It is hard to come up with things to write about on a trip like this one because we aren’t really doing anything of any interest to anybody. This is merely intended to be a break from winter in North America and in doing that we are typically pretty lazy. Although in Denver we have been fortunate to escape the winter’s wrath experienced by many other parts of the country this year.

As mentioned in the first post of this trip, we do love this part of our hemisphere. We think that the water and beaches are superb. This year our house is terrific and our landlord is incredible. But we have found the islands in this area of the world to be a bit of a challenge in finding quality, diverse food which makes us long just a little bit for our two weeks in Mexico last year where the house, water and beach were not as satisfying but the cuisine was head and shoulders over what we have found here so far.

So this week we have spent time on a couple of beaches that are a mile from our house, searched for the best grocery store we could find and taken a lovely day sail on a catamaran operated by Aristocats. We highly recommend Aristocats if you ever find yourself here…small group, nice boat and a really great lunch prepared on board by Steve the owner and captain.

Our friends Dale and Debbie Cummins returned to the real world on Thursday after a too short visit with us. Coming on Saturday will be Dave and Lisa Wangsness from Big Canoe, Georgia and my brother Paul and his friend Jill from Indianapolis. Lisa and I grew up together in little Liberty, Indiana so everyone else gets a gold star for suffering through those discussions.

So until later I will just post some pictures of the fun and frivolity here as we partake in excessive laziness.

But you knew that.  But if you stick with me you’ll see to what extent they will lie.

The time has arrived for our fifth annual winter break.  We did a
week in Hawaii in 2007, two weeks in St. John, USVI in 2008 and 2009 and two weeks in Akumal, Mexico last year.  This year we decided to try Tortola in the British Virgin Islands because we love the water and beaches in that part of the Hemisphere.  This is the third year we have been joined by a variety of friends and family for this trip.

We met Dale and Debbie Cummins, friends from Liberty, Indiana, early Saturday morning at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, DC.  It was Dale’s birthday and I won’t say how old he is now but leave it at we go back a mere 50 plus years.  We arrived in St. Thomas in the afternoon, took a cab to the ferry dock and then took the 50 minute ferry ride from downtown Charlotte Amalie to the West End Dock on Tortola.  With Tortola being part of a separate country, we had to clear immigration and customs before meeting our property manager for the trip to our rental house.

Because I was in need of some quick pictures so I could begin my blog, I opened my suitcase to retrieve my tripod.  But wait a minute.  I am sure I don’t have a bra like that!  Holy moly!!

This bag that is identical to mine in every way is not mine.

Using the ID in the bag I placed a call to the owner and sent an
email.  I have flown over 1.5 million miles and have never picked up the wrong bag.  And it even came in on a different airline.  How could this happen?

So I dutifully report the situation to United Airlines (UA).  They
tell me that my bag is still at the St. Thomas airport and in order to receive I must return there with the bag I picked up by mistake or they will not give me my bag.  I ask “But what if I hear back from the owner and she is on Tortola?  It would be rude to make her also make the approximately 4 to 6 hour round trip back to the airport if in fact she is on this island.”  But don’t bother them with practical considerations, the erroneous bag must be returned in order to receive mine.

Now simultaneously the property manager for our rental house is also calling UA.  She ties me into her call so I can complete the details.

Same story from UA except that this agent repeatedly claims they have been in contact with the owner of the bag that I have and that she is in the process of returning my bag to the airport.  Okay, at least that makes sense since she is on St. Thomas and not on Tortola.

Not five minutes after concluding that call, my phone rings and it is the owner of the bag.  She had just then opened the bag, saw it was not hers, pulled my id out of the slot and called.  She never even called UA.  She called me immediately.  The erroneous switch did not occur at the airport after all but fortunately at customs in Tortola.  She was staying less than a mile away and a quick and easy exchange followed.

So not one lie from UA but two that could have resulted in an extreme inconvenience to us both.  So be alert.  United Airlines will make up any story they can just to make their inflexible procedures make sense to themselves.

Okay.  That turned out well so back to our vacation.