My First Girlfriend Vacation

On May 27, 2007, I embarked on my first “Girlfriend Vacation.” In all my 27 years, I have never had a girlfriend to just hang with. Now, I not only had my girl to hang with, but someone that I cared enough about to share in a new adventure. And part of that adventure meant leaving our boyfriends at home for some serious “girls only” good times. We cruised the Eastern Caribbean with stops in San Juan, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas (USVI), and Tortola (BVI). But just imagine two women in a small ship cabin living and breathing the same air for eight (8) days. I was slightly nervous. Not extremely or even a little – just a slight twinge of nervousness was needling at me. But my friend, Simona, is my partner in crime. I call her my “Ryde or Die B*tch” :-). And simply because her birthday is May 26^th and I love her, I booked the vacation. Why not? Right??

Preparation for the vacation was a whole ‘nother story. See, I have a brother who is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! He is a fashion designer who is about to launch his fabulous tops on amazon.com within the next couple of months. And let me tell you, it is pretty damn fantastic to be the little sister, excuse me, the only sister of a fashion designer. In fact, I am his muse. So naturally, he designed beautiful couture SK Wilbur (that is his label) outfits for me. This was a process. He was so inspired by my voyage that each day he called to tell me of another design he dreamed of for another occasion aboard the ship. So our seamstress had quite a task on her hands! She had two evening dresses (one for me and one for Simona), an elegant crisp white shirt to go with the full length denim skirt he’d designed for me a few years earlier, one casual outfit (shorts and a top), and a swimsuit with a matching wrap! She’d never done a swimsuit before. After 2 months of intense craftsmanship and my brother’s scrutiny, she was exhausted. Whewww!

Simona and I work together which means that five days a week, often more, we would fantasize about our upcoming vacation via emails, telephone calls, and text messages. We had to lay down some ground rules and dream, dream, dream about what we would do once we boarded the ship, what drinks we would have, what games we would play, and the tans we would get. As the days passed and the vacation grew closer, it was like dangling a carrot in front of the turtle. Would it ever get here?!

When the magic day finally arrived, I was loaded down with a large suitcase and a carry-on tote stuffed with SK Wilbur couture, and H&M and Old Navy basics as well as tons of shoes, purses, and jewelry. I also received strict instructions from my brother to return home with LOTS of photos. The vacation was in one word – AMAZING!! We had a blast! We kept company with each other so well and we were so vacation-compatible. Our shared laid-back attitudes and eagerness to have fun made it perfect. And let’s not mention how very fashionable we were. We danced every night until 4am and then we stayed up hanging with the ship’s crew until 6am. We got off the ship at every port and even went jet skiing! So much fun! Unfortunately, the male passengers were too intimidated to talk to us lovely ladies. Luckily enough, the young ones (18-20 year olds) exhibited more character and courage than the older men ever will. Never did we get drunk or tipsy, but we drank coffee twice a day, sometimes three times, (maybe to offset the lack of sleep) and relaxed. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m so glad I shared my first “girlfriend vacation” with Simona. It is a vacation I will always remember.