Portland to St. Barths in Three Days

Our Valentine’s Day escape has officially begun, although it’s going to take us a few days to get to our destination.


Originally we were scheduled to San Juan via Washington, DC on the 14th, spend the night and fly into St. Martin and on to St. Barths on the 15th. However, all the snow and bad weather on the East Coast had us a bit concerned, so Tony worked his magic and had us re-routed through Chicago on the 13th.


That caused a little panic because it pushed our departure time forward by 18 hours, but we scrambled around and got everything ready and packed with time to spare. It also caused a packing dilemma. How do you pack/dress to spend one day in sub-freezing weather and the remaining time in 80-degree weather? We decided on layers, which of course is the obvious choice. But what about footwear? I ended up selecting a dress with a sweater … so far so good … but open-toe high-heels on my feet! My body will be warm in Chicago, but my toes are going to be freezing!


We actually had a leisurely start before heading out. I ran a couple last minute errands and Tony finished up work in his office. We had to do a little car shuffling because I was dropping mine off at the shop for some work while we’re gone. So we built in an extra 15 minutes to make the drop off and with Tony following me we were on our way.


Just before we entered the city, there’s a spot on the freeway where traffic always slows down, day or night, weekday or weekend. We came around the corner and sure enough, the traffic was stopped. I stopped and out of habit looked in my rearview mirror at the car behind me (Tony) just in time to see the car behind him lock up his brakes and hit him. Just what we needed! Like a parade all three of us pulled over and I collected insurance information while trying to keep Tony from going too crazy. Luckily the other driver’s car received all the damage (gotta love Land Rovers) and within 5 minutes we were back on our way. How Tony’s body feels later will be another story …


But it must have been crazy driver day. No more than 2 miles later I had a car cut me off from two lanes over and if I hadn’t slammed on my brakes I would have had a new hood ornament. Then as we were pulling into the airport parking lot a guy ignored the “yield” sign and nearly ran into the side of our car!


I’m not sure what this means for the rest of the trip. Hopefully we’ve gotten all our “bad” stuff out of the way and the remaining 9 days are relaxing, peaceful and warm.


We landed in Chicago to the expected snow on the ground and sub-freezing temperatures. Tony booked us into the Renaissance O’Hare so we could just catch their shuttle and be near the airport for our next flight.


I’m going to take a side-bar here. There are two times you can bet Tony and I are going to have an argument … the night before we leave on a vacation (while we’re packing) and trying to navigate from airport to destination. You’d think for all the traveling we do, we’d figure this out and be able to avoid it … but that’s not the case. I’ll admit that a lot of it has to do with the fact that we’re both very independent and used to doing things for ourselves. Neither of us do them the wrong way, but we definitely do things differently. So we both end up trying to control the situation and it just makes for mistakes and head-butting.


Landing in Chicago was no different. Tony wasn’t clear on where to catch the shuttle, but wasn’t really interested in asking either. I went to the transportation kiosk and called the hotel to find out where we should go. “Follow the Bus/Shuttle” signs out of Terminal 2. So out we went and then Tony decided that we should keep walking to the right because we weren’t in the right place. Let’s remember, it’s freezing, I’m in high heels and we’re rolling/carrying our luggage.

After walking at least 200 yards, the only shuttles we had seen were for rental car agencies. Despite we my pleas to “ask someone” we just kept walking. Eventually, we saw the Renaissance shuttle drive by and started following it. Eventually it took us to a Shuttle terminal near the Hilton Hotel. We could see it stopped ahead, but it was still about 100 yards in front of us when the driver started to get in to drive away. So off I went … running down the middle of the road, waving my arm to flag him down. Luckily he saw me and waited for us. We got on board and immediately drove directly to the door we had just ome out of! I can only say that the ride to the hotel was very quiet between us, but we got over it … we always do. :)


The evening at the hotel was nice and peaceful. Despite being directly in the approach pattern for O’Hare Airport, the room was extremely quiet and we both had a wonderful night’s sleep. We love Marriott beds!


We rose early (and early here is extra early for us), sacrificing breakfast for a couple more minutes sleep, and boarded the shuttle for the airport. It always seems when you plan for delays, there aren’t any, and today was no different. From the time we left the hotel until we were through security was less than 30 minutes! Then we checked the board and found out our flight was delayed about 40 minutes. We could have had breakfast, or slept more! Oh well, that’s part of the joys of traveling.


Getting to San Juan was fairly uneventful and we arrived at the Marriott Stellaris within 30 minutes of landing. Last time we were in San Juan we stayed at the Renaissance and a short walk to down the street to its lobby bar had us wondering why we didn’t stay there again (no point nights available was the answer). While the Marriott is a fine hotel, it’s lobby dance floor and attached casino make for a very noisy entry. And because it has a large pool, it’s a favorite of families so there are kids of all ages running around day and night. Whereas the Renaissance is a decidedly more chic hotel that reminds us of South Beach.


Although it was Valentine’s Day, we decided a casual dinner of sushi sounded good. A nearby restaurant, Cherry Blossom, was our choice and after a wonderful meal we settled into our room for a brief night’s sleep before catching yet another plane in the morning.


San Juan airport is not our favorite. No matter what time of day you fly it seems it’s always in chaos. And this morning was not different. Luckily the American Eagle line was fairly short, unluckily everybody in line in front of us was traveling with body-sized bags that were overweight. This meant we stood in line for 20 minutes watching the people in front of us completely unpack their suitcases and re-pack them, trying to stuff shoes and t-shirts into their carry-ons to lower their checked bag weight. I don’t know where they were going, but unless they were moving to a third-world country, they over packed.


It was very strange flying into St. Martin after 18 months of being a way, and it made us feel nostalgic for the days of the Sunset Beach Bar and Orient Beach. We just might have to return in the near future to see our friends.


You can tell it’s winter/a long weekend/carnivale from all the leer jets parked at the St. Martin airport. There were no fewer than two dozen private jets parked on the tarmac and several more large yachts in the harbor. Oh to have that lifestyle for only a day …


The crime and weather in St. Martin may ebb-and-flow, but the one thing that is constant is the poor attitude and service of the staff at the airport. Let’s be clear, there’s a big difference between island time and rude … and these people are just rude.


When we landed and received our transfer boarding passes we were told there was an earlier flight to St. Barths boarding in 5 minutes. So we hustled our way up to the gate to see if we could get on board. We were told the plane had boarded and that we’d have to wait for our scheduled flight an hour later. Okay, but how weird is it that a mini-plane was fully boarded a full 35 minutes before it was scheduled to depart? As we sat there waiting for our plane we saw the earlier flight depart … 45 minutes after we tried to get on-board. Later we found out it landed in St. Barths with exactly one suitcase and no passengers!


While waiting at the airport we decided a little vacation cocktail was in order. There was one guy working the counter and I swear he was so slow making the drinks that the ice melted before he got it poured! After 10 minutes, he had only served two people in front of me … but I was second in line so I was making progress. Then the guy in front of me ordered 5 drinks … okay, that was going to take a while. After all the drinks were served he ordered 3 cheeseburgers, 1 quesadilla and 1 grilled cheese sandwich. I figured the cook in the back would take care of the food while he made my drinks … but NO! He went into the kitchen and started cooking. When it became painfully clear I was going to have to wait for the food to be finished I gave up and walked to the bar at the other end of the airport.


Finally it was time to board our “plane” for St. Barths. First, let me say that of all the people in the boarding area it was pretty plain to see who was going to be on our flight. The impeccably dressed and/or beautiful people were all on board … I’m pretty sure people were a little worried about us.


The plane was a riot! First, there were only about 12 seats and the pilot was our greeter at the stairs. One we were all onboard, he jumped into the cockpit and said his “security announcement” through the opening into the cabin (no door on this plane!). The entire flight is about 20 minutes long (from boarding to off-loading) and is absolutely beautiful. The sight of the yachts and super yachts in Gustavia harbor is amazing. Which is a good distractor to the landing. They actually recently cut into the mountain to make it less-dangerous, but basically you skim the top of the mountain and immediately drop down onto a short runway that slopes down into the ocean! Pilots have to have a special rating to fly into the airport, and only small planes are allowed.


We hopped off the plane, walked up to a window that is akin to a ticket counter (which was their passport control) and out into the warmed and sunshine of St. Barths. Our dear friends Lance and Libby were there to greet us with water and hugs and smiles. We hear they have big plans for us this afternoon and throughout the week … and we can’t wait.