The "Storms May Come And Go...But We Are Here To Stay!" Story

One of my favorite photos I have taken in the Caribbean.  This
photograph was taken on Shoal Bay East on the island of Anguilla,
an island within eyesight of St. Martin. Click on it to enlarge.

It was an ordinary day.  Posting one more story about the Caribbean and the damage that has been the result of Hurricanes Irma, Jose and Maria.  Carol and I are still not sure what we should do in the spring of next year which is the time of the year that we have made a habit of traveling to the Caribbean for a few weeks.  Will they be ready for us to visit?  Will we be disappointed due to all the damage?  Well, after reading a story a few days ago, we have decided that it is our obligation to visit and provide our financial support to help those living in the Caribbean get their life back to normal once again.  The story that influenced us went like this:

Serene scene from Happy Bay, St. Martin.

On October 9, 1780, the Great Hurricane came to the Caribbean.  Huracan San Calixto lasted 11 days in the West Indies, pummeling the southeastern Caribbean with terrifying winds as high as 200 miles per hour, destroying homes and livelihoods.  Almost 22,000 people died across the West Indies.  This terrible tempest remains the deadliest recorded hurricane in the history of the Western Hemsiphere.  Everything was washed away. Or so it seemed.  But, all of these islands are still here. And, they aren't going anywhere.  Because that's the thing about Caribbean people; they cannot be defeated.  They rebuild, they restore and they live again.  It is the cost of the region's unimaginable natural beauty that, by the caprice of fate, there is the periodic risk of ruin, an intermittent reminder of the supremacy of Mother Nature.  But after each storm, after each tragedy, the Caribbean waves its finger at Mother Nature; "storms may come and go but we are here to stay."

Off to the Caribbean!  This photograph, one of my favorite
photos I have taken in the Caribbean, is from Barbados.

I have said enough in this blog about the past storms.  What needs to be done is this: The Caribbean will rebuild.  It will not be easy, it may not be quick, but it will happen.  So what should we do as someone who loves the Caribbean?  Making a donation to help with the rebuilding would help, but the biggest thing we can do for the livelihood of the entire region recently struck by the storms is to keep going back because tourism remains the life blood of the Caribbean and without you and I returning to the Caribbean, the pocketbooks of the people will not grow.  So head back when you can, since it isn't going anywhere soon!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Passport Memories" Story

It was an ordinary day. Trying to find our Passports for our next trip in a few weeks. I probably have them locked in the safe, but first I checked the filing cabinet and found the old ones that we got in April of 2001. On the front cover of each Passport are two holes that were punched in them when they expired and we got new ones. The US Passport is only good for 10 years and then it needs to be replaced. Some countries will not let you travel to their country if you Passport is not good for at least 6 months before you plan to travel to their country. Reason being if you happen to have to stay longer than planned because of health or some other unknown reason, they don't want it to expire while in their country. Well, I started looking through the pages of the expired Passport and trying to read all the stamps that are on the pages. Then Carol and I started to talk about some of the memories we had about the places in the Passport booklet. I'll share some of the memories and lighter moments that I never have talked about before in any of my stories. Check out the scans and see how well you can read some of the stampings. Here goes:

Page 8 has two really neat stamps. The first is in the bottom left corner of the page and comes from the British Virgin Islands. We stayed on Tortola in 2002 after visiting St. Croixduring the first week. Our Resort, the Prospect Reef, was truly memorable, but not for any good reasons you can imagine. Noisy chickens in the morning, terrible pool facilities, and at the end of the day you had to shower with cold water. Our side trips to Virgin Gorda and Peter island were much more memorable than the trip to Tortola. Another stamp on page 8 is marked from Turks and Caicos. That happens to be the island that we will be visiting soon with our traveling companions Jerry and Just Sue. One memory from this island is the beautiful sand. The finest, whitest, softest sand you will ever see or walk on. Just like baby powder!! I also remember Carol and Just Sue wading into the ocean and pulling one big conch shell after another out of the water. We brought a few home, but they really added weight to the suitcases. Also remember trying conch for the first and last time and heading to the Conch Farm to see how they were raised, only to be disappointed because they were closed. Funny thing about that, we were going to go back again this year, but found out a few days ago that the recent tropical storm that hit the island destroyed the Conch Farm.
Page 10 shows a stamp from Jamaica which is the only time we ever traveled to that island. We learned during that visit that photos really do lie. The Sandals Resort we stayed at didn't really resemble the photos in the brochure we had looked at before we went. Beaches wereextremely small and the buildings were much older than they looked in the brochure. We did some fun things during the two weeks, but when leaving the grounds of the resort you had to be very careful to stay with your group because of security. Guards and police with automatic weapons were seen at many street corners. And another stamp from that page is from Sint Maarten where we rented our first of many villa homes for a couple of weeks. Also the year that we purchased our first painting from Paul Elliott Thuleau. As Carol explains about Paul, he's a real hunk. Page 11's favorite stamp is the one marked Frankfurt. That was the year Carol and I traveled with a group from our church to visit Italy. We landed in Germany and then onto another plane to head to Italy. So many tales to tell and have been told if you search my stories, but I never told anyone that we felt like we had the best rooms at every stop we made. Had the top floor rooms with great views and the largest rooms of any other travelers from our group. We got the nice showers and baths when some had to wash at the bathroom bowls. Why? Someone was looking over us we figured.

On page 12 is a stamp from Sint Maarten. This was our 7th trip to the island and the year of the swine flu scare. We had masks that we were prepared to wear in the airport and on the plane, but when we saw that no one else was using them, we put them away. Didn't want to feel like idiots. Told Carol that if we have any more children I would like to name themAnju-Snow. Carol knew that was never going to happen though. One day on the beach we met some people from Lancaster. Actually they were from our neighborhood and were staying in a place even higher up the hill then we were staying. Planned to visit with them in their place to see if we might want to rent it another time. Day before we were to meet them we were sitting around our very private pool getting an overall tan and for some reason looked way up the hill and saw someone waving to us. Wow, did Carol grab her towel quickly. I told her that from that distance they couldn't tell if she had a suit on or not. On page 13 is a stamp marked Port St-Martin and on the bottom of it reads Guadeloupe. On that day we traveled to the English island of Anguilla and had one of the best days we ever had on vacation. Visited the CuisinArt Resort and saw their hydroponic farm run by world-renownedDr. Howard Resh. Then headed to The Dune Preserve and met Bankie Banks who is a world famous musician who is known for his Raggae Moon Splash concerts. Spent the day on the world's best beach, Shoal Bay, then headed to Mead's Bay to find Blanchards Restaurant which was the setting for one of our favorite beach books, A Trip to the Beach by Melinda and Robert Blanchard. What a day.

Oh, the memories. Hope to share more with you again soon. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "One Magazine's Top Islands" Story

It was an ordinary day. Killing time by reading a few magazines online. Pulled up Budget Travel Magazine and saw an interesting article about the most popular islands in the Caribbean for travel. Naturally had to click on it and saw that the top island was St. Martin. I should have known that, since St. Martin is my favorite island, but kind of hoping it wasn't the top one. Probably the reason why the roads get so congested at times and the beaches are so filled most days. But, it still wouldn't keep us away from the place. I'll list the top-ten islands and give you the low-down on what Budget Travel, as well as LDub, thinks are the reasons for traveling to all the different islands. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

St. Martin/Sint Maarten - What more can I say about this French/Dutch island than I have already said. When you assess my blog, click on St. Martin/Sint Maarten in the index and you can read all about the island of choice for Carol and me. Below is Great Bay Beach in Philipsburg, the capital of the Dutch side.
Aruba - We made a stop in Aruba in 2010 while on a cruise through the Panama Canal. Wasn't impressed, but that was because we went to Palm Beach and the day we visited, the water was cloudy and dirty. Most of the great resorts are located on the western side of the Dutch island for one reason: spectacular sunsets. We missed that! We have talked to many friends who just love this island. Photo below is from Palm Beach.

Bahamas - Heard of Nassau? Well, Cat Island is just 45 minutes from Nassau. It is a 48-mile-long coral outcrop just 265 miles east of Florida. Last year there were over 5 million travelers that ventured to the Bahamas, but only a fraction made a call on Cat. Cat island features empty pink-sand beaches, great diving and thatch-roof beach bars. What else could you want?
US Virgin Islands - St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John combine to form the USVI. St. Croix is the largest at 82 square miles, yet gets the least amount of tourists. We have traveled to all three of the islands twice. Our favorite, St. Thomas. Still remember the first time we visited Magen's Bay Beach. Unbelievable! Ranked as one of the top 10 beaches in the world by several magazines. Trunk Bay Beach, shown in the background of the photo below behind my wife and me, is on St. John's and is a National Park. I tried to take a small tree pod with me when I left and was made to put it back, since you may not remove anything from a US National Park.
Puerto Rico - Old San Juan is still numero uno in Puerto Rico, but tourists have started to explore about 40 miles to the east, to Vieques. The US Navy used to use Vieques as a target-practice center until 2003. A few of the beaches on Vieques have gained exposure on the worldwide top-10 list.
Bermuda - Sitting all alone in the Atlantic Ocean 650 miles east of north Carolina, Bermuda is a beauty. It's really not in the Caribbean, but always seems to be associated with all the other islands that are near and are in the Caribbean. The peak seasonb runs from spring to fall. In 2012 the island will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the settlement of St. George's Town, the 350 anniversary of Warwick Academy which is the oldest school in the western hemisphere, and the 200th anniversary of the Bermuda post Office which culminates with an April exhibition of stamps from Queen Elizabeth II's private collection
Cayman Islands - The Caymans are synonymous with deep-sea diving and offshore banking. We traveled to Grand Cayman in 2007 and found the island to be very expensive. Stopped for lunch and paid $12 for a burger. We did have a fantastic time swimming with the stingrays. We did this shortly after Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray. Still didn't stop us from adventuring in the water with these beautiful creatures. The Caymans are famous for their Seven Mile Beach. The photo below shows the many boats that have stopped to allow tourists the chance to swim with the stingrays.
Dominican Republic - This is a great place to find affordable all-inclusives, particularly in Punta Cana, on the island's east coast. The monkey jungle Dominicana, located between Cabarete and Sosua, features a zip line and suspension bridge tour which gives the profits to the free on-site medical and dental clinic, which is staffed by volunteers and treats patients who cannot not afford health care. Photo below is from Las Terrenas.
Jamaica - East to get to and they have numerous resorts to stay at. Many of the resorts are all-inclusive which makes it easy to travel to your resort and stay at the same location throughout your visit. I took the photo below when we visited Jamiaca. It is the raft station at the Martha Brae River. You ride a raft leisurely down the river toward the ocean while your guide points out the features of the island along the banks of the river. We traveled to Jamaica one time and will not return, since we didn't feel safe other than on our resort.
Trinidad & Tobago - Trinidad is the island that has restuarants, nightclubs and 96% of the countries population, while Tobago is a 116-square-mile haven that has empty beaches, calm bays and spectacular brain-coral reefs.

The "Overdosing on the Sea" Story

OK! OK!! I'm not giving up, yet! Thanks for all the comments by way of email and on my blog as well as the phone calls telling me they enjoyed the nonsense I wrote this past year. People who I had no idea would be reading the stories. You can't imagine how much I enjoyed writing the stories. And ... I talked with Carol and we came up with another batch that can be told. Maybe not ever day, but a few a week. So, here goes ....

It was an ordinary day. Finally!! For the past few days I had been rather drowsy and listless. Not enjoying myself much. And I was on vacation. I thought it was the cruise ship that was doing it to me. Then some one asked me if I had been to the ship's doctor to get medication for my queezey feeling. I already was taking Bonine, had a patch behind my ear, and wore a wrist bracelet. "Are you sure your not taking too much medication?" Carol said to me. I didn't

think so. This is the first cruise that we had ever taken. I had been deep sea fishing a few times and always got seasick,so I went to the doctor to get a prescription for something so I wouldn't get seasick on the cruise. He gave me a prescription for the patch behind the ear and told me that I will be just fine. Well, I wasn't taking any chances so I upped the medicines to make sure. Several times I was so drowsy that I wasn't quite sure where I was. Then Carol questioned me about how much I was taking. "Well, I guess I could stop with the Bonine, but I sure hope I don't feel sick," I told her. Then again, I couldn't feel much worse. Next day I felt better so I pulled the patch off from behind my ear. Hey, now I'm feeling much better and starting to enjoy the cruise. Wasn't long before the bracelet was left in the stateroom. I finally began to realize that fishing on a small boat off the Jersey shore and being on a megaton ship with stabilizers were two totally different things. I now had a chance to enjoy myself. And ... the endless amounts of food tasted much better. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Are they really doing what I think they are?" Story

It was an ordinary day. We were heading back to our room after a trip to the beach in Grand Cayman to swim and mingle with the stingrays. Really neat experience, but we are tired and need a little rest before or evening meal. Back to our room means back to our stateroom in the cruise ship Explorer of the Seas. Our stateroom is located in the center of the ship and is a very nice size with a balcony. Jerry, Just Sue, Carol and I decided to take our first cruise together and decided on Royal Caribbean's Western Caribbean itinerary. We left from Miami with ports of call to Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Grand Cayman. We left from Miami January 28th and headed to Belize which is our first stop. First day we headed to the pool for the day and thoroughly enjoyed the evening meal and show. It seems that each day, after leaving our room for the days activities, the maids enter the stateroom and clean, dust, straighten everything and make our towels into some cute animal or item we will recognize. Always a treat to see what they have done. And, we roam the halls to find them and tell them how neat a job they did. First day they sculptured a stingray out of the towel and put candy bars on it for eyes. Right in the middle of the bed. Pretty neat job! The next day they created some type of dog with Carol's sunglasses on it. Third day they made a shirt with collar folded down and chocolate squares for buttons. Nice, but not as nice as the other two designs. Then on the next day they did this monkey hanging from a hanger. That was pretty neat. I looked at what they did and tried to take it apart so I could recreate it myself, but was never able to do it. Every day we looked forward to what we would find when we entered the room. The next sculpture looked like an animal holding the TV remote and then came the lobster with the sunglasses on its head. Well we have one more day where we can expect to be treated to some artwork. We depart our tender that has returned us from Grand Cayman and head past Jerry and Just Sue's stateroom. They open the door to see what greets them on their bed. Two swans which are facing each other and seem to be kissing. Now that's pretty cool. Carol and I set a time to meet them for supper and head to our room. We open the door and sure enough there are our swans, but they seem to be doing more than kissing. I'm not sure how to tell you what they were doing, so I guess I'll let you decide for yourself when you see the picture. And ..... how about that. And .....the maid who was passing our door as we opened it and also looked in, turned red! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Stingray City" Story

It was an ordinary day. We are headed to world famous Stingray City in Grand Caymen. Jerry, Just Sue, Carol and I are on a 7 day Western Caribbean Cruise with Royal Caribbean. We are on Explorer of the Seas and will have stops in Belize City, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Grand Caymen. Did some really neat things at the other ports and now will try our luck with stingrays. Five months ago Australian celebrity Steve Irwin, known as the Crocodile Hunter, died from an encounter with a stingray. Seems he swam too close to one and when going over top of it the barb from the tail pierced his chest. It's toxin caused him to have a seizure resulting in cardiac arrest. And ..... today we are going to swim with and hold stingrays. It's listed on our brochure as a "once in a lifetime" experience. I hope not! We debark on Grand Caymen and travel in a snorkeling boat to the area where the stingrays gather. Air and water temperature are 82 degrees today. As we approach we can see shadows in the water ahead. The clue to the location would be the six or seven other snorkeling boats that are already there. No wonder the stingrays frequent this area. Daily free food will draw almost anything including humans. We put our snorkel gear on and are given safety tips to follow with the stingrays. OK, let's go! The water is only waist level so it is easy to maneuver around. The rays are beautiful and so graceful as they swim by and around us. Hey, where is the food I'm sure they are saying. We are told to take the squid we are given and hold them on our open hand. The rays will swim over your arm and take the fish with their mouth which is on the underside of the ray. They do have two shell crushing plates in their mouths for crustaceans so we are told not to reach in their mouths. Who we be so stupid? I'm sure someone got fingers crushed at one time or another. Their skin is velvet-like to the touch. Kind of scary when all these rays are around you and hit you with the barb on their tails. I managed to do some snorkeling and take some photos. Then, when the food was gone, they seemed to sense that and headed to another boat. Well, we survived and lived to tell the tale. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Pixs from top are: Explorer of the Seas is intimidating, our snorkeling boat, Stingray City site, underwater ray and Carol enjoying touching the underside of a ray.