‘Dylan at the end of another great beach day’ – Tucker’s Point Beach Club, Bermuda
As promised, here is the second installment of photos from our most recent family getaway to Bermuda. I’ve been doing a lot of landscape photography lately and trying to capture some different styles of both the sunset and seascape theme. I’ve also been working on using shadows more in my images, but that doesn’t always work out well when taking random photos with a cellphone. It might be time for a cellphone upgrade. Click the link below to see 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
‘Dylan all decked out for our neighborhood July 4th Parade’ – Arlington, VA.
As we all know, Julie and Dylan are always up for decorating when it comes to a holiday… and the July 4th holiday celebration is one that we all enjoy! Here are some photos form our neighborhood July 4th Parade that our local Arlington fire station puts together every year. Dylan likes to ride his bike in the parade with his friends, so we try to get there early enough that he can get up on the front row for the start.
There is one thing about my wife that is a constant… she is always searching for and finding new and adventurous things for Dylan to try. This started out as a way to find engaging camps and activities to keep Dylan busy during the summers while he’s out of school. In many cases, Julie and I have found that jumping in and engaging with Dylan in these extra curricular outdoor activity is not only a great bonding experience, but it’s also just a whole lot of fun!
Dylan on the tree top ropes course at ‘Go Ape Adventures’ – Springfield, VA.
This weekend we ventured out to a tree top ropes course in Springfield, VA that Julie found called ‘Go Ape Adventure’. It was the first time Dylan had tried anything like and turns out he was a natural. He flew through the junior course in record time and was advanced to the intermediate course before our time slot ended. He says the next time he comes back, he wants to try the advanced course, which is all the way at the top!
:: 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»)
The Fox Class getting ready for a relay race – Palisades Park, Washington, DC.
Every spring the River School has a fun filled day of outdoor activities at the Field School to celebrate the end of the school year. This year the school decided to hold the event at the Palisades Park instead. It was a perfect day for the event and all the kids had a blast competing against their fellow classmates and the teachers. Here are a couple of pictures from the event. (View Photos, Slideshows, Videos & More»)
Here are a couple of pictures from Dylan’s school soccer team which he played on for one season. His current school doesn’t have any sports teams, so some of the parents from his class put together a Saturday morning soccer team to compete in the DC Stoddard Soccer League. I think this gave him just enough exposure to team sports to get him interested and I know he really enjoyed playing with his classmates. Hopefully he will continue to participate in competitive team sports and become more of a team player in the future.
Our finished backyard living space & in-ground spa – Arlington, VA.
After months and months of work, our backyard overhaul and remodeling project is finally complete. We went slightly over budget for this project, but we feel that the extra costs were worth it. Some of the upgrades included recessed lighting, new gates, a large stone walkway and a dedicated stone equipment pad. We also upgraded our deck with the newest Zuri wood composite decking and custom powder coated iron railings. We couldn’t be more pleased with how the project turned out… and we absolutely love our new spa! This is the final installment of photos for our backyard project… enjoy! (View Photos, Slideshows, Videos & More»)
This year we celebrated Mother’s Day once again at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC. As in years past, this has become a favorite gathering place for our family to celebrate the mothers in our lives. We are all very happy that we can come together each year in such a wonderful place for such an important holiday. Happy Mother’s Day everyone!
