Island in the Sun

Listening to Weezer's "Island in the Sun" is just not the same when you're not actually on an island in the sun. It's probably the worst when it's cold, dark, and grey and you're in the central valley. As far as I could tell this past year, Rubio's is the only place that plays that song during the winter. It's on my radio (pandora.com) right now as I sit in my office gazing at the smoke and haze that has settled on Sacramento. I remember listening to it driving around St. Thomas heading home from the beach drinking an alcohol-infused milkshake from Udder Delight. It seemed vastly more appropriate and fitting in that situation. Here it's just kind of depressing and wistful. Perhaps that was the artists' view when writing it though.

Comparisons

It's been six months since we moved back to the states. A very short six months. In that time, I have often thought of how different Sacramento is from St. Thomas. But I've rarely posted about it. Sorry! Here are just a few things.

Celebrities. I met Bill Clinton a few weeks ago. At a Hillary Clinton campaign office opening. That would never happen in the VI since people who live there can't vote. I won't even get started with that whole issue because then I would never get around to listing any other comparisons... Howard Dean came to St Thomas once while I was there, and of course, the famous basketball player from St Croix would show up every so often. (what was his name again?) On a somewhat related note, I don't recall seeing any magazines with celebrity photos plastered on the fronts in the VI. (Gaylin, please correct me if I'm wrong..) Here there are countless magazines with facts and first names, and I don't know who these people are. Going two years with no tv and no mainstream news source other than cnn.com or nytimes.com is not the way to keep up with pop culture.

Pharmacies. On St Thomas, when you fill a prescription, they don't ask if you want to ask the pharmacist any questions - they just tell you to sign the waiver saying that you don't want a pharmacist consultation. At the pharmacy here, you can get a consult on vitamins, with a smile.

Friendliness. People in the service industry in Sacramento are so, so friendly. The first few times we went to the grocery store we were greeting so many times I thought I had lost my mind and that these people actually knew me. No. just friendly. They also like to chitchat here, commenting on whatever items we're buying, asking what we're cooking.

Politeness. People on St Thomas are very polite. A "Good morning" or "Good afternoon" is absolutely required before speaking to anyone and is almost always used when one enters a room. Otherwise, people get angry. Once I was sitting at the seaplane, reading a book, waiting for my turn to walk down the dock and hop on the floating plane. I heard a guy say "Good morning" but I didn't look up. A few seconds later he repeated it much louder and with a surly tone. (like how a motivational speaker might say good morning a second time to a quiet crowd, but less cheerful.) Everyone responded in unison, apologetically. Here, there is no eye contact in the elevator. Most people don't respond to my "good morning," but I think I'm over the surly stage, and I'm on to acceptance.

News. Anything that happens in the VI ends up in the news. (Unless it's something that is.... being handled.) A year ago today, Dave was on the front page of the newspaper for winning a swim race. Here, many things happen that are not deemed newsworthy. I hear and see rallies all the time near the state capitol building by my office. They're never in the news so I have to go over there to see if anyone cool is speaking. So far my most exciting experience was thinking I could hear the Governator's voice, but I was wrong...it actually turned out to be a breast cancer awareness rally and I got a free pink shirt.

Tshirts. The 5ks here give out tshirts. Not so much on St Thomas. But on St Thomas the races are all about $5 and you sign up about 10 minutes before the race. Here you sign up online months ahead of time and you get a discount of $5 off.

Running clothes. I used to run in a mesh tank top and running shorts at 6am year round at the beach. Maybe 3 times a year, I would wish I had a t-shirt on instead, because it got down to the low 70s and it was chilly. When I go jogging here, I wear at least 4 layers on top, 2 on bottom, wear thick hiking socks, ear warmers, a beanie, leather gloves, and a scarf. I look like the little kid in Christmas Story who has to go to the bathroom.

Driving. Oh. My. I thought driving on St Thomas was a little crazy. Narrow, windy, hilly roads; some steep drop-offs with no guardrails; etc. But the people in Sacramento drive like maniacs. We almost never drove at night on St Thomas, except home from work. So now I'm driving at night (because the sun sets so early!) and there are multiple lanes, AND people are driving at least 60mph all around me. It is scary. I can't get used to having so many cars in so many lanes. If only the lanes didn't end on the way to my exit for work, then I could stay in the slow lane the whole way.

Drinking. On St Thomas you can take advantage of the 2 for 1 happy hour drinks even if you only want one drink. Get the other To Go and carry that pina colada in your left hand while you drive home if you want. Go ahead and take a sip. No worries. (But you can't be drunk! Otherwise, you might get pulled over and the cop might tell you to find another way home.) I think everyone knows the rules here in the states.

Sunlight. The sun is shining warmth on the island by about 6:00 am on average year round (it varies maybe from 5:30 to 6:30). The sun might be shining here at 7:00 but it sure isn't warm. I look outside and get fooled all the time.

Events. I used to read the VI Daily News regularly to find out what was happening - what "national" sports teams were having try-outs, when I could next come in last place in a foot race, etc. It had pretty decent coverage. I used to try to do or go to all the events that sounded interesting. I bought a paper during our first week in Sacramento with plans to do the same. The events section was about twice the size of the VI Daily News. I gave up.

Super Bowl? I don't remember anyone mentioning the super bowl on the VI. The only football anyone there cares about is what we call soccer.

The weather. The first graph compares the average highs, the second compares the average lows. St Thomas is blue. My friends on St Thomas are swimming in the ocean without wetsuits, wearing sundresses to work, and getting a lot more Vitamin D than I am.



I miss the weather.

snow

It is snowing outside my office window. I'm on the 7th floor and it's
melting before it hits the ground. We have been having serious wind
(gusts up to 50mph) and heavy rain that reminded me of Tropical Storm
Chris. But this is definitely not the Caribbean. Snow!

Dominica - part 1

I'm a terrible blogger. I have been putting off this post because I wanted to be able to post lots of awesome photos with it. But that is a bit more work than I'm up to right now.. so.. one last bit about St. Kitts, which we were on for two days in July before flying to Dominica, and then I'll move on and post about Dominica!

Thursday morning we drove out to the peninsula on St Kitts to see the “good” beaches. We were still unimpressed. The beaches lacked the nice white sand and calm crystal clear aqua water of the Virgin Islands. We met a local who was going spear fishing – he sells the fish he catches. He had just parked and was walking barefoot carrying his speargun, fins, etc to another beach about 2 miles away. (We didn't ask but we guessed he was swimming back which is why he left his shoes by his car.) Once we were done with photos, we offered him a ride. (“That would be much relief” he said.) As we arrived at Turtle Beach to drop him off and check out the area, we discovered a flat tire. Oops. My driving on rough dirt roads full of bumps and rocks didn’t make a good combination. Though the rental car was a bit of an island car – complete with a trunk we couldn’t open and a jack that wasn’t entirely operational, Dave changed the tire quickly and we headed back to the hotel on the spare. True to island business practices, though the rental car guy said it would only take about 5 minutes to return the car, nobody was at the return counter – for about an hour after we arrived. Much stress was involved, but it was resolved without too much screaming and we were on our way back on LIAT for a short hop to Antigua and then on to Dominica.

Dominica is an amazing island. We went there over the long July 4 weekend in 2006 and were excited to revisit the island for a full week this time. Dominica is one of the larger islands among the Lesser Antilles. It's 291 square miles and has about 71,000 people living there. About 3,000 Carib Indians live there, mostly in the middle of the island (basically the hard to reach areas) and they are the only pre-Columbian population remaining in the eastern Caribbean. The island is about halfway down the island chain between Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago. It's very tropical and has a heavy rainfall. The place we stayed at in 2006 was the Papillote Wilderness Retreat, recommended in the 1000 Places To See Before You Die - Worldwide book. Papillote gets about 200 inches of rain per year - conveniently, it seems most of their rain arrives at night. Dominica seems to be one of the few islands around here that doesn't have a water shortage problem. There are ample rivers (they advertise they have one for each day of the year: 365), and many beautiful waterfalls. It's self-named "The Nature Island" and is considered an "alternative" Caribbean experience, as it's a good place to really escape and not just go sit on the beach.

Now, to really understand what we were anticipating upon our return to Dominica, I should probably just post what I drafted back in March 2007 for this blog, but failed to ever post it because I never finished the summary of what we actually did on the island. (Keep in mind I wrote it about 8 months after our trip - something about Dominica makes it susceptible to seriously delayed blog posts...) So the rest of this blog is the 2006 trip:

Driving in the Caribbean is generally an experience in itself. Driving on Dominica was perhaps an experience we both could have lived without. We paid our $15 each to be entitled to a temporary driver's license (no test required). We didn't want to be limited to only one of us driving. Another couple from St. Thomas had been on all of our LIAT flights too and were renting a car as well, so once we were all set, the four of us plus the car rental worker walked and walked along the dirt road to the rental cars. We decided to head straight to the hotel which was on the opposite side of the island. We opted for the most direct route - the road that cuts across the island. I took the wheel first - it was a bit strange at first because the driver's seat was on the right, and they drive on the left. So unlike in St. Thomas, the driver is in the middle of the road. It's like in the states, which you'd think would be fine and make sense.

However, the roads on Dominica were very narrow and had a gutter/trench/ditch along the left side of the road. Being on the right side of the car, it was hard to tell how much space I had before the left tire would fall into the gutter. For those of you who have been to St. Thomas, here's a perspective that might explain things - the step down from the states to St. Thomas in the quality/safety of the roads is pretty much the same as the step down from St. Thomas to Dominica. Dave shouted things like "AAAAH!!" and "WATCH OUT!" and "ROAD!!" while I tried to avoid hitting cars coming towards me. After some mild hysteria and tears on my part, and serious panic on both our parts, I figured out Dave wasn't yelling AT me, but was just trying to help me keep from running off the road. Yes, he thought I wasn't driving very well, but he wasn't screaming at me because of that. He seemed to believe me when I said I was doing the best I could. On St. Thomas, tourists often honk while going around blind corners. We don't bother there. On Dominica, I could have just left the horn on constantly, given how often I was hitting it. We did see some beautiful scenery, lots of rivers, TONS of trees, and many small Carib villages.

We went to two waterfalls. Papilotte was right near Trafalgar Falls - one of their most famous and perhaps most photographed waterfalls. It is a small falls compared to some of the others, but it is very accessible, with just a short walk to the falls from a nearby observation area on a road. Many of the cruise ships take their passengers to Trafalger and then to Papilotte for some local food. The other falls we went to required a 1.5 hour hike to reach - Middleham Falls. The trail through the rainforest was pretty good, with many parts of the trail made up of steps created from wood. We had to hop our way across a couple small streams, but we managed to avoid soaking our shoes. This tiny waterfall created one of those little steams. The lush green pictured below was everywhere.

Papillote had a meal plan option, which we were originally against - we wanted to try out lots of different restaurants to get a better flavor for the island. But we quickly decided we didn't want to be out driving after dark, so we ate breakfast and dinner at Papillote every day. They had two (very interesting) options each dinner. One night we tried rabbit... Our favorite was their appetizer called dasheen puffs. Dasheen is also known as taro. It's a root vegetable, and the puffs are made by boiling it and adding flour and spices and then frying them. They are light and fluffy. The leaves are used in kallaloo soup on St. Thomas. We also drank a Kubuli beer each night. Kubuli is a shortened form of the Carib name for the island - Wai' Ti Kubuli - which means how tall is her body. It's a long/tall island.

Not done yet

Fear not, Nielsam.com fans. We haven't completely abandoned the blog. We've been very busy. Being unemployed is a lot of work. We recently spoke to other job hunters and came to the conclusion that when you don't have a job, all the every day chores just take more time. Also, we're still recovering from this culture shock thing. In the VI, we missed stores like Target and Safeway, and we missed restaurants like Rubio's and Chipotle. Now I feel like we're surrounded by these huge national chains and it's impossible to find those little old restaurants with lots of character that were so popular on St. Thomas (part of this is because we're living in one of the newest areas of Sacramento). On the plus side, I haven't yet been served any food with bones in it. In the VI, there are very few places (I can only think of one right now...) where you can get boneless chicken. (Boneless fish is easy to find at the touristy restaurants, but elsewhere, be ready to pick out lots of bones!)

In sum, the choices here are endless, and we're just not used to having a choice. Even driving requires decisions - in the VI, if you want to get somewhere, you take the only road that goes that way. Things that used to take us a minute (deciding what kind of milk to buy: the only kind on the shelves!) take us awhile. But things that used to take days (getting a prescription refilled) take minutes instead. I suppose it all balances out in the end.

In other news.. for some reason, the sun no longer dictates our sleeping habits. I don't really understand why, but in the VI, we always woke up around 6am with the sun and went to bed by 10pm. Here, we stay up until midnight! and sleep until 9am... Each week, the sun sets noticeably earlier. In the VI it wasn't so obvious when the days started getting shorter. An entire month would pass and sunset would only be 20 minutes later.

This weekend marked the beginning of autumn. We've both been to our parents' houses to pick up the winter clothes we left there two years ago before heading to the tropics. We've been wearing the winter clothes wondering what we will do when winter really gets here. Hopefully our blood will have thickened by then.

Our posts about Dominica and Anegada are still coming. We've already written the Dominica one, so don't worry about our memories fading. Just some finishing touches....

Sacramento

We found an apartment in Sacramento and moved in last weekend. Other than a bed and two foldable camping chairs, we have no furniture. There is an overwhelming amount of shopping available within the square mile surrounding us. Target, Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Linens and Things, Cost Plus, Pier One, huge bookstores, etc, and lots of restaurants. We've been to Rubio's and Chipotle a few times. Luckily there is also a jogging trail around a pond right next to our apartment complex too! It's strange to have choices when shopping. It is actually quite difficult. We're used to buying whatever brand/style/color is available when we need something. There are many decisions to make while shopping here.

 

As a child, I was taught to roll my eyes at the "But it's a dry heat" statement from people who were sure that the Phoenix summer temperatures of 115 were not as bad as muggy summers in places like Boston or Washington. Well, it was 88 degrees yesterday and it is definitely a DRY heat. I was quite comfortable in my sweatshirt and long pants: something I would certainly not wear in a tropical 88 degrees. (I didn't see anyone else similarly attired though...) We haven't turned on the air conditioning in the apartment yet, but it's a pretty nice temperature. I do miss being able to wear a tank top and shorts every weekend day and knowing I'd never be too cold. The temperature here varies a lot throughout the day (about 30 degrees).

 

Movie tickets cost about twice the price on St. Thomas - but the movies also start before 6:30pm, which is nice for those of us who are unemployed.... We've visited the library - another exciting experience. Twice on St. Thomas we tried to go to the library - during their posted hours - but they were closed. Another change for us is relearning about recycling. It was so ingrained before we moved to the VI, but now I am constantly having to remember not to throw cardboard, paper, etc, in with the other trash.

 

Aside from the moderately difficult adjustment to the enormity of Sacramento, we're doing alright. It is a good thing we had some time to adjust to the states in familiar houses and places before we ventured off on our own to this big city. As our job searches continue, we are enjoying this vacation of sorts - filling our time with trips to the grocery store and buying lots of fresh blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and being amazed at the low cost of food here. It's a different world!

Return to the States

We arrived back in the states on Sunday after a long flight from San
Juan, PR, to Los Angeles. The vastness of LA was a bit overwhelming,
and the smog was scary. On St. Thomas, the only bad air days were due
to ash from Montserrat's volcano or dust from the Sahara Desert blown
across the Atlantic. We had a short layover waiting for our quick hop
to Santa Barbara (where we left Dave's car at his parents' house). We
alternated between standing around looking shell-shocked, wondering
why people weren't saying Good Afternoon back to us, and pointing out
exciting things to each other - like all the restaurants. The St.
Thomas airport has only one place to buy food. LAX had too many from
which to choose. American Eagle has its own terminal at LAX which is
bigger than the St. Thomas airport itself. The Santa Barbara airport
was much more my speed. After 3 flights, and about 11 hours of travel,
it was nice to arrive on-time and with all of our luggage. Our
household goods will take 6-8 weeks to get to Sacramento. It's nice to
know that if we need anything other than what we brought with us, we
can probably buy it without too much difficulty. It didn't work that
way on the move down to St. Thomas.

From Santa Barbara, we drove north to the Bay Area where we're staying
with my uncle and aunt while we find temporary housing in Sacramento.
The drive went well - it helped that we'd done the drive many times
before. Dave found it pretty easy to stay on the right-side of the
road, since he grew up in Santa Barbara, he knew where he needed to be
on those roads. I, on the other hand, kept trying to tell him he was
on the wrong side. When we approached San Jose, the highway was 9
lanes wide at one point (with on-ramps, etc). It was crazy. There are
so many cars, and along the highways, we saw so many shopping areas.
It's just amazing how many places there are to buy things.

We went to the grocery store yesterday for the first time since our
return to the mainland. It was beautiful. The produce is amazing.
Shiny, pretty apples. Berries without mold - and for half the price
that we're used to seeing. So many varieties of cereal. Real milk (we
had reconstituted milk on St. Thomas). Unexpired yogurt. We perused
the aisles in awe. An employee actually asked Dave if he was in a
dream-like state. We were like kids in an enormous toy store right
before Christmas. Wide-eyed until we realized we weren't dreaming.
Then giddy. We went to Trader Joe's later, and once we think we're
ready - we're heading to the Berkeley Bowl - more fresh produce than
you can imagine. And we're really enjoying the fresh home grown
tomatoes our family's have been giving us.

Everything seems very surreal right now. It's hard to tell if this is
a dream, or if the last two years were. It seems like we were on a
different planet in St. Thomas. We're back at the house we were at for
the month before we moved to St. Thomas, so in some senses, it seems
like those two years never happened. We just woke up and the rest of
the world had moved forward for two years, while we were sleeping. Now
it's time for us to move forward too. The immediate plan is to find
temporary housing and jobs. When we get more settled, or when we need
a break from those tasks, we'll write a bit more about our most recent
trips. Coming soon(er or later): Dominica, Anegada, and Dave's
homegrown pineapple.

Moving

All of our stuff got packed on Thursday - including my laptop's power
supply, so no more internet access at home for us. Blame the movers
for delays in our blogging. But we will post about Dominica and
Anegada once we're back in the states. We're on St. John right now, at
the Deli Grotto. One last relaxing lunch here. They have a new treat
today - butterscotch coconut bars. It's in our to-go bag for an
afternoon snack. We had a few friends over last night and they
graciously helped clear out our liquor cabinet - the movers don't move
liquids, and customs probably wouldn't allow it anyway. All that
inexpensive rum is gone now! It'll be weird to be back in the states.
All that land we fly over tomorrow on the way to California will be
such a different landscape than we're used to!

Harry Potter Weekend

While Harry Potter seems to be popular in the rest of world - it doesn't create quite the stir down here. The 5th movie came out 2 weeks ago (I think?) but as we were on islands without movie theatres, it didn't really matter. I heard it just opened up on St. Thomas this weekend. I'm waiting for the IMAX in the bay area! The final book went on sale yesterday. The only bookstore on St. Thomas didn't do anything special for it - no midnight opening for all of us anxious Muggles awaiting the book. I reserved my copy months ago, and I was told the store had ordered 100 copies. (Amazon wasn't an option - the release day delivery is only for the lower 48.) We showed up at the bookstore at about 8:50 yesterday morning to find only about 4 or 5 people waiting. We don't queue up here generally - you're expected to know who was waiting when you showed up and know that when they're all gone, it's your turn. Dave finished the book yesterday too. I haven't started it as I'm rereading book 6 first.

Other than reading, we've been cleaning up the apartment, swimming, and planning one last quick vacation. The movers come on Thursday to pack our stuff up. It's kind of tough packing our two suitcases with everything we need for the next 6-8 weeks, while our stuff gets shipped. At least we should be able to buy anything we need in the states! Looking forward to the life of luxury again. We also spent some time swimming at Sapphire Beach yesterday and Friday afternoons. Many sea turtles were seen eating the seagrass at the sea floor. We spotted a few rays both days too. Tomorrow we're going to Anegada - a British Virgin Island that is the farthest away from us. We haven't been there yet and wanted to get a visit in before we leave. The ferry only runs three times a week; you can't do it as a day trip from St. Thomas. We come back Wednesday afternoon, just in time for some more packing.

St. Kitts and Nevis (Part 2)

On Thursday, we made it home safely from our vacation. A bit more about our time on St. Kitts and Nevis, then I'll move on to the week on Dominica. First, it's official name is the Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis. But it's known as St. Kitts and Nevis. St. Kitts became the first British territory in the West Indies in 1624. The islands got their independence in 1983 from Britain. Christopher Columbus allegedly named St Kitts after himself because he liked it more than any other island he saw. Nevis was also named by him – something about snow capped mountains – because Mount Nevis is always in the clouds, which look like snow. (We took the photo of Mount Nevis here during the hike - definitely in the clouds.) Like most of the islands around here, they are volcanic in origin. While they have mountainous interiors, the outside areas are fairly flat. Sugar cane is the main export, and St Kitts was the last of the Caribbean islands to have a state owned sugar cane company which closed in 2005. Also, I am fairly sure that St. Kitts is the only Caribbean island that has a train on it. It used to help with the sugar cane system but now serves as a scenic 3 hour ride around the island for tourists. As I mentioned in a previous post, together the islands make up one of the smallest country's in the world. Nevis is about the size of St. Thomas - 36 square miles with 15k people on it. St. Kitts is bigger - about 68 sq miles, with about 35k residents. English is the official language; English Creole is common too. There is no US Ambassador to St Kitts and Nevis (or Dominica) - the one on Barbados covers these islands. Tourism is the biggest industry.

The ferry between St Kitts and Nevis is about a 45 minute ride that doesn’t take the shortest route between the two islands. The channel itself is only about 2 miles. There’s actually a swim race between the islands every march, but we missed it both years. We toyed with swimming the route on our own while we were here; taking turns kayaking and swimming. But the water was so uninviting looking – the sea bottom covered with seaweed instead of coral and fish – and dark water instead of pretty turquoise. We had plenty of other things to keep ourselves busy.

As a stamp collector, I like to visit post offices when we travel to other islands. I was surprised to discover that St. Kitts and Nevis have their own stamps. But given the rivalry between the islands (more below), I suppose it is not unexpected. The ones sold on St Kitts all say St Kitts. However, you can use the stamps interchangeably on the two islands. St. Kitts has stamps for tons of international events that they had nothing to do with – 50th anniversary of lunar landing; Nelson Mandela meeting the Pope; Mao Se Tung; D-day and Vjay day with an atomic bomb on it; aids awareness; Prince William’s 21st birthday (okay, it is a former British territory); and their World Cup 2004 soccer stamp is of the German team. Also, some images were very low quality; others very pretty.

Dave and I also collect local beer labels. St Kitts and Nevis has (have?) a few beers they brew on island, but none that are actually unique to the islands: Stag – "the man’s beer"; Skol; and Carib (from Trinidad) and Mackeson. One local drink is "Ting with a Sting" - Ting is a carbonated grapefruit drink like Squirt (I think it's available in the US?), and the "sting" is CSR - Cane Spirit Rothschild, an alcoholic beverage made from the sugar cane, but tastes more like vodka than rum. CSR is made on St. Kitts.

The plantation on Nevis that we stayed at, Golden Rock, was pretty neat (and monkeys nearby - seen here on the hotel's nature walk!). There are only a dozen rooms - little cottages, or you can opt for the sugar mill as your room. The owner, Pam, was very helpful and people renting houses nearby would come to Golden Rock for meals and seek her out like a concierge. We picked up a souvenir based on her suggestion too - she directed us to a local man who does wood carvings, and we brought a carved monkey home with us. Pam told us there is a lot of rivalry between the islands. She explained that one of the owners of the mountain biking/windsurfing shop was eligible to go to some international games and represent the country but St Kitts officials kept him out. Perhaps it was because he was from Nevis, or perhaps because he is Rasta. The Nevisians toy with both theories and are pretty upset about the whole thing.

Plantations-turned-hotels are abundant on Nevis, and we'd heard that Montpelier Plantation was a must-see. We disagree, but we did indulge in their famous lobster salad. It was good, but overpriced. We moved on to St. Kitts that day and tried to do some budget balancing by having a more reasonably priced dinner. We weren’t super hungry so we thought we’d see what we could find at the grocery store, and grab some breakfast items at the same time. After some navigational problems, in which we got to see some neighborhoods on St Kitts – people actually ride bicycles here! – we arrived at 7:15 – and they had just closed for the night. Defeated, we went back to the hotel and grabbed pizza and salad from the shack by the pool. When trying to decide if we wanted the Caesar or tropical salad, I asked the employee what was on the tropical salad:
“cucumber, onion, lettuce, tomato”
“so, what’s tropical about it?”
“usually we put mango on it, but it finished.”
We got the tropical salad. It came with Caesar salad dressing – the only dressing they had. I expect this at an average Caribbean restaurant, but was a little disappointed at the Marriott here. It was only later that I realized there were so many mangos on the island that they couldn’t seriously be out of mangos – they were falling off the trees rotten because they couldn’t be picked fast enough. Oh well. The pizza was very tasty though and we had leftovers for breakfast the next day!

One last thing, while the driving on these two islands was easy enough, the speed limit signs are in miles per hour, but the car’s speedometer is in kilometers per hour. On an island though, these things don't usually matter - you drive however fast seems right, and that's usually below the speed limit for us. Unless you're super familiar with the roads, it's difficult to drive fast, as you have to be ready for potholes, goats, and other road hazards. Just a few more photos on Shutterfly.

St. Kitts and Nevis

Dave and I are in the St. Kitts airport right now, waiting for our
flight to Antigua for a layover, then off we go to Dominica. We are
having a good time, though today we had some stress with the rental
car (flat tire, trunk didn't open, tools to change the tire weren't so
great, nobody at the agency when we needed to return the car to catch
the flight, etc...).

We stayed at a plantation on Nevis, where we did a short nature trail
hike the first day, and a 5 hour hike the second day. The 5 hour hike
took us to The Source - i.e. the water source. It was pretty
strenuous, very technically difficult, though we saw some wonderful
scenary, and we really felt like we were in the rainforest. Dave took
tons of photos. The short nature trail walk took us through monkey
territory and we saw them eating mangoes. The trail smelled of
fermenting mangos - the monkeys take a bite or two and leave the rest
of the mango. Nevis is fairly small, and it is easy to get around. The
road that circumnavigates Mount Nevis is about 20 miles long.

St. Kitts is also fairly eas to drive around. It seems like there is
more to do here. Nevis is more of a true escape, where you can relax
and get away from everything. We planned to mountain bike on St.
Kitts, but discovered that the tour company listed in our book was
actually an ATV tour, not a bicycle tour. We didn't end up hiking or
windsurfing as we'd planned - plenty of relaxation and driving around
to see various things. We saw a parade in town - some school kids on
their last day of summer church school. We also went to a huge Fort on
St. Kitts. It was amazingly beautiful and well-restored. It really was
a photographer's dream. Dave took tons of panoramic photos - as the
views were amazing 360 degrees.

I have to go - my time on the airport computer is out, but we'll write
try to check-in again sometime in Dominica.

Vacation

Tomorrow, Dave and I are going island-hopping. We're flying to St. Kitts on LIAT, where we'll take a short ferry ride to Nevis. We'll spend two nights on Nevis at a plantation. We plan to hike, maybe mountain bike, and play with monkeys. Then we go back to St. Kitts for two nights there.

After four days on the eighth smallest country in the world (St. Kitts & Nevis are one country), we fly to Dominica for seven nights. We went there last year for 4th of July weekend, though we never got around to posting a blog... Anyway, we loved it, and are very excited to return. I promise we'll blog about it this time.

This map of the Eastern Caribbean should give you some idea of where we're going. St. Thomas' name doesn't even make the map, but it's the island I circled in red in the upper left part of the map.

Going Away Parties

Dave and I both celebrated our last days of work yesterday. The court had one of their infamous breakfast parties in my honor. Everyone chips in and brings their specialty and we end up with enough food to feed each of us for a couple of days! Here is a little sampling of what we had. The first photo shows some deviled eggs, tuna, and crab, complete with crackers to eat them with. Also featured is coconut bread - white and wheat. Then there is the variety of pastries. The second photo has the fruit salad, mini donuts, bananas and fresh mangoes from someone's tree. Finally there is the tray full of johnny cakes, more pastries, and cheeses. Missing from the record is half of a cake from Dave's work that I brought in, as well as the plate of lunch meats and the pot of chicken soup.

Chicken soup is very different here from in the states - at least from the states I've been to. Everything goes into the pot. Just toss the chicken in, bones and all. Throw in some corn on the cob, ON the cob, and carrots, celery, etc. Everything but the kitchen sink. Chicken soup was one of the only things I hadn't tried until yesterday. I am not a fan of eating around bones to get to my food, and having bones in soup just seemed more complex than necessary. (In the Caribbean, if something you're eating could have bones in it - it will. Sometimes if you order fish, you'll get the whole fish. yes, including the head.) I had my first (and second) bowls yesterday. I was careful to avoid getting any bones in my bowl. As for the corn, I just picked it up and ate it with my hands. It was very tasty - soft and juicy. Yum!

Everyone at the court has been very welcoming and kind - really bringing me in as a family member. They have made sure that Dave and I got to experience the VI as they know it. They've told us which local restaurants to go to - the ones hotels sure don't tell their guests to go to. They laughed when we said "we're going to swim 5 miles" but they offered their encouragement nonetheless. They've given us local cookbooks so we can make our favorite local foods when we return to the states. Any time I had a question about the culture, food, another island, or where to get the car's a/c fixed, I always got great answers and advice. I will miss them all!

Friday night we celebrated with Dave's coworkers. Dave's boss treated everyone to sushi at Buddha Bar. So much fun and very yummy. Dave's work experience has been so different from mine here. The turnover at Ecotours is pretty high, as it is in general among young people who move here from the mainland. Someone at the dinner last night said he thought two years was about the average amount of time people live here before they head back. He also warned that once you're here for seven years - you can't go back. Dave has seen many people come and go at work. As his manager said, it really gets to you after awhile - it's so hard having going away parties all the time, saying goodbye to the friends we've made. And now we're those people leaving. Hopefully we will have the chance to come down here for a swim race, a triathlon, or just a visit sometime in the not-so-distant future.

Houseguests, Moving, Random Bits

We've been keeping ourselves very busy recently. The rumors are true - we're moving back to the states later this month. We definitely gave the idea of staying in the Caribbean forever some serious thought over the past two years, but the decision has been made and we're moving back to California. It really boils down to us wanting reliable medical care and less crime coupled with a reliable law enforcement department. Of course, we want to be closer to our family and friends too. It gets expensive traveling thousands of miles and we don't like missing important milestones in the lives of our loved ones.

We have been fortunate to have many of our friends and family visit us while we've been on St. Thomas. We have enjoyed showing everyone around our island. Most recently Dave's parents were here for a week and right before that my sister and nephew were here for a week. When Kris and Story were here, we went to Waterlemon Cay on St. John and discovered that it's easy to catch a ride with strangers in the water too. We swam across a harbor to the cay and got offered a ride by a guy in a dingy along the way. Story saw some barracuda, starfish, coral, rays, sharks, and turtles, among other interesting wildlife. We've figured out that we can pretty much guarantee a turtle sighting at Sapphire Beach. Mostly Kris and Story had beach afternoons, and one day I took them to Udder Delite - the famous milkshake place near Magen's Bay. Liquor-infused milkshakes. My favorite is the one with almond crunch ice cream, bananas, and banana rum. It was right after Dave and my first trip to Udder Delite that we realized we were drinking and driving on the way home. It's not illegal here!

We took Dave's parents to Sapphire too, where they saw a few turtles. And at Virgin Gorda, Dave's parents saw a manta ray too. Of course we also took them to St. John. We went on the little hiking trail to Caneel Bay again. We swam a little at the fairly empty Salomon Beach, and were lucky to have it rain shortly thereafter, so we could rinse most of the saltwater off before having brunch at the resort. That day was also the St. John carnival food fair. I did some shopping and came home with a turtle necklace made from coconut shell and Ah We Band's CD.

Dave saw a few sharks at work yesterday and got some pretty good photos and videos of them snacking on a dead fish. Apparently one of the guides on an earlier tour saw this appetizing event and told Dave, so while the tourists on Dave's tour did the hike (which comes before the snorkel), Dave ran into the water to play with the sharks. Don't worry. This can't happen many more times - this is the last week of work for both of us!

Today is a local holiday - Emancipation Day. On July 3, 1848, the Danes said "Alle unfrie paa de Danske Vestindiske oer ere fra dags dato frigivne" - "All unfree in the Danish West Indies are from today free" and thereby granted emancipation to the slaves in what is now the USVI. Apparently it was the first time African slaves demanded their freedom and won. July 2, 1848 was the beginning of the uprising, with the blowing of conch shells to rally slaves to march. It continued on July 3, with the slaves threatening to burn down Frederiksted on St. Croix. The governor then granted emancipation. There are still ongoing discussions between the USVI and Denmark regarding reparations. Emancipation Day is a big day here. This morning I went running at Magen's Bay and lots of people were setting up for barbecues. St. Croix seems to celebrate the most - they have donkey races, an emancipation reenactment, quadrille dances, kayak races, and fireworks.

Bunny Wailer (of the Wailers...) is performing tonight on St. John along with some other reggae artists. We're going to skip it though - yes, I know I'll sound old saying this, but the concert starts at 8, and Bunny Wailer isn't the first one to perform so calculating island-time and the ferry trip on the way back, I just can't stay up that late! Even though tomorrow is a federal holiday, it corresponds with the peak of Carnival on St. John. They throw J'ouvert, the parade, and fireworks all in one action-packed day. I'm hoping to hop over to St. John for some carnival fun, so I'm saving my energy for that. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Hope everyone has a Happy 4th of July tomorrow!

Big Storm

Last night we had one of the biggest thunderstorms since I've been here. It was very comparable to the one last summer that occurred while Tropical Storm Chris was passing nearby. Dave missed both of these, as he was in the states last August, and right now he's on Virgin Gorda playing tourist with his parents. But I know he had a good storm before I arrived on island two years ago.



The rain came in spurts starting just after I got home from work yesterday, around 6:30. But the real fun began around 11pm. The lightning was so bright it hurt my eyes even through the curtains. As I tried to doze, the bright light would wake me back up just before the earth-shattering thunder boomed. It felt like an earthquake the thunder was so loud. The storm must have been moving around the island, coming and going, because for about 10 minutes or so the thunder would be immediately after the lightning and super loud, then it would be about 10 seconds after the lightning and much fainter. Every hour or two, the storm would get very, very loud. Remember, we have a metal roof so that we can get the rain water into our cistern. So heavy rain is deafening. The power went off a few times but surprisingly was never out for more than thirty minutes or so. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep! The photo here is the remnants of the storm lifted from the weather radar online just now, hours after the storm ended. I'm surprised the radar is working actually - it typically does not work when we actually have weather that warrants checking it out.

Longest Day . . . or is it?

Happy Summer Solstice! Today is the longest day for most of our faithful readers. I don't really understand this at all, but I thought it was worth posting about. Something about today is important. I think the sun stops moving (i know, it doesn't move at all) northward, or something like that. So, the days stop getting longer and start getting shorter. I thought there was something different about it here, at Latitude 18. Because the sun is at its zenith here twice, so wouldn't that make it so we have TWO longest days? Dave said something about it. But when I tried to google it, I found mixed stories. I don't know what the scoop is, and maybe it's not blog worthy. Especially since I don't have the time to figure it out, and Dave doesn't have the time to write about it. But, nonetheless, it's the Summer Solstice. We celebrate summer here every day. Apologizes about the most confusing post ever!

Fort Restoration

Restoration of Fort Christian on St. Thomas is resuming this week after a nine month break. It's been under renovation since we moved here. From the outside it looks like they've managed to paint part of the building in that time. A large portion of the funding comes from the Federal Highway Administration. This struck me as strange initially because I recalled some rumor that the FHA didn't give money to states where the drinking age was lower than 21. The drinking age in the VI is 18. I looked into it briefly - as far as I can tell, only 10% of FHA funds are withheld as a penalty from states/territories that have a lower drinking age. Considering we don't have any highways, I guess we don't really need much FHA money....

 

Fort Christian is the oldest standing building in the Virgin Islands, built sometime between 1672 and 1680. The Fort helped protect the town from pirates and European armadas. It is in town near the current Legislature building and the vendors' plaza. Over the years it has served as a courthouse, a church, town hall, a jail and the governor's residence (not simultaneously, I assume...). The Virgin Islands Museum is also in the Fort, but since it hasn't been open in the last two years, we haven't stepped foot inside.

Constitutional Convention

Yesterday was an exciting day in Virgin Islands history. It was election day, which also meant local holiday for those lucky people who don't work for the federal government. We voted for delegates to be a part of the upcoming Constitutional Convention. The VI doesn't have a Constitution yet. (I think it's the only US territory without one.) Our current government structure comes from the Revised Organic Act, which is federal law. The Constitutional Convention will begin at the end of July. This is actually the fifth time a Constitutional Convention has convened, but for one reason or another, no final constitution ever came of the previous conventions. My rough understanding is there is a deadline of about one year for the delegates to come up with a draft constitution (needs 2/3 approval of the delegates); then it is submitted to the VI Governor, who then submits it to the US President. The President has 60 days to submit it to Congress, and I assume Congress has to approve it. Other than voting for the delegates, I'm not quite sure how Virgin Islanders really get to take a part of their constitution, given that it's subject to the approval of the President and Congress. Such is the life of us third class citizens who live in territories. (Or maybe that's how all the states got their constitutions too? Sadly, at the moment I have other things to do than research this issue.)

There were lots of people on the ballot - teachers, lawyers, jewelers, law enforcement officers, politicians, electricians, legislative workers, a former judge, a car salesman, etc. It was reminiscent of the California gubernatorial recall election in 2003. Residents of the St. Thomas/St. John district votes for 13 delegates from those islands, and also 4 at-large delegates: 2 from the St. Croix district and 2 from the St. Thomas/St. John district. The convention will have a total of 30 delegates. I have visions of white guys in wigs in the hot Philadelphia summer arguing about what democracy is. But that was 220 years ago, and I don't think many wigged white guys will be involved here. Nonetheless, it is pretty exciting. I hope something comes of the convention this time. Then it'll seem like we really got to take a part of creating a constitution with our votes yesterday.

Windsurfing Lesson

After some very loud, persistent rain during the night (the power stayed on!), today became another beautiful day in the tropics. Dave and I had our first windsurfing lesson this afternoon at Vessup Beach. I'd read and been told that the West Indies Windsurfing company is the place to go for lessons. They're open weekends from 10am-5pm and weekdays as requested. We called around 10am to get the scoop, but only got the machine which listed their above-noted hours and gave the owner's cell and home numbers. Awhile later I called the cell phone and we found out John, the owner (and only person working that day), was running late because there was a big tennis game he was watching at home. I only mention this because it's a pretty decent example of how some businesses are run here. Hey mon, it makes life easier if we can just relax a bit and be patient with each other.

We made plans to meet John around noon for a 2 hour lesson that involved about 45 minutes of instruction and 2.5 hours of windsurfing. (See, island time works well for everyone.) I had no idea what he was talking about as he instructed us on land. Once we got on the water though, things made a little more sense. Dave and I eventually became competent at sailing downwind while trying to go upwind and I managed to get stuck offshore when the wind was totally nonexistent. I swam backstroke with my foot hooked into the board to get closer to shore, and Dave swam out to help me too. The wind was very calm, to the point where it was difficult to maneuver much at times. Windsurfing wasn't quite as complex as I'd imagined, but we definitely need more practice. We're interested in trying it somewhere with some real wind next time, though nothing too scary just yet please.

Hiking on St. John

Saturday morning, we decided it was finally time to do the popular hike from Cruz Bay on St. John to Caneel Bay Resort. We took the people ferry to St. John (about a 15 minute trip for $5 each way, they leave hourly) and started the day with a trip to the Deli Grotto. The Deli Grotto is a refuge of comfort in the islands. We've been there about six times in as many weeks. It's a lovely cafe that has air conditioning inside (with internet access even!) but also a quiet shaded sitting area outside. Reasonably priced baked goods, sandwiches, breakfast foods, yummy smoothies and coffee can be found here. We were really hoping they'd have date bars, which we got for the first time there two weeks ago, but apparently there is no set schedule for when certain baked goods or salads are made. Chef's choice. Also missing from the day's choices was the popular coconut-chocolate-oat bar. Instead I narrowed my choice down to a fresh homemade donut or an apple walnut muffin. The donut I ate was enough food for the rest of the day, and probably not the best way to start a hike. I needed a nap. Dave chose a chocolate caramel bar. I could have stayed at the Deli Grotto all day (which had been my plan if Dave hadn't wanted to do the hike).
We ventured off to the National Park building and found the Lind Point trailhead. The trail was mostly dry brush with some night blooming climbing cactus. We found a wilted flower that must have bloomed the night before. One night of bloom - the end. Luckily the trail was in the shade, as summer has certainly arrived. It is not a dry heat and it feels like it's about 100 degrees during the day lately. We saw plenty of butterflies, centipedes, plumeria caterpillars, iguanas, anoles (little lizards), and donkeys. Yes, donkeys. St. John has wild donkeys, as well as wild deer, wild chickens, and roaming cows. On St. Thomas we have a couple random cows too, they mostly hang out near Home Depot.

After strolling along the trail for awhile, we came to Salomon Beach. Then we wished we had brought our bathing suits. It was hot; the water was the usual crystal clear, light blue tint, very inviting, and guaranteed refreshing. We hiked onwards to Honeymoon Beach where we once again regretted that choice. What were we thinking. We meandered onto Caneel Bay Resort's grounds next. It's THE resort to visit. It's where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie stayed... We didn't wander around too much, sat down near the bar for a few minutes, gazing at the water, wondering why nobody was enjoying it. Then we headed back to town on the same trail. Of course, we went back to the Deli Grotto for lunch. I was still full but managed to make space for a mango smoothie. Dave had the Trunk Bay Chicken sandwich. And we had plenty of water! Have to stay hydrated! We took our time and enjoyed the feeling of a temporary escape from hectic St. Thomas. (I can hear you laughing.)

The Deli Grotto is just one of many restaurants and shops that make up Mongoose Junction. While we were there waiting for the next ferry, we checked out the VI Pale Ale shop that just opened up. They sell VI Pale Ale and their very new Island Summer Ale (very tasty!), and plenty of t-shirts, bottle coozies, pint glasses, etc. We're getting to the end of our stay here, so it's time to stock up on souveniers! After we got back to our car on St. Thomas, we headed straight to Sapphire beach, jumped in with all our clothes on to cool off, and then drove home. The rest of our weekend included watching movies and participating in a 2 mile fun run to raise money for some kids to visit DC. It was the same route as two weeks ago, but with a much smaller field. We both won first place in our age groups. I have to admit, living in a community of 50,000 has been really fabulous for our egos! Reality is but a couple short months away.