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June 28, 2003
June 28, 2004 (Happy Birthday, Dad!)
I realize it's been a while since I last posted an entry, but the crazy thing is I started writing this on the 10th, and it's now the end of the month! I'll go into what's been going on in our lives in my next entry (which I hope will be shorter than this one!), but suffice it to say our family has been very, very busy. This entry, however, will be dedicated to remembering our recent family vacation. I admit I feel a little weird writing all about it, so I promise not to be offended if you choose to skip this entry and wait for the next one. For those of you who can put up with it, please read on!
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If you read my previous entry, you know we stopped in Orlando for a few days before flying to the Caribbean. Our Hotel was actually in the middle of the Orlando International Airport, over-looking a beautiful arboretum, fountain and all the people hurrying to and from their flights. It was fun standing out on our little balcony to people-watch at all hours of the day and night. There was also a huge Disney and Universal Studios store, which Aidan had a blast exploring. He of course scored a stuffed animal from his Gobby from the Disney Store, who couldn’t deny him the little Nemo once he laid hands on it.
On Thursday, Toby, his parents, Aidan and I were dropped off at the Magic Kingdom by his brother Ryon and his wife Alex (they’re not into theme parks and decided to go on a air boat tour instead). We had a great time, but it was SO unbelievably hot and humid (Jennifer S., I don’t know how you do it!). It was something like 90 degrees outside, and it FELT like it was 100% humidity, but I’m sure that was just my body pooping out on me. We looked for any excuse to go inside and cool off, whether that be in the Tikki Room show, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, or when we had lunch. We went on a handful of rides, but the highlights were the Jungle Cruise (Aidan LOVED the animals, which he pointed at with great excitement) and the Haunted Mansion, which Aidan did not like very much at all. Every kid has to have a “you buried your head in my chest for the whole ride” story, and this one was Aidan’s. Other than that, we just had fun finally being at “Mickey’s House” after telling Aidan about it for such a long time.
The next day, Alex and I got REALLY lost trying to find the local Mall, which was hysterically funny and enormously frustrating all at the same time. I somehow managed to lose my bathing suit top before we left, and needed to find a replacement before heading to St. Croix (although I jokingly threatened to go without one, LOL). Thankfully, we eventually found the Mall and even better … I found a new bathing suit top! That night, Toby’s parents watched Aidan and Ryon, Alex, Toby and I went out to dinner at Universal Citywalk, outside of Universal Studios. We went to a great Latin restaurant, where I had a yummy margarita and fajitas, after which we went to the new “Harry Potter” movie. I love going to “blockbuster” movies on the week they open. There’s something about being surrounded by people who are looking forward to seeing the movie that creates such a great energy in the theater. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and it was fun to hang out with Ryon and Alex for a while.
The next morning the three of us had to get up EARLY to make our flight to St. Croix. The rest of the gang was on a later flight, which we tried not to hold against them, LOL. We got through security easily and were on our flight in no time. The flight was pretty short (under 3 hours), they showed the movie “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton”, and Aidan slept almost the whole way, so the flight passed very quickly. We had a connection in San Juan, Puerto Rico which we also made very easily and soon we were on a “hopper” flight to St. Croix. This flight was under 30 minutes … definitely the shortest flight I’ve ever been on. Seeing the island for the first time was amazing. The water was so BLUE and the island looked very lush and green. We could hardly wait to get off the plane and finally BE THERE! When we got off the plane, we discovered that Courtney and Jon-Paul, who were supposed to be meeting us at the airport, had missed their flight. SUCH a bummer! We ended up getting the rental car and heading to the villa just the three of us, with plans to head back to the airport when we heard from the rest of the family.
Our first drive to the villa was fun and interesting, particularly b/c they drive on the LEFT side of the road! Toby later told me he was chanting, “Left, left, left! Stay on the left, left, left!”. =) We found the island to be much more green and beautiful than the islands we visited on our Honeymoon. There is one road in particular where huge, green tree branches meet together over the middle of the road, creating a breathtaking canopy to drive through. Driving next to the ocean for the first time was also amazing. Thinking of all the fun we were about to have at the beach made it hard to not stop the car and jump right in!
When we finally got to the villa, we were a little disappointed to discover that the house wasn’t as close to the beach as the pictures and description had made it sound like. We thought we were going to be literally ON the beach, but as it turned out we had to hike down a rocky path and cross the street. We quickly got over this though, when we opened the door to the house. … Yippee!! The views from the house were SO beautiful. Every room in the house except two of the bedrooms had sweeping views of the ocean, which you could hear from the back patio and swimming pool. The house was by no means fancy, but the owners provided everything needed to have an extremely relaxing and comfortable time in their home.
I could go on and on about our vacation, but even I’M getting bored writing every single little detail, so here are the highlights as I remember them:
• Snorkeling: While I’ve been snorkeling before on a number of different occasions, this is the first time I’ve felt VERY comfortable and really, really had a great time. Before, I always felt like I wasn’t getting enough air, my chest and head would start to hurt, and inevitably I would get salt water in my mask and down my throat. This time, as soon as I got in the water, it felt completely NATURAL. Other than heading in the wrong direction the first time out and coming within inches of a forest of nasty, black, spiny sea urchins (I was FREAKING OUT, let me tell you!), I had an absolute blast swimming out into the perfect-temperature water and hovering over the myriads of truly beautiful fish that were in the reef. The most interesting (and SCARY) thing I saw was on our last day, when I saw a barracuda! I looked at him for a little while, and then quickly swam away, all the while keeping an eye on that freaky-looking sucker.
• “Le Pooh”: As Aidan called it, this quickly became the favorite place for the family to hang out. Not only was it refreshingly cool, but it also looked out over the ocean and was the most relaxing place to spend the day, drinking rum punch and splashing around with Aidan and the rest of the family. Honestly, I think the pool was the best part of the whole house. Without it, staying there wouldn’t have been half as fun, especially b/c it provided a wonderful way to rinse off after being at the beach. All we had to do was hose the sand off our feet, and jump in! My favorite memories of the pool are of floating around in one of the floaty-chairs, half-in/ half-out of the water, closing my eyes, soaking up the warm sun, listening to the waves on the beach down below and just completely relaaaxing. That, and sitting on the bar stools that were built into the side of the pool that looked over the ocean, (again) having a drink and watching the sun go down. All together now … Aaaaaahhhh! =)
• Scuba Diving: Yes, I gave scuba diving a try! I failed miserably … but I tried it. Toby, Jon-Paul, Ryon and Alex all took a number of dives and had a LOT of fun, so I decided to give it a try. I took what they call a “Discovering Scuba Diving” class, where they teach you the basics of scuba and then take you out in the water for a dive. Everything went smoothly, and I felt very comfortable until I was out in the water and I was asked to clear my mask. Basically, you’re supposed to go under water, let water into your mask and then clear the water out of your mask by blowing through your nose. I don’t know why, but this freaked me out and I couldn’t get the hang of this “skill”. I felt like I was running out of air, and while I tried over and over again to get it right, I finally decided it wasn’t going to happen and gave it up for the time being. I definitely plan on trying again and look forward to the next opportunity I have to try and accomplish this goal. I’m disappointed I didn’t go for a real dive, but I still have awesome memories of snorkeling over Toby and the rest of the gang, their air bubbles tickling me as I watched them gracefully swim among the brightly colored fish and coral.
• Off the Wall!!!: There were a number of small bars and grills within walking distance of Villa Dawn, but our favorite was “Off the Wall”. We could see it from the back patio/pool, and their live music floated up the hill on the evening breezes. This modest (but fun!) little hangout is right on the water, and was a fantastic place to watch the beautiful St. Crocian sunsets. We spent our first and last evenings their, eating the most delicious hamburgers and sipping on margaritas. MmmMmm!! (Btw, here’s their website if you’d like to check it out: http://www.offthewallstcroix.com/).
• Ron and Sharon’s 35th Wedding Anniversary: Of course, this is the real reason we were all there in the first place! As a gift from all of us Toby, Courtney and I went to a paint-your-own pottery shop here in Brooklyn and picked out a commemorative platter for them. It took us two trips to finish painting it, but it turned out great! There is a picture of the villa in the center, and around the edges we painted tropical fish, one for each member of the family. Mine was rainbow-colored and Aidan’s looked like Nemo (of course!). We all signed the back of it, and gave it to Ron and Sharon before we went out for their anniversary dinner. I could tell they really, really loved it. For dinner, we all got dressed up (which on the island means nice pants and a Hawaiian/tropical shirt, LOL), and went out to a restaurant down the street from Villa Dawn, called “The Waves”. The restaurant was set outside, and as close to the water as you could get without falling in. We got there in time to take family pictures together, which turned out nicely, particularly with the brilliant sun setting behind us and everyone sporting their new tans. Sharon liked them so much, she declared them to be her Christmas card picture for next year! =) Laughter and drinks flowed freely, the food was fantastic (I had the best coconut jumbo shrimp I’ve ever had in my life) and Ron and Sharon’s marriage was joyfully celebrated by all.
• Being together as a family: Other than the beautiful surroundings, I think the part I enjoyed the most about our vacation was the time we got to spend together as a family. The hardest part about living in Brooklyn is that we’re so far away from most of our family, so I cherish the time we have all together. Watching Aidan get to know Toby’s brother Ryon and his wife Alex was such a blessing, as was seeing him play to his heart’s content with his Gobby and Grandpa Ron. I know Ron and Sharon miss their children and grandchildren terribly … heck, we ALL miss each other a lot … so it made me very happy to see everyone spending lots of quality time together once again. I truly felt blessed.
The week thankfully went by slowly … and then it was all over. Sigh … We said good-bye to Courtney and Jon-Paul on Thursday, as J-P had to get back to class here in Manhattan. Friday was spent shopping in town and touring the Cruzan Rum factory (we came away with a 6-pack to share with friends and family), and before we knew it, we were packing and leaving.
We woke up early on Saturday and headed to the airport, where we boarded a plane to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We had decided it would be fun to spend the day there, as we won’t probably have the opportunity again, and scheduled our connecting flight for that evening. We rented a car when we arrived, and headed into “Old San Juan”. San Juan reminded me of Los Angeles a bit, albeit the older, more run-down parts of L.A.. Old San Juan was very picturesque, though and we had a nice time strolling up and down the cobblestone streets. It was INCREDIBLY hot and humid however, so after stopping for some gelato and then ducking into a local bookstore to use the Internet (I had to enter my temps for the week on Fertility Friend!), we found an air-conditioned restaurant serving authentic Puerto Rican food. It was delicious!! I had the most amazing pork stew with yellow rice and fried plantains, Toby enjoyed a beef stew, and Aidan enjoyed all of it, eating off both of our plates. =)
About half-way through the meal we realized we were pretty tired and the thought of walking around in the heat was quickly becoming less and less appealing. So, long story short, we made it onto an earlier flight and were back in Brooklyn in time to order pizza for dinner. Our fabulous vacation was over, but it was also great to be HOME!
Villa Dawn and St. Croix gave us the kind of vacation we will never forget. I’ve told a number of people that it was so relaxing it felt like we were gone for a month, not a week. Seriously, I started to forget what it was like to live in Brooklyn! We created enough memories to last a lifetime, and I for one can’t wait to go back. Until then, I am so very, very thankful for the time we had together as a family. It was everything I had hoped it would be and a million times more.
Until Next Time,
Rebekah and Aidan
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