Have made it to another day! Slept pretty good, little itchy. Hope - well, she didn't sleep so good. Seems her OCD got the better of her when she examined somethings a little too closely - noseeums and/or sand fleas...RotRow. Kara and I decided NOT to inspect anything too closely! We joined Hope on the deck to see the lovely pictures she had taken of the SunRise, fully aware of the fact that we would only be observing the Sunset:) Once again we had a nice little wake up marvelling at the colors of the Caribbean right in front of us! It certainly doesn't get old! We decided we would try and find the Island Farm and some of the homemade bread we kept hearing about. We drove our new way around past Dolce Vita and past what kinda resembles a white, deserted quarry of sorts. At times not really sure if it was a road or not....Made our way back to the Queen's Hwy. Found farm no prob...quite a few people milling around and purchasing fresh veg and fruit as well as lots of yummy bread and jam! Smallish loaf is about $6 and worth it. The kind gentleman who runs the farm, lots of local varieties of plants, flowering shrubs and trees gave us a fresh "mango coconut" - we shared, it was sweet and different. We moseyed around and enjoyed looking at everything and asking lots of questions about the names of the plants. 
We hopped back in our Hoopty and headed for North Palmetto so we could see how accessible the Atlantic was. We happened upon Unique Village and had a peek around - didn't see a soul?!? Picturesque with incredible views, steps long way down to beach - beautiful contrast to the Caribbean side! We drove on, there were lots of "private driveways" along that stretch of road. We stopped at the "big tree" and I think one of us got a pic. Cruised the rest of the way back home and ate some more bread smothered in lovely Danish butter and jam!!
We all dug out our snorkel gear and slathered (we thought) on the sunscreen. I wore a tee because I already have some bad memories of snorkeling for hours with a bikini on (years ago) and getting fried. We headed out to our beach - navigating your way past the rock and/or spiny coral can be a bit tricky! Not too far and there was a ledge that dropped off quickly from knee/thigh deep to over 6 feet. It was great - water was perfect and calm and there was lots of coral - saw a stingray, few Trigger fish, schools of some small fish, Trumpet fish and lots and lots of very small clear jelly fish. Was a bit panicky when I looked at my girlz and saw they were surrounded - which obviously meant I was too...but either they were non-stinging variety or too small, wee bit of luck there. Lots of coral and sea fans but did not see as many fish as I thought I would. We didn't go too far out cause we are weenies and felt more comfortable staying near the rock, although we did go quite a long way around the bend to the next beach. We only realized when we started heading back that the water was a bit choppy now and the beach seemed a little further than we gauged! Our legs would certainly feel this the next day - and we knew we would sleep like the dead that night! We straggled back to the house, shells in hand, and had a beer and mused over our findings. Next was the "holy quick shower and shave" rotation, with IPOD tunes cranking to get ready for Anchor Bay Fish Fry in GH. Thank Goddess were are low maintenance girlz! We had our island groove on, our Kaliks nice and cold and we were off again (on the left, remember!)
I DO IN NO WAY CONDONE DRINKING AND DRIVING! ALWAYS FIND A SOBER DRIVER:)
Lots of cars already there, and music coming from huge speakers in the street. Lots of people mingling, tourists, expats, locals - great mix! Great vibe - a lovely couple we had met at the airport who are regulars on the island, gave us a shout out and told us how things worked - am sure her name sounded like a flower?? what was it? Bob and ??! Gotta get in the line to get your meal (after getting your drink - beers/rum bubbas pretty much US bar prices) write your name down on a styro box and tell them what you want (over the very loud music).
God only knows how they remember what everyone wants - mostly women getting all food containers ready and taking orders - they worked incredibly well together and were very friendly. I asked if I could just "try" one conch fritter as we weren't sure we would like them....and she was super nice and gave me one to try! Conch has quite a chewy consistency and is a little strong in flavor, in my opinion, but after trying others these were the best - they had a nice peppery bite to them. The meals were $10 each - great deal. You had your choice of fried red snapper, grilled pork chop or BBQ chicken and conch fritters with a side of coleslaw, potato salad, rice & peas or a block of dense mac-n-cheese. I had the chicken and coleslaw and it was fantastic - and I was starving after all that snorkeling. We stood in the sand at a wooden thingy and ate like we hadn't seen food in days- BBQ sauce EVERYwhere!! Yummy. Fully sated, we wandered back to the "tent" area for another Kalik and a port-a-potty break...(fyi- by evenings end, to some, the ocean was the port-a-potty- Uh....AWKWARD) Music was going full blast now, we mingled and chatted with lots of people and took lots of pics with people. Who saw the Steven Spielberg look-alike? Hope? Kara? dragged me over to take a picture with this nice stranger.....I'm like - you girlz - this is so Not Spielberg.....SMILE = click!! We were having fun! We gave a ride to a new buddy, Mike, who was going our way and just happened to be friends with the people we had met at Mate & Jenny's. Exhausted - we collapsed. Even Hope managed to "forget" about the bugs and go to sleep. Ready for another day! By Perri
