Kids from the Sprauve School, in their storybook parade through town this morning. 

Ah, that one day a year when people down here get to dress funny and act goofy. Wait. That’s every day.

There are parties all over the island tonight, but you’ve got to come up with a darn good costume to turn heads on St. John.

I was thinking for pure “scare” factor, a simple black ball cap and black windbreaker with big yellow letters on the back that spell FBI. Boo!

Or for the “what are you” factor, a dark gray suit, white dress shirt with a nice silk tie and polished dress shoes. And then, to about half the good guys down here who say “what are you?”, I could say “I’m you…ten years ago.”

Watch this space for a picture or two.

The grand opening for the Starfish Market Gourmet Wine and Cheese store is November 5. We’re working on a tour. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here’s a peek inside. So much to tell. Here’s one tease. If you like olive oil, you’ll love something very cool and unusual about this store. 

Rain is NOT the water you come to St. John for. It has been rain, rain, raining nonstop for days, and every time I look at the forecast it just keeps getting worse. This may not clear out of here until the middle of the week. And there are a lot of grumpy tourists down here right now. I just saw one woman whack her hubby with a rolled up map as they were hurrying down the street in the rain. Even the locals are getting restless. A cistern can only hold so much water after all. 

There isn’t much to do inside on St. John. Is there? Hey! Good question! What do YOU do on a rainy day. Or on several?

This is a paid ad… but the comments below are our own.

Here’s a really fine, new villa in an area called Skytop. It’s on the east side of Fish Bay, and the handful of villas up here are UP HERE. The views from here can be dizzying. South Shore Villa is a spectacular property, with spectacular views and the owners have incredibly good taste. This villa was also named “Best Villa For Families” by Home Away Traveler. Four bedroom suites, great pool, amazing views. South Shore villa, below.

Why don’t we fly American? Well because of Miami of course. Yuck. (The airport. Not the city.) We tripped up and did it this time. Ah, but what a great way to get here, MIA aside. And just for the expense account of it we bumped ourselves up to the front of the plane. Now this is class. We’re eating off stuff somebody’s going to have to put in a dishwasher. If you have a choice, we say choose American to get down here.

We wish US Airways would get its act together. It’s goal is to be a low cost carrier (New NYSE ticker symbol? LCC, as in “low cost carrier.”) The only problem is, so far US Airways only has the Low and Carrier part down.

The Banana Deck reopened for business last week, and check out the groovy new cups they have this season. Banana Deck also redid its Website a little while ago. Wanna waste some time at work today? It’s got links to a couple of free, silly online games you can play.

Try the Banana Monkey Game. (You didn’t want to go to that meeting anyway, did you?) 

Jeep Cam drives the North Shore Road. It’ll take 3 or 4 installments to get from town to Centerline Road. There’s not as much to point out along the way as in-town drives, so just enjoy the curves and hills. Today’s Jeep Cam: Mongoose Junction to Caneel Bay Resort entrance.