On a recent vacation with our family in St Kitts, the youngsters decided to go on a volcano-climbing day trip. My job, and my wife's was to pick them up afterwards, which seemed fairly simple, but turned out to be difficult.

You see, we weren't quite sure where the rendezvous point was, all we knew was it was at the Ocean Terrace hotel in Basseterre. When we arrived at the hotel, no one there could tell me the point either, except it was either the main lobby or down below at the main street. Since the hotel is built into the hillside, the difference between these two points was eight flights of stairs!!!

So my wife took the lower level, and I took the lobby; the problem being we didn't have any way to communicate with each other. The shuttle bus ended up being late, which caused me to walk back and forth, up and down eight flights of stairs several times to see if my wife was okay.

I could have climbed five volcanoes! 

Now, I don't leave for a trip without a good set of walkie-talkies. They work anywhere, with a choice of frequencies. I can always find a clear channel to communicate. Now, when my wife and I need to talk from ship to shore, or from the market to the condo, we do so easily. They provide peace of mind and security.