Getting here...

I have traveled quite a bit in my life, and our journey down here quickly made its way up to my No.2 Worst Travel Experience Ever (getting home from Australia is No.1 but that's a completely different story). Our day started early around 4:00 am, not uncommon for those traveling abroad. When we checked into US Airways one of our bags was 65lbs, so we had to repack in the airport and made some hasty decisions to purge a couple shirts, hangers, and a sweatshirt :( Again, I've had to do this before, being a notorious overpacker! So in all, we had 4 checked bags, 2 carry ons (one of which being a cat), and we each had a personal item.

Here's where the fun really begins. Waiting at our gate we were informed that our flight was delayed an hour due to the fog in Philly. So we had to scramble to get another flight from Philly to St.Maarten. Well that didn't exist! So US Airways was able to get us to Philly, then to Miami, then onto an American Airlines flight to St. Maarten. Which literally doubled our travel time from 6 hours to 12 hours *sigh* it happens. Turns out though that in Miami in order to get into a different airline we had to physically leave the airport, walk through construction, and walk back in through American Airlines. Well now we are crunched for time and the cat peed in her little crate and even though I have wipies for her it's still gross. As we checked in for the second time that day we had to pay another $150 for the airlines pet fee, and were hasseled about not having her microchipped. It is not a requirement to have your pet microchipped in St.Maarten, just for reference if anybody ever needs to know. But the airline didn't know that and kindly explained how they will not allow my cat to enter the island without a microchip and will probably euthanize her. What!? No Way! So after much insistence from me that my kitty was all set, they finally let us go and said my cat can travel at her own risk. Needless to say she is fine and lovin the sun :)

After leaving Miami we landed in St. Maarten 6 hours after we were supposed to. And of course because of the chaos of the trip we are missing one bag! Just one! Due to weather delays and cancellations, US airways had lost something like 108 bags total going to St. Maarten, from 2 or 3 different flights. Needless to say the lost luggage line was 60 people deep and we were at the very very end. After about 45 minutes and not moving at all, we decided to cut our losses and come back the next day to claim our bag. This is a risky move and I don't completely recommend it, it worked out for us fortunately, but I digress. Back at the airport we were supposed to meet our rental car person at the desk. Since, we were 6 hours late at this point and unable to contact them they didn't even know if they had a car available for us. They did, but they really wanted to give us a hard time about it! So finally, at around 10:00 pm we are on our way to my sponsers apartment. Did I forget to mention that our apartment told us last minute that we wouldn't be able to move in on Monday? After much grappling with the cost of hotel prices, my Spouses Organization sponser offered to let us stay at her apartment while she and her student were gone for the break! She was a livesaver, but now how do we find this place at 10:00 at night? The streets barely have signs on them, one second you're near the ocean and the next you're passing a casino, and it's dark! Thank god, due mostly in part to my excellent navigation skills ;) that was the easy part, we got turned around once but we found it!

What a day that was! When we arrived we immediatly met the upstairs nieghbor who made us feel right at home, the cat was thrilled to finally be out of her crate, and we were thrilled to sleep in a comfy airconditioned room:) It was such a long day but it was worth every bit of trouble, It is so beautiful here and after a couple days of adjustment we are very very happy!

Amanda