Richman's on a Boat: Belizean Cayes, Pics

Okay folks, after much ado I've quickly put together a slide show with the rest of our sailing pictures. Sorry, I know it's a bit of a picture overload from someone else's vacation that most of you blurkers don't really care about. But still, indulge me.
Oh and we stole some pictures from Todd and Tom as well (thanks!). No one else has shared any yet (hint hint). As you can see, we really had a horrible time.

Richman's on a Boat: Belizean Cayes from Gina Duncan on Vimeo.

I had great difficulty with this video. For whatever reason the pictures are rasterized all funny and the captions are disappearing too fast. Suggestions? At this point I'm too tired and exhausted to try to fix it anymore. Sigh.

Richman's on a Boat: Belizean Cayes, Meet the Crew

Ginny Beans, AKA The Mother Dear, is really the unofficial Captain of this mangy crew. Poor thing got her head stuck in a book and only came up for air once or twice. BUT! She's one of two that saw a shark while snorkeling. Bragging rights for life, right?Marci and Rich, known in the exclusive hardcore runners world as "Trail Trekker" and "Paceless," respectively. These two runners/triathletes are non-stop even on vacation. Run, swim, stretch, yoga, repeat. I burned calories just watching them.Tom and Todd, AKA El Capitan and First Mate are no strangers to life on a boat. Must be nice we tease. They are the whole reason we are able to charter in the first place. We use them not only for their charming good looks, but also for their high adventure skills, which are plenty. Brook and Kyle, AKA chef and sous-chef (sometimes vice versa), kept the rest of the mateys fat and happy despite a severe malfunction in kitchen appliances. Diet Coke with a twist of shrimp juice anyone? Anyone?At the caboose, The BD's. First BD, who managed to swim around an entire island by accident and I, who had an affair with a lobster. United we stand as the official losers of "Settlers of Catan" but for what we lack in gaming panache we make up for in sheer cuteness. I think.I'm the youngest, can you tell?

Just in case it's not obvious, my mom is the one in the middle. Sheesh, she just gets more beautiful with age. And no, it's not fair at all. L to R: Brook, me, Mom, Tom, Marci.

Richman's on a Boat: Belizean Cayes, Setting Sail

BD and I have just returned from an incredible vacation with my family to the Belizean Cayes (pronounced "keyes"). We've been planning and saving for this trip ever since our last adventure in 2007. Every two years my family {adults only} sets sail on a big trip together; it's become our thing. This is definitely the way to travel.Going through customs in Belize was a unique experience. It becomes pretty clear pretty fast that you are now on island time. Our arriving destination was San Pedro, Ambergris Caye which is where we would meet up with Tom and Todd coming from Mexico and charter our vessel. Upon several recommendations we ate at Elvi's Kitchen that night. I had the Roasted Garlic Lobster and, not joking, I'm salivating right now just thinking about it. This kicked off my week long obsession with all things lobster. More on that later.
The next morning we began provisioning the boat, which turned out to be more difficult than you'd think. Little did we know that San Pedro markets open and close at their leisure. This made if difficult to get meat from the meat market and bread from the bakery when they are suddenly closed at random. Again, island time. Nonetheless, we were able to stock the boat with enough mangoes, shrimp, and diet coke to last the full week. That afternoon we chartered The Wildflower, a 40 foot catamaran, with {just barely} enough room for all 9 of us.
We pulled away from the dock at about 3:00 pm headed to our first anchorage, Caye Caulker. With about an hour to go before sundown the starboard engine began to fail. Not a good sign on the first day. Our resident diesel mechanic started tinkering and before long it was running again. Whew.At this point, we were happy as clams to be on the water feeling the sea breeze with people we love on an adventure of a lifetime. Look at those sailor smiles and glowing skin. Giddyness slathered in sunblock has sunken in.And will you look at that water.

freshly

Each of these events deserves a dedicated post all it's own. But at this point, I realize that won't happen and this will have to do as my best effort to capture our summer thus far.

Playing at Youth Conference in Moab where we rafted the Colorado River, hiked to Delicate Arch, picked up trash along the LaSal Loop Road, and made complete fools of ourselves in front of...teenagers. What a strange world it is to be on the "leader" side of these events. "Who is in charge here anyway?"Camping with these delightful ladies at a little thing we like to call Girls Camp, which is somewhat of a rite of passage in our culture. Even after 4 straight days with us at Youth Conference these girls proved to be hard core campers-in the rain-and make my "job" a total breeze. We mod podged, we hot glued, we beaded, we painted, and we crafted the craft out of that camp. This picture is of us celebrating that we have successfully pitched our tent. A small victory. Biking my buns off for the MS Bike 100 in Logan, UT. Heaps of thanks to all those who donated to the ride. In the end, I completed my first century (100 miles) and lived to blog about it. Yes, it was hard. Especially the last 20 miles, which worked. me. over. But it was totally worth every pedal stroke and I'm so glad I finished. The rest of the team did pretty amazing as well. Go Team Iron Myelin! My family came up to see us finish and we spent a lovely evening at my Aunt Polly's house where I ate a guilt free piece of mom's strawberry-rhubarb pie. And a piece of chocolate cake.
Road Trippin' with my man over the 4th of July weekend to Phoenix to visit best friends. It was hot hot fun! 7 summers ago I slept on the floor of the Heathrow airport with this girl. Then I caught her wedding bouquet and married her cousin. And our adventures together keep on keepin' on. We spent the long weekend chatting, swimming, shopping and exchanged smoothie recipes for skin care tips. We miss them and their little dude here in the Beehive State but it was fun to see their Grad School life budding in The Valley.
Winning the Superfantastic Blog Giveaway from my girl Mindi! Obviously, this was pretty much the highlight of my entire summer. And you can see why. Free iTunes is powerful enough to solve all of the problems in the Middle East. Pretty sure. Or at the very least, solve a rough day for me. Thanks Mindi!Devouring the Coconut Cream Biscuits I picked up yesterday at a San Pedro market. These little buggers are totally amazing as evidenced by me nearly eating the entire package while composing this post. Should have stocked up on those for sure.

There. Done. Belize is NEXT!

Back at it

I've been away. To this beautiful place on that awesome boat with my amazing family. And now the summer is nearly gone. I'm diving in on catching up on our summer adventures, which have been many.