2011 Girl's Trip Days 4 and 5
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 12:51 pm
Wed. November 2nd
I awoke with achy joints this day - a testament to the amount of snorkeling I'd done the day before. That was forgotten though when we noticed that the iguanas were back to watch us from their perches in the treetops. Breakfast was french toast and bacon and Hootie the resident cat enjoyed his own piece. Lucky cat - he picked the right villa to visit this week!
We were off to Lameshure this day. The road in hadn't improved at all since the last trip and there were huge puddles along the way. It was sunny when we first arrived but clouds started rolling in as the morning went on. Snorkeling was disappointing that day - the lack of sunlight made it difficult to see and there weren't the usual conch and fish congregating around the rocks in the center of the bay. It rained lightly for about 5 minutes and then stopped. That made the no-see-ums come out in force and we slapped and scratched for another hour or so until a light drizzle started again and we decided to call it a day. We didn't want to take the chance that those puddles on the route out would get any deeper and swallow up our car!
The drizzle had let up by the time we got to the Tourist Trap so we decided to stop since we'd never been there before. We got to meet Larry and the waitress Mary who was the most talkative person I'd ever met. I think Mary was a little starved for human contact based on the amount of information she could cram into each sentence!! We HAD to try a Drink Right, Stay Left after hearing so much about them. They were yummy! We also tried the pulled pork nachos with homemade tomatillo sauce - another YUM! Just as we finished dark clouds rolled in, the wind began howl and the heavens opened up and let loose. We bid a quick adieu to Larry and Mary and ran the 15 feet or so to the car and wound up literally dripping wet for the drive back to the villa.
The drive to and from Lameshure that day turned out to be "Nature Day" - we got to see pigs, donkeys, chickens, cows, deer and, of course, the goats. The animals must have been calling it a day too and heading "home" to avoid the rain.
We got back to Kia Ora and discoverd that at some point that day the wind must have hit there also because the umbrella for the table next to the pool had snapped off and was floating in the pool. We fished that out, called the rental agency to report the problem and then did some laundry and called home. Hubby had spent the previous night with Brad who had gotten his power back and was planning to stay there again since the power was still out at our house. Much of the state was still without power and there were predictions that it could still be up to a week to restore power in some areas. We patted ourselves on the back again for our "brilliance" headed off to Margarita Phils for dinner - Ahi tacos, naked nachos and a Margarita the size of a toilet bowl! Then back to the deck to enjoy some cruise ship spotting before saying good night.
Thursday, November 3rd.
We awoke to a cloudy, rainy day. We baked the breakfast strata that had been soaking in the refrigerator overnight and decided that it would be a good day for shopping and "villa gravity". We did some shopping at Mongoose Junction and the rest of the group decided to walk over the St. John Spice to pick up their year's supply of Blind Betty's hot sauce. I declined since I was still nursing a huge blister on the bottom of one foot thanks to the hike into Waterlemon several days before. I took advantage of the time to hobble down to Deli Grotto to pick up some "Crack Bars" for dessert that night and to buy myself a hat.
When we got back we noticed that there had been some sort of insect "hatch" recently because there were thousands of termite-looking insects who were losing their wings mounded all around the outside areas. They were everywhere! I did some sweeping but eventually gave up and took a nap in the hammock instead. I didn't want to waste my gravity day cleaning up bug parts!
We tried something different that night for dinner - Castaways - whose brochure had caught the eye of one of the ladies when flipping through the villa notebook. There was no one in the place when we got there - probably a combination of the raining weather, lack of parking and the fact that it was more of a sports bar atmosphere with the emphasis on BAR. We decided to stay and try the food anyway since it was pouring outside again and the waitress/bartender Ann Marie tried her best to accomodate us with drinks, food and conversation. We found out that she was a recently graduated teacher fron Atlanta who hadn't been able to find a job in the States so had decided to try living on St. John for a while. She'd been there since graduation in the Spring and was still trying to find a teaching position at Gift Hill school to get her foot in the door career-wise. It was her birthday the following day so she brought our table a round of shots - Leg Spreaders I think she called them - I called them delicious. We sang Happy Birthday to her and headed off to the car just in time to avoid getting wet again.
Unfortunately those shots swung the needle on the brilliance meter over the the moron side. After enjoying some crack bars for dessert, most of us stayed up WAY too late drinking and talking over the thunder, lightning and howling wind. Only the teetotaler in the group was smart enough to go to bed at a reasonable hour. She should hae gotten up and beaten us severely about the head and shoulders for being such f-ing idiots! Oh well, isn't that what vacation is for??!!!
I awoke with achy joints this day - a testament to the amount of snorkeling I'd done the day before. That was forgotten though when we noticed that the iguanas were back to watch us from their perches in the treetops. Breakfast was french toast and bacon and Hootie the resident cat enjoyed his own piece. Lucky cat - he picked the right villa to visit this week!
We were off to Lameshure this day. The road in hadn't improved at all since the last trip and there were huge puddles along the way. It was sunny when we first arrived but clouds started rolling in as the morning went on. Snorkeling was disappointing that day - the lack of sunlight made it difficult to see and there weren't the usual conch and fish congregating around the rocks in the center of the bay. It rained lightly for about 5 minutes and then stopped. That made the no-see-ums come out in force and we slapped and scratched for another hour or so until a light drizzle started again and we decided to call it a day. We didn't want to take the chance that those puddles on the route out would get any deeper and swallow up our car!
The drizzle had let up by the time we got to the Tourist Trap so we decided to stop since we'd never been there before. We got to meet Larry and the waitress Mary who was the most talkative person I'd ever met. I think Mary was a little starved for human contact based on the amount of information she could cram into each sentence!! We HAD to try a Drink Right, Stay Left after hearing so much about them. They were yummy! We also tried the pulled pork nachos with homemade tomatillo sauce - another YUM! Just as we finished dark clouds rolled in, the wind began howl and the heavens opened up and let loose. We bid a quick adieu to Larry and Mary and ran the 15 feet or so to the car and wound up literally dripping wet for the drive back to the villa.
The drive to and from Lameshure that day turned out to be "Nature Day" - we got to see pigs, donkeys, chickens, cows, deer and, of course, the goats. The animals must have been calling it a day too and heading "home" to avoid the rain.
We got back to Kia Ora and discoverd that at some point that day the wind must have hit there also because the umbrella for the table next to the pool had snapped off and was floating in the pool. We fished that out, called the rental agency to report the problem and then did some laundry and called home. Hubby had spent the previous night with Brad who had gotten his power back and was planning to stay there again since the power was still out at our house. Much of the state was still without power and there were predictions that it could still be up to a week to restore power in some areas. We patted ourselves on the back again for our "brilliance" headed off to Margarita Phils for dinner - Ahi tacos, naked nachos and a Margarita the size of a toilet bowl! Then back to the deck to enjoy some cruise ship spotting before saying good night.
Thursday, November 3rd.
We awoke to a cloudy, rainy day. We baked the breakfast strata that had been soaking in the refrigerator overnight and decided that it would be a good day for shopping and "villa gravity". We did some shopping at Mongoose Junction and the rest of the group decided to walk over the St. John Spice to pick up their year's supply of Blind Betty's hot sauce. I declined since I was still nursing a huge blister on the bottom of one foot thanks to the hike into Waterlemon several days before. I took advantage of the time to hobble down to Deli Grotto to pick up some "Crack Bars" for dessert that night and to buy myself a hat.
When we got back we noticed that there had been some sort of insect "hatch" recently because there were thousands of termite-looking insects who were losing their wings mounded all around the outside areas. They were everywhere! I did some sweeping but eventually gave up and took a nap in the hammock instead. I didn't want to waste my gravity day cleaning up bug parts!
We tried something different that night for dinner - Castaways - whose brochure had caught the eye of one of the ladies when flipping through the villa notebook. There was no one in the place when we got there - probably a combination of the raining weather, lack of parking and the fact that it was more of a sports bar atmosphere with the emphasis on BAR. We decided to stay and try the food anyway since it was pouring outside again and the waitress/bartender Ann Marie tried her best to accomodate us with drinks, food and conversation. We found out that she was a recently graduated teacher fron Atlanta who hadn't been able to find a job in the States so had decided to try living on St. John for a while. She'd been there since graduation in the Spring and was still trying to find a teaching position at Gift Hill school to get her foot in the door career-wise. It was her birthday the following day so she brought our table a round of shots - Leg Spreaders I think she called them - I called them delicious. We sang Happy Birthday to her and headed off to the car just in time to avoid getting wet again.
Unfortunately those shots swung the needle on the brilliance meter over the the moron side. After enjoying some crack bars for dessert, most of us stayed up WAY too late drinking and talking over the thunder, lightning and howling wind. Only the teetotaler in the group was smart enough to go to bed at a reasonable hour. She should hae gotten up and beaten us severely about the head and shoulders for being such f-ing idiots! Oh well, isn't that what vacation is for??!!!