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.

It POURED BUCKETS again Friday morning and that’s okay, because our Fridays are not very productive for the next few weeks as we spend Thursday nights patrolling beaches for turtle activities. We did meet with Mr. Syedali from the Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR) at noon, though, and the Muddy Mongoose was not only muddy, but it was runny. Rivers were running through the property.

Mr. Syedali told us that the plans for this project include an above-ground storage tank for gasoline. Still sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. We will continue with our research on this project in the coming weeks.

After that meeting, we met MaryAnn at the yacht club and bought her kayak. She’ll be leaving island (and we’ll miss her), so she needs to liquidate her fleet of floaters, and we are happy to have a one-person hobie pedal kayak added to our armada.

Saturday, we walked another beach, found and recorded two turtle activities, and headed to the polls to vote in the primary election. We saw a bunch of people we knew, and were interviewed by a reporter from the local paper. Then it was off to the hardware store to get water seal for the pool deck, and then home for a late breakfast.

Michael spent most of the afternoon with the pressure washer getting the black mold stains off the deck while I repotted many of our ornamental shrubs and trees and planted more in small pots. Asparagus ferns and flamboyant trees, Christmas palms and double hibiscus. I also had time to take out a couple of dozen tan tans that have sprung up with all the rain.

That night, we met Cindy and her sister Julie at the restaurant of the haughty hostess. We love the food and the staff here, but the hostess always has seems to have her nose in the air and a sour puss on her face. Maybe she just doesn’t like us. Oh well.

The cool thing about this gathering was that Cindy and her sister just found each other. Julie was given up for adoption five years before Cindy was born. I still get goosebumps just writing about it.

Sunday found us walking a beach again hoping not to get soaked. There was still thunder and heavy skies. It had been days since we’d seen the sun. No activities and no rain, but we picked up a little more trash and hauled it off to the dumpster.

We later met Sonja and Christian at the Waves at Cane Bay for brunch. She was concerned about the weather, but even though it was stormy all around the sun was hot and bright out there. I’ve always loved that spot, right above the crashing waves. And they do serve up a nice Sunday brunch. The staff is extremely friendly and accommodating, too. We started with a tamarind and tequila white sangria. It was yummy, so I only had one and a half - didn’t want a headache later in the day. Michael and I shared a crab cake benedict and veggie omelet. Sonja had a smoked salmon and cream cheese platter which was served on a bed of greens. It looked yummy. Christian had a veg omelet, too. We’ll have to try the Waves at Cane Bay for dinner one of these days.

After waiting the requisite 30-60 minutes  , we went for a snorkel. The water was flat and clear. There were scores of beautiful pink moon jellyfish, undulating and floating in the gentle current. They were between 3 and 10 inches in diameter and it was really cool to see them hanging in the deep blue of the water like breezy ethereal space aliens.

We swam out to the dive buoy where we saw a small hawksbill turtle resting at the bottom of the mooring line. It was so still, it looked fake. Michael dove down to check and decided that it was real and alive. From the top, I could see it ever so slightly move its head from left to center. Unfortunately, the camera was on the beach with Goliath, and he wasn’t about to bring it to us. At this depth, we see different species of fish. Black durgens are really cool to watch as they alternate their dorsal and ventral fins which are lined with a fluorescent silvery-blue. We also checked on and saw that the seahorse is still out there.

After hanging out on the beach drying off, I was hungry and Michael was thirsty, so off to Off the Wall we went. We had some pizza, fat papi, and beer and good conversation with Joe and Val, other fellow water lovers, and Michelle from Dive Experience, one of our favorite local activist, environmentalist and business person.

The sky was getting dark and we could see rain in the surrounding valleys. By that time, we really had to get home to the hungry pups.  We drove into heavy showers on the way, but although they were damp when we arrived home, the cuddly canines had not eaten any of the furniture or each other.

We went to the last of this summer’s outdoor concerts at the Whim Plantation Museum on Saturday night.  The St. Croix Landmarks Society’s “World Music Concert Series Under the Stars” this year began in July with “Jamaican Jazz Fusion”. That would have been fun to see, but at the time we were just back from CA and it got past me.

“Alma de Cuba” happened in August. We missed that one, too. I’m bummed about missing the first two, because it’s great to see exciting live music in such a beautiful outdoor setting. I guess we missed them mostly because I have forgotten to renew our membership in the Landmarks Society, so I didn’t have reminders in my face.

Anyway, we went to see “Bluegrass Americana”, something that would not normally thrill me. I was brought up listening to country-western music and anything resembling that usually freaks me out. But we were out with Meredith and she thought it would be fun, so we went. And she was right! It was fun!

Adam Kinghorn and Joe Lessard played guitar and fiddle and sang with a twang. It was a foot stompin’ great time. Yes, I remembered a few of the songs and sang along. I’m goofy like that. But these guys were awesome. They did some rap-type vocals that they were able to segue into classics like the “Orange Blossom Special”. It was very very cool.

The day had been rainy and we were lucky enough to get undercover seats. Good thing because it did rain during the performance. There was a big crowd which surprised me, again because of the weather, so we saw a bunch of “the usual suspects” and people we haven’t seen in years.

I’m going to renew our membership now, so we’re better informed of the happenings at Whim and around St. Croix. I especially love the “ruins rambles”, where local historians take us through old plantation properties. I don’t want to miss any more of Landmarks’ wonderful events.

We’ve gone to only a few dining establishments (I wouldn’t go to the “dinning” place, and lo and behold - it’s out of business - I guess when you can’t even spell what you’re trying to sell, not even the Cruzans will partake of your “delights”) recently, and the food has been wonderful at all of them. The service has also been exquisite, but there’s a fine line between excellent service and anality, which makes me very uncomfortable.

I’m pretty much done reviewing places and naming names for the time being, but one restaurant in particular that we had dinner at pretty much drove me right out of there with the “exquisite service”. I could hardly put a piece of silverware down to talk to Michael without someone swooping in and asking if I was done with it.

The bread basket, a comfortable fixture on a dining table, in my humble opinion, was almost whisked away on a couple of occasions before we finally succumbed to the pressure to let them have it back. The table was so inappropriately stark between courses, that I felt I was finished with my meal before we had even begun. The servers had apparently been trained to make sure there was nothing food-like on the table if no one actually had food in their mouths. Très gauche!

We were taking a break before finishing our entrée. We were actually deep in conversation, when the busser attempted to take our last plate away. Mine had already been briskly removed from my vicinity as soon as the last bite approached my lips. The olympics were on TV in the lounge, and I felt as though the staff were in some sort of competition to move us out in a certain amount of time. This is unfortunate, too, because the place was not busy at all, and we probably would have spent more money on dessert and coffee if I wouldn’t have been made to feel so rushed.

When the server came to get our last empty plate, she asked if there was anything else, to which I could only reply. Our check please, and quickly! Maybe we made the Guinness Book or some sort of “Fast Fine Fare Fight” competition. I hope they get some sort of award, but it won’t be coming from me!

This is the final week-end to catch the outrageously funny CCT (Caribbean Community Theater) production of “The Lone Star Love Potion”.

Many of our old favorites are back on stage. Check out Michael Armendariz as Mr. Oakfield, the attorney. His facial expressions as he’s being seduced by female cast members are priceless. Just reading his biography in the program had me roaring.

Tomas Lanner makes his first appearance on CCT’s stage as Jarvis, the stuffy butler. His British accent was flawless throughout the performance.

The play is directed by Debby Babb and co-stars Tricia Storie with another perfect part for her personality, Juanita Feldhamer, Ed Buckley (Captain Ed from SCUBA) in his first ever theater performance (he’s a natural, though, probably from doing radio spots - and I even remember when he had his own radio show on week-ends), Claire Burke, and Nicole Gariepy as a nerdy ornithologist.

The show was so hilarious, that the continuous laughter made it hard to pick up some of the extra funny lines. So we have to go back. Remaining show times are 8pm tonight (Saturday, August 2), and a 4pm matinee.

Don’t miss it!

We attended the meeting last Thursday evening and were quite impressed with the presenters and the public’s response. There were 60-75 people who took the time to listen a bit and to participate in the process of discussing and sharing the many cultural aspects of St. Croix which must be preserved.

Diplomatic and down-to-earth representatives from US Department of the Interior went around the room asking each person for his/her name and a one-word description for the island of St. Croix.

There was very little repetition in the adjectives used by all of us who were there. My first choice was “diverse”, but I was seated toward the end of room and the word was used before they got to me. Examples of descriptive words used were: “home”, “green”, “welcoming” and “beautiful”. Michael’s was “inviting”, and I used the word “magical” (my second choice was “colorful” if someone else used my first choice - no one did).

Anyway, not much later in the meeting, they asked people to come up to posters on the walls with suggestions that the “designated recorder” could write on each poster. Each poster had a heading asking about unique cultural aspects of living on St. Croix. I went to a poster and added “scratch bands”. Many other people spoke about various Caribbean foods such as “souse” and “fungi”, “mangoes”. Michael’s concern was for the natural areas which need to be preserved such as Annaly Bay, the Southgate Coastal Reserve, and of course the Great Pond and Great Pond Bay.

The best thing One of the best things about the meeting was that it only lasted one hour! We were all given an informational pamphlet with a comment form.

If you were not able to attend, but are interested in making comments about the island of St. Croix and which areas you believe should be designated as National Heritage Areas, you are invited to send your thoughts to: Cynthia Nelson - Project Manager, National Park Service, Denver Service Center, 12795 Alameda Parkway, PO Box 25287, Denver, CO 80225.

Questions on the comment form are:

1.) What benefits and concerns do you think a National Heritage Area designation would bring to your community?

2.) What traditions, customs, beliefs, and folklore set St. Croix apart from all other places?

3.) Identify the unique natural and cultural sites that tell the nationally important stories of St. Croix, and explain why they are significant.

There’s a new little breakfast/lunch place in C’sted on Queen Cross Street. I had seen an ad for it somewhere, but we were in town for a meeting this morning and stumbled upon it.

It’s where”Mango Court” used to be. Alas the huge mango tree is gone, but the courtyard has been transformed into a welcoming space. This is good to know, since Christine’s, Café Fresco and the Pickled Greek are not open for lunch for the next few weeks.

Clayton offers a half-dozen or so coffees ranging from extreme in caffeine content, to something I can drink without bouncing off the walls (French Vanilla…Mmmmm!). Bagels with salmon and cream cheese, quiches and yummy muffins round out the breakfast options. Check for daily specials.

Sandwiches and salads to go with your midday Java are served until around 3pm. After that, you can have a coffee at tea time. Frozen cappucino frappé-type thingies swirl around in freezey blending machines. Stop by and give one a try for your afternoon kick before happy hour!

Hours are 7am - 4pm Monday through Saturday. Namasté!

Yesterday I got an e-mail from “The Spiritual Cinema Circle”. We joined this movie club in February when I was searching for something to get Michael for Valentine’s Day. We both enjoy watching movies. I especially like having no TV channels, since we don’t have cable. It gives us a complete control over our lives in the matter of this particular medium. Unless, of course, we’re at the bank or post office, or most bars, many restaurants, in airports, or other places people get bombarded with misinformation and advertising (oh, isn’t that the same thing?). Anyway, we get on DVD per month which contains a few short (5-30 minute) movies and a longer one (60-90 minutes or so).

The independent films are thought provoking and have important messages that can be discussed at the end of each selection.

Anyway, the e-mail was about a movie that is out in the regular world now, not just the spiritual cinema circle. And it has many important messages. The movie is Wall-E.

I don’t usually pay attention to what’s in the theaters since most of it is loud, obnoxious, violent, exploding, destructive crap all over the screen, so I may have seen previews or posters for this one, but paid no attention.

But after reading the e-mail, I thought this would be a good one to check out, so after a quick trip to the beach when Michael got home from work, we got dressed and headed to Pizza Mare, and then to the movie theater.

This quote from the Spiritual cinema circle is what prompted me to suggest to Michael that we go.

“Wall-E is a robot, living alone (almost) on earth, cleaning up the trillions of pounds of trash left behind when humanity departed its uninhabitable planet. Wall-E’s earth wasn’t ravaged by either a war or a meteor. No, it was decimated by consumerism, greed, gluttony, and environmental neglect. Wall-E isn’t living on a post-apocalyptic planet. He’s living on a post-stupidity planet.”

It is a fun movie (even though it has a bit of loud, obnoxious, violent, exploding, destructive crap) that looks to be right on as far as the evolution of the human species is concerned.

“….the good news is that we are pampered from morning to night by every automated convenience that we could possibly imagine. We don’t work. We don’t need money. We have no conflicts. We have everything we want to eat and drink at any time we want it and are whisked everywhere on cushy recliners. The bad news? We have all become so fat that we literally can’t even walk!”

Fortunately, there is a happy ending. An alert leader realizes what is needed to save the planet and humanity and we are left with hope for the future.

Between Temecula and Falbrook (Avocado capital of the world….mmmm!) lies a little town called Rainbow. The valley has many nurseries where flowers and ornamental plants are grown. It’s a nice small community, but still pretty close to the freeway, so you can hear the roaring traffic from there.

The Rainbow Inn Bed and Breakfast is an adorable little cottage that was originally a horse stable on a hill overlooking Rainbow valley. Dona and Scott, the owners are a very sweet couple who have lovingly created a welcoming, cozy, and very private little hideaway.

When we arrived there on Monday afternoon, after driving from Brea, stopping at a couple of biodiesel places along the way, and having lunch at a Mexican restaurant called “The Bank” in Old Town Temecula, we were greeted with a sign in the driveway which read, “Welcome Terry and Michael!” How sweet!

There are little trails and cute signs all around the property. The first one I saw said, “Watch for Freddys”. I couldn’t wait to ask what it meant. Dona told me that when her granddaughter was little, she couldn’t say the word “lizard”, so she decided to call a lizard a “Freddy”, since she could say that word! Adorable!

Unfortunately, we never saw any lizards, or Freddys .

We had a fabulous view from a deck overlooking the valley and could see the fog blanket in the mornings between the hilltops. The private pool was nice and warm, and the first time we went in we heard a strange sounding “bird” in a nearby tree. Michael said it sounded like rusty clippers, so we called it a “rusty clipper” - a new species we discovered! It kept chirping and chirping but we couldn’t see it in the tree, so I moved as far over on the other end of the pool as possible, and there it was on a rock behind the tree…..but it was a ground squirrel. It just sat there yelling for something that we couldn’t figure out. Maybe sometimes Dona and Scott feed him? Who knows. He was cute though, and we saw a few more of them as we wandered around the property where signs said things like “this way to secret hiding place”, and “live your dreams”, and “never mind stopping to smell the roses, look at the birds flying around!” My favorite, though was, “Age improves with wine!”

At one point, we saw some large raptors on a utility pole very close to the main house. There were two of them sitting there and two more arrived later. Michael thought they were California condors, but I thought they were vultures. The info in the cottage confirmed my suspicions, I used to see turkey vultures frequently in New England, but wasn’t sure if they were found on the west coast, too. Now we know.

As we traveled in the woods on foot, with Biggie, we’d check the skies periodically to make sure no big birds of prey were eying him as a tasty morsel. He survived! And we didn’t see any rattlesnakes, either, that would have been scary.

We loved the Rainbow Inn and highly recommend it for anyone traveling through this area. There is no minimum stay and it is comfortable and clean. Oh, and it has a HUGE library of books. Most of the walls of the living area are bookshelves stuffed with novels, historical accounts, dictionaries, you name it. I couldn’t even begin to delve in, I know I would never have gotten out. Well, except for one, called, “The Joy of Lex”, which is an amusing compilation of sayings and language intricacies that make up modern English. A lot of fun!

Just like when we went to FL a few years ago for my Lasik surgery. We drove to visit my cousin, some friends of Michael’s family, and Joey. But everyone was spread throughout the state, so we spent a lot of time driving on highways and through urban sprawl with strip mall after strip mall.

So this trip was only partially a vacation. At least we did get to do a couple of fun things. The balloon ride over Temecula wine country at sunrise was spectacular. Michael took a ton of pictures. One of the other couples got engaged on their private balloon. We shared ours with an older couple. It was kind of tight in there with 5 people. I was in “the back” of the basket, so didn’t get to see as much until after we had passed over it. I tried to deny my fear of heights, and was successful unless I looked straight down, so I didn’t do that. But it was very special anyway.

And the drive up Palomar Mountain was exhilarating. The slow 7 miles up a winding dirt road with no guardrail made me queasy, again my fear of heights and “steeps” as Michael calls them. But at the top it was beautiful parkland with 400 year-old cedars and Native American archaeological specimens. We walked down a trail for a bit, among remnants of a fire from a couple of years ago. It’s frightening to think of those incredible trees going up in flames.

The Hale observatory is huge with a very interesting history. You can see the magnificent telescope and the big large wheels that turn it. Amazing!

The wineries were okay, except that I was allergic to something around there. So I sneezed and dripped until we got some drugs after which I was dried out and stuffed up.

So I couldn’t taste the wine!!!

And the wineries were only okay. We are so used to our friendly, welcoming wine clubs here on STX that appropriately pair wines with food. None of the Temecula wineries served food with the wine! You stood up at the bar, and just got 4 or 5 sips of wine for $8-$12 (with a complimentary glass at a few of them).

I wish we’d have had more time to visit more of them rather than spending so much time driving, though. Maybe we’d have found some fun, funky ones. The one I liked best wasn’t even in Temecula, it was on the way back from Palomar Mountain, in the higher country. A very small, family-run place which used only their own grapes in all of their wines. It’s called Shadow Mountain Vineyards and it was the only place from which we bought wine. We tasted 3 reds: a merlot; a 2005 “variation”, (which consisted of 50% merlot and 25% each of cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc grapes” that grow on the northern slopes of Palomar Mountain at an elevation of 3400′”); a 2005 carignane and a 2006 viognier. They had tiny crackers and bits of cheese so you could get a better feel for the way the wine would taste when served properly, like with food. We bought a bottle each of the viognier, the variation, and the carignane, along with a half-bottle of 2005 old vine zinfandel. It was so cute we couldn’t resist! Can’t wait to have a chance to buy some nice food to drink it with.

The four wineries we visited in Temecula were: Wilson Creek (no food, but free glasses); Ponte (they have a restaurant, where we had lunch - good food, but none with the wine tasting, AND no free glasses either); Bella Vista (the oldest winery in Temecula, a cute older Romanian couple own it, no food, but free glasses); and Callaway (crackers, a restaurant that closes at 5pm, and free glasses). We got there late and were looking for food, so we asked the workers for restaurant suggestions. They told us about the chains in the shopping centers! “Claim Jumper” and “Olive Garden”….Ugh!

I just couldn’t get over the fact that the restaurants all CLOSE at 5pm. Just when they could be opening and making a bunch of money from late afternoon visitors. And they don’t give you a morsel with the wine tasting. I get much less drunk if I have some food to absorb the wine. Remember, this is America with very strict rules about drunk driving. It felt sort of “slam bam, thank you ma’am”-ish. I might be more inclined, if I had a nice taste of food with each sip, to buy something in the gift shop, stay for a nice dinner, purchase more wine…..

Consistency of food and service are key to a restaurant achieving the status of “great” in my world. Last week I felt like eating lobster and I didn’t feel like going into town, so we went to Duggans. It was the night of the full moon and we wanted to sit outside on their new deck. So we called ahead and reserved a spot.

We each had a bowl of soup to start, their conch chowder and a seafood bisque, shared a bottle of Gnarly Head Zinfandel, and Michael had the sashimi appetizer as his entree. I had the baked lobster “in the buff”. It was tender and juicy and fantastic.

The moon was beautiful and after our lovely dinner, served by Judy , we walked on the beach until we found a hammock to recline in. We swung in the breeze until it was time to go home. Then we had to change a flat tire on the car before getting home , but the dining and moonlight were outstanding.

Last night we went to the Galleon. We sat in the bar area looking over the marina and started with a creamy mushroom and spinach soup and a tuna ceviche in a nori cone (I forget what it’s called on the menu) with wasabi. Both were delicious! We had a Norton Privada Merlot/Malbec, which was also excellent. Our entrees consisted of the mixed greens salad with toasted pine nuts and shaved parmesan, and the fresh grilled yellowfin tuna with cilantro citrus butter. Mmmmm! We couldn’t help but have the chocolate fondant for dessert with more wine.

And after that, Cass brought us an unnecessary, but yummy new concoction she calls “cheesecake”. It had vanilla Cruzan rum in it and we’re going to make some for the family while we’re in CA.

No, I’m not going to reveal the rest of the ingredients……

After sailing to Buck Island on Mary Ann’s boat (well, the other three did - I rode both ways on Origami), we had a drink at the Yacht Club bar, then reconvened at Café Kaleidoscope. It’s on the corner of routes 62 and 624, just northwest of the Great Pond (oh, and 1/4 mile due west of our house ).

We had a great day out on the water and, once again, Pat and Sasha were there to nourish us after our adventures. I must say that one of the best days of my life took us to Kaleidoscope last year, where Pat’s coquilles St. Jacques delighted my palate after we’d swum with a dozen dolphins as we kayaked out to Buck Island the long way.

A couple of my favorite things about Kaleidoscope are the peaceful south shore location. In contrast to many other, air conditioned places, you can feel the breezes and inhale the fresh warm south shore air. You can look up at the unspoiled hillsides just west of the restaurant and know that soon, this land will be national park land. You can look to the southeast and see the lush mangroves surrounding and part of the Great Pond, which will also, with luck, soon be national park land, never to be violated by development.

In addition to the clean, comfortable feel of this place, the food quality is unsurpassed. Pat is an accomplished chef, and her dishes reflect the varied flavors of the different ethnic cuisines she has studied. Besides my favorite, the coquilles St. Jacques, she offers Italian delights such as eggplant rollatini (have I mentioned recently that I love eggplant), and sometimes tiramisu. She often serves a fabulous Asian-style salmon with with wasabi mashed potatoes, and there are always tempura veggies as an appetizer. Soup of the day was French onion, but I love her creamy roasted pepper soup when she has it. The mandarin salad is always fresh and delicious. Michael and I shared a seafood delight plate with mussels, scallops and flounder. It was wonderful! Finish your meal, as we did, with Pat’s home-made key lime pie. Another perfect ending to a perfect day in paradise.

Their menu is not extensive, nor is it expensive. Very reasonable prices make Café Kaleidoscope most inviting.

Call 773-1062 for reservations. Hours are Thursday thru Sunday 6-9pm.

I was hungry when I got home from work yesterday. I had eaten a small, early lunch because I had to get to work, but also in preparation for our dinner at The Pickled Greek.

We were on our way up Lowry Hill Road, when a neighbor stopped us to ask if I could massage his leg soon, since he’s been having trouble with it. I said, yes, give me a call, and we traveled on.

There were a few people there already and Heike sat us at the table she was working at with the reservation book, close to the bar area and kitchen. We saw the usual suspects: Lorine and Diane, Margi and Fran, Joe and Val, Diane Marie, and more friends and supporters trickled in throughout the evening: Peter and Carol, Leonore and Paul, Mike and Barbara, Avalon and Athena, Doug and Isabel, Jenny and Chris, Jeannie and Rick, etc. etc.

We looked at the menu and couldn’t get past the appetizer section! I wanted everything (except for the meat things, but there were only two apps with meat - cool!). We ordered the tzatziki (cucumber, garlic yogurt dip); the melitzanosalata (roasted eggplant, red pepper and garlic dip); the spanakopita (spinach and feta in phyllo); the dolmades (herbed, rice-stuffed grape leaves); the falafel (herbed, fried chickpea balls); the calamari and the tyropita (cheese-stuffed phyllo triangles).

It was all fabulous! Our only mistake was ordering tzatziki, since a couple of the other things came with it (the grape leaves and falafel), so we had an abundance of the delicious stuff. It was the only thing we couldn’t finish. But we didn’t leave much. We shared a bottle of Mitchell’s Pinot Nero and it was a perfect meal.

Nikki was our server and apologized at one point for not paying enough attention to us. It was not a problem, we had people popping over to our table throughout the evening, and we had each other and Biggie to occupy our attention. Besides, we got our wine and food in a very timely manner, and were pretty busy polishing it off most of the time. Oh, and Peter started dancing with Pam and Heike and Cindy twice while we were there, so there was plenty of entertainment.

We were about half-way through our repast, when I spotted Aaron! Peter’s chef was back for opening night! I jumped up and ran over to give him a hug. He’s looking great and he says he’s feeling good, too. What a thrill for him to see the day we’ve all been waiting for! He’d worked so hard for so long before his diagnosis with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, that it would have been a real tragedy for him to have missed it. He’s here for a week and looking forward to coming back when his treatments are finished, and taking over in the kitchen. We’ll surely be stopping in during the week to visit with him and the rest of the gang.

In more good news….Vinnie comes back today from rehab in CA. It’ll be great to see him again as well.

By the time we had finished, all of the indoor tables were full and a couple of the outdoor tables were, too. We are extremely happy that there will be NO SMOKING inside the Pickled Greek. Peter, himself, goes outside when he wants to light up.

They’ve also decided that, for the time being they will not open for lunch. They should be busy enough with dinners, especially if they continue to provide the quality and service we experienced last night. I think they decided that, after two refrigerator malfunctions (and subsequent food losses) over the week-end, that they’d get new equipment before getting overly ambitious.

As for the rest of the menu, the two appetizers we didn’t have were the lahanadomathes (spiced lamb and rice cabbage rolls) and keftedes (lamb and beef meatballs in a tomato herb sauce). For soup or salad, you can have a traditional Greek salad, a warm spinach salad, a village Greek salad, which has the veggies without the lettuce, and Yia Yia stew, a hearty seasonal veggie soup. Mmmm!

For sandwiches, they have the classic gyro, a souvlaki pita (with marinated chicken, beef or lamb), a keftedes (meatball) sandwich, a falafel pita, a veggie pita or a Greek hamburger. All sandwiches come with your choice of fries or Greek coleslaw.

The entrée selections are souvlaki (slow roasted, marinated beef, lamb or chicken kabobs); moussaka (herbed eggplant lasagna with or without lamb); pastitsio (macaroni and ground lamb casserole); a leg of lamb; a NY steak or fresh fish of the day. All entrees are served with seasonal ratatouille and rice.

The prices are very reasonable. Our total for the evening came to $77, not including tip. Truly a bargain for all that food and the delicious wine. Salads are $9 or $10, sandwiches $9-$12, and entrees (except for the fresh catch, which would be market price) $16-$23.

After the feasting, and to celebrate his opening, Peter opened a couple of bottles of ouzo and shared a drink with each table. It was a great evening. The acoustics inside were very loud, but it’s a Greek place, there’s going to be a lot of activity and noise. But it will always be a good time. We had so much fun I forgot about my Greek lesson. So, bon appetit!

Hilarious! Uproariously funny! Lots of belly laughs and guffaws as well as giggles and snickers!

We went on opening night and only a couple of times did the performers seem to be reaching for their lines.

The casting was perfect. The players truly seemed to matched their characters.

There were about 50 people in the audience, which is quite a decent showing for opening night during the beginning of our “slow” season. The audience was pretty responsive and appreciated most of the jokes and funny lines.

We also went on night two. We volunteered at the raffle table. There were fewer people, perhaps because of the big day-long “cancer sucks” fund raising bash at Cane Bay. But they seemed to thoroughly enjoy the show. There are still 5 performances left. This week-end, Friday and Saturday at 8pm and a Sunday matinée. And then Friday and Saturday nights of the week-end of the 23rd and 24th. If you are on island, don’t miss it!

It was actually a pretty perfect day. We got up and did yoga (we’ve FINALLY started back on that). I feel soooo much better after each moment of stretching all those muscle fibers. Had some organic decaf with local bananas from Southgate farms and I got a much needed massage from my wonderful husband.

Last Mother’s Day happened before I started blogging, but many of the main characters were the same. We had brunch last year at (Wreggie - cover your eyes) Duggan’s with Nikki, Meredith and Ian. Then dinner at the Terrace, just the three of us, since we were pregnant.

But this year was lighter…Michael and me, Nikki and Meredith for breakfast at the Cultured Pelican. It was nice. I love the Pelican, especially during the day. But we would have preferred another waitress. The one we had, used to clean houses, and at one point cleaned Michael’s Tide Village house for Charlie (my former house mate) when he first moved in. Michael met her at that time and tried to explain that many of his things weren’t out of there yet and that he would deal with them later. She became offended for some reason and wrote a note to Charlie (leaving it in plain sight of Michael), calling Michael an “ass”. So, we would have preferred another waitress, but we didn’t know she worked there. If we would have, I would have chosen another restaurant.

Anyway, the brunch food was okay. The company was great and we had lots of good, fun conversation. After- ward, we went our separate ways and I thought I might later meet up with Nikki on a beach, since it was Michael’s turn to work on getting the junker out of the driveway. I’d worked while he sailed on Saturday, and yes, the blue rover is still in the driveway, very much in the way and making our home look like a ghetto, a year after I gave him 4 months (or I tow the damned thing out of there myself).

Nik likes Ha’penny, and it’s an okay beach, but I wanted a beach where the snorkeling is good, and if I wanted a drink or a snack, there are amenities. Divi is pretty close, and I hadn’t been in a while.

I went to the eastern end, off the new building, close to the good snorkeling. There were plenty of empty chairs and tiki huts. I picked one, parked my stuff and settled in to get warm before diving into the sea. I was on an exploratory mission to see if I didn’t have to go all the way to the palm trees off Pat White’s house to see any nice patch reefs. But it looked a little funky (like too shallow with sea urchins or baby corals) right off shore and I walked to where I knew the entrance to be sandy. The water was warm when I got in but soon chilled to the point where I thought I’d see ice burgs. There was some sort of drain pipe pouring water in around there (maybe draining condensation from refrigeration or air conditioning units?) and that may have been the cause.

A small barracuda greeted me immediately upon my entering, and then there were lots of white fish digging for worms in the grass and sand. I swam through more grass toward the areas I thought were coral reefs. It was shallow and I finally got to some patch reefs that were not spectacular. I had been fighting the current (but I wasn’t unhappy, it was much-needed exercise) and at this point I just floated around all the hundreds of sea urchins from all angles. There were tons of juvenile fishes, lots of damsels (undistressed), and not much else. I headed back in letting the current carry me to the other side of the sea wall where it was sandy.

Back on shore, I positioned the chairs so I could get sun on appropriate places and have access to my book and fanny pack. I opened my book and read a few lines before falling comfortably asleep. When I awoke, I was totally in the shade. I read a bit more and headed home to find that Dave and Michelle were there. Dave was in the driveway helping Michael cut the frame apart and Michelle was happily situated at my computer.

Okay. I was forced to do things I would normally avoid using the computer as my excuse. I did laundry, vacuumed, washed windows, watered plants and took pictures of the last steps of the rover dismantling.

When darkness settled in, the boys were finished chopping and moving heavy things (for that day, anyway), and we had them clean up and get ready for dinner.

It was still Mother’s Day, so I was not about to cook for four, so I suggested Tutto Bene or Zebo’s. Through the democratic process, Zebo’s was selected. I called for reservations and they said, “Come on down!”

Dave and Michelle hadn’t been there before and were enthralled with the menu choices. Michelle wanted the beef carpaccio, and the scallops and the local sweet potato salad and the mussels and the duck napoleon, so we ordered all of those. I wanted to try the creamy ratatouille soup, so we got that and the Wahoo entrée. Everything was fabulous, especially with a bottle of Montes Alpha Shiraz. We shared all and had room for a couple of glasses of the opened bottle of Navarro Malbec and dessert of a rich chocolate cake with a richer ball of chocolate on top.

All in all, a pretty fabulous Mother’s Day, as far as I’m concerned.

I love this guy’s writings. They challenge and inspire. Here’s a passage from the introduction to

“A Quantum Theory of Godly and Human Behavior”:

This is a Dodo.

The Dodo was a flightless biped, like we are.It is extinct.

Our species, Homo Sapiens Sapiens, could become extinct just as easily.

Some of us, those of us at the top of our heap, are using up more resources than the planet could provide if everyone followed their example. That’s how they know they are important. The amount of resources they waste is a badge, an emblem, a “status symbol”.

Most of the rest of us in Western Civilization copy them as best we can. We do that so we don’t feel like nobodies. We do that even when our only function, like Scott Adams’ “Dilbert”, is to be a status symbol for our often incompetent bosses.

We are so proud of the idea that everyone has an equal right to feel important that we preach it in our popular art. At the same time we build walls to keep poor people out of our country. Even inside the walls of our Golden Ghetto the gap between the rich wastrels and the wanna-be wastrels increases every year.

It is entirely possible that the global economy is so attuned to our waste that when the lower strata of the developed countries get scared and stop wasting, the global economy will collapse.

It is also possible that the intellectuals from undeveloped countries (who are quite aware that they are being kept low status in western eyes) will manage to get nuclear weapons for their guerilla warfare.

It is also possible that our waste will bring on some massive natural disaster, and our response will be suicidally inept.

Any of these could lead to the “Decline and Fall of Western Civilization”.

That “decline and fall” is probably inevitable, considering the inertia of civilizations, but to the extent that we understand what it happening we may be able to reduce the trauma and make rebuilding a better civilization easier.

The intention of this essay is to help us understand what is happening so we can do what we can not to imitate the Dodo.

Last week was a busy one work-wise, even . And we were out every night but Friday. So I didn’t have time to write about many of our doings.

Tuesday, Melissa and Ed arrived from STT. They came to escape the craziness of carnival there. They stayed at another friend’s cottage. We hadn’t seen Melissa since our wedding, and I had never met Ed.

We had them over for cocktails and hors d’oeuvre at the same time that my daughter came over for a massage and we were waiting for a call from Peter, who was just coming back from a visit to NY and Arkansas. We went to the Deep End afterward, thinking we might get to see the weary traveler, but he was so weary that he wasn’t there.

The Deep End bar is really my favorite place on St. Croix for fun, delicious and inexpensive fare. And they always have good wines. Lesley is the owner of the Deep End and the Galleon, and both places have become immensely successful since she took them over. She and Mitchell do a great job and seem to inspire the talented staff to do the same.

Tuesday night is “Italian night” there, and Mitchell’s landlord, Pietro, who owns 3 or 4 restaurants in NYC, was at The Deep End with a bunch of friends. Besides that, the place was packed, and some of the staff had called in sick, so Lesley and Mitch were waiting tables and entertaining Pietro and co. at the same time. Lesley recommended a fabulous zinfandel, which we imbibed with relish (hold the mustard) And we saw this same wine the following night for $10 more at a different restaurant (read on…). Actually, since we had just eaten a bunch of munchies at our house, we weren’t too hungry, so I had a bowl of my favorite tomato basil soup, Michael had the tuna salad, Melissa and Ed shared a salad and some eggplant parm. All yummy.

Wednesday, I was supposed to massage a couple of visitors at a villa on the east end. They’d initially contacted us via an ancient e-mail address, which made me wonder about them in the first place (if you google “massage on st croix” or anything even remotely resembling that, you can get our current contact info from our website). Michael talked me into replying to their initial contact (in December for their April visit) even though it had gone into my “junk” box since it was so cryptic. We had agreed on Wednesday, April 23 for their sessions and I put them down in my book.

The week before they got here, I sent an e-mail to confirm, but there was a typo on my message. It said Wednesday, April 24. Rather than asking about the discrepancy, they assumed I’d be there Thursday the 24th, so when I got there on Wednesday, it didn’t work for them. I was pissed! This villa is about as far east as you can get and I drove out there for nothing even though I tried to confirm with them the week before. And I had no other time on other days.

Lesson learned: If people make appointments 4 months in advance, they MUST put down a 50% deposit. I had stupidly saved those spots for them for 4 months, denying anyone else who may have wanted to pay in advance, the opportunity to actually get massages during those hours. Dummy me!

Anyway, Melissa and Ed went hiking to the tide pools that day, but made appointments for massages with someone else the following day, since I was busy. I could have massaged our friends on Wednesday instead of wasting time driving to friggin’ timbuktu. Aaargh!

That night we went to Savant with them and Tom (at who’s house they were staying) and had a lovely meal. After dinner, we walked down to the waterfront and called Wreggie and Gigi to tell them that the light pole which had been knocked over, was now erect. We stopped in a Zebo’s for espresso martinis. Mmmmm!

Next day Melissa and Ed borrowed our bikes and rode around the Great Pond area down to the beach where they found lots of sea glass. I always wonder what people will do with that stuff. All I’ve ever done with it is move it around when I’m dusting. Over the years, Michael has collected a bunch of trinkets from beaches and they basically sit around collecting dust. They’re pretty, though, when they’re not covered with dust (which is rare).

We had a party to go to at the Yacht Club that night, but we talked about going snorkeling the following day. But they pooped out on us, even before they saw the gloomy day. And they went back to STT on children’s parade day. The next day would be the adult parade. We were perplexed, because we thought they had come over to avoid those things. Oh well, just another example of Cruzan confusion.

I’m wondering if they were just craving some of their favorite STT libations. They couldn’t seem to get a good drink while they were here (except for the wines with dinner and the martinis at Zebos). They tried pina coladas at Off the Wall and margaritas, etc at Sunset Grill and couldn’t drink any of them. I can sympathize. I’ve had a crummy dark and diet at Sunset. The ice tasted like it was made with gray water. We were at Cane Bay beach bar yesterday and I had a frozen marg that stunk. It was really watery tasting. The one at Off the Wall was good, though. I guess it’s one of those “hit or miss” things.

Translation: “Go west, young man, to the St. Tropez”

We found ourselves in Frederiksted the other night. We had gone to a meeting and needed dinner afterward. The meeting was a brainstorming session about an upcoming event on St. Croix. It will be about Racism and Xenophobia. More on that in a future post.

It had been a looong time since we’d been to Le St. Tropez, the French restaurant in F’sted. I think last time was for carnival parade day 2007. Lesley usually reserves a large table and invites all he friends to sit and rest with a cocktail and hors d’oeuvre when the mood strikes. It’s a cool tradition. But it had been even longer since I’d had dinner there.

We arrived between 7:30 and 8 pm and there were only two other diners in the place. Tom was our waiter, owner Danielle was tending bar, and chef Willy was relaxing before it was time for him to return to the kitchen.

We sat and ordered a bottle of La Vielle Ferme, a lovely and affordable French red wine, while we perused the chalkboard menu. Everything sounded wonderful and we finally decided to try the French onion soup, the blue cheese salad, the escargots and a brochette of shrimp and scallops over rice and veggies.

I love the ambiance in the little courtyard and the coziness of the indoor bar area. It feels so European and comfortable with soft lighting and rustic decor.

Tom quickly brought us a nice basket of crunchy French bread with real butter (not those foo-foo butters with honey and crap like we’re starting to see everywhere). Mmmm!

The soup was perfect, hearty and flavorful with plenty of melted cheese spilling out over the sides of the crock. And the salad fresh with crisp lettuce and veggies and a mountain of blue cheese. Lots of food!

By the time the entrées arrived, I was pretty full, but I sacrificed and persevered, eating all but three of my snails. Michael shared a couple of bites of the shrimp and scallops with me. Magnifique! Since we oh-so-rarely get out to the west end to enjoy the gastronomical delights of authentic French cuisine, we saved our left-overs and ordered the crème Martine for dessert. It is like a crème brulée, but with a chocolate ganache and raspberry sauce topped with whipped cream and toasted almonds. Ooh la la! We asked for coffee, but Tom forgot, and we were finished dessert and didn’t need it by the time we reminded him. I thought it was just taking a while to brew….Oh well, it was still fabulous.

Le St. Tropez in Frederiksted is definitely worth the trip for lunch or dinner!

For more photos see Le St. Tropez gallery

The pictures from “A Taste of St. Croix” are finally here! And there are some good ones. They were installed on my computer and then I tried to upload them to our “Gallery” (Michael whizzed by as I was attempting this and said, “Oh, those are huge!”). And they were so huge that some memory somewhere was filled up and they wouldn’t go to the gallery, so I couldn’t post them until they were shrunken down.

In any case, the food was all so good, I couldn’t choose one favorite. (Except for the zuccato cake from the Cultured Pelican). It was all wonderful and beautifully prepared and presented. I wish I could have eaten more. Okay, I guess my favorite non-dessert item was the house-made ravioli from Bacchus, oh, and the tortilla soup….

Besides that, we ate sushi from Dashi, paella from Salud, baked baby potatoes and bread pudding from Anything Goes, a falafel appetizer from Creque Dam Farm, curried chicken salad from Cafe Fresco, pizza from Pizza Gusto and Napoleons, monkfish from Zebo’s, tortilla soup from Sharkey’s, seafood bisque from Duggan’s, and artichoke and spinach manicotti from South Shore Cafe. We also drank lovely red wines from Italian VI Trading and all the other wine distributors, and decaf Yellowbird coffee with fabulous fruit tarts from Divi.

It was a great event, as usual and I would recommend it to anyone. I love the venue, right there on the beach. The only problems were the crowds at the beginning and the overly loud music. I would appreciate maybe some soft, light jazz in the background if anything. I didn’t think music was necessary, actually, but that’s just me. There were plenty of people to talk to. We saw tons of friends from restaurants and other businesses. After the crowd thinned out toward 8 pm, we were pretty much done eating, but Michael wanted more beverages from the Cruzan rum table. I was full, and happy, but didn’t feel like leaving so soon, so we sat on the beach watching the almost-full moon make sparkles in the water and listening to the waves gently lapping on the sand. After a while, we took off for home.

We had arrived separately and Michael was parked beyond the mini golf course. I was just across the street from the hotel, parked with other cars in the grass. When I started the car and began moving, it felt really weird. I had a flat! Crap! I rolled off the road into a parking lot where many men magically appeared to help me. Some were in golf carts (my old buddy Edmond, who still works at the hotel was one of them). I told them that my husband was on his way and I had some fix-a-flat to temporarily repair the damage. One guy, on foot, Rob, helped me flag Michael down as he was driving off in the Rover. It was a bit difficult, since the diesel motor on the thing is so loud and Michael wasn’t expecting to have to stop for waving screaming people. But finally he saw us and came around. We exchanged cards with Rob, who has a condo at Questa Verde which he rents out, and a nice maintenance guy from Divi filled the tire with fix-a-flat. We got home okay and Michael took care of all the tires the next morning.

All in all a great evening. Plenty of great food and wine, on the beach, talking with old friends and making new ones. Thanks again, Rob and Edmond and the maintenance guy (who’s name we unfortunately didn’t get), for your help with my tire issue!

We got an e-mail quite a few weeks ago from someone in southern California who is interested in moving to an island. He found us through our blog. This continues to amaze me. The internet is very, very scary to me. People all over the world can read my thoughts and ramblings…Strange. The strangest thing to me is that we still get responses on old posts….Hmmmm. More on this disturbing subject in a later post (what does “time” mean in cyberspace, anyway?)

Anyway, this reader works in a business that he can do anywhere. He and his partner of around 30 years have explored different islands including the Hawaiian islands and the Turks and Caicos. So they wanted to hook up with us in an effort to get to know this place better. It also helped that “A Taste of St. Croix” is happening this week where they’re staying at the Divi ( ). (Where are you, Wreg?)

So he’s into good food, and he contacted us to see if they could meet us and go to dinner at an interesting restaurant. He researched a few places and asked us about them and we decided on Duggan’s, where there’s always fresh, local seafood.

It was agreed that we’d meet them at their hotel ( ) and drive them, since they were not that comfortable driving on the left yet, to Duggan’s. I called and made reservations for 4 on the agreed upon night.

We entered the lobby of their hotel ( ) and we’d (surprisingly!) gotten there on time. When I spoke to Robert on the phone, he said he’d recognize Michael from pictures on our blog (again, this scares me, but I guess guys look the same more consistently than women do). We saw a few people in the lobby busily chatting or checking their e-mails on the computers there. But no one looked like they were waiting for us. Odd, because, we think of statesiders as being very punctual. Okay, these folks were from southern CA, so I could understand the “fashionably late” thing, maybe.

We walked around, and after a few minutes, we sat, looking, I don’t know, expectantly I guess, at every person who walked by. Finally a man came in looking at us and rounded the chair grouping we were seated at, to introduce himself to Michael. He was out of breath because he’d run to the lobby where we’d agreed to meet. The reason for this was that they couldn’t start their rental car.

We introduced me to Robert and were suddenly off to the parking lot where Teri was at the car trying to figure things out. Fortunately, this car was the same one that MaryAnn has and she’d previously described to Michael the idiosyncrasies of getting it started. After a few tries (like… let’s close all the doors, the trunk and our purses, then I’ll stand on my head next to that car over there, and we’ll all visualize ignition…), Robert got it started. But Michael had to drive. Thank goodness it didn’t stall!

We arrived at Duggan’s on time and Laurie (we love you, Auntie Laurie) was the hostess. And after a few tries, she was able to read the name “Dance” on the reservations list (it looked like “Dano”). She let us choose a nice table with a view of the sea for our friends to enjoy while the sun was still up.

A guy named Michael (what an interesting name!) was our waiter, and we hadn’t met him before. None of us had appetizers (sooo unusual for us because we like to try EVERYTHING) but the bread was so good and soft and warm, that it sufficed. I’d ordered the baked stuffed Mahi, Robert got the Creole Mahi and Shrimp special and Teri and Michael each got the Cruzan lobster. We all enjoyed our meals and even had key lime pie for dessert. Yummm!

Filled to the brim, we headed back to their hotel ( ) to drop them off. Then they invited us to join them at the casino. We thought, “…well, we haven’t been since the week we got married…so what the heck..we’ll go to watch”. And we did. And it was fun. We noticed that it was after 10:30 and we had to work in the morning, so we shoved off while they stayed to (hopefully) make a killing. Robert had been doing well before we left…

Anyway, we brought the camera, but never got to use it to photograph the lovely food and ambiance at Duggan’s. And I didn’t adequately describe it either, I’m sure. So next time you’re in the area, you’ll just have to try it for yourself…

We wanted to go back to the Full Moon Beach Bar at Cane Bay on Tuesday to have their “all you can eat Alaskan King crab”. It was good last time. And we had been trying to get together with a nice couple who found our blog a while back and were here for a job interview. So we told them we’d be there (they’ve been staying up on Scenic Drive in that neighborhood). And we finally got to meet them and have a very pleasant dinner. The crab was even better than last time. And the service was great again too. Aaron took good care of all of us and even brought Goliath some bacon, which was quickly devoured by the poor starving little child.

We arrived at the restaurant a little before 7 and it was busy with a very large table of around 15 and a few other full tables. There were some empty but reserved tables and we needed to move furniture and borrow some bar chairs to create a dining area for ourselves. At first, Aaron was not enthusiastic about moving chairs from the bar, but we gave the bartender some money to cover his losses and everyone was happy.

They start off bringing fresh hot biscuits. They’re buttery and garlicky and they melt in your mouth. Then the plate of large crab legs comes with a small piece of corn on the cob and a little baked red potato, plenty of drawn butter and sour cream. It was absolutely fabulous! Before we were even finished our first plates, Aaron brought another one loaded with more crab. We filled up on that and after some interesting conversation with Emil and Lakiesha, were ready for our ride home. It was a great evening!

I had most of Wednesday off and wanted to get together and take them snorkeling somewhere nice, but we never were able to hook up that day. But Friday looked good for all of us for a kayak trip. Emil has done a lot of kayaking, but Lakiesha had no experience with water sports or activities at all. So Michael met them at Virgin Kayak, where they’d rent a kayak from Bryan and Jill and they hoisted the boat onto the rover.

They met me at home after stopping for supplies and we put our kayak upon the pumpkin too. It was windy and didn’t look like perfect boating weather, but we drove down solitude road to the small beach we’ve launched from before. Despite the strong winds, the water wasn’t too rough. There was a little chop, but no large swells, so we loaded the kayaks up with cooler, bags of food and snorkeling gear.

Emil gave Lakiesha a quick lesson in paddling a kayak and we were off. She was scared and I reassured her that it was not dangerous, because if it were, I wouldn’t be going out there. Soon they were happily paddling away. Then it was our turn. We were in the water just off the beach and Michael, who had put the cooler on very close to his seat back at a weird angle, decided it was too uncomfortable. So he turned to the side to try to adjust it. As he did this, I turned to the same side to look at him and our kayak flipped right over! We were in the water! Meanwhile, our friends were calmly paddling around as I struggled to catch my breath and Michael attempted to recover the cooler. The cooler was too big and made the boat top-heavy. Luckily, we were close to shore. Emil saved the day by taking the cooler on their kayak where it fit perfectly between his legs. Michael recovered the few items that had started floating away (including our crocs! Now we know - crocs float!), we flipped our kayak back over, got in and we were off, too. How embarrassing!

We made good time getting to Buck and had a great day out there. We dipped in the water and had some lunch, then Michael and Emil snorkeled out to the reef area on the north side and saw a huge lobster. Michael said it was as big as our dog, Mini! Good thing Emil doesn’t like to eat lobster!

Lakiesha and I stayed near the beach where we floated around looking at the white fish that hang out just off-shore. We went back to our towels and talked for a long time about journalism, which is her line of work, and how commercialized it has become. After the guys returned, we repacked the kayaks and headed back to the big island.

Later, we went to the Yacht Club for happy hour and shared a bottle of champagne to celebrate Lakiesha’s first-ever kayak trip and snorkeling adventure.

I can’t believe I did it. I went to the Drag strip. As a staunch environmentalist and a woman who does not condone “macho guy stuff”, I could not imagine enjoying the smell of revving engine fumes and burning rubber from tires. The weirdest thing is, I had a GREAT time! Well, part of it was the company. We went with Meredith and Peter and Heike to see Michelle race her Land Rover. As we arrived, Michelle was finishing one of her warm-up runs.

We had come from two hours of bird watching at Great Pond with SEA, where we saw sandpipers, osprey, plovers, herons, whimbrels, black-necked stilts, greater and lesser yellowlegs and white-cheeked pintail ducks, as well as many other species. Carol Cramer-Burke led a wonderful walk, along with Jennifer and her birding telescope. A guy from our local PBS channel, TV 12 was there filming for a series on “discovering St. Croix”. Cool!

We had stimulating conversations with Michael Sheats, Brian Daley and Jenn Martin, and John Farchette, an administrator with the East End Marine Park. Danny Draher, a musician who comes down during season, was there to learn about the amazing resources of the Great Pond area as well. (Pictures to follow, tomorrow, maybe) A good time was had by all.

Anyway, back to the drags. There was loud music blaring and pimped rides everywhere. We stood next to Michelle’s Rover and looked right inside the engine of a racing pick-up truck! It was cleaner than anything in my kitchen! That truck kicked some butt over the course of the night, too.

Michelle went to get ready for more practice rounds while Dave explained the finer points of drag racing and tried to convince Michael to race “the pumpkin” against her. Fortunately, my sober husband did not cave in to the pressure. He had just spent two weeks trying to get our orange Land Rover’s electrical issues resolved.

The announcer was a hoot! When we could understand his heavy crucian accent, he cracked us up! Early in the evening he told a joke. It went on for so long, that by the time he reached the punch line, nobody w