After 7 days in St. Lucia, we were ready to head back to Boston. On the last day on the island, we largely tried to take it easy. That, and take advantage of the last of the all-inclusive benefits. A big breakfast, a whole lot of drinking, a lot of time on the beach. In-between all of that, we visited the Sandals loyalty club place, since a lot of the anniversary couples (who had been many, many times) told us it was worth it. Skeptical, we sat down with a lady, who didn't really give us a hard sell, just a quote for what a vacation would cost if we booked one for our anniversary. It was, to be honest, kind of a deal. So we booked our anniversary trip at a Sandals in Jamaica! Now we'll be spending a significant portion of our free time trying to convince our friends that they should go with us. We've already got one couple booked, hopefully we can convince a few more!
One other thing we did was visit the SnapShots office. One thing Sandals has is photographers going around all the time taking "candid" photos (they ask you first, and you can say no). They would then ask for your room number, and then at the end of your stay you can visit an office and decide whether you want to buy the photos. As I suspected, the photos are a huge rip. That said, they were really nice! So we spent an obscene amount of money on 15 photos. Behold them below, the most expensive photos ever taken.
After enjoying a torchlit dinner on the beach, we went to bed fairly early, and woke up the next day to finish packing. A final delicious breakfast, and we set off on the 90 minute trip to the airport. Instead of in a van with no A/C, though, we shelled out for a private car. Pro tip: if you're ever visiting St. Lucia, shell out for the private car. We chatted with the driver on the way to the airport, and took in the beauty of the island for the final time. Finally, though, we arrived at the airport, some of the first ones there for the daily JetBlue flight for St. Lucia. It was a bit warm, and after getting in line waiting for security to open, I sprinted to the nearest bathroom. Which had no lights on. Huh, making my way back to the line, I remarked on this to Katie.
Turns out that Katie ALREADY KNEW because THE POWER WAS OUT. Not just in the airport, but across the whole island. As more and more travelers arrived (including some friends we had made on the trip), the temperature continued to rise inside the terminal. All of us started to get more and more nervous, as the airport employees informed us that first they'd update us at 11:30, then 12:00, then 12:30... Our flight was at 1:40, and some people started to worry we wouldn't get out of the airport at all when they informed us the reason we couldn't leave was they couldn't get enough power for the X-Ray equipment. This was relieving to me, though, since it meant they'd just have to hand search all the bags instead of X-Ray them! My suspicions were confirmed when the security teams started to setup tables in the entry area, and started bringing guests over to check their bags. I knew it would take a long time, but since we had a 5 hour layover in JFK, I didn't care how long it would take us to get out.
We were next in line to get our bag checked, when the power sputtered to life again. It had been sputtering on and off, but this time, the A/C came on, so we felt like something was different. Sure enough, an airport employee informed us the X-Ray was working again, so we wouldn't have to unpack our bags! Hooray! Unfortunately the computers were still down, so they were manually checking everyone in and writing handwritten boarding passes. It was so slow. I asked the woman at the counter if this had ever happened before, and she said no, and she didn't really have any idea what to do. After writing our handwritten baggage tag, the woman moved onto our boarding passes, when she was informed that the computers were working again too. So we were told to proceed to security with our on-phone boarding passes, unsure if we'd ever see our luggage again. After making it through security and passport control, we spent $50 on a bunch of overpriced snacks, and then we were on the plane!
The trip back to JFK was pretty uneventful. Katie has a JetBlue credit card, so we got some really cheap sandwiches and snacks for thr 4.5 hour flight. I spent most of the time developing the photos I took in Lightroom, and also writing the first of these blog posts. At JFK we did get our bag (hooray!), and then after getting through customs, rechecked it for Boston. In the airport, we bought a set of large Airport Toblerones, to use as gifts and also just because we really like Toblerones.
We also saw a lot of the other guests we'd made friends with in St. Lucia, making their way back to Boston! Our flight finally boarded around 11:30, and after a short Lyft ride home (from a guy complaining that not enough airport Lyfts go to like Westboro or something), we were home! Zelda was very enthusiastic. All in all, St. Lucia was a great trip, and a great way to cap off all of the work that we put into the wedding. We're already looking forward to our Jamaica trip next year! Hopefully we'll be able to afford a bit more travel between then and now, but I'm looking forward to a long, uneventful Fall and Winter here in Somerville.
-Chris