Once we got settled into our villa -- which didn't take much since all we had were our carry-ons and a couple of kits with are necessities that the airlines gave us to get by until our luggage arrived -- we decided to hit my personal favorite, Skinny Legs. It's just a plain and simple bar and grill where you can get adult beverages and food that can be cooked on a grill. Nothing deep-fried and no drinks that need a blender. The hurricanes were hard on Skinny's, the roof was gone and all was in shambles but the Kenny Chesney Foundation paid for a new roof and it is now better than ever. Since the big NFL playoffs were going on we knew they would be open a little later than their normal 6 p.m. Most of the visitors, be they home owners or tourists, are from the Northeast part of the country so when we got there at the last quarter of the Patriots game they were all a'cheering for their Pats. There was one guy there brave enough to don a Jacksonville Jag jersey but there was only good-natured ribbing amongst everyone.
Unfortunately, when we got there they had no Painkillers, which is a drink I just LOVE! They also were out of sauerkraut, so no turkey reuben for me and they had...brace yourself...no BACON!!!!! We had a couple of cheeseburgers, Mike got his with jalapenos and onions. Yummo. We also imbibed on the drink special which was rum punch...a few of them. We hung around for the Vikings game and were two of the few Vikings fans there. Early in the game it looked promising but at the half we decided to take off and crash to rest up for the new day.
Once we got up the next morning we showered and I put on my swimsuit, shorts and a shirt that I had bought at Skinny's the night before so I didn't have to wear the same shirt for 3 days in a row. I did have some sandals but I had no sunscreen so I picked some up at the Luv City Mini Market -- "if we don't have it, you don't need it" -- so I was beach ready. The main highlight for the day was to get our luggage but I wanted to spend some time on the beach of course. We jumped in the jeep and hit the road and I was trying to find the road that we took that cut across the island and through the National Park to get to the North Shore beaches. Of course, due to time and the hurricanes, my landmarks were just gone. So we ended up driving back to Cruz Bay which we needed to end up at eventually to meet the ferry in the afternoon. For some dang blasted reason, Mike just HAD to go to the National Park Service because some guy he was talking to on the ferry told him that they have a great map of the island there. We headed into the parking lot and parked the jeep. We got out and I headed to the bathroom but...
due to the government shut down not only was the National Park Service building closed but so were their restrooms. Thanks you, Democrats!!!! Don't fear though, I'm sure the Obamacare Health plan will cover the urinary tract infection I will get from not being able to use the bathroom when I have to!!! Disgusted, we got into the jeep again and Mike asked what we should do. I replied, "I'm not sure just what you ARE doing but we are wasting precious beach time here!" After that we drove on the North Shore road and I chose Trunk Bay to visit for a couple of hours. Since we didn't have much for groceries and such we didn't pack a cooler that day. We did have the beach chairs and towels and I had my hat to protect my face. We were also missing bug spray and those sand fleas absolutely LOVE me. My feet and ankles were their lunch!
The beach at Trunk Bay is still beautiful. I don't remember the drop off in the water being so soon though. Trunk Bay had a great little snack shack and showers which were all still closed. Had to make do with port-a-potties. After a couple of hours there, our tummies started to growl and we headed back to Cruz Bay to grab a bite to eat and kill some time until our luggage arrived. Parking in Cruz Bay is the trickiest part of going there. We finally found a few empty spots that were marked "Parking for Ronnie's Pizza Customers Only" so we figured, hey, we're hungry AND we need a place to park so, why not? Ronnie's had good New York style pizza so we split a small pizza and sat down and watched some TV with the workers there. Before we left we asked them just where does a person park in this town? He suggested maybe down the street at The Lumberyard since parking was not used there any longer due to the hurricane.
This is a picture of Jake's Diner which is right beside The Lumberyard. Bobby and Jamie and I went there for lunch when we were here years ago. Jared said that these commercial buildings will probably not be restored as they are so badly damaged they will probably be totally replaced.
After parking we walked down to the area by the ferry dock and went in some shops around there. We finally found a snorkel gear rental shop and ended up talking to the owner for quite some time. Afterwards both Mike and I agreed she reminded us of our nephew's wife, Cassie. She was talking about how she and her baby were on the last plane to leave the islands before the hurricane. She just got back about a month ago and they were trying to get their business rebuilt. We were telling her about our travel disaster and she let us use her phone to call the airlines. After talking to them they said the bags would be on the 5:00 ferry. That left us with some comfort so the owner of the rental shop told us about a bar and grill close by where we could kill some time. We wandered over to the Cruz Bay Landing and I had my first painkiller of the vacation. Then I had another painkiller. Sometime during my second painkiller, I noticed that they were serving these babies in mason jars, which meant that I was drinking a quart of painkillers. Yikes! While we were sitting there, we noticed some of the food that was coming out of the kitchen and saw some killer loaded baked potato fries and ordered up some...needed something to soak up all that alcohol in my stomach! Time eventually passed and the 5:00 ferry docked along with Marlin and our luggage!!! After hauling it back to the Jeep we hit the road and got back to the villa where we unpacked our stuff and showered with real shampoo and soap and put on real pajamas!!! Oh joy!!!
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