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Friday, February 26, This Milkshake is the Most Awesome Thing Ever (Day 6)

Ah, our last full day in Paradise. Some folks might find this depressing. (And to be honest, I’m often “some folks”) But why waste time when there’s plenty to do and time to use! Since we were up early, we headed out with Russ & Anne to Magens Bay for a last morning walk. What a way to start the day. I wish every Friday started this way!

Even Ping got in on the action, because of course he did. He’d come with us earlier, but today he was brave enough to peek out of the Ping Pouch and have his photo taken before the sun got to be too much for him.

Anne recommended this cool photo, which they take on their last day. It took us a few shots before we got it just right and I didn’t look like I had an arm growing out of my head!

From Megans we headed out to get a cache. I know. You are shocked to hear that. We’d saved P3…Picaro Point Prize GC5PCA2. The cool thing about this cache….ruanwv can see you and if you have binoculars, you can see them too! (We didn’t have binoculars.) It was an interesting drive out and I was glad we had the Jeep.

We strolled out to the point. What an amazing place. Dry, but not barren; lots of cacti and sea grape bushes and what looked like sedge. At any rate, it was green and dry and surrounded by the pounding waves. And windy. Boy was it windy!

We zero’d out in what appeared to be the right spot and then commenced to looking amongst the rock and sea grape. And there were so many choices. And I got stuck. And then realized I was obviously in the wrong spot because no one else had reported getting stuck.

Chad had texted Russ & Anne to let them know we were looking so they could watch our foolishness.

And finally, after trying to think like Russ….I looked down and BAM! Geocache! Hooray for me!

Our timing was perfect once again, because as we were strolling back to the Jeep, a bunch of folks were coming out to the point to take in the view.

Having successfully found the cache, we rewarded ourselves by stopping at Udderly Delight for a kick ass milkshake! I’m seriously ranking my coconut, coconut ice cream, and coconut rum milkshake as the most delicious milkshake I have ever had the privilege of consuming. De-freakin-licious I tell you. And Chad would agree, even though he got the coconut, chocolate ice cream, and Kahlua one, that mine was better.

A quick stop at Plaza Extra to get some rum to mule home and then back to the cottage. Although it wasn’t really quick because there is a lot of rum from which to choose and we really wanted to get something we couldn’t find at home. (We realized about a month later that we’d failed on one account when I saw one of the bottles of rum available at a local grocery in WV.)

Our final adventure of the day was a trip to a difficult to drive to little place called Neltjeberg Bay. Our lovely hosts said they usually kayak out to it, it’s much simpler. But with four people and two kayaks…well that wasn’t going to happen. So we loaded up into the Jeep and headed out. Chad drove and Russ rode shotgun giving directions. And honestly, there is no way we’d have ever found it with just directions because, hello….off the beaten path! We were all a little surprised to find several vehicles parked at the end of the road, but no matter, there was plenty of lovely beach for everyone. And lovely it was!

Relaxing. It was that too. A quiet beach with a lovely view.

And best of all, sea glass to hunt! I found plenty, including the top of a clear bottle which would eventually become a pendant with another piece of green sea glass suspended inside!

It was truly a splendid day, which we finished with cocktails on the deck.

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Saturday, February 27, And Home We Go (Day 7)

The weather was perfect for our send off. A beautiful blue sky and sun as far as the eye could see. After packing, then repacking to assure that not only would the rum be padded enough to survive the trip home, but that it was also easily visible to customs, we said farewell to our most excellent, awesome hosts and headed to the airport.

I perhaps thought it odd when the gate agent took our entire tickets as we queued, but I was still in my happy vacation mind frame and you know, when the in the islands go with the flow. Then we walked out to the tarmac. And waited. I was starting to think I was going to get sunburn waiting for our plane. And then we walked out to our plane.

Which is when I looked at Chad and said, “I have three words.” Because what awaited us was not the puddle jumper prop plane on which we’d hopped over to St. Thomas. You know, one with an aisle down the middle and a divider between passengers and the captain. Not this time. This time is was a freakin’ Cessna.

So, ok. I can deal with that. Until A) the Captain came out of the plane and he looked to be 20 and he was missing the temple of his aviator sunnies and seemed rather put out about it and B) the luggage guys kept moving ALL the luggage around to balance the plane. Including our carry-on bags. My backpack rode in the storage behind the prop on the wing. Yeah. At which point I looked at Chad with a look that could only be interpreted, as “Well clearly we’re going to die, but at least we had an awesome vacation. Also, I blame you.”

It only, of course, got weirder. They assigned us to seats in the plane based on size. So the tall lady, she sat in the co-pilot’s seat. Ahem, she SAT IN THE CO-PILOT’S SEAT. The other small woman and I, we were in the last two seats. I was beside the door. The big pieces of luggage were crammed in behind us. It was not awesome at all.

And then I noticed that the Captain’s window, well it was held from flying away by his seatbelt. Which is when I started wondering, as he was still looking around for the missing piece of his sunnies, if perhaps I should offer him my Raybans? Would that increase the likelihood that we would not die? I mean, it couldn’t hurt, right?  And about that time, the nice woman in the co-pilot’s seat found out that all the instruments in front of her were live.

Obviously we made it home unscathed. As did our rum. Plus, all our luggage was awaiting us at Pittsburgh, so that was exciting.

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