It's 2012 now. I guess it's the time for resolutions. I thought
one of mine would be to write more blog posts. I think a resolution implies a
problem though. Writing often is more of a desire than the means to solving a
particular problem in my case. After about ten minutes of pondering what a
resolution really is and means I realized my real problem is over-thinking.
Maybe my second resolution will be to minimize over-thinking when
it's unnecessary. So without further adieu I am just going to kill 2
resolutions with one stone and start writing.
The day we left Vancouver was the only day it snowed for the
entire month we were home. I hear it has been a number of degrees subzero since
we left. At first I was disappointed about missing the snow on our way out, but
there sure ain't (I know it isn't a word, but
ain't colloquialisms grand?) anything wrong with thawing out in
Grenada. Getting here was a scheduled 22 hours, an estimate that wasn't exactly
accurate.
YVR was our first
hiccup. This trip we planned to bring our dogs with us. Their paperwork had all its i's dotted, t's crossed, and was thrice checked. We were worried
something might go wrong and we wouldn't be able to bring them; it turns out
they could get on the plane, but they almost had to leave without me. Overly
dramatic pause... It wasn't actually that big of a deal, it came down
to space. Sorry, I mean a space. The airline's computer
somewhere along the way combined my middle and last name to create one super
name. This little space was just enough to refuse me from checking in. Panic!
We called the airline and explained the situation and after half an hour we had
the ticket reissued and were back in line to check in. When we got there they
advised us that yes, in fact my name was changed but now my middle name was my
last name and my last name vice versa. Subdued Panic! We were in line at the
first class desk this time though. She let us through no problem. They must
save the grumpy attendants for us regular folk. We rushed out, dropped our luggage
on the conveyor belt, and checked the time—we were still 2 hours early. Good thing we were paranoid enough to
come 4 hours ahead.
YVR to LAX was pretty uneventful. It was smooth sailing (sky
sailing). We had a full row to ourselves and the flight attendants paid no
notice of the dogs on our laps. When we landed we thought the pups might be
full to bursting. We went in search for a spot they could go. It seems that the
policy is no dogs on the tarmac. Workers at the airport suggested newspaper in
the bathroom. I took Kinder, because he is a boy, and my female accomplice took
Cammy, because she is a girl. We didn't want to get any strange looks from
anyone else in the washroom. Kinder wasn't very much interested in the paper.
He preferred kissing the ankles of the guy in the next stall. It was
unfortunate that his affection was not returned so kindly. I had no luck with Kinder, so
I picked up my paper, and gave a nod to the janitor waiting at the door. We
briefly thought that maybe if we went on the paper first, the dogs would take their
cue (by the way, we had no luck with Cammy as well). We abandoned that idea
pretty quickly though. We were MIA bound and I was just hoping that the
pressure difference would have no effect on their bladders.
We had about 9 hours in Miami so we headed to Miami Beach. We've
never been and have heard good things. It was pretty desolate at 7AM and we
expected it to be a lot warmer than it was, but it was beautiful just the same.
Just in case you haven't been or seen it in CSI, I took a couple snaps.
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| Miami Beach and woman in pink. |
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| Grenada's sand is nicer. |
What I didn't get photos of was the public workout equipment. I
thought that was a pretty good initiative for keeping fit. At the
same time, it seemed to me that ripped muscle bound guys were the only ones
glistening in the sun flexing their biceps and showing off. Fair is fair
though, girls in their smallest bikinis were playing beach volleyball right
next door. There isn't anything wrong with that. But I did find it pretty gosh
darn creepy that at least a dozen middle-aged men were taking photos from the
sidelines.
After a bit of a walk, both of the dogs were still pretty restless
and we took the opportunity to run them out. Being younger, Kinder's energy is pretty bountiful. We took turns chasing and being chased by him.
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| K-Dog and A Human |
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| He stole my wallet. |
When we got tired he went after an unsuspecting Cammy.
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| "I'm too old for this shtick" |
It was a spot of luck that the weekend we were travelling was also
an auto show on Ocean Drive. There were plenty of old dolled up cars to ogle
over. It was pretty neat to see these old cars from the 50's against the art
deco style buildings lining the street. To balance it out they had no less than
80 homemade jewelry booths littered up and down the drive. After a few hours at
Miami Beach, we headed back to MIA for our next flight to GND.
We sat in the plane for an extra 2 hours before taking off. The
aircraft was overweight by 300 pounds of mail apparently. Considering each one
of our suitcases was about 50lbs each, it seemed like it took an awful long
time to move the mail. One can only assume the packages must have been a mixed
bag of both sphere and pyramid shapes. That's all to say, we got into Grenada a
little later than anticipated and we were getting pretty tired.
Things had a large overtone of familiarity to them. From
the customs office to cab ride to our rickety gate (sorry to our new neighbours
for the racket), it felt nice to come back to our Caribbean home. What wasn't
so familiar were the lights that wouldn't turn on and the lack of electricity.
Even less recognizable was the oversized petri dish that was our refrigerator.
We opted to leave it closed for the night for fear of whatever had evolved in
there might escape.
When the sun came up and I was out and about the familiarity
returned. The guys from Grenlec (the electric company) came out fairly quickly and remedied our issue
post-haste and were very friendly all the while. It was good to hear the Soca
on the bus and feel the sun on my shoulders again. I probably should have worn
sunscreen.
We've been taking the dogs for sunset walks every night. And more
so than ever, we are appreciating the island. T.I.G.
