We have touchdown.

We officially arrived on the island of St. Thomas. And what a wakeup call!

We spent a lot of time making sure we had the proper paperwork so that Marley would be allowed on the island (at least there is no quarantine here), and nobody gave us a second look! We walked off the plane, walked into baggage claim, got our bags and walked to the rental car! Walk in with a dog, walk out with a dog, no worries, mon!

Welcome to de VI!

The rental car!

Dan’s first experience with driving on the left is pretty hilarious. Check it out:

After getting out of the parking lot and out of the airport, we made it to our rental in Wintberg, in the “country” part of the island. The neighborhood is located just northeast of the center of the island.  I will try to figure out how to get a map on the blog to remember all the places we go.

So we arrive at our rental, Wintberg Place. It’s a small, one-bedroom apartment that is fully furnished and has everything we need to transition into island life.  And our view for the next three weeks isn’t bad either.

View from Wintberg Place

We are exhausted by this point, but know we have to get something to eat. When we were on St. Thomas in December for our cruise, we ate a this little tiki hut bar called Mojo’s, located in the Havensight district (near the cruise ship docks). Our friend Josh had told us about this place, and we loved it, so we decided to make our first meal on the island a return to Mojo’s. They have great roasted chicken, and of course, frozen drinks!

Mojo’s rum shack

Do we look even more tired now?

Obligatory first night drink at Mojo’s

We definitely could have gone to the apartment and slept for hours, but no. We arrived on St. Thomas on the last night of Carnival celebrations! There were fireworks welcoming us! Not really welcoming us, but there were fireworks, and I did make Dan stay up to watch them. How many times can we say we had a fireworks show on our first night on an island – our new home? I’ll tell you: once. We went to Yacht Haven Grande and had a drink at Fat Turtle, and took in the show: