#TT picture

Travel Tuesday is upon us again and this time I am taking us to the Oregon Coast; Cannon Beach to be exact.
This beach town is quiet and quaint with eccentric art and glass blowing galleries, surf shops and an extremely walkable beach, especially when the tide is out.

The Pacific Ocean is cold though — not much swimming goes on here, even on warm days, but its hard to resist wading in and looking for the many starfish and sand dollars.

Seaside and Astoria are nearby towns that cannot be missed if traveling the Oregon Coast. Seaside has the arcade games, the rides and tourist shops that don’t quite fit the higher end theme Cannon Beach represents. Astoria is a logging town, very blue collar, but touristy in its own right as it is where much of the movie Goonies was filmed.

Cannon Beach is recognized instantly by images of the picture I am attaching: Haystack Rock.
In the old days you could climb on it, or even in it when the tide was way out. Now climbing is prohibited but just getting close to the rock is an experience not easy to duplicate.

Today’s Travel Tuesday photo takes me back to Belize… Caye Caulker to be exact. Here I happened upon some sort of unofficial cat hangout. Aside from the few cats you see in this shot, there were about 10 more lurking around. I love the one approaching the camera. The cats followed Caye (pronounced ‘key’) Caulker’s slogan of “go slow”. They, and everything else on this island off of mainland Belize-including me, operated on island time (read: slow motion).

Now is the perfect time to go to Caye Caulker as their Lobster Fest begins June 15th and runs through July. Lobster is abundant locally here so the prices are far less than you’d expect to pay.

If you need a place to stay, Amanda’s Place is one to look into. You will feel like you are staying at a friend’s house (a nice friend that is clean and considerate). The rooms are not too crowded nor too spacious and there is a pool just steps from your door.

Caye Caulker is 5 miles long and very pedestrian friendly–especially since there are no cars allowed and can only be reached by water taxi from Belize City or Ambergris Caye. It is situated 1 mile west of the 2nd largest reef in the World: the Belize Barrier Reef. Rent your diving or snorkeling gear at Frenchie’s- or even get certified here to scuba.

The reef is protected as a reserve and therefore is quite clean and full of colorful sea-life. While there, I swam with (and petted) Nurse sharks, friendly turtles and eagle rays.

Here is a pic of me with one of those friendly turtles.

Get there and be prepared to acclimate quick into relaxation mode!

Today’s Travel Tuesday picture is in honor of Memorial Day which occurred yesterday here in the States. It is a day of remembrance for all who have served or currently serve our country in the military. The focus of today’s post is more of a time-Travel Tuesday post that focuses on a man, instead of a place. This man is a military hero I never had the chance to meet: my grandfather, Grant Wahlquist.

Grant served in the Korean War and WWII where he received a Purple Heart among other medals. After his service he was a school principal in Washington State and a husband and father to 3 children (my dad being one).

Grant died of a heart attack at 45 when my dad was just 11. I have heard many stories about this man and my dad always spoke of him — making my siblings and I feel like we did know our grandfather–and we hoped, he knew us.

my grandfather back row, 2nd from left on his war time basketball team.

my grandfather with his kids, holding his new baby (my aunt Julie). My dad is the shorter boy standing in front of my uncle Jeff.

Two Tuesdays in a row now in the great city of New York it has been rainy and dreary.
No me gusta! Last week I posted a photo to help me escape from the rain. Today I am embracing this spring weather by celebrating the rain and the green landscape it produces!

This photo was taken in Central Park a couple of years ago around this time–on a rainy day.

It’s a pretty dreary day here today so I am posting the photo that takes me to my happy place–a newly discovered one located in Jost van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. Just a little to the right of that pink roofed house, laying in the sand on a nearly empty beach with the warm waves gently rolling over me. Ahhhhh.

Wow-Tuesday came around fast this week!! Sorry for posting a day late, but here is this weeks Travel Tuesday photo!

While in Belize a few years ago I had the experience of witnessing this boat sail (barely) into the vicinity of population near the hotel I was staying. The boat passengers: 12 Cuban residents roaming the ocean for 16 days, with little to no navigation capabilities and minimal water.

All 12 people survived, but were severely dehydrated and weak. The makeshift sails (on what clearly was a row boat modified to try and withstand high waves) were detached and torn and the floatation devices strapped to the sides, to help keep the boat from tipping, were actually old tire inner-tubes patched with materials that looked to have come from a bike tire patch kit. Inside the small boat were only a few signs that life had existed: scattered empty water bottles, a few blue tarps and some random black dress socks.

This is not the first incident of Belize welcoming Cuban’s escaping to freedom– Belize seems to be on the path of the ocean current from Cuba. The Belize people aid the refugees that survive these trips–they do not send them back or notify Cuban authorities.

It was a very interesting moment of contemplation for me. I couldn’t imagine being in the situation of boarding a rickety boat, leaving all of my possessions, my country, my friends and family behind–risking my life hoping to survive to start a new life. Whenever I feel that my life is not going the way I want it to–I look at this photo and remember how fortunate I am.

It is Tuesday and in Twitter land and on this site it is known as Travel Tuesday. Today’s photo was taken a few Julys ago in Alaska.

The Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau.

If you tweet as I do, you know that Tuesday on Twitter is Travel Tuesday (#TT)! Friends and colleagues that follow each other tweet great travel sites to follow, articles and pictures that are travel related.

On Tuesdays I will be posting a picture I snapped from my own travels or from some of my very talented twitter friends! Enjoy!

Today’s #TT picture was taken in the main shopping district in Old Town Panama City, Panama at a general department store. Along with backpacks, cooking supplies and household items you can see front and center a variety of machetes to suit all of your… machete needs.