How to drive in Bonaire?

Ok so here's a little game I thought we would play...you see one of the first things that James and I had to learn here (at 5am and running on 23hrs with no sleep mind you) was how to drive the streets of Bonaire. After much debate and a few wrong turns we finally figured out what some of these crazy road signs mean. I thought I would see how many of these road signs you can figure out...I will number them and then you can leave a comment with a guess for what each sign means...the person with the most is the winner! Good luck!
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Ok so there you have it...make sure to leave a comment with your guess and we will check back and see how you are all doing after we arrive home!

Some Bonaire Scenery

Well a lot has happened since we last updated...on Thursday I went on my first night dive and got to see what it was like in the ocean at night. I went with the instructor that we had met down here and I have to admit I was a bit...OK very nervous to go on this dive but I am ABSOLUTELY happy that I did it! Our dive started off with an eagle ray swimming by and although we didn't see any octopus swimming around or anything like that it was just amazing to see what a difference there is at night. We had two big tarpon that followed us around also and would hunt in our flashlights to look for the little fish that we saw...that was scary at first to have those big fish so close but then you just get used to them being there. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any pictures at night but atleast I will have the memories to last!

I thought everyone might be getting a little tired (not that I can imagine why) of our ocean pics so we are throwing in a few pictures of scenery around here as well. Don't worry though, there are still a few fish pictures to go along with it! Tomorrow (Saturday) is our last day on the island and since we are not able to dive tomorrow we have decided to rent a boat and to go Klein Bonaire (an island/beach nearby) and spend the day there on the beach relaxing and reading and maybe do a little snorkling too. We will try to do one more update before we leave the island...we leave for Atlanta on Sunday morning and will arrive back in Knoxville on Monday.

OK so I guess we don't have as many "scenery" pictures as I thought on this camera...the rest are on the big camera and we can't upload those until we get back to the states....but i'm sure you all will enjoy this picture of my nice pedicure on the beach!

A sea cucumber

This was a new fish that we saw today...I think it is called a white-spotted filefish

We got to see our first "shipwreck" today too...it was pretty neat to see all the stuff that has grown on the boat.

A few tarpon...these guys were huge and the same kind of fish that were following us on the night dive as well

A few squid...these guys are really neat to see the way that they swim

Two happy campers after a great last dive for the week!

Greetings from under the sea

Anna and I completed our 3rd day of diving in Bonaire today. We did our first unguided dive with just the two of us today. It was a great experience. You definetly have to be a good dive buddy for each other. I think I have the best dive buddy in the world. :)

This is our marking we used when we descended into the blue. It kind of looks like two sea horses kissing. It is always good to find a navagation point to reference when its time to go up.

We stayed shallow on this dive only going to about 3o feet but were rewarded with a majestic beast. A spotted Eagle Ray came to within about 5 feet from us. I think he even wanted to get closer, but that was close enough for me.

This I think is a really near picture. It is of a trumpet fish who is eating things off of coral. It kind of reminds me of a a hummingbird getting nectar with its long snout.

This is a great photo of a trunk fish hanging out.

We have had a great time scuba diving. I have realized though that scuba diving sure does make you hungry. The local pizza joint is open tonight and we are about to go tear us up some good ole pizza.

Hope all is well with everyone who reads this.

Talk to you all soon. Continue to check out the blog.

My First Day As An Underwater Photographer!

On our first day the instructor Bas took all the pictures so that James and I could concentrate on getting comfortable with the area and with our bouyancy. Today however it was my turn to have a little bit of fun with the camera so here are a few pictures that we took under the water today! As you can see I had to start out with a self portrait of course but here are a few more...

My wonderful husband and dive buddy!

Not quite sure why this one turned up side ways on here but he was a cool fish who kinda followed us along most of our first dive today so he had to make the blog!

These are one of my favorite fish called trunk fish.

Just thought this was a neat looking picture with the coral and fish

The long one in the middle is called a trumpet fish...another one of my favorites

These are two sergeant major fish...and yes I have become a bit obsessed with learning the names of all the fish that we see!

I just thought this was a cool picture...reminded me of the ones that we took in Roatan, Hondurras also!

And last but not least James thought I should put on the blog that we tried some local food yesterday. Our dive instructor took us to a local restaurant where James had some Carribean chicken and I tried out the local goat stew...and I gotta say it was pretty darn good too! Not sure i'd ever eat it again, but it was fun to try while we were here!

The diving has begun!

We have officially completed our first day of diving here in Bonaire and it was amazing! The first dive was at a site called "invisible" and it was beautiful looking at all the fish and just watching them was so neat. I saw an eagle ray off in the distance and we also saw some little garden eels and a bunch of other beautiful fish! We then went to have lunch with the dive master we were diving with, Bas. He has been really great and has also been giving us lots of information about the island while we are here!



Our 2nd dive was at a place called "something special" and we definitely saw a lot of special things. We were on the hunt for a frog fish which Bas had seen at this site a few days before but were unable to find it this time. Even though we didn't find the frog fish we were able to see an octopus, some squid, a seahorse, and a baracuda...definitely some special creatures!
This is one of the angelfish that we saw...there are several diffierent kinds and I think this one is called a gray angelfish.

The octopus that we saw all curled up in a hole next to some brain coral...he is sleeping right now because this was during the day. I didn't even know that this was an octopus until Bas filled me in after the dive!


This is the red seahorse that we found at the end of our dive!
We also have a few videos to upload that were taken but I think we will have to put those on next post as youtube is giving me some trouble! Off to our 2nd day of diving...wish us luck!

BON BINI!

Well as you can see we made it safely to Bonaire at 4:30am this morning but the last 48hours have been crazy to say the least! Where to begin...we closed on our house late on Thursday and were thankfully able to get almost everything moved in on Friday after having the carpet cleaned, Direct TV installed, CPI installed, and the appliances installed...as if that weren't enough to ware us out, here is what we did next! Lets see i'm just gonna give like a "play by play" here...

*Finished moving about 10pm Friday night

*Packed for Bonaire

*Went to bed about 1am

*Woke up at 6:30am

*Drove to Atlanta airport...a 4 1/2 hour trip that turned into 6 1/2 hours with accidents on the road

*Almost missed our flight to Newark but thankfully it was delayed

*Sat in Atlanta airport for an hour and a half before bording the plane

*Sat on the airplane for another hour because of weather delays in Newark

*Made it to Newark at 8:15pm and had a layover there until our next flight at 11:55pm

*Left Newark for Bonaire at 11:55pm

*Arrived in Bonaire at 4:30am, went through customs, got luggage, and checked in with rental car

*Drove around Bonaire from approximately 6am until noon (still no sleep mind you) because that was when we could check in

*Spent $95 on groceries that would have cost about $30 in the states

*FINALLY checked into our room and getting ready to shower and crawl into bed after being up for about 30 hours straight

Now if THAT doesn't make you tired, I don't know what will! Needless to say it has been a crazy trip but the waters in Bonaire are absolutely amazing and we will have more pics to update with later on today or tomorrow, i'm just to lazy to get the card out of the other camera right now! Our first scuba diving trip is tomorrow also, going to do 2 dives in the morning so hopefully I will have my first underwater pictures with my new camera to update with as well!

Babies all around...

James and I have had a very busy weekend trying to get all packed up and ready for the big move in less then a week! We were lucky to get to spend a little time with friends though and see some of the cutest babies that God has created! On Friday our small group had a get together and there are two sweet new members to our group, Judah and Alice. While we were there cooking out and having a good time with friends James was able to hold a baby for the first time...I was surprised that it was his first time ever holding a baby that small but he did a great job!

Our friends Kris and Melissa also had their baby girl on Friday night and her name is Shawna Rae...she is just precious and we got to see her when they came home from the hospital today. Both James and I were able to hold her and it looks like we are becoming quite the natural baby holders...wonder how we would do with one of them all night though!

Here is a picture of the new family!

We had a hard time choosing what music to put with this post but I decided on "You Are My Sunshine" since that is the song my Dad always used to sing to me when I was just a little baby like these two! :)