Ahoy there, Mateys!
I'd like to say that my Pirate fetish has waned. That I'm a grown-up and I'm moving past it or something. Instead, we've been in the Virgin Islands for... this is day 3 I think, and I've acquired a Pirate T-shirt, Pirate ring, Pirate Monkey (WIN!!), a skull and crossbones wall hanging for the guest room, and a Pirate lanyard for my work badge. Oh and some Pirate magnets. Heheh.
I've been trying to take pics to upload here to make it look more awesome, but I have no cell coverage at the moment, so I can't upload the ones from there, and I forgot that I'm on my work lappy, which doesn't have a memory card slot thingy. So I'll wait for the SCUBA Monkey to come home and see if he brought a cord thingy.
Anyway... Winter Fire was awesome of course. In some ways it was more stressful; the packing was SO hard, and all told we spent about $300 shipping stuff to and fro so that we wouldn't have to bring kinky or wintery stuff with us here. Ouch! And we were each exhausted, so on and so on. But it doesn't change the fact that I love this group of friends and always have a good time when I get to see them.
At a little after 4:30 AM on Wednesday morning, we left bratboy and imaswte's house to head for Dulles airport, then to Atlanta, and finally to St. Thomas where we rented a car and took the car ferry over to St. John. Everything went fairly well, although there were once again no first class upgrades available, and on the first flight Tom's knees were actually touching the seat in front of him. On the second flight he got to sit between me and a Pilot, so I think he was a happy Monkey.
We dealt with (mostly) the last bit of rudeness so far at the airport. There was an EPIC wait to access the women's restroom because there were only two stalls and everyone was changing in there. It took a little effort for me to avoid the crank whilst having to pee so badly, but crisis was in fact averted.
There is the CUTEST little dog playing fetch on the beach just below me! Makes me miss the Taz Monster.
Tom is the only one driving the rental jeep since I just cannot manage to wrap my brain around driving on the left side of the road. Seriously. But it was nice seeing St. Thomas during the day (not a place I'm anxious to spend a lot more time) and we managed to find our way to the "car ferry" without any issues.
ZOMG!!! Cute puppy #2 has just appeared!
The car ferry was the start of the awesomeness of strangers being friendly because they're on vacation/island time. The ride also serves as a reminder that you're not in Kansas anymore. Rules are, you know, a lot more like suggestions around here, when there are rules. "Can I have a fishbowl margarita to go?" is a totally reasonable request, and is met with a Styrofoam container the size of your head.
Speaking of which... dinner here our first night was at Margarita Phil's. There are two things I will always remember about this place: the burrito was perhaps the BEST burrito I've ever eaten, and the Bushwhacker was served in a "punchbowl"... that was the size of my head. No exaggeration. You may remember Bushwhackers as the innocent seeming island drink that prompted Karri to crawl into bed with Tom and I, having absolutely no recollection of how she got there. And that was from normal sized ones. By the time the evening was done, Tom was worried about me crawling into bed with Karri & Greg and having no idea how I got there - despite the fact that it would take a ferry ride, at least 2 flights, and a LONG cab ride to get there. That was pretty much the end of Wednesday. ;)
Oh! I totally skipped the place we're staying! The Grande Bay Resort was originally built to be individually owned condos... at exactly the *wrong* time given the economy. So some are privately owned, and some are rented out as a resort, which is really cool. We didn't know all this at the time the Travel Monkey made the arrangements, and were expecting just a nice hotel room on the beach. Instead we're in an AMAZING 1-bedroom condo overlooking Cruz Bay. So, kitchen, washer/dryer, nice living area, etc. It's really super fabulous and where I believe we should retire someday.
Thursday I felt pretty crappy. My lungs were really tight and congested, and of course I had some hangover-ish symptoms, but I refused to believe I was getting sick. We had some fauxtmeal for breakfast and ventured out to find coffee... which turned into some fun shopping. The place we're staying is ridiculously close to what one might call "downtown Cruz Bay". The Beach Bar is maybe a 3 minute walk from our room, and there's a respectable string of restaurants and shops stretching out from there. Coffee was acquired, and eventually we ended up back at the Beach Bar for lunch, followed by some relaxing and trying to get a quick nap before dinner. The nap was a fail due to my coughing, but I was still okay.
Dinner was at Morgan's Mango, a place Tom has wanted to go for years. I think it's better if you're a big fish eater, which I am not. I tasted the Love Monkey's drinks and they were excellent, although I was sticking with gallons upon gallons of water. Dessert was excellent as well, and the "soup of the day" which was broccoli based was also pretty good. But my fillet was decidedly "meh". They put a cilantro-garlicy sauce on it, which tasted good by itself... and the steak was good (albeit undercooked for me) but the combination was just weird. In a not great way. Fortunately there was key lime pie with white chocolate something on top, so I did not leave hungry.
Also, the older-than-middle-aged men at the bar being insanely loud and obnoxious put a bit of a damper on things. Fortunately for EVERYONE (as in you could tell they were annoying a lot of people), they left after maybe 45 minutes of us being there. I'm all for having a good time, but there were at least 10 bars within stumbling distance that specialize in drunk & disorderly. This place took reservations, had families, and was far from cheap... it just wasn't the right environment for that.
I had another extraordinarily restless night last night due to all the coughing and general discomfort... although again, I must stress that it really could be much worse. I was more worried about keeping the SCUBA Monkey awake than anything else, as he had an 8:30 dive this morning. Judging by the fact that he is still gone, he must have made it on time.
If I ever find a way to get pictures uploaded, I'll brighten up this post a bit. And maybe someday I'll find the time to write about Winter Fire. And hopefully I'll keep writing about our trip here! :) I think we're in this place through Sunday, when we go check in to the Westin with his parents. I will miss the view, and the close proximity to booze, restaurants, and shopping for sure!
I've been trying to take pics to upload here to make it look more awesome, but I have no cell coverage at the moment, so I can't upload the ones from there, and I forgot that I'm on my work lappy, which doesn't have a memory card slot thingy. So I'll wait for the SCUBA Monkey to come home and see if he brought a cord thingy.
Anyway... Winter Fire was awesome of course. In some ways it was more stressful; the packing was SO hard, and all told we spent about $300 shipping stuff to and fro so that we wouldn't have to bring kinky or wintery stuff with us here. Ouch! And we were each exhausted, so on and so on. But it doesn't change the fact that I love this group of friends and always have a good time when I get to see them.
At a little after 4:30 AM on Wednesday morning, we left bratboy and imaswte's house to head for Dulles airport, then to Atlanta, and finally to St. Thomas where we rented a car and took the car ferry over to St. John. Everything went fairly well, although there were once again no first class upgrades available, and on the first flight Tom's knees were actually touching the seat in front of him. On the second flight he got to sit between me and a Pilot, so I think he was a happy Monkey.
We dealt with (mostly) the last bit of rudeness so far at the airport. There was an EPIC wait to access the women's restroom because there were only two stalls and everyone was changing in there. It took a little effort for me to avoid the crank whilst having to pee so badly, but crisis was in fact averted.
There is the CUTEST little dog playing fetch on the beach just below me! Makes me miss the Taz Monster.
Tom is the only one driving the rental jeep since I just cannot manage to wrap my brain around driving on the left side of the road. Seriously. But it was nice seeing St. Thomas during the day (not a place I'm anxious to spend a lot more time) and we managed to find our way to the "car ferry" without any issues.
ZOMG!!! Cute puppy #2 has just appeared!
The car ferry was the start of the awesomeness of strangers being friendly because they're on vacation/island time. The ride also serves as a reminder that you're not in Kansas anymore. Rules are, you know, a lot more like suggestions around here, when there are rules. "Can I have a fishbowl margarita to go?" is a totally reasonable request, and is met with a Styrofoam container the size of your head.
Speaking of which... dinner here our first night was at Margarita Phil's. There are two things I will always remember about this place: the burrito was perhaps the BEST burrito I've ever eaten, and the Bushwhacker was served in a "punchbowl"... that was the size of my head. No exaggeration. You may remember Bushwhackers as the innocent seeming island drink that prompted Karri to crawl into bed with Tom and I, having absolutely no recollection of how she got there. And that was from normal sized ones. By the time the evening was done, Tom was worried about me crawling into bed with Karri & Greg and having no idea how I got there - despite the fact that it would take a ferry ride, at least 2 flights, and a LONG cab ride to get there. That was pretty much the end of Wednesday. ;)
Oh! I totally skipped the place we're staying! The Grande Bay Resort was originally built to be individually owned condos... at exactly the *wrong* time given the economy. So some are privately owned, and some are rented out as a resort, which is really cool. We didn't know all this at the time the Travel Monkey made the arrangements, and were expecting just a nice hotel room on the beach. Instead we're in an AMAZING 1-bedroom condo overlooking Cruz Bay. So, kitchen, washer/dryer, nice living area, etc. It's really super fabulous and where I believe we should retire someday.
Thursday I felt pretty crappy. My lungs were really tight and congested, and of course I had some hangover-ish symptoms, but I refused to believe I was getting sick. We had some fauxtmeal for breakfast and ventured out to find coffee... which turned into some fun shopping. The place we're staying is ridiculously close to what one might call "downtown Cruz Bay". The Beach Bar is maybe a 3 minute walk from our room, and there's a respectable string of restaurants and shops stretching out from there. Coffee was acquired, and eventually we ended up back at the Beach Bar for lunch, followed by some relaxing and trying to get a quick nap before dinner. The nap was a fail due to my coughing, but I was still okay.
Dinner was at Morgan's Mango, a place Tom has wanted to go for years. I think it's better if you're a big fish eater, which I am not. I tasted the Love Monkey's drinks and they were excellent, although I was sticking with gallons upon gallons of water. Dessert was excellent as well, and the "soup of the day" which was broccoli based was also pretty good. But my fillet was decidedly "meh". They put a cilantro-garlicy sauce on it, which tasted good by itself... and the steak was good (albeit undercooked for me) but the combination was just weird. In a not great way. Fortunately there was key lime pie with white chocolate something on top, so I did not leave hungry.
Also, the older-than-middle-aged men at the bar being insanely loud and obnoxious put a bit of a damper on things. Fortunately for EVERYONE (as in you could tell they were annoying a lot of people), they left after maybe 45 minutes of us being there. I'm all for having a good time, but there were at least 10 bars within stumbling distance that specialize in drunk & disorderly. This place took reservations, had families, and was far from cheap... it just wasn't the right environment for that.
I had another extraordinarily restless night last night due to all the coughing and general discomfort... although again, I must stress that it really could be much worse. I was more worried about keeping the SCUBA Monkey awake than anything else, as he had an 8:30 dive this morning. Judging by the fact that he is still gone, he must have made it on time.
If I ever find a way to get pictures uploaded, I'll brighten up this post a bit. And maybe someday I'll find the time to write about Winter Fire. And hopefully I'll keep writing about our trip here! :) I think we're in this place through Sunday, when we go check in to the Westin with his parents. I will miss the view, and the close proximity to booze, restaurants, and shopping for sure!