STJ via DFW
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
I should have been blogging! I should have remembered my camera's cables or card reader too but alas. Packing for three people (one of whom is 14 months old) for two weeks is a bit of an undertaking when you are trying to limit bags (airline fees) and bag weight (airline fees - oh and ability to carry them of course). Camera supplies were a little low on the list. I'll add images once I get back to Dallas and if not then they will surely be uploaded when I get back home.
We left home over a week ago. We put our house on the market on a Friday, had an open house the following Sunday, and then got on a plane Tuesday morning. After a few days in Dallas we got on yet another plane with D's sister for the Virgin Islands, St. John specifically.
This is a working vacation for me. I spent the last full day in Dallas (ah, procrastination) calling vendors and setting up meetings for when I was on-island. I was able to setup five meetings. Each one in a different area or at least a different shopping center in town.
Though baby J would not sleep on the flights to Dallas, he did nap nicely on the long leg of the flight to St. John. We deplaned, found T waiting for us (her flight was earlier), and waited for our luggage. Then we waited some more. Finally after all the flights had their luggage dispersed we realized ours was not there. We filed a complaint or whatever you call it to track the enormous traffic-cone-orange bag that somehow got missed in Charlotte or Dallas. The US Airways counter works were horrible. HORRIBLE! While they were nice to us they were not nice to the couple next to us, and niceness doesn't get you a bag back. Seemed like only one person had authority to log on so we waited for that person to appear. Then they had no idea how to fill out the online form (2 of them helping each other). So they filled it out wrong and hoped it would work out. It didn't.
Two days later I got a call from corporate where lost bag issues go for one last hoorah before being "filed." I walked them through all the wrong info in the form and magically that night the orange bag, that had been called black in the online form, was found and placed on a ferry for our island - in the Virgin Islands - that's VI not VA which is the choice the counter attendants opted for on that form. Regardless, by the next morning we had our bag back and only 1 item inside was broken beyond repair. How does that happen exactly? I guess it must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time inside that bag and gotten smashed.
We missed the 5pm ferry to St. John the evening we arrived because of the drama. We missed it by 10 seconds actually. But we got to relax with drinks and snacks in the newish (new to us anyway) dock at Red Hook. Last time we'd have been waiting outside with no seats had that happened.
The 6pm ferry ride was uneventful. J behaved and seemed to enjoy the ride. He's been doing really great the whole trip actually. I'm really impressed and feel very lucky. Curtis met us at the dock and before long we were in our rental car and en route to our villa.
The villa is HUGE! The pool is the nicest I've ever seen on the island. We're beyond happy with this choice. There's even a separate pool house with it's own entrance, TV, etc. The rooms are also huge and we were able to use a bench to make a separate mini-room for J in ours. We're able to sneak in and out without him noticing us which is perfect.
Come back to this post in about a week to see villa pics!
posted by Shannon @ 27.5.09,
