Monday, April 18, 2011

Monday, April 18, 2011:

Well once again the weather looks good so we are going to head to the beach.  Yeah yeah…something new! It was a great day on beach. Actually, it was pretty warm…ok hot.  The wind was not blowing very much and the waves were very calm.  All the sea grass was gone, but the water was a little cloudy still.  

We laid in the sun and I watched some clouds start to develop over Mont Vernon.  They kept growing and growing and then got dark!  Then I saw a couple of water spouts (ocean tornados) form and hang below the cloud formation.  They dissipated and pretty soon you could see the rain falling down from the sky! But luckily the clouds didn’t move, they just stayed there (no winds).  So at least it’s not gonna rain on us!

It’s 4pm and time to go. And just in time…looks like those clouds may finally be moving our way a little!   We head back to the apartment, stopping at the store to pick up a few things. We showered and ate salad and leftover meatloaf! Mmmm…!

Guess one of these days I’ll have to go around the island and take some pictures and video so you can see it! Maybe tomorrow.  Cant’ wait for a good day…because the pictures just won’t do it any justice!

Finished dinner, cleaned the kitchen and read my Nook … I tried to finish my current book, but just couldn’t keep my eyes open!

April 16-17, 2010

Saturday, April 16, 2011:

FINALLY!  Sun!  And only a few white puffy clouds visible on the horizon! Should be a great day at the beach! YAY!

I was up until 1:30 this morning trying to upload video and pictures to the blog.  Guess we will be doing without the video…I’ll try again later! For now…I’m just trying to post and catch up!

We got stuff ready and headed to the beach.  It was a fabulous day! Sun, no clouds, perfect amount of breeze…just fabulous!  The only bad thing was sea grass floating in the water.  Guess the storms stirred it up and it was coming to shore! Oh well…didn’t get in anyway, and I wasn’t going to let that ruin the beautiful view of the blue sky, ocean and white sand!

There was a guy on the beach today that had a telescoping fishing pole.  Gerald watched him intently (secretly wishing he had brought his I’m sure!).  But, he wasn’t fishing for fish…he was fishing for boat people! He ties money (like a quarter or something) on the end of the fishing line, casts it towards the water and when someone goes by, sees it and bends down to pick up the money, he starts reeling it in! Scares the snot out of a lot of ‘em! It’s a lot of fun - to watch anyway! We’ve seen him in years past, but I guess they are coming later in the year now.

We came home at the usual time (4pm), hosed the sand off, made dinner, watched TV and went to bed.  Busy day huh!?

Took some pictures of the little historic Caribbean houses on the way to the beach today.  …hope you can see them… we were traveling fast…! Most of these are taken in the Quarter d'Orleans on the French side:

You can see the original little house by the roof, that has been build onto!

 This one (behind the yellow building) is going through some remodeling!

 There is a little restaurant/bar on the left, a restaurant/bar on the right, and a little 

bitty shack in the middle!

Here it is a little closer! By the way - these are active business!

 This is a great example! No one lives in it that I have ever seen though!

 This is definitely a "fixer-upper!"

 This is a nice one! The family was probably very "rich" (comparatively speaking of course).

The house is on the second level to take advantage of the wind! It also sits on several acres.

 This is the "Old House".  (way in the back!) I think probably one of the oldest on the island.  It is a museum

and we have never been in.  I'll have to see if I can get Gerald to go. 

 This is one of the smaller Salt Ponds on the island. 

 This is what the weather should be like every day! =)

This is overlooking the Quarter d'Orleans 

 This is a goat on the side of the road.  Probably could have stuck my hand out and touched him.  

 Cows on the run!

 This is another little hut that needs some TLC! 

  This is a cute little gingerbread home! 

Sunday, April 17, 2011:

Dealing with insurance this morning.  How frustrating! Registering…setting stuff up! Absolutely ridiculous!  PLUS - I hit an odd key stroke combination on my lap top (while using the Prt Sc button – since I don’t have a printer to print pages) and my keyboard is stuck using the number pad! I don’t know how to get it unstuck! AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGG!  This is what everything was looking like: S6 th5s 5s what everyth5ng 3662ed 352e! aaaaahhhhh!  Ok…after hitting a thousand key stroke combinations, I finally got that straightened out! Phew! That was a rough one! Gawd only knows what I did when I was hitting the key combinations to reverse it!  It will probably start translating everything into Chinese now!

It looks like another great day for the beach, so that’s what we will do! Got it all ready and headed out.  

And it was a stellar day at the beach! The floating sea grass was gone.  The sun and wind were perfect! Busy for no boats in actually. But still perfect!

We enjoyed our day and left at the usual time.  Back at the apartment, we cleaned up and I made tilapia for dinner, read my book, then went to bed.  That’s a great day! 

Friday, April 15, 2011

Friday, April 15, 2011:

Kind of cloudy early on today, but the sky cleared so we decided to head to the beach. We got everything together and headed towards the beach!  This is what we saw on the way to the beach....look at the weather here:

**On your left is this: 

Yuck!

**On your right is this:

Yay!

Unfortunately the beach was on the “yuck” side!  We got there and saw the wall of rain slowly moving over Anse Marcel and Mont Vernon. We took cover at Pedro’s, ordered a drink and waited for it to pass.  It was a thick wall of rain to be sure. At times it was so thick you couldn’t even see the mountains past Mont Vernon! You definitely couldn’t see Anguilla! Check out these pictures:

** Round 1:

 ...seems to clear...

 Round 2! ... the mountains disappear!

 finally cleared!

But the rain finally headed SE towards the ocean. Odd direction – usually it comes from the SE! We thought the coast was clear and took our gear to the sand.  Then the wind changed directions…and the heavy wall of rain headed back NW over Mont Vernon again! Only a little closer to us! Uh oh! It hung over the mountains for a while, then the wind changed…again…and it went back SE and out to the ocean.  This time to stay. 

We saw Patty and talked to her a while, and the sun came out for about a half hour.  Unfortunately it didn’t last and the clouds hanging over the mountains in the center of the island started to head our way!  We knew it wasn’t going to be pretty when we heard thunder! Then the wind picked up and plucked a few umbrellas out of the sand.  That’s our clue…time to leave the beach and head back to the apartment! We didn’t make it to the car and it had started raining already. We quickly loaded our things and got in. Then it started to rain, and rain hard all the way back to the apartment.

We walked through the deluge of rain and finally got up to the apartment. We opened the door and the floor was covered with water.  The water was coming under the door and it was running into the kitchen under the cabinets and into bedroom. Ugh! We quickly threw our beach towels on the floor and mopped up the water as best we could.  Luckily none of our stuff got wet.  It’s going to be a long night.  (I’m reminded of the tropical storm in Mazatlan when water poured in the windows and under the door!)  Gerald went down to the office to tell them what was going on and to get a towel or something to put at the base of the door to stop the water from coming in.  They said they would send someone around 7 to look at it!!! Great.

The rain is still pouring down and the breeze is cool.  We shed our wet clothes and settled in.  Gerald took a nap and I read my Nook…and dozed off a little too!

At 7:30 we got a call from the front desk.  He’s going to come up look at the door to see why water is getting through. I could tell him why! How about the gaping crack in the top and bottom of the door? Plus there is no threshold or anything to stop it from running under the door! There is a seal strip, but it doesn’t even touch the floor. There is a reason for it but it has to be put on properly! Oh well! He came and looked at it, relatively unconcerned, and said he would send someone to fix it tomorrow and also would have the maids bring a new towel for the floor if we needed it. It’s better than nothing.  For now, we’ll just keep the towel shoved at the base of the door to help stop the water from running in.

We ate dinner, watched TV then Gerald went to bed while I worked on uploading pictures and videos. (or tried anyway!) 

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Thursday, April 14, 2011:

It rained off and on all night, and sometimes it poured! That may have foiled our plans for the beach today.  But the sun may come out, so we will keep our fingers crossed that it turns good. 

Well…it’s a little later in the day, and no such luck.  No sun.  Cloudy, cool and a little gusty.  Not beach weather, in my book anyway. I put a meatloaf in the crock-pot and we need to go to the grocery store to get mashed potatoes, among some other things.  We took off and headed towards Cost-U-Less first. The traffic getting there was a nightmare!

While at Cost-U-Less, I ran into Monica (my jewelry connection in St. Maarten!) and her son in the frozen foods isle! What a surprise!  It’s been a year or so since I’ve seen him and he is SO TALL! Got to be 6’! And he has turned into quite the handsome young man! Look out girls! We stopped and talked a while and we’ll have to meet up for lunch again!  We said goodbye and continued with our shopping. I hurt my ankle again stretching for something on an upper shelf…youch! Sick and tired of this.

Limped outside to the car and put the groceries away in the rain. We then went to Sang’s to pick up a few other items that Cost-U-Less didn’t have. I pulled my charge card out to pay and the cashier told me there was a minimum of $25 to use the charge card.  Bummer! I was at $23.45!  So I HAD to buy something else! Unfortunately there was no jewelry within reach, so I ended up buying a couple Toblerone’s instead! Chocolate … Diamonds? It’s a close second!

We weren’t there long, just got a few things, then came back to the apartment.  It was raining pretty good by then, and we got up to the room as quickly as we could and put stuff away.  Gerald took a nap, and I read my Nook for a bit.  I finished the meatloaf and stuff to go with it. And then we ate. I don’t think beef tastes the same down here.  It was ok…but not like home. (which is why Mark brings his own!) Oh well! I have cookies and brownies to drown out the taste!

Found out tonight that my niece Amber is engage to Steve! Congratulations you guys!  Par-tay!!!

It’s raining again – sometimes pouring.   AND WE HAD THUNDER AND LIGHTENING TOO! I’ve never seen or heard that here, ever! Rain clouds just come and go quickly but this is a first! It’s just hanging around!  Now it’s raining so hard you can’t even hear the tv for the noise of the rain drops hitting the tin roof! Now we’ve lost cable signal! Better get the candles and flashlights ready! Once again…good sleeping weather!