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Friday, January 27, 2006 Anticipation. Almost as Much Fun as Being There! We are blessed with Anticipation. Anticipation is a gift, as long as you realize that, regardless of where you go, how much you pay, or where you stay, having a good time on Vacation is entirely up to you.

Packing, packing, packing,.......last minute stuff.

Should I take the golf clubs?? Or should I rent clubs there?? It's not going to effect my game one way or the other. Heck I'll rent them.

Okay....9:30 PM here in NC. I'm freezing with the temp at a wet 38 degrees. It's 73 degrees now and breezy in St Croix. We'll be there tomorrow.

The dogs are acting suspicious. They get depressed when we travel.

Saturday, January 28, 2006 - Whew! 4:26 AM and I'm up. I not excited about vacation huh?

Two places I go get me this excited. One is St Croix in the winter. The other is Jekyll Island in the summer.

I love warm weather and the beach. I guess I'm not having a unique thought. That's why the coast is so damn crowded.

There is something magical about experiencing sumer weather in the winter. And the island culture down in St Croix is so darn charming.

This has been an unreal morning.

Our target time to leave was 9:00 AM. I always pad in at least a 30 minute “I'm running late and doing the best I can” excuse to any target time.

At 8:59 Gigi shows up, ready. Unbelievable.

Then the traffic at the airport was light and moving well. I pull into the long term lot and get the first parking space. Then we go through airport screening and whiz right through.

5:51 PM The Eagle has landed. It's cloudy and windy. Kind of humid. Well off to Schooner Bay and then Cheeseburgers

Sunday, January 29, 2006 - It's very windy. Today should clear up. Ahhh, no sooner did I type it and it did.

I appear to be suffering from the same afliction that cursed Joy Travis and I back in 2003.

Hey Ya'll....

I'm the cousin, DeeDee. :-) Fun, fun ! Beach in the winter ! We love it !

We have been reclining on the "very cool" veranda that over looks the golf course. The important part is the neat tree on the porch. All crooked and narly.....wish I could take it home to Alabama.

More later !

Cousin DeeDee

We are headed to the Marina for brunch, then off to the rain forest to catch some airborne disease.

The brunch at the Golden Rail Cafe beside the St Croix Marina was wonderful. I had a shrimp, swiss and spinach omelet, with wheat toast, oranges and hash browns. It was awesome.

The service was slow but they were very busy and very polite. You never felt neglected.

We sat in the open air. Actually it was the gravel parking lot under an umbrella. Overall it was a wonderful experience.

Golden Rail Cafe

The ocean is vivid. A deep blue.

Whew! We are dragging butt.

We went to brunch at the St Ctoix Marina, then a ride to Cane Bay, then to the Carembola, then through the scenic route throught the rain forest, then a stop at the Sunset Grill for another Refreshment.

Gigi and Dee are cooking dinner while Bill and I unwind.

Bill here....

Life is good in St. Croix ! Beautiful mountains, sparkling clear water, and cool ocean breezes. It doesn't get much better than this.

Monday, January 30, 2006 - Oh man I sleep good here. Of course I was worn out from the Jeep ride yesterday. Gigi says she feels like she was beat up.

The way this villa is situated allows night breezes to flow right through the bedroom. It makes for great sleeping.

But then dumpster mon shows up at 5:30 AM making all that dumster noise. Why do dumpster people get up so early to dump dumpsters? No matter what city you are in the dumpster guy shows up at the crack of dawn. The dumpster guy must wake up at 4:00, have his breakfast, read the paper and start his dumpster work. Why can't he show up at 8 or 9 for work like everyone else?

The owner of this villa must be a professional knife thrower. Not only do they have a well stocked knife block, but there is a whole drawer half full of various cutlery all in peak condition.

Tghe Oh we had a nice morning in the sun by the pool.

I think we'll head to Christiansted for some shopping. I may try some adult beverages at the brew pub.

Yep....did the beverages and shopped. We are headed to Dugans for dinner for some local seafood.

DeeDee here....

The food at Dugans was excellent.....good food, good friends. Shopping in Christiansted was good...got a Cruzan island hook bracelet. Folks in town are really nice and very helpful.

More later !

Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - Restaurant Review - Duggans

The main attraction Duggan's has going is the location. It's open air, ocean front restaurant with a breath taking view of Buck Island.

When ever I've been there the hostess makes you feel as welcome as herpes. No matter if you have a reservation or don't have a reservation she acts like you are some unwelcome in-laws. Last night was no exception.

I asked for a table for 6. She hissed, pursed her lips, looked us over, walked off, and then very angrily led us to our seat. The fun continued with the drink orders.

No wine list was offered. She angrily took the orders and screwed them up. She made it clear that we were an annoyance.

Things picked up when the waiter came over. He was friendly and fixed the drink order.

The food there is always fresh. It does have New England a heavy sauce and bread flair.

We had a seafood stew, in a bread bowl. It was delicious.

The salads were fresh and the dressings were wonderful. My Caesar was one of the best that I have ever had. It was as good as any Caesar that you would get in San Francisco.

Mid meal the wicked witch of the west scowled at our table. She clearly wanted us to hurry up and leave. This woman is mean as a two headed snake.

Food -
Service-
Hostess -
Overall-

Ahhh.... just got a great massage.

Ambrosia Body Care, call Terry 340-773-6174 or 340-643-2444

Now back up to the pool area.

Cousins Bill and DeeDee here again.....

Went to the pool this morning and swam a bit. The weather is gorgeous and the view is out of this world ! So many things to do here so many choices. Going to the beach this afternoon we think.

The weather today is summer like. Perfect.

Went over to the Divi and had a few adult beverages with Tom and Judy.

Wednesday 2/1/2006 - If you want a Pizza on Tuesday in St Croix then plan to make your own. We tried twice to get a pizza last night and were told they don't make pizza on Tuesday.

This must be a universal fact all over the island. I didn't probe for any details. We just accepted the fact and moved on.

We first tried "Just In Case Deli". They had a rather complicated schedule of days they made and didn't make pizza. I here these pizza's are the best on the island from the villa owners. We'll never know.

Then we went to another quaint open air restaurant over on the west side of Christiansted. It's near the Hibuscus Resort area. Smugglers Cove Bar and Restaurant is worth a visit.

There seemed to be a lot of regulars, blue collar types. My guess is they all were contract workers at the refinery.

The service was good but "island slow" which is no problem. They cook fresh pizza here but we were told not on Tuesday.

So we orded a variety of food from the menu. All items were good and reasonably priced.

Smugglers Cove Bar and Restaurant

So far the award for the coldest beer in St Croix goes to Styx on the boardwalk. This is a real dive. The bartender is not friendly and the patrons look like questionable characters.

The good news is they keep their beer in a giant cooler on ice. Then sit outside and watch the day go by.

The agenda today is the pool in the AM, horseback riding this afternoon, then fresh lobster at the villa for supper.

Okay....no lobsters today. We'll have to make other plans for supper

The weather is June-like today. Very warm with a breeze.

If you don't see anymore blog entries then I assume I died horse back riding.

I didn't die. In fact we had a blast riding.

Paul and Jill's Equestrian Stables is well worth the drive to Fredricksted. We took a tour through the rainforest, a short ride on the beach and had lots of laughs. Jill did a great job of matching her horses with our abilities.

Gigi looked like a humming bird on a water melon. She rode a huge Persian horse.

Paul and Jill's Equestrian Stables

We stopped by Schooner Bay Market and picked up some huge thick New York Strips with veggies and merlot.

It was funny....the store had just been resupplied and folks were buying up all the items that were fresh from the mainland. I think everyone had a container of ice cream in their basket.

The butcher shop had plenty of very good cuts of beef, but no pork. The seafood looked good, but no lobster. The ladies cooked and the guys broke out the charcoal grill. It was wonderful.

Thursday, February 02, 2006 - We plan to head to the Divi this morning for breakfast. Then we have reservations to scuba this afternoon. Oh boy! Another brush with death for me.

It is raining all to be damned this morning. It's a chilly 72 degrees. We are huddled around our hot coffee mugs.

I never have figured out why coffee carafes dribble water and coffee all over the counter when they are full. This one here is no exception.

We have the fastest dial up here. I am consistantly connecting at 52.0 kbps on an Earthlink connection from St Thomas.

This looks like the day is going to end up with a trip to the Cruzan Rum distillery and a nap if it keeps raining this hard.

It finally quit raining about 10:30. It was a flooding rain. There are lots of washouts and the parking lot at the villa is very pot holed.

Breakfast was good at the Starlite Grill in the Divi Resort. We all had pancakes and bacon with fruit. It was what you expect in a decent breakfast with good service. Nothing special, nothing bad.

Starlite Grill in the Divi Resort

Judy was raving about a lunch place her and Tom ate the other day. Judy got the Carib Shrimp Salad at The Mix on the waterfront in Christiansted. She said it was fresh pineapple with greens, grilled seasoned shrimp with grated fresh coconut.

The service was outstanding and very friendly.

The Mix

News Flash.......... St Croix is slowly but surely getting street signs. This is a major developement.

We did the scuba dive from Cane Bay and I didn't die. I've always wanted to try this and figured I'd better try scuba before I get too old.

The instructors were great. The view looked like Discover HD Channel.

The equipment weighed about 5 times as much leaving the water as it weighed going in. We are very tired.

Jerry was a great instructor. I would say give scuba a try at Cane Bay Dive shop.

We are headed to Bacchus for supper.

Thank goodness Bacchus botched our reservation. We called in earlier this morning and left a reservation on their voice mail. They got the call, they got the time, they got number in the party, but they didn't understand the number to confirm the reservation. Shame on Bacchus.

I asked them to call Kendricks. I wish they had tried to help us earlier. Kendricks could seat us at 9:00 PM. No thanks. I was hungry from diving.

Oh well.

To our good fortune we ended up at The Mix. The sevice was outstanding. The food was fantastic. The live music was very good. The view was the water front. The bill was about 1/2 of what we expected.

The Mix is a hidden gem. I hope they can keep the chef.

The Mix again gets

As a bonus Channel 2 was filming a TV commercial that will air in Puerto Rico, USVI, and the British Virgin Islands.

They had their pretty actresses all having a fancy dinner with lights and cameras. We sat and enjoyed and became the background for the commercial.

They even panned the camera our way a few times. Thank goodness we were dressed for Bacchus. Our ladies looked stunning.

So next time you are watching Puerto Rican TV, watch for the commercial with Reggie, Gigi, Tom, Judy, Dee and Bill in it.

Friday, February 03, 2006 - We are off to an 8:30 Tee time at the Buccaneer this morning. It will be interesting with the ladies vs the men.

Well we didn't pull off the golf. As we pulled in the Buccaneer an ominous black cloud with lots muscular backup helped us to decide that maybe it wasn't the day for golf. Oh well, no worries.

We headed to the dry end of the island where it was bright and sunny. Looked at Point Udall, and worked our way down the south shore.

Hay Penny beach was a real disappointment. It had been billed as something special. It was so remote. Maybe nudie types go there because it is deserted. We felt a bit unsafe there.

Pizza! Tonight's the night. Lori with Just-in-Case Deli has taken our order for three fresh take and bake pizzas. Can't wait! I'm hoping for a 5 shrimper!

We spent the afternoon with our island friend Margaret Walsh.

We ate "Goat Water" a goat stew, herring, rice and spinach, and johnny cakes for lunch. Completely Carribean.

Then we ate the pizza to go from "Just in Case" deli. It cost like a zillion dollars for one of them but was very, very good.

Judy and Tom came over to join us.

We did splatter the oven a bit. Sorry Terri and Joe.

It was a very hot and humid day.

The stars are bright tonight.

Saturday, February 04, 2006 - I never get sad on the last day of a vacation. I just switch to the "Anticipation" mode for my next vacation.

This has been an active yet mentally restful trip.

This is the point in the trip when you start taking inventory. Not of you life or anything that deep. You start looking at all the stuff you bought and will leave behind.

There are 3 beers in the refrigerator along with some great leftovers. I know the next renters will not appreciate the leftover pizza. Heck I'll take another swing at that for lunch.

A glance to the liquor cabinet and it looks like and even bet. There was a bottle of Jack Black and it's still there. We drank the rum that was there but will leave some 151 rum.

We did use a bit of the Jack Black as a disinfectant. Gigi fell in downtown Christiansted mid trip and skinned her knees.

There's also frozen lemonade and lots of round limes.

Overall we did pretty good not overbuying groceries even though we ate most meals here.

Honestly I have been insulated from the worries of the world. This has been very relaxing.

I'm still getting over the scuba dive from the other day. I can't seem to get my right ear back to normal. My ear doesn't hurt.

Diving was a life changing experience. Heck, just being able to breath under water was life changing.

I just put the top back on the Jeep. That's top is one fine piece of fine American engineering. NOT!

We had a back panel fly off yesterday in the middle of the highway. I did a u-turn and Gigi flung open the door and scooped the panel up. I did not have the panel zipped up.

The ladies are off to town for some last minute shopping. I'm headed to the pool.

It was one relaxing vacation.

The tan will fade but the memories will not.