Thee Best Vacation

Last summer I was fortunate to take a 10 day trip to thee beautiful Caribbean islands via Royal Caribbean. It was so surreal, and unbelievably beautiful, I could have stayed there all year and never once been ready to leave. Although the islands are not far from the United States, it felt like a completely different world. A world where time didn't seem to matter and a world where people didn't know any other way to be than friendly. During this 10 day trip from reality, we visited 6 places. First stop was Puerto Rico, a nice place, especially the pool bar at our hotel, but thats a whole other blog entry in itself.  Then off to Barbados, which was not what I was expecting. The weather was overcast and it wasn't the most complimenting weather to the supposedly beautiful island. St. Lucia, Antigua, and St. Thomas came after that. All beautiful in there own ways. The islands seemed to get better and better each day. Then, the self proclaimed friendly island,  St. Maarten, oh St. Maarten, defiantly my favorite. Just an all around great place. Nice people, great beaches, good food, the works. Speaking of food, I gained 7 pounds throughout this whole vacation. But hey, you can't put a limit on fun. My favorite souvenir came from St. Maarten, it's an old turquoise license plate that says "St. Maarten, The Friendly Island", I have it hanging on my bathroom wall of all places. On these island you got a good balance of the local vibe as well as the tourist vibe. Best of both worlds. It was so nice to get away and be in travel mode for 10 days, something I could get used to. Wearing wrinkled traveling clothes is the best feeling ever! For me it symbolizes a carefree vacation from your mind, and anything else ailing you and I love it!  But day 10 came sooner that later and it was time to go home to jobs, school and life. Now this is where the story goes from peaceful vacation to super annoying airlines. Let me walk you through it. Let's just say the little joke about Delta standing for "Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport", couldn't of been truer. Delta was kind enough to leave us on their plane for 4 hours while they serviced a broken engine. After the first 30 minutes I thought to myself, okay, any problem regarding an engine on a plane that is taking more than 30 minutes should not be transporting passengers. Then an hour goes by. Thinking to myself, okay, why are they starting a movie? 2 hours later, okay, movie is almost over, problem still not solved. Hmmm, I want off this plane! And the thing that irritated me the most, is people were calm and relaxed. Is it just me?, the inexperienced traveler? Or was I believe it or not the one and only sane person on that plane? FINALLY, news comes in from the captain, or pilot, or plane operator, whatever they're called. "Due to a broken down engine flight number 1234 will not be traveling to Atlanta, Georgia. Sorry for the delay folks". Sorry for the delay? I can never get those 4 hours back, you're gonna be sorry for the delay lady. So we stay another night in Puerto Rico, but before we make it too far we realize a $1200 bottle of alcohol bought in St. Thomas was broken complements of... once again, Delta airlines. I'll never forget the smell overwhelming the baggage claim that night. Thanks Delta!