Yay, our power is back!

Wow, deja vu.

We got a soaking rain last Wednesday, but it also brought intense lightning. It struck a cottonwood in our front yard, and it fried our modem, our computer, and our phone lines. We got our phones back yesterday, and just got back online tonight. We had to buy a new modem and a new laptop, but at least we're back. I got a picture of the tree that got hit. It's kinda creepy, because it probably could have been a lot worse. We're lucky it didn't hit the house and start us on fire!

More soon, including the tree picture.

The Florida part of our trip

Yay, our power is back! There was a bad accident a little bit south of us where a guy ran into a utility pole. Unfortunately, the guy died. We were without power all last night. Luckily, we have a generator, so we were able to run the fridge and freezer. It was kind of a pleasant evening--a few games of backgammon and just nice and quiet. But wow, is it ever DARK at our place! I was holding the flashlight while Ken got the generator going, and it is creepy-dark. Yikes.

Okay, I've written about Haiti and Jamaica so far, so today I'll go back to the first week of our trip. We spent Week One at our timeshare in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. We were trying to figure out how many years we've been going there, and it's 8 for Ken and 7 for me (I think 4 for the kids, because we take them every other year), plus when I was a kid we used to go to New Smyrna a lot. New Smyrna Beach (known as NSB for the rest of this post) is about a half an hour south of Daytona Beach, and it's much quieter. Not a spring break or biker hangout, but more of a quiet, family place. They pretty much roll up the sidewalks at 10 or so during the week! Our timeshare is right on the beach, so it's just a matter of walking by the pool and down to the beach. We spend a lot of time reading out on the balcony, enjoying the ocean breeze. It's become our home-away-from-home! I look forward to it every year, because it's our chance to completely unwind and get away from the day-to-day grind. (Hey, that rhymed!)

It's a pretty beach, too. The sand is fine and white. There have been a few incidents with sharks there, but none of us has seen one, and we don't go out very far. This time, we took a bike ride along the beach, which was fun at first, but then it got a little too much! It's hard to ride a bike on sand, even when it's hard-packed, and by the time we got done, my legs were all rubbery. But it was still a gorgeous day for a ride!

One of our must-stops every time is this place:

It's called Breakers, and it may look like a little hole in the wall, but they serve the best hamburgers I've ever had. I know I have plenty more to try, but they're the winners so far. We can walk down the beach to it from our timeshare, and it's always fun to take a walk down there for a burger and a cool beverage. See ya next year, Breakers! Another favorite place to eat is J.B.'s Fish Camp. It's a favorite of the locals, too, which means it's really good. Last year I had a crab cake sandwich (YUM!), but this year I had fried shrimp. I rarely get deep-fried anything, so it tasted particularly good to me. We had to get a dozen raw oysters, too. We always try to load up on fresh seafood when we're there.

We also always make a stop at a nearby cove. Manatees hang out there. We were lucky this year and saw a baby manatee with his parents, as well as a dolphin. It's neat to see them out in the wild, rather than in a zoo.

Some of the prettiest sunsets I've seen have been at NSB.

What do you think? Sigh. Wishin' I were back there right now....

 

Tags: New Smyrna Beach, The Breakers, J.B.'s Fish Camp

Jamaica, mon!

I loved all the places we visited, but I think I loved Jamaica the best. We went to Ocho Rios, and took a trip to Brimmer Hall Plantation (more in a moment). We got to see some of the back roads and rural countryside. It is a beautiful place, almost breathtakingly so.

Isn't that gorgeous?! Wow. I loved the beauty of the mountains (where they grow the famous Blue Mountain coffee), and the lushness of the countryside. Brimmer Hall is a working plantation (a nice surprise, because I thought it was a historical property), and while the kids initially thought it would be lame, I think we all ended up learning something. Whenever and wherever we go on vacation, we try to learn about the area and the history of the place, whether it's New Orleans or Vegas. There is always something to learn! At Brimmer Hall, they grow bananas, plantains, cocoa beans, sugar cane, coconuts, and pineapple. Oddly enough, we found out that pineapple does NOT like water--how can something so juicy not need water? But no, the ditches they dig around the pineapple plants are to direct water away from the plants, rather than for irrigation. Fascinating! (Feel free to call me a geek at this point.)

We also got to eat some sugar cane (sweet, obviously) and some fresh coconut. Yum, it's a completely different taste from the shredded stuff you buy in the store. It's crunchy goodness!

After the plantation tour, we headed back to Ocho Rios to go to Dunn's River Falls. [Note: There was major highway construction going on. We think our construction zones are crazy, just take a bus trip on a Jamaican highway. Holy cow. They don't just shut down a lane or two and do those...they tear up the entire highway and start from scratch.] One of the things we noticed on our trip was that there were lots of homes that looked half-finished or abandoned. The outer shell of concrete block (no wood homes due to termites) would be there, but it would be just that and nothing else. We asked our guide about it, and she said that Jamaicans build homes as they get the money. I.e., they'll accumulate some money and build what they can, then stop. When they get more money, they'll do a little more. Some of the places looked abandoned for some time, but I suppose in a tropical climate, things grow so quickly it would look like that.

Anyhoo, Dunn's River Falls. We hiked down to the beach, and from there we went UP. Yep, we got to climb a waterfall! It was so beautiful, but a little more strenuous than we were led to believe! We were fine, although it was a challenge for me in some spots (when you're not quite 5 feet tall, some of the rocks made for a stretch on my part), but there were some younger kids and some older folks that struggled a bit. It was a neat thing to do, and all the people who said it was a must-see in Jamaica were right.

We also met a nice couple on our Jamaica excursion, Kirin (spelling?) and Francesca from Gibraltar. (I know very little about Gibraltar. Note to myself: read more about it.)

Writing about Jamaica made me decide to make Jerk Chicken tonight. As they say down there, "No problem!"

 

 

Tags: Jamaica, Brimmer Hall Plantation, Ocho Rios, Dunn's River Falls

Myspace

More about vacation stuff later (probably our visit to Jamaica...yeh mon!), but a quick comment about a conversation with my buddy Greg at work today.

A few of my coworkers have Myspace accounts, and when I visit their pages, it's usually some pictures (which are nice) and a little about themselves (also nice). I'm not a Myspace user, but I noticed that there is the ability to write a blog...but none of them are writing! I asked Greg about it, and wondered if he was going to write anything. He said probably not, that he's not sure he could write anything interesting to anyone other than himself (or words to that effect). Well, that's never stopped ME! I don't know if anyone finds this interesting or not (although I was certainly happy to find a comment from a user name I don't recognize in my post about Haiti), but it's just fun for me to do. I've always liked to write, whether in a journal or in lengthy letters, and this is the next logical step.

I guess Myspace has a different purpose...it seems to be a little more about networking and making friends (or as Greg told me today, making friends, know what I mean, nudge nudge wink wink). Not that everyone on Myspace is doing that!

I'm just hanging out here, writing a bit about things I find interesting. It's fun for me, and I like putting up pictures of our place, our critters, and other neat stuff. It's a bonus when someone reads it and likes it, and maybe even comments on it. Thanks for reading, whoever you are!

Haiti

I had mixed emotions about Haiti. First of all, I thought it was absolutely beautiful. Haiti means "Land of Mountains," and it is surprisingly mountainous. I didn't realize an island could be that craggy. Royal Caribbean has a private beach on Haiti called Labadee. It is fenced off from the rest of the country, it is patrolled, and they advise passengers to not venture out of Labadee. Apparently Haiti is a rather dangerous place to be in these days.

The morning of our day there, we took a walking tour of the beach area. Our guide was Lamy, and he told us a little of the history of the island, as well as a bit about current conditions. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. Many families live on maybe $5 US per month. Lamy was paid $600 by RC last year, along with a $400 bonus, and he is considered a VIP in his family. He is paying for his brothers' secondary education (the equivalent of our high school), and he said that everyone is happy when the cruise ship comes in. It almost made me cry. We tried to impress upon the kids how fortunate we are here...they said something about the "cost of living," but we said you can't use that as a comparison. For example, the cost of living in the Midwest is considerably less than on the East or West coasts. Most of the population of Haiti lives in abject poverty, so it's not just a matter of "cost of living."

Lamy realized that much of the problem has to do with corruption and politics--he said there are currently about 30 political parties in Haiti. He also spoke with pride of his country, about how it was the first black republic, how the slaves won their freedom by overthrowing their owners, and that Haiti is called the Mother of Freedom in the Caribbean. It was all fascinating, but a little heartbreaking. I hope and pray that one day a visionary will rise in Haiti and lead them to a better life. It's a beautiful place, and they deserve better than dictators like Duvalier. Lamy was a neat guy--perhaps we'll read about him one day as Haiti's new hope!

Here is one of my favorite pictures from the cruise, taken on the beach in Haiti. I think this says it all about relaxation: lounge chairs under the trees, tropical drinks (ours were loaded, the kids' were not, of course!), and white sand. Ahhhhhh....

 

Tags: Haiti, Labadee, Royal Caribbean

Stingrays!

I've finished writing in our travel journal (explanation in a moment), so now I can start to edit some pictures. So far I've managed to load a total of five pictures onto the computer. Obviously, I don't have much ambition for anything at the moment, I'm just trying to get through the week! It'll get better, but I'm just keepin' a Jamaican frame of mind and going with the flow.

I have a picture for you. This was at Grand Cayman, where we checked out Stingray City. It was pretty cool--they take you out to a sandbar where you stand about waistdeep in water (a little higher on me), and I liked that. Have I mentioned that I can't swim? Anyhoo, we get out there, and all these stingrays come swarming around us. It's quite startling at first (one lady completely freaked out), but also kind of cool. They're very gentle creatures, and they bump into your legs and back, rub up against your legs, and want to be petted. I told Ken, "They're like big flat housecats!" Their backs are kind of rough, like mild sandpaper, but their bellies are silky-soft. The captain of the boat took out a bucket of squid so we could feed the rays. You hold a piece of squid in your fist, keep it kind of low in the water, and the rays come up and suck it out of your hand (their mouths are on their underside). It was like a vacuum cleaner with lips! I was laughing so hard, because it was just such a neat experience, and they really are the coolest creatures. I think we all loved this particular excursion, and it was one of our favorites.

You can see how huge they are--this one spans all four of us!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention our travel journal. When we first got married, we were visiting Ken's Mom and stepdad in Missouri. She was talking about some of the experiences they've had over the years, and she said she wishes they had kept a journal, because it would be so much fun to go back and read about their various escapades. That sort of struck both of us, and we decided to start the travel journal. Every trip we take, I try to jot down a few things on the trip, and then I make my entry when we get home. This particular trip took about 14 pages, and resulted in some serious hand cramps, but I did it over a few days, and now it's done! Why don't I do it on the computer? I've thought about it...but there's something special about writing it down in a nice hardbound journal. It's become kind of a ritual, and it really IS fun to go back and read about a trip we took 5 years ago!

Tags: stingrays, Grand Cayman, travel journal

Back to life, back to reality

I'll write more soon, and get busy with editing and posting some pictures, but for now, let me just say that I loves me cruise, mon!