One constant has remained for every trip to Anguilla – – Saturdays are for Smokey’s. I remember our first trip to the island in 2007. I heard there was live music at Smokey’s for lunch on Saturday, so I was determined to make it there on our first full day on the island. We walked there from the CuisinArt (you could do that back then – the beach was wider). I remember being seated at the table just inside the easternmost door, looking out over the water. I had the jerk chicken (which I’ve had every time since), and heard The Musical Brothers performing, doing Christmas songs. I had found…
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It was time to see Anguilla from a different point of view – to go below the surface and see what lay beneath. We did just that this year with our scuba/snorkel trip with Shoal Bay Scuba. My daughter always wanted to learn to scuba dive, so in the summer of 2012 before heading to the British Virgin Islands, we both took the certification course at our local dive shop, Underwater Connection. We both passed the written test, but I never got certified because I was unable to descend below 10 feet (two blown eardrums in my past). My daughter did get certified, but we had never arranged for a…
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A trip to Anguilla is not complete without a stop at Bankie Banx’s Dune Preserve. We first visited in 2007, and although our kids were young, ages 8 and 10, we forced them to stay up late so we could hear Bankie play. The place has such a relaxed feel to it, that it’s hard to pass up. It’s kind of like being at your own beach place. It’s just so easy to hang out there, and the views of St. Martin never get old. The sign on the road has been updated since 2007. And it’s a bit more built up since then. This year, we popped in when…
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We travel over Thanksgiving and every year give thanks for all we have. We find ourselves doing the same at the year’s end. We are thankful for the wonderful people we have met and the great adventures we have had together. Join us for our New Year’s Eve countdown of our top ten irie moments of 2014! #10 Learning New Things: Travel Photography Class with Kevin Miyazaki In June, we took a class in travel photography from well-known travel photographer, Kevin Miyazaki. We were given assignments with two days to complete them before the next assignment came out. I spent a lot of time shooting in my own home town…
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A little extra bit of sunshine can be found on Anguilla’s Rendezvous Bay since our last visit in 2010. New to the beach just east of the CuisinArt Resort is a wonderful beach bar with great food and drink and the friendliest service, Garvey’s Sunshine Shack. Our travel day to the island is always a bit of a marathon. Drive to Chicago the night before, get up at 2:30 a.m., take the shuttle to O’Hare for a 5:00 a.m. flight to Charlotte, RUN to catch your connecting flight to Ste. Maarten (and I mean RUN, as it was ready to take off), take the van to the dock, take Funtime…
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We make a habit of visiting Picante on every visit to Anguilla, oftentimes twice each trip, and this trip was no exception. If anything has changed since our last visit in 2010, it wasn’t the quality of the food or the friendly service. Picante never disappoints. The margaritas are as I remembered them, just boozy enough, but not so much that you need a designated driver. On our second visit, the special was a guava margarita, which was fantastic – – not too sweet! The food was better than I remember, and I ended up ordering the same dish on both visits because I liked it so much. I ordered…
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I read about Hungry’s on Nori’s Anguilla Beaches site, and with my Anguilla Card in hand, we were ready to give it a try. Having read about the lobster quesadillas, I was sold – – plus it was Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., and I needed to keep up my tradition of a meal of Caribbean lobster on Thanksgiving! Hungry’s is the product of the collaboration of two men, Irad Gumbs (in the photo above) and Alfonzo (Papi) Hodge, known for their work in some of the island’s fine dining establishments. With Hungry’s, they offer delicious local dishes in an informal setting, alive with the talk of the day. On our…
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Blanchard’s Beach Shack is a new addition to Meads Bay since our last visit in 2010. Blanchard’s flagship restaurant was well-known to us. When I planned our first trip to Anguilla, I read “A Trip to the Beach” several times, and was familiar with the family’s journey to opening one of the best-known restaurants on the island. The Beach Shack was new, an alternative to the more formal evening experience, a place to stop for lunch and enjoy the beauty of Meads Bay. As you approach, you can’t miss the place, with its brightly-colored exterior and many signs pointing you in the right direction. The menu is pretty extensive, and…
