We just returned from a wonderful week in California wine country.  It was pure decadance.. fantastic food at four star restaurants, delicious wines and champagnes, luxurious spa treatments, beautiful weather and great company!   It was the perfect getaway to relax and rejuvinate.

Gumbopirate at Domain Chandon in Napa

We started our trip in the Napa town of Yountville at the spectacular Hotel Yountville.  Our friends Jim and Tim were amazing hosts and Bryan did a fabulous job planning the tastings and dinners.  We had wonderful meals at Bottega, Redd and Etoile and private tastings at Twomey Cellars and Flora Springs.

Pirate with Tim, Jim and Bryan in Napa

Private tasting in the gazebo at Twomey Cellars

Private tasting on the deck at Flora Springs

Drinking from the barrel at Flora Springs

In the cellars…

After Yountville, we drove the Silverado Trail north to the Sonoma town of Healdsburg.  We stayed right on the plaza at the beautiful Healdsburg Inn where we were pampered with amazing breakfasts and homemade cookies each afternoon.  We did lots of exploring in the Chalk Hill, Dry Creek and Russian River Valley areas visiting 5 wineries each day for tastings.  By the end of the day we were “wined out” and ready for a great meal.  Healdsburg did not disappoint in the restaurant area.  We loved Dry Creek Kitchen and Willie’s.

Enjoying the view at Zichichi winery

Not our favorite of the day…

Gorgeous day in wine country

Enjoying Jazz Fest from the Big Chief Tent

This year, the Cajun splurged big time and decided to experience New Orleans Jazz Fest as a “Big Chief.”  As a total music lover and die-hard New Orleanian, the Cajun was bummed about missing Jazz Fest over the last couple of years while sailing with the Pirate in the Caribbean.  This year was not to be missed!  The musical line-up included favorites such as Florence + the Machine, Better than Ezra, the Eagles, the Foo Fighters, the Zac Brown Band, the Neville Brothers, Jon Cleary, Bonnie Raitt, Cee-Lo Green, Ezmerelda Spaulding, Bruce Hornsby, Grace Potter, Ziggy Marley and many others.  Since there were so many great artists on the schedule, we couldn’t pick just one day.  We had to go to all of the them!  Therefore the decision was made to break the bank and go in style as a Big Chief.

What does the Big Cheif Experience at Jazz Fest entail?  First it means your own private, air-conditioned bathrooms.  This is quite important when you consider that there are 70,000+ people at the fest on a given day and that they are all consuming large quantities of beer in 90 degree heat and sharing a handful of port-0-lets.  Another big plus was that we had our own viewing tents at the major stages which were covered and raised and furnished with comfortable chairs, ceiling fans and a bar for drinks and snacks.  You are always guarenteed a dry spot to sit and a good view of the band.  This is also a huge benefit as it allows you to move from one stage to another to follow the bands you like and not have to worry about finding a good spot or staking your claim on an area and hanging out there the entire day only to have rude people come and encroach on your space ten minutes before the headlining act starts at the end of the day.  A third benefit is the air-conditioned Big Cheif lounge where there is a full service bar and lots of delicious freebies each day (gelato, chocolate covered strawberries, pies, pralines, etc.).  I cannot tell you how nice it was to have a place to go to get out of the stifling heat and cool-down.  It is also a great place to bring all of the delicious food you purchase on the fairgrounds and eat it at a real table.

Karyn enjoying herself at the Fest

Is the Big Chief Experience worth the astronomical cost?  That depends.   If you truly love the musical line-up and want to go to the Fest all-day everyday it may be worth it.  If you want a place in the shade and out of the crazy, hot New Orleans sun while you enjoy the music, it may be worth it for you.   If you drink alot and therefore have to make frequent trips to the bathroom- it is definitely worth it

It is not for you if you like spending time at the smaller stages and tents as they do not have special seating set aside at those areas.  Also, if you really enjoy the feel of being absorbed in the crowd or hanging with a large group of friends at the Fest, then Big Chief is not the way to go.  Finally, if you like to split your Fest experience by going one day during the fist weekend and one day during the second weekend and not 3 or 4 days in a row, then Big Cheif doesn’t work for you.

For us, it was an awesome experience and we look forward to doing it again next year if the musical line-up is there and we find ourselves in New Orleans during the last weekend in April or the first weekend in May..    Gotta love New Orleans!

Cajun with the official Jazz Fest painting of Trombone Shorty

Sea of people waiting to hear the Eagles

Pirate enjoys life under the tent…

Tall Ships along the Mississippi River

New Orleans was host to beautiful tall ships from around the world to celebrate the Bicentennial of the War of 1812.  It was wonderful to see the each day on our walks along the river.

Indonesian Tall Ship

Bicentennial Celebration in New Orleans

Anchored in Mayreau.

From Canouan, we sailed further south to the island of Mayrea and anchored in the gorgeous Salt Whistle Bay.  This tiny cove is a beautiful place to drop anchor for an evening- crystal clear and calm waters, powdery white sand, plenty of rum shacks and lots of great “people watching” as charter boats come and go.  Many boats come in and attempt to anchor many times and then leave in frustration when they can’t seem to find a good spot.  We know to get there early.   We also hiked up to the top of the island to admire the panoramic views.  Along the way, we ran into a goat who would not budge from the middle of the road- not even for larger vehicles.  Quite funny.

Relaxing in the clear waters of Salt Whistle Bay

afternoon siesta on the bow of the boat…

beautiful views on top of the island

The goat that would not move…

After Mayreau, we had a short sail to the Tobago Cays.  This is the most spectaular anchorage of them all.  It is a protected marine park that offers great snorkelling and expansive views of the horizon. The sea that changes colors each minute depending on the positioning of the sun and clouds.  The myriad of blues and turquoise shades of the sea against the cerulean sky are breathtaking.  At night, the stars are amazing- a blanket of twinkling lights- with nothing to dilute the experience as there is no island, no people, no noise and no lights from electricity- just the sounds of the wind and the waves.  A very special place to visit!

Hanging out in the Tobago Cays

Windsurfing in the Cays

After an awesome time in Tobago Cays, we sailed south again to Union Island.  We hit all of our usual places but our favorite is always visiting Janti on Happy Island.  We were surprised to see how much he had added onto his island made of conch shells in the short time we had beestn gone.  He has a new outdoor bar area and a state of the art DJ/microphone set up.  While progress is good, sometimes you yearn for the old days when things were more simple and quaint.  Anchoring off of Happy Island is not quite as peaceful as it used to be… no you can hear  random drunk people singing bad reggae/soca music into the microphone in the evening.  However, if you are on Happy Island partaking in the festivities… it is all good.  We just happened to be part of that crowd on this visit, so all was great!

Sunset rum punches at Happy Island

Gumbopirate sitting at the new bar…

While some things change, the sunsets stay the same…

Pirate Enjoys Lazy Days in Bequia

While there was lots of activities going on with the Easter Regatta, we chose to perfect our liming skills on the boat and at the beach.  We did attend the Mount Gay sponsored race parties though.. after all they were giving out free rum and no self-respecting pirates could forego that.

Neal, Rick and the Pirate at the Mount Gay Regatta party.

Our Canadian friend Tina convinced the Pirate to see an island accupuncturist to releive pain in his knee.  We all went with him for support and for entertainment.  Of course we brought lots of rum too.  Yuki the Bequia-needle lady did all sorts of crazy things to Pirate’s knee- including electrodes, fire and other voodoo tricks.  However, the final assessment by Pirate was that rum still works better on treating sore body parts.

After two weeks in Bequia, it was time to sail away.  We had a farewell dinner at our favorite restaurant, Sailors with our favorite people, those silly poutine-eating Canadians (also known as Rick, Tina, Dave and Mary).  It was a fabulous meal of Lobster Thermidore.  The perfect way to end our Bequia stay.

Cajun works on her liming skills...

our boat at sunset

Happy Days in Bequia

Beach day at Low Bay

Here we are above at Beige’s Bar all bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 11:27 a.m.  Cajun was the official group photographer for the day and Pete has the unfortunate Canadian propensity of lateness so he missed the first group photo.

Because Beige’s Bar can be a scary place during the day when you are sober (it is easier to notice things like dirt, rodents, men with machetes who mumble to themselves, the lack of running water, etc.), we quickly got down to rum-drinking business.  One of the reasons we love Beige’s is the impeccable table service.  Somene simply plops a bottle of rum on your table and then you are on your own.   Refills of ice and mixers are kept to a minimum as the bar management (aka Beige or some other random barkeep) often go missing for long stretches of time.  Pete and Rick are so frequently at this establishment that they are welcomed to go behind the bar to procure ice, beer or additional bottles of rum.

As you can see in the pictue above, everyone loves to quench their thirst at Beige’s.

  After our first few drinks, we decided to move to an “outside table” which was really just a block of cement and some upside-down bucket stools.

We were all smiles after we polished off our first bottles of booze at Beige’s Bar.  The time was 1:15 p.m. and we decided to go on a stroll to another of our favorite local establishments.

 As you can see above, there was lots of traffic that day- good thing we were on foot.

 Our next stop for rum was the New York Bar.  This place was different from Beige’s in that it had things like a floor, chairs and a bartender.

As you can see above, after a few more rounds of rum our smiles are getting wider and the Canadians’ jokes are getting funnier. It was 2:00 pm- time to continue our rum crawl to the next watering hole…

Our next stop was the large and rowdy Buddy’s Well Come Bar.

We were able to snag the prime (and only) table.

 Pete tries to blend in whereever he goes.   It is hard for him though… he is just a little “different” from other folks.

   At 2:45 pm we continued our rum crawl to the next establishment. Again, the traffic was heavy.

Our next stop was CoCo’s, where Pete led us in song.  Since he is from the country that gave us Celine Dion and Jusitn Beiber, it was no surprise that the song he taught us was simple and monosylabbic.  For some reason it also required us to stand on our chairs in order to sing it.  His song also included goofy hand gestures which aided him  in remembering the silly lyrics about “friendship mountain” and “reaching for the rainbow”.  During our singing, the rum continued to flow.

After several verses of the song and many attempts at singing and gesturing in unison, it was time for a short nap.

The time was 4:30 pm and we were on to our next stop at Sailor’s Bar and Cafe.  By the look on our faces in the three pictures below, we were feeling the effects of rum and song.

We were all fading fast, it was time to rally.  Pirate led us in the rally-dance just in the nick of time…

We continued our rum crawl to Pappa’s Bar where we participated in Karaoke  and deep conversations aimed at solving the world’s major problems.  For some reason, the official photographer did not capture these moments but she does vaguely recall them happening.  Once the problems of the world were sufficiently solved, we continued our rum crawl and made it full circle back to the initial scene of the crime- Beige’s Bar.

On our second stop at Beige’s night had fallen and the place seemed cleaner.  We ordered more bottles of booze and even took a chance by ordering a few rounds of chicken wings aka “street meat”.  Beige grills chicken wings only and the polished table server slings them down on your table on a square of tin foil.  There are no side dishes, no silverware, no napkins.  But when you are drinking rum from the bottle, you don’t really seem to care about those sorts of things.

After finishing off our bottles yet again, we had more deep conversations and more Karaoke…

The last picture of the night really sums it up.  The Canadians look a little worse for the wear, and the American looks as bright eyed and bushy tailed as when the day began.   This is something we are used to when hanging out with our Canadian friends.

A great time was had by all.  We ended our festivities at 8:00 pm when someone fell off of a bucket chair and the rum was gone.  It is probably a good thing that we only meet up a couple of times a year- we are not sure our livers could handle any more than that.

While we tease our Canadian friends quite a bit, it is all in good fun.  We genuinely love these guys and look forward to seeing them again soon.  They are special friends who we would do anything for.  After all, it’s not their fault they are from Canada, eh?

We had a wonderful week cruising on one of the Royal Caribbean mega-ships with our New England work family.  They are the reason that the Pirate and Cajun get to travel as much as we do- they keep it all together at home.  We appreciate them more than they will ever know!   It was nice to spend time with them in a relaxed and fun setting for a change.  The weather was gorgeous and the seas were calm (or at least we didn’t feel them on a ship that size).  We had a great day in Belize where we took a speed boat to an outlying island for a beach BBQ.  The island reminded us of lots of places we have been to in the Grenadines.  Crystal clear waters and swaying palms- paradise.   Pirate also had fun on the surf rider on the ship with a few of the other brave soles who ‘surfed’ during the private party we had there for our crew.  And of course, Pirate was the best dressed with his pink suit…  boy did he turn some heads!

Pirate stands guard on the dock

R&R in the Caymans…

We were fortunate to have a week of pure R&R in the Caymans.  Thank you John K and Bob S for your generous hospitality.  We were thoroughly pampered with great food, overflowing libations and beautiful weather.  We also got to see our friend George, aka the BareFoot Man, at his weekly gig at the Reef Resort on the East End.  We also enjoyed a day of liming at Rum Point where we consumed copious amounts of rum and lounged the day away in hammocks on the beach.  Fun Times!

Even though we had a wonderful time, we were disappointed with much of the island of Grand Cayman itself.  It is super-commercialized with tons of high rise condo developments and fast food restaurants every few blocks.  It felt more like the Florida coast than it did the Caribbean, with very little authentic Caribbean flavor and charm.  When we describe what we love about the islands we usually talk about rum shacks on the beach with colorful local characters, local markets with an abundance of fresh fruits, locals cooking homemade specialties on the streets, clear nights with thousands of stars, peaceful days of hearing the waves lapping and birds chirping, etc.  Grand Cayman offered none of that and the prices were crazy expensive to boot (the US dollar is .80 to the Cayman dollar).  But, not every island can be an undiscovered paradise.  Especially those that have 6+ cruise ships arriving on its shores each day!   From the locals perspective though, unemployment is low and the amenities are plentiful.  You must accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative….

Next week we are off to new islands and new adventures… stay tuned.

Cajun enjoys the sunset

Pirate enjoys Happy Hour at the Reef

Cajun stands by a seagull

After drinking his rum, Pirate takes a nap

Cajun catches some rays at Rum Point

Time to see the Barefoot Man!

We had a prime viewing spot on Bourbon Street to watch the crazies walk by..

We had a fantastic Mardi Gras this year.  For the past three years, we have missed Mardi Gras in New Orleans as we were sailing the blue waters of the Caribbean.  We wouldn’t trade that experience, but it was wonderful to be back home in New Orleans for Mardi Gras again.  And boy did we do it right- we marched in two parades, saw the Super-krewes of Bacchus and Orpheus right from our living room window, and costumed in the French Quarter on Mardi Gras day.  After all of that fun, we both caught the typical “Mardi Gras head-colds” and are in much need of some R&R time to regroup and get ready for our next adventure..

Pirate Princess for a Day and our friend Patrick

Cajun went as Little Red Riding Hood

They look like ladies from the back only...

A wild street party everywhere you look...

A scary looking Superman

Dancing as she walks on by...

Princess makes a friend...

Looking out on the craziness

Cajun also went as a cat... Meow!

Princess is glad Mardi Gras is over!