I just can’t help myself – I’ve been trying to keep this stuff to myself, but we’ve been to a few new restaurants in the last couple of months. Three to be exact. And one that’s been there, but we hadn’t been to in too long, so it’s new again to us.

The Topside opened a while back and we tried it out, hoping that it would be better than what was there before. Well, the decor is nicer and the menu is interesting with lots of ethnic choices. The first two times we ate there however, I had dishes with lobster in them and they were almost too salty to eat. But the last time we were there (christmas eve), the mahi specials were fantastic. Even though they only have wine by the glass, it’s very decent and complements the food quite nicely.  We may dine there again.

Another thing that bothers me about this place, is when they were first opened, they advertised on the radio saying that “Diane from north shore” was now here. Many people thought they were talking about Diana from Off the Wall, who is dearly loved by everyone. Diana is still at Off the Wall as owner and bartender. And I think it’s kind of sleazy for the Topside to use a name that everyone recognizes to draw people in. The person they name in the ad worked in a bar on the north shore years ago.

The next place we tried had been open for quite a few months, but only for lunch. They have now opened for dinner a few nights a week. Well, how to begin…..Okay – I’ll start with a question – Aren’t there already a BUNCH of Italian restaurants on this island? And really, how hard is it to cook Italian food at home. Pasta – boil water, add salt and spaghetti, drain,  add some Newman’s sauce serve with a salad that you made while the water boiled and the pasta cooked. It’s not rocket science.

I guess that’s why there are so many of them. Easy and cheap, but just so painfully mediocre.

Another non- inventive opening at Salt river Marina. Well, I guess the boat people needed a place to hang out after the last place closed. So…..more of the same as any bar/restaurant by any boat place …..burgers and dogs and chips and salsa and guacamole…..blah, blah, blah…..

Does anyone out there have any imagination in the food department?

Fortunately – YES!

We made our way out to the Waves at Cane Bay for dinner the other night and it was delicious. House-made lobster ravioli with vodka cream sauce. Seafood chowder chock full of  whole mussels, and caesar salad with the tenderest baby romaine lettuce. A nice wine selection by the glass or bottle, and the atmosphere is really the best on island. Right there where the waves crash in on the rocks. We’ve eaten brunch there and seen dolphins swimming by just off shore. The evening we were there, the surf was pounding and it one of the nicest meals we’d had in a long time.

Whew! Just had to get that off my chest. I feel much better now     !

 

Today, we’re going hiking, so we start the day with a yoga session on the pool deck at SunDog House. Breakfast is granola, fruit and yogurt sitting by the pool watching the  sugarbirds and hummingbirds flit about the flowers on the Brazilian Orchid tree, the Pink Cedar, the red hibiscus and Ginger Thomas.

We make ourselves sandwiches and fill up our kleen kanteens with water because we’ll be hiking to the far east end beaches and will not be near any restaurants or resorts for most of the day. We pack a couple of beers and sodas as well. And maybe some Cruzan Rum – what the heck, we’re on vacation!

We turn left as we drive out of SunDog Lane, and take the Southshore Road (route 60) all the way to Pt. Udall. We stop to look out at the vastness of the blue and see dolphins frolicking in the surf fairly close to the easternmost point of any US territories. The grace and strength of these beautiful sea-mammals always inspire us.

After taking the customary tourist photos by the millennium monument, we drive back down a short distance the new parking area above East End Bay. We leave the car unlocked and with nothing tempting inside for creepy thieves to steal, and we hike the easy, newly cut and graded path to Isaac’s Bay beach.

Since the hike to Isaac’s is so easy now, we detour left to East End Bay beach first, to walk along the cobbles, listening to them being rolled in the waves as they crash onto the shore. After watching an osprey soaring over head, we start back toward the west, over the hill to the wonderfully vast, sandy expanse which is Isaac’s Bay beach.

Today, we are here early enough that the little sheltered spot is unoccupied – we will have some shade to relax in when we come in from snorkeling.

The patch reefs are alive with French grunts and banded butterfly fish today and we see a small green turtle grazing in the seagrass in between. We rest for a while after emerging from the water and read a bit from our favorite author, Barbara Kingsolver. Today’s reading is from Pigs in Heaven. But  we also love The Bean Trees, and The Poisonwood Bible among others we have read, and look forward to reading those we have missed over the years.

We’ll go for another quick snorkel to cool off before hiking back up to the car.

On the way back to SunDog House, we have a couple of favorite choices for inexpensive, quick meals. The Divi Carina Bay’s East End Pizza (which we refer to as “Pizza in the Parking Lot”), or the Topside Restaurant, right next door to Ziggy’s Market and Gas Station.

A dip in the pool and a relaxing couple of hours gazing at the clear night skies reminds us why we love St. Croix, and the peaceful neighborhood of Sally’s Fancy.

 

Another “Mom and Pop” business has opened on St. Croix, and this is one we really have to share the news about.

Jaccar Organic and Natural Sorbets is located in Gallows Bay where Peter Stewart’s office used to be. For those who don’t know Peter,  it’s in the same building as SEA and Anything Goes, but on the opposite side, the east side of the Arawak Building. They have a few little cafe tables set up outside and it’s usually a nice breezy place to chill on a humid tropical summer day.

Jacky and Carol are making delicious frozen and non-frozen sweet goodies using local fruits and organic ingredients (read: good for you sweets and treats)!

They are certainly a godsend to us, since we have a place to bring dozens of our (still falling) large and small mangoes.

They have delicious flavors of sorbet and frozen fruit pops; organic candies like gummy bears;  home-made walnut, chocolate chip and lime meltaway butter cookies, unsulfured organic dried fruits, local noni juice and more.

My favorite thing about them is they are consistent in their commitment to health by being good to our planet earth. Their packaging is biodegradable, even the “plastic” spoons and containers are really ones made from corn starch.

We need more small, personal locally owned and run businesses like theirs.

Call them at 340-719-6999 or e-mail jaccarsorbets9@aol.com. Better yet, stop in, say “Hi” and tell them you read about them on our blog! They’re open Tuesday through Saturday 10 – 5:00.

Restaurant reviews. I used to love doing them. I thought it was good for the restaurants and St. Croix in general. But I’ve stopped doing them for a few reasons.

Firstly, we haven’t been going anywhere new (we haven’t been going out much period).

Secondly, I had this bizarre thought that if we supported places, they would in turn support us. Well, I was way wrong.  So I stopped writing restaurant reviews.  All we ever got in the way of support were  a few “atta boys”.

Even if the restaurant owners or manager themselves don’t like to get massages, maybe they could buy gift certificates for family members, or staff birthdays or tokens of appreciation…….I mean, if we have to deliver a GC to your restaurant, we might stay for a snack, drink or even a meal…..

Lastly, I get bored with writing all the little particular details about everything these days. “The Change”, you know.

Anyway, the other night we had sushi at Angry Nate’s.

The sushi was okay, but the service was fantastic. Possibly the best service we had ever had anywhere, ever.

I could go on about the details, but I’d bore myself to death, so I’ll cut to the chase.

The wahoo sashimi was right off the boat, tender and fabulous. The mahi sashimi was tough and gristly. The nigiri was perfect. And the rolls were good except for the fact that there was too much rice. Way too much.

Presentation was lovely.

We had the spider roll – love the tempura soft shell crab -  I had to remove much of the rice from the outside though,  so that I could get it into my mouth and feel that wonderful subtle crunchiness that makes it my favorite.

The bagel roll (we hadn’t tried one of those anywhere before) was also good, but excessively ricey.

If there were less rice, we wouldn’t fill up so quickly and we’d order more food, bringing our bill up.

The price was certainly right. We had all that plus two carafes of sake and the bill still came to under $50.

So there. Give Angry Nate’s a visit for sushi on Sunday or Monday night when Dashi is closed. Just ask for less rice in the rolls.

….Puerto Rico and St. Croix.

Okay. This will be easy since we have just returned from a week in Rincon, on the west coast of the “enchanted island”.  A surfer’s paradise.

Both places are green and lush and have nice beaches, warm weather year-round and warm sea water. Both places have lots of people who speak Spanish and English quite well. Both places have nice, friendly people working in the tourism industry. Both places have tons of mangos falling from trees and rotting all over the place during this time of year. Business is slow this time of year for restaurants and bars frequented by tourists.

Here’s where our experience of each place differs. There are many more roads in Puerto Rico. They are much better maintained  than our, at least in the communities we drove in. Maybe they are able to maintain their roads better because they roads are so small. Many of the “two-way” streets we drove on were barely wide enough for one compact rental car. And with people parking on the sides of many of these roads, they were practically impassable.

Other differences: Our restaurants are sooooo much better. Better food, better atmosphere, better presentation, better wines…..The servers were all very nice and helpful, but the food was not even in the same ballpark.

Our first night there, we went to a local place which came highly recommended by the people at our guest house. It was kind of a shabby looking place, but the owner is a fisherman and they always have fresh local seafood. We ordered two different local wines by the glass to go with our tuna and mahi entrees. Ugh! The wines were sweet red wines! We were forced to order a bottle of Castillo del Diablo, a familiar red to get us through the meal. The bottle was only around $20. The entrees were $8.00 each and came with choice of heavy starchy fried or boiled side dish (yucca, green or ripe plantain, yam, tostones…..). The fish was gristly,  the cuts small, and served on styrofoam plates.. We ate most of it, though and tried a local “corn” ice cream (served in styro with plastic spoons) for dessert. It was interesting. Not very creamy, though, and we drank our sweet local wines with that.

Whew! Since we had cooking facilities in our room, we bought a few items for snacks and breakfast for a few days. I usually boil some eggs which we have with english muffins or bagels and cream cheese instead of having to go out every morning. There’s not much in the way of breakfast restaurants in the area either. There was one that looked interesting, so Sunday morning we went looking for it. They advertise 100 different garnishes and hot sauces for their bloody marys. That was a big selling point for me. But by the time we got there, breakfast was over. I had a bloody anyway (there were 4 hot sauces, and the garnishes were a lime and a celery stick), and it was okay. Michael tried a rum drink. Drinks were served in plastic  cups. The food was just okay here, too. I had a taco salad or something and Michael had fish tacos. Not memorable, but not bad.

Pizza signs abound on Puerto Rico. We wanted to rename it Pizza Rico. We never got pizza out, but the subliminal thing must have worked because we bought a frozen pizza from a health food store to have one night in our room. We ended up having it for breakfast one morning.

I really wanted to have a nice veggie omelet with home fries and toast for breakfast one morning with a bloody mary or two, but the rest of the times we went out in search of recommended places, they were closed or not at all up to par. One place was a bakery. Highly recommended. I really didn’t want to try it, but Michael insisted. Well, it was gross. Slimy kid snot on all the tables, flat omelets and frozen, fast-food-type hash browns.I didn’t want coffee, and could not get a bloody, so I ordered a beer. They looked at me like I had five heads. Whatever.

Our last morning we drove way out to a place at the top of a windy ridiculously narrow road for what promised to be an awesome breakfast. They were closed for the month. There is a “slow season” in Rincon, between the winter tourist season and the summer Puerto Rican season, when PR families with kids travel out to the resort areas. Ha ha ha. So we went to a hotel/condo restaurant right on the beach. It was 10:29. They stopped serving breakfast at 10:30. Hahahahahaha.

We had found a place with a breakfast buffet a few days earlier. Michael called ahead to make sure they were still serving, and they were – for fifteen more minutes. We told them we’d be there in ten minutes, and they did make us a nice veggie omelet, but I couldn’t get a bloody because the bar wasn’t open yet. Oh well. I eventually got one and Michael had one of their Pirata Cofresi special rum drinks served in a coconut.

For our last evening there, we decided, after some deliberation, to go to a nice-looking place just up the hill from our guest house and a few doors up from the place with the corn ice cream. They had decent wines and a nice looking menu. We sat outside. The only other occupied table was inside. It was a dark and stormy night……and we felt like eating lobster. They had a few different preparations like thermidore, scampi, stewed, in butter sauce, with onions, etc. We started with a bowl of delightful French onion soup, and had a lobster thermidore and a lobster scampi. with the requisite choice of bland starches. We were surprised when they brought each of us a small “salad” (ice burg shreds with a hard pink tomato slice – and french dressing). We thought, “okay the place is much more expensive than the others we’d been to, so the lobster should be good”. Well, it was just okay. The thermidore consisted of a few chunks of lobster in a half shell, swimming with frozen vegetables in a cheez wiz  sauce. The scampi was better, but they used garlic powder and not fresh garlic.

A couple of nights before this, we were on our way back from a disastrous “day trip” and came upon a seaside restaurant where we were greeted very warmly by the host and waitress, served a nice wine, and a fabulous meal. The place looked over a surfer’s beach in the town called Isabela. The entertainment was great. As the surfers caught small but rewasonable waves, we watched grackles in a coconut palm performing their mating rituals.

We started with a cup of cream of plantain soup. It was good, and the seafood ceviche was nice as well. We shared the “best mofongo in Puerto Rico”and loved it, although we hadn’t tried all the other mofongo, so we couldn’t really vouch for their claim. This was our best meal of the whole trip, so I didn’t want it to end. We even had cheese flan  and nice Puerto Rican coffee for dessert. Yum!

So, in the restaurant department, St. Croix is definitely superior.

Because of the rough seas /crappy weather, we only snorkeled once, at Steps Beach. It was beautiful though. A little murky, but fabulous elkhorn corals, lot of sea fans and fish and a ham of a hawksbill turtle. She swam right up to Michael begging to have her picture taken. He took some video of her, which will appear somewhere on this blog sometime in the future.

The Rincon rea as a whole seemed pretty safe. It was quite disconcerting to me though, that there were big signs all over proclaiming: “Pelligro! Zona de Tsunami!”

Yikes! That’s gotta be pretty bad for tourism! I did lie awake a couple of times wondering if the sea would disappear while we were there and then return to sweep us away. I imagine there is some sort of alarm system, but who knows…..

The guest house we stayed in was chosen by me. It was a little off the beaten path, not in Rincon proper. I wanted to stay there because the sea frequently hits the building. Our room was on the second floor, and we commonly felt the entire house shake when the waves were larger. Our hosts were in the room directly below us. They must have gotten splashed a lot.

A couple of times, we walked right off the porch onto the beach, and walked in the sand (with a few rocky areas) among the waves for an hour or so. It’s an interesting place to be, but I’m too nervous to ever live in a place like that.

It was nice enough. It differed from SunDog House in that it was a smaller space than we’re used to. An electric two burner stove top wouldn’t have worked in a power outage. It had a jacuzzi tub, which also wouldn’t have worked in a power outage. It lacked a pool, dogs (of course), and it wasn’t as clean as our house.

It was on a side street, but there was frequent loud traffic at all hours. It was charming in that horses were ridden by a few times and the cat, Irene, was friendly and cute.

All in all, our vacation was not as good as we expected it to be. But the company was good, we read a few interesting books (discovered a new-to-us author!) and had a change of scenery.

Yipee! Barbara is here!

After waiting MONTHS for another mural artist to return my call, I called a much more responsible and professional one.

We’ve been wanting a mural painted on the front porch – a beach scene with dogs frolicking -for two reasons.

First, the dogs live on this porch and rub against the wall constantly, so a sandy scene on yellow paint would not show their “dirt” so much. Second, this is SunDog House and the whimsical theme inspired pictures in our heads of dogs surfing, climbing a coconut palm tree and doing other “fun in the sun”- type things.

I had forgotten that Barbara said she’d start today, and she magically appeared at 8:20 (yikes!) to start working. This would not have been a problem if I’d expected her at that time.  As it happened, we’d been gone all day yesterday, the house is a mess with boxes full of stuff to move across the street, and our cherished shop-vac cleaner bit the dust on Tuesday.

Needless to say, I was too embarrassed for words. The dog poop hadn’t been picked up in a couple of days, and I was still trying to recover from yet another night of menopausal insomnia. Fortunately, Yoda was in the right place for me to scoop her into the  master bedroom where she’d feel comfortable and not bark all day or bother Barbara.

I also had a 9am massage appointment on the beach, which I was running late for. Ah yes, the mellow life of a massaaage therapist………

Anyway, Barbara is very comfortable with our helpful pack of kids, and I was able to leave for my appointment knowing that she and they would get along just fine.

I enjoyed a great session with a first-time visitor who is enamored with our island of St. Croix and wanted to know about the best hiking and snorkeling spots. I was happy to show him our favorite spots on a map after we are finished getting him “de-crunched” as he called it. I also told him about SunDog House, the new National Park, and the soon-come bike path, which he was VERY interested in. We hope to  have him and his significant other as our very own villa guests in the future!

After I got paid for that, I went immediately to buy myself a  piece of jewelry new awesome shop-vac. It’s the best deal on island at GBH.

When I got home, I was amazed by what Barbara had done in a mere two hours. The yellow porch had been transformed into a beach! I was nearly speechless! It is so beyond my comprehension to be able to do that. I would need stencils and at least six months.The palm tree is outlined and the bottom has a cartoonish textured look. It’s exactly what we were looking for!

Can’t wait to see our happy little kids as they start coming out to play on the porch beach! It’s magic!

For us, anyway. It was a productive and pleasant work day, though. Yay!

We met a lovely couple who won one of our donated gift certificates in the last SEA auction. The only downside to donating  these GCs, is that we’re never sure where on island we’ll have to drive to and not get paid for our services. But it’s always interesting to meet the like-minded folks we haven’t met and, of course, to massage those who know and love our particular brand of TLC. We truly love our work.

These fabulous folks live out in Frederiksted in a modest home with 2 and 2 dogs. They love snorkeling and scuba diving and hope to see St. Croix become an eco-tourism destination, too. They enjoyed their massages, which they really needed, and will probably call us in the future.

The last time we were out west was during the application process for our business license for SunDog House. We did not love that work. We had to go to the police department, fill out their application, pay their fee for 2 record checks (the fact that we have business licenses from our massage business and had already gone through record checks doesn’t matter), go back after a few days to pick up the form and bring it to DPNR (Department of Planning and Natural Resources), pay the fee for them to okay the application (saying that what we want to do is okay in the zoning area we’re in), and then bring it to fire services, and pay their outrageous fee to have them come out and inspect the premises.

Anyway, we figured that since the last time we were in F’sted for fun was when Wreggie was here in September (how SAD is THAT?!), and since christmas day was sooooooovery crappy and new years day even worse, we’d enjoy lunch and a great snorkel in Freedom City.

Well, the universe thought it would play a joke on us again and create another cloudy, gray day. We sure didn’t feel like getting in the water with no sun and blue sky, but we did play along with the joke. We went to Polly’s at the Pier for the first time (awesome!) and walked along the waterfront (beautiful), we visited Marsha at Island Villas, bought some pencils from a tiny entrepreneur, and when the sun still hadn’t appeared, we went back to Polly’s for a scrumptious lunch.

I was hoping they’d have their menu on their website, but alas, you’ll have to bear with my description of our experiences. In the morning, Michael had a cup of coffee and I had one of their yummy Ghirardelli frappes. I thought it would hold me over while we went snorkeling. But since we never did go snorkeling, we thought we’d check out the museum center, but it was closed. Really. On a holiday, when people have time to go to a museum, it was closed. Tres Cruzan!

Back at Polly’s (we love that they named their cafe after their dog!) for lunch after our stroll, we started with a bowl of mushroom bisque – rich and creamy and flavorful topped with scallions. It went well with my sauvignon blanc, but not so well, in my opinion, with the yeasty pale ale Michael had. He didn’t seem to mind, though. The sandwich menu is limited, but everything sounded so yummy that we had to try two different ones. I had the grilled cheese, which comes with choice of three cheeses and veggies like spinach, tomato, onion, basil and avocado. I thought the cheeses would provide enough fat, so I opted to not have avocado. It was grilled on home-made whole wheat bread and was delish.

Michael ordered the Loveburger with avocado and tomato and sprouts on whole wheat. I had forgotten about Loveburger, but I used to sell it in my store in RI eons ago. It was good, too and we each ate half of the other’s.

Of course, after we were full, the sun started coming out, but now we were too full to snorkel, and we didn’t have time to lounge around. We had shopping to do! But we did go to Sandcastle beach for a quick dip, which was nice.

Off to kmart for cat food etc., then on to their appliance store to check on lawn mowers. We’re going to need one for the rental property which has an entire flat, grassy acre of land for the dogs to frolic. We’ll also need another washing machine, since we do at least one load a day of massage sheets.

We also stopped at the consignment store to see what was new and we bought a few small items and an outdoor table for SunDog House.

Quite a bit accomplished, for a holiday!

Business has been pathetic thanks in part to St. Croix This Week totally screwing up our ad (Michael will post about that one. I’m still way too pissed off). We’ve also spend every last dime we had fixing this house.  And since we’re  in the middle of moving, we’ve been mainly eating whatever’s been in the fridge/freezer and cupboards.

I’ve been coming up with pretty inventive meals, but I’m really tired of my own cooking. So, thanks to credit cards, we splurged and went to Galangal for dinner last night. I’ve really been craving their wonderful flavorful foods, so I was able to twist Michael’s arm (actually I didn’t even have to pull his pinky -  he’s pretty tired of my cooking too) and we went to town.

There was only one table of two seated when we arrived. More trickled in as the evening wore on, but it was slower than we’ve ever seen it. We were lucky though. They are pretty much the only restaurant on St. Croix that brings in fresh mussels, and the mussels had just arrived. They’d also just gotten in an 80 lb wahoo. That made our meal choices a no-brainer. I also love their green papaya salad, so we started with that and an soy-cured salmon with fresh greens salad. The temperanillo wine we ordered was out of stock, so we had a lovely pinot noir.

It was too awesome for words. Every single morsel. It practically brought me to tears. (Well, everything brings me to tears these days.) After weeks of pasta and cannned tuna and rice and beans and chili, it was absolutely heavenly. The papaya salad was a little spicier than the other times we’ve had it, but I was thrilled about that, and Michael seemed to thoroughly enjoy it too. The coconut curry sauce that the mussels come in is to die for. I wanted to lie down on one of the red couches and listen to Tobias describe the specials and menu items for the rest of the night. But alas, Michael insisted that we get home for a nice cozy Christmas Eve Eve.

The portions were just the right size, and we left feeling satisfied but not stuffed.

I   ♥  Galangal!

Despite the fact that we are less financially healthy right now (at this time of year,  and since we’ve been doing soooo much home improvement) than we like to be, we are supporting our friends and family members in their new adventures in the restaurant arena.

The Pickled Greek is surviving the slow season. (Yay!)We go there because we love the food,  the people and, of course the prices.

Besides, my lovely and talented daughter, no longer a jewelry business owner (this is a relief in quite a few ways), has finally received recognition as an excellent customer service representative, so is suddenly is working at 3 (yes THREE) restaurants.

{The typical “rags to riches” story continues…..I was a poor jewelry store owner who became a waitress…. – (sigh)}. Steve Martin couldn’t have done it better…. 

So, Friday night, we went (on Mitchell’s birthday) to his soft opening at the new Cultured Pelican. It was absolutely lovely!

We wanted to try everything, of course, so we started with soup and salad. They had a roasted eggplant soup. We’d never had anything like that before. It was like eggplant Parmesan puree in a bowl. Perfect for these two eggplant lovers. (My daughter- one of the servers – go figure- reminded me that I ate eggplant parm just before giving birth to her. So, in my world, anything associated with eggplant is GOOD!)  And this soup was delizioso!

We needed to try the caesar salad, because housemade caesar dressing is a rare and beautiful thing. It was also fabulous, lightly dressed with shaved parmesan cheese.

For our entrees, Michael chose the housemade pasta dish called, “Fallen Hankeys”, created by former owner and chef, Dennis. (Yes, Dennis is still there working with the new guys. Is this an awesome place or what?!) “Fallen Hankeys” consists of sheets of fresh pasta in marinara sauce topped with ricotta cheese and pesto. Red, white and green, like the Italian flag. Magnifico!

I had the fresh local Mahi with charred tomato risotto and mixed veggies italiano. Eccellente! The mahi was exquisite. Tender, juicy and flavorful. Not over-cooked nor over-sauced, and therefore not overpowered by distractions. Perfetto!

I described dessert in detail, but the computer ate it, it was so delicious. So all I can say is. “Mmm, Mmm, Mmm!

We would definitely eat there again. So we made reservations for Sunday brunch, which would happen the day after their next dinner shift. 10am, right when they’d open because we needed to get to World Food Day festivities at the University of the Virgin Islands.

We were asked about how we like the paint job. Well, the paint job is great. It looks fresh and clean, but I am so totally not a white person, that it really does nothing for me. I like Caribbean colors and I loved the bold blues and purples of the last incarnation. But that’s just me…

Sunday’s brunch was also lovely. Again we ordered a bunch of stuff so we could adequately review the menu items. I started off with a Stoli bloody Mary topped with shrimp and olives. When they are officially open, they will have pickled asparagus and green beans along with the jumbo shrimp garnish. The shrimp were huge and delicious with the olives and the nicely spiced concoction. My food choices were: an omelet with roasted eggplant, artichoke hearts, spinach and goat cheese. I also needed to try the baguette French toast with banana kiwi sauce. Yum!

Michael started with their special cane rum drink with fresh limes. It was cool and refreshing – like a mojito with out the mint. He also ordered and enjoyed the lobster hash with eggs and homefries.

We  saw lots of friends there. Meredith back from MA brunched with Nancy and a large contingent from the Pickled Greek  came to celebrate and wish Mitchell well.

We were stuffed, but headed to the festivities at UVI hoping that we could work off those calories and eat some breadfruit…..

Saturday was cruise ship day, and we had an appointment to do a 90 minute couples massage on the beach at Carambola. A  honeymoon couple contacted us months ago and we agreed to meet them out there. We have had a few of these nice little jobs since the cruise ships started coming back. Hope they continue.

They were a nice young couple (everybody’s nice and YOUNG these days – I feel so old sometimes), enjoyed their massage and probably spent the rest of the afternoon lounging out there talking about coming back to visit, or what it would be like to live here. They had been to a few other islands and especially liked St. Lucia. They hiked up a volcano there and are into outdoor pursuits (like us).  But they liked our island, too, so hopefully, they’ll return.

When we were done massaging them, it was time for lunch, so we went to Cane Bay and ate at Eat @ Cane Bay, Frank and Katherine Pugliese’s new place. Aahhh! Beverages served in glasses and food served on real plates with silverware. If you must have a traveler for the beach or the road, they’ll give you a regular plastic cup instead of styrofoam. Add $1 for a take-out  meal since they use eco-friendly containers. Love that!

And, of course, with Frank in the kitchen, the food is superb.

Classy beach bar food. How perfect is that!

Menu items include create your own burgers and salads. Starting price for a burger with lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, and choice of cheese is $8.50. You can add bacon, egg, avocado, mushroom and onion, blue cheese or jalapeno cream cheese for $2.50. Or duck chili, chorizo or pulled pork for $4, truffle aioli for $2 or foie gras for $12.

Your salad is $10 with a butter lettuce and romaine hearts base. You can add any 6 of the following: carrots, cukes, tomato, red onion, mushrooms, kalamata olives, red pepper avocado, croutons, roasted beets, chick peas or edamame; 2 of the following: roasted turkey, hard cooked egg, feta or blue cheese, bacon or strip steak; and dress it with herbed yogurt, passion fruit french, caesar, blue cheese or evoo (?) and balsamic.

When we were there, they had a special of fresh local wahoo sandwich and also a tuna sashimi appetizer on fried wantons. We had both of those. They had also just gotten in a 90 lb tuna. We wanted more, but we saw mussels on the menu and had to try them. We had onion rings (yum) and hand cut fries  (kind of limp and oily), but everything else was great.

The rest of the menu includes an open-faced BBQ brisket sandwich, a pulled pork sand, fried chicken, an oven roasted turkey club, mixed fried seafood. Fun sides include the ones we had along with sweet potato fries, roasted beets, smoked duck chili, peel and eat shrimp, orzo salad w/red pepper and edamame.

They have a kids menu, a couple of desserts,  and  a nice wine selection. Two whites and two reds by the glass, and bottles ranging in price from $18 for the Chilean Montes Cherub Rose, to $40 for the Italian Masua di Jago Ripassa.

We are happy to have the Frank and Katherine team feeding us again! Eat @ Cane Bay! Bon appetit!

It’s pronounced like “creaky dam”, and they are the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute.  Awesome would be a good beginning to describe what they have accomplished and what they are continuing to do for our island community and for our planet Earth.

How can we not love people who have the guts and grit to live the lifestyle that will save the planet?

They are the only certified organic farm in the VI and they do wonderful educational workshops to spread the word about their mission and the issues facing farming on our increasing threatened planet Earth. And more.

We were lucky enough to be able to make it to their “Fermentation Workshop” on Saturday. The drive up into the rainforest is always interesting (Mahogany Road is still chock-full of pot-holes), but going to Creque Dam Farm (and Mount Victory Camp) is well worth the jerky jarring jaunt. And Saturday it was extra exciting since WAPA’s biggest trucks were scattered all along the winding way, preparing to put power poles in.

We actually made it there on time and had a wonderful time with Nora and Jay, farm managers, and visiting biodynamic farmers, Pat and Susan Ross from Micanopy, Florida. There were a handful of other workshop participants with whom we picked veggies from the garden, sat and peeled and chopped and grated, and stood to mix and meld massive amounts of food to be pickled.

We started with over 30 lbs of greens – mostly savoy cabbage and bok choy. We had 3 coolers and a big stainless steel bowl full of the stuff, to which we added chopped garlic and ginger, grated carrot and beet and turmeric. I had never seen turmeric root and had the great pleasure of grating it. The aroma was magical and my hands are still incredibly yellow.

We squished it down some more and there was veggie juice produced from the effect of the mineral salt pulling the liquid out of the cells. Fascinating! The finished product is called “Kim chi”.

We also pickled mangoes and carambola fruit with basil and ginger, and okra with basil and dill and garlic. We made Kvass (beet tonic) with fresh organic beets from the farm and brine (that’s all!), and had a fantastic lunch which included kim chi made by the farm folks previously, and tempeh and yogurt and sourdough bread also made on the premises. Yummmmm!

The VISFI folks will be having more interesting workshops during the coming weeks and months. Sign up for their newsletter (through their website) for notification of these and other worthwhile events at the farm.

Also, and this is VERY important, vote for the farm in National Geographic’s Geotourism Challenge.  Congratulations to the Farm Folks for making it onto the finalist final list! They are in good company, and not only would this be a very prestigious award for the Creque Dam Farm, but it would be great for the island of St. Croix.

We need more attention to projects which do not include casino/golf course/timeshare development. Thanks to all who contacted the NPS about Castle Nugent.  Now let’s get together for VISFI.

Go to their website at www.visfi.org and vote for them! Do it ASAP. Time is of the essence!

I’ve gone on a night-time kayak tour here before, but it was with another company a long, long time ago. Bryan at Virgin Kayaks (340-718-0071) does a wonderful job with this tour. Not only is Bryan an avid historian (to the nth degree) and story-teller, but he’s enthusiastic about the natural processes of this precious area and easily imparts that enthusiasm to his guests.

The best time to go is around the new moon when it’s darkest. We went the other night, not only when the sky was moonless, but there were also no stars to be seen. It was hazy from Sahara dust and overcast from clouds which continuously threatened rain, but did not deliver. So it was pretty dark.

Unfortunately, there is some artificial brightness in the area from street lights and a large rental villa, which at times during the tour make it slightly more difficult to see the flashes of blue in the water, but Bryan knows what to do and where to take his guests to maximize the potential of this sacred place.

It was fantastic!  Michael and I came with our kayak (purchased from Virgin Kayaks a few years back) and met up with Bryan and a small group, including our friends Greg and Margaret in Bryan’s white van towing a trailer full of kayaks for the others. We put in at a small, secluded beach and proceeded to pedal out past old abandoned boats to a roosting area in the mangroves where scores of herons and egrets spend their nights.

After everyone was comfortable in their kayaks, we headed across the bay to “the dark side”, behind the point where the old hotel is.

As we went along, I put one or the other of my hands  into the water and saw small blue flashes emitted in the wake. But when we got into the small bioluminescent bay, the water stirred up by our hands and kayak pedals and paddles wash like glowing blue foam. We paddled more than pedaled and every now and again, we’d hit a jellyfish and a big blue flash would appear beneath the surface. It was magical!

We carried on, observing lightening-like flashes in the pedal holes of our kayaks and waves of light blue under each others’ boats until Bryan suggested we go back to land before the local restaurants closed their kitchens. We reluctantly acquiesced, and on the way back across the bay, flying fish flew by us in the dark.

We all had a fabulous time. We have another tremendous resource at Salt River. Let’s keep supporting  people like Bryan who work to share it’s wonders with us.

Tuesday was my daughter’s 29th birthday. And we all know, you only turn 29 a few times, so….

…we kayaked to Buck Island, then went on a sunset sail, visited with Maggie at the Deck Bar (haven’t been there in ages!) and got to see Christine, who has been living and working on a dive boat in Indonesia for a couple of years, then we went to the Pickled Greek.

And that’s how fast that day went by. Whew!

Oh, the new stuff……let’s start on the east end. The word is that chef David Trask will be opening a deli at the Reef where Lori’s used to be. It’ll be nice to be able to stop and pick something up on the way to Buck Island again.

Zebo’s has a new chef. Dave Vargas is now running their kitchen. We were there the other night and it is amazing! Vargas has been personal chef to some of the island’s most (ahem) interesting people, but now he brings his incredible talent and commitment to Strand Street, Christiansted.

We absolutely LOVE the fact that he is using as many local products as possible. Local fish, both fresh-caught and farmed at the university. Locally grown produce and meats. We had the lobster bisque  (which was fabulous), fresh wahoo, and local butter lettuce salad. Yum!

Our dear friend Mitchell, one of the owners, brought us some local cockles! We’d never heard of cockles, but they are shellfish similar to, but smaller than RI quahogs. And they are delicious! Mouth-wateringly tender and juicy. We’ll go back soon and hopefully have more of those! Dessert was also incredible. Mitchell has hired a pastry chef who put together a chocolate dream. Rich chocolate cake with berries and fresh whipped cream wrapped in a chocolate shell. Magnifique!

One of the best things about using locally produced products, besides supporting our own hard-working farmers and allowing us to be less dependent on shipped in foods, is that the menu changes daily depending on what’s available. We love people who think outside the box! Congratulations to Mitchell and Dave Vargas!

Oh, and now the irony!

Tuesday evening while we were in town talking to Maggie and Christine and other friends at the Deck Bar, a guy with a couple of adorable dogs was on the other side of the little inlet where the tarpon feeding occurs nightly. His dogs were barking like mad at the fish in the water. Their loud barking made it difficult for us to enjoy our conversation. So I went over to ask the guy to quiet his dogs down.

He said that he didn’t have to, and he said that if we had a problem, we should “go talk to the police right over there”, who allow him to have his dogs on the boardwalk. I had had a couple of glasses of wine (after champagne on the sunset sail), and since he refused to make his dogs behave appropriately, I said something about him needing attention and maybe it was because part of his anatomy was too small.

He then came over to the Deck Bar and asked Michael to make me behave appropriately. Michael happened to agree with me about the dogs, so we went over to the police officers on duty and complained about the guy. The guy came over with his very well-behaved dogs and showed us all how nice they were. And they are great dogs. But they shouldn’t be allowed to bark and carry on while people are trying to have a conversation at the bar.

After a while, Officer Hernandez walked over to the Deck Bar and asked Maggie and some of the other patrons whether the dogs had been bothering them, and they said that yes, they had. So Officer Hernandez asked the guy to keep his dogs quiet. Hooray!

When we went back to the Deck Bar to see Maggie, she related the story about the nice police officer. She also said that the guy with the dogs probably wouldn’t like it if someone sat across the street from his restaurant and allowed their kids or dogs to create make a nuisance of themselves and disturb his customers.

We asked which restaurant he owned, and she said, “Zebo’s”.

First, let me thank Lisa for calling the radio station to tell the public about the National Park Service meeting in Christiansted last night. I rarely get to read the paper, especially on the day it comes out, so I would have missed something that we’re very interested in if she hadn’t called. Thanks Lisa!

There were maybe a dozen and a half people there and it started off being a very informative and (thank goodness) brief and relevant session. The National Park Service presentation was about the options available to add a substantial portion of the south shore of St. Croix to the National Park System. At the end of the presentation, though, a disgruntled young man (whom we believe has commented with many aliases on this blog in the past – we could just tell by his speech patterns – he writes exactly as he speaks) asked questions about MOU’s and agreements with the local government. He challenged the park service representatives to reassure him that the history of the enslaved people who lived, toiled and died in these areas would be studied and made available to the public. We totally agree, as did the NPS people.  One of the dear, patient audience members reminded him that the park service gave this presentation largely to get more input from the community, that there were forms that he could fill out, he could take some to his friends and have them fill them out, and all concerns would be taken into consideration by the NPS.

He just wouldn’t stop. We had to get up and leave. Partially because I don’t have the kind of patience the other people there have, partially because it was like a refrigerator in there, and we were starting to turn blue, and partially because we needed to have dinner some time before midnight. Note: We have seen this guy speak at a public hearing in favor of the Robin Bay project, which is very confusing to us. We wonder why he is in favor of letting a stateside developer come in and destroy historical areas to build  a casino/resort/golf course , but against preserving the natural beauty and historical sites included in the Castle Nugent project because it’s the National Park Service, who is consistently being accused of “keeping land from the people dem”.

So we left and he was still talking…….

Anyway, just thinking of all this beautiful acreage being preserved for posterity rather than being raped and pillaged by development makes my heart swell. It gives me goosebumps. And it’s one of the very, very few things in life that can make me sit down, close my eyes, and take a deep hopeful breath. Just like I’m doing now.

The options offered by the park service can be seen here. And they need input. We love ” Alternative C”. which would preserve the most land and extend into the sea to the barrier reef. It would also allow “the golden boy” a graceful way out of his proposed piece of crap development, and it would place a park headquarters on site.

We applaud Caroline and Mauro Gasperi, who have been under tremendous pressure from family members to dispose of much of this land. It has taken the park service years to get this far, but that’s the process. With luck, the NPS hopes to have this project completed by the end of the calendar year.

Please take the time to look at the NPS options and submit comments to help St. Croix remain the unique cultural and natural gem that we have always loved.

Wednesday, April 22 was a long, busy day for us. I actually had to get up before 5am to bring my lovely daughter to the airport. Yup it’s that time of year again. Her annual jump out of a plane (and hopefully not go splat!).

When I got back home, my darling hubby was cooking breakfast.      (Woo hoo!!)

Shortly after we did the dishes, it was time to head out to the University of the Virgin Islands’ Great Hall for an Earth Day Conference put on by the EPA. We saw a few people that we knew, but I was disappointed that only about 1/4 of the seats were occupied.

The speakers were from Puerto Rico and our beloved territory, the USVI and they spoke about the state of the environment in the territory and world wide. We were given reusable shopping bags containing compact fluorescent light bulbs,  pens, and lots of brochures and reading material (too much paper wasted on people who are interested in conserving) . However, there was only one other person in attendance (besides us) who brought her own beverage cup. The rest of the presenters and listeners drank coffee or tea out of the styrofoam cups stacked up by these beverage dispensers.

There were also individual plastic cups of juice, which many of the presenters took,  (and can I say disgusted us!) along with an EXTRA plastic  drinking cup to pour the juice into !!!.

Did I want to scream or what?! It was  friggin’ EARTH DAY for crissake!!! And our (the USVI) UNIVERSITY prepares a spread of food and drinks with NOTHING environmentally sensitive to serve them in or on!!!

I start to lose hope often these days. This type of thing does not help me.

The presenters were mostly very self congratulatory and politically correct, but much of what they were saying was, “Hooray for us, we have amazing potential, but we are just barely fulfilling our requirements to preserve the environment for our children”.

As we’ve seen here on St. Croix, despite the fact that Paul Golden has received certain permits through convoluted channels, [he has been allowed to erect a huge sign well outside of acceptable parameters (with no specific permit), build a huge fence with an immense gate denying people access to the beaches (this is against VI code - T.12, § 403) and dig up the Great Pond Area, because he has received other questionable permits and the people at CZM and DEP continue to say "He has permits", declining to specify WHICH permits he has)] our Department of Planning and Natural Resources and Coastal Zone Management Departments fall very short of doing the job they are paid to do, which is, according to Dr. Nadine Noorhasan, Director of the Division of Environmental Protection, “We gotta protect our land!”

Actually though, Carl Soderberg, from PR spoke about population growth being a major stressor on the environment. We rarely hear that from Caribbean people, and I was impressed. It seems that most island folks just love to see everybody having more and more babies. Mr. Soderberg showed us lots of tables and numbers, but there was a lot of information which wasn’t really explained, because there wasn’t enough time.

Hugo Hodge, Executive Director of  WAPA spoke, as well,  and when Michael asked questions about the “net metering” program, Mr. Hodge used examples of windmills generating power at night when WAPA doesn’t need it, when in actuality, our solar panels generate excess electricity during the day (peak hours), when WAPA needs it most. Mr. Hodge also stated, when asked about net metering customers getting cash back at the end of the year rather than losing all of the credit they’ve  accumulated over twelve months (our meter is spinning backward right now, even on an overcast day on St. Croix because we are producing more power than we need – we have been for many months -  and are selling it back to the utility) that individual consumers/producers will not have credit at the end of the year! That’s total baloney!

Hodge was funny, though, when asked about the RFP that WAPA has had out for alternative energy production. He justifies the foot-dragging that’s been going on by saying that it’ll actually be better to deal with a company that can make it through the current economic climate because it’ll be a more stable company to deal with. So WAPA just keeps burning that oil……Aaaargh!!

Don Buchanan and Bevan Smith of the Virgin Islands Energy Office were honest about their accomplishments (in the face of extreme ignorance and adversity, I might add) and I felt they were the only two scheduled speakers from the VI who weren’t in denial about our problems. Don started his presentation with a great quote about how the war in Iraq will cease, but the war on nature cannot because money talks, and it does not speak for the environment. I don’t remember who he said said this, because he was saying so much and I couldn’t write everything down and listen at the same time. Buchanan spoke very bluntly and quickly about there being perhaps a “glimmer of hope” for us with the Obama administration. He spoke about Thomas Friedman’s books, including his newest called, Hot, Flat and Crowded, and also Glenn Beck’s, An Inconvenient Book. Whew!

A couple of our senators made perfunctory appearances. Better than nothing I guess.

We learned about our groundwater situation here in the USVI (not great) from Sigredo Torres-Gonzales, Groundwater specialist from the Us Geological Survey. With the rising of sea levels caused by climate change, our fresh ground water will become more brackish in the coming years.

Paige Rothenberger was supposed to talk about the coral reef situation here, but she did not show up, so Dr. William Coles, endangered species specialist, filled in for her. He was actually quite brief and to the point for the most part about the stresses on the fragile reef systems around our island. He spoke of sediment run-off, improper boat anchoring and boats hitting the reefs, garbage getting caught on corals and choking them, and the latest threat from lionfish among other things.

With all of the problems our reefs are already facing, it makes me crazy to see more huge developments being planned for our island which has some of the few remaining coral reefs in America. We can barely handle the environmental challenges we already have, yet people think nothing of creating more and more.

I wish that the people in DPNR and DEP would be allowed by the governor to do their own jobs instead of ignoring the serious issues in the name of “jobs for the people” in the cases of allowing developments in very environmentally sensitive areas. I wish there would be common sense in government instead of the usual politics and “politricks”.

The last speaker we got to hear was Sindulfo Castillo of the US Army Corps of Engineers. He had some great information and I wish we’d have had time to speak to him afterwards, but we had to get home to feed the kids before returning to tat part of the island for the CZM hearing for the Robin Bay development.

This was the “first annual” US.EPA Earth Day Conference. I don’t know if I’ll go again next year. All of the speakers were informative and did a good job of presenting, but I’m more about action than talk. And in my opinion much of this was just giving lip service to the environment.

Every other Monday evening during March, the South Shore Cafe has been hosting buffet dinners with entertainment by CynThia Belden to raise funds to send 20 of our Cruzan Critters from our overcrowded animal shelter to a no-kill shelter in Maryland.

For $50 you can eat all you like of Diane’s famous penne pastas, fresh delicious salads and yummy home-baked bread. CynThia’s angelic operatic voice will give you goosebumps as she serenades her fellow dog-lovers during the evening.

We went last Monday. It was great!  The final dinner/show will be held on Monday, March 30. It starts at 6:30pm. Call 773-9311 to reserve your spot and help get these pups to guaranteed good homes in a “civilized” country.

Saturday was a crazy day. It was St. Patrick’s Day parade day on St. Croix.

Peter, the Pickled Greek and his friends and family have been working on a float for the past few weeks. A large trailer was decorated with blue and white drapes, Greek columns, flags, crepe paper, climbing vines, signs and toga-clad revelers.

Whew! What a day! Peter started his day before 8 am and asked people to get to the restaurant at 8 to put the finishing touches on the float. He’d heard that they were supposed to check in at 9 near the fort in Christiansted. Michael and I got a late start. It was seriously too cold to get out of bed. But eventually we did, and drove toward the Greek at around nine. By the time we got there, they were gone.

So we called on the cell phone, and Michael asked Peter where they were. Peter said, “We’re driving around town, there’s no one here yet!” The trailer was being towed by a large pick-up truck and there were a couple of dozen people in lime green chiffon togas aboard already in party mode. I laughed at the thought of them driving this huge thing around looking for the parade committee. We had coolers with ice and beer and we drove around a bit before finally meeting them behind the hardware store in Gallows Bay.

What a picture!  I couldn’t stop laughing as Lesley and Nikki dressed Michael and me in pouffy togas (sheer curtain panels) and gold cardboard crowns. We recycled Goliath’s frog prince costume from the Krewe de Barkus parade, added a green sash, and voila – he was wearing a  “toad-ga”! He didn’t win a prize, but, as usual, his picture was in the paper.

At around 10 am, the float was ready, so around 40 of us climbed on and headed into town for the line-up. The parade historically starts at 11 sharp, but this year’s parade committee was comprised of totally new people, so they were a bit less organized. While we waited, more people showed up and we dressed them up, got them beers, and danced with them in the street to reggae music from large speakers on a neighboring float. The parade actually started at 11:15, not nearly as late as the Cruzan Festival parades which generally begin hours after their announced time, and it took us about 90 minutes to get around the 4 or 5 block route and back to the fort area.

We tossed beads and candy to spectators until we didn’t have any more to toss but the necklaces around our own necks. The sidewalks closest to the beginning (and end) of the route were the most crowded. As we neared Prince Street, where we turned to get from Company Street to King Street, the crowds really thinned out, so Peter and Nikki and Pam and a couple more people started doing the Greek dance. The rest of us bounced around on the float and on the street and I thought we might actually break an axle from the stress.

Many of us were sunburned by the end. Michael and I needed to head home to feed and medicate dogs and cats before our next stop: Michael’s boss’ 70th birthday party. We stopped back at the Greek on the way home to separate recyclable cans from other miscellaneous refuse and move coolers inside the restaurant while Peter and others went to find out the contest results.

I changed out of my beer-soaked toga even though it was dry by the time we left again, but Michael kept his on for the birthday celebration. We would meet Peter and Pam there, and they would still be in the green. Peter and company stayed for hours awaiting the judges’ decision. By 5:30 or 6, a consensus still had not reached, so they came to the party. Peter and Colleen and her family visiting from the states added to the fun at Harvey’s party. Poor Pam had to leave early for another event!

The theme of the party included tigers and ducks (mascots from Harvey’s alma maters?) and lots of fun kid stuff like bazooka bubble gum, wax lips and yoyos. We dined and danced and drank champagne etc. until the the music stopped around 10pm.

And that was just the first half of the week-end!

I heard it on the radio yesterday, but the person didn’t know anything about the restaurant except where it was located. I was so excited I wanted to get right on the computer with the news flash, but I was too busy working!

Then when I got home, I barely had time to feed the kids and water a few plants before it was time to get ready for wine club at the Galleon. We hadn’t been to a wine tasting there in a few months, so it was imperative that we get there to sample some nectar of the gods. And Frank’s food pairings, too. Doubly exciting is that Frank Pugliese (original owner with his wife, Katherine, of Restaurant Bacchus) is now head chef at the Galleon! It was great. Our first wine was Duck Pond Pinot Grigio and it was paired with information from Roger Dewey of the St. Croix Foundation about the St. Croix Food and Wine Experience coming up next month. The wine was nice and light and I enjoyed it. The info was  interesting as well, and we are in the process of figuring out what events we can afford to attend during the April extravaganza.

Next Pinot Grigio was Willamette Valley Vineyards. I liked it better, especially since it was paired with food, a sort of chicken salad. Third wine was Duck Pond Pinot Noir. Not very Pinot Noir-like, in my opinion. I wasn’t thrilled with the bouquet, which reminded me of dirty socks. It was paired with a tenderloin on toast with horseradishes, and that made it taste better. Fourth wine was Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Noir. Much more like a Pinot Noir and lovely, especially with the tasty Mexican-type morsel it was paired with.

We had fun talking with some of our favorite fellow islanders, but it got crowded and noisy, so we  headed to town to check out the new place.

There is no sign yet to let you know it’s there, but we drove by, saw lights on inside and a few occupied tables, and found a decent parking space on the next block.

Galangal is beautiful! Very nicely done in white, black and gold, with Buddhist statues and artwork. The menu is nice, as is the wine list. We stuck with a Pinot Noir (I’ll think of which one soon), and loved it. We had a green papaya salad and the calamari appetizer with an incredibly flavorful dipping sauce. The salad was small, but refreshingly tangy, and available with or without shrimp. We had it without. We shared an entree of tilapia in coconut milk. It was fabulous and came wrapped in a banana leaf! Mmmmm.

Gregory and Arthur both came to talk to us at various points, and Arthur brought us out a wonderful house -made hot sauce to enhance the tilapia. Michael abstained, but I LOVED it.

We shared a dessert of rich chocolate cake and mango ice cream. Incredible!

Galangal is definitely a wonderful addition to St. Croix’s already amazing restaurant scene. We are thrilled to have Gregory and Arthur back, and we know they will be very successful in their new venture.

Well, Wednesday was too windy and gusty to go parasailing, but when we woke up on Thursday, it was calmer, so when we got the call from the parasailing guys, we were thrilled. Gigi opted not to come, because she had a cracked rib and the boat ride on the choppy water would have been too painful. Nikki had to work, and Peter needed to rest.

So it was just Wreggie and Michael and me. And the cool thing that we hadn’t thought about before, is that three people can go at the same time, using the same parachute! I knew I’d have to go up with Michael, since I’m such a wimp, but when we got to the parasailing office on the boardwalk, Dylan asked if the three of us would like to go together. Oh yes! That would be a blast!

We signed our lives away, paid them money to potentially torture us, and climbed into the Vada to head toward the Buccaneer, where the winds are blocked a bit and Dylan and Christian could get the parachute ready.

The ride out there was exhilerating by itself. I thought I might fly out of the boat at any time, and was holding on to the railings for dear life. They gave us the option of being dipped into the water on our way back onto the  boat. Michael said he’d like that and Wreg and I said we didn’t care. “Three affirmatives!”, he said. So I guess we were going to be dipped on the way back in. I wore my diveskin so I wouldn’t get chilled, and I hoped it would be enough. After they got the ‘chute ready, Dylan got us into life vests and loose seat-type harnesses. He then attached  a horizontal pole to the ‘chute and called Michael over. He hooked Michael to the pole, then he hooked me up, and then Wreggie. He told us to sit on the deck with our legs out in front of us, and they let out some line, and up we went. Oooooh! Oh my god! Oh my god!

We went higher and higher, and Wreggie and I clutched our harness straps tightly while Micheal non-nonchalantly took pictures with one hand, barely holding on with his other. And we went higher and higher still! As Wreggie and I were making goofy noises, Michael was pointing out sea turtles and taking more pictures of them. It was very cool to be able to see them from above as they effortlessly floated to the surface and then off into the blue. There were a few brown coral heads that  we thought were turtles. They appeared to be moving, but they never came up for air. And gosh, the boat was so small from up there! A few heavy wind gusts rocked us around and Wreggie noticed the knot holding us and the ‘chute to the line attached to the boat. Good thing it was a big knot! I don’t recall having “crotch willies” at all up there, but Wreg said he did get them at one point. I think I mostly get them if I look straight down from a high point, or think about falling from a high place. It was so windy that there was no way we could fall unless the chute somehow broke, and I guess I was too busy with other strange bodily sensations as we floated and rocked above the blue.

After what even I thought was not quite enough time (I was relieved and disappointed at the same time), we were pulled back in, and the guys said it was too rough to dip us, so they just pulled us back to the deck. The wind had picked up and gotten gustier, so apparently we got an abreviated session. Oh well, it was still amazing!

After we were settled back in, Dylan and Christian pulled the parachute onto the deck as the boat bobbed in the rough seas. One of the parachute’s ropes got tangled in the propellor, and Dylan had to go in to try to free it. Eventually he was forced to cut it free, but by then, the computerized diesel engine decided that there was something wrong, and it would not start. We were adrift with no power. Finally, the engine started, but then it wouldn’t go into gear. We were still adrift and going nowhere except where the current would take us.

By this time, the Roseway was heading straight for us under full sail. Wreggie suggested that they let Captain Dwight know that we were not able to get out of their way, so Christian radioed with the info. Dwight asked if we needed assistance as he steered her to our starboard side, and she majestically sailed by. We declined assistance, since Dylan was finally able to reach Miles and Mark, who would send a jet ski out to tow us in.

We bobbed in the chop and swells for quite a while. Wreggie and Michael thought they might get seasick, so I tried to talk about anything to keep their minds off their rolling stomachs. After a long time, a jet ski was seen zooming off in the distance closer to shore. Christian had told them that we were near some specific channel marking buoys, but the guy on the jet ski musn’t have got the message. We were getting dangerously close to the reefs when the guy finally spotted us and came over.

There was a tow line waiting for him, and Christian tossed it out, gave a few directions, and we were towed in to the dock in front of the fort. Christian joked as we went, that this was how they conserve fuel during these tough economic times. Cracked us up!

Wreggie unwittingly had told Gigi that we’d be back in town at around 11:30, and he was right on. After bobbing around out there for 45 minutes or so we got back in time to have a beer or two with lunch at the brew pub. Whew!

Wreggie’s blog post gives a much briefer explanation, but he’s got a couple of great pictures that Dylan took from the boat.

This past week-end:

Friday night – Evita at CCT. Awesome performance!

Saturday afternoon – Krewe de Barkus Doggie Parade (We saw lots of our favorite dogs and their people,  Biggie got his picture in the Avis!); Wreggie and Gigi (and 6 others) arrive (we meet them at the airport with wine and beer and water and fat Papi). Evening – we go to town to listen to Kurt Schindler (a NO-SHOW!), but hang out in our favorite places playing pool and drinking espresso martinis. Bring Wreg and Geej back to Hacienda and go down to walk in the bright moonlight on the beach at Divi.
Sunday AM – Luca’s organic farm is moving to Longford, so we spend 9-12 helping to dig a ditch for a water pipe. We come home in hopes of meeting friends for a trip to F’sted. There’s a ship in (!) and we’d like to check out new snorkeling spots, but our friends are also “no-shows” and we go out to enjoy the beautiful waterfront and beaches there anyway.  We have dinner at Beachside Cafe, where Frank Pugliese, original owner of Restaurant Bacchus is now chef.
Our meal was delicious, the company of ourselves exceptional. We watched the light of the sun dim behind massive rain clouds on the western horizon, as the Maltese cruise ship departed for other ports.

After dinner we walked a bit on the lovely west-end beach before heading home….A nice lazy Sunday afternoon…..

Oh yes, life is good!

Rather than do our usual Friday errands on Michael’s day off, we attended a conference which focused on the connection between animal abuse and domestic violence, other violent crimes and sociopathic tendencies. I re-scheduled my wonderful Friday afternoon clients who were flexible enough to allow us to take the time to learn more about this important issue.

The St. Croix Animal Welfare Center originally planned this event for October 2008, but hurricane Omar caused upheavals at the shelter which resulted in the postponement of the conference. We planned on going then, and even though this is a much busier time of year for us, we managed to add the day-long event to our weekly action-packed agenda.

Gretchen Sherrill, Communications Director at the shelter, did a fabulous job coordinating the presenters and getting involvement from government agencies such as law enforcement and child protective services departments as well as the general public.

Our morning began when the alarm rang at 6am and we jumped out of bed to get 4 more of our interior doors in to the place we ordered new ones from so they could cut the doors we bought to the “correct” size (each opening between each of our rooms is very different from the next). Michael took them off their hinges, removed mirrors and racks, loaded them into the working Rover and took them out there while I made coffee, fed dogs and cats, did laundry, showered and got breakfast ready. When he returned, we ate and he showered and we rushed out to get there for 8:30 (ish). And we actually made it on time!

We saw lots of our favorite people there: Donna from Sadie’s Pet Boutique, Dr. Stacia Boswell and members of her staff at Sugar Mill Vet Center, Jennie Parrish, AWC Board Member, “our” Donna -  animal rescuer extraordinaire, Soldier Boy – a mixed breed dog abandoned, abused and left for dead, but resurrected by Stacia and the shelter workers, and now able to walk without his “wheelchair”, and many others of our island family.

The first speaker was Phil Arkow from the American Humane Association‘s Human-Animal Bond Center. Phil is extremely knowledgeable and he’s a great speaker. Phil began by discussing the facts that most American families include pets, and that more households in America have pets than children.We took copious notes on “The Link” between societal problems such as animal abuse and child maltreatment, elder abuse and domestic violence.  He showed drawings from the 1800′s depicting boys abusing animals with warning captions that this type of behavior can lead to further degradation of character.

He gave specific examples of criminals such as “Son of Sam” and “The Boston Strangler”, Ted Bundy, etc. who had abused animals as children. He also gave staggering statistics from around the world and in both urban and rural environments. Phil ended his discussion with three key premises:

1. Animal abuse MUST be perceived as a human welfare issue
2. Animal abuse must be re-defined as FAMILY violence
3. Each community’s network of caregivers must be cross-trained to recognize the different forms of abuse and family violence.

The second speaker was Allie Phillips (not Peter’s daughter, although our Allie works tirelessly in the animal welfare field as well!), Director of Public Policy for the American Humane Association. Talk about a firecracker! This lady is an entire first-class pyrotechnic production! She has been a prosecuting attorney for countless animal abuse cases, she’s involved with the American Prosecutors’ Research Institute, and is a staunch Lobbyist (Advocate) for ZERO TOLERANCE for ANIMAL ABUSE. She’s also involved with No Paws Left Behind, a program which rescues animals in hurricane, flood, wildfire, etc. affected areas, and Pets and Women’s Shelters (PAWS), which rescues women and children from abuse by letting them take their animals from dangerous domestic situations. Etc., etc., etc….

Wow!!

Allie packed a zillion punches into her short presentation, and she let the audience know that she can be called on any time for help with animal crime questions and concerns. She gave huge kudos to the person(s) involved in drafting our VI Animal Abuse legislation and took it point by point illustrating it’s many strengths. She discussed the success of a program called “AniCare“, which provides anti-cruelty counseling (basically forced empathy) for animal abusers.

I could go on and on about the issues she raised and her enthusiasm for helping animals as a way toward helping many societal ills, but I’d fall asleep at the keyboard from exhaustion. She’s a real dynamo and I hope our community officials keep her number close at hand. She is an incredible resource. Gosh, I wish I could bottle her energy!

Allie’s major message to us here, is that we need to get Moises Carmona, our Animal Control Warden, authorized as a Peace Officer so he can enforce the anti-cruelty laws that the VIPD officers are often unwilling or unable to.

Third speaker was William Fielding, a professor at the College of the Bahamas. Fielding reiterated much of what Phil and Allie discussed, but made it more “Caribbean”. He produced statistics he and some colleagues had gotten from polling students in New Providence. Unfortunately, his computer presentation did not translate to the laptop used and many of the photographs, charts and graphs. Ah,well. We got the drift….

We opted to leave before the question and answer period. I had to make a phone call to a client, and we had to get home to our own “starving and neglected” furry four-footers. On the way to the car, Michael’s cell phone told him he had a message, and it was about more Paul Golden antics at the Great Pond…….

Mostly. I sit here at 6:20pm still waiting for my husband to return home from work. He’s stopped to fix one of the rovers a which has been parked at the Pickled Greek for a couple of days. The thing couldn’t make it up the hill (again), even after Michael and Dave the Rover Guru spent hours working on it Sunday.

Can anyone imagine how fed up I am with these vehicles?

Anyway, Lisa, you’re right, Robbie is a roomba. The little vacuuming robot does a great job, and he doesn’t eat much, and he’s easy to clean! Maybe I can get him to drive Michael to work and back, too !

Videos soon come (after Michael finishes fixing the rovers….)

Whew! Here I am sitting down at the computer with a little time to write! Oh, but this will take a while, let me get a glass of wine…..

So, finally, after MONTHS of waiting for Trudi to return to paradise, we got to meet her and Walt at the guesthouse they’ve been staying in out west. What a lovely property! It borders a wildlife sanctuary in an amazing lush green valley, and contains many remnants of a sugar plantation. The grounds are beautifully cared for and artists often come here to paint.

We arrived just before sunset, and stood out on the gallery, taking in the gentle breezes and sensational scenery as dusk muted the brilliant colors of the bougainvillea around the circular footprint of the sugar mill. From above we could see the wooden gears which were an integral part of the animal mill (there isn’t enough wind in this spot for it to have been wind driven), and after dark, the well-placed lighting transformed the property into a magical shadowy wonderland.

When we exited the car to meet Trudi, she commented that she felt like she was meeting a blind date. That expressed my feelings perfectly as well. We hadn’t, as far as we knew, ever really met in person, and, although we’ve seen photos of each other on-line, people often don’t look much like their two- dimensional images (except for Michael, of course. He always looks like Michael, and people always recognize him).

We exchanged hugs and walked out onto the splendiferous veranda to begin an evening of fun and fabulous stories about Montana and St. Croix, and places in-between. Trudi is an excellent and expressive story-teller, and she has dozens to recount. I envy people with such detailed memories, but, as Trudi said, there were so many outrageous characters and situations, that it would be pretty difficult to forget them. What a blast! We laughed until we cried!

After a couple of hours, we traveled to Villa Morales for dinner. Michael had never eaten there, and I had been there once or twice when I was a strict vegetarian and found nothing wonderful to satisfy my limited palate. So this time we agreed to try as much of their seafood as possible. And we ate a lot of delicious conch. We had a conch soup and a conch paté, and conch in butter sauce (while conch is available, we like to try it in as many different preparations as possible) and also salmon balls (sort of like salmon croquettes). We had rice and beans and plantain and tostones, and we stuffed ourselves until we had to ask for a “doggy box”(the dogs would NOT be allowed NEAR this food, however. We had it for lunch the next day).

We could have stayed and talked and listened well into the night, but we had to drive back and stop at Plaza on the way, so we agreed to meet again the following night at Trudi’s art opening at Designworks.

I had to work until 6, and when I got home, Michael had forgotten about the opening, so it took us a while to get down there. Trudi’s work is whimsical and wonderful. There’s an interesting story behind every piece (go figure) and I wish I had more wall space because there were a few very cool sculptures that I really liked. Ah well, as we always say……when we win the lottery…..

Saturday we took Origami out to Buck Island. It was a partly cloudy day, with rather mellow seas, so we packed Biggie up and headed out into the blue yonder. We went to the trail side first, passing by Big Beard’s Renegade and out to the mooring buoy at the dive site closest to the trail. It took us a while to get in the water. I’d almost forgotten how to do it, but managed to escape drowning as I jumped off the little dinghy. The water was cold, but I wore my wetsuit, so I did not turn into an icicle immediately upon contact with the chilly brine. I checked my watch and hoped to spend at least 30 minutes partially submerged. We saw the ever-present Wreggie fish upon entering, then a 3-foot long barracuda. During our short swim toward the barrier reef we swam with a huge school of blue tang, lots of great coral formations with arches and crevasses that we attempted to take pictures of each other through, and then, after a bit more shivering, we saw a humongous lobster in a hole. Shortly afterwards an even LARGER one came by and went into the hole. Some wrestling ensued and the smaller one came out, the larger one chased it and then they both went back in. We didn’t know if this was some sort of mating behavior or if they were fighting over territory. We’ll investigate, though and next time we promise to have a more educated explanation.

Saturday night, we went to the Animal Welfare Center’s annual “Fur Ball”. This year, we found out late that we had tickets (Michael’s very generous boss buys tickets for employees and spouses), but we were able to make room in our busy schedule for another night out. Actually, we were able to find presentable outfits in our own closet, so we were allowed in. It was held at the Palms at Pelican Cove, and it seemed to be a great success.

There were a bunch of items in the silent auction, but only four in the live auction. Two live auction items were package deals, and the local romance package included a couples massage from Ambrosia Body Care. Unfortunately, we forgot the gift certificate on the table where we had carefully placed it so as NOT to forget it. Anyway, we know the woman who bid highest on the package, so I dropped it off with her this morning.

We only bid on a door. The shelter needs re-inforced doors for kennels and such, so they asked for bids of $300 for each door. We bought them one door. that’s all we could afford. Just the day before, we bought ourselves TEN interior doors to replace the cheap “cardboard-with-bugs-living- inside” doors we currently separate our rooms with. So we were on a door roll.

Anyway, I drove my adorable wine-soaked husband home and we slept soundly until it was time to get up and call Trudi early on Sunday to see if she and Walt felt like exploring the east end. That did not happen, so we caught up on laundry and other cleaning chores before I went to work at 2:30 and Michael worked with Dave the Rover Guru to fix fuel pump issues on the green monster.

After I got home, we opted for dinner of Chinese food, at a place that disappointed us last year. We thought we’d give them another try. Their record is still intact.

This post has gone on long enough. Stay tuned for more about Robbie and golden……

Oh yes! Oh yes! Keep doing that honey! That’s the spot! Mmmm…suck, suck suck! Now, move around a little! Oooh, that’s soooo good! I can’t believe how good that is! Ohhhhh, yesssss!

I’m not really a gadget girl. I do enjoy my brand-spanking-new laptop computer, but I also received great satisfaction from my old one (Michael sort of broke it while trying to fix it, so we were forced to get me a next). Computers are versatile. Many gadgets are specialized and I usually need more from an expensive object. Not being a gadget girl, I don’t have a dishwasher or a clothes dryer, or even a toaster.

But there are certain gadgets that a woman in this day and age just can’t do without. I never thought I’d be saying this, but it’s true.

Now that Robbie has come into my life, I’ll never be the same again.

I saw him at the home of one of my clients. It was months ago. And I was skeptical, not being a gadget girl and all. Robbie IS pretty specialized, but his area of expertise is expansive.

He was cute. So I asked about him. My client had been quite impressed with him, and this particular client is generally pretty skeptical as well.

My client told me where Robbie came from, so the next time I was in that neighborhood, I looked him up. Michael was with me, and he was as interested as I was.

Well, Robbie wasn’t there. I asked around and was told that he wasn’t from those parts. We were so disappointed.

So a few weeks later when I saw him again at the home of this client, I mentioned our experiences during our search. But I also said that it was okay and I could probably find one just like him on-line. It seemed like my client had gotten the last one on island.

Then, as I was arriving at home, my client was calling to tell Michael that we’d looked in the wrong neighborhood for Robbie. We were set straight and took the first opportunity we had to find him.

And find him we did. Oh happy day! We were both thrilled (Michael loves gadgets)! It was just like christmas all over again! And we put Robbie to work the very next day.

I wanted Michael to videotape Robbie doing what he does best. So we have video footage of Robbie giving us both great pleasure.

Stay tuned!

Oh on Saturday night before our hike, we had the good fortune to be invited to the Pirate’s Ball at the yacht club. This was the 2nd annual fundraising auction for the Roseway (World Ocean School).

Have we mentioned recently how much we LOVE the Roseway? Well, we ADORE the Roseway and her crew for many, many reasons. The history of the vessel is fascinating and the fact that she’s a beautiful sailing ship is another cause for celebration. But the mission of the Roseway and her crew is what keeps us enthralled. We see articles in the newspapers with pictures of local kids who learn about sailing and the sea and teamwork and thinking outside the box, and we can’t help but express our gratitude that there are folks willing to go the extra mile to bring these amazing experiences to the youth of our community.

We were not expecting to purchase anything at the auction, since we don’t need anything and funds are relatively scarce after two crummy economic years with possibly more to come. But Michael and I have discussed over the last couple of years, sailing with the crew from St. Croix to somewhere on their annual trip back to Boston. One of this year’s live auction items was a trip for two from St. Croix to Bermuda. There seemed not to be much competition in the bidding battle, so we bid until we won the trip (a $3000 value) for a good price for us ($1200), but maybe not for the school.

We were sad to see MaryAnn’s boat not being purchased despite the fact that she put a LOT of work and money into her. There were a great any people in attendance with deeper pockets than we, but it seems that many are also buying into the dire, dire economic future scenario.

Oh well, we did our best to support the cause. There were a few more items on the auction list that were of interest to us, and we were finally able to get one of Jenna Emmons’ Sailor’s Valentines. We see Jenna’s beautiful works at lots of auctions and are usually outbid substantially. So we left with a piece of art and the promise of another sailing adventure.

We hope the school made enough money to keep the Roseway afloat for another year. We will probably have another birthday party aboard the Roseway next month, and if people can’t join us, donations can be made through the World Ocean School’s website.

We interrupt this vacation….to write about the boat parade.

This was the first time we’d been invited to be ON a boat in the boat parade. What a blast!

Peter of the Pickled Greek decided, that since the theme of this year’s parade concerned the “mix of cultures” on St. Croix, he’d like to have a Pickled Greek boat. So he got some boat people to agree, and invited a bunch of friends.

The festivities started at the Galleon Restaurant, with cocktails at 4 pm. I wasn’t feeling like drinking, but it was nice to hang out there with Lesley and the gang, while the boat was being decorated.

The boat is called Nirvana, and it’s a big sailboat. Most of the boats in the boat parade are motor boats. They’re so much easier to maneuver at night in the harbor. This 60 foot ketch, is long and heavy and not overly responsive.

Rich Rowe, her owner was at the helm and did a fantastic job getting her through the harbor in the dark made darker by the lights all over the vessel. Another large sailboat ahead of us, Parrot Head got stuck in shallow water a few times. But Rich had help from the bow with mates Catherine and Joe shouting back directions. Too many people, as far as I was concerned, about 30 or so, were all over the place, in the way, smoking cigarettes and spilling drinks. I tried to stay in one spot, right behind the main mast, so as not to interfere with vision and movement by necessary crew. I would NEVER have allowed that many people for something like that if it had been my boat. (Call me Mrs. Scrooge, if you wish).

But it was a great time for us, enjoying the water at night and looking at Christiansted’s crowds from “out there”. We did not bring Goliath for a couple of reasons: He hates boats and the water, and there would be fireworks, which he also hates. I could just picture him catapulting himself into the abyss at the first explosion.

The parade began around 6 pm, and after the boats went around a few times to raucous cheering from those along the waterfront, around 7 pm, the fireworks began. The boats all (sort of) stopped to watch the display, and as far as we could tell, there were no accidents. It was a wonderful fireworks display, and about half-way through, the huge full moon appeared behind the clouds to the east. Awesome!

Motoring back to Green Cay marina, with the bright moon reflected over the dark sea, alongside other beautifully decorated boats was amazing! Lady Jasmyne looked stunning, Intuition, adorable and I just felt like the luckiest person on earth to be livin’ on St. Croix, among so many truly special people.

Rich was able to move the behemoth into the tiny marina in the black night, and onto the dock with very little trouble, and the masses spilled out like ants from a disturbed nest. The party was to continue at the Deep End Bar, but Meredith mentioned that she felt like pizza, and I had been thinking that very same thing, just minutes before. So we decided to reconvene with Cindy and Meredith at the Divi’s new pizza restaurant, across the street from the miniature golf course.

We got a white pizza (they were out of spinach, so we had it with broccoli), a pepperoni, and a Jamaican jerk chicken pizza. The white pie was yummy, and the others enjoyed the rest of them. This pizza bar had no Amstel light beer, so I tried a Heineken light, which was just as good.

What a marvelous night for a moon dance!

And what a trip! Even LIAT worked alright.

We could use the words “fabulous”, “stupendous”, “magnificent”, “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, or “splendiferous” (I think I used that one during the trip), but it still would not describe the experience.

Words fail to express. But let me try….

To summarize: the weather was awesome except for our day on Mustique (the “Mistaque”, we call it), the company was better than we could have hoped for, the food was delectable, the service efficient and personable and I sit here drooling wanting to be back there on sailing yacht Caroline forever, stuck in a time warp like Groundhog Day.

In more detail…Where to begin? Hmmm…let me get out the journal. We wrote much less this time than last year, when we were on land at Petit Byahaut. Mesmerized by the sea……

I adore the sea and I need to be close and near to her always. I respect her profound beauty and unlimited power. But I digress…..

LIAT left St. Croix on time, we stopped briefly at St. Martin, stayed on board the plane, and got to Antigua, where we had to go through security again to get into the airport. One of the “nice ladies” (read: a real Bitch) there made me unpack something from our snorkeling bag. It was my surprise anniversary gift to Michael. (Thank you, “nice lady”, there went my surprise!)

We had a snack and moved quickly to the second floor to escape the bitter cold of the air conditioning downstairs. It’s a ridiculous airport! Our flight to St. Vincent boarded on time but there was a problem with cabin pressurization, which took only a short time to fix (thank goodness) and we arrived at ET Joshua airport to meet Desmond, the taxi driver who would take us to the dock where we’d meet our Captain.

5 minutes (and $14US later) Captain Grant appeared with his dinghy to take us to Caroline and the rest of the gang. First Mate Tara (also a licensed Captain) was there to help us aboard, and fellow passengers Nick, Jim and Michelle eagerly awaited our arrival, since dinner would now be served.

Introductions were made, drinks were poured for us (I only had a club soda ~ virtuous) and Scarlett arrived from below. These folks had been there for a while and had a head start on us as far as alcohol consumption goes, so she had to see a mate about a seahorse or something. We did not get to see our quarters before we were sat down and served dinner. Good thing I didn’t have to check on any seahorses!

Dinner was grilled Mahi with pineapple and green pepper sauce, basmati rice and ratatouille. Dessert was fruit and baked pineapple/coconut with vanilla ice cream topped with Bailey’s. Delicious! After that, Grant took us to our cabin in the forward starboard pontoon and explained the workings of the hatches and marine toilet, as well as how to open and close the closets and such.

Everyone was ready for bed, but we were still running on adrenaline, so we stayed up top looking at the stars until it started to drizzle, then we went to bed and slept well for a while. Even though Young Harbour was hoppin’ on a Saturday night with lots of loud music, we were comatose until rain coming in the hatch over our bed caused me to jump up and close it as well as our other three hatches.

See our Vacation Photo Album for pictures.

In past years, I’ve had people over expecting perfect weather and been rained out (30 people stuffed inside the house – not my idea of fun – I moved from New England partly because of that); gone to others’ who insisted on cooking EVERYTHING, not letting anyone else get any glory; and gone to restaurants.

This year we decided to go to our Yacht Club. The food is generally quite good there and the company enjoyable.

Bar opened at 1pm with hors d’oeuvre and the main event began at 2. We arrived after doing yard work, etc, at around 1:53. The buffet began at 2pm and by 3pm, dessert was just about devoured.The food was good, but…

…before 3:30, they were rolling tables away.

I felt rushed and uncomfortable. Not the way I expect a tropical Thanksgiving to be.

Next year, we’ll try something else…..

Friday night we went to an opening reception of an art show where all of the proceeds would be donated to a local organization helping to bring food, fresh water and medical treatment to people in Haiti.

We know many of the artists and their works are always amazing. Trudi Gilliam and Bonnie Luria, Emy Thomas and Don Dahlke are among the talented and generous souls who gave their beautiful works to this important cause.

We weren’t able to buy any art. We are out of wall space. But there were also gift certificates that people could purchase which would appropriate monies toward meals, water or medical care. So we did our Christmas shopping right there.

It is the beginning of the busy social season now. Last week, besides the CZM hearing in Frederiksted, we went to UVI to see a presentation of a NOVA special called, “Dimming the Sun”. It was extremely interesting. This Thursday was art walk in Christiansted, Friday was the art show/benefit, Tonight we went to see CCT’s production of a play called “Bee Luther Hatchee“. It was fabulous. Incredible talent and the subject matter, extremely emotional and pertinent at this time. They’re doing a matinee performance tomorrow (Sunday, November 16) and two more evening shows next week-end. It is a must-see!

And the art show/benefit at Walsh Metal Works continues for a while longer as well. Enjoy!

One of the Gift Certificates that came in the honeymoon package for Michael’s brother and sister-in-law was for an AirVentures in Paradise Island Tour. We love Captain Al and we get high by flying with him whenever we can (well, his 4-seaters don’t get quite the altitude that the jumbo jets do, but it works for us).

Anyway, David and Dawn and I took the tour this morning (Michael did it years ago with his parents), and we had a great time. The weather could have been slightly better, but it wasn’t bad.

We left the airport and flew over the landfill and water treatment facility, then banked right to head toward Frederiksted. We flew over lots of mucky brown water off the south shore, I didn’t know what that was from. The rum factory? The oil refinery?

Coming around Sandy Point was beautiful and Frederiksted is fabulous from the sky as well. Hamms Bluff where the lighthouse is on the northwest shore is breathtaking. The hills are green and dramatic looking as they plunge into the sea. We went over Carambola Beach Resort, Cane Bay, Salt River, Judith’s Fancy and “condo row”.  Al circled over Christiansted and we got an amazing view of the beautiful historic buildings which have been lovingly restored.

We continued east past the Buccaneer and over Pull Point before turning toward Buck Island. Spectacular! So many different angles to see it from. At one point over the east end of the big island, Al took a picture of someone’s house on a hill. David shifted in his seat as he noticed at the same time I did, that we were getting really close to another big house on top of a big hill. But obviously, we didn’t crash into it. Al nonchalantly banked us off to continue out to Point Udall. We flew over East End Bay, Isaac’s and Jack’s beaches, past Divi and Grassy Point, where Michael and I got married.

Then past the Great Pond and our neighborhood, Ha’penny Beach and the refinery, and back to where we started. Just before the refinery, the camera stopped taking pictures. I think I exhausted it. I shut it off and tried to restart it to no avail. Last time I used Michael’s camera it got tired too, and the lens cover wouldn’t close properly. It needed to go back to Olympus for service. This time, I was hesitant to use it for fear of breaking it again. So when it stopped working I brought it to him at work and he told me to take it home and put the card in my computer, get the pictures off it, and never touch it again     .

None of the gazillion pictures I took came out. Zero. Zilch.

I guess I need to get my own camera. Maybe David and Dawn can send us the pictures they took.