Our Vacation
It's actually hard to call anything a Vacation when you are retired so I should have said, "Our Trip". Anyway this was to the Caribbean but it wasn't a normal Caribbean Island. This was a private Island off Saint Vincent. The Island is about 2 miles long and a mile wide. You really need to be invited there and there is a background check but a very few "normal" people can go also.
Our Daughter and Grand kids arrived there a week before us and were going to meet us at the airport. We flew to Saint Lucia on a real plane then had to take a small puddle jumper to this Island called Mustique. At the Saint Lucia airport we were guided to this "terminal" which was a tiny room with room for about 12 people. The plane holds 16. I heard a lawn mower engine but it was our plane and at first I thought it was a replica of Amelia Earhart’s plane, but I really think it was "actually" her plane that she crashed in the pacific 70 years ago.
The cabin was about 4' high so you had to crouch down to get in it and had tiny seats that were modified to fit pygmies. But you could steady yourself by putting a hand on each side of the cabin as you crawled inside as this gentleman is doing.
A flight crew man came out and pulled the rope, the engine started right up. The pilot let off on the clutch and we started to move.
There were two "pilots" but I think one of them was a veterinarian on the side. We taxied down the runway, faster and faster until we reached about 40 mph and actually took off. The propellor was about 2" outside my window, which was open. It didn't matter because I figured this plane wasn't presurized anyway. We got up to cruising altitude very quickly because cruizing altitude was about 36'. As we flew, we cleared almost all of the waves and sail boat masts. It was a little un-nerving when the pilot on the left was trying to move the lever above him and was having trouble, then the other pilot had to grab his hand and both of them had to keep hitting the lever quite hard to move it. I am not a pilot so I don’t know if that was for the wing flaps, landing gear or coffee machine.
After 20 minutes or so we started our decent. 40', 30' 20' etc until we hit the ground a little harder than I would have liked.
We taxied up about 50 yards and could see this big sign that read "GATE 1". That seemed a little overkill being there was only one gate. It wasn't actually a gate but a 3' wooden picket fence next to a small wooden building. There was a sign on the building that read "JAGGER and BALDASSANO". My name is Baldassano and you know who Jagger is.
We cleared "Customs" and went outside. There wasn't exactly an outside because it is always warm there so everything is outside. I see our Daughter waiting outside the "fence" and she is acting a little funny. She kept saying "How was your trip" while motioning her head to the side so we should look. Of course it was Mick Jagger. His family was on the plane with us and he came to pick them up. He loaded his ATV and I loaded ours. I am not a big male rocker fan, preferring females but it was interesting. He was wearing Island clothes and a hat like everyone else on the Island.
Anyway we drove to the house where our family was staying on the beach. It was almost the nicest looking place I have ever seen and I think I have been in more places than most people, partly because I am old. (But Mick Jagger is older than me).
(that is my Son N Law in the water as the beaches are totally empty and that is the beach for their house there)
We stayed there for the day then went to the home we were going to spend the next 8 days, up on the mountain. On the way up we saw dozens of red footed tortuses . They are about a foot long and virtually all over the place
It was a long trip so I will continue this later.
It's actually hard to call anything a Vacation when you are retired so I should have said, "Our Trip". Anyway this was to the Caribbean but it wasn't a normal Caribbean Island. This was a private Island off Saint Vincent. The Island is about 2 miles long and a mile wide. You really need to be invited there and there is a background check but a very few "normal" people can go also.
Our Daughter and Grand kids arrived there a week before us and were going to meet us at the airport. We flew to Saint Lucia on a real plane then had to take a small puddle jumper to this Island called Mustique. At the Saint Lucia airport we were guided to this "terminal" which was a tiny room with room for about 12 people. The plane holds 16. I heard a lawn mower engine but it was our plane and at first I thought it was a replica of Amelia Earhart’s plane, but I really think it was "actually" her plane that she crashed in the pacific 70 years ago.
The cabin was about 4' high so you had to crouch down to get in it and had tiny seats that were modified to fit pygmies. But you could steady yourself by putting a hand on each side of the cabin as you crawled inside as this gentleman is doing.
A flight crew man came out and pulled the rope, the engine started right up. The pilot let off on the clutch and we started to move.
There were two "pilots" but I think one of them was a veterinarian on the side. We taxied down the runway, faster and faster until we reached about 40 mph and actually took off. The propellor was about 2" outside my window, which was open. It didn't matter because I figured this plane wasn't presurized anyway. We got up to cruising altitude very quickly because cruizing altitude was about 36'. As we flew, we cleared almost all of the waves and sail boat masts. It was a little un-nerving when the pilot on the left was trying to move the lever above him and was having trouble, then the other pilot had to grab his hand and both of them had to keep hitting the lever quite hard to move it. I am not a pilot so I don’t know if that was for the wing flaps, landing gear or coffee machine.
After 20 minutes or so we started our decent. 40', 30' 20' etc until we hit the ground a little harder than I would have liked.
We taxied up about 50 yards and could see this big sign that read "GATE 1". That seemed a little overkill being there was only one gate. It wasn't actually a gate but a 3' wooden picket fence next to a small wooden building. There was a sign on the building that read "JAGGER and BALDASSANO". My name is Baldassano and you know who Jagger is.
We cleared "Customs" and went outside. There wasn't exactly an outside because it is always warm there so everything is outside. I see our Daughter waiting outside the "fence" and she is acting a little funny. She kept saying "How was your trip" while motioning her head to the side so we should look. Of course it was Mick Jagger. His family was on the plane with us and he came to pick them up. He loaded his ATV and I loaded ours. I am not a big male rocker fan, preferring females but it was interesting. He was wearing Island clothes and a hat like everyone else on the Island.
Anyway we drove to the house where our family was staying on the beach. It was almost the nicest looking place I have ever seen and I think I have been in more places than most people, partly because I am old. (But Mick Jagger is older than me).
(that is my Son N Law in the water as the beaches are totally empty and that is the beach for their house there)
We stayed there for the day then went to the home we were going to spend the next 8 days, up on the mountain. On the way up we saw dozens of red footed tortuses . They are about a foot long and virtually all over the place
It was a long trip so I will continue this later.
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