Flew from Albany to Ft. Lauderdale on Southwest, nice partly full flight, and stayed the night at the Holiday Inn Express on State 84. Good price and more than satisfactory for an overnight or two. A good German restaurant (Old Heidelberg) is nearby and we walked to it for dinner.. Flew to St. Thomas on Spirit Air – our first on this airline, and we were a bit apprehensive when a passenger from the plane that came in for us stormed through the departure lounge loudly declaring that she would never fly Spirit again. The flight, although full, was quite uneventful, but with Spirit you get what you pay for and you pay for everything.

We rented a RAV-4 from Hertz, for a price that seemed competitive with most of the other agencies we checked, and is conveniently at the airport. We were somewhat surprised to be told to pick up the car from the lot across the parking lot without any formal check of condition (it seemed fine), and even more so when we left it there with no formal check-in procedure. Still wondering if we will get a charge for damage; maybe I’m too suspicious.

Our hotel was Pavilions and Pools near Red Hook where we stayed last year. We like the private pool and the overall facilities. Units are not luxurious but are clean, comfortable and well furnished – at least ours was; they are not all the same. Not good if you have to be on a beach. Our dinners for the first and last meals of the trip were at the restaurant at the hotel, Carmen’s, which is a good Mexican restaurant that we enjoyed a lot. It is open air with awning coverage that might not work too well if it rained heavily, and lighting that, depending where you are seated, makes reading the menu or even seeing what is on the plate a bit of a challenge.

So far as other restaurants go, we ate twice at Fungi’s on the Beach because we could get pretty good local Caribbean food there, and the price is great. The walk down the steps from the parking lot to it can be a bit tricky in the dark, but lighting is not too bad. Also had two dinners at Molly Molone’s in Red Hook, which surprised us as an Irish pub by having curried conch that was very good indeed. The only other restaurant that we tried was Poet’s Bistro and Bar, also in Red Hook, where we had excellent pizza. Breakfast’s at the hotel are included – very basic continental that was fine for us but would not work for those who like a hearty beginning. We only had a couple of lunches out, one on Sunday at The Green House in Charlotte Amalie, another at Tickles Dockside Pub in Crown Bay where you get the ferry to Water Island, and also in Mongoose Junction on St. John; all quite good. We had planned to stop in at Iggies, but found they are closed except for weekends. Perhaps a sign of the times, as there didn’t seem to be a lot of people around except from oversize cruise ships.

Mostly, we spent mornings at the pool and did some leisurely exploring in the afternoon. We went to Hull Bay since we had not been there before (at least, not since the ‘70’s) and although we did not spend much time there, the beach seemed quite nice and more relaxing than the more tourist-frequented ones. We did a bit of exploring of Charlotte Amalie on Sunday, but off the waterfront it was deserted and a local suggested that too much wandering might not be safe. We ferried over to Cruz Bay one day because my wife wanted to do some shopping in the St. John Spice Co. store there (they ship, so we could stick with strictly carry-on luggage).. We also went to Water Island one day, but it was too hot to do as much exploring as we had intended - you have to walk anywhere you want to go - and did not stay long. On the last day, the only one on which it rained, we went to the St. Peter Great House Estate and Gardens, which is a modern construction with antiques but very impressive. The gardens also are very nice and extensive. This is now the temporary home of the Banana Daiquiri since Mountain Top is no more.

Before flying on Spirit (again full but uneventful) back to Ft.Lauderdale, where we picked up a car and spent the night before driving to Key West next day, we had a last lunch at the café in the baggage claim where you can also get tasty local food. Spirit’s departure lounge shows that it is a low-cost airline. You have to look for it.