Meet Butch Brooks, the Federal Highway Administration’s project manager for the Cruz Bay roundabout, and the man responsible for this $6.5 million project. Butch says they are under budget and ahead of schedule.

If all continues to go well, Butch and his crew think they’ll wrap this up in February, four months before the deadline.

A nosy peak at the plans, spread out for all to see the other day, shows drawings for a cigar storage case. Interesting addition.

Other work is progressing, with new produce cases ready to go. Meat is back where meat used to be. Same for produce. The $15 frozen DiGiorno pizzas are where they’ve always been. (For a couple of bucks more you could get a real pizza at Cafe Roma.)

US Airways just joined the 20th century at the St Thomas airport. There are now several self-service check-in kiosks at the US Airways counter. American and Continental have had them for a long time.

Note to villa owners: One of the cheapest, and most guest-appreciated investments you can make is a printer set up someplace in your house. Checking in online and printing boarding passes is a huge airport stress reliever.

Meet Dean Doeling, a Nike designer and St. John visitor who felt like making a difference.

Dean created something he calls “Using Sport for Social Change,” and while that might sound heady and highfalutin, he’s just a guy who spotted something he could do. And he’s a Nike guy and figured he could do it for free.

And he did it too.

Kids spent the day in the ball field Monday playing games, listening to motivational speakers and getting new balls and sneakers and other cool stuff. Thanks to Dean and Nike.

Has success spoiled the Tourist Trap? We all knew it would happen. With a successful first year comes changes.

It is no longer a funky little island eatery with a tent in a guy’s back yard. It is now a funky little island eatery with TWO tents in a guy’s back yard. Will the changes make the Tourist Trap too tense?

No, just two tents.

What goes better with a sunset than some wine and cheese?

Wine and Cheese Wednesdays is the latest thing on the menu at the Beach Bar. A cheese platter with crackers and garnish is $12 (Silton, Vermont white cheddar and Brie on this particular night). Featured wine from $6 to $9 a glass. Cheese platter available starting at 5. The live music starts at 9.

Caneel Bay may be closed all month, but you can still get to a couple of beaches.

The friendly guard at the new guard house will not let you drive onto the property, but will suggest you park across the street (there’s room but not sure if it’s legal) and walk across the property to Caneel Beach, or to the path that goes to Honeymoon Beach.

No one has given us a definitive answer about use of Caneel’s other beaches though. And they are completely empty and tempting.

Resurfacing work on the North Shore Road started September 28th (more federal stimulus money, thank you)  and you can expect some delays for months, but it doesn’t sound too bad.

“There will be one way closures throughout the whole project. That’s the only way to do it,” Butch Brooks from the Federal Highway Administration tells us. “There will be times when you might have to wait a few minutes [at the stoplights], but it’s going to go quicker than people think.”

The first leg of work, now underway, runs from Mongoose Junction to the Cruz Bay overlook with stop lights at both ends regulating the one-way traffic, and he’s right, the stoplight cycles in five minutes or so. We’ve got five minutes to spare. So do you.

The project will resurface 8.5 miles of the North Shore Road and take “a year or maybe a little bit longer,” Brooks says.

The feds are on this project, just like the ahead-of-schedule, under-budget roundabout. (No, really It is.) More from Butch about the roundabout later this week.

And a North Shore Jeep Cam soon come too.

(Why is it good the feds are on this? Because your tax dollars are actually being spent where intended.)

We spotted this guy in front of the Beach Bar loading his little boat with palm trees the other day. How can you not ask about that.

Turns out he grows seedlings on St. John. He is also friends with Ivan, who is sprucing up his bar and campground for high season and was in need of some plants. And so off this guy was going to Jost van Dyke with his palms.

And that’s a true story….true, it’s true!

Meet Barbara “Boom Boom” Browser, inventor of the Tourist Trap’s second flagship drink, The Boom Boom.

The Tourist Trap, already home to the almost famous Drink Right Keep Left rum drink invented by co-owner Larry, is now serving up Barbara’s version of the BBC (Bailey’s Banana Colada.) Among tweaks…replacing Bailey’s with Cruzan Rum Cream, making it a more local version of the milkshake-like drink.

Co-owner Cheryl, a graphic artist, has even immortalized Barbara in a poster to promote the drink.

“When I asked her what we should call her new drink, I loved it and knew right then I would do a Pinup hula version of Barbara for the artwork,” Cheryl tells us. See for yourself!

We just got our hands on La Plancha del Mar’s brand new menu – take a look – and it includes both new dishes (duck!) and old favorites (ribeye!). But it was the guys’ new “prime rib and raw bar” night on Saturdays that lured us. Okay, it was the PRIME RIB that lured us.

Learn how they make their version, and have a virtual bite, below!

While controversy continues about one building at Grande Bay (the tall one in the back), work is full speed ahead on the property’s administration building (the one in front.) It will house check-in for guests and some retail, and on top of the building, a huge swimming pool with deck.

There are also plans for a gigantic waterfall that will spill over the edge of the pool deck and down to a ground level pond.

We’re told the pool will be ready in time for high season, sometime around the first of the year. Grande Bay is a great place to stay, and completing the pool addition (below) is a great deal for its owners and its guests.