Our Caribbean adventure started with a trip to Arlington,
Washington to meet up with Dennis and Dawn Dickson. We then flew
from Seattle to Houston to Miami where we caught our cruise ship, the
Carnival Valor. We had heard that Carnival is a young party boat,
but this wasn't the case at all. We enjoyed the continuous buffets,
giving you the option to omit formal dinning for any meal. There was
also 24 hour ice cream and pizza.
Our first stop was Nassau in the Bahamas. We visited
the famous Atlantis hotel, where celebrities like Michael Jordan rent the
Bridge Suite for $25,000 per day. The hotel has a gigantic outdoor
saltwater aquarium with thick glass side which allowing viewing from
inside the hotel. Scuba divers feed fish, including manta rays and
work to keep the glass clean.
Our second stop was Charlotte Amalie at St Thomas in the
US Virgin Islands. By now the weather had warmed to 85
degrees. We went on a kayaking, hiking and snorkeling tour with
Virgin Islands Ecotours in a mangrove lagoon. This was great
excursion. I was apprehensive as I've never been snorkeling and I
hate going out beyond my depth. Once I got out there though, they
couldn't get me back. A highlight was swimming in the shallows among
thousands of small silver sides. They engulfed me in all directions
and only moved to avoid contact with my fingers and arms as I swam.
Later I bought some fish pictures from the tour company and made copyright
arrangements to post these on my website. They also have since
started advertising with me.
Our third and last stop was Phillipsburg on St Maarten.
This island belongs to the Netherlands and France. We again went
snorkeling - at Pinel Island and I was again apprehensive. And yet
again it was almost impossible to get me to come back in. This time
we were out on a point near the open ocean. There were numerous fish
including schools of sergeant majors and tangs that would eat out of your
hand. The open ocean was making Viki sea sick, so she told me she
was heading back to shore. As she couldn't wear her glasses or
contacts snorkeling, she became disoriented and began swimming toward an
island miles away. I swam after her, grabbed her and set her off in
the right direction.
When we returned to Miami it was rainy Superbowl
Sunday. We went to the Everglades and I took an airboat ride.
I really loved this. I was like a young child, leaning over top of
the windshield with eyes wide open into the driving rain so I could take
it all in. We also saw about 4 or 5 wild alligators during the trip.
From there we headed to Orlando for several nights.
The highlight of this part of the trip was Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy
Space Center. I had no idea how large the site is and how many
launch pads there are. The site where Sheparrd became the first
American in space has been preserved. We got to tour the blast house
which protected about 30 staff during the launch which occurred 300 yards
away - the longest distance they could run cables between the rocket and
the ignition panel. Today the distance is 3.5 miles by
infrared. The technology was reel to reel tape and manually
interchangeable wiring like an old telephone exchange. The most
amazing thing was that everyone smoked back then, so there were pull out
ash trays built in to all the electronic equipment (300 yards away from
all the rocket fuel remember). They were so afraid that they would
simply blow up Shepherd perched on top of that rocket, that they delayed
for hours trying to make sure everything was OK. Finally Shepard
got impatient and said, "Come guys, let's light this
candle." To sit in the actual location where the history of my
youth took place was very moving. It's interesting that this would
have been a top security location in the 60s but with all the changes in
technology, everything is outdated and now accessible to everyone.
Tropical fish and rockets in warm weather made for a great
vacation.
