Happy St. Paddy’s day!

Hey there everyone! I am very sorry about my delinquency in blogging. We’ve had a busy couple of weeks in completely finishing the bathroom, work picking up (I’ve got another job!) and just trying to catch our breath and smell the roses.

Where we last left off, it was the day before my birthday. I don’t think I mentioned that, but probably because Chris always makes fun of me for milking it. Just kidding- it really just snuck up on me. I had a lovely birthday. I worked, but it consisted of sitting on the beach for a few hours in St. John, so no complaints here. When I got home, Chris finished up work a little early and we enjoyed watching the sunset while sipping wine and eating cheese and crackers. Something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but poor Chris usually finishes after the sun goes down. For dinner, we ended up going over to a restaurant I’d been itching to try, called Oceana. It overlooks the harbor and has a gorgeous view. I’ve been there for work, but never got to eat. Since I heard the food was great (and it was!), I just had to go. We enjoyed the night and the food was delicious. And I got my birthday candles, as well. Thank you Chris!

As I mentioned previously, we have got the bathroom 99.99% done. Chris just has to hang the towel rack and I will publish photos. He’s been juggling a lot of work and deadlines, though, so I figured I’d give him some time on that. But, we love how it turned out and it’s amazing to think that we had a completely different bathroom just a few weeks ago.

On the work front, as I mentioned, I have taken on a job taking reservations for Havana Blue restaurant on the Marriott property. If you remember, this is a restaurant we love here on the island. I managed to snag this job by running into a friendly Havana Blue worker at the gas station who had lived in Medford. We got to talking and he let me know they were looking for someone. The description is exactly what I do, take reservations. Not exactly brain surgery, but it’s fairly consistent hours a couple of days a week and I hope to get to know more people at the Marriott and the restaurant for something next year. Plus, I get to socialize with people regularly- yay! My bosses there are great and I think it might prove entertaining- especially getting to know more people on the island…

As for work at the destination management company, they were involved with a unique community day last week where a pharmaceutical company encourages their employees to give back to communities. You can read about it at http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article?id=17633988. I was assigned to work at Lockhart Elementary school to provide snacks and water and some general logistical coordination to the volunteers. There were some great volunteers, some that couldn’t get out fast enough, and some that didn’t show up, but the overall act was greatly appreciated by the school and the principal was very grateful and arranged a lovely “thank you” during lunch for the volunteers, this consisted of the kids doing a couple of dance routines, as well as goodie bags with thank you cards. I also was given a small gift for my role there- an adorable “Karibbean Kids” doll that is made at the school to represent the beautiful and diverse children of the Caribbean. Since one particular doll existed in my image and likeness, it was determined that she had to go home with me. I was very touched by the gift and told them I would put the info on my blog in case anyone is as enamored by them as I am. If you are, check out www.karibbeankidsvi.com.

Well, I think I’ve run on long enough. As promised, I will post ASAP the pics for the bathrooms. Have a great week and I will touch base again soon.

XOXO and Happy St. Paddy’s day!!!!



The lovely sunset that we enjoyed on my birthday



Chris and I at Oceana on the birthday evening



Can you see the resemblance?
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Fun with Family!

Jay in the Sugar mill ruins

Shark at Coral World

Sister-in-laws. Yay!

Iggie's Carnival night. We ROCKED those hats!

Crazy Lorikeets!!!! One licked Jay's ear. Eek! Who knew birds have tongues?

As Michael and Greg were flying out, Jenny and Jay Beauchesne (Chris’ sister and brother-in-law) were flying on in for a few days of fun in the sun. Susan and Bruce were extremely instrumental in them being able to visit, as they took care of Jack and Emma while Jenny and Jay were here.

It had been a while since we had seen J&J, so we spent the night catching up on our balcony and making some burgers. Chris got the thumbs up in his grilling technique and the Beauchesne’s may have adopted onion-infused Bubba burgers as a new family favorite.

The next day, we went on one of our favorite day trips to St. John and got to show the J’s the island. We went to see some sugar mill ruins first and then on to gorgeous Cinnamon Bay.

That night, we went on over to Iggy’s to check out the Carnival night they do every Wednesday. On the agenda was live music, fire-throwing, glass-walking, and stylish straw hats. We had a fun time!

On the second day, I was excited to direct them towards Coral World, the island aquarium. We enjoyed getting up-close and personal with sharks, turtles, iquanas, sea-lions, crazy nectar eating lorikeets, and many more creatures. After that, we went down-town to the market in order to peruse hand-made jewelry for souvenirs and personal purchase. ;)

That evening was more BBQing, as well as playing the new charade-like game that Michael and Greg taught us. J&J knocked our previously undefeated (1 game out of 1) egos down a notch and kicked our butts 2 out of 2 games. I challenge you to a rematch!

With only a morning to go, we tried to get a bit more touring done. After a visit to the French Heritage museum (not recommended for future guest tours), lunch at Yacht Haven Grande and then a couple of more scenic vistas, it came time to say goodbye.

We had such a great time with our visitors and cannot wait to see our parents next month!

Photo addendum...

Hi all! Just wanted to post some photos from when Paula and Joe were here. They took some great ones! They were quite the photogenic crew. :)

Also, since I can't put too many photos on this blog, I started a page on Shutterfly and have uploaded all our photos since we got here. Thank you Jenny Larkin for the idea! There are quite a bit of photos and they are not too exciting, but if you want to see more, feel free to visit us at:
http://islands0809.shutterfly.com/

XOXO!

Fun with Friends!

The flower cake that I inherited from Paula and Joe



Michael and Greg- making the beach even more easy on the eyes



I heard that our mugs weren't on here enough, so be on the look out for more of Chris and I. This is Michael's magical photography talents (note- Chris is actually smiling!)



There's my guys!



Taking advantage of the wonderful sunset...












Sharing a moment :)












Since we couldn't be prom dates, we decided to re-enact the photos pretending we were at prom (a decidedly un-formal affair, considering our attire, or lack thereof)


Well hello again!

We have had one fun, action packed week with all of our visitors so far and I figured I’d take a minute to catch you all up.

Michael and Greg arrived safe and sound last Thursday and were looking forward to some long, relaxing days in the sun. What easy visitors! As I mentioned before, they ended up staying just about 7 minutes walking distance to my front door, so location was great. It was a fun-filled long weekend with dinner one night at an Italian restaurant we’ve been wanting to try (it was great), beach time at the resort, a day trip to St. John’s gorgeous Cinnamon Bay, some BBQing at our place one night, pool time at our condo complex and a fun new game that Greg and Mike taught us.

It was great to see Paula and Joe on Saturday and we showed them where we live (not quite 100% together with the bathroom still being fixed) and then headed down to Bolongo Bay with Greg, Michael and Chris to sit at the beach for a bit and have some lunch at Iggy’s. Michael made sure that we had a cake hidden to bring out at the end, since it was Paula’s birthday. That turned out to be a pleasant (and yummy) surprise. It was great catching up, but the time went by too fast! We punctually got Joe and Paula back to the boat and I ended up a grateful recipient of a cake made of flowers, which was a birthday surprise placed in the cruise room for Paula, from Nancy and Michael. I do love flowers! I, unfortunately, did not have a camera with us for the day, but I will upload photos once I get them.

With so much action going on, Chris and I ducked out of a couple of dinner nights and let Greg and Michael explore a bit on their own. I’m sure we missed some good eats! All in all, we had some great laughs and a lot of fun.

Presently, we have Jenny and Jay here and I will update you all later on our excursions together. I don’t want to give you all too much excitement in one blog ;). We’re having fun, though, and are taking some time now to decompress a bit after an action packed day. More on that,soon enough.

I hope everyone all is well and will talk to you soon. Miss you!

Mid-Week update

Hi all,

I am writing just because I said I'd check in, but nothing too new has happened since my last time touching base. We do see the bathroom progressing everyday, so that is a definitely encouraging. The rest of the place is a bit of a disaster and I'm just counting the minutes to getting the place back to a reasonable state. We had a very low-key weekend and stayed at home base, since the contractor works through weekends and there were many Home Depot runs to make. Chris had the best of intentions to cook me dinner for Valentine's day, but with the contractors working kind of late and, literally, no counter space unclaimed, it seemed the best solution was to go out to eat. So, we had a yummy, romantic dinner at Mim's, located just a few minutes walk from our house.

Sunday was a much needed decompress day for Chris, where we made a point to do almost nothing and enjoy it. Everyone needs those once in a while!

Tomorrow, I get to greet Mike and Greg at the airport and look forward to showing them the islands and must-go places and we eagerly anticipate Paula and Joe Metivier's brief showing during their cruise stop on Saturday. After that, we look forward to the same touristy fun with Chris' sister and brother-in-law, Jenny and Jay. Yay! Funtimes ahead.

I will talk to y'all in about a week and 1/2 and really try to take more pictures this time. Much love and hugs to all!!!

Company first and then comes Chaos

Chris and Vanessa enjoying Cinnamon Bay

This is our bathroom now. That toilet is the one lonely facility left in there...

Hi again!

Well, I’m back on-line after having our first guests (Chris Nadeau and his lovely gal Vanessa) joined us this past week. We had a lot of fun and were excited to have some company. Our week was action packed: we went to Iggy’s one night and then hit Tortola for the weekend. I came back early to work, but the rest of the crew went to Jost van Dyke to check out the party scene. On Monday night we celebrated Chris (Nadeau’s) birthday at Havana Blue and then kept it simple Tuesday night with dinner in. They also got a chance to check out St. John and lot’s of shopping downtown, so we think it was all a success.

Chris and Vanessa left on Wednesday and on Thursday morning the workers came to start demolition on the bathroom. It has been quite the experience. The bathroom is stripped down entirely, though we are happy to still have a functioning toilet in the evenings. Yet, we can’t quite use it during the day since they are working quite intensely in there (which means watching the liquid intake!). We do not, however, have a shower anymore until I don’t know how long. Until then, we have to rely on the sink, and gym shower, and pool. Ug!

Much like any renovations, things seem to hit glitch after glitch today, but that’s the way it typically rolls. Other than the craziness, we hope to have a low key weekend at home and a quiet Valentine’s day; some wine and movies and maybe a little beach time.

We are also very excited to have our next round of visitors. My good friend Mike Metivier and his friend Greg are visiting and staying in the Bolongo Bay Resort, just a hop, skip and a jump away from here. We can walk to where they are staying. At first, I tried to convince Mike to take us up on our offer of staying at our place but now,thank goodness, they are not. They might find we use their hotel bathroom and shower, instead of the other way around (just kidding, Mike, I’m sure we’ll manage!). And, to make this visit even better, Mike’s parents, Paula and Joe, who are like parents/family to me, will be here on a stop on their cruise next Saturday, while Mike’s in town. We are very much looking forward to entertaining them for the day.

Finally, we are also looking forward to having Jenny and Jay, Chris’ sister and brother-in-law, come a week from this Wednesday for a few days, kid free (thank you Bruce and Susan!). We have been missing our family and friends, so all of our visitors could not have come at a better time. We fully expect the bathroom to be done by then, so no worries. ;)

Although it’s a bad time for tourism and I am not getting many hours each week, nor having luck finding something else, it will come in handy because I will hopefully be able to give my undivided attention to our friends and family coming.

I hope to check in before our next round of visitors, so until then, Happy Valentine’s day and I hope your weekend is full of love and laughter.

Last weekend in St. T

Heidi's Honeymoon Grille









Honeymoon Beach Bay






This sign made us laugh

















Inside the "fort'





The "fort" that was never completed.








Iggy's beach bar

Roots of Creation doing a Police cover

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

I don’t have too much new and exciting to report here. We had a very low-key and pleasant weekend. We had a “date night” on Friday and went out to a restaurant called Grande Cru that offers almost a tapa style menu. Yum!

Saturday morning we did a few things around the house and then went to try to find the elusive “Stumpy’s Bay”. This is supposed to be a gorgeous, less populated beach visited mostly only by locals. This was our second attempt to find it and believe that we were in the general vicinity (down a long, unpaved road that dead ended at a house with several parked cars and caged dogs). While this description sounded like what we were told (and yes, we still went- they left out the caged angry dogs) and we knew we might be in the right place, it seemed any direction we took from there might take us into unknown and somewhat shady territory. So, we packed up and went to another beach. We will not try to look for Stumpy’s again, unless with a local who knows where he/she’s going.

Saturday night we went down on the beach to Iggy’s. A pleasant little beach bar that is a fun place to hang out on most given nights. For this weekend and all of February, they are having different bands come and play on Saturday nights, so we went to check out Roots of Creation play. To hear them play: http://www.myspace.com/rootsofcreation.
We enjoyed the music quite a bit.

On Sunday, we decided to go and explore the lesser known USVI (just added in 2005), Water Island.
Fast Facts
Population: 161 (2000 Census)
Size: 491.5 acres
2½ miles long and ½ to 1 mile wide
Highest Point: 300 feet
More info: http://www.seestjohn.com/water_island.html
We walked most of the island (not too big, as you see from the facts) and enjoyed some of the island history. Such as, in 1944 the United States acquired Water Island for $10,000. They immediately began construction of a defense installation called Fort Segarra which was intended to protect military installations on neighboring islands. The fort included plans for barracks, gun emplacements, watchtowers and underground bunkers; World War II ended before its completion (that’s island time for you). Transportation, water, sewage and power systems were established during military presence. The Army's Chemical Warfare Division used sections of Water Island for several years as testing grounds for poisonous gases (eek!).

After a while, when we were hot and hungry, we stumbled upon Honeymoon Beach. My friend, Taffy, had told me I had to go there, but I never quite knew where she was talking about. I wish we could stumble upon Stumpy’s someday in the same way.

The beach was beautiful and I see why Taffy recommended it. We caught a glimpse (we think) of Eric Clapton’s boat, the Blue Guitar, anchored in the harbour. But no Eric. We also had some fantastic burgers from Heidi’s Honeymoon Grille.

Alas, it was time to go home and check out the Superbowl. We hope to bring some people back to that cozy little island. Since there were no Patriots involved in the big game, we were merely watching because you are just supposed to. Sadly, my favorite part, the commercials, was mostly in Spanish. I guess I should take that as a hint to brush up on my Spanish.

Well, that is it for now. We welcome our first visitors this Thursday, so you might not hear from me again until the end of next week.

I hope all are well and warm!