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Michigan Girls trip report April 2014 - part one
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michigan girls
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- Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2012 5:06 pm
- Location: West Michigan
Michigan Girls trip report April 2014 - part one
Day 1 – Tuesday
Up at 3:30AM to leave our Detroit hotel room to head for the airport. 3 inches of snow appeared overnight. Let me preface this by pointing out that just last week I convinced Sherry to change our second flight to only a 45 minute layover in Miami. It's April, I said. What are the chances of a significant delay in departure, I said...
Once on the plane, the pilot comes on to say he doesn't expect DE-icing to delay us. 45 minutes later, we were pulling away from the DE-icing station. Add to that, wicked headwinds and a need to detour around a storm and we were not even on the ground by the time my connecting flight took off.
Luckily, American was very good about getting us on the next flight (the original one we were scheduled for anyway), and even got us in the extra leg room seats. We used our longer layover to have some lunch and get some work done. We also heard from our friend Mayra that she too was delayed and we now would be landing within ½ hour of each other. We touched down in STT just after 3PM to beautiful weather and sat down at the airport bar to wait for Mayra. Her plane was a little late, and we discovered when she got in that they made her check her bag. By the time her bag came in it seemed unlikely that we would make the 5PM ferry. I grabbed a private taxi to save some time and we sped off for Red Hook. Our driver Michael took a very interesting route to Red Hook to avoid the traffic. We definitely saw parts of town we had not seen before, it was actually a nice change of pace. He pulled up to the ferry dock right at 5. I left the other two to gather our luggage and ran for the ticket counter. With tickets in hand we dashed to the gate just in time to see them closing it. Much begging ensued, while most of the workers told us we were out of luck. One very helpful young man went out of his way to ensure we were able to get on and we thanked him profusely.
On island, we stopped at St John Spice for Kiss of Jumbie, then headed to Conrad Sutton to pick our cars. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I just love them. They're friendly, and funny, and efficient. After a bit of chatting and laughing we're off to Starfish for our grocery shopping, Starfish gourmet for booze and cigars and Chelsea for our sunblock. We got to Calabash Boom just after dark and started up. I've read a lot of scary stuff about this road, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was bumpy certainly, but not all that terrible. Slow and 4WD gets you there just fine.
We got a first look at Giovannas and were very happy with what we saw. It is small, but homey and comfortable. I will write a review of it later, but suffice it to say we would stay there again. After a meal of Starfish rotisserie chicken and cucumber salad we unpacked and settled in for the night.
Day 2 – Wednesday
Up before the sunrise to get some work done and watch the sun come up. The view of the sunrise from the deck here was excellent.
DSC_0017-1 by heidifunk, on Flickr
After the others got up and had coffee and breakfast, we set out for Maho. We were about the 3rd car there, and we got set up in a wonderful spot. Anxious to swim with turtles, I headed for the water with my snorkel gear. First thing I came upon was a good sized stingray. While taking his picture I discovered I had forgotten to put the memory card in the camera. Three stingray pictures filled up the internal memory and I was done with underwater photos for the day.
100_0612-1 by heidifunk, on Flickr
We had a lovely morning and afternoon hanging out at Maho. Although I did see fewer turtles than usual, I did see the biggest one I've ever seen. We enjoyed our packed lunches and alternated our time between the water and laying in the sun. Mid afternoon, we headed back home to get ready for dinner, stopping on the way home at the friends store to pick up our Reef Bay hike vouchers for the next day. Having heard that Sweet Plantains was closed, we were surprised to see it open the night before as we headed out to the house. With this in mind, we headed there for dinner this night. We started with drinks – I had a very lovely Dark & Stormy – and an appetizer sampler. It was delicious. I had the corvina dish, which was also great. The highlight of the meal was the coconut flan for dessert. It was so very good. The service here was wonderful.
sp-1 by heidifunk, on Flickr
After dinner, back up the hill for chill time and off to bed.
Up at 3:30AM to leave our Detroit hotel room to head for the airport. 3 inches of snow appeared overnight. Let me preface this by pointing out that just last week I convinced Sherry to change our second flight to only a 45 minute layover in Miami. It's April, I said. What are the chances of a significant delay in departure, I said...
Once on the plane, the pilot comes on to say he doesn't expect DE-icing to delay us. 45 minutes later, we were pulling away from the DE-icing station. Add to that, wicked headwinds and a need to detour around a storm and we were not even on the ground by the time my connecting flight took off.
Luckily, American was very good about getting us on the next flight (the original one we were scheduled for anyway), and even got us in the extra leg room seats. We used our longer layover to have some lunch and get some work done. We also heard from our friend Mayra that she too was delayed and we now would be landing within ½ hour of each other. We touched down in STT just after 3PM to beautiful weather and sat down at the airport bar to wait for Mayra. Her plane was a little late, and we discovered when she got in that they made her check her bag. By the time her bag came in it seemed unlikely that we would make the 5PM ferry. I grabbed a private taxi to save some time and we sped off for Red Hook. Our driver Michael took a very interesting route to Red Hook to avoid the traffic. We definitely saw parts of town we had not seen before, it was actually a nice change of pace. He pulled up to the ferry dock right at 5. I left the other two to gather our luggage and ran for the ticket counter. With tickets in hand we dashed to the gate just in time to see them closing it. Much begging ensued, while most of the workers told us we were out of luck. One very helpful young man went out of his way to ensure we were able to get on and we thanked him profusely.
On island, we stopped at St John Spice for Kiss of Jumbie, then headed to Conrad Sutton to pick our cars. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I just love them. They're friendly, and funny, and efficient. After a bit of chatting and laughing we're off to Starfish for our grocery shopping, Starfish gourmet for booze and cigars and Chelsea for our sunblock. We got to Calabash Boom just after dark and started up. I've read a lot of scary stuff about this road, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was bumpy certainly, but not all that terrible. Slow and 4WD gets you there just fine.
We got a first look at Giovannas and were very happy with what we saw. It is small, but homey and comfortable. I will write a review of it later, but suffice it to say we would stay there again. After a meal of Starfish rotisserie chicken and cucumber salad we unpacked and settled in for the night.
Day 2 – Wednesday
Up before the sunrise to get some work done and watch the sun come up. The view of the sunrise from the deck here was excellent.
DSC_0017-1 by heidifunk, on FlickrAfter the others got up and had coffee and breakfast, we set out for Maho. We were about the 3rd car there, and we got set up in a wonderful spot. Anxious to swim with turtles, I headed for the water with my snorkel gear. First thing I came upon was a good sized stingray. While taking his picture I discovered I had forgotten to put the memory card in the camera. Three stingray pictures filled up the internal memory and I was done with underwater photos for the day.
100_0612-1 by heidifunk, on FlickrWe had a lovely morning and afternoon hanging out at Maho. Although I did see fewer turtles than usual, I did see the biggest one I've ever seen. We enjoyed our packed lunches and alternated our time between the water and laying in the sun. Mid afternoon, we headed back home to get ready for dinner, stopping on the way home at the friends store to pick up our Reef Bay hike vouchers for the next day. Having heard that Sweet Plantains was closed, we were surprised to see it open the night before as we headed out to the house. With this in mind, we headed there for dinner this night. We started with drinks – I had a very lovely Dark & Stormy – and an appetizer sampler. It was delicious. I had the corvina dish, which was also great. The highlight of the meal was the coconut flan for dessert. It was so very good. The service here was wonderful.
sp-1 by heidifunk, on FlickrAfter dinner, back up the hill for chill time and off to bed.
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ColumbiaSCTraveler
- Posts: 528
- Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2011 9:33 pm
- Location: Columbia, SC
Re: Michigan Girls trip report April 2014 - part one
Poo about the memory card missing....I love seeing the pictures! At least the stingray pic was a good one.
Hope Sweet Plantains is open when we're there in August. That flan looks AMAZING!
We always hit Maho first, too!
GOOD JOB on the super quick turn-around TR! You're on the ball!
Hope Sweet Plantains is open when we're there in August. That flan looks AMAZING!
We always hit Maho first, too!
GOOD JOB on the super quick turn-around TR! You're on the ball!