Beautiful Barbados

Yet another lazy day. I'm turning into a sloth! More of the reading/napping stuff. Today's big news is that I finally got on Facebook. I got nearly through the identification of the avatars, mainly by guesswork, then I came to one that I got entirely by accident. Thank you Becky B for using your yearbook picture with the tiny name written underneath!

Sandy Boone, former assistant pastor at my church had gone out on a leap of faith to start a new waterfront ministry in Baltimore. She sent me a copy of her new website for review/critique and that made me feel good, to be trusted to have possibly-useful comments and thoughts. :) The new site is supposed to go live today or tomorrow. Sometimes these things take a while to propagate, though. In case it's today, the URL is http://www.watersedgepartnership.org/ . We miss Sandy terribly at Pender UMC but I'm sure that her Waters Edge Partnership will exceed all expectations. When I go to my doctor appointments at Johns Hopkins, I'll be able to check this out, too!

Tom came over to Reception while I was doing my daily online routine. He had sent me some PDF files that he couldn't open. They were all financial reports about The Crane, some sent by a new man named Mel. While we were reading, Mel came over and introduced himself.

On the way back, we stopped at the village branch of Cave Shepherd and got that bathing suit Tom had wanted from the first day but didn't come in his size. They had sent one in the right size from another branch.

We were out of some basic stuff again, so it's off to Emerald City for shopping. I always feel like my name should be Dorothy when I mention or write about this store. LOL

Back home I was reading (or napping) outside when suddenly a huge rain cloud rolled in from the ocean. I don't remember seeing if there was a hurricane at sea or not. I thought the next one wasn't supposed to be until the 30th but one could be sneaking up. I went to get my camera but by then, it was really coming down.

About 10 minutes later I got these great rainbow pictures. I don't know if it will show up but the rainbow goes all the way into the sea.

I have a special “thing” for rainbows. Way back, we were in Florida, on the beach. My dad was terminally ill with his second bout of colon cancer. I was feeling guilty being on the beach while my mom was taking care of him in their home. Tom and our son were in the water and I was on shore praying for my dad, that everything would work out ok. It was a beautiful sunny day but all of a sudden there was the most glorious rainbow. I called to Tom and Michael so they could see it, too, and to prove to myself that I wasn't seeing things that weren't there. They both saw it too. I really felt that this was an answer to my prayers, that things were going to be ok. Since then, I've always looked for rainbows :)

No surprise but Tom spent a lot of time at his local “office”.

We went over to the pool area and all the pool chairs were wet from the storm – just like they were at our place. We went in the jacuzzi instead of one of the pools. The jacuzzi is in special location. Way, way back, when this was a hotel, the jacuzzi area was a stable. When my friend was here in the 1990s we were exploring and the stable was abandoned, with all kinds of junk in it and overgrown weeds and stuff. Nowadays, thanks to Paul's vision, it has been expanded, the roof removed and it houses a huge open-air jacuzzi where you can sit out and gaze at the stars.

The expansion – it was about doubled – looks so natural that no one would know. There are 6 large open window cuts on the shorter sides and 6 plus doorways on the longer sides. I'm guessing that the coral stone removed to make these open areas are what was used to make the expanded section but I'm not sure. However it was done all the coral stone looks to be the same age.

Similarly, the old carriage house has a new incarnation as the Carriage House Bar and Grill where we had lunch the other day.

Immediately after dinner I feel asleep on the sofa again. I don't see how I can sleep so much when I'm not doing anything!

The weirdest thing happened. I had been needing a nail file since we got here but I always forget when I'm in the store. Just after we paid at Ganzee the other day, I noticed some with souvenir pictures right near the cash register but I didn't want to start a new transaction. Then, I remembered in the jacuzzi.

When I went to bed, there was a brand new one, not in any packaging or anything, on my side of the bed. Tom didn't put it there – I'd never even mentioned one to him. I supposed that housekeeping maybe found it somewhere and assumed it was mine but I would have thought that they might put it on the bedside table.

Cue Twilight Zone music...

Today's pictures.

Yesterday was such a lazy day for me. Tom ended up working most of the day, on the phone, in conferences, on the computer. So I read a lot of my book, went in the pool, napped and kept cycling through those three.

When he finally finished up he offered to go to Chefette and get some rotis for dinner.. Oh yes! I love roti. Chefette is sort of a Bajan version of McDonalds. There are no McDonalds here, or Burger Kings or most any of the fast food places of the states. Somehow, there is KFC here but that's about it.

So, Chefette fills most everyone's fast food needs with fried chicken, pizza, ice cream, burgers, fries and those rotis. Like similar places in the states, they have playgrounds, "drive thrus" and kid's meals.

Rotis are hugely popular here and most restaurants sell them at least for lunch. There are even places with names such as Roti Hut and there's a place this year that claims that it's the "Home of the One Pound Roti". I guess that's a relative of the "foot-long hotdog".

So, Tom came back with a chicken roti and a beef roti (and 2 kinds of ice cream!). The basic roti is pretty simple. It's potato, curry and other spices wrapped up in something similar to a tortilla. That's the "vegetarian" version. You can stop there or add the beef or chicken. A simple but delicious and filling meal.

We went out for a walk along the old pool, the cliff, sat by the new pools a bit then came back inside.

I had some trouble getting to sleep last night. It was a little warmer and my sunburn is getting a bit itchy so I tossed and turned for awhile. At some point, I noticed a pain/pressure in my chest. It feels sort of how I would imagine it if my lung got pinched in my ribs. Not a big pain but there. That led me to thinking about my cancer and the possibility that it metastasized to my lungs. Oh, joy. I started trying to think about where my lung nodules but couldn't remember. I think I have a CT scan in my future!

It's only 7:30 am right now and I already hear a small boat by the cliffs. Fishermen sail out there each morning to get the "catch of the day" for the L'Azure and Zen restaurants here and some of the west coast restaurants. One of the first years we were here, one of the staff pointed out lobster being brought in. It's amazing that they were so close to where people were swimming just up the beach.

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We're b-a-a-a-c-k!

We got to the helicopter parking place outside the Barbados Concorde Experience in plenty of time and our pilot went out to do a last minute check of everything. I was amazed how small this was - and that they covered it with a cloth, sort of like you do with a car in the driveway.

The pilot, David, let us know when he was ready and I dutifully followed while Tom, as always, took more pictures.

He caught up and more pictures were taken before the safety rules were discussed.

We learned not to open the door during flight - yeah, right! - and to keep the seatbelt on. No problem with any of that.

We sat for a while before take off. The engines had to warm up and we were listening to the flight tower from Grantley Adams airport so we would know when it was safe to go.

Finally, we lifted gently up and were off. It wasn't straight up like I'd imagined but it felt like we were a gondola swinging from the propellers. I felt vaguely dizzy. I had expected to feel scared, not

dizzy!

This is the Crane from the air. We followed the coast all the way around Barbados except for where the airport is.

Unfortunately, it started raining when we got near the northernmost point. David wanted to avoid the rain so he headed out to sea to get past the clouds.

I am not normally a good flyer. I hate turbulence, noise, anything out of the ordinary. So, here we are, cramped in this small space high above the ocean, heading out towards sea. And some rain came in through Tom's door. I was sure that his door wasn't properly sealed. I was also sure that I might be sick. I saw some barf bags so I guess I'm not the first one to think of that.

When we had passed the storm, we could actually see some shipwrecks in the water. We have snorkeled near these same wrecks so that was pretty cool.

By the time we got back, the rain had let up and it was a sunny day again. David landed and I wanted to get OUT. NOW. But we had to sit and wait for the propellers to stop spinning and for the engine to cool down before it could be turned off.

I was so glad to get back on solid ground. I can now say that I've been in a helicopter - and probably never will again!

Our helicopter tickets got us admission to the Concorde Experience so, of course, we went in there, too. The A/C was wonderful!

Until 2003 the Concorde had made regular flights to and from Barbados. This was one of only 4 regularly scheduled stops, the others being London, Paris and New York. It was always a big deal to see the Concorde arrive or depart. We happened to be here in Barbados for it's final flight from here and it was a big deal locally. We were very glad when we heard that British Airways was sending the Concorde back to Barbados on a permanent loan. There is also one in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum which we have seen several times but their display is nowhere near as good.

We went inside the huge hangar housing the graceful plane and joined a group that had just started its tour. We learned some of the history of the plane, sat in a mock departure lounge, saw the luggage requirements (the plane isn't all that big inside and luggage was limited. It was expected that your maid or butler would fly a slower plane with the rest of your stuff), saw various place settings over the years.

Then we got to go up the red carpet and up the stairs. I thought if you were paying the thousands of dollars required for this trip they would have had an escalator!

The next guide greeted us and led us on - through the hold. It was really small and I could see why luggage was so limited.

The seats and windows were also much smaller than I'd have imagined. The windows were small to keep them from breaking at supersonic speeds and had 3 layers of glass.

After we saw the cockpit (also very small!) we deplaned and they had a show on the side of the plane. It was part light show, part movie, part sound effects. They lit lights on the floor that looked like a runway would look. They showed the speedometer and when it hit mach 2, there was a loud supersonic boom and I jumped out of my seat.

After that show, we walked around some, saw part of a movie of the history of the Concorde (on sale in the giftstore, of course), saw the history of flight in Barbados. I was interested to see that, in the very early days, before control towers, Cable and Wireless would call when a plane was coming in and someone would go out and light the grass in the field on fire so the pilot would know where to land. Amazing!

We could have gone up on the flight deck and watched planes arriving/departing Grantley Adams but I was getting tired. So what else is new? We looked around the giftstore some and Tom got some jim-crackies and a T-shirt.

We got back home and decided to go out to lunch. I was ready but Tom decide to check his email...so I fell asleep. We got to L'Azure, one of the restaurants here and sat out on the deck on top of the cliff.

Then, finally, real nap time for me. Hooray!

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Tom's version:

Before Flight over Barbados and surrounding seas

Sunny weather on the South Coast ...at The Crane overlooking Crane Beach

On the East Coast with an approaching storm

The edge of the storm above the waves breaking on the Atlantic Coast of Barbados

The pilot flies further out to sea as we move north working around the edge of the storm

The storm is largely behind us

Banking to starboard working around the storm

Out of the southern edge of the storm and back to sunny weather

Approaching the heliport

A few feet above touch down

A capable Pilot and A Passenger who is happy to be back on terra firma _______________

________________________ On the next day, after flying around the edges of a storm in the air, above Barbados We sail before a following wind aboard a Catamaran along the edges of a storm off shore along the West coast of Barbados

Dark clouds and choppy seas ...the storms are brief moments in otherwise sunny days