SABA!! VEGAS the most beautiful people in the world?

This is the view from the bathroom shower. We are situated looking down on to Corrosol. So many boats in  port for the regatta. Our first stop? Hotel Christopher.  We plan to go incognito. Playing it cool.
Sit by the pool, eat a bit of lunch  . . .

 and read by the pool

So relaxing. So amazing and then the added bonus a massage, poolside.  Cue lapping of ocean kissing the beach. Beautiful music to meditate by and


"Saba Saba saaabbbaaaa, you know that's the most beeeauuuutiful place in the world. Right up there with Vegas." such was what intruded on my lovely poolside massage at the hotel Christopher. The heavily inebriated older woman continued to gulp her drink down and chatter to the bartender, who didn't speak any English. What, you say shouldn't that have stopped said matron? No she was what we all fear being called when we are abroad. . . The ugly American. While trying to relax listening to the new age music a slice of Americana invaded my existence, I learned she loved Greece - Crete especially. It deserved relating the name several times. Crete CREte  CRETE. I also learned she traveled on the donkeys, you know the donkeys, donkeys, donkeys, up the steep mountainside of Santorini. ( pictured below)

But not Greece or the lovely island

where we were currently.
They couldn't hold a candle to the beautiful city of Las Vegas. "Vegas Vegas Vegas."  "Uh hmm "the bartender answered. "Beautiful women!! Beautiful!! Really beautiful." she slurred.  At this point I wanted to raise my self up on my elbows and say " Do you mean the overly plastic people?" but I didn't. I continued to chant to myself "serenity now serenity now." Alas that didn't seem to help. We, I say we, not as the royal we, but all that were by the pool that day, heard that her husband had recently retired, somewhere in Kansas granted the dialect sounded more Jersey than Midwest, but I trust she must know where her husbands business was run, he had 250, yes 250 no reAlly 250!!! people working for him. He sold his business. I at this point had the most amazing  part of my massage, the masseuse put her fingers by my ears and plugged my ears so all I could hear at first was my breathing. I started to feel tranquil, concentrating on the breath, just like my favorite part of yoga, you know the end of 30 minutes when you close your eyes and just rest. Usually I'm so rested I start drooling. Oh if only. I would take the embarrassment of a drooled stained pillow over the screeching voice that seemed to somehow seep into my ear canals. Hearing the virtues of Vegas Vegas Vegas Vegas. Maybe the city of lost wages should use that as a tag line. Virtuous Vegas, more beautiful than the Caribbean.


Below are some more photos after the massage ended.

A very relaxing and lovely day.  Which ended with a view from the villa and a light dinner of bread, cheese and wine

Picking up the trail

Here they were, just last year, poolside, trying to seal the deal for their new film. We knew the place. A land of relaxation, amazing beverages and oh so peaceful. But first we had to get there.  We hopped a plane from Philly to St. Maarten and then a little puddle jumper to St. Barths. Where all the beautiful people are. Woody and Buzz would melt right in this high flying crowd.

We felt rather safe as there were 3 pilots on board and we were the only passengers. I tried to converse with them in my limited french. Asking if they had seen Buzz and Woody. They just smiled and said,
"Vous francais es terrible!!! Parlez vous la englaise."  then in English," before you butcher our language anymore." actually the crew was quite nice. And asked if we had arranged for our private flight?

No one else was on board but us.

Touched down and we didn't end in St. Jean's beach : )  We were off and hunting for clues.

We knew we had made the right decision to come to St. Barths.

We drove to our villa and decided we needed a plan. We know there here. But just exactly where were they?

One of the many spectacular views from the villa.

We asked around the pool? Have you seen Buzz and Woody? My lizard is worse than my french and so he just wandered away.

dusk was coming way too soon.
but oh the view was incredible. I wondered, how am I ever going to convince the boys to come back to Hershey, where the snow had just melted?

The moon was just  a sliver, as Peter and I had a glass of wine,

We headed to bed listening to the sound of birds and having cool breezes waft through the windows. Okay maybe we didn't have the windows open at night but the a/c was on and it was cool :  )

In search of Buzz and Woody

Well folks the last time we saw Buzz and Woody together was in South Dakota. Or was it North Dakota? The last photo of them together? hmmm It might be the one from above. One our way home from the pacific northwest. We had grabbed a ferry. They seemed so happy with us. We had a great adventure traveling about the wide open road. But could it be that when we returned that your favorite blogger was distraught to not have a walking partner and so decided to bring into the family this cutie?

She looks so innocent, doesn't she? Miss Maple, so calm. She was the only one in her litter that listened to her breeder's when they called. Little did we know that she would become this. . .

or this

or this

But oh Buzz knew. HE tried to convince Woody that this may not be the safest place to live anymore. But Woody the ever present optimist tried to convince Buzz that she wasn't anything like Scud, Sid's vicious dog from next door of Andy's home. But no Buzz left in the middle of the night.

Woody started trying to make new friendships. He started hanging with baseball players.
He tried to cozy up to Edgar, shooting the breeze about spring training prospects

But it wasn't the same. Edgar kept giving Woody the cold shoulder. Meanwhile, Miss Maple was plotting, unbeknownst to us. She tried to bring in the evil Cat Baloo. They pretended they didn't like each other while we were in the room but oh, they plotted. They plotted to get rid of Woody just as they got rid of Buzz.

So yes, Woody went in search of Buzz, and Peter and I felt it was our duty to go in Search of Buzz and Woody and bring them back.

So we traveled to spots where we remembered that they had been happiest. We picked up their trail in the Philadelphia airport.

But they seemed to move quickly always one step ahead. We tried to think where had they been happiest? Ireland, Italy? Switzerland? England? Hawaii? Hawaii? Maybe that's where they went? But that's a 12 hour flight from Philly. hmmm the islands, the Caribbean only 3 hours away. Yes, they had been talking about making a new film branching out . We decided to head back to where we had seen them hashing out a deal poolside . . .
St. Barths, French West Indies. Yes, we will find them.

Buzz and Woody take a bite out of the Big Apple

The premier of their 3rd film together opened this weekend. Buzz and Woody were in Times Square to check out their new billboard. Along with them came a bevy of beautiful women. AKA "The Nieces" Mallory, Alaina and Claire.

We traveled through lower Manhattan/Chinatown/Little Italy in search of deals on sunglasses and bags with no avail. We hopped a cab to THE PLAZA for a spot of tea.

Buzz and Woody, Plaza Hotel in the background.

We traveled up towards the Met and browsed their book store and then walked through Central Park. You couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Low humidity, sunshine, light breeze. It was beautiful.

Then back to 5th avenue and seeing the sights

"uhh Buzz, I don't think we're in Andy's room any more. "
Well that's all for today. See you across the country in July for our road trip.