O Cay

Today, the day after Christmas, I usually shop until I drop. I stock up on all of next years Holiday items like wrapping paper, ribbon, and decorations. In GTMO there are no stores unless you count the Navy Exchange. The Exchange has few decorations and terrible wrapping paper that rips while wrapping. So, no shopping for me the day after Christmas. I will kayak instead.

We are off to an island in the middle of the bay called Hospital Cay. So named when a British man-of-war used it for isolation and treatment of yellow fever victims in 1854. Jerry and I chose a two person Kayak.


These are my legs and my favorite blue Crocks. Hospital Cay is the land you see straight ahead.

We finally made it to the Cay. The water was very choppy making it difficult to row. We climbed to the top of the Island and I got this nice shot.
Later the Cay became a coal station to fuel coal-powered ships. Guantanamo Bay is full of old battleship moorings where ships tied off while waiting their turn to resupply coal at this pier.

It was a windy day today. Perfect for sailing. Not so perfect for kayaking but we still had a great time.

Tis the season

I have never been to so many parties, in the span of one month, in my entire life. GTMO knows how to party. I have already been to a street parade, boat parade, and several holiday functions. I was actually in a boat for the boat parade with the cast of the TV show Army Wives. I went on a tour of homes where you get to snoop in other people's houses and they even give you food and drink while you are eyeballing their pretty holiday decorations. What a hoot. I just returned from our work party at the beach. We have two more parties to attend and then we are all finished...... I think. We head for Virginia next to spend New Years with our good friends and the most beautiful one year old on the planet. He just happens to be our God Baby and again the most beautiful thing on two legs. Here are a few pictures from the boat parade and some shots I took at our holiday party this afternoon.

This was one of the boats in the boat parade.

Shots from the beach this afternoon.

A Random Blog

Before you begin watching this video I want you to realize that what appears to be happening is not what is actually happening. Remember, one of my dogs is super smart and one is well, not so smart.

While it may appear that Nala is lovingly cleaning Turbo dirty face this is actually not the case. She is trying to irritate him so he will snap at her. While he is snapping he lets go of the ball. Notice how smoothly Nala grabs the ball. Turbo does not realize what has happened until it is too late. It is a magical thing to watch. I need to get out more.

On a totally separate note I wanted to share some photos of the Tiki Bar. It's a nice little bar, right off the water, where you hang out with friends and watch the sun go down. This evening was lovely. It was in the mid 70's, light breeze, beautiful. The DJ was playing 80's music and loudly. I am showing my age. As much as I love 80's music we asked him to turn it down while Prince was screaming Purple Rain. You know the part of the song I'm talking about. I did get bit around my ankles by No-see-ums (sand fleas). I don't know why they call them No-see-ums. You can actually see them. They should call them kinda-see-ums because you can kinda see them. Anyway, before I go off on a tangent here are the photos.

The Grave Yard

The Guantanamo Bay light house has an amazing collection of boats that made it to our shores. Some of the boats were manned by Cubans escaping Communism and other by Haitians during the migrant exodus. You can read all about it here. The lighthouse also has an amazing museum with all kinds of GTMO history and pictures.











The highlight of the museum was seeing this stuffed Banana Rat. Is he not the cutest thing you have ever seen? It's hard to believe that these sweet little guys will climb up into your car and chew out all the wiring.