Author: Bill

Intermittent rain showers, lots of clouds and the strong urge not to do much of anything kept us in the house all day. We laid around and read books, watched entirely too many 1992 episodes of CSI Miami (TV down here really leaves a lot to be desired) watched several big brown pelicans dive bombing in the little bay off of our patio and just did a whole lot of nothing.

As it got dark, it started sounding like Armageddon outside…. apparently folks like explosives for celebrating the end of the old year….. I am told they get really happy bringing in the New Year the same way…. so tomorrow should be a hoot.

Me and the Mrs. are going out for dinner tomorrow night on the waterfront and while we will be done long before Midnight, expect to get quite a fireworks show. Can’t wait to try and get some pictures of that out over the sea~! Something we rarely did in our working life was go out for dinner on New Years Eve – but since the last half of this year has been almost nothing but new things for us, I figured, what the heck?   I doubt seriously we make it until Midnight to welcome in the new Year, but sure it will be waiting for us the following morning. Really looking forward to see what it feels like to welcome in a new year, being retired and living in the Caribbean  🙂

No pictures tonight — hopefully lots of new pictures the next several days to share with you.

Enjoy your last day of 2017~!

Stayed in for most of the day, save one quick trip down the block… but saw what turned out to be the biggest sailboat I have ever seen. I estimated the top of the mast at 100’….. this thing even had it’s own plane on board……. wow~! Pic below as well as some more of the snorkel sail and any others I think I have not put up yet…….

Misschien meer morgen

JUST noticed I forgot a title for my post yesterday….. oops~   That’s what happens when you don’t know what you’re gonna write about, so you skip the title and start in on something. Then you finally get going and it’s so late and you’re so tired by the time the pictures load,  you don’t notice you forgot the title….  Dammit Emmit~!

Slow day today….. got 8 more postcards filled out and mailed for the Grand kids. Have been sending cards from each of the islands we’ve been on, telling them a little bit about what we’ve been doing and a little bit about the island – including a sample of the local currency of the island.   Here it is the U.S. dollar, so Moms and Dads can give them a sample this round  🙂  Ran to a couple of stores for more Crown and smokes (impossible [so far] to find one store that has everything we want in one place) plus restocking the kitchen a little bit. Got back and my Queen decided she wanted to go out to eat – so we picked a place and away we went. Local favorite called Rum Runners. Food was good, scenery was amazing…. service sucked, very, very s-l-o-w…. even for island time but still a nice evening meal.

Gonna leave it here…. going to put up what I think is the rest of the Hooker dive pictures and whatever else I think I may have missed. You may see some ‘repeats’ but going through that many pictures, kind of easy to lose track of what I’ve posted and what I haven’t…..

I hope you like…………………

Fun day today – went on a half day sail out around Klein Bonaire ( http://www.tourismbonaire.com/sightseeing/klein-bonaire ) and did a little snorkeling, followed up by a gorgeous sail back with snacks and a couple of drinks. Got a couple pictures of that to share and some more pictures from the Hilma Hooker dive.

Getting comments from ‘back home’ temps are dropping and down right cold [7*] – ouch….. That sucks…… I can almost feel your pain…… rain is forecast for most of the week here and now that the sun is down (we’re 2 hours ahead of Southern Indiana) the temperature has dropped to an almost cool 78* — Awwww … right ? 😉  Sorry – I had to bring it up…..

Crank up the thermostat, make a good strong drink and enjoy the pictures, catch ya later~!

Damn blij dat ik ben niet terug in dat koude weer

Did a 2 tank dive today – first one took me deeper than I have ever been (95′) and it was on a wreck~! The Hilma Hooker – fun story to this wreck, you can check it out at: https://www.scubadiving.com/history-bonaire-hilma-hooker-shipwreck

Water clarity left some to be desired on the dive, but it was absolutely amazing to watch it come into view.  She lies in 60′ – 100′ of water, on her side. ( top of the ship at 60’… going down to the sea floor at 100′)  I swear, I could have spent all day down there nosing around that ship. I can see now where people get a ‘wreck’ certification to go inside those. That would have been just cooler than hell. Being a newbie at this (and having a very mindful dive master keeping an eye on me) I stayed on the outside like a good little feller…… The deeper you go, the more air you use, but I managed to get in a 37 minute dive on it. Lots of pictures for you. Second dive was at a much shallower reef and water clarity there was much better – lots of fun pictures from that dive as well.

Think I said previous, I finally got a filter for my camera (that fits) and it works every bit as good as I was hoping. I think you’ll see a huge difference in the quality of the pictures now.

Came home and spent the afternoon going through pictures, showing my bride my adventures for the day. Had a couple of drinks and decided to go out for dinner. Tried a spot we’ve been eyeballing for a while now. Decent food but nothing to ‘write home to Mom’ about.

In an effort to keep these a little shorter – I’m gonna leave it here – I hope you enjoy the pictures~~! More over the next day or so.

ALSO: I put up what I think is a very cool video I took a couple of days ago of a Giant Green Moray Eel…… video is entirely too big to load on here… so sorry, if you want to see it – you’ll have to get on Face Book……. [[sorry]]

Not going to ramble on a lot again tonight, because you should be spending this time with your family / friends……

I will share a couple of pictures of my day today, because despite not being able to spend more than a couple of minutes on FaceTime and Marco Polo – we got to enjoy a tropical holiday as well including some snorkeling and a nice dinner out. Going to share a couple of pictures, including [what I’m guesstimating was a] 200 lb turtle…… gorgeous even though water clarity SUCKED~! More details later~~

2 tank dive tomorrow, one being on a wreck with a fun story – check it out:  https://www.scubadiving.com/history-bonaire-hilma-hooker-shipwreck

Will share lots of pictures….. now go spend some time with your family~~

Merry Christmas ya’ll~!

Got SOOOooo  much I want to tell you about tonight (like how great my new filter works) and about one of the things I saw I one of my dives this morning ( like a GIANT green Moray Eel)…. but it’s gonna have to wait. I hope you are spending this evening with family and or friends and not worried about anything electronic…… Enjoy the time with your loved ones…. because for the first time in over three months, I wish I was back in Indiana in that God awful weather…. with my loved ones. (I’ll be over it by tomorrow night) but for now – would really like to have my family around me……. one of the down falls of this life style.

Enjoy  your time with your loved ones and I hope you all have a marvelously Merry Christmas~!

Giant  green Moray Eel~!

Well, snorkeling Lac Bay did not materialize……. I don’t think either of us really felt like it, so we just lazed around the apartment watching sappy Lifetime Christmas movies. We did run out long enough to [finally] get the right filter for my camera and a shirt that I ordered that was due in. Tried the filter on to make sure it fit, tried on my shirt to make sure it fit, then ran past the local hardware store for a small extension cord for our Christmas Palm tree. Got the tree where I am happy with it now, and strung a small string of lights on our patio so we are all set for the Christmas holiday. My Bride and I agreed we are not doing gifts for each other this year as the last 3 months have been our gift….. and what a gift it has been. There have been some ups and downs (but mostly ups) but for the most part, the last 3 months of our lives have been almost perfect, living the Caribbean dream we have talked about for so long. As Christmas approaches, will we miss Christmas morning with all of our girls being there, along with Son-in-laws, and Grand Babies and the ensuing mass hysteria as presents are opened ? Absolutely! Will there be tears as we watch several times over, that madness (via face time and Marco Polo) Above average chance~! Will we wish we there ? Absolutely~! Will we regret our decision to live this lifestyle and be away from our family this year for the holidays ? With the forecast there for snow and below freezing  temperatures and 85* and sunshine here…eh, not so much  😉

Comfort improvement on the bed didn’t help so much…. so back to the drawing board there……

Spent a big part of the afternoon watching 2 large brown pelicans dive bombing for their meals along with a half dozen sea gulls. At times there are up to 4 of the pelicans. They have kind of adopted our little bay as their resident feeding area, so we have a show all day long. I think they know I secretly envy them and the way they swoop and soar, flying directly overhead, as almost taunting me with their flying abilities. Not to mention the one fair sized Hawks Bill turtle,  4 or 5 Snowy White Egrets, a couple of Yellow Shoulder Parrots, at least 2 different Iguana’s that patrol the deck up and down in front of the complex. Watched all of this and got to watch yet another amazing sunset….. hard  not to enjoy this lifestyle.

I’m gonna wrap it up here with the rest of the National  Park pictures, some of the Mangrove tour and some I took this afternoon. I have a 2 tank dive in the morning (SCUBA diving on Christmas Eve~!!!) and will get to try out my new filter on my camera. Hopefully will have some rockin’ pictures for you~~

Rest goed vanavond lieve mensen

Another fun easy day….. good breakfast… headed out to pick up a couple of things to make our comfort a little nicer….. our mattress is like sleeping on a concrete pad, so we seeked out and [finally] found a store that had some home furnishings that is going to make sleep a bit more enjoyable. Won’t know for sure until tomorrow morning…

Island Insight, it’s amazing the things you take for granted living in the good ole U.S. of A.  Places on tropical islands don’t carry all the fun magnificent things we take for granted in the continental United States……… (helpful hint: create a separate folder on your phone and take pictures of the food stuff near and dear to your heart — makes it tons easier to show someone [who doesn’t get your language], a picture of what you are after. A lot of the time they will actually have it, when they know what it looks like~!)

Stopped by a new dive shop to find out they are much more expensive than the dive shop next door that I thought was completely out of hand…… live and learn…..

Got to complete a full driving tour of the waterfront during our outing today. Simple but absolutely beautiful~~

Gonna stop here and leave it at pictures. I think the plan is to snorkel Lac Bay tomorrow, the place with the mega-piles of conch shells and the almost un-describably blue water….. hope to have lots of fun pictures of that~~~

(Apologies for the sideways pictures, but between this PoS website and crappy internet – I’m lucky I got anything loaded)

Dit is het leven

Flamingo’s

Flamingo’s

Kayak Tour – Mangroves

Trying to find out why this water is so brown~

Even though we took a kayak tour of the mangroves national park today – I’m gonna hold off on it and just load the rest of Slaagbaai pictures for you tonight…. I’m pooped from a day of kayaking, snorkeling, making burgers and drinking….. I’ll go into the kayak tour in the next day or so.

“Eeen schot van kroon een plons van cokes en thou”