Aaaaand finally, my far-too-detailed account of our little jaunt to a tropical island comes to a close with this final, riveting installment:

Hank decided that we just had to roll with whatever we had and that we’d rock a mainly instrumental set at Caribbean Saloon, with me covering on songs if necessary and making up some jams as well. He’d tried everything from gargling seawater to gargling cortisone cream (NOT recommended and he nearly puked several times), but no voice was forthcoming. So he just started on the whiskey in the hope it would help, and if not, he’d at least be drunk and care slightly less!

A quick clothing change (for me, at least; I gotta keep up the style end of the group, ya know?) and we were off to the Saloon. We started with Carefree Livin’, which Hank was sure he could scream through, and I backed up a lot more than usual to beef up the vocals. Miraculously, a few songs in, his voice actually started to resemble a voice again as it warmed up, and he could do some really crazy, Dave Grohl in full-screaming-mode sounds that he normally can never do without wrecking his voice! The set was SLAMMING; playing lounge & jazz music for three hours had really warmed us all up and we had a blast jamming out on some ridiculous little songs that Darren and Toby just made up on the spot (‘Porn Jam’ was my favourite and one I hope makes a comeback at a future gig). Awesome! We played some classics too and a few of our own tunes, and had a great night. I was so, so relieved – I really wanted us to do a great job for Terrie (who unfortunately missed the whole gig because she was sick at home with a horrible migraine) and I think we did that. The bar staff and megastar sound engineer, Rob, all complimented us on the gig and we even got Rob to sit in on a tune. He nearly burst my eardrums. I was standing right in front of the ride cymbal, and Rob hit that thing so loudly that I was seriously worried for my hearing. I’ve never heard anyone play the drums that loudly before. It rocked, but at that moment I really wished I was wearing earlplugs.

We finally quit playing around 3am, and Toby headed back to the hotel pretty soon after that as he was exhausted and his hand was killing him – he broke it really badly not too long ago and it was still getting swollen when he played. I think Sergio also left early (ie before 5am) too, but by that point I was so deliriously tired I couldn’t really tell you what happened when! We got a ride home from Rob, Hank and I sitting in the open back of his little Jeep and feeling the warm night air on our faces with millions of stars above us. It was pretty awesome.

Perhaps four hours later, Hank and I were awake and heading to the airport to pick up a rental car for the last couple of days. Darren was leaving that day (Sunday) but the rest of us were off on a boat trip to St. John! Some friends of Dan (our trumpet player) lived down there and owned this awesome 50-foot cigarette boat that was seriously fast. We set off just before lunch and sped along the coastline of St. Thomas, watching all the boats in the Regatta racing in the bay, and rode over the water to a cove on St. John that was overlooking Tortuga, one of the British Virgin Islands. We snorkeled (my first time, and I saw a beautiful turtle and thousands of fish and a miniature reef!), ate good food and listened to jazz being played over the boat’s sound system. I felt like a celebrity in the 1960s. On the way back to St. Thomas, we got pulled over by the US Coast Guard, which absolutely made Hank’s day! He loves this documentary show about the Coast Guard, and when a little powered dinghy with about 5 of them rode up along side us and asked us to slow down, he totally geeked out. They apparently do random inspections of boats to make sure they have enough lifejackets, etc etc, so we just sat down like good tourists and enjoyed the experience. Unlike traffic cops in NYC, they were very friendly and polite!

Back in St. Thomas, we were staying in a really cool apartment that we got hooked up with for the last two nights, and it was lovely to have our own place with a living room and a kitchen to cook in. Hank made some great food for dinner and I was out like a light after two glasses of wine. Lightweight.

The next day, Hank and I drove around the island visiting some very nice resorts and schmoozing with the hospitality coordinators. We got a tour of the Ritz-Carlton resort (SO NICE) and met up with a lady at the Marriott, both of whom were very interested in having us play next year. I’m definitely keeping my fingers crossed, they have a spa at the Ritz!

Our last night in USVI was a fairly quiet one; we went out for dinner at a Rastafarian bar/restaurant on the beach and had some real local food for the first time since we got there. It was pretty damn delicious and we’ll definitely go back there next time we visit. We then headed back to the apartment, had some wine and walked out to the gorgeous private beach to sit on the sand and look at the stars for a while. You see one or two if you’re lucky in New York, but the sky out there was lit up with constellations. I could even identify a few.

New York was typically cold when we got back, and by the end of that week it had snowed, which made me feel extra welcome. It might be full of concrete and have terrible weather, but I really did miss the place. I won’t complain when I have to fly to the Caribbean next March, though.

Thanks for keeping up with my travels! I promise to get my act together and add photos/videos to these blogs over the weekend. Promise. Honest.