Snapped this from our balcony one evening  :)

This March we went to Bonaire with friends Scott and Tammy.  Had a very fun, relaxing time--some scuba diving, horse riding and swimming (swimming was a first!), and watching the kite boarders and wind surfers.  

It's a great place to go if you want total freedom in your diving.  It's all shore diving (unless you ask to be on the boat), so you can go where and when you want.  Just pick up your tanks.  We stayed at Buddy Dive, which is basic, but clean and has a GREAT dive setup.  It does make you appreciate how much easier it is just to jump off a boat when you want to dive though! ;)  Shore diving is a lot more work. . .

One thing we really noticed when we were diving in Bonaire in March, was the very healthy population of young turtles.  They used to be comparatively rare, now you see them on a majority of dives.  It will be exciting to go back in several years to see these guys grow up and get bigger!

In 2015 we went to Thailand with a couple of our best friends. This trip was an example of what makes diving such a great vacation activity: it provides great fun and distraction while fitting around other activities.  We did a liveaboard trip to the Similan Islands and Richelieu Rock on the White Manta.  This is one of the higher class liveaboard scuba boats out of the Phuket area.  We highly recommend it.  Everything about the operation was top notch: cabins, dive gear, staff, and SAFETY.  If you do some Google searches, you will discover why safety is a VERY important factor in choosing your Similans liveaboard boat!  Here is Part ! of our trip on the White Manta:

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The Similans have very interesting geography: large boulders and rock formations.  The highlight of these trips are the dives at Richelieu Rock.  WONDERFUL dive site-very lush soft corals and lots to see.  One of the unusual features we ran into there was GREEN CURRENTS where weird strong water that was green colored would wash in and totally change the dive.  Very strange and unique--we experienced them 2-3 times during the trip; rather eerie.    Here is Part 2:

We had a great time diving in the Similans.  I'd recommend that you do your research regarding Thai liveaboards: you get what you pay for.  We give a full thumbs up to White Manta; was an excellent experience all around!

Welcome to our website.  This blog is going to be a labor of love.  Not sure how active I'll be with it, hoping to post once per week.  For my first post, I'm linking to a short YouTube video I took on our recent trip to Bonaire of one of my favorite fish: the Yellow Tail Damselfish.  Beautiful thing!
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