SXM

The calendar might say Dec. 18th, but for my wife and I, this is week 50. Some 21 years ago, on our honeymoon, we bought a timeshare in Saint Maarten, a cool island in the Caribbean. Why did we buy it? Short answer—we were nuts. It was costly, a long way to go for vacation (we lived in Seattle) and had with it a costly yearly maintenance fee. But we were young (read: younger) and in love.

Older and still in love, we look back at week 50—the week we owned for that timeshare. We had some great times—alone and with family. We ate great French food, went on some fun beaches, wandered, took excursions to neighboring islands, (many of which made us seasick) and relaxed.

Today, we recall our trip in 1984. We called it our pre-vacation. A few weeks later, we were to leave for South America for a three-month sabbatical, so what better way to get prepared than a two-week trip to the Caribbean. We hope to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the trip to South America with a trip nearly as cool as the one to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. In February 2005, we will be off the Viet (freakin’) Nam. That’s one of our favorite lines from “Forrest Gump.”