Bonaire vacation – photos

These are my blogging prompts for today:

  1. Would you rather…? Leslie wants us to post a question and my answer to it. And I hope you’ll tell me your answer in the commets.
  2. Kathy, on the other hand, selected on of my all time favorite classic rock songs today: “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin

But first my question: Would you rather take a car, a train, a bus, a ship or plane to go on vacation?

For as long as I can remember our family went on vacation taking the car with a trailer. Later on when I went by myself or friends frequently we would also go by car. While train is really a great option to travel across Europe for some reason, except for a couple of school trips, I was always hooked on going my own speed (within limits), my own ways and detours, voluntarily as well as involuntarily, by car.

Then with 24, pretty old by today’s standards, right? I took my first vacation by plane, going to Fuerteventura, the Canary Islands. Theoretically I guess I could have gone by car/train and ship. But traveling that way, probably by the time I got to Fuerteventura my vacation would have been over. Because it would have taken too long. Same thing later on whe we started going on windsurfing vacations in the south of Europe, Greece, Turkey and also Egypt. They are all connected or reachable by land and possibly ship, yet it would take a little too long for one short vacation. Making it pretty hard to get to a location like this one (from our Bonaire vacation):

clouds, bonaire, ocean, caribbean, hdr

Who would ever think of a flight as being ‘vacation’ in itself? I certainly don’t. Flying for me is a means to get where I want to go to in a (very) reasonable time. Enabling me to have more time to enjoy and relax at my destination. A trip by car, however, a road trip that is a whole different story. Yes, it takes a long time, but you can see a lot of things along the way. Making the journey itself the or part of the vacation. In which case I would be totally o.k. with it taking a long(er) time.

Which brings me to one vacation that I definitely want to take in my lifetime: A road trip across America. East to West, West to East, North to South, I don’t care. Well, I actually did drive with David along the coast from Washington State down to San Francisco taking a few days. That was fun! And I want to do it again. Every time we go from New Jersey to North Carolina for our fall windsurfing we are actually looking forward to the ten hour drive. Yes, it gets boring at times, because we have driven the same road a few times now, but we still enjoy it. Because the journey, driving their together is already part of our vacation.

Right now though I am not looking forward to any kind of traveling. I am pretty much o.k. with staying just in one place. And I would not mind one bit if I could stay here (all pictures in this post) much longer. And not go on a plane with half my leg in a cast. But, who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky and get an aircast on Wednesday. You got to have hope, right?! 

Because while it is not the ‘stairway to heaven’ that is waiting for me at the end of the rainbow, but a lot of stairs in our townhouse, which right now I am not looking forward to, too much. With crutches and all. “Oooooh, and it makes me wonder” – what really lies at the end of the rainbow?

But forget about the rainbow, the crutches, forget about money: How would you rather go on vacation?

rainbow, bonaire, caribbean, clouds, hdr

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claudia3

26 thoughts on “Bonaire vacation – photos”

  1. Hard to answer your question. Except: If I am going to New Orleans, its by plane. I can leave home to catch a 5-6 something a.m. flight and be there by 10:ish. Which means more time to enjoy being there. As for anywhere else, I think it depends on the trip itself. I have traveled by car, plane, and train, and have found all three to have some good and some bad. Stairway to Heaven is a great song! But my fave Zep song is The Rain Song.

    Reply
  2. Any vacation is a good vacation. I do love going in the car, especially with my kids when we are seeing some good sites. They don’t mind as long as we are stopping often to explore. And I love to see things through their eyes.

    If I’m going on a vacation with my husband? … Get us on a plane and get us there so we can get started having fun together ALONE!

    But we have found that our favorite way to explore new places is by boat … big boat, that is. We love to cruise to new destinations. We find that we get to see more for the money. We cruised through the Hawaiian islands and it was BY FAR my preferable way to do it. We got to go to all of the islands instead of just one. We have also been to Bermuda, several Caribbean destinations, and the Bahamas. We are going back to the Caribbean in May for my daughter’s destination wedding. I cannot wait to experience it all with all of my kids.

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    • Hahaha – that sounds like a plan, Nicole. Slow travel with the kids and much faster with the hubby.
      Really? You like those cruises? Hmm, you sound pretty convincing. But I just cannot get the sheer size, slow speed from my mind. We always see ‘floating skyscrapers’ when we visit Bonaire. Watch them disappear into the sunset and wonder (see photo above). Maybe one day…

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  3. Growing up, our family vacationed like your family did – by car, with a trailer. 🙂 So far most of our vacations have been road trips – we’ve been lucky having the opportunity to hit just about every state in the U.S. so far, especially since my family is here on the West Coast so we’d drive across the country for a visit, choosing different routes there and back to make it fun and have opportunities for little side trips to see cool things. 🙂

    We have traveled by plane, too – but ever since 9/11 flying isn’t as fun (or as leisurely) as it once was. Now it’s more like riding a bus in the sky with a lot more expense and hassle. Though going to the Caribbean flying is a necessity – and eventually, when I finally get to check off one of the items of my bucket list of touring wine country in Italy, I’ll have to fly there first – but you know the time there will be road trippin’. 😉

    Reply
    • Absolutely, Stacy, you gotta be road trippin’ in Italy or any other European country for that matter. Get there first by plane, then possibly again by plane or train to another country, but within that country by car and in bigger cities by foot or tram. Hope you get to see it soon!
      And I agree, flying is way less fun than it used to be years ago…

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  4. These photos are stunning, especially the last one. Hope that traveling with the cast won’t be too difficult. I’m sure it won’t be fun. I have always loved traveling by train and we did many times when I was younger. My uncle has been working for the Deutsche Bahn for over 20 years as a train engineer and driven all kinds of different trains/locomotives. And my grandma was a train conductor – I used to love going to work with her and giving out tickets etc. I guess it’s in the blood. 🙂

    Reply
    • I always thought traveling by train sounds exciting and romantic and… yet, in reality mostly I think it is noisy. I guess it depends when and where to you are traveling though. And no matter what, it is a very good alternative.

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  5. I would go on any mode of transportation, but not a plane. I am rather strangely afraid of flying even though I have never done it or have a reason to be afraid.

    Wonderful pictures. I hope you leg heals quickly.

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    • I can totally understand being afraid of flying. I am afraid of heights in general, so getting on a plane is always accompanied by calming thoughts on my part. But it beats any other form of transportation for speed if you want to get somewhere.

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  6. LOVE that rainbow scene, just outstanding!
    I would rather take a car.. I love road trips. But only if I had unlimited time, as I like to pull off the road, jump out and take in all there is along the way.
    We will be doing a mixed vacation next month… flying to San Fransisco (from northern MN), renting a vehicle and driving down the Central CA coast. I can’t wait. Winter is LONG up here. 🙂

    Reply
    • Thank you very much, Amanda. I was very lucky seeing double rainbow a couple of times the first few days. And the ocean and clouds are always outstanding there.
      Unlimited time (and money) for a roadtrip – that sounds like THE plan.
      SFO to LAX? That sounds like fun. I am sure you will have a great trip!

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  7. Oh your leg!!! What did I miss — what on earth happened? I hope it’s nothing too serious.

    As for how I’d like to travel. well, in the past it was all about Getting There Now, so plane was ideal. especially because it was usually someplace tropical. I had some really fantastic road trips with friends in my younger days too, but recent ones have been with 3 kids and they don’t let me be the D.J. The Wiggles for 6 hours on a bare stretch of highway? not ideal. I have never been on a cruise, so I rather like that idea. And I did use to sail back in my hometown and definitely miss that. But my choice, right now in this moment, is Train. It seems a weird choice, but I recently found out about this Writers On Rails thing where you, a writer, can book a journey on a train and you get a private car and it’s basically all about you writing as you journey. The last time I took the train I got very pensive and did a ton of writing; half of which has never shown up on my blog. So, I think that would be a very cool AND productive adventure. It combines everything I like. And I think I could use the peaceful, slow, easy pace these days! 🙂
    Love the drink shot!

    Reply
    • Well, I think you caught up by now on my leg…
      Yes, traveling with children is something else, right? Just like road trips with friends in our younger years – hahaha – sounds like we’re 80 🙂
      You told me about that Writers on Rails thing, it really does sound like you. Do it!

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  8. Oh my goodness gracious, these seascape photos are breathtakingly gorgeous. TRULY heaven on earth. EXCEPT….for that whole leg ‘thing’ going on with you, it looks like a wonderful break (no pun intended) from reality. To answser your question, I truly FEEL like I”m going on vacay when I fly somewhere. Probably because I can count on arriving some place that seems like more of an adventure for me. Thanks for joining in at Song-ography, and I’m glad I chose a favorite song of yours 🙂

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    • They really are, aren’t they? I mean those seascapes in the Caribbean are pretty breathtaking, right? Yeah, the leg… oh well… it certainly was/is enough of an adventure for me now 😉

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  9. I got pretty distracted by those photos. Whoa!
    And it’s a good question. Planes are just so easy sometimes – it’s like you’re bending time.
    That said, some of my greatest trips have been road trips. I think my dream is to drive cross country from east to west, since we’ve only ever done west to east. And I’d love to stay for a long time in the Yellowstone/Grand Teton part. And then.. stay in CA for a long time too.

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    • Bending time – now, there’s a thought. Actually since we are following earth’s curvature to get where we want to… bending is quite right 🙂
      Yes, yes, yes to cross country USA without any time or even better time or money constraints.

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  10. I hope you are healing well. I feel so bad you were injured in paradise.
    I am still catching up…maybe I should just start over!
    I love your photos. You really have a talent, my friend. I live vicariously through you. Hug.

    Reply
    • Awww, thank you so much, Annie. It really was an accident, and accidents do happen (when you least need them, but when do you ever need them…). Catching up, huh? So am I. On pretty much every front at the moment. We’ll get there, I am sure.
      p.s. sorry I am not posting a ‘pretty pic’ today…

      Reply

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