We spent most of week of February 17^th on the Disney ship Magic in the Bahamas. I had been on Disney’s sister ship Wonder several years ago but this was Barb’s first cruise. As with me Barb had never had much interest in going on a cruise until after having actually been on one. Part way through the cruise Barb was talking about “the next cruise we go on”.

This was the entrance to the ship. Notice the resemblance to Mickey Mouse?

This was the going away party. There was loud music and some of the Disney crew were doing cheerleading. I found it an interesting psychological study.

After observing the party from an upper deck Barb and I found a little quieter spot and watched Port Canaveral fade away in the distance.

The next morning we arrived in Nassau. As we approached the harbor a pilot was brought out to our ship to guide us in.

Arrival of the pilot.

Departure of the pilot’s transportation.

This was the flag near the bow of our ship.

This is the harbor at Nassau as we arrived. Do you think maybe they have a lot of tourists?

The last time I was here a tour guide said the walkway between the buildings was a hotel room for rent—at $20,000/week IIRC.

We did a self guided walking tour through parts of Nassau and “fought” off the aggressive tour guide who really, really wanted to give us a tour in his limo. The most fun thing we did at Nassau was go through the Pirate Museum.

The next day we arrived at Disney’s island Castaway Cay.

The first thing we did was rent bicycles and go for a ride across the island.

 
This picture was taken from an observation tour on the far end of the island.
From the same observation tour.

We also fed the sting rays and went snorkeling with them. Barb thought they were “SO CUTE!” I thought they were a little ominous but it was fun to swim above them as they went “flying” through the water just above the bottom.

Most of the rest of the time we spent on the adult beach. It was very pleasant.
Someone had used shells to make an outline of something.

I’m not sure what the name of this bird is but it was pelican like. Taking pictures of it while we were on the beach gave me something to do.

I’m not sure if it was diving for fish or just making very ungraceful landings.

This was how it looked as we left the island.

The next day we spent the entire time cruising around in a circle. Then during the night we returned to port. We were off the ship and back to the airport by 9:00 or 10:00. I didn’t know how long it would take to get there when I made the airplane reservations and we were scheduled for something like a 6:00 PM departure. There were no seats available on an earlier flight so we waited in the airport. We flew to Houston and found out our connecting flight was something like five hours late. We didn’t leave Houston until after midnight. It was something like 2:00 AM Pacific time when we finally made it home and into bed. And, of course, we were fully adjusted to Eastern time. We were really, really tired.

The vacation was totally worth it. Much of the rest of the nation was enduring snow and bitter cold. And best of all I sent some of the bloggers who were discussing the cold an email sympathizing and included this picture from Nassau:

While in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago we also visited Hoover Dam. I had driven by a time or two but had never stopped and took pictures and went on a tour. I’ve been on tours of Grand Coulee and Dworshak which are also very impressive but Hoover, for some reason seems to generate more awe for most people. It is an impressive piece of engineering.

We took a tour of the power plant which involved going through some tunnels near the base of the dam.

This was on the ceiling of some of the tunnels to keep the tourists from getting dripped on from some minor leaks.

Two weekends ago we visited Zion National Park in Utah. We were visiting Las Vegas and since gambling doesn’t hold that much interest for us we drove to Zion National Park and spent most of the day there.

As Barb said, more than once, “When you see it you understand why they made certain areas National Parks.” Zion has a resemblance to Yosemite in that what Barb said about it also applies, “Meh. Maybe I’m getting spoiled but one stunning view looks pretty much like another.”

Yup. That pretty much describes Zion. It’s not surprising the park gets over a million visitors per year.

This was on our drive to Zion Canyon. I think it might have actually been in Arizona. We crossed the Northwest corner of it on our way.

Another picture that probably is in Arizona.

You just expect to see Wiley Coyote and Road Runner zip by you any moment. Is the dust in the picture below from them?

Again, probably in Arizona or outside the park near St. George Utah.

It’s beautiful to visit but Barb and agree there is no way we would want to live there. We like the tree covered mountains, rivers, and lakes too much to spend much time away.

The rest of the pictures are from inside the park and I’ll mostly let them speak for themselves.

Close up of the upper right corner of the picture above it. Notice the size of the trees to get a clue as to the scale.

There were some people climbing the cliffs. A small group of people were pointing at someone on this cliff. I couldn’t really see it so I took a picture with my telephoto lens, then zoomed in on the spot they were point at then asked them if this was what they were looking at:

Yup. Just as I thought. It was just a rock formation.

Daughter Xenia is going to have some of her art on display at the University of Alaska Anchorage this week:

One of this year’s Student Showcase presenters, Xenia Vlieger, has been interested in art, storytelling and theater since elementary school.

“As I got older, I became more anxious doing theater and more interested in storytelling through images,” she said. She graduated last fall with a bachelor’s degree in art, with an emphasis in photography, but was still allowed to participate in Student Showcase for images she made in 2013—including an experimental photography piece entitled, “Thank God I don’t think out loud.”

She is also giving a presentation and “will discuss self-portraits and why they are important, her process for creating the piece—including how the image was conceptualized, edited and then printed—and also, how the symbolism of the image and materials used to create the piece relate to each other.”

Very cool Xenia!