Cruise Day 1 -- British Virgin Islands

Okay, technically, Day 1 was San Juan, but we've "been there, done that" already...

As you may recall, we were on the cruise (Celebrity Millennium) with our friends Joce and Rob from the neighbourhood. To avoid confusion (or thinking I'm talking about myself in the third person, I am me, and Joce (our friend) is Joce Z. Clear enough?

Day 1 - British Virgin Islands (Tortola and Virgin Gorda)

So we arrived in Road Town the morning of March 27.

After quickly saying good-bye to Rob at the ship (he went diving), Rich, Joce Z. and I, and our snorkel gear headed down to the dock to catch a ferry to Virgin Gorda. Our destination? The famous "Baths" of Virgin Gorda.

We managed to hook up with Egbert on the docks who is a private boat operator running tourists back and forth from Tortola to the Valley (our landing point in V.G.). For $35 each, we got there and back, and Rich had all the rum punch he could handle (note: do not let Rich EVER try to keep up in the rum punch department with a former professional football player. Geesh!)

Anyhow, after a lovely 30 minute boat ride, we arrived in V.G., boarded a transfer trolley and shortly found ourselves walking the Baths. Words do not do this area justice ... the area is beautiful and the snorkelling was awesome. The pictures speak for themselves.

Postcards from camp

If we have never mentioned it enough (and yes, we do refer ALL our friends there) we and Bogey love having him go to "camp" at Oak Meadows Pet Resort.

Here are some candid shots of his time at camp.

Apparently, this was supposed to be a golden retriever shot... (Bo never one to miss the excitement ...)

Bo and an english pointer ...

 

Bo and his new friend Alex ...

Handsome boy!

On terra firma

What a great vacation ... I will be posting lots over the next few days as kind of a travel journal, but suffice it to say, I already want to go back :D Number one priority? Curaçao -- the best snorkelling I have ever done (but of course, I left my water camera on the ship. D'oh!).

Bogey had a great time at camp while Raz was "vacationing" with Heather at Nuthatch. Hopefully all has gone well and we should be expecting little Raz-muffins in late May / early June. We're off to collect her on Saturday so Bogey will have a few weeks of big sister before her due date.

In like a lamb ...

out like a lion?

Bah! Who cares? We will be floating on a ship somewhere in the Caribbean.

That's right; another cruise for us! So excited as the plans come together! And our friends Joce and Rob will be aboard as well. The itinerary is: San Juan (Puerto Rico), Tortola (BVI), Sint Maarten, St. Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Curaçao, Aruba and back to San Juan.

Still waiting for the muffin-maker (ie. Razzie) to go into heat, so we will be sending her back to Heather for some quality bonding time in Georgetown. (Can you just imagine a female in heat at a kennel? I think we would be banned for life!) On the plus side, Heather's agreed to breed her on this cycle (if she goes into heat while visiting) which means we will be done with that sooner rather than later.

So the next few weeks is comprised of emptying the fridge, delivering Raz to Southern Ontario, getting our summer clothes out and packing. Can't wait to be on the ship and share our experiences with our friends via this blog.

More details available mid-April :)

February Blahs

So February has started off as a bit of a downer.

First, and most importantly, our friends Rob and Joce had to say good-bye to their old girl Bee on the weekend. This is a pic of Bee and her sister, Keeper. Bee was a super cool old girl and she did great up until her last few days. She was a true survivor and made me just fall in love with senior citizen GSPs.

RIP sweet Bee (1996-2010)


Keeper (in blue) and Bee (in yellow)

Second, my football team lost yesterday. Sigh! Now, I'm not upset up N.O. winning, 'cuz I think they are a city that could use some good news. It was just that Indy blew it on a bad pass by Peyton. Oh well. There's always next year.

Third, darn Razzie hasn't gone in to heat yet, which could throw a serious wrench into our travel plans. (Can't kennel a hot dog!) Well, we have three weeks until we start to panic!

And just one for the road, here's what Booger gets up to when he's bored.

A Tale of Two Quills

Okay, so up until now we've been pretty lucky with the dogs and the wildlife they encounter in the forest. Well today that ended.

On their run through the woods with Rich today, little madam, a.k.a Razzy, managed to spook a porcupine and get two quills in her snout for the effort. Of course, from all accounts Bo reacted exactly as a big, scary dog should -- cowering behind Dad for protection. Well, shouldn't complain -- it could have been much worse. On Christmas Eve the dogs actually found a porcupine nest. (I guess the porcupine was sleeping off too much Christmas egg nog to care about two dumb dogs.

Here's a pic of the two dogs yesterday posing before the Christmas tree (before it was unceremoniously ripped down and tossed on the curb.)

In other news, today was the first day of my new job -- I've accepted a position in our policy branch to to provide communications advice related to the assessment of our enabling legislation. As dry as that may sound, I think it will be interesting from my perspective. Much more hands on and writing. I was needing a change, and I hope this is a good one. It's a 6-month assignment, so if it's really not my cup of tea, back to the web advising gig.

New Year's Resolutions

Okay, so I'm technically 2 days late in making my resolutions ... so, obviously resolution number 1 is "don't procrastinate". And the rest:

2. Stick to my eating and exercise plans (2 days in and check, and check!)
3. Work on training my dogs to be good canine citizens (sigh! always a challenge) Most importantly: stop their darn barking at everyone who walks down the street, and greet people on four legs (must remember to read animal farm to them -- but stop before the pigs start walking on two legs).
4. Remember Roxy in only happiness.
5. Take more photos of the dogs, especially when they are playing like fool animals (currently, they are both working on old socks of Richard's... too funny!)

All right, I realize these are some pretty basic resolutions, but they always say to have achievable goals. Number 2 and 3 will be the hardest to stick, so will rely on the support of friends and family.

Most importantly, I resolve to treasure every day I have with my family (bipeds and quadpeds) and friends (who we are lucky to have in abundance), and to enjoy life.