Melissa i
Strong

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Some climbers cringe at the thought of taking a non-climbing vacation.  What will I do? I'll get bored; I'll lose my good skin, I'll lose strength, which are thoughts that rush into a climber's mind when faced with a vacation not fashioned around rocks.  Maybe, at the height of our Hueco season or when I am feeling particularly strong, similar sentiments are on my mind.  However, after climbing for a season in Hueco, I was ready for a break.

We came home with our bodies less broken than usual after a four-month stretch in Hueco, the most consecutive time I have spent in the Tanks. Trying to be kind to our budget, we did not travel overseas (hopefully next year). Of course, we could have wandered and gone to the south or to Bishop, which is always a thought that has been kept in mind for next year.  But in reality, the busy season and the growth of Wagon Wheel Co-opt made it hard to leave. Then, the Rodeo made it impossible to leave—there could be worse places we "had" to stick around.   After the Rodeo was over, we hung around for a few weeks, enjoying the quiet.  Then, we went back to Estes and our "real" jobs. So, the thought of a vacation to the Cayman Islands did not seem so bad.

Our skin sloughed off, and our muscles released as we relaxed, swimming in the ocean and the pool and snorkeling in the translucent turquoise sea.  We filled our days with books, sea kayaking (sometimes to the local bar), walks on the beach, and a lot of family time, and we treated ourselves to a nice dinner (as part of Adam's birthday celebration).  My family was fortunate enough to have bought a home in Grand Cayman in the 80s. When they can, my parents spend their winter months there, and I always like to time my visits home to be in Cayman when my sister is there with her family, including her husband, my 9-year-old nephew, and twin nieces who are 5.  There were a lot of squirt gun fights, which ended up being mostly between my sister, myself, and Adam—the kids couldn't hang.

Now it is really time to get back to reality, and I cannot complain.  We live in an absolutely beautiful town. I have a wonderful job to return to where I have a great boss and very enjoyable, caring, and compassionate coworkers surrounding me. And Adam has plenty of trees to cut down.  Also, thanks to Dave Graham and Chad Greedy, there are a bunch of new boulders not too far from town!  Wrapping up Wagon Wheel for the season shows us that our guides took out twice as many clients this year! And I have agreed to do the Rodeo again in 2013. We have lots of planning to do this summer as we enjoy the mountains and our life outside of the desert.  I cannot complain.