Christmas in Antigua (Leaving the Island)

Our last day. :( We had nothing to do but enjoy our last beachfront breakfast, pack, check out, and catch our shuttle to the airport by 11am. We had our last breakfast at Bayside. I had my last hot english earl grey tea, my last toasted english muffin (I know I can have these products at home, but having them here made it special some how. I just know hot tea or english muffins won't taste the same...) and my last fresh black pineapple (that only grows in Antigua).. And what a GREAT day to leave vacation. It was pouring rain and dark gray clouds over the entire sky. I just felt better knowing I was leaving on a day like this instead of a perfectly beautiful sunny gorgeous day. I did feel a twinge of regret for the new arrivals, after all, we had near perfect weather. But honestly, it made leaving paradise a little bit easier. We strolled back to our room after breakfaat and took our time packing up. Check out was easy, we loaded up in the shuttle with another (British) couple and drove off towards the airport.

We were dropped off right in front of Winn Air and considering we were the only people there, thought check in would be easy. WRONG! Winn air informed us that our layover flight to St. Martin was canceled. Not sure if they were going to fly out today or tomorrow. (WOW....probably due to the politcal unrest or the strike). Luckily we were on island time. We just looked at each other, shrugged, it didn't phase us. We just decided to relax. Fly out today, fly out tomorrow... whatever..... It was 11:30am, and the rep said she would see if US Air could take us to St. Martin around 4pm, but that their office wasn't open til 12:30pm. Ok, we can wait an hour, talk to the US air rep at 12:30pm, get situation, and then grab lunch over at the Sticky Wicket (a restaruant across the street and at the Cricket stadium which sounded pretty good). Well.... 12:30pm in island time really means 1:30pm. We were pretty chill about the time, but the British dude was flipping out, getting really angry and loud. We found out they were flying into Philadelphia. (Figures..... if you know people from Philly, then you know what I'm talking about. Hot tempered, working class, loud, all around crude. City of brotherly love? HA! yeah right.... Sorry if this offends, but I can say these things cause I got an Italian Uncle from Philly ;) and he would agree with my assestment.) Figures the Brit with the hostile attitude is flying home to Philly. I guess I would be pissed if I lived in that hole too. :)

Anyways.... so back to island time. The US Air rep's didn't show up til 1:30pm. We are in line and when we walk up to explain our situation, they tell us (and the Brits) to step to the side and they will get it straightened out with the Winn Air rep. For two hours we watched them take care of all the other US Air passengers. By this time, the airport was packed! I mean crazy lines. Boo was getting a bit frazzled. I was just chatting up all the people coming thru the line having a good old time, while the Brits were getting louder and steamier. The man finally popped a blood vessel, broke down and demanded that they get checked out. Just then, the Winn Air rep comes back and calls my name. The Brits were livid and ask Boo why I was called first. I just smirked and walked up to the counter to get my ticket. Well guess what..... the flip flop name issue came back to haunt me again. Winn Air couldn't change our names on the ticket so the US Air rep had to hand write our tickets. Another rep checked out the Brits and boo, while my rep was still struggling with my name issue (first name was last, and last name was first, not matching my passport Oh... I forgot to mention that Boo talked to the US Air rep and got us a direct flight home instead of flying us to St. Martin for a layover. YAY Boo!) Well, the flight was for 5:pm, it was almost 4pm and we still had to pass thru customs AND security. I finally get my ticket and we get in line for customs. In front of us were a couple of really silly couples from London. They had the skinny jeans, tatoos, emo shaggy hair, and the Cockney English accent. (think Dick Van Dyke's character from Mary Poppins). They looked like some London punk rock band, smoking marlboro reds and drinking red stripes. They were so friendly and funny. One of the guys overheard Boo tell me that we may not make our flight and the Brit asks us when is our flight. I tell him 5pm. He said, (in a thick Cockney British accent) "well wot time is it now?" I tell him its 4pm and he goes, "oh fuck no, your not making your flight." Hahaha! I burst out laughing, nudge his arm and tell him to not say that! Boo remembers we have to pay our emigration tax to leave Antigua so he goes off to take care of that and I wait in line with the hip and stylish Londoners. Boo comes back 20 minutes later and I realize we have not eaten anything since breakfast, will probably not have any time to grab something, and I refuse to buy an overpriced, awful, airline meal. There is a little snack shop where Boo buys a couple of snicker bars, a bag of combos, and a coke. (The Londoners buy another red stripe). After 45 mins. we finally get thru customs AND security, only to find out our plane will be delayed another hour. We head for the cafe and I grab a hot dog and a diet coke, boo gets a club sandwich and a coke. We finish up in time to stand in line to board the plane. Well..... the pilot comes on the speaker and says plane does not have permission to take off. (whats with getting permission to take off? shouldn't the plane be scheduled to take off?) It will probably be able to get permission in 1 hours. We are holed up on the plane for another hour. We finally land at our home airport around 11pm. We breeze thru customs, pick up our luggage, and are headed to the shuttle area to get a ride to our car. As soon as we step outside, we are hit with a frigid blast of cold air. My caribbean sun kissed skin goes in shock and I have chill bumps all over my arms! We flag down a shuttle, are taken to our car and immediately blast the heat on. The 15 min. drive home was pretty silent. Our brains were still in the Caribbean, still on Island time. :)