Lots of Sun on Maho Bay

Woke up as we did every day with the roosters crowing. Mike's c-pap machine said we slept for 10 hours -- 10 HOURS!!!! Only on vacation!!! We got our beach clothes on, Mike made breakfast (what a treat for me!) and I got the beach bag ready to go. As of last night when we got back, I keep sporting that wonderful bandaid for that killer cut on my leg but it beats the alternative. Upon jumping in the jeep Mike headed south towards Salt Water Pond to see just how far away it was. We came upon the Dolphin Market which appeared to be closed as the windows were all boarded up. Crabbie's Surf Shack was still there but a guy walking by said that he is kind of there hit and miss since the hurricane until he can get everything back again. Since we didn't have any snorkel gear, we just wanted to find the spot where we would have to take the short hike down to Salt Water Pond and then turned around and headed back. Mike wanted to check out somewhere else to see if he could get some snorkel gear and thought surely we would find some (at this point I still don't think he realizes how small and undeveloped this island is). We drove as far as we could east on Centerline Road up big hills and around sharp curves. Mike kept looking at the hills and equating them to the ones they would climb on snowmobile trips and then commenting on the hills and curves and how awful they would be in icy conditions. I had to inform him that I was running AWAY from winter and he kept bringing it up every chance he got and would he please stop that!!! There were so many boats that had been blown around and just capsized in the water...so much damage.

After not finding any promising beaches along this road, we decided to go to Maho Bay. It is a smaller beach where you can always see turtles popping up and usually some fishies. We were just sitting there relaxing when we heard the most peculiar noise. We looked up to see a whole bunch of medium sized fish swimming in a circular fashion very close to shore. They were eating up a bunch of minnows. They would go up and down the shoreline just reeling around in a circular fashion. It was quite entertaining -- if you weren't a minnow!

After we got back to the villa and cleaned the sand off we headed off to Skinny Legs. They were still out of coconut rum so painkillers were out of the question. Shucks! I did get a turkey reuben and Mike had yet another cheeseburger. While we were drinking some rum swizzles Mike noticed that the Olympics were on the televisions at the bar. My brain was apparently totally on vacation when I said "How can they have Winter Olympics when it is summer?" I got "the look" from Mike as he informed me that it was indeed winter here too. After our delicious meal, we went into Cruz Bay so that we could rent some snorkel gear so that Mike could try it out. When we got there I realized why we never went to Cruz Bay at night when we were here last time. There is no parking in the day and there is even less at night and there were people everywhere. So he double parked by the snorkel rental and left me in the vehicle in case I had to move it while he ran up and rented the snorkel gear. I did not realize he was getting ME snorkel gear as well so when we got back he got out my flippers. It was then that he asked what shoe size I was -- he had guessed and got a size 5/6 flippers. Honestly I don't remember what age I was when I wore a 5/6 shoe. Apparently he is not a "foot man" as we have only been married for over 32 years and is clueless about my shoe size.

I didn't realize it until we got back to the villa, but I did get PLENTY of sun that day. My chest and neck were quite red to say the least. I crawled into bed and Mike said I was radiating heat but I was freezing. It was kind of a long night as every move hurt. I didn't arrive here with that "base tan" that I usually get before going on a beach vacation so this was probably my own fault. Needless to say I did not get 10 hours of sleep that night.

I noticed during our drives down the bumpy trail to the villa that the villa I rented the last time I came with my nieces was directly above us. It had a couple of windows boarded up still and from the road I could see maybe a little damage on the roof but it still looks great. Maybe we'll go back to it someday.