Bermuda Vacation 2011

And then Dylan says…”flip me over in an hour or if you happen to smell flesh burning.”

The more time we spend in Bermuda, the more we want to go back… go figure! It’s one of those places’s that you just can’t seem get enough of no matter how hard you try! This trip we brought along our son’s nanny Stephanie, to help look after him and give Julie and I a chance to possibly do some diving or play a couple rounds of golf. I must say, it was another beautiful week in paradise and Dylan had the beach bum look really working for himself by the time we had to leave. I’ll add some videos from our trip later, but until then here are the best-of-the-best trip photos to hold you over… enjoy!

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The Hockey Hall Of Fame

During our last visit to Toronto to see family, Julie and I decided to venture into the city to check out the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame. Here are a few photos from the tour including one of yours truly with the crown jewel of hockey… Lord Stanley’s Cup!

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Panoramic Photography – Bermuda

Panoramic view of Castle Harbor from our Golf Villa at Tucker’s Point

I recently picked up a new Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H55 camera as a light weight alternative to my large Nikon DSLR. I love the photo quality I get with the larger DSLR cameras, but having to lug them around all the time with an array of different lenses can be a bit much. So after looking at the reviews I purchased the Sony as a take-everywhere pocket camera… and so far I love it!!

Panoramic view of the Atlantic at the Tucker’s Point Beach Club

The Sony DSC-H55 is a 14.1 mega pixel camera that also captures full 1080p HD video and stores it on SD-HC flash cards for easy uploading. One of the features I’m just starting to get use to is the ‘sweep panorama’ mode which takes several pictures as you sweep the camera from left to right and then stitches them together for you. This cuts out another editing process and thus makes shooting panoramic photography easier and more fun. Here are a couple of sample photos that I took while in Bermuda last month… enjoy, there will be more to come!

Fort St. Catherine & St. George’s

Fort St. Catherine – St. George’s Parish, Bermuda

We took a cab up to the town of St. George’s today to take a tour of one of the few British Fort on the island that I haven’t seen… Fort St. Catherine. The Fort was originally built in 1614 and is not only the oldest fort on the island, but is one of the biggest as well. It was first built by Governor Richard Moore to defend Gates Bay where the colonists landed. It has been built upon many times over the years and where it started out as a simple watch tower in the early 1600′s it is defiantly one of my favorite forts on the island to date!

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An Early Bermuda Getaway

Our little Dylan eyeing Julie’s frozen margarita… the answer is NO!

Spring time in Bermuda is always fantastic and this year would prove to be no different. One nice spin on this years early vacation would be the celebration of Dylan’s second trip to the Island. Now that he’s a little older and much more mobile, we will get to see how he reacts to the huge sand box known as the beach. The last time he was here he had a major fit every time Julie or I tried to put him down in the sand. Since then, Julie has spent a great deal of time working with him in the sand box at our local playground. Hey, he’s my son… he’s got to love the beach, right!!

I’ll try to post some videos from the trip when time permits, but for now, we hope that the Lightbox photo gallery will hold you over… Enjoy!!

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Easter In West Palm

Dylan enjoying some family time in the pool – Easter vacation in West Palm, Florida

For all the Dylan fans out there… here’s another Lightbox Gallery filled with photos of your favorite little dude! I will be posting more galleries soon featuring Master Dylan’s most recent travels and adventures… Enjoy!

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Thanksgiving In Captiva…

Dylan day-dreaming in his floaty at the pool – South Seas Island Resort, Captiva

Every other year we try to make the trip down to Captiva Florida to spend the Thanksgiving Holiday with Julie’s family and all of her Cousins, Nieces and Nephews. It’s always a nice time getting together with Julie’s immediate family, but being able to get the entire family together in one place like this every two years is truly special. What made this year even more special was that there would be a new member added to the family reunion… little Dylan! Not only would this be Dylan’s first trip to Florida, but more importantly it would be the first time that Dylan would get to meet Julie’s Cousins and their children.

Julie, Dylan and I wanted to say thank you to everyone for a wonderful week! We look forward to getting together with everyone again soon, but until then please keep in touch. I’ve added some photos from the weeks events to this post… and yes, I know that most of them are of Dylan, but honestly… what did you expect?!

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Dylan’s First Bermuda Trip!

When my wife and I first decided to try having children, we made a pat with one another, that we would do our best not to let parenthood infringe upon our need to travel and our passion for scuba diving. Well… I guess one out of two isn’t bad! At first, I think I was most worried about just trying to travel with a small child. You hear horror stories all the time about a small child screaming the entire flight and pissing off the other passengers or how you have to pack three times as much stuff when you travel with children… you know… just in case?!

Dylan’s first day at the beach… ever! – Tucker’s Point Beach Club, Bermuda

There’s no wonder that a lot of families just don’t bother to travel anymore after having kids… No doubt, it’s a lot of work, but I really didn’t want us to fall into that category no matter what! So, not to long after Dylan was born, Julie and decided to make plans for a experimental trip to one of our favorite getaway spots… the island of Bermuda. Julie and I visit the island quite often, so not only do we know our way around, but we also know what to expect once we get there. And to top that off, it’s only a two plus hour flight from DC… so even if we found it overwhelming trying to manage a child on the plane at least it wouldn’t be long before we were back on solid ground.

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The Macy’s Day Parade 2009!

This past Thanksgiving, Julie and I traveled to New York City to spend the holiday weekend with her family and take in some of the sights of the city. One of the highlights of this trip would be a front row seat at the starting line of the Macy’s Day Parade! Julie’s sisters place is a half a block from the starting point of the parade at 77th street and Central Park West, so since neither one of us had ever seen the parade live before (and we happened to be in the neighborhood)  we decided to check it out first hand. Wow… looks like everyone else in the city had the same idea!! I’ve added some photos from the event, but I have not had a chance to add captions yet. As you look through the photos keep in eye out for the one’s with Cindy Lauper… she was on the pink castle float! Enjoy…!!! (View Photos & More»)

The Cayman Islands… Revisited!

Okay, so it’s been almost a year! That doesn’t mean that I’ve totally forgotten about it… it just means I’ve been a little busy!! Forgotten about what, you ask?! Well for those of you who don’t know where this is going let me bring you up to speed. In September of last year, Julie and I put together a dive trip to Grand Cayman for ourselves and a couple of friends of ours who had just finished their open-water scuba certification course.

It would be their first time diving in ‘true’ open-water and they asked me if I thought Grand Cayman would be a nice spot to break in their dive logs. My response… “Why hell yeah… there’s great diving in Cayman!!” Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter, we took our good friends Chris and Val to Grand Cayman for a week of excellent weather and better than average diving on Cayman’s North Wall. (View Photos & More»)