So we depart Miami at 11:00am (first class again). It's about a 4.5 hour flight to St Lucia. As soon as we get up to crusing altitude, I manage to fall asleep. I was able to sleep for most of the flight, so that was good. Next thing I know, we are starting our decent into St. Lucia. we're looking otu the window at this island. It is a little weird to know that this is really the only way in or out of the place you are visiting.
St. Lucia doesn't really have a large airport. When we get up to the building, we actually deboard the plane out on the tarmac and walk into the building. Thank goodness we were in first class, because there was a Virgin Atlantic flight that had just landed. So it was a mad dash to get to the customs line. When we got there, there were probably already 100 people in line. We pushed our way up as far as we could. It still took us about 30 minutes or so to get through the line. When we got half way up, I looked back and the line was well out the door.
We finally get through customs with no problem. As soon as we get our bags, we step out side and are greeted by a bunch of people. Oh, and heat. It is VERY humid there, and not being use to it made it feel really hot. So, the people. The idea for them is that they will wait outside and yell out the popular resorts and hotels. When people look at them, they will say we'll help carry your bags over to where you need to be. So they carry the bags (which turns out to be about 30 feet) and then expect a tip. We already knew about this so we quickly walked past them.
We have to wait for about 30 minutes for our van ride to the resort. Man! It is hot outside. It's in the mid to upper 80's, with about 90% humidity. While we're waiting, I see all these people being 'forced' to hand over a tip for a 15 foot bag carry. They are rather pushy about being paid. Bastards. Our van arrives and we all pile in. Ahhhh...A/C. And thus...starts one of the wildest car rides I have ever experienced.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
A day of flying
As I am sitting here watching the Seahawks game, I figured I would write some stories.
So we depart Seattle at 9:30pm. We have been up since about 8:00am. We're sitting in first class. That was part of the requirement for me. I'm not a fan of sitting in coach, even for a couple hour flight. This was about a 6 hour flight. I am kind of hoping that I can sleep a little bit, but I have this problem with sleeping on a plane. I don't know what it is. Perhaps I am slightly conscience about people stealing my stuff. I know that wouldn't happen, but you never know.
We get up to cruising altitude and I get ready to turn on the music. But then they come by with the digi player thing. It's a little portable movie player. I decided to watch The Forbidden Kingdom. Kaitlyn watched What Happens in Vegas and The Happening. The Forbidden Kingdom was alright, it was slightly entertaining. Typical Jackie Chan movie (as far as his part goes) and Jet Li was pretty good.
After the movie, I decided to play a few of my games. This wasn't really helping my "trying to sleep" cause, but I just couldn't do it. Next thing I know, we are starting our decent into Miami. it is about 5:30 am local time. We finally deboard around 6:00am. We have one checked bag and I am a little weary about our bag actually meeting us in St. Lucia. Our flight doesn't leave for another 5 hours. We are both pretty tired, but at least Kaitlyn got to sleep a little on the plane.
So we've got 5 hours to kill at the airport. We head over to our gate and just wait. Kaitlyn is able to sleep in the chair while leaning on me. But I still can't fall asleep. If I can't sleep on the plane, I sure as heck wouldn't be able to at the airport. Eventually, I end up moving to the floor. I can't sit for 5 hours in a chair, at least on the floor I can stretch out. I feel like I can fall asleep, so I kind of put all our bags behind us and wrap my leg around my backpack. haha. I did eventually fall asleep for a bit. Just a quick power nap. The area around the gate was starting to fill up, so I stayed up the rest of the time. Our flight is supposed to leave at around 11:00am. And it's almost time.
So we depart Seattle at 9:30pm. We have been up since about 8:00am. We're sitting in first class. That was part of the requirement for me. I'm not a fan of sitting in coach, even for a couple hour flight. This was about a 6 hour flight. I am kind of hoping that I can sleep a little bit, but I have this problem with sleeping on a plane. I don't know what it is. Perhaps I am slightly conscience about people stealing my stuff. I know that wouldn't happen, but you never know.
We get up to cruising altitude and I get ready to turn on the music. But then they come by with the digi player thing. It's a little portable movie player. I decided to watch The Forbidden Kingdom. Kaitlyn watched What Happens in Vegas and The Happening. The Forbidden Kingdom was alright, it was slightly entertaining. Typical Jackie Chan movie (as far as his part goes) and Jet Li was pretty good.
After the movie, I decided to play a few of my games. This wasn't really helping my "trying to sleep" cause, but I just couldn't do it. Next thing I know, we are starting our decent into Miami. it is about 5:30 am local time. We finally deboard around 6:00am. We have one checked bag and I am a little weary about our bag actually meeting us in St. Lucia. Our flight doesn't leave for another 5 hours. We are both pretty tired, but at least Kaitlyn got to sleep a little on the plane.
So we've got 5 hours to kill at the airport. We head over to our gate and just wait. Kaitlyn is able to sleep in the chair while leaning on me. But I still can't fall asleep. If I can't sleep on the plane, I sure as heck wouldn't be able to at the airport. Eventually, I end up moving to the floor. I can't sit for 5 hours in a chair, at least on the floor I can stretch out. I feel like I can fall asleep, so I kind of put all our bags behind us and wrap my leg around my backpack. haha. I did eventually fall asleep for a bit. Just a quick power nap. The area around the gate was starting to fill up, so I stayed up the rest of the time. Our flight is supposed to leave at around 11:00am. And it's almost time.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Getting ready to fly out
It is now Monday morning. We wake up kind of early (for vacation standards) and get all packed up. Kaitlyn's brother comes and picks us up from the hotel and takes us to the house. Where we start to pack. Keyword: Start. How quick can we pack for a 14 day vacation? Actually it didn't take us long. My clothing options were simple. Shorts and t-shirts. Although there was a restaurant that we wanted to go to that was listed as "resort formal attire". This essentially meant nice pants and a button up shirt. Oh, and dress shoes. Damn it. I have to lug down my dress shoes just to go to dinner.
We had known about this so I went out and bought some really light pants. 100% linen. I felt SOOOOO cool. Like I was a drug lord on Miami Vice or something. Of course...I wasn't. Cool that is. Or a drug lord.
As we got most of the stuff packed, I decided that I was going to continue my search for a new MP3 player. I was really looking for the new 120GB Zune. No one had them. I called around EVERY WHERE! Multiple times too. No one had any. Of course, this may slightly be due to the fact that they weren't actually being released until tomorrow (the day after we leave). But I was hoping that someone would have them out on the shelf. They did not. What to do, what to do. So I got the new iPod Touch. For a multimedia device, it is pretty cool. As a music player, I'm not a fan. I have to manually load in all my album art. Which kind of defeats the cool slide album cover thing. I do not like iTunes.
Good thing we finished packing, because I spent the next couple of hours loading in songs into iTunes. In fact, it came right down to us needing to leave, and me waiting for this damn thing to finish syncing. I do not like iTunes. I managed to download a couple games though. A texas hold'em game and a solitaire suite of games. That'll do. But I do not like iTunes.
So iTunes finally finishes syncing my stuff and we take off. We are taking the 9:30pm flight out of Seattle to Miami. We are scheduled to land in Miami at about 5:30am local time. I'm hoping that I will be able to sleep a little on the plane. We'll see. I have my nifty new music player and game player, so we'll see how that goes.
We had known about this so I went out and bought some really light pants. 100% linen. I felt SOOOOO cool. Like I was a drug lord on Miami Vice or something. Of course...I wasn't. Cool that is. Or a drug lord.
As we got most of the stuff packed, I decided that I was going to continue my search for a new MP3 player. I was really looking for the new 120GB Zune. No one had them. I called around EVERY WHERE! Multiple times too. No one had any. Of course, this may slightly be due to the fact that they weren't actually being released until tomorrow (the day after we leave). But I was hoping that someone would have them out on the shelf. They did not. What to do, what to do. So I got the new iPod Touch. For a multimedia device, it is pretty cool. As a music player, I'm not a fan. I have to manually load in all my album art. Which kind of defeats the cool slide album cover thing. I do not like iTunes.
Good thing we finished packing, because I spent the next couple of hours loading in songs into iTunes. In fact, it came right down to us needing to leave, and me waiting for this damn thing to finish syncing. I do not like iTunes. I managed to download a couple games though. A texas hold'em game and a solitaire suite of games. That'll do. But I do not like iTunes.
So iTunes finally finishes syncing my stuff and we take off. We are taking the 9:30pm flight out of Seattle to Miami. We are scheduled to land in Miami at about 5:30am local time. I'm hoping that I will be able to sleep a little on the plane. We'll see. I have my nifty new music player and game player, so we'll see how that goes.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Day 1 - Continued
Time to continue the first day. I didn't realize how long the previous post was until after I posted. Hopefully I'll keep this one a little smaller. Lets see...ah yes. When we got back to the hotel, we tried to figure out where we were going to go for dinner. We were both a little full from the brunch and the snacks we just had. Plus I was still feeling the half cake we had ate the night before.
Oh yah. About that. You know how we took the top layer of the cake? Yea, we ate half of that when we got to the hotel that night. haha. It was GREAT! Banana cake with a Kahlua Carmel filling. In my best Homer Simpson voice....MMMMM. Banana cake. UUGGHHGLLGHG. Not sure how you'd actually spell that.
Anyway, around 7 or so we finally decided on Capital Grill. We called down to see if we needed reservations and they said no. So we walked on down since it was only a couple blocks away. They sat us in a nice little booth and we browsed the menu. Mmmm...everything looked great. Kaitlyn ordered a filet with a courvoisier cream sauce and I ordered a dry aged sirloin. Oh my, they were fantastic. I also ordered a 2 lb side of king crab legs. Again. Fantastic. =)
By the end of the meal, we were stuffed. Kaitlyn wanted to get a to go box for her half a bite of steak and one mushroom. haha. We headed back to the hotel and tried to eat some more of the cake. I'll tell you, it's not as good when it has been in the fridge. We decided to call it an early night, because we hadn't really even started packing for our trip. So it was going to be a busy day tomorrow. Plus I had spent a lot of the weekend trying to look for a new MP3 player. But more on that later...
Oh yah. About that. You know how we took the top layer of the cake? Yea, we ate half of that when we got to the hotel that night. haha. It was GREAT! Banana cake with a Kahlua Carmel filling. In my best Homer Simpson voice....MMMMM. Banana cake. UUGGHHGLLGHG. Not sure how you'd actually spell that.
Anyway, around 7 or so we finally decided on Capital Grill. We called down to see if we needed reservations and they said no. So we walked on down since it was only a couple blocks away. They sat us in a nice little booth and we browsed the menu. Mmmm...everything looked great. Kaitlyn ordered a filet with a courvoisier cream sauce and I ordered a dry aged sirloin. Oh my, they were fantastic. I also ordered a 2 lb side of king crab legs. Again. Fantastic. =)
By the end of the meal, we were stuffed. Kaitlyn wanted to get a to go box for her half a bite of steak and one mushroom. haha. We headed back to the hotel and tried to eat some more of the cake. I'll tell you, it's not as good when it has been in the fridge. We decided to call it an early night, because we hadn't really even started packing for our trip. So it was going to be a busy day tomorrow. Plus I had spent a lot of the weekend trying to look for a new MP3 player. But more on that later...
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Honeymoon Adventures - Day 1
I suppose technically, the honeymoon starts the day after the wedding. Some people feel it starts when you actually leave town, but then...what if you aren't leaving town. Then what? Well since we did stuff the next day, I am going to write about it.
We were both kind of tired when we got to the hotel the night before. But we sat down and ate went through our little bag that the coordinator gave us. Inside, it had a couple bags full of candy. SCORE! Also there were a couple boxes of food. We went through that and ate the steak and chicken. Passed on the vegetables because well...cooked vegetables are only good when they are warm. Otherwise they are just cold and soggy. Gross.
When we got up the next morning, we had plans to head down to the water front. The question was, do we walk or get a taxi. We were up on 6th ave. 6 blocks doesn't seem like a long walk. I guess it really wasn't. After all...it was all down hill, right? We decide to hoof it do the hill. On the way down, we somehow ended up in the middle of the Breast Cancer walk headquarters or something. It was a big stop for everyone and they were handing out samples of sausages and some water. We weren't wearing pink though, so I think they probably would have known we were part of the walk. Beside, we had a brunch to get to.
Last year, we won a free brunch cruise aboard the Royal Argosy boat. It's a nice brunch while they sail around the puget sound. A waiter came and asked us what we would like to drink. Kaitlyn wanted some soda and I got some OJ. I figured that juice was included. HA! Shows what I know. As soon as they opened the trays, I was out of my seat with Kaitlyn in tow. I knew the line was going to grow at some crazy exponential rate, and I didn't want to get stuck at the end. We were about 6th in line. Got our breakfast and sat down. I ordered another OJ.
There was another couple sitting at a booth near us. We were watching and it was like they were on a first date. They sat on opposite sides of the booth. She looked bored. I mean BORED! Just kinda of slunched over. Anyway, we were wondering what their deal was but ended up just letting it go. Time for another OJ!
We decided to go outside for a bit and see the view. It was pretty nice. There had been a wedding up there before we took off, and now they were inside on the upper deck eating. I felt like I was intruding or something. But only for a second. The view was pretty cool. It had turned out to be a nice clear day. The only problem was when we were walking from the rear of the boat to the front. Or if you are nautical...the bow to the stern. We started in the bow and walked up the starboard side towards the stern. We could have gone up the port side, but opted not to.
Ok. Enough of that. While we were walking up the side of the boat, it became very apparant that you had to be cleaver to make it up there alive. It felt like you had to walk single file in order to make it up there. I would have pressed myself up against the glass walls, had it not been for the wedding party eating right there. That would have been interesting. We safely make it up to the front of the boat and it is a lot more windy up there. We take some pictures and decide to head back to the table. They had put out some fruit trays so we grabbed some.
After we got back to the dock, we decided to head up and watch the Seahawks game. We tried the Pike Place Brewery first, but they didn't really have anywhere good to watch it. So he headed to the Tap House instead. Had some snacks and some beers. Oh yeah, they lost that day. After the game, we headed back to the hotel to figure out what to do for dinner.
until next time...
We were both kind of tired when we got to the hotel the night before. But we sat down and ate went through our little bag that the coordinator gave us. Inside, it had a couple bags full of candy. SCORE! Also there were a couple boxes of food. We went through that and ate the steak and chicken. Passed on the vegetables because well...cooked vegetables are only good when they are warm. Otherwise they are just cold and soggy. Gross.
When we got up the next morning, we had plans to head down to the water front. The question was, do we walk or get a taxi. We were up on 6th ave. 6 blocks doesn't seem like a long walk. I guess it really wasn't. After all...it was all down hill, right? We decide to hoof it do the hill. On the way down, we somehow ended up in the middle of the Breast Cancer walk headquarters or something. It was a big stop for everyone and they were handing out samples of sausages and some water. We weren't wearing pink though, so I think they probably would have known we were part of the walk. Beside, we had a brunch to get to.
Last year, we won a free brunch cruise aboard the Royal Argosy boat. It's a nice brunch while they sail around the puget sound. A waiter came and asked us what we would like to drink. Kaitlyn wanted some soda and I got some OJ. I figured that juice was included. HA! Shows what I know. As soon as they opened the trays, I was out of my seat with Kaitlyn in tow. I knew the line was going to grow at some crazy exponential rate, and I didn't want to get stuck at the end. We were about 6th in line. Got our breakfast and sat down. I ordered another OJ.
There was another couple sitting at a booth near us. We were watching and it was like they were on a first date. They sat on opposite sides of the booth. She looked bored. I mean BORED! Just kinda of slunched over. Anyway, we were wondering what their deal was but ended up just letting it go. Time for another OJ!
We decided to go outside for a bit and see the view. It was pretty nice. There had been a wedding up there before we took off, and now they were inside on the upper deck eating. I felt like I was intruding or something. But only for a second. The view was pretty cool. It had turned out to be a nice clear day. The only problem was when we were walking from the rear of the boat to the front. Or if you are nautical...the bow to the stern. We started in the bow and walked up the starboard side towards the stern. We could have gone up the port side, but opted not to.
Ok. Enough of that. While we were walking up the side of the boat, it became very apparant that you had to be cleaver to make it up there alive. It felt like you had to walk single file in order to make it up there. I would have pressed myself up against the glass walls, had it not been for the wedding party eating right there. That would have been interesting. We safely make it up to the front of the boat and it is a lot more windy up there. We take some pictures and decide to head back to the table. They had put out some fruit trays so we grabbed some.
After we got back to the dock, we decided to head up and watch the Seahawks game. We tried the Pike Place Brewery first, but they didn't really have anywhere good to watch it. So he headed to the Tap House instead. Had some snacks and some beers. Oh yeah, they lost that day. After the game, we headed back to the hotel to figure out what to do for dinner.
until next time...
Stories
I know that some people have been waiting for the stories. Here's the scoop. My computer at home appears to have taken a crap. I'm working on trying to figure out what is wrong. I really don't feel like building a new one.
And. This site is blocked at work, so I'm not able to do any updates during the day. Maybe I can get the I.T. group do unblock it for me.
Anyway, sit tight. I'll get some stories up soon.
And. This site is blocked at work, so I'm not able to do any updates during the day. Maybe I can get the I.T. group do unblock it for me.
Anyway, sit tight. I'll get some stories up soon.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
The adventures of Brian and Kaitlyn
Greetings! Well, we are back from our honeymoon, and we have a lot of stories to share with everyone. I will be writing as many as I can here. So if you want to keep up with them, make sure you subscribe. You'll be able to read all about our 2 week trip.
Talk to you all soon!
Talk to you all soon!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)