Part 1 Bahama trip- The pictures.

My brother Gerard had a nickname for me when it comes to traveling; he calls me "the anchor." Whenever we travel you can count on me being searched, the plane being late, the line going thru security being the longest line you have ever seen...there are more scenarios but my guess is you're getting the picture?

So before I give you all the tales of "the anchor" and what happened that almost put the brakes on our trip to The Bahamas I'll show you some of my photos.

And for all of you who know I never loose my cool you will have a treat. There will be tales of me yelling and and I will admit to using some potty mouth in fits of anger!! I kid you not!! When you hear what happened my guess is you will understand my anger.

Before I get to the whole sordid story in Part 2 however I thought I'd treat you to some of the lovely scenes from our vacation in Freeport in Grand Bahama.

This was our resort and we actually stayed in the first section of the blue condo's on the ground floor. It was a studio apartment and very comfortable. As you can see just beyond the palm trees is the beach; very convenient. There was also a lovely private outdoor space with a little private pool and couch for lounging and reading. 

In this nighttime picture located on the left of the patio is the private pool and the couch area is on the right. It was really one of my favorite area's of the resort. We're not all that concerned about the indoor space which in my opinion was a bit dated. Seriously though,who goes to the Bahamas to stay indoors?

This is the view from the resorts restaurant! OMG! We would sit here in the breeze and sip on cold beers eat a light lunch . Seriously how good is that?

Very quaint don't you think? Although I have to be honest I was very shocked at the high costs of food on the island. I've traveled to other islands and I wasn't prepared to pay almost five dollars for a quart of orange juice and all other groceries were out of this world expensive. I guess I thought since Freeport was in close proximity to Florida (about 70 miles) I thought the prices would be more on par with our costs. 

There is nothing better than pulling a chair under one of these palapa's and reading a good book. I actually read two books while I was there. I'll tell you about them in another post since the author was one of my A-Z friends.

We didn't have perfect weather while we were there. There was a storm on one of the close by islands so there were a few stormy days. Although you couldn't tell by this picture! And we spent any cloudy time browsing the shops and in the casino. 

Beyond the jetty there is a waterway that is used by the boats and ferries. If we wanted to visit the local restaurants or markets we had the option to hop a ferry or to drive in our rental car and go around. We actually drove. Or I should say Bill drove! I wasn't that courageous driving on the opposite side of the road.

I'm not quite sure what kind of bird this is but he and his mate would walk around the resort late in the day and during the hot parts of the day they would perch up in the tree tops. 

The beach that our resort was located on Taino beach. As you can see it was a lovely white sand beach with beautiful blue water. Vacationing just a few feet from it was not difficult at all. 

And last but not least.

Here's one of the many beautiful flowers that were blooming around the resort. It seemed to me every bush had blooms. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 Bahama trip-The drama coming soon!

I can see clearly now!

One of the reasons why I love spring so much is because I get to go out on my ginormous property and take pictures. As the animals emerge after the cooler weather and the flowers, trees and veggies bloom and grow I have the best time wandering about with my camera.

I've only had my camera for a bit more than a year and quite honestly I've never taken to experimenting with it off  the auto setting. The main reason was because I never read the huge booklet of instructions. I hate reading directions and lets face it if I haven't done it by now the chances of me doing so are slim to none.

So what's a gal to do? I was really feeling a bit limited at what I was able to do using auto and frankly I was feeling like a bit of a creative cheat. The other day I went out and let it all hang out..... I switched my camera off the auto setting and put on the menu and started experimenting with the settings. I grew up in the sixties so I can be a bit of a wild child when I put my mind to it.

I had difficulty getting shots that were focused on things close up on auto. What's photography without a close up? Take the half ripe blueberries below for instance I did that off auto. Now why didn't I do this sooner?  By the way Bill and I are going on vacation this Friday. I'm sure by the time we get back the birds or deer will have enjoyed all of these luscious berries!

This is proof that Bill needed to mow the lawn. Dear little buttercup, sweet little buttercup, my little buttercup, I love you! Didn't know singing was another one of my many talents huh?

Have I mentioned we live in a small town? Of course I have! There are a few stores a bank, pharmacy, a grocery, a couple of gas station and one stop sign. The local hardware closed last year and that was the place you could get everything including our seed potatoes. This year we just let some potatoes from the grocery store grow eyes and used them in our garden. I was really skeptical that this would be a good potato year. Below is one potato plant. I think the eye's have it. Wink!

So now you've seen my photography without training wheels. We've yet to see what my vacation photographs will look like when we get back from the Bahama's next week. If by chance they're horrible I already have my excuse prepared.

 I'll blame it on the rum!

While we're on vacation our house is being guarded by our vicious guard turtle. So don't think about stealing my blueberries or my potatoes.

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Sweet Virginia

More from our family vacation. 

Sit back and tap your toes

and enjoy. 

btw,  the video part 

is a bit unsteady that is due to inexperience with

the camera and NOT to beer!!

Views from the Cape...

Oh my goodness! 

We had the best time on our vacation in Cape Charles. And I have to tell you the weather was sunny and breezy every single day. We take a family vacation most every summer and we've been very lucky every single year with the weather!

1920's bungalow.

This is the house we rented. I don't think my Mom left this porch much the whole time we were there. She sat there doing her word puzzles and enjoyed the breeze. You can see her head just slightly poking over the left rail by the window and my godson Gerard at the door.

view looking up the block

The people of Cape Charles very friendly. Many of residents would walk past the house saying hello while either taking their daily walks or walking their dogs. Like most beach towns many people walk or ride bikes but in this town you can also rent golf carts to get back a forth to the beach with all your stuff. We actually just piled in Gerard and Denise's van with all our chairs, umbrella's, coolers, floats, towels and other junk.

this way to the beach

This shot is the view looking down from the front of our house the two blocks to the beach (zoomed). This gazebo is the beach entrance. We chose to hang out on a beach a couple of blocks over where we could spread out a bit more. 

The beach tended to be narrow in some places although the sand is wonderfully white and soft. The water is also quite shallow and you could walk FOREVER to just reach waist high water.  The water was pretty warm too; I would guess due to the unseasonably warm weather. It"s quite possible it could be warm every summer. I really can't say since this was my first visit.

sushi anyone?

This gull just swooped down and scooped up this fish and snacked on it right in front of where we were sitting. 

live crabs

If you are at all familiar with the Chesapeake it has a reputation as a source for wonderful fresh seafood, specifically blue claw crabs. Bill went out one day and purchased this bushel of crabs (approx 6-7 dozen) straight off the fishing boat. They are lively little suckers trying to run away and dashing all over the front deck of the house trying to latch on to toes.

My brother Gerard, bless his heart worked his rear off cooking them in a variety of ways. One night; crabs with pasta in a fresh marinara sauce and the next day for lunch tossed cold in a lemon-herb and olive oil vinaigrette YUM!  ( pictures in another post)

Sorry but! Doesn't this cloud kinda look like the shape of Virginia? 

Well it did to me... but then again it might have been the beer :)

I sat on my chair on the beach under the umbrella and took a lot of pictures.  Most every picture that I'm publishing today are ones I took of strangers and scenery of the beach. There might be an exception or two. In a later post I'll get to showing you some pictures of the family.

I really thought this shot was kinda nice and I love how the sun glistens off the water towards the end of the day. This is just a couple of strangers on the beach walking the forever walk. Like I said the water is very shallow in the Chesapeake but it's good for the legs. I can't say we didn't get exercise.

That is my niece Sydney walking out with her sisters float to cool off. Some of the days although breezy were quite sunny and hot. Umbrella's were necessary as was plenty of sunscreen!

Boats would come in towards the shore frequently and people would walk out to them visiting with their friends.  Every once and a while all the people gathered round would have to push the boat so that it could get to deeper water so it could put its motor down leave the shallow areas.

This is what its all about isn't it? Just relaxing in the water with your gal pals...This group of ladies were at the beach every day with a larger family group and usually sat next to us under some big tents with their husbands and kids.

I probably took 150 or more pictures while on vacation. Don't worry I won't show you all of them, I promise just a few favorites.  The town of Cape Charles is a nice lazy beach town with quaint shops, churches, seafood restaurants, pubs and all streets lead to this beach. No stress here!

Destination vacation...

I am counting the days until we leave for our yearly summer family vacation.  Bill, Mom, me and Matthew, my brother Gerard his wife Denise and their three kids, Sydney, Alex and little Gerard are the usual attendees. This year we'll be celebrating Matthew's 30th birthday, and it will be just shy of Sydney's Sweet 16th so there is much to celebrate. And then there's the relaxing!

Oh did I mention where we're going? Our destination is Cape Charles Virginia, a small historic town on the Chesapeake.This is our first time in this town so we're very excited!

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From what I understand it is a nice little historic area with some beautiful homes, shops and some very good little restaurants. There's a dock for fishing and we all know (as least it's know here in Virginia) that The Chesapeake has wonderful  source for  fresh seafood. You can also be sure there will be crabbing and fishing included in our activities; followed closely by cooking and eating. Oh did I mention the Clam Festival! I love clams!!

I have amassed a large pile of stuff that to bring so that our vacation will be as comfortable as possible in our rental home. Playing cards, puzzles, Pictionary for a few giggles. A new I-Pod player for the beach so that we can all fight over whose I-Pod has the best music on it! There will be singing and dancing of course. Don't you just want to pull up a beach blanket next to us? Oh darn you won't believe it! I forgot to pack the beach blanket. Then there's the beach chairs, umbrella and cooler for the adult beverages, beach towels, spray suntan lotions and bug-spray galore, even those dumb ear drops since someone always gets an earache when swimming. The beach looks very nice for a bay beach don't ya think?

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Did I mention my list is endless? Lots of soaps-hand -dish-clothes-shower, cleaners,garbage bags and foil, paper products, condiments, and the basic things like coffee-tea and the like. Fresh clean blankets for everyone's beds. Am I the only one who just think it's a bit gross to sleep with a blank that might have been slept on by some stranger? That's why I hate hotels. We get linen/towel service with the house which is great, but the blankets or comforters that come with the house will get folded up and put in a drawer. Are they clean? Kinda gives me the creeps just thinking about it.  

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So we're off on Saturday in the late morning since it only takes about three hours for us to get there. It will be considerably longer for my brother and family (probably twice as long) to get there from NY. But it's worth it; we always have such a good time on our vacations. We'll probably meet up and grab a late lunch at a local Pub since the check in is at 4pm. After that a quick stop at the Realtor office to pick up the key and packet for the house then we'll get to see actually see what the house looks like since all we've seen is pictures.Usually once we get all our stuff in the house and everyone know's where they're sleeping and the beds are made, everyone will head to the beach and Denise and I will go to the store for the groceries. 


I will be taking my  new camera and using it as much as possible. And from what I understand there is internet in the house however I don't know if I'll be posting on the blog or not. What it really comes down to is how much free time I have to myself. Seriously with eight other people in the house it's not likely with all that distraction. It might just have to wait until I come home to fill you in on how our vacay was. We'll see! 

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Don't be surprised by my silence this week.

I'm going to New York for a Christening [my best friends grand-daughter] family visiting and generally as much fun and relaxation as humanly possible squished into one week. I don't have any plans to post anything while I'm gone.... but you never know!

Have a nice weekend and a good week.

summer

"S" is for Summer.

Don't you like the sound of that word summer? We have in the past gone to Sandbridge,Virginia for vacation with my brother and his family. Last summer was a wash out times because I was sick, I spent the entire summer healing that wound on my leg. I wasn't allowed to swim or to go near the sand; it was a long hot summer. The year before we were in Hawaii for my nephew's wedding, two weeks of bliss and family fun.

And since this is not the area of the beach near the hotels it's really quite relaxing. We've never been disappointed in the cleanliness of the beach or the quality of the water. There are an abundance of dolphins swimming up and down the beach. The rental houses are top notch as well.

There's nothing like kicking back with the hubby and enjoying some time with each other and all our other peeps. Beach, cooking, games and puzzles, quality family time.That is after all what summer vacation is about don't you agree?

There are so many songs that I associate with summers past. This Sly & The Family Stone song is just one of many that bring back great memories. Do you have a favorite summer song? 

This summer we've decided to try someplace new and although Sandbridge is a wonderful location for summer vacation we've decided to try somewhere new this year. Stay tuned I will reveal it in a later post after we've gone.

Now don't let the sun set without sharing some of you favorite  summer vacation memories. Don't forget to tell us your favorite summer song! Or if you'd rather, tell us where you're going this summer if you don't mind spilling the beans.

live in the sunshine

I've missed this link up for the past two weeks and I'm sorry that I did. There was a short trip for a  St Patty's Day celebration and I've been miserable with allergies because of all the pollen in the air here. It took about a week for me to get enough medication into my system after I got back from my trip so that I could actually breathe.

Anyhoo,  I love looking for great quotes reading others, it's so much darn fun. Well I'm back this week and thinking about vacation actually...can't you tell by my picture! I know rushing it right? It's been almost 90 degree's here a few days this week so I'm thinking beach, really can you blame me? I don't know about you but we've already have a house rented for our vacation this summer; a family vacation timed so that we can celebrate  my son Matthew's thirtieth birthday.

Family, beach, water, sunshine...that's where I'll be, what about you? Any plans for the summer yet?  Are you having vacation or a stay-cation?

 Linking up with Bits of Bee today.


                                               

Barbados vacation Part 2 the good and the not so good!

The weather in Virginia since returning from Barbados has been cool to cold to say the least; you know where I'd rather be right? Writing about Barbados is fun, being in Barbados...more fun.

Here's a bit of what I thought about our vacation experience.

The Food:
I found the food at the Almond resort to be good. Breakfast and lunch were buffet and dinner was off the menu, there were three restaurants on the resort but I suspect it all came from the same kitchen. There was mainly Caribbean fare, there was fish and lamb, chicken and lots of curry and sweet potatoes.I had lots of fun ordering dinner each night choosing all the things I'd never heard of or couldn't pronounce. To be honest I liked it all, really I did! And who can complain when they bring lunch to you by doing an occasional barbecue on the beach. And there was the rum and the beer!  It was just to much of the same type food over and over again that kind of got to me after a number of days. And that number would be four!!

By the forth day we were craving a little variety soooo, we did what any self respecting foodie would do. Ran to the Italian place to hang out with Luigi at his Italian Restaurant; it was across the street from the resort. I was dying for some pasta; really my craving was bad. Luigi even made me two different kinds of pasta when he saw I was having difficulty making a choice! I inhaled that pasta, ate desert, had espresso and even had some grappa, it was heaven!

The Clocks:
There weren't any clocks on the resort, nor were there any in our room. Now call me crazy but if I have to be at dinner for a reservation, and it is required then why no clocks? I now have $250.00 in roaming charges on my cell phone bill because I kept on checking the darn phone so we wouldn't be late for dinner every night. Which then led to our shopping trip to buy the turtle clock and our encounter with the Aloe Vera guy! (l'll explain about him next)

St Lawrence Gap:
This is an area outside the resort which I had imagined was a beautiful area filled with shops, restaurants, clubs a casino or two. When I researched it on line I saw this stretch along the beach that was touted as an area tourists want to visit. So here's me, the foolish American thinking it's like Port Jeff in NY or maybe even like Duck NC; a quaint area to stroll in and out the shops. Yeh sure! What we got was the creepy Aloe Vera guy who spotted the dumb scar on the back of my leg and hounded us every time he saw us walk up that dumb street, trying to sell me Aloe Vera for my healing.  And the Gap was seedy in my opinion to say the least, but we did visit the Casino there.

The Casino:
It was about the size of a bathroom stall in a Trump Casino. One neon sign in the window said "Slot Machine" so unbelievable to me that I actually went back to the resort to confirm that it was a legitimate casino. The perimeter of the room had an assortment of poker machines and slot machines maybe 18 in all. I thought to myself I can't believe they call this place a Casino. Then I heard a ringing in my head! Mr lucky, my husband won $1,200.00 Barbados that's $600.00 American in the slots, somehow then that little casino didn't seem so bad after all! We took our winnings and left. You got it Mr Aloe Vera guy was waiting outside wanting to sell us his Aloe and he wanted beer money too!

The Staff and The Other Tourists:
My favorite staff personnel was our housekeeper/maid, she was adorable and liked to chat. Honestly maybe it had it little to do with the fact she put the most fabulous fresh smelling sheets on our big and comfortable bed every day! All the other staff were very nice, but it seemed to me that the wait staff at the restaurants might have been slightly understaffed, and sometimes the bar was out of supplies and under stocked.

I have some observations about the other tourists too. British men are very friendly, more friendly then most other men. Canadian men love to talk about sports especially hockey. We met a German man who could barely speak English but loved to laugh, had a infectious smile and enjoyed beer.  And  not that I'm prejudiced  (my grandmothers were Irish off the boat ) Irish woman are very lovely and like to chat and the older Irish ladies I met also liked to tell jokes too!

Canadian women ROCK!! We met two younger both coincidentally from Toronto (in early 30's ) traveling alone....how cool is that? I have always fantasized about that, going someplace alone! I was green with envy.

Shopping: 
One day when rain was the full day forecast we took a taxi to Bridgetown to shop for things to bring home for our loved ones. Duty free is pretty neat, we purchased perfume, rum, Tommy Hilfiger clothes and liquor for a fraction of what we would pay here. Then we went to some of the stores that line Broad Street and the discount markets that line Swan Street. We literally had to buy and extra piece of carry on luggage to get all our stuff home.

Entertainment: 
The resort had a lot of different activities that you could sign up for(for a fee), tours of the island, of churches and so on. We didn't do any of these, but we did sign up for one thing and that was for transportation to go to Oisten's Fish Fry.All the locals open up these shacks and tents and cook local food on Friday night and it's a chance for the tourist to mingle with them. They have a big stage where they play music and you can dance and socialize. There are tents set up in one section where local crafts people show and sell their wares. I could easily say this was our favorite thing that we did while we were here. We strolled up and down endless rows of food, crafts, art and the like listening to the music sipping cold beer soaking in the aromas of freshly cooked local food and the local vibe.

This place was so cool, I loved loved loved it.

I hope you've enjoyed hearing about our vacation.