Christmas 2008 in Utah

Mom and I taking the shuttle up to the lodge for lunch after our mini ski.

Here we are after skiing. It was a cold windy day. The trail we went on was great, but it was too hilly for my mom. She ended up snow shoeing with Cindy and Julie. I beat them all to the car and was sitting there sipping my hot chocolate. I hurried out to tell them not to get in the car yet as I wanted a picture. Cindy said "You want a picture of our pain." It was so funny. Evidently they had had a hard time of it. I'm grateful for all my spin classes that keep me in good shape!

It snowed on Christmas night so I went outside at 9:30 pm and played in the snow. I built this adorable little snowman. He really was so cute. Then I went sledding on the road before the snow plow came. I really got going good. I missed Julie sledding with me. She was playing games and then going to bed. Usually she is my sledding companion. I love traveling to snow because I can enjoy it and now have to get up early the next morning and worry about driving.

This was my favorite gift. My mom made me a hooked rug. When we were in Nova Scotia a few years ago and mom bought this kind of pattern to make for me. It was literally lines on burlap. It had no pattern, colors, directions or anything. I was so touched that she made it for me. It is so beautiful and perfect! I absolutely love it and will cherish it!!!

My cute mom made reindeer food (which we are holding) to take to the elementary school children in her neighborhood. I walked around with her to give it out. Everyone thought it was fun and so nice of her. (Me too.:))

I got home Saturday night and left Monday morning for Utah. It was nice to go home, but it felt like a very short visit as usually I spend about three weeks. I was only there about a week. My family and I had fun playing games and laughing. We went skiing one and a half times (long story on the half part). I always love getting up into the mountains and enjoying the snow.

St. John

This is really an amazing picture. I was sitting on the beach and it started to rain. These people from Germany were in the water and called to me that there were two rainbows. I ran out into the water covering my camera. I saw the rainbows (which I love) and snapped two pictures. When I uploaded them I noticed that I had caught the picture with two birds flying in between the rainbows. How cool is that!

Here I am at Francis Bay hanging out with my new friends from Boston. The water was so clear and pristine. I loved the boats, water, colors, and just absolute beauty surrounding me!

My message says "Merry Christmas Mom and Family." When I went to Paris many years ago a friend and I took a picture with a sign that said "We love Paris and mom too." So I first did the mom part and realized I should probably include my whole family. It's really hard to erase in the sand as you can't write well afterwards so this is what came out. ;)

This is Trunk Bay the first day that I arrived. It is even more spectacular in person!!!

I LOVED St. John! It really is paradise! I took a ferry over to St. John and then an open air taxi to Maho Bay where I was staying. The open air taxi's are kind of like trucks with bench seats that face forward. There are about five benches in the back so they can really load up.

I couldn't check in when I arrive so I left my stuff and headed to Waterlemon Bay. I was told that the snorkeling wasn't good that day because they were having high surf so all the sand was churned up. I didn't take any of my snorkeling stuff with me. It's about a half hour walk and I met some people who were around my age and were staying at Maho Bay. It was so nice that I met them. They were staying until Sunday and I was leaving Saturday. We ended up hanging out a bit every day. It was so nice to have them! They went snorkeling so I was very disappointed I didn't have my gear. I headed on and went over to Coral Bay. It was a very hilly hike and just a beautiful day for it! I went to "Skinny Legs Bar" (cute name) and did a little shopping. I met this man while I was walking over to the bar and I asked him which was to go to get to Coral Bay. He kind of looked at me funny and said "This is it." :) I realized I had asked the wrong question.

I walked over to the other side of Coral Bay and decided not to have their nine dollar sandwhiches. I walked outside and there was my new friends (Amy, James, Anna, Jared, and ...) They had snorkeled a little while and then followed me. We had a little picinic together on the rocks near the water and then headed back to Maho Bay. We caught their dollar bus and then walked the rest of the way. (Great exercise!)

I checked in and found that I had a tent cottage very near the water. I was so excited! One thing I do need to say about Maho Bay is that there are A LOT of stairs. It's basically all of these walkways out of wood (it looks like a boardwalk) and stairs. They have tried to build around vegitation and make it very eco friendly. The tent cottages are built on platforms (that are another boardwalk with gaps inbetween so bugs can climb in) and are permanent. They have electricity, but no refrigeration or water. They did have coolers and water jugs for us to get water. It's all screened in and had shades to lower at night.

I lugged all of my luggage down to my tent cottage (that I will now refer to as my cabin). I think it was about ten flights of stairs and I had to make three trips. I put my stuff down and opened up my luggage to get out my shower stuff and left my luggage open. I went to the community restrooms/showers to find that they there were only cold showers. Brrrrr!!!! When I got back to my cabin there were cockroaches running all over and in my luggage. It totally freaked me out!!! I was already a little spooked because the waves were so loud outside, but there was no other noise and it was so dark and there really weren't any people around me.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep that night. I got up and four and packed all of my stuff, cleaned the cabin as instructed, and went to the check-in area to ask for a new room when they opened at 7:30. They were very accomodating and kind. In stages they gave me a map with all the tent cottages that were open. I went up and down so many stairs that the next day my calves were killing! I exercise on a regular basis too. I decided on a tent cottage way away from the water as that is what kept me up. It was just so loud and irregular as it crashed at different times-not constant. I keep jumping as it would startle me. (Yes, even with my earplugs.) My cabin ended up being by my friends.

The next day I snorkeled with some new people I met-a couple from Chicago. We snorked at Salt Pond. I have been so spoiled from Fiji as nothing has been as good. It's been a big disappointment. I am learning to just enjoy what I do get to see.:)

The next day (partly because of my sore calves) I went to the most famous beach in St. John-Trunk Bay and just enjoyed the beach. It was so beautiful! Afterwards I went into town. I hiched a ride with some nice people (mother and son) at the beach. (It's so fun--you can hitch rides here and it's safe.) As they dropped me off and I was walking towards the shopping area I hear my name. I thought--no one knows me here. I look around and my friend Amy from Maho was there. It was so funny to find someone I knew.

The one thing I purchased that is worth mentioning is a sailboat sail bag. It's made out of sails from sail boats that have sailed around the world.

This blog is getting way too long! So..to sum up...St. John was spectacular! I went to some other beaches and snorkeled some more. I met some very nice people from Massechusetts and we eneded up talking for hours. It was just so fun and enjoyable! I really want to go back and stay there for longer. I loved staying at Maho Bay (except for the bugs!!!!!) because I met tons of people and just had so much fun.

British Virgin Islands Virgin Gorda

This was the bay area I reached before I had to go back. Notice all the big rocks. You can play on them. Really so much fun as there are caves and all these crevices and places to explore.

This is the Baths at Virgin Gorda (BVI). It is just gorgeous!!!

Kristin showed me pictures of "The Baths" in Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and I really wanted to go! It reminded me of the Seychelles--an island off Africa (which I totally want to visit one day.) It actually kind of ended up being a series of unfortunate events that day. All I can say is don't go on a Monday. Their ferry schedules are posted, but they forget to mention the part that they actually leave about fifteen minutes late and then may return and get a late passenger.

I took a ferry from St. Thomas to Tortola (another British Virgin Island) and then caught a taxi to a different part of the island to catch another ferry (which I had missed since the ferries don't run on time.) I decided to go ahead and go to Virgin Gorda anyway because I really wanted to see it and I knew I would be terribly disappointed if I didn't go. (It was a very expensive trip for such a short amount of time!)

When I got on the next late ferry I asked a guy who worked on the ship when we would arrive. I explained my plight that I only had an hour to be there and wanted to get off first. It's a good think I talked to him as I will explain later.

We arrive and I took the open air taxi (with everyone else on the ferry) to "The Baths." I ended up only having about 45 minutes there, but I played on the rocks and went out to a beautiful bay. Next time I go, I think I will spend the night there so I can play all day. It was just fun!

I caught the taxi back to the ferry (the only person) and as I was walking up to the ferry I thought I had left my camera in the taxi. I ran back to the taxi and it wasn't there. I went and grabbed my stuff I had left on a little fence and was running towards the ferry. It was leaving. Picture me running in my swim top with my open backpack in front of me in flip flops. The guy I had spoken with earlier on the ferry saw me and called for them to go back to the dock. I was SO glad I had talked to him as I don't think they would have come back.

I got on the ferry and went upstairs. I couple evidently had seen me running and said that they thought I was going to take a flying leap onto the ferry. We had a good laugh about that. :) I had my camera the whole time.

Trip to the Caribbean St. Thomas

I haven't written in a month because I have been out of town doing lots of fun stuff. :) I decided to break up my blogs by plieces instead of just doing one enormous blog. Kristin was the best hostess! She picked me up from the airport and took me to some viewpoints of the harbor. It was just so beautiful! Kristin took me to the beautiful beaches in St. Thomas so I could see them. I had shopped for a few hours and she picked me up and took me on a tour. As I was heading to St. John I didn't spend any time on the beaches here. St. Thomas has some really nice homes and many places that make it look like a third world country. It was very different being in a US territory. They also have bad traffic. Luckily I didn't get to see the bad traffic (except one day.) I guess you just can't get away from it.

St. Thomas is extremely hilly. I have no idea how people do it without four wheel drive. Some of the roads looks like they were at a 75 degree angle. I was amazed that cars could actually get up them without tipping over. We would go down a road and I would think it was a back road. Then we would end up in town. It wasn't a back road at all.

This picture is taken at Sapphire Beach. The water was stunning!

I think this picture is from the Secret Beach. There are big lizards that hang out here. We didn't see any this day.

You can kind of see the cruise ship behind me. The area behind me is called Charlotte Amalie which is the main area in St. Thomas. It has all the shopping.

When I first got off the plane, Kristin brought me here to Megan's beach. It's the most popular and famous in St. Thomas. It is really gorgeous from above because you can see all the different colors in the water. I was just so happy to be seeing water. It just seems to feed my soul.