Jersey Mom Blogging

I can proudly say that I'm still on Island Time.
We got back from Grenada last weekend... it was a wonderful week of nothing but THIS:

Incredible blue sky for five of the six days we were there... gorgeous breezes, extremely hot sun, smiling faces, and thousands of miles away from any work or responsibilities. Vacation, people.

Look at those coconuts. Pretty cool, huh? Undisturbed.

Imagine what that must have been like back in 2004, when Hurricane Ivan ripped through Grenada. Left so much devastation in its path... most of the roofs on the buildings were newer, because they had been completely ripped off during this storm. Many of the local plants (including the cocoa vegetation) was completely wiped out. Grenadians asked other local Caribbean islands to contribute to replenishing their green beauty. Our tour guide told us that they now purposely air footage of the hurricane each year, so that those who do not remember it/did not live through it can realize the intensity and capability of a hurricane, and take future storms seriously.

But I saw none of that. I saw THIS:

Back story:
Jim was recruited to check out St. George's University. The school is an English-speaking medical/vet. med. school that has quite a lot of students from the Northeast US. Therefore, they look for student advisers from universities that will come and visit their school, get to know it, and form an opinion about it. They also offered to pay for the trip... and to have a significant other come with...

So that is how I ended up in Grenada in February for a week. (Many, many thanks to our wonderful parents who were able to watch and care for the boys. I brought them back spices! And called a few times!)

Now, you have to understand what I did every day.
I woke up. Ate breakfast outdoors with Jim. Then he went off to the campus for meetings... and I poked around on the small stretch of the bay that was part of the University Club. See picture below, taken from in the water itself. Our room was in the building on the left. Corner unit. Balcony. Niiiiice.

I kayaked. I slept on the beach. Read three books, two journal issues, and a magazine. Jim returned around 3 & we did more exploring. Then showered, watched the sun set, and had a three hour marathon dinner with the other adviser guests.

The view from my hammock.

It took me exactly one morning to get into the groove-- stop thinking about other things, and just enjoy the slow pace, beautiful weather, and utter brilliance of the Caribbean sun.

Gone were the winter worries of static in my hair, dry skin between my fingers, and overall gloominess in my mood.

Man did I have to slather on the sunscreen, though. By 9AM, the sun was hitting the beach hard... by 11:30, I had to re-apply again. I completely stayed out of the sun most days from 12:30 until 3.

One day, I took my book in a plastic bag, kayaked out to the middle of the bay, hitched myself up to a floating buoy, and read for about an hour. There are lots of people who seem to live on their boats in that bay. I saw a few swimming while pushing a boogie board that had a black trash bag on it... it was their laundry that they were taking on land to clean!

Those pictures of the stone steps and walkway above? They were taken during low tide. I walked around like a kid again, with my eyes glued to the sand, shuffling my feet as I roamed the shore... Found all kinds of stuff. Including sea urchins:

(Talk about a zoom lens...)

Also saw a few fish.

Again, these were taken RIGHT THROUGH THE WATER.

The whole trip, I was really missing my boys. I do so much beach-exploring nowadays with them, seeing the excitement in their eyes... It was a bit lonely to experience all of this without them.

I did bring home some treasures for their "collections": sea glass, shells, and (dead) coral.

Now this guy was unique. He had green legs. Electric green legs. He liked to wade through the shallow water and get right around the weedy edge... I saw him capture a small fish in his beak, but didn't get it on camera.

Some of the trees, flowers. All fantastic colors.

Mango anyone?

Cute birds. Got a video of them singing somewhere...

Two different lizards...blending in well with their surroundings.

Ah! My big find!
I was not totally convinced that this conch shell was empty... I kept it in the water for a bit, but out on the sand so that Jim & friends could see it. I also ate conch for the first time on this trip.

That little thing is what comes off of this big tree. I have no idea what it is.
Grenada is the world's second-largest producer of nutmeg (but I don't think that's a nutmeg nut). A pretty big accomplishment for an island that is only 12 mi. by 23 mi. wide.

OK, these two pictures are in here, but really shouldn't be... they are taken at Grand Anse beach. That's THE beach in Grenada, where all the private clubs are, and where most folks hang out. Quite simply, you can swim here. The beach in front of the University Club was very shallow, and very laden with seaweed (and sea urchins). Jim and I took the bus to this beach one afternoon. I enjoyed floating around a bit; Jim enjoyed a stretch of beach to run on. We returned later one night for dinner here, too.

The travel agent could not get us on a flight off the island on Friday, as planned. Would we mind staying an extra day?
Would we?

I think not.
Jim and I took the time to just relax...
(PS that is a lot shallower than it looks ;)

Sunset.

Oh man, I forgot to mention the rum. Rum in EVERYTHING.
I went from not really liking pina coladas to REALLY LIKING PINA COLADAS.

Local brew.
Pic below is the outside of the one restaurant at the resort. They fed us each day SO MUCH FOOD. Delicious, local, three courses... all with a smile. I found just about all the Grenadians to be warm, friendly, and quick to laugh. Long, cheery laughs. :)

The big tree outside the main building. Jim's on the bottom right.

This is the post where I fill you in on everything that we've done (and I've photographed) in the past few weeks!

The 100th Day of School is next week... Earlier this summer, Trenton planted sunflowers in front of our new house. We harvested the seeds and I saved them for this project. Above, they count out 100 of the nicest ones.

Jim and Trenton worked on the display together. T cut out the petals and wrote a summary near the pictures... Jim helped glue the seeds onto the board.

And here are some pictures from gymnastics! Trenton is in a class with three other kids (two of his good buddies) and this teacher, Nicole. They do all sorts of things-- tumbling, obstacle courses, equipment use...

Oliver did not want to do gymnastics at the same place as Trenton... he just did not want to go it alone. So we now go once a week to My Gym, where he runs around like a nut and has my undivided attention (Jim stays home with Trenton). Works out well.

I'm all for exercising these kids out during these long, cold, dark winter months.

Yes, I realize it has been a very mild winter. But it is still winter. I still cannot go to the beach and sunbathe.

And then there was snow! Second time this season? Third? Anyway... they went right from bed to bathroom to snowpants... and out the door to play for an hour the other morning. They got a kick out of shaking the soft fluffy stuff from the branches of bushes around our home.

A pretty sight.

Finally, these lovely ladies are my friends at Gold's Gym. We headed out to a local restaurant the other night for some drinks, dinner, and conversation. It was Melissa's birthday (red, in center)... but we all said we need to do it again soon!