We have always enjoy spending the Thanksgiving holiday in Captiva, Florida with family. It’s always nice to see Julie’s sister and her family and it also gives us a chance to catch up with her other cousins. If the weather cooperates, it’s also a nice way to grab just a little more summer sunshine before the reality of winter sets in. Here are a few of my favorite photos from this years trip to seashell capital of the world. You can click the ‘view more’ link below to see a slideshow of all the photos from the trip.
‘The view overlooking Castle Harbor from TPC Golf Villas’ – Tucker’s Point, Bermuda, HS
This years annual family vacation to Bermuda turned out to be one of the great ones. First off, this year we opted to do our fall financial meetings on the island, so the entire family made the trip for the week. This was a real treat for Dylan because he doesn’t get to see his cousins who live in Toronto as much as he would like. Having them all together for the week was a really nice treat. There was good food, lots of beach and pool time and we even got to enjoy a good view of the major Solar Eclipse of 2017. Click on the link below to see the first batch of photos from the trip.
‘The family getting ready for the Solar Eclipse of 2017’ – Tucker’s Point, Bermuda, HS
:: Tags: Dylan, Fun, Photo, Travel, WildlifeHanging with the dolphins at Dolphin Cay – Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas
While vacationing at the Atlantis Resort, we opted to try the park’s dolphin adventure at Dolphin Cay. They have all different levels of interaction that tourists can choose from including snorkeling or swimming with the dolphins to just watching/taking pictures while they perform tricks. For Dylan’s first time being around dolphins, we decided to go with the less intrusive shallow water touch and feel adventure. This easy and comfortable in-water experience lets you get up-close and personal with the dolphins in only 4 feet of water. This worked out well in that it gave Dylan a chance to see just how graceful and gentle these beautiful creatures are without scaring him from how powerful and aggressive they can be in open water.
I myself have been scuba diving with trained dolphins on several occasions while in both the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands, and have always done so with dive operators who allow their dolphins to come and go as they please using open sea pins. When diving with them, we are always in open water and they not confined in any way. While I sometimes have a problem seeing dolphins in captivity and being made to perform for tourists, I can only hope that they are being well cared for by their trainers and the park.
Thanks to the Americas Cup races being held in Bermuda this year, our condo at Tucker’s Point was already rented out for our normal end-of-school vacation week. So instead of booking another place on the island we decided to change thing up a bit and spend the week in the Bahamas. It’s been over ten years since we’ve been to Grand Bahama Island and since we didn’t plan on doing any shark diving on this trip we decided to do the tourist thing and hang at Paradise Island instead. This would be our first time staying at the Atlantis Resort since they completely finished the park, including the marina and Cove & Reef Condo’s in 2007.
The Reef Atlantis had some of the best reviews, so we opted for one of their deluxe suites for the week while we took in as much of the water park as we could handle. We had a fabulous week and the service at the resort was top notch! Our only gripe was that the food situation at the on-resort restaurants could have been handled better (it almost felt like you were in a chow line on a cruse ship), but we made the best of things and tried to eat out at the marina as much as possible. All in all it was a great trip and we will definitely be going back for more in the future. Here is the first installment of pictures (80 of them) from our trip to Atlantis… enjoy! (View Photos, Slideshows, Videos & More»)
Taking a selfie with Dylan on a carnival ride @ Harbor Ridge Club – Palm City, FL.
As per normal, we spent our spring Easter vacation down in Palm City, Florida with the grandparents. The private community that my wife’s parents live in always puts on an awesome grandparents weekend for all the visiting families and kids. It starts of with fun kids activities at the club, then an Easter egg hunt on the golf course and finally ends with a huge carnival on the fairway of the first hole. This is a huge event for the entire community and the kids love it. The food is great and the adults can indulge in an adult cocktail while chasing the little ones around between the different rides and booths. My favorite part of the weekend is the Sunday morning brunch at the club. They have a huge all you can eat buffet with everything you could think of and their Bloody Mary’s are to die for! (View Photos, Slideshows, Videos & More»)
Dylan manning the rudder of the ‘Godspeed‘ – Historic Ship Museum, Jamestown, VA.
For this years annual family retreat and vacation we wanted to take in a little American history, so we decided to do the tourist thing in Colonial Williamsburg and Historic Jamestown Virginia. I visited this historic town years ago with my family when I was just a child and I thought it would be a nice way to introduce Dylan to some of our country’s early history. I’m not a history buff by nature, but I do enjoy going back in time, so to speak, and remembering the things my high school history teacher us to try to implant into my brain about this early period in American history. Seeing how well everything has been preserved and the attention to detail in the way the tours are run really make you proud to be in such a historic place.
Aside from doing the normal tourist thing and walking for miles through all the little shops and houses, we also spent an evening having a traditional Colonial-style dinner at the King’s Arms Tavern in the historic colony. They do a great job of putting on a show for the patrons and the food is excellent. Every detail, from the early 18th-century building and old original wooden floors to the servers in traditional colonial costumes, truly makes you feel as though you have traveled back in time for the evening. Jamestown was also a lot of fun except for the part where Dylan got attacked by a rouge roster at the old fort. Thankfully I was close by and was able to grab it and kick it away before it had a chance to hurt him. (View Photos, Slideshows, Videos & More»)
08/24/2016 – “A rainy day and a beach day” – Tucker’s Point Club, Bermuda, HS.
As promised, here are some videos from our trip to beautiful Bermuda. The highlight of this trip would have to be our last day which we spent snorkeling at Castle Island. Dylan did such a great job snorkeling with us on the reef! He is really becoming quite the little ‘Aquaman‘ or as Julie would say… a mini-me! (View Photos, Slideshows, Videos & More»)
“Dylan and Dad snorkeling just off the beach” – Castle Island, Bermuda
As I said in my previous post, we didn’t have the best of weather this week, but our last day turned out to be perfect… for snorkeling that is! Here are some photos from our boat trip over to Castle Island for a day of snorkeling on the reef and in the shallows of Castle Harbour. I hope to post some videos of our adventures soon! (View Photos, Slideshows, Videos & More»)
“Finally a beautiful sunny day to enjoy some snorkeling” – Castle Island, Bermuda
The second half of our week was also mixed as far as the weather went, but we made the best of it and spent one of the rainy days sightseeing with Carlyta at the Crystal Caves. We did have some good days hanging out at the pools drinking margaritas and watching the sun poke in and out of the clouds. I really don’t think anyone would have complained too much about the situation at hand, especially seeing it from our point of view.
On our last day, the wind finally died down and we where able to rent a boat and head over to Castle Island beach for some snorkeling. Carlyta told us she had never been snorkeling before and this would be one activity she would really like to try, so I’m happy the weather laid back enough for us to make it happen. Dylan has also become quite the little ‘Aquaman’ over the summer and he showed his skills on an hour long swim snorkeling around Castle Island reef. I’ll add another post later on with more photos and even some video from our snorkeling adventure to Castle Island. (View Photos, Slideshows, Videos & More»)
“Enjoying a nice dinner out at the Beach Club” – Tucker’s Point Club, Bermuda
Our second trip of the season to beautiful Bermuda would also be a less than perfect one due to mother nature. With several storms in the Atlantic, we would have a chance of on and off rain showers just about every day while on the island, but we were determined not to let this get us down. We’ve had such good luck with the weather in past years that it’s hard to get too upset about having one or two wet and windy weeks here… after all, we are still in paradise. This trip we brought along our son’s nanny Carlyta, who helped out with Dylan and also enjoyed relaxing with us on the beach and at the pools.
The weather didn’t turn out to be as bad as expected, so our day outing to St. Georges, Alexandra Battery Park and Sea Glass Beach went very well. Tilman Fertitta’s amazing $40 million motor yacht ‘Boardwalk’ was tied up at the cruse ship dock on Ordnance Island in St. Georges and we got to see her depart Bermuda while at Sea Glass Beach. We also managed to get down to the Dockyards for some shopping, sightseeing and of course lunch at one of our favorite spots… The Frog & Onion Pub. When it did rain it poured… but that would turn out to make for some great sunset photography! (View Photos, Slideshows, Videos & More»)
