Stardate 62062.35 - Vacation, Day Ten (Last Day)

On Sunday morning, after sleeping 10 straight hours, we packed up and took a quick walk into town for breakfast at Bumpa’s.


After a nice breakfast with a view, we went to a souvenir shop where we purchased a mermaid book for Loren, a small bottle of Rum (important to the story later), and some cookies.

We then went back up the 99 steps to our hotel, but we walked past the entrance and up to the gate to Blackbeard’s castle. We paid our entry fee and walked around the area, looking at pirate statues and also climbing to the top of the tower. It turns out that this area was never really a pirate home, but instead was a military fort now converted to a pirate themed complex. We could only spend a short amount of time there, as we needed to check out of the hotel and get to the airport.







We walked the very short walk back to the hotel (really just across a parking lot) and Cheryl asked the owners to call us a taxi. 15 minutes or so later, a pickup truck style taxi arrived to take us and 2 other people to the airport. In a safety situation that would make most American parents cringe, there were no seat-belts and no real safety equipment of any kind. Tell me again why we lugged that car seat around with us?



We got to the airport and made our flight with no problems, save one. The last time I packed a bottle of liquor in my luggage (probably 10 years ago) I carefully wrapped it up and put it into my carry-on. I did the same here with our bottle of rum, completely forgetting that the f****** terrorists have made it impossible to carry liquids on board in carry-on. We remembered to pack our 2 oz bottles of hand sanitizer in the packed luggage, but had a complete mental block on the rum. So the TSA employees in St. Thomas probably are enjoying my Pusser's rum right now, since it was confiscated at security. Oh, well--lesson learned for next time.

Overall, while it was not a traditional super-relaxing beach vacation, we did have a really good time and we're already planning our next trip. I purchased real charts of the Virgin Islands, and also purchased a cruising guide for the Leeward Islands, in case we want to go back to St. Martin sometime for sailing. We're taking applications for people who want to join us on our next trip, and I'll only make you call me Captain most of the time! :-)

Extra Vacation Photos


NYC