All Good Things Must Come to an End

We saw this coming eventually. I knew that I would actually have to leave paradise and return to reality. After six days in heaven, it was time to pack my bags to head west. Pardner.

This was the hotel lobby. Can you see why it is so hard to leave this place?

We took a taxi from the hotel to the airport, which took about twenty minutes. We passed some pretty views, and I got to see all of the downtown points of interest from an air-conditioned car. I’m glad that I saw it on foot, too.

The ramp was full of other airplanes. I am sure their pilots struggled with a tough week in paradise, just like me. This first one is a Westwind, then a Citation, and then a Hawker.

But, just like she always is, my Phenom 300 was the prettiest girl at the dance.

The beautiful custom interior was added just a few months after the initial purchase of the airplane by the first owner of Gladys (we are the second owners). Everything in this cabin is custom and definitely a step up from the original interior. I approve.

Thanks to the heat/humidity combination of St. Thomas, this ice was melted before we even took off. It kept the drinks cold for the first few hours of the flight, and I had some thirsty boys on board!

They were also hungry, so I made sure to stock the airplane well before we left Scottsdale. We have chips, pretzels, crackers, cookies, and Teddy Grahams. In drawers further down, I have granola and breakfast bars, chewing gum, and almonds in four flavors.

This airplane is a flying snack section of Target!

Goodbye, St. Thomas Tower! Thanks for answering my stupid questions. And thanks for not making me park at the fire station.

This is a cool old Convair airplane, which dates back to the 1930s. It was parked on the ramp, and I don’t know if it is flyable. I love old airplanes and wish I could have peeked inside this one.

Just to the right of Convair is a rather large and probably expensive yacht. Nice!

We were cleared for takeoff and were soon in the air. With an incredible view. While performing the After Takeoff checklist, I was able to snap this picture over one of the Caribbean harbors of St. Thomas. Are you sure we can’t stay? Forever?

Here we are in the turn towards Florida after departing Runway 10. Can you see the runway in the distance? Or are you too distracted by the gorgeous blue water to care about a bunch of concrete that lands airplanes?

Goodbye, St. Thomas! I will miss you, until we meet again. (Fingers crosses that we meet again…)

It’s going to be a while until I see tropical paradise from the sky like this. Arizona doesn’t even remotely resemble this, you know? It was a real treat to experience the Caribbean this month. I’ve never been, and now I’ve been twice in three weeks.

Not too shabby!

We’re getting close to Florida after a few hours of flying. They turned us right off the arrival to prepare to land at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport just north of Miami. Just like a few weeks ago, we need to clear Customs here before we can fuel up and head further west.

Well, hello, Miami Beach! Aren’t you pretty! I remember visiting you with family fifteen years ago before heading through the Everglades and then to the Keys.

In fact, I was in Miami when I first heard Will Smith’s “Miami” song. Is that cool or what?! Maybe your measurements of cool are different from mine.

Gladys recovered from her inspection by the Customs agents. It is similar to what normal airliner travelers experience at the TSA Security inspection line. Plastic gloves were slapped into place.

She felt violated. I will just leave it at that.

I stuck with the airplane while she got fueled. Then I cleaned out the trash and wiped up an exploded soda in the ice bucket. That was fun.

We love Banyan Air Center at KFXE. They always treat us like royalty. And, like you guessed, I don’t mind that at all. Here Gladys is hooked up to the free Ground Power Unit. When you buy fuel, you get the GPU for starting the engines.

And we bought lots of fuel!

Our passengers were carted over to the café on the other side of the Banyan ramp, so they didn’t get to enjoy this beautiful lobby. By the time we were fueled and paid, the passengers were back from their lunch and were ready to continue on our trek home.

This is the customer service desk at Banyan. These people are wonderful to us.

This was my view of the Banyan FBO from the back of a golf cart. We had time to order lunch to-go from the same café that was feeding my passengers, so we went to pick it up.

Since I had very little green food all week in St. Thomas, I opted to get a spinach Mediterrean salad with artichoke hearts and kalamata olives. I always carefully eat olives in case the pit is inside. These had the pit inside. Who has time for that?!

I love artichoke hearts. They could be considered one of my favorite vegetables.

Gladys, let’s go home. I know we have to make another fuel stop in Texas before we can get there, but let’s head out.

The REAL Pirates of the Caribbean

I had so much fun on my snorkeling excursion that I decided to explore downtown St. Thomas on Tuesday. For just $14, I got a round-trip ferry ride over to the main touristy area of St. Thomas.

I thought to myself, “Aww, what a cute little picture of a boat on the ferry ticket!”

But then I realized that the cute little picture of a boat was an actual representation of the hotel ferry to downtown St. Thomas.

I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.

The ferry takes twelve minutes to go from the Marriott to the St. Thomas main dock. We went back to pick up some late-comers. Four teenage boys from another country.

Boy, were they stinky. I would have been fine making them wait a whole twenty minutes to go on the next ferry.

Smells aside, I rather enjoyed the ride over. The Carnival Liberty was at port today, and that made for some great people-watching while cruising the main streets of the tourist trap section of the island.

It was nice to disembark and breathe some fresh air.

No one will believe this, especially since I have a picture of it, but I did not visit this store. Can you believe it? I was shaking because I was so hungry, so I was looking for a nice place to grab some lunch. I made a mental note to come back to this place for polite conversation after a normal meal was finished.

But I forgot. See what vacation does to the brain?! I forgot to come back for chocolate! I hardly know myself any more…

I wandered the main shopping districts while trying to find an eating establishment that didn’t rely on alcohol consumption alone. I just wanted some good food. There are lots of liquor stores and diamond shops in St. Thomas. Duty-free really draws the people in, huh?

During my visit to St. Thomas downtown, I kept getting overwhelmed with the feeling that pirates used to live here. Mixed in with the new buildings are some ancient ones that you just know were here when pirates ruled these parts.

They are certainly romanticized in movies, but pirates were bad critters.

  

Finally! A lunch restaurant that was calling my name! Welcome to Bumpa’s.

The view from my rooftop restaurant was amazing. I got to see all the goings-on of the busy main road. Just to the right was a steel drum band playing for all the tourists, so I even got to listen to some authentic music while eating my authentic St. Thomas lunch.

Bumpa’s sits right across from the main docking area. I feel a little silly that I walked right past it while looking for a good place to eat. It was worth the trek back, as this was my favorite meal of the entire week.

Meet my “authentic” St. Thomas chicken salad sandwich. Holy smokes, this was good.

It didn’t hurt that I was dying of thirst, and the strawberry mango smoothie was out of this world.

Another one was almost ordered as I walked out the door for more exploring. Now I regret that I didn’t get it!

These were just some of the many stairs around St. Thomas that looked ancient to me. Don’t you think these led somewhere dangerous and cool four hundred years ago? Argh!!!

I found a bench right by the water, and I sat to rest my feet. This perch provided a great view of the visiting cruise ship and an up-close look at some of the funny tourists.

Luckily, with my fanny pack, neck strap for my camera, and gardener's hat, there is no way in the world anybody would guess that I wasn’t a local.

From my bench, I could see the Marriott way in the distance. It looks a lot farther than twelve minutes, huh?

Just to add to the creepy pirate feel of the island, this boat takes tourists out for dinner cruises around the harbor. Doesn’t it look like something straight out of a book? Though I seriously doubt that they painted their pirate ships bright red, since the whole idea was to sneak up on other ships to pillage and burn.

Then they raped the horses and rode off on the women (name that movie!).

 

This was one of those oldies-but-goodies of buildings. This guy had to have been here when pirates were roaming these shores. Look how old that stonework is! Can’t you just see muskets and cannons popping out of those old windows?

After my roaming town for a few hours, I parked on a bench once again to wait for the return ferry to the hotel.

I was ready to go home. It was so stinkin’ hot and humid that some air conditioning at the hotel was starting to sound pretty good to me.

It made me appreciate the dry Arizona summer, even if it does get up to 130 degrees.

This is Captain Ryan from Oklahoma. He and his wife ran away from the States five years ago and have been working their way in a boat all around the Caribbean. It sounds like a nice life for a while, huh?

With all of the excitement of town, I had to play the part of a tourist and get some t-shirts. I searched long and hard to find Hubby a great shirt that I thought he would enjoy.

Unfortunately, all he sees is the “Bite Me” saying and not the cool little shark holding the sign. He thinks it’s a little too offensive to wear in public, so it looks like I wasted my perfectly-good Monopoly money on the wrong shirt.

If you’re a size XL and don’t mind being bitten, let me know.

Of course, with all of my paranoia fascination of pirates while visiting downtown, I had to get something for myself that represented my visit. It was pretty hard finding a pirate shirt that didn’t have some sort of liquor theme!

But I like my shirt, and I’m glad I spent my hard-earned money on it. I rarely buy souvenirs on my trips, but this was a special occasion. How often do I get to St. Thomas, after all?

After such an amazing lunch, I knew dinner wouldn’t be able to compete. So I settled for a turkey sandwich and some fruit from the hotel store.

Not bad for $19, huh?

It was a wonderful day in downtown of St. Thomas. On the ferry ride home, I was wishing I had more time to explore even more of the islands. Tomorrow we head home.

Next time I come here, I won’t be sick. Pinky Promise.