Living the life most people just dream about~

Yesterday was the last full day for Neil & Brad on the island, and we tried to make the most of it. Started out with a good healthy breakfast whipped up by my Bride – Afterward, Neil said she wanted to run into town for a bit of shopping – so we loaded up into DD and away we went. Tooled around the boardwalk for about half an hour, stopping for a quick round of drinks at Rum Runners and then a little more shopping, then loaded back up and headed for Point Udall – the Eastern most point of the United States. It’s about a 45 minute drive out there – made even longer by pulling over in several places to enjoy the beauty of the dozen shades of blue of the water. Finally made it out there and spent probably 20-30 minutes just walking around and enjoying the site – before loading up and heading back.  Decided a bite to eat was in order so we stopped at Cheeseburger in America’s Paradise, for said bite and some liquid refreshment. Entertainment was provided by local chickens and a quite effervescent server…………

Got back to the condo – cooled off and just chilled for a little bit — The call was made we needed to stop by Blues Backyard BBQ one more time before we called it an evening. We got there just in time to catch the last hour of Hudson and the Hoo Doo Cats and get a couple of drinks before they shut the place down. I also managed to get me one of my smoked turkey, bacon and ranch sammiches~! MMmm- Good stuff~!

Came back to the condo, had a couple of more drinks and spent the rest of the evening chatting. I was too pooped to post and so I went on to bed knowing I had to get up fairly early in the morning – so sorry about that~!

Got Lil Sis and hubby to the airport and got them checked in…… Sure was great to see them and we’re already making plans for the next time they want to come back. We already have several good friends here on the island – but nothing beats seeing family – especially when you haven’t seen them in a while.   We headed back to the condo as the sun was coming up and walked into our now quiet little place. We both agreed the thing to do today – was nothing – and LOTS of it – and we pulled it off in grand fashion.

Good night ya’ll — Thankx for stopping in~!

 

Today was a much calmer, easier not so much sun kind of day….. we started out by stopping at Angry Nate’s for breakfast (nope – still haven’t found out what Nate is angry about yet)… everybody enjoyed their meal and we loaded up into DD and took off for the West end of the island… our destination.. “Zihuatanejo”, referred to here as Shawshank Trail. Headed out to Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge. The beach where the final scene in the move The Shawshank Redemption was filmed.  Signage indicating the exact place was unceremoniously removed compliments of Hurricane Maria….. but we covered the entire beach area, but I know we were in the right place.  Wind was kind of rough in some places, but others were just mind bending beautiful…… wow~! We finally left that stretch of beach and headed down Veterans Drive which is almost as beautiful, soaking in air conditioning from DD and drinking in the view of miles and miles of beautiful water.

We finished that drive by stopping in at ‘Rhythms’ Beach bar there on Rainbow beach. Very much enjoying cooling liquid refreshment – and also tried out their Lobster Bites and Soft Pretzels — HIGHLY recommend both. Sun was starting to go down and we all agreed, we’d had as much fun as we could stand for one day and ready to head back to the condo……….

Lil Sis is only on the island for one more day – so the plan is to run out to Point Udall tomorrow. You can’t hardly come to the island without seeing this attraction….. the drive is nice and the scenery is mind blowing….. should be a fun day again…….

Again, keeping it short tonight and gonna see if I can get into bed before midnight tonight…… Lot’s of pictures for you.

Good night ya’ll …… Thankx for stopping in…… 🙂

 

Big, big, day of sun, surf, wind and beaches. Spent most of the day island hoping and snorkeling. Out cruising around on 42′ catamaran. Took a leisurely sail out to Buck island and spent and hour or so doing a little snorkeling and exploring the leeward side of the island. Then moved around to the underwater park on the opposite side for more snorkeling. Really rough seas made for a bouncy snorkel~! Another hour in the water there, loaded up and sailed back to St. Croix to a small secluded beach for a beach BBQ. Crew did a fairly decent job cooking up burgers, dogs and fish for us all the while washing it down with what I thought was some of the nastiest Rum punch I have had in a while….. others liked it so it must have been just me.

Finally re-boarded and headed back in to port. Bid the crew adieu. Hudson and the Hoo-Doo Cats were playing at Blues Backyard BBQ – and we wanted to catch them for a bit, so loaded up into DD and headed over there. Man that place was packed~! Hung out, chatted up some folks and stayed for a couple of drinks.

All of us were worn out, sunburnt, wind burnt and just plain ole pooped. Came back to the condo, ordered some pizza and just took it easy nursing tender cheek bones and shoulders. I even managed to get a couple of tender places on me~!- but they should be fine in the morning – not so sure about Lil Sis and Brother-in-Law though  🙂 We tried to keep from getting them terribly burned – but the sun is so much hotter here – you really don’t need to be out in it long before you start to sizzle~!

I know I didn’t go into a lot of detail – but I’ve about had it for the day as well…. I’m gonna get some pictures dropped in here for you and call it a night~! Good night ya’ll — Thankx for stopping~!

 

 

Plans quickly changed during the course of the evening last night and this morning – and instead of heading out for Point Udall like originally planned….. we wound up heading to the west end of the island (Frederiksted) with plans to jump off the big pier…. Checked the web site… No ship in port – so away we went. Traversed the half length of the island to get to the big pier just to see a large cruise ship sitting there. (You’re not allowed to swim any way near the pier when ships are in) So a local dive shop told me about a good snorkeling spot close by and away we went.

Lil Sis and Brad have never snorkeled before, so I was anxious to show them the wonderful world of breathing underwater and all the delights that capability brings……. I started out with ‘Neil’…. got her mask properly adjusted, did a couple of breathing exercises and before I knew it – Lil Sis had her head in the water and was quickly motoring out toward the big blue water……… It was great to listen to her squealing through her snorkel and I can still recall my excitement of seeing underwater life for the first time…… I worked with Brad for a little bit to get him started….. a full beard kind of complicated the process, but we worked through it and had him starting his first time looking at the under water world. We spent the next hour or so, snorkeling around the beach just North of the big pier… we had so much fun. It was soul warming to watch these two ‘rookies’ getting to experience a little bit of a brand new world to them. I loved it~! After an hour or so and trying to mind a very hot and unrelenting sun…… we packed it up and headed for the local bar for some cold liquid libation, to wash the salt from our mouths. The Michiganers quickly learned about how quick you can build an appetite  soaking up all that scenery  😉  After a couple servings of loaded tater tots and a serving of loaded nacho’s….. we headed back to center island to get ready for next scheduled adventure…….

On the way back, we passed by Blues Backyard BBQ and decided we had time for ‘one quick one’…. well, except for Neil…. (she needed two)…. slammed the drinks down…. got back to the condo and had to turn almost immediately around and take off for a bioluminescent tour…………

Because I’m already at 400 words and won’t be able to thoroughly explain the tour “briefly” —  I’m gonna put up some pictures and quit here for the evening…. Hit me up with questions so far, have a good evening — and Thankx for stopping in~!  :- )

 

 

Guess most of you know my little Sister Nelia and her husband Brad have left the snowy confines of their home state of Michigan to spend some time with us here on St. Croix. We picked up them up at the airport late yesterday afternoon before getting moved into yet another temporary place to live. We have moved to a more desirable part of the island, into a condo that seems like the Taj Mahal compared to our previous place. It has no TV service…. but other than that, this place is heaven – and it has internet~! And not just internet – a good strong signal internet…….!  >>> insert beaming rays of sunlight and heavenly choir singing<<< I can’t wait to see how quick pictures will load on here~!!

We took “Neil” and Brad downtown where we had a delicious breakfast and toured the Christiansted boardwalk and shopping area. We took the ferry out to Hotel on the Cay and walked around and enjoyed the beautiful water and sunshine. Returned to down town for a little shopping and finally back to the condo. It is the beginning of Summer here and today was probably the hottest day we have experienced so far on the island. After we had done the down town thing – we got back to the condo. We just kinda sat around a cooled off for a bit and chatted and soon decided a drink was in order. We loaded up into Double D’s and headed out for our favorite hangout – Blues Backyard BBQ~!

Lil Sis and Brad got to meet some of the fine folks there at the Backyard…… including the owners and cooks. Josh Jones was on stage playing good country music (including some amazing Johnny Cash) and everyone was having a good time. I think Neil may have discovered wonders of local island rum and may have her a new drink.  😉

Tomorrow plans include driving out to the East end to see Point Udall – and followed up in the evening with a bioluminescent kayak tour up at Salt Bay in the evening. Has the makings of a really great day.

Gonna wrap it up here and get some pictures up for you so I can get back to my Sister and Brad. Ya’ll have a good evening – and Thankx for stopping in~!

Striking a pose

 

Neil got so excited I think she peed her self…. (Actually, just went a little deep while wading)  😉

Brad showin’ off his beach bod~

Beach life takes it right out of ya…….

 

Well it’s still early in the afternoon, but the internet seems to be working for the time being, so I’m gonna try to make hay while the sun shines….. Started out today to get our Islands Seniors discount cards this morning….. from what we’re being told – you can score some fairly decent discounts with them – so we figured…. what the heck. Got to the appointed building, just to find out they weren’t open today. Went on a field trip or some such stuff. Apparently they do that a lot on the island – just shut the building down for a fun day….. I guess even the government operates on island time here…… just something else we need to adjust to~~ So we’ll leave that for another day.

Was supposed to meet up with ‘a guy’ who is supposed to expedite and take care of all paperwork we need to get Double D’s all properly and legally registered on the island…. I guess that is important in some people’s mind……. met the young lady who is the front person for ‘the guy’….. got some signatures notarized, and handed over $ 100 bucks in cash and was told – we’ll be in touch in 1-3 days….. AAhhh yes, island life….. I think I’m gonna like it here….. 😉

Left there, and because we had skipped breakfast again (this is starting to become an unpleasant habit) and JUST so happened we were right down the road from Blues…. we stopped. I had my mouth bent just right for my new favorite sammich (smoked turkey/bacon/ranch) when I heard about their special… I’m probably gonna get this wrong, but something to the affect of a Mac-N-Cheese attack) They made up some killer Mac-N-Cheese, blended it with spicy Italian sausage and Jalapeño’s — They then make up one of their island’s best burgers — and set it on top of a big bed of the Mac-n-cheese~!! OOh-Rah~!! Now there is a sammich any man would be proud to stuff in his mouth…… top that off with a beer that is almost tooo cold to hold……. smack my mouth – that is some kind of lunch~! Had 2 or twelve drinks with lunch, and headed back toward the mountain….. my Queen decided we needed to shop, so shop we did…..well – she did, I just kind of followed her around the store…….. Stopped at probably 4 different stores…. but finally found everything we were looking for and FINALLY headed out to the mountain……….

We are abandoning our mountain side retreat for a place closer to town (and Blues) and for a place that hopefully has a damn site fewer varmits and critters and are making the big move tomorrow~!!! Best part of it — my baby Sister and her old man are flying in tomorrow night to spend a week with us — we are elated~!! That is going to be one — wait for it — EPIC week~!! My bride and I are both like kids on Christmas Eve — we can’t wait……. We have so much fun stuff planned – and can’t wait to do it with them….. in 80+° weather~!!

That’s my 500 words ya’ll … now to see if I can get some pictures loaded while the internet stills seems to be holding on…. Thankx for stopping in~!

Double D’s 😉

Double D’s   😉

Point of view

 

After what has to be one of the most stressful days I’ve had since I left the working population…….. I can happily say….. we have started putting down some roots.  We are now the proud owners of our very own vehicle here on the island of St. Croix~! No more worrying about whether we are going to have something to drive….(and no more $550 a week for something to drive)…. It is a 2009 Dodge Dakota (although I do have plans of finding a Chevy emblem to put on the front of it)…. double cab short bed….. Enough to haul around Sisters and Brother in laws (sans kids) and Nephews and wives (Sans kids) and all their luggage……

The truck has been affectionately dubbed Double D’s.    Get your mind out of the gutter (Dodge Dakota)…… My Queen is not real shot in the a$$ about it – but I like it~! (She’s thinking nasty too)   It drives and handles nice and I think it will suit us well…… just wish I didn’t have to damn near stroke out to get it. Have already been hooked up with someone who is going to make the registration and titling piece of it easy on us….. with a small cash donation to help the proceedings move forth….. and I’m good with that. Normally here on the island…. anything even mildly related to Government stuff is apparently a really expensive heartache….. so if I can throw a bit of cash at the problem and smooth it out – you can bet your bippy I’m going to~! (it won’t be near as expensive as the bus).

When we got the bus returned to the air port ( I forgot to fill the gas tank — Dammit Emmit~!) we jumped in Double D and was gone….. feeling the elation of driving around our beautiful island in something that was OURS~~~ : )  We had a cigarette to celebrate the occasion (wasn’t allowed to smoke in the bus). Feeling the need to celebrate the occasion even more… we headed back across the island to Blues (there’s a big a$$ shock huh?) – I had me a sloppy Jim….. It is a Brisket sammich covered with a custom blend of sloppy joe seasoning….. I added cheese and Jalapeños for a little extra kick…… delightful~! (Still hasn’t edged out the Turkey/Bacon/Ranch for the #1 best slot though)     My Bride had a shrimp salad wrap that she said was excellent (even though she never offered me a bite)   🙁    We finished our meal, had an extra drink or 4 and decided to head back to our little piece of the mountain. Got home… killed the local crawling varmits and settled in for the evening to discover that we are dealing with what is possibly the world’s slowest internet tonight….. so I don’t know if I’m gonna get THIS loaded let alone any pictures. I still have a bunch left from yesterday……

So with that being said….. Good night ya’ll — Thankx for stopping in~!

So sorry friends, family and neighbors…. but I’ve had 1 picture trying to load for the last 45 minutes  and it’s still sitting there buffering…. so I’m gonna cut my losses and run…… maybe tomorrow~~~~

 

Had a nice big relaxing breakfast to start our day off with. Got caught up on dishes and laundry and decided to take a drive — -my baby Sister is coming in – in a couple of days and I want to make sure I have a lot of places to take her and hubby to show off our beautiful island…… We actually managed to find a road we haven’t been on yet (there are still a handful of them out there)… and found a beautiful overview of the NE end of the island. Winds were up really high today and storms popping up all over the place – so our normally gorgeous turquoise waters were churned up and not all the shades of blue we’re used to seeing – but equally beautiful in their own right.

We drove most of the NE portion of the island and then headed out west to what is generally referred to as Veterans drive…… I had seen it on the map and have been wanting to check it out, so when we came down off the mountain – we headed out that way. Beautiful stretch of beach….. lots of sand – and watching the storms roll around out on the sea was fascinating and beautiful all at the same time. Took lot’s of pictures – just hope I can get some to load….. out stellar internet here is in rare form tonight – and I barely got logged in here, so getting some pictures up should be a treat. Followed Veterans drive until it disappeared into the water….. literally……. road-water…..boom – just like that. Squirreled around and headed back into town. Stopped at a little local place right on the beach for some liquid refreshments and to sit there and watch the sea churn while storms rolled around in the distance. It was wonderful right up until it started raining on us – so we finished out drinks and headed on down the road. I can’t wait to show Lil Sis and my Brother-in-law that place….. they’ll love it~!!  Didn’t get a whole farther down the road and my bride said she wanted to check out a place we have passed several times….. Louie & Nacho’s. Turns out – that is the name of the owners dogs…… gotta love that~! We sat and had a couple of drinks…. I ordered a plate of their specialty nachos while my Queen ordered some Ceviche. Well her ceviche was too spicy for her – so I had to eat it and she polished off my damn tasty nacho platter (with beef)…… We finished that off, had a couple of more drinks (or 6) met and chatted with some really nice folks and watched a fabulous sunset. Finally loaded ourselves back into the bus and motored our way back to our little mountain top retreat. As we were leaving I noticed their sign at the exit and HAD to take picture of it. For my regular readers – I’m sure you’ll recognize the picture I’m talking about (if I get it to load) — Came home, killed a  couple of small centipedes and settled in for the night while an unusually cool wind whistled and blew around the mountain. Should make for a great nights sleep~!

Good night ya’ll –thankx for stopping in~!

 

(too many pictures to load all tonight – more later)

B

 

Sitting here last night working on some reading material for you all when I caught something out of the corner of my eye. Kind of wriggling like a snake, but didn’t really look like a snake. Stopped what I was doing and looked down to discover about an 8″ centipede coming almost right straight at me. We have become quite accustomed to varmits in the house – and the house we are currently in most definitely has it’s fair share of them — but this was not varmit – this was a critter. A big one and he was movin’~!    Now I know these things can’t kill you – but they are known for an extremely painful bite and I just was not on board for that, so I got up and carefully approached it. Thinking ahead, I wanted to make sure my flip-flop covered his entire body, so he couldn’t squirm around and nosh on my foot. I got lined up on him, covered him completely and put my full body weight on him. Now I ain’t no little feller….. and even though I have managed to drop a little weight – I’m probably still givin’ 230 Lbs. a run for it’s money. Anyhow – I stepped on it, with all my weight on this thing. Kinda bounced a little bit, just in case 230 Lbs. wasn’t quite enough. After a couple of seconds, I lifted my foot, fully expecting to see the gooey remains of that dude. Wow – all that did was pi$$ that thing off~! It took a couple of minutes of chasing it around – and finding out by putting the ‘ball’ of my foot on him and doing an ugly version of ‘The Twist’ – I finally got it ground up into an unrecognizable lump of centipede guts…. When I had him stunned – I took a picture [carefully] – I regret I didn’t put my flip-flop next to it for size reference, but at that point I didn’t know if he had family or a buddy in the area – and I wanted to finish it off and get it the hell out of the house~!

With said dead centipede now successfully out of the picture – I set about to get us THE HELL out of this infested place……. I did mange to procure a nice little place located in Schooner Bay overlooking the main harbor of downtown Christiansted. We drove out by it, and from what we can see — it will be a mega upgrade from where we are now….. nice pool, nice view and hopefully no friggin’ centipedes~!

Left Schooner Bay and had to stop by Blues Backyard BBQ since we were in the neighborhood……. We both got an order of ribs and a cold drink……. Yummers~! Not quite as good as my ribs – but dang close~! Which most of you know is a hellva compliment coming from me……. Sat and listened to a really good band, enjoyed finger licking ribs, cold drinks and good people for the evening. Even got to chat up our realtor for a little bit. You’d like her… Kat – little bitty thing with an infectious smile – she is doing a heckva job for us~!   We wound up inadvertently shutting the place down (oops)…. so we loaded up into the bus…. and motored our happy full a$$es back up to our part of the mountain…. thankfully we were not greeted by any creep crawlers…..

Time to see if I can get any pictures to load – and then a shower and some sack time……. Good night ya’ll — Thank for stopping in~!

You know, it’s funny…. not that long ago – I couldn’t wait to say those words….. and now – I have to look at my phone or a calendar to know what day it is…. This retirement stuff is awesome~!  Kinda warps how you have to manage your world though, when most of that world is a working world….. but I’ll adapt  😉

Went and looked at the house on the hill that we previewed yesterday….. OMG – you talk about poetic licensing with a camera….. we looked at it on line and it looked really nice….. but son, when we walked into that place…..wow…… if I had been blindfolded and taken out there – I would have no idea it was the same place. Cracks all over the place, a couple of pieces of ratty furniture, hardly anything in the kitchen, old antiquated ceiling fans (and only 2 of them worked) no A/C, no cable or internet…… backyard looked like a jungle….. pool needs a new liner but it should be here by the end of the month……AND they wanted $3000 a month for it…….It’s amazing what greed does to some of these people out here. Sad part is – they’ll probably get it….. but it ain’t gonna be from us~!

Second place we looked at is in a primo location — killer views, nice little yard, nicer fenced in pool and it’s well within our price range…… we couldn’t get in to see the inside because it is still occupied but realtor thinks it might become vacant fairly soon – we are crossing our fingers really hard we can at least get into see it….. Right now it has FEMA people in it and realtor says they come and go as they please – so it’s gonna have to be a bad case of hurry up and wait…….

Realtor was trying to get us into a 3rd place to look at – so we told her we would stop and have a drink while we waited on her (yes – the second place is really close to Blues backyard BBQ)….. so we stopped for a drink….. I had skipped breakfast and was starving – and that place always smells so good….. that I got me a BBQ Brisket sammich. It was every bit as wonderful as the first one I ever had there.  MMM-Good~! Real Good~!! Sat and had a couple more drinks and never heard back from realtor – so we headed to mid-island to the AT&T store…. our little ‘Hot Spot’ is acting like it’s trying to die on us (I think maybe that was part of the problem last night)  Waited about an hour and half to get waited on – just to be told – they  cannot exchange it (been over 14 days) and that I would have to send it in for a new one…… Ain’t that some crap – so I guess we’ll be stuck with ‘iffy’ internet for a bit …….

Left there, stopped by the store for a couple of things and then eased our way back up the mountain……. I’m gonna see if I can get last night’s pictures to load for you – weirdly, I did not take a single picture today – even the one of the killer view…., I must be slippin’……. Dammit Emmit~!

Thankx for stoppin’ in~!

MMM-mmmm Good~!