cats

I have an accumulation of cat pictures that I need to put on the internet.

existential crisis Mowgli

I promise she is not dead

Junie, gazing at the bottom of a chair

sometimes going upstairs is an intimidating prospect

Fluffy has had quite a night, and needs a moment to gather herself
before continuing the pub crawl

honeymoon pics

Well, yesterday was sort of grueling. We started off great - we had room service for breakfast again, and then we made a little video tour of our room:

I'm so sad that we're not still there! *sob*

We finished packing and got our ride to the airport, and everything was fine until we were about to land at JFK. The pilot said there was some weather, and we had to circle around for an hour and a half. He kept updating us, and each time, he sounded slower and more slurred - like he was up there washing down handfuls of sleeping pills with a bottle of scotch or something. It was a bit unnerving.

When we finally landed, we had to wait a long time for a gate because we were just one of many, many planes that had just been cleared to land. Once we got into the airport, there was a super long line at immigration, then we had to get our bags, recheck them, and go through security again. Someone had a small dog who had a lot to get off his chest.

The flight to DC was also delayed, which was probably a good thing. We got some crappy sandwiches, which we ate at the gate, and boarded our flight. Then we had to wait for the 15 planes ahead of us to take off before we could go.

At Dulles, our bags took their sweet time getting to us, but at least our Lyft was straighforward and simple. We got home around 2am.

I'm sure it's needless to say I would go through all of that again in a heartbeat for another 10 days in St. Lucia. Here's our St. Lucia album with lots more pictures and videos.

honeymoon day 10

We went back to the Terrace for breakfast today, and I had eggs benedict with salmon. We took a few pictures of the resort grounds and then walked down to the beach afterwards, just to say hello to it, and got a buggy back to the room.

It was sort of a cloudy day, so we lazed about for a few hours and then went to afternoon tea for only the second time. We forgot to take pictures again. 

After tea, we walked down to the bar and got a drink, and then walked along the beach to the dock.

*love*

Then we just walked around for a bit - all around the grounds, and on the boardwalk behind the beach bungalows.

the pool

the boardwalk

I researched the frogs I talked about the other day, and found out that they're called coquis. They were chirping away this evening and we had been wanting to see one, and we finally did!

a coqui!

Here is a video of what they sound like:

At the end of the boardwalk there's a little gazebo where we sat and looked out at the ocean and back at the twinkly lights of the resort, and then we went over to the pool and watched bats swoop down for a drink of water.

view from the gazebo

It was a beautiful and peaceful night, and a lovely way to spend our last day in St. Lucia. We had dinner at the Bayside Restaurant, and then came back to the room to pack. I can't really say I'm ready to go home.

honeymoon days 8 and 9

I don't have any pictures from yesterday. Sad! But we had breakfast on the terrace, and for whatever reason, the service was really slow and forgetful. So we were a bit grumpy about that. We went back to the room and did some work and lazed about. The Professor made good use of the plunge pool, but it was a bit too bright and sunny for me to be in it very much. We went to the Great Room again for dinner, and afterwards walked down to the hotel pool and just sat for a little while, enjoying the sounds of the frogs and the katydids.

Today, though! Today was exciting. We had room service for breakfast, which was not the exciting part. The exciting part was when we went zip lining!

First there was an estate tour of an old plantation that's near the resort. We saw how chocolate and sugar cane and coconut are processed, and our guide showed us how people lived on the plantation, and all the different things they grew there.

plantation!

big ol' trees

After the tour we went zip lining with 2 funny ladies named Omiah and Pinky, and it was just really fun.

us in our beautiful zip lining outfits

We had forgotten our wallet, so we couldn't tip anybody, which was a bummer. We also couldn't buy any of the stuff at the little store there. So we asked our driver if he could take us back to our room, and then drive us back there, and we'd give him some extra money, and he was happy to help us. We were so grateful.

So he brought us back to our room, we grabbed some waters and our cash, and we went back to the plantation. The Professor went around tipping all the folks we'd encountered, and I bought a bunch of souvenirs at the store. We got back to the car and our driver had picked a bunch of mangoes for us!

Remember how I basically said it was raining mangoes when we got here? Weirdly, it's kind of hard to get some mangoes at the resort. They aren't included in the fresh fruit that you order for breakfast and they keep running out of pureed mango for daiquiris. They usually have some mango lying around for breakfast on the Terrace, so I have had it a few times, but I guess I was just expecting more. Anyway. Our driver hooked us up.

Later, we were in the reception area trying to get a refund for one of our other excursions that we canceled, and we saw Jameer Nelson (Denver Nuggets) come in with his family and check in.

Anyway, we went to the beach and had another pizza and obviously drinks, and went snorkeling again. While we were snorkeling, a tropical storm that had been lurking close by came through and it took us kind of a long time to swim back to shore against the wind. We were nervous about the stuff we left sitting on our loungers - we had phones and Kindles and stuff - but it was all fine and nothing got wet, so I treated everybody on the beach to a blubbery display of an out-of-shape 38-year-old jogging in a bathing suit for no good reason at all.

As we were washing off our feet before going back to the room, we saw Monta Ellis (Indiana Pacers) and his family in the pool.

We went to Bayside Restaurant for dinner again, and it was super windy from the storm. Jameer Nelson and fam were at a table nearby and they had a very unhappy baby with them, which made me a tad disgruntled, but today was definitely my second most favorite day. 

honeymoon day 7

We had kind of a lazy day today. We did manage to make it to the Terrace for breakfast again, and I had a poached egg in creole sauce, which was nice.

We went back to the room after breakfast, and I took some naps and read a lot. And we sat in the plunge pool a bit. We had room service for lunch, and I shared my tuna with 3 kitties that appeared magically from the underbrush as soon as said tuna was delivered.

We heard that the best view of the sunset is from the fitness center, which is pretty high up on the mountain, so we called for a buggy and went up there at sunset. As it turns out, the sun sets behind the mountain in June, so we didn't really get a good view of it. But we got a good view in general, so it was worth it to go up there anyway.

view from the fitness center

We went down to the Bayside Bar for some drinks, and decided to stay there for dinner. They were so accommodating for us - even though the bar itself doesn't serve dinner, they went and got it from the restaurant next door and served it to us at our table in the sand. It was quieter and beachier and just really nice.

lookit my handsome husband! I'm so lucky!

So we were sitting there enjoying our dinner, and another sunset cruise was just getting in, and there was a little power boat ferrying people from the cruise boat (a sail boat) to the dock. And I'm not really sure what happened exactly, but all of the sudden the Professor said "he's gonna hit that boat" and the little power boat ran into a bigger, parked boat, basically without even trying to slow down. Nothing really happened, thankfully, and everyone was fine, and the bigger boat didn't sink, and the power boat didn't sink, and it was all ok, but it was just sort of odd, and I'm leaving it here for posterity.

honeymoon day 6

Today we had breakfast on the Terrace for the first time. For clarification, the Terrace is where they serve breakfast.

It has a little bit more variety than the room service options, including the "creole breakfast," which is what I had. It was interesting. There was a lot of salt fish involved, and you pile that on some bread with different vegetables and make little sandwiches. There were also beans, and a hot chocolate drink without sugar.

I haven't mentioned the cats yet. The resort has lots of little cats, and they all would like to have some of your breakfast please. Also your lunch and dinner, and any snacks you might happen to have. They're cute, so they're forgiven.

terrace cat

After breakfast, we walked around the resort a bit and took pictures of the remains of the sugar mill that used to be here.

We also went on this little "rainforest walk" which is just a raised boardwalk that goes through the woods on one end of the resort. It was cool, and everything was fine, and we were minding our own business when this giant beetle came buzzing out of nowhere and caused a bit of panic and screaming. In my defense, it was really big, like maybe golf ball sized, and it was unnervingly close to my face, and it might have been a rhinoceros beetle, but I was too busy flapping about to really get a good look at it.

So after the beetle debacle, we went snorkeling again, and saw a whole herd of cuttlefish. We also saw a lobster but it was definitely dead, and it had a big white worm crawling around on it. Gross.

We sat on the beach until pretty late in the afternoon, and read for awhile, and snoozed, and had another pizza and obviously more drinks. It was such a wonderful afternoon.

just us

The Bayside Restaurant was having a special BBQ event with a live local band, so we went to that for dinner and it was pretty fun. Lots of interesting food and fun covers by the band. Today was definitely my favorite day so far. 

honeymoon days 4 and 5

It rained allllll daaaaay yesterday so we didn't leave the room because we didn't have to. We had room service for breakfast again.

yaaaay!

boo.

We did some reading and then ended up watching this ESPN special about the Lakers and Celtics rivalry, which I caught the tail end of when I was a kid. We watched all 3 episodes of it, and it was super interesting, and we ordered room service all day. For dinner we had a pizza and some mushroom pasta, which was pretty good.

Today, we had room service for breakfast again, and we had a visitor.

hermie!

Also, there's usually a grackle that comes around when we eat outside, but today there was also a little black finch. They really seem to be pretty used to people feeding them. They seem like they expect it.

Anyway, after breakfast we went down to the beach and we finally busted out our snorkel gear. We bought full-face masks and I have to say they are a game changer. They make snorkeling SO much easier and more comfortable. We saw a cuttlefish, and some parrot fish and needle fish, and a puffer fish, and etc. It was pretty rad.

We sat on the beach for awhile and had a pretty tasty pizza for lunch, and some drinks obviously.

For dinner, we went to the resort's fancypants restaurant, which is called the Great Room. So we dressed up a bit, and I had lamb, which came with some pasta tubes filled with foie gras. Normally I don't eat foie gras, but I was not paying attention, and I ordered it, and it was there, so I ate it. It was delicious but I felt pretty guilty about it. The Professor had pork belly and potatoes, which was also delicious, and they gave us many extra amuse bouches, and I remarked that my bouche was very amused, and then I giggled hysterically while the Professor looked on, perplexed.

being fancy

honeymoon day 3

We had room service for breakfast again today, and then we went down to the beach to lay around. We found a couple of loungers under an umbrella (except it was maybe more of a hut) that was a little bit separated from the rest of them. It was really nice because they come around and take your drink/food order, and they also give you cold washcloths, and sometimes they have snacks that they come around with. It's just so super nice. So we stayed on the beach for lunch and had a fish wrap and coconut shrimp.

our beach view 

In the evening, we went on a sunset cruise, and it was ok, but definitely not what we were expecting. It was more of a drunk party mildly douchey cruise and less of a romantic cruise. It was fine though, whatever. But! We did see a cool bat cave where the fruit bats live (we heard them but we didn't see them), and then some sort of swift or swallow followed behind the boat for a little while and I enjoyed watching him.

the resort between the Pitons

the bat cave

We also saw Soufriere from a distance, but we will probably not end up visiting.

They gave us some pretty terrible snacks and drinks, and the Professor said the bathroom was weird and you had to use a hand pump to flush.

But there was a pretty sunset!

sunset!

sunset!

We had dinner at Bayside Restaurant afterwards. A lot of the trees around the resort have these pretty lanterns hanging in them and they make everything look kind of magical at night.

lanterns!

honeymoon day 2

Today we ordered room service for breakfast, which was nice. We have a little covered patio where we ate and watched the birds and listened to the plunge pool burbling merrily. The Professor had pancakes, and I had an omelet.

We went to reception and met with a representative from the company that did our airport transfer, and we booked our transfer back to the airport for departure next week, and also some excursions.

We had lunch and some drinks at the Bayside Bar, which is right next to the Bayside Restaurant (where we had dinner last night), except all the seating is in the sand. It's super pretty and relaxed and booze-filled.

booze!

Then we went back to the room and sat in the plunge pool for a little bit. We saw the biggest caterpillar we have ever seen (or care to see) in our lives, munching away on the neighbor's plumeria tree. It's called a pseudosphinx tetrio, and it's just really alarmingly enormous.

our plunge pool!

alarming.

In the afternoon, we went to tea, and had lots of yummy little sandwiches and treats, and we were so mesmerized by the daintiness and cuteness of everything that we forgot to take a picture. But here is a picture of us to make up for it.

We went back to the room and read for awhile, and then went to dinner at the Bayside Restaurant again, and then came back to the room to watch the Warriors win the championship, yaaaay!

honeymoon day 1

We're on our honeymoon! We're at Sugar Beach resort, right between the two Piton mountains near the town of Soufriere in St. Lucia. We met our driver at the airport when we landed, and he took us on a windy, hilly, 45-minute drive through little mountain villages, and told us about some of the history and agriculture of the island, almost all of which I've already forgotten. But we did see some folks washing their clothes in a stream, which he said has some sort of glorious magical water. Also, there are an astonishing number of mango trees. There are just mangoes everywhere - hanging off of trees, falling through the air, splatting on the ground...it's all mangoes all the time.

So the driver dropped us off at the resort's reception building, and they told us that they'd upgraded us to a luxury villa, which is not on the beach, but is much bigger and more private than the beach villa we had booked. It's a tiny bit less convenient to get around the resort, but our room is so awesome that it more than makes up for it.

Anyway, while they finished getting the room ready, we sat in a court yard at reception and drank coconut rum punch and cooled off with icy washcloths. I went to use the restroom and it was so clean you guys! I could get used to resort living.

looking in at the waiting room from the courtyard

When they were ready for us, they sent a little buggy to get us and our luggage, and drove us up to our room. The resort is kind of on the side of a mountain, so it's difficult to walk anywhere unless you're staying right on the beach, and you basically have to take a buggy. Unless you're into mountain climbing, in which case, go right ahead and knock yourself out.

We met one of our butlers, Keitha, and she gave us a tour of our room, during which the Professor referred to the bidet as the "butt-washer," much to Keitha's prolonged mirth, which may have been out of a sense of obligation, but we will never know!

the infamous butt-washer

We spent some time unpacking and marveling at our beautiful room, and the way they had it decorated for us, and then we went down to the Bayside Restaurant for dinner at 6:30.

The restaurant has a roof, but no walls, so you have a nice view of the beach while you eat. I had something similar to seafood paella, and the Professor had flank steak, which was pretty good.

There are little frogs that come out at night and sound like extra loud and less plaintive peepers. There was one in the bush that you can see on the right side of this picture, and he was chirping his tiny little heart out. 

visiting our new york friends

Today was our last day of a little 4-day trip to New York to visit some friends. We got here on Wednesday, and went right to Salonika's to say hi and drop off our stuff. She needed to pick up her daughter at school and put her son down for a nap, so we walked around the park while she took care of kid-business. It was really weirdly very cold. Like in the 50s.

cloudy, cold, and dark

We strolled along, listening to the peaceful sounds of drivers leaning on their horns and children screaming bloody murder. It takes a lot of effort, but if you stare fixedly up, and block out all peripheral objects, and also wear earplugs, the park can almost be bearable.

exhibit A

When the cold got to be too much, we went to a little spot for a snack and a green tea latte.

warm and cozy bliss

I'm not sure if you can tell, but I don't really like New York. Anyway, after our $56 snack, we went back to Salonika's and hung out for dinner and chatting and story time before bed. It was a good visit, and I miss Salonika a lot.

We've been staying at the Professor's cousin's house in Brooklyn - we'll call her VJ. She has 2 extra sweet doggies.

This is Bear. He's an old man, and he is almost deaf.
He is a good boy, and he's my friend.

This is Princess Jasmine. She has a one-track-belly-rub mind. She is a
super sweet and special girl, and she's my friend.

We also visited the Professor's friends G&H, and their new baby. H made us the most gigantic steaks I have ever seen in my life, and a delicious salad.

The Professor with baby and G and H

Aside from that, we went to see Wonder Woman, which was entertaining, we went to a sweets place and ate pies and cheese cakes and custards and cream puffs, we went to a Mexican place, where VJ's husband ate 3 tacos in as many seconds, we went to a delicious pizza place, which is really the only thing NY has going for it, and we went to Popeyes twice.

Now that we are very fat, it's time to go on our honeymoon! 

goodbye to the happiest home of my life

Yesterday was our last day at Gmaw's house. I have to say, it was kinda hard to keep it together. I will miss that house so much - it's full to the rafters of memories, and it feels like Gmaw's spirit is there, and it hurts like crazy to say goodbye to it.

The Professor took some pictures for me. His phone has seen better days, so the lens is a little...weathered...but I'm grateful to have them because I didn't take any. Here are a couple:

looking at the back of the house from the edge of the back yard

looking at the edge of the back yard from the patio

Gmaw had a few newspaper articles pasted to the wall in the laundry room - some about laundry tips and stuff like that, but also a couple little things that Granddaddy wrote in about:

The address on both of these is their OLD address before moving
to this house.

I have so many happy memories there, and when I have dreams that take place at "home" it's always at that house. I remember Granddaddy wheeling Big Sis and me around the sprawling back yard in a wheelbarrow, and raking leaves with Gmaw and jumping in the piles. I remember splashing in our kiddie pool on the patio, and at one point we even had a slip n' slide. I remember Gmaw hanging sheets to dry on the clothes line that she had set up right next to the patio, and I can still smell their clean scent, and see the sunlight shining through them, and hear them rustling and snapping in the breeze.

We had a Big Wheel that we would ride at top speed down the hill on the sidewalk in front of the house. We helped Gmaw scrub bird baths and plant bulbs and make beds and wax the porch floor and make syrup for humming birds and we sat with her at the kitchen table and drew pictures and painted with watercolors and did endless crossword puzzles and watched Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and Night Rider and Dukes of Hazzard and Dallas and Murder She Wrote and later Beauty and the Beast and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. We sat at the foot of her bed watching TV and eating Bonkers and Raisinetts and Soft Batch cookies.

My very first memory, of standing in my playpen in the living room, looking down at my little brown shoes, took place in that house. The carpet was threadbare and blue before she changed it to a super plush white. When I was little, I dug my mom's barbies out of the basement and played with them and their hand-made clothes, and then I played with little animal figurines in the potted plants in the living room. From there, I could hear Bird, the blue budgie, squawking in the kitchen. And I always had to be careful of clawed ambushes from under chairs and tables by her cat, Kitt.

Gmaw's house always had a warm, comforting smell. When we visited, she almost always made us a rotisserie chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. Often, sliced pink-ish grocery store tomatoes, or a packet of some type of Lipton noodles. Sometimes, white rice with slices of American cheese melted in. It always had the same homey smell when we walked in the kitchen door on Friday nights to stay for the weekend. And when it was time to leave on Sunday night, as we backed out of the driveway, she was always there at the kitchen window, peering through the blinds and waving goodbye.

Anyway, here's a butterfly in the flowers on our front stoop.