A Blog for Something Really Important: Cruise 2024 - The Anniversary Cruise - Part 3

Two days after my eighty second birthday, we silently floated into the Barbados harbor. It was about eight thirty on a Saturday morning, and we were the last ship into the cruise port. There were already three other cruise ships docked when we arrived. The weather was absolutely beautiful, as fitting as possible for the National Holiday being celebrated, Barbados Independence Day.

We originally booked this specific cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse because it was a ten day cruise - seven day cruises are our minimum length cruise - and secondly, its itinerary included two ports of call we hade not yet visited, Dominica and Barbados.

To make it absolutely perfect, Barbados happens to be home to friends we worked with in the Miami IBM field office over thirty years ago! We made our travel arrangements and warned Richard and Andrea we were headed their way.

Ilse supported Richard when he was a systems engineering group manager for the IBM Miami marketing branch office. His personal care and concern for Ilse during a family death was far more than just corporate responsibility, it was a kind, thoughtful person who did the right thing and his actions have been fondly remembered for many years.

1991 - Richard and George
A Blockbuster Store Installation
Boca Raton, FL

The last time I worked with Richard was over thirty years ago when he visited one of our unannounced pilot product installations for Blockbuster where I was the installation project manager for the Miami office of the IBM service division.

We had our last conversation sometime around one o'clock in the morning amid electricians and construction people, and of course, a panic-stricken customer who had to reopen his store by ten the next morning. Of course Richard and I had on our traditional white shirts and ties - at least he did, I was once again bending the dress code – even if our sleeves were rolled up. We have been friends on social media for many years now, keeping track of each other as we wondered around the US and the world in general.

The opportunity to meet once again was thrilling to look forward to. It was also thrilling to look forward to meeting Andrea, also a retired IBMer, for the first time. Especially after finding out she has known Richard since she was ten years old!

Richard had told us through our sometimes reliable Internet connection on board the ship that they would meet us outside the main entrance to the cruise port. He timed it so Ilse and I would arrive the same time he and Andrea would pull up in their air-conditioned car.

We hoped he would recognize us as we walked across the traffic circle just outside the main port gate. After all, thirty years has changed us all, well, most of us at any rate. Richard hasn't aged! It must be the water! I recognized him immediately, as he stopped alongside the edge of the roadway. Why didn't our bodies regress back a couple of decades so we could again look like the old days?

George, Ilse, Andrea, and Richard - Bathsheba, Barbados

Even though our ship's clearance was delayed, the plan worked perfectly. After warm greetings and hugs, we are soon headed through hustling, traffic, in town, and then a wide, six lane boulevard headed into the nearby hillsides to visit his first surprise for us, the beautiful Hunte's Garden, a botanical showcase to rival any of the botanical gardens we have visited before.

We were told the entire garden staff consists of only five people, so we didn't expect the financial or structured organizational institutions as Fairchild Gardens in Miami or Selby Gardens in Sarasota. At first glimpse, it appeared to be a very lush relative of the Sunken Gardens of St. Petersburg, one smaller garden that we really enjoy, but it is uniquely far more than that. It is a reclaimed portion of a collapsed cave on the crest of a hill with a re-purposed house, stable, and the tallest Royal Palm trees I have ever seen.

We met Anthony Hunte, the founder and owner of the gardens, a native Barbadian, a Bajan, resting on one of his benches amid the lush tropical foliage, personally welcoming his guests. He and Richard exchanged cordialities and good natured ribbing and Richard introduced us to him.

"Enjoy!" Anthony said with a big smile. "Just relax and enjoy!"

This is the place to do just that.

We finished at the veranda at the hilltop and had a ginger lemonade when Richard looked at his wristwatch. "Finish up," he said, "We have a lunch date!"

Did we ever! A marvelous drive through the narrow, winding hillside roads, including Horse Hill, where we got to see the Saint Joseph Anglican Church built in 1640, but now even more famous as it had to be closed due the hillside slowly slipping down into the sea. We ended up at Bathsheba, looking at breakers rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean on one of the most iconic, coral pillar framed beaches in the world. Absolutely stunning! The locals were already gathering along the roadway, carrying food and baskets to the beach and the nearby park for the holiday celebrations. The mood was festive and happy, singing and laughter everywhere.

Richard had reservations at the Atlantis, a famous oceanside Bajan restaurant in Bathsheba. The Atlantis serves dinner ala buffet style setups. If I had taken photos of all the offerings the serving line would still be backed up. I tried every single local food available, and while there are definitely favorites, there was simply nothing that wasn't delicious. I admit having Andrea point out her favorites was a big help.

The Mahi Mahi was superb. I have been eating the famous fish way before the ignorance of mass media television audiences forced restaurants to change the name of the delicious fish. It used to be known world wide as Dolphin, but fans of the TV show Flipper had convulsions when they saw “dolphin” on the menu, so in a move bowing to mass ignorance rather than fight the system, the old name simply faded away, replaced by the hip sounding Mahi Mahi. Same fish, same great taste, and Flipper and his friends are happy.

While we were finishing up dinner, laughing and trading stories about our past experiences, Richard presented us with a gift bag. Inside was a beautiful, colorful pictorial history book of the churches of Barbados. Included in the bag was also a large, beige colored ceramic tile, etched with "Barbados Celebrates the Arrival of George and Ilse Mindling, November 30th, 2024," with the full-color national crest, signed prominently by the Honorable Mia Amour Mottley, Prime Minister.

Ilse and I are both absolutely speechless, and that doesn't happen to either of us often.