Adventures in the Southwest!

This weekend I had the pleasure of going to New Mexico to attend my friend Sam's wedding. Sam and I went to college together, so I was excited to see some of my college friends. We had some down time between the events, so I got to go on some adventures with my buddies. On Friday before the ceremony, we went to the zoo. I was pleased that it was only $2.50 to get in :). I had been to the Smithsonian's zoo in DC several times, but this zoo was kind of neat because I got to see some animals that were native to the southwest. I got to see an American bald eagle, a bobcat, a lemur, and this huge turtle. Apparently there was a jaguar, but I didn't get a chance to see it. Of note, Benjamin Franklin was quite displeased with the bald eagle becoming our nation's animal; he felt as though it bad moral character. He would have preferred a turkey. But I digress. Overall the trip to the zoo was fun though, it was a pretty big zoo considering how small a town Alamagordo is.

 

On Friday afternoon we went to Sam's ceremony up in the mountains. It was incredibly beautiful, there was amazing foliage and views, and Sam looked amazing. The ceremony was simple but elegant; they did their own vows and it suited their personalities. I felt like it was a tasteful and appropriate expression of their love. After the ceremony they had champagne and then they signed their wedding certificate. I offered to counsel Sam as her lawyer. :)

 

On Saturday morning Aliea and I met up with Becca and we went to see a space ship being refurbished. Yes, that's right. The groom's godfather is an engineer and he was working with a team to refurbish an old space ship called the DCX. He told us he was doing it, and invited us to come see. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. He told us that the ship was designed by the navy to transport soldiers to different parts of the world, and it was unique in that it could move sideways, vertically and horizontally and go up into space without much difficulties. NASA was against this ship (we think because it wasn't theirs) and they fought to have control over it. When they finally got control, the ship suddenly lost one of its legs and was unable to work after that. The rumor was that NASA did this on purpose; they wanted to melt the ship down for scrap metal after that. Apparently the engineers didn't want that to happen and took measures to stop this. They would move the "melt" stickers to other objects, and a bunch of them took parts of the ship home and stored them in their garage. Lynn (the best man/engineer) said he had a friend in DC who said he had part of the ship in his garage! This ship was unique because all of the parts were from other ships, so it did not cost much to make. Now they are trying to preserve the ship and are reaching out to engineers who had parts of the ship in their garages all over the country. NASA had melted the outer shell of the ship, and they agreed that if the engineers got all of the ship refurbished that they would build a new shell. I would have liked to take pictures but legally this wasn't allowed. So below is a picture of us after seeing the space ship!

After this we went to lunch at Si Senores. The wait staff probably thought we were crazy because we had gone there 3 days in a row. It was a problem, but the food was amazing, OMG. Juice cleanse after this... After lunch we went to a store called "Dollar Boots & Jeans". We were excited at the prospect of dollar boots and dollar jeans, but were woefully disappointed. There were a ton of expensive boots. It should have been called "$100 Boots and Jeans". Bummer.

After our failed shopping extravaganza, we went to the site of the worlds largest pistachio. It was amazing! Haha it was 30 feet tall. I got a picture with the replica. We also got to look at the pistachios growing in the field. Apparently the dry weather is conducive for their growth as there were several farms in the area. We also got to sample some of the wine that they had cultivated as well. I ended up getting some pistachio white wine which was really good. I wished I could have bought more, but getting on a plane deterred me. I also bought a ton of pistachios and pistachio brittle. It was amazing, and looking back on it, I'm a little embarrassed about how much money I spent on pistachios. But really, how often do you go to see the world's largest pistachio?

 

That evening we all attended Sam's wedding reception. Sam looked beautiful, but that was to be expected :) the evening consisted of frequent dancing (including a mass "oppa gangnam style" dance as part of the couples first dance), stunna shades, and a picture of me lecturing a cop. Sadly I can't share the picture online as part of the agreement but it is available upon request. I had an excellent time, and the evening ended with a huge bonfire out in the woods with home brewed beer. It was so relaxing to hang out with good friends and not feel like I had to filter myself.

 

Aliea left on Sunday morning, and I met up with Sam, Suze, Becca, and Elizabeth to go to White Sands National Park. There were a ton of sand dunes which were perfectly white. It reminded me of the Outer Banks in North Carolina...except no ocean. Sam (who is a geologist) told me that a long time ago there used to be a large lake there millions of years ago, but it dried up. It is now the largest gypsum sand dune in the world. Apparently most plants and animals can't survive there based on the intense southwest winds. Overall I had a wonderful time- it was so great to see my friends and be myself without a filter. I hope to do it again soon!

 

 

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Eating and Learning

So I've managed to have a bit of fun this long weekend. On Saturday I took a knife skills cooking class with Nicole and Susan. Probably 1 minute after the instructor lectured us on knife safety I cut my finger. Fail. Anyway, on Sunday I went to Taste of DC with Nicole. It was magical. I had heard of it last year but obviously didn't get a chance to go. I met up with Nicole and we made a pact to share the food we got and to try things that we hadn't before. Taste of DC has a ton of restaurants that come and give samples of their food for reasonable prices, for those who don't know. Nicole and I had gotten some deal with Living Social, where we got a free beer and coupons for $10 worth of beer.

 

 

I started out getting some Jamaican patties from the Patty Boom Boom Room, which is a bar on U St. I got a spicy beef pattie which was super yummy. We then went to get some beer at the bier garden. I got a blonde beer from C2 imports, which I had never heard of. Pretty good. Next I went to a food truck- chupacabra. I got a chicken taco which was amazing. I was quite pleased that there are no food trucks near my job. Next Nicole got poutine, which I had had once. It looks gross and the ingredients together seem gross, but is amazing. We then split samosas from Mayur Kabob house. We wanted to split an empanada but the place we went was out, which was an epic fail. Then we each got a cupcake from Cake Love. It was a pumpkin cupcake in my case. OMG so good. We still had beer coupons so we sampled some more beers. My last beer was the Virginia Lager from a place in Nelson County, in an effort to keep it local :). While we consumed our beer we watched a professional food eating competition- they were eating bens chili bowl! There was one competitor who I recognized, the black widow. So I rooted for her. Sadly she did not win. :( Overall it was a ton of fun, and we got to sample a lot of different kinds of food and beer for very little money. That's my kind of day.


 

 

On Monday I was able to tour the Frederick Douglass House in southeast DC. The house sits on top of a hill in Southeast so I was able to get an awesome view of DC. Frederick Douglass lived in the house for the last 10-15 years of his life. He bought it from the Van Horne family. Mr. Van Horne had built the house for himself and his family, and he made a restrictive covenant against the land for blacks, Irish, and other foreigners. Obviously this was bad business practice and he went bankrupt soon after. Frederick Douglass bought the house for today's equivalent of $1.3 million. At the time slavery had ended 12 years prior, and he was focusing much of his efforts on women's suffrage. I thought that was interesting because I always saw him as an abolitionist. He was very wealthy because of his books and giving speeches.

 

The front of the house had two parlors. One was for guests to discuss politics and the other was for family. He had 21 grandchildren! Most of the stuff was from the original house, and if it was not original it was recreated based on a photograph. He was an ambassador to Haiti, so the wallpaper in the one parlor had palm trees to reflect that. The study off the parlor had all of his books- he taught himself to read and was able to speak French and German as well. The dining room table had all of their original china, which was cool. When Frederick Douglass bought the house from the Van Horne's, he added an edition to the house, making it 21 rooms. There was a stable and other things in the back with several acres, but they were sold to pay off taxes.

 

The upstairs had several bedrooms. As a Victorian house, the rooms were divided by gender- one side of the hall for men and the other for women. Even if you were married you stayed in separate rooms! Both of his wives had their own room, but his first wive's room was closed off after her death. There was a beautiful bay window with a view, and apparently Frederick Douglass would put his table in front of it to work sometimes. His grandchildren also had a sleeping area in the attic, and he had a room for his trunks since he traveled so much. When he died of a heart attack he left his house to his second wife, but this caused drama and so his children eventually got it in a will dispute. His second wife worked to turn the house into a museum, and it was turned over to the National Park Service in the 1960's. They've been giving tours ever since, but they have done several restorations. The last thing I saw was Frederick Douglass' growler house. It's basically the original mancave! It was a small cottage behind the house with a table and lounge for him to work in solitude. It was kind of funny. Lastly I saw a movie about his history, which was okay but mind of cheesy :). Overall it was very educational and the people were so helpful. It was definitely worth the trip!

Mancave!

Note: this last one is from the house porch. I thought it was a cool view, hence it is larger :)

 

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So I've basically been killing it out here

Ok, so I wanted to post sooner. My PC has died and I have been adjusting to writing on my iPad. Luckily I have found an app that allows me to blog a little easier, so I can hopefully put off buying another PC for a little longer. The other issue is that I have not had a chance to go anywhere that I might have been able to blog about like I have in the past. However I have been doing a lot of small things. SO I decided to do one post about the mini adventures for the past few weeks! In late August I went to NYC with some friends and invent to my first Mets game. Under no circumstances will I change my allegiance to the Cubbies, but it still was a lot of fun. I had a burger from Shake Shack for the first time, and I got to see my longtime friend Jonah, who lives in NYC.

 

 

In early September I had the pleasure of meeting my Goddaugter, Aubrey Helen Steffey, for the first time. She was one week old when I came to visit, and she is a very chill baby. I learned how to change my first diaper (although I am not very good at it!) and I learned how to swaddle her. Her parents Brian and Marta are just in awe of her, and it is not hard to see why. She is very beautiful, and I cannot wait to spoil her rotten for the rest of my life!

 

 

In mid-September I went to the H Street Festival with some friends. The H St Festival is always one of my favorite events. I am a huge proponent of H St in general. They always have a ton of different live performances, and they have people selling things and food. I had my fortune read while we were there. I drew the "Devil" tarot card and shrieked! Apparently there is going to be an annoyance coming into my life and that I am going to want to face it head on and fight fire with fire, but what I need to do is use my wits to get around it. Once I do, I will conquer the annoyance. Among other things, I also got to sit in a giant banana car, which is everyone's dream really :)

 

 

Last weekend I had my first opportunity to volunteer with the Junior League at the National Book Festival. I had signed up to be a floater, but I actually ended up working at the book signing lines. Apparently there is this author named Jon Green who is a humongous hit for young adults. He writes coming of age novels, and apparently he uses YouTube for promoting as well. Anyway, I got to help with crowd control for hundreds of these screaming teenagers. They all came running over at once, it was insane!!! I also got to see my good friend Jenni in the process :)

 

 

I also had an opportunity to take an Indian cooking class. I love Indian food but I know nothing about cooking it. Unfortunately I was by myself so I was paired up with this random Austrailian guy. He was nice enough though. I got to make Goan Fish Curry, Chetinad Chicken Curry, Lemon Rice, and Rava Kesari. It is my hope to make these things again, hopefully for a special occasion for friends. I normally don't have those ingredients in my kitchen, but perhaps I could get them for a dinner party. Let me know if you want to be my guinea pig! The picture below is me with the instructor.

 

 

That Sunday I did something I had been wanting to do for several years but I had not pulled the trigger. I am a huge Chicago Bears fan, and I had been wanting to go to the bar down the street and watch the games with fellow fans. I recruited my friend and fellow Bears fan, Elsye. We both donned our Bears gear and met up at the bar. It was neat because we got to sit on the patio and there were a bunch of other people there as well, also in Bears gear. I didn't get to watch the whole game because I had some things to do at home, but I did see 3/4 of it. We crushed the Rams :) It was so nice because I had wanted to do this for so long, and it was a lot of fun!!! That evening I went in an entirely different direction and went to a Shakespeare play with my Shakespeare buddy Ruchi. We saw The Government Inspector, and it was hilarious. It's a satire based on a corrupt government in Russia. I laughed so much!

 

 

This past weekend I went to a beer festival with my friends. We consumed a large amount of beer in a short amount of time, and it was awesome. That is all I have to say about that :)

 

 

 

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Newseum!

So I have been wanting to go to the Newseum for a very long time, but since they charge a $20 admission I have been putting it off. Apparently that $20 was a block for me, haha. Anyway my father came into town and I had the opportunity to entertain him. I had suggested Air and Space, but he was more interested in the Newseum, which was very cool. The Newseum was a lot larger than we had thought and has 4 floors!

When we got in there was an introduction movie to help us navigate the Newseum. Our first exhibit was the Berlin Wall and what it was like for the East Germans to receive news as opposed to the West Germans. Apparently the Eastern Germans were able to get news in three minute segments by calling in. The next section was about using the media to help the FBI and the different criminals who were apprehended such as the Teflon Don, the Unabomber, etc. There was also a thing about Patty Hearst which was pretty neat, I hadn't heard about her scandal.

 

We proceeded to the top of the building where we had an awesome view of Pennsylvania Ave. We were able to take some pictures and they had a long hallway where they had the front page news for every state. It was good timing because it was right after Obama's acceptance speech. They then had an exhibit about the history of presidential campaigns and how things changed with the election of Obama. It was really neat- my father did not know who Jon Stewart was before then, haha. We then went to an exhibit on the history of media, and it showed famous front page news from different years. They even had a newspaper that incorrectly printed the name of the Presidential victor years ago.

 

On the next floor there was a very powerful exhibit on 9/11. They had a news antennae that was on the World Trade Center. They showed the timeline of the news and how the events unfolded. They had the newspaper front pages from many different states as well. The next exhibit was about the freedoms of the first amendment, and there was a map of the world at showed the level of freedom of the press in the different countries. They also have a news studio in the Newseum that Tim Russert works out of, which we got to see from the windows. They had an interesting exhibit on journalists who had died while broadcasting the news. The majority of them were men, but one woman in Mexico who was slain because she was reporting the news outside of what the drug cartels wanted.

 

On the second floor they had an interesting exhibit on the first dogs in the White House. It seemed a little random but it was so interesting to see what dogs the presidents had. Apparently JFK was allergic to dogs but still had them. They had an interactive newsroom and ethics center which we looked at but did not participate in it much. The last exhibit was one on Pulitzer prize photography. They had all of the different photograph winners for the last 50 years. They even had the explanations of the photographs and the circumstances surrounding them. It was quite moving and my favorite thing in the museum. The winners for this year included a photograph of a young girl in Iran after a bombing. The other one was a veteran and had been denied an apartment, who was crying and he had been suffering from PTSD. I almost cried myself. The last thing we did was a 4-D movie about the news and how it was broadcasted historically. It was not super impressive but it was fine as our brains were fried at that point. My Dad and I spent 3.5 hours there but if I was able, I would have spent all day there! It was definitely worth the trip and I would recommend it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I hiked a mountain!!!!

Ok, so again it has been a little while since I wrote.  The last month has been busy with overtime at work, a fabulous trip to NYC with my buddies, and other fun end of the summer activities.  Unfortunately my PC is on the fritz, so until I invest in a new one I'll have to chicken peck on my iPad. #firstworldproblems. But on a psychological level, I want to tell you that I have improved. I am not 100%, but I am doing better. I am so thankful that I now have more mental energy to carry on in my life, and my bikram practice has improved tremendously. I am now the person in the front row who everyone watches!  It has been so nice to focus on my life and making it more awesome.  It goes without saying that I would be unable to be in this improved metal state without all of your help!



Anyway, this weekend I hiked Mt Washington, which is the highest peak in the Northeast.  The plan to do this hatched at the end of July.  My friend Matt (who is Mr. Nature) and I had just gone for a hike in Charlottesville and I suggested we try hiking Mt Washington. We agreed to go over Labor Day. However the next day I actually googled what this entailed and became terrified!!! In case it is not clear, I am not an experienced hiker, and Mt Washington has the reputation for having the worst weather in the world.  People have died climbing it! But after trying to back out of it with Matt, he assured me I would be fine despite that it is considered a moderate to difficult hike.  I probably should have found steps to walk up or other ways to train for this hike, but I just blindly decided to increase my bikram and hope for the best!  



After buying hiking boots and a daypack (while remaining skeptical of the value of both) I boarded the train to Albany to meet Matt.  We didn't get to New Hampshire until after midnight. We woke at 6am and traveled over to the mountain.  Once we got on the trail, it was flat and wooded to begin with, and I was feeling good.  There were a few rocks to climb up/over, but I was doing good!  So much so that Matt made me slow down so as to save my energy.  After probably the 8th rock climb, I was huffing and puffing and Matt made me take a break.  Somehow after that there were a gazillion more of these rocks piles  to climb up, with only one pretty waterfall in the middle. 

I think my low point was near the top of the waterfall when we had to walk over these mossy rocks.  At this point I was using walking poles to balance myself, and there was a group of us that had lost the trail.  We were all trying to get through this crevice and up the trail but it was covered in moss and I fell HARD on my butt, poles flying.  I decided to ditch the poles, and I was rather unkind to Matt when he realized that all of our difficult walking on moss was in vain and we had to turn around.  This was quite unpleasant and was followed by 15 more of these huge rock piles to climb up.  I remember turning to Matt and barely whispering "I need you to tell me that we are almost there, and I need you to mean it".  It should be noted that Matt had been saying "we're almost there" for the past half hour.  We eventually realized that we had a 'failure to communicate' because "almost there" to him meant we had less than a mile. Right......
I finally saw the cabin which was our stoping point next to the Lake of the Clouds.  After a few more minutes of hiking, we finally got there.  I ate for the first time all day, and we assessed what the rest of the hike entailed.  We were essentially 3/4 of the way to the top, and I could see the flags in the distance.  It was only .7 miles up, but there was a lot of walking on loose rocks.  I felt my body fading after the first .3, but I kept pressing on (albeit with more breaks).  At this point, the trail was somewhat more crowded, and other people besides Matt kept saying "you're almost there!" but I was barely able to look at them.  I was out of water and mentally drained.  I kept telling myself it was only five flights of stairs or less in height we had to go, and FINALLY we made it to the top!

I was too tired to celebrate at that moment, and was somewhat overwhelmed with the sudden crowd of people at the top.  Most of these people had either driven or taken the train up, not hiked.  Once I was able to get more water, I felt better.  We went to the gift shop and I bought a t-shirt that said "this body climbed Mt Washington" which I plan to wear.  Frequently.  We were able to get a private tour of Mt Washington's weather station, which is manned 24/7, with the weather being tracked hourly.  They showed us the tracking of the strongest wind (something like 200 mph) and other crazy pressure readings.  We got to go to the top of the weather station and I got to stand at the highest point in the Northeast, among the weather vanes :)

After our tour we took some pictures, and toured the museum while we waited for the train down.  I had wanted to be able to hike the 4 miles back to base, but Matt told me that this is somehow harder than going up because it can hurt your knees.  By this point my legs felt like jelly and my body was sore all over.  All I wanted was a shower and to climb in bed!  So we took the train down, grabbed dinner, and went back to the hotel. 

The next day we headed to Boston where I got to see my longtime friend Natalie.  Since she was still at work we were able to do some of the Freedom Trail after breakfast. We saw Fanuiel Hall, the site of the Boston Massacre, the Old State House, Kings Church, the site of Benjamin Franklin's grave site, and his statue. We were not able to really explore a lot of these places as we were on a schedule to meet Natalie, and a lot of the places wouldn't let you in without paying. Bummer. I had an awesome time hanging out with Natalie, and it was an awesome trip over all!!! 

National Building Museum

Ahem, so it has been a little while before I blogged, but unfortunately life has a way of getting in the way.  So I saw that there was a new exhibition at the National Building Museum about Anacostia, so I was interested in seeing it.  I had only been to the Building Museum once for the worst job fair ever, so I had not been eager to go there otherwise.  Anyway, Nicole and I went there today after brunch.  It was $8 to get in to see the exhibitions, but they also had an area where you could play mini golf.  I'm not a huge fan of mini golf, so I declined. 

Our first stop was to an exhibition called "Washington: Symbol and City".  I really liked it alot!  It had a history of the buildings in the city, and the different architects.  It talked about how rowhouses were for the poor people, and only the wealthy could have free-standing homes.  Obviously different now!  It was interesting to read about some of the history of places like Dunbar High School (which was not a vocational high school at first because the administrators thought that was demeaning to African American children), as well as the Wardman houses which were built all over the city.  I also got to read about how Union Station evolved as part of the Baltimore Ohio railway, and the development of Rock Creek Park.  There were a ton of different facts about DC, and I learned alot.  But one of the things I was telling Nicole that I liked so much was that there were so many names that I could now tie to places (Eg, Banneker Pool, James Hobans). 

The next exhibit we went to was called "Cityscapes Revealed: Highlites from the Collection".  It was all about the different architectural styles and the materials used.  It was somewhat interesting but the architecture was sort of over my head.  Next we went to was an exhibit about Kevin Roche.  He is a famous architect who designed buildings for many different people/companies.  His focus was on architectural simplicity and how to make buildings work with the areas surrounding them.  He had designed buildings for the government, including a Smithsonian building that was to be planned for farming and fishing- it was later shut down by the Nixon Administration, John Deere buildings, and the Herbert Hoover Building.  Again, sort of over my head.

We went to the Anacostia exhibit after that, and I really liked it.  Apparently Anacostia was originally a very popular place for the Native Americans because of the two rivers intersecting.  They had a thriving area, but when the highway came in it isolated Anacostia from the rest of the city.  Obviously some of the area has become somewhat blighted, but the exhibit was a mixed media presentation by teenagers who lived there.  It focused on diversity and how things had changed.  There were poems, photos, and ipods with interviews about Anacostia.  In fact, one of the photos was of someone I knew from tutoring! She works in Anacostia as well.  They showed a video of some of the teenagers putting the exhibit together, which was also neat.  Overall it was a very interesting exhibit, and I liked it alot. 

The last exhibit we went to was called "House and Home" and it showed the various types of homes and styles.  It had a wall of all of these random pictures from all around the United States, some old and some new.  All of them were very unique.  They also had this video playing about these different kinds of homes which were really neat.  There was this tiny home that was for someone looking to have a smaller carbon footprint.  Every square foot was utilized, but they said that people using them would often have to rely on outside resources (as in, no plumbing).  Still, it was a neat idea as a guest house or something.  They also had a video about the dorms at this art school in Baltimore, which gave the students room to create art, a building that was supposed to be for disabled and homeless people to live but had communal areas they could share such as laundry and kitchens.  It showed people living in these homes, and it was really neat and well done. 

This exhibit also had some interesting facts about different kinds of housing, including public housing; specifically, Cabrini Green in Chicago.  It was a famous housing project that was torn down, in favor of a mixed-income project called Park Place, I think.  But it was cool how there were different prices for each apartment and it was not clear who was living where.  There were still some things that needed to be worked out, but it was a really interesting idea.  They also had a section on communal living where people had shared areas such as kitchens and parks, but that they had their own homes.  That was also interesting, if not a little cult-like =).  There was also something about a Musician's Village in New Orleans which was developed by Harry Connick Jr. and someone else, where the people built their own homes along with Habitat for Humanity.  They also had something about revitalizing LeDroit Park through gentrification.

Overall, this has been one of my favorite museums, surprisingly.  I was not expecting that at all given my bad job-fair experience, but I feel like I learned alot about DC and it's architectural and sociological history.  It was well worth the admission cost, and I would love to go again, especially if I had friends/family who wanted to visit.  It wasn't crowded at all, and I think its location away from the other Smithsonian buildings as well as its admission cost keep some people away.  However, I would definitely recommend it!

PS- Sorry for the lack of pictures!  My computer is very slowly dying and I need to get another one, and we were also not allowed to take pictures in the exhibits.

Roosevelt Island

This is not part of my adventure but this showdown was awesome!

So on Sunday I bonded with nature again.  My partner in crime/nature Aliea was in town, and she had suggested we go to Roosevelt Island.  Neither of us knew much about it, but Aliea had some friends who had gone before.  We went out there with Maggie the dog, and it was surprising how quickly we were able to get there.  Roosevelt Island is only open for foot trails, so there were no bikers to run us over.  There were not a ton of people there, which was nice.  The island had many different uses before becoming a park-it was inhabited by Native Americans and then had belonged to George Mason’s family and then it was a Civil War refuge.  The park had plaques around the trail that described interesting thing about nature.  I didn’t realize how a fallen tree actually contributes to nature and wildlife, and how stone turned into soil.  The park had a long wooden bridge that crossed the swamp; we saw cattails, but no swamp like creatures, which was preferable.  I told Aliea that if we saw any snakes I would be terrified.  It was really neat, there was a path to the water and when we went out we were able to see right across from Georgetown Waterfront, and we could hear the music. 

We ALMOST left the island before seeing the monument of Teddy Roosevelt.  It was really nice, there were bridges and a humongous statute of Roosevelt.  There were columns that had different quotes about nature, youth, and statehood.  The lawyer in me really liked the one about statehood =)  The island was really nice though, it was small and uncrowded, and even though it was 97 degrees outside you could barely feel it since we were under the shade.  The only time it was hot was when we went on the water.  It took us about two hours to get around the island, so it was a nice but quick trip.  I would definitely go again.