As I mentioned in my post about Prince Albert Wreck, Mary’s Place is one of the dives I most want to do on this trip. So I’m thrilled when Emma meets a bartender at Sundowner’s who also happens to be a dive master at Barefoot Divers, the shop closest to these dives. He offers to extend…
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Today’s post is all about the turtles! I don’t really know why I find these guys so appealing, but any time I see one while diving, I just want to swim along with it, wherever it may go. We see turtles on four of our dives. Below is a selection of my favorite photos. There…
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You better check yourself before you wreck yourself! Yes, I think I’m hilarious. Today I’m sharing photos from our wreck dives. We end up diving 2 wrecks in Roatan – El Aguila and Prince Albert. During my planning for this trip, I read through 100 Diving Sites: Underwater Paradises Around the Globe for any recommendations of must-see dive…
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It’s time to dive under the sea! I’ve been undecided on how to share photos taken on 10 different dives with you. I have nearly two-thousand pictures split between my trusty GoPro and my new Canon D30 waterproof camera. Our dive master Fernando, called me the paparazzi. Yep, I sneakily stalk fish and other sea creatures in…
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Yeah OK, so I steal Irving Stone book titles for my blog. And I can’t promise I won’t use any more. But if you ever see me title a blog with “Clarence Darrow for the Defense”, you’ll know I’ve run out of ideas. Climbing Mt Rainier is by far the hardest physical and mental challenge…
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Since we’re on the topic of climbing mountains, now seems like a good time to share my hike up Mt St Helens with you! Back in 2011, Amy (who I climbed Kilimanjaro with) and I did our first big climb together. Little did we know what we would later go on to accomplish. I’m pretty sure…
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I’m just starting to doze off when suddenly the lights come on and Dave cheerful tells us it’s time to get up and get ready for the summit! He even gave us an extra 15 minutes to sleep, it’s 11:15pm! We have one hour to get ready, hot water is being brought in for coffee…
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Much to my relief, our third day of the climb dawns cloudier and cooler than yesterday. After my ordeal last night, I couldn’t be any more grateful. I wake up still feeling weak, and I’m wondering if I’ll even be able to make it to Camp Muir, let alone anywhere on the upper mountain. But…
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Before I get into mountaineer school today, I should probably tell you a bit more about this climb. The program Lori and I signed up for is the four day summit climb through Rainier Mountaineering Inc. RMI is the original guiding service on Mt Rainier, and they have an excellent reputation. There are two other…
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Before I get in to the details of my climb of Mt Rainier, I won’t keep you in suspense of how I did. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the summit. Words can’t even describe my disappointment at not succeeding a second time, however I did get to 12,300ft, the top of the Disappointment Cleaver…
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Those of you who know me, probably know I did a summit attempt of Mt Rainier back in 2009. For many reasons, including not knowing that I had (and still have) exercise induced asthma, I made it to 11,200 ft, the Ingraham Flats, before I had to turn around. I have since gone on to…
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Day 2 of our Iceland trip starts early. We’re being picked up for our tour of the Golden Circle. When I originally booked this, it was one of the only tourist sites I knew about (aside from the city and the Blue Lagoon), so it seemed like a must-do. As time got closer to our…
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