Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

Day One from Grenada

Greetings from Grenada, where Amy and I have arrived after two days of travel from Colorado on that much needed vacation I hinted at earlier. There’s a lot to unpack over the last couple days and even more over the next eight that I hope to share with you, so let’s get after it.

Alright, let’s answer the first question right off the bat- why Grenada? It seems like the most unlikely of choices. And that, my friends, is exactly why we chose Grenada. As y’all know, I moved to Colorado from Florida. But Amy moved here from Hawai’i. One of the things we share is a deep communion with the water, something that you definitely miss in the mountains. She had never been to the Caribbean, so we quickly decided on the region as our destination. But Grenadia took a bit more work. We wanted a place that wasn’t touristy, where we could get down to the business of being a couple with the rare moment without kids. I really had no desires other than seeing the Lesser Antilles, having previously visited Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas while I was living in Florida. The Keys, too, were an option, though I think Amy worried by Jimmy Buffett and Ernest Hemingway affections might distract me. We circled Belize for a long time, and thought heavily about Turks and Caicos. The Bahamas briefly surfaced as an option, but we worried there would be too many people. We simply did not want to go to a heavily Americanized place.

But lurking out there was Grenada. It’s a small island deep in the Caribbean, just off of Venezuela. I really didn’t know much about the island. I even had to research how to say it—it’s GrenAda, with a hard A. I remembered briefly that Reagan ordered an invasion of the island back in 1983 or so, but that was it. Some quick online research revealed that people spoke English here, the beaches are excellent, and there’s monkeys in Grand Etang National Park. Plus, the offshore fishing here is world class, though unfortunately, that was out of the budget for this trip. Still, it looked amazing. So we made the call. Let’s go to Grenada.

But how to actually get there? Living in Colorado, we often fly United because of their hub in Denver, but they don’t fly to the island. But American does, so we’d need to fly to Miami, stay overnight, and then catch a flight to Grenada the next day. This was a bit of a blessing since we could see some of my best friends Bart and Karina and their daughters (I’m godfather to their youngest) and they could meet Amy. Even with the single night in Florida, Amy caught me staring at the moon over the water. She knows.

The flight to Grenada from Miami was actually longer than the one from Denver to Miami. Grenada is way down there, y’all. There was a quick moment of panic when we could not find my passport, though fortunately Amy checked the one suitcase pocket I swore it could not be in. Customs was easy, and the familiar humidity of South Florida was present here, too, though the leeward winds have mitigated that. It’s actually really pleasant.

Yeah, It's down there.

We had heard the island was very welcoming to Americans, and thus far, that has proven to be the case. Our cab ride to the hotel took about 15 minutes and the driver gave us a quick rundown of the island’s history that I’ll divulge to you later.

Now to the digs.

We’re staying at the Calabash Resort. I keep calling it a hotel, but that’s because when you grow up poor sometimes you still wrestle with talking about nice things. This is one of those cases. This place is spectacular, as evidenced by this picture that I took right after I wrote this sentence:

We’re actually in the off season for tourism and the staff at the hotel tells us that it’s pretty quiet around here right now. We were greeted by some incredibly friendly staff who offered us this lemongrass tea. And folks, after drinking it, I’ve renounced all claims to the South. This stuff is better than what my mom keeps in the orange pitcher back home in Kentucky. My goodness.

We were excited to be here but also pretty tired from two days of travel, along with herding kids and pets to their respective places. So we made a quick tour of the grounds, got cleaned up, and took some naps before making it to dinner, which was of course phenomenal. Being in Colorado, we’re making sure to get as much seafood as possible. We both had variations of locally-caught red snapper and I followed with a cheesecake that was far more savory than I’d ever had before. We closed the night with a game of chess that Amy quickly won because she’s way smarter than me and maybe I’m a bit impulsive sometimes.

I’m going to document this trip over the next eight days. There’s a lot of history here. Different culture. All sorts of experiences. And I figure that maybe that might be a good distraction for my readers, so I hope you dig it. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that my thoughts right now are in Colorado. We’ve got some big fires going on back there, and I’m eager to get back and help out. But for now, rest. The work will come later.

I want to close this post with the thoughts of a buddy of mine, who is an elder in the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. I told him of my trip and he responded as follows: “Its about time you leave the craziness in Colorado…LOL. And just let the Creator lead you to comforting waters…including the rum. Take care, recharge, & enjoy the time.”

Already ahead of you.

Jason

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