Afternoon Edition! Free Kindle Book ---

And the fun continues! I love long holiday weekends….still cleaning out closets here! The pile of stuff to be dropped off at the goodwill donation center is growing, and it feels so good to CLEAN IT OUT!

Do you go through this same kind of re-adjustment when the Holidays start to settle in? I’ll go for months without having anything bother me, then all at once..BAM! I can’t leave it alone and have to ream out everything! DH and Jeff are keeping a wide berth!

DH’s latest obsession is his tennis ball machine. It should be named “Who needs a partner?!” But he charges up the battery on that thing, and goes to the tennis court to hit balls. I’m going in a bit to go walk the walking track WHILE he is hitting balls, because watching a man hitting balls shooting out of a machine is only a spectator sport for a limited amount of time!

The weather here has been just LOVELY the past few days ---today’s high is 68 with sunshine. Yes, there are reasons why I love living south, and this is one of them!

Oh yes, and the reason for this afternoon interlude ---

Liberation of Alice Love by Abby McDonald has received an average user rating of 4 out of 5 stars based on 15 customer reviews.

Category: Contemporary Fiction

Book Description:

Mousy London lawyer Alice Love gets her identity stolen and finds her true self in this rocky tale of trust, personality makeovers, and a lying globe-trotting thief.

“She didn’t leave me any worse off, in the end,” Alice says of Ella, a work pal who makes off with Alice’s credit card info to set up a new life in Hollywood. But before the ruse is over, Alice retaliates by morphing into a compulsive stalker, taking on Ella’s identity, and discovering that a lot of little lies add up to a whole lot of fun.

The transformation nearly costs her the love of a good man, but Alice comes (nearly) to her senses by the time she corners her arch-frenemy. McDonald (The Popularity Rules) keeps the pace brisk, but a plot busy with an international chase and Alice’s many reinventions proves on occasion too much to handle, and Ella, paradoxically, proves a more intriguing character than Alice.

What works best is what lies beneath all the frantic action: a good old-fashioned romantic page-turner.

I’m still fighting the holiday thing. My favorite radio station just went Christmas 24/7. UGH! It’s just too much to handle! Boy am I ever glad I found that ipod!

As for the book --- check before clicking that it is STILL free – these things are offered for a limited time only, and I have no clue how long it will be offered. What is free now might not be later!

Enjoy!

Out of the Closet!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the USA! Happy Thursday to the rest of you, unless you live in Australia or some such place where it is a completely different day for you as I post this, but I’m sure you are used to the recalculating of dates by now!

I’ve spent the morning reaming out a closet in the guest room.

Last night about 9pm we got the call from Jeff that things to his room mate had come to a head and he just had to get out of there and couldn’t take it anymore. I thought it should wait til morning, but no. DH thought that we should just hook up the trailer to the pickup, drive 3 hours down there, load him up, turn right around and drive 3 hours back, get it done, stop worrying about it and get it over with.

And we did. We got home about 3am this morning…and I slept til 8 or so, but it’s a complete zombie day today, so I am so glad that I am NOT cooking!

So back to the closet.

The past 5 months since Jeff has been gone, I’ve been using his room as the trunk show storage unit. And it was working rather well. I had quilts stacked in categories ((refolded differently every time I’d restack them for those of you concerned—)) and covered with sheets to keep the dust away. And the cat off….if she happened to find the door open, which we tried our best to keep shut tight at all times.

With Jeff coming back home --- my quilts were going to have to go somewhere else! And that “BEFORE” the move “somewhere else” meant there was a stack here, a stack there, some over here, some in the other closet, anywhere I could find a space. I was not going back to this! And believe me, when you have to keep your class samples and book quilts at least until you retire ---this many quilts can take up an awful lot of SPACE!

Fast forward to the guest room closet. It’s a walk-in closet and it really has a lot of space in there, but I had WAY too many clothes taking up all that space. All those denim jumpers and school teacher jumpers from my jumper fetish years? Still in there. Just how many denim jumpers does one girl need? It’s not like they are in fashion anymore…it needed to go. I could whittle it down to being manageable and donate everything else. I’ve got HUGE piles of dresses and skirts and jumpers and jackets and sweaters all ready to be donated. Of course, I know this is going to expand to other closets too, because who wants to make more than one trip? :c/

You will never guess what I found in that closet!

My long lost Ipod!! Oh I have mourned the loss of this guy..it holds EVERYTHING --- it’s got 160 gig of memory and they don’t even MAKE these anymore.

As I was clearing out purses and bags putting them in the donation pile, I found it in the bottom of a travel bag I remember using when I went to Idaho for Mother’s Day in May of 2009! It’s been in that closet the whole time. And here I was worried I’d left it on a plane, or it had been stolen out of my car, or….worse…buried in fabric somewhere in a box of scraps in the OTHER closet. ((We are not talking about that closet, I’ll deal with it later!))

I am SO happy to have this thing back!

And I’m still cleaning up the mess from taking everything OUT of the closet, though the quilts are all in their new home in stacks by category, back to being covered by sheets, and I need to remember to close that closet door or Emmy Lou will find many new comfy spots to leave her fur.

While cleaning out the closet, I came across 3 or 4 tubs that held antique tops, block parts, vintage quilts, etc. What am I doing with all this stuff?

I’m thinking of having “Yard Sale Saturday” here on the blog for the next little while. I’ll post a pic of a vintage item I want to sell with the price…the first person to contact me gets it, as is. ((I’ll photograph and disclose everything well)) Just like ebay, this will be a “no return” kind of item. I don’t want it back, and I only want to ship stuff once! The actual shipping cost will be added to the bill. All transactions via paypal.

Sound good? If you don’t like paypal, or can’t work with it, then I’m sorry ---these items might not be for you then!

I also found some of my early, early quilts. Oh boy. Some of these are pretty embarrassing! But I think they might be good to share them with you too. What do you think? If I did a post on first quilts with a linky thing, would you join in and post yours? Not sure when I’m thinking of that, but it would be a fun way to let our first attempts ALSO out of the closet…and you can marvel in how far you’ve come, baby! And you won’t feel alone if you are ashamed that your first border waved like a ruffle, or that your binding was as lumpy as a summer string bean left on the vine way too long ----let me know your thoughts!

And with that, I’m back to cleaning the closet….be looking for the first item or items to be posted on Saturday!

We are headed out to our Thanksgiving dinner, the THREE of us --- in a few hours. On this day, I’m grateful to be THREE instead of TWO --- and wish the FOURTH one, left back in Columbia, SC were here to round out the family.

Pumpkin pie is a food group! Remember that!

Turkey Day Eve ----

And I was stupid enough to venture out into the the “dreaded” shopping area of Winston Salem’s Hanes Mall Boulevard.

I know every biggish city in America has this same spread of stores…..It’s near the MALL ((other wise known as the M.A.U.L. in my book, and we don’t go there!!)) and as soon as you exit the freeway you can see Chilis, Applebees, Best Buy, Sam’s Club, Costco is across the street---Home Depot --- Lowes is Across the street—There is every retail chain from Target to Kohls to EVERYTHING on this one stretch of road, probably in the same layout as every other city in America. Welcome to Chain Store USA.

When people go traveling to other cities and go “SHOPPING” I always wonder why they bother? It’s the same dang stuff they can find at home, and now they have to CARRY IT!

But I digress…I have been waiting for this massage appointment for over a week. My hamstrings are all locked up and I just can’t STRETCH them out any better…it feels like there are tennis balls in the middle of my muscles. SO. I went for my massage, thinking I’d left the house early enough to get there….but when I hit the exit off the interstate, and start waiting at the red lights --- and traffic is a madhouse --- I discover that it takes me as long to get from the exit to the massage place, as it did for me to drive from Wallburg to Winston Salem in the first place. And then it dawned on me. PEOPLE ARE TRAVELING?! But it’s Wednesday! Oh…yeah…Thanksgiving is TOMORROW!

I better get a pie!! :cD

I’m not baking this year. I’m not cooking this year. We are putting it off because in a week or so we’ve got to go down and get Jeff and his stuff and move him back up here. We are not making two trips because both Jeff and Jason are working different hours and having Thanksgiving down there just isn’t going to work. Jeff especially, he is working on Thanksgiving. And we’ve no place to stay --- Jason can’t fit us in his 1 bedroom, and I don’t want to do a hotel on a holiday weekend anyway.

And my pet sitter is out of town for her own holiday --- so ----

We are going out! Do I care about not having leftovers? Not this year. This year is NO STRESS ALLOWED!

After my massage I did end up at Sam’s club which was a big mistake….they had just about every check stand open and the lines were half way through the store. I picked up my pumpkin pie, a bag of honey crisp apples ((My fave!)) a bag of clementines, and some bananas. It was all I needed.

And then I spotted these:

Oh. My. Goodness. They just jumped straight into my cart, I swear! And the only way they could be ANY better was if they were dipped in chocolate!

Wait – has anyone tried that? Cuz if so, I’m in serious danger!

I hope if you are cooking you are enjoying yourself. If family is traveling to you, I hope they arrive safely and the reunion is extra sweet! If you are the one traveling --- I hope your DH is driving and you can do handwork! :c)

I’m going to sew! Gosh it feels good to be home to be able to do this….I’m up to the borders on a project I’ve been working on….and I need to start on a baby quilt for a nephew who will be making his debut around my birthday, toward the end of January!

And yes, there is still endless binding to be seen to, I’m hoping for some movie marathons this Holiday weekend, feet up in the recliner, all is good!

A Day in Labadee, Haiti!

It was unanimous!

There would be NO crazy bike excursions on our last port of call, Labadee, Haiti!

Of course this could be because no bike tours were offered ----

But really, this was our last port before starting our return journey home, we’d had 3 previous days in a row of pedal to the metal ((Literally!)) cycling tours. This was our day to VEG OUT!

Labadee is not a Haitian village --- it’s more like a private resort island owned by Royal Caribbean. Their description?

“On the north coast of Hispaniola, surrounded by beautiful mountain slopes and exotic foliage, sits Labadee®, Royal Caribbean's private paradise. This exclusive destination offers pristine beaches, breathtaking scenery and spectacular water activities…”

No town to go to, no skinny dogs to rip my heart out over, no locals fitting 6 people on a motorcycle ---- All we wanted to do was find a shady beach chair and NAP!

PERFECT SPOT!! We quickly moved these chairs over under the shade of a tree, planning on spending a few hours just watching the waves. And the ZIP LINE!! Though you can’t see them, there are several wire lines just above the photo ----waiting to watch people do THIS:

HOLY MOLY! We’d considered it, but it was about $80 for a 40 second ride…..No thanks! The beach chair would do me just fine!

Can you see the “fly specks” on this photo? Those are people flying down the zip line! I was wishing we had our Olympics score cards --- “8.5 with good form!” One lady didn’t pay attention to the “rules” and sat up, killing her momentum, and they had to come drag her in….DEFINITELY needed a score card for that one! LOL!

We were served a BBQ lunch on shore ---burgers, ribs, chicken, salads, desserts ----I LOVED the fruit on this cruise. The pineapple especially was to die for.

Ahhhhh! What a view! I read a little, napped a bit --- we only had until early afternoon to enjoy this day, as THIS was the day we had to make an early exit to avoid that storm coming off Bermuda.

Don’t you think this photo should be our Christmas card this year? ULTIMATE relaxation has been reached!

It’s amazing how the blue of the water fades into the blue of the distant mountains and into the blue of the sky.

This was our view as we pulled up to the pier on arrival….that dock used to NOT be there, it’s a recent addition, and most welcome! MILES of concrete.

On our way back to the ship, I just had to snap this beautiful picture. It was a GREAT cruise and I hope it isn’t my last by a long shot!

I have to say that even though Labadee is not a “real” village --- it employs many local villagers from just a ways away, on the mainland. The people we talked to LOVE working on the island, there are cruise ships coming and going all the time. Steady employment is helping so many families.

Spending time in these struggling countries really has opened my eyes so much --- and at Thanksgiving time it is something to really think about. Some of us are worried about how to cook and serve our turkey. People in other countries don’t even have a turkey to put on the table and may be living off of bananas and coconuts and having to heat their stoves with coconut hulls.

One thing we did every day was hit the ship's dining room for breakfast, where they seat you with random strangers until the table is full. We like this because it gives us a chance to meet and get to know others.

The morning we docked at Labadee, which was the day AFTER the Dominican Republic – by far the most destitute living circumstances for many of the people – I sat next to a woman who must have been quite wealthy by the way she talked and looked. Her fingers were dripping with jewels as were her ears, and the diamond necklace around her neck was huge. ((This means nothing, I’m just setting the stage here –)) and her comments were so interesting.

“I wish the cruise lines wouldn’t take us to such dirty poor places. I get tired of being approached to buy this and buy that……I am so tired of saying NO!”

I thought of the woman I had met just the day before, taking her machete to coconuts for $1 each to earn her living for her family. I thought of the man who had the bikes in his little shack of a house, trying to make a living by providing a service to tourists. I thought of the vendor that I bought a necklace and earring set from ((It was all of $25.00!)) in order to put food on the table for his family.

We have so much. My heart was so full. And I couldn’t take it anymore, and I opened my mouth and said something to this stranger that I wouldn’t have if she was someone I would ever run into again! ((Isn’t it amazing what you will say when you know your paths won’t cross further?!?))

“If someone wanted a HOMOGENIZED vacation, why not go to Hawaii, or Key West, or any number of other places, instead of choosing to come to countries like this where you know people are struggling? “

I just felt that someone should KNOW, that things are not so up to the par WE have set as our accepted "normal" in these places. How could someone look so down on these people? She booked the cruise, she knew the itinerary. This was NOT Club Med ---and I was dumbfounded.

Our being there WAS helping these people. The tourism industry is an important part of helping these people get on their feet and providing many of them with means for a living……and it’s not hard to say no if you don’t want to buy something.

I never felt pushed, prodded or otherwise coerced into buying something that I didn’t want. I enjoyed the people. I’ll remember the faces and the smiles and the attempts at crossing language barriers. I’ll remember the little girl in the Dominican Republic who ran out to hand us flowers as we cycled by. These people are full of so much joy and so much LIFE, even with the little they have.

And I know it’s kind of a rant, but one that has stuck with me, and I’ve been home for way over a week now!

I don’t want a Homogenized Existence. I want to experience what LIFE is like in other places – the good, the bad, the heartbreak, the joy --- we are all in this world together, and there is so much we can learn from each other.

Thanksgiving in the states is tomorrow, yet I’ve been so grateful for EVERYTHING since we returned home. I’d like to keep this going year round. Things are just things. The most important things in life are NOT things --- it’s people.

Afternoon Edition! Free Kindle Book!

There comes a time when you have to give in to the holiday fervor building and just go with it!

I’m not saying that I’m into playing Christmas music 24/7 --- even on Christmas Eve that is too much holiday for me, but I have to even admit that yesterday, while sewing on a binding….sitting at the machine, zoning out in that zen-of-machine-stitching fashion that always hits me….I found I was humming along to a Christmas song that was on the radio, without even consciously thinking about it!

WHAT?! I was so glad I was not in a public place, because I am generally the ultimate Scrooge about turning my nose up when it comes to Christmas music before Thanksgiving.

But..as they say, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! Just don’t let them see you doing it in public! :cD

I do love humor, and this freebie sounded too good to pass up for holiday reading..Twas the Night is free today in the Kindle Store.

Book Description:

“Christmas or Bust!”What do a Blue Angels pilot, a bounty hunter and an ex-NFL football player have in common? The three bad-boy bachelors of Snowdon, Maine have to make a friend’s Christmas Eve wedding on time or die trying!

They’re willing to risk anything to make that happen—even dashing through the snow in the goofiest bus on Earth, bright red and filled with a bunch of merry, meddling senior citizens known as the Santa Brigade.

All too soon, these men will have met their matches in three special women: a woman from their past, a forest ranger so hot she ought to be declared a fire hazard, and a woman on the run. Ho, ho, OH!While serving up holiday cheer with the Santa Brigade, the guys will discover ‘tis the season for good will and folly.

Wise men or not, they are well and truly caught, which means these roguish St. Nicks are willing to jingle a few bells along the way if that’s what it takes to find what they truly want for Christmas nestled in their beds after the stockings are stuffed and the gifts placed under the tree.

Check before clicking to purchase that it is STILL free. I have no clue if this contains content “too illicit” for my liking or not --- but wiling to give it a shot knowing I can delete it if I find it too stupid for my tastes! :cD

I got the call that my desk top computer is ready for pick up. The diagnosis? Conflict with Itunes. I KNOW THIS! This is why I brought it to you!? Problem unresolved….I guess my phone will just have to be updated from my laptop from now on.

And for the rest of the day? I think I’ll SEW! Does that surprise you?!

Tools of the Trade for the Serial Quilter!

A very funny thing happened on the way to ---

Doesn’t that line just draw you in? Stories like this have to be good if they start with “A funny thing happened!…” In this case, it deals with the cruise, 52 quilters, and a bunch of luggage being held in security because there was

((Insert that gavel sound from Law & Order here!))

SCISSORS.

In the LUGGAGE!! ****GASP!!****

Security on ships is not as tough as going through the security check in at the airport – but it is still pretty tight. And even through the ship KNEW there was a huge group of quilters on board, some people’s luggage got held in security because there were sharp objects in them. OF COURSE THERE ARE SHARP OBJECTS! WE are QUILTERS!!

So, some had to go back down to security and collect their luggage, and SOME even had to have their scissors checked in and out of the front desk ---- and sign for them! And check them back in when they were done for the day.

SERIAL QUILTERS! I tell ya!

Eventually we convinced them that the sewing room was ALWAYS monitored when we were in there, that the Quilters would not be left alone without supervision ((HA!!)) and that WE would lock all sharp objects up in the room at the end of each session.

They agreed.

Wonder of wonders, they never questioned the ROTARY CUTTERS, just the scissors.

And it wasn’t universal because I know of at least ONE lady that had maybe..ummm..8 pairs of scissors of varying size in HER luggage and her bag was not detained at all! It sure made for some hilarious laughter and much shaking of heads amongst us. She pulled out each pair one at a time and laid them out on the table, it was like the contents of a doctor's bag ---

At one time, a security guard IN UNIFORM came by to check on us…..as we were sewing…..making sure that all the scissors were being used in the manner that they should be.

Scissor Police. Are you laughing now?? It was bizarre! But you gotta laugh, and it just really made some great memories for us!

So to honor this memory……I’m presenting you some NEW tools of the trade for the Serial Quilters amongst us -----

Don’t you just LOVE gadgets? I do!

If there are Quilters on your holiday shopping list, these just might come in handy --- if you are on your OWN list, these might be great for you too! :cD

Have you seen these? One of our cruisers had this on our cruise earlier this month, and I Have to say THIS THING puts that clover medallion thingy to shame! It’s called a Sharkstooth, and is GREAT for whacking apart chain piecing. This way you don’t run the risk of impaling yourself on that upright seam ripper gadget thingy, or for those who like to cut with an OPEN ROTARY BLADE??!? OY! Just thought that it might make a good stocking stuffer for someone. Find out more info HERE.

Do you ever have trouble even FINDING your scissors in amidst al the fabric stuff? Here’s another goodie!

I took this picture at the retreat in Maine! One of the quilters said her hubby found these for her on the Snap-On tool truck! Very cool! You wouldn’t have to go digging, because hopefully those handles are going to be higher than the pile of stuff burying everything..LOL!

And this pair was SO pretty….I just had to take a picture:

One of my Quilters in New Mexico had these --- aren’t they LOVELY!? And don’t they look LETHAL!?? I thought she said these were an AQS item, and I’d be totally happy if they showed up under MY tree or in MY stocking Christmas morning!

What -----did they really think we’d go chasing each other around the ship with the theme song to “Psycho” playing in the background?!

:c)

Sad Day for Lancaster, PA!

I just got an email from my friend Nancy in Shippensburg, PA…with an article attached!

The Lancaster Quilt Museum that houses the Esprit collection of Amish quilts is closing!

I am severely bummed out. I’ve visited this museum several times and I love the inspiration that I find there!

I’ll never forget the time I had a personal tour by one of the docents….It was just amazing, and the lives of the people who made these quilts touched me so deeply!

If you have a chance to go visit the museum, do so…..the museum will cease regular daily operations at the end of the year and the building will be offered for sale.

The museum will be opened to groups on a reservation basis and for special events through the end of 2012.

Read more HERE!

Whhhhhaaa!!! I’m not a big fan of change, especially when something has been such a pilgrimage place for those of us in love with antique Amish Quilts!

Lisa came to play at Quiltville today!! We grabbed some Chinese take-out to go, had lunch at my dining room table, and then proceeded to load her two gift quilts in the machine and get them quilted! It was great to have her over…..and of course SHELBY too!

Hahahahahah! She is just full of spit and vinegar and knows it! She marches in like she owns the place and pulls all the strings!

Sadie wanted to be with us, but she knows to pretty much stay out of Shelby’s way --- she hunkered down on her rug ----as if to say “Oh, NO! Not HER again!!” They are so funny to watch together. Shelby only had one barking break-down --- and it was because I was petting Sadie! Evidently, I’ve been adopted by Shelby too, and that means that petting anyone else is off limits in her book!

I was to the point where I needed to trim up some square in a square type blocks for a project.and yet I couldn’t because the machine was running --- I use the table side of my long arm as my cutting spot, so I had to wait…..so instead, I pulled out the bin of recycled shirt strings and just started playing!

NO!! These have NOTHING to do with the Mystery! Just me playing with pieces and parts. Sometimes I just work on units brainlessly until I have a whole stack of them, and then I find somewhere they will go. It was just a PLAID kind of day for me!

I loved going back and visiting everyone who linked to our Mystery Monday Link Up! If you stopped by early on, you should go back and check it out! Links are still coming in ---So many have shown their part 1’s coming together -- I’m glad that we did it on the same day as the Design Wall Monday that Judy is running, that way people didn’t have to write two separate posts, one for each event…easy to just write one post and link both places, eh?

There were a couple people I had to remove – sorry guys! You didn’t read the rules! You need to link to the specific blog post, not just your whole blog. If you need help with that let me know in the future…if it’s linked just to your whole blog, it makes it too hard for people to find the post you are referring to as more posts are added above the one that had your “stuff” in it.

This is also a linky thing for MYSTERY PROGRESS ONLY at this point. I know you might have other projects to share, but for now, it’s not for your old UFOs or what you worked on last week…it’s just for Mystery parts.

And with that, I’m off to do some trimming down, and go snuggle up with that mountain of binding demanding my attention!

Mystery Monday Link Up!!

We are doing a Linky thing on Mondays! Starting TODAY, those of you with blogs will be able to link to your post showing your Orca Bay progress every Monday throughout the mystery.

I knew NOTHING about these linky things, I’ve never ever entered one, only followed them on Judy’s blog for Design Wall Monday ((Good stuff there folks, be sure to check that out too today!)) and I’ve followed Jo’s when she had her Crumb-Along going.

So who did I go to for the ins and outs of linky things and which works best and how to do it? I had emails flying back and forth between BOTH Judy and Jo…and here I am, and we are trying it out!

Rules: There’s always rules! You can’t just link your post to your WHOLE BLOG. It has to be “POST SPECIFIC” So upload your post, then click on the title of your post to make the post address show up in the address bar at the top of your browser. Copy that. Paste THAT into the linky thing. This way people will be directed to the correct post on your blog! And PLEASE put a link back to MY BLOG in your post ---

I’m leaving this linky open for the week, until 11:59pm on Thursday, because FRIDAY our next step goes live and the following Monday you can show your stuff on the next linky day.

***NOTE*** You can link ANY progress of any step on any of the Mondays, you don’t have to just post part 1, or part 2 on specific Mondays….any progress is good progress, right?!

But before you go linking, or click to look at everyone’s links….I have something to share with you!

First off…my friend Linda Franz and I go way back to our early Dear Jane days ((Yes, I can even say back in the ‘90s because it was 1998 or 1999 when I first started that crazy journey!)) and she emailed me yesterday afternoon about doing a post for quarter square triangles with her Ink Lingo! Have you heard of Ink Lingo? Well, if not, it just might be the PERFECT technique for you! Click HERE to find out more.

She’s even offering a discount on the software for Quarter Square triangles….The pic at the beginning of this post AND the one above with Monkey were lifted from Linda’s Blog for emphasis! LOL! Thanks Linda!

Enjoy your Monday! I’ve got a fun afternoon planned! Lisa is coming to sew! YEAH! And I’ve got miles of binding to hand stitch down, so she’ll be good company for me.

A Day in the Dominican Republic!

Yep, back to the travelogue that is my life!

Of all the places that really touched me on this cruise, it has to be the time we spent on our excursion outside of Samana. I’d never been to the Dominican Republic before, and I really didn’t know ANYTHING about it.

Remember that whole thing about “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”?? Well he certainly didn’t land in Boston! He landed on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean! It became the first permanent European settlement in the Americas.

The island of Hispaniola has two countries – with the Dominican Republic taking up about 2/3, and Haiti, which takes the remaining western 1/3.

This was our one port where tenders are required to get to shore. Never been on a tender? It’s nothing more than a shuttle boat that holds several passengers…you go from the ship to the tender, and from the tender to shore, and they go back and forth like water taxis all day long ---

It was an overcast day, but still very bright and glare-y and I was not so happy with how my pictures turned out on this day! The color seems washed out of everything, but I think it will still give you an idea of what our day was like. Here is one of the tenders making its way to shore. Depending on your excursion plans, you catch your tender at your designated time. We waited with our group in the theater until our number was called to go to shore.

Here’s our tender pilot--- waiting for us all to be loaded on so we can make our trip to shore!

A glimpse back at our ship with other tenders pulling up to taxi MORE tourists!

I LOVED the dancers as we came off the port! Bright swirling skirts and smiling faces….wonderful music!

We found our waiting spot, and when we had all gathered, we loaded on to the back of a truck and off we went. Or excursion today? A Bike, Hike and Kayak tour! ((Who’s big idea was this?!?!))

We loaded into the back of something resembling a MASH truck! Our guide, Haji is quite the dare-devil! He sat there on this seat, which is over the back edge hanging out the BACK of the truck…can you see that we are MOVING fast? look at the ground underneath him!

Little did we know that to get to our destination, we were being driven over land in this truck to the outskirts…about 38 miles away. This truck ride was just as much of an adventure as the biking, hiking and kayaking was!

We got to see some very remote beautiful areas…..and also saw how humble the living conditions in this country are. One of the things that amazed us right off is the number of people on motorcycles. Not the number of motorcycles on the road, mind you, but the number of people on EACH motorcycle!

I tried to get pictures, but I just couldn’t..but imagine if you will, a dad driving, a mom behind him..and between them…two or three little children! On ONE motorcycle!

Check HERE for some images I found online!

Things got more and more remote as we made our way off of the paved highway and onto unpaved and bumpy country roads. At this point I was wondering..just where the heck ARE we going to do this tour?!

How about here?! THis is where we stopped to get our bikes! Someone’s humble business, renting bikes for bike tours --- in the middle of NOWHERE! I don’t think there was even electricity here. We are pretty much in the jungle outskirts.

One other thing we saw lots of. Dogs. Running loose. LOTS of skinny dogs! It about broke my heart and I wanted to take them all home. DH says…Don’t pet the dogs!!

But but but but but!! Just look at that sweet face! And those ears! This little guy was still very much in the throws of puppyhood. I couldn’t resist. He wanted to play! And I broke ALL the rules, and petted the puppy while everyone else was getting measured for their bikes!

I mean REALLY!! Could YOU resist?!

On our bikes we went. Third bike day in a row. My quadriceps are feeling the strain early on, but I’m not sure if it is from the two previous days of bike exercise, or the fact that these bikes are really clunky and don’t want to pedal well! LOL!

Again, because we are biking, I really couldn’t’ take pics until we stopped --- I didn’t get any pics of us WITH our bikes, and I regret that! We biked for about 3.5 miles, but it was all on rutted unpaved roads, and I swear it felt more like 8 miles.

We rode through farm areas. We passed livestock: ((Goats, Cattle, Chickens, and Sheep, oh MY!)) and cocount trees and banana trees. We passed homes with people in the yards who waved and said “Hola!” as we passed. ((I’m sure they were thinking-- CRAZY TOURISTS!!))

I’m sure WE were the entertainment in a place with no electricity and/or indoor plumbing!

At one point, some sweet little girls ran out to the side of the road waving and shouting “Hola!! Como esta!?” ((My spanish is nearly non-existent so this was all I could translate!)) and they handed us flowers as we cycled down the road.

Such sweet giving, smiling faces in a place so remote!

This area is full of wonderful things to see..the cliffs are amazing, the vegetation is dense. It is SO other-worldly, I can’t hardly explain it, and this post is going to get really long with all the pictures.

At the end of our bike ride, we hiked to an area to see a blow-hole…..gotta be careful where you walk, and you don’t want to trip and fall. It’s completely volcanic out here, and the rocky ground is as sharp as coral!

See what I mean about the pics? the light and glare just washed everything out. But talk about sharp contrast from the jungle we just rode through!

Can you believe the color of this water?! Yes, it really IS that turquoise! It was like the tidy-bowl barge had sprung a leak!

This is an untouched photo..WOW!

Our tour was small, maybe 9 of us? And at this rest stop there was a small stand that had some local jewelry for souvenir purchases ---and also a woman who was taking her machete to coconuts for a treat for us! For $1 she would whack the coconut hull off, open the coconut at one end, and hand it to you to drink.

By this time I was starving, and that coconut milk tasted so good! Tart and tangy, different than I expected. After I’d drank it down, she cut open the coconut for me and removed the meat for me to eat. Boy-- coconuts are sure a lot of work for what little meat there is inside of them!

And I thought about this girl…making her living, chopping up coconuts for tourists in a very remote place of the Dominican Republic. For $1.00 each. And my heart was really humbled.

From here, we hiked, and hiked and hiked…

Dave and our guide, Haji ----taking the lead!

Yeah, I know..I have to take more pictures, and I’m holding up the group! LOL!

Take one of me too please…..I want to remember this awesome place. I don’t care of I’m so sweaty my hair is plastered to my head!

We walked and walked, and were passed by a couple of locals on a horse. Donkeys are common sightings as well!

More of our group bringing up the rear, and trying to avoid the mud puddles!

The scenery is just unbelievable. Everywhere you turn there is something threatening to take my breath away. I felt like I was stuck in some random episode of "Jurassic Park!!" Or a past season of "Lost"??

Can you imagine what Columbus felt setting foot onto this land?!

Bananas!

Coconut husks, drying in the sun on the side of the road. After seeing several piles of these, I asked about them. The answer is simple. The women use these for firing up their cook stoves. In an area where there is no electricity, how would you cook your food but with real FIRE? Here you go..grab a few of these, light up your oven and cook your meal.

More humbling thoughts. I am so grateful for all I have, and how many of us have so much but are so ungrateful or unaware?!

Our last stop was at the beach for some kayak time!

Of course, the camera did NOT come on the kayak with me, so I don’t have any pics of THAT adventure…but it was SO fun! And after my arms and legs felt like they were going to fall off, I had DH run me aground so that I could get out and just watch…..see that palm tree trunk just leaning there in the water? It made a great seat for me to watch from!

Hubster Dave in his kayak!

Before long it was time to leave it all behind, hoist ourselves back up into that truck and hang on while our crazy driver took us all the way back to port. This was a LONG adventure, and again I was so grateful for that coconut!!

There’s our ship, right out there in between the trees! I definitely feel a trip to the buffet coming on! It’s now about 3pm..and we’ve been going going going all day!

These are just some highlights, and I have more pics I want to save in an album, so feel free to look through as well!

		Dominican Republic Nov 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

There are 81 photos in the album, not all show through in the preview, so treat yourself by clicking to see what we saw!