Last weekend was the first weekend that my boyfriend and I had to ourselves in 2 weeks, so we were looking forward to some alone time and marveled at all the prospects the weekend had to offer. At the top of my list was a trip to Water Island to spend some time at Honeymoon Beach. Water Island has about 100 full-time residents, so it’s a quiet, quaint place to visit, and I had heard that the beach there was very nice. I was anxious to check it out.
However, in all of my excitement over our free weekend, the first thing I did on Friday night was over-indulge in Dark and Stormy’s at our favorite watering hole, Sibs. For those of you that don’t know, a Dark and Stormy is Myer’s Dark Rum mixed with ginger beer (not ginger ale). It’s a local favorite, and I love them. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about drinking down here, it’s that when it comes to Caribbean rum drinks, I can’t hold my liquor. They pour them strong and they refill them quickly. The next thing I know, I’m feeling like a freshman in college - going from non-stop chitter-chatter with friends to feeling nauseous in the bathroom. The good news was that we had to call it an early night. The bad news was that I was feeling rough on Saturday morning and questioned whether I had it in me to pack up the car and head over to another island’s beach verses a 5 minute ride down to our usual beach. These are my troubles these days…ridiculous, I know.
Regardless, we decided to stick with our plan and headed off to meet some friends at the water taxi that took us over to the island. When we got off the boat, I immediately felt a change in atmosphere. This island was so charming that I almost felt like I had entered the scene of a murder mystery novel. It was quiet, picturesque, calm and still. Mary Higgins-Clark aside, I liked the island, and I was happy that we had decided to come.
The first thing we saw was all the mailboxes for the residents of the island, located right at the end of the dock. Most people ride around Water Island in golf carts rather than cars, so needless to say there’s no postal delivery to your home. Instead, there’s a central area for the postal service to drop off the mail right by the dock. Except, this wasn’t your typical, generic, postal service drop-off area, this was a tastefully designed shelter with benches and plants and a book exchange – open to the public. I was impressed with how inviting this was and took a minute to gaze at the book selection before we headed to the beach.
Our short walk from the dock to the beach consisted of a quick jaunt uphill, passing several beautiful homes along the way. It was a nice walk, and I didn’t mind having to go up-hill before descending down to the beach. Once we arrived at the bottom of the hill, we found a quite beach with a handful of benches painted all different shades of Caribbean colors, palm leaf covered huts that provided shade from the sun and white, powdery sand. The sun sparkled on the water in front of us. It was paradise. We found a good spot under a hut and set up camp for the day.
Not shortly after settling in, I walked down the beach to put in my order at Heidi’s Honeymoon Grill for what most people believed to be the best burger in the Caribbean. In my hung-over haste, I told Heidi how much I was looking forward to her burger and asked her what her secret was. I quickly discovered that she wasn’t messing around. Her burgers included a ¾ lb. patty of Angus beef, cooked at a low heat for a good amount of time and lightly seasoned with garlic and salt. Sounded good to me, and about 30 minutes later I had downed the entire thing. I then proceeded to spend the rest of the day lying down on the beach...digesting.
However, after a bit I found some strength for a swim, some Frisbee and a [virgin] banana daiquiri. It was by all accounts a very good day.
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