Our last day... Rain, rain, go away...

There was a big storm here last night, everyone but BP heard it; lots of thunder and lightning and heavy rain beating against the house. BM said that she heard the storm and couldn't sleep for another reason - she was excited about going to the beach today because we read that it was better to go shelling after a storm, and we were going to go to the beach this morning anyway, and it’s going to coincide with high tide... She couldn't sleep, like a kid on Christmas Eve. So I hope there are shells.

When BM first came downstairs she was shivering a little - she curls up on the loveseat and pulls the throw over her and whines, "I'm a little chilly and this is a little blanket... ". I told her I thought a little blanket was perfect for a "little" chilly. She was not amused. We asked her if she heard us shouting "Big fat cow" this morning. She says no, but she heard something else weird in the morning – and she tried to explain, “You know what it is, you when you're in that place where you're half awake and half asleep, when I hear a snore it does something funny…” Oh yah, that thing, yah we know exactly. So she was half sleeping, heard herself snore, and turned it into us shouting “Big fat cow!”. We start yelling “big fat cow!” (a lot, and loud, and BP is still sleeping) – when she comes downstairs we ask if she heard us yelling it – she didn’t. BUT she thinks it’s funny because she thinks that we lied to BM yesterday and we actually did yell “big fat cow” yesterday.

No breakfast out today, we eat bagels and cereal and stuff, and we get up and out because we have to return the bikes before 11 (it’s not close to that yet) but we hear on the news that there is another storm coming through in 30minutes, so we want to get down there soon because we have to walk back to the house once we return them. We’ll miss them, it was really a fun way to get around the island. When we ride past the Bull dogs, they’re sitting out in their chairs again! OH, so CUTE!! We love that they just sit there, no owners around to tell them not to walk off – they just know that those are their chairs. BM wants a pic with the dogs, both in their chairs, but as soon as she goes up to them the girl dog gets up and searches for her toy and brings it to BM to throw. The boy couldn’t care less and just relaxes in his chair. We ride on and return the bikes and start to walk back – on the way back we stop by the dogs again, and this time BM sneaks up behind them and we get the picture of the three of them. YAY!

the BULLIES!

Our last picture on our bikes - in the back yard of our house.

We walk back to the house (it’s maybe half a mile) to get ready for the beach… kind of. The sky is getting dark and scary and as soon as we get back it starts storming. Patti hangs out on the screened in front porch while it storms – nothing better than that. We hang out and watch some Drop Dead Diva until the sky clears up and then we head to the beach. It’s SUPER windy today because of the storm, and the tide is still pretty high, so the beach that was really calm the other day has now turned into a BIG fat wave pool. We go out for a bit, but it’s too rough for the rafts – and then when we get back to the beach towels, the wind is blowing the sand so much that it hurts. It feels like derm-abrasion. We will have smooooth skin. We don’t last long there at all – maybe an hour. Our last day on the beach is cut short.

On the drive back we hit the last minute stores that we wanted to re-visit, and Patti drives us by the taco stand again. We get the shrimp tacos and cheesy pork tacos, and a huarache (?) – it’s more like a weird cracker pizza with black bean paste and green salsa, not our favorite. Just a little bland – but we’re happy to have the shrimp tacos again. Patti and Dana don’t like the tacos so they just made sandwiches at the house.

It starts to rain again and we hang out at the house, relax, read, nap, watch tv… and then we get ready to go to dinner, our reservations are at 6:30 at Café Atlantic and we’re really looking forward to it. We go in and visit the desert trays… wow – layered chocolate cake with cream and strawberries, a hummingbird cake, toll house pie, a lemon pie.. it all looks good. BM wants to eat dinner, then eat desert, then go by a place we haven’t gone to yet to get homemade ice cream, and THEN go by the slushie place. She maintains that the slushie is a drink, so it doesn’t even count, it just goes in all the cracks. Ambitious!!

They seat u s upstairs, and it’s a nice beach lodge feeling to it – and everything looks great. We have a crazy/drunk guy at the table next to us, and his female partner is in her bathing suit bottoms – it’s kind of an upscale feel to the place (even though it’s still island culture), the bathing suit seems a little off. But it’s nothing compared to what the guy is doing. He’s talking to his date or his food, not sure which, and the top of his voice and repeatedly (like a mantra)… “Kill the fish, cook the fish, and take them to the restaurant “… serisouly, over and over… and then he even does some kind of withc doctor chant over the food, “zoom walla, walla”... he changes things up a bit, “Let us keep killing fish” “Thank god for dead fish!”. BM is watching them like tv - I'm listening to them like radio (my back is to them).

Patti gets crab stuff shrimp (which is like crab cake stuffed shrimp), BP tries scallops and gets shrimp with it, BM gets the steak and shrimp kabobs, Dana gets a fried platter, and I got the special, grouper topped with lump crab meat and hollandaise. It was ALL delicious! BM has a sauce that goes with her kabobs, and each time she dips something in the sauce she says aloud, “dip” – and she dips them all at once, so it’s: “Dip. Dip. Dip. Dip. Dip.”…. we watch in awe until she realizes what she’s doing and we all bust out laughing. We’re worried that we’re now giving the crazy guy some competition.

We’re getting kind of full, and while it’s a certainty that we’re getting those desserts (Dana and I get the chocolate strawberry cake, Patti gets the lemon, BP gets the Hummingbird cake (which is like an apple spice cake), and BM gets the Toll House pie (it’s served warm with vanilla bean ice cream and it tastes like a chocolate chip cookie that is straight out of the oven)… we’re now discussing how ridiculous it is that we even thought we were going for seconds and thirds on dessert. We talk about going to Sweet tooth in the morning – they also have breakfast items, BP says well maybe if they have “ssssssssss..pastry, we can get that for breakfast.” And then BP says "I'm not really much for sweets". WHAT!? You're the one that is always looking at the deserts FIRST.

hummingbird cake

Toll House pie

And the recipes that we took pics of.... in case you want to try them for yourselves.... If you seriously want to try it, there is another pic of the recipe for the frosting that you'll need.

Toll House pie recipe...

As we pay the bill, another waiter comes by to take the check and he sees Patti’s coin purse that she bought at one of the shops on the island. He asks her, “How are you enjoying the purse?”…OMG! It’s the guy that sold it to her! And this is not the first or even second time that this has happened. There is a lady that works at Dajio that also works at the slushie place – and someone that works at the slushie place also works at a store that I went into today. It’s like a weird Twilight Zone episode where there are actually only three people in town besides you.

We actually do go by Sweet Tooth because they say they have homemade icecream – we figure we can get some and freeze it and eat it later. But we go in and it’s just normal ice cream, we can’t be tempted by that, but BP gets a Danish for the morning, and we go by the slushie place (on our way we passed another photo opp with Blackbeard and we couldn't pass it up). I get the strawberry slushie float again – and the girls now knows me, “You got that the other day too!” – that can’t be good when we’ve been there for a week and they’re already starting to know us and our order… BM is mourning the loss of slushie. What will we ever do without them?

We played another round of spades, and BP is still learning how to bid. She’s either over or under… but she and I won.

Tomorrow we head out. We have reservations on the ferry, and Patti says that the car is leaving the driveway at 9:15am no matter what. So we need to be packed and ready to go.