The Buccaneer – Saturday, May 14, 2011 (7:00PM)

Deme, can you please get me a glass of water?…

We were sitting next to the large window – that framed our ‘perfect’ ocean front view… A storm was brewing and we were patiently waiting for its arrival. (we watched as it slowly rolled over the mountains beyond)

Quickly.

The winds became more violent and palm trees started to look like something I saw in passing on the Weather Channel… (um. not good.)

…SO. he went to go and get my glass of water and he noticed that there was water coming in under the front door. He tried to open the door, but there was resistance from the pool of water that had already collected in our walkway. He said there were waterfalls over the retaining walls in front of our door. (Our room was conveniently located at the bottom of a mountain along the ocean…Directly in front of a paved roadway… ALL of the water was sheeting down the hill and into a cluster of (3) rooms…)

At that moment we were in survival mode.

We ran and collected EVERYTHING off of the floor and forced it into our suitcases.

+ By this time there is about an inch of water underneath our beds.

I went into the bathroom to collect a few last things and there was about 2″ of water by the toilet.

…Then Deme said the power went out in the main bedroom space.

WTH.

No power – in a horrible storm – in a flooded hotel room – on an island in the Caribbean – Are you serious?

By around 8:30pm we were both sitting on the beds with all of our luggage packed – in the dark, with a candle. The rain finally started to subside and front desk was able to send a shuttle down the hill to pick us up and transfer us to a new room…

IT RAINED SO HARD + FOR SO LONG (I cannot stress that enough. I was scared.)

Before the rain stopped, we were already in our new (upgraded) room. I swear it had to be the rock star suite. Even though that most unusual storm was no fault of the hotel’s they made it right and upgraded us to a room that did not even compare to the last one… (which I already thought was pretty awesome)

Perhaps God just threw another life lesson at me about ‘Weathering the Storm”? Or – was it more of a lesson about designing the landscape / hardscape with proper grades and drainage paths + installing the proper flashing at the exterior wall / slab conditions?

Either way – it was a lesson learned.

Newlywed Game – Thank you so much for this opportunity..

God – Thank you for getting us home safe!