Toes in the sand with Kenny Chesney

Sun tanned toes ticklin the sand and a cold drink chillin in my right hand is exactly my kind of life style so it could only be a matter it before I went to see the person who sings these lyrics, Kenny Chesney.  I am not a country fan but I love live music and his songs seem to sing to my life. This past Saturday night I put my cowboy hat on and went to my first show in Philadelphia. 

Friar’s Bay & Kali’s Beach Bar, French St. Martin

Out on one of our day excursions we found this beautiful little cove known as Friar's Bay. It's located between Marigot and Grand Case and there are signs making it easy to find.

 We went there twice during our trip as it was a great place to go to escape the bus loads of cruisers that came some mornings. 

Orient Bay Beach St Martin

Orient Bay Beach is often called The Most Beautiful Beach in the Caribbean and after spending some time here I can see why. The beach is 2 miles of white sand, crystal clear water, and views of Pinel, Green Cay, and Tintamarre island.

Morning stroll along the beach.

Pinel island St Martin

One of the best places to snorkel in St Martin is Pinel Island.To get there you go to the French Cul De Sac and take the ferry over. The ferry is $6.00 and takes 15 minutes.

KLM 747 Landing at Maho Beach St Maarten

For thrill seekers Maho Beach at sunset bar is the place to be. It's the only place I believe in the world you can have a 747 fly directly over head of you as it lands. Maho beach is on the Dutch side of the island and the beach is located at the end of the runway. Each day people gather to experience not only the planes coming in for a landing but to feel the blast of the jets taking off that causes a sand blast as well. 

Happy 50th George St Martin style

Today George turned 50, Happy Birthday! He gets to choose what we do today, which started with a morning walk down orient beach. It's a nice long beach with many places to shop,eat, drink, along with lots of water sports. Since we are on the French side it is also common to be topless but at the far end there is a nudist beach. Now I have no problem with that but first thing in the morning it can be something to see as people come walking along wearing only a smile.
  After a nice breakfast here we set out to snorkel at Dawn Beach. Finding Dawn Beach was not easy and we are still not sure if we were in the right spot or not but the road lead us to the Westin at Dawn Beach so that's where we went. The snorkeling was pretty good there, we saw lots of fish and even had a swim in the pool. The Westin looks like a nice choice as its all ocean front.

St Martin

Instead of a big party for George's 50th birthday we decided on a trip with the family some place tropical. In the past we have always enjoyed resorts that have an all inclusive plan but this time we were looking for something different.  We wanted an island we could explore on our own and would have plenty to do for all of us.  What we came up with was St Martin which up till now I was not all that familiar with. When we arrived at the airport we were meet by Mickael with Banana location car rental, who drove us to our condo where our cars were waiting. It was nice not to have to navigate how to get there plus we got plenty of information about the island. A rental car is a must here if you plan to go any where and Banana certainly provided a service in driving us. Taxis are few and prices are very high.

LBI Restaurant Challenge

Memorial Day is approaching and we are back full time here in Long Beach Island.  One of the many things we love to do is eat and the island certainly has many places to choose from. This summer we are going to see how many of the restaurants we can try. There are a few new ones and many that have been here for years but we have never tried. Sort of eat our way from one end of the island to the other. Its a tasty challenge I am up for. Thankfully I joined the Ocean club to help with this task.

On The Road Again

As I am packing up the backpack and getting ready to head out for tonight’s show I am thinking back to all the other shows we have been to. I am sure as we sit on the train today heading for NY the conversation will be about all the memories.  Remembering all the different cities and shows we been to along with the different friends we went with. 1991 RFK as the sunset right as the second set started opening with Help, Slip, Frank, we thought that was great until we got to hear our first Dark Star. Wow what a night. 
Then in 1993 finally got to hear Dark Star in Philly.

Our road trip to Madison Square Garden with no money and lots of bars to party in was another one for the books. We had to hit the mac machine many times that night. 

One of my favorites was City Island, Harrisburg 1984, outside on the lawn. 
We had so many great shows at the Spectrum. My first show was August 30, 1980. I had just started dating my now husband, George who was the Dead head. He told me we were going to go see the Dead which at the time I really never listened to. The problem was we had no tickets but he took his brother and me anyway. The first stop was the ticket office at Sears in hopes of a miracle, but the show was sold out.  When we got to the spectrum, George took off for a bit and came back asked us for all our money, took the cooler full of beer and disappeared again returning with 3 tickets. Price of tickets $8.00 each. 

  By the time the second set opened with Scarlet- Fire I was hooked. Since then we have been to pretty much seen every show in Philadelphia.  I think we missed 2, almost 3 but at the last minute we decided once again to go without tickets. It was in 1988 they were playing 4 nights at the spectrum we had tickets for only 3. It was a Friday night and we just couldn’t stay home. So on the way to the show George was hanging out the window of the car while driving along the Schuylkill expressway with one finger in the air. A car pulled up yelling they had tickets. As I am doing 45 down the expressway and trying not to hit anyone they made the ticket money exchange right there in the middle of the expressway.

  That goes in the record book for me. Ticket price $18.00, we paid $20.00 each there was no making change.

  One of my very favorite nights happened 9-22-1987. The concert was great ,Encore Baby Blue then Spencer Davis came out playing – Adams family into Cassidy (one of my favorite songs) –two soldiers jam. That in itself was great more than one song Encore. After the show we decided to head over the Four Seasons we heard they stay. Again not much money and drinks were very expensive for our pockets but none the less we managed to have a few but had to tap MAC 3 times before leaving. There is nothing like getting a bill and having to walk down the street to get money out of the machine to be able to pay for it.  I get the brilliant idea to call their rooms on the house phones and it worked. I talked to Phil at first he thought I was his wife Jill. Then we had a nice long conversation with Bill Kreutzmann. What a night.

  Years later when we weren’t running to MAC all the time we stayed at the Four Season while they were in Philly. We got to meet Bobby. In fact I sat down and had a beer with him, he even gave George his phone number to where to reach him. 

  I can sit here all day and reminisce so many stories but I do have to get a shake on it, train to catch.  New York here we come. Can’t wait until 7:30.

Set List  August 30. 1980 

My first show

Feel Like A Stranger

 Peggy-O

 Cassidy

Friend Of The Devil

 Minglewood Blues

Cold Rain & Snow-> Looks Like Rain

Easy To Love You

 Althea

Jack Straw

Scarlet Begonias-> Fire On The Mountain, CC Rider-> Ramble On Rose, Estimated Prophet-> Eyes Of The World-> Drums-> Not Fade Away-> Black Peter-> Sugar Magnolia

 More Saturday Night

Revel

Atlantic City newest hotel/casino is finally open and it certainly is a place to revel in luxury. The Revel is a 20 acre beachfront casino that lives up to its name. We went Friday night and again on Saturday to see what all we missed the night before. The place offers something for everyone with its 10 pools, 14 restaurants, 3 entertainment venues, 2 nightclubs, 1 day club, shopping, and a huge gaming floor. 

 

A couple of fun facts:

 The Revel has a 47 story hotel tower that is now the tallest in Atlantic City and the second tallest in the state of New Jersey. Not sure what is the tallest so if anyone knows let me know. 

There is a 2-acre rooftop deck with pools, cabanas, fire pits, and the sky garden that has over 30,000 live trees & plants. 

 There are all sorts of interesting places to sit and relax.

There are 1898 guest rooms and suites all with ocean views. I did not see any of the room but did look up the rates and they aren’t that bad. Rates start at $239.00 for a standard ocean view room. Jr. Ocean suites start $359.00 and the one bedroom suites with a separate living room & lounge are $479.00

The entire place is smoke-free which is really nice. I believe there is an area off one of the 2 nightclubs you can smoke on the outside rooftop but that’s it.

We did not see the shopping area which will debut Memorial Day weekend.




Not all the restaurants are open. We found 2 restaurants we are definitely going to try, Amanda an authentic Spanish tapas bar that has wonderful views of the beach & ocean. The other, Mussel Bar, an old world Belgian pub with over 200 beers and a great looking menu.

Looking forward to a return trip.