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Well, our morning timeliness has only slightly improved, we're up on time, but just barely :) Decidedly it's a lot more work to travel with 2 kids than by ourselves, and we are WAY slower than previously. We packed most of our stuff last night and only need to reorganize our backpacks this morning, so getting ready is quick, and we're down to breakfast by 8:15 with the need to leave the hotel by 9:15. The breakfast servings are huge, as we discovered yesterday morning so we're smarter today and only get the 1 free adult and kids meal that came with our room rate...it's more than enough for all 4 of us.
Out the door on time, the hotel staff are extremely friendly, everyone knows our name and 4 of them staff met us at the door to say good bye (mostly to the girls, not to me and Heather). We're very impressed with the customer service.
And that was the end of being on time for the rest of the day...
Traffic through Port of Spain was killer, it took 25 minutes just to get through the main part of town, with another 20 minutes to go down the freeway. I'm thinking to myself as we clear town and hit the highway, 'My previous experiences in Trinidad were that airport security and exiting was pretty easy, let's hope nothing has changed!' The street signs:
-20km to the airport
-13km to the airport
-10km to the airport
-4 km to the airport
...
...
"man, that's the longest 4km of my life...no way it's this far...
-10km to the airport (right turn)
"s***! we missed it!"
-turn around and back track...1 hour and 3 minutes until departure...we have no time left to fill up the gas tank, guess we're paying their "$300TT penalty"
Rip into the parking lot and fly through the door..."we gotta go, we're late!"
"Ok sir, calm down, I have to check out the car." Seriously, can you move any slower?
"Sir, the gas tank is lower than it should be."
"I know, I found this $35usd in my pocket, you think that's enough for you to take it down the street and fill it up for me?"
"No problem" (car needed about $15usd cash...so much for that $300TT penalty)
At the check-in gate, the agents aren't in a rush; guess we made it in time. Security is a typical Caribbean island; 2 agents, a metal detector, and an xray scanner from the 80's. So despite arriving 38 minutes before departure for an international flight, we're sitting at the gate on time for the scheduled boarding time of 30 minutes prior to take-off. ...the flight is delayed 25 minutes.
So late to arrive in Grenada by 25 minutes, but otherwise an enjoyable 40 minute flight. The airport is a single runway with no jetway service, all planes board and debark on the tarmac to walk into the 2 lane immigration office, 1 for visitors and 1 for citizens...25 soccer youths and their parents in the citizens line; and just us in the visitors line...SCORRRRRRRRRE!
Greeted at the hotel with fruit juice and cold towels, liking it here already! Lunch at the hotel restaurant (#8 restaurant in the country) is awesome, local dish called Callalou Chicken and some Grenadian style nachos. The kids are tired, so we head back to the room for a nap, but get distracted by the playground on the way, where Maclaren somehow attracts every hotel worker's kid onsite and before you know it she has 6 little local kids collecting leaves and sticks for her to make a lizard trap! Milan and Heather head to the room to catch a snooze while I babysit and entire hotel worth of kids on the playground...cold Carib beer in hand :)
We decided to stay at the hotel tonight for dinner, and partake in their Grenadian Night activities. We arrived at the restaurant to the sound of elevator music being played on the steel drums...yeah...not going to work for us! Soon the musicians have the thumping background soundtrack going and our girls are providing dance entertainment for the whole place...even the old folks enjoyed it!
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