Thanksgiving weekend - Day 2

Day 2 started with checking out from the Day's Inn, really not that nice, but they had "free" transfer back to the airport. "Free" as you are supposed to tip the driver... how much??? Anyhow, arrived at reception on-time to find minibus and lonely kiddie (guess around 6-8) guarding the family's luggage, stating they would come soon - in Spanish! Why do everyone speak Spanish! anyhow driver gave him an ultimatum and he summoned the rest of the family and we were off just 10 mins late or so.
Arrived at airport, checked in and off to the AA lounge. Lounges are a bit difficult in the US - you don't always get unlimited food & drinks. This time we were each given a free "Premium drinks" voucher at 7 AM and off we went. Unfortunately no breakfast according to Sissi standard. There were croissants and sticky Danish pastries. Compared to the United LA. lounge a few months ago that was a real disappointment. They had bagels with jam and cream cheese and yogurt and orange juice. But we had unlimited wine... even Sissi at 7 AM is not that keen - a nice breakfast would be much more appreciated.

Eventually off we went on our 45 min hop from Miami to Nassau. The flight was fine, but as we went nearer our goal the nice weather from Miami was exchanged for a thick layer of clouds.

We arrived way early so were not allowed to check in. As weather was so-so we hopped on a minibus (number 10 from Cable beach to Nassau downtown) to see the town and have lunch. It was very much catered to cruise ship passengers. Shops selling diamonds and expensive watches but not much food (cruise ship passengers tend to be well fed and not willing to spend extra money on food).

Suddenly Alastair spotted a sign for a Hard Rock Cafe, so we had a pre-lunch Hurricane!

Eventually we found a place with sea-food and local beers. A tribute to the British Queen outside the Justice Building and some local Police in action at street!

         

Thanksgiving weekend - Day 1

Don't read this series if your are in a cold and nasty place, but wished you were sipping a daiquiri under a palm tree instead. That's what I did.

So, Thanksgiving coming up - what should we do? No idea! Left Alastair downstairs one evening and he decided that if most Americans stay at home for Thanksgiving to spend it with their families, going somewhere would be a good idea. With autumn finally arrived here in DC, somewhere warm might be nice. So he checked all the flights from DC and came up with Nassau, Bahamas.

Off we went, on the eve of Thanksgiving out of DCA, there were no people! No queue to check-in, no queue through security and no people in the lounge. I would have thought, as we were travelling domestic the first leg, DCA - MIA it would be chaos, but not!

Off we went on a reasonably full not to completely full flight to Miami. Not bad being an AA flight as flights go and at MIA we had booked a motel-room between the runway and the freeway. It lived up to it's Day's Inn reputation, but what do you really need for a few hours sleep. First greeting in hotel room was a load of flyers from various pizza delivery places - hmm, don't they do food here?

It looked pretty shabby. After un-loading we headed down to the bar / restaurant. It turned out they had stopped serving food and had some special club/dance evening, with entrance fee. We asked if we could jut have a beer at the bar, and as they were empty, they agreed. The music was so loud we could not talk to each other at all. There was nobody there and we would gladly have stayed for at least a few drinks and a snack, if they turned it down a notch - but no way. Left around 11 PM - not sure how many travelers staying at a cheap airport motel will go out clubbing all night!

The hotel in itself, I thought was put-up-able but after spending $40 more at the Sheraton going back, perhaps not... You get what you pay for as they say.