Postcard From the Caribbean
I am so happy, it’s obnoxious.
Seriously, if I just met me? I’d be a little put off, BECAUSE I’M SO DANG HAPPY!!!
There is nothing like tropical sunshine, gorgeous blue water and shameless pampering to turn me into a big ol’ contented cow.
(Literally. I think my dessert count last night at dinner was 3: one crepes suzette, one chocolate souffle and one mango sorbet– just to cleanse my palate, of course.)
We spent yesterday at Half Moon Cay, which is a private island in the Bahamas that is owned by the cruise company. This is always Charlotte’s favorite stop, because it is literally just one big beach, and there is nothing that child loves more. I’m not even going to try to explain how beautiful it all is, I’ll just show you:
**The girls call the color of this water “Gatorade blue”.
**Here is a shot of our ship, the Westerdam, taken from onboard the tender we took over to Half Moon Cay. The girls call it the “Westerdarn” or the “Hamster Dance.” OK, I think the girls are funny.
**Mark Lowry mugging with Madi and Char on our way to the beach, to the great amusement of the other passengers.
**Charlotte perched on a fake croc in Half Moon Bay.
**And in the Ironic Photo Department, we have Madi getting the best of a shark for a change.
**Russ loves him some Gloria.
**Some of the lush tropical flora…
**Here are Mark, David, Gloria and Russ doing what they love best– solving the world’s problems and talking about God. This particular segment (of what has been about a 10 year ongoing conversation) covered everything from post-modernism to Darwinism to God’s amazing grace. If you ever get a chance to be a fly on the wall to one of these, you will definitely learn something! Luckily, Mark and I are there to occasionally bring the silly. It’s kinda our ministry.
Today we were in Turks and Caicos, another impossibly beautiful island paradise. Madi and I did some stroll-by shopping at a little open-air market and then we all got too much sun on the beach. It looked like this:
**Walkway from the ship to the beach.
**Madi taking pictures for her Photography class.
**Charlotte discovered the joys of corn and crab chowder in a bread bowl.
**Madi wasted away again in Margaritaville. (Relax, it’s a virgin colada!)
**My beach hat kind of sums up how I’m feeling this week…
Madi is going to take some concert shots tonight, so I’ll try to add those soon. The new GVB sounds unbe-stinkin’-lievable and there seems to be a new wave of enthusiasm and excitement in the air. Bill, Gloria and all of the other artists just might possibly be as obnoxiously happy as I am these days! More soon– miss you guys.
