2011-12 Our Christmas Letter

December 17, 2011

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

We hope you had a good year in 2011.  With Christmas right around the corner, we are wondering if we will have a white Christmas here in Minnesota this year as we have had only a few inches of snow this winter and most of it is gone with warmer temperatures on the way.  Quite a contrast to the foot and half of snow we had this time last year.

Mariah (20) is a junior at the University of Denver.  She just returned from a 5 month study abroad program in Mendoza, Argentina.  Mendoza is on the west side of Argentina up along the foothills of the Andes Mountains and is known for its vineyards and wines.  She honed her Spanish language skills while there living with a host mom, taking her classes in Spanish, and interacting daily with all the locals.  She also took the opportunity to visit numerous areas in Argentina including Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls, along with Santiago, Chile, and Punte Del Este, Uruguay.  She is studying accounting and would love to find a job where she can continue to speak Spanish, travel and explore the world.

Kara (17) is a senior at Eagan High School and is excited for her upcoming graduation.  She is on the golf team and is looking forward to the start of the spring season already.  She has been on the yearbook staff the last couple of years and enjoys working with photography and design layout.  She is interested in studying advertising and business next year in school.  We traveled to various colleges in the Midwest this year to help her find her next home.  She is planning on attending Drake University in Des Moines, IA next fall.

Hailey (15) is a sophomore at Eagan High School.  She now has her driver’s permit and will be able to take her license test next April.  Hailey was confirmed this fall at Easter Lutheran Church.  In the summer she plays soccer and during the fall was on the sophomore volleyball team.  She will again be playing on a traveling volleyball team this winter. 

Ray got a few more rounds of golf in this year thanks to some early practice rounds with Kara in the spring (a great reason to get more golf in).  He also continues to “hunt for Tupperware in the woods” (geocache), ride bike (although no long rides this year), and began wood turning with a new lathe he got in January.  He travelled quite a bit the first half of the year to Asia and Europe for Advantek, getting to go to a few new places along the way, including Germany and Holland. 

LeAnn has been doing a lot of scrapbooking in preparation for Kara’s graduation, and reliving a lot of the memories that the old photos bring back in the process.  She also enjoys golfing and yoga as often as she can.  She is still teaching pre-school classes for the city of Eagan.  In February, she went with her mom, Lois and Ray’s mom, Karren to visit Mariah in Denver for Moms and Grandmas weekend.  They toured the city and got to go to a bunch of Mariah’s favorite places.

In February, we went to the Phoenix area to visit LeAnn’s mom, and take in a spring training baseball game, golf, and lots of sunshine and warm weather.  In June the whole family spent a long weekend with Ray’s family on Madeline Island in Lake Superior enjoying the peace and quiet in a beautiful setting with near perfect weather while we were there.  In August we went up to Cloquet to take a whitewater rafting trip on the St. Louis River.  October brought us to Ft. Worth for the wedding of LeAnn’s niece Amy Moberly to Jeff Collins.  The wedding was beautiful and the weather cooperated for the outdoor event.  While there, we also went to visit the area that Ray grew up in Dallas, which brought back a lot of old memories for him and his mom.

The highlight of the year was Ray and LeAnn’s visit to Mendoza to visit Mariah for a week in November.  We stayed in a small boutique hotel near Mariah and explored the city and country, both by foot and by bike.  We went kayaking, zip lining, and biking through wine country.  We also spent one night at a very modern winery about 1-1/2 hours south of Mendoza.  Since it was spring down there, everything was green and growing, in great contrast to the beginning of winter up here.

                                                                                      Have a Great Year,

                                                            LeAnn, Ray

                                            Mariah, Kara, and Hailey

Email:  bloom2511@hotmail.com  

Blog: www.bloom2511.blogspot.com

Mariah’s blog: www.onesmallgrainofsand.wordpress.com

2011-11 Posada Salentein, BBQ Asado, and Our Last Day

On Saturday, we rented a car and drove about 1 hour and 45 minutes south of Mendoza to the Valle de Uco and the Bodega Salentein.  Mariah had found this place on the recommendation of one of her freinds, whose parents stayed here during their visit, so we decided to stay here one night.  It is absolutly georgeous setting, surrounded by vineyards, mountains and open space.  the air was clear and clean, and the stars were brilliant.  We stayed at the posada (lodging) and visited the bodega (winery) on the finca (farm).


 When we arrived, the parking lot was full and we found out that there was a birthday party going on for one of the top dogs of the winery.  Our room was not quite ready, but we were offered a glass of wine and sat at on the veranda and enjoyed the views and weather.  Once our room was ready, we were so plesently suprised to how nice the room was.  It was a two story room with two large bedrooms, a kitechenette and dining area.  Waiting for us on the kitchen table was a bottle of Malbec to greet us.


We walked through the vineyards and took a lot of photos while we were waiting to go on a horseback ride around 6:00.  We drove about 2 miles to the horse stable and met up with our guide.  The horses were all very mellow and always felt like walking rather than galloping or trotting, which was fine with us.  We took a trail out through and laong the edge of multiple vineyards, all seperated by very atall trees used as windbreaks.  We had a great view of the mountains on our left side the entire trip out.  As we were going through the trees, I tried to take some pictures, but it was a lot darker than it seemed and they all came out blurry.  Mariah was able to get some clear photos fortunately.

Coming back, we went through the heart of the vineyard on an access road with grapes, olives and walnuts on each side of us.  We rode for a little over an hour as the sun was setting and it was starting to cool off.  Once we got back to the posada, we changed clothes and went to the restaurant for dinner.  We had a nice 4 course dinner with 3 different wines matched to the various foods we were having.  As with all of the food we had while there, it did not disappoint.

We got up for breakfast on Sunday morning before heading the Bodega for a tour of the winery.  Besides the winery, they had a large art gallery and sculpture garden on the grounds.  Before the tour, we decided on what wines we wanted to buy to bring back home, along with a couple of other souvenirs.  

As we were heading between the welcome center and the winery, we happened to grab an umbrella because it looked like it could rain.  After the tour, we were glad we had the umbrellas because it was raining hard.  The winery at Salentein Bodega is very new and modern, it was built about 10 years ago.  The winery not only is a functional winery, but it is also set up as a show place that can host events in a very unique environemnt.  While we were there, a piano was set up in the middle of the floor surrounded by barrels of wine that were aging.  Waht a great place it would be for a fancy function.

Salentein has it own bottling machine and is one of the few wineries that has it own bottling machine and can take the wince from grape to bottle all in the same place.

Once we finished the tour, we headed back to Mendoza for an asado (a large barbeque party) that Mariah and Susy were having for us and their friends.  It was raining very hard for about the first 45 minutes of our drive back, which was all on 2 lane roads.  About the time the rain quit, was about the time we got back to the divided highway and the driving got easier.

We got back to our hotel and dropped off our bags before walking back to Mariah's for the asado.  One of Susy's friends was helping with the grilling (indoor on the stove since it had been raining).  We had about 5 different kinds of meat including blood sausage, a gland from the throat of a cow, some ribs, chirizo sausage, along with salad, olives and dessert.  The food was great and we also got to meet 6 of Mariah's friends who were part of the study abroad program with her.

After dinner we drove out to the southwest along mountains to enjoy the scenery in a different part of town.  Mariah had a test on Monday, so we headed back and skipped dinner so that she was able to study and put her presentation together (although later she would get a reprieve on that).

Monday we packed up and tried to fit all the extra items (mainly bottle of wine) into our luggage for the trip home.  We met Mariah to go get some gelato, which we had wanted to do all week but hadn't found the time.  there were over 20 flavors to choose from.

We stopped in a small market so Mariah could get some fruit for a snack, and were suprised to find a mini museum in the market.  In the back room was a display case loaded with stuffed (taxidermy) birds and animals.  I had noticed a few foreign currency bills under glass on the counter when I checked out, and then we noticed that all the walls above the shelves were filled with coins and currency from around the world.  Who would have thought that a small market in Mendoza could be a destination and learning center, that's what makes exploring new places so much fun.

We decided to walk with Mariah to class since we had not seen the school yet.  All the students gather outside the building until they are called in by the professor.  As we were waiting, the professor recognized that we must have been Mariah's parents (I guess we don't look like college students anymore), and came over to greet us.  When she found out we were going to the airport in about an hour, whe exceused Mariah from her presentation that day and told her she could do it on Wednesday instead so she could come to the airport with us.

We walked back to the hotel, got our bags and grabbed a taxi to the airport.  We checked in and tried to get our bags checked all the way to Minneapolis, but since we were on 2 different tickets, they were not able to.  We headed to the security line, had some long goodbyes, hugs and thanks with Mariah for all she had done for us while we were there and headed to the gate.  Our flight was listed as an hour late, but arrived just a few minutes late and we were on our way only about 20 minutes late and got one last look going over the Andes.  When we got to Santiago, a transfer agent was at the end of the Jetway, took our baggage tag numbers and assured us our bags would get re-tagged to MSP.  Our flight to Atlanta was going to be about an hours late due to flight crew rest requirements, so we had over 5 hours to kill in the airport.  We had some drinks, food and wondered through some shops.  we got boarded about 10:30 PM and I think I was asleep about 45 minutes later.  We got in about 7:00AM and were hoping our bags made it.  We got a little worried as more and more people got their bags and left the carousel.  Finally, our bags came off at the end of the last group of bags.  We cleared customs and immigration, rechecked the bags to MSP and had about 30 minutes before our flight left.  We got on the train to go out to the next to the last terminal and got to our gate as the flight was boarding.  We were back in the US, on our last flight, with all of our bags accounted for and no broken bottles.  The end of a great vacation to Mendoza!

2011-11 Bike and Wine

On Friday we went exploring the vineyards and wineries (bodegas) southeast of Mendoza in an area called Maipu.  We decided to explore this area by bicycle.  There were multiple vendors from whom you could rent bikes and explore the area.  We chose Mr. Hugo based on one of Mariah's friend's recommendation.  We arrived around 10:00 and got fitted for our bikes and headed out to the museum and olive oil farm first.  The area was relatively flat and even had a protected bike lane for about half the route.  The other portion of the route was on two lane roads, but without a lot of traffic.

The wine museum had a lot of old equipment and tools used in wine making over the ages.  Although the process has become much more modernized, the basics of wine making have stayed the same over long periods of time.  One of the more interesting items in the museum was an old complete cow skin in which the grapes were stomped.  The skin proved a vessel to collect the wine while it was strong enough to take the beating.  It was stretched between four posts attached at each leg.

Next door to the museum was an olive oil farm.  They had two testing tables set up with various olive oils, pastes, spreads and jams.  We tried about everything on bread and ended up buying a few items.  After the olive oil tasting, we got to try some flavored liquors.  Most were highly flavored with flavors like mint, chocolate, cinnamon, etc.

From here we headed south about 5 miles to the small Familia del Tomasa Bodega.  Since it was lunchtime, we had lunch here before going on a tour and wine tasting.  we had some homemade lemonade that was chock full of herbs.  We then started the tour and headed down into the cellar where large fermentation barrels and smaller storage barrels lined the walls.  We went in the tasting room where they had stored sample bottles of all the various wines they had made over time.  These were stacked on the floor and all dust covered.  There were probably more than 100 different bottles of wine.  They also had a rack of premium wine that was made one year when they had a banner crop.  Over 4000 bottles were made and there were still about 600 left.  We tasted 4 different wines at this bodega.  The taste tests here were more than just small tastes, they were more like a regular serving, so we were getting plenty of wine.

From the old winery, we then went to a very new winery, Mevi.  The winery was built in 2000 and was two stories tall, giving a great view of the vineyards and the Andes in the background.  Unfortunately, it was a little hazy that day, so the mountain view was not all it could have been.  All the equipment was bright and shiny stainless steel with material automatically conveyed between the various storage and holding tanks.  This was one of the few bodegas that we tasted multiple varieties, both white and red wines.

We made one more quick stop at another new winery on the way back to Mr. Hugo's.  This was another two story building and offered a self guided tour.  We stepped out on the patio and started talking to a couple we had seen earlier, and found out they were on the last leg of a month long tour of South America.  They were from North Dakota and had really enjoyed their time in Argentina.

When we got back to Mr. Hugo's, we had to wait for our ride back to the hotel, and he was offering up wine.  He gave us some plastic glasses and then brought out a pitcher to fill our glasses with.  Although it was just basic wine, it hit the spot and gave us a good end to our bike trip.  While there, we talked with a bunch people we had seen along the way, including a couple of Europeans who were trying to get coins for the bus fare back to town as the buses don't take bills and most of the local vendors don't like to make change.  Everybody we met was having a good time.

2011-11 Potrerillos Zip Line and Kayak Adventure

We set out for Potrerillos on Thursday morning for a day of zip lining and kayaking.  We rode a van with about 10 other people staying at various hotels throughout the city.  Potrerillos is a reservoir about an hour outside of Mendoza.  It provides drinking water to Mendoza, and no motorized boats are allowed on the reservoir.  they did hold world wind surfing championships on the lake in the past.  It is in a valley of the youngest mountains of the Andes range.  There are the young mountains, the Silver mountains and the blue mountains.  Because of the cloud cover, we only got glimpses of the tallest, snow covered blue mountains.

Once we got to the Rafting Argentina trail head, we met up with our guide Lucio, for the morning adventure of flat water kayaking on Lake Potrerillos.  We decided to do the flat water kayaking rather than the white water kayaking or rafting.   Rafting Argentina provides full wet suits, booties, helmets and life jackets.  Although this lake is from mountain runoff, it had already warmed up quite a bit.  The lake color was a light blue green and reminded us of the color of many oceans. 


We took a short bus ride to the edge of the lake were we put the kayaks in and started paddling across the lake.  LeAnn and I were in one kayak and Mariah was in one by herself.  After crossing the lake, we drifted a little with the wind and came close the river opening into the lake.  The river water is very brown in color, but the sediment must drop out very quickly as the lake color takes over very quickly.

We then turned into the wind and cut through some larger waves going back to the middle of the lake.  This was the hardest paddling, but then as we paddled back, we almost surfed on some of the waves as we had the wind at our back.

Safe and sound back on shore we headed up to the trailhead and had lunch in the restaurant, which was a choice of beef, chicken or pork, and hardy helpings at that.  No wine with this lunch though as we still had our zip lining to come.

A total of 8 people were on the zip line adventure, along with 3 guides.  Seven of us were from the states and one was a Argentine local.  We got our equipment fitted and put one before heading up the trail to the first run where we got instructions on how to control our speed and body on the line.  Mariah got volunteered to go first, probably since she was the youngest.  Off she went without a hitch and the rest of us followed one by one.

There were a total of 6 zip lines with a total distance of just under a mile.  The last 2 lines crisscross the Mendoza river and are about 1500 feet long each about 150' above the river.  Because of the wind, I got spun around going across the river the first time.  When you get turned around you are supposed to let go of the cable and grab the line underneath the trolley so that you don't  get your fingers pinched by the trolly on the cable.  When you do this, you loose your ability to slow down.  I was coming in fast and the guides had to bring the speed arrestor out about 30' in order to slow me down and stop me.   Going back I was able to keep myself under cdontrol and made an unassitsed landing.

Mariah was the last to come back, and the guide asked her if she was up to a challenge.  She said yes, so they doubled up coming back across and as they were coming, she leaned back so that she was totally upside down with her head down and legs up.  She was screaming with delight as she made her way back.  Just before getting to the landing ramp, she pulled herself back upright and came in for a smooth landing.

While we were zip lining, one of the people from Rafting Argentina was stationed along the zip lines to take photographs of us as we were on the course.  They then sold us the group of photos at the end of the run (and they were only about $12 for all the photos--a great deal).  I had my camera along also and was able to take a few along the way too.

We completed the course and met back at the trailhead for the ride back to the hotel.  We walked down to La Lucia for dinner and had a lomo sandwich, whcih was a large thin cut steak on a toasted bun.  Like everything here, it was lots of meat and tasted good.

2011-11 Exploring Mendoza Argentina

LeAnn and Ray went down to visit Mariah in Mendoza as she was finishing off her semester of study there.  We left on Monday afternoon and connected through Atlanta to Santiago, Chile and then to Mendoza.  It was about a 10 hour flight to Santiago and then a quick 20 minute flight across the Andes into Mendoza.  The Andes were snow capped and beautiful as we flew over them.  The highest peak in South America is Aconcagua and is located between Santiago and Mendoza.  Mendoza is located on the east slope of the Andes, but in the gradual sloping foothills.  The area is high desert and has warm days and cool nights, which is one of the reasons it is known as such great wine country.  The weather is sunny most of the time, although we had some rain and clouds while we were there.  Since Mendoza is in the southern hemisphere, it is spring time and the weather is getting wonderful.  We arrived in Mendoza about 1:00PM  on Tuesday and Mariah and her host mom, Susy, picked us up at the airport.

We drove about 20 minutes to the hotel that Mariah had picked out for us, the Bohemia Boutique Hotel.  It was a small hotel that used to be a house in a residential neighborhood about a 15 minute walk from Mariah's house.  The staff at the hotel all spoke English and were very helpful and friendly for our entire stay.  The hotel is between the large San Martin park and Avenue Villanueva Aristides, which is lined with restaurants and shops.  The restaurants all have outdoor seating areas and people would be eating or drinking at all times of the day.  However, the dinner time did not usually start until about 9:30.  This didn't work out too bad since the 3 hour time difference from home meant we would be eating about our regular time.   Since it is a desert environment, most of the trees in the city were brought planted and then have to constantly watered.  This is accomplished through a series of open troughs along the street, called acequia.  You have to pay attention to them so you don't step in them or trip on them as they are usually about 3 feet deep.   The result is gorgeous tree lined streets.

Our first trek was to San Martin Park which houses part of the university, a velodrome, soccer stadium, lake with a rowing club, and a large fountain inside a roundabout.  This was a great park to relax in and many people were walking through the park.  We made our way to Avenue Villanueva Aristides and had our first taste of Argentine Malbec wine at a sidewalk cafe, and it was very good.  Wine is very popular and available almost everywhere.  We also had our first empanadas, which are like mini calzons about the size of one's fist.  They are mainly filled with meat of some sort, beef, pork or chicken.  Beef is very popular and served in large portions for every meal.

We then wondered over to see Mariah's house where she has been living for the past 4 months.  She is fortunate to be so close to school, bus lines and the park.  She has her own bedroom upstairs with a good amount of privacy.  She also has a good sized backyard.  Susy is an artist and has a lot of her paintings decorating the house.  She also has a studio out int he backyard where she can work.  Overall, it has worked out very well for her.  She has had about a half dozen students stay with here int he past, and one even painted a mural on the wall leading up the steps to Mariah's bedroom.  We went downtown to dinner at a great restaurant called 23 Gran Bar to eat at that night.  It had a large enclosed outdoor seating area so there was no street noise, and an associated winery, although that had closed by the time we had eaten dinner, so we did not get a chance to go through it. We walked to Independence Plaza to see it lit up in the night before heading to bed after a full day



Originally we had planned on going to Potrerillos for kayaking and ziplining on Tuesday, but the weather was supposed to be rainy on Wednesday, so we stayed in town and decided to head to Potrerillos on Thursday.  We walked down to back down to Independence Plaza and spent a little more time exploring the park. In the park, there were people playing a game very similar to bocce ball, except they used flat plastic discs rather than balls.  The court was roped off and the discs had to stay within the confines of the court.  We then walked over to the nearby stores selling local items such as leather goods, wine, olives, and candies.  One of the candy stores was also the manufacturing location, so you could watch them make the product in the back of the store.


We also stopped at the Central Mercado.  This was a wet  market selling fresh meat, fruits and vegetables.  We even at lunch there at a pizza place.  We went to the city government center as Mariah found out we could go to the top of the building and look out over the city.  It was just starting to rain as we got there, but quit by the time we made it to the top and found our way to the lookout.  Unfortunately, it was cloudy and the view of the mountains was not that good, but still worth the effort.  We stopped at Havana Cafe and had and afternoon treat called a Submarino.  It is basically a glass of hot milk in which you dip and stir in a chocolate candy bar until you have hot chocolate. It was an fun and interesting way to make hot chocolate.  We had planned on taking an open top tour bus through the city and park, but since it was threatening rain, we decided not to do that.  We went back to the hotel and had some snacks in the small garden area outback before heading out to dinner at Azafran.  the steak was delicious along with the shrimp.  We got to go into the wine cellar to pick out our wine for the meal with the help of the sommelier.  It was a great experience.  We again ate out on the sidewalk, and even though we had a little rain, we stayed dry under their overhang.  We took a cab back home in order to get ready for our adventure day on Thursday in Potrerillos