The Bahamas

Our intent was to visit The Bahamas last year as a part of our Key West trip.  However, that plan got sidetracked when I had to have emergency eye surgery.  We still wanted to visit the land of Trae (our one and only Bahamian friend) so we traded for a week in Freeport and off we went.

Our first stop was in Cordele, Georgia at an inexpensive hotel.  We had read the reviews about the train noise, but since we both grew up near train tracks we assumed that wouldn't be a problem for us.  Wrong!  Apparently, the hotel was near a crossing which required the trains to blow their horns for a mile or two, loud….piercing….horns.  And the trains kept coming and coming.  I lost count how many trains went by.  Or maybe it was just one train going round in circles just to keep us awake….regardless, we didn't get much sleep that night!

Next morning we hit the road, only an eight hour drive to Ft. Lauderdale.  Unfortunately there was a storm system centered along our entire route.  It rained virtually the entire time, with the heaviest rains during the last four hours, when Mona was driving.  Lots of construction and busy roads made the last part of the drive pretty harrowing and we were both glad to finally get to our hotel.

Our Bahamas Beach

Unbelievably, the rain continued to pour down and we literally waded to the restaurant adjoining the hotel.  The front of the restaurant was flooded too.  Luckily, the back was still high and dry.  We quickly ate our shrimp dinner and waded back to our room…..just glad we didn't have to swim!

Next morning it was time to catch our flight to Freeport.  It was only a 35 minute flight.  A short taxi ride took us to our resort and within minutes we were there.  First on our agenda was food.  We took the shuttle to Port Lucaya and found a restaurant serving local food.  Our objective was conch fritters, cracked conch, and peas and rice…as recommended by Trae.  All were awesome and as it turned out, this was the food we ate most of our trip.

Rum Runners:Where mixing a drink requires
a machete! 

After lunch we wandered around the marketplace and found one of our two favorite spots on the island…Rum Runners.  This is a great place to meet people from all over the world while enjoying a drink (or two) and they have the best free WiFi on the island.  (You know how Mona gets when she’s not connected!)  The bartenders here are hilarious and it’s amazing how they chop the coconuts with machetes without losing hardly any fingers!

Our first view of Bernie's

We caught the shuttle back to our resort and hit the beach.  Soon we found our next favorite spot on the island: Bernies.  Bernies is hard to describe….it’s a restaurant…kind of.  It’s a gathering place…kind of.  What it is….is an awning under which Chef Bernie has a small counter and a grill.  In front of the awning is a bar made of rough-hewed boards….and then “outside” are four or five picnic tables made of the same boards.  As it turned out, we spent more time here than anywhere else on the island. 

Chef Bernie at work

Chef Bernie takes your order and then prepares it and cooks it. (Our order was conch fritters with grilled fresh-caught lobster.)  Since each order is done individually it takes a while so you pass the time by sipping on a Bahama Mama and talking with other diners.  As it turns out…people from all over the world come here year after year for Bernie’s food.  We met people from Iceland, Peru, Romania, Great Britain, Canada, and of course the US.  Most of these people were like us and came to Bernie’s several times over the week.  The food here is wonderful, but it’s the beach atmosphere and the new people you meet that makes it amazing!

Evening view from Bernie's

That first day set the tone of our trip.  Visit the port, go to Rum Runner’s, enjoy the beach, go to Bernie’s….and repeat.  We geocached of course, and I'll write about that in my geoblog.  We also hit a couple other “restaurants” of note.  One was the conch shack, just large enough for the cook inside.  Outside, they brought the fresh-caught conch to be cleaned them while you watch.  The conch is then handed up to the chef and cooked immediately.  (Or chopped up raw for conch salad...which is wonderful!)  While cleaning the conch they offer you the raw conch spine which is known locally as an aphrodisiac.  (Tastes like al dente spaghetti ..only saltier. You'll have to try them yourself to see if they have any other impact!)  We also ate at a jerk shack on the beach….great jerk chicken and pork!

On our last night Bernie had a bonfire on the beach.  He cooked ribs and corn on the cob for about thirty of us.  Lots of visiting, trading of email addresses, and photos.  What a great way to end the trip!

Williamsburg Continued

Midweek, we headed west again, but this time we turned north just before getting to Norfolk so we could travel the world’s largest bridge/tunnel structure; the Chesapeake Bridge/Tunnel, stretching almost 20 miles across one of America’s busiest sea channels.  For a bridge geek, this is one of the ultimates…okay, there may be 15 or 20 bridge-geek ultimates, but this is definitely one of them!

We stopped at the first island on the complex for a wonderful seafood lunch.  Lunch got even better when we spotted an American attack submarine crossing through the channel.  I grabbed my “Pete” camera and got a great shot.  First time we've ever seen a submarine in the wild!

Then we traveled up the Eastern Shore to visit one of the horse-lover’s ultimates….Chincoteague.  I read “Misty of Chincoteague” back in the 4^th grade and have always wanted to see these storied ponies.  That desire, coupled with Mona’s love of seeing wild horses made this a must see for us.  Thankfully, Monte and Aleta were willing to accommodate us.  We got into Chincoteague and stopped at Island Creamery for homemade ice cream….not a normal stop for us, but it was soooo good!

Chincoteague Ponies!

We then drove out to Assateague Island, where the wild ponies are.  We walked a trail back to a viewing platform and as luck would have it….we saw two of the ponies.  So very very cool!  Our glimpse of the horses didn't last long but that was okay; we saw them!  Cross another item off the bucket list!  (Thought of a few more items  to add to the list so we're not gaining much on it!)

Going to Assateague we drove through a NASA facility on Wallops Island.  Had no idea this was here until we saw a huge radar array installation.  Then passed by their visitor's center with rockets on display outside.  Just yesterday an Antares rocket was launched from here, testing the capability to supply the International Space Station from Wallops. Love learning about places like this!

Man of War Burial Site 

Williamsburg seems to specialize in breakfast restaurants and we tried two, Mama Steve’s and Chickahominy.  Wow….go to either of these places if you want incredible pancakes…especially blueberry pancakes and Virginia ham.  Yum!

On the way home we stopped in Lexington, Kentucky…had to go by the Kentucky Horse Farm and visit the statues of Secretariat and Man of War…two incredible horses. 

It’s been a fun trip, but it’s time to go home.  Hope all the rain and snow is gone!

Williamsburg and Beyond

The four of us (Monte, Aleta, Mona and I) arrived in Williamsburg, Virginia early Sunday afternoon.  We checked in and headed to the nearby Jamestown.  This is where the first permanent English-speaking colony in the Americas was established beginning in 1607 and from where we learn of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas.  It’s amazing how tiny the ships are that brought them here….can’t imagine being crammed into those tiny holds for that long journey across the Atlantic.  Once in the Americas the colony barely hung on, losing many colonists to starvation, disease and battles with the Powahatan Indians.  Visiting here really brings it home as to how incredibly lucky we are to live in this day and age.

Monday, brought a day trip to Washington D.C.  For years, we’ve tried to time our trips to see these elusive blossoms, but never with any success.  (Yes, there was that one trip, where one solitary tree was blooming, and we took thirty pictures of it, but that doesn’t count!)  This time; however, we were in high hopes because our resident DC friend, Margaret, had emailed us just before our departure saying the cherry trees were in full bloom!  Our hopes were high as we drove 2 ½ hours north, finally arriving at the Springfield/Franconia Metro Station.  From there it was a 30 minute ride to the Smithsonian and then a ten minute walk to the Tidal Basin. 

It was overcast and had been raining….dare we even hope that a blossom or two was still there?  Finally, we went over the last hill and the Tidal Basin was in full view….ringed with beautiful pink cherry blossoms!  At last!  It would have been nicer had there been sunshine and it probably would have been better before the rain, but hey, we got blossoms!  We can finally check this one off the list!

We spent the rest of the day traveling throughout the city to visit some of our favorite DC spots…trying to cram in as much as possible in our one day visit.  Finished our day at our favorite Alexandria restaurant, King Street Blues, where we linked up with our resident DC friends, Margaret and Pete.  After a fun visit with them we drove back to Williamsburg, climbed the three flights of stairs to our unit, and collapsed into bed around 11 PM.  Whew!

Next up was Yorktown, where George Washington and his troops defeated Lord Cornwallis and his British troops in the final battle of the Revolutionary War.  There a ranger took us onto the battleground and gave us a vivid portrayal of the steps leading up the battle and then the final battle itself.  Did you know that the Americans fired over 15,000 artillery rounds at the British before the battle even began?  This barrage did its job, softening the British lines and helped keep American casualities to a minimum in the final battle.  If you’re ever in this area, I highly recommend you visit both Jamestown and Yorktown to get a better sense of how our country began. 

I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you about the frogs.  Most of you know about our frogs back home.  I guess our home frogs sent word to the Williamsburg frogs about how we “love” nightly serenades; because, each night we sit outside on our balcony and get to listen to a chorus of bull frogs with their deep bass thrums.  “RaaaUmmmmP.  RaaaUmmmmP. RaaaUmmmmP. Doink!”  Doink?!?  Yep, there’s one frog out here who has the wrong sheet music and he loves to punctuate the other frog’s bass RaaaUmmmmPs with a high-pitched Doink!  Makes us laugh every time he does it, and we’ve been laughing four nights in a row.  (Hmmmm, maybe those stairs are affecting our sense of humor…or maybe it’s the wine, or maybe we should just move to the next topic!)

On Wednesday, we drove to Norfolk, Virginia to visit the U.S.S. Wisconsin, the last battleship to be built in the United States.  This ship saw battle from World War II to Operation Desert Storm.  This amazing ship is the largest battleship ever built and has nine 16 inch guns,  and can (and has) launch Tomahawk cruise missiles.   The Wisconsin is now a museum exhibit, docked in Norfolk, and is a must see if you’re in this area.

U.S.S. Enterprise

U.S.S. Cole

We then took a two hour cruise to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, the largest in the world.  We saw cruisers, destroyers, attack submarines, support ships and the historic aircraft carrier The Enterprise.  We also saw the U.S.S. Cole, which was the destroyer attacked by suicide bombers while it was stationed in Yemen back in 2000.  17 American sailors died in that attack and 39 were injured.  This was the first time that Americans really started hearing about Al Qaeda.  (Note:  Although almost sunk by the blast, the Cole was repaired and returned to service.) 

Our day ended with a night visit to the Powhatan Plantation home.   This manor dates back to colonial times and is said to be haunted…and that’s why we were here.  At 8:30 we began with a guided tour of the home with stories of the ghostly occurrences that have occurred in and outside the home.  Along with the stories, we get demonstrations of ghost-hunting tools.  Electro-magnetic meters, voice recorders, etc.  My personal favorite are the dowsing wires.  I’ve used these many time over the past 40 years to find underground metal and water and never knew they were also used for ghost hunting.  At 9:30 we were allowed to roam the house and grounds at will, borrowing the ghost hunting tools to see what we could find. 

I grabbed the dowsing wires and Mona grabbed an electro-meter.  The first room we tried with no results.  Then we went to an upstairs bedroom.  It was darkened, but we could still see the wires.  I asked the wires to be crossed.  They crossed.  I asked for them to be opened.  They opened.  I asked for them to go to the left.  To the left they went.  I repeated this several times and others saw it happen as well.  This definitely raised goosebumps on my arm!  Then the wire almost jumped out of my left hand!  We went to another room and tried it again.  Same results and this time the electro-meter registered some kind of activity.  We repeated this several times in the manor and on the grounds.  At least 50 percent of the time the wires moved as I requested.  Three times the wire in my left hand “jumped” out of my hand.

While at the plantation we took lots of photos without flash.  This morning I took a look.  Note the picture on the right.  No one in our group wore a white gown of any type. 

This was definitely an interesting night!  Time to head back, climb the stairs and listen to the quiet sounds of the night…RaaaUmmmmP.  RaaaUmmmmP. RaaaUmmmmP. Doink! 

Last Leg

Someone lost a boot
in Cheyenne!

The last leg of our trip was pretty uneventful.  This leg took us through Cheyenne, Wyoming then on to Lincoln, Nebraska and finally home.  We had taken this route to avoid the snow on the southern routes and that strategy worked pretty well.  However, as we traveled eastward we knew that we were following in the storm’s footsteps.

In Central Nebraska we started seeing huge flocks of birds flying north.  Not only that, we were seeing huge flocks of large birds on land.  Thousands and thousands of large gray birds.  Turkeys?  No….not dark enough.  Geese?  Maybe, but we could see flocks of geese and these birds didn’t have any white on them.  Finally, we couldn’t take the mystery any more.  Mona pulled the car onto an exit and I jumped out with the camera.  I startled the birds and they stood up.  Much to my surprise they were almost 4 feet tall…..cranes!  BIG cranes!

You can barely see the cranes.  (I've got to get a new camera and go back!)

Just down the road we pulled into the parking lot of The Crane Trust.  In there we learned that these birds are sandhill cranes and there are about 150,000 of them in the Central Nebraska area right now, with about 500,000 more on the way.  This happens every year as the cranes migrate from the tropics to the far north.  This has been happening for thousands, if not millions of years.  And here we just found out about it!  (Here’s a link to more information: http://www.cranetrust.org/sandhill-cranes)

LOTS of birds!

Also, we learned that Nebraska is a great place for bird-watching in general.  It’s on the migration path for whooping cranes, 36 species of shorebirds, eagles, hawks and lots of other birds.  Over 450 species of birds have been identified in Nebraska over the four seasons, making it one of the best bird-watching spots in this part of the world.  I’m ready to go back!  Just need a little better camera next time….still need to get that Olympus that Pete recommended!!!!

Soon after we visited the cranes we started seeing lots of snow….and lots of cars in the ditches….some of them in pieces.  We were now on the heels of the snow storm.   We stayed the night in Lincoln, Nebraska, hoping to let the storm get ahead of us.  The parking lots and roads of Lincoln still needed plowing making this the first place on this trip where we had to slog through snow.    (Even though there was 4 feet of snow in Tahoe, it had already been plowed.)  (Oops, forgot about Oklahoma on the way out!)

The next day was the last segment of our drive.  Again, there were lots of cars and trucks in the ditches…most had been there a day or two.  We drove on with a keen eye on the weather map and doing a good job of lagging behind the storm.  We had a few spots of flurries, but nothing significant until Clinton, Illinois.  There we encountered fierce blizzard conditions….snow blowing horizontally and near white-out conditions.  Luckily, that lasted only five minutes and we were in the clear once again!

We got home Tuesday evening having logged about 5500 miles.  Now, it’s time to stay home and catch up with everyone.  The flowers are starting to push through the snow and I can’t wait to see the new blooms!

Road Stories

We had planned on visiting the Redwood National Park, but at the last minute changed our plans and spent a little extra time in Monterey.  Pretty sure the Redwoods will hang around another year or so for us to visit.

100 Miles of Fruit Trees

We took Route 156/152 across country to catch I 5.  Along the way we saw some strange cows….turned and looked a little closer and discovered they were elk standing beside the road and apparently counting cars.  Speaking of cows… Mona observed that cows seldom run.  She asked if I knew why.  “No…do you?”  “Of course I do,” she said, “It’s because they run so funny and everyone laughs when they do.”  Can’t argue with that!

At Lake Tahoe

We soon entered the Joaquin Valley….this is home to huge farms and orchards.  There is mile after mile of blooming trees of different shades of pinks and whites.  I've never seen so many fruit trees.  At a rest area we learned that this area provides 25% of America’s produce....amazing!

A few hours later we were in Lake Tahoe.  Beautiful aqua blue lake surrounded by mountains and snow.  There seemed to be thousands of skiers in the area…most walking along the road.  Not sure where their skis went! After Tahoe we cruised through Reno for a while and grabbed a bite before tackling the rest of Nevada.

Nevada's I 80

Nevada goes a long long long way on I 80 with basically the same scenery: mountains, snow, scrub and the same things again.  The nice thing is the speed limit is 75.  The bad thing was we had a stalker….in a blue Dodge pickup.  He’d pull up alongside us, cruise there for a few miles….then back off a few miles.  A little while later he’d zoom back up and pull up beside us.  That cycle repeated for over 150 miles.   Made me wish we had brought a little more firepower than a walking stick.  Finally, he pulled off the highway about 100 miles before our turnoff.  Big Relief!!!

Did you know that on I 80 in Nevada there is a town named Oreana?  And just a ways further down the road is Argenta.  Did not know that till this drive.

Mona and I were talking about the sights in Nevada…she said, “They were far and few between.”  Profound!  (You get a little loopy on I 80 so everything seems funny….too bad we didn’t see any cows running!)

Driving across a portion of The Great Salt Lake

At last, we reached the Bonneville Flats and then the Great Salt Lake.  Finally, different scenery!  Then after Salt Lake City we turned into the mountains.  Saw two bald eagles almost immediately and soon after started seeing elk, wild horses, antelope and deer.  Hundreds of antelope and deer!

Landed in Rawlins, Wyoming for the night.  Did a little geocaching and found two very unusual cemetery caches.  The first was at an old prison cemetery.  Here are the graves of the “Unclaimed”, prisoners whose families didn’t claim them.  All that is there are some simple stones with just names on them and a board outside showing their birthdays and the date they died or were executed. 

If you look closely you can see the deer deck.

While heading to the second cache we startled eight deer in the cemetery.  They crossed the street in front of us and went to a yard where three of them got up on the house’s deck.  Too funny!

The second cache took you to two gravestones and asked you how these people came to be here.  We read the stones and found that both had been killed while pursuing train robbers on August 19, 1978.  From this cache we learned about Big Nose George Parrot, the Outlaw Who Grew to Be A Shoe. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Nose_George) It’s amazing what you see/learn from geocaching!

More driving tomorrow…..can’t wait to see what’s on the road ahead!

Wildlife

Frankly, this trip has been a little disappointing when it comes to wildlife.  Yes, we've seen a couple of golden eagles, plenty of hawks and lots of lizards, but we haven’t seen anything new, nor any of the “special” animals.  Can’t tell you how many hikes we took trying to find bighorns, desert turtles or even a mountain lion or two. Nothing. However, today was targeted to be the day that changed all that.

Deer Crossing

We started our day by climbing on some rocks at the beach near Cannery Row.  There, our luck started to change as we spotted six or seven sea otters about 200 feet off shore.  Neither of us has ever seen one of these and we were thrilled to watch them float on their backs and break open their shellfish.  Although they were at binocular distance we could still clearly see what they were doing.

It was getting close to time to depart for our whale watching cruise so we tore ourselves away from the otters and headed to Fisherman’s Wharf.  We found a place to turn around and all of a sudden two deer were right there at our car!  They were grazing on the flowers in a yard in an ocean-side home.  They were a bit startled to see us and ran off down the road.  Our wildlife was beginning to turn!

Sea Lions

We checked in for our three-hour whale cruise.  They have been seeing whales every day this week and they guaranteed we’d see them today.  Woo hoo!!!!  We pushed off from the dock and immediately we saw hundreds, if not thousands of sea lions.  They were lining the jetty and were sunning on every rock and buoy in the harbor.  (More woo hoos!)

Dolphins!

About 15 minutes into the cruise we started seeing dolphins.  Ten, twenty, a hundred, hundreds!!!!  They were everywhere, darting, diving, and even some were jumping totally out of the water!  So  awesome!  The captain said there were well over a thousand dolphins in that pod!  We stayed with them for over a half hour and every person on board that boat was full of smiles!

I was standing on the front of the boat near the captain’s window.  I asked him if the dolphins were a good sign that we were going to see whales.  He said that it didn’t look good for whales because the weather was getting rough.   He said he was still going to try to get us out far enough to see whales, but things were pretty iffy.

Sure enough, the weather started getting rough and the tiny ship was tossed!  It really was a wild ride as we plowed through the 6 and 7 foot waves.  We’d hit a trough and could see the water above the boat.  Then the boat would crash to the top of the wave and it looked like we were thirty feet above the sea.  The captain made us all sit down and hold on.  He didn’t need to tell us twice!

After about thirty minutes the captain called it quits….we were heading back with no whale siting.  Oh well, better to be safe…right?  Well anyway, they followed up on their guarantee by giving us rain checks that never expire.  That means we have to come back!!!! 

We got our land legs back and decided to head to Moss Landing.  We heard that was a good place to see otters.  It’s about a twenty minute drive north of Monterey, but it’s worth it!  There were about 18 – 20 otters eating and playing in the channel.  One of them stayed about 15 feet away from us….showing off I think!  Mona named him “Otto” and tried to coax him into our car.  Thankfully, without success!  We must have taken a hundred pictures of otters and Otto….lucky for you we’ll only post a couple.

17 Mile Road

Last up for the day was the 17 Mile Road…mile after mile of beautiful coastline and incredible views.  We ended up at the Pebble Beach Lodge where we had a glass of wine while watching golfers finish up on the 18^th hole.  You know watching golf is our thing!

We definitely had a great wildlife day.  Over a thousand dolphins, hundreds of sea lions, probably a hundred seals and about 30 sea otters.  Not to mention the seagulls, pelicans, and oyster-divers.  Love days like this!

P.S.  Thanks MNA for your Monterey recommendations!

Big Sur

Male seal and some of his females

Thursday morning we headed north towards Monterey.  Just an hour after we left Palm Springs we started encountering LA traffic.  And….that traffic continued for the next four hours as we wove our way through downtown LA, past Hollywood and on to Oxnard.  Sometimes going slow through LA isn’t bad as there are lots of sights to see!

Finally, we broke through and made our way to San Luis Obispo.  From there we quickly got on Highway 1 and headed north along the coast.  Shortly after we got started we had to stop….saw this sign that said, “Elephant Seal Viewing Area” and we couldn’t pass that by!  Before we got to the seals we first had to deal with a couple of aggressive squirrels.  They were cute, but they were insistent that we give them food, money or something!

Mona enjoys the view with a friend

Finally made our way to the cliff and looked down.  There were hundreds of huge seals!  The females weigh in at 1600 pounds and the males top 5000 pounds!  They come to shore twice a year…once to breed and once to birth.  This was the birthing season, but we didn't see any little ones.  Just seal after seal after seal…..laying on the beach and enjoying the sounds of the surf.

The Road Ahead

Big Sur is about 90 miles of rocks, trees, surf and twisting roads.  It seems as though every mile has yet another breath-taking view.  Mona drove the entire stretch so I could take pictures….and I couldn’t take enough! Couldn't tell you how many times we pulled over to check out the views.  We'd pull over, hop out, and do our "ooos" and "ahhhhs" and then hop back in and continue north.  It takes a long time to drive this highway just because of all the stops.  

Not everything is pretty on Big Sur!

One bit of advice for anyone taking this route:  Fill up your tank before you get on Highway 1.  

Finally, the wild and fun ride had to end and we pulled into Monterey.   Can’t wait for tomorrow!