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Key West and the Dry Tortugas: The Sounds of Silence and the Boat to Nowhere
Something seemed off. With daypacks hitched to our backs, we hiked through Key West’s sleepy streets to the ferry terminal before dawn, then climbed aboard Yankee Freedom III for our trip to Dry Tortugas National Park. Along with 248 other intrepid souls, we were off for a nine-hour tour to one of the most remote national parks in our nation. After a long ocean journey that took us far away from Key West’s party scene and 70 miles out to sea, we spotted a tiny American flag perched atop a faraway hexagonal brick structure. This distant fort in ruins seemed like a mirage, but Fort Jefferson – a former Civil…
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Happy New Year! 2019 Resolutions for Later-Life Travelers
Swim More Laps With Geese, Resolution #3, takes some explanation, so let’s back up and start with the easy ones: Resolution #5: Attend More Dachshund Parades (and other fun stuff) After I sat on the curb watching pooches parade from Whitehead to Duval (a very short parade, of course), I kept smiling for hours. Dachshunds are so…….short, and cute, and hey – if they can regally parade down the street, anyone can! They give the smallest, shortest of us plenty of hope, and we sure can use some of that in the year 2019. And let’s not forget all those interlopers: the Chihuahua Flash Mob, the take-charge boxers, the pampered…
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A Key West Christmas: BELIEVE!
I’ve always been a Christmas person. My folks loved Christmas too, and I have treasured memories of all those family Christmases long ago: Sitting in the pew at Christmas Eve candlelight service, Mom’s gorgeous table groaning with turkey and all the fixins, the tree with treasured ornaments, some I still hang on my own tree 60 years later. Over time, things change, of course. For several years I took over the family dinner duties, and have oodles of photos of our extended family, smiling round my Christmas table, so many in fact that I finally put them all in a photo book (you’re all in there somewhere, family – trust…
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St. Lucia and Grenada: Whales, Revolutions, and No Bananas for You!
So which is it: An idyllic paradise, or the modern-day legacy of a colonial past? Is it a picturesque Old World British village set in a lush tropical paradise, or the former site of bloody revolution, executions, and brutal slavery? Is it a romantic Loveboat, or the place where relationships go to die? That old saying ‘there are two sides to every story and the truth is somewhere in the middle’ applies to our Caribbean trip so far. Take that last contrast, for instance, on full display in the ship elevator the other day. When the door shut after an elderly couple got off, another passenger asked the rest of…
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Antigua and Barbados, Afoot and Afloat
There’s a first and a last time for everything. The last time I leaped off the back of a sailboat in snorkel gear was, let’s see….25 years ago? This time it was only a short drop, but if I managed it, my string of life leaps off cliffs, diving boards, and boats galore was not over yet, not by a long shot. But I had to do more than leap. I also had to survive our Captain’s Challenge (which is advertised as an activity for ‘intrepid swimmers’): Swim through deep ocean seas to Hell’s Gate rock formation, clamber inside its coral-encrusted limestone cave, climb up to the top of the…
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Passenger Categories: Which One Are You? Southern Caribbean, Post #1
I love to people-watch on a cruise ship. Everyone’s away from home in a new environment; so how will they behave? I’ve already met several folks like me: a Planner as opposed to a Show-Up (who just shows up). I booked this cruise almost two years ago, in fact, and have thoroughly researched our seven island destinations: Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada, Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire. We have a huge map of the Caribbean Islands covering the wall of our cabin, a mini-Christmas tree set up on the desk (Planners think of everything), and I know the best place on board to meet like-minded over-planners (the Cruise Critic Roll Call…
