalaties helped stretch and relax the muscles afterwards.
Dinner was salmon on wasabi mashed potatoes with asparagus on the side. Desert was an apple crumble with mixed berries. I found out that if you don't like fish, they will give you a Boca burger instead. I ate well, and am very happy. And tired. Goodnight.

Tired Wednesday.

6:15PM: I slept poorly last night with my bad knee and woke up tired, lethargic, depressed with a painful knee and a headache. Breakfast was eggs, sorbet and dry whole grain raisin English muffins. You can't get butter or cream cheese to put on your breakfast breads to save your life. no problem putting a bunch of sugar in the form of jelly, but I want saturated fats in the form of rancid cow's milk on my toast!

Holly hiked the overlook and reverse stop sign, and I went on the White Rock Reversed hike. Beautiful hike, and we took a whole bunch of scenic detours.

Aquacise was with Sharon. She found my falling asleep while exercising amusing.

Lunch was the best ever. Don't know what the soup was, but I liked it. Holly didn't seem too thrilled with it though. And they served my favorite salad, a Greek salad. Yum. I wished they served this salad every day. Then the main course was their very delicious pizza! Everybody's favorite. First meal I've come away from feeling satisfied.


After lunch I was tired and took a nap. Managed to sleep through Circuit Training and Kickboxing. Got up in time to get to Stretch class. Then sat in the swing enjoying the sun until dinner. Dinner was a chicken rice bowl with a "Taramisu" desert.

Back in the Saddle again.

6:20PM: Wow, it's been a long tough day. Poor Holly was unable to sleep last night due to her pleurisy. She pushed herself a little too hard yesterday and really aggravated it. So we didn't go to Tai Chi this morning but got up to eat our buckwheat pancakes.

Holly stayed home and rested while I went on the advance hike, The Saddle. This hike is a bit on the extreme side. Almost straight up for the first 45 minutes to an hour. Then mostly straight down until we reach Fern Gulch. Then it's a slow decent then across the desert back to the van. A good two and a half hour hike.

Holly contacted her doctor and got his opinion on her health. According to him, it will probably take months for the pleurisy to heal and the pain is aggravated by working out. So after Aquacise I went down to John's office to discuss our options in dealing with this and our time here. The best option would be for us to finish this week and come back after Holly heals, preferably for two weeks. So John talked to Tami to get approval for this plan. After lunch (turkey pita sandwich with an oriental salad and vegetable soup) and toning class, John gave me the thumbs up on that plan. we are going to finish up this week and come back for two weeks in late summer/fall.

I finished up the day's workouts with my knee really bothering me, so this is probably a good thing for my knee too.

Dinner was a veggie lasagna with (yuck) broccoli and a apple spice cake with berries.

That's our day, talk to everyone again tomorrow.

Monday Stops

1:40PM: Monday morning rolled around again. It was difficult getting out of bed to get onto the elliptical machine this morning. For a change, Holly was up and raring to go before me. She got on the treadmill for most of an hour. Breakfast was egg whites on toast with a little bit of turkey bacon. I'd have gladly traded the egg whites for more turkey bacon. And of the three things they've served the eggs on, bagel, english muffin and toast, the toast was by far the worst and the bagel was the best.

Then it was off to Snow Canyon to do the Stop Sign. What a difference from two weeks ago. Then Holly barely made it up there and was having extreme problems breathing. Now she left me in her dust for the first half, and even though she slowed down on the uphill leg, she still beat me to the top. From the top, Holly turned around and made it most of the way back down before the van picked her up. Me, I took the trail along the top for 15 minutes, then went back to the van. (Didn't make it to the overlook because I was told to be back to the van by 10:30.) Then it was back to Fitness Ridge for Aquacise with Sharon.



Lunch was a zucchini and garlic soup followed by a strange wrap with a nasty little side salad. The wrap was in a whole wheat tortilla (wish I new the brand so I would no what not to ever buy) around a mix of Boca burger, potatoes, rice, beans and stuff. I tried a bite, then opened up the wrap to dig out the little edible scraps of Boca burger. Now I'm burping up garlic from the soup. Lunch wasn't a real hit with me today. It's sunny and warm out today, so after lunch we sat out in the sun for a little bit while we wait for Circuit Training to start.