Charlotte's bit of Heaven on Earth: May 2016

It's a good thing we have pictures to remind me of everything we did over the last two weeks. The time has flown by! It always does when you are having a good time. Austin was on break from school until Monday of this week. It wasn't much of a break for him though. The incoming class was lucky to have him as part of their welcome committee. As such, he picked students up from the airport, took them to their apartments and grocery store, and then planned and hosted activities to welcome them to the island. Man oh man, we are both EXTREMELY glad to be on this end of things instead of being the newbies.

Even though the week of welcoming wore Austin out, he did get paid for it (as a tuition reduction) and we were allowed to go on the Catamaran trip with all the new students. What a blast! It's the first real date Austin and I have had on the island. Eden stayed with our friends and probably had just as much fun. She loves their family- Lyle, Joanna, and their 6 year old son Grant, and twin babies. Seriously though, Eden would be happy holding and kissing the babies for hours!

Sailing away on the Catamaran with the St. Kitts flag behind us.
This is a shot of St. Kitts from the boat.

Back to our date... Austin got to go on the Catamaran trip when he was a new student a year ago, but on account of a couple unfortunate things- heat rash, lack of babysitters, yadda yadda- I didn't go. Because of that, Austin was so looking forward to taking me this year. It's a big reason why he did the Welcome Committee in the first place, as a matter of fact. We loaded at the Port by where the cruise ships come in. The catamaran we rode on was huge- big enough to fit around 50 people quite comfortably. The front end is mostly roped netting that you can sit on; you can see straight down to the ocean as you are sailing. It's pretty cool. They took us along the coast down the peninsula of St. Kitts and stopped at a place where a large ship had wrecked and created an obvious and intriguing landmark. The boat anchored for a couple hours while we jumped in and grabbed our snorkeling gear... noodles included. Personally, having a noodle while in the ocean makes snorkeling so much more relaxing and enjoyable for me. Austin and I really enjoy snorkeling together. I'm sure I wouldn't see half as much if it weren't for him pointing things out. That being said, I get credit for finding a conch shell. Too bad it was in the middle of lots of sea urchins so we left it on the ocean floor. There were huge sea urchins all around the ocean. That was a little nerve-racking, but pretty. We were surrounded, more than once, in huge schools of tiny fish. Thousands! That was fun. We saw a good bunch of fish besides, and an octopus! We followed that funny looking creature for a good while. Austin imitates it pretty well if you ask. The boat also had free drinks and pizza. While everyone else went crazy for rum punch, we were more than delighted with the pineapple juice, orange juice, ginger ale, and ting. Ting is a big deal on the island- everyone loves it. It's pretty much like Fresca in a bottle.

Loving the Marriott. What a great life!

Anyway, that was a fun adventure. The island is very pretty when you are looking in from the ocean. It's also very pretty within the walls of the Marriott. Thanks to dad, we were able to experience that luxury again for the past week. I even won a game of Bingo and a raffle at the welcome breakfast. Our family has winning blood, so it was no surprise. It came as a big surprise to everyone else when I mentioned that we were from St. Kitts though. Many people asked me what they could do to live here. If only they knew.. but hearing all the tourists say how beautiful St. Kitts is makes me change my paradigm a little. It is breathtaking in the right places. In fact, the past week has been overcast and rainy. The clouds over the volcano are absolutely beautiful! Everything is much more green that way too. Rain is a good thing.

We came back to our apartment on Friday. I haven't been so depressed as I was on Friday. I did NOT want to leave. Austin said that was a sure sign that we had a great time. It's absolutely true. We loved every minute. Now we are home. Sigh... it's really not that bad here either, but I could easily get started on a list of complaints if you'd like to hear it. Pearl came to clean up our yard for us this morning- she found three dead chicks at the base of our side door being decomposed by large ants. What a lovely find. We are so grateful for people to take care of us. That's just not something that I would want to deal with.

Austin is good at documenting with pictures so they will tell the rest of the story, but that's all for us!