Hawk's Nest, Cat Island Bahamas Fly-out!

Off to the Bahamas again!! We left on Christmas Day because of the big winter storm approaching from the west. Since it was Christmas Day, we had no restaurant nearby for lunch....so we planned ahead and had a "picnic" under the wing at Ft. Pierce where we stopped for fuel. A good start and already the temps were climbing!

Leaving Ft. Pierce with life vests on, life raft in the cockpit and our Epirbs (emergency beacons) ready in case of a water landing!

Land ahoy!  Grand Bahama Island....

Because it was Christmas Day, we had to land at an airport where customs would be open.  This is the Freeport airport on Grand Bahama Island.  After a quick customs inspection and a top-off of fuel, we were on our way to Cat Island about 250 miles away.

Beautiful waters below!

Cat Island / Hawk's Nest Resort in sight!

A quick 100 foot walk from the aircraft tiedown spot and we were in the resort.   Here is the main bar/lounge.  First day we just relaxed and enjoyed the warmth!

We went snorkeling while we waited for the others in our group to arrive a day later.  I won't comment on the photos....just enjoy the fish!

Beautiful shallow bay...

Some of the culprits!

Lindy and I relaxing one night.

Dinner at the resort was always a treat.  This is pretty much our entire group - the couple at the front of the table are the owners of Hawk's Nest - Jerry and Jane Clayton.  Extremely nice folks!

The next day was our SCUBA dive day!  Cecil rode along for fun but he's not a diver.

I'm in the water here waiting on the other divers to get geared up and ready.

My underwater shots:

Duane -

A airplane propeller....hmm....wonder how that got there???

A lionfish that our guide had speared - they are an invasive species brought from Asia and are hurting our reefs because they have poisonous barbs and have no natural predators here.  The divemasters often try to kill any they see to try to control the population.  Probably a loosing battle.

Amazing fish!!

Our guide speared a amber-jack.  He said it would be his dinner that night!

The next day we went on a long bike ride - about 1 1/2 hours.  My tush was feeling it!!!

Beautiful shoreline - Cat Island is sparsely populated.

Back at the resort for more relaxing!  Jane and Jerry were around often for interesting conversation about the drug-running history of the Bahamas.

A long walk around the "point" of the island.

Just can't get over how beautiful it is here!

The honor bar, fully stocked but no bartender - you just get what you want and write down what you took for payment when you check out.

Our good buddy, John Shearer entertained the crowd one night with his beefy baritone!!

Enjoy a short clip!

Then there was some Rummy played, of course!!!

Simple dinner one night - but it all started with a wonderful conch chowder, those mashed potatoes were fabulous and it was finished with delicious home-made rum ice cream....then Jerry brought over a bottle of Bailey's and spiked the late-evening coffee....let's not even think about the calories!!!

While we were there a nice Falcon jet came in with a family on board...

Here's a photo of some of the Wahoo that we had for dinner that night!  This was some of the other folks staying at Hawk's Nest that had gone fishing that day.  I'm not sure but I think the MahiMahi sandwich I had the next day was hanging up there too! Yummy!

More relaxing....

John and his girl Sarah posed for a quick shot!

And more relaxing....

And too soon, it was time to go home.  Unfortunately, a cloudy flight home - had to shoot an actual approach into Ft. Pierce.   Customs was a breeze and we had to get the coats out!!  A great time!

Christmas trip to the mountains

We drove to the mountains instead of flying this time because of the high winds! 

For the first time, we were able to attend Grandma's Christmas gathering that she's been doing the last few years at Golden Corral.  It was very nice - got to see lots of my cousins and aunts/uncles!

Grandma is doing well - look closely at her shoes!

I've enlarged the photo so you could see.  They are just fabulous!  They look like Dorothy's slippers.  Grandma said she likes them because they're so comfy and festive.  Yes!

After a few words - we all mingled and ate.  And ate way too much, of course!  I chatted with Grandma a bit - she wanted to know if Robert was still driving her Subaru - and of course, he is and loves it still!

We stopped back by Duane's folk's house for another visit - Granny took me out to the garden to load up on veggies as usual.....yummmmm - I'll have turnips tomorrow with our family's Christmas dinner!!!  Oh, and look at that beautiful Carolina Blue sky in the background!!

Little trip to Atlanta

Dick bought a new airplane!!!  It's a Citabria - similar to the one he had many years ago, but this one is much newer and nicer!!

It was at an airport just south of Atlanta - and we took him down this morning to pick it up!


Notice something odd about this photo???  Duane and Dick are up front....I'm happily in back with my Kindle.  The flight was super-smooth and I read the entire way...(I flew home so Duane could take a nap, by the way!)

Here's Dick's new plane - a 2009 Citabria Scout....very, very nice!

Fueled and ready to depart.

We had a quick lunch and then back in our plane for the trip home. The airport is on the left - the Atlanta Motor Speedway is on the right.   Nice location, but the airport itself is not very pilot-friendly.  Oh well, we really didn't need anything so it wasn't an issue.  Nice smooth flight home on a sunny December day!!

Cardinal Air Christmas

Another successful Cardinal Air Christmas party!  

Sorry for the blurry photos - I turned the flash off hoping to reduce the "irritation factor"....but the photos didn't turn out nearly as good as they usually do.  Oh well....no one was blinded by flash in the making of this blogpost!

All the usual suspects....

And some are more suspect than others!!!

And there was a band, of course!!!

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Skinny Dipping

Sorry to just copy something from the internet, but I just thought this was too cute!

An elderly man in Louisiana had owned a large farm for several years.

He had a large pond in the back. It was properly shaped for swimming, so he fixed
it up

nice with picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some apple and peach trees.

One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn't been there for a while, and look it over.

He grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit.

As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee.

As he came closer, he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond.

He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end.

One of the women shouted to him, 'we're not coming out until you leave!'

The old man frowned, 'I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked.'

Holding the bucket up he said,
'I'm here to feed the alligator...'

Some old men can still think fast.

Trip to the metal recycle business

This weekend, we did some cleaning in the garage - we had an old metal desk that we got surplus from CP&L back when we lived in New Hill...it ended up just being another place to throw junk. So, we loaded it up in the pickup and I made a trip to the local metal recycle place. You may recall that my last similar trip ended up with me in the emergency room for stitches....not so this time. I made a clean get-away with a few bucks for my trouble. Fun to watch the huge magnet/crane lift the 200 lb desk like it was a fly.

Lost and Found!

Diane gave me these cool "snowflake" earrings years ago....they are my "go-to" winter/Christmas jewelry. I don't know, there's just something about them that says "festive". The other day I got home from work and noticed that one was missing from my ear. Bummer! I had been to lots of places - the grocery store, the gas station, two airports, etc. I did a quick check of the car just to see if maybe it was there. Several days went by and no luck. Then, this morning before work I was cleaning out the dishwasher. I noticed a "twinkle" in the bottom of the tub. Yep - it was my earring - all shiny and fresh!!  Wonder how it got there???

State of Brass (NC State Brass Quintet)

Wanna hear some complicated brass music? Duane and I attended Robert's "State of Brass" concert Sunday...well done! (Robert is on the right, of course...)

Hushpuppies!

It's that time of year again! The first weekend of December, our buddy Lonnie always holds his "customer appreciation" day. That means I cook the hushpuppies to go along with his bbq and fixin's! Forgot the camera in the car for the first few hours...but as usual, a great time and great food!