HoodedHawk

Hola!
Kirsten and I are loving our honeymoon! We spent the first two days in Urubamba, Peru (the Sacred Valley) at a wonderful hotel/resort, Sol y Luna. One of the days Kirsten spent at the resort spa, while I went on a full-day horsback ride up into the mountains, visiting the Inca ruins at Moray as well as the Inca salt mines at Salinas. Wonderful day, despite the splitting migraine I had by the end (that I attribute to the altitude).

We then took the train to Aquas Calientes (where I´m writing this at a local internet cafe). After checking into our hotel, we caught the last bus up to the ruins at Machu Pichu, and spent a few hours there.

Today we got up to the ruins (you take a 20-minute bus; nice tour-type buses) earlier, and explored some more. Kirsten went back down early to do some shopping, and I stayed at the ruins until the last bus around 5:30. We just finished dinner at Inka Wasi restaurant (I passed on the Guinea Pig and went with pizza :) )

I´m going to post a complete travelogue (to date) tomorrow, but those are the highlights.

This quote was on the side of my Starbucks coffee cup this morning:

Everywhere, unthinking mobs of “independent thinkers” wield tired cliches like cudgels, pummeling those who dare question “enlightened” dogma. If “violence never solved anything,” cops wouldn’t have guns and slaves may never have been freed. If it’s better that 10 guilty men go free to spare one innocent, why not free 100 or 1,000,000? Cliches begin arguments, they don’t settle them.
[Jonah Goldberg, Editor-at-large of National Review Online]

Went to the range today. Haven’t been in awhile, so it was good to know I can still hit the broad side of a barn. Still hitting right and low – need to work on a better squeeze; I sometime anticipate the shot.

Sig Sauer 380 auto, 25ft.	Smith & Wesson 9mm, 25ft

I went to see Michael McDonald at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. last Friday. Whoa! Amazing concert; Michael McDonald has such an amazing range to his voice. He played tunes from his two Motown albums, as well as some Doobie Brothers classics. The venue itself is just fantastic. We also had dinner before the concert at the Terrace restaurant at the top of the Kennedy Center. Delicious!

I went to see Miss Saigon last night at the Warner Theater in downtown Washington, DC. The theater is really elegant, though the seating is quite tight – less room than an airline seat:

The play itself was good, though I’m not a real fan of musicals. Beautiful staging, and obviously gorgeous players. Personally, I enjoyed Chicago (saw that in London this past summer) more, but I was also a lot closer to the stage for that one).