It was a flashback to growing up. Getting up early, trudging the six blocks from home, putting on the wet swim suit that I wished I had hung to dry and jumping into the city-budget friendly 75 degree pool for swim lessons. 40 years later, it's putting on a cold wet suit, listening to the excited yelps from Karina across the hall as the wet neoprene hit her back and getting ready to jump into day two of SCUBA lessons. McKenzie, Karina and I had just passed the academic portion of the program only a few minutes before and were preparing to learn the final water skills required to become a certified open water diver. With our confined water portion completed, in 10 days we will switch venues from the chlorine ridden public pool in Waconia to the warm tropical waters of Belize, where we do four dives in the Caribbean ocean to show our skills and explore the second largest barrier reef in the world.
It's been interesting preparing for this trip. Julie is madly finishing up McKenzie's team scrapbook and building the awesome decoupage wooden letter gifts for the girls, preparing to host Bunko on Tuesday and just get organized to leave in far too few days. Shoe shopping for jungle ready hiking shoes, picking out tropical wear for 90 degree humid environments and figuring out what to (not) bring will consume every minute of time we have.
The trip is the easy part - it's the preparation that's the true adventure. At least the old saying that "preparation beats smart" is working in our favor!
Adventure Life has been an extraordinary travel resource for us over the years and today was no exception. Our River Cruise booking was handled by Jess (who has been our personal trip planner for several years) the same day as our inquiry. Suggestions were given for cabin choice and pre-trip options (that were not shown on the cruise line's website) like airport transfers and prepaid gratuities. Trip insurance recommendations followed and we were assigned a travel co-ordinator till the end of the tour. All we have to do is show up! Great service from friendly folks.
APtravelwell
1 day ago
My representative Kevin was very responsive generally and in crafting our itinerary to our specific priorities.
Rocco Labella
1 day ago
Although there was a lot of paper work, I received help and guidance when I needed it.
Donna Kirby
2 days ago
Our travel was flawless! The rider pickup (airport, hotel, ship) was seamless. Jane's recommendation for Emerald Cruise Sakara was everything I wanted but the experience was soooo much more. Adventure Life took care of each and every detail and this was the easiest of all my travels.
Anne Petty
3 days ago
Follow up was effective any questions were answered in a timely manner