Day Three: Afternoon Excursions and Hikes

Day Three

Well, not like I didn't already know this, but today proved to me that I am massively out of shape. :) Since we got back so early this morning, we took it easy until after lunch (grilled ham and cheese sammies and some Carib beer <3). Joan is still in a lot of pain so she decided to rest up at the house for the day. Thus, dad and I set off on an adventure around the island. Since I've never been to the Islands before, everything is new to me. Dad has been coming for a few years now, so he was the perfect tour guide! We settled on cruising around the different parts of the island... some spots well known, and others void of outsiders. The first stop was to drive around downtown Cruz Bay. We went through the Lumberyard and past the different shops and eateries. The Suzuki chugged up Battery Hill and we weaved around the narrow roads, heading up the mountainsides. Dad patiently took me to each overlook so I could manage my broken camera as best I could. Our first outing was at Peace Hill. We trekked up the rocky trail to an old sugar mill on top of Peace Hill and checked out the remains of a statue of Christ that got ravaged and blown away by a massive storm a good two decades ago. There were some fantastic views of the British Virgin Islands from this side so many of the photos have Tortola and Yost Van Dyke in the background. After a few good scenic shots, we headed back to the car for our journey further northwest. We rounded a bunch of the beaches... some covered in tourists and others tucked away behind the brush. I dipped my feet in the water at Francis Beach and watched a stingray float by my ankles. A windsurfer was struggling along in front of us, but he didn't seem to mind. It was a beautiful day today with the threat of rain following us along.

We met up with some donkeys near one of the lookout points that gave a great view of Waterlemon Kay, and they seemed "happy" to see us... if you know what I mean. And if you don't know what I mean, then I'll just say that I saw some terrifyingly large donkey genitalia today. It may haunt my dreams tonight. But this guy (who was kind enough to keep his junk retracted) let me get close enough for a great shot. :)

Dad and I made it up to Annaberg Sugar Mill and walked the ruins. What an amazing and heartbreaking operation that was. The technology behind it at the time seemed smart, but the use of the slaves for all that work just seems unfathomable now. Not to mention imagining the hillsides and mountains covered in sugar cane. It was a good history lesson. It was also here that I learned about the Flamboyant tree and its GORGEOUS red blooms.

Best shot of the day :) We were at Annaberg here <3 After almost three hours out and about we decided to make an about face and head back to the house. The sky was getting darker by the minute so we zipped back along the windy (and terrifyingly sharp curved) roads to Great Cruz Bay. I have not yet explored Coral Bay on the other end, but I think that is the plan for later in the week. Another couple from the Shore is down here on vacation so we will likely meet up with them over there this week to catch up. And snorkel plans are in the works as we speak. I do hope Joan feels well enough in the next few days to join us on the beach.

I ended the day on the deck again watching the sunset paint the sky. Not too long after, a massive rainstorm made its way across St John, making a beeline for St. Thomas. It didn't last long, but it was a precursor for tomorrow. We will be missing Tropical Storm Emily, thank God, but we'll still get some of the rain and wind from that system south of us. So tomorrow may be a shopping and grading indoors day. I still have work to do down here and I can put it off no longer. But no complaints here. I wish I could grade all my students' papers in paradise :)

I miss you all back home, and I hope you are enjoying my recounts of this trip. I'll have a ton of photos to load when I'm back home, but again, I'll try to post as many as I can on here each day. This internet is reallllllllllllly slow goin. And no phone service. It's weird not checking my status every few minutes or texting back and forth all day. It's a nice break from the technology, but I do miss my darlings back home. <3

Cheers!
Meg

Day Two: We All Fall Down

Day Two

Mr. Iguana says "Watch your step!"

Well today was exciting to say the LEAST! No, I didn't snorkel or cliff dive or sail around Cruz Bay. But I DID have a good long stay at a hospital! Don't worry, it was not for me. But let me start at the beginning...

The day before I got here, Joan and Dad came over to St. John to get settled in the house. When Joan went to go into the house she slipped on wet tile outside and landed flat on her right knee. For the first day it didn't hurt her too bad, but started forming a nasty bruise. However, by the time I arrived, she was obviously in some pain. We took it easy on day one, but by that night the pain really took hold. And by the time I woke up yesterday it became very clear that she needed to seek out medical help. So we set off to the local clinic on St. John as there is no hospital on this island.

After almost five hours in the clinic and three X-rays, they requested she boat over to St. Thomas and go directly to the emergency room in case she had a broken or dislocated knee cap. So off we went! We took the Suzuki back onto a car ferry (called Captain Vick) and headed back to Red Hook. When we got back to St. Thomas, three of the large Carnival cruise ships had docked, so the island was teaming with tourists. When we finally got up to the hospital it was almost 3:00p.m.

The ER was something to behold. The administration was just sitting around, shooting the shit, paying no mind to the people in obvious discomfort in the waiting area. They had one intake nurse doing triage as well as inputting patients into the system. She was a sweet blonde gal from Buffalo, NY. We found that many of the nursing staff were traveling nurses from the states. A few hours later, they finally got Joan to Trauma 2. Even still we had hours to wait before any treatment could take place. They wanted to take new X-rays and have an ortho doc come in to see her (he never did)...

During our wait we met some of the BEST staff of doctors and nurses I have ever met, in one of the worst run facilities I've been privy to. From Dr. Flowers, a sweet ER doc from St. Croix, to Evelyn the charge nurse from West Chester, NY, to June, a twenty-something nurse who came over from the states after a few cold winters in Wyoming. Around 10:00p.m. Joan got a diagnosis of an obvious contusion from the fall and a soft tissue infection. Thankfully her blood work was good and they caught it before the infection spread too drastically. So another doctor from St. Thomas who studied in Boston and then returned got her on an antibiotic drip and pain meds. She should be fine, but rather sore for the next few days.

Another fun tidbit... sometime during the day, I dropped my purse on the clinic floor and cracked the LCD on my NEW digital camera. The expensive one. It still works, but I can only see out of the corner of the screen... and not well. YAY! But it's fine. I'll get it fixed at home, and in the meantime I fully intend on continuing to use it! Hmph! :) I'm just as accident prone with technology as Joan is with her person. <3 Well back to the story. After fussing at us all day to leave her to get food, dad and I finally capitulated and set into town while Joan awaited results. We set back to downtown Charlotte Amalie and went to Shipwreck Bar and Steakhouse for some burgers. And by burgers I mean they were probably the size of my head. :) It had been over 12 hours since we ate breakfast so dad and I devoured our "Shipwreck Supreme" in record time. It was either the best burger in existence or I was just starving. Either way, it hit the spot. For the food lovers out there, it was a huge angus beef patty, cheddar, mushrooms, onion, bacon, lettuce, toms and pickles with fries and some onion rings. Plus coffee that could probably serve as fuel for an SR-71. It was STRONG. :)

So, by the time we got done at the hospital it was far too late to catch a car ferry back to St. John. And it started to storm. Thus we called around to local hotels and decided to stay on the island for the night in the clothes we were wearing. So after getting soaked in a torrential downpour, we settled into a small but cozy hotel room at Bluebeard's Castle. The view at night from our room up a hill was amazing. The pictures don't do any justice. :)

We got up around 6:00a.m. this morning to catch a car ferry back to St. John. Before setting off, we grabbed an early breakfast at Delly Deck by the cruise ship ports, which were now void of the massive skyscraper-like liners. At the docks on Red Hook we got on the biggest, fastest and newest ferry, "Mister B" and off we went. So here I am, a shower and a change of clothes later, on Day Three and back at St. John. Joan is doing well, just in some pain and taking a nap. Dad is on the porch checking out Great Cruz Bay with a Dominican cigar in hand. I think I'll join him. <3 I'll post again tonight after today's adventures :)

Cheers and less spills,
Meg

Day One: Wheels Down. Exhale.

Day One

Whew! What a day, what a day! So I've been awake for over 18hrs today and it's starting to show. It's only 9:45 and I've tucked myself neatly into bed. :) Well, to start this travel journal off, I'll sum up the day:

My alarm shrieked at me around 3:30a.m. after only being asleep a few hours. I have a bad habit of letting anxiousness and excitement keep me awake before trips. Not to mention my flight left at 6:00a.m. on the dot, so I was paranoid to miss it. Kristen (God bless her) got up early to drive me over to Dulles. I figured it would be a quick zip through bag check and security with enough time for me to grab a Starbucks pre-boarding. WRONG! Everyone and their mama was at the airport at 4:00a.m. Everyone passenger-wise that is... there was one person at check-in for American Air. Woot! The line wrapped around for quite a while, and even though I had a boarding pass, I had to sit in that line with everyone else to check the bags. I didn't get to security until 5:25 (the flight had started boarding by then). And of course I choose the security line with the guy and his 5 little ones all wearing belts and buckled shoes. :) So by 5:48a.m. I am running down terminal B - my lungs exploding! But I made it and they closed the doors behind me. I transferred over in Miami. Got settled on the next plane (a dashing Boeing 757) when I hear a whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... noise. *speaker* "Um, ladies and gentlemen we need you to deplane. We are having mechanical failure and this plane is deemed unflyable." Woohoo!!! Thankfully, Donna, the sweet lady next to me started chatting me up so the time flew (naha) by while we waited for a new jet. I ended up only being one hour behind.

Let me say this about flying over the Caribbean... the water is such a mix of sapphire blues and teals and aquas it would take your breath away. I took photos but they do NO justice. I'll have to edit all of these when I get back and then post them to Facebook. Because of all the flight mishaps I was good and stressed when we were coming in for a landing. We dipped down to about 50 feet above the ocean before catching the runway. And I swear to you, as soon as the wheels touched down I let out a sigh. I wasn't nervous for the landing. I just felt the tension lift away! Dad and Joan were waiting for me at arrivals (the airport is literally ONE room) so we scooped up my bag and headed out to lunch and sightseeing on St. Thomas.

****

We ate at this fabulous little sports bar, The Greenhouse, where I got a grilled grouper sandwich, plantains and pink lemonade. Since it was almost 3p.m. at that point, I was famished. And the plantains were soooo good!

Following lunch, a poor local man was selling roses he made out of palm fronds. I smiled at the offer but I had no cash, so Dad handed the man a few dollars and wished him well. So now I have a palm frond flower. :) We took the rental car (a midsize Suzuki SUV) up a steep hillside to Paradise Point which overlooks the main city in St. Thomas. Most of the photos on here are from up on the point. The sight was breathtaking. Again, I couldn't get over the water color. Seriously, I can't explain how in love I am with this color blue. <3 We trekked back down the hillside and rode down to Red Hook to catch a late car ferry over to St. John. Joan and Dad were hopeful that the ferry in port was the "Roanoke" (Just for you Kris!). This was a much older car ferry from around the 1970's with chipped paint, palm trees and a loading gate that took about 15 minutes to raise... just in time for them to drop it back down when we arrived! :) It was a perfect ship with an eccentric personality.

We spent the next 25 minutes or so crossing the bay area to Cruz Bay port on St. John. About halfway over Dad pointed out this large passenger ferry which had run INTO a smaller unnamed island. Apparently after carnival around the 4th of July, the captain had taken a bunch of tourists from St. John with the intention of returning to St. Croix... and he navigated the ship right into the side of an island, running it aground but just narrowly missing a cliff wall. Thankfully no one was hurt, but the funny part was that they have no way of removing the ferry. It is literally stuck on the side of that island. Like a 3D "Don't Drink and Boat" PSA. :)

So when we finally got to St. John, we drove around Cruz Bay and Great Cruz Bay to sight-see and grab some staples for dinner. When I finally settled into the house and unpacked, I grabbed my suit and jumped in the "Wally" pool. It's just a small ovular pool at the house, surrounded by palm trees. The house itself overlooks Cruz Bay and you can see St. Thomas from my room. I'll put some pics on here if I can.

After a few puffs of one of Dad's cigars and a rum and coke on the deck at sunset, I was ready to call it a night. I don't want to rub any of this in, especially to my sister and Kris, who had open invitations to come, but couldn't due to work and school. But I wanted to document this trip since I haven't been much outside of the continental U.S. And I don't want to forget anything. :) I don't have phone here and limited internet, so I'm fairly unplugged for the next week. I'm actually pretty excited about it. But I do already miss talking to roomie and Joe-face.

I hope that I can make a trip back out here and share it with some friends.

But yes, I wrote a novel! Goodnight for now!

Cheers,
Meg

Travel Blog

Hello all... or anyone who still reads this! lol.

I'm bumping the Letter Series until the end of August. Plus, no one messaged me with interest, so we'll see.

What I AM going to do is use this as a travel blog for the next ten days! I wish I had this blog years ago when I went to Hawaii with my Mom. <3

I will be traveling to the U.S. Virgin Islands until August 9th and I would like to blog about the experience while I am there. If I can, I'll also post photos. I'll be spending most of my time on St John, but flying into and out of St. Thomas.

Thus for the next week and some change I will be blogging about this trip. I promise this is not to brag about it or rub the experience in anyone's faces! I just have never done a travel blog and I think it would be fun!

I hope I hear from some of you on here!

Wheels up at 6:00a.m. so I'm calling it an early night.
Cheers!


Meg

The Letter Series

Hello all!

Yes, yes, It's been FOREVER since I've posted. Time has a way of slipping by without me noticing. :) It's been a crazy busy few months and I'm still getting used to the new PhD responsibilities. Plus, this summer is just crammed with things to do on a massive budget!

Let's see... I've been to Florida to see my Mum, went to the Shore to see Dad, been to two O's games thus far, trekked up to Harpers Ferry area for a cookout with Christy and crew, been a bridesmaid in my friend Kelly's wedding and the photographer in my friend Jen's. I have a 3 Days Grace concert coming up this Friday that I am UBER excited about and then a quick trip up to PA to see my Mom and sister for a day. :) Then at the end of the month I will be traveling to the Virgin Islands with Dad and Joan! YAYYYYYYYYYY! I'll be sure to blog from there if I have internet access. :)

So yes, I've been busy. However, I was having trouble falling asleep last night and I came up with a new blog idea. I'm going to do a Letter From Meg series of blogs. You can probably guess... each blog will be a personalized letter to a loved one, friend or acquaintance. There may also be some to people from my past and those no longer with us. I have this horrible fear of leaving this earth without letting people know how much I care for them or what affect they have had on me. So I think this would be a great opportunity to do so! I'll start with family and work my way to friends. If you DO or DO NOT want to be included in this series post a comment and let me know! :)

Cheers!
Meg

"Though I cannot fly, I'm not content to crawl" -Nine Days

St Pattys and April Fools!

I have been so bad about posting! It's been a month and a half! And JUST NOW on April Fools am I realizing this. Doh! So happy belated St. Pattys day. In usual fashion I watched "The Quiet Man." (Look it up if you've not seen it).

Life has been fantastically busy and stressful lately, so there hasn't been a lot of downtime to update. Even now, I have a stack of papers and speeches staring at me... just waiting to be graded! But it's Friday afternoon and I'm aimin' to have some "me" time today.

I do want to say thank you to all of my friends and former students who gave me support, hugs and chocolate this week! You really made stressed Meg transform back to her normal self. So thank you <3

So again... it's April 1st. I think the best fool of all of this is all of us. Mother nature is giving the finger it seems with all this cold weather! Wasn't it in the 70s a few weeks ago? And then snow? And then... this?! Pathetic. I'm ready to drive with the windows down... not shivering and wondering where my gloves are!

Speaking of cold - next week I'm traveling to Chicago to see Joe and to go to a conference in the area. Hopefully I'll be able to post on that when I'm back.

Until then. Cheers!

Meg

Miss my Driving Tan

Yesterday was such a tease! It got up to 67 degrees and sunny. What a lovely Valentine's Day surprise for me! :) Sadly I had class all evening so I couldn't enjoy it to the fullest, but I did let my students out a lil early so at least they could catch a few rays. Some vitamin D is good for em. Let's hope for an early spring. I miss my driving tan. You know, when you hang your left arm out the window on a nice day, cruisin down the interstate. That's the best tan ever. :)

Speaking of tans, I'll have to work on one for my friend Kelly's wedding in July. I'm SUPER excited to be a bridesmaid again (It's nice to know you make an impression on friends). We have lovely knee length summer dresses that are a light pastel pink WITH STRAPS (Thank you God), and ... wait for it... POCKETS! A pocketed dress. I may die of happiness. And no heels necessary, just flip flops. Oh happy day! It should be a fun wedding! Kim's wedding was such a blast last year, it's nice to have another summer event. So yes, a tan is in the works. AND some serious weight loss. I'd rather have the dress altered than look like a size 12 balloon. I am keeping another blog on just that issue http://meglosingit2011.blogspot.com.

In other updates, I got my first grade as a PhD student. It was an A! WOOT! :) I've been off to a slow start and sort of lacking ideas, but I honestly think I'm just overwhelmed. It'll settle out. Life in general is good. Grandpop had his surgery and is still recovering. It's going to be a long road, but so far things are okay. I'm trekking up to Chicago this weekend to visit Joe! I'm hoping for nice weather since it'll be 70 this weekend in Virginia! Flip flops, here I come! I just hope it sticks around long enough for when I return on Sunday. :)

I'm sure I'll update again then.

Cheers,

Meg