The new blog on our trip to Bonaire is now posted. It is here:

http://kimfair.wordpress.com/

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Nice pics as always. Was the lionfish population about the same or less than you remember from last time?

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"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

Thanks. Last trip we saw 2 small ones at 2 different sites. This trip we saw 5-6 at 3 sites, 2 small ones, 3-4 medium sized. Not a huge increase, but they seemed to be in places we hadn't seen them in the past. All in all Bonaire is doing a great job of keeping the lionfish population down, certainly better than many Caribbean nations, and even the US (some places off Florida are completely overwhelmed by lionfish), it's basically a losing battle until some enterprising ocean predator figures out that they can eat them. They are really tasty.

Here is video from the coast of Florida. You don't see this type of infestation in Bonaire.

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

So I just posted a new travel blog on my and my wife's trip to San Francisco, and the Pacific Northwest. Read it here https://kimfair.wordpress.com/

I hope you enjoy it.

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

I read through this yesterday. Very cool! I totally want to go to that last Family owned park now. Also, the next time you're down this way we're having you two over for tri-tip. I didn't know you were such fans and I can say without reservation that I cook a mean tri-tip.

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"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

How do you cook it? It's the wife's birthday on Saturday, and the Wegman's supermarket here is the only one which carries tri-tip, and i intend to pick up some, and cook it for her. I'm assuming you roast it?

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Roast or grill it depending on the weather and my mood. I'll shoot you an e-mail with recipes for both.

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"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

Cool, thanks, though at this point in New England, I'm inclined to roast it.

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Just posted an new blog on our October trip to Bonaire. You can read it here:
https://kimfair.wordpress.com/2016/01/0 ... ober-2015/

Enjoy!

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Youtube link for the first of a series of videos that I'll be posting from the GoPro footage I shot in Bonaire in October 2015.

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Second video is up with fixed audio narration.

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Just posted a blog on our first week of our Bonaire trip. Enjoy!

https://kimfair.wordpress.com/

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Just posted a very much delayed second part of our 10/2016 Bonaire trip. It's 98% pictures, so no heavy lifting is required.

https://kimfair.wordpress.com/

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

I think my favorites are the Blackbar Soldier Fish (the red color really pops in that photo) and the Green Turtle that's fourth from the top. I know it's a white balance/deep water thing but it makes that turtle look otherworldly!

As always, great photos and I'm glad you're posting up again. Are you guys doing a Bonaire trip this year?

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"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

Nope, it's our 30th anniversary, so we're going to Hawaii (for our first time) this year instead. 6 nights on the big island followed by 6 nights on Maui. We picked those 2 islands as everything we read said they were the best for shore snorkeling.

We're also both getting new tattoos in Hawaii (already booked). Both are going to be black and grey Polynesian style turtles, mine with a Polynesian fish hook on the back of the shell, and Karen's with a Plumeria flower in color on the shell. Here is the web site, Karen's seeing Kaib, and I'm seeing Desmond.

https://midpacifictattoo.com/index.php? ... ation_id=4

This is in addition to the tattoo I have scheduled in 3 weeks from Friday. Karen wanted to get her original tattoo recolored as it had faded so much over the 25 years she had it. Mine (done on the same day) still looks great, but I never wear sleeveless shirts, and that's all she wears in the summer. I wanted to get one at the same shop, but the guys there don't do realistic tattoos, and that's what I wanted. They suggested a place, and there's a guy named Mike Christie there that's going to do it. What I'm getting is a black and grey realistic octopus on the back of my left leg. I don't want it to look like an octopus in the water on my leg, though, I want it to look like an octopus out of the water, clinging to my leg. He's totally stoked about doing it. Here's his web site, so you can see how awesome his stuff is.

https://www.mikechristietattoo.com/gallery

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Those artists' galleries look amazing. I really like your idea of the octopus clinging to your leg. Looking forward to seeing it.

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"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

Excellent pics!

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"It's come down to Shoe scraping his opiate hardened shit balls from his asshole with a spoon
" - Kimfair

New blog post on our first week of our two week trip to Hawaii.


https://kimfair.wordpress.com/

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Did you have any SPAM while you were there?

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"It's come down to Shoe scraping his opiate hardened shit balls from his asshole with a spoon
" - Kimfair

I did not, however, I did bring back a can of Spam flavored macadamia nuts, to continue my tradition of bringing back meat flavored snacks from abroad for my work mates. They smell more of Spam than they taste of Spam.

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Part 2 of our Hawaii trip is now up. I hope you enjoy it.
https://kimfair.wordpress.com/

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Great post! I loved your pictures and the meals sounded amazing. Will you be continuing your Bonaire trips next year or will you start mixing it up now?

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"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

No we're heading back to Bonaire for two weeks in October 2018! It's really our happy place. When we retire, I can really see myself living there for 6 months, and 6 months back in New England somewhere.
We did love Hawaii, though, and we hope to see a few more prime snorkeling places in the world (Seychelles, Australia) before we die.

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Those pictures are fantastic (though, it is POSSIBLE to get a bad picture in Hawaii)?

You do a good job of outlining how everything plays out, too, the ups and downs of your journey.

Good stuff, as always.

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"It's come down to Shoe scraping his opiate hardened shit balls from his asshole with a spoon
" - Kimfair

Thanks, Shoe. It is pretty impossible to take an ugly picture in Hawaii.

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Hey! There's a new travel blog at my site https://kimfair.wordpress.com/ It's for the first of two weeks we spent in Bonaire in October 2018! Enjoy!

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

This may be the best bunch of pictures I've seen from your trips. The close-ups of the sea turtles and the eel who was smiling for your camera are fantastic! Glad your trip (at least so far) wasn't really all that affected by the regatta.

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"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

Yeah, I think the pictures are some of the best I've taken. There are some really nice shots coming up in the week two blog. The eel smiling for the camera was a still shot from video. I set the GoPro to shoot video, and pull a still frame every 5 seconds. Lots of those pics are from that, but when I didn't get a nice shot of something that I knew had good footage of, I'd go back to the video and pull a still frame from it. There a shot of a tarpon in week two that might be the single best shot of a fish I've taken. It was literally impossible to not get good shots of the turtles at the Salt Pier. They were all within 2-3 feet of me while I was shooting.

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

That's amazing. I've only seen one turtle while diving and it was in Key West. It was pretty uninterested in us and was just passing through. I didn't even have my camera with me on that dive so I couldn't have gotten a picture even if it was close.

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"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

Happy New Year! Week 2 of my travel blog is now up at:

https://kimfair.wordpress.com/

Enjoy!

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I'm going to wait until you're sitting next to Ericubus and then I'll ask how you're feeling. - caryc

Great pics as usual. I really liked the octopus and turtle pictures you got. Dee sounds amazing. Hopefully, someday I'll meet her in person.

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"Watch my stuff." - Monterey Jack

For real, those are some great pics. Well done!

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"It's come down to Shoe scraping his opiate hardened shit balls from his asshole with a spoon
" - Kimfair