Off to St. Kitts!
Since I have retired from the military I have done a pretty good job of having a trip planned and travel to look forward to. Unfortunately the cruise we were scheduled to go on in an early December was cancelled due to our travel companions needing to recover from knee replacement surgery. This left us with nothing on the docket so Black Friday weekend I started the search for a trip for January. I wasn’t sure where exactly to go other than somewhere warm and somewhere we haven’t been. To give me a little direction I Googled best places to sea glass hunt in the Caribbean. The first video that came up was St. Kitts and I was sold. I found a Black Friday deal and made the booking.
We had a super early flight on Saturday morning from O’Hare, so I booked a park and stay with Loews hotel at O’Hare. We had previously stayed at a nearby hotel and came over to this hotel to eat at the Capital Grille, so this time I just booked at this hotel. I really liked that they had shuttles to the airport every 15 minutes 24 hours a day and a covered parking garage and the Capital Grille. We got to Chicago around 6:45 and got settled in our room before we headed down to the restaurant. In the elevator another guest mentioned that the other restaurant in the hotel was really good and we thought about going there for a second, but we had both been mentally preparing for a steak dinner all day so we stuck with our original choice. We were not disappointed. It was quite tasty and we were pleasantly surprised with a complimentary sampler dessert plate. We got back up to the room by 9:00 and got ready for bed since we had an alarm set for 3:10a.m.
It’s no surprise that I woke up every couple of hours thinking I was going to miss the early hour alarm. I actually got up 10 minutes before my scheduled alarm. We made it down to the shuttle with 5 minutes to spare. When we told the driver that we were flying Delta he originally told us we would have to wait for the next shuttle since it was in Terminal 5, but then he ended up changing his mind and taking us. I’m not sure what that was all about but I’m glad we got to go right away. Having TSA pre-check made getting through security a breeze and we were at the gate with about 45 minutes to spare.
We had a layover in Atlanta and had plenty of time to make our connection. Thankfully we didn’t have any travel issues and before we knew it we were landing in St. Kitts. Since we carried on our backpacks we breezed right through immigration and customs and was at the Thrifty Rental Car counter in no time. Once again we are happy with our choice in the Pakt backpacks that Tom got us last year. It really has changed and improved the way we travel. Like Turks and Caicos they drive on the opposite side of the road as we do in the U.S., but unlike Turks and Caicos the car’s steering wheel is also on the opposite side. It takes a little bit to get used to, but is not terrible.
Tom navigated us to the St. Kitt’s Marriot Beach Resort which was a relatively short drive from the airport. Check-in was a breeze and soon we had the car parked and found our room for the week. The resort is not an all-inclusive resort, but it feels like one. We got settled in the room and was pleasantly surprised that our “pool view” room also had a glimpse of the ocean and a nice big balcony. We got un-packed and headed out to explore the grounds. Even though it was 85 degrees or so, it was quite breezy which made it feel pleasant but cool. We found a bar/restaurant in the lobby area and shared a plate of nachos and a piece of passion fruit meringue pie. Both were good but not fantastic. We were exhausted from the early morning wake-up and didn’t feel like going off the property for dinner, but we look forward to checking out everything St. Kitts has to offer this week. We turned in early and watched the end of the Chiefs game than the Lions game in our room.
Stats of the Day
Steps: 9,123
Cost of Bottle of Beer: $5.50
Time Zone Difference: 2 hours ahead of CST
