Yes, I'm bit paranoid, but let's just put that all behind us and say, "sigh...what a wonderful trip!"
It WAS wonderful...I had no idea WHERE Nevis, West Indies was when I first heard of this destination, but I figured it had to be on the globe somewhere. It's about as big as a point of a needle, but that had no bearing on it's beauty.
The 3 full days we spent there were filled with beautiful sunrises, long walks through tropical trees and a gorgeous golf course, making faces at monkeys, taking a historical tour around the island, getting a relaxing massage, spending lots of time by the pools, being served coconut sorbet poolside, enjoying delicious foods and even sampling SEAfood and actually LIKING it, slipping in a game of tennis (for my hubby) and NOT doing p90x AT ALL...
now THAT, my friends, is what I call Vacation!!!
I plan to post lots of pictures in the days to come, but (as I will explain in few moments) my "time" has been spent other "places" of late and so the majority of the images that will tantalize all your senses, will have to wait just a few days more...
You see...as we rode the ferry across the waters from Nevis to St. Kitts in order to catch our flight to the states...besides forgetting the sunblock on this little exhibition and allowing the sun to fry many upon many of my skin cells on my forehead and shoulders, we also were failed to be notified that our plane which was supposed to take off at 1pm, was now delayed until 6:30pm...
Hmmmm...this would mean that we would consequently miss our connecting flight back home to the arms of my wee girls awaiting Mommy & Daddy's arrival...
I gulped down my disappointment and we all made the best of it...hanging out at the Marriott on St. Kitts, sipping Pepsi and munching on M-n-Ms while watching others all clad in tiny swimsuits parading around the pools without a care in the world...We eventually made our way back to the airport, which I can only describe as a one room sweat factory for disgruntled travelers where we all watched news reports of tornadoes ripping through the country back home (which, I can tell you did WONDERS for calming my nerves) and reruns from America's Funniest Home videos...
I did get to take in a nice edited version of The King's Speech during our flight, trying to drown out the wretched noises that my stomach started to make midflight....
If you know me well, you know that I also "come alive" in the evenings...which can be translated to being a tad "slap-happy"...I thought it my duty to announce to everyone that we had arrived and notify my fellow passengers that due to the late night arrival, our time through customs may be lengthened a bit seeing as there were maybe 2 officers on duty as the people came off the plane in droves...they eventually got the hint and called more people into action...we got through quickly, but our night was far from over...
At this point, taking over 600 photographs in a 3 day span, I did not unearth my camera from my baggage, although looking back, I wish I had...because I need to be reminded of God's protection as I basically handed over my life to a NY taxi driver at 1am who felt it necessary to RACE all the other taxicabs in our party to our hotel destination...
I want to point out a few things I learned: 1) there are no air bags in the back seat 2) do not speak to a driver while riding, allow them all the concentration needed to STAY ON THE ROAD 3) getting there faster does not cost less...
Our driver did not go under 80mph through out the speed limited areas from JFK to LaGuardia airports...we "were" 3rd in line, but we arrived at the hotel, checked in and were sitting down WAITING before the rest of our party showed up.
At which time the "situation" occuring in the "nether-regions" decided to make themselves known...and at this point I will stop with the explanations as I'm sure the "vivid details" will disgust you and will do no more to service this post than gross you out...put it plainly...I spent the entire night in the "lavatory" whilst trying not to awaken my husband. I prayed that I could keep everything else...whatever else was left...INSIDE while on the plane, at least until we landed...which, praise the Lord, was possible...
Although, I'm positive that God was just blessing the other passengers as much as myself in that situation!
The "getting on the plane" was yet another fiasco in and of itself, as we found ourselves without a confirmed reservation of a return flight even though we were assured that would be the case once we checked in at the LaG. airport...no offense to teenage employees, but I will say that our "young" apprentice in St.Kitts may move her fingers fast over the keys, but the screen was out of our viewing sight and so I can only assume she was playing PacMan or Angry Birds rather than securing us some seats...However, nothing a nice long wait in a ticketing line at 6:15 in the morning won't remedy!
Needless to say, we DID get a flight and we arrived safely. I even made it to yet another bathroom...I have had the opportunity to see many 'a "toilette" in airports of late...and we drove home.
We had a wonderful time, spent some time with some incredible friends on the trip and though I was anxious to wrap my arms around my girls, it was a little bittersweet to say goodbye to "CaCa" and Cyndi.
Once we picked the girls up from school, fed them lunch, gave them their presents and made them sit through all our 600 pictures...Mommy headed herself upstairs with Little Munchkin to attempt to sleep off whatever "nervous" problem was attacking her digestive system...
And, as I am now feeling a bit better...we're still not completely out of the "woods"...but it is good to be home once again...and so I leave you with this, fairly "appropriate" picture taken while on one of our morning walks searching for monkeys...I will tell you, that after seeing this, we knew we were close on their tails!
