Sugarsnap

Aint that just all purty like?

 What a nice color combo. This is so pretty.

 Blades of grass

There are deep woods in my backyard.
  So I like taking pictures of flowers and animals.

Found some vultures about to take flight.

Some gangster crows attacking an orange bird.

 

A horse walking around in the woods.
I have no idea where he came from. o_o

To end the day. Good night. :)

Island #3

Topic of the Day: Bahamas!

This island was the most painful beach I have ever visited. My family travels a lot too, so I think I would know. Not only was it the smallest island ever - filled with tourists who steal things (ie. my camera bag) but instead of sandy beaches, there were rocks.

Sharp rocks at that. And if thats not bad enough, if you somehow survive the rocks and get into deep water - you have to watch where you step. Why? Because there are freakin black lobsters with pincers! Also this island was where my sister and I came to the realization of who is more important in our dad's eyes. Although we knew it all along we just denied it to ourselves, lol.
 

Doesn't this island just look teeny tiny?

So anyways. My dad had gotten some snorkeling gear. This was a first for me, snorkeling. And I sucked at it. I had a small life jacket on, that was actually clean this time, but you had to fill it with air yourself. So my life jacket was kinda pathetically filled with air. Cause I got tired of blowing. But it kept most of me afloat. My snorkeling tube was kind of short too. So every time I slightly dunked my head underwater, the tube would fill up with salt water and I'd drink it. Literally. I was chugging down sea water so fast and I couldn't even stop myself because hello I was trying to breathe here!

That was the ferry that took us around.

So, my dad had gotten us this huge blue floaty bed. And expected all 3 of us siblings to just sit on it. Fun. Except not. It was embarrassing too. My feet accidentally hit some guy in the head and kept hitting him in the head and I had no control over it because my dad was pushing the bed from the back. I wanted to drown myself from embarassment.

 

My brother and I are on the tall side, he's 5'9 and I'm 5'8 (and still growing!) so for us we had to go pretty deep into the water before we couldn't stand in it anymore. Well papa bear (who is slightly more on the petite side) would freak out when we would stand in the water. My sister and I (bored from sitting) got off the floaty bed and splashed around looking for fish. The bed starts floating farther away from shore, papa bear sees this, apparently doesn't notice that only one "kid" is left sitting on top, grabs the floaty bed and yanks it to shore. Me and my sister watch our dad save our 24 year old bro's life from - a wave maybe.

 

We started counting the minutes. "I wonder when he'll notice we're missing?" my sister said. We heard our dad scolding our brother. Why didn't he yell that the floaty bed was floating away? He doesn't know how to swim, what would he do? (Us girls dont know how to swim either fyi). Mama notices us, gives papa bear the heads up and then he realizes he left his 13 and 20 year old (THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DROWNING THIS WHOLE TIME) in the ocean. He yells at us to come to shore and that's that. It is what it is.

The doomed "floaty bed".

 

That life jacket was throwing me off balance.

Island #2

I gotta say; the balcony was my favorite place to be, the wind was breezy nice. I'm glad I ended up with the sofa bed. I'd leave the balcony door open, just lay on the bed and relax. It was 99% perfect. The only thing to ruin it were my sibs. My brother would ramble about his pool trips and people he met and my little sister would open up the mini fridge asking what vodka was. And then wave the bottle around. Because of that (I was 20 at the time) I wasnt allowed to be left alone in the room. :/

Enjoying the breeze.

This second island was my least favorite, it wasn't horrible, mostly like based around tourists. But the economy there was saddening. On one side of the island they had billion dollar homes that celebrities owned and on the other side - was the slums. Literally. We got separated from our tour guide/bus and ended up deeper in the slums than normal. I felt miserable when I saw a little 4 year old boy whose legs were deformed. And there was nothing I could do. I felt helpless. Stupid celebrities.

Oprah and Tom Cruise had homes here.

 

After cruising by  thirty or so different celebrity houses all the while getting extremely annoyed by the guide who kept saying "ya man" we reached our destination. We saw schools of fish nibbling on bread that the captain of the boat threw above us. They were so pretty! I even saw a fish that looked like Dori from Finding Nemo! The camera wasn't taking very sharp pictures through the glass, it was thick and dirty, but I did what I could.

They look like underwater bumblebees.

 

These fish were lavender and yellow!

We did a little more sightseeing around the island. But everyone was just kinda out of it. I really wanted to go to the zoo, they had a flamingo show. Trained the flamingos to do a little dance or something, but papa bear said "no, thats enough for one day". On the way back to the ship, we saw flickers in the water. Lemme just say that the water at this island (near the ships at least) was dirty and gross looking. I didn't think anything could survive in it, but lo and behold. We saw tiny little fishies jumping out of the water.

 

I wanted to scoop one in a bowl and take it home.

Island #1

You know how people usually save the best for last? That's not the case here. Whoever is in charge of the cruise decided to take us to the best island first and the worst island last. Oh btw, totally survived the night. I mean the ship started rocking at like 3am - woke me up. I was paralyzed with fear. My sibs were oblivious and kept on snoring. Snoring at rare times, can be soothing. I listened to them and fell asleep. Usually I want to suffocate them with a pillow. Anyways, like I said, the first island was the best. 

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Beautiful day, blue skies, breezy. 
I wanted to buy a bungalow and live there.
 

This is what our cruise ship looked like.

It was quite pretty, hawaiian theme.
 

I was all hoping to see rare animal species on the islands. I saw weird looking birds, lots of lizards and seagulls that stalked the cruise ship. The flowers all over the island were so pretty. Ohmygosh. And I can't forget the dates in the trees! Me and my mom wanted to climb the trees and gobble them up. When it comes to dates, we're lunatics. Kajoor - the urdu word. They looked so fresh and yummy.
 

They were ripe. *drools*
 

The first beach had the most softest sand ever. It was so fresh! The water, sand, sky, the area, everything! There weren't any seashells at all. Mostly there was burned seaweed. Ugh. While your floating around in the water, something icky will wrap around your foot and just graze all over your skin. Plus if your like me, already freaked out about sharks with your dad pulling your floaty deeper into the ocean and leaving you there - you'd practically pee your pants (which is totally unsanitary). Oh, AND I was wearing jeans. When jeans get soaked they weigh like 50 pounds. I was like, sinking.
 

Fabulous Beach.

The dark circles in the water is baked seaweed. 

The darker water in the back drops deep.
 

We didnt plan on hitting the beach, hence why I'm wearing an outfit, although regardless I would have been pretty fully dressed maybe the only change would be a half sleeve t-shirt with pants not jeans. Anyways after spending the entire day at the beach and smelling like fish seaweed; we decided to hit the showers at the ship.

Walking back I met godzilla. No lie. He was huge, ugly and was staring at me while climbing up a tree. I mean I've seen plenty of lizards in my time. In the states, saudia arabia and pakistan, but this lizard was like a king. I mean look at him:
 

What a monster.

On that note, I end the day.

Cruise Ship

Being the middle child stinks. The middle extra girl child might I add. The eldest is my sister, first born, always the best. My older brother is the only boy, so obviously special treatment for him. My younger sis, baby of the family, leftover treatment for her.

Middle child = no treatment, just blame and things unwanted.

So, with that point in mind. After boarding the cruise ship and shuffling into our rooms, dibs were called on the beds. Me and my sister won. But after my brother complained to daddy dearest, I was given the sofa bed instead. The fake bed that was also - might i add - right next to the balcony - which was over the freakin ocean. Yeah. Good idea. Give the sofa bed to the lunatic afraid of water. If the ship was ever to sink, she'd turn rabid when the water touched her and start dunking heads under.

My pretty pink sofa bed is there in the corner.

I blurred the pic cause my bro is a dork.

My parents had the room next door, they were so happy they were separated from us. Me and my sister on the other hand, were not so happy sharing a room with a boy. The car ride was bad enough, now we have to live with him for 3 days?! If your a girl with brothers, you know the deal you get. Mountains of dirty clothes in every corner of the room, some even as we horrifyingly saw, being air-dried on the balcony, not to mention late night arrivals. He would turn the lights on full blast and blind us in our sleep.

As soon as we settled in and got comfortable, the captain made us do this stupid routine in which we put on life jackets and filed outside onto the deck to listen to him ramble. Again, middle child gets the worst life jacket. The one with throw up all over it. I would have died from unsanitary conditions before drowning.

Now whats the first thing you do after getting on the cruise ship? Unpack? What are you a loser? Explore? Nah, its FOOD! Yea, yea. I'm a twig, its fast metabolism yo. I really do like eating. The best thing about a cruise ship is the food. With no parental supervision, me and my sister scurried to the dessert table for lunch.

Chocolate Cake.

That's like dessert you would get at a 5 star restaurant. Looks delicious, doesn't it? Well it wasn't. It was dry and tasted like moldy bread. For lunch I had salad and fries practically all three days, it was delicious! My favorite things to eat.

I try and eat healthy, hence the salad.
But then I crave fries, which is junk.
They cancel each other out... BUT WHATEVER!

...The lunatic seagulls lurked on deck.

Those birds are nuts yo. More than 20 at least were swarming around. They were even there when we were in the middle of the ocean. Must have been living somewhere on the ship... They even stole food from a ladies plate when she was walking to her table. She screamed and took her cootied food inside. That'd be gross if she ate it..

There were surprises everywhere. 

 When our beds got made - these showed up!

Later we all decided to take a nap. When we woke up, we could barely see land. The sun was setting in the sky too. And let me tell you. Sunsets on the ocean in the middle of nowhere = best thing ever. It went down so fast, yet so slowly. It was like one of those moments where your're just speechless.

Breathtaking.

After the sun went down it turned pitch black and really scary. We heard some frightening grumbling noises, but then we realized it was just our stomachs - not some gigantic whale that was trying to tip the ship or anything. o_o

There were a couple different restaurants on the ship, the waiters were extremely nice. Like, beyond nice. They were so helpful and sweet I wanted to give em all hugs. Which is saying a lot; since I don't like hugging people. The ship had something like ravioli, but not. With the most best sauce ever. I had the urge to stash some in my bag, take it home, and find out the secret recipe. Dessert this time was yummy, I got an Orange Sorbet. It was delightful. I wanted seconds but mama said it was time to sleep and sugar would make me hyper. Nightmares here we come!

 Orange Sorbet

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Post-Bahama Trip

When someone mentions the word, Bahamas, what do you start thinking? Do you imagine perfect little islands, crystal clear blue water, happy sun filled days, a honeymoon couple getaway? Don't feel bad. I thought the same way too; up until the summer of 2009.

Split second decision when my dad announced "pack up kids, we're going to the Bahamas!" How would we be going? Via cruise trip. Yes. You read right. The girl that can't swim, hates water to the point that she doesn't even drink it (no lie), scarred for life after seeing titanic & jaws = was going to be sleeping in a metal boat, unsinkable (lies), on one of the fastest cruise ships out there - 3 nights in a row. Eek!

Picture perfect. That's what I imagined.

Alas. First though we must endure the lovely drive down there. 
When it comes to road trips, my 2 siblings and I, are like tiny little 
full grown monsters. My brother seemingly stuffs himself on the worst 
possible thing before a long car ride. Beans. The outcome? Suffocation.
He also plays video games the entire time on the tv in the van. 
Eats all snacks/drinks, then complains he has to use the bathroom. 
He's like a 4 year old - except add 20 years to that.

My younger sis is much better. 
She just listens to music on her ipod.
And smacks people in the face while sleeping.

I, the little angel child as you know it, sleeps the entire time. 
When Im awake (which is rare) Am a non-stop talking machine. 
You know. To keep the driver awake and sane. :)

Oh but we stopped in Miami for a bit to do a little sightseeing.
I rode in a helicopter! A small one, mind you, but still. 
Your like a freakin humming bird dude! 

Chopper ride is a must do. Mark it.
.

It's official. 

I want need to get a helicopter license.

When I get excited - words just flow out.

The pilot is trying to make sense of those words.

That 7 minute ride was awesome - was supposed to be 8... Grr.
Couple mins in the sky and you see life from a totally different view. 
And from up high it's simply amazing. I'm totally jealous of birds.

After that exciting ride we downsized to "Ripleys Believe it or Not!" 
Which was kind of boring, obviously. Couple fun things in there; 
The worlds tallest/fattest man, biggest chair and biggest tire. 
.
I tried to contain my excitement. 
.
Oh yea! We also decided to check out sky-diving!  
Its a huge tower that shoots powerfully strong winds.
Tryna make it seem real ya know. It looked like a lot of fun.
Too bad the prices were outrageous. 
I bet jumping out of a plane would have been cheaper. 
For one person the price was in the high hundreds - time? 2 minutes.

After we jogged crawled up the tower we found a 105 year old man sky-diving. Wrinkles upon wrinkles, overlapping each other. After the wind stopped we found out he was 72 years old. Damn. He's definetely living life full out! I wanna be like that.

He looked sorta like this. Except older.

Next stop? 

Checking in at the dock and boarding the cruise ship!

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Storm of the Century

Do you remember way back in '93 when we had this crazy blizzard? 
And the snow covered up everything? I remember that day. 
I woke up, opened the front door and saw--nothing. 
Well. Actually it was a blank wall of whiteness. 

 

The world as I knew it was buried in snow.

History is repeating itself. Oh noes!

Now we have evergreen trees that border our lawn from the neighbours. 
They've grown to be huge. Withstood all types of weather changes. 
Droughts, storms, you name it. But today when I walked struggled 
Through the snow to take pictures of the loveliness, nearly
Destroying my camera in the process - I found...

The trees falling over from the snow weight.

Couple days later we found the trees like this. Uprooted.

I measured the snow and it turned out to be 32 in.
I guess we're covered for the next 5 years.

Look at how buried the cars were!

One of these is the van too!

That - we shovelled till we went numb

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