Ok, here goes. I will post it in several parts.
Getting there. Our Bonaire adventure began in the wee hours on Wednesday, July 18. This was our 2nd trip, but the first trip for our kids. We (Leigh Ann, Dennis, Daniel, Jeremy, and Rebekah) had to leave our house around 3:15am to be at the airport a little after 4am to check in. Our flight left Memphis International at 5:10am for Atlanta. We caught the 8:50 Air Jamaica flight for Montego Bay which surprisingly was only about 30 minutes late in leaving. We had breakfast on the flight which was very good. We had a different flight number to Bonaire, which in my flying experience means you usually change planes. Not so with Air Jamaica! We landed in Montego Bay, retrieved all our carry ons, got off the plane. The Air Jamaica agent was at the gate asking where we were going. The flight to Bonaire was the same plane we just got off! Different flight number, but same plane. Go figure! Our flight to Bonaire was about 45 minutes late leaving, no big deal, except the Montego Bay Airport was extremely hot. We were finally on our way to Bonaire. This flight was a snack flight. I was not impressed with the "snack" at all. It was a roll with some tuna salad in it and some orange juice. It was not very filling and not very good. This was at lunchtime so we were still hungry! We arrived in Bonaire about 45 minutes late. All of our luggage arrived when we did. Traveling with 5 people, I was really surprised that all of our luggage made it! We had rented a truck from Budget. The Plaza resort had a representative there and a card with our name on it. I informed him we had a rental truck. He said they would take our luggage and deliver it to our villa. Was I glad we didn't have to tote that around any longer! We got our truck, a 4 door Toyota Hilux and we were on our way to the Plaza Resort.

Accommodations- We had a two bedroom villa at the Plaza Resort. It was nice and big. Last time we stayed in a Junior Suite. The Suite seemed a little nicer. I think the villas must be a little older but they were still fine. We had a kitchen that had everything we needed, refrigerator, stove, oven, microwave, sink. Plenty of plates and glasses. The den/eating area was large. There were two patios, one off the den and one off the bedroom. Both bedrooms were large. One had two queen beds and the other had 3 twin beds. There were 2 large bathrooms. We ate breakfast and lunch in our room, mostly on the patio overlooking the lagoon. Even though the Plaza is a big resort, it was not crowded at all. The beach was not ever crowded, we could always find a chair when we wanted one.
Food- We went to the mini market at the Plaza and picked up milk and miscellaneous items the first night. We went to Cultimara twice for "real" milk, lunchmeat, eggs, chips, mayo, mustard, bread, cereal, etc. We went to Bonaire Warehouse before we left also. It was newer than Cultimara. They had some bulk items but also had regular stuff. On our first trip 3 years ago, Dennis and I ate several meals at the Tipsy Seagull at the Plaza. They had very reasonably priced meals that were good and the view could not be beat. We tried it on Wednesday night. We were terribly disappointed. They had totally changed the menu. It was overpriced and the food was not worth what we had to pay. The lunch menu looked much better, but we never went back. We did eat hot dogs and fries at the Coconut Crash Beach Bar at the Plaza. They were very good. The hot dogs were huge! We ate at the Lions Den twice, which was excellent. The first night we met Herman from the newsgroup, and his wife Cathy, and their friends Buddy and Charlotte. Everything we had was wonderful. Especially the key lime pie. Kirk (formerly of the Green Parrot), put a sparkler in Jeremy's pie because it was his birthday. We ate our last dinner on Bonaire at the Lions Den. The view is just great. The service is great also. We ate one night at It Rains Fishes. It was real good also. I had the wahoo in mustard sauce, which was good, until I tasted Dennis' blackened wahoo. It was wonderful. Next time, I'll get blackened. Rebekah had some chicken dish that was real good too. We had pizza from Cozzoli's two nights. It was excellent and the price was very reasonable. We even at lunch there on our last day and I had the Hamburger Dutch which was good. The mango juice was great too! They are located in the mall right across from KFC. There were many other restaurants we wanted to try, but ran out of time. Guess we will just have to go back!

Diving- We used Toucan at the Plaza and they were just wonderful. Especially Erwin and Ebby. They would find lots of good stuff for us. They found seahorses for us on two different dives. Erwin was a real character! Rebekah bought a stuffed donkey at one of the shops and named it Erwin. He was great! We dove 18th Palm (2 times) in front of the Plaza, South Bay (Klein), Angel City, Oil Slick Leap, Monte's Divi (Klein), Bonaventure (Klein), The Lake (the video dive), Small Wall (I saw Charlotte and JB but no Tweety), Hilma Hooker, 1000 Steps, and Dennis, Daniel, and Jeremy dove the Invisibles. Rebekah's back was hurting so we laid on the shore and sunbathed and snorkeled while they dove. We saw a total of 3 seahorses, 3 turtles, a frogfish, barracuda, tarpon, parrotfish, queen angels, French angels, butterfly fish, sergeant majors (the males were guarding the nests), 1 large green moray eel, lots of spotted moray eels, trunk fish, trumpet fish, grouper, flounder, drumfish, chain moray, squid (at Small Wall), blue tangs, and squirrelfish, just to name a few. Our first dive, 18th Palm, in front of the Plaza we saw lots of fish. I was going to check my Paul Humann Reef Fish ID book to see what some of them were. Guess what I forgot to pack? Next time, that book goes in first! On one dive I noticed a fish that was floating on its side. It didn't look dead, maybe just sick. Then all at once it swam off and another fish was floating on its side. I looked closer and gobies were cleaning them! It was a neat thing to watch. Also at Small Wall we saw a pod of dolphins. They never came close to us while we were diving, but we could hear them underwater. On our way back, somewhere around downtown, we circled about 30 minutes playing with the dolphins. There were two different pods of them. They would swim along side the boat and jump and play. It was really neat. Each dive we would do we thought was the best dive we had done. Each one got better. Even 18 Palms was different the 2nd time. We got in a huge school of baitfish and two barracuda appeared from nowhere right next to us. Dennis and the boys said The Invisibles was really neat. Wish I could have gone on that dive. They got in a school of about 150 barracuda. They said it was awesome! The dive boats were not crowded. One dive there was only 8 of us! There was a big dive group in from somewhere but it was never crowded. Lenny had done a number on the coral in the shallows. We were there before Lenny and could tell a big difference.

Other Activities-We went shopping in Kralendijk several afternoons and the morning before we left. Several times we ate ice cream from Lover's Ice Cream in the Harbourside Mall. They had a great cherry brandy ice cream. One afternoon we visited with Michael Gaynor at his house. We had a real nice visit. Michael gave us lots of tips on dining and general info about the island. Daniel, Jeremy, and Rebekah went windsurfing one afternoon. They had 1 hour of lessons from Bonaire Windsurf Place and 1 hour rental. It was not as easy as they thought it was going to be. They were finally catching on right at the end. The instructor was very patient with them. He even went out a few times after their hour was up and helped them some more. Every night Dennis and I would go sit on the beach for about an hour. It was so peaceful and quiet, listening to the waves rolling in. We walked to the end of the pier one night and there was a school of about 100 trumpet fish just floating around. It was really neat to see. One afternoon we went to the park but did not have enough time to do the long tour. There were only a couple of hours before they closed, so we put this on our list to do "next time"! We drove up to Gotomeer and looked around. There was a parking area we stopped at. This was the only place I saw a mosquito! There were lots of little knats that bothered us though. Even at night while we were eating, no little critters bothered us. We didn't even use our bug spray. A truck drove around every night and sprayed though. Saw several flamingoes. We visited the Donkey Sanctuary on our last day. I took a bag of carrots. I should have had lots more. All the donkeys wanted to be my friend! Last time Dennis and I were in Bonaire, the donkeys along the road would shy away from cars. Not so this time. We stopped to take a picture, rolled the window down and a donkey stuck his head right in the window! A real close up!
Well, our time in paradise was about to come to an end. The weather was great the whole week. No rain at all. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 3:05pm. We took our luggage to the airport between 10:30-11:00am. There was not a line at the Air Jamaica counter. We checked our luggage and got our boarding passes and headed north to 1000 steps. We had done it earlier in the week as a boat dive. After climbing back up those steps, I am glad we did a boat dive! We went back to town for a final meal in Bonaire. We were back at the airport by 2pm to turn in our rental truck. Our return flight was pretty much on time. This was another snack flight, but since it was the middle of the afternoon I wasn't expecting much. Good thing! Another roll, this time with turkey on it. It was better than the tuna, but not a whole lot! Arrived in Montego Bay, this was supposed to be a direct flight back to Atlanta, meaning no changing of planes, but we are dealing with Air Jamaica here! The flight crew said we had to get off the plane so they could clean it and then in about 45 minutes we could get back on for the continuation of our trip to Atlanta. An Air Jamaica representative was at the gate with info on connecting flights. The plane we just got off of was going to Chicago. He told us what gate to go to. We went there and there was no plane, nobody, nothing! The information screen had our flight at another gate! We went there and there was a plane there that was boarding, to Atlanta no less, but not our flight! We had to wait over 2 hours on another plane to take us to Atlanta! Dennis went up to the customer service desk because we were going to miss our connection in Atlanta. They rescheduled us on the last flight to Memphis that night. Finally, the plane arrived and we were on our way to Atlanta. We were real glad to get out of the Montego Bay airport. We had a dinner flight. It was decent. Chicken and pasta, but not much chicken, mostly pasta. We finally arrived in Atlanta, went through customs, found all our bags, they did make it! Our big bag was busted open. At first I thought someone had cut it, but a closer look revealed that it had busted at the zipper on both sides. Thank goodness for the duct tape. Don't forget the duct tape! We taped it up real good and were on our way. There was a lady from Air Jamaica waiting at the counter where every one was checking in for the flights home. She was very nice and helpful, making sure every one made the connecting flights, offering to put them up in hotels if they didn't. We made our connection and arrived home a little after midnight. We had the most wonderful vacation we had ever had, but we are now suffering from post-island depression. It was great to see the kids enjoy themselves like they did. Hopefully, we can do this again!

wonderful report Leigh Ann!

Glad to see you had such a wonderful trip Leigh Ann...it is a magical place to be. Carole

That was a wonderful run down, you told us about almost everything ! As we are looking forward to our first visit to Bonaire these detailed accounts are worth their weight in gold.
You are terrfic parents to create these endearing memories for your family to experience and treasure. And I know they are terrfic youngsters, too !
May you have many more......experinces not children....goodness no, you've got your hands full I would say.

Great trip report. I could just drift away as you described all the wonderful fish that you saw!! Thanks for sharing!

Great report - thanks for sharing everything with us.

Here is a link to a few pictures of from the above trip if anyone is interested... It also has a few pics we took back in 98.

http://www.zaptek.com/bonaire

Dennis

nice photos dennis. thanks

What great shots!

Great trip report. I'm taking my son mid August -our first trip to Bonaire. Sounds like the donkey santuary and the park would be good side trips. Thanks for all the info.

Leigh Ann. Thanks for such a detailed report...sounds wonderful.....figured I'd hold on a sec, and maybe Dennis would volunteer a pic or two...and there they are. Looks great! Good as it sounds. Thanks Dennis. Lotsa nifty ones. But 18 Palms, or 'Bonaire in just a shade more than Black and Gold' is still my 'Cover of a Book' choice! Down by the Hooker was pretty inviting. Heck...I just gotta be there........

Leigh Ann. A great report, thank you.. We must make the effort to get over to The Lions Den..

Dennis, I really enjoyed the pictures.. seeing the KLM plane reminds me to book our flights!!!! I just love the photos of the plants at Plaza, another thing we always enjoyed about that resort.. wonderful... thank you..

Dennis: Your site and photos and compilations, etc. are absolutely wonderful! I have passed your link on to many of my friends all over the world to enjoy. Thank you ever so much for letting us enjoy your work. Great shots, by the way! Carole

Is it recommended to check in for your Air Ja. flight so far ahead in the day? Gosh, who wants to get stuck in JA when you cannot even leave the airport. YIKES..Annie

Ann, we checked in early in Boniare because I had heard the line is terrible 2 hours before departure. We didn't want to tote our luggage around with us either after checking out of our room.

Leigh Ann, great trip report, enjoyed the pics too.