Trip planning, a cycle…

A week from now we will be off again… This time to Puerto Rico for a few days, then a Caribbean cruise, followed by a night in Florida to visit The Son…

The trip has been in the works for some time… booked last spring… airfare purchased in July or so… a hotel in San Juan… then the trip kind of sat at the edge of our brains, while life, work, holidays and a dozen other things demanded our full attention.  Both of us are really looking forward to the trip… but we have limited plans once there… that planning has finally started and we are getting excited…  Normally we would have already researched and booked a few local guides… This time we haven’t.  There is a “roll call” for our sailing at Cruise Critics, but neither of us has been real active there.

Now, evenings, I am googling (by the way, Microsoft Word doesn’t recognize the word “googling”, I am not surprised, but a bit disappointed, even worse, Blogger doesn't... very strange) the various islands (St Croix, St Kitts, Dominica, Grenada, and St Thomas)  Tina and I have been to San Juan and St Thomas before, but the other islands are new…  I had picked up a good guide book a few months ago from my favorite used book pusher… Tina had printed our a couple of web guides many months ago… I discovered that AAA no longer publishes a Caribbean tour book… at least I have an old one…

We are unlikely to “do” the typical cruise trips which are seemingly offered at every cruise stop, world wide…  glass bottom boats, zip lining, or two hour “sights of…” bus tours with shopping opportunities (never underestimate the power of shopping opportunities).  St Kitts has a scenic railway, which to Tina’s surprise we will miss… or maybe avoid.  We are much more likely to get a local cab to a historical site or local market, or walk about town.  Several of the islands have significant national parks which we may visit…  Some islands have rum factories… we may miss the overly corporate Bacardi Rum Factory, but since it’s a fun ferry ride across the harbor maybe we will go anyway.  We are likely to visit the bar that is credited with inventing the Pina Colada…

By chance, we are in San Juan for the annual St Sebastian festival. That should be interesting (or overwhelming… we will soon know).  Last time we were in San Juan we spent all our time in Old San Juan… this time we will venture beyond…

So, with the trip a week away, there are packing lists… a box is starting to gather “stuff”… a GPS, maps, cameras and batteries and chargers.   I had problems with one camera a couple of months ago… that has been addressed.  I am trying to choose a few books to take… I keep a shelf filled with “to read” books, some have been there for several years… others are new to the shelf… 

The vacation is becoming real