WOW, All In A Week!!

     Where do we begin?  Definitely a full week.  It began at DIA with our mountain of luggage and a flight that left at 12:55 AM to St.Maartin in the Caribbean with a stop over in Charlotte, North Carolina.  It has ended in some sense of normalcy and our family settling in at our new home.  The exciting part - well that was the middle part - just a few days after our arrival Hurricane Earl decided to stop by for a visit on the island.  The McGlue family experienced their first hurricane ever and it was a good one.  What was supposed to be a Category 1 hurricane just going by the island became a Category 3 coming towards the island (supposedly it left a 4).  We shut the Hurricane shutters on Sunday afternoon and played in the pool as long as we could and then settled in for the evening - charging all electronics and reveling in the air conditioning for as long as it would last.  Earl was supposed to arrive around 2AM!!!!!  The power turned off sometime before midnight...........  Then for the lonnnnng day of waiting.  It is like being in a dark cave for endless hours....should we look outside? Is better or worse? Ahhhh it is calming down, then a huge gust of wind... oh no it isn't. With the really big gusts and the shutters banging Dillon would say "the hurricane is saying let me in, let me in". Hmmmm what was that big thud?  We came to the assumption that the big thuds on the roof were the coconuts flying off the palm trees.  This goes on for hours upon hours broken up by runs outside to see the insanity.......what game can we play now? what concoction of food can we create without electricity.  The worst of it appeared around lunch time...12 noon (during which time if we cracked a window open our ears would pop - the pressure was sooo high) and lasted a few hours then died back down again.  Eventually out of boredom you head to bed in an attempt to sleep.  From what we have heard the winds reached around 120 mph.  Good enough for us......the trees have been stripped bare and we now have a great view of the ocean!!!!!  Although our water came on.......the electricity did not for around 3 days.  You do everything you can to not open the fridge or freezer and barely move your body because it is soooo hot and humid.  The next morning (this is now Tuesday) we opened up the hurricane shutters to a sunny blue sky day and the grounds completely littered with branches, leaves and hurricane remnants.  The pool was full of palm fronds and other greenery (the boys hopped in with snorkel masks and became a dive recovery team).  The palapa - well the main pole is standing but the rest of it was a shredded mess!!!! As we picked up at least some of the mess Dillon remarked "mom, the hurricane did not clean up after itself, it is just like Ronan and me - the boys are great at bringing the humor to the messiest of situations. So, yes we had a very exciting first few days and as I figured if it is this difficult at the beginning it will only make the rest of the time that much easier. 
     We have gotten back to normal - well as we know it here.  Mikes classes are getting back on schedule, the boys(and me) are easing into homeschooling and we are making regular visits to the beach and are looking forward to a regular weekend on the island.  We have lots of plans for while we are here and hoping for many adventures - if the first week is a sign of what our life here will be like I think we will be much assured of the adventure part!!!!!




                                               
                                                      The boys and our mountain of luggage.

Sleeping in Charlotte - the coldest airport in the world.

Ronan catching some more ZZZZZ's on the plane to St.Maartin.

The boys at Mullet Bay, St.Maarten, there at last.

Turbulent seas from Hurricane Earl, the view from our balcony.

Trees pre- ravaging winds!

More great crashing waves at Mullet Bay.

A sad looking palm tree!!

Finally back at the beach and enjoying some good waves.

Here is some video to enjoy    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wLKNAa0EgA&feature=channel

The McGlue Family