Our B.V.I. Adventure

I'll get to the sand bucket momentarily, but I must tell you about the wonderful dinner party we attended on Friday night.  At the top of our hill live the most lovely couple, Peter and Denise.  Last Friday they invited us to their house for dinner.  We weren't sure who else was going to be there, but we were very excited to see them again and possibly make some new friends!

Their house is just gorgeous.  Here is a commercial photo of their terrace, taken for the BVI Property Guide.  A feature article about the craftsman, Mike Master, who buit the metal railing is in this month's issue.  It's amazing to me that we have the same view as Peter and Denise, albeit their's is much more stunning because they're near the top of the hill. 

We had a wonderful time!  There were three other couples, so 12 in all when you count Peter and Denise's mothers who are visiting from Europe. 

As for dinner, it was divine.  We had a wonderful salad with endives, asparagus, mushrooms, and sugar snap peas topped with a creamy balsamic vinagrette.  Denise prepared Chilean Sea Bass for the main course, with a rich white cream sauce.  It was to die for!  She served white and brown rice along with spinach. Oh, and for dessert!  AJ, one of Denise's friends had made the most beautiful chocolate torte covered in raspberries and caramel.  Countless bottles of champagne and wine were consumed.  It was a lovely evening!

Afterwards, we headed to the pub - Pusser's Road Town.  We've been on the island for three of these legendary Friday nights now and couldn't miss it!  This is where the sand bucket comes in...

This is a new drink that Charles {aka Charlie T} is working on and as you can see, it's served in a 22 ounce sand bucket, complete with plastic shovel. 
That's Pier on the right - he is a consultant for Pusser's. He's also in a band called The Edge. Pier and Adam are going to form another musical act, and if we can find Michael a drum set it may just be a trio. The drink was so large, we could hardly finish it!  I'm not sure when these will be available for sale, so let's just say Charlie T's Sand Bucket is coming soon!
Hard to believe we went from drinking Veuve Clicquot to this all in the same night!  But that's what makes this place so fantastic.  Cheers!

A local in possession of jumper leads so kindly gave us a ride back to our car and bettter yet - gave us a jump.  At this point, we decided to abort our mission.  We turned around and headed for home.

We came upon a stop in traffic about 3 miles down the road and the car decided to stop again.  It just so happened we were just outside of Nanny Cay.  There is a sports bar there called Mulligan's.

On this particular day, she was dressed up as Snow White.  Any Skype conversation with Avery is not complete without the following:

• Singing all verses of Taylor Swift's "You Belong to Me"
• Asking "What is Milly doing?"
• Telling variations of The Night Before Christmas stories.  These stories actually started at Thanksgiving when Avery asked me to tell her a "scary" story.  So, on the fly - who could say no to her? - I made up a story called The Night Before Thanksgiving.  It went something like this:

It was the night before Thanksgiving and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse... (Here's where we deviate from the popular Christmas tale.)

All of the food had been prepared and put away for the next day.  Memaw had made her pies; YaYa had made her stuffing.

Everyone was tucked in their beds when they heard a loud CRASH!  They jumped out of bed and ran to kitchen.  They couldn't believe what they were seeing... 

The pots and pans were on the floor!  All of the food was gone!  And then they found...a single feather! 

They knew a turkey had been there and gobbled up their Thanksgiving meal!  But how did the turkey get away?  He jumped on Pawpaw's motorcylce and zoomed away! 

I'm not exactly sure why Avery found this story so fascinating, but it has been told and retold countless times.  Follow-up versions have included The Night Before Avery's Birthday and The Night Before Milly's Birthday.   

If you're not on Skype, you should definitely get an account.  It's free and all you need is a webcam!  Our Skype user names are ameliaedaniels and michael.d.daniels!  Happy Skyping!

Those who are docked at Nanny Cay or staying in the hotel have complimentary access to the pool and beach.  Guests for the day, like us, pay only $5 for a chair and umbrella.  Not a bad deal, huh?  We spent most of the day here, lounging around the pool.  That's my book in the bottom right corner of the picture.  I'm reading Just Jackie, Her Private Years by Edward Klein. 

This will have to make the itinerary of any guests who come to visit us.  The snorkeling is amazing at Nanny Cay.  While we didn't partake on this particular Saturday, we have done it before and the reef is beautiful.  It is very close to shore. 

Oh, and check out this photo of my new Rainbows. 

 
Michael gave them to me for Christmas. So far, we've be able to keep them away from Milly. {She loves to chew leather, especially the leather of a flip flop.} I'm going to try to take another photo a year from now, after they've been worn in. We'll see how they hold up being worn nearly every day.

We had another great Friday night at Pusser's Road Town Pub. 


On tap for the weekend?  A day at the pool at Nanny Cay and possibly a visit to Smuggler's Cove.

If you've seen the movie Hitch, with Will Smith, then you can picture what I looked like on Tuesday morning when I awoke.  You know the scene when he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror after having an allergic reaction to shellfish? 


Well, we had our own little reaction in this house...

"Michael?  Miiiiiichael?" I screamed as my good eye focused on my reflection in the mirror.  I could not believe what I was seeing.  I ran into the other room and grabbed Michael's arm.  The look on his face was priceless.  My left eye was swollen shut. 

We immediately began searching for a diagnosis online.  In the midst of all of this, Michael brought me a Benadryl tablet and some water.  It turns out the swelling was due to a bite of some kind.  That's right.  A mosquito bite or possibly a spider bite. {I cringe at the thought of the latter...}

Fortunately, I was in no pain - just suffering from a dose of humility and self-abasement as I posed for several photos.  Why we felt the need to take pictures of this unfortunate event is beyond me, but we have 20 different shots, and no, I will not be posting them here.

About the time Michael headed off to work and I logged onto my computer, it hit me.  Or should I say the Benadryl hit me.

Trying to work while under the influence of Benadryl is not much fun, nor is walking the dog and running into your neighbor.  I think my sunglasses covered the swollen eye, but I could hardly put a sentence together. 

This is only half of our bad BVI day.  Michael was working at the Pusser's headquarters on this day and around 2:00 p.m. he received a call from the warehouse downstairs.  There was a large truck attempting to make a delivery and he needed to move his car. 

Because he is so thoughtful, he offered to move his co-workers car as well.  She was blocking the same truck.  Michael moved her car to another spot in the parking lot and parked our car on the street.  Problem solved!  Not so fast...

About five minutes pass and Michael receives another call from the warehouse.  His car had been hit.  He laughed to himself as he walked downstairs because the car is already a beater and he figured it would be difficult to pinpoint which dent was new.

He laughed aloud when he saw the actual damage.  Another SUV (much newer and prettier than ours) had been pulling out of a driveway when her gas pedal got stuck.  Her car slammed into ours and pushed it up and over the curb.  Our car slid about six feet along the concrete wall.

Check out this photo that Michael took on his Blackberry.  {He doesn't have data on his phone and can't send photos.}

Thanks to the many of you who have sent emails and messages through Facebook about our blog.  While we agree that many of the photos are beuatiful and showcase "Nature's little secret", as the BVI refers to itself, Michael and I have discussed it and we don't think our blog is yet representative of all that we see and do here in the BVI.

SO, Our BVI Adventure is about to get real...now that the family is gone and the "honeymoon" is seemingly over.  In the coming days, we're going to take you along with us as we go shopping for groceries, as we apply for a driver's license, and other various activities.  It may not sound all that exciting now, but just wait. I promise 2010 will reveal the good, the bad, and yes, the ugly.  {Gasp!}

And on a housekeeping note, please feel free to leave a comment here on the blog as well.  At first, the comment section was not enabled, but I've changed it since.  Thanks for coming along on our adventure!