Thursday 11/27/08 - Arrival in St. Thomas, Thanksgiving with Marty, Joan, and Sean

We woke up at 2:45 am, finished getting ready, scraped the frost off the car (happy that this would be the last frost we would see for the next five days), and left the house at 4:15. We arrived at the airport at around 4:45, did self-check-in at an automated kiosk, and were eating breakfast at McDonald's by 5:15. Craig and Steve had Egg McMuffins and I had a Sausage McGriddle.

The three of us were able to sit together on the first leg of the flight. There was a family with three kids who were quite problematic. The grandmother kept standing up, even as the plane was taxiing to the runway. The in-flight movie was "Wall-E", but we owned the DVD and hadn't watched it yet, so we kept our eyes averted (which was not easy). We landed in Miami at around 9:30 am at the very end of the D terminal, and needed to walk all the way down the concourse and then take a tram to the E terminal. You could never tell how far you had left to go because of all the blind corridors. Finally we got to our gate. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 12:05, but it was delayed half an hour while waiting for the crew (just in from Venezuela) to go through customs.

On the plane, Craig and I were seated with a West Indian woman and her adorable toddler. The little girl was shy and would squeeze her eyes shut when we looked at her, but then if we looked away she would tap me on my arm to get my attention. We watched a bit of "Meet Dave" with no sound. We arrived in St. Thomas about half an hour late, and there was a very long line at the Budget rental car desk, which, of course, moved very slowly. After at least half an hour, the entire airport was empty except for the people in the Budget line. We called Marty to tell him that we had arrived, but were running late. We got a brand new blue Ford Fusion (despite the name, it doesn't actually run on fusion, we joked) with 11.9 miles on it.

It had been 2 years since we were last on the island (last Thanksgiving we had attended our godchild's baptism in Guatemala), and we noticed a lot of changes. Dysfunction Junction, the horribly designed traffic intersection, was now a memory. Roads downtown had also been repaved. And the KFC where Craig had eaten on his first trip to STT oh so long ago was now gone.

Marty had informed us via email that Food Center is open on Thanksgiving until 7, which meant that we could go to a bona fide grocery store rather than messing around with the limited food selection and snail's pace service of K-Mart. When we pulled into the Food Center parking lot, Marty and Joan were standing next to Marty's car, with a security guard helping them to retrieve the keys that they had locked inside.

We were so happy to finally meet Joan. Steve had met her last year, but we had only known her via e-mail. We walked around the store, trying to concentrate on what we would need to stock our kitchenette for the next few days. We normally got snacks, drinks, and breakfast food. Marty was rushing us through, pointing out different items, "How about this? What about that? Need some of these?" It was hard to concentrate...what did we need again? Luckily the store was only about a 10 minute drive from hotel, so we could always come back.

After a quick $150 shopping mission (it's amazing how expensive groceries are on the island) we then headed to Secret Harbour. The snorkel gear that Craig had reserved online was waiting for us in the lobby. Craig checked in and we were escorted to room 424, a nice unit on the second floor of building 4. We went in and got settled. The room was very nice. Since we were in building 4, we didn't face west, but this was good as it meant our patio wouldn't get direct sun. And even though we wouldn't have a sunset view, we had a gorgeous view of the beach and hotel property. The late afternoon sun was shining in through a west-facing wall of glass block in the newly renovated travertine bathroom.

After freshening up, we headed to the Toad and Tart. It was a small British pub about 10 minutes away from the hotel in Red Hook. We had driven right past it for years, yet we had never eaten there. Marty introduced us to the proprietress, a salty and interesting British woman named Anna. The place was a small and quaint converted house, with lots of toad memorabilia scattered throughout. We were shown to an intimate table in the a back living room. There were only enough tables for a handful of parties, and there were some seats in the main room at the bar. Sean (a Boston transplant and long-time friend of Marty's whom we had met on numerous of our previous trips) soon arrived to join us.

Craig had a Newcastle on tap and I had a vodka and cranberry. There was one meal being served tonight - a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. For a British ex-pat, she sure had this Thanksgiving thing down. She handed us each a piece of paper on which she had printed out the menu. The Thanksgiving meal was delicious: roast turkey with chestnut sage stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato and marshmallow casserole, buttered zucchini and yellow squash, oven roasted parsnips, cranberry dressing, and fresh bread. Joan is a vegetarian, but she was able to fill up on all of the side dishes and redistributed her turkey amongst the men. The meal was delicious, and the parsnips and yams were especially good. Craig doesn't ordinary like them, but tonight he really enjoyed them.

We had a lot of laughs and interesting conversation. Sean told us about his hike up Kilimanjaro, and we found out that we had some travel destinations in common, such as Guatemala, Peru, and Kenya. Cats were wandering around while we ate, which added to the homey feel of the place. At one point Anna ran in and said "Did a cat just run through with food?" We told her that we hadn't seen it, and she continued to walk around looking for the cat, trying to figure out what it might have stolen. Anna and her staff doted on us as if we were guests at her home for the holiday. For dessert, Craig had the apple pie with home-made cinnamon ice cream and I tried the West Indian pumpkin souffle.

After dinner, Joan and Marty came back with us to Secret Harbour where we relaxed on the deck, listening to a blues band play in the restaurant down the beach. We were playing Pass the Pigs, a dice game where the dice are actually small plastic pigs. We staged a photo of a double leaning jowler - one of the most difficult rolls. We laughed so hard that we were crying. It was so great to hang out with Marty and Joan - they were like family. Even though we had just met Joan tonight, we got along really well together and it seemed like we had known her for years. The party broke up at 11:45 as we all realized it would be an early morning tomorrow for Cap'n Marty's Island Hop!
Marty & Joan

Marty & Joan

Thanksgiving Dinner at the Toad and Tart

Thanksgiving Dinner at the Toad and Tart

Anna & Marty

Anna & Marty

Secret Harbour by Night

Secret Harbour by Night

Double leaning jowler!!!

Double leaning jowler!!!



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