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My very dear friend, Barbara, asked me to join her on a birthday vacation this past July. We decided to have a "chill-out, do-nothing" vacation when her Dad came up with a timeshare trade at Sandy Point Village in Tobago, West Indies for a week. We found another location on the same island for the second week by searching Internet sites.

I'm a horrible photographer -- the kind who takes pictures of ceilings and parts of people's heads.... I borrowed my daughter's digital camera for this trip. She preset everything so that all I had to do was point and shoot. Unfortunately, around the 3rd day of our vacation, I stuck my big fat finger on the lense. You'll notice that most of the pictures have a large, smudgy fingerprint in the lower left corner... oh well, it's just one of those many "memorable" moments -- over and over again.

Our vacation begins with our flight on American Airlines -- San Francisco to Port of Spain, Trinidad (via Miami); a one night stay in Trinidad and an early morning flight from Trinidad to Tobago. --Leslee

thursday :: 11.july.2002

The Bel Aire International Hotel in Trinidad is not exactly what we expected...

The bathroom light doesn't work and you can't close the door for fear of never getting out -- there is no doorknob. The toilet makes a horrendous sound when you try to flush it and it doesn't actually flush the bowl.

The room itself has a musty, bleachy smell and we're afraid to sleep in those bedsheets. Barb keeps all of her clothes on despite the heat and I thank God that I bought that Dream Sack to sleep in. I spread it on top of my bed, climb in, squeeze my eyes tight and pray for sleep to come.

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