St. Lucia Trip 2009

I decided to go to St. Lucia for Thanksgiving this year. I debated between several islands, but St. Lucia just kept coming up so I decided to go. It is a beautiful island in the West Indies kind of close to Venezuela! It's also super super expensive so if you ever decide to go, make your budget and then times it by three. I need to look at my bank account, but I'm scared. :)

This was taken from the window in my room. I arrived at my hotel when this tall ship was in port. I was so excited! (I just love boats!!!) I thought it would be staying, but I found out it was a luxury cruise and they shortly sailed after I arrived. I was so glad I got to see it!
I took up trip up the west coast (via taxi) and went to Pigeon Island. It was a battlement area that was an important observation and defensive site when the British and French were fighting over the island in 1780. Personally I liked the views. Behind me is Sandals resort. I walked along their beach. It was nice, but I have seen much nicer resorts in Hawaii.
This is me in the morning in my bed. I thought the mosquito netting gave the room a lot of charm. I kept waking up at 4:45 am every morning. It was very annoying! They have tons of tree frogs there which were really cool to hear. They are so tiny, but they make a lot of noise!
The mountain directly behind me is call the Petit Piton and the one behind that is called the Gros Piton. These mountains are why I wanted to visit St. Lucia. I had seen pictures and really wanted see them in person. Some friends, I met at my hotel (picture below) and I went snorkeling at a place called the key pinacles.
We took a water taxi over to a different resort and on the way back there was a rainbow. I was so excited! I love seeing rainbows. This guy, Gordon, was with us in the boat. I'm not sure what his purpose was. :) I just thought he added great detail to the photo. This is where I was staying in St. Lucia--behind the coconut trees.
Here are my friends and I at the infinite pool at La Haut (pronounced La Ho). Tracy--in the middle was staying there and got permission for us to go up there and swim. It was an incredible view of the Pitons and the sunset. Greg (left) and Harlan (right) and I were were staying at the Hummingbird hotel. They were from Colorado and California. I call them 'my people' because they are so well traveled. They had lived in Indonesia, New Zealand, and London. I think that is so cool!
I hung out at the beach at Anse Chasnet two different days. It was a very nice beach. You can see the grass style umbrellas behind me and the trees. So beautiful!
I went to dinner with some other friends I met at Anse Chasnet. It was kind of funny because I had gotten a few phone calls at the hotel which was really strange because no one knew I was staying there. They were from friends I had met there including John and Corene above. They were from Michigan on holiday. They picked me up at the hotel and took me to Ladera, a hotel voted best hotel in the world in 2006 by Conde Naste. The view was amazing!


The next day I headed down to Vieux Fort at the southern part of the island for my last two days. These are my friends I met there. Sibylle, Andreas and Cloudia all from Bern Switzerland. They just met there at The Reef (as it's called.) Sibylle and Andreas had been living in Boston for three years. Sibylle moved back to Bern to continue her studies in medicine (basically her residency) and Andreas was in Boston looking for work in Bern. Cloudia is married, but decided to go on a three month holiday alone in the Caribbean. Can you imagine!? I would so love to do something like that. Three months! I have no idea how she could afford it.
That night we went to dinner at "Debbie's Home made Food Restaurant." When we walked in (to this very gaudily decorated restaurant) and I introduced myself to Debbie the owner. She was very nice and we chatted for awhile. She also gave us drinks on the house. :) Passionfruit for me--yum!
She also had these wheelbarrows decked out in vegetables--some kind of squash and other things--and baskets of fruit and nuts. I thought it was an interesting way to decorate. We ordered our meal and then was amazed by the amount of food that was brought to us. With an entrees there are eleven side dishes (which are not small.) They took up the entire table. It was crazy how much food there was! Really yummy too. My fish was dripping with butter so how could it not be good. :)
I did the zip line in Denery. I had done it several years ago in Costa Rica and it was a lot more fun there. I'm not sure if the thrill was gone because I have done it or because they wouldn't let me go upside down (which is a lot more fun!) It was still fun to do it, but I prefer skydiving to get my thrill. :)
Here is the group I was with. They were all on their honeymoons staying at Sandals. They were very sweet and so young. :) I forget how old I am until I am around these young twenty year old couples. I was much more adventurous than any of them though so hey age isn't everything.
That night when I got back to The Reef I joined my friend Cloudia and a German/Italian couple for dinner. When we arrived at the restaurant I struck up a conversation with a French Canadian (in French) and then with a guy from Holland. We asked them to join us for dinner. Louis (the guy in the back) commented that we were all from different countries. I thought that was so cool!
Sadly the day came when I had to return home. I loved this view from the plane. The water and sky were so gorgeous. I love the shadows the clouds make on the water and of course the color of the water. Goodbye St. Lucia.

Williamsburg Weekend Trip

I went on a fun impromptu trip with Tiffanie (left) and Melissa (middle) to Williamsburg this past weekend. We ate too much junk food so we were put in the stocks. :)
We went to the Trellis restaurant and had "Death by Chocolate" (the tall cake featured here), and "Chocolate Temptation" with ice cream and sorbet. This is our before picture...
...and this is our after picture. We are trying to look a little on the sick side. :) (That's how we felt.) It was extremely rich! We would recommend the "Chocolate Temptation" over the "Death by Chocolate" as the latter had a coffee flavor.

It was such a beautiful day!!! We did some shopping and then headed to Colonial Williamsburg. We just walked around and went into a few of their shops. It wasn't too crowded and we just were out to enjoy the day.
Here we are acting very colonial. (he, he) They had a little outdoor shopping area that sold 'colonial' apparel. I doubt the real colonials wore stuff made in China. :)

Poor Meliss and Tiff had to go and listen to a four hour presentation so we could stay in an apartment style room for free. I just stayed in the room and read a book. So I completely enjoyed myself. :) When we went shopping I bought Melissa some lingerie in case she does get married. (For all of you who do know her, she is NOT engaged. This is just me being prepared in case it does happen. There is no pre-engagement either at this point.) Anyway, she kept blushing and giggling. It was so funny! She had never bought lingerie before. I have lots of lingerie so it was no big deal for me, but she was just hilarious about it. It just made my weekend. :)

Halloween Fun!

Julie invited me to a FUN Halloween party at her house. It was a type of 'How to Host a Murder' party. I really liked the set up as you mingle and give your information instead of everyone looking at you and going through roles. We could also refer to our notes. Above is the whole group at the party. My role was cute and fun, but when people starting showing up as serial killers I realized not everyone was cute.:) The scene was based in a haunted house. Between mingeling we did charades, guessed movies, and ate.
Notice my fun costume with the hat, the gloves, pink finger nails, the spider and the super cool eyelashes. This was my role: "Pocus Eastwick is the loony fast-food worker that plays the role of a crazed witch in the witch's coven room of the Chamber of Screams Haunted House. She takes her job a little too seriously as everyone who works in the haunted house gossips about how Pocus really thinks she is a real witch. They all think she has some major mental issues!" Julie was an executioner. She looked great. She wore a scarf around her eyes that reminded me of the Harry Potter executioner.

I was the crazed witch that walked around and told everyone that I really was a witch and that I wasn't crazy. I also told them that I had given a death spell and was indirectly responsible for the death of the countess (who died). I was tired so I laughed a lot about nothing. Almost everyone else was drinking so I felt completely at ease with being really silly. The guy above who is bending over with the white face (by the way that's Julie next to him in the black) told a joke that I didn't even really hear. I laughed and laughed and of course the people around us all laughed too because I was laughing. Sometimes I love being like that because I laugh so hard and it just feels good.
Kate--the mummy was the the hostess of the party. The funny part about her costume is that throughout the night she kept losing pieces of her costume. By the time the play acting part was over she had completely lost her whole outfit. There was toilet paper streun (sp?) throughout the house. It was hilarious! I dont' know exactly what happened, but she must have been talking to someone and said something funny because the person spewed bear all over her shirt.
Back tracking a little here...I had such a crazy week that I didn't have time to even read Julie's email about what I was supposed to do for the party. On Friday night after work I finally read the email and realized that I needed to get a costume. After my dance class I headed over to Walmart around 10:00 at night. The Halloween section was packed with people looking for costumes. I searched for a witch hat, but the only thing I could find is this child's hat with gloves that had pink nails. (It was the last one left.) I also found these really super cool eyelashes that look like spiderwebs. I have to say they were the best part of the whole costume. People all missed the hat, but they all commented on the cool eyelashes. They really were so much fun!!!
I really had such a great time! I made a huge mistake and got off on the wrong street. It took me almost an hour to get home. Grrr! Let me tell you...do not drive in DC on Halloween. Anyway, I want to say that I had forgotten that Halloween can be a lot of fun. I honestly don't remember the last time I dressed up and did something for Halloween. It is a lot of fun!

As a side note, I had a job interview this week. It totally came out of the blue. I got a call late Wednesday for an interview on Thursday. This is our super busy time at work, but I was able to do it over lunch and a break I had built in. The interview was just strange. I haven't interviewed for a job in eight years and am soooo rusty! I honestly don't think I got the job, but it was good practice and gave me a sense of things I need to be working on to improve my interview skills. It was also nice to know that people actually looked at my resume.