It’s here! It’s finally HERE! Spring is done with its tantrums of warm and cold and I can finally enjoy time on the Tiki Deck! Sundays are my fav for enjoying coffee al fresco with the sights and sounds of our little oasis. Read the rest of this entry
December 21, 2013 marks the winter solstice for the northern hemisphere. Here, just outside of Chicago it’s gray. The sky…. and the dingy snow pushed aside by plow and shovel. Gray. There is a chill in the air as we wait for a cold front to decide if the sky will deliver freezing rain or snow, and just a few minutes more than 9 hours of daylight. (sunrise 7:16, sunset 4:25)
But since I’m a glass-half-full kinda gal, I’m happy to realize the days will start to get longer now too. Before you know it, it will be summer.
Let’s find the sun…. Read the rest of this entry
You must get to the Cayman Islands. We easily chose to go back for our fifth visit to this great Caribbean destination for a handful of reasons. Coming up I’ll share some of our favorite things about Cayman… the beaches, the sites, the great people and more.
For now, enjoy a few images to put you in a Cayman Island state of mind. Read the rest of this entry
It’s late winter. I’m surrounded by palm trees. Sweat beads are forming on my brow. …. and I’m in Chicago.
I’m not dreaming. I’ve just found my way to an urban oasis. Come see…. 
Controversy-shmontroversy.
Seriously people. Turn da frown, de udduh way aroun’.
This was my absolute favorite super-bowl ad this year.
YouTube link:
I am always in awe in the islands when I see such beautiful flowers that just naturally grow there; fragrant plumeria trees on Oahu whose blossoms fall to the lawns and land on the beach…. seems almost wasteful; a sunny yellow hibiscus bloom at the Dole plantation… just as much part of the destination as a pineapple whip, no?; the hot pink bougainvillea at the Hell attraction (ironic?) or the assorted blossoms at the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park on Grand Cayman. And every summer, while the weather is right for them, bright hibiscus and intoxicating gardenia on my own”Tiki Deck”.
I love the irony of snowmen (and snowomen) at the beach. I’ve had these little beach snow figures for many years. Each holiday season I unpack the storage bins and they bring a smile to my face…. I think they have the right idea!
Do you know Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle“? (You Tube of this song) Granted, I was just a wee toddler when it came on the radio, but it’s an old favorite of mine. For one thing, I actually “never seem to have enough time, to do the things I want to do, once I find them”. (Take note: this rather meek blog of mine.) Then too, the idea of capturing time in a bottle somehow rings true to most people. Doesn’t it? Imagine your sweetest memories… who wouldn’t want to preserve them. And there never really is enough time. So it seems, with Sand on the Brain as I have it… that I save time in the form of Beach in a Bottle. It must be the Psammophile in me.
My blog is Sand On The Brain because I am quite often island dreaming and mentally somewhere with sandy shores and turquoise waters. When I need a more visual escape –but don’t have the luxury of hopping a plane — I do what I think many of us do; pull up (our out) the vacation pictures. After all, why do we take pictures in the first place? To hang on to those moments for a little longer, for a lifetime, for those moments we want to clearly remember.
Maybe you transfer your pictures to your computer to make room on the memory card for your next trip or event. Maybe that computer crashes and can’t be recovered. Maybe is not “maybe” for me. Read the rest of this entry
Well, here I am, Sand On the Brain. Brand new to blogging, so give me a little time to get up and running. Just booked a trip to the Caribbean for 10/14/09, and it hit me; “I think I would like to blog about my trip and other random beach-y thoughts. I’ve got enough floatin’ around in this noggin that some folks might find interesting.” So, bear with me while I get up to speed… and then sloooow it down to share some of the granules of sand on my brain.
Welcome!
Sand On The Brain 