Sri Lanka: Ella and Little Adam's Peak

After conquering Adam's Peak, we were off to Ella, a sweet little town surrounded by tea plantations, monkeys and mind-blowing lushness.

Having hiked Adam's Peak the day (if you can call 2 am day) before, we felt somehow compelled to climb Ella's Little Adam's Peak. We ran up during a warm morning shower, our first run in the rain since our January runs in Washington.

The pathway up Little Adam's Peak is tranquil, with scarcely a few dozen stairs near the top.  Like its namesake, it boasts staggering views from the top.

Afterwards, we had a Sri Lankan specialty, kothu roti, roti bread chopped into tiny pieces and stir-fried with vegetables (and meat or egg or anything you can think of).  It didn't sound too special in our pre-trip reading, but as our friend put it after his first bite, drenched in the local spicy sauce, "I could eat only this."

My, she was Yas

Yas (Arabic for "wow") Island is a man-made island about halfway between the Corniche on Abu Dhabi Island, where we live / work, and the airport.  Until this weekend we haven't spend much time there -- one of the first weeks here we drove through and made a quick stop into Ace Hardware to check out the bookstore / cafe (yes, THAT Ace Hardware, and yes, it was misguided).

This weekend, we allowed Yas to try and live up to the name.  Yas is best known for its Formula One racetrack -- in fact, the race was last week, when we were safely out of the country.  This week it hosted an event we were more interested in: the Abu Dhabi Striders Half Marathon.

The race was Friday morning, and by coincidence we had a friend who was hosting a barbeque on northern part of the island on Thursday night.  Most of the people at the barbeque work for the American Embassy, and have done stints all over the world.  For now, we are all in Abu Dhabi, and had a great time grilling and chatting on the pitch-black beach...because Yas island is so empty, the sky was full of stars!

The half marathon is the biggest running event of the year in Abu Dhabi.  This year Yas Waterworld played host, and we were able to hit most of the highlights of the island during the race.  Ferrari World (the red blob on the map) is the world's largest indoor theme park, and it certainly felt like it took a long time to run around.  We also ran by the Yas Viceroy, on a road that crosses over the F1 track.

 

At the finish, we reunited with some friends from the Striders and headed into the park.  There was a fabulous post-race buffet (!) breakfast and we had free entry for the day.  Yas Waterworld is home to the world's largest slide-within-a-slide (check out this recent article for some more interesting UAE world records).  Neither of us is a big theme park aficionado, but we did try out one somewhat horrifying slide, and otherwise sought out the family friendly rides (drifting around in an inner tube, etc).  Around 11 am when we left, we walked by a jaw-droppingly long line to enter the park; it must be longer in the summer!  Afterwards, it was back to Ace Hardware with a long list to get our apartment fully set up -- this time the shopping trip was more successful.

Mendocino

A disclaimer that recent trips have not been camping related and that most of these photos are borrowed....but at any rate, they were all exploration-centric. We've been on a cute B&B kick, and Mendocino is the perfect place to indulge such a kick.

We stayed at The Andiron Inn in the "Play" cabin, full of vintage board games (PerQuackety!) and complete with Whoopie pies on our arrival. The breakfast toast bar far transcended the humble status of toast, happy hour was fun, and the starlit hot tub in the grove was fantastic; best of all, though, were the goats (Peanut Butter & Jelly), who are friendly and perpetually in need of a rub and a treat.



The town of Mendocino was lovely...gifty and gallery laden, sure, but also right on some coastal cliffs that we eventually explored after we tired of buying candles and ogling expensive beach wood items of dubious functionality.



Fort Bragg, home of the Skunk Train, was a little more down to earth. We went for a run along the old railway trail, a gorgeous ocean-side track that goes on for miles along a secluded coast line. We ended by running back to the Trestle Bridge (near "Pudding Beach")...more striking to see from a distance than to stand on, but important to stand on, nonetheless.



And...the best ending for a run... we tried the beer sampler at North Coast Brewing Co. over soup and sandwiches.



Our second run was perhaps even more lovely, because so secluded. We ran into Russian Gulch State Park from the beach parking across the street from the entrance, up through the park, and onto Fern Canyon Trail.



"And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow"
W.B. Yeats