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On The Road to Cayman Islands and Snowmass, Colorado, October 25-30, 2007
This entry was posted on 10/30/2007 5:08 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
On The Road to Cayman Islands, October 25-27, 2007
Pictured below: Doug with the Honorable Minister Clifford, Minister of Tourism for Cayman Islands.
Next up on my schedule was a very important speaking engagement that also coincided with a very important family event. Months before the kids’ mom had mentioned that she wanted to take Julia on a very special trip to Philly, for a girls only getaway weekend to visit her longstanding friends there and their kids, and I saw this as a great opportunity to do something special with my son Adam, as it is always so hard to get your kids one-on-one.
When I received a call about this booking from Ken Thompson, who is the Executive Director of the Cayman Islands Tourism Association, it seemed like a perfect match. The engagement was to be the main keynote speaker at the Fourth Annual Stingray Tourism Awards for the CITA, which was a formal dinner during which they were going to recognize nominees and winners in over 12 categories of tourism enterprises. On the phone in advance Ken was very gracious and accommodating when I mentioned a prerequisite for me taking the booking was that I’d need to bring along Adam due to the dates.
What a good choice it ended up being. The only stressful part was worrying about Adam’s passport application being issued in time, with all the delays you read about lately, and when that was turned around in just one week I knew it was a good sign. Before long the day came when we headed to the Miami Airport to board the Cayman Airways flight and greeted by a waiting driver to take us straight to the Westin Casaurina Resort in Grand Cayman, which was hosting the event, and where Dan Szydiowski, the General Manager, who personally arranged an excellent babysitter to care for Adam during my 3 hour absence. Here's my picture with Dan the next night at the awards dinner:
Upon arrival we had an awesome welcoming experience, and after later meeting Dan in person I knew immediately why, as I always have believed that the staff of a hotel eerily reflects the personality of its leadership. David the Bellman was so patient as to even let Adam do his favorite thing at hotels – which is to ride the bell cart – and Fayola delivered hospitality at its core during our welcome and registration.
It was great to spend most of Thursday just hanging out with Adam, and our only obligation was to say hello and have a cocktail with my contact Ken. I knew it was a good sign when he suggested the beach bar as opposed to the elegant lobby bar, since Adam was along for our meeting. But I knew Ken understood hospitality at its core when Adam asked for his swim trunks and goggles, which were up in the room, and Ken offered to watch him while I retrieved these items. Ken made a great connection with Adam and I later found out why, as he has two young kids of similar ages as well. Adam and I also go to chill on Friday and work on the travel journal his teacher had assigned in lieu of his homework. We rode the water “trike,” and also did some ocean kayaking in the calm blue Caribbean waters.
Before long it was time for me to head off for my keynote speech, and thanks again to “Mr. Dan” we had the best babysitter ever! Due to the special arrangements he had made, Jamie the director of the Westin Kids’ Club, was to be Adam’s babysitter this night. Minutes after her arrival Adam was saying "Go on, Dad, go!" It was really great to know that while I was anxiously awaiting for my start time, Adam was enjoying the Pirate’s Buffet dinner and show at Westin with Jamie. The timing was perfect in that as soon as the show ended I was finishing my speech, and with special permission we’d even arranged for Jaime to discretely bring Adam into the back of the dining room to see his Dad in action as the keynoter. Here's a picture of an exhausted Adam and Jaime at the end of her double shift for the day:
Besides spending such special time with Adam in such a special place, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting wonderful people in the tourism industry. After the awards presentation was over I had a chance to be photographed with some of the people at our head table that evening. This includes Cynthia, who also anchors the morning news in Cayman Islands, with her fiancée (and as of this past weekend husband) Joey Hew, who are pictured below.
I sat next to Joey that night and we had great conversations about our sons who are of the same age, I only Adam could have met his son. Definitely next time. I also got a chance to meet Rebecca Parchment, pictured in the photo below, who will reign as Miss Cayman Islands for 2007-2008, and who is an incredibly articulate, gracious and strikingly beautiful woman. It was great to hear that her objective in all this is to raise an awareness of environmental issues, so we had to lot to talk during the dinner. I wish you well Rebecca as you head off to China this week to represent your country in the Miss Universe pageant.
Saturday was a relaxing day, traveling back to Miami with Adam for the rest of the weekend, which was shortened by pre-committed plans to fly to Aspen/Snowmass on Sunday at 5pm, but we had Saturday night at home with Cathy and most of the day on Sunday.
Despite the distance, my travels to Aspen Snowmass are generally hassle-free via Denver, so I was pretty relaxed as I pulled in my usual parking area for United flights out of MIA. Now I consider myself more than a little in the loop on local tourism and had heard that there was to be a new terminal opening very soon, I did not know that it had opened. I have to vent by saying that I’m sure that building costs several hundred million dollars of tax revenue, but it would have been a good idea to have spent a couple hundred bucks more for at least some make-shift signs telling people where to go. Thankfully despite reaching dead ends on the third and second levels, me and the gang of followers I’d unwantingly accumulated figured out that we need to go to the first floor, cross the taxi and bus traffic, walk the median, then cross back into the new terminal. After seeing the flight on time I ventured out for dinner to bring on such a long flight, guess what? Only snacks. After the departure time came and went and I called a United agent I found the flight was delayed, and still there was no agent for us to talk to in person until it was time to board before departure.
Despite the pilot’s efforts to make up lost time, I missed my connection in Denver by about 9 minutes and instead had to rent a car and drive straight through 4 hours from Denver to Snowmass to make it to do my seminar the next day, since there were no morning flights.
I know the drive very well, and thankfully there was a bright moon, no traffic, and clear weather, and by 2:30am local time I’d arrived at Crestwood Lodge for my area wide training the next day. Thankfully also it was a really excellent group of participants who brought a lot of energy, and also that it was all very convenient was I was staying right there and training right there. I didn't get to have dinner with my friend Bill Tomchich from StayAspenSnowmass, but he had a good reason as he was on the way back from attending the World Series in Denver. Here’s a picture of me with most of my group that day, including Julie Wiig, Director of Lodging at Crestwood Lodge, who initiated, organized, and hosted the event, who is pictured kneeling in the front.
After an uneventufl flight home that arrived on time despite the peak arrival of Tropical Storm Noel in Miami, I hade it home and would be there for the kids' class parties at Halloween and to go out to Seminole Hard Rock with Cathy for Halloween night, and would be in town for over a week!
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