An Afternoon in Cruz Bay, St John, Virgin Islands

Last weekend we wanted to do something new, a dog friendly beach with a beach bar.

Cruz Bay in St John has it.

We loaded up our dogs on our boat and headed out from St Thomas to Cruz Bay. We anchored up on the beach there.

We had a pleasant afternoon hanging out with the dogs in the water.

I started getting hungry. Well there are several bars that line the beach in Cruz Bay. So I started looking at all their lunch menus on my IPhone to see what we wanted. We settled on Joe's for a Gyro. I called in our order and walked over and picked it up 20 minutes later.

For desert, we chose a bushwhacker from the Beach Bar!

Oh, I forgot to mention, the boat next to us was the Hey Now. This boat is featured in the song by Kenny Chesney, Happy on the Hey Now, a Song for Kristi. Here is a video I took.

More On the New Kenny Chesney Album, "Life On a Rock"

Kenny Chesney's new album is due out April 30th.

One of the new songs is already out, "Lindy", which talks about a St John local he knew in 2006.

Here is some info from a recent private party on the new album from Country Countdown's website.

The arrangements, the melodies, the instrumentation  the singing on the album all reflect Kenny’s longtime association with the Virgin Islands, the lifestyle there, and the people he’s met while living there.  The next song on the album was inspired by one of those people, a man named Lindy.  “I wrote this song in 2006.  I wrote it without a timetable, no expectations, no boundaries, no formula or format.  When I wrote it, I never envisioned playing them.  ‘Lindy’ is another brush stroke in my life.  I never had a conversation with Lindy.  But you could tell when you looked in his eyes, he was a good person.  The thing I loved about him was he loved music.  I was walking past a church one day, looked in, and Lindy was playing piano.  I didn’t know he could play piano.  Even though he lived a different life from me, we had a lot in common.”

There is more info on Lindy found here on the On St John Blog: First Article, Second Article.

Another song is "Happy on the Hey Now", which was written for an icon in St John who worked at Woody's and La Tapa restaraunts, who died before her time at 35.

The last song on the album obviously was the most important one for Kenny.  It’s a song he wrote called “Happy On The Hey Now.”  As Kenny explained, “The Hey Now is a boat.  We had a lot of fun on it.  This song is grounded in ways I didn’t see coming.  Kristi was part of a circle of friends that defined my life.  She didn’t care who I was or what I did.  Kristi was good at life.  She died before her time.  I wasn’t going to put this song on the album, because it’s so personal.  This song made me rethink everything.  I love what I do, and I’m happiest when I’m on stage.  But these songs started to push me towards an artistic shift.  This record was what my soul needed.”

Here is some info on the Hey Now and a picture. 

Here is some info on Kristi Hansen and her memorial fund. I never met her, but reading about her, it sounds like she was a special person and  lived here for all the same reasons most of us do, full of life, great friends and great times! 

Sometimes, I have to pinch myself that I actually live here, and if someone like Kenny Chesney wrote two albums about this place, then you know it is special?  His other album, "Be As You Are" was inspirational to us to make the move to live here. 

April 30th can't come any sooner!