Hold it…hold it….almost, not quite!!

We came close to buying two tickets to paradise this week. Found a pair of round trip tickets from Chicago O’Hare for $375 including tax. This is for a November trip so we have a little time. (even with acceptable departure and arrival times)

There are three reasons I didn’t pull the trigger,
1. tickets will go on sale again.
2. we are traveling with two other couples and would kind of like to go together …they aren’t ready to buy tickets yet.
3. there is concern for jobs right here in river city especially mine…LOL.

If the new management of the company that is buying us wants to keep me then rock on….Nov travel it is. If not…it may be travel in June. I have a list of tasks I need to do on island and I will do it for sure sooner or later.


Needless to say I didn’t buy the tickets but like the white shark hunting seals…I am out there and waiting for that one fat slow seal to slip into the water for dinner…Hey air fare I’m out there and I’m waiting!!!!!! I will be successful and capture my prey.

The clock keeps moving forward towards our trip!!

Ok we have 28 weeks from today….man, that sounds like a long way off….we will be in ST Maarten!

Looks as if we have two couples going with us.

The couples differ in interests but will I am sure get along just fine. Besides, this trip is not an all join hands and do everything together type of trip. As a matter of fact my thought on this is there will be probably 2 or 3 times when we will all be together. First will be a day trip to Anguilla unless one of the couples just doesn’t want to go and the second will be watching a sunset from the fort above the French town of Marigot.

We may all go to the same beach the same day and have a few adventures together but I just don’t see this being a lock step vacation. One couple eats gourmet…and are they in luck!! The other golf and wants to Scuba. Honestly I feel real good about this trip and think that we will have lots of fun and I will get a lot of things done that I want to do!

Rob’s list of things to do is pretty simple.

Each morning I will be on a different beach either as the sun comes up or not too long after taking plenty of landscape pictures. Every day from about 9:30 to 4 I will do what my wife wants ….as in she picks the beach and we RELAX. After 4 till the sun goes down I will again be shooting lots of pix of the island. Then dinner and drinks and repeat only difference being it is another day.

I am going to the island for two purposes, one is to relax and the other is to get some specific photos so I can put some creativity to work and put together a special photography project that may be marketable.

Have been watching flights and the prices are good right now but will hold out till a bit later in the summer to purchase our flights. We are going to try to fly with either one or both couples, something we have never done but which would add to the general excitement for at least the arrival leg of our journey.

You can’t get there from here

Ok you can but not in a very direct or at all thrifty way.
What am I talking about you might ask? Getting to ST Maartin (airport code SXM) from Kansas City (KC or airport code MCI).

We are looking to book our annual trip to the islands mon!! My preference is to head immediately south or southeast of KC especially in the fall of the year. It can be a bit chilly otherwise and frankly I just don’t want to pack cold weather clothes.

My search of airports going into SXM have led me to the following key airports….
Airport Flight price
Kansas City (MCI) ** $557
Chicago OHare (ORD) ** $365
ST Louis (STL) ** $512
Detroit (DTW) ** $501
Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) ** $602
Minneapolis (MSP) ** $501
Washington DC- Dulles (IAD) ** $415
Atlanta (ATL) ** $562
Orlando (MCO) ** $536
FT Lauderdale (FLL) ** $475
Boston (BOS) ** $485
Philadelphia (PHL) ** $358
New York (JFK) $425
Charlotte (CLT) $402
Newark (EWR) $414
Miami (MIA) $504
** is not non-stop

It is cheapest to fly from Chicago for us but there is still another $120 each to get to Chicago and then would have to transfer from one airport to the other or an 8 hour drive but then we are looking at work time lost and parking a car for a week at the airport.

I did not look at cut rate airlines like Jet Blue as they don’t book that far out yet.

Working the battle of my bulge!!

What a weekend. We got a nice little snow storm that dumped 5” or so of snow on Saturday and Sunday it was close to 50. The nice thing is all the melt has turned everything VERY green here.

While snowed in CB and I got into a conversation ….uh oh…. Actually this was a good one. We decided to both make a conscience effort at losing some very unwanted pounds. With this we decided to incent the process. Don’t have all the incentives laid out but CB is looking at about 10lbs while king chunk is looking at about 40lbs. So at every 10lbs there will be a reward for the chunkster…where they will be every few lbs for the lady of the house.

We have since thrown ourselves into a workout plan that has left me happy but a bit sore..LOL. I have even hit the treadmill, this is the thing I dislike the most but will drop more weight than lifting which we are doing too. It helps that she has personal trainer background…but when she gets into business mode I tend to fade as I prefer to see my wife as a nice and sweet lady not the drill instructor that comes out in her when we exercise. Our eldest has joined us so that helps to keep it a bit light and our youngest is discussing doing the same. Family time is a good thing….ha.

The deck has been re-shuffled

I made my last post confirming that we had booked our rooms for ST Maarten. Had two other couples scheduled to go with us. One couple had a contingency plan that was enacted so they decided to back out but another couple may be stepping up to take their spot. Here is the rub for a couple of us. I think I shared before the same issue that is happening all over America may be hitting home. Our company has been purchased so 4 of us wont know if we have jobs or not for the next 4-6 weeks. Based on that outcome I do believe we can start looking to purchase flights.

If we are let go…the trip goes from three couples to one…us, and will be moved to a much earlier date than November. Like as soon as I can book!! I do have some business ideas that will take a bit of time to develop…but once up and running I am pretty sure will provide at least some income for near term…and hopefully support me in the long term. That said some of it will be based in ST Maarten so I need to get back there to complete the next level of my plans. I hope beyond hope that things work well and all three couples can go. This will make for a very fun trip.

Still watching airfare and waiting on sales to hit. It looks as if I had to book today we would fly from Chicago rater than Dallas or NYC or even Charlotte. So would be commuter flight from KC to Chicago and then Chicago to Miami and on to the island.
I have a magic number set in my head and if they get there I pull the trigger even if I am not sure about weather or not I will still have a job.

Step one complete

Its starting to happen! Woo Hoo!!

Have gotten a hard conformation from one set of friends and a soft one for yet another to come along to the islands with us this November. Today I booked 3 rooms at our resort! Rob is a very happy camper. We have rooms, next up is the flights!

I needed this today, things are good but at this time of the year we are used to tanning and getting ready to pack for our trip..now the wheels are in motion. Look out island we have you in our sites and are ready to head that way.

Getting a room is pretty small but I cant believe how happy it made me…is like the first robin you see late in the Winter that tells you Spring is on its way. Next up is coordinating flights for 3 couples….heck I should open a travel business..LOL

I’ve got what may be a terminal case of RIF!

It has bee ll months since our last visit and Rob has a bad case of RIF! What is RIF? It is Reverse Island Fever. I say reverse because we used to live on Oahu and Island fever was the want to get off that rock! This is Reverse of that….I think Jimmy Buffett said it best….”I gotta go to ST Somewhere” and my somewhere is ST Maarten.

We usually go in April but this year it just isn’t the best of ideas (see interpretation as not enough money and hoping to hang on to my job in a merging company) so we are looking at traveling in November instead….Oh NOOOOOOOOO! Hope I can make it that long.

This does however give me the opportunity to put together some photo-art sales ideas. I have a couple up my sleeve and now that it is getting warmer outside I am starting to get a bit more motivated about getting things set up and hopefully get my little business off the ground.

So now we have picked the month and I am looking at our flights….prices are pretty reasonable. Next will be pull the trigger and start the official countdown to return. Yes I have invited some friends but at this point have no idea if they will accept the offer and go or not. We shall see!!