20 and counting....

What a week we have had as we celebrate our 20 year wedding anniversary together.  
January 7, 1993 was and has continued to be the turning point in our lives.  How blessed we are to have found one another, long ago in the awkward maze of high school and still be going strong (better than ever) over 24 years later.  

In the months leading up to this historic event (not including the big 4-0 for Denise), we looked at every location, every resort and every possible flight-hotel combination from the Caribbean to the South Pacific.  The requirements were simple enough and fall under the simple criteria we usually use when planning vacations- we have to have the four "esses"- sand, surf, sun, and sustenance (that's food for the rest of you).  Denise isn't called Sandytoes for nothin'.  

Denise finally settled in with a travel agent and chose Virgin Gorda, an 8 square mile island in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) as our temporary love nest and home away from home.  In the early hours of January 7, 2013, we boarded the first of three flights, all on progressively smaller planes, in our trek to paradise.  First Charlotte, then St. Thomas, and finally Virgin Gorda.  

In a scene straight from the movies, we de-boarded the plane in St. Thomas, walked off the plane and immediately realized we had no idea how we were going to find the small charter plane service flying us to our island.  Within a few steps off the plane, we saw a guy holding a sign, our sign, and quickly introduced ourselves to Steven, the sign holder who also happened to be our pilot.  We quickly learned the upside of private charter flights; no baggage inspection, no lines and no tickets.  He navigated us through the airport out to the waiting area for our plane.  Outside the window were two beautiful private jets, both smaller than anything we had ever flown on.  Denise asked which one of them we were and Steven replied neither, you are on small plane parked behind these two.  As you can see, it was definitely small, with capacity for five people, including the pilot.  He stowed our luggage and off we went.  No line on the runway, we just wheeled out and took off.  

After a short 20 minute flight, we came in for a landing over the edge of the mountain onto a DIRT runway.  Yes, dirt!  We then went inside the Virgin Gorda International Airport which consisted of ZERO employees, one bench and one windowed office.  The pilot had to go and find someone to process us through Customs and a few minutes later, we were officially in the BVI.  
More to come...