Mason Goes Pacific

Well I've had plenty of time to explore now and I've done my masters homework for the weekend. So since Ellen has been keeping up the blog, it's time for me to share some. Rather then tell a bunch of stories, I would rather just post the pictures. But I don't want to just turn the blog into a facebook gallery.

The first weekend I was here, I went with a couple other guys and just drove around the whole island. I took a bunch of photos and got a nice burn on my neck from just walking around all the different beaches. I was wearing a hat, but I hate sunscreen since I sweat so much and the feel is just gross. Plus it always ends up in my eyes no matter what I do, so it ruins my day.

Another weekend, I went snorkling for the first time in my life. The beach we were at wasn't that amazing for the "experienced" snorklers and divers in the group, but we were there anyway doing a community service trash pickup project. It's strange being at beaches where you can't just walk out into the water. The sand pretty much ends as soon as you get the water line and then it's all coral from there. So my Tevas have been getting worn out. But they worked out pretty well compared to paying big bucks for the fancy scuba gear. The water generally stays about 3 feet deep until you get pretty far out. As your floating around looking at the crazy colors and fish, you tend to forget that you're going to hit your feet if you try kicking. I wasn't too sure about how far I wanted to go out since people have warned me that the current can pick up pretty quickly if you go too far without fins. But there were a bunch of other people in the group and they tipped me off that the floor dropped off not too far from where I was. So I swam out there and sure enough the floor dropped from 3 ft right to about 20 ft. I didn't see any big fish or stingrays or anything but it was still pretty cool to stare at. We made our way around to another beach that day, which had a nice little island not too far out. There was a good cliff for jumping off, so we did a little of that. I only did two jumps from the medium cliff and decided I would stop while I was ahead. The thought of all the rock under the water was a little intimidating. While the rest of the group tried going a little bit farther out in the water, I spent a couple hours just floating around in the bay watching what was underneath. Another big change from swimming in Lake Michigan is the salt water. I got a taste of it at water survival training in Florida, but when you take a breath wrong in the snorkle mask, it's hard to just spit it out without gagging. But on the other hand, floating in the water is a lot easier. And of course, after floating face down in the ocean all day, my back got toasted. I had a flight the following Monday, which made for some intense pain when I was strapped into the parachute.

This last Friday, a couple guys from my house and another guy who’s pretty gungho on camping went down to the beach on base and camped out. It’s nice because the beach is a 15-20 minute drive from the rest of base, so it’s relatively secluded. We rented tents, chairs, and everything from outdoor rec and had a good bbq. The weather was perfect for sitting out on the beach, but it ended up being way too hot to sleep in the tent.

I ended up sitting out on the beach just looking at the stars for most of the night. One of the guys felt sick halfway through the night (ironically, the guy who was the one who came up with the idea to camp), so I drove him back to the houses, which turned out to be an awesome ride. The jungle comes alive at 1:30 AM. I saw two hogs and probably about 20 deer. Some small, some big with antlers. In the morning, I was still awake for the sunrise. So I got some good photos and then went for a swim. This beach was a little different than when I went snorkeling. The water was only about a foot deep until way out. And then you could see where the floor totally dropped and there were 3-5 ft waves rolling in. I really wanted to go hang out in the waves, but once I walked up to where the coral floor dropped off, it was impossible to tell how deep the water was. And even though I’m an okay swimmer, I was having doubts about me and my tevas vs. the

waves and the coral. So I left it at that. Plus at this point I had been under the sun for an hour or so and I was determined to not spend another flying week with a sunburn.

Overall, this has been a pretty good trip. There's enough stuff to do that I haven't hit the "lets go home now" point. But I still miss Ellen and the baby inside! I’ve gotten to see a good amount of new stuff at work that I wouldn’t have gotten to see back at home. The tempo has been slow enough that I’ve been able to keep up with two masters classes (my last two before my final project!). And I’ve gotten the opportunity to take a ton of photos. It’s tough at home to get inspired to take new creative photos because you get used to what you see everyday. But when you go somewhere where everything looks different, it’s easier to get motivated. I bought a tripod before the trip because I knew there would be a lot of good sunset/sunrise opportunities. At night on the beach, I was able to capture a glance of how many stars we could see. Plenty more to come over the next few weeks…

I also learned how to do 3D photography! Here's a sample. If when you click on it, the photo is too large to see all at once on your screen, then save it to your computer and open up in the stanard windows picture viewer, so you can see the whole image at once. It takes a little magic eye skill, but it's not that tough. When you're looking at it, cross your eyes until you see three images. If you see four images, you're crossing your eyes too much. You're basically trying to view the left image with your right eye and vice versa. So when you see three images, concentrate on the center one (which is really the two images overlapping). It may take a second, but once your eyes get used to it, they should lock on and then you'll see the 3D image. When your eyes are locked on, try concentrating on different parts of the photo to see the effect (like the grill in the foreground and the tent in the background).

(Click on it to see full size)