Monday, January 28, 2008

Some New Happenings

Hi all! Ok both of you that read this blog..LOL Seriously, I was happy to get a couple of notes saying that there are some folks out there that read this drivel.

Hijacking today’s post –kind of- away from my travel fever to business ok monkey business, but something fun for me.

I have been bantering about an idea for some logo wear for fun.
After a few weeks of dinking around a new logo has been created and am in process of getting it digitized. For those who know me, this logo matches me perfectly, it incorporates many of the things I find fun and adventuresome in the Caribbean!!!

I figured that I will get it on a couple of caps as well as some shirts to wear for our vacation in April. No sense wearing someone else’s logo when I can wear my own. I could actually see possibly marketing this one so I grabbed a new domain to host a site with the plan to some day market the likes of logo merchandise and some photography work with even more ideas yet to come. I’m not greedy just having fun and decided that if I like the Caribbean so much I might as well find myself a way to connect visiting the islands and business. I am not investing much in this, and truly don’t expect it to go any where but who knows. It is fun and keeps me out of trouble. Fun and out of trouble was the premise for my website http://www.AXARob.com as well as this blog, so this isn’t too much of a reach for me to venture out to something new past that.

It keeps me thinking about new ideas and adventures. I soon will be getting my hands on the high end Adobe photoshop software to edit pix. Have the domain; logo, means of logo reproduction and a name for the site now will have to develop a new webpage. That will be fun as the one I have now was pretty easy. I will also have to find a way to accept credit cards and need a virtual host for business transactions. All fun activities to me!!!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

It’s Winter here but …… Things are warming up!!

This week KC is in a deep freeze. Not as bad as some other places but for KC it is freaking cold.

Things are coming along very well for our April trip! Friend has booked his flights. We wont be flying together but all is ok there. He has decided to try scuba since the rest of us are certified divers. This works well as I have contacted Shoal Bay Scuba.. http://www.shoalbayscuba.com/ they will provide training and we can do a mid day dive.
Works with travel schedule, I can pick them up at the ferry and drive them to training and then we can head out for a bit of underwater time! Relax on the beach for a while and then CB and I could check into our room on SXM later that day.

This weekend we did a bit of local travel to visit CB’s parents 3 hours away. She for the first time started talking of plans for our trip. Rob was really excited. We decided that there were two have to do events. Dive in Anguilla and we want to go to Cay Verte just off of orient beach.

We have a third thing that we will do but not yet sure at what level. I would like some pictures taken of us to celebrate our 25th anny. I have discussed the trash the dress thing with my wife and she has started to warm to the idea. First things first, she will need to try on the dress….if it fits then we will discuss further. If not we will just have pix done.
So if you see a lady in a wedding dress on a jet ski at Orient Beach in April…wave hi to us! Have a friend going to the island next month that will be checking on a photographer for us.

We are down to 12 weeks now with friends booked so the fun is just beginning.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Fighting the pre-trip battle of the bulge

This is a war I have to fight before every vacation! We have just over 90 days left until we are in ST Maarten and Anguilla. I need to shed probably around 20 lbs, really much more than that but....I think I can lose 20 in 90 days. I have many reasons to lose weight health being first and foremost and I am one of those 40 somethings that would prefer to look better in or out of swim trunks while on island.

This as you know if you have been reading along will be our 25th anniversary. Would love to look better for my wife too.

I am a baby boom couch potato. Started exercise and caught a very bad cold so stopped exercise while sick. Now need to get back to it. Have some other health issues that have surfaced with parents in the past several months that have also gotten my attention and makes me wanna lose some non essential pounds.

Key for Rob is exercise and cutting down on what I eat. Duh....pretty simple right? Nooooo it isnt! Issue….I like to eat! The foods I eat aren’t always the best for me either so I am working to wean myself from sugars and processed carbs like bread and pasta. No atkins diet here but I don’t need all the processed junk. Is easily said but real tuff to follow.

Wish me luck or man the harpoons.

Tonight is a big night for us and our trip. CB and I are meeting the 4th person in our party. The person our friend has decided to take along on our journey. Should be fun as she sounds like a great person. From what he has described we have lots in common. Tonight is a wine and cheese get together with a bit of conversation about the island, activities available and the start of activities planning. I however know that no matter what we have planned….we wont do too much as lying on the beach “sand gravity” seems to win out almost every day. I know she is a diver and we have talked of a day of diving, not sure yet if it will be off of Anguilla ( my choice) or SXM. Our friend is not certified but is willing to take the resort course and give it a try…at least at this time he has agreed to do that.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Double Digit Midget

I’ve been waiting a long time to say that. Today my visit to the island clock went to 99 days and counting! Woo Hoo!! I booked our trip 13 months out so this feels like a looong time coming. The bride and I are all set for rooms, air and car rental. We have discussed a few activities. Have friends that are going that we will hang out with for part of our stay. They are a bit behind us as for planning. Have their room but no flights. The flights will happen soon enough.

This will be a fun outing. We plan to dive one day while there. Am thinking that I would like to dive off of Anguilla instead of ST Maarten. One of our friends is a diver but the other isn’t. He laughs and realizes that it is pretty likely that he will be taking a resort class while there so he can go with us.

Weather here at home is crazy…spent 3 days in the 60’s and today is 35. Makes me really want to get to the island beaches as soon as we can.

I am toying with a new logo for my site and then with having the logo stitched onto a few hats/visors and shirts. Might as well wear stuff with my label on it instead of someone elses. Once I have the logo done I will post it here. We did run a first shot at a logo…on an earlier post but would be too hard to shrink down to hat sized and would lose its detail so am giving it another try….

All for now!

Friday, January 4, 2008

Trash that Dress!!

I learned of an interesting concept recently. Ladies, what do you do with that wedding dress after your big day? Clean it, box it up and hope some day you may have a daughter that would love to wear it…. I learned on Travel Talk of a couple that took the wedding dress to ST Maarten with them and “trashed” it while with a photographer on the island.

No not as in torn up but more like some fantastic pictures that have to be just about as memorable as the wedding pix themselves…. Click on this link to view http://www.photoshow.com/watch/az3vE3CQ

I am trying to talk my beautiful bride of soon to be 25 years into doing the same sort of thing for our anniversary. Think it would be a lot of fun but not so sure that she will consider it. We do have kids but both are boys so the idea of passing on to your kids is out. Yes she could still fit into the dress but am sure she is thinking of the burden of getting the dress to the island. We are as you well know if you have read previous posts….carry on only people.

Guess I will have to work on her a bit but anyway enjoy the link as the pix are great and the couple looks like they were having the time of their lives..

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Merry New Year!!

Yes I know it is Happy New Year but that is one of the lines that sticks in my head from the movie Trading Places with Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy.

It has been a while since I have posted. We survived the holidays and it’s travels and come out the other side to a new year. Rob is excited about this year, we will travel in April to the islands and now that we have passed the holiday my child bride (cb) is starting to think of things that she would like to do while in the islands. She wants to eat in Grand Case, go to Pinel island and dive while in Anguilla. I saw a posting about women wearing their wedding dresses and having a photo shoot with them on at the beach, riding horses and the likes. I thought it was a pretty cool idea. We have been married for almost 25 years and I would bet that my cb could still fit into her wedding dress. It has been in a box for that entire time except for when it was cleaned after our wedding. We have no girls to hand the dress down to so I thought it might be a cool idea to take the dress with us and do a photo shoot with her in it…. Her response…we are traveling light, I don’t want to lug that thing all the way there. I told her we should mail it to a friend on the island and do the shoot. Don’t think she will go for it but who knows.

Am thinking for last scene, a snorkel or dive outing. Envision scene of Elizabeth’s dress from Pirates of the Caribbean II. Oh well we can discuss further.

I found a couple of cool spots on www.googleearth.com one is in Anguilla where there is a large boat that was washed ashore I am sure during a storm and there is another place just off of Orient Beach on ST Martin with a sailboat that was wrecked. We will visit both to shoot some nice pix. Now have to get cb to agree to pose.

Like probably half of America, we have started our diets for the year. Is going to be a hard one for me but I want to lose probably 20lbs before we go to the islands. Don’t want folks rolling me back into the water because I look like a beached whale. Ok, it isn’t that bad but I am more than a bit over weight and could lose a bunch of weight for health reasons as well as to look better for cb while on island

Again Happy New Year!