Great Being Home.....

     We arrived at Birch Bay on Thursday and were very happy to get home. The good news is that I did not gain any weight on the trip. However, I did not lose any either, so I will start working a little harder on that. While I was visiting BVI, I did less exercising, so I'm sure that impacted my progress. However, I maintained my keto diet using foods popular on these islands, including delicious oxtail curry, jerk chicken, and other local favorites that were readily available. The trip is lengthy, beginning with a ferry ride from Road Town to St. Thomas. Of course, we had to take another COVID test prior to departure. We did not know that we also needed to complete an online form before boarding the ferry, so we scrambled to get that done. It was unnecessarily complicated, and a charming young man at the terminal helped me with obscure questions like the ferry number and other items that did not apply at all but required an answer. We had to upload an image of the vaccine card and the document proving a negative test result, and then a green scan demonstrating that all's well with your health is returned. This scan admits you to the ferry and ultimately into St. Thomas. Mine came through right away, but it took three tries to get Steve's green scan. The ferry people let him through with a pending result, but he received a bright red decline from St. Thomas by the time we boarded and settled in. With every decline, he nearly fainted, so I took over. It took three attempts, but he received his green scan just before the ferry docked in St. Thomas. He needs me. We had several hours to kill in St. Thomas before flying to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The taxi group at the terminal keeps luggage as long as you use their taxi service to get around the place. We took advantage of that because we planned to use a taxi for several trips. Leaving our luggage behind, we enjoyed an excellent breakfast at the Petite Pump Room located over the ferry terminal and sporting a lovely view of the bay. After breakfast, we took a taxi to the Pirate Museum and saw some remarkable artifacts from area shipwrecks. There were some fantastic water vessels dating back to the first century A.D., meaning seafaring people navigated these islands centuries earlier than I ever realized. We walked back to the ferry terminal from the museum, so I managed to get all of my steps and cardio. Then we took the taxi to the airport after retrieving our luggage. We were three hours early, which was a very good thing because the lines were long. It took two hours to get through customs and then security. We only had a thirty-minute wait before boarding the plane. When we arrived in Fort Lauderdale, we had barely enough time to grab a salad and then take the long ride to Las Vegas. Thankfully, Steve broke our trip up a little by arranging an overnight stay at the Luxor. The Luxor is our go-to place if trapped in Vegas because it is convenient to the airport with clean and comfortable rooms. Also, it has an excellent buffet for every meal. After traveling all day, we were exhausted and slept very well. We hit the breakfast buffet that morning, and I had a western omelet and lots of veggies. Then we headed to the airport and caught our plane to Bellingham. We were home by Thursday afternoon and very happy about it! While we enjoyed our trip very much and had great success with everything, there is no place like home!