Tuesday 11/29/2005 - Charlotte Amalie, Departure

We woke up at around 8:00 a.m. and got the coffee going immediately. We took showers and packed up. Craig's urchin sting was no longer discolored, and it felt fine. I walked over to the dive shop to return the dive bag, which we had forgotten to put in the drop box with the gear last night. We got out of the room at 11:20, a little after checkout time. Craig checked out and then we went downtown. We dropped off Gina, Roger, and Steve and attempted to park. The municipal lot was full and we headed down past the shops. There was nothing. We were in traffic for half an hour and then we finally saw a spot open up in the municipal lot. We asked the attendant and she let me move a cone so that we could enter the lot. By the time we were parked it was 12:30. We went to Marty's information booth to say hi, and we found Steve there. Gina and Roger came back and we decided to make Marty do some work and recommend a restaurant.

He recommended Tavern on the Waterfront. Craig got the pulled beef brisket sandwich with fries. I got the Thai peanut chicken wrap with rice. It was delicious. Roger had gotten his camera card replaced while we had been parking the car, and the camera store had transferred his photos from his previous card to this one. He took out the camera to look at it and realized with a shock that the new card did not contain his previous pictures. He realized that he needed to get back there immediately to try to recover his pictures. They re-transferred the pictures while we were eating lunch, and then he was able to pick up the card and all was well. We all said goodbye to Marty and then drove to the airport. There was a woman parked in the middle of the road where you return the rental cars, so we couldn't get through. She was flailing her arms around, whining that there wasn't enough room for her to get her car through. The gap was wider than many of the roads on the island, so we had no idea what her problem was. Still, we couldn't get into the lot because she was blocking the way and we needed to back up on a one-way street to exit the lot. We were lucky that the tire spikes weren't engaged. We had to leave the car in the lower lot rather than the upper lot because of it. When we went to return the rental car, the panicy woman was in line ahead of us. After she told them that there was no room to drive into the lot, we told them that we had parked in the lower lot.

We checked in at 2:45, went through customs, and had plenty of time to relax. Steve got some food at the airport. Gina and Roger had a drink at the bar. Craig and I went into the gift shop and picked up some Christmas presents for our friends' kids. Our flight boarded at 4:45. Craig, Steve, and I were sitting together on this flight. We stopped in Charlotte, and were told that we could leave our stuff on the plane during the stopover. We had never been in this situation before, usually we would take all of our luggage with us. But the entire plane had already empried out and we were told we would be let back in the plane early, so we left our bags, grabbed our boarding passes, and deplaned. Craig inadvertantly left his wallet in our carry-on luggage on the plane. When we realized thius we felt a bit nervous, but who was really on the plane other than the staff? We figured that we were probably ok. We went to the airport food court and each got a bagel (I got a French toast bagel, and Craig got a cinnamon raisin). We split a Powerade. We were the first ones allowed back on the plane, since we were continuing on. Craig went right for his wallet. It was there much to our relief. But after further inspection it became apparent that his cash had been stolen out of it. One more incident of bad luck on the trip.

We got home at 11:20. It was around 50 degrees and we were still in our shorts and T shirts. We couldn't find the 3X section of the parking garage. We wandered around and saw absolutely noone. Eventually we called the attendant via a call box. They asked where we were, and when we told them, they told us there was no such place. Good thing it wasn't an emergency or anything! I can't imagine how they would have a network of call boxes that don't tell them immediately which one is being used. It's not rocket science. After arguing about where we were they told us that they would send someone to find us and bring us to where we needed to go. We saw an employee truck and tried to flag it down. The driver did his best to avoid us, but eventually ended up rolling down his window and telling us that we were currently in the Terminal B garage, rather than central parking. Of course there were no signs and everything was under construction. He pointed us in the right direction. By the time we got to the right place and paid at the kiosk, it was 12:01 and we were thoroughly frustrated. People always complain about construction wreaking havoc on Logan Airport, but this was the first time that we personally had been affected by it. Hopefully next year's trip will be a little smoother.
Secret Harbour Beach

Secret Harbour Beach

Secret Harbour Jetty



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