We are finally using our cruise credit from out cruise from March 2020 that was cancelled because of the COVID pandemic. Our cruise is sailing out of Barbados. We decided to arrive a couple of days early. To be allowed entry to Barbados, we had to have a negative COVID test. We could take a PCR test within 3 days of arrival or a rapid test the day before. We decided to take the one 3 days before so on Wednesday we took the test. Then I got concerned that we would not get the results in time, so we found somewhere to get the rapid test and took it on Thursday morning.
We were flying out of Miami on Friday. After taking the COVID test, we were driving to Miami. Miami is about a seven hour drive. I travel with my adult son Jay. He usually just sits in the passenger seat and sleeps or is on his phone the whole way.
I should update you about our pets. We still have Zack, our Havenese. He is 15 years old now and does not see well. He is also on medication. Our tabby cat is Max, he is also on medications. We also have a new addition, a kitten around 6 months old. We have named her Pepper. She is solid black, except for a few white hairs on her chest. Zack and Max are staying in a kennel and Pepper is going to stay with my brother.
Ok, back to the trip. The drive to Miami was uneventful. We had a hotel near the airport reserved to spend the night.
Friday morning we got up, ate breakfast and checked out of the hotel. We drove to the airport. We spent over 30 minutes driving around the parking garage. They had signs saying there were 132 spaces available, but that was not true. I eventually saw a woman and two children get off the elevator. I asked her if she was leaving and she was. I told her, I was going to follow her to her car. She backed her car out and I parked my car. We then walked to the terminal. We were flying on American Airlines. We had to get in a line to get our boarding passes. But first, we had to stop at a desk and show the attendant proof of our negative COVID test. We had gotten the results the night before. Then we stood in line to wait to get our boarding passes. After the boarding passes, we had to go to the security line where we again had to wait in line.
They did not have us take anything out of our carryon luggage. We also did not have to take off our shoes. After passing through security we went our gate and waited for the plane to board. I was sitting in the window seat and Jay had the aisle seat. A man sat in the middle seat. The plane was full. The flight to Barbados was smooth! We landed at the airport and walked down a ramp to the tarmac and headed inside the airport. The first stop we had, was showing our negative COVID test results, the next stop was to show our vaccination cards. Then we went to a kiosks where we scanned our passports and answered some questions. It gave us a printout that we had to give to the customs agent along with our passports. Once through Customs we went to get our checked luggage. The luggage had not come up yet so we had to wait on it.
After collecting our checked luggage, we went to the taxi stand to get a taxi to our apartment hotel. It is in the Christ Church Parrish in St. Lawrence’s Gap. It is a small family run hotel. We got checked in. It is a studio apartment. It has two twin beds and a small kitchen. We then walked around for a bit looking for somewhere to eat lunch. We both had the jerk chicken and rice and peas. We also tried plantains, which neither of us really liked. We then went back to the hotel, where I took a nap.
We headed out again around 6:30 to eat supper. We found a place. Jay had roast chicken and I had a hamburger and fries. After dinner we walked back to the hotel.
