Small Thoughts for Small Minds

One of my Swedish colleagues, Hans, and I went to Charleston first thing Monday morning. We made a presentation to the port in the afternoon and had a nice dinner with another person from the port that evening. Then Hans & I found a seedy bar in which to watch Monday Night Football. Of course, I had to explain the game to him. Hans was a real trooper - not only did he put up with the game and my football chatter, he willingly tried all of the "local" beers (from NC, SC, GA) I ordered. He lasted until halftime, and I stayed the course…

Tuesday morning we flew to Freeport, Bahamas.

We stayed at the "Westin Grand Bahama Island Our Lucaya Resort".

This shot was taken from my little boat trip on Thursday (details below). The big building is where I stayed…

This is the view from my balcony.

The lobby and some of the hotel rooms are in this building. Going for that British colonial plantation look, I guess..

This is the view out from the building above.

A gentleman from the port picked us up at the airport and delivered us to the hotel. We arranged to meet later for a beer. Hans and I had a couple hours to kill, so we wandered about the Port Lucaya Marketplace.

Christmas music and even a big tree. Sigh… At least it will all be over in a couple weeks.

The next morning, we had an early start. A big presentation at the port (lots of bigwigs) followed by a tour of the terminal. Here’s a shot of the cranes just to prove that I didn’t spend ALL my time on the beach…

We got back to the hotel around 2 p.m., so we had several hours to kill before meeting a couple of the port personnel for dinner. I went for a swim in the ocean while Hans hung out at the pool.

The local beer in the Bahamas is Kalik. (Emphasis on the second syllable, which is pronounced like "lick".) This is the stronger version at 7% alcohol by volume.

I got bored so I decided to try something I’ve never done before - parasailing. I wish I could’ve taken my camera. It was really cool. Beautiful views…

At dinner, the Australian gentleman from Hong Kong (customer’s corporate headquarters) called me "Dave" the whole evening. Since I’m a weasel, I didn’t correct him. Part of being in sales is the classic, "the customer is always right". Yep, I was his bitch and he can call me what he wants. The other gentleman (also originally from Australia, but living in the Bahamas for four years) tried to correct him once to no avail…

And now, especially for Elayne, the leezards…

Thursday morning, I walked about looking for lizards. There were at least three different kinds of lizards. I wasn’t able to get a picture of the brown anoles, but everyone knows what they look like (commonly, but incorrectly, called "chameleons" in the US).

The one with the Akita-style tail is the coolest…

 

My flight home on Thursday wasn’t until 4 p.m. I had plenty of time, so I wanted to do something interesting. I found out about the semi-submersible boat with snorkeling and signed up. While the views through the underwater windows were much (much much) better than the glass bottom boats in Acapulco, it still doesn’t compare to SCUBA diving or snorkeling. At least we had a great opportunity to see LOTS of fish while snorkeling.

The boat’s captain (Gilligan) and the diver (Skipper) were entertaining gents…

After snorkeling, I had lunch by the waterside at the marina.

I meandered back to the hotel, taking a couple of pictures on the way.

Here’s an interesting variant on the ubiquitous hibiscus…

I recovered my bags from the bellman and took a shower and got ready to return to Roanoke.

 

I know you’re concerned that my job is too stressful. And it is…

I didn’t bring a coat. Once I got back to Roanoke (after midnight) the temperature was in the mid to upper teens. Jeez. Welcome back….

Note: all pictures are hot linked to a larger version. Click on the picture to get more detail…

 

The week after Thanksgiving, I had to go to Acapulco for a conference/exhibition.

In case you don’t know, Acapulco is on the Pacific side.

The following screenshot from Google Earth shows the layout of Acapulco. Acapulco Tradicional (Old Acapulco) is on the far left. The thin strip between the beach and mountain in the middle is Acapulco Nuevo (New Acapulco). Then they ran out of space for newer, fancier hotels, so they expanded into the adjacent bay and then the flatlands to the east. Acapulco Diamante (Diamond Acapulco) is between the airport and Acapulco. With a lot of space, these hotels are sprawling. The conference was held at the Fairmont Acapulco Princess.

Here’s the sunset, as seen from my balcony…

(This, like several pictures in this post, are at a bit of a drunken angle. Not because I was drunk, but because the camera is small enough that it’s tough to tell if it is level. I could rotate the pictures slightly with photo editing software, but that really kills the resolution. Maybe I should tape a bubble level to the bottom and side…)

I arrived Monday, late afternoon. By the time I checked in, checked email, delivered the exhibition material to the exhibition area, it was time for the pre-conference reception. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I was fully occupied with manning the exhibition during the day, and "networking" at the evening receptions.

I did step out of the exhibition room during a slow period to snap a couple of shots on Wednesday. Nothing like walking in the sand while wearing a suit…

The blackbirds bathing in/drinking from the fountain were everywhere around the hotel. And they were LOUD…

One of the other exhibitors offered me a beer. He claimed it was Mexican. Umm, nope. This is a Dutch beer…

A few of beers served at the reception on Wednesday. Typical beers in Mexico.  But, if your eyes are sharp, you’ll notice that the Sol is only 190 ml (6.4 ounces).

  

The Wednesday night reception was at the Zuntra Restaurant, overlooking Acapulco (marked [1] on the satellite image). It was a fantastic view, but the venue was too small for the number of attendees and service absolutely sucked. Oh well…

On Thursday, we tore down the exhibit (not tough this time - unlike the huge full-motion simulator we took hours to take down last year in Savannah). Then I attended one of the sessions and took advantage of the "networking luncheon". I then had the afternoon free. I got a taxi to New Acapulco (marked [2] on the satellite image) and wandered the beaches (listening to my iPod, of course)…

…stopping for beer…

I hung out at a beach bar for a while, watching the sun set and reading my book.

After it got dark, I walked along the main drag for awhile. A movement in the grass caught my eye…

I continued walking to about the spot marked [3] on the satellite image. I found another beach bar (not hard to do) and read for awhile, enjoying just being on the beach.

Inspired by my encounter with the toad, I hailed a taxi and went to Señor Frogs for dinner. Another taxi back to the hotel and another night to bed early…

I slept in on Friday (I haven’t been sleeping well the past few months so any extra sleep seems like gold).

I finally got around to moving and took a taxi to Old Acapulco. I checked out the Mágico Mundo Marino (marked [4] on the satellite picture) after reading a couple of good reviews. Don’t bother. Even if you have kids with you….

They have a cheesy aquarium, lot’s of kid pools & water slides, and a cute sea lion show…

…and a few sea turtles (without sufficient space to swim)…

…and an alligator…

They did have a nice view of the "locals" beach…

…and other nice views…

No matter what you do, don’t bother with the glass bottom boats. The water isn’t clear enough to make it worthwhile (unless you’ve never snorkeled in the Caribbean), and the glass isn’t remotely clean…

The boat ride itself was nice, though. I wish I had skipped the Mágico Mundo Marino and the glass bottomed boat and just gone straight out to Isla La Roqueta. By the time I got around to asking about that, they said it was too late (around 5 p.m.)

This time I can blame the tilting horizon on the rocking of the boat…

Since I couldn’t go out to the island, I took a taxi to the spot marked [5] on the satellite image and walked to [3]. I had a local dinner at a small beach bar and then headed back to the hotel for another early night…

Saturday morning, I took a little tour of the hotel grounds.

This is a view of one of the pools from my balcony.

One of the other pools…

The previous pool from a slightly different angle…

Swans, waterfalls, lush vegetation…

One of the many bars and restaurants at the hotel.

The open air lobby also featured a massive array of flowing water features…

I took a walk down the road outside the hotel to the river. Fairmont owns all the properties for about a mile along the beach. The roads are gated. A golf course across the road. So, most of the following flowers are carefully cultivated. I still liked them…

Once leaving the gated road, the contrast is dramatic. (The thatch roof on the far left is the guard shack. You can see the yellow gates, both raised.)

As we drove in the bus to the Wednesday night reception, we went past the river. I think I saw a couple of dozen egrets as we passed by. That was the main reason I walked over for a look-see…

The locals visit the beach in the background, while the cormorants have their own gathering spot…

A massive termite condo (a popular location overlooking the scenic river)…

The river demarcated the flat land to the southeast from the mountainous land around Acapulco. (And the haves from the have-nots, as the top of the hill to the right is covered by huge houses…)

A bit of a cave between some massive rocks…

A few cacti show that we’re not far from desert conditions…

This tree had a bit of confusion as to where to send its roots…

A few more entries in the "The persistence of life" file…

Too many pictures lately to spend much time providing captions….

I hope you enjoyed my view of Acapulco…

Christmas is just around the corner.

Sigh… (Yes, I’m a Grinch…)

Anyway, Kel & Donna will decorate the tree (and house) today, with plenty of help from the kids. Kel’s mom wanted a small tree on the main floor (the real tree will be downstairs, but Kel’s mom doesn’t do stairs well, so she won’t see it until Christmas day…) Kel picked up a little artificial tree yesterday. Keira and Dyson (mostly Keira) had a blast decorating it.

This morning they came barreling into our bedroom (at the early hour of 9 a.m.), bursting out of their skins with excitement. "Mom! Dad! Get up! We made new decorations for the tree! You gotta see it!"

Click on the picture to see the "angels" in detail…

Note: all of the pictures are linked to a larger version. Click on a picture to see it in all its glory. Well, larger at least - the image host I used doesn’t allow images larger than 1.5 meg…

 

Kel & I packed up the kids and flew to Kansas City to spend Thanksgiving with my parents. Well, actually Tonganoxie, Kansas, but you can’t fly into Tongie. (If you blink, you’ll miss it when driving into Tongie…)

My parents live on a small farm (20 acres), with two horses, two (useless) cows (one’s infertile and the other can’t produce milk for her calves so they have to be hand feed), two obnoxious geese, a variety of chickens (soon to be eaten by neighborhood predators), and a dog and cat.

They live in eastern Kansas, so it’s not quite flat as it gets further west…

Here’s the view from the front porch:

Apros pos to nothing, I really LOVE their door. They had it custom made by someone they knew. He decided the rough-hewn look was appropriate for the outside. The inside is smoothly finished.

As you can see, Keira doesn’t get vacation. The poor little Cinderella…

Actually, this was entirely her choice. I have no idea why. We can’t get the kid to do any cleaning at home…

Dyson found better ways to combat boredom…

At one point, my Dad was raking leaves and Dyson did what all kids do…

Of course, once Keira found out about all the fun she was missing, she was all over it…

Tess, my parents’ dog, didn’t help much - she barked ferociously at the rake and did her best to bite it with every raking motion…

A bit later, my sister Heidi, her husband Luis, and his two girls, Caroline and Olivia, showed up. This was the first time that Keira and Dyson met their (cousins?). Caroline clicked with Dyson pretty quickly. A pile of leaves is a good bonding experience.

They then moved on to the basement for some dramatic train collisions…

My parent’s recently put a tire swing in the big, old mulberry tree. This was insanely popular with all of the kids.

Keira and Olivia were total adrenaline freaks. Here’s Luis putting his all into filling their need for speed… 

And, when they couldn’t get one of us to push them (higher! faster! spinnier!), they managed to come up with their own entertainment. No, I have no idea what they’re doing…

Another big source of entertainment for all four kids was my parents’ camper. I guess it makes a great club house…

They were constantly trying to talk the adults into participating. Heidi got suckered in this time. With snacks!

Dyson seemed to be the most fascinated by the camper. He was constantly in and out (and/or yappin’ about it…)

Dyson and Caroline really wanted to get close to the mini chickens. The chickens will come up to my parents, but not the kids. So, one of the kids got a small feeder to entice them. I got the kids to inch closer while the chickens were distracted by the food. This was about the closest they got.

Luis and Dyson stayed in close communication. Even when they were only three feet apart. Dyson never did figure when to hold down the button…

Keira and Olivia were constantly going in and out of the horses’ paddock. Luckily Comanche is as about as old as a horse can be and still be alive…

The girls were a constant flurry of activity. They really seemed to get along fantastically.

After Thanksgiving dinner, my mother brought some bread out for the tiny chickens. The white one is the "mother". Not related to the other two, but she did hatch the eggs. Apparently they’re not used to sleeping in the chicken hutch (previously they stayed in the screened breezeway between the house and garage) so my mom has to "put them to bed" every night…

This toy horse was my mom’s when she was a kid. Dyson was quite fond of it…

I noticed the sun going down, so I stepped out to see if I could grab a shot of the horses with sun in the background. Cody wasn’t cooperating, but Comanche came running up in the hopes that I would feed him.

While out, I noticed one of the normal-sized chickens eating at the local smörgåsbord. Gotta pick where the pickin’s good…

That night, Heidi and Luis took the kids to their place. Apparently they had a bang up time. On Friday, Kel and my parents joined them and did some fun stuff while I spent the whole day finishing up a proposal. (Looks like I did okay on it - I’m going to Panama next week to negotiate terms and conditions.)

On Saturday, Keira really got into playing Sims on my parents’ computer. For hours on end…

She wants her own pet, and she let’s the Sims people die of hunger?

Dyson helped my Dad with some work around the farm.

We all went down to the front pond to do a bit of fishing. It’s been dry recently, so the pond is pretty low. I guess that concentrates the fish for us…

Dyson reeled in the first fish. Well, he helped…

Just a wee sunfish…

Didn’t take much longer before he hooked a big-mouth bass…

One for me…

Keira’s first catch.

Dyson and I got a couple more bass, at the same time. We kept his for dinner and threw the rest back.

Kel finally got in on the action…

The earlier ones that Keira caught were on casts made by my dad. This one Keira did all herself. It was the biggest one we caught all day - over three pounds…

Dad takes care of the messy part…

…while Dyson swings…

…and climbs the mulberry tree…

Dyson gets to serve up the final product:

The geese made a huge racket any time anyone came near their enclosure. Mom said it wasn’t so much about food as company. They definitely had a lot to say…

Keira is more about riding the horses then taking care of them, but Mom did get Keira out that evening to brush down Comanche. He startled a bit each time the flash went off. Maybe I shouldn’t have been taking pictures while Keira was behind him…

She only got to ride a couple of times - Thursday morning and Sunday morning, but that seemed to be enough.

Comanche is an old horse and he’s not used to children, so she had a tough time controlling him at first - she was too gentle…

Mom was very tense about it. She was probably flashing back to when Keira was nine months old and was sitting on a (different) horse with my father. The click of the camera caused the horse to rear a bit and everyone freaked out except Dad and Keira…

Dyson and Mom occupy themselves while watching Keira play the Sims…

Early afternoon, we all went out to fly a kite.

It was supposed to be a Dyson-kinda activity, but he was scared that the kite would pull him off the ground. Keira enjoyed it for a bit…

I mentioned that Dyson’s sweater looked a bit like the kite. Next thing we knew, Keira was "flying" Dyson the kite….

Keira went back to the real kite for a bit more. (The silhouettes at the bottom are Keira, Mom, the dog, and Dad.)

Dad, Dyson and I went down to the brush pile to look at the burrows dug into the ground just inside the pile. We explored some animal paths from the brush pile to the upper pond. After some close examination (by that time, Keira was with us), we determined that it was probably raccoons. (We found raccoon prints by the pond, but not by the brush pile, so nothing definitive…)

Then we tried to catch some frogs but weren’t fast enough.

We found a rotting log to play on…

Sometimes Keira and Dyson even play together…

As we were walking from the back pond to the front pond, Dad pointed out the nest where their resident hawks base their chicken killing operations. I did see hawks while there, but never with the camera in hand. The KC area always has a lot of hawks and eagles around. They’re much easier to spot in the winter…

At the front pond, we managed to catch a couple of small frogs and were having a nice stroll about.

We found this HUGE bird print. You can see the maple leaf to the lower right. I estimate that it was about eight inches from front to back. No webbing. I wonder what it is…

A nice stroll, that is, until Keira almost stepped on a garter snake and freaked out.

Of course, being such a loving and concerned parent, I had to catch it…

I was thirty years out of practice at catching a snake by pinning it just behind the head (and perhaps my reflexes have slowed down a bit), so I finally gave up and picked it up by the tail. Keira did NOT think that was a good plan…

It was only about 18 inches long. Just a garter snake!

All in all, a very eventful few days…

To cap it off, here we are killing time at the Delta Crown Club Room in Atlanta. By then, it would appear that Keira was getting tired of me and my camera…

We got home just after midnight on Sunday. I got up at 4:30 a.m. on Monday to head to Acapulco. Pictures from that trip next….

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be motivated to wade through the hundreds (and hundreds) of pictures I took in Kansas (Thanksgiving with my parents), Acapulco (tradeshow), and Bahamas (presentation).

In the meantime, here’s a cute one of Dyson from the weekend before Thanksgiving. I was messing with my computer, as usual, and Dyson wanted to hang out with me.

Apparently, after a bit, he and his posse got a bit winded and needed to chill…