Two days back from my week on St Croix and my body is still trying to catch up on all the things it was deprived of during that vacation... the big one being sleep of course. It is now nearly 11:30 in the evening and I just woke up after falling asleep on the couch around 5:00. Thing is; it's a pretty sure bet that I'll still sleep okay later on tonight.

    That being said; St Croix was a great week of fun times this year.... not that it has ever been bad of course, but this year was even better in a lot of ways. It didn't start off all that great to tell ya the truth. My friend Jan was nice enough to let me stay over at her place in Orlando the night before my plane took off and then was even nicer by getting up and taking me to the airport the next morning. Got up that morning not feeling all that well, but not bad enough to stay home for sure. No problem checking in and going through security. Then it was another 2 hrs of waiting for my planes departure time. So I just pulled up a comfortable piece of carpet back out of the way and took a nap... waking up just in time to board my plane.

    It's a bit more than three hours of flying time over to San Juan Puerto Rico from Orlando, and I managed to sleep for most of that. Waking only to accept a soda from the steward and to watch, and listen, in amazement as my seat mate, a young lady who had partied to hard the night before, proceeded to 'blow chunks' into her in flight barf bag. Most of it even made it into the bag, but what surprised me was that I didn't go off in a spate of sympathetic spewing. Yuck!!!!!

    Made it into San Juan okay though and then spent a couple of hrs sitting around waiting for the plane to St Croix. Lucky there were other dancers hanging around to talk to and we all seemed to gather together in the end like individual geese who end up in one big noisy flock.

    Landed in St Croix and found that George's management skill was as good as ever. There were people there to meet us and hand out room assignments and assign us to a taxi for our trip to the dance hotels. Actually we are all in 3 separate resort areas that are next to each other right along the beach west of the town of Christiansted. An easy time checking in and immediately finding more friends from past dances. Went to my assigned condo and found my room mate for the week, Navin. He has been to St Croix many times before so it was easy to get use to him. Got unpacked, took a short nap and then went over for our first dinner on the Island.

    All dinners are provided for us while we are there dancing and the food over all is pretty good. Some evenings are better than others of course but over all I like them all especially the dinners that are catered in by some of the local people.

   Standard fair at the first dinner, plenty of old friends to see and say hello to, plus words from George and a couple other management types. An hour or so to eat and then a break of an hour before the dance started at 8:00. I was starting to feel a little worse at that point, actually having some lower G.I. distress, but it wasn't enough to keep me away from the start of the dance.

    Dancing started at 8:00 that evening and it was a smokin' good time from the very first note. A very good group of dancers this year with pretty much every one being good enough to get through any dance George or Lisa could through at us. Lot's of pretty women partners to dance with also. It seemed like there were quite a few extra women this year, which is, or can be, hard on them. But it was nothing but good times for me and all the other guys. Unfortunately, my lower gut seemed to only have enough reserve to get me through the 1st half before needing to take a break, go to the bathroom and sit the second half out. Lucky for me this problem only lasted through two nights of dancing before I finally got back to normal again. I began to suspect that the meal out that Jan and I had the night before my flight might of had a bit of e-colie hiding in it somewhere. I suspected the salad for some reason, so it was no surprise to find out upon my return that a whole batch of spinach and other leaf products had been recalled during the week I was gone.

    After every dance the 'Women of the Kitchen' would come up with these great snacks to serve around the pool area. Great platters of sliced fruit, home made hummus and guacamole, chips, crackers and cheese, and the desserts. OMG!!!! Grab a plate, pile on some food, cuz you know.... you earned it, and then sit or stand around for an hour or so and talk to everyone you just danced with. There is no better way to end a day than that.

   Three hours of dancing, a whole day of travel, meeting and talking to dozens of people..... it's no wonder I slept well while down there... just could of used a little more of it on most days..... So that's enough for today. I'll continue on catching up on the old and the new for the next few days. For now though; here are a few pictures from the past week. Will continue to upload them as I find time. Enjoy!

Contra Dance Week in St Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands 

 Feb 6-13, 2013 

A scene just down the beach from the condo where I am staying. This is on the way to an old sugar plantation called Little Princess. I use the palm trees as a marker for where I need to turn into the jungle for the trail. I still get lost most years anyway.

A view from the balcony deck of the condo looking towards the harbor at Christiansted.

The schooner Roseway heading back to harbor after a day of taking 6-8th graders out for a day trip of learning on the boat. There will be more photo's of this boat later on.

One of many coconut palms along the shoreline.

A close up of some of the coconuts.

Another view of the Roseway.

One of the dancers here this week and his young son. It was really a kick watching this young boy and how all of the dancers took to him. He will be a dancer himself in a year or two.

The stone base of one of the islands many windmills... or what is left of them anyway. The other side of this one fronts the pool area where all the snacks were eaten after the dance.

One of two palm's that bracket the stairs leading up to the office-pool area at Sugar Beach where I stayed. This is a magnificent tree and I have taken 100's of pictures of it over the years looking for that perfect photo..... This isn't it! But it will have to do until I do get one though.

A closer view of the trunk and fruit.

One more.

This one popped out while I was playing with the photo software. I thought it looked a little different.

My room mate Navin, watching the waves in the bay outside our room.

Nice tropical views every where you look. Sometimes you don't even have to get up from your beach chair.

Watched several people wind sailing over the course of the week. Really wish they would of had these when I was younger. I would of been all over this sport, even if there isn't really a good place to put your beer.

The trade winds blew constantly while I was there giving these people a great opportunity to get in some good rides. Still not sure how they tack them though.

One last view.

A frigate bird riding the thermals along the front of the condo's. They, and the brown pelicans, would catch these up drafts where the wind would come ashore and hit either the wall of palm trees or the front of the buildings, and then ride them for miles with out flapping a wing. It was like surfing the wind without a board.

The view from Breeze's, the little cafe next door where I would like to go for lunch. The service was exceptionally slow, but the food was okay, the price wasn't too high and the view was good. A couple of glasses of cold ice tea and a nice conversation with the people you are with... who the hell cares how long it takes to get and eat your meal. It is definitely a good place to go if you have finally succumbed to 'Island Time'.