OK, so now that we're back to the big, bad world, we thought we should share a little, as so much great info gets shared on this board. We zipped down for a quickie getaway for our 15th anniversary. This was just a Mon.----Fri. trip, not a whole lot of time to explore new haunts, so we stuck to the tried and true this go around.

Headed down on American from Hartford, 1 stop in San Juan. Completely uneventful and on time....just what you want. The way back was a whole other story, more on that later. As we touched down in Beef Island, I looked out the left side of the aircraft over Trellis Bay and lo' and behold, there under cloudy skies, was the Sophisticated Lady cheerfully bobbing at anchor. After a quick airport exit, we were grabbing some drinks at the cyber cafe, trying to figure out how to get a hold of Rick on the boat. Not having his cell # handy, I figured I would just walk out to end of the dock and holler! Well, my booming barritone must have penetrated the salon, because up popped Rick! Looking mildly amused, he declared that now he would never get any work done. I've managed to have that effect on people since way back "in the day". A little zip on the dinghy and there we were, toasting rum drinks with Rick. His charter crew showed back up, and were still buzzzing over last Sundays race to Jost from Anegada. They were a great bunch, and we spent a couple of hours shooting the breeze. Mucho thanks to Rick for his great hospitality, and providing the most awesome start to a trip imaginable! Sorry we didn't get to hook up again. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />

Of course, hanging on "lady" meant we were now driving to Cane Garden Bay, in the dark, and in the rain. Not exactly a relaxing ride. Fortunately, with the exception of some goats and a calf running in the road, it was uneventful. We pulled up to our friends brand new house on the hillside above CGB and it was spectacular. I can't believe we were lucky enough to stay there. I don't believe that they will be putting it on the open rental market, so I'm going to repect their privacy as far as the villa goes. Down to Myette's, and a few snacks and drinks later, we were off to bed early.

Tuesday morning brought clouds, and dark ones at that! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cloud.gif" alt="" /> It was pretty evident from the outset, this would be no beach day. A quick breakfast at Myette's brought unexpected news. I had asked about Karen, and found that she had resigned and moved on. I'm not sure where she landed, but we definitely missed her quick laugh and funny insights. We ended up heading over to Soper's for some shopping etc... When it's cloudy and rainy in a "beachy" destination, it's hard to resist the temptation to start drinking, especially when your without the 11 and 9 year old boys. We didn't resist. Later, we ended up back at Myete's for Kapeye's happy hour <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Banana.gif" alt="" />. We had the opportunity to meet Manpot (Malcom) and his lovely wife Candace.....great people. I'm not sure if it was because we were several drinks deep at that point, or whether this Irish American actually thought he had some rythm,or most likely a combination of the two, somehow I ended up in the rythm section. Let's just say that I lived up to the "hopelessly caucasian" tag that Kapeye gave me. We needed some dinner, and Judy immediately recognized us from our last trip. The 'rasta pasta" was good and hit the spot. At some point during the happy hour, we also met Gary, a.k.a. Cawino, another great TTOLer. It started getting fuzzy so off to the villa we we went.

It's said that fuzzy nights bring late mornings, this was no exception. The late start meant no Jost today, Too bad because the weather was nice! After seeing the mass of humanity on Cane Garden we knew we would be beating feet out to Smugglers. We arrived around noon to find horror upon horror, Smugglers too was jammed with [censored]! Fortunately, Hillsideview's call on [censored] was correct. Even though 6k plus were in port, 2 boats left at 3:00 PM, by 1:00 PM most had left the beach. THe afternoon was perfect, and we headed back to the villa. Dinner that night was also at Myette's as they had known it was our anniversary.We had the best table in the house,and Judy had decorated it perfectly. Kharim had sent over a bottle of champagne and we couldn't have picked a better setting, or nicer hosts. We really love Myette's! Can't believe it's been 15 years since that sunset at Ft. Recovery!

Morning finds us on a Jost or bust mission. After talking with Julian the night before, I figured we were all set..Not! Quite the "fire drill" after a relaxing breakfast with Hillsideview and and his wife, as well as well as Myrt and Whip. Finally, we water taxied it out, and were hanging with the Atlanta crowd from Myette's and Smugglers. We finally got there, but the weather was shaky at best. A whole bunch of Caribs and painkillers later, we were back in CGB for Kapeye's show. A quick note of warning, if you spend all day drinking on Jost, take a break before going to happy hour, we didn't! A great time was had, but by the time Kapeye was ending we were getting fuzzier by the second. Brought the wifey home and that was that.

Packing up always sucks, especially if you're somewhere warm, going home to somewhere cold. That was the case on Friday, it was also the best weather of the week to boot. We hung at the villa for the morning,said our goodbye's, and took the dreaded ride back to Beef Island. Trellis Bay has to be the best airport waiting area ever! Ate some sandwiches at Jeremy's.....they were great! Headed in to the airport to find HEAVY security. Hand searched EVERYBODYs' carry on's, patted down EVERYBODY, and managed to pick my checked bag for a random check. Hand checked that too! At least he did with smile and aked if I had been out on Trellis, he had been callng my name for well over an hour! THat flight was perfect, the next one less so. Arriving in San JUan was fine, but our connection home was delayed 5 hours! Instead of walking through our front door at 12:30 AM, we walked in at 5:30 AM, thanks very much American Airlines!

So here we are, 2 sick kids with the stomach flu. Near hurricane winds with rain. Forty degrees outside. Doesn't get any better than this!



HIGHLIGHTS: By far, the highlight of the trip was/were the people we saw/met.

LOWLIGHT: The weather. First time in a long time, the weather didn't cooperate

Have Fun!!
Joe and Holly