Thursday, July 4th, 2002<br>Happy Fourth of July! Boy, are we lazy slugs. We didn’t get up until 9:30 – oh, well, that’s what vacations are for. I’m pretty slow moving this morning for some reason. I took forever to get going. Maybe it was too much sleep! Finally on our way over to Brewer’s Bay. <br><br>Brewer’s Bay is my favorite beach on the island. I just love it here! Relaxed on the beach, swam, walked the beach holding my honey’s hand. We had lunch at the Brewer’s Bay Beach Bar. Cheeseburgers in paradise! And the best pina coladas. Then I went in for a snorkel, entering on the left side of the bay, right in front of the Beach Bar. David stayed on the beach to read. Today was a partly cloudy day, so it inhibited visibility underwater a bit, but I still had a great snorkel. Starting in 2 feet of water there were tons of juvenile fish and as you follow the edge of the reef out into the bay the larger the fish get. The variety of coral, fish and sea fans etc. is fantastic. After an hour in the water, I was starting to get a little chilly, so I had to get out onto land.<br><br>We then headed to Beef Island to explore Trellis Bay and to see if we could make our way to Marina Cay. While we were poking around in Aranak’s shop we managed to miss the ferry to Marina Cay. We decided not to wait for the next one and headed back to Lambert. Went down to the beach and stayed to watch the sunset. We then got ready and went to Capricio di Mare in Roadtown for dinner. It was pretty late at this point (8:30pm), so we didn’t want to have a huge dinner. Excellent ice cappacino’s. Excellent garlic bread and David had a squash soup – very tasty. Very good pasta and pizza. The service here is very good as well. We didn’t linger after dinner because the breeze was non-existent, it was really hot, and with no air to move the smoke from the smoking patrons, we decided to go. Back to Lambert for a nightcap and relaxed out on our patio.<br><br>Friday, July 5th, 2002<br>First woke up at 7am – rolled over and went back to sleep. Woke up at 9:30 – slept in again like bums. Got up and got going much quicker today than yesterday. We headed out to Sage Mountain National Park. I don’t know why we couldn’t find it on our last trip. The entrance road is right off of Ridge Rd. and it was well marked too. Well, we found it anyway and headed up the steep hill. Parked in the car park, enjoyed the view then headed up the trail to the main gate entrance. Nice hiking trails through the woods, only the “woods” are tropical, very different from our flora and fauna back home in New England! Oh! And the spiders, jesus! they were huge. Overall length of these suckers was about 3 inches in length (no exaggeration and I have the pictures to prove it). You have to be careful to watch for their massive webs on the walking paths. In spots where it’s only 2 feet wide and there are trees on either side, we learned to look carefully because we passed several webs and had to duck to miss them. Arrived at the main entrance gate and picked up a brochure. There are 3 or 4 paths to choose from. We chose the central path. Made it to the main look-out point. The view was pretty impressive. We could see most of the Sir Frances Drake Channel and the corresponding BVI’s right over to St. John. At the look-out point there was a small wooden covered shed that had a brass plaque with arrows pointing to and naming the visible islands. Stayed and enjoyed the view for a while. And of course we were the only ones here! Hiked back out, had a drink, then went in to check out the Mountain View Restaurant and gift shop. Nice place. Only one couple having lunch. We’ll come back and try it on our next visit. David wants to get to Brewer’s for a cheeseburger again and to go snorkeling. The small gift shop had a good variety of things to choose from and we purchased a few things for the folks back home.<br><br>On to Brewer’s and a repeat of cheeseburgers in paradise and another wonderful pina colada (which are actually a colada and a half as when you finish half, your bartender will come by the finish off the blender full into your cup!). Then we went snorkeling. Another great snorkel! David is surprised at how good it is being right from shore and all. Third day in a row for me – woo hoo – am I happy or what! Hung out on the beach for a while and then headed back to Lambert. We went for a swim in the pool and had our end-of-day rum punches. David took a bunch of photo’s of the pool while I floated around. One again we are the only one’s there. Got cleaned up and made it down to the beach just in the nick of time for the sunset. More fantastic sunset shots. Then off to Roadtown to C&F for dinner. Found it easily this time – down Bellevue , right at the pharmacy, next left and there we are. Wow! Fantastic barbeque. When our plates arrived both of our jaws dropped – they were huge! It was fun watching others seated around us as they had the same look when their meals came. We’d had a pretty active day, so we ready for some serious food, but no way were we gonna finish these bad boys. Very delicious. The veggies were fresh and cooked crisp tender and the rice was delicious as well. The restaurant got quite busy too, plus a constant flow of take-out patrons. I can imagine there is quite a wait during in-season. It’d be worth it though. Not sure if they take reservations or not. Quite the eclectic gift shop on site as well. I have never seen so much stuff crammed into such a small space. Wow! Back to Lambert for a nightcap and to relax and digest our meals.<br><br>Saturday, July 6th, 2002<br>Up reasonably early and spend a little time at the beach. Got ready and went into Roadtown to shop for a few more souvenirs. Walked up and down Main St. visiting the shops: Sunny Carribe, Little Denmark, etc. Of course I need to add a piece of Larimar jewelry to my collection. Samarikand Jewelers has a very good selection. The young lady who waits on me remembers me from our last visit. She’s a very pleasant individual and we have nice conversation. I just so happened to ask her about the hibiscus jewelry as they have several pairs of earrings in silver – very nice. Then she tells me that if I have any gold jewelry that I no longer wear that on my next trip I could bring it to them and if I give them a week, she’ll be able to make me any of the gold hibiscus jewelry I’d like. They just finished making a bracelet and I absolutely loved it. It was tight on my wrist though, as I really need a 7 ½ to 8 inch bracelet, so a custom one would be ideal. I store away this thought for our next visit. I purchase a pretty Larimar/sterling silver ring (on sale by the way) and we are off. Several t-shirts, cookbooks, placemats and mousepads later we head over to Brewer’s Bay for the last time this trip.<br><br>For something different today I have the fish sandwich at the Beach Bar, but I can’t resist a pina colada. Chatted with another couple who asked us about the snorkeling. They had just come from Cane Garden and they said the snorkeling wasn’t bad there. We chat about our respective experiences on Tortola. After snorkeling here at Brewer’s they agree with us that it’s pretty fantastic snorkeling for a beach entry snorkeling site. David has to practically drag me out of the water, I don’t want to leave!! We hang out ‘til it’s time to go back to Lambert to get ready for dinner. Our last on the island and we are returning to Brandywine Bay. Figure if we have to leave, we’re going out with a bang!<br><br>Once again a memorable meal and a wonderful evening. Several tables are occupied this evening, so Cele, Davide’s wife, is helping out and we have the opportunity to meet her. David has the duck this time and I choose a pork dish. Absolutely delicious. I do not deviate in my dessert decision – I choose the lemon tart. David has the chocolate mousse. It is, of course, a pleasure to have a chance to chat with Davide again, albeit briefer than Tuesday evening as he has a few more tables to take care of this evening. He somehow finds the time to speak to each of his patrons.<br><br>Back at Lambert we decide to pack a few things since we aren’t sleepy yet and in doing so that’ll leave tomorrow morning free to spend time at the beach before our ride takes us to the airport. I have to perform my packing magic as we came down with only a duffle bag carry-on size each. They were full to begin with and now I have several t-shirts, cookbooks, placemats etc. to fit in (although we only bought things which were “flat”, giving me some semblance of a chance of fitting them into our carry-ons!) I can’t fit my fins into my bag so I squeeze them into my pop-up shade tent. Ok, somehow I’ve done it. David just shakes his head – he concurs that I am a miracle packer. Well, I’m really sad that we have to leave tomorrow, but I’m happy we got the packing part over with tonight.<br><br>Sunday, July 7th, 2002<br>We wake up and head down to the beach. Yeah! Packing last night was worth it, now we can spend some time limin’ on the beach before we have to leave for the airport. We swim and relax. Have to head back to the room now to get ready and finish the last bit of packing. Sniff……..<br><br>We’re picked up right on time at 12:30pm. Our flight to San Juan doesn’t leave until 2:45pm. As we don’t have any checked baggage, we move quickly through the line at the AA counter and take a seat in the departure lounge. David pays the departure tax at a separate window. I then realize I’ve left my hat behind at Lambert. I don’t want to lose this one as it’s a nice Watership Trading sun protective hat. I call Lambert and the taxi has just returned there to take another group to the airport. They have my hat! They said to just wait outside and our driver will have it for me. Oh, thank you so much!<br><br>Several other flights left before us. Unfortunately when it was our turn to go through the x-ray machine and out onto the run-way area, the darn machine broke, so they had to hand search all items. We never thought we’d make our plane. Our carry-ons were packed and the guy was tearing everything apart. He asked what was in the tent and I said a pop-up shade tent and my fins. He said “open it”. I told him when he unzipped it to be careful because the thing really does pop-up (not to mention it’s not the easiest thing to get back into it’s bag.) Fortunately, he didn’t pull the thing all the way out. In searching my other things I knew I was going to have a problem when he opened my handbag and he sees my ziplock bag full of prescription drug bottles. Sure enough, he pulls it out and starts opening it all up. He wants to know why I have so many. (I don’t think it’s any of his business. They are all in their original pharmacy bottles. I knew enough not to combine several drugs into one large bottle.) He actually opens one of my inhalers – not knowing what it is and asks more questions. For pete’s sake, I’m trying to remain calm, but this is really starting to tick me off. I tell him I am unfortunately not a well person. He hands me the bag in complete disarray and says “I guess not”. For some reason they write my husband’s name down in a notebook they have off to the side. We have no idea what that’s all about. They finally let us go and we get in line outside to walk out to the plane.<br><br>Quick 27 minute flight to Puerto Rico. Just enough time to go through bus/walk/immigration/customs/ security re-check/walk to get to next gate. We no sooner sit down and they call out our name to come to the ticket counter. We just look at each and silently think “what now”. David returns momentarily, grinning. He hands me our new boarding passes. Row 2. I say “Hey, that’s first class!” Yup. Free upgrade to first class – totally sweet. We actually enjoy our 3 ½ hour ride back to Boston being waited on in first class. Food and beverages were quite good. Watched the movie. Rested and few minutes and all of a sudden we were landing. Too bad all our flights can’t be this good!! A car is waiting for us in terminal C and we arrive home 25 minutes later. I was surprised how much traffic there was in the city at 10pm. Our driver said we were smart to come in later in the evening as it had been pretty much gridlock all afternoon long. Well, back to reality. What a terrific time we had. Plenty of pictures and memories to revisit until our next return to the BVI’s.<br>
