More St. Lucia, Including Our Top 10

I thought I would post some more pictures from our wonderful vacation. Danica asked me about the food, so I included some pictures of our plates while we were there. Why did we take pictures of our food you might ask? Well it’s because I am camera crazy when I’m on vacation. The picture of the Piton beer is from night 2 when we went to Chateau My’go which has Happy Hour all day long – you order one beer you get two!! The Piton beer is the local brand and it’s delicious!! There is even a picture of Troy and I from the night we went to the Green Parrot (the rat infested restaurant!)

In answer to MandyJo’s question – we did take some great underwater pictures, but unfortunately I would have to scan those to post them, and well, I’m just too lazy. We did see sea urchins, squid, angel fish, bright blue spotted fish, beautiful coral and underwater plants just to name a few.

One thing I thought you might enjoy hearing about was our trip to the IGA grocery store, where there are tons of people. They have so many workers because the shelves go bare within minutes. They also have security guards walking around with night sticks in their hands constantly looking into your cart. Interesting!! Plus if you don’t stand on top of the person in front of you in line, it’s an invitation to allow someone in front of you which we quickly learned. We were glad to get out of there.

So, on that note I will leave you with our Top Ten Things We Learned on this vacation and more pictures below!!

Top 10 Things We Learned About a Tropical Vacation

1. Eat out after 7 pm to avoid mosquitoes!!
2. What you need the first night, you can probably get at the restaurant bottled water).
3. Pay in local money, it’s cheaper (ex. $2.67 US is $1 EC however the restaurants figure on $2.50 US per $1 EC costing you 17 cents on each dollar.)
4. Make sure to ask, ask, ask questions about trips before you take them (ex. How big is the boat exactly? What kind of fishing is it?)
5. Don’t eat the local yogurt.
6. Make sure if you have a refrigerator to check the setting before piling your food in for the night.
7. Store ALL food in the refrigerator regardless.
8. As a local said – be sure to drink whiskey with every meal to kill any bacteria on the food. What?!?! We didn’t know this until the last day!!
9. The taxi drivers are not out to kill you.
10. Last, but not least, avoid anyone offering you Dr. Happy.

Troy's farewell dinner - lobster
My farewell dinner - steak, salad and potato
Troy's shrimp & scallops
My pepparoni & onion pizza (very sweet tasting crust)
Piton Beer and it's yummy!
Garlic wings - MMmmmmm!
Bananas Flambay - tons of rum to burn off!
Female birdie heading into our house
Male birdie in our house
Plant known as Cat's Whickers
Pretty yellow flower hung all over a trellis where people get married in the Botanical Gardens
This heart shaped flower was jokingly called "The Little Boy's Flower"
These are known as Lobster Claws
Troy & I at the stairs leading into the Green Parrot
Parrot's Beak flowers
Sulfer Stream (from the volcano, water is not dirty)
Flower wall in front of the bay at Oasis Marigot where we stayed

We’re Back!!

We had a wonderful time in St. Lucia. What’s even more?? Troy is our newest sky member and he LOVED it!! He was very nervous getting on the plane and when we began to taxi his hands were sweating and he kept looking at me shaking his head. But as soon as the accelerator was hit and we zoomed down the runway he was thrilled!! He even liked the turboprop plane which I wasn’t thrilled with!! We were able to see the Pitons (picture below – 2 mountains formed from volcanic stuff), the botanical gardens, Diamond Falls, and the actual volcano. We shopped in the capitol of Castries, we took a day sail, we fished (Troy caught a Barracuda), we deep sea fished trolling for Marlin (caught nothing, but I sat on the top of the boat with the captain chatting it up the whole trip and learned a great deal about St. Lucia), we snorkeled three different times and we ate out at the most interesting restaurants. Eating there is an experience. At the first open air restaurant we were surrounded by cats begging for food. Troy named one Whitebeard (he kept one eye squished and we decided he needed a patch) and one Egypt or Little E as he had the most beautiful green eyes. Me, being the sucker even found the cat food at the grocery store and fed them on the sly!! We went to another restaurant called the Green Parrot, located at the top of Castries with an amazing view, candlelit, very romantic and halfway through our meal we realized no cats, but rats running around under our feet. Ugh!! But that’s just the way things are there. Best yet, we were in bed every night by 7 or 8 and slept until 7 or 8 each morning. Ahhhhhh...relaxation. Plus, we spent a lot of time at the pool. It was beautiful.

We had the mostest, cutest birds who joined us on the veranda of our sea house every morning while we ate breakfast. They would take bread out our hands. They would even come into the kitchen while we were cooking and would wait patiently for a scrap of food. It was delightful!!Enjoy the pics below!!! Also a picture of us at our last dinner is on the sidebar!!

Sailing from Marigot Bay to the Pitons

The Volcano

Troy with Barracuda

Whitebeard (me feeding him/picture aptly named sucker)

Marigot Bay

Egypt or Little "E"

View from our sea house

Sunset

The Pitons

Flower nicknamed Crab's Eyes

Birds on veranda

Dinner at Chateau My'go

Diamond Falls

And We're Off

Finally!!! Just a note to say we're off tomorrow morning for St. Lucia!!

Oh yeah ...I got my first Hep A/B shot this morning. That was loads of fun!! Uh...not really.

Here's hoping there is lots of adoption news when we return.

Pediatrician Appointment

Last Friday Troy and I saw a local pediatrician who we were hoping would be the one we would use for routine visits after returning from Russia. The office is close to home and was cheerfully decorated. They had separate waiting areas for healthy and for sick children. We were greeted nicely and told to have a seat. Everything seemed to be going well. Then, the wait began. We waited almost 45 minutes before being seen. I am not the most patient person in the world, so this was not the way to start off the interview. I realize it was the end of the day, and I realize we weren’t sitting there with a sick child, but I wasn’t thrilled.

The conversation with the Dr. seemed to go around and around also. While he was excited for us and was happy to prescribe medications we may need for the child on the second trip, he just didn’t say much else. He waited for us to talk and on one particular topic we just couldn’t seem to mesh our conversation. I asked him one thing and he was talking about the other and no matter how many ways I phrased the question, he just didn’t get it.

I think we may try another office. After all the “Pre-Natal” appointments are free!! Seriously, I don’t want to go to a Dr. that I can’t communicate with very well. I guess I’ll have to add looking for a different pediatrician to my “To Do” list!! That will have to wait until after vacation!!

God Answers Prayers

Now you may really have a good laugh about this, but in case you forgot, in my previous post I mentioned that Troy has never flown before and that we were not able to book seats together on his very first flight. Well, after much prayer and persistently looking at the airline’s website for seat availability, there were finally two seats together showing unoccupied. Needless to say, I hopped right on the phone and grabbed them. While I might regret that I won’t be sitting directly behind my husband so as to knock him over the head or overly annoy him and hence the people around me, he is already feeling a thousand times better about his first flight.

On the other hand, when I told him we were in the middle of the plane (near the wing) and he could have the window and we were right behind the emergency exits, (thinking this would be good) he announced, “Great, then I will be the first to see the wing rip off and if that isn’t bad enough, I’ll be the first to be sucked out the door.”

I’m pretty sure we’ll be hitting up the liquor cart first thing!!!