Feb.1 & 2, 2012
Grenada ain’t easy to get to, but we managed to do it in one day with a 7 hour layover in JFK. This was the first time we had flown on Caribbean Airlines and the flight was good. They showed a movie (Real Steel) and also served a small meal. When we arrived in Grenada C&I were quick and painless. Our taxi driver was outside the terminal as arranged. We are staying at the Grenada Beach Palace Hotel again which is very conveniently located on the beach and bus line. There isn’t much nightlife here so we walked down the road to a local bar, D’ Cozy Nook, and ordered a couple drinks. In true rum shack fashion, Kim’s Absolute and orange juice was served with the vodka poured into a empty half pint rum bottle and she was given a can of orange juice off the shelf to mix her own. I opted for the Clarkes Court Dark rum with ice. While we were there a friend of ours, Lei-Lei, showed up we talked for a while and he asked if we would like to come to True Blue with him and his friends, but after a long day of travel we decided to go back to the hotel. Our room is right on the water and the waves breaking on the stone wall of the flower garden lulled us to sleep.

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A fisherman sets his nets outside the hotel.

We woke to our first full day of vacation and were greeted by beautiful sunshine. We took the bus to Port Louis Marina to have breakfast. I had the Grenadain breakfast (saltfish, fruit, coconut bread, and toast) Kim went for the full English. Both were accompanied by fresh passion fruit juice and coffee or tea. After our meal we walked down to the little beach at the mouth of the lagoon. We sat for a while and enjoyed the views before heading over to St. Georges.

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The veiw of St. Georges from the beach at Port Louis Marina

As we were walking back through the marina, we bumped into Will, he has been skippering Great Escape since December and just completed the Grenada regatta. I gave him my number and we made tentative plans to go to Fish Friday. Once in St. Georges we went to the spice market to pick up some fruit for the room and some gifts to take home. We met our favorite spice vendor and caught up on the past year. With our goodies we took another bus back to the hotel to get ready for the beach. We decided to try Magazine Beach this time since we had not been there and heard it was nice. We negotiated with a bus driver to drop us off at the Aquarium restaurant since it is off the route. It was worth the effort since he only charged us 20 EC and a taxi would have been 50. The beach is nice with a reef just offshore, but the isn’t much to do there except lay in the sand or sit at the bar.
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Kim on Magazine Beach

Once Kim had gotten her sun fix, we started back to Grand Anse, luck must have been on our side, we no sooner got to the driveway and a bus dropping off the evening shift of workers pulled in. This time the ride was only 5 EC each and we got a tour of some of the residential areas as the bus dropped off some school children returning home. We got off at the spice and craft market on the beach and talked to some of the vendors we know. We grabbed some chicken and chips from the restaurant next to the market, then headed back to the room for showers. We walked back to D’ Cozy Nook for about an hour for a nightcap then back to the room and off to bed.

Drink all day at home, your friends worry about you; do it on vacation and they say "what a good time you're having". Save your friends needless worry, travel more!