Saturday, July 4

Independence Day!

For the first time since getting here, I slept in late. I made my delicious breakfast of granola and plain yogurt and filled up my mug with some tasty coffee. I'm excited to brew the stuff I bought in St. Thomas soon. For now, I've still got a few more batches of Maxwell House to burn through the brewer. I ventured off to the beaches somewhere around noon. My lunch was a few handfuls of trail mix and some kiwi and bananas. I stopped off at Trunk bay for quick swim and ended up talking to the lifeguards for 2 hours. Kind of like how yesterday, I stopped by law enforcement and ended up having a two hour conversation. Guess I like to talk and listen. A few hours of work in a weekend isn't going to hurt anybody, so I'm happy to have more information that will help me along with the internship.

After trunk bay I went to Keith's house to see what was going on for the day there. I hung out for a bit and swam on his beach before heading to get dinner with him and the folks he's got visiting in from Ft. Lauderdale. We tried about five places in Coral Bay before getting to Sweet Plantains and getting a table. Not much is open here on the Fourth of July. Understandably so- it's not only Independence Day, but also Emancipation Day, and Carnival! At Sweet Plantains I had the tastiest meal of coconut curry chicken with rice and fried sweet plantains. It was delicious, every single bite. I happily enjoyed the treat of dinner at a nice place out and yawned a little on the way home knowing my belly was full and my eyes ready for some sleep. Back at Keith's, where I'd left my car, I sat around and chatted with Paul, Kim, Keith, and Breslyn until just after 10 or so, which is late for me. My typical bedtime is like 9pm. I got home, showered off the three or four layers of sunblock with a cold water shower and got some rest for the adventures tomorrow---- a trip to the BVI on Peter's boat!

Oh, and the rat zapper does not work. I am disappointed and sad not to have zapped a rat. A rate has stolen our bait twice now, with no zappity-zap. We are not interested in feeding the rats for free, so we'll just have to look around for an alternate trapping device.