Travel

Canine Captain ~ Mick’s Travel Adventure

January 23, 2015 by Candi Licence

As you may know, Mick is a rescue dog and is still wary of new people. So, we weren’t sure how he’d do in a crowded airport and in a confined space on the plane where he couldn’t get away from the hustle of the crowd. Bottom line, he exceeded all our expectations.

Mick loves to be with Michael and will put up with most anything to be by his side. He loves me, but Michael is THE ONE. We tried to do everything to make his trip as stress free as possible and he did everything he could to be the best traveler.

Mick and Michael hamming it up in the cockpit

Mick “got into the mood” of being around a lot of moving people when we were in and out of the Sofitel lobby on Friday and Saturday. Everyone thought he was so gorgeous and he planted himself right by our sides and looked regal. As long as he could see Michael he was fine – cautious and alert, but fine. When we were leaving for the airport, we got onto the airport shuttle first so he could be in the back and would be able to see people approaching. We got to the airport 3 hours before our flight to be sure there would be no issues checking us all in and we would have time to walk Mick before he got on the plane for a 3.5 hour flight.

Upon arriving at the airport, Michael and Mick stayed at the curb with our 6 checkable bags and 4 carry on’s while I tried to find a porter. We knew we would have to check-in inside the terminal because of Mick (curbside check in wasn’t an option) but there was no way we could manage all the luggage and Mick. I found a great porter who had a lovely accent and great attitude who managed our mountain of luggage and took us to the front of the line to get checked through. He was from Haiti and we had a good conversation about life while waiting for the agent to free up. We had all our necessary paperwork – Mick’s current health certificate, vaccination records and import permit for Grenada – in addition to our passports, tickets and clearance to take Mick on the plane. There was a slight delay as they checked to see if we needed a USDA seal but it got sorted right out and we were on our way to security.

Yeah for TSA Precheck. As you can imagine, the security lines for American Airlines in Miami are huge. American is the airport’s largest airline and takes up 2 terminals and 70 gates. We waltzed right up to the Precheck “line” and there was no one in front of us. We got our tickets and passports reviewed right away and then breezed through to the monitor screening. With TSA Precheck you do not need to take out liquids, you can keep your shoes on and computers can stay in your carry-on luggage – YES! Michael buzzed when he went through the screening machine, as was expected, because of his knee replacement. Mick and I sailed through and I just needed a quick swipe on my hands to be cleared.

Next we headed to the gate to drop our bags and to figure out where we could walk Mick. The airport has a few pet relief areas but most are not fenced and are in extremely high traffic areas (people and cars). I thought Mick would be too “alert” to relax and do his business while being kept on a short leash. There was one fenced-in area two terminals away, between Terminals E and F. We were at Gate D9 and had to pass 20 more gates just to get to the beginning of the next terminal. Talking with airport personnel we figured it would take 15-20 minutes each way, plus whatever time Mick needed to go to the bathroom – it was 3:10 and our flight was leaving at 5:00. I left Michael at the gate with all our carry-on luggage and power-walked Mick through the terminals. We were moving!

The funky (and fabulous) pet relief area at the Miami airport

The pet relief area was on the island between the commercial and passenger vehicle lanes so traffic was zipping by on both sides. The space was about 20 feet wide at one end slivering down to 5 feet at the other end and 30ish feet long – small! It had a fence that was about 2 feet tall, no double security gate, part of it was paved and part had some grass, trees and plants. Not ideal, but I was thrilled to find it and to be able to let Mick off the leash and roam about. Mick relieved himself and we wouldn’t need to worry about him being uncomfortable while on the plane. We power-walked back. Mick was panting and I was sweating, but mission accomplished!

Checking the view out the front window was part of Mick's pre flight procedure — Checking the view out the front window was part of Mick’s pre flight safety check procedure

Our great friend, Dan Carey, is an American Airlines pilot and he contacted the pilot flying our plane to let him know we would be on board. As we were being paged by the pilot, Dan’s wife Alison called and said she was just a few gates away and would stop by. I was astonished. Dan and Alison live in New York, not Miami. Dan had flown into Miami the night before and was on a layover before flying to Europe. Alison flew down to meet him for dinner and was on stand-by trying to get back to NYC. Wild! It was so great to see Al – she and Dan are wonderful friends and this really made the trip extra fun.

Mick checking out the captain's seat — Mick checking out the Captain’s seat

We met the pilot and he invited Mick into the cock pit. He was so excited and said he’d had a lot of kids in his seat but this was the first dog. Mick made himself right at home. I’m not sure what the other passengers thought as they boarded the flight. After his photo-op, Mick settled right down into the bulkhead floor space and cautiously watched everyone board, but seemed quite relaxed overall.

We had a great dinner in Business class, with real silver. YUM!

The flight was great – We were flying Business Class in order to get the bulkhead seat with extra leg room so Mick could lie in front of us and not spill into the aisle. The bonus was we got to check 6 bags, they fed us a real meal (!) and had Sapphire Gin and tonic for Michael, good wine for me, all at no extra charge – we were living large!

Since we were in the first row, we were off the plane first which worked well for Mick. In Grenada, you need to walk down stairs and cross the tarmac to get to the terminal. We got right through immigration, got our bags and then got on line for customs. We were in the red line because we needed to declare Mick. It was a long wait because all the students were coming back from the holiday break and needed to also get their electronics checked through. Mick’s paperwork checked out fine and we just needed to pay a one-time VAT tax to get him into the country.

Mick's executive seating on the bulkhead floor — Mick’s executive seating on the bulkhead floor

We were out the door, into the sweet Grenada air and jumped into a king cab pickup truck driven by Marcus Gabriel, the gentleman we are renting our 4 wheel drive from, to be driven to our new home in Woburn. We got to the house around 11:30 PM and were on the pool deck by midnight, just in time to see spectacular fireworks for Sir Royston’s 70^th birthday (the owner of the fabulous Spice Island Beach Resort). We joked that it was staged for our benefit and it was a wonderful way to be welcomed home to Grenada.

Operation Grenada ~ Moving Ourselves to the West Indies

January 21, 2015 by Candi Licence 6 Comments

My fantasy of living in the Caribbean is coming true – for 3 months at least. We’re traveling to our heart home of Grenada and, for the first time, it will be more than just a couple of weeks. We think we’ve been coming to Grenada for 25 years. Not every year, but most years, and some years more than once when we were trying to launch our idea for a Villa resort (see the post The Original Dream ~ a Boutique Villa Resort in Grenada West Indies for more background).

After abandoning that dream, being in Grenada is more relaxing. Before it was lots of meetings – with our Lawyer, architects, the Government, construction manager, etc., etc., etc. Now it is just a few meetings to move our personal lives forward. Last year, we became Permanent Residents of Grenada and, hopefully, on this trip we will become Citizens and will maintain dual citizenship with the US and Grenada.

Packing for Grenada has always been a challenge. Luggage can’t weigh more than 50 lbs. and we’re only allowed 2 bags each before hefty charges are levied. This has marginally worked in the past with each bag at its weight limit, plus heavy, carry-on bags all filled with photography equipment, computers, presents for friends, as well as our personal items squished in. This year, being here longer, we need/want to bring more with us, plus we have Mick and his stuff.

Figuring out how to get Mick to Grenada was a real challenge. The openings to the cargo area in the airplanes that fly to Grenada are too small to take a crate large enough to hold Mick – we tried flights from both Miami and New York – no go. I tried looking at coming down by boat but couldn’t find anything workable – freighters no longer accept dogs. We even tried the option of flying to Barbados (on a larger plane) but couldn’t get Mick from Barbados to Grenada at a reasonable cost, plus we heard some horror stories of animals getting caught in quarantine there.

Finally, we worked out a way to have him accompany us on the plane and I upgraded our seats to Business Class bulkhead seats so he could lie at our feet and not spill onto the aisle. More on that adventure in another post.

We also had to figure out a 3 month storage option for the things we travel with in the US and a place to store our car. We definitely didn’t want to leave our car at the Miami airport for three months. Michael had a great idea to store everything in Venice (where they have car as well as regular storage because of the snowbirds) and we would loop back that way after Grenada, on our way to New Orleans – our next stop. Great idea. Next, we would need to rent a vehicle one way to get from Venice to Miami. We needed to rent a van because we had so much luggage, plus Mick. All doable, but lots of planning, logistics and coordination. In the end, it looked something like this for a Thursday departure from Venice –

Monday – pack for Grenada,

Tuesday – pack up our house items and pick up a local truck from the storage facility (leaving our car there),

Wednesday – load the truck with help from a local man, drive to the storage facility, load everything into the storage space, return the truck, pick up our car, and clean the house

Thursday – final cleaning, pick up rental van to take us to Miami, drive back to house and pack van with all our Grenada bags, drive the car and van to the storage place to put final items in our unit, leave our car, give Mick a quick dog park run and head to Miami.

PHEW! Usually, we leave a day between packing the storage unit and leaving to allow for more leisurely cleaning and final organization, but after we had everything scheduled and planned, we decided to leave on Thursday, a day early. We wanted to see an outdoor Chihuly exhibit near Miami in both daylight and at night and the exhibit was only open in the evening on Thursday night, so things were a bit rushed. Plus, I had a really bad head cold so I wasn’t fully feeling well. Fortunately, we’ve now got packing/storage down to a science and we were still able to get everything done and get on the road in time to see the Chihuly exhibit so Michael could take pictures in the late afternoon light as well as after it got dark.

Another thing we did to prepare for this trip that ended up being brilliant was signing up for TSA Pre-check which assigns you a known traveler number and allows you to bypass the regular security line and procedures at the airport because they have already checked you out – including fingerprinting you during the application process. I had been getting this perk for free the past couple of years because of my previous business travel but it is hit or miss and when it was a miss at La Guardia airport and, horrors – I had to wait in a long line, take off my shoes, pull out my liquids and my electronics after being spoiled by the luxury of fast security pass throughs, I knew I wanted this perk, guaranteed, every time I fly. Michael wasn’t thinking he’d sign up since he travels so infrequently now, but thinking about bypassing the security hassle in Miami when we also had Mick was too good to pass up. TSA Precheck is a wonderful option that is $85 for a five-year clearance and it made all the difference when we were in Miami. If you travel with any frequency, check it out. You can pre enroll online and make an appointment to finalize paperwork and to get your picture taken – the appointment takes about 15 minutes if you pre enroll. Very Cool!

We also needed to find a pet friendly hotel near the Miami airport for Thursday and Friday night and schedule a Venice hotel for our return. This has been our most intricate logistical move to date. We ended up staying at the Sofitel – Miami airport, a completely lovely hotel that was very accommodating. Fortunately, they were running a weekend special so it was also affordable. On our way back, we will stay at the Holiday Inn in Venice. The Holiday Inn hotel chain has upgraded their facilities nicely in the last few years and they are a great, pet friendly option. We’ve stayed at their other locations and have been very satisfied.

We had a good reminder to always be ready early in case of a problem when we both went out early on Saturday – Michael to mail a package back to Venice storage of things we needed for our 2 days in Miami but didn’t have weight allowance to take with us to Grenada and me to walk Mick. Evidently someone tried to access our room which had an electronic lock and double locked itself when they made multiple attempts to enter. I came back first and my key wouldn’t work. I thought my key was deactivated because it was our last morning and it was 11:30 AM. We had asked for a late checkout at 1:00 PM and I thought it was just a timing issue. After going back downstairs and getting new passkeys made – twice, I knew we had a bigger problem – one that we found out was more complicated than we expected. The bellhop’s master key didn’t work and engineering’s magical override gadget didn’t work either. They eventually had to disassemble the whole lock to get us in. We had plenty of time – we were all packed and were catching the 1:30 airport shuttle, but I could easily imagine the stress if we were pressed for time as the engineer tried to hurry through the long process of disassembling the lock mechanism. Good planning averted a potential disaster – Thank you Michael for always wanting to be ready early! Clearly, the adventure was beginning.

Imagination Revealed ~ Dale Chihuly’s Glass Inspirations

December 31, 2014 by Candi Licence 4 Comments

This is part of a ceiling (!) that you walk under between two galleries. It is indescribably beautiful. — This is part of a ceiling (!) that you walk under, between two galleries. It is indescribably beautiful.

Molten glass ~ Vibrant, intense colors swirling and dancing in fantastical patterns and shapes ~ these form the creations of Dale Chihuly, a master of glass blowing. Dale’s imagination, creativity and skill has changed what people thought was possible with glass and through his teaching and art he has spawned a generation of magnificent glass artists whose works stem from his seemingly unlimited brilliance.

These are some of his colorful, organic shapes. Stunning!

I saw Dale’s work when I was in Seattle a couple of years ago and was completely fascinated with his ability to bring life to his imagination and use wizardry to create shapes that are achingly beautiful and seem to speak directly to your heart. His museum is an extravaganza of light, color, shapes and magic. Dale also has a significant collection of his works in Saint Petersburg, Florida. Seeing his collection and sharing it with Michael was on the top of my “Must Do” list during our Sarasota area stay.

This is a small portion of a display that filled an entire room. It was like walking into a surreal world of vibrant colors and amazing shapes

Dale also had a large display of art work that I believe are initial ideas for his glass creations. They were extraordinary as well. — Dale also had a large display of painted art work that I believe are initial ideas for his glass creations. They were extraordinarily beautiful as well.

The Chihuly Collection is relatively small, you can walk the exhibit in an hour, and you can also spend a long time there being fascinated with Dale’s artistic process, his consummate skill and his ability to see worlds that we didn’t even know existed until we view his work and experience his magic. His works are complex. You can experience them at many levels – the “grok” level where you see and experience the whole piece, a more detailed level where you can see the components that comprise the piece or you can focus on each component and wonder … How did he think this up? … How did he form it? … How does it fit together? … How did he even imagine that glass could be manipulated like this? As you can see, I am fascinated and enchanted by his work and his influence.

This huge sphere had incredible detail. I have no idea how he does this. — This huge sphere had incredible detail and was part of a larger piece that is shown in its entirety, below. I have no idea how he does this.

In any setting, a single piece of his work is extraordinary – for example, a chandelier in an entranceway to a theater. When a group of his works are presented together, you get a view into a bewitching world of power, sorcery and enchantment. Do not miss any opportunity to see Dale’s extraordinary genius.

It's hard to pick a favorite, but if I had to, it might be this. When Dale was studying in Venice, he created lots of glass spheres. One day he dropped them off a bridge into water to watch how they would float down the canal. He had some local boys collectin gthem and they put them in an abandoned boat to bring them back. This is the inspiration for this complx and beautiful piece which was displayed on black glass so it reflected all the colors like water would do. This was a stunning piece. — It’s hard to pick a favorite, but if I had to, it might be this. When Dale was studying in Venice, Italy he created lots of glass spheres. One day, he dropped them off a bridge into water to watch how they would look floating down the canal. He had some local boys collecting the spheres and they put them in an abandoned boat to bring them back. This is the inspiration for this complex and beautiful piece which was displayed on black glass so it reflects all the colors like water would do. This is a stunning piece. I originally saw it in Seattle and was thrilled that it is also displayed in St. Petersburg so I got to see it again and share it with Michael.

Delectable Ritual ~ Savouring the Sunset

December 21, 2014 by Candi Licence 2 Comments

A beautiful sunset, viewed from our deck. — A beautiful Outer Banks sunset, viewed from our deck in Duck, North Carolina.

My favorite thing about our house in Duck was that the main deck faced west and had an extraordinary sunset view. Jessica’s Dune is on a hill, one lot from the Currituck Sound and that lot is undeveloped because it acts as the community access to the sound. This means there is nothing built on that lot and it provides an unparalleled sunset view.

We used to have a house on Cape Cod, Massachusetts in Truro that had a similar, extraordinary view and it was there that I first realized that there are beautiful sunsets many nights, we just weren’t normally in a place where we could see them. It seems silly now, but I was amazed that you could see fabulous sunsets, night after night after night. When we saw our first sunset at Jessica’s Dune, I knew we were going to re-establish the sunset ritual of being on the deck every night possible and watching the sun sink slowly and brilliantly under the horizon.

A gorgeous sun getting ready to sink under the horizon.

Sunset watching is at its best starting around 15 minutes before the sun slips below the horizon and can last just a few minutes after it sets or can last up to 45 minutes depending on the clouds and the clarity of the sky. Some nights there were no clouds at all and the show was in the rich colors of the sky as it changed from orange, to red and then to purple. Watching the changes reflected on the water was also fabulous and it was often difficult to decide if the sky or the water was the prettiest.

I love that it is always a mystery what you will see and how, on some nights, the colors seem to last forever.

The ritual begins with one of us calling to the other that “It’s time!”. Then with some wine and maybe some cheese we’d head out to the deck. Sometimes we’d sit in great Adirondack chairs to watch and other times we’d stand at the railing. Inevitably, we’d think this is the best sunset yet, and I’d run downstairs to get Michael’s camera – hoping we didn’t miss the magic and Michael could take a few great shots. The best part was that we didn’t need to go anywhere. We just had to look out the window and walk out to the deck to see these extraordinary light shows.

WE caught this sunset on the way home from Okracoke. We were driving like mad to get to an open spot on the road so Michael could capture this scene. Breathtaking! — We caught this sunset on the way home from Okracoke. We were driving like mad to get to an open spot on the road so Michael could capture this scene. Breathtaking!

It was really hard to pick just a few shots to include in this post because we really had many, many, MANY beautiful sunsets that could fill an album of wonderful evenings spent together. This delectable ritual will always be one of my favorite memories of the Outer Banks.

This was one of the nights with no clouds. The color of the water was enchanting. — This was one of the nights with very few clouds. The color of the water was mesmerizing.

Dinner on a Sandbar ~ Blue Moon Beach Grill

November 26, 2014 by Candi Licence Leave a Comment

Insider tip: Eat at the Blue Moon Beach Grill in Nags Head. A couple of locals told us we had to eat at the Blue Moon Beach Grill so one Friday night we headed south for dinner. Like so many places here, they don’t take reservations but we thought we wouldn’t have too long a wait since it was off-season. We arrived around 7:30 and all the tables were filled but the hostess thought it would only be about a 15 minute wait. There was room at the bar so we ordered some wine and started taking in the sights.

As expected from the name, this is a beachy bar and grill. Lots of beach art on the walls, an open kitchen and inviting bar for drinking, eating dinner or waiting for a table. We didn’t have to wait for long for a table to open up.

I love the concept that all of the Outer Banks are essentially sandbars

We really liked our server who was friendly and efficient. Michael started off with a Caesar Salad that was nothing like we’ve ever had before. It was Chopped Romaine tossed in a homemade Caesar dressing with applewood smoked bacon, fresh tomatoes, caramelized Vidalia onion, grilled lemon, and shaved parmesan. Very different, OK, but I wouldn’t get it again. We prefer a traditional Caesar salad.

For entrees, Michael got their “Angel’s Delight” which was Shrimp and Blue Crab, sautéed in a light white wine sauce, with tomatoes, green onion, roasted red peppers, garlic, and basil and served over angel hair pasta. His dish was fabulous. I had their Ahi Tuna Special with Asparagus and a thick Tamari sauce. I love rare tuna and really enjoyed this entrée. Michael and I split a lovely cheesecake that was light and tasty.

a light, heavenly cheescake — a light, heavenly cheesecake

Michael's Angel's Delight - a perfect name for this wonderful entree — Michael’s Angel’s Delight – a perfect name for this wonderful entrée

The surprising Caesar Salad with Tomatoes and caramelized Onion

Blue Moon Beach Grill is an unpretentious restaurant that has a good atmosphere, great wait staff and wonderful food ~ AND you get to eat on a Sandbar. YUM!