Siddhia Hutchinson gallery opening...

Since we're nearly at  the end of our stay on Vieques Lorrie and I got an early start on Thursday. I took a picture  of the sundial when we got there. Can you tell what time it was?

I realize that's kind of unfair of me, since you can't see the markers on the bamboo stakes.  It was right @ 9am when we arrived. Lorrie took her morning meditative walk while the beach was empty. I busied myself with making a sign for our little cabana. We have yet to hang out our shingle, so I decided today was a good time to do that.

The plan was to hang out on the beach until 4:00 or 4:30. Then we were going back to the house to change and then head into Isabel for the Siddhia Hutchinson gallery opening.  We were supposed to meet Andre and Judy there. The four of us  would then  try to hook up for dinner afterwords. . We were hoping to eat @ Cnuc.

Ok..back to the beach...

Thursday was a nice slow day on the beach.  Judy and Andre were at Sunbay today doing their yoga and writing sessions. Lorrie and I did our yoga first thing before anyone showed up. We then took a swim over to the rock gallery. We did our maintenance, at the gallery,  that Andre is always reminding me of. He says it's part of my "responsibility" as curator. After that it was just hanging out and enjoying our beautiful Playa la Plata.

Around 12 noon Hal and Adrienne showed up. They came down and chatted for a bit. They were excited because Donty was delivering them a kayak! The plan was to kayak out to lemon reef and then go find those two mangrove trees where Lorrie and I were. I took some video of them taking off from Playa la Plata and then their return:

Seems like the days on Orchid just keep going faster and faster. Lorrie and I can't believe how quickly the day goes. Before we knew it 4:00 arrived and it was time to leave. We hated leaving early...we've become accustomed to closing out the beach. Anyway..we headed back to Casa La Vista and then on into Isabel for the gallery opening.

 As it was we got to the gallery early, way too early.  Lorrie got a picture of me standing outside.

Since we had some extra time, Lorrie and I decided to walk down and find the "real" seaglass beach.  We had found what we thought was seaglass beach a year ago, but have since been told it wasn't really it. As we were walking down to the ocean Lorrie and I struck up a conversation with 4 some that was also waking down the same direction. We found out that they were also going down to seaglass beach and knew exactly how to get there. We ask if they didn't mind if we tagged along.  As we were walking and talking we figured out that we already knew these people. We had met them the day before on Orchid. They were Irene and Jake and were friends of Andre and Judy's . Jake's an artist. As we walked down near the ocean Jake explained to us how much the area had changed, he's been coming to the island for a long time.  He pointed out some new buildings that weren't even there a couple years ago. I took a shot of one of the new houses:

While we were on the beach, finding lots of sea glass btw, one of the ferry's took off from Isabel. You just can't believe the amount of diesel exhaust that spewed from that thing. Jake said that he bet it didn't even make it to the main island. Lorrie grabbed a shot of it:

How would you like to be on board breathing that in! YUCK

It was getting near 6 so we all walked back up to the gallery. Still no sign of Judy and Andre so Lorrie and I headed inside the gallery. The place was really filling up. We grabbed a couple glassed of wine and began to mingle. As we were walking around a guy came by with a plate of sushi. Lorrie and I dove in.

We hung out in the gallery for another 45 mins. By that time the place was really getting packed

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Well...I have to cut this post short. We're  now in Houston..trying to get back to Indiana. Our flight was delayed 3 hours and Lorrie is telling me we need to get to the gate. More to come....

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Well...our flight has been delayed again. We have another 2 hours..so more time to blog. Weather in Houston is terrible today.

Now where was I.....

Oh yes...Lorrie and I hung out at the gallery for 45 mins or so, hoping to see Judy and Andre. I finally told Lorrie that my stomach was saying "feed me" and that we might as well go eat. Now wouldn't you know it, right as we were heading out of the gallery Judy and Andre show up. So...we headed back into the gallery for a bit longer. It was elbow to elbow. After another 30 mins of it Lorrie and I opted to just head out for dinner. We told Andre and Judy what we were doing and that they could hook up with us at Cnuc's. 

Now the fact that the gallery was packed and that Cnuc's is right across from the gallery never really crossed our minds. We never thought about making a reservation, but we should have. They were full for the night, do in part to the gallery opening.

So now what? We tried to find El Patio..but couldn't. I said "Let's just head to Next Course, we know it's good. Lorrie agreed and that's where we headed. Problem was...Next Course is closed on Thursdays...oops...forgot about that. Now what?

We remembered Judy and Andre talking about Veritas and how much they liked it. So we headed to it. I knew it was at the Crows Nest and I know where the Crows Nest is, right down from Maritzas on 996. So off to the Crows Nest we headed.  When we got there we were surprised how few people were dining, it was about 7:45.  We were seated in the back outside, I think it's called the patio. It was a nice setting, there was some Herbi Hancock playing softly in the background. Our waiter, Mark, showed up. He was getting it now. I mean working hard.  He ask if we wanted to start off with a drink. I said, sure. Lorrie orders a gin/tonic. Mark asks "what brand of gin would you like?" Yeah...I'm thinking this place has got it's sheit together. Lorrie orders Tanqueray, of course. Next I'm up to the plate.

"What kind of single malt scotch you got here Mark?" I ask.

"Sorry...we don't have any scotch."

grrr.....so I order a gin/tonic. But then I change my mind and think "I'll have a mojito..I haven't had one of them in a long time."

Mark  then tells me they have no mint.

grrr....so I get the gin/tonic. Lorrie is laughing.

We make things simple and order the spinach salad and the surf & turf special. Now let me tell you the spinach salad is fabulous. You've got baby spinach tossed with sun dried cranberries, red onion & goat cheese with pomegranate vinaigrette. It was every bit as good as Next Courses spinach salad, really it might even be better. The main course was Grilled Sirloin Steak topped with Wild Mushroom and Gorgonzola Sauce plus Pan blackened Mahi-Mahi topped with a Lobster Cream sauce served over Wild Mushroom and Sun dried tomato Israeli Couscous....aka "surf and turf".  It was good..but not great. It was way beneath the salad. I thought the lobster sauce on the Mai Mai was rather bland. But like I said the entree was good. Then for desert I had a slice of key lime pie. Don't know why. I just wanted a piece of key lime pie. It was very, very good. Lorrie had Chocolate espresso flan over red velvet Belgium waffles. There was some kind of whipped topping on it too. Now that was great. It hit just as high a note as the spinach salad.  Total bill, including tip was $125. After that big meal it was back to the house and to bed early. Tomorrow is our last day on the island.



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airline update....our flight has been delayed another 2 hours. Somebody does not want Lorrie and I to leave Houston. At the rate things are going we could have stayed another day on the island. 

:-)