Family O'Broads

We are going off to the Caribbean. We leave today. Or sometime later today. I am, as usual, half elated at the prospect of so much copy material from the trip, and half in dread of how exhausting this will be. For me. There is very little about a trip with three children and a husband that will allow me to rest on a chaise lounge all day, soak up the sun, and sleep, read, and write. These trips are programmed. Event-filled. And making sure that everybody has whatever is needed and is ok with the next event and survived the last event and remains in the proper frame of mind in general, falls on me. And I must hide all my feelings of fear and dread because these trips are the only demand that my husband makes of my time. So long ago I stopped being unable to breathe at the thought of getting ready to leave, being gone, and cleaning up all the while I was gone mess upon my return, and learned to go, take a pen and pad, and turn these events into a working trip.

We are going to an area I've never been before, the islands not far off the coast of Argentina. It is mid-summer and we are nearer to the equater than I may have ever been in my life, so I have packed solar protection swim wear and purchased underwater gear to help me learn how to use a new underwater camera for competitions.