Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/500 sec, ISO12800 “Cat vs. Converse” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！Hello, how’s it going?
Well, I’m back at home (arrived this morning at 1 AM) and back in the swing of things. That means I am back to work and also I have a few days of just myself and my three girlfriends. In the photo above, you can see one of them playing with my shoe. I think the shoe will be okay – Converse hold up pretty well against cat claws… so far at least! 😾
It’s funny, but I’ve only been gone a week and the kittens have grown so much! They look like small cats, not kittens anymore. 😵
While I was on vacation for the past week, I didn’t have time to keep up with my daily blog posts. Most of the days when I returned to my cabin on the ship or to the bed at our guest house, I was too tired from drinking and partying with the family. 🎉🍹 However, I did take plenty of photos. 📷 Now I need to go back and write those posts, which I will back-date.
I’m not sure how they will appear in rss feeds, but at least they will be ordered correctly here on my blog. But, just so you know, the blog posts from July 24-31, 2016 will be back-dated. 📆
I hope you had a nice Monday… at least as nice as Mondays can be. 😜
The final day of our visit to Miami was wonderful. It started out with a leisurely morning with our cousins playing games and then half of us split off to do some sightseeing at Coconut Grove, and the rest stayed at home. I opted to stay home, and helped get ready for the evening party. I went with my mom and cousin to deliver food, extra chairs, and set up tables at the nearby church’s dining hall which we rented out for the party and because I got a preview of the party-to-come, I was pretty excited!
As is typical with our family, the party involved dancing, drinking, and lots of yummy food. There were patties, curry, stew peas, rice and peas, oxtail, jerk, etc… And of course we had to spice it up with fresh Scotch Bonnets! 🔥 Plenty of Red Stripe was also consumed. 🍻
I mentioned before that the Leesang family likes to dance and tonight we had an instructor teach how to do a couple different dances at the beginning of the party. Check it out below!
Our family is also pretty into the Pokémon GO! craze too, and there was a gym at the church so several people had fun outside battling to take over the gym. Another fun family activity, actually!
It was a lot of fun hanging out with the extended family and taking lots of photos (I shared them in our private Facebook page) and I have to say the X100T was perfect. I got a lot of people asking me about the camera too… many people thought it was a classic film camera. 😄 What I love about the camera is that it is so fast and discreet. I had people smile, took their photo, and it was over in a split second and we were back to partying. That was such a great feeling… to not have the camera be such a big deal. The “snapshot life” is a great place to be.
Anyways, the party was a blast! We ended up leaving at around midnight and then the party continued back at the house, with the younger generation playing boardgames til the wee hours of the morning, while a few of us opted to go hang out in the pool.
I finally hit the bed at around 2:30 AM… it was a great day!
Today we visited Grand Bahama and docked at Freeport, then took a taxi to Port Lucaya to shop and hang out at the beach. 🌊 There were plenty of water-sports 🏄 to take part in, but several of the family decided to ride the Banana Boat. They said it was super-fun! I decided to just relax on shore, and swim 🏊 a bit. It was a hot day and the water was nice and we saw a lot of relatives who made the journey over to the same beach.
Back at the ship 🚢, we showered and then went to a family get-together in one of the lounges. 🍹 On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons we reserved the Outrigger Lounge for a couple hours and the family members passed around the mic and everyone introduced themselves, mingled, and listened to some family history. It was fun, funny, and touching, because we also took pause to remember the family members who had passed away recently (and no-so-recently). 🙏
One fun activity we enjoyed was a “Family Trivia” game, where you had to answer questions about family members, and get signatures. For instance, one of the items was “Who has the longest hair in the family?”. You can see in one of the pictures below one of the kids measuring my mom’s and my cousin’s hair. It was a good activity for the younger members of the family to get to know everyone. 👍
After the gathering, we all headed to the Crossings restaurant where we had dinner each night as a large group. The food was pretty good, and we ordered double-appetizers and entrees! It was fun to visit with the immediate and larger family. After the meal, it was time for karaoke 🎤 and then dancing 💃 at the Dazzles night club! I think we may have hit the Sky Club Casino 🎲 as well, but don’t quote me on that. 😝 And then midnight buffet anyone? 🍔 Of course!
When I arrived back at my cabin, there was a cute towel-animal waiting for me. A nice surprise and a good way to end a wonderful day.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/12 sec, ISO3200 “Ready for Take Off” Miami, 2016
こんばんは！Hello, how’s it going?
Today I am writing this to you from Miami, Florida. I have started my vacation!
The flight from Austin went through Atlanta, and it was a nice trip. I sat next to a young man who is in the midst of his pilot training and he told me a lot of facts about commercial aviation, including some of the history of McDonnell-Douglas, models of airplanes, and also some of the shop-talk and nicknames of planes. It was quite fascinating! I hope he can achieve his dream of becoming a commercial airline pilot! ✈️
I arrived in Miami safely and was picked up by relatives and then we all had a nice catch-up dinner with family at my cousin’s house where we are staying. It was especially nice for me because I only see my parents and brothers once a year at most, so seeing them as part of our larger (100+ people) is quite a treat! I’m looking forward to the rest of the week.
Tonight’s photo is of the younger generation showing everyone a drone. One of the boys just returned from Jamaica, where they used the drone to take aerial photography as part of their activities. It was really cool to see one in action! Fascinating to say the least!
I hope you had a great day, and we’ll see you tomorrow!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/40 sec, ISO3200 “PADI Kame” Cedar Park, 2016
Hello!
Today’s photo is of my PADI diving certification card, which I received waaaay back in 1996, while on our honeymoon in the South Pacific. I have the card with me because I am starting my vacation tomorrow in Miami! 🌴 Most of the time we’ll be cruising in the Caribbean, so I honestly doubt we’ll have the chance to scuba, but it’s good to be prepared, isn’t it?
Well, more from Miami if I can fit in the time to blog!
Take care,
– B
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My camera & photos
I use a Fujifilm X-series camera for most of the photos on this site and my Instagram. Why not pick one up for yourself?
