At least in the Caribbean it is! Please click to enlarge and check out the beautiful beaches of San Juan Puerto Rico~
And St Croix…..
I grew up by the ocean, and get alarmed sometimes at the risks some people take. Look closely in the above shot for the two people standing on the rocks…YIKES!
And last, but surely not least, Tortola!
I know it is important to stay out of the sun, but this man’s castle seemed a bit pinched. Still, a man’s beach-castle is never the less his castle and nothing to be trifled with, besides, maybe this was for his kid? I didn’t see the kid though……
Laughing and sending sun, sand, and silliness, your way from the sunny (but buggy) Caribbean! Even paradise ain’t perfect after all, and I have the no-see-um bites to prove it! Cheers and sunshine to you~
Beautiful! I’m not an ocean/beach person. I grew up with prehistoric beaches, lots of sand, but not much water, so when I go to a beach at the ocean there’s just too much water for my liking.
In a way that’s good, because caution is prudent with the ocean. I have always been flabbergasted and sometimes alarmed when I see people who aren’t used to the ocean, barrel right into the water at a new beach without watching first to see whats what with the tides, swells, rocks etc. The people on the rocks in the photo above took major risks and it was a 2.5 mile hike to this beach…….that’s how long it would have taken me to run for help if they got creamed on the volcanic rock!
Beautiful photos
Merci beaucoup & cheers to you!
You conveniently missed all the snow and icestorms while you were basking in the sun. There was even an earthquake in the Southern US! Blue, blue skies and water and swaying palmtrees always make me homesick for the Caribbean…I used to live in the Southern Caribbean for a while since my first husband was from Trinidad & Tobago. While I don’t miss him, I miss the islands 🙂
Oh I can well imagine missing the islands and T&T is so gorgeous! I certainly knew about the storms in the southeast, the drought in the west, but not the earthquake! Yikes, makes no-see-ums pale in improtance! Stay warm and safe~
Gorgeous pics! I would welcome your sunshine, it has been POURING rain storms here! Winters last bite! Hugz Lisa and Bear
Just picture the spring flowers from all that rain. The west is having the worst drought in history!
Just beautiful! 🙂
Yes, a gorgeous part of this gorgeous planet! Cheers to you Bette~
The cemeteries by the sea must be the most exclusive of all final resting places..
Indeed!! Nothing like giving the prime real estate to the deceased. Kinda nice actually~
LOL on the beach castle! 😆
A castle is a castle no matter how small…….to rip off Dr. Suess! Laughing…..I swear I never saw a kid!!!
Lovely ! Soon, I’ll be on an island like this, happily soaking the sun.
Ohhhhhh! You must blog and show us pics! I know you study your brains out, so this will be so well deserved!
love these Cindy…I’m a beach, sand, water person so these draw me in!!!
Which is why you recently went to Florida, so relaxing to while away your day on a beach, watching the critters…..and people!
Reblogged this on Spirit In Action and commented:
Thank you Cindy! How beautiful and how amazing the difference in colors of the ocean between places. Its a dark green here usually in the gulf but I guess it changes. The Bay can look brown to deep blue. The San Juan pictures make me think that water is deep while the pale green blue of the other seems shallow and likely bathtub warm like the bayou in August:-)
Yes, I also noticed the color variations while flying in puddle jumper planes from island to island. The color changes with the depth, reefs, clouds and currents……all these shades of azure blue….so gorgeous! Thank you my friend and hugs to you~
Nice photographs,Cindy,thanks for sharing.
Merci mon ami~
Beautiful. Also Breezy????
Yes we stay usually on the windward side and there was wind that blew up like sudden sciroccos, and lots of good sized surf….People avoid the windward side of islands, so there were far less people and lots of fun playing in the surf!
Wonderful.
Yes, must remind you a tad of Fiji…….such beauty!
The shades of blue are amazing! The fourth photo is particularly beautiful, framed by leaves and the mountains beyond.
I clicked to enlarge the photo with the couple yet couldn’t find them at first haha…they were hidden behind the waves. Yes that does look dangerous. They could have been thrown against the sharp rocks.
Exactly, you can see just a bit of two shoulders, right before the wave slammed them. Someone died in this spot recently and I thought they were in serious trouble. They ended up okay thank God~
How beautiful!! With 20+ inches of snow laying in my driveway, I’d happily endure the beach-bugs!
The extreme weather on both coasts, major storms and major drought is just downright scary! Stay warm and safe~
Beautiful & awesome, I would love to have you doing a photo essay for my blog as a guest contributor. You can write to me directly at onlymeinc@yahoo.com and big hugs and zillion thanks for liking my posts – Thewhitescape 🙂
Oh how exciting! Sounds fun and I shall email you. I am honored…thank you!
I m waiting for your email with the photo essay as guest post. Thank you for accepting it:)
Oh yes, let me make a note of it! Do you have a preference as to topic? Thank you for the remind~
Beautiful pictures Cindy! These pictures make me want to have a break to have a short taste of “Life’s A Beach”..
I highly recommend it! I was watching the weather in NC with total shock! That commute with people abandoning their cars was like a sci-fi movie! Be warm my friend~
The vivid colours in these photos are amazing, Cindy.
The gorgeous Caribbean is hard to beat! Grazi~
Super beautiful pictures…. makes me want to retire there…
I wonder if one gets bored of continuous sun???? I do enjoy the seasons. Still people do retire to the Caribbean and love it!
I would have thought not, but I also believe having always sun , Switzerland in Winter is appealling too!
At the moment in England we have not much so I am yearning for sunshine and warmth!
Beautiful!
Grazi!
Gorgeous–wish I was there! : )
Well, if you can find a functional airport, hop on over. The hotels offer great deals this time of year! I’ll see you on the beach~
Great photos Cindy. Brings back some super memories of when my boys were boys. Caba Rojo, Luquillo, Guahataca, Boquieron, Ponce Playa. Thanks for another great post.
I am in love with PR. This is our fourth visit and I want to go back to see Ponce. We are staying in El Convento and exploring the old city, so gorgeous and such incredible history, not to mention fantastic food. I want to come back with my kids and spend time in San Juan and Ponce. Your memories must be so wonderful! How long were you here?
We made several trips ranging from two to four weeks each. The time period was from 1964 to 2002. We stayed either in a small hotel (El Portal) in San Juan, with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, or a vacant home that my brother-in-law owned. We have not been back since 2002 when my wife’s sister passed away. There remain only my wife and her brother (who lives in Rio Piedras) out of 13 children.
40 years! You saw the island consumed and commercialized. But it’s soul remains in the beautiful old walled city, in the rain forests, and in the more distant and ethereal beaches. You have a lifetime of memories here and your wife generations. No wonder I like you so much. Puerto Rico is one of my favorite places. It’s unusual, part of the US, sort of, but still it’s own country and culture. You know this all so much better than I. I would be fascinated to know more about your years here. One of the oldest cities in the Americas, we toured Ponce de Leon’s house today. It is The Fountain of Youth! Old but still vibrant and alive. I will look and see if El Portal is stll here and photograph it for you. Thinking of you, your wife, and your family here Wally and sending you Puerto Rican warmth and hugz~
Thank you for sharing the sun, beach, colors … with us! Beautiful photos, as always, Cindy!
Hugz, cheers and thanks to you Amy~
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing the beaches. The cold and snow by me has been really bad this winter, so it’s nice to see the world isn’t all cold and snow!
Yes, one need sunny images to help the wait until spring. So glad this worked for you and thank you!
Beautiful. Can’t wait to visit the Caribbean in April.
Ooooh! I can’t wait for you to either! I hope you post lots of pics. There are so many wonderful islands, each has something special. Glad you are going~
I’ll settle for any of those, Cindy! RH
It’s a toss up, Puerto Rico has a little of everything, city life, culture, history, and when you leave town, rain forest and empty beaches.
I always say I grew up on a beach, but actually we just went there every day. I live in a mountain valley now but still ache for the sand between my toes. Your spectacular photos bring up childhood memories (and buggy ones too of course) but I love the reminders of my warm beginnings, especially now, when sunshine is at such a premium. Thanks Cindy!
Yes if you are born by the sea, you have sea salt in your bones and sand is a very good friend. I understand completely. I am super happy on a beach~
Beautiful photos!
Merci mon ami~
Beautiful photos – cannot believe those guys on the rocks
Susan x
Neither could I!!! They had me seriously alarmed. They and Jim and I were the only people on that beach and we hiked over two miles to get there. They could have come to serious grief. I am so glad they didn’t~
Yes, it reminds me of the rock fishermen here on the coast – so stupid for the sake of a fish! I get annoyed for the people the endanger who have to rescue them if anything happens. We have enough people getting hurt and killed rescuing those who don’t think enough about what they do,
I’m glad you are enjoying your holiday, it really looks superb.
Susan x
Rescue would be tough there, as the waves and the rocks were implacable the day we were there. It is known as a great tide pool area, so I imagine the people assumed it was safe, which I am sure it usually is, unless the waves are up and the tide high. A young woman died there recently which is tragic. It’s a remote spot, so people are on their own. I am just glad they weren’t torn up on the rocks…..I have seen this happen before and it is awful.
After this past week’s article in the NYT about Puerto Rico’s slow-motion economic collapse, proportionally increasing crime rate and accelerating brain drain it’s nice to see that there’s still an appeal to the island, assuming that one doesn’t have to stay isolated in a resort. Great photos, very appealing. Ken
We are staying in the center of Old San Juan and I am completely comfortable wallking alone at night to the shops, sights. The people are warm and welcoming in that uniquely Latin way. I am in love with Puerto Rico. The economy is in dire straits which is terrible, but it feels much safer here than downtown San Diego at night. St Croix had some more serious crime issues in the two major towns, which we only briefly visited. But on the windward side of the island, all was very safe. Like anywhere, it matters where you are. My son is in grad school in a city with one of the highest crime rates (murder, assault etc) in the US. I would be leery visiting many US cities. Sad, but reality. Cheers to you both and great to hear from you!
I knew you were a Bond girl really. 🙂
Laughing……I SOOO wish!
Beautiful photos Cindy I enjoyed the post it was like a visit there.
You would both love it! You two are off again now, aren’t you? On another excellent adventure. Can’t wait to hear about it. Cheers to you both & safe travels~
Beautiful! I can’t get over just how blue the water is in the first few pictures, and then a gorgeous shade of turquoise in the next. And I had to laugh at the beach castle. I think I would have opted for a nice beach umbrella instead. I wouldn’t have wanted anything obstructing those gorgeous ocean views!
It was pretty hilarious…….and yes I am struck by the color variations in the Caribbean……remarkable azure hues, different at different depths, times of day, currents, quite amazing. The only read ocean color changes where I live are after the rain when the runoff pollutes the water…..sad! As for the man in the shade, to each his own castle! Laughing…..
Not only standing on the rocks near the breakers but with their backs to the ocean. I’d say that’s a recipe for disaster. That is quite the graveyard. I’ve been in many doing genealogical research and have come to appreciate how much they vary. As for the castle, I get It! I love wandering on beaches but about the only way I’ll hang out in one place is in the shade.:) Great photos, Cindy. –Curt
I hate seeing this stuff. Not only were they in danger from the waves, the tide was coming in while they were exploring, and their only way back was over volcanic rock being pounded by waves and they had no shoes. When they made it back, the woman said, I thought we would just have to wait for the tide to go down. Of course it was a rising tide, with no place to shelter. Not good. I was fully prepared to run back for help, (2+ miles), knowing it would be pointless…Very glad they were okay.
I confess to liking the guy in the castle too!! He was an original!
oh my….Fantasy Island….you take some great pictures and I know you had a wonderful time.
Still enjoying PR….hope all is well with you. Heading over to your blog now……
Send us some sunshine!
Sending it now!!
Your photographs are stunning!
Well that makes me happy! Thanks so much for your kindness & cheers to you~
Cindy, its a beautiful timely escape for me…I wish I was there! Enjoy yourselves, you both deserve it! Blessings!
How kind and so happy you came for a visit! Cheers to you~
So, you are really soaking in the sun and the scenery. Do you actually go into the water too?
Beautiful photos!
Of course!! I am a native La Jollan. I have salt water in my bones and can’t stay out of the water, brought my kids up on the beach too. It’s a place of respite and relief for me. NoCal is different as you well know, because the water is colder and at Stinson Beach there are those cute little great whites! Don’t swim up your way. You must have already planned your next trip…….wonder where your going? Cheers to you my friend~
The blue of the water is simply incredible!
I am spending the weekend at Whidbey Island in Washington State and am right on the beach, but my view is nothing like that! It’s a wild wind storm so the waves are crashing against the bulkhead and the flag is straight out. It’s been in the 30’s so my morning walk was very brisk! No shorts or wading for me!!
That is such beautiful coastline! You described it so well and I can picture myself there. I have never been to Whidbey but would love to go. Been all over Olympic National Park though and know how gorgeous it is up there! Enjoy! A different type of ocean experience than the Caribbean, but oh so beautiful~
Cindy – Beautiful shots of the beach. I miss the central coast of California.
Hi Sheri! Great to hear from you! I can imagine you truly do. It is pretty impossible to compete with the beauty of Big Sur and Monterey. Heading over to your blog to catch up~
How fab! Despite the bites 🙂
Jim has NOT ONE no-see-um bite and uses no repellent. I am getting annihilated and lather myself with poison. All the bites below my knees. They don’t itch though and are not, excuse the pun, bugging me. Every place has it’s problems, and this is a minor one. Cheers to you~
Gorgeous shots, Cindy! I had to really search to see the people on the rocks. I was in Puerto Rico many years ago, and I fell in love with it, too! Es mi gusta!
Hola Resa! Sí, Puerto Rico es hermoso! Yo vengo aquí mucho y quiero llevar a mis hijos pronto! Espero que estés bien mi amiga ~
Wow sister, your life and always your photos ROCK!
You see why I like blogging? I meet people like you!
Thanks Cindy. Please visit my more current blog post. lol
Will do!
I met my first no-see-ums in Florida while trying to help trim a bush. The bite swelled to the size of a quarter…I like bugs I can see! I think I read some where that if you eat to many bananas in the warm weather that that attracts buggies. Be careful!
Cheers, Jules
Yes they do this with me too….get quite large. Jim has NOT ONE bite!! Cruel world!
This was so great to see on a cold winter’s night! I am always happy when someone gets a chance to escape and go on vacation. I am glad I have had chances in my life to do so, too! Take care and hope your return is safe and sound! Smiles, Robin
Vacations are critical for the soul and psyche for some people, like me and you! Stay warm & safe~
And what a beautiful beach life is!! 😉
Laughing…love this!!!
😀
I’d love one of those “sand castles”…
I bet you could find it at Toys R Us!!! Laughing….
Beautiful place Cindy. Heh heh, I wonder what the idea is with the tiny castle, it made me smile 🙂
Yes me too, and I couldn’t resist snapping a photo! At least the man’s identity was protected! Laughing~
Cindy–are you pullin’ my leg? Even enlarged I didn’t see the 2 peeps on the rocks above…! Were they washed away since you posted..hehe…lovely blues, from one beach girl to another–lucky duck!! 🙂
You have to look closely, you can see their shoulders as they are getting whacked by the wave. Thank God they weren’t hurt, we were far from anywhere. I know you are a saltwater sister too my friend! Cheers to you~
All I can say is Wow, what beautiful pictures. Thank you for posting them.
Awww. this kindness is what makes blogging so rewarding. Cheers to you and sincere thank you~
really wonderful, Miss Cindy… 🙂 btw, have you ever been to Yakushima island?… vamos a la playa! 🙂
http://myvirtualplayground.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/ive-still-got-sand-in-my-shoes-dido/
Breathtaking views! Truly amazing…great photography Cindy! 🙂
So pleased and appreciative you think so!! Gracias~
de nada! 😀
On the first photograph it looks like there is not much (nice sandy) beach to be found, but having a closer look at the other lovely photographs, there seems to be little heaven over there, hidden for us if you did not captured it and shared it with us. Thanks.
Yes! Perceptive. The first beach was in Puerto Rico at the old city~
Are you ever lucky to enjoy all of this! Fantastic! Your pictures sparkle with delight and are so full of life!
Thank you so much! I was just over at your blog and am still reeling over the blogger who stole your work and posted it as her own. Can you imagine the dearth of self esteem? How does their thinking process go? “I have no talent, so I will steal from someone who does and take the praise intended for her?”
How utterly self destroying.
Not to mention awful for you. So sorry~
Hi Ms Cindy, I had to check back into this post again just to see those beautiful pictures, thank you for posting them.
Awww. I am very touched. So kind & so appreciated~
I just remembered from my old days in School the following saying: To go out with the setting sun on an empty beach is to truly embrace your solitude.
That is so beautiful! Thank you for telling me & cheers to you~
Cindy – this is the blog that did it. Not only are your photos magnificent but you presented in my reader. I’ve never been able to receive your blogs by e-mail notifications. Let’s hope this continues.
I finally am moving to get blogs I love (yours for ex.) to appear in my email. Such a huge relief, no longer dependent on the flaky reader……Possibly this is related? I’m just glad it’s working. Cheers my friend~
lovely pics
Muchas gracias mi amiga, es muy amable!
Gorgeous 🙂
Gracia mi amiga!
Su mi placer 🙂
🙂
Oh my God! I love St. Croix! That beach is gorgeous! Puerto Rico is nice too, but you blew me away with the St. Croix pictures. Now I have to go there! Ha,ha! Have a great weekend!
I need to post more photos of St Croix. It is spectacular and I so hope you do go!
Great ocean views and beaches nicely worded,Cindy !!!
Warm greetings from Greece,
Doda
Thank you for your lovely words! We love Greece and are in he midst of planning a return to the islands for 2015! Cheers to you and thank you~
Wonderful sunny pictures Cindy – I too live by the sea and also got go Cornwall – agree with you that people do not have a respect for the sea
Always upsetting when you see them put themselves at risk. I want very much to return England and the stunning coast. How wonderful to live there!
Stunning, simply stunning! It’s on my bucket list. 🙂
Please tell me when you go so I don’t miss the post. There is a beach the locals told me about that is a shell paradise. We didn’t go……I hope you do!
Cindy, Wow those are some great looking spots, and being honest I am not much for the beach. But put me in a condo overlooking these places I would be quite happy. Please take care, Bill
ps — you have stopped and visited my blog again and liked one of my posts I do appreciate your time. Take care
Hope all is well with you! I hope you do go and stay in a condo overlooking someplace beautiful, you deserve it! Cheers to you~
Puerto Rico in May …love it there. Beautiful pics:) following:)
Welcome and I love PR too!! Glad you do~
I am enjoying your photos so much. It makes me want to travel! Thank you for visiting my blog and your talent shines with these images. 🙂
Awwwww! Such a lovely thing to say! Thank you & welcome~
Amazing shots, I can’t say my favorites . . . as they are ALL my favorites!!!!! : )
You are such a good friend! Thank you ma deah~