Grenada - Cool Cat with a Hat

We love being at the marina here, but one of the drawbacks is that the water is too dirty and silty (lots of mangroves) to go swimming. So Roxanne on the sailboat "Raven" organized a Sunday afternoon trip to the beach. Of course practically everyone in the marina was excited and wanted to go, so she chartered a big bus and 30 of us piled in and headed over to the west side of the island. There's a restaurant called the Aquarium with a soft sand beach, so everyone proceeded to rent a beach chair and soak up the rays with a blender drink from the bar. Of course what beach is complete without beach vendors hawking necklaces, handmade baskets, ankle bracelets, and spices? I'm sure the vendors get pretty tired of hearing "no thanks, not today". So when the basket weaving guy approached us and we asked him if he could make a hat instead of a basket, his eyes lit up like we had made his day. A sale! Kevin has been wanting a straw hat for a while and this seemed the perfect opportunity. We negotiated a price and watched Terry set to work. He brought over a single palm frond and measured it around Kevin's head to get the perfect fit. Then we watched in awe as he cranked out that hat in about 15 minutes. Amazing. So now Kevin has a great hat that will last 30 years (Terry's guarantee). Even if it only lasts half that long it was cool to watch it being made.

After everyone had their beach time, we all sat down for the Barbecue dinner. The meal was okay, nothing spectacular, but the band was really incredible. We haven't heard too much live local music. We've heard LOTS of karaoke, and there is a good rock band that plays once a week, but this band at the Aquarium was rocking some fantastic soca, singing covers of all the songs we hear on the local radio. They were just really good and really into it; people were dancing and we all had a really great time. So it was a perfect end to a perfect afternoon.