Aaah. That was nice. Well, I'm back from my 2-week hiatus (anyone notice I was gone? ), and finally got the chance to jump back in to TMIP. When I first returned, work grabbed me, spun me round, and kicked my rump...so the past two days has been getting back into the groove and caught up. And the weekend I spent trying to edit, crop, and upload photos from the trip so I could set up a gallery to share. I'm finally done! I went on a 10-day cruise to the Southern Caribbean, onboard the Holland America Noordam - a beautiful large ship. We called at the gorgeous Half Moon Cay, Bahamas - which has the hands-down most goregous beach on earth; St. Thomas USVI - shopping mecca of the Caribbean; Dominica - a stunning rainforest-covered volcanic island full of steaming mud lakes and sulfurous craters; Orenjestad, Aruba - the Dutch desert island at the bottom of the Caribbean; and Curacao - the little slice of Netherlands in the tropical Caribbean sea. As usual, the ship was gorgeous, each night's sunset competed with the last for the title of Most Stunning, the islands were green and lush, the water was every shade of blue and green one could imagine, and the Justin came home one extra shade of Lobster. Please pop in to my gallery from this cruise for a look around, and any comments or questions are welcome: http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/noordam_nov08 Meanwhile, I'll still be getting caught up at work for the rest of the week!
I guess galleries don't go over too well!...OK - Here's some pics I originally posted a link to my full gallery without thinking - I guess gallery links may not go over as well with security concerns or concerns over too much data with slow connections or whatever reason. Sorry - didn't think about that one. So this time, I'll post a few of my favorite shots from my trip so you don't have to go browsing through a gallery link with hundreds of photos: This is the gorgeous beach of Half Moon Cay, Bahamas: Some crepuscular ray action off Dominica: A male green iguana giving me the stink eye in Aruba: Gorgeous cloudy sunset off Aruba: This was playing with the shallow depth of field on my 50mm F1.7 lens at ISO1600 late at night...a ship crewmember working on a winch: This is a panorama of the city of Willemstad, Curacao - a great blend of Dutch architecture and Caribbean colors: Here's my ship, the Noordam, at dock in Curacao on a choppy sea day: If anyone wants to look at more in the gallery, feel free - the galleries are presented as thumbnails so they're not too memory-intensive - any photo can be clicked on to view the larger shot or browse through. And any questions or comments welcome. By this weekend, I should be thoroughly caught up at work and back on the boards with some normalcy again - and counting down to Mousefest, of course!!
Awesome photo's . I just had to go look at the entire gallery. Wonderful shots! I love the Caribbean!
Thanks PolynesianMedic. Cruising is my OTHER regular vacation - Disney being first, of course. I've been cruising annually for 25 years, and don't think I could go a year without being on the sea any more than I can go more than 6 months without being at Disney.
Thanks guys. I wish I could be back out at sea instead of back to the grind, but I'll feel better in a little less than a month when I'm walking into Epcot on a cool night...and finding the TMIPers!
Thank you Michael and Kiki. Appreciate the look through! I miss the cruise, but at least Disney is just around the corner again both before and after Christmas...so I'll still feel like I'm in vacation mode!
Thank you! I almost didn't recognize the thread when I saw the title. I can't wait for my next cruise - it's my other 'regular' vacation beside Disney.
