You all met Sandy. But would you want to take her on vacation with you?
Sandy was a Category 2 when my wife and I met her in the Bahamas — sort of a damage a trois.
It all began when we booked a trip to the Bahamas resort of Breezes back in July. Four nights. All-inclusive. All food and alcohol paid for in the cost of the trip.
The occasion would be our 25th wedding anniversary — and the first time either one of us had been in an airplane since our honeymoon.
Sandy was an uninvited, and unexpected, guest.
Yes, we were aware that the end of October is still technically hurricane season. But really, what are the odds of a hurricane forming near the very end of the season? And besides, your 25th anniversary only happens once.
We had visions — my wife of a golden tan, I of sitting at a barstool in a pool. Were we asking for too much? Maybe choosing a resort called Breezes at the tail end of hurricane season was just too much for the fates to ignore.
For three months, we scrimped and saved enough money to go. Harry and Gabe at Garavanian Travel helped us make our plans. Mother Nature and Sandy helped unravel them.
You know that movie National Lampoon’s Vacation, the one with Chevy Chase? Yeah, well, the Griswolds have got nothing on the Phelpses.
The day before we departed, I chanced a look at weather.com, just to see what the weather might be like in the Bahamas. It was then I saw what was brewing in the tropics, and it wasn’t Kalik beer.
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By Dan Phelps
LowellSun.com