Mark and I are going full circle. Well, we thought we had already gone full circle, but to our surprise, we had one more notch to go to complete the radius. Mark called Nassau home for almost 20 years prior to moving out to a remote island in the Exumas where fate was destined for us to meet. The island was Norman's Cay - population of about 7 people at the time...

My husband and I have recently jumped overboard from the ship of reality. We moved from an already small island with a population of about 2,000 people during peak season, to an island with about 20 people on a crowded day. This island has one restaurant, an airstrip, and a long, bumpy dirt road that runs the length of its 6 mile fishhook shape... 

If you have the resources, the most efficient way to cruise the Bahamas is by airplane. If you're lucky enough to own an airplane, cruising the Bahamas by air is the way to go and it's becoming an increasingly popular way to explore this magnificent corner of the planet.

One Saturday afternoon we arranged for some of the construction crew to help clear the bush to make a pathway to the beach. We were ecstatic about having quick access to the beach so I was impatient about being able to use it. Once the pathway was cleared, I grabbed the dogs and a beach towel and bounded down my path.

My name is Barley and I’m a mature 57 years old. (That’s calculated into human years for you. I did you a favor and translated it as I know humans have a hard time with tricky conversions like Fahrenheit/Celsius, miles/kilometers, and human/dog years). And just to be clear, that’s Barley with a “B”. Ever since that movie about the yellow Lab became popular, I am constantly being mistaken for a Marley. It’s Barley and yes, my name is unique – just like me.

I popped to the store quickly to pick up a few things and was a little shocked as to how depleted my cash funds were upon my return home. I've been grocery shopping on Harbour Island for quite some time now, but it still never ceases to amaze me how expensive things are. Nothing in my shopping basket was organic and the fanciest thing is some uncured bacon.

If I had any marbles left after living on this crazy rock for 2 years, I may have just seen the last one go rolling out the door, down the street and drop into the depths ocean. Let me just say, power outages 4+ times a day is enough to send one to the loony bin but if you are the type of person who can brush something like that off, then you are already well-suited to island life. I, as it seems, am not...

On my rock, the preferred means of transportation, or trans as it’s commonly referred to, is a golf cart. But not just any old golf cart that your average snowbird tootles around in their South Florida retirement community. No these carts have style. And “style” is all relative to how one wishes to portray their island image. Meaning....anything goes.

My life tends to feel like a permanent vacation, which ends up making it slightly difficult to uphold any level of motivation to exercise regularly. Pair that with the fact that 357 days of the year it is 85 degrees plus… equal that for the level of humidity. So I’m already sweating by the time I wake up in the morning, throw in a load of laundry, and walk out to the street to take the garbage out.

Living in the out-islands never has its dull moments. In a panicking moment today, I feared the worst for my sweet little Barley. Barley was a rescue dog from New York and is far from street savvy like the Potcakes (the enduring name for the local mutts) are...

Oh, will the lightening stop? It rumbles and careens across the sky. My linen curtains which normally dance gently in the breeze through my wide French doors now blow in fury, whipping into the room in a torrid rage, tangling and encompassing me as I pass through the room...