Chocolate

We recently visited Hershey's Chocolate World with Richard and Nancy.

It was great being there in the off season.  We did chocolate tasting and created our own candy bars and wrappers.  Yum!

And we checked the yummy smelling, just completed, chocolate house, made for the Christmas season.

So you can imagine my reaction this morning, when i came across an article from the Washington Post on MSN dot com, about the looming world chocolate shortage.  Yikes!

Bonaire Photo Print Sale

In connection with the 50th anniversary of Trans World Radio, Bonaire, I made a series of 13x19 prints of Bonaire scenes, that we've been offering at the TWR Office here on Bonaire for $20.  Half the proceeds go to TWR and half to my printer and ink fund. :)

We've had the prints on our BradSandra.Swanson Facebook page for a while, but I think you can now see them in one of my Picassa albums as well.  Try the link below.

13"x19" Bonaire Prints

Flamingo Fun

From time to time, as we travel in the States, we see the fabulous Bonaire Flamingoes' plastic front yard cousins.

Last week we were amazed to see an apparently new species of tree dwelling flamingoes.

Retirement Recreation

Our first stop during our two months in the States was with my parents at Willow Valley, in Lancaster, PA.  When we weren't stuffing ourselves silly in the dining hall, we visited the brand new recreation center.


There is a golf simulator that looked pretty cool to our untrained eye.
















There are a bunch of vintage 1950s and 1960s pinball machines, ski-ball, and the baseball game that I loved to play as a kid.

One does not need to insert coins or tokens to play any of these.















There is also a swimming pool, a couple eating areas, meeting rooms, a large gymnasium set up for volleyball and some indoor racket sports.  A basketball hoop is coming soon.  There's also a modern exercise center, and a bowling alley.

Once the word gets out, kids all over are going to be chomping at the bit to visit grandma and grandpa.

TWR 360

I just got this update from our TWR office in North Carolina.

twr360 now has more than 29 languages available. Last month, between 8,000-9,000 unique visitors per day from more than 225 countries/territories spent time on the twr360 site.

Check out the language of your choice online at twr360

TWR Global Quest Starts Today

Just a reminder that the TWR Global Quest online game starts up today.  No, i haven't signed up yet myself, :) but i'm planning to, so I can see what all the buzz is about.

TWR Global Quest online game

From September 9 through September 30, the USA office of Trans World Radio will be sponsoring an online game, TWR Global Quest.

Visit the site now and sign up so you will be ready to compete for weekly prizes, as well as a grand prize of a trip to a TWR broadcasting site.  If you live on Bonaire, you'd probably want to choose the Guam or the Swaziland option, not Bonaire!

You'll also learn how God has used ordinary people like you and me to reach every corner of the world with His Word over the past 60 years, and what is happening with TWR all over the world right now.

Ray Alary Reports from Bonaire

Ray Alary, president of  TWR Canada, was here on Bonaire a few weeks ago for the 50th anniversary event.  He wrote up an insightful behind the scenes look at the operations here.  Be sure to check it out and meet some of our unsung heroes.

Snorkeling Championships

As you might know, Bonaire offers world class snorkeling.  But not everyone is so blessed.


From the "if you have a lemon, make lemonade" department,  check out this video of the Bog Snorkeling Championships.

TWR Bonaire Office - Then and Now

I think I'll file this under "The more things change, the more they stay the same." 

Here's a shot of the first TWR Bonaire office at 139 JAA Blvd back in the day.  Looks like all the staff members had the same idea about what the hot setup for vehicles was, don't you think?

Here is a shot from a few weeks ago.  Looks like we still have the herd mentality going strong.

There are a couple more pickups that could have been in this shot, but they were out and about I guess.

TWR Bonaire Photo Archives

Carol Van Dyken created a PowerPoint presentation consisting of hundreds of old images from a variety of TWR archives.  We showed it at the open house on Aug. 11.
I've uploaded the pictures from this PowerPoint to a new Picasa album.  Hopefully this link will take you there.

TWR Bonaire 50th Anniversary

Trans World Radio just celebrated 50 years of gospel broadcasting from Bonaire.  We had a number of events last weekend, Aug. 8-11, and guests from near and far.
I took a bunch of pictures and have just put them on a new Picasa online album.  Hopefully this link will work for you.

The pictures can also be seen on Facebook, but the Picasa ones might show larger on your screen.
"TWR-Bonaire" is the name of the Facebook page.

You can read more about the 50th anniversary events in a article I wrote for The Bonaire Reporter.  It is on page 8 of the current issue.

Getting Here from There

If you've been wanting to visit Bonaire, but haven't been able to afford the airfare, have i got a deal for you. We recently booked some tickets at a great price by flying on the new Friday Atlanta to Bonaire Delta Airlines flight.

Now Delta is having a fare sale for Friday travelers.  You can do a round trip from Baltimore, or JFK in New York for $600.  Boston is $618.   (We're flying to Harrisburg, PA for not too much more than that.) The best prices are available online.

According to The Bonaire Insider, you have to purchase your tickets by August 12 and travel between Aug. 22 and December 12.  There are some blacked out dates around Thanksgiving.  You can read the details on the Bonaire Insider site.

Starry Nights

We had a couple clear cloudless nights this past week.  Really good nights are somewhat rare and I try to get out somewhere dark if at all possible.

Here are a couple shots with the Rokinon 14mm lens, looking southeast from the Trans World Radio antenna field.

 

 

This is a 58 second exposure at ISO 800 and f2.8.  (I shot a few at ISO1600 too, but haven't really messed with them yet.  The tower lights tend to get blown out at the higher ISOs.)  This picture is lightly processed, and then downsized a lot, but not cropped at all.
You can see quite a broad section of the Milky Way; from alpha and beta Centaurus on the right edge of the frame, past Scorpius (above and to the left of the second tower from the right), Sagittarius (pretty much in the middle), Scutum (sitting between the top of the second tower from the left and the left most tower), and on to Aquila (half way between the left most tower and the left edge of the frame.)  And if you look in the top left corner, you'll see the coat-hanger asterism (Brocchi's Cluster.)

The photo below is the same shot with some perspective correction to make the towers stand up straighter.  This makes the stars a little fuzzy, but I like the overall effect.

Moon and Venus

The Moon was near Venus before sunrise this morning.  Venus is to the lower left of the Moon.  You'll probably need to click on the picture to make it bigger in order to see Venus.

Planets on Parade

We've been watching each night as Mars has been moving towards the bright star, Spica.  They will be at their closest Sunday night.
The moon was right in there with them a few nights ago, but it was too hazy here to see much.  I could see the moon and just barely make out Mars.
Mars will continue to head East towards Saturn in the coming weeks.

TWR Transmitter Building

Here is a recent shot of the TWR Bonaire transmitter building, looking good, after a recent group of volunteers from Texas finished with it.

Note the guys on one of the towers in the background.  Note the graded area towards the foreground where the 2 Alco diesels used to be.

Awesome Aerial Views of Bonaire

Did you see the new video of the 4th of July fireworks on YouTube?  I really liked seeing the bursts whizzing right by the point of view of the quad copter mounted camera.


It reminded me that I have never mentioned some truly beautiful views of Bonaire shot with a DJI Phantom and a Go Pro Hero 3.  I shot some aerial views of Bonaire from a small plane back in the day, so when I first saw this new drone camera platform, I really wanted one.  But now I don't need one after all, 'cause I can just sit back and enjoy this amazing video on YouTube.

TWR is on Instagram

I just heard that TWR has begun posting pictures and video clips on Instagram.  There isn't much there yet, but that will change soon I bet.
Speaking of posting, I can't believe that I didn't post anything in June, arrrrg.

Captain Don Remembered

I just got back from a viewing downtown for Captain Don Stewart, who passed away this past Wednesday.  I joined with many many people, from all walks of life here on Bonaire, to say goodbye to Don and to express our condolences, love and heartfelt prayers to Janet.
Here is a brief obituary from the Bonaire Insider.