John & Anne Wiley

2013/04/01

On The Beach

Today we took the short boat ride from Pelican Bay to the beach.

1211 Boat Ride

1211 Boat Ride

This settlement of Lucaya’s claim to fame is this sailboat that was featured in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

1215 Ghost Ship

1215 Ghost Ship

Within sight of probably the largest beach resort on this second most populous Bahamian island there were more shorebirds than people on Easter Sunday.

1220 Beach Gathering

1220 Beach Gathering

In the other direction a lone person is barely visible in the row of thatched shelters.

1218 Quiet Beach

1218 Quiet Beach

Anne was fascinated by the helpless parachute riders being towed behind a power boat. We talked about how it could be fun, but compared with Tripp maybe a bit boring. Watching this made me want to go flying again. 🙂

1217 Parachute Ride

1217 Parachute Ride

After an hour on this beach we rode the boat back to the Peli, walked across the street to our hotel, then went for a longer walk beyond. On that less crowded beach we met this seabird soaring on the wind of an approaching storm, cocking its head as if curious why we were on the ground.

1225 Skilled Aviator

1225 Skilled Aviator

Walking back to change for dinner, I noticed a tiny patch of sand moving. It was this crab so well camouflaged we nearly stepped on it.

1250 Invisible Companion

1250 Invisible Companion

I’ve accentuated the contrast so you can see it. Taking this photo required many attempts, because the camera couldn’t see the crab so I had to point in the general direction and snap.

2013/03/31

Extreme Serenity

There’s something oddly extreme about these pix from our flight yesterday. The color spectrum for sure.

0933 Spectrum

0933 Extreme Spectrum

I don’t have a good pic of the spectrum, but that royal blue offshore deepens into a color just this side of black that’s a little insane. People in boats enjoy it of course, but there’s something deeply special about seeing it all in context from above.

0923 Deeper

0923 Deeper

Wading ankle deep in front of the hotel on our first day here I saw a black ray swim gracefully past, a hundred feet further out. When I was snorkeling out to return the conch shell the next day, Anne saw one very close and underwater. Yesterday I saw some from the air, and there was an extreme serenity to their slow rippled movement through dappled colors.

0948 Extreme Serenity

0948 Extreme Serenity

Above the smoke from countless fires on the islands and Florida, we got a taste of what this place would be like in really clear air.

0936 Cloud Brush

0936 Cloud Brush

Most of this second-most populous island in the Bahamas, is uninhabited. So we flew over long stretches of white coral sand with only rare sightings of people strolling a serene emptiness.

0937 Extreme Emptiness

0937 Extreme Emptiness

This is the vision many of us have of the Bahamas, and we’re greatly enjoying the range of experiences available here. A small city with a relaxed, diverse and fun-loving population in Freeport; plus all the other attractions we imagined and more. Anne commented yesterday on what a beautiful “honeymoon” this is. 🙂

Up

This was an Up day. Not just another day when our mood was light and easy, with innumerable fun moments. Today we flew. It’s almost overwhelming looking at the pix, but I’ve quickly gone thru them to save space on our storage and backups so tomorrow morning I can share some picks. For now, here’s a nice shot of our two hotels in Lucaya (the first here on Grand Bahama Island was in downtown Freeport).

0912 Nice & Nicer

0912 Nice & Nicer

The square pink one at the top is the front building of Pelican Bay, where we had that great view of the marina. Our room now is in the Grand Lucayan complex, near the right end of the curvy building a couple of floors above the palm tree tops. Cool to see it from up here, and wonder what Tripp looked like purring past from down there. I’m excited to choose among the great shots I’ve just skimmed. 🙂

2013/03/30

Settling

Today we felt more settled. Woke late, made coffee in the room, organized stuff, oh and I went out on the balcony to get a better view shot for the Photo Page. Ever have that feeling someone is watching? Well I glanced up and the dove that has adopted us was peeking around the divider from the patio next door.

0860 Remember Me?

0860 Remember Me?

Anne pointed out that as it flew away yesterday after our encounter I told it to remember our room number. 🙂

0088 Muse

0088 Muse

After a light breakfast in the room of cereal we’d brought and milk bought yesterday, I received another welcome visitor. Sometimes when I meet a new piano or other instrument, or am moved by something else impactful, music emerges. Today it was the sketch of a song I might work on. It’s probably been several years since the Muse has visited in this way.

0089 Walk The Line

0089 Walk The Line

Then down to the water at last with goggles to check out the legendary Caribbean snorkeling. We passed this small wedding party on the line between grass and sea forming a geometry with the sky somehow mingled in my mind with the lines of couples stretching before and after across time.

0092 Safe House

0092 Safe House

We saw many fish, some sort of purple sea fans, a large ray, a little derelict sunken jet boat hull sheltering a large variety of fish, and this conch shell. After bringing it to the beach for this photo op, I put it back wondering what had breached the safety of that thick shell. No matter how we feel about danger, it eventually finds us all whether we’re out looking for it, hiding in a shell, or sometime somewhere between.

0865 Before Sunset

0865 Before Sunset

One of the romantic movies we like is Before Sunset with all its encounter and philosophy, and that magical street poet. There was a quiet touch of that as we waited for the elevator silently looking deeply into the eyes of destiny.

0870 Welsh Choir

0870 Welsh Choir

Over our affordable gourmet Italian dinner we talked about the diversity here. People from every imaginable corner of the planet seem to congregate here. I can understand those from cold climates enjoying a break here for Easter, but wondered what would bring those from the Southern Hemisphere and even Pacific Islanders (maybe the latter we’ve seen now live in the northeast and come here for a shorter trip to a breath of home?). After dinner we caught the end of this concert by a men’s choir from North Wales, singing to the diverse crowd that had gathered in the public square.

0875 Here & There

0875 Here & There

We seem to enjoy playing “Here and There.” Our first airline trip together was to Hawaii, and we liked to look down after takeoff and see where we’d been. After the trip, we’d see a jet contrail high in the blue and imagine ourselves up there, looking down. We like to visit a place on the ground and then fly over it, or discover something from Tripp and then go see it on the ground. Maybe there was some aspect of this in our enjoyment of finding our room in this tall wall of randomly lit cubicles. Each has a fascinating story, and ours seems enriched by glimpsing it from afar.

2013/03/29

Room With A View

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Islander Adventure,Nature,Random — John @ 05:37

I was just writing to our new friend Claude, and realized we didn’t share any pix of our new room. Here’s what greeted us as we moved in.

0838 Hello!

0838 Hello!

Not just the lovely spacious room, nor just the relaxing view, but a gentle dove landed on the railing after seeing us inside.

0852 Feed Me?

0852 Feed Me?

I sat quietly feeding it bits of raisins and almonds for a few minutes in the gentle breeze, and felt quite refreshed pausing often to take in this view directly off our 5th floor balcony.

0842 Balcony Center

0842 Balcony Center

It’s far too wide a view for one pic, so I shot three in a panorama that doesn’t fit together. The view to the right is overexposed so I’ll probably shoot it again more carefully tomorrow. To the left is this view.

0841 Balcony Left

0841 Balcony Left

Over dinner we smiled at our little private joke. “Why did the couple cross the road?”

“To get this room.” 🙂

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