The first is one of my favorite stories. The first day of our honeymoon ended up being something we were not expecting at all and it was the most memorable part of our honeymoon by far.
On June 5 of 2009, I married the love of my life. We saved a little bit of money leading up to the wedding for a honeymoon in St. Lucia because we heard it was the Hawai'i of the Caribbean and it is a lot cheaper than going to Hawai'i. St. Lucia did not disappoint with it's beautiful beaches, interesting culture and food, banana plantations, active volcanoes, the all inclusive resort, and the company wasn't too bad either. It's ironic considering all of those things that the most memorable thing that happened on our honeymoon involved a man we met on the airplane on the way to St. Lucia.
Megan and me at the Atlanta airport Jun 7, 2009
We left Atlanta really early in the morning to catch a mid morning flight in Miami to St. Lucia's airport from there. On the plane from Miami I was next to the window and Megan was in the middle in between me and a man who we would later learn was named Tom. Most of the flight we didn't talk to Tom. Megan and I watched the inflight movie and talked to each other, but when we were about an hour from landing in St. Lucia, Tom asked Megan about the movie and we started a conversation with Tom. Tom asked about what we did for a living and promised a donation to Megan's high school band when we all got home. He told us that he worked in the tent business and put up big tents for events like Inaugurations and stuff like that. At this point Tom's story started to seem a little farfetched. He said he had been on archaeological digs in Easter Island and China and recounted stories of fantastic adventures with the nonchalance of someone who did that kind of thing every day. Now we were thinking "ok, maybe this guy is crazy" because the tent business doesn't seem like a particularly lucrative one and Tom, the person in front of us, didn't seem as adventurous as his tales would suggest.
The next story Tom told us was one that made us really believe he was crazy or at least making up a story to impress us. He said that his reason for traveling to St. Lucia was to visit with the Archbishop of St. Lucia (actually the Archbishop of three islands including St. Lucia). He said that years ago he and his wife had gone to a mass that the current Archbishop had given (he wasn't in that position at the time) and that the Archbishop had said that the biggest thing he missed being in full time ministry was the extra money to do things like go out to eat or buy a little something in the market. In response to that, Tom and his wife had been sending the Archbishop what they called "an allowance" every month. He said they just sent him what they could every month and in the meantime the Archbishop had started to call Tom and his wife "mom and dad".
At this point we kind of pulled back thinking we were hearing some tall tales, but Tom pressed on and asked where we were staying. We told him and he said that was very close to where they would be on his stay and asked if we would like a ride to our resort when we got there. We said that wasn't necessary and that we were planning to rent a car when we got there. Tom told us that he would see what kind of car they had, and if there was room, he would see if the Archbishop would give us a ride. We kind of nodded and grinned and said thanks, but in our heads we were really saying "ok, crazy guy, thanks for the offer."
By this time we were about to land and we all went on to securing our things, getting our tray tables in their proper positions and preparing for landing. When the plane landed Tom disappeared in the crowd going through customs and baggage claim and we didn't really miss him. We went on as we had planned, and got in line to rent a car.
In St. Lucia, as I'm sure most places abroad, you have to get a short term driver's license to rent a car because your driver's license isn't good there, obviously. I was going to be the one driving because we didn't want to pay for two driver's licenses, so we started that process first. They had my license and were scanning it. I had paid for the temporary license when Tom came up and tapped me on the shoulder and said "have you already done this? Would you like to ride with us?"
Megan and I turned around and there was Tom standing with this mountain of a man in a priest's robe. He was probably 6'5" and 350 pounds. Big guy. Tom asked the lady at the desk of the rental car place if it was too late to cancel the transaction. She said that yes it was. Tom asked her if she could make an exception for the Archbishop because it was his birthday. The lady seemed to know that it was the Archbishop's birthday and said she could cancel the car, but not the temporary license because it was already run through the government system. Everyone agreed that this was acceptable.
Tom introduced us to the Archbishop and his driver. The Archbishop was a very friendly man. He seemed genuinely good hearted and he welcomed us to the island and offered for us to ride with him their little SUV.
Megan and I sat in the back seat with the Archbishop (remember, 6'5" 350lbs), so it was a pretty tight squeeze and Tom (dad) sat in the front seat. The driver drove us all over the island as the Archbishop told us about the work they were doing, the school they had started and the history of the island. We drove to their school and got out and looked around there. The school is on the top of a mountain and has beautiful views. Education isn't exactly what you would call stellar in St. Lucia because it is a pretty poor population outside of the resorts so they were especially proud of the school because it was offering a quality education to a lot of children who would not normally have that opportunity.
As we left the school, headed for our resort, the Archbishop invited us to their Corpus Christi ceremonies that would be held on Thursday, June 11. We told him that we would definitely come and we would try to say hello to him when we did.
When we got to the resort, we thanked them all profusely for their hospitality and generosity and for the tour of the island and we got out of the car to start our honeymoon saying "What in the world just happened?"
It was definitely the most interesting part of our honeymoon and the irony of it coming before we thought the vacation would even start still amuses me.
We did end up going to the Corpus Christi ceremony that week, but it ended up being impossible for us to talk to the Archbishop again because he was busy with the ceremony and the parade and our driver was picking us up at a time that made it prohibitive for us to wait to say hello.
Us in front of the church after the Corpus Christi ceremony
Stay tuned for more stories in the future because I have stories to tell.
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