When: June 27th – July 5th , 2007
Where: STT as a home base for our VI trip
Who:
· Myself (LandLockedBeachLover or LLBL)

· Hubby (OldDeckHand or ODH - - he has yet to post on the board)

· Our 10-year old son (which I will call ADD boy and, although not diagnosed as such, fits perfectly for obvious reasons to us)
· Our 9-year old daughter (which I will call HMG - - High Maintenance Girl, and I have absolutely NO idea where she gets that from J)
How: Aadvantage Miles and Marriott Reward Points! The rest will be paid off…slowly…by our VISA card.
Why?: Because I am a sick degenerate VI addict, and I have infected our entire family. Sorry.

Day 1; June 27th – 13 hour travel day. Alarm rings at 4:45 am after a fitful night of “sleep” for me. I AM JUST TOO EXCITED TO SLEEP! Woke the kids up, and they both jumped out of bed like a Jack-In-The-Box. What is the plural form of Jack-In-The-Box? Jacks-In-The-Boxes? At any rate, this is a three, yes three, flight trip to STT through MIA and SJU starting at 7 am. By the time we were in SJU, hubby and I had Medalla’s in hand and were standing at gate 1A pacing around and smiling like complete idiots. Unfortunately, we boarded the last plane only to sit on the tarmac for 45 min as our pilots were delayed in their previous flight. Pilots?? We don't need no stinkin' pilots!! Put me in the damned cockpit, as I’m SURE with all this adrenalin I could figure out how to get this puppy up and over and down! I glance back at ODH, and he has that twitch in his eye that tells me he has had it up to here with ADD boy and HMG fidgeting and constant need for food, drink and entertainment. Oh God. Let’s get there quickly before we are childless. After ADD boy's fourth, yes fourth, question as to why there isn’t a direct flight from St. Louis to STT, the plane finally takes off.

Around 7:45 pm we land in the best darn airport I could ever imagine. That usual smack of hot, humid air when you disembark was non-existent at this time of the night. Oh well. The free rum punch stand was also long closed by now. Oh well. The Jeep Wrangler that I ordered from Budget and re-confirmed twice before leaving was also…you guessed it…not there. Oh well. Our dinged and scraped Suzuki Aerio will be just fine, thank you very much. Our luggage, however, was all there by the time I finished at the Budget counter. Thank you Luggage Goddess for smiling upon our fair heads.

We checked into the Best Western Emerald Beach for a two night stay and sluggishly made our way to the hotel restaurant (The Palms) as ADD boy and HMG had gone for at least 2 hours now without food or drink of any kind. Poor, poor babies. Now, after being up now for close to 16 hours, I think a perfectly good plan is to order an insanely gigantic plate of carb-ridden pasta while listening to the likes of every slow song you can imagine from Chicago, Billy Ocean, Luther Vandross and Celine Dion. I guess they think this is “romantic” music, but all of us were just about ready to collectively puke. And then fall asleep. On the upside, however, we did get our 4 complimentary glasses of rum punch which were downed in, um, 50 seconds. We drifted off to la-la land in our 2 double beds to the faint whisperings of ADD boy/HMG bantering “quit touching me…you’re hogging all the covers…well, I have no sheets…scoot over…get off my pillow…shut up…”

Day 2; June 28th – All is quiet in the room at 8:15 am. Everyone is still asleep except for me. All are happy. No one is complaining. No one is hungry…yet. 45 minutes later all are hungry and sitting at The Palms for our free continental breakfast. Or so we thought. After each eating a slice of toast and bowl of cereal from the buffet line, we promptly got up to exit. Wait a minute, here’s the…bill? Unbeknownst to us, they discontinued the gratis breakfast back in October. So, our total for 50¢ worth of bread and grains was $42. Urgh. After this “satiation”, we made our way into town to visit Blackbeard’s Castle. After climbing the 99 steps, I’m wishing (again) that I‘d eaten that second bowl of cereal! The kids loved Blackbeard’s with all the pirate statues and stories.

We got some great shots of CA from the top of the tower (more steps!).

We also had a great conversation with one of the attendants in the Governor’s house that was part of the tour. Finally someone finds my husband’s knowledge of pirates and my knowledge of British history endearing!

After an hour here, we stopped by Jen’s Gourmet Deli for some sandwiches to bring back to the hotel beach/pool. ODH and I split a turkey/cheese sub with the best sourdough bread and ADD/HMG split a salami/cheese. We made it back to the hotel and lounged at Lindbergh Bay and the pool all afternoon, which felt like a slice of heaven when I hit the clear blue-green water. This is actually a very nice beach, which had some great snorkeling on the left side.

Cleaned up and went to The Greenhouse (tradition for us). Gave the kids a stack of quarters to play some pool and some caffeine energy in form of Diet Cokes while ODH and I enjoyed their 2-for-1 drink specials! Wine (X 2) for me. Beer (X 2) for him. We each had a bushwacker and then a painkiller, which was blessedly strong as I had just broke a nail playing pool (urgh). I had the Jerk Chicken Mango Salad, which was wonderful. Stopped by the vendor plaza for a quick, impulsive purchase of a bright yellow, straw cowboy hat. I'm sure I'll never wear it again, but in my mind $10 well spent!

Fell asleep in bed with a drink in my hand (this is a common theme). Must get proper sleep to make it to Red Hook at 8 am for our Born To Rhumb trip with Blu and her crew!