July 2nd - First boat!

Jul 2nd, 2006
My Liver – Think of it this way, now that the little crybaby is out of the way there is nothing between your stomach and sweet, sweet alcohol –

Well What a day. How many days start with a quick trip to the beach, and end with your wife Blowing a .117? The good news is, we walked home, and the Breathalazyzer was our, not a cops! I was only at .079 for the record. $90 and a trip to AlcholHawk is the best investment in the world.

Woke up at 6 AM this morning. Something tells me that that is not as bad as when you are at home. Got some beautiful eggs going and fed the kids. I only say Beautiful, as the best cheese in the world is made by the French and the Dutch, and this island is owned by both. Before you Guatemalan BAS$%$#rds write me about how good your cheese is… Bite me…

P.S. Minda just fell into the wall trying to walk into the other room with a Can of “Salsa Verde Pringles”. That’s a story in itself? Maybe another day..

We went to Orient Beach today, and loved it. We camped just down form Bikini Beach, just far enough away from the Bikini Beach bar to be there by ourselves. Kids played, mom gelled, and dad took a long walk to the Club Orient side of the beach.


Minda on Orient Beach

I’d say thumbs up on the whole Orient Beach Thing. HOWEVER, I bet we find less crowded beaches. This was a no cruise ship day, and I bet with 5-6 cruise ships, it would be really crowded. We’ll try Bay Longue or Bay Rouge next week.

After Orient beach, we headed to the Gallion Beach, known for Protected bays and snorkeling. However, we never made it, as we met Pete of the Butterfly Pavillion.


Butterfly Sex

Pete gave us a private tour, since we were the only ones around, and about 100 pictures later, we had a great time. If you have never seen a lady feed spit to a newborn baby chick from her mouth, I don’t recommend it. IT was freaky. We spent about 2 hours at the butterfly pavilion, and may actually stop back in later before we leave. As we left there and arrived at Le Gallion, the Skies opened up in a 5 minute Caribbean storm. We decided that we had plenty of sun for the day, and made the 15 minute trip back to Pelican. Times quoted on TTOL certainly don’t hold for this time of year, and traffic is NOTHING like the Virgin Islands. We took 15 minutes from Orient to Pelican, and drove through rain. I’d hate to be here “In” season.

So, we got back to our resort, and decided since we had a hour to kill, we’d go to seek WIFI, and food. After a great experience at Lido’s last night, we decided to put “Johnny B’s under the Tree” to a test. I left the family at the resort, and went out to find it. The lady at Lido’s recognized me, and waved me over as I drove by. She asked how I liked the ribs form last night, and was I coming back. WOW. That amazed me. I told her we had other plans, but we’d definitely be back

SIDEBAR:
For those who don’t know the difference between baby-back and St. Louis Style ribs, Lido’s Serves Baby-Back. This is important information to those who care.

Back to our story:

I drove past Lido’s nmad found Johny B’s Under the tree. Unfortunately, being Sunday, Johnny was not planning on working. The following is a true story. I promise.

As, I entered the parking lot (all 20 Sq FT of it), a young girl of 10 or so mouthed “Johnny not here tonight” form 10’ away or so. Not noticing they were closed (meaning the “cooler” was not there), I rolled down the window to discuss it with her. She was so nice and at ten years old was so carefree, so typical islands, it amazing me when she robbed me…

OK, Just Kidding. I shot her first.

Anyway, she told me she thought Johnny was not coming tonight, and she would check for me.

“KATE!” She yelled, and the lady inside answered. “There’s a manawho wants dinner, Is Johnny coming tonight?”

“Kate” yelled that he was not, but was the “man” still here.. The girl replied that I was, and Kate yelled back, “You tell him to wait, I’ll go tell Johnny, and he’ll share his dinner with him..

That rocked. In a nutshell, the entire restaurant industry take notes. I of course declined, but was interested to note that Johnny lived within a couple hundred yards of there. I may drop in on him later in the week. I’ll definitely see his restaurant again.

So, I turned around and got Lido’s again. It was thumbs up on the meal for the second night in a row (Third for Remy who also had ribs at Jimbo’s on Friday). We orded Three Ribs combos for the four of us, with Potatoes as a side. We had Rice and Mac and Cheese left over from the previous night. $21 and three full racks and 12 pounds of Potatoes later, I was well on the way to overstuffed.



Tango/Lambata at Sunset

We had about 14 minutes before the 5 MP Sunday cruise out of the Pelican on the Tango. This simply put is the best money spent on the island. It’s the equivalent of a “booze Cruise” for $10 per person. I think I finished a bunch of Rums, but am still looking for my liver to ask. Please see Blood alcohol content readings above, and note they are two hours later!


Remy sailing


Ryan Sailing

If you have not noticed, I am a bit obsessed. Wanna know why? We were on the boat, with 50+ people, and Jim E. form TTOL came up to Minda, and said “Where are you from?” She chatted, and he mentioned that we fit the profile of Jon Joslin from TTOL. She laughed and pointed me out across the deck, and said that would be me.

It was nice to meet Jim, and funny that he noticed that we “Fit the profile” from the TTOL site. Spooky! Hope to meet up with him again on the 6th.

Had a great sail, great sunset, and ended up the day at BOTH the beach and the Pool. Kids compromised when they could not decide which to do, so we did both. Met some great people from Fort Worth area, who offered more beer, and we wisely declined.


La Samanna

Goodnight from the island, and here’s to doing it tomorrow. P.S. Thank God for Coppertone Babies SPF50 Sunscreen.

P.P.S. There are not many better ways of ending a perfect day in paradise, than with and iced cold “Ponche Kuba”

I have but one regret this trip so far. I missed the “Festival of the Best RAM” in Colombier area of the island today. Where local party, vote the best RAM on the Island, and eat goat dishes all day.. Somehow, I just missed it. Would have been fun..

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