A Christmas to Remember Always
With both children in school on the west coast we anxiously awaited their finishing final exams and their flights home. Trey is completing requirements for his LLM degree at the University of Washington and flew in from Seattle on Sat. 12/14. Because he had been home last summer, I had looked forward to paddling rivers with him but we never got a chance. He had shopping to do, friends to see, mountains to snowboard, and other places to go. Lori and Ron are seniors at San Jose State and flew in from California on 12/19. How wonderful to have the whole family home! Susan and Lori cooked good Southern feasts! On Friday Ron and I went to an early breakfast and he solicited my help with his grand plan. We celebrated Christmas a day early as we would be on airplanes on Christmas day. I knew it would be a most memorable day but couldn't tell Susan or Trey! Ron came over early as we already made it clear that Santa would treat him as a Barrow child this year. How wonderful Santa was to everyone! Later it was time for Ron's grand plan to come to fruition. He arranged for the family to play the board game Cranium. Susan and Trey were one team and Ron and Lori were the other. As Ron had instructed, I arranged to be the keeper of the cards and the hour glass. Cranium is a game in which a member of each team gets a card and has to act out something and their teammate has to guess it within a set time. Ron had expertly made an extra card and needed me to be sure HE got it. Lori, of course, had to guess that he was acting out his proposal of marriage. It required a few quick extra flips of the hourglass for her to guess what he was doing.How romantic! We were so pleased that Ron thought so much of us to share this moment with the whole family! Oh yes, we never finished the rest of the game and of course she said YES without hesitation. The ring is beautiful and reflects Ron's artistic talents and taste. We had a great Christmas dinner and Lori and Ron went to the Kerchmar's for another Christmas while the rest of us packed for our trip to Bonaire.
Up at 3:30am and quickly to the airport where we discovered Susan's passport was missing. It had fallen off the bed during packing. Can you believe that Susan has such a wonderful friend like Connie Bryan who got up with her hubby Mike at 4:30 am on Christmas day, came and searched our house, and got Susan what she needed in just the nick of time to board the plane? Praise also to the Delta Air Lines staff that helped greatly. After an extended layover in Miami , we arrived in Curacao too late to get to Bonaire that night and there was major concern that our baggage was also lost. We spent the night in Curacao and caught a 7 am flight and found our baggage in Bonaire. Susan and our travel agent Diane Blackburn had made such great arrangements! We heard that there were no more rental cars available but Susan had arranged an extended cab full-sized Toyota pickup that was perfect for our needs. Trey and I signed as drivers. Then on to the Sand Dollar dive resort where we had been in 1996. We had concerns due to the tidal wave of several years ago and the rebuilding that had only been recently completed. Gone were the waterfront restaurant and Andre's huge dive operation. The dive operation had been scaled back from 35 employees to nine this year. We were happy to see Lionel who gave us our dive briefing and orientation. We paid our $10 for Marine Park conservation tags and were assigned storage. They had a very secure lockable room to store dive gear and lockers outside for people night diving to store their gear for easy access. The suite was the best accommodation we have ever have had for a vacation. We were fortunate to have three bedrooms, three baths, two dens (one inside and one out on the porch), two dining areas and a very usable kitchen. Our view was one of beauty day and night. I don't think anyone in our party had a thing to complain about. The pool, tennis courts, and dive center were close by. Our first adventure was to the Culture Mart, one of the local grocery stores. Hugh, Lori, Ron and I made a thorough search of the store and found everything we needed to have breakfast and lunch each day and 2 dinners for night diving days. Our first dive was a shore dive on Bari Reef. This dive site has more counted species of marine life than any in the western hemisphere. We saw a sharptail eel, a shy hamlet , and a large tarpon on our very first dive. This was Ron's first reef dive and I was so excited to show him the creatures. I had given talks during our trip on fish identification and invertebrates. Ron and Susan were real naturals and Lori was right at home after three years of not diving. I made use of Trey's extensive skills as a cave diver to keep us all safe. We had lots of great dives on Bari Reef which is off the end of the Sand Dollar dock, how easy! Then of course we did boat dives . We liked the ones to the small island we could see. This is Klein Bonaire and is a jewel of a natural resource. We fell in love with this uninhabited island years ago but were very concerned by plans to develop it. Along with divers all over the world, we contributed money to make this a permanent National Park to preserve it for posterity. The Bonaire people have done such a wonderful job with preserving their resources and beauty. Lori and I did one boat dive with a marine biologist on the sunken ship Hilma Hooker. This was a deep dive to over a hundred feet. While Trey and I stay at 110 or 120 ft for hours in the caves of Florida, I was surprised to look down at the ship and see how very far down this was. We saw the ship 6 years ago and were surprised about how much new reef was forming around and on it. We especially enjoyed seeing the sergeant major males guarding their mate's eggs. We also did one shore dive when we drove north to "thousand steps" . The shore dives of Bonaire are marked by numbered large yellow rocks. The tarpon were huge and nightfall came while submerged. Here we saw stag horn coral and shallow coral pinnacles teaming with wildlife. The carry back up the steps was tough though. The highlight to the diving was Susan's sighting of a beautiful rare green frogfish on Bari Reef. We saw two seahorses off of Klein Bonaire and Ron found one of them. The stars of the night dives were the huge tarpon and a couple large snooks. The tarpon were approachable and occasionally touchable. I never get tired of the tarpon and snooks hunting in our lights. Water temp varied from 78 to 81 degrees F and visibility was always 60' plus. We also found four scorpion fish, the largest anemone I've ever seen in this hemisphere, lots of eels, several octopi, squid, feather stars,scorpion fish , tubestra coral, lots of colorful juvenile angelfish, lobsters, crabs, spanish hogfish , and of course lots and lots of healthy living coral. Dive profiles were safe and easy to maintain. We had no jellyfish or fire coral stings. The island had many other attractions. I particularly liked the dining at Chez Lucille (French), Croccantino's (Italian), and Rum Runners. We did no souvenir shopping at all, can you believe! We took a long drive to the north end of the island to see the wild donkeys , the flamingo preserve , and the rugged north shore. Trey took his digital camera and got some great shots! We also snorkeled down to over 40 feet. We swam in the pool and had some long lovely walks. We went to the south end of the island where Trey, Lori, and Ron took windsurfing lessons on Lac Bay through Bonaire Windsurfing Place. At the resort we played a lot of games and kept our dive logs up to date. We very much enjoyed our time with Ron and grew to love him more and more. Can't wait to have him in the family!
The flight back on New Years Day was uneventful but very long. Back in Spartanburg Trey and mom shopped and I had to go right back to work. Lori spent a lot of time with the Fulmers and the Kerchmars. We were glad that Bonnie and Bill Barrow came up from Carrollton, Ga. to see us and meet Ron. He seemed to get complete approval from everyone! My office moved from Dillon Dr. where I have been for 24 years into the main office in the Regional Outpatient Center with Drs. Davis and Poole. Trey and Lori helped with the move. Susan and Trey helped me decorate the new office. I was on call the first weekend of January and Trey flew out on Sunday from Charlotte. He had an eventful flight as there was a bomb scare in the Seattle airport and deplaning and then baggage pickup was delayed. It turned out that a guard had been found asleep and this triggered a major alert at the airport. Lori and I paddled the Green River on Monday afternoon and it turned dark on us and snowed.The crescent moon lit the canyon so well that we surfed in the snowy dark. Lori, Susan, and Dudley hit the road to Greenville most days to look at bridal dresses and a decision was reached. Ron and Lori did a lot of yard work while they were home and spread new hardwood mulch that looks so very beautiful. I had Friday off and Ron spent the day with me moving my computer into a bigger case as I was having wiring and cooling problems with the other one. It works great, thanks Ron! That afternoon Lori took Susan and I on a hike along the narrows of the Green River. On Sunday Dudley, Anna, and David Kerchmar and Ron Fulmer joined us at early service at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Then all but Anna came over for a big brunch. Lori and Ron did some clowning around. It was sad to pack up Lori and Ron and send them back to California from the Greenville-Spartanburg airport that afternoon. As we saw them go through security we knew our wonderful Christmas holiday was officially over. How sad but what everlasting memories! Can't wait for next Christmas and the children's return. We love you Trey, Lori, and Ron! See you all next at the wedding! /Susan