Back to the world after St Maarten

A long day traveling yesterday as we returned. We awoke, exercised, checked out, and then had breakfast. Our bill for the week was $112, most of which was one night of room service. Other than that, the rest of the week was covered by Tia’s company. not bad for 6 days in St Maarten. I guess we also went offsite one night and spent about $100 on dinner, but otherwise, that was a good deal. Even with the nanny cost, it would have been much, much more.

We grabbed a bus at 11:30, got to the airport, checked in, ate some lunch, and then waited. We said good bye and talked to some people. A minor worry when power went out in the airport, but that’s the islands. No one panic’d, and we ended up loading the plane on time. It was strange that despite being through security, they had us line up and run through another security check manually. Tia and I were singled out, and the guy rifled my bag, but it seemed more to be a formality. No real effort. He also searched my body, which seemed strange to me.

Then the delay. Without power, we delayed while customs processed some things manually, and we waited for some people that were stuck in security. Not sure how they were processed, but the final annoyance was a lady getting on with a dog. Some small annoying thing, and not only did she struggle to get “it” and “its stroller” on the plane, she apparently didn’t want to keep it in a carrier and put it on her lap. There was a big ruckus while a bunch of people had to change seats.

We were only 20 minutes late, but it jammed up some people in connections. Fortunately we had time, and Tia and I managed to get through immigration and customs without an issue. We even had time to sit, eat some BBQ, and watch a little of the Vikings/Saints game. Tia wasn’t feeling well, so it was a pair of long flights to Charlotte, and then Denver.

We finally landed around 10:45 Denver time, 1:45 our time. Bags were slow coming out, and it was a long time driving home, but we made it and the house looked great. Patti, our nanny, had changed sheets, organized things, and had us ready to call it a night. Tia talked with her a bit on the turnover for how the week went, but it seemed like it went great. The kids enjoyed her, had a great week, and nothing unexpected really happened.

Now I just need to get back to wearing long pants