A Quiet Weekend

We seem to be in a changeable weather mode right now, which I'm finding pleasant. After two weeks of clouds and rain, we finally had two days of sunshine, blue skies, turquoise water, and....heat. The sun certainly makes a big difference in the temperature. But, we've also still been pretty breezy from the NW, which comes right at our deck. Nice. So, we finally got in the water for the first snorkel of the year. Glorious! We snorkeled in our favorite spot, at the bottom of our hill, where there is an old sunken pier. This is inside the reef, in the Marine Park protected area, so minimal boat traffic. Lots of fish come to this pier to spawn and raise their young. Big storms will wash additional varieties of marine life over the reef. We have seen octopus, nurse sharks, star fish, moray eels, lobster, shrimp, conch and more right there at "our" pier. We've seen changes in this area in the 5+ years that we've been snorkeling there. The walls of the old sunken, man-made island are collapsing, falling over and many of the hiding places favored by the more shy fish have disappeared.

This was the first time for our houseguest, Kristin, to snorkel from "our" beach. She enjoyed the variety, too. She's been reading through my fish reference book, identifying the different types. Our newest sighting was a large spiny urchin, about the size of a baseball. We also enjoyed sitting Chris's wooden pier afterwards and watching our friend, Merlin's, grandchildren playing in the water.

For two nights, we had clear skies studded with the brightest stars we've ever seen. It is always amazing to us, especially after living the past six months in mostly urban areas with too much light pollution.

I had hoped we might snorkel again yesterday afternoon, after church and lunch, but a storm blew in just before noon. It is supposed to be a quick in-and-out kind of storm, so perhaps we'll get to go today. We also had interrupted satellite service yesterday, so sketchy internet connection. I was able to call our son on my Blackberry via wi-fi, but towards the end of our conversation, the connection was failing.  Dave's birthday was Saturday, but we didn't get to talk then, other than to say "happy birthday"; he was taking Tracy to Chicago where she was flying out with a group of students, bound for 12 days of study in Belize.

The humidity is incredibly high this morning and it is still cloudy. The windows were fogged and are now dripping! They're still in need of washing to remove the sea salt residue that collects. I'll get to that after we finish scrubbing the mold off our white concrete stairway!

Life in the tropics. We love it! You just have to learn to go with the flow. We brought plenty of books and are pretty content to curl up on the deck with a good read, and plenty of movies to watch, if we have power. No cruise ships in port today...might be a good day to go into West End and maybe snorkel....