Tag Archives: beaches

Costa Rica November 2011

November 23, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

I spent two weeks in November attending a Spanish language school in Playa Flamingo, Costa Rica. DON’T ask or expect me to bust out any espanol — YET. I’ll need another dose.

Here are a few pictures of some of my friends and classmates surfing at Tamarindo Beach (and some random beach bum types. It may be difficult to discern which are which.)

There’s a town in Costa Rica that’s famous for its pottery (ceramicas). The story is that these families have been making it there for 500 years or so, using pretty much the same materials, designs and methods. I met a guy named (disappointingly) “Willy,” who demonstrated his craft. I wound up flying home with seven pieces of pottery in my luggage. Amusingly, I also wound up giving a multimedia show-and-tell presentation (in Spanish, of course) to the entire school, describing my visit to Guaitil .

Here are some random Costa Rican sunsets from the trip.

The Parkers in the Virgin Islands

July 31, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

I got to spend ten days or so in the Virgin Islands with my sister’s family (Jana and Bill Parker, and their ‘kids’ Tyler, Caitlin (in pink dress) and Grace. We stayed on St. Thomas and then St. Johnr. In the middle, we took a sailboat trip to Jost Van Dyke (one of the British Virgin Islands, which gave the Parker clan a chance to get a real stamp in their newly-minted passports).

These few pictures surely don’t do the place justice, but since most of our activities were water-based and my camera isn’t waterproof, there weren’t many pictures except for a few on the sailboat trip and an impromptu photo shoot the final night’s trip to dinner. The stranger is Captain “Hollywood” Joe, who owned the sailboat.

Spain 2011 – Barcelona & Ibiza

June 6, 2011 by Jeff C | Comments Off

I jumped the gun a little. On the first official day of my retirement, I was actually already in Spain. A friend of mine is living in Barcelona, so I spent a few days there, and then a long weekend in Ibiza. (It turns out that Ibiza is an island in the Mediterranean, a hundred miles or so south of Barcelona).

The best picture from Barcelona is one I didn’t have the nerve to take. Nudity is legal (and not uncommonl) on Barcelona beaches. (No, I did not — thanks for asking.) One day, just off the side of the busy beachside boardwalk lay an older, fairly-heavy, very-tanned Spanish gentleman, sleeping buck naked with his head resting on his own artificial leg (which he had removed, apparently for use as a pillow). I didn’t have the nerve to go over there and take a picture. So…no Barcelona beach pictures.

The first several pictures below are actually at Montserrat — a hilltop monastery outside Barcelona. Then there are a couple at the relatively modern and decidedly odd Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona — designed by the architect Gaudi, after whom was coined the word “gaudy,” for reasons the cathedral makes apparent. The pretty beach is Ibiza.

Ironman Kona 2010

October 15, 2010 by Jeff C | Comments Off

My friend Shane Merz raced in the 2010 Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity — even for me as a spectator. I’d just bought my new camera (my first “real” camera in 20 years or so). Not bad for a first outing. Oh: Shane did great, too, as his finish-line picture suggests.