PUBLISHED FINALLY

I am happy to be able to tell you that article I wrote way back in March is finally available to view on the online magazine about the BVI.

You can find it HERE. ***UPDATE: The article is no longer at this link. I have written to the webmaster to find out where it might be archived.

WRITE AWAY

I couldn't explain it, but the evening of the day I wrote the post about Rick Moore, I was struck with a very strong feeling that I was one step closer to my dream of spending a lot more of my year in the Caribbean. There was nothing specific I could point to and say "this is why", but nevertheless it felt like something had broken open for me in a spiritual way. What came to mind was a visual I had when reading the book Thornbirds. In the story there is a sheep farm that has a long private dirt drive leading to the house from the road, and along the drive there are 12 big gates that have to be opened and closed as you get to them and through them. So one had to stop the jeep, get out, open the gate, drive through, get out, close it, and continue on - repeating the process a dozen times. I felt like I had just opened and gone through the first gate of that road.

The next morning I had two offers for writing in my email, as a direct result of that post. One was for a new online magazine about the BVI and one was from Rick himself who has a doctor friend who read the post and wanted an expanded version to go into two medical journals.

I am still waiting for more information about the journals but a few days ago I wrote my first paid-for travel related article. I am thrilled, to say the least, and am hoping it will lead to more opportunities to write about the places I love so much.

The article won't be available to the public to read for a few weeks yet. As soon as it is I will post a link to it. But until then, here is a taste to pique your interest.

When my daughter told me that she and her fiancé were planning to get married in the
British Virgin Islands, I will admit I was hesitant. It seemed like a daunting task to plan a
destination wedding in a location which no one we knew personally had ever visited.
Not only that, we didn’t know anyone who had even planned a destination wedding thus
we had no one to go to for advice. To complicate matters, my daughter was still living in
London and I was in Vancouver right up until a month before the date. But as she was
from Vancouver, Canada and he was from London, England, their choice of a middle
ground, as it were, seemed ideal.

After 6 months of emails, phone calls, tears, excitement, frustration, and at times feeling
like a blind person working in a dark room - the time to pack our bags and head to the
Caribbean was upon us. We had done all that we could and the rest was up to the
wedding planner we had hired, the resort’s event planner, and fate.

It was the most beautiful and perfect wedding I have ever attended.

There were one or two things we had tried to have happen that never did, there was lost
luggage, and there was a struggle with the wedding planner for where exactly the
ceremony would take place but, in the end, the location trumped everything. So if you
are looking for a spectacular setting for your special day, and you don’t mind a little
effort to get there, then nowhere on earth could be more beautiful for a wedding than
the BVI.

If you are considering a BVI wedding, here are a few things that might help you from our
experience:

I can't wait until you can read the rest. And I hope there will be many more articles to come!

ONE DARK NIGHT ON TORTOLA

My daughter's wedding was over; the happy couple were on their way to spend the night in Trellis Bay before heading to Little Dix resort on Virgin Gorda in the morning, the guests had gone back to their respective accommodations in and around the West End of Tortola, and I had driven back to my villa rental with a bridesmaid, a groomsman (my daughter and son), the groomsman's girlfriend and one very tired out hair and makeup friend. We had just gotten into the house, collapsed onto the couches and began to talk about the fabulous day we had experienced, when I jumped up.

"Oh NO!!"

"What mom?" asked my daughter, Shonah.

"We forgot to get Ashleigh's dress and the top tier of the wedding cake!" I couldn't believe I'd forgotten her wedding dress, of all things. I had no idea where it was. She got changed in one of the rooms at Long Bay Resort and had asked me to make sure to take it with me when we left. It was my responsibility to get it back home to Vancouver when our holiday was over. "We have to go back and get it."

Shonah said she would go with me and we both went to get changed out of our wedding clothes. I dreaded driving back, in the dark, down those hills and switchbacks from our place on Windy Hill to Long Bay but I had no choice. We hopped into the SUV and set off.

When we got to the resort, all evidence of the wedding reception - other than the tent and tables, was gone. So was any sign of life. We drove down to the cabins on the water and got out of the car. "Let's go knock on the grooms parents door. That is where Ashleigh got changed and maybe they have the dress." Shonah said. We headed down a dimly lit sand path to the cabin and knocked on the door. There was no answer.

"Maybe they're around the front having a nightcap on the patio. Let's go see." I said. The only source of light between the cabins was that of the moon, and we carefully picked our way to the beach side. There, light from the inside the room streamed through the french doors and lit the patio and we could clearly see that there was no one in sight. We had no idea which rooms the groom's brother and friends were staying in, but we assumed that they were most likely all hanging out in one of them, rehashing the days events like we had started to back at the villa before realizing we had to come back here. We decided that the dress was probably safe in the room and we could come back tomorrow for it. We picked our way back to the SUV and climbed in. I was about to start the car when my daughter let out a squeal and began to bat at her hair. "What? WHAT??" I instantly began to feel panicked. I mean, there's all manner of huge bugs and spiders in the tropics. Everyone knows that and my mind always goes to the worst place in cases like this. I am thinking tarantula!!

"Something was in my hair!!! It just fell out and brushed my cheek and it felt wet." She too sounded panicked, albeit somewhat less than I felt.

"Get out! GET OUT!!" I yelled as I opened my door and jumped out. "We're not getting back in this car until we find it." I was completely freaked out as I began to search, by the dim light of the dashboard and a bit of light that trickled in from a distant porch, my heart pounding in my chest. As we both searched for whatever it was, I was thinking 'I have no idea how were going to get it out. I am not touching whatever it is.' Just then Shonah spotted it. There, on the dash just by the knob for the radio, was the tiniest frog I have ever seen. He couldn't have been more than an inch long. "THERE! It's a frog!" She laughed. "Oh my GOODNESS. So it is. How are we getting him out?" I wasn't going to touch him. "MOM! It's just a frog." Shonah sounded disgusted with me. "Yes and some are poisonous. You don't know if this is one." So we fished the rental papers out of the glove compartment, keeping an eye on the frog all the while, and then Shonah gently flicked him onto the papers and then out of the car.

"Get in and shut your door, QUICKLY!!!" We both shot into the car and slammed the doors, and, after a long beat of looking at each other, broke into peals of laughter.

"That poor frog was probably more scared than we were, Mom. It was so tiny!!"

"Look at me," I held out my hand, "I am shaking!"

I was still shaking as we pulled out of Long Bay and on the road that would take us back to our villa. Out of all of the things it could have been, a tiny frog was probably the least of them - but still!

As we chuckled about it on the drive back, we both agreed that we'd never forget this night.

I have written before about my BVI themed Pandora bracelet. Not every bead is a Pandora bead - the conch shell, the starfish and two small crystal separators aren't. And yesterday I added another nonPandora bead; a small enamel frog to remind me of that night on Tortola.

He is now part of Sandra's Selections in my Amazon shop. You can get both him and his friend by clicking on the link below.