Sochi, Standardbreds and Chincoteague Island

The Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia are now officially over.  The warmer than normal (sub-tropical) weather conditions caused a few problems, but, overall, the Games were a success.  The host country of Russia earned the most medals - 33 in total, with 13 of them Gold.  Then - well, it depends on how you want to count the medals - if you count the total amount as the "right" way, then The United States came in second, with 28; but if you count the number of Gold medals, then the next country in line is Norway,  with 11 Golds, and 26 medals total.  Canada garnered 25 medals total, with 10 Gold.  The USA had 9 Gold medals, with a total of 28.  The Netherlands tied Germany with 8 Gold medals, but the Dutch had more medals (24) than the German total.  All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the televised Winter Games.
  In horse news, I'll change strides, and report that in harness racing, the US Champion Trotter is a 3-year-old filly named Bee a Magician.  She won 17 of her 17 races, including the Hambletonian Oaks.  The Champion Pacer is Captaintreacherous.
  And the website TripAdvisor.com has made a list of the best islands to visit.  The first place winner was Marco Island in Florida.  In second place was Chincoteague Island in Virginia.  Third was Anna Maria Island in Florida; fourth was San Juan Island in Washington; and fifth was Maui, of Hawaii.  SInce my Mother and her maternal ancestors were all Chincoteaguers, I am very happy with Chincoteague placing second in a list of "Best Islands to Visit."
  TripAdvisor's Traveler's Choice of Best Beaches in the United States ranked the Assateague National Seashore Beach at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, Chincoteague Island, Virginia as number seven in the Top Ten.  The others were:  first, Ka'anapali Beach at Lahaina, Hawaii; second, Siesta Key Public Beach on Siesta Key, Florida; third, The Gulf Islands National Seashore at Pensacola, Florida; fourth, Fort De Soto Park at Tierra Verde, Florida; fifth, Lanikai Beach at Kaliua, Hawaii; sixth is Wailea Beach at Wailea, Hawaii; seventh is Assateague Beach, Virginia; eighth is La Jolla Cove in La Jolla, California; ninth is Laguna Beach, California; and the tenth place is Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve in Honolulu, Hawaii.
  And Coastal Living magazine is having a contest in which you can vote for the "Happiest Seaside Town" - and guess, what?  Chincoteague Island is on the voting list.  Voting ends on March 31.  You can vote for your "Happiest Seaside Town" at:  http://www.coastalliving.com/travel/happiest-seaside-town-00414000077606/
  (And I just learned that the privacy fence that blew down is the property of the Millennium Harvest House Hotel.  I guess I'll need to give them a phone call....)

Snow Views,Trees Behaving Badly, A Lake in New Zealand

Today is the last day of the Sochi Winter Olympics

Snow on Assateague Beach, Virginia

Trees behaving badly

Looking down at Lake Ada, New Zealand

The Flatirons this morning - Boulder

Olympics, Plane Hijacking

We're in the middle of a heat wave in Boulder - it's 1 in the afternoon, and the temperature is 27 degrees!  It's amazing!  Some of the snow is melting under the sun's rays on the edge of the patio, and my lonely icicle has disappeared from the satellite dish. Birds have made havoc of the feed that I placed out, all the nuts are gone, and there are only a few tiny bread crumbs left.  The breeze is picking up, and I'm watching branches dump their loads of snow and slowly return to their normal positions.  The kits went out for about 10 minutes this morning, then out for 15 minutes at noon - I'll probably let them out again later this afternoon.
  I watched the NBC Olympic coverage last night - felt bad for the US skaters who succumbed to nerves, and was electrified by the Russian pairs dancers - that was an exciting performance.  It's too bad that the US team didn't make it to the qualifying round for the Slopestyle Snowboarding - it would have been nice to be able to root for the locals (from Colorado, that is).
  An airplane hijacking happened today - a Pegasus Airlines jet left Kharkiv, Ukraine with the ultimate destination of Istanbul, Turkey.  Several stops were to be made along the way on its original flight plan. During the flight, a Ukrainian man announced that he had a bomb attached to his body, and demanded the plane be taken to Sochi, Russia.  The pilots, instead, flew straight to Istanbul, sending a signal that indicated a hijacking in progress. The man was talked into surrendering, and all 110 passengers, along with all of the crew were unhurt.  The man is in custody of the Turkish police. - Seems like it's been awhile since there was a plane hijacking....
  I am looking forward to see the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympic Games tonight on television.  I understand that there were just a few glitches in the show - one being that five snowflakes were to turn into the Olympic Rings, and only four transformed into the magic circles.  But in this technology-laden world, that's just an electronic glitch, and not earth shattering.  I look forward to seeing the Parade of Nations, just to see the costumes...  And I understand the fireworks were terrific, but, that with knowledge of the plane hijacking, things were a little tense on the ground while the pyrotechnics were booming...
   Have a super weekend!

Sights in Sochi, Russia

The Mauritanian arbor at the Sochi Dendrariam

Remains of the Loo Temple, a Byzantine building of the 10th through 12th century

Saint Michael's Church

The Sochi Art Museum

Shops lining the streets of Sochi

Sochi, Russia

Sochi lies in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia, and the region embraces terrain from the islands and beaches of the Black Sea up to the tops of the Caucasus Mountains.  About two million people visit Greater Sochi each summer, when the city is home to the annual film festival "Kinotavr", and is considered a getaway for Russia's elite.  Besides the main city area of Sochi, divided into four distinct cities, there are also 79 rural regions. Inside Sochi itself, there are many beautiful places to visit:  The Riviera Park was established by Vasily Alexeyevich Khludov in 1883; the park is popular with both residents and tourists, having a variety of attractions, including groupings of funny statues and a "glade of friendship" where magnolia trees were planted by every Soviet cosmonaut.  Also to be seen is the Tree of Friendship, a lemon tree planted in 1934 by Otto Schmidt; multiple cultivars from foreign countries have been grafted onto this tree as a token of friendship, and the associated museum contains over 20,000 gifts from around the world.  Among the natural wonders of the district is the Akhshtyr Gorge with a 160-meter long cave that contains traces of human habitation from about 30,000 years ago.  There are innumerable things to see and experience in and around Sochi.
  The outside, snow events for the Olympics will occur on Rosa Khutor, in the Krasnaya Polyana - the Mountain Cluster.  Besides the Rosa Khutor Plateau Olympic Village,where the athletes will stay, there are five other parts of Krasnaya Polyana: the Laura Biathlon and Ski Complex; the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park; the Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort; the Sliding Center Sanki; and the RusSki Gorki Jumping Center.
   There are three mascots for the Sochi Olympics - the Amur Leopard; Zaya, the European Hare; and the Polar Bear.  Russia has already issued stamps with the three mascots' imprints; and they have also released a commemorative 100 ruble note, depicting snowboarding.
   After the Winter Olympics and the Paralympics, these venues will be used by the citizens of Russia.  Plans have been made for Formula One racing through Sochi from 2014 through 2020; and the Fisht Olympic Stadium will be used to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup....
  Here's wishing all athletes good luck in Sochi!

Sochi Winter Olympics 2014

The 22nd Winter Olympics are scheduled to run in Sochi, Russia from 6 February through 23 February this year.  There are 98 events scheduled in 15 types of athletic competitions.  There are two Olympic venue sites - one in the "coastal cluster" on the outskirts of Sochi, where all indoor sporting events will take place, and the other is the outdoor venues on Rosa Khutor at Kraznaya Polyana.  The "coastal cluster"  - or Sochi Olympic Park - has been built on the shore of the Black Sea and all venues are within easy walking distance of each other, and will be the area where medals are presented.  There will be competitions in: alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, free style skiing, ice hockey, luge, Nordic combination, short track speed skating, skeleton, ski jumping, snowboarding, and speed skating.  The original plans for the Olympics had a projected cost of $12 billion (US); but the cost has mushroomed to over $51 billion (US).
   Between the cost over runs, and the fact that the Sochi Olympic Park is only four kilometers from the border with Georgia, along with recent bombings and killings in Russia, a lot of people are on their guard about traveling to Sochi.  When President Putin signed into law anti-homosexual acts, he stuck a big thorn into the lesbian and gay communities.  It seems that President Obama is thumbing his nose right back at Putin, by appointing openly homosexual representatives for the United States.  (Personally, I don't care if anyone or someone is attracted to the same sex.  I figure it's none of my business.)  But here the countries go, jostling with each other.  Is everything in this world based on one-upmanship?
  Sochi is the warmest spot so far to host the Winter Olympics.  Located on the Black Sea, with an almost sub-tropical climate, the average February temperature is 42.8 degrees F.  But don't worry about snow - the Russians have saved tons of it, in case of a warm spell, and have plans set in readiness to transport and spread the snow as is needed.
  The town of Sochi, itself, claims to be the longest city in Europe, stretching for 145 kilometers along the Black Sea; it is divided into four city districts: Tsentralny City, Lazarevsky City, Khostinsky City, and Adlersky City. Before the whole area was conquered by Cimmerian, Scythian and Sarmatian invaders, the Zygii people lived in Smaller Abkhazia under the Kingdom of Pontus', then in the Roman Empire's influence in antiquity.  From the 6th to the 11th centuries, the area successively belonged to the kingdom of Lazica and the kingdom of Abkhaziz, who built a dozen churches within the city boundaries.   From the 11th to the middle of the 19th century it was a part of the Georgian Kingdom.  The Christian settlements along the coast were destroyed by the invading Gokturks, Khazars, the Mongol empire, and other nomadic empires whose control of the region was slight. The Loo district contains the ruins of an 8th century church which was rebuilt in the 11th century, and which was converted into a fortress in the Late Middle Ages.  Currently, Sochi is a predominantly Christian city, but was Sunni Muslim until 1864.
  More about Sochi tomorrow...
 

Mens Modern Pentathlon

Well, the Mens Modern Pentathlon produced a few surprises yesterday.  David Svoboda, of the Czech Republic, took the Gold; Cao Zhongrong, of China, the Silver; and Adam Marosi, of Hungary, took the Bronze medal.  It was the first time anyone of  Asian ethnicity had achieved a medal in this competition.  The real fireworks were provided by Hwang Woojin, of Korea, during the equestrian phase - both on the horse, Shearwater Oscar, and on the ground.  As the pair entered the start box, Hwang kept shortening his reins, kept leaning forward, and kept his spurs in the horse's ribs.  Not a good idea.  The horse was getting very contrary signals from the rider, and acted out accordingly.  I would expect any horse to dump me if I had been riding the way he was!  He did, eventually, re-mount, and rode the course....  The only American male finished in the 32nd spot out of 36 competitors - and one of them did not finish the competition.  Today, the women compete, and I will be watching how they all ride.
   Lovey is laying up against my left forearm while I type this.  Nedi is sunning on the patio.  I need to remove all my overnight stuff from the car before I head back to Rosie and Remy's.  I did do something foolish yesterday - don't I always?  I was rounding up Shady, who didn't want to come inside, from the neighbor's back yard.  Keeping an eye on the black cat, I walked right into the side of a tree limb - took some skin off my scalp, bled quite a bit, and knocked myself flat my butt.  Luckily Shady paused at the time I fell, and I was able to get him back inside the house.  But this morning I still have a swelling the size and shape of a hot dog on the right side of my head....  Tsk, tsk...  And, I get to sleep in my own bed tonight and tomorrow night - oh, joy!
  I hope you enjoy tonight's Closing Ceremonies of the Olympics from London...  The next Olympics will be the Winter competition in Sochi, Russia.