At 5:50am on our first morning in Tortola, we were awake because we have a rooster that is apparently going to crow incessantly at the crack of dawn. His name is Wallace, and this morning, he chose to crow incessantly right outside our bedroom window. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and got on the computer since we have Internet here – it's actually been nice to clean up our inboxes and take some time to look through all our wedding stuff that has shown up on Facebook.
By late morning, we decided to hit the beaches – Tortola has some of the most beautiful beaches we've ever seen. One of the best ones, Smuggler's Cove, is literally right down the road from our villa – we could walk to it in five minutes. The water is so clear and blue, and the sand is soft and white. Also, there's a guy down there with a drink/food stand selling all kinds of alcohol and lunch/snack foods – we had lunch there on Monday (I ate a hot dog!!). 
What a smart business plan – he's the only one selling stuff there, and he's got a monopoly on all the beachgoers and occasional little boats that pull up. Tom got a rum punch, and I got a drink called a Bushwacker – Kahlua, Bailey's, vodka, pineapple, coconut, and nutmeg all blended together with crushed ice. It was so good I had to get another one, and then I was tipsy at 1:00 in the afternoon. Amazing.
We left Smuggler's Cove and headed toward a few other north shore beaches – Tortola is really beautiful on the northern side – amazing beaches, incredible views of the ocean and green mountains. We drove through Long Bay, Carrot, Bay, and were going to stop at Cane Garden Bay, one of the most popular beaches. The bay was completely full of boats, though, and we didn't want that much congestion, so we just kept driving (according to the locals, Puerto Ricans descend and take over this time of year).
Next we came to Brewer's Bay – this one is big, beautiful, and almost totally deserted. It was so nice! Tom and I were just relaxing in the water here – it was a super hot afternoon, so we didn't want to sit on the beach at all. 
While we were in the water, we noticed that a bunch of little fish were hovering around my toes – we think they were attracted to my pink toenail polish. It was so funny to watch them come up and congregate – and if I moved, they moved, too. After a little while, some bigger fish came over and started swimming in-between my ankles, too! It caught me by surprise because I had stopped watching the little fish, and all of a sudden I felt something slippery and fidgety around my legs. There were two bigger fish swimming figure eights between my ankles and hitting me with their fins & tails as they went around. It was so neat! Tom wanted them to swim over to him, and I did, too, because he's the one that is so intrigued by fish. Eventually a few went over to Tom and did the same thing to him. We stood here for a good 10 minutes, mesmerized by these fish who had made a playground out of our legs. It was starting to get pretty late in the afternoon, so we decided to pack up and head back to our side of Tortola to take showers and go out for dinner.
We cleaned up and headed to a popular waterfront joint called The Jolly Roger for dinner. It's right down the road from our villa and has a reputation for good food, so we went and grabbed a few beers and a table right on the water. After my disappointing experience with conch fritters in Cinnamon Bay on St. John, I was reluctant to try them somewhere else. Our server assured me that theirs were good, so I took a chance. And they were fantastic. I could've eaten the whole basket, but I had fish & chips coming and wanted to save room. The fish was tilapia and was so delicious. Tom got some garlic bread for an appetizer and a very disappointing, pre-made/frozen hamburger for dinner. Hamburgers are always risky on the ocean in my opinion (unless it's a place that's known for having incredible burgers like Skinny Legs in St. John). He literally ate only one bite, and then we were both consumed with figuring out how to discard the rest of it without our server knowing. First, Tom just threw the bun and patty separately onto the deck that started right past our table... but that wasn't enough for me. When no one was looking, I got down and stuffed the burger and bun between the cracks of the deck so that it fell into the water below. I figured some fish might find it more appetizing than Tom did.
After we were done eating, we saw some gigantic fish swimming around at the edge of the dock. Tom thought they were sharks at first, but upon a closer look, he realized they were tarpon. Not so scary, but still BIG silver fish that look a bit like sharks from the back & side. There were five or six huge ones just floating around by the dock – it was fascinating! Tom was totally mesmerized, but I went back to our table to have a delicious slice of key lime pie. All of this dessert and fried food I'm eating has not been good for my bikini body. Tom, of course, is still slim & trim as usual. I love my metabolism. So The Jolly Roger was really good (minus the burger) with an atmosphere to match. If we have time, we'll come back. We headed home and had a pretty low key evening. Today was much better in Tortola than yesterday!
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