What's Up Wednesday- Return from the Islands!!

Return from the Islands!

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up.  Should you wish to join, check out Jaime's or Erin's lovely blogs and sign up with the link widget at the bottom of the post.

WHAT I'M READING

One of the best things about going on vacation, time to read! Started with THE WINNER'S CURSE by Marie Rutkoski. Loved it! Perfect vacation reading. Plus any book that can keep me up reading past midnight after snorkeling, hiking in the rainforest and going night kayaking...yeah, that's a winner. I also read LIFE AS WE KNEW IT by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I love survival stories and having to survive after a meteorite hits the moon and changes global, well Everything...very cool premise. Eventually, I ran out of new downloads and re-read ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS (needed something lighter after surviving the apocalypse) and ON THE ISLAND (seemed appropriate, albeit a somewhat non-realistic take on island survival) (And for the last time: Bats do NOT get stuck in your hair! Drives me batshit crazy (get it? Haha.) every time someone puts that in a book. What can I say, Biologist woes) 

WHAT I'M WRITING

Nada. But a week of island hopping recharged my batteries in a huge way and I'm brimming with ideas and ready to tackle everything.

WHAT WORKS FOR ME

Taking vacations. I should do that more often. Both Boy Chris and I were surprised at how good it felt to totally disconnect for over a week. We've been in a news vacuum. Seriously, the World could of ended and we wouldn't have known. But wow, do I feel great!

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO 

Man, I don't even know where to start!!! It might be because we haven't taken a vacation in Forever, but this was the best freakin' vacation!! We had an absolute blast! It was perfect in so many ways. I guess I'll just have to hit the highlights, because otherwise this blog would be pages and pages.(and you all would be begging me to shut up) Our flight didn't get in until past midnight, so we haven't downloaded all our photos, but I'll post a few. We'll post more later and of course on all our other blogs. (Have I mentioned lately that I have too many blogs?!!)

◆     We chartered a sailboat and went island hopping (top photo). We visited some uninhabited islands with fantastic snorkeling and swam in the clearest, bluest water I've ever seen! We've been trying to find the perfect word to describe that color. Azure? Tourmaline? You could seen the bottom, 60 feet down, clear as day.

◆    Holy crap, the Bioluminescent Bay was amazing! And we got to do it on my actual birthday! We get some bioluminescense here, but nothing like that! We went night kayaking in it and then jumped in for a swim. Imagine every movement of your hands and feet creating a comet streak of tiny blue lights in the water. It's like the water is made of stars. And every time you move you create more stars! We were all laughing and splashing and at one point I think I screamed, "This is the best birthday EVER!" (Like a total dweeb) (Which resulted in a couple of French dudes on the kayak trip singing Happy Birthday to me in French while trying to dunk me in the water) It's probably on the video. Which is mostly audio because it was impossible to get a good shot in the total darkness and our water camera konked out at some point. Which is too bad because there were also glowing comb jellies that flashed bright blue when you touched them. We were trying to catch one, but it totally freaks you out when they flash like that. So you end up dropping them because holy crap that thing just went supernova in my palm!

◆   Other highlights: Rainforest hiking, diving and snorkeling every waking moment, deserted beaches all to ourselves, the almost-deafening sounds of frogs at night, STARS!, a milkyway so bright that you forgot that the milkyway looked like that outside of magazines!, driving on the left-hand side of the road and not hitting a mongoose, the sound all the fish make underwater & watching sea turtles swimming at night at the Pier.

*Okay, for some reason it's cutting off the snorkeling photos (blerg). You can either click the link or I'll post more later. 

I missed you guys! What have you been up to?