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Water and Me

Tag Archives: Travel

Half Moon Cay (but I think it is pronounced key??)

07 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in kayaking, nature, Photography, vacation

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Tags

Bahamas, Hiking, kayaking, LIFE, nature, Travel

The next part of our Bahama Cruise was to a private island. Reading some history of this place, it was originally called Little San Salvador. It was purchased in 1997 by Holland American Line. It is a wild bird reserve and tourist play spot.

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The cruise ship drops anchor and a tender comes to take you ashore.

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Welcome! Thank you, glad we made it!

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Not sure if this was a real fort or not?

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Waiting to catch a bus to the other side of the island for some adventure!

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The upper right of this map is our destination.

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The bus dropped us off and now we are waiting for our tour guide to give us an ecological tour. I’m so excited!

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And the roosters in the tree are excited!

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And we are off – heading towards land over yonder.

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Nice group of us on the tour. Kathy kept them smiling. I will say though, it is a little hard kayaking in a two person kayak. I kept hitting Kathy’s paddle.

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About here is where the guy next to us fell out of his kayak.

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Everyone was picking him up and holding him (or her).

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Under our feet were thousands of these jelly fish. Our guide picks one up and says, don’t worry, they won’t sting you. Well, it stung this little girl that was with her father. He was pissed and she was pretty much done for the rest of the journey. Poor kid.

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After kayaking we headed to the beach for a while. Rental bungalows.

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A bar disguised as a pirate ship. Is nothing sacred?

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My sentiments exactly.

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Time to just chill and enjoy…

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…or you can swim out and watch your girlfriend look for sea glass.

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Walked around some; this guy was making a lot of noise.

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Interesting but kind of weird.

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The only thing you should leave when visiting a place like this…

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We leave you in peace.

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Nice night to snuggle on deck and watch Jason Bourne! Yes!

 

Grand Turk Island

26 Friday May 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in nature, Photography, Travel

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Tags

boats, Hiking, nature, photography, Travel, vacation

After two and a half days at sea we finally made port. This was a six and a half hour stop. Because I had gotten some sunburn, which is unusual for me, even though I had a ton of SPF50 on, we decided we would not spend all our shore time laying on the beach. I signed us up for a history tour of the island. Woo Hoo!!

Getting ready to dock about 8am. Look at that water.

The dock and visitor center. Be sure to take your Boarding Pass and ID. And don’t cross the yellow lines on the pier!

Kathy waiting for the tour bus…or me to to stop taking photos of everything!

The tour was only supposed to be 1-1/2 hours in an air conditioned bus. it was more like 2 hours. First stop, an area outside of Cockburn Town (our tour guide got a kick out of saying “Cockburn” multiple times??) Above are some local shops.

The first stop was 15 minutes long so we left the main strip and headed towards the salt ponds. Grand Turk was a salt producer.

Quite a few of these around. Raise and lower water in the salt ponds but more importantly, they divert flood waters off the island back into the sea.

Horses and donkeys roam freely on the island. There is our tour bus.

Kathy looking for our winter home. Tour guide said the wooden homes were built from shipwreck wood.

Some of the colorful buildings.

Boat on the beach.

Heading to our next stop we see a replica of John Glenn’s space capsule – don’t blink or you will miss it!

Our second stop was at the far end of the island. The light house. Because of the people who lag behind, that have to use the bathroom after 20 cups of coffee…we didn’t have enough time to go inside.

Kathy making some new friends.

Tour is over and we head back to the ship to change our clothes for the beach. Here comes the Carnival Splendor.

Local took our pic for us. May have been one of the crew members?

Kathy looking for sea glass. Found some nice pieces. This side of the pier had more rock/coral under the water. Had to go out a ways to avoid it. Water was great!

Watching the people on the Splendor disembark. Big ass ship!

Time to set sail and one last memory of our stop on the island…On to Half Moon Cay

Oxford Pa. and Stafford Md.

28 Friday Oct 2016

Posted by Ronald Parks in Hiking, Photography

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Tags

books, bridges, Conowingo, engineering, HISTORY, nature, photography, trains, Travel

The other day Kathy, Molly and I decided to take a ride to Oxford, to an old used bookstore just south of town. It has been a couple years since I was there. I met the author, Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down) the last time I visited. The place has changed since then, but still nice. (Anywhere that sells old books is nice!) We left there and roamed around town some. Being a Sunday, most shops were closed.

The old train station now converted into Borough Hall?

Molly smells food and is wondering where the gravy train is (Sorry Molly, Purina does not make Gravy Train!)

Historic Marker

Niblock Alley train over-pass.

We left Oxford and decided to head to Stafford on the Susquehanna Trail. This was a nice 4-1/2 mile hike. Unfortunately – no Fall Foliage.

Uncertain of which way to go…back into the woods then.

Not sure the purpose of this fence, but I like it.

The path is over old train tracks. These tracks were put here when the Conowingo Dam was built. Carried supplies and men to and from town.

The Stafford Flint Furnace. This structure is a couple hundred years old. It took a beating during the great quake of 2011.

As can be seen in this photo. They put seismic measuring devices on it. That won’t save it.

Triple headed shrooms and our hike is done! Nice day!

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