enough to blind us while on the water and .. well, just perfect -
t-shirts and shoes kicked off most of the day. We started by waking up
late and heading to the Water Taxi after a good breakfast. We hopped on
board, paid our fee of $31 for both of us for the full day and spent a
good many glorious hours tootling up and down the intercoastal waterways
here, seeing the most incredible houses and boats there are. One of the
guys who works near the water taxi station was saying that after
spending time looking at all those places, that we would feel very very
poor. Well, I am not so sure at all. Tonight I feel very very rich.
We are both tired from almost a full day looking at those huge and very
expensive places. Most of the houses look empty, every here and there
we would see life in the gardens, but they were mostly the maintenance
people. Many of the houses look like hotels and only a few looked like
homes. They all have perfect gardens, palm trees, boats of varying
sizes parked in front of them and ......well, its all so glitzy. The
boats are all highly polished too and those that we could see into are
all of showcase ilk. The taxes on one of the houses is $185 thousand
per year! The biggest USA built motor boat has a hole in the water here
too - she cost a whopping $285 million and looks like......well, more
than a cruise ship.
We hopped off the water taxi in a couple of places to wander around and
see what there is to see......around here it is mostly very rich shops,
restaurants, and tourist shops. but we wandered around a bit - went into
Macy's for the first time for either of us and bought Frank a watch. I
swear we could have got it at a quarter of the price at Walmart in
Soddy, but hey - we are not there and we needed at least one watch
between us but we left ours at home. We found some wine to take along
with us at another store, walked over a bridge and had a beautiful view
of the river below filled with boats of all sizes going in all
directions. One particularly huge one was being pulled along the river
by a small little tugboat - and one attached to the back too. Another
one of the really big one recently had underwater lights put in at a
cost of $5000 per light..... 36 were installed. It sure looks beautiful
at night - but geez, thats a huge tab!
Anyway, after we had oohed and aaahed at all the buildings and boats, we
headed home to the hotel with our wine and other goodies, quickly
changed and tootled back to the waterways for a night time tour of the
waterways to see the lights. We were a bit disappointed, not too many
were decorated at all. With it being dark we could see just how many of
the houses were not being lived in and could also see into the houses
that were! This is very interesting to see - they all look glitzy,
shiny and like hotels inside! A few places had barbeques going on
outside with people around fires and beers in hand, but this was not as
often as I expected. It's almost as if this place is on hold... Oh the
eateries are busy, the bars are busy, but the people somehow dont look
like the locals. All tourists.
And so after filling up at least one camera with some lovely evening
photos of the lights reflecting on the water and so on, we landed back
at the hotel feeling very rich and very fortunate and very happy with
our lives. The houses and boats are incredibly impressive looking, very
fancy and most are very beautiful too...... but they just dont seem real
and some of the stories about how the owners got their money is mind
blowing.
And so we come to the end of this time of waiting for the 'real
vacation' to start..... tomorrow around midday we board the Celebrity
Constellation for our trip.. we did see one of the Celebrity ships
leaving today and I fervently hoped that I had my days right! So I took
a photograph and zoomed in to read the name........ phew - not us. I
would hate to miss the boat!
I am hoping to buy some online time while onboard, but its going to be
very limited and I am not sure how reliable, so if you dont hear from
me, know that I am still writing all this stuff down and you will be
wolloped with it the first time we get a connection. I will try to
remember to label the 'subject' line alphabetically which will make it
easier to follow if I do have to send a few at a time.
Oh - I have been reading the Celebrity bulletin board and see that some
people are bringing 13 pairs of shoes, 2 x 50lb bags of clothing and so
much more! Oh boy, I think of my meager 39lb bag of clothing and
shudder.....I dont even have stockings packed, let alone shoes with
heels! One lady said she had packed extra shoes with heels in case one
breaks.... well, if my heels break, I am going to need a doctor, not
another pair of shoes. This is going to be interesting but we are going
to be comfortable dressed and quite decent for dinnertime.....
The ship leaves port at 5pm tomorrow and our first stop will be Colombia
on Monday... :) See ya there!
love and light
Annie
ps - I believe that the ocean gods listen to all things and so many
thoughts of you all will be floating out to sea tomorrow as we head out,
and all along the way too.
--
http://cruisebaggs.blogspot.com
PHOTOS: http://s992.photobucket.com/home/travelbaggs
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