As it gets closer to the day we leave, we find ourselves slowing down and doing less instead of what I had anticipated, that we would try to stuff lots of activities into the last few days. We cooked breakfast in our room this morning to take advantage of the fresh tortillas we had bought. Then we decided to hang out on the pier for a while and read and I even got in the water with my mask for a look at all the fish who live underneath. Because there are few traditional beaches here, and mostly sea walls, piers are popular places for lounge chairs and you can enter the water through the steps at the end of the pier. Our hotel has a pier that is about 200 feet out over the water with a palapa on the end and numerous lounge chairs. It’s such a great place to watch the morning sun glitter off the water and to soak in as much of the beauty of the Caribbean as I can. We talked with an interesting  older couple from Italy on the pier this morning who try out a new tropical location each year. We finally went in after noon and dressed to “go to town”. We ate at a restaurant also on a pier over the water. Restaurants such as this are not plentiful here, with most places being on one of 3 Main Streets in town. We walked along front street for a while after lunch and stopped in at Raggamuffin tours to see if we could get on the sunset cruise today. We paid our deposit and were told to return in a few hours. It was a perfect cloudless days with just enough breeze to keep you from being hot. When the appointed time came, we boarded a small sailboat with about 12 other passengers, a captain, and a couple of crew. We sailed around to the west side of the island for the best view of the sunset, and it didn’t disappoint. Even after the sun disappeared below the horizon we sailed in the  orange glow that is left long after sunset. We sat on the bow of the boat with a couple from Alaska, and 2 sisters from Seattle. Eric, from Alaska, is actually a recruiter for the university of Alaska. To me, that sounds like a pretty challenging job, and he admitted that most of their students are in-state, they get a few from the northwest, but not a lot of teenagers not raised in Alaska choose it for their college career. The sisters from Seattle had been roommates since college (they were in their late 20’s). They reminded me of the friendship that Mallory and Olivia have, that warms my heart beyond words. We were later joined up front by a couple in their 50’s originally from Liverpool, England. They are now living off the coast of Canada on a small island with only solar and wind to provide utilities. Everyday we  have met fascinating people from so many places around the world. It’s amazing the diversity of people attracted to this place. We finished up the night at the sports bar in town. Tuesday night is “open mic” night, and there were comedians, singers, and musicians performing. For such a tiny place, there always seems to be something going on. Unless you prefer to relax, in which case there are places with nothing going on. The funniest questions we get pretty often from people from Canada and even the northern United States is,”why are you down here? Isn’t it just as warm in Mississippi right now?” They are usually surprised to hear that it does actually fall below freezing in Mississippi and stays pretty chilly. We don’t have ice and snow for 6 months of the year like some of the Canadians, but we do have a winter. Meeting so many people from such cold climates does certainly make me appreciate Mississippi more. I wouldn’t have guessed that a visit to a tropical place could result in my appreciation of the South more, but there have been many unexpected things about this trip. Somehow I can’t keep myself from forming expectations about things I’ve yet to experience, although I alost expect they will probably be wrong. Of course, that’s actually what makes doing new things so much fun, and it’s been the unexpected parts of this trip that have turned out to be some of my favorites.