Bahamas wrap-up

Hey all,

Just a little wrap-up and I wanted to share that a couple of people saw me on TV for the Wake Forrest game.  That's right, Jim Caldwell, international TV star in the house and you all knew me when.  On top of that I am in the print media!! http://www2.kusports.com/photos/galleries/2013/nov/28/ku-basketball-v-wake-forest-battle-4-atlantis/ Bottom of the page (sorry for the stupid google quiz you have to answer before it shows you the full page). Photo of the crowd with me looking stoic and awesome (and balding) in the center bottom of the photo with Tam next to me cheering his head off while blocking his face with his ever present camera and his wife, Sophia, right next to him smiling and clapping (they are on my right...or to the left when looking at the photo).

The trip back was long but worry-free for the most part.  We were told multiple times to get to the airport 3 hours before departure and, of course, we made it through security in about 45 minutes.  I can see where it could have been worse: we made it through before a large group of people hit security including the Wake Forrest basketball team who was also on our flight to Charlotte.  Those huge dudes were sitting coach although one fan/booster/something associated with the team gave up his exit row seat for the tallest dude on the team.  Is that impermissible benefits?  With the NCAA as screwy as they are, it probably is.  Tons of families with kids on that flight.  So much so they asked if there was a group of 3 people in a row that would be willing to change to exit row seating (I guess to accommodate people with kids).  What do you know?  Tam + Sophia + me = 3 and we were all in the same row.  We humbly agreed to make that sacrifice.

Anyway, ate some lunch in Nassau airport, flew to Charlotte and only had about an hour layover there...with the gate lady threatening and cajoling everyone with overhead baggage to check it since the flight was sold out and then threatening all the later people with forcing them to check it.  In the meantime, of course she was letting everyone else on with baggage clearly larger than the outline of acceptable sized carry-on that was sitting right in front of her.  We were zone 5 (the last to get on) and only had backpacks so it was no big deal, but she called for zone 5 and then said "after the first 10 people, I am going to have to make you check your carry-on baggage".  I wonder if they can really enforce that.  What if you said "no"?  There was still plenty of room in the overheads (of course) so I don't think they did, but I was already on the plane by the time that threat would have been carried out.

We only had a scheduled 45 minutes in Phoenix for the last connection and, of course, the plane got in a little late, took a while to taxi and then took an hour (estimated, might not be accurate) to get the door open once we did get to the gate.  Luckily we landed at A11 and our connection was at A1 so a quick jog got us there as they were calling for our zone.  There were some on our plane that had to get to B gate or beyond.  And that is one of the things I don't like about US Airways (current holder of crappiest airline in the world in my book).  This super tight connection was offered on their website, they do not hold the plane even though their records should be showing us coming in on their airline and finally, they close the door to the gate 10 minutes before takeoff so even if you get there before departure, if it’s within 10 minutes of that departure, you are screwed.  This happened to me at Christmas one time and I then sat there staring at the plane sitting at the gate for the next 30 minutes before it finally pulled away.  Again, we made it (and our bags did too) this time so I guess I can sort of lighten up on them…but for sure, I don’t book through them if I can help it.

We landed in Portland around 11 and with getting luggage, the car, and the drive back made it home around midnight…but make it home I did.  Good trip overall.  The diving around Nassau wasn’t the best, but that shark dive was totally worth it.  Seeing basketball that close was pretty cool and KU took 2 out of 3. Good times.

Until next time, friends, let’s keep it our time, the people’s time!

Jim

More Bahamanian fun!!

Hey all,

Well it’s Saturday morning around 6am and I am in line to get tickets for this evening’s game.  It’s still first come first served and while we moved over a bit yesterday to a different section, it was also right behind the Villanova bench and they had a lot of lookie lous (loos?) that stood.  Mainly the 3 walk-ons at the end of the bench…their biggest cheering section.  Sam and Tam came down here at 4:30 yesterday and no one else showed up till 5:45.  We figured 6 would get us some more people in front of us, moving us up a bit, but when I got here at 6:10, there was only one other guy here.  Guess the game last night took the air out of the sails of the “faithful”.

Enough of that for now, let’s go back to a couple of days ago!

We dove Thursday morning for our last 2 dives.  I think we all probably would have been content with ending out diving with Wednesday’s shark dive but we booked before we came down here and who know it would be relatively sparse on the dives.  Sure we know NOW, but that doesn’t really help.

The first dive was at a site called DC3 where, you guessed it, a plane…or at least part of one, was sunk.  It was used in the movie Into the Blue with Paul Walker and Jessica Alba, a not very good hidden treasure movie with bikinis.  From there we went along the wall in that area before coming back.  Not a ton of stuff seen except for a turtle!  That was pretty cool. 

The next (and last) dive was at the Anthony Bell which was another wreck dive.  A big tugboat that was intentionally sunk to create a reef.  It doesn't have a ton of coral on it yet, but still made for an interesting dive.  That was a pretty decent dive with a cool little spotted moray, a couple of reef sharks (or maybe the same one twice) and, based off our friend Google, two Jack Crevalles.  Hey, now is a good time for pictures!

 

Turtle!

Sam stalking the turtle!

Spotted Moray

Anthony Bell (I assume that's the spelling)

Jack Crevalles  For perspective, they were about 3 feet long or so

Parrot fish

Another Lion fish (they are everywhere)

And it wouldn't be a dive day without a little
dun digga dun digga dun digga dun digga dun digga dun digga dun duh nuh na

After the diving, we hurried back to the room and took showers before heading to the game.  That game against Wake was a pretty good one…of course mainly because KU won.  They didn’t play that well, but a win is a win.  We had baseline seats 4^th row near the Wake bench.  I have heard I am now an international TV star having been seen by at least 2 people that I know.  Autograph requests will be filled on a first come, first served basis.  For Thanksgiving dinner, we did a buffet here at the Atlantis.  It was $50 a head and was okay, I guess.  Everything here is sort of expensive so we have been going out to dinner most nights (still expensive, but more variety) and making our breakfasts and lunches in the rooms.

View from our seats Thursday night.  Really cool to be able to see the players faces as they dunked and what not.  Of course, the goal post/stand blocked the left side of the court from our view but sacrifices sometimes must be made.

Yesterday was a nice lazy day.  It was overcast so couldn’t really enjoy the waterpark.  We did end up going to dinner at a pretty good Italian place in Nassau before heading to the game against Villanova.  It was….crap..L name…I keep wanting to say Luigi’s and that is not it…Luciano’s.  That’s the ticket.  I had the blue crab ravioli.  Mmmm good.

The game last night was a tough one.  I would have preferred it to come out differently (like with KU winning), but it did help expose some areas where work is needed.  For sure.  Tough game to come back from being 10 down for most of the game to up by 1 before that killer 3.  Dang.  It was sort of funny to see the ~50 Villanova fans in attendance storm the court.  Act like you have been there before, friends.  Even saw one old timer cut through the handshake line to clap one of the ‘nova players on the back.  Stay classy.

 

View from last night's seats.  Not bad.  And that is Jay Wright (Vilanova head coach) there on the left of that group.  Interesting to see his reactions to what was going on through the game.  Interesting tidbit: they apparently have a team priest...at least one was sitting with the team.  He clapped happily when Bill Self got the T.

Vilanova fans (all 50 of them who made the trip) storming the court

I guess I will try to do one more blog so we don't end up with a picture of a Vilanova victory as the last image to this trip.  UTEP is the opponent tonight.  Their coach is Tim Floyd!  Who knew.

Huh…I thought I would ramble much more than I did.  I guess there really wasn’t a whole lot to update on.  One more day in paradise before heading back tomorrow.  We go through Charlotte and Phoenix on the way back to Portland (US Air).  One cool thing is customs is done here in Nassau so the hour layover in Charlotte shouldn’t be a problem.  We only have 45 minutes or so in Phoenix, though so I am sure we will get boned by US Airways with that connection.  I hope they make me eat my words.

It is still our time, the people’s time so I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday!  Let the Christmas music begin!!!

Jim

Some shark dive video

Here is a supplemental blog with some shark video.  I have 4 videos, but it appears blogspot limits the size to less than 100MB and 2 of the vids are larger than that.  But I do have 2 that are smaller...the beginning and end.  So you don't get to see the feeding but you DO get to see all the sharks swimming around.

Beginning of the shark feed

End of the feed.  You can see most of the sharks trailing the dude with the food.

I will try to see if I can load to maybe youtube and then link over or something so you can see the video where you can see the picture wobble when the shark fin hits me in the head (with the accompanying shark coming into view).  

Our time, the People's time!

Jim

Still alive and kicking in Nassau

Hey all!

I survived the shark dive!!!  Yay!

Let’s see….when last we chatted I was heading out with the gang to check out the grounds of Atlantis.  We walked the length of the property which includes many shops, pools, water features, a casino and various places to eat.  Along the way, to fortify ourselves of course, we got some frozen fruit rum drinks that have all been classified as “daiquiris”.  I got the mango one which blended very well with the dark rum of the drink. 

We also picked up our tickets for the first game of the tournament tomorrow afternoon.  We have 4^th row under the basket so not super awesome, but pretty awesome.  The one screwy thing is that we only got vouchers for the next game.  They can be redeemed for tickets at 9am the day of the next game…so we are going to have to get in line and it’s first come first served.  Crazy way to do it.  Sam said he was going to go over around 4:30 on Friday to get in line.   There are a TON of Jayhawk fans here so it will be interesting to see what seats we can get.

We dove yesterday and did a wall dive followed by a wreck dive.  Not a lot of creatures to see beyond your typical fish.  The wreck was pretty cool to check out but otherwise, the diving was pretty underwhelming.  

More dinner!  Two for the price of one

Wreck Dive...almost Titanic action

More Wreck

Trumpet Fish

P Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

Sponges and Coral growing on the wreck

We also hit the grocery store to stock up on food for the rest of the week.  There was also a liquor store next door where we may or may not have obtained a couple of cases of beer.  I will let you decide which way you want to go on that one.  It’s pretty weird to take a taxi to the grocery, have him sit there while you shop and then take you back.  We had enough stuff that the bellman had to bring over a luggage rack thingy to wheel it up to our rooms.  Probably the highlight of yesterday was going to dinner at the Poop Deck!  Yes, it IS named that and that is why I pretty much demanded we go there.  Poop Deck.  It never gets old!

Poooooooop

Deck

Today we did 4 dives total.  2 this morning, which were okay.  Again, not a ton of sea creatures and a storm came through so we got rained on a bit while in the boat.  Sort of funny thinking “I am getting wet!” when I am about to jump in the ocean.  Actually, the ocean felt awesome as it was warmer than the rain & air.  Like a nice warm bath. We did get to see a sting ray…and a boat load of lion fish.  We headed back to switch out some people and pick up those that wanted to go on the shark dive as well as grab some lunch.  It was a nice little interlude and then…it was time.

We headed out to the dive site where we would do the two dives.  The first started at “shark arena” but then headed out to check out the wall around the island (top is at around 45 feet….bottom at around 6500 feet).  The joke is not to try to go to the bottom.  We stayed at around 60-80 feet...but back to the dive briefing.  You get a dive briefing before pretty much any dive you ever do where they talk about the topology you will be seeing and describing the planned route, emergency signals and the like.  For this briefing they told us the sharks would be cruising around and not to be worried, but they would be there when we went in.  No big deal other than don’t hang out on the surface and splash around.  Get in the water and start your descent.  Similarly, when you are coming out of the water, get up, take your fins off and climb up the ladder without dilly-dallying around.  No need to look like a wounded seal at the surface and give the sharks any ideas.

To back up a bit, our group was at the back of the boat closest to the entry point for the dive.  With that on top of the fact that we were ready to go, I got to be first in on that dive.  Friends, hearing “the sharks will be down there swimming around” does not prepare you to step to the edge of the boat in full gear knowing with a step you will be in the water, looking down and seeing sharks in the freaking water!  But take that giant step I did and soon I was sinking down in among them.  And at that point it wasn’t that big a deal…at least most of the time.  I had my camera out snapping photo after photo as they circled around.  One even started coming towards me and I thought “hey, that will make a good photo” before then thinking “Oh crap, it’s coming right for me!!!!”.  Sophia and I both dropped down to the sandy floor and just watched as the sharks circled around us and the other divers.

Breaker breaker….”today” is now yesterday as I got sleepy last night and our internet ran out.  So verb tenses are about to shift and it might be jarring.  Now back to the dive.

The first afternoon dive, other than getting us used to having sharks circling us like…uhm…sharks…was a wall dive again.  A wall dive, for those of you new to my ramblings is just that.  Most islands have a wall where their relatively shallow waters drop off to ocean depth. You go to that wall, descend to whatever depth you are certified to go to (I can go to 100-110 feet, but usually go 80ish max) and then swim along the wall looking for interesting critters.  Eels, shrimp, fish, turtles, interesting coral, and many many more.  When anyone in your party hits half a tank, you ascend to the top of the wall and swim back the way you came.  Because you go to a shallower depth, you use less air and should get back with plenty.  Saw a pretty cool spotted moray eel, a boatload of lion fish and a relatively large grouper on that dive.  Not a bad one.

After that dive we loaded down with extra weight because for shark feeding time, we were going to be kneeling on the floor and you wanted to make sure you stayed on the floor.  Normally, if you are properly weighted, if you kneel on the floor, when you breathe in, you will start to rise a bit and as you breathe out you will sink back down (air rises).  We didn’t want that happening because you lose balance, flail arms, shark bites, not good.  The dive brief spoke about keeping your hands in front of and near your torso.  No reaching out: that shark might not do anything but the one behind that shark is thinking “Fred just got fed by that person…I am getting some too” and then your hand is gone.

Anyway, we dove down to “shark arena” and the helpers positioned us behind rocks in a circle.  I had an exposed left side with Sophia next to me.  Christine was next to her and then Sam next to Christine.  The shark feeder then came in with a metal case full of bait that he then fed to the sharks on a long rod.  It seemed like there were 100s of sharks swimming around, but they said it was more along the lines of 30-40 which is, for the most part, more than you would really want to have swimming around you hungry.  It was awesome!  They would swim around and come back in hitting you with their fins or brush against you with their tail.  I never really felt concerned…it was almost surreal to be honest maybe because I was taking pictures and filming it but still: so cool.  Definitely one that will be remembered.  You would love it, Mike!  The feeding lasted around 30 minutes and then the feeder swam off with some bait to draw the sharks away.  We then did our safety stop at 5 meters and then got back on the boat.  Super awesome tho…and to prove it, here are some pictures!  Click to embiggen!! 

Wonder what that is in the middle

Lion Fish

Brain Coral.  Pretty cool lookin', huh?

Puffer fish...unpuffed

Stingray!

Some Video of the Stingray

Pretty much what I saw when I was looking down before jumping in.  Hello.

Yep.  Sharks everywhere

Big Grouper just to add in some fluff before the shark attack!!

The guy in the middle is feeding them from the metal box.  He has chain mail on.  We do not.

Sharks everywhere

Can you count them all?

Yeah...it went on like this for a while.

Well I tried to load up a video of the sharks but it errored out :(  I will try again on the next blog.  Until then, I hope all are doing well!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jim

Welcome to the Bahamas!!

Hey all!

Bahamas!!!  That’s right, while most of you are freezing, I am forced to bear up under 80 degree weather in order to send you these blogs of joy.  This time from Nassau where we will be seeing KU play basketball at the end of the week and, while waiting, will be diving pretty much every morning.

To get here, we flew down to San Francisco, over to Philly and then down to Nassau.  The SF to Philly leg was a red eye and, as usual, I didn’t sleep well.  Sophia, due to all the flying on her sabbatical, is a silver prestige member (or whatever that is called) on Star Alliance and got those seats upgraded from economy to economy plus.  The plus does give you 6 or so inches of extra leg room but no more reclining.  Sophia then got upgraded all the way to first class so Tam and I got to sit with the peons as she lorded over it with a bottomless glass of red wine.

We all made it in yesterday, checked in and then headed out to the fish fry area where there are about 12 restaurants lined up in a row that all served, yes, fried fish of one kind or another.  I had the “lightly” breaded conch and grilled shrimp.  The light breading was actually fairly heavy but they were might good just the same.  Tam and I washed them down with a couple local beers called Sands Beer: the number one truly refreshing Bahamian Beer…at least according to their website. Early night last night since I didn’t get any sleep on the flight in.

This morning Sophia, Sam, Christine and I went diving while Tam wandered the grounds.  We went to Steel Towers (3 wrecks) and the James Bond Wrecks.  The first was pretty cool and we got to see the first couple of reef sharks swimming around along with a bunch of lion fish and even a stingray.  The second dive didn’t have a ton of life…other than a spotted moray eel, a couple of lobster and a barracuda.  Cool thing about that dive was they had the steel tube structure that made the airplane you see at the beginning of Thunderball.  It doesn’t look like a plane, anymore, but it was cool just the same

We are about to head out and wander around, but before I go, here are some pictures!  Click to embiggen.

Shark!

Lion Fish asking me "whatchu lookin' at?"

Thunderball!  007...this is the plane frame they made for that movie

Hello, dinner.  It wasn't a rock...it was a....

Liked the framing of this one.  Good colors

Spotted Moray sticking up out of the sand

You guessed it

Hope all are doing well!  Love to all.

Our time, the peoples time

Jim

Sitting in Frankfurt

Hey all,

I made it to Frankfurt and now have about 3 hours to kill before my next flight starts boarding.  The sucky part is: in the gate area, there is only one place to get food: Mayer’s The Brezel Bakers (Est 1902) and I was hoping for a bit more variety.  Lufthansa fed me breakfast on the flight up from Tel Aviv (that I proceeded to get all over my shirt) so I am not hungry yet, but 3 hours is a long time, people!

Speaking of food, the people we were meeting took us out to dinner last night at the conclusion of our F2F (that’s Face 2 face for you non acronym peeps).  The whole meeting was super productive…a lot more than I thought it would be and they seemed to be pleased about the progress too.  Dinner was at a Middle Eastern restaurant (kabobs) in a gas station (really) and was awesome.  The starters/salads covered the entire table.  It was tons of little plates with different things on them: hummus (yum!), cabbage with various treatments: simple dressing, sour and hot, other, Carrots with hot peppers, olives, spicy cucumbers, some roasted tomato sauce that I would have said was salsa if I was blind folded and had a nacho chip, and many many more.  It’s sort of family style and you reach and grab what you want both eating from the little plates and/or taking some to your own.  Then the kabobs came out (I had chicken skewers and beef kabobs) and they were AWESOME!  Man…I could (and did) get fat over here.  Love the food and the flavors.  Even the Intel Café had really good food every day we were there.  Of course, I suppose you get used to it and it becomes less of an awesome thing, but for a week of novelty, it was great.

Got up around 12:20 this morning so we could leave by 1 for the ~hour drive to Tel Aviv and the airport.  What with turning in the rental and the shuttle over, it was around 2:30 when I got in line for security for my 5:00 flight.  I would have to say, out of all the airports in the world that say “be there X hours before your flight” that I have been to, Ben Gurion Airport is not joking around.  They recommend 3 hours because the Israeli’s take security on flights to the nth degree.  They are probably the only airport in the world that didn’t really change their security practices after 9/11 ‘cause they were ALREADY hard core.

Normally, when you come over for business, you go through the people you are meeting to get an exit letter set up.  It basically covers all the pre-screening and lets the airport know you were indeed there for non-nefarious purposes and the security screening is pretty much a breeze.  Without the security letter (and heck, even sometimes with), you could be subjected to some fairly detailed and time consuming questioning.  Just depends.  Armen’s (my boss) mom made it through no problem and her passport has her being born in Syria.  Dani’s (my coworker) husband is from Costa Rica and generally a happy go lucky guy and I guess he was questioned for an hour when they left.  They all came early like I did but toured Jerusalem and Mosada and the Dead Sea rather than play with me in Eilat.

Exit letter…last time I was here (9 or 10 years ago?) we got an exit letter and were approaching the ticketing counter when security came and said we needed to go to another building to start the process and blah blah.  We broke out the letters and said showed them and the attitude changed, we were ushered to a short line and like 30 minutes later, we were through.  Totally awesome.

I put in for my exit letter this trip on Sunday when the meetings started but was informed on Tuesday that since I had been in Israel being touristy more than 50% of the stay, I didn’t qualify for one (neither did 3 of the 4 other people that came over).  That, along with the fact I had gone to Egypt for the dive trip had me filled with visions of getting taken into a room and being grilled like a mo-fo. 

Couldn’t be farther from what happened…or I guess it could be, but it was not a painful process.  Instead, I stood in the security line with everyone else and when it was my turn the guy asked me questions about what I was doing there (little bit of tourist and then business meetings), where I had been (Eilat, Taba, and Haifa), how long was I in Egypt (went in the morning came back in the afternoon), purpose of being there (diving), did I know anyone in Eilat (no).  Boom.  Thank you, please take your bag to the x-ray machine.  You also get a bar code sticker on the back of your passport and your luggage.  The bar code could flag for additional screening, might not.  I think it sort of does from what came in a bit, but before we get there…

Took my luggage to the X-ray machine and walked to the other end to collect it.  The screener came over to me and asked if I was going to Frankfurt and I told him yes.  He had me follow him over to the area where they were opening select people’s luggage and going through it item by item.  Crap.  But then he asked someone to take care of me (might be helpful if I ever learn Hebrew) and they led me to the front of this loooooong line at the Lufthansa counter to get my boarding passes.  Now either that long line was filled with people who were going on a later flight –or- they were getting my passes in case follow-on security was going to need more time with me.  Not sure which it was except when I got to the departure area, I had to go through a much more thorough carry-on luggage screening than most people did.  That’s why I think the bar code might indicate additional screening since the guy scanned it and directed me to that line rather than the other.  Of course, I might have been person 10 through that line and got luck of the draw too.  Either way, I got the whole wipe it and sniff for bomb residue action on my laptop, my nook AND my shoes (freaking shoe bomber…ruining it for everyone…although I didn’t have to take them off).

Anyway, I guess I passed everything (as I should) because they handed the stuff to me and that was it: done.  An hour after beginning, I was sitting at my gate.  The other 3 all leave at 11 (which is about right now) so I look forward to hearing how their experience was. 

I am heading to Vancouver, BC next.  I was thinking I wouldn’t have to go through customs until hitting Portland, but the ticket counter person in Tel Aviv said I “get” to go through customs in Canada too. 

Okay, I am going to try to send this out now.  The wireless claims you get 30 minutes free, but I haven’t tested that yet and they ask for an email so it might be all spammy and other things.  If that is the case, then I will send from Canada and you will know because I will probably add in bits about the 10 hour flight.  BTW, watched Jack Reacher on the way over here.  The one with Tom Cruise.  It was surprisingly entertaining and pretty good. 

I hope everyone is doing well!

Our time, people’s time!

Jim

My hotel room in Haifa

Hey all,

Not a ton to update about.  Day 1 of meetings is over with and up until about 3 in the afternoon, things were pretty non contentious.  That changed and the remaining 2 hours were fairly exciting.  So the agenda for the remaining days has been moved around and rather than presenting this afternoon, I "get" to present first thing this morning so we can all be baselined on where we are in order to make decisions on how to move forward.  How is that for business speak?  At least I didn't use synergy or inflection point (2 of my least liked phrases).

Anyway, I was originally put into a room at the hotel with 2 singles snuggled up to each other.  Sure it looked like a king sized bed, but you could only get into half of it at a time. Not quite the same thing.  While I was at work, they moved me to a new room that has a king sized bed and I walk into this:

Yes the wall is a window.

The view out my wall o' window

 

Night time is the right time.  Same view later that night

The room sort of faces northeast so I am now sitting in the room with the rising sun streaming in.  Not a bad time.  Nice and relaxing before going in to face the wolves :)

Oh!  I forgot an exciting (to me) tidbit.  After the last blog while I was waiting in the airport for John to show up, I realized I had left my passport in Eilat 4 hours away.  Yeah.  Not a good idea or feeling for that matter. I wasn't totally sure, but it wasn't in my back pack and I didn't remember specifically packing it.  John finally got in (Air France lost his luggage too, btw) and we made it up to the hotel to check in.  When I did, they called the hotel in Eilat and yes I did leave my passport which is now being couriered up here for the nice sum of 80 shekels, about $25 which isn't bad as far as I am concerned.  Thank goodness I didn't have to drive back down there to get it.  That would have sucked.

Well I need to get showered and head to breakfast (buffet style!) and then head out to work.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Our time, the people's time!

Jim

Hanging at the airport is boring...but gives me time to write!

Hey all,

I am sitting in the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv waiting for one of my coworkers to fly in.  Since I was already here, I volunteered to pick him up on the way to Haifa since Tel Aviv was on the way from Eilat.  Of course he missed his flight in NYC so is coming in 4 hours later than originally planned and although he DID send a mail in time for me to know had I looked, I didn’t…so now I sits.  Oh well.  I was worried about traffic from Eilat anyway since today is the equivalent of Sunday and all the vacationers have to be back to work tomorrow.  Israel work week is Sunday through Thursday.  So I sit here rather than near a beach…crap, you are right, I am an idiot.  Oh well.  Lesson learned.

Had a pretty good couple of final dives yesterday.  Nothing like the life I saw on the Egyptian dives, but I did have my camera so there will be photos!  Not a whole lot to report on the dives other than one of the guys ran out of air on the safety stop.  No biggie as all of us were sort of clustered together and he buddy breathed off another guys octopus (all of us have 2 regulators: one for the diver and one for the diver who runs out of air).  Really the dive master should have been paying more attention to everyone’s air supply cause he turned around later than he should have.  On the other hand, right at the turn around I saw a nudibranch and took a picture so I was happy we went that far. 

The other slight bummer is I saw this little white eel which, according a quick Google is a young moray eel.  I was maneuvering in to get a picture when I guess I scared if off and it went under the stone it was peeking out from.  But I got to see it at least so that was pretty cool.

Heading to Haifa this afternoon after John gets here.  Not sure I will write much more since it’s going to be meetings and then dinner.  Maybe there will be something exciting to share.  Let’s aim for at least one more….and until then, some photos!  As always, click to embiggen...although you might need to click twice.

Some fish hanging out around an outcropping of coral.

Nudibranch!  This was down around 18 meters.  White balance is your friend in the water :)

While the anemone is pretty cool, if you embiggen, you can see the shrimp hanging out on one of the tentacles in the  middle

Derpy looking starfish. 

Thought this was some kind of scorpionfish, but apparently not.    I forget what the dive master called it and I don't have my log with me.  Oh well.  Pretty cool looking either way

Check out the two lower teeth on this dude.  Nothing like being able to eat some coral!

Spotted sting ray.  Could have framed this better, but there was another  diver directly above him trying to get a photo too.  I didn't want to include the other diver :)

Parrot fish!  I swear, every time I try to take a picture of a fish, it turns the wrong way.  In this case, I got a nice side shot!

Yeah...the drive from Eilat to Tel Aviv looks like this for at least half the trip. 

I figured the camel sign was worth a picture.  I took it while driving past  so its not the best photo...oh well.

Love to all

Out time, people’s time!

Jim

I like it Eilat!

Hey all,

Well, day 2 coming to a close with no clothes.  I checked with both the United website and called their number here and the site says it has already been delivered while the dude on the phone gave me an “of course” when I asked if it was going to be delivered today.  To be slightly fair, even though I don’t want to, that is the usual answer to a question here in Israel…but when it’s given, it usually DOES mean “of course” and whatever it is said in reference to is a done deal…except in this case.  So United = sucks now.  Plus I get to vote with my wallet since I will probably be coming here every 6 months or so. Sure, not a ton of money out of their pockets, but every little bit helps.  I realized tonight that not only is my camera case in there, but my Dramamine is too.  Yeah…boat dive tomorrow.  Hopefully they have some on the boat *burp*.

I did the 2 dives today with one being a refresher dive since I hadn’t been diving since last April and the other was a normal dive.  The refresher was your typical recover your regulator (what you breathe through), take your mask off and put it back on, buddy air techniques, etc.  It’s basically done to make sure you are a safe diver when you do the follow-on dives.  The one weird one of this was when we took the mask off (and then put it back on), he said an optional thing to do was a farmer’s blow (hold down one nostril and exhale through the other).  I had never had anyone suggest doing that before (maybe I am sheltered?) but I HAVE had some mucus build-up from time to time while diving and since your nose is inside the mask, not being able to blow it has proven to be a pain in the butt.  Now I have a remedy!

We wandered around after I had done the tasks just to check out the local scenery.  It was pretty dull until a spotted sting ray decided to swim through.  It was pretty cool looking.

The second dive was a bit better than the first one, but there wasn’t a ton of life to see.  There was a pretty good variety of fish, but it was nothing like Thailand.  I am sure it has a lot to do with all the tourists that come through here and I hope tomorrow’s dive is more heavily populated.  I did see a sand dollar (first time since my certification dive in Monterey Bay) and some colorful fish so it wasn’t a total waste.  The dive was 35 minutes, but relatively shallow (around 25-30 feet) so I came up with over half a tank left (take THAT Sophia [even though you would have come up with 7/8ths of a tank due to your gills]).

Tomorrow is a boat dive further south so hopefully it will be awesome and chock full of life.

I went to dinner tonight at a seafood place right across the street from me.  Apparently they are good…or at least their prices indicate that is so.  I had my first encounter with a whole fish (“whole” without the innards, of course).  Lots of little bones involved and I had to pick them out of my mouth occasionally.  While it was really good, the bones sort of sucked.  I have to assume there is a much better way of stripping the meat off the thing than what I did, but I will say I did a pretty dang good job. Got pretty much everything short of gnawing on the bones pork chop style to get the last remaining bits. 

I happened to glance at the bar and saw Marci’s old Brazilian nemesis: Cachaca!  For those of you who don’t know, that is liquor distilled from sugar cane and is the main ingredient in Caipirinhas!  In your honor, Marci, I asked if they made them and they said they didn’t.  Super sad.

Day 3 dawned with no magical overnight delivery of clothing.  I say “dawned”, but I am still screwed up from the time change and woke up about 1am and then lay there shifting positions for a couple hours before I said screw it, and got up.

Today was diving in Egypt day.  The dive shop up here gave us a ride to the border and dropped us off to walk it.  The hotel with the other dive shop was literally right across the border so it wasn’t that big a deal except for Egyptian customs.  We got through the Israeli side with no problems.  Oh, I keep saying we.  There was a couple from Holland that coincidentally is staying at the same hotel but also booked this trip through the same dive shop.  Anyway, the last guy on the Israeli side, chatted with the Dutch couple about when the best time to go is for $$$ (September…or after August) and if the light rail and busses ran all the time (they do, 24-7) so he could stay out of city center for cheaper. 

With that out of the way, we were able to head into Egypt.  We entered the Welcome Hall and it was empty except for one guy who ran into another office to grab the operator of the x-ray machine (you have to put your baggage through it).  We made it through that point and wandered over to the passport checkpoint that was also abandoned.  We about walked through since there was no one there but a custodian came after us and said we needed to get the stamps.  Apparently X-ray guy wasn’t authorized to do that since he remained seated at his end of the hall while we waited.  A good 10-15 minutes later, another gentleman came in and gave us the entry stamp.  It was so bizarre.  I mean after the efficiency of the Israel side, we were in a total hurry up and wait mode in Egypt.  The Dutch couple was worried the boat was going to leave without us (it didn’t…we got there and had to wait some more…there may be a theme of that in Egypt…not that it is a bad thing if you are expecting it).  For sure there are not a lot of signs with “go this way” on the Egyptian side, but there are a lot of armed men who will politely point you in the correct direction if you start going the wrong way.

I was on the dive boat before I remembered that I didn’t have any Dramamine.  I tend to get seasick (or at least have the one time I went without in the Dominican Republic and the boat was rocking back and forth in the surge) so I was a little worried, but they had  never heard of it before.  Luckily, it was a calm day, the boat was going about 2 miles an hour and there were no queasy feelings.  Heck, I even ate lunch in an enclosed area while the boat was moving.  Cured?  Maybe not, but less worried about it.

The dives were pretty good.  I mean there were some dull parts, but I got rid of my “I want to see something totally awesome every dive” mentality when I was on sabbatical and dove every day for 4 weeks (except for days before a flight, of course).  If I ever find myself thinking “boring”, I kick back, sort of slap myself and look around again.  I am under freaking water and swimming amongst fish!  How awesome!

To be fair, though, I did see something awesome on each of the 3 dives yesterday, but sadly, there are no photos.   But here is a quick summary:

Dive 1: Cool nudibranch that was blue and orange.  Watched it crawl along for a bit.  A cuttlefish!  I saw one on our first dive in Thailand and didn’t realize what a treat it was.  Instead I was thinking “why is the dive master watching this thing for so long”.  I now understand.  It was pretty cool to watch.  A scorpion fish that totally looked blue.

Dive 2: Place was called Aquarium and it was: tons of fish.  I saw a cool black looking lion fish and a stonefish that was walking along the seabed on its fins.  Crazy…it would sort of hop along pushing itself.  Crazy.  And about the time I was thinking “all this place is missing is turtles and it would be as good as Thailand” we came across a giant turtle!  Easily the size of the ones in Hawaii.

Dive 3: This one was one of those “not much to see here” dives until towards the end.  Still cool to be down there but not a ton of excitement until we came across an octopus that was out and about.  We scared it a bit and it changed color and shape (they can make themselves look spikey) so that was cool to see.  And as we were doing our 3 minute stop at 5 meters (it’s a dive thing to help get some nitrogen out of the body and to make sure you don’t get the bends) we saw a spotted sting ray.

All in all, the trip was a success.

Leaving Egypt, we entered Farewell Hall (which was really the other half of  Welcome Hall) to get our exit stamps.  This time, they were actually manned and we made it through fairly quickly.  On the Israeli side, there was a tour group (it seemed like..they all had matching colored hats) in line in front of us so it took a while.  I think my leaving Israel is going to be a little painful because they now have me entering at Taba, Egypt rather than the Tel Aviv airport so I am anticipating some questioning: “Why did you go to Egypt”, “Where did you stay”, etc.  Fun times.

Getting back to the hotel, I checked to see if the luggage had arrived and it hadn’t…but they did say they had called and were delivering it in like 30 minutes!  Sure enough, my luggage finally made it.  Fresh clothes are awesome…as is deodorant.  I mean I was going all Matthew McConaughey for the past couple of days letting my natural manly scent make itself known to the world.

I went down to the tourist section of Eilat last night for dinner and to walk around.  I ate at an Irish bar, drinking Belgian beer while eating a curried chicken sandwich (Indian) while in Israel.  Man of the world, that’s me.  For those of you interested, shots of alcohol were in the $10-20 range.  Patron Silver - $20! Anejo was in the $30 range.  Yeah…ouch

I also walked along the boardwalk and tourist crap is the same the world over!  Cheap t-shirts and jewelry.  Awesome.  I did get an aux cable for my iPod to hook it up to the car’s stereo cause that drive out in the middle of nowhere between here and Tel Aviv got down to 2 terrible radio stations.  Now I can listen to my iPod instead…as long at the cable works okay.  Since it’s Israeli, the signal may be going from right to left instead of left to right (thank you, I was proud of that one).

Slept a little better last night and went out for a little run this morning because I could. It was already hot so I only did a 5K, but I am happy I did.  Today is another couple of boat dives at a place called Japanese Gardens so hopefully we will see some good stuff.  This time I have my camera so hopefully there will be photos to break up the wall o’ text.

Enough!  I hope all are doing well

Our time, the people’s time!

Love to all

Jim   

  

Made it to Israel

Hey blog fans!

I had to come to Israel for some business meetings and decided to come a little early for some fun.  In this case, the fun (hopefully) diving in the Red Sea in Eilat, the southernmost tip of Israel.

Short story: I made it to Eilat alive and well although pretty zonked out from the travel.  I went to bed early last night and, of course, woke up way too early this morning so you get this note.

Long Story:

Tam and I went to see Tony Bennett Sunday night.  We already had the tickets when the travel to Israel came up and I have always wanted to see him so I scheduled my flight out on Monday….at 6am.  Yeah, probably not the best decision ever made.  I keep forgetting I am getting old and sleep = good.  3am came about early on Monday morning.

I got to the airport fine but any hope I had of changing my middle seat to an exit row or non-middle seat went up in smoke with the long line at United.  However, after making it to the gate area, my name got called and they asked if I would give up my seat so a family could sit together.  Not a problem and I got upgraded to economy plus (still in a middle seat, though).  When I got on the plane, there was a couple in the row and the lady was already seated in the middle seat giving me the window.  Yay!  It’s the little things.

Made it to Newark a little early and wandered around the bookstores I passed to see if I could find Marci’s book.  No luck.  Newark doesn’t like Marci.

I had already upgraded my seat on the flight to Tel Aviv to economy plus (3-4 extra inches of leg room and the seat reclines a little more) and it turns out my row was one of the few that didn’t have someone sitting in the middle.  Time to stretch out! Even with the extra space, while I was more comfortable, I didn’t sleep much if at all.  Man I wish I could sleep on planes.  As a side note about United, they are one of the few (only?) airlines that does not provide complementary alcoholic beverages on international flights.  Sucks…but the cool flight attendant gave me my beer I had for dinner free anyway!

We made it to Tel Aviv on time even though we did a few circles out over the Med because the airport was closed for some reason.  Made it through passport control with no problems and got to the baggage area only to sit through the entire cycle with no view of my luggage.  Yes, even though I was in Newark for about 2 and a half hours and was able to eat, check out 3 book stores, and slowly wander over to the gate and still have an hour left before boarding, my luggage couldn’t make the same trip.  According to the nice gentleman at the desk, it was on the next flight set to arrive at 4 (it was about 11am at that time).  I, however, still had a 4 hour drive to Eilat to do before I could crash.  Supposedly the luggage will be delivered to me today…we will see.

The kind Hertz people complimentarily upgraded my rental to a Honda.  Still a dinky car, but it looks cool.  I guess there is some kind of master car theft ring going on in Israel because on top of the normal key and lock, there is an electric lock on the engine such that I have to type in a code on a little keyboard on the dash before inserting the key and turning the car on. On top of that, the car has a key slot AND a start button so you have to insert key, turn it and then push the start button to get it started…and this is after punching in that code.  Thankfully they had a guy walk me to the car and walk me through these steps so I was able to start the car and then get the heck out of there.

For those of you interested, to get from Tel Aviv to Eilat, you take the 1 to the 6 to the 40 to the 90 and you are there!  340-something kilometers from your starting point.  The signs here are all in Hebrew, Arabic and English so you just have to scan them to find the language you prefer.  One of my favorite signs said: “Beware camels on the side of the road”.  I didn’t see any camels, seedy or otherwise, but they apparently got tired of writing all that and soon the signs were white warning triangles with a red border and a silhouette of a camel in the middle.  Sort of like a deer crossing sign, but for camels.  The drive was fairly pleasant with occasional signs of humanity until about 2 hours into it.  At that point, you hit a desolate section that has no signs of life and is basically dirt, rocks, and more dirt (piled up into interesting hills at least).  Luckily the Honda powered through that section and I made it to Eilat.

 

View from my hotel room.  That is the Red Sea.  The land on the other side is Jordan and if you followed the road (that is 90, btw) to the right you will hit Eqypt. 

Got checked into my hotel and then bought a cheap swim suit and par of flip flops so I can go on my dive this morning (remember, no luggage).  I look like Jackson and Travolta did in pulp fiction after they had borrow clothes from Tarrantino’s character.  Luckily I did my certification through PADI so they can look up that I am indeed certified since my card is also in my luggage (along with my camera case, mask, etc).  Today is just a refresh dive and then a dive at the local reef.  Tomorrow is a boat dive to maybe Egypt (I have to bring my passport) and then on Friday it’s another boat dive somewhere that a passport is not required. 

And that’s about it.  The sun just came up, we are 10 hour ahead so I subtract 2 from the hour and flip AM/PM for west coast.  So you central people are 8 hours behind me now (subtract 4, flip).  Other time zones, you are on your own.  Anyway, my body thinks its 8PM and it’s really 6AM here.  I wonder when breakfast is served….

Love to all, our times, people’s time!

Jim