Bonaire Day 1: Planes, Grapes & Dexter

Kind of a rocky start. Got the family up at 3:30 a.m. to head to the airport. I was ready to cash in my free checked bag perk from my American Airlines credit card—only to find out that it doesn’t apply to international flights. Of course, that's technically clear in the fine print... but let’s just say I’m not a fine-print kind of traveler at 3:30 in the morning. Add a surprise $35 fee to start the day—ugh. We'll consolidate our liquids on the return leg and avoid this mistake again. Nothing kills my vibe like unnecessary travel costs.

But airports are oddly comforting to me, so I took the chance to stretch my legs and walk laps around the terminal while the sun came up.

Flight to Miami? Smooth. Short layover. Highlight: self-driving wheelchairs cruising the terminal unattended. Apparently, they roam until someone needs them. Future-y and slightly eerie.

Flight to Bonaire? Also smooth. After about 7 hours total, we landed in hot, humid, windy, sunny Bonaire.

Customs was easy—just showed our $75 tourist tax receipt, answered a few questions about where we were staying, and we were on our way.

Picked up our SUV rental and... headed straight to the gym. (Of course.) With a few hours to kill before check-in, the boys grabbed weekly memberships at Body Fit and worked out while I blogged—until the Wi-Fi gave out. Then it was me, solitaire, and my thoughts.

Grocery store stop: Warehouse Bonaire. We LOVE exploring international grocery stores. But—Bonaire is an island, and the sticker shock is real. Grapes from Chile? $10/kg. We bought a $13 bag. B has been instructed to savor them like rare jewels. On the other hand, Ben & Jerry’s and frozen pizza are surprisingly affordable, so we won’t starve.

Finding the apartment was an adventure. The unit number is 12... and so are half the other buildings in the neighborhood. So for a while there, I was wandering around trying to (gently) break into every “12” I could find, all while being barked at by the local canine security team. D gets MVP for spotting our actual rental. And it’s perfect. Big enough for 6, comfy for our 3, with the right balance of hangout space and privacy.

Dinner plans? We had our hearts set on IRIE Jamaican Cuisine—jerk chicken, fried plantains, ginger beer... but turns out Google lied and they’re closed on Mondays.

We pivoted to Rumba Café, which serves every cuisine known to humankind. We thought pizza, but ended up with:

• Burger (D)
• Quesadilla (B)
• Stir-fried noodles (me)
  
  And of course, we sampled Bitter Lemon soda and ginger ale. About $50 total for the three of us—not bad.

Post-dinner plans? Back to the grocery store. We loaded up on frozen pizza, ice cream, and international candy treasures. $120 spent so far on groceries—$13 of which is grapes. But now we’ve got a base to work from, and the food budget hopefully won’t spiral too far out of control.

Evening vibes:

• Dessert: devoured.
• TV: planned out for the week.
  
  We logged in and discovered that Dexter is available on Netflix. It had been gone from Netflix for years, but here it is in all its moody, Miami glory. Rewatching old faves = one of our comfort travel rituals.
  

Now it’s late, I’m the only one still awake, and I’ve been blogging my heart out. Tomorrow’s plans? None at all. Which means anything can happen.

Stay tuned. 🌴