Friday, October 26, 2012

Friday, October 26, 2012

It's nice to wake up with no real set plans. I get up around 8:30 AM and Dad and Brad are already up and making coffee. The TV is on playing the weather channel "Tracking Hurricane Sandy". They are calling it a "super-storm." Of course this was our original day to leave. Now we are really unsure what day we will be able to take off.

We had hoped to go to Bucks Island today but it looks pretty unpredictable outside.  Since we are still hoping to leave tomorrow, we decide to run some errands today.  Dad wants to check on his plane and make sure it is okay and re-fueled for tomorrow.

Once we arrive at the airport, we meet some friends of Mike.  They tell us there is a large jet-engine plane planning to land in about an hour or so and Dad should move his plane over to their side of the airport.  They drive us out to the plane and Dad moves it to the new location.  We then head up to the pilot’s lounge for Dad to start his flight plan.  He wants to be extra prepared this time.

When we left the airport we started our hunt for some “ting”.  The drinks Dr. Bailey had made for us the other day had been mixed with ting.  It is a juice that is very common in the island St. Kitts.  It wasn’t all that common on St. Croix, however.  We ended up going to at least 3 different supermarkets before we finally found it.

Kellie texted Dad informing him that his passport had finally arrived; she asked where we’d like to meet to get it.  She let us know that she was at K-Mart currently, so we made our way in that direction.  When we got to K-Mart we met Kellie in the parking lot.  At this time of day, everyone had the same thought on their mind: lunch!

We invited Kellie to join us at Mencho’s, the same sandwich place Brad had picked up for everyone a couple days ago.  She took us up on the offer, having never been there herself.  We sat around a table outside enjoying the warm island air and reminiscing over the last week.

When we made it back to the house after lunch, it was about 3:00 in the afternoon.  Brad had complained that Dad and I had yet to make it into the water.  Given the time and our track record for the last couple of days, I honestly thought it wasn’t going to happen.  Not to mention, we had dinner plans with Mike and Dr. Bailey.  I was proven wrong when Dad gathered his snorkeling gear and headed out the door.

I ran to catch up and we hiked along a nearby path to a small beach.  There were several turtle nests along the shore.  Some of the nests still had the mother turtle tracks where she made her way back to the water.  Few had tiny baby turtle tracks and I could almost imagine them hatching out of their little shells.

Dad had brought an additional set of snorkeling gear for me to borrow.  They were, however, a little big for me.  I watched as Brad made it out to the water first.  I had never snorkeled off the beach before and was a little nervous, especially when I saw the wide path of sea urchins that was unavoidable.  I mustered up some courage and made my way into the water.

My fear, combined with the oversized snorkel gear, didn’t keep me in the water for long.  Not to mention the scenes from Jaws kept replaying in my head.  That made matters worse and I’m sorry to say I soon retreated from the watery depths that I was consumed in.  No worries, however, I enjoyed sunbathing on the shore while the men continued their snorkeling adventures. 

We stayed a couple hours to get our island beach fix and then headed back to the house to wash up and prepare for dinner.  On our hike back, we crossed paths with a wildlife conservationist who was making her rounds to check on the turtle nests.  We also asked her about a very questionable ball of meshed sand and grass that we had seen in a tree near the shore.  She said she thought it was a nest of some kind but wasn’t entirely sure herself.

Once back at the house, we began getting ready for dinner.  I decided to put on another load of laundry, and in doing so glanced out the window.  There I saw the biggest dog I had encountered on the island.  (Most of the dogs were medium sized about 30-40lbs but no bigger)  This dog was at least 80 lbs or more.  I called to it through the window and it turned, looked at me and lay down.

I quickly ran outside to see him and found he not only had a collar, but tags with his name and address.  He belonged to the neighbors next door.  (On the other side of the house not where I had seen Misti, a few days prior, disappear).  His name was Pedro and he was very friendly and enjoyed a nice pat.

The weather began to look like the sky would open up at any moment.  It started pouring but only lasted less than a minute.  It was almost as if we had imagined the whole thing by how fast it was over.

We met Dr. Bailey and Mike at around 6:00 in the evening.  The Yacht Club, where we went, wasn’t far from where we were staying and it didn’t take us long to get there.  A  Halloween celebration was going on, and many people and children were dressed in costumes.  Dr. Bailey had once again brought her cute little Chihuahua and the shirt he wore made him look like a bumble bee.

We sat outside on a small deck that was directly followed by a small beach.  We sat and socialized while watching the many Halloween events (including a pumpkin carving contest) going on inside.  We discussed our plans to leave the next morning and hoped the weather would cooperate with us.  Hurricane Sandy should be past Florida by the time we take off.  Here’s hoping.