Pictures from Paradise

So I was finally able to get some of the pictures from the trip downloaded...Here they are!

Our 3rd day of the trip we were in Dominica, which is mostly jungle, it was beautiful!

Here is the view we had when we first arrived. It was overall a pretty cloudy day, warm luckily...

The picture below was me about to do my first zip line on the canopy challenge we did. Yikes it was high! After the first drop off the platform the rest weren't quite so hard.

This is a picture of George, my brother in law, about to drop off this platform with a swinging rope. It dropped about 10 feet then you had to swing across and grab a rope net and climb up to make it. This was the most difficult obstacle on the course and there was an alternate route for those who didn't want to try it. They said you had to have a lot of upper body strength to do this one. I skipped it...

Then George after jumping off (no he is not kicking the tree as it looks like). Shortly after this picture was taken he hit the net, grabbed it, lost it and then did a flip and was upside down for a bit. He swung back and was able to grab it the next time. Mike was taking the picture so there are no pictures of him doing this part. I can say, however, that he screamed louder than I have heard him scream in a while when he jumped off!

Our day ended with this cute towel elephant on our bed after our formal dinner that evening. They did a different animal every night, it was really fun to see which animal we would get next!

On Antigua we ran into this fellow who made me, or rather sold me, a basket made of palm fronds with some other animals on sticks also made of palm fronds. I didn't catch his name, but he had been making these things for 28 years...30 seconds after this picture was taken it downpoured for about 5 minutes, then it was sunny and beautiful again.

Then onto St. Kitts, we had a nice garden tour, then a hike through the jungle to learn all sorts of cool things about all the plants and trees on the island. This is my favorite picture from that day. This is a bell tower at what was a plantation, they would ring the bell to start and stop work for the day.

Then, after dinner, we returned to this cute monkey swinging in our room.

Our last day on the cruise was in St. Maarten. It was our first "real" beach day, as we had been so busy on excursions previously that we hadn't had time to just sit on the beach and do nothing. We made the day of it and sat under our umbrellas, went swimming, then rented jet ski's for a 1/2 hour, it was wonderful!

Then, last night we worked with the dogs on a few quail, just to get their minds going again. We planted 2 quail each for them and they worked them well. Cedar had 2 beautiful points, but I dind't have the camera out in time for them. After I ran and got it I got one shot of him in the woods in our training field. It is a bit dark, but Cedar had pointed a bird that jammed itself under the roots of this tree. Mike was not able to get it out. He had a nice heel away from his point to continue hunting other birds.

Then we took out Kyler who started out a bit slow, but once she found a bird she turned on the gas. Her points are very steady, not the most stylish I would say, but she doesn't move a muscle. Here she is while Mike is looking for the bird she pointed, then on another bird after the

flush. So intense!!