A couple of years ago, my friend and co-worker and I visited Nassau, Bahamas during our spring break. It was a beautiful trip and a much needed mental break for me. She and I visited one of my dear college roommates who happens to call Nassau home. It was SO good to see her again considering it had been a few years since we'd had contact with each other. But that's the beauty of good friendships...even if you don't speak often, when you do its just like yesterday. We were very fortunate because she gave us a true native perspective about her home. I know we wouldn't have learned many of the things we did as well as seen much of what we saw if it were not for her. These are a few pictures that I took while we were there.

The view from our balcony was very nice. We had an ocean-side view for a few days...that is until some unforeseen mishap took place in the room and we had to move to avoid flooding. The next room assignment was street-side...no where near as fun. Feeling the Bahama Breeze late at night on that balcony as the moonlight danced on the water below was simply breath-taking...not to mention the view of the Atlantis hotel we had as well.

Straw markets are very common...you can find them almost anywhere. This one happened to be across the street from our hotel.

Cable Beach is where we stayed. Isn't the clarity of the water breath taking?

I thought the architecture of this church was beautiful. Inside are these gorgeous stained glass windows that give the sanctuary such a warm and inviting feeling.

The major part of the island's economy is dependent upon tourism, so these straw markets are very common. People sell goods they have made here for negotiated prices.

My roommate explained to us that Nassau's history is piracy. The pirates would hide with their loot in the many caves and hollows that are along the island. So this museum contains much of that history within.

For as long as I can remember, weather and all aspects of it have fascinated me. I truly believe if I hadn't become a teacher I would have become a meterologist. I love weather just that much...This picture was taken from my seat on the airplane as we flew above the clouds. It was raining below so the entire sky was covered with these beautiful, fluffy clouds and bright sunshine. I was in awe of our God in that moment.

Tuesday night, I had a dream that I was standing outside my grandmother's house in the country taking pictures. This was actually a reoccurring dream for me, so since I wasn't doing anything special on Wednesday, I decided to get in my car and make the 45 minute drive to the country where she lived. This is a drive my mother and I (and even I myself all alone) have made countless times over the course of my life. However, I haven't been there in quite a while since she passed in 2002 and I lost both of my parents a few months later in 2003. So yes, its safe to say life made some DRASTIC changes during those two years.

A lot of things had changed down there as things do, so I took the pictures of the "Country Walk" of my dreams. I also decided to visit the cemetery where my family members are buried. Now, for those of you who know me, you know that my personality forces me to find humor in situations that the average eye just doesn't seem to see. After I weeded my parents' grave sites, I just started looking around the cemetery and I'm telling you all, I saw some things that made me QUITE concerned so I took pictures of those as well. Because just telling someone about them just wouldn't do...this kinda stuff, you just have to see for yourself..lol

I'll share those photos with you now as well as extend an invitation to each of you and others that you know who have a digital camera to add to this...let's make it a net project that showcases the beautiful, interesting, must see things in this amazing world of ours...let's take a "digital" Walk Around the World" and see all the sights we can see! Send your pics and commentary to msskee@yahoo.com.

This is the picture I was taking in my dream...a picture of my grandmother's house. My grandmother was a phenomenal woman. She believed in working hard and equal rights for everyone. You have to understand, i grew up in the deep south so for her to accomplish the things that she did in the time that she did took a woman of courage, strength, and much Godly wisdom. Recently I was honored to prepare a display dedicated to her that is now mounted in the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. She was inducted into a Women's Hall of Fame because of her pioneering accomplishments in the child care profession. My grandmother was an amazing woman. Very small in stature and quiet spoken, but my did she carry a big stick! Even after my grandfather passed, she farmed alone in addition to working as the director of her day care center and monitoring over 85 homes that had daycare centers as well. I don't know where she found the energy.

This is my grandmother's barn. As a child I remember sneaking down the path to play in the hay with my cousins (my grandmother had 12 children 10 who lived to see adulthood and have families of their own so there were plenty of us to get in trouble together.) We'd roll in the hay and play with the corn she'd cut from the cob with that grinding machine for the pigs. Once we saw a dead rat in there that kinda ended our hay romping for a while...lol

This is a picture of her chicken coop. She kept chickens and cows until her death. Every time I see this little rickety building I think about Patricia McKissack's story, "The Chicken Coop Monster." Like the main character in that story, I too was convinced that a monster lived in my grandmother's chicken coop. Grandmama once shot a possum right between the eyes standing at that door because it was trying to get her chickens. Yep, she was a pistol packin granny!

This is my grandmother's daycare. She named it after two figures who were prominent in the Civil Rights era in her community. For a long time it wasn't this close to the house. After my grandfather passed in 1992, she had the building moved and placed in one of his garden sites right across from the house so she could literally walk to work. She fed her students from some of the vegetables she grew in her gardens too.

Another spot in my dream that I was taking a picture of was a deer stand that was in the middle of one of my grandfather's pastures. As a child, I remember the clearing surrounding that deer stand as being luscious and green. Well, over time (and the absence of the cows) this is no longer a clearing. Its all overgrown now. What a difference time makes.

I remember this deer stand being free standing in the middle of a beautiful area. Well over time its become overgrown and falling apart. Not quite the image I remember in my dream, but this is the present day version.

After my walk around my grandmother's land, I decided to visit the cemetery where my love ones are buried. After I weeded the grave sites of my parents and placed flowers on their graves for the Thanksgiving Holiday, I just started looking around the cemetery. I was there alone and it didn't bother me at all. I just started noticing things. Now, for those of you who know me, you know I have the ability to find humor in things that the average eye just doesn't quite see...and no, I am not crazy, but some of the things that I started noticing, if I were to tell you, your mind's eye just couldn't begin to see them for what they really were. So, yes...I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures, because some stuff you just gotta see for yourself.

This tree is one example. I mean, look at it. Its the classic "spooky" standing-in-a-graveyard-on Halloween-night tree. Now how is it that only the spooking looking trees get 'inside' the gate and all the pretty, full and not-so-spooky trees are on the 'outside' of the gate? hmmmmm?

I'm busy on my knees pulling the weeds around my parents graves and I keep hearing this "whooshing" sound in the wind. So I'm like, what in the world is that? I kept listening and watching and finally I figured out what it was. The "shushing" sound that I was hearing was coming from the wind rustling in these corn husk (and yes, I said CORN HUSK) floral arrangements that were as tall as I am and standing on these sites...all I could say was...WOW! How much do you really love someone to give them a husk?

I call this "The Lady In Waiting." Apparently, this woman's husband has passed and she wishes to be buried next to him. But tell me...who really puts their own name on a headstone in a graveyard....and they are still alive?"

Ok...now this next picture..smh...what can I say? I was walking through the rows at the cemetery..looking down (of course) and I saw this. And I wondered to myself, "Why did they make that concrete slab over the grave look like a coffin sticking up above the ground?"

Now, if I'd told you about that, you wouldn't have believed me...would you?

After I left the cemetery, I had some last minute shopping to do for Thanksgiving dinner. So I'm driving the distance between where my grandmother lived and a place called Meridian, Mississippi. That's where most people in that area go to do their shopping. Its the largest major city in the area. Along the drive, you go through this little town called Whynot, Mississippi...I can only begin to guess the etymology of that word...lol...

As I was driving, I passed this little shop and had to go back and get a picture of it because once again, you wouldn't have believed me if I just told you about it. I call this "The Whatnot Shop" in Whynot...

While I was in Meridian, there was a train passing on the tracks ahead so traffic was at a standstill. I looked out the window and saw this hillside that was a picture perfect example of erosion at its best. It was pretty to me in a natural kind of way. So I pulled out my camera and snapped it. There was just something beautiful in the patterns to me.

This is an old country bridge that covers a small creek along the road to the cemetery. They don't make 'em like this anymore...lol...THANK GOODNESS! Yall, I'm scared to death each time I have to cross it...