The Margaritaville Beach Hotel has posted some photos of the property showing how beautiful the hotel is inside and out:

A couple weeks ago Jimmy Buffett spoke at the Lawrenceville School, a private boarding school near Princeton, New Jersey:

The Lawrenceville School’s gift to students in the days before their summer break quite literally arrived on the Kirby Arts Center stage yesterday with a gift-wrapped box on his head. A more appropriate present there never was, for beneath the festive packaging was famed singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett, a fellow who knows how to start a summer off right. Buffett entertained the whooping, cheering crowd with hilarious anecdotes of his life on the road — and also delivered on his promise to tell a story or two that would make his daughter’s face “as red as her shirt.”

“Fun has to be a part of life,” he said in his iconic drawl. “And I’m fortunate to have made a career out of it.”

As a young man, Buffett took a little while to figure out what he wanted to do with his life, “But I did know that I wanted to get the hell out of Mobile, Alabama.” He learned a few guitar chords in college (to impress girls) and, after some ups and downs, this “child of Mardi Gras” established himself a fun-loving performer that knew how to make audiences walk away happy. “Your relationship with the audience is about what they want to hear, not about what you want to play,” he told the students. “There are eight or nine songs I have to play or they’ll kill me.”

He urged the crowd to live life to its fullest and see the world in person rather than through the glow of a computer monitor. Then, after a lively Q&A that riffed on everything from buying a boat in lieu of an insurance policy to his relationship with Santa Claus, Buffett, launched into a rousing rendition of a few of his iconic songs.

Mac McAnally also joined Buffett for a couple songs.

Check out a photo gallery from the appearance on Lawrenceville School’s Facebook page.

On Saturday morning, Jimmy Buffett joined Florida Governor Charlie Crist in Pensacola to tour the beaches that are beginning to feel the effects of the oil spill in the Gulf.

He took a walk Saturday along the beach with Fla. Gov. Charlie Crist and noted that his favorite memories of the area are of sunsets in the fall.

He says he wants people in the area to know that he’s there for them. He says if he’s good for anything, it’s “helping people forget their troubles for a couple of hours.”

He says the people of the Florida Panhandle will get through the crisis together.

TampaBay.com also has an article on today’s visit that gives an opening date for the Margaritaville Beach Hotel in Pensacola:

Appearing Saturday morning at Pensacola Beach with Buffett, Crist said keeping more oil off the shoreline is “the utopian objective.” He said he’ll continue to press for more oil-containment booms.

“We’re going to ask, and ask, and ask,” Crist said.

Buffett, whose Margaritaville hotel is due to open June 24 in Pensacola Beach, planned to accompany Crist on a helicopter flight over the beach to view the oil.

Buffett said he hoped people would still visit the beach. He suggested that visitors could “come down and help clean up the beach rather than just lie around and soak up the sun.”

(photo Paul Flemming)

Update – Tampa Bay Online has more:

“I thought I could lend a hand and tell people that the sky is not falling,” the singer-songwriter said this morning. “I’m always an optimist. Handle a crisis and go on.”

Buffett insisted that the uncertainty over how bad the Gulf of Mexico gusher will get in Florida won’t affect his first foray into the hotel business. His Margaritaville Beach Hotel is set to open July 1 on the site of a Holiday Inn wiped out by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

“We’re going to be open for business come hell or high water,” said Buffett, his words almost sounding like a song. “We go through hardships in life. People in the Panhandle are a tough people. We go clean it up and we get on with our lives.”

His appearance with the governor created quite the scene. People stopped him – Buffett, not Crist – for an autograph and to pose for pictures. Several thanked Buffett for what he’s doing on the Emerald Coast with his hotel.

“God bless him for being here,” Crist said.

Buffett said he planned to be in town for a job fair today at the hotel, where earlier 1,000 people showed up to apply for 40 positions. He joked about not knowing how many rooms the place has, saying he’s only been involved in the project for the past six weeks and hasn’t had time to count them all. He said he was trying to make sure the hotel had all the cool things, such as a Ping-Pong table.

“This was always my first Florida. Pensacola Beach is the first pretty water you see,” he said. “I thought we should have a place up here. It’s kind of my back yard.”

“This is an environmental disaster that nobody asked for,” Buffett said. “I’m not satisfied with the way that BP has handled anything. I am pissed off, but what are you going to do about it?”

More photos from today:

Chris Urso / Tampa Bay Online

George Skene / Orlando Sentinel

AP Photo / Michael Spooneybarger

AP Photo / Michael Spooneybarger

Brandon Kruse / The Palm Beach Post

Brandon Kruse / The Palm Beach Post

AP Photo / Michael Spooneybarger

While Jimmy Buffett was in Jamaica last Friday to christen the new Boscobel Aerodrome, he also hopped over to his Margaritaville in Ocho Rios to attend a welcome home party for Newton Marshall who recently completed the Iditarod dogsled race.

Jamaica’s dogsled musher, Newton Marshall, received a grand welcome Friday afternoon at Margaritaville’s Ocho Rios during a special welcome home party dubbed “Rootin’ for Newton”.

Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville is Marshall’s main sponsor and Buffet was on hand to congratulate and celebrate with the musher who became the first black man to complete the Iditarol.

Also celebrating with Marshall were entertainment, sports and culture minister Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange and Chukka Caribbean’s Danny Melvin who established the Jamaica Dogsled team and where Marshal is employed as a dog musher.

Business mogul Chris Blackwell, Margaritaville’s CEO Ian Dear and executive director Mike Shamry and St Ann Custos Radcliffe Walters and wife Norma also joined in the celebration.

Entertainment was provided by the selectors at the turn tables at Margaritaville and they included in their selection several of Buffett’s hit.

Marshall said he was pleased with the love and support he has received from Buffet and all his other sponsors and Chuckka Caribbean for establishing the Dogsled team and believing in him.

Marshall placed 47 in the 2010 Iditarod in Alaska and finished the race in 12 days, 4 hours, 27 minutes and 28 seconds.

Northern Light Media has more: “The Jamaican: Newton Marshall”

(Photo by Brian Webb)

The Jamaica Information Service has another article and a few photos from Jimmy’s flight into the Boscobel Aerodrome last Friday (see our original story from Saturday). Jimmy was the first international passenger to fly in and be processed by customs at the airport on the north coast of Jamaica:

Buffett exits the Pilatus PC-12 after landing at Boscobel

Jimmy shows off his welcome gift. With him is Youth, Sports and Culture Minister, Hon. Olivia Grange (left) and Chris Blackwell of Island Outposts

The Pilatus PC-12 that Buffett was flying is a 2010 model registered to Epps Air Service in Atlanta, GA. The aircraft was recently listed for sale but the listing has been removed. So is this another addition to Buffett’s fleet of airplanes that already includes a Falcon 900, Cessna Caravan, Grumman Goose, and Stearman? If Buffett did purchase the airplane, it will show up in registration records in the next couple months.

The PC-12 does make sense for Buffett. It fills a niche between his Falcon 900 trijet and Cessna Caravan single engine turboprop on amphibious floats. The PC-12 is also a single engine turboprop, but has a much larger cabin and can fly over 100 mph faster than the Caravan. It has excellent short field capability and would be much more efficient for shorter trips than the Falcon.