Thanksgiving with Marty in St. Thomas

View from our balcony at Secret Harbour

 We just got back from spending another Thanksgiving with our dear friend Marty in St. Thomas. Craig's brother Steve and their mother went with us again this year. Jet Blue offered a nonstop flight from Boston, and we jumped at the chance to avoid American and United. The flight was at 9:15 a.m. (how civilized!) so it meant we didn't have to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the airport this time. Bonus!  Jet Blue staff were very courteous. They not only give out free soft drinks, but free snacks as well. They even showed a sense of humor when we bounced a bit on the landing and they came over the PA saying, "In case you missed it, we have arrived in St. Thomas." The whole plane erupted into laughter.

We arrived in St. Thomas at 2:15 p.m. We got our rental car and headed straight to Food Center to buy provisions. Marty met us in the parking lot and then we headed to Secret Harbour. Though we had reserved a 2-bedroom suite, they didn't have one available and instead gave us two 1-bedroom suites right next door to one another. This worked out ok as Mom now had her own suite, and ours became the party suite. By 4:30, we were sitting out on our patio preparing to watch the sunset.

Marty and Mom enjoy Thanksgiving dinner at Molly Malone's

Marty's motorcycle club president Biker John had generously invited us to his house for Thanksgiving dinner, but the timing was such that they ate before we arrived. So instead we decided to make a reservation at Molly Malone's in Red Hook. We had eaten there last year and it had been a great deal - all you can eat and drink for $25. 

We had salad, turkey vegetable soup, turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing, peas, and cranberry sauce. Plus wine. For dessert we had slices of pumpkin pie.  It was all delicious. Then we went back to the hotel and watched the Patriots proceed to trounce the Jets on the late game. What a Thanksgiving!

The next day was Cap'n Marty's Island Hop, our Black Friday tradition. We always rent a boat and cruise around the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. We got up early. Marty went back to his house to pick up a couple of things and we met him at the American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook. Steve, Craig, and Mom bought provisions for the day at Marina Market while I helped Marty to fill out the paperwork for the boat rental.

Cap'n Marty's Island Hop

We met Marty's friends Marni and Christie, who would be joining in on the fun. They have only been on the island for a couple of weeks, and haven't had much down time to enjoy their new tropical surroundings. We loaded up the boat and coolers and set off from Red Hook at around 8:30. It was a gorgeous day.  The water was a beautiful turquoise color. The boat had a nice full-sized bimini that shaded us from the sun. As we "putzed around", as Marty put it, we watched pelicans dive into the water. Schools of fish jumped simultaneously out of the water and created quite a splash.

It was so relaxing. This is what we daydream about at home during cold weather, or particularly stressful times at work. We anchored in Peter Bay off St. John and did some swimming. The water was beautiful. As usual, we marveled at the gorgeous villas on the shore. One belonged to Mick Jagger. Another was  featured on The Real Housewives of somewhere. Even Marty swam here, though he usually thinks that November is winter and too cold to swim.

Anchored in Peter Bay

Sandy Caye

Marty at Sandy Caye

We pulled up our anchor, and headed to Tortola to clear customs so that we could go to the British Virgin Islands.  Once we cleared customs, Marty took us to Sandy Caye. We moored the boat and swam ashore. It looks like a desert island, with gorgeous white sand and palm trees. 

After that we headed to Foxy's Tamarind Bar on Jost Van Dyke. We got a round of bushwhackers and ordered some lunch. Craig and I each had the chicken curry roti, a local dish which was absolutely fabulous. Craig had gotten it last year as well, and had been looking forward to it ever since. We also sampled the popcorn conch and conch fritters that the others had ordered. We got a second round of bushwhackers. They had a sign advertising Foxy's Black Friday sale at the gift shop - too funny!

Then we went a few bays over to the Soggy Dollar Bar. We moored the boat. Mom didn't feel like swimming so she stayed on the boat to take a nap on the rocking boat in the late afternoon sunlight. We swam to shore and got a round of their signature drink, the painkiller.  The round came in plastic Soggy Dollar cups. We have a collection of these at home from previous years, and we would add these to them. We watched a local rasta with dreads down to the ground coaching a young tourist girl about how to get a ringer on a nail with a swinging ring game.

 We swam back to the boat, and it was time to start heading back to St. Thomas. Marty has been coaching Steve (aka First Mate Milky) to drive the boat. Steve drove most of the way back to St. Thomas. Marty said next year it should be Cap'n Milky's Island Hop. When we arrived back at American Yacht Harbor, there were lots of locals waiting for the ferry with their Black Friday goods from K-Mart and Home Depot: huge flat screen TV's, stoves, etc.

Cap'n Marty, Craig, Steph, Mom, Anna, Steve, Christie, and Marni at Foxy's

Cap'n Marty and Craig drinking painkillers at Soggy Dollar

Saturday was a low key day. We enjoyed Secret Harbour, spending the day on the beach. We floated in the water sipping drinks and enjoying the beautiful beach. We ate dinner at The Sunset Grille restaurant on premises. The amuse-bouche (a term that Marni had just taught us yesterday)
was a watermelon mint shooter served in a miso spoon. It was delicious. We all tried nutwhackers (bushwhackers  made with chocolate and  peanut butter - plus you gotta love the name) and we loved them. For an appetizer we got beef tenderloin tataki on wanton chips, with mango salsa and wasabi cream. We also got plantain and conch fritters which had  a great texture and were very yummy. I got the peppercorn and coriander encrusted tuna with white bean ragout and sweet and sour eggplant caponata. There were two huge hunks of tuna. I gave one to Craig, and he shared his lump crab and potato encrusted mahi mahi with sauteed broccolini and pineapple pear jam with me. It was all absolutely delicious.We got another round of nutwhackers and for dessert a decadent chocolate lava cake served with vanilla ice cream. It was a pricey meal but was a true fine dining experience. And to get back home, we just had to walk down the beach. You can't beat that.

Sunset from Secret Harbour

Steve, Marty,  Craig, Mom, and Steph at the Sunset Grille

On Sunday we went to Coki Point Beach, a fun and funky little tourist beach. As usual, we were met as soon as we arrived by a local who could get us things - beach chairs, snorkel gear, beach umbrellas. We rented some chairs from him and requested a shady spot on the beach. He led us to a nice spot where we pitched our chairs. A jolly woman named Dawn came over and introduced herself as our waitress. You have to love drink delivery on the beach! But we weren't ready to drink just yet. Craig, Steve, and I went into the water and floated around in the turquoise water.

As soon as we got out of the water, Dawn was right there to take our order .She talked us into a round of  OGD (Oh God Damn!) which is a lemonade slush and Bacardi rum drink. We ordered plates of jerk chicken. It started to rain a bit and Dawn invited us inside the snack shack. We were mostly covered by a tree and the rain was moving  through so quickly that we just toughed it out.  Dawn then arrived with a towering stack of styrofoam food containers. Inside each we had jerk chicken legs, fried onions, fried plantains, and a salad. Deliciously spicy! We ordered another round of OGD's to wash it down.

After enjoying our lunch, Craig, Steve, and I went back into the water. As we were drying off and preparing to leave, Dawn came to say goodbye and we got a picture with her. She is quite a character!

We came back to the hotel and watched sunset from the balcony. Nobody felt like getting dressed to go out to eat. So  we went inside and ordered a large meat lovers and a large pepperoni, green pepper, and mushroom pizza from Señor Pizza in Red Hook. It came in 35 minutes. We watched football and enjoyed our pizza. Then we played our favorite game, Pass the Pigs. It is a dice-type game which uses little rubber pigs as the dice. You get points depending on how they fall. Craig kept getting epic fails (when the two pigs touch one another it is "a very undignified position for pigs" so you lose all your points) and lost all of his 99 points, but he made an incredible comeback in one of the rounds. We had a lot of laughs.

Coki Point Beach

Steve, Craig, and Mom at Coki Point Beach

Mom, Steph, Dawn, Craig, and Steve at Coki Point Beach

Sunset from Secret Harbour

On Monday we had another Secret Harbour beach day, We were in the water from 11:45 - 4:00 with no break. We went to the newly re-opened Latitude 18 for dinner. They had been closed last year so Mom had never been there. We got a table right on the water. It's nice to dine with the breeze in your hair and watching boats bob on the dock. We ordered painkillers. For an appetizer, we got escargot in blue cheese on garlic toast. It was amazingly delicious. For our main course, we
each ordered the special - a NY strip steak  with peppercorn Jack Daniels sauce, chive mashed potatoes, and mixed veggies. The Barefoot Davis Band (with guitar, electric guitar, bass, keys, and fiddle) played some good songs, including Dylan's You Ain't Goin' Nowhere and Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. After their first set a high school kid named Zane did stand-up. He's legally blind (with cane and service dog) and mined it for material. He really had a lot of guts to get up there and some of his jokes were really funny.

 

Steph and Marty

Mom, Steve, Marty, and Craig at Latitude 18

Craig, Mom, Marty, and Steve at the Delly Deck

On Tuesday we got packed up in the morning and then headed to Havensight. We had a nice lunch of sandwiches at the locals' favorite Delly Deck. Then we went to Sean's store, the Pirate's Chest and bought some souvenirs. It was nice to get a chance to see Sean, a fellow Bostonian whom we have met on many occasions. We said our goodbyes to Marty until next year and headed to the airport. Though we didn't have a direct flight home we had a stopover in San Juan and everything worked like clockwork. Jet Blue rocks.

Secret Harbour palm trees

It was another great visit to the Caribbean, and we were thrilled that Marty was able to spend the entire time with us. On many of our vacations, we tend to be going from morning til night nonstop. St. Thomas is a place where we are always able to relax and unwind, without overscheduling ourselves. It was much needed and much appreciated.

Bob Newhart at the Wilbur Theatre 10/6/12

We had a lot of nostalgic fun last night seeing Bob Newhart at the Wilbur Theatre. When I was a kid, "Newhart" was my favorite TV show. I watched it religiously, and even had my parents bring me to the Waybury Inn in Middlebury, Vermont, where exteriors of the show were filmed. Seeing props from the show and autographed pictures of the cast there motivated me to write to the cast. They all responded with personally inscribed autographed pictures (well, all responded except for Peter Scolari. Not sure what he had against me.) I was thrilled, and especially humbled that the legendary Bob Newhart himself took the time to respond to a 13 year old fan.

Bob Newhart at the Wilbur Theatre 10/6/12

Almost 25 years later, when I heard that he would be doing a comedy show at the Wilbur Theatre, I had to buy tickets. He did not disappoint. At 83 years old, he was as deadpan as ever, telling jokes which spanned from the present day (Clint Eastwood stealing his schtick at the Republican National Convention a few weeks ago) to classic routines like The Driving Instructor. He bantered with the audience and said that he gets his material from all of us, and that we ought to just cut him out as the middle man and pay each other directly when we do something amusing.

He capped off the night with a video which included clips of a fictionalized family history as well as early appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "The Dean Martin Show." It also included clips from "The Bob Newhart Show" and the final gag of the "Newhart" finale.

The crowd loved him and called him back for an encore. It was a very entertaining show and we are very glad that we decided to go. I felt like I was 13 again.

My Bob Newhart Autograph circa 1989

Kristin Hersh at Club Passim

Kristin Hersh at Club Passim, Cambridge

 On August 18, we saw Kristin Hersh perform a show at Club Passim in Cambridge. This was our first time attending a show at this intimate historic venue, which over the past 50+ years has hosted such acts as a 17-year-old Joan Baez and her friend Bob Dylan. Blues greats Skip James and Son  House had also played there during their resurgence in popularity in the 1960's. Tom Waits even played there in 1974 (preserved in the classic bootleg "On a Foggy Night")!

These days the basement club in Harvard Square shares space with a vegetarian restaurant called Veggie Planet. There is cabaret-style seating for shows, and you can reserve a spot at a small table or sit in one of the general admission chairs around the perimeter of the room. We sat at a table with another couple who had ordered some amazing-looking food. Unfortunately, we had eaten already at home, so we only had room for drinks and dessert (a decadent brownie with vanilla ice cream). Next time we would definitely eat dinner there.

Kristin reads from her memoir Rat Girl

We were happy to get the chance to see Kristin play at this storied venue. Though she is one of the performers we have seen most over the years, circumstances had been such that we hadn't seen her in about three years. In the interim, she has published a memoir called "Rat Girl" (in the U.S.) and "Paradoxical Undressing" (in the U.K.)

At this show she alternated between singing accompanied by her acoustic guitar and reading passages from the book. The book is based on a diary she kept as a teenager playing with Throwing Muses, and some of the readings acted as lead-ins to songs that were written at that time (Fish, Delicate Cutters).  Other songs spanned her career, both with the band and solo. Detox was an amazingly intense new solo song. There were also other  songs from the past couple of years which we were hearing live for the first time, including Krait, Quick, and Mississippi Kite.

It was a great show at an intimate venue, and we had a wonderful time.


Set List:
Your Dirty Answer
Gazebo Tree
reading (Fish Jesus)
Fish
Mississippi Kite
Flooding
reading (Betty and her priest)
Summer Salt
City of the Dead
Hook in her Head
reading (mania)
Hysterical Bending
Quick
reading (hit by a car)
White Suckers
Krait
reading (band interviews)
Sno Cat
Me and My Charms
reading (running away from the studio)
Delicate Cutters
Detox
reading (songwriting)
You Cage
Sundrops
Teeth

In Loving Memory of Abuela

Our hearts continue to go out to our compadres in Guatemala. Humberto's mother, "Abuelita" (little grandmother) to the kids, passed away Sunday at the age of 75. She is the matriarch of the alley on which the whole family lives.

Abuelita

When we first met her, Humberto warned us that, having lived through the terrible Guatemalan civil war in the '80's and '90's, when Mayans were persecuted and even massacred, she was wary of outsiders. He meant this in case we perceived her as unfriendly to us in some way, because we are foreigners. But the truth is that she never did. She was always very polite to us. We weren't able to communicate much with her in words, because of our poor Spanish. But she soon saw how much we loved her grandchildren, and that was what mattered to her. Sometimes actions speak louder than words, and we feel that she accepted us as members of the family.

Family Visit to La Aurora Zoo

We shared some fun times with her over the past 5 years: baptism parties for Aracely and then Eddy, Vanesa's quinceañera, a trip to the zoo in Guatemala City, a New Year's Eve Party, and a joint birthday party for Yasmin and Paola. We also went to the family's farmland in San Gabriel (outside of Panajachel), where she had grown corn and coffee since Humberto was a child. She harvested enough corn to supply her and her chickens through a year, and they would sell the coffee that they grew.

Abuelita and Eddy at Eddy's christening

Most recently, we had gone on a family picnic at a gorgeous lakeside villa.Toward the end of the day, she was sitting in a chair on the green lawn overlooking the gorgeous Lake Atitlan and its surrounding volcanoes. She looked totally at peace. This is how we will remember her.

Abuelita relaxing at Lake Atitlan

It is sad that she had to experience the loss of her great-grandson David in the weeks leading up to her death. She had been in declining health for the past year or two, and maybe she decided it was time for her to go as well, to continue to look after David.

In Loving Memory of David

We received devastating news from Guatemala on Tuesday: David, Humberto and Paulina’s 4-year-old nephew and the kids’ cousin, passed away unexpectedly. We have limited information about the circumstances, but it seems that he injured his leg a week prior. It was still bothering him Tuesday morning, so his parents took him to the doctor. After several tests, the doctor said all looked fine and they sent him home. Later in the day, his condition worsened. They brought him back to the hospital, where he passed away.

David and his parents Blanca and Pablo live several doors down from Humberto and family. David was often outside playing with his cousins. We really got to know the three of them starting this past January, when we visited for New Year’s. They came to Humberto and Paulina’s New Year’s Eve party, and to Yasmin and Paola’s joint birthday party the following day. When we visited last month for the 4^th of July, they came to a house party at Humberto and Paulina’s, and we also spent a day with them at a villa on Lake Atitilan, having a cookout and swimming and kayaking.

David was a very sweet child. Craig and I joked that he was my boyfriend, because he seemed to have a little crush on me. He often tried to get my attention by calling “Hola Stephanie! Hola Stephanie!” and he wasn’t satisfied until I specifically addressed him with “Hola David!” In fact, the last time we saw him and his parents and grandmother was when we went out for pizza with the family the night before we returned home. We were finishing up our meal when they arrived at the restaurant. We all waved to one another and we stopped by their table as we  left. David was not satisfied with a greeting addressed to the entire family; he kept calling “Hola Stephanie!” until I specifically addressed him by name.

It is hard to believe that this vibrant doe-eyed little boy no longer graces the earth with his presence. He always had a smile for us and we will remember him fondly. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his entire family during this difficult time. We are heartbroken.

Aracely and David