For this year's Christmas trip, we are bound for Antigua. As we had done last year, we all congregated at Lauren's location the night before, so we could be close to Newark airport for an early morning flight.
It was a frigid night in New Jersey as we went out to dinner in Morristown, before going to bed early in anticipation of our 6 AM Uber ride to the airport.
We were at the airport just after 6:30 AM, and it was an absolute circus; the traffic was crazy and the lines were lengthy, but it was All Hands On Deck at security, so we had plenty of time for breakfast before our flight boarded at 8 AM.
Our luck ran out after getting through security, though, as it started snowing right when we needed it not to be snowing.
The incoming flight that brought the plane we needed was late arriving, so we boarded late. It turned out to be a moot point, because it took almost two additional hours of waiting in line for de-icing and waiting in line for the runway, as they had closed one runway.
By the time we were de-iced, the snow had stopped and the backlog was beginning to clear.
With the 90-ish minute delay and the 1-hour time change, it was almost 3:30 PM when we landed in Antigua. We deplaned into the heat and humidity via a stairs-truck, as is somewhat normal in our experience flying to Caribbean islands.
I have no idea why we were on a retro-paintjob "Continental Airlines" plane, although it was easily old enough to have been a Continental asset, originally.
By the time we got through the never-ending line at the severely-overwhelmed immigration checkpoint, it was after 5 PM. Throw in the textbook Caribbean rental-car experience, and it was 6 PM by the time we left the airport.
Our original plan for today had been to check into our Airbnb, then go to the nearby grocery store before our 6:15 dinner reservation. We didn't even get to the villa by 6:15, where our hosts had been graciously awaiting our arrival.
We got a quick tour of the facilities, and they were kind enough to call and handle moving our reservation to 7 PM.
We had a lovely, if a bit slow (it is Christmas Eve, after all) dinner at Salt Plage, just a few minutes down the road.
The restaurant is right on the beach, so we dined to the sound of waves gently crashing on the sand.
Thankfully, the fancier of our nearby grocery options was open until 11 PM, so it was mostly fine that we went after dinner.
Even knowing the exchange rate of the local currency, it's hard not to be sticker-shocked at the price of food here. There may have been a few bottles of alcohol on the belt, though.
Outside the grocery store, as an homage to a photo we did three years ago in Turks and Caicos, we asked a random resident to take a group shot. We failed to get it in front of Christmas tree, though.
It's been a rather long day; tomorrow, we will eventually get out and about to see some of the island, but first I think we're all sleeping in and lounging around the villa for a bit. The view looks like it will be impressive in the daytime.
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