Hard to believe that it is already November, that means Christmas will be here very soon! As usual
I am sure that I will be late in holiday shopping. Our winter residents (snow birds) are starting to arrive for their extended stay on the island, escaping the colder weather for fun in the sun. Tourists are starting to find their way too, which is a good sign and maybe with the good airfares more will take advantage of visiting Vieques. With all that is happening up north I imagine that many people could benefit from a vacation right now. I am biting the bullet and will travel to Pennsylvania at Thanksgiving to visit family and also attend a high school reunion. As much as I love life here on Vieques I need to get off the rock every now and then and it has been much to long since I have escaped! I am sure that after 3 days in the cold I will be ready to come home!
Things have been pretty quiet on the island but we did have Halloween to look forward to. The party was at Al's Mar Azul with costume awards for Sexiest, Most Original, and Tackiest get ups! Betsy again won for sexiest outfit, this year she donned a bikini and mask, painted herself and wore a picture frame, she was a Picasso! Tackiest went to a couple that dressed as beaching tourists, tropical attire and beach toys! Michelle won the Most Original as she came dressed as a "one night stand." She made up a little table that she had around her waist, wore a lampshade decorated with a bra and panties hanging from it! The table also had a cocktail glass attached to it. The party had the usual ghouls, witches and variety of other costumes represented. The place was packed and everyone seemed to have a good time. Only one accident and that was Billy (The Inn on the Blue Horizon), after a few margaritas he got to dancing, not unusual for Billy, but unfortunately stuck his hand in the ceiling fan and acquired 15
stitches! I was not there at the time but for him to get his hand up that high I suspect he was attempting to dance on the bar! When you don't want adult supervision the Mar Azul is the place to go!
Restaurants are starting to open again and some of the schedules will continue to change this month as they add extra days closer to Thanksgiving. Remember to make reservations at the finer dining establishments. Below is a list of the restaurants and the schedules that I have been informed of.
Amapola - bar opened weekend days, hoping to reopen the kitchen Thanksgiving weekend.
La Campesina - reopening Nov. 13th for dinner Tues.-Sat.
Trade Winds - as of this weekend breakfast and lunch Sat., Sun. & Monday. Dinner Fri. and Sat. but they will be adding more days later this month.
Café Media Luna- reopens Nov 14th, dinner Wed. through Sunday
Oasis- open Thurs. through Monday and Wed, for their ethnic nights! Upcoming ethnic
Nights include 11/7 India Night, 11/22 Spanish Tapas and 11/28 is a Cajun Thanksgiving! These specials are always fun and offer great food.
Mar Azul- Kitchen open lunch and dinner Thurs.-Sunday. Check out the mystery Thursday Night special, sometimes it is meatloaf, lasagna, chicken pot pie, etc. It is posted usually by Tuesday!
Chef Michael's- Dinner Thurs., Fri. and Saturdays. PRIME RIB SPECIAL 11/9
The other local restaurants have the same schedules pretty much year round and don't require reservations.
Crab Walk Café had a special Greek Night last month that was well attended and I heard the food was great. Hopefully Jim will recreate that menu again sometime this month so stop by and ask if that is going to happen while you are here. Karaoke has been put on hold for a few weeks to give Joey some time off. It usually occurs every other Friday night so be sure to check to find out the start up date! This has always provided an entertaining evening, some good, some bad but all brave enough to perform!
I have to talk up the new Hors d'Oeuvres bar at Chef Michael's. We went down there last night and tried many of the things offered on the menu. Generous portions and the prices are fabulous, everything is between $5-8! The mussels are out of this world, frog legs very tender and tasty, the calamari was delicious, tortilla chips and dips was a very generous size and the four of us did not even finish it to save room for the others. He has a crab sushi plate with a pineapple/wasabi sauce that was wonderful, a tasty duck pate and the malanga chips with the
caramelized onion dip is a hit and very popular! These are being offered at the bar from 6:00- 9:00 on the nights they are open. The bar area has changed with the addition of wicker furniture sets around the outside area and makes for a small living room atmosphere were you can enjoy cocktails, appetizers and select one of the many games in the chest to play. The bar is beautiful and one of my favorite places to go and is a reason to "dress up" as it is so special. The dining room is also beautiful and I finally had the opportunity to attend one of the "Sushi Nights." As it was the first time I have done Sushi it was a memorable experience, I overdosed on the wasabi but I love hot spicy things so it was great. The plate included several different types of sushi, more than I could comfortably eat. Next time I will try the tempura plate as that also looked delicious. Topped dinner off with the chocolate wasabi ice cream which was a treat! Not sure when Chef Michael will offer this again but it is worth attending. Actually any night is worth attending for dinner in the dining room, his menu always offers incredible selections! I have already made reservations for Prime Rib Night!
Tuesday Nights at Island Café, located at the Crow's Nest is still very popular and well attended each week. The complimentary appetizers are always good and Seth makes a mean frozen jalapeno margarita for me! I am sure he hates making it as he is so busy on those nights but I just love them. As of now they are open for dinner Fridays through Tuesdays. They will be doing a Thanksgiving dinner there and after that will be open at least 6 days a week and moving to 7 days a week in December. Dinner on the deck there is always a treat, sitting with a view to the main island and surrounded by mature palm trees! We are indeed fortunate to have so many great places to eat and such a wide variety of foods! It will be nice to have everyone open for business again.
As you can see we are all preparing for the upcoming season, waiting for old friends to arrive and making some new friends. Any of you past visitors we hope will recommend to your friends to try a vacation here. We all want it to stay as wonderful as it is and hate sharing it with to many people, but we must! We all know what it has to offer and hope that you visit again and bring some friends.
For those of you who live here or own on the island, I wanted to inform you
of a new offering to the Enchanted Isle website family of offerings, the Crabby
Isle FREE
Classifieds. If you have something to sell on the island, want to buy, a
service to offer, or are looking for help, you can list it there.
Take a look! http://viequestourism.com/classified.
Thanks for reading,
Judy
PS: If there is anything you would like to see in the newsletter or have any feedback please email
Ask Judy. Thanks.
askjudy@enchanted-isle.com
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