Duxford Girl

I've been dabbling in astronomy for about 15 years now. It started when I was working on my undergrad. I went to the University of Lethbridge (www.uleth.ca), a liberal-arts university, which means that they encourage students to round out their course load with a variety of subjects outside of a chosen major. Translation: I was forced to take science courses.

Since I have about 10,000 photos (and always increasing) kicking around my external drive I thought that I could share them one at a time. They most likely will have nothing to do with The SLOD and again, I may or may not have comments to go with them.

Seriously, people speed in Winnipeg but not on the way to Winnipeg. Not even people from Alberta. It's weird.

Today's our last day here which is unfortunate because I'm finally relaxed enough to just chill. It takes me a long time to wind down. Here's a few thoughts and notes as I sit on the beach and enjoy the ocean.

Some of you may remember a flick in the late 1980's called Cocktail. It was a relatively forgettable movie, made to cash in on the massive appeal of Tom Cruise at the time. The most memorable thing about it, in fact was a song about being happy that got a ridiculous amount of radio play time. In any case, if you remember the movie at all, there was a love scene that took place in a waterfall. It was supposed to be this intimate grotto in the woods.

In reality, it was the Dunn's River Falls (www.dunnsriverja.com), one of Jamaica's favourite tourist spots, the least likely place for a lover's tryst. That doesn't negate the fact that the falls are spectacular and well worth the visit. There are a number of ways to visit the falls and we choose to take a catamaran tour. For the record, the ride home was pretty choppy and I DIDN'T GET SEASICK ONCE!

I've always wanted to go to Jamaica. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's from reading too much about Nelson's time in the West Indies, or maybe it's too many years of listening to bands at Folk Fest cover Marley, or maybe I just got the idea that it was a good place to go back in the early 80s when The Love Boat was on and I was young and impressionable.

In any case, I'd heard from people over the last several years that they did not enjoy Jamaica. Complaints about weather, safety and atmosphere abound so I took everyone's advice three years ago and went to Mexico instead.

As I sit on the balcony of my room on this hot, beautiful night (listening to a live Reggae band), I'm hear to tell you; I'd take Jamaica over Mexico any day.