I have traveled quite a bit this year, and you know how I love to do it! Here are my highlights!
So, those are my journeys for the year of 2015. I went to several places I’d never been before, Aspen, St Lucia, Clearwater Beach…and every trip was wonderful and worthwhile! I am so looking forward to 2016! Happy Travels in the New Year to you!
Challenge: set a timer for 10 minutes and write 50 things you are grateful for, or that made you happy, during 2015.
Here’s my 10 minute list:
Gratitude! And a wonderful excuse to post wedding photos!
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On a dive in St Lucia last week, our group had a visitor. We were all thrilled to see an Eagle Ray, but when we saw that it had a hook in its face and was trailing fishing line, the group went into action. Fortunately, one of the divers had a pair of scissors, and our dive master, Errol, managed to cut a huge amount of line off of the ray. The Eagle Ray made a second pass, trailing only 10 feet or so of line compared to the 100 feet of line it had just moments before. I only wish we had been able to help with getting the hook out, but the animal did not come close enough to allow that, unfortunately. However, the Eagle Ray will manage much better with only the short amount of fishing line left….and I hope somehow, that the hook comes out.
There aren’t the best photos, but from the distance they are the best I could do!
HA! I know how he feels!
My husband, Randy, is two years post a double lung transplant. A double lung transplant is a very serious surgery, and remains a very serious condition (for details, see Our Transplant Journey). The procedure, and a wonderful donor, saved my husband’s life, and I am grateful, but the unexpected can really catch you over your head in an instant! See what I mean?
Last week we discovered that Randy is having a rejection episode, and has e coli in his lung. Randy has had both conditions before, but this kind of news is always a shock. “Rejection” is never a good word…or condition.
On Wednesday Randy had a PICC line inserted so he can take IV steroids and antibiotics every 8 hours, along with breathing treatments through a nebulizer. The good news is he can be treated at home, which tells us that the rejection must be mild or they would have him in the hospital immediately.
There are so many things that can go wrong, and lung transplants have the lowest success rate of any transplanted organs. The lungs are exposed to the air, so the transplantee is always exposed to bacteria, germs, and viruses. It is, shall we say, a given. The unexpected is actually the norm when it comes to lung transplant…you can count on unexpected complications.
I do my best to remain positive…relentlessly so. I know this rejection episode will resolve. It has been a long journey, and often a painful one, since Randy became critically ill in August 2013, but he is here, alive, and for the most part, doing well. These little episodes can be frightening…and sometimes they are not so little, but thank goodness he is permitted to stay at home for this one. It would be difficult through the holidays to have to go to the hospital to visit…but always better than the alternative! We are grateful this holiday season that Randy is alive and mostly well!
There are trials at every stage of life, and midlife has surprised us in many ways. We can plan, but we are always in the hands of fate. We count our blessings, and concentrate on the good things in our lives.
I wish you a very Merry Christmas, and remember, just breathing is a gift. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so for now, just breathe…and feel the joy it brings! It is the season of miracles.
Beautiful fish are under the surface of St Lucia’s waters.
On December 5th I joined REEF on a fish survey trip to St. Lucia in the Caribbean Sea. If you have never heard of REEF, they have a simple mission:
Reef Environmental Education Foundation is a grass-roots organization that seeks to conserve marine ecosystems by educating, enlisting and enabling divers and other marine enthusiasts to become active ocean stewards and citizen scientists.
They have 3 major projects, and they are 1) Grouper Moon Project, 2) Fish Survey Project, and 3) the Lionfish Eradication Project (Lionfish are an invasive species in the Atlantic). The trip to St. Lucia was a survey trip. It is important to survey the reefs and check the health of the fish and corals. A healthy coral reef is full of life! These surveys go into a huge database, and scientists can make recommendations and do research on specific areas with the data gathered. There were 18 volunteers who went to St. Lucia to dive, and while diving, document the present species and their abundance. We discovered 218 species in St. Lucia! Pretty remarkable, really. It was my first REEF expedition, and I enjoyed it immensely. It was wonderful to be surrounded by people as committed to the oceans and to conservation as I am. You think I know about fish? Not on the level of most of these surveyors! They are amazing.
We stayed at Anse Chastanet Resort, and did our diving with Scuba St. Lucia. I have rarely stayed at an all-inclusive, and I must tell you Anse Chastanet exceeded my expectations. The service is incredible, and the food fabulous. The chef had a different menu every evening, giving us many choices throughout the week. It was fun to discover new dishes, and they had an Indian Food night. There is a significant Indian influence on the island, and this is reflected in the food. When slavery ended in 1838, plantation owners brought in indentured servants from India to take their place as a cheap labor force. After the contracts were up, most of those from India stayed and made their home on the island, and their customs and foods found its way into the culture of St. Lucia.
Scuba St Lucia, the dive business on the resort’s property, is simply one of the best I have ever seen. The boat, Miss Bertha, was big and roomy with plenty of space for 18 divers. The dive masters were knowledgeable and solicitous, adapting their dive style to ours. REEF divers dive SLOWLY in order to find fish. I thoroughly enjoyed my dives with them, and cannot give a stronger recommendation. Dive with Scuba St Lucia, and you will be as impressed and happy as I was. I guarantee it! My group had Errol as a dive master, and he was superb. One of the crew, Bradley, was on the spot when I needed help. Because of my back issues (I have eight pedicle screws and four rods holding my spine in place) I cannot lift tanks. Bradley made sure I did not have to. Everyone working the boat was incredibly hospitable.
Have you ever taken a vacation that combines volunteerism or Citizen Science on your trip? I have done several of them, and I have enjoyed each and every trip. Several travel companies offer volunteer tourism and/or Citizen Science. I’d love to hear about other experiences!
