From today’s St. Patrick’s Day parade in Cruz Bay. The 20 minute event strolled, appropriately enough, in front of cheering crowds at The Quiet Mon.

You are among the first to see pictures of the brand new, open for business E&C service station in Cruz Bay. After several months, the station, formerly the Domino station, held its official grand re-opening Friday. Crowds of St. Johnians gathered to marvel at this new technology called “self-service pumps.” Lines of Explorers and Suzukis and Jeeps stretched for blocks until people figured out they had to actually get out of their vehicles and fill up themselves.

We first met John Brandi a couple of years ago when he was working at Noah’s Little Arks, “slinging dinghy” as they say. We got to know him, and eventually dubbed him the John Wayne of St. John. (though he doesn’t know we call him that.) This guy is one of the coolest guys on St. John… and how he and his wife, Sue, got to St. John is another one of those great stories. They had a 10 year plan, stuck to it, and made it happen. And now he runs his own power boat charter business. From Long Island to St. John, meet Palm Tree Charters’ John Brandi.

I mean, really. Try to eat healthy, or at least tasty, at the airport. We have tried. The salads are brown. The sandwiches are stale. The stuff that comes out of the short-order kitchen is questionable, and the food on the hot bar is just bizarre. And this is one time when you really ARE hungry and need something. So we’ve just decided to eat bad. And maybe this is an occasional feature. “Airport food that sucks.” This certainly doesn’t top the pig tails and cabbage dish being served up a couple of months ago, but here is a shoe leather beef dish that, believe me, looks much better in pictures than it was. Bluck. And you know what? The line for this slop sometimes extends out of the cafeteria and into the terminal! Here’s a tip. Stop at the Subway in Red Hook, get a couple of sandwiches, and bring ‘em with you to the airport. Get a Painkiller and a table. This makes people sitting around you eating slop totally jealous. One warning. Inevitably, somebody in Customs will ask if you “purchased those sandwiches on St. Thomas.” I dare you. Say “No ma’am, I purchased these sandwiches at an agricultural farm on Barbados and have been carrying them with my plants and insects for the last few days.” 

VIDEO ALERT: MEET A CHARTER BOAT CAPTAIN. TOMORROW.

When we were handed the keys to a 2007 Wrangler with less than 200 miles on it in December, we immediately new it was a big improvement. Three months later and we love this vehicle. And the addition of a four door version has been a BIG deal for Jeep. Wrangler sales are up 63 percent from a year ago, and there’s a 45 day wait to get one. But there are now plenty to rent. All of the rental agencies at the airport and a couple on St. John now have 2007 Wranglers. Among big improvements: Proper roll down windows. Easier to engage 4X4. More room behind the back seat. A lockable compartment in the back. An iPod jack. Much, much better ride. A steering wheel that looks like a steering wheel instead of a lunch box. GI Joe green appears to have beaten out fire engine red as the most frequently seen color. If you’re two to four people with modest luggage in tow, this is your rental.

This week’s Beach Break is Jumbie Beach (named after the Jumbies, or ghosts, that prowl the island’s forests late at night.) Access is by wooden stairs down from the North Shore Road just before you get to Trunk Bay - there is parking for a handful of cars off the road - or by boat. Depending on the tide, it is either a great beach, or a great LITTLE beach. Take a two minute trip to Jumbie, stair free, below!

If you’re planning a trip in the next few days, you might want to budget some extra barge time. Maybe a whole lot more. Check this out. Only one barge running? That’s a disaster. Some people waiting as long as four hours at Red Hook to get on the barge to St. John? That’s a real vacation buzz killer. You can read the details for yourself, but it sounds like there are no firm answers as to when this mess will get sorted out. A day? A week? At least the barge that is running, the Mr. B., is the big one. THIS DOES NOT AFFECT THE FERRY SERVICE, so if you’re on the team that always rents your wheels on St. John, you’re allowed a good old “nah-na-NA-NAH-nah” right now.

Grand Bay 6 months ago, left. Grand Bay now, right. If this were a villa and that was the kind of progress 6 months got you, the owners would be very unhappy. This project is WAY past due. Grand Bay has always been the third rail in development conversations on St. John. There’s also at least two sides to any story and one side that we rarely hear talked about are all those unit-owners who must be really anxious to get moved in. Some of these are 7-figure condos! A few owners aren’t waiting. For Sale: At least 6 Grand Bay Condos, $629,000 to $1,025,000.The folks working on the project we talk to sound like those owners (who are waiting) will be partying on their balconies by May. Maybe.

BEACH BREAK PREVIEW: Rhymes with Humvee. Sort of.