Our trip to the BVI began on an extra nice note this year as our daughter and son-in-law gave us a nice gift for our 30th Wedding Anniversary, a one nights’ stay, all expenses paid at the Hyatt Hotel at Logan Airport in Boston the night before our trip to the BVI. Prior to that we had dinner at Mario’s in the East End of Boston. Very nice Italian Restaurant. It was perfect. I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone staying in or traveling to/from Boston. The view we had from our room overlooking Boston Harbor and the city of Boston was breathtaking. The service was impeccable. Enough about Boston, but it was a great start to a wonderful vacation. That morning, took the shuttle over to the American terminal and we were off at 7:00 am 1/20/06. Smooth flight, 1st stop, Puerto Rico. Boarded the Am. Eagle flight to Beef Island. Had a small delay as we had a man in a wheelchair that had to be transported to the small Am. Eagle plane via a make-shift lift. Interesting. Anyway because of this delay, we were backed up on the runway and waited for 13 planes to take off before us. Arrived in Beef Island about an hour later than scheduled. We were hoping that Lorilee (our reserved taxi driver) would not have left without us. She had not. She was there waiting to greet us after we passed through Customs with a big smile. She is absolutely great! If anyone needs a taxi driver while in Tortola, call her, she’s the best and is always there for you when she says she will be. We have used her every year. I have her number somewhere, I will find it and post it at a later time. Lorilee was also waiting to transport another couple to the West End to go to Sandcastle and we had to wait a short while for them, because he had lost his luggage and was checking in on it. No problem mon, Lorilee arranged for us to get a couple of cold Caribs from her friends that were in the parking lot at the airport. Now I call that service! Like I said, she’s great! Anyway, when the other couple got in the cab, she was complaining to me about how if she had to wait for someone who lost their luggage, that she would have been awfully mad. What’s there to be upset about, we were here in the BVI with a cold Carib in our hands and a smiling taxi driver…what’s to complain about?

She took us to Shepard’s Marina in the West End at which time Terrie Shepard took us over to Great Harbor. The ride was quite rough to say the least as the swells were up, but we didn’t mind. The water was warm and the scenery was spectacular! While we waited for Claire to pick us up in Great Harbor, we stopped in at our favorite restaurant and bar there, Ali Baba’s and had our first (fabulous) pain killer with Terrie Shepard (who by the way was a very nice man and handsome too!) Claire arrived a short time later and took us over to Sandcastle. The weather was fabulous, but we were informed that they had had some huge swells where the water was all the way up to the Soggy Dollar Bar and that they were expecting more of the same for Saturday and Sunday. Not to worry, after all we were in the BVI and at White Bay, our favorite spot in the world. Friday was great and we had a superb supper cooked by none other than Oliver, Sandcastle’s chef. It was great to see Oliver, but he is having a lot of trouble with his knees and he walks with a limp and a cane, but boy can he sure cook! Saturday it did not rain, but the swells were up and it was very, very windy. We laid out on the beach and went swimming anyway! Compared to New England weather, this wasn’t hard to take. Sunday was also very windy and the swells were up to the chairs and hammocks on the beach. The weather and water was a little cooler than in past years, but to tell you the truth, it was kinda nice. Being from a cold weather climate, we really do not like “hot” anyway, and it kept all the boaters out, so we sort of had the place to ourselves for awhile. Monday was still quite windy but nice and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were great! We did the usual, soak up the rays, drink, swim, walk White Bay, go to Ivan’s, etc. After a few days, we didn’t even know what day it was anymore and we were going to be there for 2 weeks this time. Not a problem. Ate a couple of times at Abe’s in Little Harbor, and Ali Baba’s in Great Harbor and of course Foxy’s.

Sandcastle has all new kitchen and housekeeping help and a new bartender, Mic. Loved Mic! He quickly became our friend. Some of the old regulars were still there, Tina (love her), Shaneek (we made a special birthday cake for her as it was her birthday while we were there), Lorna and her fiancé, Daniel and her 4 month old baby, Daniella. Just before we were leaving, Lorna was going to Tortola to open a bank account for Daniella so we gave her $10 to put in her account for us. The baby is a little princess! I will be posting pictures real soon. Spoke to Roger and Sandy, managers there who it was great to see again. They assured us that the new owners, Jerry and Tish were wonderful bosses and had every intention to keep the place the same and not to go up on the rates either. Music to our ears! They do plan, however, to make some improvements and already have done some. The whole place has been painted, new doors in the cottages and Sandy plans to re-paint the bar with new scenery (adding Palm Trees,etc.). Although we had planned to rent a dinghy for a day and go over to Foxy’s Taboo and Sandy Cay, between the swells being up and us just not willing to part with any day at White Bay, we did not. Spent some time in Great Harbor and Little Harbor though. I can’t forget to tell you about Trixie. She had an operation on her hind leg and was just as chipper as ever! (Roger told me a story of her catching a Mongoose that was quite hysterical). I just love that little dog! Pictures to follow. When we first got there, Bruce was “hogging” her as he and Debby were staying down the beach is the house before the Pink House. Bruce took Trixie there with him while Sandy and Roger were on vacation for a few days. Debby tells me that Bruce misses Trixie more that Trixie misses him! It was great to see them and they are still planning a Sandcastle reunion in Kennybunkport, ME in October. They stayed for dinner one night at Sandcastle.

So we basically chilled out at Sandcastle for 12 days and it was the best! The 2nd weekend the swells were up again and we did have rain off and on all day on that second Saturday and the Sunday was very windy again. Other than those 2 weekends though, the weather for us was just fine. We really like that time of year.

Left Sandcastle for Cane Garden Bay on Wednesday, Feb. 1st. Took Shepard’s water taxi to the West End (fabulous ride), and Lorilee was there to pick us up at Soper’s Hole. She brought us to the Ole Works Inn and said that she would be there Saturday morning to bring us to the airport. She told me, when I say that I’ll be here, I mean it and she did. Gotta love her. Well, I must say that I really enjoyed Cane Garden Bay as I had never been there before and the Ole Works Inn was very nice with very nice people. I would highly recommend it. We had a room on the 3rd floor with a large balcony that looked out over at Jost Van Dyke (my favorite place on earth). It was quite different looking over at Jost from this spot and I tended to stare at it more times than not. I must have 20 pictures of it from my balcony in Cane Garden Bay. Although, I will never give up going to Jost Van Dyke and staying at Sandcastle, Cane Garden Bay was different, but beautiful in it’s own sort of way, and I enjoyed it more that I though that I would. We had the beach basically to ourselves for 3 days, probably because the weather was not very good while we were there. It rained off and on for the whole time we were there, but not enough to keep us from enjoying it and doing things as well as swimming. Probably why we never experienced the “cruise ship people” while we were there, but that was just fine with me.

I must apologize to the T’tolers who planned a happy hour get together at Myette’s on Thursday, Feb. 2nd, that we never got to attend and therefore, unfortunately I never did not get to meet you guys (Idette, Sidney and others). The reason for this was that my husband, Brian, got very sick the night we arrived (Wed., Feb. 1st) and it lasted until Friday, Feb. 3rd. I thought a one point that I was going to have to take him to the hospital in Road Town. We’re not sure if he had food poisoning or very bad stomach virus, but he was like death warmed over for a couple of days. (the only bummer of the whole trip). He did recuperate by Friday, so it all ended well. We ate at Myettes and Quito’s which was just all right for me, but had the best breakfasts at the Big Banana each morning. I must say though that I loved everything else about Myettes. The way it looks like a little jungle was just great! I would love to stay there sometime.

The highlight of our trip to Cane Garden Bay was Quito. We got to see him perform acoustic and with his band as well as meet him personally and get him to autograph my Caribbean Run CD that I purchased from his gift shop. He was fabulous. I haven’t stopped listening to his CD since I got home. He is quite a gentleman and extremely nice person also.

Saturday we left for home, no problems with flights although the flight from Puerto to Boston was a little bumpy and a man had to be taken off the plane before take off because he keeled over with stomach pains. I wonder if he had the same thing that Brian had. Hope he’s OK. Anyway, I’m already counting down to my next time in the BVI. Hope you enjoyed, I’ll post pictures soon.
Meg
P.S. This was the first year we spent "Ground Hog Day" in the BVI, and I gotta tell you, if waking up everyday in the BVI, over and over again, we wouldn't mind it a bit!!