So before Lee there was just me. Paul, my first husband had died of a massive heart attack in November of 1994 leaving me for the first time in my whole life on my own. Thank God for my four daughters to help keep me straight. All my life I had the yen to travel. Paul did not like to travel at all and as my daughters will attest he was not a real great traveler. “Daddy I have to pee.” “Well, wait till we find a place!” “Daddy there goes a filling station right there.” “Too bad we missed it. There will be another one in 20 miles” Then there was the old “You kids get back here. You’re going to fall off the mountain” And then there was the great race across the country barely stopping at all the wonderful sights to see along the way just to get to Yellowstone Park to see Smokey Bear. Well he wasn’t home when we got there. NO BEARS at all. By then all we wanted to do was just go home so we skipped Mount Rushmore and took the quickest road back to Florida.
Just before Paul died he had taken a job in Grand Cayman. I was still working at the time so couldn’t move down there with him but I would go every month and spend a four day weekend with him. Wow I am finely out of the country in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. Being an avid swimmer I bought a pair of fins, mask and snorkel so would spend the days while Paul was at work snorkeling the beaches of Grand Cayman. We were snorkeling on a Sunday the day Paul died. We were diving for conchs to make chowder. If it had not been for the family he worked for I don’t know how I would have managed in a foreign country getting him home and all the details to be worked out. The Boddens took charge of everything and got me through this ordeal. I also had the support of my wonderful sister-in-law Lucy who dropped everything to fly down and help me out. Thanks to all for getting me through the most difficult time of my life.
When left to my own devices I got into this travel thing pretty good. Sadly to say, my first few trips I didn’t journal at all so I will just have to pull a few good things from memory. Some of my first few trips were to go back to Grand Cayman and stay in the Boddens little beach cottage. On one of these trips my friend Lynn and her friend Carol came with me to scuba dive. On one of their dives I hopped on the dive boat to follow them snorkeling on the surface. Well from there I was hooked. All I could think about was how beautiful they looked several feet below me cruising in and out of cracks and crevasses, poking around and exploring up close the magnificent reefs that I could only see from 50 or 60 feet above. At work I would wail to Lynn, “If I was not so overweight and not so old I would love to SCUBA.” Lynn kept telling me I could do it if I really wanted to. All I had to do was to take lessons and get certified.
Last part of May 1999, it was on a Greek Isle cruise with Lynn’s mother that I made the decision. We had traveled to Athens by way of a four day stopover in New York City a place that I had always wanted to go. We did all the touristy things in New York we wanted to do. We did the hop on hop off bus, learned how to get a taxi by just holding up your hand, I couldn’t believe how easy this was. This Florida girl had never ridden in a taxi at that point in her life. We saw three plays, the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Central Park, and picnicked in Bryant Park which was close to our hotel. For breakfast I would go across the street and get wonderful muffins and coffee for us to eat in our little hotel room and plan our day. After our little pre-vacation vacation we boarded the plane to Athens to meet up with our group for a two day stay then boarded a ship to cruise the Greek Isles and Turkey. We toured Athens, Delphi, saw the crossroads where Oedipus killed his father, we toured Lindos, Rhodes, Ephesus, Kusadasi, and the house of the Virgin Mary where it is said Mary spent the last of her life after Jesus was crucified. The foundation of the house was discovered by a French Priest through a vision that came to a German Nun while in a trance. (see link) House of the Virgin - Ephesus, Turkey It has been restored to what it would have looked like when Mary lived there. My traveling companion Ann was a delightful travel partner. Ann was a bit older than I and as one of my best friend’s Mother I felt responsible for her when we traveled. She would get lost and I was forever looking after her. If I had lost Ann I couldn’t have gone back to work to face Lynn. So I digress a bit here. Anyway on the way home from our cruise at 33,000 feet in the air and on my 60th birthday Ann made the comment “well I guess Lindy Lou is in Palau diving right now.” That set the wheels in motion. I made up my mind that when I got home I was going to take lessons and get certified. And that I did and it opened a whole new world of travel for me.
Just before Paul died he had taken a job in Grand Cayman. I was still working at the time so couldn’t move down there with him but I would go every month and spend a four day weekend with him. Wow I am finely out of the country in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. Being an avid swimmer I bought a pair of fins, mask and snorkel so would spend the days while Paul was at work snorkeling the beaches of Grand Cayman. We were snorkeling on a Sunday the day Paul died. We were diving for conchs to make chowder. If it had not been for the family he worked for I don’t know how I would have managed in a foreign country getting him home and all the details to be worked out. The Boddens took charge of everything and got me through this ordeal. I also had the support of my wonderful sister-in-law Lucy who dropped everything to fly down and help me out. Thanks to all for getting me through the most difficult time of my life.
When left to my own devices I got into this travel thing pretty good. Sadly to say, my first few trips I didn’t journal at all so I will just have to pull a few good things from memory. Some of my first few trips were to go back to Grand Cayman and stay in the Boddens little beach cottage. On one of these trips my friend Lynn and her friend Carol came with me to scuba dive. On one of their dives I hopped on the dive boat to follow them snorkeling on the surface. Well from there I was hooked. All I could think about was how beautiful they looked several feet below me cruising in and out of cracks and crevasses, poking around and exploring up close the magnificent reefs that I could only see from 50 or 60 feet above. At work I would wail to Lynn, “If I was not so overweight and not so old I would love to SCUBA.” Lynn kept telling me I could do it if I really wanted to. All I had to do was to take lessons and get certified.
Last part of May 1999, it was on a Greek Isle cruise with Lynn’s mother that I made the decision. We had traveled to Athens by way of a four day stopover in New York City a place that I had always wanted to go. We did all the touristy things in New York we wanted to do. We did the hop on hop off bus, learned how to get a taxi by just holding up your hand, I couldn’t believe how easy this was. This Florida girl had never ridden in a taxi at that point in her life. We saw three plays, the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Central Park, and picnicked in Bryant Park which was close to our hotel. For breakfast I would go across the street and get wonderful muffins and coffee for us to eat in our little hotel room and plan our day. After our little pre-vacation vacation we boarded the plane to Athens to meet up with our group for a two day stay then boarded a ship to cruise the Greek Isles and Turkey. We toured Athens, Delphi, saw the crossroads where Oedipus killed his father, we toured Lindos, Rhodes, Ephesus, Kusadasi, and the house of the Virgin Mary where it is said Mary spent the last of her life after Jesus was crucified. The foundation of the house was discovered by a French Priest through a vision that came to a German Nun while in a trance. (see link) House of the Virgin - Ephesus, Turkey It has been restored to what it would have looked like when Mary lived there. My traveling companion Ann was a delightful travel partner. Ann was a bit older than I and as one of my best friend’s Mother I felt responsible for her when we traveled. She would get lost and I was forever looking after her. If I had lost Ann I couldn’t have gone back to work to face Lynn. So I digress a bit here. Anyway on the way home from our cruise at 33,000 feet in the air and on my 60th birthday Ann made the comment “well I guess Lindy Lou is in Palau diving right now.” That set the wheels in motion. I made up my mind that when I got home I was going to take lessons and get certified. And that I did and it opened a whole new world of travel for me.
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