What a week (plus a Memorial Day weekend)! Dan has requested his own “section” of the blog, of which I’m accepting witty title ideas. My favorite right now is “The View From the Jeep Wrangler.” Oh yeah – we ditched the rental and bought a Jeep! She’s a beauty (wink, wink), and a great island car. I’ll let Dan tell you more in his post 🙂

So the Jeep was the first part of the week, and the rest of the week was spent working to get out of our short term rental by Sunday. As most of you know, we had it narrowed to two options. We even had you vote on which one sounded better! But life is funny, and my friend Cece knew exactly what to say… “What about option #3?” That day I went and looked at another apartment. Small, but nearly everything we wanted, and $400/month cheaper than our other two options! We took it 🙂

We are official residents of Villa Ann-Marie in Hull Bay! If you look on Google Maps, look for Hull Bay on the northwest side of the island, just one bay west of Magen’s Bay. If you zoom in and look at the point above Hull Bay, you can actually see our place. I sincerely thought about posting a picture, but decided the entire internet didn’t need exact directions to our house. BUT, just for the purposes of our blog, I’ll post a few pics of our place once we are all settled.

We’re much closer to the water here, and within walking distance of Hull Bay Beach. The beach is dog-friendly, but Marley has yet to venture to the sand. We’re not sure he would know what to do. He can swim, because we’ve plunked him in the lake in Okoboji, but he doesn’t like it. His first beach trip should be an interesting one.

On Wednesday we met M and A for dinner at Hull Bay Hideaway (great beach bar affectionately known as “the Hideaway” right off of Hull Bay Beach). We had a great time and enjoyed the Hideaway’s infamous fish tacos. Since that time, I’ve eaten their fish tacos three more times, and tried the blackened shrimp tacos another time. Needless to say I think we’ve found our new go-to spot. Especially since we can walk there easily and walk home in case the Pina Coladas are just too good to pass up one night 😉

A few hazy days went by last week, and we learned that desert dust makes it all the way across the Atlantic from the Sahara. What!? Saharan dust makes our floors dirty. Crazy. I took this picture on Friday, our last night in our apartment in Wintberg.

Saturday was our “big” move to Hull Bay. We did it in three trips. If there is anything that living in the Caribbean has taught us so far its how little we actually need to be comfortable. That being said, we are sincerely enjoying being able to run the AC for about an hour before bed at our new place. All things in moderation 🙂

As with anything in life, our new spot brings its challenges. Our first night in the apartment came with a gecko running in the front door as I was coming inside from letting Marley out. It really just startled me because I jumped as I saw it scurry into the closet by the door. Then this happened:

Hull Bay Intruder: A scene in one act

S: “Um. A gecko is inside.”

D: “Where?” {looking up, around, trying to find it.}

S: “It’s in the closet. I saw it run in there.”

D: “Well what do you want to do about it?”

S: “Get it out?………..I’ll get you a cup to catch it.”

D: “I see.”

{D is shirtless and on his knees pulling paint cans and sundries of random supplies from the floor of the closet, muttering under his breath. He has his phone in his mouth, utilizing the flashlight function, looking for said gecko.}

D: “I don’t see it.”

S: “He’s in there. I saw him.”

D: grumble grumble {Flips over on to his back, head in the closet as if he’s on a mechanic’s creeper peering under a car.}

S: “Can you see it?”

D: “There it is. Give me a piece of paper.”

{S hands him a section of the Omaha World Herald that her mother had used as shipping packaging.}

{D attempts to use the paper and is becoming frustrated. The gecko has now wedged itself between the wooden door frame of the closet and the cement wall. D, overcome by irritation, begins muttering and ripping the paper into tiny  pieces}

S: giggle giggle

D: “Don’t laugh! The freakin’ gecko is between the door and the wall!!”

S: {Would really like to take a photo of this whole encounter, but thinks better of it and says} “I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing at this situation!”

{Finally D is able to coax the gecko out of the closet, and it can be seen running up the wall. D shoos it out the door and turns around to look at S, who is struggling not to burst into tears laughing.}

D: “That was the world’s smallest gecko. It must have been an inch and a half long.”

S: “I told you it was in there.”

End of Scene.

We have no furniture in our new place, so an air mattress has served as our bed for the last few nights. There are hardly any companies that deliver on island, so we will probably end up borrowing a vehicle from someone to get our new bed to our place. Lord help us on these roads with a mattress. BUT that is for another day.

We have a home. We have an address. And we have already had a gecko.

Life is good in the VI.

Stay tuned…next post is about Sunday’s trip to St. John. I didn’t want to lose anyone by making this post any longer than it already is 🙂