New Year's Eve - 2008

New Year's Eve on St. Thomas. There are a number of things to do for New Year's: get together at a friend's house, join others at a restaurant for a one-price menu with a champagne toast, find a bar to ring in the New Year. There are also a number of things to do off the island - the number one attraction is going to Jost Van Dyke to party at Foxy's. That party has been called the number one New Year's party in the WORLD - and the Man and I are anxious for our first New Year's at Jost. But that will have to wait as you A) need a boat to go over and B) need lodging. As you can imagine it books up WAY in advance, and it wasn't in our plans this year.

This year we were all about old school Disco. A place on the waterfront, Yacht Haven Grande, was throwing a big bash for New Years inviting people to 'Get down tonight, boogie oogie oogie and shake your groove thang as Yacht Haven Grande St. Thomas welcomes 2008 in ‘Old School’ style with its Disco Funk New Year’s Eve party'.

We began our night with cocktails and light eats at our friends house (where we were bunking in at the moment). There were about 10-ish people who came over around 7pm. Our theme was, of course, Disco, and us chicks put on our most silver heels and sparkly clothes.

Here's a shot of my beautiful veggie plate:

Yum. I show you that because I was proud of my casual 'tossing of raspberries' which made it look attractive as well as tasty. Take that professional caterers!

Am I too excited over vegetables right now?

Guitar Hero was present as it is at all of our gatherings these days. Here's a shot of our friend K and I rocking out:

I bought my outfit that day, and it turned out more Disco Tramp than regular Disco - but at least the shirt had sequins (a Disco outfit must) and the shoes had rhinestones so I had enough shine going on.

Around 9:30 we made our way downtown and joined the throng already milling around Yacht Haven. There were two areas of music, one with a reggae band and one where the disco band would be. We grabbed a spot on the pavement just a few feet from the disco dance floor and stayed there for the rest of the night. Here's a shot of the mass crowd:

The band wasn't going on until midnight so we jammed out to old-school Disco songs spun by a DJ. I haven't danced that much in a long time, we started the minute we got there and didn't stop until our feet were begging us too. The way the party was set up there were bar areas placed here and there and as expected the lines were long. Same with the restrooms. I waited almost 40 minutes at one point to pee and after that I just held it. SO annoying. Especially when you're double-fisting your drinks to save waiting in line.

As expected our group got pretty buzzed and pretty sweaty with all the dancing and boozing. Here's a shot of me with some of our buds:

I don't know what kind of judo chop move I'm putting on my friend L's neck, I obviously knocked her off balance in my photo eagerness - I love how she has her eye on her almost tipped over drink!

Here's a shot of K and I, and while she's pulling a model face I'm once again pulling a judo chop move. It must be my 'thing', so if you're getting a picture taken with me don't let me stand on your back left :)

One of the restaurants fastened a ball on the top of it's roof and we counted down to midnight. At the first moment of 2008 fireworks were shot off and the Man and I kissed in the New Year as did everyone else. We then all kissed and hugged each other while saying 'We love you guys, you're the best friends, so happy we're here and know you!!' The mixture of booze, dancing with our buds, being in St. Thomas, rocking out at a great party, and at the same time being away from home all caught up at the same second in my head and I was teary for the first minutes of '08. Big mushball. Of course I followed up my crying with 'Is my mascara running? Is there make-up all over my face?' Hot stuff for sure. Here's a blurry pic of fireworks going off:

Finally the band came on, called SuperFly, from Washington D.C.:

From what I remember they were really good, and we continued dancing until 1:30-ish. At that point we were getting hungry and the girls' feet were REALLY starting to burn. We had all taken off our shoes earlier, but I don't think that helped, because the minute I tried to put them back on I almost fell over from the pain. It was equally as bad just trying to walk on bare feet. Here's our pile of silver strappy pain-makers:

We left Yacht Grande and made our way down to a downtown restaurant for some late noshing. We munched our way through the food, got into the car and passed out once we got home. The next day we stayed in with our friends and watched movies all day. I was more exhausted than hungover, it was SUCH a great night. These pictures don't even do the party justice: you miss out on the sounds, the grooving beats, everyone screaming and dancing all as one. There hasn't been a New Year's party like this on the island, and it seemed that EVERYONE showed up there. Tourists on vacation, people in from the yachts, local people from every inch of the island - it was awesome. We hope not only do they do the same thing next year, but that they put together some more theme parties in the meantime...going out dancing is something we don't do often here - there's not a lot of places with live music.

Yacht Haven, keep partying!!