I’ve always loved traveling. It doesn’t matter much if it’s somewhere new, or some place that I’ve been to dozens of times. The whole process of leaving home, putting miles between me and the familiar, breathing in new air, and naturally becoming more observant because everywhere my eyes rest there is something different, something to be noticed … it exhilarates me, recharges me and makes me tingle all over, literally and figuratively.

 
(Apparently, it also makes me write really, really long sentences.)

 
Ever since we’ve been married, Tom and I try to plan at least two annual family vacations. Okay, Tom plans them and I bring him coffee while he makes the arrangements. But things have changed since last year. We’ve both made career shifts, and we’ve had to make adjustments to cope with the increasing demands of caring for Tom’s aging mother. For those reasons, we haven’t really gone on a “real vacation” in a while, and likely not any day soon.

 
In the meantime, I entertain myself by going through old vacation photos. Today’s flashback will be from the last Caribbean cruise we took, back in January 2009.

 

This was taken in Dominica. We hiked through a path in a forest, reaching a clearing where there were sparkling falls, rocks covered in velvet moss, and these beautiful vines.

 
 
 

Then we went to Barbados. Beautiful, blue Barbados. We drove around, bought lunch from a woman selling food out of the trunk of her van (which may or may not have been a good idea, but we were hungry and the scent of curry was too tempting). Then we found a beach, swam, and watched some local kids kick a soccer ball around by the shore.

 
 
 

Next stop was St. Lucia. It was raining that day, which made for great diffused sidelight as we pulled out late that afternoon.

 
 
 

Our final stop was St. Kitts, and by this time, we were too tired to do more than explore the town right by the port. We did, however, spend some time on deck. Which we hadn’t done since sailing. And I’m glad we did and that I didn’t let the hot Caribbean sun chase me down into our air-conditioned cabin, because then I would have missed this sunset shot.

 
 
 

Whatever you do, please don’t wake me.