I really just had to share my experience here. It's long, but I hope you find it worth the read.
So, through my job, one of the perks is the ability to earn two one-week vacations each year, and I was very excited to land the last spot to Bonaire! We decided to extend, since one week for a diver means just five days of diving, and that just wasn’t going to cut it, so I did some research and found the perfect spot for our second week: Bamboo Bali Bonaire. We got it all booked, and waited the three months for our next adventure to begin.
Just getting to Bonaire was quite the challenge. The blizzard of the decade, especially for South Central Virginia, was being called for on the Friday that we were supposed to depart Roanoke, VA. This is a tiny airport, so I just knew there was no way we were getting out. I called Delta on Wednesday, and after 1 ½ hours on the phone, I finally got them to agree to change our flight to Raleigh. Raleigh looked good to go, as far as weather goes, and I had been wanting to stay at the Double Tree there, so we headed down Thursday evening, staying ahead of the storm. We got to Raleigh, got all check in to the hotel, and went to the front desk to register our car for the extended parking. They asked when our flight was, and I told them it was noon tomorrow. They looked at me with sympathy and said that every airline except Delta had cancelled their flights. Luckily, we are flying delta, so there is still hope. We looked at the forecast again, and now it was showing 1-2 inches of snow with up to ½ an inch of freezing rain. We got to bed for a restless night’s sleep, and I wake up at 5 am and look at the weather. Now it’s 5-8 inches of snow, plus 1 inch of ice. Ugh oh…. I beg my husband to head to the airport, and I finally convince him. We wait in a very long line at Delta, and they inform us that there are 30+ people on standby already. My husband insists on just heading back to the hotel, but decides to run over to the Starbucks by the ticket counter first. We had the free refill January mug, which I highly recommend, and wanted to get one last use out of it. He walks back over to me with the coffee and says, “we’re going on standby.” He had heard the flight attendants in front of him discussing how glad they were that they were on the next flight, because it would probably be the last one to get out! We got on standby, and actually made it on the second flight out, which actually was the last to leave RDU that day. So, we are finally on our way to Atlanta! We have a great day in Atlanta, with an amazing brunch and mimosas at the Flying Biscuit. We actually got to see snow falling in Atlanta, which is quite a rarity! We woke up on Saturday and departed for Bonaire, feeling incredibly blessed for the way things have fallen into place to get us here.
We did have one little situation on the flight that threw me for a loop. We were assigned a window and an aisle seat, and there was this very strange guy sitting right in between. My husband asked if he would mind if we were together and he told him that he wasn’t moving unless he got to sit by his girlfriend. Luckily, a very friendly man in her row moved up to ours, because that could’ve been pretty darn awkward, and I’m pretty sure I would’ve accidentally elbowed him a lot. We arrived in Bonaire, which gave us a whole new definition for small airport. Everything is outdoors, so we tried to slather on Bugmans mosquito repellant immediately. Every other couple on my work trip was actually on the same flight so we got to know quite a few of them, which made the whole welcome dinner way less awkward than it usually is, yay!
We got to the Harbour Village Beach Club, which was a bit over the top for my taste, but a lot of people loved it. It had a man-made beach with palm trees that had to be watered, and had a dive shop on site. There was actually a cool small wreck right out front where I was the first in our group to spot 3 lionfish tucked away inside. They have two pools, but we never actually used them. We did spend a lot of time reading in the hammocks. I read a great book called “The Color of Secrets” over the first few days, and we got in quite a few dives. We got there on Saturday, and on Sunday, we decided to get a rental car. I sent an email to avis requesting a rental, and when we got there, they informed us that all they had were $80 pickups, instead of the $30 car we requested. We checked each window, and finally ended up with a $50 car through Hertz, which we just kept for three days. Make sure if you are going to rent, do it and get a confirmation through Kayak! We picked up some groceries, water and beer and headed back to the resort. Over the first few days, my foot was acting up. I have this weird pain that flares up on the outside of my foot/ankle, and starts to radiate up my calf. Unfortunately, my only sandals, my birkenstocks, have a little bump in the foot bed that hits this exact spot, so I was stuck wearing my "travelling through the airport" toms. These aren’t cute toms, no, these are, as our friend Cole put it, “I thought you were wearing house shoes” Toms. Nice, huh? This is Sunday through Tuesday, and with the help of Epsom salt soaking, I finally got it feeling better. Hopefully this is the last of any trouble we’ll have, right? RIGHT? Alas, it gets worse.
We decided to sign up for Advanced Open water certification, and need to complete Deep, Navigation, Wreck, Fish ID, and a night dive. We also got our lionfish hunting certification. We started with our deep and navigation, which were more activity based dives, then the Fish ID, which I’m pretty sure we had the coolest Fish ID dive ever! We had to draw a picture of a fish, and then ID it when we got back up using the book. During the dive, I look over and Brenden is excitedly pointing out something, turns out he’s found a beautiful long snout seahorse, one of my absolute favorite things to see! Our instructor gets me to draw the seahorse for my fish ID, and also a porcupine fish, which are up there in my top favorite fishes! Next up is our Night dive. I’m feeling kind of cruddy for this dive. Not sure what the deal is, but I did have a little bit of tummy rumbling and spent a little extra time on the toilet, and a little achy, but I push through, because it is supposed to be an incredible opportunity. We are a few days after the full moon, which means we just might get to see ostracods. Ostracods are tiny shrimp that do a bioluminescent mating ritual that makes it looks like there are strands of pearls floating through the water. My hubby and I are at the back of the group after we’ve turned around and headed back to the boat, when I see a tiny shimmer out of the corner of my eye. I immediately turn out my flashlight, and look up at Brenden, who is actually dancing through the ostracods. This is a man who does not dance, but he looked like a contemporary dancer floating around through the stars. The ostracods were the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, it was as if we were floating through heaven, and they danced off your arms and fins as you moved through them. I absolutely hated the night dive up until this point, I was cold and achy, and you can’t see anything but what is in front of your flashlight, but this made it worth it, and then some. We were surprised when we got back to the boat that no one else had gotten the show we had. A few people caught quick glimpses, but nothing like what we experienced. We must’ve been in just the right place at the right time. Our dive master said she actually cried the first time she saw them, and I teared up a little bit myself. It was that amazing.
to be continued
So, through my job, one of the perks is the ability to earn two one-week vacations each year, and I was very excited to land the last spot to Bonaire! We decided to extend, since one week for a diver means just five days of diving, and that just wasn’t going to cut it, so I did some research and found the perfect spot for our second week: Bamboo Bali Bonaire. We got it all booked, and waited the three months for our next adventure to begin.
Just getting to Bonaire was quite the challenge. The blizzard of the decade, especially for South Central Virginia, was being called for on the Friday that we were supposed to depart Roanoke, VA. This is a tiny airport, so I just knew there was no way we were getting out. I called Delta on Wednesday, and after 1 ½ hours on the phone, I finally got them to agree to change our flight to Raleigh. Raleigh looked good to go, as far as weather goes, and I had been wanting to stay at the Double Tree there, so we headed down Thursday evening, staying ahead of the storm. We got to Raleigh, got all check in to the hotel, and went to the front desk to register our car for the extended parking. They asked when our flight was, and I told them it was noon tomorrow. They looked at me with sympathy and said that every airline except Delta had cancelled their flights. Luckily, we are flying delta, so there is still hope. We looked at the forecast again, and now it was showing 1-2 inches of snow with up to ½ an inch of freezing rain. We got to bed for a restless night’s sleep, and I wake up at 5 am and look at the weather. Now it’s 5-8 inches of snow, plus 1 inch of ice. Ugh oh…. I beg my husband to head to the airport, and I finally convince him. We wait in a very long line at Delta, and they inform us that there are 30+ people on standby already. My husband insists on just heading back to the hotel, but decides to run over to the Starbucks by the ticket counter first. We had the free refill January mug, which I highly recommend, and wanted to get one last use out of it. He walks back over to me with the coffee and says, “we’re going on standby.” He had heard the flight attendants in front of him discussing how glad they were that they were on the next flight, because it would probably be the last one to get out! We got on standby, and actually made it on the second flight out, which actually was the last to leave RDU that day. So, we are finally on our way to Atlanta! We have a great day in Atlanta, with an amazing brunch and mimosas at the Flying Biscuit. We actually got to see snow falling in Atlanta, which is quite a rarity! We woke up on Saturday and departed for Bonaire, feeling incredibly blessed for the way things have fallen into place to get us here.
We did have one little situation on the flight that threw me for a loop. We were assigned a window and an aisle seat, and there was this very strange guy sitting right in between. My husband asked if he would mind if we were together and he told him that he wasn’t moving unless he got to sit by his girlfriend. Luckily, a very friendly man in her row moved up to ours, because that could’ve been pretty darn awkward, and I’m pretty sure I would’ve accidentally elbowed him a lot. We arrived in Bonaire, which gave us a whole new definition for small airport. Everything is outdoors, so we tried to slather on Bugmans mosquito repellant immediately. Every other couple on my work trip was actually on the same flight so we got to know quite a few of them, which made the whole welcome dinner way less awkward than it usually is, yay!
We got to the Harbour Village Beach Club, which was a bit over the top for my taste, but a lot of people loved it. It had a man-made beach with palm trees that had to be watered, and had a dive shop on site. There was actually a cool small wreck right out front where I was the first in our group to spot 3 lionfish tucked away inside. They have two pools, but we never actually used them. We did spend a lot of time reading in the hammocks. I read a great book called “The Color of Secrets” over the first few days, and we got in quite a few dives. We got there on Saturday, and on Sunday, we decided to get a rental car. I sent an email to avis requesting a rental, and when we got there, they informed us that all they had were $80 pickups, instead of the $30 car we requested. We checked each window, and finally ended up with a $50 car through Hertz, which we just kept for three days. Make sure if you are going to rent, do it and get a confirmation through Kayak! We picked up some groceries, water and beer and headed back to the resort. Over the first few days, my foot was acting up. I have this weird pain that flares up on the outside of my foot/ankle, and starts to radiate up my calf. Unfortunately, my only sandals, my birkenstocks, have a little bump in the foot bed that hits this exact spot, so I was stuck wearing my "travelling through the airport" toms. These aren’t cute toms, no, these are, as our friend Cole put it, “I thought you were wearing house shoes” Toms. Nice, huh? This is Sunday through Tuesday, and with the help of Epsom salt soaking, I finally got it feeling better. Hopefully this is the last of any trouble we’ll have, right? RIGHT? Alas, it gets worse.
We decided to sign up for Advanced Open water certification, and need to complete Deep, Navigation, Wreck, Fish ID, and a night dive. We also got our lionfish hunting certification. We started with our deep and navigation, which were more activity based dives, then the Fish ID, which I’m pretty sure we had the coolest Fish ID dive ever! We had to draw a picture of a fish, and then ID it when we got back up using the book. During the dive, I look over and Brenden is excitedly pointing out something, turns out he’s found a beautiful long snout seahorse, one of my absolute favorite things to see! Our instructor gets me to draw the seahorse for my fish ID, and also a porcupine fish, which are up there in my top favorite fishes! Next up is our Night dive. I’m feeling kind of cruddy for this dive. Not sure what the deal is, but I did have a little bit of tummy rumbling and spent a little extra time on the toilet, and a little achy, but I push through, because it is supposed to be an incredible opportunity. We are a few days after the full moon, which means we just might get to see ostracods. Ostracods are tiny shrimp that do a bioluminescent mating ritual that makes it looks like there are strands of pearls floating through the water. My hubby and I are at the back of the group after we’ve turned around and headed back to the boat, when I see a tiny shimmer out of the corner of my eye. I immediately turn out my flashlight, and look up at Brenden, who is actually dancing through the ostracods. This is a man who does not dance, but he looked like a contemporary dancer floating around through the stars. The ostracods were the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, it was as if we were floating through heaven, and they danced off your arms and fins as you moved through them. I absolutely hated the night dive up until this point, I was cold and achy, and you can’t see anything but what is in front of your flashlight, but this made it worth it, and then some. We were surprised when we got back to the boat that no one else had gotten the show we had. A few people caught quick glimpses, but nothing like what we experienced. We must’ve been in just the right place at the right time. Our dive master said she actually cried the first time she saw them, and I teared up a little bit myself. It was that amazing.
to be continued