Went to Costa Rica with Gate 1 and plan on future trips with them. Great group. Go and have a great time.

I never purchased any book. With your rental car you can drive around the island with ease (I mean its an island, how can you get lost.........Don't ask my wife about St. Maarten as thats a whole different story :-)
All of the dive sites around the island have a gold painted rock along the road where you head to the beach and dive. There are also lots of things to photograph topside as well. The dive shops on the island can point you into the right direction as well. Have fun. I envy you. Wish I could go back for a couple of weeks but I have a couple of big trips topside next year that will drastically slow my travel diving for next year, but look out 2017

My younger brother went to a demolition derby I had never heard of before, year or so ago. It was a 'Combine' demolition derby, held in Washington state. (Combines are the things that harvest grain or corn) Craziest thing he had ever seen. Guess all Rednecks are not just in the south.

No snow here in south east PA, but there is definitely frost on the pumpkin this morning. Fall is officially here :-)

She is seriously HOT, HOT, HOT. Don't much remember Daniel Craig much in that film either (although I liked the movie) Saw some of her very early movies. YOUCH she was Hot then as well.

I recently saw a 4 space cartoon that pointed into the direction of memory as well. The 4 strips were done as a cheer and were as follows:

What do we want?
More Memory....
When do we want it?
Want what?????

Thats about where I am at. My start up disk if full as well :-)

The first Bond film I ever saw was 'Thunderball'. I remember it quite well because i remember telling my high school sweetheart at the time, that some day I hoped to go to the Bahamas (I lived in Alaska at the time). Little did I know that about 18 months later I would be stationed there, compliments of the US Navy. Lived there for 13 months. The best James Bond in my opinion is Sean Connery with a close second being Daniel Craig. Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton really never did it for me as they seemed more like a person trying to spoof the character. Just my opinion (I first began SCUBA diving in the Bahamas in 67'. Boy how equipment has changed since then when compared to that Bond film)

This looks like something that someone in a log cabin building business could use. Very cool tool and very efficient. A great tool for a renewable resource. I am sure that all of the small branches coulee be reused a mulch as well.

Heading back down next week for more photographic opportunities. Hope the weather clears (especially for the folks in SC)

Noticed you shoot fish eyes as well. The puffer fish eye is awesome to photograph. Found a puffer in Indonesia that only had one eye. First time I have ever seen that. Don't know how or where he lost his right eye but seemed to be doing OK without it. Bonaire is great for diving & Photography and amazing at night with florescence.

My father had an Argus C3 and loved the camera. In 1969 we were Dall Sheep hunting in Alaska and Dad had it hung over his backpack as we climbed along a ledge on top of a mountain. He slipped and fell, the backpack got shoved around to his side and broke a couple of ribs of his. His camera flew off the tip of the pack and down the mountain side. Later we recovered what was left of the camera. Boy there was a memory that I have not had for a long long time. Gave him an excuse though to buy his first Nikon FA. (he had 3 of those with many lenses when he passed away and mom gave them all to me to begin my photography experiences. The Nikons were a fantastic upgrade from my Minolta Highmatic 7 that I had at the time) Boy oh boy the memories just keep coming now :-)

I have never been to Pigeon Forge, only driven around it, I figured Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg were both tourist trips and I prefer not to go there. Cherokee is basically a Casino so have only driven through there as well. Do love the drive through the park and on the parkway though and may go back next weeks as we were basically rained out on the northern portion up through the Shenandoah portion of the highway. Thank you for the info about Pigeon Forge, as now I know it is not somewhere I want to visit.

Due to the Hurricane and Rains, when we headed north, everything North of Roanoke Va was closed. We tried a couple of different places closer to the Shenandoah Skyline Drive to get back on, but they were closed, so we ended up on I-81 to get home (I don't like Interstate highways and prefer back roads and smaller roads). We stayed in Knoxville in Tennessee, although I have been told Pigeon Forge on the Tennessee side, although touristy, is still better than Gatlinburg as a place to stay. Both are small, so at this time of year may not be to crowded. The main road through the Smokies is only about 30 miles long from the bottom of the TN side to the bottom in Cherokee on the NC side. WE stopped in Roanoke VA on our way home. WE stay in Best Western hotels because they all look more or less the same, so when you wake up, you kind of feel like you are at home as you know where everything is. Also the people we have encountered at the front desks have all been very helpful whenever we have had questions about places to go and things to see. Hope you have as much fun as we did, even in the rain.

Thank everyone for stopping by and taking a look and for your kind words as well. The photo at Mabry Mill is my favorite one as well. It was pouring rain and I held an umbrella over the camera on the tripod as that photo took somewhere between 25 and 30 seconds to take. I took several and once the geese saw me, they came right over so all I have is a blur of white across each photo. This one was the first photo before they saw me. As you can see from the other roadside shots it was seriously raining. Most of my photos have rain drops on the lens, so guess I will have to go back once the highway opens up and take more photos.

It might have been. All I remember is the Dancing Bears Resort sign behind it that was located somewhere up the hill behind it. We stopped in the restaurant along the road and had awesome chicken salad sandwiches on homemade bread.