vacation

A short essay to my fourth-grade teacher about what I did on my summer vacation*:

This summer, we went to Long Island (population 3,000), an out island in the Bahamas. We discovered many beautiful and sacluded sicluded empty beaches. Sometimes we would play on the beach without seeing anybody! We spent most of our time at Dean's Blue Hole, a sink hole that dips 633 feet a couple of meters off the beach. The man who holds the world record for the deepest free dive achieved that here.

Dean's Blue Hole

Here are some things I did at Long Island:

• ate fish I caught (namely tuna, grunt, and bonita)

Yes, that's fish blood on my shoulder. I wore that sucker's blood on my ankles, legs, and shirt. I am conqueror!

• played hide-and-go-seek with pilot, parrot, tang, yellowtail, trigger, and other random assortment of fish
• made friends with one particular fish--Danny--who liked to swim circles around me when I was still and tucked himself under me when I swam (if you're reading this, Danny--hi!)
• saw fish fly (also fish fry, but we covered that)
• survived an incident with the reptile that shall not be named (hint: it tempted Adam and Eve and God foretold that there would be animosity between it and women forever; my fears are biblical)
• tasted the best mango in the world (delivered to us by some locals from their trees on almost a daily basis; if you're ever in Long Island, I recommend the kidney mangoes)
• encountered several barracuda and lived to sing about it (All that night and all the next / Swam without looking back) 

Here I am, relaxing nonchalantly on my raft above the blue hole (you can see by the color change where it drops off into never-never land). Notice the barracuda (which I conveniently circled for you) about five feet from me. This was not the scary encounter because (1) I did not know at the time that he swam nearby (my husband neglected to mention it to me while he photographed us) and (2) I was out of the water--not snorkeling mere feet from him.

• read several books on my Kindle since the Calvin Festival (can I say how much I love Niall, my Kindle? I didn't have to cart tons--and when I say "tons," I almost mean it literally--books; watch Shelfari for upcoming reviews of my favorites)

*I wonder what Ms. Harle is doing these days? 

Here's the thing. I want to hate Disney--all the commercialization and the take-over-the-world-ization. (Seriously, just because it's a Disney movie doesn't mean it should be a Broadway musical. The world didn't need Lion King on stage.)

But I can't help myself. I loved it. I love what it does for families. So, in no particular order, here are my top 10 favorite things about Disney:

It's good to be in a land where people get you. You guys know what I mean? They understand why you crave the foods you crave or want to be the places where you want to be. They understand why you need to be by water.

Water people. That's who we are.

Note to those who don't live in Philly or South Jersey: that's pronounced wooter people.

Well, folks, I'm off to the beautiful (eh-hem) waters of Galveston for a few days to spend some time with Chris' family. (Chris is going as well.) I'm not sure if I'll have wi-fi or not (gasp! four days without my blogging buddies!). So I'll leave you for this oh-so-blue photo for Anna Carson's Project Blue.

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarly pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can." (Herman Melville, Moby Dick)

Next week, Chris and I will be on a cruise--my first ever.

Here's what I'm excited about: