December 14, 2016. Off to a tropical paradise!

LOCATION:  St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

WEATHER:  20s in Detroit; sunny and 87 arriving in St. Thomas

 

Gautham, Meredith's husband, kindly drove us to the Detroit airport for an early morning flight.  The airport was packed.  Even though we arrived at the airport 2 hours ahead of time, we barely made our flight. Long lines everywhere.  After a 3-hour flight, we arrived in sunny Fort Lauderdale where we had brunch in a Cuban restaurant in the airport.  Then, another 2-hour flight to St. Thomas.  

We were welcomed with a taste of rum.

We are here for a two-week housesitting assignment.  The homeowners picked us up at the airport.  They leave tomorrow for their vacation to the USA.  Since they don't have an extra bedroom, they put us up at a nice hotel downtown.  

The first thing we did was to dash to the swimming pool.  

George had a quick dip...

This is the view from our hotel room.

This is the tourist high season.  There were 6 cruise ships docked here today.  We can see four of them from our hotel.

We walked along the harbor and stopped in a restaurant to sit on their patio for a drink.  We watched one of the cruise ships leave.  They usually arrive early in the AM, let passengers spend the day in town, then leave in the evening. 

Then, we walked to an area called Frenchtown.  We found a seafood restaurant that seemed to be popular with the locals. We shared some mussels and a hummus/shrimp platter.  Very tasty.

 

St. Thomas is quite exotic.  Very tropical.  It seems a bit strange that it is part of the United States.  They pay taxes, although the revenue stays on the island.  They cannot vote, although they are quite opinionated by the US election!