Key Lime Pie and a Shot of Jack

Day 9: May 30th

Villa Gravity has taken over. We were all taking our good ole time getting up and going today. After breakfast we packed up the Jeeps and rode towards the bottom part of the mountain. Fortsberg is more than a villa of course. It used to be a fort and battery site for the Dutch in the 1700s. Now privately owned, the ruins sit on the mountain top and bottom, letting time take them away. We got permission from the owner to hike out to the sites. The hike down to the battery (complete with 7 cannons) was steep! But it was cool to see what remained of it and I imagine if we were allowed to dig around the area we'd find some antiques from soldiers who were stationed there.



After a time we set further down to the beach which was super rocky, to hunt for shells. Care, Dad and Rob and Val went all the way down the beach to a set of rocks and a wade pool. Kris and I only went about halfway because of how precarious it was to climb the rocks.

After a long, exhausting hike back up the hill, we walked back to the villa. Dad, Rob and Val hiked up to the ruins (I'll have to ninja pictures).

We relaxed for lunch at the villa and I jumped in the pool for a few hours to cool off. Kris came across a conch shell at the villa that was cut to be used as a horn. That was fun trying to get any of us to use it correctly. It sounded like sad whale farts... lol

After dinner at the house, we decided to continue a tradition that Joan had started four years ago, when her, Dad, Rob and Val were visiting down here. It was around Rob's birthday so they went out to Skinny Legs for cake. They were closing up and only had key lime pie, so they got slices of pie and shots of Jack Daniels.

So we set down to Skinny's (not far from the villa) and ordered six slices of key lime pie and 6 shots of Jack. :) The waitress and the bartender seemed pretty impressed with the odd order.

The rest of the evening was spent on the deck. Val and I hopped into the hot tub with some of her awesome rum punch. We stared up at the stars and talked about the trip, relationships, life, travel and memories. It was a nice end to the evening. The sky was clear enough that I spotted about 5 shooting stars. :)

Tomorrow is our last full day here... Best not to think too much about it.

Cheers and Conch Shell Horns,
Meg