CHRISTMAS IN NANTWICH

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

DABBER PARADISE

Team VFH is back in Nantwich, England for Christmas. We consider it our second home, at least until we’ve overstayed our welcome.

We’ve been traveling to this historical and charming little town in Chesire since 2011 when Janet’s daughter married an English lad who was born and raised here and have since made their home in Nantwich. We come here to visit them and the grandchildren of course, and over the years Nantwich has become as familiar to us as our hometown of Collegeville, PA.

There are so many points of interest for us here that it would be too unwieldly to put it in one article, but here’s a few:

DABBERS

Their wedding was held at the wattle and daub Crown Hotel which dates from the late 1500s. There are a number of these types of structures throughout Nantwich, bulging and leaning haphazardly. The Crown has a very posh pub on the ground floor and a fine restaurant. On that wedding night we ran up quite the tab at the pub.

THE CROWN HOTEL NANTWICH

Dabbers is the nickname for Nantwich citizens as well as the local town’s Football Club. 

We like to take in a game when we’re here. Usually they play on Boxing Day, December 26^th, but they are away this year, so we went to a game last weekend.

NANTWICH TOWN FC 

THE BELLS OF ST MARY’S

Set in the middle of town presiding over a picture-card square is the Anglican church of St. Mary’s. She dates from the mid-13^th Century and each time we visit Nantwich we light votive candles for our dearly departed family members.

Monk's Lane with
St. Mary's

The bell ringers of the church practice on Thursday nights, but throughout the days the peal of their craft reports off the surrounding buildings. It is a majestic sound and at midnight of the New Year the square brims with people to literally “ring in the new year”. 

If you are interested in tapping into your inner Quasimodo, they invite the curious to come by: 

BELL RINGING AT ST MARY'S NANTWICH 

PUB CRAWLS

The pub culture in England thrives in Nantwich and there are several we like to visit while here. The previously mentioned Crown Hotel is expensive, or posh. The Nantwich Club is not, but you do need to be invited. We have an “in” there with the father-in-law who is a member. Other notables are The Vine, The Leopard and The Red Cow.

Speaking of dearly departed, the first pub we frequented in Nantwich, The Rifleman, affectionately called “The Gun” has closed and is now a funeral parlor.

FESTIVALS

Again, too many to mention in one sitting, but here are a few:

The Nantwich Food Festival, September - We attended this in 2023. A great excuse to drink craft beer and eat a lot of food.

Nantwich Show, July – We attended this as well in 2019 at nearby Reaseheath College. Basically a massive 4-H event UK style.

Jazz and Blues Festival, Easter weekend – We have to get to this one eventually.

The Battle of Nantwich, - January – A reenactment of a major 1644 battle during the English Civil War.

Words and Music Festival, - October – Shakespeare wannabees and musical acts descend on the town for a week of performances.

WALK ABOUTS

Janet once fretted that I would get bored in Nantwich, but there’s lots of walking to do through town. Stopping for coffee, or the library or a pub is always on the agenda and finding new ways through town via back alleys and snickets, public cut-throughs, is always a fun way to wile away the afternoon.

WELSH ROW

On this current trip I crossed the River Weaver up Welsh Row to walk the towpath along the Shropshire Union Canal, part of the vast network of canals in England. The border with Wales has changed a lot over the years and used to edge up to the river

Speaking of Wales, we have made several day trips to places like Llangollen and Llandudno. Other places in England we’ve visited on day trips or overnighters have been Chester, Liverpool, Lake Windermere in the Lake District (where Beatrix Potter of Peter Rabbit fame lived) and York. We’ve also used Nantwich as a jumping off point for several mini vacations in Europe. Cheap flights are routinely available from Ryan Air. We’ve traveled to Bruges, Budapest, Tenerife and Seville.

CHRISTMAS LOGISTICS

Managing the logistics of a holiday gathering can be harrowing, especially when everyone hails from far-flung locales, but Nantwich is a precious gathering place.

This is our third time to be here for Christmas, and perhaps this is the best time to visit.

The grandchildren are always excited to see us, but they do keep their eyes on the growing cache of presents underneath the tree. We always bargain with them about the time for a Christmas morning wake-up and I think we’ve got it to 6:00 am, and I’m sure the pounding on our bedroom door will begin RIGHT AT THAT TIME and not a moment later.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL

Love Janet and greg

© 2024 by Gregory Dunaj

ARRAY OF SANDALS RESORTS

WHERE TO GO NEXT?

St Vincent and the Grenadines

When we travel to a Sandals Resort it is not just for a relaxing stretch of indulgent whims and scuba diving. While lounging about sipping drinks at the swim up bar we are always thinking ahead to our next Sandals landing spot.

We do this for a couple of reasons.

The Sandals family of resorts makes it easy for you to plan for future trips. They offer incentives if you book your next stay while still at the resort. For $250 you can lock in your future vacations at the current price, and they give you loyalty points that can be applied to the cost. Most importantly though is after 70 paid days at any of the Sandals you get a free week’s stay.

CHASING THAT FREEBEE

Since our honeymoon in 2018 when we first stayed at the Sandals in Antigua, we have amassed 52 days, and we are at something called “Emerald” status. Whatever… all I know is we are very close to that free week.

Two more stays and we’ve made it. THAT is an incentive and Team VFH will jump on a freebee offer like bums after a ham sandwich.

St VINCENT and the GRENADINES

Our next planned trip is the newest addition to the Sandals family on St. Vincent. When first conceived by Sandals the resort on St. Vincent was slated to be a Beaches resort, their (gasp) family friendly all-inclusive, but pulled the plug on that scheme.

St. Vincent is the main island of this country which includes the islands of Bequia and Mustique. My first attempt at scuba diving was in the waters of the Grenadines. I was shocked and smitten with the sport of scuba diving because of the clarity of the water and the diversity of the sea life. We are really looking forward to this trip. I just hope the volcano La Soufriere, located on the north of the island doesn’t erupt again. It last erupted in 2021, but the resort is on the other end of St Vincent.

PRIVATE BEACH

Jamaica

There are 17 Sandals resorts scattered over 8 different islands and there are 7 on Jamaica proper. We stayed at Sandals South Coast a couple of years ago and we just planned to return to it, rather than explore another resort on the island. I know I know we often say it's a big world out there so why repeat a destination. Well, we became friends with another couple a few Sandals resorts ago and they expressed an interest in South Coast after we raved about the resort and so we decided to return. 

Plus, it’s less expensive than the other resorts.

Sandals South Coast is very nice and spread out with a pristine 2-mile private white sand beach. Private is the key word. Normally there are people hawking stuff on the beaches, but South Coast is private and secluded, surrounded by a 500-acre nature preserve.

Sadly, the diving here isn’t the beat. The coral has been beat up because fishermen once used dynamite to fish, but anytime we can get “wet” is still fun and the dive spots are a mere few minutes offshore, so after a two-tank dive we can still be home for breakfast!!

Another attraction is the Latitudes Bar, an over-the-water watering hole with hammocks off the edge. It’s a great place to watch the sunset.

We will be there in December 2026. Stop by and I’ll buy you a drink.

Thanks for reading.

Latitudes Bar Sandals South Coast

Love Janet and greg

© 2024 by Gregory Dunaj

COMING AND GOING

 NEXT UP ENGLAND

HO F*KING HO

I’m awfully sorry, I left my computer open again and Raisin got to writing. 

What the F*K? 

They just got home a few days ago and now these B*tchs are traveling again?!

I knew something was up when they didn’t even put their bags away after the last trip.

At first, I figured they were hungover from drinking too much rum in St. Lucia, but that’s a normal F*king night for them. How many times do I have to wake them up by licking the drool off their faces when they pass out on the couch watching Wheel Of Fortune.

I’d like to solve…. THEY ARE A**HOLES!

No, Mommy is packing the bags again and Daddy has been wearing a hat to bed. I don’t know if he’s coming or going….

That’s a joke for you F*king dummies out there, in case you didn’t get it. 

Who the F*ck reads this S*itty blog anyway.

Here it is the Christmas season, and they are flying off to England. They are going across the F*king “pond” to visit family. Pond? I should pee in it. I should poop in the travel bags too. They like picking up my poop. Dummies.

So, they’re going out to visit F*king family during the Christmas holidays, but what the F*ck am I? They say they F*king love me. Well Ho F*king Ho! F*king spare me the Christmas cheer and why don’t you both just jump off that F*king Rainbow Bridge.

 

© 2024 by Raisin

ST LUCIA AND SANDALS

PARTY ON

Between lolling about at the pool indulging in drinks like “Dirty Bananas” or “Mudslides” or a “Frozen Bob Marley” or, my preference, just a shot of the local rum, “Chairman’s Reserve” with some ice and lime, and scuba diving and bickering over where we want to eat next, there’s little time to explore an island. 

(And, an inside note, if you want to make sure you arrive on time for your spa or dinner reservation while at Sandals Grande St. Lucian be sure to avoid drinking too many Dirty Bananas concocted by our favorite bartender Peter at the swim up bar…he never lets your glass get empty.)

Anyway, the indulgent nature of a Sandals resort lends itself to lolling about. Better to linger than to explore, right?

For those so inclined though, Sandals Grande St. Lucian offers plenty of off-campus activities, from zip lining through the jungle, biking through the jungle, jeep tours in the jungle, helicopter tours of the island and taking mud baths in Soufriere. 

Scuba diving is always included in a Sandals vacation, but we often find the costs of extra tours prohibitive. Still, we managed to go off-campus a couple of time for mini-adventures.   

SAILING AWAY

the S/V Yankee Clipper

There was a time, long ago, that for us exploring our island was imperative. We had been to St. Lucia 18 years ago and sailed out of Rodney Bay on the majestic tall ship S/V Yankee Clipper. She was a three-masted cruise ship that was part of the now defunct Windjammer Barefoot cruises company. The beauty of that adventure was the Yankee Clipper actually used her sails, tacking into ports like Admiralty Bay on Bequia, and St. George’s in Grenda or islands like Carriacou before dropping anchor. 

Before we sailed on that adventure we went to a local party that’s been going on for 50 years.

FRIDAY NIGHT JUMP UP

Thirsty…there’s that word again…for local experiences during our first visit to St. Lucia we went to something called Friday Night Jump Up in the nearby town of Gros Islet. This is not an event manufactured for tourism, but a weekly party, held by the locals of Gros Islet. At sundown and stretching till 4am every Friday barbecues are fired up, temporary table-top bars are set up, arts and crafts vendors claim their spaces and the music gets cranked up and locals and tourists dance in the streets. Now called the Gros Islet Dance Party, this has been held for the past 50 years, every Friday but Good Friday.

Gros Islet Dance Party

When we first went 18 years ago it didn’t seem quite so frenetic, and our little entourage decided to return, because Gros Islet is literally just a 5-minute drive from the Sandals Grande St. Lucian. We had to return.

Gros Islet Dance Party

This time it was very frenetic. More like a frat party. It was loud! Everyone danced to music that pulsated from massive speakers in the center of town. We swigged some icy Piton beer, twitched along with the music along with the rest of the crowd, and had a great time.

There was a police presence at the party and despite the crowds it all felt convivial and friendly. Even I danced, and did not break a hip!  

Gros Islet Dance Party

We hired a driver to take us to the dance party. Our friends used Tim’s “On Time Taxi Service” to ride up from the airport and we used him to take us to the airport. His fee of $10 pp to the Gros Islet Dance Party was much cheaper than what Sandals would have charged us, plus he walked us through the dance party, kind of giving us street cred wearing his NY Yankees hat.

We recommend “On Time Taxi Services”. Contact Tim at 1-758-285-9601 or ON TIME TAXI EMAIL ADDRESS.

Sandals does provide free airport transfers, but we opted to take the Ferry from the airport and used Mark as a mini tour of the island on the way back. He cost $120.

(The Sandals transport stops at the other two St. Lucian resorts on the way to the airport, so we were early and beat the crowds through immigration.)

Here’s the website for the ferry. FUN TO SEE ISLAND FERRY 

PIGEON ISLAND

Another “adventure” we embarked on was hiking the nearby Pigeon Island. At one end of the Sandals Grande St Lucian are the looming peaks of the island that has a fort and a look-out point. Rising dramatically from the water and silhouetted in the sunset pictures everyone takes during their stay at Sandals, the $10 pp entrance fee to this National Park is worth it as it leads to glorious views of Rodney Bay.

Sunset with Pigeon Island

St. Lucia traded hands between the British and the French several times during the 1700s and to this day the French-influenced and indecipherable patois is still spoken by the locals who dance between the local dialect and English readily.

In 1779 St. Lucia was taken by the British and a fort constructed on Pigeon Island. On the higher point, Signal Hill, the British were able to observe the French naval activity out of Martinique.

We made the climb, first to the fort and then signal hill, enduring a thankfully short-lived teeming rain and some loose gravel. We did not see Martinique.

Pigeon Island is now attached to the mainland. In 1972 a causeway was created with dirt excavated when creating Rodney Bay Marina, connecting this historic island with St. Lucia.

Rodney Bay from the fort

Pigeon island is also the main stage for the yearly St. Lucia Jazz festival. 2025’s festival runs from April 30^th to May 11^th.

ST LUCIA JAZZ AND ARTS FESTIVAL

Plan your trip accordingly, or just ask Peter for another Dirty Banana!

Thanks for reading.

Love, Janet and greg

from Signal Hill
Sandals and the causeway

Gros Islet Dance Party

Gros Islet Dance Party

© 2024 by Gregory Dunaj

 

 

SKIING AT SANDALS GRANDE ST. LUCIAN

ENJOYING LIFE

The Sandals Resorts company is an adult couples only family of all-inclusive high-end resorts scattered throughout the Caribbean. In all there are 17 resorts spread over eight different islands. The company is based on Jamaica and there are 7 Sandals resorts there. We are in St. Lucia, a windward island north of St. Vincent and there are three resorts on this lush island known for the Pitons twin mountains on the south end of the island. We are at Grande St. Lucian in the far north of the island near the town of Gros Islet.

The other two Sandals resorts are La Toc and Halcyon and all three are on the Caribbean Sea or the western side of the island. Sandals offers free shuttles to the other resorts where visitors can enjoy all the amenities there. Visitors from La Toc and Halcyon have said our Grande St. Lucian was the “nicest” resort on St. Lucia.   

WELCOME HOME

This is our 7^th trip to a Sandals resort since our honeymoon in Antigua in 2018 and when we travel to St. Vincent’s next year, we will have been on all 8 islands that have a Sandals resort. The other islands that we have visited, in chronological order after Antiqua are: The Bahamas, Jamaica (South Coast), Grenada, Curacao, Barbados and now St. Lucia. So far that’s 52 days in total with Sandals. When we hit 70 days we get a free week. That alone is an incentive to return. Currently we’re at something called “Emerald” status, which means we got to prance up to the dais in front of the returning guest’s dinner to receive a trinket.

Next year we are going to Sandals’ newest resort on St. Vincent’s and two years from now we’re revisiting Sandals South Coast, and we will have earned our free week.

Every Sandals visit leaves us smiling, mirroring the smiles of the staff at every resort. Often workers stop what they are doing, like raking the beach or doing gardening or just passing by us to say hello, greeting us with wide smiles. The beach grooming or the gardening never suffers as the grounds are always impeccable. The beauty of traveling to a Sandals Resort is we know what to expect and their ad tagline of “Welcome Home” is very appropriate and heartfelt. It may all be part of the Sandals experience, but the one-on-one interactions are very welcoming.  

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Don’t kid yourself, staying at a Sandals is expensive, but with that cost comes the expectation of pampering and service and smiles, and Sandals never fails. The grounds are immaculate, the rooms are comfortable, there is a choice of several restaurants, there are swim up bars and pools everywhere and there is different entertainment each night. Every island is different, but every Sandals is unparalleled.

The main swim up bar 
Sandals Grande St Lucian

To save some money though, we opt for the first week of December when the rates drop. When COVID hit our planned December week was pushed to the next May and for three years we continued with May, until 2023 when we went twice. In May of 2023 we went to Curacao, Sandals’ newest resort at the time, and we shifted back to our December time slot with Barbados.

SKIING

Spending the Kids Inheritance is what we’re doing, or SKIING. We aren’t foolish though and we’re trying to squeeze out as much experience for our buck.

Our walk-out room

For example, there are several different tiers of accommodation at a Sandals Resort: Luxury, Club and Butler. We usually go for the cheapest, Luxury. Club gives you some extra liquor in the room and Butler status has someone catering to your whims and getting optimum chairs at the pool and dinner reservations, etc. Each tier costs more money and the prevailing attitude here at VFH Central is to go cheaper and more often, rather than sinking everything into one trip. Remember there is a big world out there. Better to parcel out our monies to see more and more.

Our one concession to cost is opting for a “walk-out” ground level room rather than one with a balcony.

Other rooms with a higher cost are those with a swim-out pool. There are also stand-alone oval huts called Rondoval suites. And, here at St. Lucia there are the nightmarishly expensive “over the water” bungalows. A one night’s stay is $1,888 per person. If we took the cost of our current 8-day trip to Sandals Grande St. Lucian and applied it to a bungalow, our stay would be just 1 ½ days.

That ain’t happening for these traveling cheapskates.  

GETTING OUR MONEY’S WORTH

There are plenty of other all-inclusive adults only resorts throughout the Caribbean that are a lot cheaper, and some reviews think they are even nicer than a Sandals Resort, but none have Scuba diving included. Over the years we have become PADI Open Water certified. Normally one would expect to pay $100 pp for gear and dive guide for a two-tank dive day. On this 8-day Sandals trip we managed to go on 9 dives, the most ever for a Sandals stay.

Kenny with Pitons in background

All the dive crews in every Sandals resort, but especially so here in St. Lucia are safety conscious and attentive. (A very special shout-out to our divemaster Kenny Evan.) We’re not “elite” divers, but we are always treated with respect not just here in St. Lucia, but throughout the family of Sandals resorts. 

Depending on the diving site locations the sport can be a day long affair. Some dive sites are offshore. Here in St. Lucia, most of the dive sites are 45 minutes to an hour away by dive boat. It’s worth the time. On consecutive dives one day we saw eels, lobsters, crabs, and a Hawksbill Turtle and a stingray, all the while swimming in a pristine colorful fishbowl, with vibrant coral teeming with underwater life.

A Hawksbill Sea Turtle (not my pic)

The Pitons St Lucia

It's a beautiful world and there’s more to see.

Thanks for reading

Love Janet and greg

© 2024 by Gregory Dunaj

ST LUCIA FINALLY HERE

 ROAD WARRIORS

If you are a sainted reader who follows VFH’s antics around the world you will know that we are seasoned travelers. We like adventure. We like new experiences. We realize that sometimes travel takes time. We haven’t perfected our teleportation device anyway, so we are at the mercy of this capricious world that likes to change logistics…moving the goalpost during the game as it were.

Well, we left our abode on Friday afternoon and on Monday evening we finally arrived in the island nation of St. Lucia.

We flew to Fiji in less time.

We flew to Vietnam in less time.

We stayed in three hotels over two days before finally getting on a plane that did not turn around or make an unscheduled landing somewhere along the way.

DELTA finally delivered us to our vacation. Better late than never?

We missed our pre-stay spot with the Bay Gardens Hotel in Rodney Bay and arrived at Sandals around 7:30 pm on Monday.

FUN TO SEE ISLAND FERRY

Once we finally got to St. Lucia things went rather smoothly. Janet had filled out our St. Lucia immigration forms THREE times as our itinerary changed and that saved us a lot of time fumbling with this once we arrived. Sandals alerted us to this necessity, but here’s the link: ST. LUCIA IMMIGRATION

We could have had Sandals pick us up at the airport, which is on the other side of the island, but we decided to take the ferry that travels up the Caribbean Sea past the Pitons and making two stops. The first one is at Castries and then Rodney Bay where our resort, Sandals Grand St. Lucian is located.  

FUN TO SEE ISLAND FERRY

It was a great way to start our delayed vacation. At about $400 it’s not cheap (a taxi is about $100 and the Sandals van is free) but it’s a smooth ride on the Caribbean side with a beautiful late afternoon view of the Pitons, the twin ‘mountains’ that are St. Lucia’s most identifying feature. We paid extra for “fast track” for a representative to get us through immigration quicker and for seats upstairs rather than down. We ended up spending most of our time on the bow of the ship anyway so maybe that extra cost wasn’t necessary, but the most important cost we incurred was their travel insurance. Without it we would have lost our money and could not have delayed our ride for two days.

The crew was attentive and jovial posing with and snapping pictures of us and the scenery and the sunset. They also served free drinks and snacks,

It was dark when we finally arrived at Rodney Bay and a quick taxi ride, courtesy of the ferry company, to Sandals where our week of pampering began.

Finally.

Thanks for reading.

Love Janet and greg

© 2024 by Gregory Dunaj

ST LUCIA DELAYED….STILL!!!

NO JOKE (DELTA)

Okay. On Friday we left our place in Collegeville PA. We dropped the pooch off at a friend’s apartment. We had dinner and drove to the airport motel where we stayed to catch an early flight on Saturday morning. By Saturday early evening we were supposed to be drinking rum drinks by the pool.

Here it is Sunday afternoon we have gotten as far as Atlanta.

Saturday morning there was a power outage in Philadelphia and DELTA booked us on the next days’ flight. We spent the day looking at Route 95, but in hindsight we should have muscled through to get to at least Atlanta. Why? Because our DELTA connection which should have been 2 hours was whittled down to 43 minutes. We were told we could make it as the gate we were to arrive at was next to the departure gate. Even our boarding passes said this.

Well, the flight’s departure was delayed from 5:30am and moved to 7am. Still plenty of time to walk next door, but DELTA had issues refueling and baggage loading issues and we left 45 minutes late. AND, to top it off DELTA changed the departure gate for St. Lucia from terminal A to terminal F on the other end of the airport while we were in the air, and before we even began our approach in Atlanta they were boarding out connecting flight. We only had three minutes to spare when we finally landed. Here we are in "Hot-lanta" overnight. There is only one flight to St. Lucia per day.

The old joke about DELTA Airlines is it stands for: Don’t Even Leave The Airport, I just never thought I’d experience it. This article is not meant as a rebuke of the airline, but this has been a bad joke.

We hopefully will get to St. Lucia Monday early evening, 4 days after we left our house. Our two-day pre-Sandals resort stay has been lost completely, and we can’t even slide those days to the end, because we’re only home for five days before we head off to England for the holidays.

I know, I know….First world problems.

Wish us luck.

Love Janet and greg

© 2024 by Gregory Dunaj

ST LUCIA DELAYED

HAVING FUN IN PHILLY?

Janet (mostly) and I had it all planned. We were going to fly out early Saturday morning from Philadelphia on DELTA. We had cashed in mileage for free roundtrip flights to a ten-day vacation in St. Lucia. We usually fly with American, but flying with DELTA had us avoiding American’s dreaded hub in Miami, where connections are routinely tight. One time they were boarding our connection flight before we even got to the gate. So, we decided to switch it up on our yearly trip to a Sandals resort in the Caribbean.

OOPS.

To ensure we would get to our DELTA 5am flight departure we booked a room at the La Quinta motel in Essington. For less than the price of simply parking at an airport lot we also were able to park at the motel for the duration of our trip.

Sounds like a great idea so far.

The first inkling of our bumpy ride to St. Lucia was the text Janet received from La Quinta informing us the parking lot at our motel was under renovation and to park at the Holiday Inn about a mile away instead and call for a shuttle. Okay, we’ll deal with this inconvenience.

It gets worse.

At just past midnight we got a text from DELTA that our 5am is now leaving at 7am. We figured we could still make a 45-minute connection rather than “explore other flight options”. Then Janet got a text saying there was a “power outage at the terminal with no confirmed timeline for restoration.”

We decided to head over to the airport anyway. The shuttle driver had not heard of the power outage.

Lights out.

Terminal “D” was completely out of service and DELTA, United, Canadian Air and Spirit Airlines were stopped in their tracks. They didn't have power to check in passengers. Passengers kept entering Terminal “D”, but no one was leaving. Except for emergency lights the terminal was dark. 

Terminal D was the only terminal effected by the outage. American, wouldn't you know it was running smoothly. We checked the last minute prices on the American flights and they were about $2,000 each! And, DELTA said they would not reimburse us for a change.

A day late.

Finally, a DELTA spokesperson came out and said it would be best if every DELTA flyer rebook for the next day. They couldn’t explain why this happened or when it would be rectified. They gave us a number to call, and Janet was able to get us on the next morning’s flight. The representative said expenses would be reimbursed and to keep receipts. We got a room at the airport Marriott at 6:30am. Our trip to the paradise of St. Lucia was delayed with another night in Philadelphia.

Butterfly Effect.

We were going to fly into St. Lucia’s Hewanorra International Airport on the south corner of the island from the Bay Gardens Hotel in Rodney Bay. The hotel is not far from the Sandals Grande St. Lucian. We like to get in a day or two before our trip to a Sandals resort. We had stayed at the Bay Gardens Hotel before when we sailed out of St. Lucia with the now defunct Windjammer Cruises. We were looking forward to a day of exploring the “old neighborhood.” There’s a treehouse restaurant there we wanted to revisit, etc. This delay put the kibosh on all that.

Good News.

Last time we visited St. Lucia, we took a private taxi to Rodney Bay. It’s about 40 miles from the airport, but this time we paid money to take a ferry. Because we like to get to a resort destination a day or so earlier than our Sandals stay, the resort won’t pick us up, so the ferry was a nice way to get to the other side of the island. Thankfully, Janet had the foresight to purchase trip insurance with the ferry company. For $20 pp if the flight is delayed you can either get your money back or reschedule. When we called them on the WhatsApp they had already heard about this delay and had us booked for the next day. Without the insurance we would not have refunded our money.

We miss a day at Bay Gardens, but not a far more expensive day at the Sandals resort.

You don’t need it, until you need it.  

We carry our own travel insurance. We buy a yearly plan with Allianz and the company has worked out great for us and though we are missing out on one day in the beautiful weather of St. Lucia, it should not cost us any hard-earned dollars. Small solace to spend the day looking out at the frenetic traffic on Route 95 and not a beach.

ALLIANZ TRAVEL INSURANCE

WHY?

We never got a definitive answer about how this power outage happened, but Janet thinks someone needed to recharge their phone and unplugged something.

Isn’t traveling fun?

Wish us luck.

Love Janet and greg

© 2024 by Gregory Dunaj

LAS VEGAS 1991 / 2024

BABY STILL NEEDS A NEW PAIR OF SHOES

Vegas Vic yesterday

I worked in Las Vegas from 1986-1991 with Frank Sinatra. We started out at the Golden Nugget downtown on Fremont Street before moving over to the Bally’s Casino (formerly the MGM Grand) on the Strip in 1987. We would come in for a week of shows and then tour elsewhere.

I was his teleprompter operator, probably one of the first performers to use a prompter for lyrics. Now, acts like Springsteen, U2 and the Stones use prompters. Whatever, it was a great gig, I traveled the world with FAS… twice.

Since that gig ended in 1991, I had not been back to Las Vegas.

Back then Las Vegas was already changing. There was a time when gentlemen would always wear suits hitting the casinos and women would always dress to the nines, but near the end of my stretch in “Sin City” there was a t-shirt movement, and the glamor of Las Vegas was becoming “tainted”. 

We recently traveled to Las Vegas for a wedding. No, it was not officiated by a midget Elvis impersonator, besides he’s called a “mini”-Elvis. It was a traditional wedding, but for the first time in 33 years I got to visit Las Vegas again. It was Janet’s first trip to Vegas.

LITTLE ELVIS WEDDING 

Both she and I vowed never to return. 

Back then I would look out my window and see on one side nothing but desert. The Flamingo, which opened in 1947, was on the other side of Bally’s, across the street. Caesar’s Palace was across the strip. I felt like we were on the “edge” of the strip then. I remember going for a run to the UNLV outdoor track a mile or so away and passing block after block of empty lots.

That’s all changed. There are so many new casinos like the Bellagio, Paris Las Vegas and the Venetian, to name a few, that seemingly cater as much to tourism as they do high rollers. These mega casinos are sprawling and offer a lot of eye candy on the outside. The Bellagio has their prancing waters that enthrall crowds every 15 minutes or so. The Venetian has gondola rides. There’s an elevator to the top of the faux Eiffel Tower at the Paris Las Vegas casino.

There’s also a sleaze factor on the strip that I had never seen before. Break dancers spin and aggressively hawk passerby for money. There are Elmos and Spider-Man characters and neon-lighted people posing for pictures, with a majority of the crowd seemingly disinterested in the casinos, but only here for the “experience “of being in the Times Square of Nevada. 

For us, the craziness of Las Vegas was unappealing. It’s too much of EVERYTHING.

We decided one night to venture onto the Las Vegas strip to see how much it had changed. We first visited the Venetian to see the gondolas for ourselves. 

We walked around aimlessly in the massive casino for a bit, watching conventioneers all on the prowl for that a “what happens in Vegas” adventure, their eyes narrowed searching for a glint of opportunity. We then went to the equally cavernous Paris Las Vegas for dinner at Mon Ami Gabi. We sat inside near the front window with a landscape view of the Bellagio across the strip and watched the fountains course through their ballet as we had a very nice (and expensive) meal. At our seats we also had a view of the hot air balloon evoking French history and one foot of the Eiffel Tower nearly in our laps.

MON AMI GABI, LAS VEGAS 

After dinner we dodged obnoxious break dancers and weaved around doe-eyed tourists and crossed the strip to watch the Bellagio fountains. We then used the pedestrian overpass that was non-existent when I was last in Vegas and crossed over to Caesar’s Palace to hail a ride back to our hotel. Once was enough.

A short walk from our hotel (not a casino) was the old Circus Circus Casino that has a lot of interesting things for your kids to see and arcade games to play when you decide to throw away the mortgage on Black 28. “Old” is a good word, moldering is better. We waded through a lot of tank-tops and toddlers on shoulders to see a few acts on the midway. Surprisingly nothing fell from the ceiling, but the dust was a few inches thick in places.

CIRCUS CIRCUS

VEGAS VIC ON FREMONT STREET

The next day we went down to Fremont Street. When I first came to the Golden Nugget, I was 29 years old and had never experienced any of the glitz or glamour that Vegas offered. Fremont Street was open then to vehicular traffic and the Nugget was across from the 4 Queens and Bill Binion’s Horseshoe and I the neon sign of Vegas Vic, and his “Howdy Pardner” beckoning arm was still moving. 

Vegas Vic today

Mind you, I was working freelance in NYC at the time, and I had already traveled extensively, hitchhiking my way around France. I had worked on the Sarajevo Olympics in 1984 for ABC and flitted around a couple of Greek islands afterwards. For some reason though seeing Vegas Vic for the first time I felt like I hit the jackpot of experiences.

The return was not so glamorous.

They call it the Fremont Street experience and the 4-block stretch is now a canopied pedestrian walkway. Videos are projected onto the canopy. There are zip line rides so you can soar above this stretch. Vegas Vic is still there, but the Pioneer Club he would beckon patrons to enter is now a souvenir shop. Street performers are everywhere including a man in a gorilla outfit and very scantily clad ladies, and yes there were more breakdancer performers. Everything felt like there was a greasy film on it. I had to walk into the Golden Nugget to see the old digs, and it was unrecognizable, which is to be expected I guess, but I remember it being a very classy joint. Across from the Nugget was the old Bill Binion’s Horseshoe, a down and dirty place that still offers cheap steaks and yes, the line to get into the eatery was still long. It is now called Binion’s Gambling Hall… the Horseshoe is now brand name of the Bally’s Casino… Are you keeping notes?

FREMONT STREET EXPERIENCE 

BILL BINION'S GAMBLING HALL

THE MOB MUSEUM

A block off Fremont is the Mob Museum. Take a trip down mayhem memory lane and learn about the history of Las Vegas and how the mob made it even greater. Don't forget to count the bullet holes in the actual wall from the Valentine's Day Massacre. It was educational, if you can get past all the morbid history.

THE MOB MUSEUM, LAS VEGAS

ESTHER'S KITCHEN

We ate out a couple of times while during our visit and I had already mentioned Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris Las Vegas. It was a nice experience with the view of the prancing waters of the Bellagio across the way. We sat inside at the window not wanting to brave the heat.

We also went to Esther’s Kitchen about halfway from our hotel to Fremont Street. We sat at the bar of this elegant Italian comfort food restaurant. I had pizza which was enough for two. Janet’s order of goat polenta came out with lamb (they had run out of the goat) and when the mistake was realized they bought us glasses of wine and were very apologetic and fawned over us throughout the rest of our meal. If anything, with competition in Las Vegas as it is, service is always at a premium. I would eat at Esther’s again, but we warned, they do not make good martinis.

ESTHER'S KITCHEN

NO WHERE  

Across from our hotel is a new mega casino, the Fontainebleau. It opened in 2023, and we decided to watch the first game of the NFL season at the hotel. Their sports book takes reservations, but there is a much quieter bar next door that had all the afternoon games on several big screen televisions, and I got to watch my NYG get dismantled by the Minnesota Vikings. Ugh

What made our visit to the Fontainebleau was the jazz club "No Where" up stairs. It was actually a classy quiet place with a quartet and singer and best of all, they made some very good, if very expensive, martinis. 

RAT PACK REDUX

Just down from the strip on Flamingo Road and just past the Battle Bots arena is the Tuscany Suites Hotel. At this joint is a small theater that was hosting a Rat Pack experience. Janet saw a flyer and wanted to go. Having worked for all three at one point on the short-lived “Together Again” tour in the 80s I figured what the heck. With a live band and three guys mimicking Frank, Dean and Sammy, it was a fun one-hour show. Lots of songs and reenactments of the antics of the Rat Pack’s performances at the Sands Hotel. The Rat Pack you may recall would do their act and then past midnight go off to film scenes for the original Ocean’s Eleven.

Admittedly I enjoyed myself, but Las Vegas is in my rear-view mirror.

I’ll leave you with a joke told by the faux Deano:

“Marriage is like a deck of cards. At first all you need is a couple of hearts and a diamond. At the end you need a club and a spade.”

THE RAT PACK IS BACK

Viva Las Vegas.

Thanks for reading

Love Janet and greg

© 2024 by Gregory Dunaj