Day #5 - September 6th As they say, "all good things must come to an end". I got to go to all of the places that my little heart was content to go. There was an exception to that, and it was a BIG surprise for me. I found out that the Concorde was on display in Barbados! I was excited - I had always wanted to fly on the Concorde. British Airways Concorde G-BOAE or Alpha Echo for short, was opened to visitors on April 16, 2007. Studies began in 1959 to design the Concorde. The plane was developed in [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day #4 - September 5th After my horseback ride, I had some choices for that afternoon. I could go to Bridgetown and browse the shops or I could go to Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary. I wasn't interested in buying more "dust collectors" for the house, nor am I into jewels. So, the better choice was the Sanctuary. Wise choice! The sanctuary sits on over 35 acres. It has the island's largest inland lake along with ponds and wading pools, swampy marshes and mangroves, observation huts, horticulture exhibits, and two enormous walk-through aviaries filled with brilliantly colored parrots, macaw [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day #4 - Sept 5th Today, I look forward to my horseback ride. First things first, I chowed down on some breakfast. As I walked back to my room, I snapped a picture of a lizard. I was picked up at my hotel by Bernard, owner of Ocean Echo Stables. Our ride would be on the south-eastern part of the island. The ride that I was going on is Bath Beach Riding Tour. It is a 1.5 hour ride leading down to the Atlantic coast. Once Bernard and I saddled up, we were on our merry way. We manage to see [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day #3 - Sep 4th. One of the things that I looked most forward to was swimming with the turtles and snorkeling over some ship wrecks. It was suggested that I go on a Catamaran instead of a regular powerboat. I took this cruise with Cool Running Catamaran Cruises. They will pick you up at your hotel around 8:30 or so and drive to Bridgetown to hop on your boat. From the start, the crew was incredibly friendly: cracking jokes, getting everybody on board a cocktail, and allowing us to take over the boat. It was not too crowded -- we [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day #2 - Sep 3rd. Our next stop would be St. John's Church. St. John's Parish Church is the first church of St. John that is presumed to have been a simple wooden building, but its date is unknown. The parish along with St. George, was carved out of St.Michael in 1640-1641. But successive churches were badly damaged by the hurricane of 1675, the Great Hurricane of 1780, and finally destroyed by the Great Barbados hurricane of 1831. The present church building (the fifth) was built is 1836, and the chancel added in 1876. It is the prototype of the restrained [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day #2 - Sep 3rd I can't say enough words to describe Bathsheba, it's a drive that you personally have to take. The giant rocks seemed to have grabbed my attention. If only our driver would've stopped there for a few minutes for even more grander picture taking. Our next stop was at Andromeda Gardens which are located in Bathsheba. There, we spent over an hour. It's a well worthwhile stop, especially for those who are plant and flower lovers. One could almost say that these gardens are "chained" to rock. The gardens were started in 1954 by Iris Bannochie. The [View Full Entry]

---

---

The name Barbados comes from the island’s Portuguese christening of Los Barbados, named after the bearded fig tree, which grew abundantly on the island at the time of its discovery in the 16th century. This tree is unusual in that it sends aerial roots from its branches, thus giving the impression of being bearded. The early history of Barbados goes back to 1620 when British soldiers landed on the island, what is now called Holetown. The island was uninhabited. It is believed that Arwak Indians may have lived there at one time. One fascinating piece of history, George Washington visit [View Full Entry]

---

---

Memorial Day weekend 2008. The weekend that I was coming home to see family, and take a walk down Memory Lane. An event that I was very much looking forward to, and the chance to see some family members that I hadn't seen since the mid 1980's. In our family, we have this standing joke "the family gets together for weddings and funerals". Thankfully, this weekend, wasn't either! My plane landed at Tucson International Airport. I had rented a convertible, and was looking forward to driving around in it with the top down. I was shocked to see that it was [View Full Entry]

---

---

I've always been fascinated with hot air balloons. Perhaps to some, it is another way to travel, for others, it may be for business or pleasure. Me? I guess it is both, it is a way to travel, not just physically, but mentally, and spiritually. Pleasure, ahhh, there's not enough languages in pleasure to speak of hot air balloons. I went on a hot air balloon excursion over Napa Valley in 1995. We went up a thousand or so feet, the air was still, peaceful, and calming. Every once in awhile, I could feel a bit of warm air on the [View Full Entry]

---

---

As you well know, all good things must come to an end and I have yet to figure out why vacations go so quickly and the typical work day seems to last forever. Perhaps it is because as adults we still have the child in us that wants to never quit playing. We leave Botswana and enter Zambia by the way of the Kazangula border, a point where the four countries of Botswana, Zambia, Nambia, and Zimbabwe meet. We were to stay at the Natural Mystic Lodge, however our camp was changed to Chundukwa which is located in Livingstone and a [View Full Entry]

---

---