Not that I got caught up particularly quickly - I have some issues sleeping, or at least staying asleep. But, a couple of days later, I was almost feeling human.
I had a whole lot more written, and then the internet connection crapped out mid-save, which meant nothing saved. :( Things have been great, We've done a bunch of dives, and I'll write more later. I just didn't want to leave it at "Vacation from Hell" because though it started out a bit roughly, things have been wonderful since and I'd only written those first few posts to give some background to the whole Wow, Things Are GREAT Now theme.
Later, dudes...
Friday, June 25, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Vacation in Bonaire - Inauspicious Start, Fini
As we dragged our luggage along, we checked the numbers on the doors and stairwells. In our overtired and overwrought state, it was as if we'd entered the Twilight Zone: 96, 98, 92, 94, 88... well, we found the one we would be spending two weeks in, unlocked the door, and dragged ourselves and our luggage in.
The room was a bit... used looking. As a matter of fact, it appeared that at some point in the not-too-distant past, someone had set off a bunch of firecrackers in the bathroom and entryway: the tiles were pocked with what looked like little burn marks. I went into the bathroom and noticed there was no shower curtain. The closet space still had the unmistakeable smell of ocean funk lingering. "I'll be buying some Lysol before I hang my clean clothes in there" I thought. I'm actually amazed I had such a coherent thought, I was so tired. The AC however was working like a champ and was cranked way up.
We dropped our stuff, and I walked back to the front desk to ask about a shower curtain. I was really looking forward to a shower. I got back to the room and Geoffrey was sprawled out on a bed, nearly asleep.
Unfortunately, I was now WIRED: Must Get Things All Sorted Out Before Resting. I dragged Geoffrey out to walk down the street to buy some Lysol and a couple of other things, and we spent some time at some of the shops.
When we got back, there was still no shower curtain. This time as I walked into the room I noticed the artwork on the wall for the first time.
I was beat. I read it as "HELL"
The room was a bit... used looking. As a matter of fact, it appeared that at some point in the not-too-distant past, someone had set off a bunch of firecrackers in the bathroom and entryway: the tiles were pocked with what looked like little burn marks. I went into the bathroom and noticed there was no shower curtain. The closet space still had the unmistakeable smell of ocean funk lingering. "I'll be buying some Lysol before I hang my clean clothes in there" I thought. I'm actually amazed I had such a coherent thought, I was so tired. The AC however was working like a champ and was cranked way up.
We dropped our stuff, and I walked back to the front desk to ask about a shower curtain. I was really looking forward to a shower. I got back to the room and Geoffrey was sprawled out on a bed, nearly asleep.
Unfortunately, I was now WIRED: Must Get Things All Sorted Out Before Resting. I dragged Geoffrey out to walk down the street to buy some Lysol and a couple of other things, and we spent some time at some of the shops.
When we got back, there was still no shower curtain. This time as I walked into the room I noticed the artwork on the wall for the first time.
I was beat. I read it as "HELL"
Still Exhausted
We wandered back to the front desk after eating breakfast. We were still shuffling hollow-eyed things, but we weren't hungry zombies anyway.
Our room still wasn't ready. Sigh.
We hung around in the office where there was airconditioning, and so we could at least dry off the sticky sweat. They had wifi, and I soon got my netbook connected.
Dive orientation would be at 9AM. The dive instructor to do the orientation wanted us to postpone it - Holland was mid-match in the World Cup and he was sitting at the bar watching it. Hope that our room would be soon available sprung eternal though, so we declined. Since the orientation would be taking place nearby to the TV at the bar, he could still see the replays if anything big happened. No, we aren't football fans. :) He was gracious about it.
Dive orientation over (with a couple of World Cup interruptions, but not too distracting), we again wandered over to the front desk. Our room was still not ready, and our strength and stamina was fading fast. We plonked down in the chairs in the office once again and waited.
"Soon!" the girl at the front desk said.
We joked with her, and asked after people we knew, and passed the time.
Finally, the room was ready. We dragged our luggage out of the back room and headed over.
Our room still wasn't ready. Sigh.
We hung around in the office where there was airconditioning, and so we could at least dry off the sticky sweat. They had wifi, and I soon got my netbook connected.
Dive orientation would be at 9AM. The dive instructor to do the orientation wanted us to postpone it - Holland was mid-match in the World Cup and he was sitting at the bar watching it. Hope that our room would be soon available sprung eternal though, so we declined. Since the orientation would be taking place nearby to the TV at the bar, he could still see the replays if anything big happened. No, we aren't football fans. :) He was gracious about it.
Dive orientation over (with a couple of World Cup interruptions, but not too distracting), we again wandered over to the front desk. Our room was still not ready, and our strength and stamina was fading fast. We plonked down in the chairs in the office once again and waited.
"Soon!" the girl at the front desk said.
We joked with her, and asked after people we knew, and passed the time.
Finally, the room was ready. We dragged our luggage out of the back room and headed over.
On Vacation: an inauspicious start
So, pretty much last minute (one month before takeoff) we decided to go on vacation to Bonaire again. The primary motivation being that it would be Captain Don's 85th birthday; the secondary being that I hadn't had a *real* vacation for 3 years and was starting to snap. All work and no play makes Susan a psychotic girl.
The flights were challenging, but they always are. It's just not easy getting to Bonaire. I ended up booking a 3-leg trip: Manchester NH on Friday afternoon through Cleveland, to Houston, and then the red-eye from Houston to Bonaire. My reasoning: with this itinerary, we'd have an extra day on-island.
I was a little concerned about making all the connections, especially the last as we only had 50o minutes between arrival and departure in Houston. It turned out I had nothing to worry about - there was a handicapped diving group, "Eels on Wheels", also travelling on this flight, so by the time they were all loaded we didn't actually take off for about an hour after the scheduled time.
One thing I hadn't banked on was just how grueling travelling for 12 hours really was.
Yes, checkin was it's usual unpleasant but grin and bear it experience: both Geoffrey and I have had both our hips replaced so we always end up being poked, prodded, and peeled. Then our luggage contains lots of electronic and camera attachment stuff which apparently look a lot like bomb-making instruments, so it's unpacked for us while we're being scanned and swiped. Then we have to repack it all, and try to fit everything back in. All this is time-consuming but once we clear security it's generally over with. We were able to stay in the secure areas for the entire journey, so once we got through that it was relatively clear sailing.
Maybe I'm just old, or maybe it's because I have a really hard time dozing on a plane, but after the half day schedule of fly-wait-change planes-fly-change-planes-wait-fly, I was a complete wet noodle when we landed in Bonaire. Where it was about 90 degrees at 6AM, and not a lot of air movement.
We gathered up our checked-in luggage, got a taxi to the place we're staying, found out that our room was still occupied. Not totally surprising, since checkout is around noon, so we piled our luggage in a back room and went wandering around. However, for whatever reason she couldn't ecen tell us the room we'd be in.
We were both zombie-like in our sleep deprived state. Not to mention, sticky, smelly, and getting grumpy. All we really wanted to do was get into our room and settle in, then go for dive orientation. We wandered back to the front desk and were told that the people in our room had checked out, but the maid hadn't cleaned it for us yet, so we'd have to wait.
Soon the restaurant was open and we wandered over.
We'd been here before, so knew it was a buffet breakfast. "Room number?" the cook asked. "We have no idea!" we told her, and explained our predicament. She remembered us from our other visits, so let us go through. As a matter of fact, she was able to determine our room number, and told us. The people here are beyond compare nice.
The flights were challenging, but they always are. It's just not easy getting to Bonaire. I ended up booking a 3-leg trip: Manchester NH on Friday afternoon through Cleveland, to Houston, and then the red-eye from Houston to Bonaire. My reasoning: with this itinerary, we'd have an extra day on-island.
I was a little concerned about making all the connections, especially the last as we only had 50o minutes between arrival and departure in Houston. It turned out I had nothing to worry about - there was a handicapped diving group, "Eels on Wheels", also travelling on this flight, so by the time they were all loaded we didn't actually take off for about an hour after the scheduled time.
One thing I hadn't banked on was just how grueling travelling for 12 hours really was.
Yes, checkin was it's usual unpleasant but grin and bear it experience: both Geoffrey and I have had both our hips replaced so we always end up being poked, prodded, and peeled. Then our luggage contains lots of electronic and camera attachment stuff which apparently look a lot like bomb-making instruments, so it's unpacked for us while we're being scanned and swiped. Then we have to repack it all, and try to fit everything back in. All this is time-consuming but once we clear security it's generally over with. We were able to stay in the secure areas for the entire journey, so once we got through that it was relatively clear sailing.
Maybe I'm just old, or maybe it's because I have a really hard time dozing on a plane, but after the half day schedule of fly-wait-change planes-fly-change-planes-wait-fly, I was a complete wet noodle when we landed in Bonaire. Where it was about 90 degrees at 6AM, and not a lot of air movement.
We gathered up our checked-in luggage, got a taxi to the place we're staying, found out that our room was still occupied. Not totally surprising, since checkout is around noon, so we piled our luggage in a back room and went wandering around. However, for whatever reason she couldn't ecen tell us the room we'd be in.
We were both zombie-like in our sleep deprived state. Not to mention, sticky, smelly, and getting grumpy. All we really wanted to do was get into our room and settle in, then go for dive orientation. We wandered back to the front desk and were told that the people in our room had checked out, but the maid hadn't cleaned it for us yet, so we'd have to wait.
Soon the restaurant was open and we wandered over.
We'd been here before, so knew it was a buffet breakfast. "Room number?" the cook asked. "We have no idea!" we told her, and explained our predicament. She remembered us from our other visits, so let us go through. As a matter of fact, she was able to determine our room number, and told us. The people here are beyond compare nice.
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