I don’t think I ever got tired of that view! The only thing I wish our room had was a screen door to the balcony so we could have slept with the door open and had the sea air and breeze, sometimes, coming through the room. I do so love the sleeping with the windows open! Especially at the beach!

Waking up on our own with the sun, maybe even a little before…eventually got motivated and went down to the beach to put our feet in the sand and the sea, feel the water on my toes. I may have mentioned, our goal at every beach is to get our feet in the water and get a picture! I think I only missed doing that on one beach! I got pictures of the beach and in the water, but not our feet in the water.

What’s that song by Zac Brown, Toes? Yup, I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand. Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand. Life is good today. For me, all except for the beer, spot on! I just put that song on and now I’m staring longingly at the window and the rain on it imagining its waves gently laping at the window! Sorry, back to you!

We went down to Sangria’s and got some breakfast, quite tasty actually, and not horribly expensive. It was the view that beat all! And with that view, what more could you want?! And one of my favorite parts of being at the beach and on an island, you can go almost anywhere barefoot! I am a barefoot baby, aside from being a beach baby, and if I can go barefoot, I’m doing it! And..having sand on your feet, what a great way to scratch your feet if there’s an itch! Win-win!

After breakfast we went to talk to the concierge and booked our first boat excursion for the next day! We picked up a calendar and some ideas on things to do, asked the hotel to get us a taxi to take us into Red Hook to get some groceries. I apologize, I don’t have any pictures of Red Hook except what I shared from the Tap & Still.

We went to Moe’s Fresh Market to pick up supplies. Turns out Moe’s, where they say “Welcome to Moe’s”! I couldn’t believe it!, is one of the pricier markets on the island, go figure! We did go to another market later in the week that was definitely cheaper, but we’re in a touristy area, so… but…what Moe’s does have is an amazing wine cellar, with not just wine, but hard alcohols, rum from the islands, of course. The food, it’s a gourmet market, was stupid expensive, you have to remember, everything has to be shipped in, think Whole Foods, but more expensive! But their wine cellar had some of the best alcohol prices on the island.

This was also when we found out, no Uber on the island, just taxis, and they charge not per trip, but per person, and it’s more expensive if you’re travling solo! We’re supporting local economy…If you do take taxis, be sure you have exact change, or at least singles, you won’t always get change back if your ride was $7 per person, were you going to give a $6 tip on a 5 minute ride? Just a piece of travel advice. The taxi drivers are all very nice and some will give you tips on local flavor, some try to send you to the very touristy spots, it’s a mixed bag, and adds to the experience.

After Moe’s we crossed the street to Ocean Surfari who would become some of our new best friends! They set us up with our next two ocean excursions! Tuesday will be our Do It All Snorkel, I can’t tell you about it now, but it involves water, a boat, snorkeling, alcohol, and pizza! More next time on that! And they also set us up with a day trip to Jost Van Dyke, British VI, more on that later!

Almost everything in the store was BOGO [buy one-get one free]! You cannot beat that! And…if you spend $50, you got a $10 off coupon. We spent, we got, we spent, we got! We ended up with some fun treats, a hat and swim trunks for PSM and I got a swim shirt and sweater/sweatshirt. And you could tell almost everyone on the island, tourist and local, went to their place! The island was a walking advertisement for this place! I also picked something up that I’m super excited about, but I’ll tell you another time!

After Red Hook, we went back to the hotel, it was time for water! We changed into a beach gear, grabbed our snorkel gear, headed to the hotel lobby to get beach towels, a short walk and we were at our beach. It really was a nice beach. We both got in the water, the snorkeling wasn’t great, turns out we needed to go past the swimming area to see stuff, we’ll know for next time.

After snorkeling, PSM went to rest on the beach, I put up my gear and went back to swim and stand in the water, I was just happy. A few days later PSM said it was almost impossible to get me out of the water! And? ha ha

As I was in the water I started talking to some people, you just randomly talk to people at the beach, especially when you’re at a resort, people are more chatty, it’s nice. I ended up talking to a woman about traveling and told her about PSM’s Bourbon Trail Ride, I’ll tell you about that another time! And we became friends, I even sent her the itinerary I built for PSM. Now, speaking of meeting people, almost everyone we met while we were there, I say almost everyone, was either from Massachusettes or Pennsylvania, not far from where we live, some southern connection, and Jewish. What are the odds on that one?!

I got out a little while later, PSM was happy on the beach talking to a guy, with a drink in his hand. We were both hungry so I went to Sangria’s and put some snacks on his open tab, and another rum, works for me! We ate and chatted with the family, I talked to my dad, sat in the sun, went in the water…it was like a wash, rinse, repeat for the holidays!

We stayed on the beach until the sun went down. Why do I hear The Cars song You Might Think…could be the line “But you kept it going, till the sun fell down, You kept it, going. Now you see how my brain works sometimes!
We kept moving from one spot to the next on the beach because the sun would set over here, but not over there, so we moved over there, then that would become over here, and the sun would set over here, but not over there. It was a vicisous cycle! You definitely do not hear me complaining!

For the life of me, I cannot remember what we did for dinner that night! It’s all good because the next day was great, and the next day, and the next. How could it be wrong in paradise.

More tomorrow!