Aves, Venezuela
Wow, is it really three months since our last newsletter? We guess part of being FreeBirds and not having schedules means our newsletter will suffer from an erratic publication schedule. The problem now is that we’ve done so much in the last three months that it’s hard to know where to begin.
We’ve fallen in love with Bonaire. It’s one of the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.) They are part of the Netherland Antilles which, until recently, have been independent countries which are under the protectorate of Holland. In the 1500’s, Holland was the most powerful, wealthy country in the world. It still has a tremendous presence with regard to island nations around the world. And as of two years ago, Bonaire voted to become part of Holland, giving up its independent country status. As a result, a huge amount of development is going on throughout the island as Europeans and Americans fight for a little piece of Europe here in the 
Caribbean. Aruba is a little smaller than Bonaire. But it has 120,000 people, whereas Bonaire has about 15,000. Bonaire’s entire waters have been a National Park since 1979. As a result, its reefs are the best on this side of the world and attract divers from everywhere. All license plates on vehicles say, “Divers Paradise”. The downtown area is about 3 square blocks, but development is spreading with car dealerships, international restaurants and independent shops springing up everywhere.
Bonaire is also one of the best windsurfing 
spots on the planet. It has a large bay, Lac Bay, which is about three feet deep. It has a huge windsurfing shop, Jibe City, owned by our new friend, DJ. He is from Holland and is one of the most colorful people we have ever met. He had several friends, Carl and Frank, also from Holland, that expressed an interest in sailing to AVES, a nearby deserted island that is part of Venezuela, to windsurf. We decided that this was a wonderful excuse to get some sailing in. (Marty is a sailor and was getting the feeling that unwanted roots were growing from his feet.)
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DJ ........................Carl .......................Frank
Bonarian waters, we were witness to an amazing display of Kiteboarding. A 51 year old local kiting legend name Peter, came flying around FreeBirds, literally. He was heading towards the fishing lines that we were trolling off the back of the boat. We frantically were yelling and pointing towards the lines as he got closer and closer. Just when it looked like we were going to hook the biggest thing yet with our fishing lines, he flew up in the air trailing his kite, did a forward flip, and landed about 50 feet on the other side of the lines. OMG! This guy was amazing! He kited around the boat a bit, smiled, and sailed away. We were left speechless. I got Peter’s number from DJ and decided I had to meet him when we returned to Bonaire. 
Aves is only 40 miles away and it was a lovely sail. Aves consists of about 5 small 
sand-covered islands surrounded by at least 10 square miles of reefs. The water is warm and shallow. Lots of fish live in the reef system. But large boats with 15 to 20 Venezuelans travel 100 miles to get here where they stay for 3-4 days. These fishermen use spear guns and snorkel throughout the reefs spearing everything that moves. The lack of larger fish was very evident. Thankfully, now that the dollar has fallen in value, it no longer was profitable to come, get the fish, then sell them in the ABC’s. Guess there are 
additional benefits to a falling dollar that I had never considered. We got there Friday afternoon, set up the windsurf boards, and DJ and Frank got a little windsurfing done before dark. And that’s when the fun began.
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We air guitared our brains out (Petra and I will admit to 4 martinis each) to Lynnard Skinners, FreeBirds and lots of other songs. The pictures speak for themselves. At 2:30 a.m. we decided it was time for some wakeboarding and tow surfing. Marty could barely stand until he climbed aboard his surf board being towed by the Mercedes. He was perfect in high winds and ruff seas. Then Petra amazed us all with a great session of wakeboarding using her kiteboard in very choppy seas. I was piloting the tender. Even if I couldn’t walk I could drive, right? We laughed more in one night than most people will in a lifetime. The pictures speak for themselves.
California
My daughters live in Santa Rosa, Califor
nia and we decided it was a time for a visit. We stopped for a few days and checked out Santa Monica, CA and Beverley Hills. Then we visited my best friend Joe in Sacramento and took trips to Santa Rosa and San Francisco.
We sure felt spoiled about Kiteboarding in Bonaire where its 90 degrees every day after we saw the dedicated kiters in San Francisco. They brave 59 degree water, fog, a 2-8 knot current and 40 degree wind-chill factors, IN THE SUMMER! Petra loved the most crooked street in the world, Lombard St, the trolley cars and all the San Francisco sites.
We drove to Redding, Ca to visit my ex car-racing partner Boris. He now owns a very cool, high tech, indoor go-cart track, http://www.n2skarts.com/ . We did a little 20 lap race. The cars all have electronic sensors that display each laps time on a big display. Boris taught me track racing when we raced Legend cars for 4 years. He had been the track champion and raced for 13 years. He’s so competitive that when I finally set the fastest lap ever recorded at Shasta Speedway, he went out and beat
my time two weeks later by two one-hundredths of a second. Consequently, I was flattered when he walked around the go-cart track showing everybody my fastest lap time which was one of the top ten laps for the month, my first time on the track. (I tried to pay a couple of the track employees to turn down the electricity in Boris’ car to slow it down so I could beat him, but he was there boss, lol.) We stayed the night and really liked his personal car, a Noble.We found this sleep shop next to Starbucks funny.
Later, we went to dinner where we met some wonderful people. We can’t wait to go to Sacramento again to spend time with Mike and Kim Lyon and Michael and Asia Greene.
Joe took us to an incredible fund raising party. It was at a
7,000 square foot mansion. The woman that owned it was 50, and known as one of the best big-game hunters in the world. Her entire house was like a memorial to the animals she had personally shot. We really didn’t like that she had killed all these animals. My feeling is that a gun verses an animal living peacefully in the wild isn’t much of a fair fight. At least hunters with a bow have some claim to respect of their skill. But her display of these animals was amazing. It was as if she “loved” the animals so much she wanted to kill them and take them home with her so she could enjoy them always. We hoped she didn’t grow too fond of us, and left in a hurry before we would be the last ones to leave.
When living in Sacramento, I bicycled 3-5 hours a day and competed in the Eppies Triathlon each year. When I moved, I sold the bike to a friend. We visited him and found the bike in his garage accumulating dust. It was like seeing an old friend. I have so many fond memories of riding along the 25 mile bike trail that follows the Sacramento river, as I listenedd to music and trained my ass off, literally.
In Sacramento we visited my friend, Andrew, who is a wake boarding pro. He visited me twice when I lived in Costa Rica. We really turned
heads wake boarding through the jungle rivers as he busted out flips past boats filled with tourists that were watching the monkeys, birds and crocodiles. Yes we really wake boarded with crocodiles. You’d be amazed how quickly it’s possible to get back on the board once you’ve fallen. In Sacramento, he took us wake boarding with the coach of the Sacramento Kings Basketball Team. A lot safer!
Prague
We took our yearly pilgrimage to visit Petra’s family. It’s great to see her so happily enjoying her family. She is very close to her older sister, and it was great to spend so much time together.
Her dad builds and fly’s his own ultralights and he invited
me for a flight. The problem is that he doesn’t have an airport to fly out of. But he has a friend that has a little patch of land at the top of a hill. It’s a tricky take off and landing, and we were over weight for his little plane. We made it over the trees at the end of the hill by about 5 feet. I took my camera and recorded it all. We will have the video in the next newsletter, hopefully out soon.
We’d like to leave you with a funny video. If you ever think your life stinks, take a look at this:
And if life pisses you off sometimes, check this out:
Brad and Petra
