Practice-run

Today we packed and weighed everything.  Then we re-packed and re-weighed several times to get all the gear, food and a little bit of clothing balanced into six suitcases without busting the 50 pound weight limit on any individual bag.  In all, it looks to be about 270 pounds of outbound stuff!

A majority of the gear filling out suitcases is scuba diving equipment that we will use while diving for four days with Brendal.  This will be Bridget’s third year as a certified diver, Austin’s fourth.  We’ll each carry our regulators in our carry-on luggage and check the rest of the luggage straight through from DFW to TCB.  

Re-confirm Everything

This week we sent and received emails to re-confirm our arrival time and dock with Maria from Island Property Management and our cart rentals with Marilyn at Seaside Carts.  Everything is set!

In all the years of traveling to GTC, I have never had a bad experience where they “forgot” or “lost” my reservation.  I can’t say the same for the times that I have reserved rental cars or hotel rooms in the States!

American Airlines – We’ll keep you guessing

Leave early and arrive on the island in time for lunch?   That’s like getting a BONUS day of vacation!

At the time that the flights were first booked on AA, we departed DFW at 5:45 AM and were scheduled to arrive TCB 11:45 AM the same morning.  That’s sure worth getting up early for!

Now that we are a few days from departure, I needed to re-check my travel schedule on-line to discover that AA has changed the schedule.  We still leave DFW on that same early flight, but the lay-over in Miami now allows ample time to eat breakfast, and lunch, prior to a scheduled 2:55 arrival in TCB.

Upon closer inspection, I also discovered that AA took the time to re-pick our seat assignments on the DFW-MIA & MIA-DFW flight segments.  So much for the luxury of the extra legroom of the exit row seats we were bumped out of.

If the flights are anything close to on time, still not a bad travel schedule.

Happy Mother's Day! (& Father's Day)

Mom got a cool new camera for Mother’s Day.  (Also Dad’s Father’s Day gift)

The GoPro Hero 2 is just like the cameras that the professionals use to capture the action shots on shows like The Deadliest Catch.  It is very small and the case is very rugged.  By this summer this camera is also supposed to have a feature that lets you live stream to an iPhone/iPad via Wifi. 

Can’t wait to see what kind of video we might capture with this little camera.

Post Trip Follow-up:  The video and photos taken underwater with the supplied housing were a real disappointment as they appear to be out of focus.  On researching this problem, I have since learned that a different flat lens housing is required for in-focus use underwater, part #AFLTH-001.

Check Dive

Mother’s Day morning was spent at Clear Springs Scuba Park where we did a dive to make sure that the scuba gear is in good working order after its annual service and to get us all re-acquainted with our gear.

The scuba park was extra crowded today with people taking certification classes.  We did our best to avoid the crowd and dove down around near an airplane fuselage that acts as a curiosity for divers and a hangout for fish.  We didn’t stay deeper than 25’ for very long due to the cold water below the thermocline.

Practicing in cold water with limited visibility is good for practice diving in poor conditions, but the clear, warm water in the Bahamas is much more enjoyable!

Meal planning - Part of the fun

This year we’ll be a party of six, including Grandpa & Grandma, Mom & Dad, and the two kids.

As in past years, we will be bringing a majority of our food & supplies with us for the nine-night stay.  Some people think that this is totally crazy, but we actually think that it is part of the fun as it causes us to start to really think about the trip months ahead of time.  We focus on meals that travel easily and are easy to prepare (pastas, rice, dried potato’s).   The meats and several appetizers (humus, cream cheese dips) are pre-cooked and frozen for the trip.  Frozen pineapple juice concentrate is a great rum-mixer!

We save our meal-plans from year-to-year and take notes of what we had, or didn’t have during our prior visits.  We also take note of what’s available locally, including planning several meals around the seafood that just tastes better on the island. 

Some of the meals this year include:

Breakfasts:

Oatmeal

French Toast (made with coconut bread)

Lunches:

Left-overs & local fare (Two Shorty’s is high on our list!)

Dinners:

Jambalaya

Linguini & sausage

Pre-cooked Fajita Beef & Rice

Corn Chowder

Ham & Scalloped Potato’s

Pork roast & stuffing

Local fish!

Birthday Present

This year’s birthday present is a Nikon AW-100 underwater camera.  It is a replacement for the Cannon D10 camera that swallowed too much salt-water during the 2011 trip.

Nikon AW-100