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Jet Blue offered a nonstop flight from Boston to St. Thomas this Thanksgiving, and we jumped at the chance to avoid flying with American and United. The flight was at 9:15 a.m. (how civilized) so it meant we didn't have to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the airport this time.
We woke up at 4:45 a.m. (only an hour before we usually wake up on weekdays) and got ourselves ready. Steve met us at our house at 6 o'clock and we picked up Craig and Steve's Mom around 6:45 (though we had been aiming for 6:30). We had checked in online and had printed our boarding passes the night before, so we went straight to security without needing to wait in a check-in line. There was a Dunkin Donuts in the terminal and we got Craig a bacon egg and cheese on English muffin, but forgot his hash brown (Sorry, Craig!) I got us each a chocolate honeydipped donut and I got myself a pumpkin spice muffin (Had to do it as they always have a promotion whenever pumpkin spice comes back onto the menu in Autumn..."Welcome back, Pumpkin Spice!") Our flight left on time at 9:15 a.m. Despite other airlines nickel and diming you to death, Jet Blue still provides free snacks. I got ginger ale and their signature blue Terra chips, and Craig had cranberry juice and animal crackers. It's such a small thing but it makes such a difference. I would much rather pay $1 extra on my ticket cost to get a snack included. The seats had plenty of legroom and were really comfortable. The flight attendants were cheerful and polite. There was Direct TV and free movies, though we didn't choose to watch anything. It was a lovely experience all around. We landed in St. Thomas ontime at 2:15...about 2 hours earlier than usual. We had our complimentary rum shot upon arrival and then headed over to the rental car counter. We were using Hertz again this year. We had used Budget every year up until last year, when a snafu on their web site prevented us from booking with them. We ended up using Hertz, and everything had gone well. We had gotten a flat tire and they had give us a $25 off coupon for the trouble, and we were redeeming it this year. At first the lady thought she didn't have any full sized cars. Though it would have been difficult to cart 5 people (us + Marty) around in a compact, we were pleasant about it. She was going to give us an additional $25 off, but it turned out that she actually did have a full size car after all, so all was fine. It was a red Hyundai Sonata - bigger than most cars we had rented on the island. We put our luggage in the trunk and headed off. Craig felt like he was driving a big boat on the windy mountainous roads. "Left, left, left" is our driving mantra, to remember to stay on the left side of the road. Once again we were staying in a suite that has a kitchenette. We stopped at Food Center to buy groceries and alcohol for the duration of our stay. Groceries are always surprisingly expensive, as it is all stuff which has to be transported to the island. As we were loading the car up with grocery bags in the parking lot, Marty was driving by on his way to the hotel to meet us. He saw us and stopped to meet us. He had borrowed his friend Doc's car, as both his own car and his motorcycle were out of commission. We followed Marty to Secret Harbour. At one point during the ride he opened his door and jumped out to lay in the ditch, in homage to the fake motorcycle accident he had staged years ago to freak us out. He was doing this for Mom's benefit. Of course it's less amusing now that he's actually suffered two motorcycle accidents. But you gotta love him for still making the joke anyway. When Craig went into the office to check in, they gave us two neighboring 1-bedroom suites instead of the 2-bedroom suite we had reserved. Though at first we were skeptical about the arrangement (being in a single suite is more convenient in lots of ways) it ended up being fine. This way Mom got her own private space while we were in the party suite. She could come over when she wanted to, but had a quiet retreat when she preferred. We were in building 1 on the third floor, suites 133 (us) and 134 (Mom). They were both gorgeous and recently renovated. Our suite had granite countertoops. a breakfast bar island, a flat screen TV, gorgeous cabinetry, etc. Our bathroom was also quite modern with granite countertops, a shower with smooth stones on the floor, and a cool carnival glass sink. We cracked open cold drinks and Mom got settled in next door. We had been invited to Marty's motorcycle club's Thanksgiving dinner at Biker John's house. We knew the club from past visits and this was very generous of them. But they had been ready to eat when Marty left them (before coming to meet us). We were grateful for the invitation, but since the timing wasn't right, we didn't want to impose and show up late for dinner. Instead we decided to go to Molly Malone's in Red Hook for their all-you-can-eat turkey dinner. We had gone there last Thanksgiving and it had been quite nice. Marty called and made a reservation for 7 p.m. We took our drinks out onto the deck and enjoyed the sunset. It was nice to catch up wiith Marty. He's a great friend and we are lucky to be able to see him once a year. We watched the Lions game on TV. Marty is from Michigan, and we were surprised to see that they were winning. "They'll find a way to lose," Marty predicted matter-of-factly. And, he was right. We left for Molly Malone's at about 6:45. When we got there, it was quite busy. They didn't have any tables downstairs (where the football games were playing on TV). They asked if we wanted to wait or if it was ok if they seated us upstairs. We were hungry, so we chose upstairs. The space up here was actually a separate Mexican restaurant, but Molly Malone's was using it for overflow tonight. We would have preferred to have been downstairs where the action was, but we had only made the reservation this evening, so we were lucky they could accommodate us at all. Although there was no football, it was quieter and better for conversation. Our waitress Amanda was from Massachusetts and went to UMass Lowell, as Craig and Steve had. Small world! For $25 we had all we could eat salad, turkey soup, turkey, stuffing, veggies, mashed potatoes, and wine. You can't beat that deal. It was great and we devoured it. We could only just barely hear some familiar music playing. Craig immediately recognized it as Swordfishtrombones by Tom Waits. That was an odd song to hear in an Irish Mexican restaurant on a tropical island on Thanksgiving. Very cool! When that song ended, "Invitation to the Blues" began. We could hear the vocals a bit better and realized that it was not a Tom Waits recording at all, but a bar band which was set up downstairs. Wow, that was one cool bar band! As we left the restaurant, the band was on break. We would have complimented them on their Waits covers, but they were in conversation with someone. We headed back to the room to watch the Patriots kick the Jets' butts on the 9:20 p.m. game. It was a really fun game and we enjoyed watching it with our bellies full of turkey. At 1 a.m., Mom retired next door to her suite. Steve made up a bed on one of the wicker couches, and Marty crashed on the other. Craig and I went to our room. Tomorrow was our annual Cap'n Marty's Island Hop, the highlight of every trip. |
 Marty  Secret Harbour  Sunset from Secret Harbour  Marty and Mom at Molly Malone's  Steve, Craig, Marty, and Mom at Molly Malone's  Steph and Craig at Molly Malone's |
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