Thursday, March 20, 2008

Tobago

Tauna's parents, Grandpa and Grandma Kern arrived for a visit. So, this last weekend we took a trip to Tobago, the sister island to Trinidad. For the geographically impared, I've provided a simple map below.


The 2 islands make up the country of Trinidad and Tobago. Although Trinidad focuses its resources toward the petroleum industry, Tobago is all about tourism and is more typical of a Caribbean island (speaking of petroleum, I have been paying the equivalent of $1.63 a gallon for gas since I got here last June. It hasn't varied a penny in almost a year, not to rub it in...). Anyway, we took a cheap little commuter flight ($49 round trip) to Tobago and checked into the Crown Pointe Hotel. We picked the Crown Pointe because it was within walking distance of the airport and right on the beach. I was an older hotel but it had a lot of Caribbean atmosphere.




The hotel had a nice restaurant, but the rooms also had kitchenettes that allowed you to make some meals on your own. We had a simple breakfast one morning on the patio, as you can see in the second picture below. In the way of explanation, Tauna is holding the toilet paper because there were no napkins or paper towels in the room. I didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea...


The next day we went to Pigeon Point, which has access to Bucco Reef, one of the most popular coral reefs for diving in the Caribbean. We took a tour in a glass bottom boat, which allows you to see the reef and the fish as you float over it. Unfortunately, the pictures don't capture the beautiful colors, and I could never time my shots right to get pictures of the amazing fish, but these will give you some idea... I am also uploading a small video to give you a better idea.




They also provided us with snorkeling gear and stopped and let us do some diving around the corals. It was amazing! Unfortunately, I couldn't get anyone else in the family to try it, but Tauna got a great picture of a goofy sea creature swimming under the glass bottom boat.


There is also an area they call the "Nylon Pool." Basically, it's a giant sand bar in the middle of the sea that is only about 3 feet deep. All around it drops off to 67 feet deep. The guide took us out for a little bathing in the middle of the sea.


They also rented jet skis, and we couldn't resist. They had a 3-seater, so Grandpa, Isaac and I took one out for awhile and had a blast. The guy that rented us the jet ski was excited too, he said Grandpa (81) beat the record by 6 years of the oldest person he had riding a jet ski! Tauna got some pictures while we were close to shore, but I wish she could have got a picture of the 3 of us airborne after hitting some of those waves! All Isaac could say was "WAHOOO!"




All of that kind of wore out Grandma and Grandpa (see Grandpa on the bed in the background)


So, we kept it kind of low key for the last day and just hung out at the beach by the hotel. We had a nice time and got the obligatory sun burns...


I had to close with a Caribbean sunset and a final picture of Grandma and and Grandpa that kind of says it all...

5 comments:

HoneyGram & Papa said...

I loved the tour!! I would love be enjoying the sun and sandy beaches. We are having snow in WA and in UT today.

The Andrew Family said...

Dan, how long are you going to be in Tobago? Just kidding, we love visiting your blog. Maybe some wedding pictures when you get a chance? Take care!

Kara said...

What a fun time to share with Gma and Gpa Kern. The pictures are great, but I'm sure, like you said, they don't do justice. It's been fun reading your blog and seeing what kind of things you guys are up to. It must be a little wierd just having Isaac at home now. Time flies! Take care. Tell Tauna hi for me. Tell Isaac "wa wa" says hi too. :)

Studio Gal Shannon said...

I was just sitting here and had a random thought about wondering what you guys were up to. Weird. So I googled you guys. And how great to find your site Dan. I went through it and what fun to catch up on some of what you have been up to. I assume you are in the States now from what I could gather. And live in Ohio? Anyway, love to hear from you guys. You can check out my biz blog and website
ShannonsPortfolio.com
shannonchristensen.blogspot.com
Not really a family blog but it has our home info etc. Say hi to the family. Like they would remember us. Ha. Oh, and we are in Missouri now.

Christine said...

Crazy! I just randomly typed your name out of curiosity to see if I could see what you and Brooks were up to. I found both of you immediately. You are in Trinidad. We love Trinidadians. Our best friends in London North Ward are from there. We just talked about meeting up with them there in a few years. If you happen to run into a well known lawyer there named Richard Clark-Wills, I understand he represents some shady characters over there, He is actually a less active mormon. He came to church regularly up until he moved back to Trinidad. We would love to see someone fellowship him. His mother was an amazing woman and good friend of mine. We are currently living in the Ural Mts of Russia. Believe me, they could use some help with their police dept here. Massive corruption! Good luck with what you are doing! Glad to see things are going well for you. Check out my blog at TheChristine Baker.blogspot.com Russia is fascinating!