Vacation 2014: Retrospective

Sailing back to Barbados was as rough as sailing out of it. The showers that created that breathtaking rainbow over St. Lucia caught up with us and put a damper on our final night together. After a last Jack Daniels on the rocks I was off to bed soon after Amy and Freddy's show.

When I awoke Saturday morning, we were docked in Barbados. There would be one last breakfast together and then we would be scattering to the winds. Some people had an early departure. Some were leaving later in the afternoon, others were staying on for another day or two. Regardless, we were all moving away from each other, back to our regular lives, jobs, families, and friends.

As always, Concierge Travel had all the logistics under control. All I had to do was show up at the allotted time, exit through customs, hand my luggage to the bus driver, and follow instructions. Those of us flying out  in the afternoon were dropped off at the Tiki Bar on the beach to hang out for a few hours before heading home.

I spent these hours trying to get online - along with every other person there, and writing in my journal. Twelve hours later I was back home in Raleigh - tired, cold, and tan.

As I write this final vacation post and think back on this week, it really was among the best I have
had. This could have been partly due to the challenge I set for myself as I was flying out of Miami. While watching the innumerable islands, atolls, sandbars, and reefs pass beneath me, I challenged myself to be more adventurous, more open to meeting new people, and to be more willing to just have fun. Simply put, I challenged myself to say yes.

For me, it is always much easier to stand behind others and watch life from the sidelines. Not only is it often safer, but if I don't have a great time, I can always blame someone else. Looking back, I think I actually rose to my own challenge. I met so many new people. Some of the most memorable minutes were spent with people I met for the first time on this trip. Brian's pep talk on our first night in Barbados, discovering James' kindheartedness, exploring Barbados, fully experiencing the joy of first seeing John and Jay at the welcome party, reuniting with old friends, seeing the unimaginably beautiful night sky in the middle of the ocean, riding in the nets with Tom, being reminded by Joe of the importance of keeping up my practice, dancing, dancing, dancing, chatting with Amy, seeing Jay's smiling face every morning, and overhearing John describe our day in Grenada as the best day ever.

And, perhaps I have learned something as well. The joy of living, the importance of friends, and the excitement of discovering the world. All of these things seem to have stuck with me well past my return home. There is no reason why everyday can't be experienced as if it were a great adventure.

My friend, Dan D., once shared his philosophy with me as we were waiting for a flight in the LaGuardia airport. He said, "The universe always says yes. If you say that your life sucks, the universe will respond "Yes, it does." If you say your live is great, the universe will say 'Yes, it is.' " I often think of this conversation. The more I consider it, the more I think he is right.

This was a great vacation.
Today was a wonderful day
Tomorrow is going to be even better.

Yes! 

Vacation 2014: St. Lucia

Best Towel Animal Ever!

I had a super fun time at the White party, which should be renamed "Tighty Whitey" party, but that is another story. At the end of the stumble of shame, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my cabin steward, Diane, had me in mind when she was creating tonight's towel animal. A fitting end to a great day.

Although it was a late night for me, I was still up around 8:00 for coffee and bloody maries with Jay. There is nothing quite like spending your morning chatting with friends over spicy bloody maries and coffee while sailing into the next exotic port. Today's stop is St. Lucia.

Sailing into St. Lucia

St Lucia: Port Entrance

Beautiful blue skies, breezy, warm. Perfect! 

A member of the ship's Water Sports Team (insert joke here)

The only thing I knew about St. Lucia before arriving is that Oprah has a house there and this year's runner up on Top Chef is from here. The approach to the harbor is spectacular. The volcanic peaks at the water's edge are breathtaking. The skies were a perfect shade of blue against the deep tropical green forests. From the water the island and port appear almost magical. We were excited to get on shore.

 Of all the islands we visited on this trip, St. Lucia was perhaps the most "un-touristy." Obviously, the large ships do not dock here, so the port area is not set up with duty free liquor shops or, to be honest, any shops at all. There did not appear to be many ex-pat residents or other tourists in town. Since our group had no leader, we just wandered around like a flock of chickens without a rooster - a flock of very exotic roosters based on the number of people staring at us as we wandered around.

In the center of town there is a church built on the former slave auction grounds. In the middle of the church yard is a memorial to the run away slaves that were executed on these grounds upon their recapture. There were several people from our ship wandering around the grounds taking pictures. Later we heard that some of the locals felt by our taking photos we were not showing proper respect to the memory of those executed here. That made me sad.

Waiting for our beers: Jay and Brad

Having seen the local sites, we found a bar on the harbor and had a local beer to commemorate our visit. Of course we logged into Facebook to update our status. I mean really - how else can we remind our friends at home that we are having a great time in the tropics while they are digging their way out of another snow storm?

We were soon back on the ship. There was packing to do and I wanted to get some information on next year's trips - plus there was still a bit of liquor behind the bar that had not yet been consumed.  LOL.


As part of the sail away party, the crew took the tender out for people to capture pictures of the ship. This was taken by a shipmate and posted in our Facebook group. Looking at this picture, I am once again reminded that I am a lucky guy to be living this life. I would not change a day of it for anything. After all, when I was growing up in a small NC town, I never ever dreamed that one day I would be cruising through the tropics with some of the best people I know on a ship straight out of central fairy tale casting.

There was a festive, yet bittersweet feeling as we watched the sails being raised for for our last sail away. Everything we did that day was a last of one sort or another: Our last bloody maries before breakfast, our last crumbly tater tots, our last new port, our last sail away, sunset, dinner, etc. But these "lasts" make us savor the experience even more.

Lanny

Skipper

Sailing out of St. Lucia

John B.

Chaz, Bruce, and Lanny - Kings(?) of the world

The final scheduled event of the afternoon was a group shot of everyone assembled under the crow's nest. Needless to say, getting all those men together was like herding butterflies, but how else can you get your face on the website? We all signed releases and this was our last chance...

Here we come!

After the photo shoot, someone pointed out that there was a rainbow behind us in the port. Of course there would be rainbow - what else would you expect with this many fabulous men gathered in one spot? However, this rainbow was unlike any I have ever seen. So brilliant you could see every color. And, as we sailed away and the afternoon showers came and went over the island, we were treated to a full double rainbow. It was so beautiful it appeared to be fake. But you can judge for yourself from the pictures.

The first rendition

It only gets better

Can you believe this? It looks like it was Photoshopped.

Upon his arrival home, Jay described this moment much better than I ever could: 
"This past Friday I saw TWO of the most amazing sights that God and Mother Nature can create. The first was that spectacular double full arc rainbow connecting two beautiful lush green mountain peaks rising majestically out of the azure Caribbean Sea on St Lucia. Oh how I wish I could have gotten that whole view in my camera finder, but it will always be in my head. So breathtaking, it's unique and powerful beauty made me cry. Yeah, I've gotten goofy in my old age!

The SECOND awesome sight that God and Mother Nature created? I turned around and saw a jubilant crowd just shy of 200 people with as many descriptive and/or annoying labels as society can throw at them and as exist in the larger population, celebrating a moment, a week, a life together. Old/young, black/white/Latin/Asian, East Coast/West Coast/Midwest, American/Canadian/European, bear/muscle bear/polar bear/twink/gym rat/otter/silver daddy, male/female, single/married/divorced/widowed/still frantically looking, professions ranging from student to judge to military to minister to retired and every religion or lack thereof known to our culture, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and grandfathers, maybe even a great grandfather or two, all unified by one trait that for some reason causes some to fear and hate. We're gay"

Yep, it was the best day ever.

Heading back into rough seas on the way back to Barbados

Vacation 2014: Bequia

As if it were not already painfully obvious that our time together on the ship was coming to a close, today we had to turn in our immigration forms for our return to Barbados Saturday morning. With each passing day, the reality of home, work, and winter gets a little closer. But that is something to ponder on the plane, today our little group is invading Bequia.

It's not all fun and games...

As has become our routine, I met Jay for coffee. We watched the morning yoga group go through their paces. When the bartender arrived, we had the first of our daily bloody maries. John soon joined us and we headed down for breakfast before exploring Bequia. Although I have never heard of this island, apparently there is quite a large contingency of European ex-pats who call it home for part of the year.

The town itself was very "non-touristy." Not a Sunglass Hut, Little Switzerland, or t-shirt shop to be seen. There was, however, a lovely coffee shop. John had been hankering for some real coffee, so while he had coffee and cake, we sampled some of the local beer before walking to the end of the harbor walk. 

The harbor walk

Bromeliads in the trees

On the way back to the center of town, we ran into Kim, our friend who is one of the owners of Concierge Travel. Like us, he was feeling a little peckish, so we turned back along the harbor walk and headed over to a place that specializes in Lobster Pizza. Silly me, I thought, lobster pizza would be incredibly heavy and rich, so I suggested that perhaps we should get only one large pizza for the 6 of us. Kim laughed at me and ordered two large pizzas. And even though we had all just eaten breakfast only a few hours earlier, there was not a slice of pizza left when we were finished.

The view from the restaurant

The restaurant also had free wi-fi, so we all took a moment to post a few "wish your here" pictures on Facebook for our friends back home. Thanks to Kim and Bob for the excellent lunch suggestion.

As we headed back to the harbor entrance, we decided to take a van around the island and see the sights. By chance, we ran into Brian and Martin who happily joined our tour. The island is not very large so our tour lasted about an hour, but with such great company it was a fun afternoon.

BFFs - Glenn and John

The Royal Clipper at anchor

Our longitude and latitude

Glenn, Jay, John, Bob, Brian, Tom, and Martin blocking the view

The requisite selfie

 As much as we enjoyed our visit on Bequia, we couldn't dawdle. There was yet another event to prepare for - the Captain's Drag Dinner. While I thought we were sitting this event out, apparently the siren song of makeup and hair was just too strong for John to resist. The makeup room opened at 4:00, which meant quite a few "lovely" ladies in full face joined us for pre-dinner cocktails.

The best part of the Captain's Dinner is that everyone makes their entrance by coming down the grand staircase to the dining room. Once everyone was seated, it was like every other dinner on a cruise ship - overdressed women accompanied by their proud husbands. Well, only if you squint your eyes and hold your head just right.

And, after all this fun, there is still the white party for a little dancing before bed.

It was the best day ever.

Vacation 2014: Tobago Cays

Our tender / water taxi

After our fantastic day in Grenada and a really late night dancing in our pirate costumes, we were looking forward to a little down time on the Beach - or at least I was. My plan was to spread a towel on a lounge chair in a shady spot and get some reading and writing done. That may sound a bit antisocial, but sometimes a little quiet time is required between all the parties and functions. In this case, the best laid plans did not come to pass.

Upon arriving at the beach, it was evident that we would be roughing it. There were no chairs, no umbrellas, and no cocktail servers. There were, however lovely trees under which we could spread our towels. And, while I am not above sitting on the sand, it was not very comfortable. After a few minutes with our towels, Jay and I wondered over to the other side of the Cay for a look around. John had already returned to the ship.

Stop kicking sand on my towel, you bully.

All I need is a cold Corona.

The wild side of the island

When we got back to our towels, it was lunch time and the crew had set up a nice barbecue on the beach. Hamburgers, chicken breast, and pork ribs all made for a wonderful lunch. Sadly, my few minutes at a picnic table in the sun resulted in yet another touch of sunburn on those spots I could not reach with the sunscreen. It is easy to forget the sun is really strong in the tropics - even when it's a breezy 82 degrees.

After lunch we all piled into the surprisingly cool water for a good soaking before heading back to the ship to prepare for the retro tea dance. This dance is one of the mainstays of the Concierge party agenda, featuring music and costumes from the 70's and 80's. And really, who doesn't like a good dance party - especially one where you know all the words to all the songs and the drinks are free?

1970's Glam

John and Kitty

Tom, John, and Glenn

It's all about the go-go boys in heels

Tea dance ended just in time to grab one last cocktail for sail away and sunset watching. It was a beautiful end to a easy day of vacation. But, as with all vacations the realization that we only had a few more days at sea made the sunset a little bittersweet.

Goodbye Tobago Cay

No filters, really, it was this beautiful.

This stop was proving to be one requiring more than a few costume changes. We still had dinner and a Country and Western party before the day would be officially over.

These cowboys forgot their clothes....

Nice brand....

Next stop, Bequia.