AYCJ Day 18: Maho Beach and the KLM Widebody


“Oh, you again.”

Probably not the way most folks want to be greeted when boarding a plane. For me this morning, however, it was just another JetBlue flight attendant who I had previously had the pleasure of flying with during the All You Can Jet month and one who remembered me. Good to see you again, too, Michael.

This is also my first AYCJ flight where I’ve been acutely aware of just how many others on the pass are on the flight. There were a number of AYCJ conversations going on in the cabin during boarding. Hearing “Where else have you been?” is a pretty good indicator on that front. The flight attendants took a quick poll just prior to departure, asking all the AYCJ folks to raise their hand. I counted roughly 20. A solid showing.

A bunch of us chatted during and after the flight about going to watch the planes land at Maho Beach but there was nothing definitive. At the rental car office the couple sitting behind me happened to show up on the shuttle after mine. We all started chatting with the guy behind the counter about plane spotting and I mentioned that the KLM MD-11 was due in about an hour hence. The other couple was nearly as excited as I was (he was much more than she) and we drove over to Sunset Bar, had a couple Carib beers and watched the planes land.

It. Was. Awesome!

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I also confirmed that an Air France A340 is due in tomorrow afternoon shortly before my flight leaves so I’ll be back at the bar to catch that arrival, too.

I’m staying on the French side of the island, right on Orient Bay Beach. Quite nice, though it is clearly off-season and a bit quiet. That’s actually probably a good thing for me.This was sunset from the bar on the beach:

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Yeah…life doesn’t particularly suck at all right now.

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Seth Miller

I'm Seth, also known as the Wandering Aramean. I was bit by the travel bug 30 years ago and there's no sign of a cure. I fly ~200,000 miles annually; these are my stories. You can connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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