Vacation Makes One Appreciate Home

It has been a couple of weeks since I returned from summer vacation with my family. We were rather ambitious with our vacation this year and elected to spend a week in the Caribbean at St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Nannette and I had celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary in December so this trip was in honor of that occasion. At first the trip was going to be for just the two of us but then we decided to include our daughter and allowed her to take a friend.

Originally we had also planed on going to Hawaii but decided to go to the Caribbean instead. The primary reason for that was that I don’t like airplanes. The flight to St. Thomas was a lot shorter than a flight to Hawaii and they both are basically islands with beaches and lots of greenery so we settled on the Caribbean destination.

I am not afraid of flying. The thought of being airborne moving through the air doesn’t scare me in the least. The problem with flying is that I am six foot four inches, and let’s just say I have a large build. Airplanes aren’t built for me.

I know the accommodations are a little more roomy in first class but I can’t justify spending the cost of one term of college tuition for my daughter on a plane ticket which is what happens when one flies first class.

The other issue I have with flying is that when one is in a plane there is no pulling off at a rest area, or stopping by the Waffle House on the way. After a couple or three hours or so I like to get out of my car and walk around a little bit, maybe hit a convenience store for a Diet Coke and a Moon Pie. (The Diet Coke cancels out the sugar in a Moon Pie.) One can’t do that on a plane.

Invariably on a plane I am seated near someone with a crying baby. Now I’ve got nothing against crying babies, in fact around 50 years ago I was one. However, airplanes as I’ve already noted are small spaces and crying babies are a whole lot louder on a plane.

I also end up being seated behind the fellow who likes to recline his airplane seat. This happened on the way home from St. Thomas. A fellow in front of me from Piscataway, New Jersey decided it was time for a nap so he reclined his airplane seat. I had a book to read but it is kind of hard to find a place to hold one’s book with a fellow from Piscataway, N.J. asleep in one’s lap. I was just glad he wasn’t a drooler.

In spite of the fact that I had to fly, vacation was nice. I discovered a new dish, fish tacos. I really like fish tacos. In fact, I believe I had fish tacos for dinner several nights while we were in St. Thomas.

We took a couple of boat rides around the island. There are some beautiful sights on St. Thomas. The beach at Magan’s Bay is absolutely gorgeous. Nannette and I caught a ferry and visited St. John which is adjacent to St. Thomas. Again there were many breathtaking views and the theologian in me saw additional evidence that God certainly knew what he was doing when he created this planet.

One day I was sitting by the pool looking at the ocean eating a sandwich. An iguana came from behind a palm tree and grabbed half of my sandwich and ran off. I shouted “no” at the iguana thinking this would stop him. (It could have been a “her” I suppose but I don’t know how to tell with an iguana.) After all shouting “no” at our dach-shund usually works. For the record dear readers, shouting “no” at an iguana does not work.

Another highlight of our trip was that professional wrestler Kevin Nash was staying at the same place we were. Nash is one of the few folks that make me feel small. His wrestling nickname was “Big Sexy.” I cannot say if another man is sexy but I can assure you that Kevin Nash is certainly big.

All in all I enjoyed the time away, however when I saw the sign that said Jasper County I was at peace. It is always great to visit other places and to see different parts of the world. In the end, visiting other places builds in me a greater appreciation of the place I live.

After all on St. Thomas there are no pine trees, no high school football on Friday nights, no college football on Saturdays, and the Moon Pies are all imported. Dorothy had it right in the Wizard of Oz when she said, “There’s no place like home.”