Personal Journey | Anguilla, with the Clintons - Philadelphia Inquirer

[Anguillan newsboy]

Personal Journey | Anguilla, with the Clintons

By Donna Debs
For The Inquirer
I missed Bill and Hillary by a sandy footprint - twice. The first time was at an exuberant, late-night dinner at Trattoria Tromonto on Anguilla's southwest coast, as I stood feet away, stargazing. The second was at the same beach bistro for lunch, this time as I lounged within earshot.
I was beginning to feel it was personal. Walt and Bendy from Idaho had seen them strolling hand-in-hand across our magnificent stretch of silver shore, and Chris and Mike from New Jersey had been close enough to discuss colleges and kids. Both couples name-dropped shamelessly as I gazed at the Clinton villa from my own beachfront perch.
The story was this: The Clintons were spending the week between Christmas and New Year's at the exclusive Covecastles Resort - a dozen gleaming, white, ultra-modern villas perched like lunar modules on the same beach where my husband, Ray, and I were staying. We were at the low-key Blue Waters Beach Apartments, which shares the cozy, picturesque Shoal Bay West beach.
Though we are confirmed Caribbeaners, we had not been to gorgeous, sophisticated, yet disarmingly friendly Anguilla, and were both excited and disappointed to learn it is a preferred haunt of some of the rich and famous.
The name-dropping was constant: It was supposedly Joan Rivers' yacht anchored offshore, Denzel Washington's villa that the Clintons were staying in, George Clooney's jet that had just touched down. Katie Couric and Penelope Cruz were also said to be "on island," and did you know that Brad and Jen had broken up right there on our beach!
But with some of the Caribbean's most remarkable beaches and all those parrot fish in the deep-turquoise water, we were not about to spend our vacation star-searching. At least not all of it.
And so we continued our island jaunt unfazed, but looking a bit left and right as we went. We strolled the deep, sugary sand at Rendezvous Bay, snorkeled as pelicans swooped at Little Bay, dined at romantic Blanchard's (a couple got engaged next to us), and let our hair fly wild at Junk's Hole, stopping to pick up "the island's best rum punch."
By New Year's Eve, we had accepted that the celebrities were somewhere we weren't. Then we heard that the Clintons were across the street from our restaurant at Mango's, another island favorite. Quick as we could finish our key lime pie, we headed over for an after-dinner drink and spotted the Clintons in a small dinner group. We shook Bill's hand as he p***ed through the cozy crowd, swung with the island band, marveled at the fireworks that ring in the New Year, and met Hillary a few minutes after midnight. She was the first person, after my husband, to wish me Happy New Year - a solid, straight-in-the-eye, strong handshake.
Red and gold bursts rained down over the island while the former president and, who knows, the future president, stood behind us arm-in-arm. The timing seemed perfect. The year 2006 ended festive, sultry and complete. The new year, like the sea before us, was fresh and unspoiled with just the right amount of spicy intrigue.