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The long title of this blog entry is a spoof of American Airlines’ (AA for short) marketing gimmick of naming everything with their moniker AA. They have AAnytime fares, AAward tickets, etc.
Last night, after doing some shopping at the mall in El Segundo (see related post soon about that) I got to the airport at about 9 pm. I checked with the kids and found out that Wes was being dropped off about 10 and Jenny and Geoff, taking advantage of being in LA for a couple hours, were having dinner with their mother and would arrive about 10:30. Cutoff time was 10:50 so we should be OK. When I went to check-in I found out that American had still preserved the two free bags (instead of $25 for the first and $50 for the second) policy for “elite” airline passengers like me! So, I figured I’d wait for Geoff since he had “my” second bag.
Wes was on-time and the others showed up a bit after 10:30. The baggage lines had backed up so I drug my two bags over about 200 feet to the first class line (another benefit of being life-time Platinum) where I was waited on immediately. Up the escalator we went only to find the absolute slowest security line EVER! It was like the entire place was in slow or still motion. Nothing moving for five minutes at a time. After about 30 minutes we managed to eek our way through the time warp figuring we would arrive at 42B after the boarding had started. Not so! Our flight had been delayed from 11:35 pm to 12:30 am. Then to 1 and finally 1:30 am. Ugh!
While we were waiting I managed to get our connection in the morning changed from 10 am to 11 am and “upgrade” the three kids to exit row seats next to me. Score! Then, I convinced Wes and Jenny (not Geoff who was all setup on the floor with a power outlet editing pictures on his Mac) to go to the Admiral’s Club with me. They were very impressed with the cushy seats and would not need any convincing to go to the club when we got to San Juan!
The American gate attendant was actually honest when he announced on the PA that someone had just screwed up scheduling the planes and had put the wrong plane at the gate. They had to find another plane, get it cleaned and switch planes at the gate. When we boarded, the pilot made up a story about a maintenance issue with the first plane and tried the old “you wouldn’t want us flying a plane that had a problem, would you?” line — only one way to answer that question…
The 757 had seats that were hAArd as a rock but at least we had some leg room in our “deluxe” exit row. Pity the poor other people who had their knees in their lap for the 6 ½ hour flight (especially for 6’2” people like Wes!) We arrived in San Juan at just about 10:50 am in time to find out that our 11 am flight had already departed. Off to the Customer NoService line to get re-booked on the 1:45 pm flight and our $7 food voucher. Funny thing is you couldn’t even eat a meal at AA’s Admiral’s club with their $7. But, after hanging out at the club for an hour and a half we boarded the puddle jumper and flew to Tortola. The beautiful shades of blue, green and puffy white clouds foretold what we would soon be experiencing on the ground and in the water! We had AArived four hours late but we were in pAArAAdise. AAll was good again.
At the airport we plundered through the immigration and customs forms and lines and went outside to find a cab. I found a cab driver and tried to negotiate a bit with him as I’d been told was possible. Nothing going. He actually said that after he took us to our hotel we’d see that it was worth $20 more, not less! Geoff really enjoyed hearing his stories about the island, his work as a developer and his four kids. He also told us about the vegetation on the island, especially the trees…almond, mango, etc. The ride was about 45 minutes, some of it steep and windy (not with wind but curvy…funny how the same word is used for both) and we eventually arrived at the Long Bay Resort. The highlight of our ride was the cab driver telling us that “A belly full of anything on an island is a good thing!”. Hopefully this is a foretelling of things to come…
Next thing you know, Wes and Jenny had their scuba gear and were ready for their lesson, Geoff and I have taken the bags to the room and 30 minutes later we were all in a jeep heading to the West End landing to a dive boat. We motored out to a small island about a mile West, towards St. Thomas, anchored the boat, put on our gear and did a back roll into the warm, aqua blue water. After adjusting our weights to achieve neutral buoyancy we were able to enjoy lots of coral, a number of small fish and a turtle (although I personally didn’t see it). We tried out my Canon S90 camera in the submersible plastic case and it seemed to work great! (See the photo gallery below.)
After about an hour we passed our gear to the guys on the boat, climbed up the rear ladder and took the short ride back to the Jolly Roger dock. Pina Colada’s followed and then we loaded ourselves into a pickup and drove back to Long Bay. Sequential showers were followed by a trip to the hotel restaurant. They convinced us that this was THE place to eat and they were right. Goeff’s whole red snapper was fantastic as was the jerk chicken, the baby back ribs and Jenny’s vegetarian burritos. With the great butternut soup, the Caesar salad and the desert (I had a great pecan pie) we were stuffed!
Geoff, Jen and I went to the lounge to do picture processing, finish up the on-line diving course and to work on blog articles respectively. When we returned, Wes was passed out on the bed and next thing you know, all of us were converted to island time, drifting off to the sound of the palm trees blowing in the gentle island breeze and the waves breaking on the white sandy beaches.
Here are the Picture Galleries for today. You can get larger versions in the Mobile Me Gallery with the link at the very bottom of this post:
BVI Day 1 Picture Gallery: http://gallery.me.com/travelwithdmcontent/100719
Marlene Shirley - I am sooooooooo envious! The water is so clear, andto hear the palm trees blowing gentle in the breeze, and the waves on the white sanding beaches!!! I’m sitting here pretending that I am with you as I am really in a cold basement writing this. Sounds like a GLORIOUS time!