Inauspicious

Our whole trip was a bit inauspicious this year with various misfortunes along the way. Our bad luck continued when our flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems and we couldn't get another flight until the next day. Buzz graciously gave us a lift to Cottages where we had a drink and then went to Sand Castles for dinner, using vouchers from the airline. And then he gave us a lift to the Hotel Fredricksted. Ugh. What a dump. The fellow in the office tried to be helpful, but the whole place was rather dark and icky. There was a smoke alarm with a weak battery bleeping mournfully (which he fixed when we pointed it out). There was a huge dead cockroach in the shower. The phones didn't work. The ancient TV did work, but only 2 or 3 channels seemed to be turned on: almost all of the channels were blocked. Worst of all, we couldn't get in touch with the taxi company to get a ride to the airport. Eventually, we turned to Buzz again, who came to pick us up at 5am. I only got a couple of hours of sleep.

In the morning, we arrived at the airport and got signed in for a flight on Cape Air. The plane turned out to be a little Cessna 402 with 10 seats (including the pilot). Alisa sat in the co-pilot's seat. The flight was smooth and uneventful and low enough to give a good view of the scenery.

When we arrived in Puerto Rico, we debated a bit about what to do. Buzz had suggested that we probably had enough time to travel to Old San Juan, but given how poor our luck had been, we were all reluctant to head off into a strange city via unknown and untested public transportation. So we went to the American Airlines Admiral's Lounge and persuaded them to give all five of us a day pass for the price of one. The kids were happy to have network connectivity. There were free snacks and soda and even complimentary cocktails. A bit boring but, after the stress of the previous days, we were happy to just relax.

One more flight and we should be home.