The countdown is on!

I can’t believe that, as I write this, we have only about one and a half weeks left here. It is a bittersweet time. We look forward to friends, family and some of the comforts of home that we take for granted (Pizza delivery! Target! Super Stop & Shop!), but we will also miss the friends we have made here.

As I left off, I was flying home for two wonderful bridal showers. Each was very different, but both were such a great time. The weather was gorgeous and the blushing brides-to-be and grooms-to-be are so happy and so in love. Quite a nice way to spend a weekend!

I was happy to discover that the guys didn’t get into too much trouble while left on their own. Apparently their weekend consisted of some beverages and a whole lot of beef (burgers, meatballs, elk, etc.). Sounds like a guy’s weekend to me!

I was happy to get back and celebrated Chris slightly belated birthday by baking a cake and taking him out to a restaurant we were told to try, Latitude 18. It’s a very casual bar on the water that had some great music and some pretty good eats. All in all, it was a nice night. I surprised Chris with the Wii and I think he’s excited to try it. He’s especially happy to try out the Wii Fit, since his work day doesn’t leave him too much time, in addition to his runs, to get out to the gym. He misses that extra activity. I’m not going to lie, I’m looking forward to trying it myself!

This past weekend, we spent one last day on St. John. We hiked to our favorite spot, but by way of a different route, went to lunch at Island Blues and then headed on to Cinnamon Beach. We finished the day with a drink at the Beach Bar. We ended the evening by meeting our friends up for pizza at Island Times. It was one of those fantastic days you just can’t get enough of.

Now we have just ONE MORE weekend left and we’ll be back to the real world. We plan to have some fun times this weekend with the friends we’ve met here, so check back next week to see how it goes.


Last trek to some of St. John's ruins


One of our favorite bays

Hello once again!

We are coming off yet another fairly laid back weekend. The weather here was pretty overcast making beach-going kind of chancy, what with the tropics penchant for impromptu showers. We started off the weekend by having a burrito night with our neighbors. Well, little did I know how far some burrito fixings go! What I thought was an amount that should have just about covered the 6 of us, ended up feeding the 6 of us (some with seconds). It then carried on into feeding us and even one of our neighbors again, all through the weekend and into Monday. I might just be sick of burritos, although I didn’t think that was possible.

Saturday night we ended up going on over to St. John to try out Rhumb Lines- a Thai restaurant that has some great eats. After that, we went to this little hole in the wall pub that is known for letting you pour your own drinks. Yes-as much or as little as you want. That could get dangerous! But, alas, our ferry was leaving sooner than later and we weren’t able to do too much damage. After that, since we started out fairly early, we had time to catch a movie (Date Night) before calling it a night.

This weekend coming up, I am abandoning my husband (for his birthday weekend, no less!) to head home for a couple of wedding showers. It is amazing that it worked out, though, that I could actually go to both showers in one trip home. I look forward to seeing everyone and celebrating! Also, Chris will not be alone for his birthday. Greg and Josh have been threatening to take Chris out for a guys’ night to celebrate his big 35th. I have a feeling Chris is looking forward to it and can’t help but wonder what kind of stories I will hear when I get home. I am grateful, though, that he will have some people to hang out with rather than spend his bday alone. Then, when I get back on that Monday, we will celebrate all over again!

For my final note, I want to share my excitement and happiness over some major milestones Chris’ sister and brother-in-law (hi Jenny and Jay!) have accomplished. They have been planning to move to Florida for quite a while now and have had some very discouraging experiences with interviews and job hunting. But, they stuck with it. And, with a little bit of good fortune and a lot of just being fabulous, they have managed to pull it all off! In short time they’ve both lined up jobs, found a great school for the kids, put an offer on a new home (which was accepted), and found a family physician. We couldn’t be more supportive. Although, and I know it goes without saying, we will miss them tons here. But, we know they are only a short flight away and a very easy phone call. We love you guys!!!!

I’m a Wreck Diver!

Hello all, once again! Not too much here to report for this past week. Chris had to work most of the weekend, but we did find time to do a dive that we have been aiming to go to. This dive is called the Wit Shoal II and it is, more often than not, a inhospitable dive site due to being in a convergence zone where the north shore swell meets the south shore currents and which create choppy conditions. However, luck was on our side and it was a near perfect day to go to the Wit Shoal.

I may have reached a personal diving milestone in that, during both dives that day, I felt very comfortable down there and actually spent more time enjoying the surroundings than thinking about what may go wrong. I loved swimming around the ship wreck and also got a thrill out of seeing a few nurse sharks. One of them had to be at least a 6 footer. While nurse sharks are actually one of the most benign sharks that you can come across, our captain informed us that they are the most common shark species to bite humans. This is because they are so unthreatening that people often try to pet them! And that, to those who might not already suspect this, is a bad idea.

A little history on the Wit Shoal II:
The WIT Shoal II / LST 467 is located a few miles southwest of the St. Thomas airport, near Saba Rock. The WIT Shoal was originally a warship, known as LST 467. LST stands for Landing Ship Tanks, and she was built in 1943 to land up to 20 Sherman tanks onto the beach in the Allied invasions of Europe and the Pacific during World War II. LSTs were designed to run right up onto the beach to land the tanks. The bow of the ship has large doors which open outward, and an inner door which lowers down to form a ramp for the tanks to drive onto the beach. LST 467 served in the Pacific during the war.

After the war this 328 foot long ship was purchased by the West Indies Transport company, and renamed the WIT Shoal II. She was used as a freighter until she sank in Tropical Storm Klaus, on November 6, 1984. Today the WIT Shoal is one of the premier diving wrecks of St. Thomas.

The shipwreck sits upright in 90 feet of water, but the top of the observation tower is only 35 feet beneath the waves. There are 5 levels of decks for divers to explore.

That’s it in a nutshell! We hope to try to do one more dive before we head on home in just a few weeks. I have posted a few photos below, though I found them on the web and did not actually take them myself.

Love to all,

Kasey


A nurse shark. Pretty cool!


Photo of the Wit Shoal II


Wit Shoal again. I think I may have seen this baracuda in our travels :)

Mid-Week Check-In

Hola! Not too much to report on the isle. We had a pretty relaxed weekend. We kicked it off by celebrating our friend’s birthday at Mojo’s and then moseyed our way on over to Fat Turtle. We had a great time at Fat Turtle. Not too late of a night. A highlight of the night was a poor fellow’s unrequited attraction to my dear husband. We enjoyed watching Chris politely dodge his advances, while I remained quiet about Chris being my husband. I found this justifiable since Chris chooses to opt out of wearing his wedding ring. Eventually, I informed the lovelorn lad that Chris was, indeed, my husband and he was out of luck. He said his farewell by telling Chris that he was beautiful. Needless to say, Chris’ new nickname is “beautiful”.

On Saturday, our friend and neighbor, Josh, told us about this off-the-beaten-path beach on the island that he wanted to show us and our other friends.. He wasn’t kidding. We could not have gotten there in our car or even our other neighbor’s SUV. We needed Josh’s all terrain “rock climber” jeep to get over some very rocky and dubious roads. The beach was pretty darn cool and, after the two mile decent on the less than ideal terrain, seemed to have the air of a possible horror movie. Take one deserted beach only reached by a long and somewhat inaccessible road, add in the 4 unmarked graves/headstones that we saw at the entrance and top that off with the shanty huts and miscellaneous old furniture that was strewn about the beach and, I’ll tell you the truth, I did NOT want to be there by nightfall. However, this beach was serene and virtually private. It was a gorgeous place to spend a few hours (of daylight). Unfortunately, I did not take enough pictures to do it justice, but I do have a few.

Other than that, all is well and pretty much status quo here. We have a friend who is staying in St. John coming here to spend the night on Friday, so we hope to show her a good time. Other than that, we are going to just go with the flow and see where the days take us.

Love you all and see you soon!

Kasey


"Beautiful" enjoying a long walk on the beach


Random Furniture, but it does the trick!

Ladies Weekend!!!

Oh, so where do we begin? I will start off that I have the best husband in the world to tolerate 4 days/nights of estrogen with myself, Katrina and Jackie. With him working on weeknights, he very kindly would drop us off at our nighttime destination and offered us rides home anytime before midnight. What a great guy! We let him off the hook for our rides home so that he could relax for the evenings.

So, upon my picking them up from the airport, we went directly to Mojo’s. This is a little tiki hut in a parking lot in Havensight that has great drinks and is on the way home from the airport. After Mojo’s, we proceeded to drop our stuff at the condo and go immediately to the pool, since the ladies demanded some serious sun time (and who wouldn’t?). After we watched the sun go down, it was shower time and then off to Red Hook for some good eats at Lotus (sushi). Chris joined us for dinner and there was raw fish in abundance. My unadventurous self stuck to steak. Still, very good. In keeping with the Asian fare, we complimented our meals with *Sake. At the end of dinner, Chris bid us farewell (probably with relief) and left us to test out *”Ladies night” at Duffy’s. Oddly enough, this place was also in a parking lot. I sure know how to wow my guests with “location, location, location”.

Without going into too much detail for the rest of the trip (as that would take up a whole lotta blog), the rest of our agenda went something like this:

Thursday/Night: Magan’s Bay beach. Rain found us. We outran rain by proceeding on to Sapphire beach. After a little bit of bbque Edward’s style we headed on to Red Hook, again. First we went to Big Bambooze, then on to Fat Boy’s and ending the festivities at Caribbean Saloon.

Friday/Night: Linquist Beach for the duration- a crowd favorite. Then home to get ready and head out to fine dining at, you guessed it, Havana Blue. Dinner was great and we headed home early, since us ladies were dragging from a couple of nights out and we also had a big boating day to wake up to.

Saturday/Night: Early morning and we were off to the docks. Our first destination was Virgin Gorda, as we think it is a “must see”. But unfortunately, due to anchoring issues and some *road blocks, we had to abort the mission and head on over to our next destination, Willie Ts. I think I talked about this barge before, so I will just post photos below. Finally, we made it home safe and sound and then headed out to dinner at Rancho Latino. This is a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that has really good food and was a lot of fun, but very…interesting. I think it took 2 hours to get our food and then, well, I’ll let the photo below explain it all. After dinner, we clearly had to end the trip with another late night at, you guessed it, Iggies.

Sunday: Happy Easter everyone! The ladies and I hit the pool for some last bit of sunshine while Chris slept in. Then, sadly, it was off to the airport to drop my girls off. Sad times! But, I will see them and all of y’all soon enough!
Okay, well, sorry for the long blog, but a lot went on! Enjoy the pictures and the additional info below.

XOXO, Kasey

*Sake or saké: (pronounced /’sɑ:ki:/ or /’sɑ:keɪ/ in English and [sake] ( listen) in Japanese) is a Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice.

* “Ladies night”: Ladies drink for FREE. All night.

*Road blocks: Scaling giant rocks and getting stuck half way to the Bath’s portion of things and having to jump of a tall boulder into what we hoped was deep enough water (sorry mom & dad) and then swimming quite a bit to try to find Katrina who was smart enough to try to swim to the Baths rather than scale rocks.


Mojo's. Parking Lot Bar #1.


The 3 amigas! In Parking Lot Bar #2.


We LOVE hammocks!


So, picture these rocks, times 2 or 3, and trying to climb them/jump off them/swim around them in big waves. It's harder than it looks!


Willie T's!!!! We jumped off the top back side. Several times! Mom and Dad- it's cool. Lot's of people do it.


Oddest check I've ever seen! Rancho Latino. They just couldn't keep up with us!

Relaxing and Chill-axing

Hola! Nothing too much new to report from the last weekend. We laid pretty low and had a whole Kasey-and-Chris only weekend. It was very nice!

On Saturday, we headed on over to one of our favorite places, St. John, and had a date day. First, we headed to Cinnamon Bay for some fun in the sun and then, very resourcefully, showered and got ready at the beach accomodations. After that, we headed on over to Woody's for their famous happy hour. Then, off to one of the loveliest restaurants on the island, Asolare. The view was gorgeous and the food was delicious! Four thumbs up from the two of us.

Sunday was a quiet type of day. Chris had to work a bit. I hit the pool and Chris joined me later, but even I have my sun limits. So, after a bit, we headed over to play some tennis and then went in for the night.

That's it! Saving our energy for our visitors who land tomorrow. Yay! Can't wait to see you Katrina and Jackie!

Cheers!

Boats!!!

We have had quite the nautical past couple of weeks, which has been fantastic. It’s a whole different good time when you are out there on the water.

The Saturday after my parents’ visit, we had rented a boat with our neighbors and friends. One of our friends drives a boat here for work, so he was able to act as our captain for the day. We stocked up on munchies and beverages and made it on over to White Beach on Jost van Dyke and then we headed to Willie T’s- a ship with a bar and restaurant in the middle of a bay. It was gorgeous weather and we had a ton of fun!

This past weekend, we were invited to join our friends, Susan and Bill, on their boat, which is big enough to sleep on, which we did. This weekend was the annual Blues Fest in St. John and we went over in style. We headed out bright and early on Saturday morning to Coral Bay in St. John to anchor up and hang out on the boat with an array of boat drinks and snacks. Kind of like tail-gating. Then, we headed over to Island Blues where we got some late lunch/early dinner and got to listen to a blues band. Then off to the concert where we set up shop on the field and saw an array of talent. By midnight, we were beat and headed back to the boat.

The next day, our friends had heard us rave about the hike we do on St. John where we can look down at the boaters in Waterlemon Cay with jealousy. They decided that they would let us finally enjoy the experience from a boat. We tied up in the Cay and enjoyed a verrrry relaxing and leisurely Sunday. We were able to jump right into the water from the boat and there was some pretty cool snorkeling a bit of a swim away. All in all it was a lovely day and we are very grateful that we got to live like boaters for a weekend!

This weekend we plan to take it easy and revitalize ourselves so that we can show our next visitors, Katrina and Jackie, an amazing time. Can’t wait!

Adios for now,
Kasey


He's on a boat!


Our weekend boat hosts


Looking up to the spot we usually look down from in envy

Parent Visit 2010!!!

So, my blog is a bit delayed due to a lingering gift from my mom- her cold. However, now I’ve finally gotten the energy and wit back to write down our adventures. As expected, it was wonderful to see my parent’s smiling faces last week and we had a grand ol’ time. Sunday night we picked them up at the hotel to try to take them to Yacht Haven Grande for the ambiance. However, the weather was rainy and too cold- not only for us, but also our hardy visitor’s from arctic New England. That was downright abnormal for St. Thomas. So, after a short two restaurant drink crawl, onto the Shipwreck Tavern we went for some indoor shelter from the weather. We dropped Mom and Pops off early to get some rest and get ready for the week.

Monday, again, was touch and go with the weather. When the sun decided to peep out intermittently from 11am on, it was decided that the pool would be the place to stay for a bit, since the forecast was for rain ALL WEEK. BBCs (banana, baily’s colada) made their debut. Yum. The afternoon warranted a quick visit to downtown for shopping, much to my dad’s dismay. Fortunately, shopping was short-lived and we headed back to the Marriott to head out to dinner at Havana Blue.

Once again, they treated us well there. As usual, they service was great and the food delicious, but they outdid themselves this time. At the end of dinner, when we thought we were stuffed to the gill, we were told by our waiter that they had a “small” surprise for us coming up. Well, that “small” surprise turned out to be a HUMONGOUS platter with an array of desserts. I couldn’t even tell you how many. There were sherbets and crème brulee, churos, carmelized bananas, and etc. Two minutes before we thought we couldn’t eat any more but, we could. And did. Almost all of it. Yowsers!

Early the next day we were off and running to the “staple” tour of the Baths and Jost van Dyke. The trip with New Horizons was great and my parents thought it was extremely well done and fun. Contrary to the weather forecast, it was a decent day. We had enough overcast cover to protect dad from the sun that had attacked him with a vengeance the day before. Poor guy was no match for the Caribbean sun. But we also didn’t have to deal with rain, wind or cold. Perfect!

Wednesday was a trip to beautiful Magan’s bay and then off to our place for some home barbequing.

Thursday was a nice and relaxing day at the Marriott pool and then we proceeded to a very enjoyable sunset cruise on the Fury boat out of the Marriott. Finally, we topped off the trip to the obligatory dinner at Iggie’s. The trip went by so quick, but with a lot of fun and a lot of laughs.

PS- considering how sick I felt this week and how sick my dad is feeling, I give my mom MAD PROPS for being the trooper she was last week while fighting the same cold. If it wasn’t for her cough, I would never have known she was sick. Well played, Betty!

Love to all, Kasey


Dad, admitting defeat to the sun


Bathing beauty in the Baths


Sunset cruise and cruise ship


Iggies! You bet your bippy this would make the blog!


Fun in the Sun!

Weekend and Bday

We had quite the fun and food-filled weekend. We’ve gotten to know our neighbors pretty well and have really clicked one other couple and we got to see them a lot over the weekend- dinner Friday night, brunch Saturday and then beach, brunch again on Sunday and then dinner on Sunday night! We might have to purchase two seats for each of us on the flight home.

On my birthday, Chris surprised me by taking me to Room with a View- the place we were supposed to go on Valentine’s Day but we ended up flying back to MA instead. The food was delicious and we had a lovely time. I also have a massage booked on this Saturday, courtesy of my birthday gift from Chris. He is getting one at the same time, too, since he has a gift certificate left over from Christmas.

Next up- we look extremely forward to seeing my Mom & Dad and their two friends when they come to the isle on Sunday. I hope to show them a fun week!

Can’t wait to see you, Mom & Dad!!!

XOXO,
Kasey

February, Part II

Okay, so where were we? I think we had just bid adieu to Brad and Diana. Life went back to the normal routine for just a bit and then we received some sad, but expected news that my Nana had passed away. However, this was for the best, since she was not living with quality anymore and I am sure she’s much better off now.

So, off to Boston we flew for the wake and funeral. Along with returning to pay our last respects, we also managed to have a lovely few days with my family, whom I’ve missed. Everything went smoothly and the funeral was very well-done. It was a great way to say goodbye. We were amazed by the amount of support we received through dear friends and family and it truly makes you realize how important and wonderful those close to you are. Feeling as though the family did well by Nana (many thanks to my parents, my Aunt Pat and my Uncle Bob and Marilyn), we flew back to St. Thomas.

Since whirlwind seems to be our preferred existence this month, we were home for an evening and out bright and early the next morning for our “mini-vacation” to St. Croix. We took a 1hr. and ½ ferry over at 7am. Not too bad since I napped on the way over.

Unfortunately, Chris had to work that Friday so, after a quick lunch at Rum Runners, I left him to work (at least it was by the pool) and did some window shopping. We were staying in Christiansted and they have some very cute shops. When Chris was able to put his laptop away, we went out for a lovely dinner at a cozy little restaurant called Bombay and then for a night cap at the hotel.

The next day, we ventured all over the island. One thing about traveling with Chris is that you have to be prepared to circumnavigate any island that we travel to. His goal is to see every bit of it. Fortunately, our islands so far have been manageable. We hit the faux “Rainforest”, but managed to miss the beer-drinking pigs. They were very highly spoken of and we are sorry to have been unable to locate them. We stopped for a bit at Sandy Point beach, where the rough waves gave us a great amount of entertainment. Next, we went on to the Casino, where we both managed to score some $$ off of 25 cent slot machines. Then we returned to the hotel for our evening excitement. Since we were torn between several dinner spots, Chris suggested a first for us- an appetizer crawl. We picked 3 places and shared apps at each. I loved it and hope to try that again sometime!

On Sunday, we had some time to kill before the ferry, so we checked out Fort Christiansvaern. Quite a cool little fort and I actually found it much more interesting than I anticipated. The ferry ride home was a bit rougher than I would have liked but, all in all, not a bad way to travel.

Oh and, did I mention that the kitchen is done? As in, the whole place is done? Hold on… is that a chorus of angels I hear singing? Yes. It’s true. We no longer have any more condo work to do. Well, anticipated condo work, that is. Photos below.

Cheers,
Kasey


Savant- one of the places on our food crawl...


Chris loves cannons!


Me. In Jail. Again. Just kidding Mom & Dad! Lock-up cell in Fort Christiansvaern


Cruise Ship in St. Croix- Paula and Joe Metivier were on this ship!!!! Found out after...


Beer drinking pig


Kitchen!!!!! Yay! Kitchen!!!

Long time, no post

Well, hello again! I know it has been a while since my last update, but we have had quite the month. I will try to give a (brief) overview, but I tend to get wordy and can't promise anything. In fact, I think I will cover the month in a couple of posts.

The month started with our first official visitors of 2010- Erik and Candice. After long anticipation of their arrival, we had a whirlwind couple of days. Due to inclement weather in the Southeast area, their flight was postponed and they had to do hoops (including an overnight stay during a connection and their flight returning to the airport due to a passenger's health)to get here. With only a small window of time on the island, this set back would have been enough to discourage any travel. But these determined travelers pressed on. They arrived with big smiles and were eager to begin their holiday. Upon arrival, we took them straight to a tiki hut called Mojo's for some smoked wings and tasty boat drinks. We moved onto Casa de Edwards to enjoy the sunset and finally headed out to Mim's for some ocean side dining. To keep the party going, we headed on over to Iggy's later for some Karaoke. To watch- not sing.

The next day, our logistically challenged travelers suffered another set-back. We intended to take them to St. John, but only one ferry was running and the line of cars was too long to waste a precious moment. So, off to Magan's Bay for a just as nice beach experience. We took it easy that night and bbqed at home for the 2nd and final evening here.

On Monday, we sent Erik and Candice off home to a wintry wonderland and then welcomed in Brad and Diana- Chris' cousin and her husband. We had a fantastic time, once again. They were yet another very easy and fun couple to hang out with. In their time here, we showed them Water Island, Magan's Bay, Lindquist Beach, St. John and a day trip to Virgin Gorda and Jost van Dyke. In the span of their 1 week here, they hit 6 islands, including 3 of the 4 USVIs!!!! Of course, Iggy's and Mim's made a showing.

Another highlight of the week, at a restaurant that I will not name, I looked down at my chicken and a giant, yes GIANT, spider (think nickel sized body and total 3" in diameter with it's toothpick sized legs) was chillin' on my chicken. If you don't believe me about how big, Chris and Brad will vouch for it at least being an uncomfortably large spider. We packed much more into that week- too much to name. Among our adventures, we were able to hike that new trail we found in St. John and show them our new found place of serenity. I think they enjoyed it as much as we do!

Okay, everyone- that's it for now. I will post with the rest of the month soon.

XOXO


Erik & Candice- happy Newlyweds!!!


Chris & Erik together=Trouble


Me & Diana having fun in the sun


Diana & Brad enjoying the trip to Jost van Dyke


Cousins-in-law conquering the Gorda

Happy 40th Birthday, Jay!!!!

Lost in Paradise

Happy Friday to you all! Okay, so I wrote this on Monday, but never got to post it until now. So, past weekend re-cap: We had a very lovely and yet still action packed weekend. I went on a “girls’ night” on Friday with a new friend, Melissa, who is a traveling nurse here until May. She’s my age and very nice. Nothing crazy- we just went out to a couple of different restaurants (bars) and were home pretty early. Chris enjoyed some quality alone time that probably was quite nice.

On Saturday, we went on over to St. John to try a hike we had noticed the last time we were on the island. It was supposed to only be about a 3.2 mile hike, but we got a little bit lost (I swear- we followed the signs) and we ended up hiking another hour and ½ or so extra. Somewhere along the line I decided that each wrong turn we took would equal an extra BBC (Banana, Baily’s Colada) drink when we got to dinner. I think I was up to 4 by the end of the hike. To add to our excitement, since we had been catching up on some episodes of “Lost” lately, I was able to pretend we were part of the show with the threat of polar bears and other menacing diversions around every corner. It keeps life interesting. The hike was well worth it, though, since it took us up to some ruins that overlook an amazing view of Maho Bay. It was a completely unexpected, but very gratifying, surprise. Hike photos at the end of this.

Once we got back to the car, after following a road back the last mile and ½, we went to go to an early dinner at a restaurant that we heard had good pad thai. That wasn’t open yet and we had to catch the last car ferry back to St. Thomas, so we ended up at Margarita Phil’s for some great Mexican eats and a Margarita that was big enough to replace the 4 BBC’s that we had earned from our hike.

Sunday, we decided to take it easy and hit the beach and the pool for a bit and then went out to dinner at good ol’ Havana Blue with one of my co-workers and her husband. Dinner was great, as always, and we had a lovely time. One of the bonuses of eating at the place where you work is that you get some fantastic treatment. What a great crew of people work there!

This weekend coming up we have Erik and Candice coming for a couple of days. Then, on Monday, Chris’ cousin Diana, and her husband Brad will be on the island for the next week and staying a casa de Edwards for a couple of nights. We can’t wait to play host and once again show off our lovely island.

As is proving the trend lately, I have one other person in my thoughts in which I am hoping for a quick recovery. My brother Chris’ girlfriend, Jackie, is laid up with a knee problem due to some cartilage breaking off and floating around. Looks like she’s got surgery on Tuesday to get it removed. Ouch! So, Jackie- I am wishing for you a speedy and painless recovery. Although, I know there is pain, so I hope it’s at least speedy.

Hugs to all,

Kasey


Chris can barely hide his enthusiasm for this trip.



Talented little hermit crab, ay?


We're not sure, but in our head these are fire ants.


The jury's still out- piece of coral or...skull?


What made the hike all worth it.


Love this guy!

Social life is picking up!

Hello, everyone! Well, we are starting to get to know more and more neighbors and had a fun time hanging out the last two weekends. I met a nice new woman who is a traveling nurse and will be here until May. She seems really sweet and I look forward to getting to know her more. We also went out to dinner and drinks the weekend before last on Saturday night with some neighbors and then on Sunday, Chris and I provided bbq and fixin’s at the pool for the same neighbors and another couple. Then, that other couple invited us to a pork dinner at their place the next night. Yes- pork roast. And I ate it. And I liked it. It will take a while for me to make that a norm in my dinners, but it was good. We played Cranium and had a great time and Chris even ended up with a guitar, since our neighbor never used it and was planning on getting rid of it. Win/win! This past weekend, we socialized some more. We went on over to Iggy’s on Saturday night with a few of the same people from the weekend before and then on Sunday, we had some chicken wings smoked up for us from one of our (tall) friend’s special southern recipe. It was delicious!

Getting to know people here makes a world of difference, as well as being 99.9% complete with the condo. Woo-hoo!!!! All we need is to get the tile backsplash for the kitchen and we are GOOD TO GO! I have been cookin’ some yummy food up and just thriving on not living in clutter. Even if the tile is not here for when our first visitors come, we can fully function comfortably without it.

This weekend we are taking a weekend to ourselves and heading on over to St. John for a hike, some beach and a new Mexican restaurant we’ve heard about and then perhaps some diving on Sunday. A full weekend!

On a more somber note, we would like you to put in your thoughts and prayers for Chris’ grandmother, Lillian, and my nana, Barbara. While they have both proved themselves tough cookies and pretty resilient in the past, it now looks as though they both may be ready for the end (or a brand new beginning- depending on how you look at it). Every person’s time must come and we can be very grateful that they have both lived very long and full lives. Of course, it’s not over yet for either of them- both have pulled through some rough patches in the past, but we just can’t be too sure. I think of them often.

So, as not to end on a sad note, I will post some pictures. Sorry- none of the kitchen. Not until it’s done. Be patient, my friends!


Love you!

LIVING ROOM BEFORE:



Wow- I sure miss that safari-themed painting!



LIVING ROOM AFTER:



"Holmes on Homes" on in the background- Chris' favorite show besides American Idol and Cake Boss. He's a multi-dimensional man, that love of mine!






Look at how happy Chris is now that he's got a guitar!!! I get serenaded often. It's quite nice. :)

A Thoughtful Prayer

In lieu of my weekly update, which at this point seems petty and superficial, I want to say a prayer for all of the people and families affected, endangered, and killed by the earthquake in Haiti. This is a terrible tragedy and words cannot express how deeply sorry I feel for all those involved. I pray that the healing and recovery begin immediately for Haiti as a whole and that humanity can come together and help them get through this as quickly as possible.

Happy 2010!!!!

Well, we have been settled back into the island from our whirlwind, but extremely enjoyable, trip home. We came home to an internet that is still slow and is very frustrating for Chris and knowledge of our condo being the cause of another leak- this time encroaching on not one, but two of our neighbors. But, 2010 is starting to look pretty good. I think they finally found and fixed the source of all leaks here, although we might owe an apology or two to those neighbors of ours. I’m thinking a home cooked meal, maybe, when the kitchen is done. The counters will be put in tomorrow. After that, just sink, dishwasher and tile need to go in and we are DONE! Yay! And, internet should be taken care of this week. Woo-hoo!

I have been a bit M.I.A, but we haven’t really had too much to report on. Right before we came home for Christmas, Chris and I went to Blackbeard’s Castle since I thought he would enjoy it. And we did. They have changed things a bit and we missed the place where the rum tasting was, but I think we can survive with a little less rum in our life. We had fun hamming it up for the camera, so I will post some of those pictures.

NYE was a fun time! We met up with our new friends (as Chris calls them, our tall friends) and went on to Yacht Haven Grande for the outdoor concert. We ran into some other friends there, Trish and Mark, and had a rocking good time despite the rain and the fact that the main attraction, Bunny Wailer of the famous Bob Marley Wailers, never made it to the island. His band made it. Here’s the rumor: apparently there were a couple of rocky landing attempts on his flight that were not able to be completed and they had to land in Puerto Rico. Bunny got shook up and refused to fly in the next morning. Alas, no Bunny.

This weekend we returned to one of our favorite beaches on Water Island- Honeymoon Beach. It was a lovely few hours and beautiful weather. Coincidentally, Joe Biden was (is?) staying on Water Island this week, but we did not catch a view of him.

This morning we went diving. I am still trying to have it become second nature to me, but my body is trying to make it as difficult as possible. We first went to French Cap Island, since today’s glassy, smooth ocean allowed us to go to this mostly inaccessible dive site. It was 80-90 feet and I got kind of anxious going down, but was fine once I was down there. However, coming up, I got a nose bleed. Thank goodness we were on our safety stop when it was noticed. Chris saw it before I did, so I think he was a bit more traumatized by seeing the blood in my mask then I was. But, when I saw him signaling the dive leader to go up and then pointed to me, I looked down in my mask and saw blood. However, I knew I felt fine and the surface was very close, so we got up there and I washed myself off.

After my declaring that I would sit out the second dive, I was talked into it by the crew and the husband and decided that if I let my shakiness get the best of me, it would get harder to get out there the next time. And that ain’t my style. I was glad I went. We did a dive site called Cow and Calf at Cow Rock, which I guess has been mentioned in dive magazines. We saw a barracuda, a sea turtle, an octopus (and saw him change color many times!), as well as swam through a few rock formations. Don’t worry, mom, I could see light on both ends of the tunnels.

So, that’s it for now! Check out the pictures and we’ll talk to you soon enough.



Oddly enough, this big guy happens to be on our Blackbeard tour. I've yet to figure that out.




Chris asked this guy to "pull his finger".




I totally thought "finder's keepers" on that bag of gold I found. The authorities disagree.




This, too, could be considered one of our "tall friends"




And our NYE crew- Susan, Bill, Chris (clearly a different one), Mark and Trish