St. Lucia
Trip Start
Dec 2005
1
Trip End
Jan 2006
Castries, Saint Lucia
Friday, September 19, 2008
we travel very frequently within the country - by now San Francisco feels almost like second home - soo familiar...but more often than not these trips are work-related, so - they won't be in this blog...
I let my memory decide where to begin, and it takes me to Castries, Saint Lucia...
Castries, Saint Lucia...
we traveled before that, we traveled after... I don't even remember when exactly we went there - the end of 2005? ...the beginning of 2006? - it was winter, that's all I remember...and it was one of those "lazy" vacations...a green jewel of an island, a short helicopter flight from the airport to the hotel, sailing, tubing, swimming, candlelight dinners in little romantic restaurants, drinking cocktails on the beach - all the usual attributes of a lazy vacation...
why does it stand out in my memory, then?...
well, it started on the wrong note...our flight was cancelled without a notice (we found out about this by pure chance just a few hours before the flight)...after being on the phone with different airlines for what seemed like eternity we found that our only chance to get to St. Lucia as planned was to make two back-to-back connections...if we don't make it - we'll lose 2 days of vacation ...and we only had 5 days total, and the hotel was booked, and the work schedule adjusted...but the first of these connections will be leaving shortly, so we must get to the airport now... well, we made it to the airport... but! ...we got delayed by the security check which (just our luck!) decided to single out our carry-ons for a more detailed examination ...was it just my imagination or the security guy really took a-w-f-u-l-l-y long examining each piece of my flimsy lingerie and swimsuits (I had very little else in my bag)?...I know he was doing his duty - looking for explosives and weapons, but how much can you really hide between tulle and lace? (and I didn't even have any of the JimmyJane paraphernalia in my bag! :) ...perhaps he couldn't decide if silk and lace in a female's luggage qualify as "explosives" and "weapons" (hey, they might!)...finally he got a nudge and "hurry up or these people will be late!" from his female collegue (thank you, sister!)...and - after a short but intense sprint to the gate - we caught our connecting flight... now - one more flight to go...and we had under 10 minutes to make it to a different terminal in Atlanta's airport (which, by the way, is one of the busiest passenger airports in the world) ...
people who travel frequently can relate - most of us experienced this at one time or another...it is disappointing, frustrating, annoying...it makes people angry, and more often than not they tend to take it out on somebody next to them...but I remeber us laughing about our misadventure while making a mad dash to our next plane (laughing while running probably cost us a few precious minutes, but so what?) and cheering up each other, and telling each other that we'll make the best of our vacation even if we have to spend half of it in the airport...but somehow we made it...they were actually holding the plane for us and closed the door as soon as we got inside...miracles do happen!...and suddenly all the misadventures disappeared, and our perfect little vacation had begun... the place was beautiful, the weather was gorgeous, the sea was calm and warm, the sand was soft and silky...everything turned out to be just great...we spent 5 lazy days playing in the water, tubing (I looooved it, but my angel found a ride way too bumpy for his taste), sailing (we were given a short lesson, and then went out on our own; I was 'appointed' the captain of our boat, and I must say - I brought us safely back after a few hour long voyage in the open sea!)
and that's what we try to remember and keep in mind during all our travels - misadventures do happen now and then, but it's up to us what to make of them...if we become upset and annoyed and miserable - that will tint the rest of the vacation...and if we shrug it off and laugh and cheer up each other - then it will be just the beginning of a great vacation and pure fun...just like St. Lucia...
...and anyway - don't they say that life is only 20% of what it ACTUALLY IS, and 80% of what WE PERCEIVE IT TO BE?...
well, I am sure we can do better than that - how about 10 to 90? :)
