written Saturday afternoon, somewhere in San Juan...

Yesterday, I was sailing on the Caribbean Sea all day long. Life was good. So good.

Today, I am sitting in an airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We got here at 7:45 a.m., thinking we were in plenty of time for our 9:50 a.m. flight. We realized something was up when we had been waiting in the check-in line for over an hour and were just now getting near the counter. About that time we learned that due to volcanic ash somewhere around Puerto Rico, no Delta flights had arrived, and therefore there were no Delta flights for us to leave on. Fortunately, we were here early enough that we managed to squeeze onto the 3:40 flight, which at last check of Jeff’s phone is supposed to be delayed until 4:15. If it leaves then we will feel fortunate. (As an update, our plane actually left at 5:00 p.m. We did make it onto our Atlanta-Nashville flight at the last possible minute, but our luggage didn't. It was delivered to us Sunday morning.)

This place is obviously packed, as five planes worth of people that were supposed to depart this morning are still sitting here waiting to cram onto the afternoon flights that were already pretty much full. And there is nothing here. No Chili’s, no Outback (yes, Orlando has an Outback), no nothing. Well, there is a random fried chicken restaurant that the line is backed up about two hours for. We went ahead and got ours about 10:25 because Jeff was afraid they were going to run out. I think he was right. We just saw a Jet Blue plane take off. If they can take off, then what the heck is up with Delta?!

Anyway, this day will not ruin the memory of our incredible vacation. After I last blogged, we went to Grenada. We were only there until about 2:00, and we sailed for the island of Bonaire.

Now, being somewhat of a geography geek, I’m ashamed to admit that I had never even heard of this island. But if you ever have an opportunity to go there, definitely take it. The island is absolutely gorgeous. There are only about 14,000 inhabitants, as compared to the 125,000 or so of Aruba. It is so pretty with all the red tin roofs, and just feels calm and relaxed. The beaches aren’t much, but because of that the water is crystal clear. It was amazingly beautiful.

We took an island tour up to the north part of the island. Bonaire is one of only four natural habitats for pink flamingos, and we were able to see a few. Our tour guide, Edgar, informed us that the reason they flock to Bonaire is for the abundance of little baby shrimp, and that it is because they eat these shrimp that their feathers get so pink. The more shrimp they eat, the pinker they get. That’s why the babies are so pale. I did not know that.

Wild donkeys also have the run of the island, which is incredibly desert-like in its vegetation to be an island surrounded by water. But they only get rainfall about three months out of the year, which makes agriculture difficult. The island imports virtually all of its food because hardly anything grows there. Being 60 miles north of Venezuela, it also serves as a repository for all that Hugo Chavez oil. Since the big tankers have a hard time with the shallow shoreline of Venezuela, they pull up to Bonaire and get it from the storage tanks instead. Fascinating stuff.

Our last port day was in Aruba. Since we hadn’t done hardly any shopping, we spent the morning looking for souvenirs to take back to the kids. We planned to take our stuff back to the boat and then head out to the beach, but once we got back on the boat the laziness kicked in and we decided to enjoy the coastline from our favorite spot on the top deck of the ship. We decided that our next cruise we will definitely take a shore excursion and go snorkeling somewhere. But for this trip we were totally content to just hang out and do nothing. There’s a lot to be said for a week of doing nothing. That night was formal night, so here we are all fixed up.

And then, as I said, yesterday was spent sailing north from Aruba to San Juan. I loved that our last day was a full day at sea because it is a 100% stress-free day. We literally laid out up on the top deck all day. The only thing we had to do was pack, but packing to go home from a trip isn’t nearly as hard as packing to go. You pretty much just stuff everything in your bags.

Since we had a 9:50 flight, we got to get off the ship this morning at 7:15, which was really cool until we entered the land of airport darkness. But it could be worse. I’m listening to a child who is as sick as all of us are of being here have a full-fledged screaming tantrum. While this is annoying, at least it’s not my problem. I feel bad for his mom though.

So if you are reading this, then I am home. Our trip was amazing. Since my mom-in-law was at the pediatrician four times and the ER once in her first five days of keeping the kids, I’m thinking it may be the last one we get to go on for quite some time, so I’m going to savor it as long as I can!

Thank you, Gale and Gene and Mom and Dad and Darlene and Brandon!! You made it possible for us to be here and we love you for it.