Okay gang. Enjoy some fun photos and filler, and one of our favorite beach breaks, for the next few days. We’re off for our monthly week on the rock. It has become our St. John menstrual cycle. Only good. Except for the cramps. Jumbies willing, we’ll come back with some more good stuff. Here’s a hint. We need a map. (And that’s a new sign. That’s a good start.)

Just when one of the biggest mosquito blooms of the year dies down, here comes the Sahara dust again. Waves of dust blowing from the Sahara Desert saturate the air this time of year, often making it as far as the Virgin Islands.

Now, if you said The Sahara! Isn’t that in Nevada?, you’d be an idiot. The Sahara is in the country of Africa, which is actually lots of countries but I can’t name very many of them. But yes, it is coming from a long way away. And it’s kinda nasty stuff. If you’ve got allergies or sinus problems, you’re going to hate it. It’s so bad right now that the V.I. Department of Health issued a warning to residents about it this week.

It can also be a good thing. Meteorologists think it acts to keep atmospheric moisture levels low, and that in turn can prevent hurricanes from forming. It also makes for some colorful sunsets.

Well lookie that. Slimman cleans up nice! Thursday afternoon was the first gig for Slim O’s Limo. An afternoon wedding at Trunk Bay. There’s another limo running around now too…a big, black stretched Ford Excursion. But you can’t get much more classy than a white Lincoln on your wedding day. We forgot to ask what his rates are, but if you’re curious, call. Slim O’s Limo: 340-714-SLIM.

Funny 6 Degrees here. Melanie Griffith, who spent part of her childhood growing up with her family at Denis Bay, was in a John Waters movie called Cecil B. Demented. There is a hilarious scene in which she, who plays a spoiled actress, throws a major temper tantrum when a WHITE LIMO, instead of a black limo comes to pick her up. Among her lines: “What do I look like, Liberace’s boyfriend?!!” Rent the movie just for that one, long tirade.

The Virgin Islands National Park is not on the National Parks Service’s preliminary list of parks that will raise entrance fees. Most of the money collected at Trunk Bay, and at Annaberg and from mooring fees, stays on St. John, though about 20% of it goes to Washington.

The VI National Park’s fiscal 2006 budget was $4.7 million. The President’s FY2008 budget for National Parks (390 parks in all) is $2.4 billion. That’s a record by the way. The VINP also gets $400,000 a year from the Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park (that means from you) in the form of grants and projects.

Our National Parks system turns 100 in 9 years. Read about the President’s initiatives here. (That’s a first. We linked to the White House. We’ll send Laura a T-shirt.)

In a decision that will put an end to what has become a needless annual awards show, the country music industry has decided to declare Kenny Chesney Entertainer of the Year for the next 46 years.

Using actuarial tables to determine Chesney’s remaining life span, the Academy of Country Music has gone ahead and given him the award for the years 2008 through 2053.

One of the first Beach Breaks this year was Cruz Bay outside of the Beach Bar.  There’s the other side of Cruz Bay too. On the other side of the ferry dock. This is a great place to hang out while you wait for your villa management company to get you. And it’s a great place to take one last walk along the water before your Walk of Woe to the ferry on your way home.  Take a stroll on Cruz Bay, below! (And you might see something else some of you are looking forward to.)

Beverly Nicholson Doty, the USVI’s new commissioner of tourism, is ready to get to work. This is National Tourism Week in the USVI (which actually runs from May 12 to May 20, meaning it is National Tourism Week and a Day Week) and Doty is starting to talk about her plans. And we confirm one of her first moves will be shutting down the U.S. Virgin Islands tourism offices in New York, L.A., Miami, Atlanta and Chicago. It’s DC office will stay open. (It’s at 900 17th Street, NW if you’re a DC-area reader who’s looking for something to do on your lunch break.) “We are moving to virtual offices, we are getting rid of expensive real estate,” Travel Weekly quotes Doty as saying. Fiscal responsibility. That’s refreshing. And she has also set up a new Website specifically for anybody who travels to the USVIs to comment on how to make it better. Your ideas? Tell Beverly here.

It looks like Larry’s Landing, the pool hall and local hangout in Wharfside Village, is crossing the street. Part of the new Redbeard’s Saloon. No info on what, if anything, will immediately move into the old Larry’s space.

By the way, the cool Redbeard’s sign on top of the building is now gone. DPNR ordered them to take it down.  Apparently it is okay to build four story condos halfway up a hillside, but it is not okay to put a 2 foot high sign on top of your little one story building. 

Did you love the tenderloin and arugula sandwich you had at Tage? How about the Thai salad at Fish Trap, or the baked oysters on a bed of spinach at Stone Terrace? In today’s On-StJohn TV interview, find out where all the great produce many of St. John’s restaurants use comes from. Meet Hugo and Josephine Roller and tour their organic farm, below!

But US Airways has developed some serious problems with its St. Thomas flights. We just bought tickets for next weekend. Great fare. $336 from DC through Charlotte. But those on-time performance numbers, which I rarely even notice, just jumped off the screen this time. STT to Charlotte flight on time 30 to 40 percent of the time? US Airways had the distinction of being the worst major carrier for on-time performance last month. LATE 45 percent of the time. Man, that’s horrible! And, according to Bureau of Transportation stats, by far most of those delays were the airline’s own fault (carrier delay, late arrival, canceled flight.) If you’ve had a bad experience with US Airways recently, send an email right now, here.

The governor Thursday night vetoed a Senate passed measure endorsing the developers of Sirenua’s plans to build bigger buildings. Coming from a town where even bartenders have their own political action committee, we have been watching this story with great interest for a long time. This is fascinating politics.

It’s not a done deal yet.  Now the Senate, a Unicameral by the way….a governmental body the USVI shares only with Nebraska…can move to override the governor’s veto. Good politics takes grass roots effort and the “St. John Coalition” is in high gear. There was a mass email Thursday night organizing groups to descend on individual senators. That’s a lot more effective than waving signs and writing letters. 

As for Sirenusa sales, we count 17 units listed, from $1.390 million to $2.55 million. Here is the official Sirenusa Website.

This week’s Beach Break misidentified that beautiful Beach. A Privateer Bay resident pointed out our mistake. It is actually Long Bay Beach, on the South side of the East End. Privateer Beach is on the North side of the East End, and looks out on Privateer Point. Oops. Sorry about that everybody. You can see a few seconds of Privateer Beach here. (We think!)

Everything you wanted to know about Privateer Bay here.

You can’t keep a good pirate down. Years ago, and long before our time, famous Skinny Legs was a bar called Redbeard’s Saloon. (Established 1982.) And Redbeard is back. This time in Cruz Bay, not Coral Bay. New proprieters have the Redbeard’s name, and a new bar to go along with it. Across from Wharfside Village, Redbeard’s Saloon is set to open in what was an old house, and we just had a sneak peak tour. The carpeted and air conditioned front bar has video lottery machines and a gigantic smoke eater. And the bar will be a pour-your-own establishment. There’s also a pool room and an outdoor courtyard in back, and the owners tell us they may eventually serve food. For now, just good grog, matie.