CalActive.com Activities Blog

I definitely have the best friends in the world. When I moved to Laguna Beach from London as a newlywed, a few of them clubbed together and got us a helicopter trip over LA - can you think of a better gift?! It was such a great way to experience our new ‘homeland’ and to check out the area from the sky - Los Angeles is such a massive and sprawling city, it can be quite difficult to get your head around how it all fits together, so this was perfect. We flew from Long Beach and were up in the air for about an hour, flying over the Queen Mary and then up the coast past all the famous beaches that I’d heard about all my life (I nearly dislocated my neck whilst trying to see the bodybuilders at Venice Beach. Very disappointing), over Beverly Hills, Hollywood - I nearly peed my pants with excitement when I found myself eye-to-eye with the inimitable Hollywood sign - and then over downtown (where we flew so close to the skyscrapers that I could actually see in the windows on the 30th (?) floor and eyeball all the penpushers pretending to be working hard whilst looking at naughty pictures on the Internet)…then we were swooping along the freeways and over the crazy cement flyovers and bridges (I was flirting with cardiac arrest by this stage, as the pure scale of the metropolis that is LA was suddenly starting to sink in) and eventually back to Long Beach where we buzzed a container ship as we were heading back to the airport. Absolutely fantastic, an unforgettable experience. Thanks my darlings. Oh, and Woof, with regards to your comment (’Next time I want you to fly it. Get married again and we’ll organise the lessons. Get married AGAIN and we’ll buy you a chopper’) - I have no intentions of multiple matrimony, but I do happen to have found a fellow boarderwho also happens to Fly Her Own Helicopter, so if I do ever find myself going Elizabeth Taylor-stylie, I may have someone for you to pay for my lessons.

In my next life I am going to be a helicopter pilot. Respect to fellow boarder Chopperchick, who is living my dream (I live vicariously through her fantastic blog). I’ve been lucky enough to have done two helicopter trips in my short life (okay, not that short, but let me at least pretend): one over Cape Town and one over Los Angeles, and I absolutely loved them both. The Cape Town one was a few years back and was a breathtakingly scenic flight around the peninsula of the Western Cape with the opportunity to view both the unique wonder of Table Mountain as well as the World Heritage Site of Robben Island. I grew up in and around Cape Town and thought that I knew the Mother City (as she is affectionately called) and surrounds like the back of my hand, but seeing it from the air gives a totally unique perspective, one that I will never forget. It was brilliant! I’ll write about the Los Angeles helicopter trip in another blog but for now wanted to post these pics of the Cape Town trip. I found a video of someone doing a similar flight but be warned: it is really shaky and I ended up feeling sick – ironic that I didn’t experience any motion sickness whatsoever in the chopper, but that sitting here on terra firma, watching that video, I thought I was going to do a Jaeson-on-top-of-the-mountain stunt. The only thing that distracted me from thoughts of barfing was the look of pure terror on the face of the kid in the video. Perhaps I should start doing some helicopter flying lessons…

Up until about a year ago, I had absolutely no interest in drinking wine. The look on my face the first time I tried wine must have been priceless. It just tasted like…. well…. old, bitter grape juice. Doesn’t sound very appealing when you think about it. I can’t quite remember the label, but I do know that it was red, maybe a Cabernet Sauvignon. Probably not a good idea to start off with a red, especially a Cab, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

It took me a little while to really get into wine. I loved champagne/sparkling wine though, which was really the closest I would get to wine. But eventually, the champagne kick wore off and that didn’t seem to be my first choice anymore. Now I love wine and would order a glass of Pinot or Grenache any day over a glass of champagne (or sparkling wine). However since I’m still fairly new at this, I usually stick to the California wines as they’re nice and juicy.

I wouldn’t say I know a whole lot about wine, but I read an interesting blog from someone who seems to know quite a bit about different varietals and regions. You’ve got some of your common regions like Napa, Sonoma, Santa Barbara, France, Oregon, Washington, Australia, Italy, Spain, etc. Would you ever consider Mexico to be a good wine-growing region??? I would’ve never guessed, but apparently some of the best wines are grown just 70 miles south of the border. There are three regions where the largest wineries in Mexico can be found - San Antonio de las Minas, San Vicente Valley and the Santo Tomas Valley. Some of the common reds grown in the Baja region are Cabernet Sauvignon, Ruby Cabernet, Zinfandel, Grenache and Mission. Whites include Chenin Blanc, Palomino, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Saint Emilion and Malaga.

I have never tried many of those varietals, so I think I need to make a trip down south and do some wine tasting!!! Who’s with me?

Man it’s shaping up to be an epic ski season in California! It’s only February and Mammoth already has a 100″ base, with more dumping! This is what I love about California. In a mere 5 hours you can drive from sunny SoCal to the Sierras where there’s some of the highest snowfall accumulation in these here United States. Whoa! You might even start with a surf or a kayak before hitting the slopes. How cool. And what else do I love about Mammoth? Let me recite the many things. First, the drive. While tedious, it’s also mind expanding as you travel the eastern Sierras through the Owens Valley. It’s vast and open and beautiful, with the mighty Sierras on one side, and the impressive White Mountains on the other. You’ll pass the true cowboy towns of Olancha (gateway to Death Valley), Lone Pine (gateway to Mt. Whitney), Independence (home to the ignominious Manzanar Japanese internment camp from WWII), Big Pine (gateway to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, home to the oldest living things on Planet Earth - a 4,000 year-old tree??? Come on), Bishop (home to crazy wilderness outback mountaineers), and finally Mammoth, home of the the LA powder cowboys. How does Mammoth stack up against world class mountains like Vail, Aspen, Park City, Jackson Hole and Whistler? Well, it may not have the light, fluffy powder of Utah, or the swanky private jets of Aspen, or the sheer size of Vail, or the steeps of Jackson, but it has more annual snowfall than any of them, more sunny California days, more ski days (usually staying open through June and sometimes July), less crowds (see 5 hour drive), a gracious layout that allows you to traverse the mountain without skiing the same run twice, modest pricing, cheap accommodations, lots of high speed lifts, and, oh yes, thermal hot springs that are free (if you know where to look). They can be the highlight of your holiday. Imagine skiing all day, getting that major thigh burn, then driving 20 minutes into the Owens Valley where you will discover a perfect tub in the wilderness with 110 degree mineral water for soaking those tires bones. You’ll have a 360 degree view of the Sierras and Whites just as the sun drops behind them. Ahhh. Life is good!