Mom Visits St. Kitts

Living here, on this island, in the middle of the Caribbean, has taught me so much.  Things about love, life, survival, poverty, wealth, happiness, sadness, stress.. the list goes on.  One of the BEST parts about living here, is giving the people whom I love and cherish the opportunity to get a feel of the good and bad of living here.  Everyone can read the blog, look at pictures, skype, read, feel it through us, but no one can fully understand it until they are here.  I am so eternally grateful that mom has not only come to visit once, but twice.  She understands the good and bad, she has a first hand experience of the things I want those in my life to know and understand about this part of my life, that has built and changed me more than anything else!

The past week was amazing.  Having my mom in my apartment with me, next to me in bed each night (because my husband sacrificed and slept on the air mattress and let Mom sleep with me!), sharing some days at work with her, showing her more of the island and giving her another chance to see this big part of my life!  

It hasn't rained much in St. Kitts in months.. Really, it hasn't rained much since my family was here in August.. But leave it to Mom, to bring the rain with her!!  I am grateful, because we needed it so bad, but couldn't it wait one more week?!  

A late night Friday flight, dinner at home, some wine and a good nights sleep was the best way to begin our vacation.  Saturday brought rain, which equals shopping.  Ok, ok.. There isn't REALLY shopping in St. Kitts, but we did venture down to Port Zante, do some shopping and looking around, had a great lunch, and dealt with the rain!  Aside from shopping, rain brings naps!  Some Saturday afternoon napping while our Caribbean Jerk Pork simmered in the crockpot, made for a perfect day!  

Sunday was the Channel Swim (we didn't participate this year but check out our fun from last year here) so we headed out to Reggae Beach to watch the ending of the channel swim and enjoy the beach for the day!  Once we got our regular St. Kitts rain, the sun shone all day and we lived the true beach life.. Until a few little local boys decided they loved our dogs.  I have to take a minute to brag here, because my dogs were AMAZING!  These little boys dragged them around the beach, mauled them and played with them ALL day and they tolerated it, and even enjoyed it!  I was one proud Mama!!  It began with they starting petting Nevi, I stepped back to be sure that the dogs didn't do anything 'stupid' and that turned into... treats... can I walk the dog?.. can I take the dogs swimming?.. does the dog do any tricks?... My dogs were dragged around the beach by precious little boys, dragged into the ocean, fed ice and dog treats, pet, tied, and untied, told to sit, lay down, shake.. I was so proud of them!  I cannot wait to have my own little munchkins to harass my dogs all day!  In the brief times I told the boys, "The dogs need to nap", we got the play time!  They swam and played with Brayton, Mom and I all day... We are ALL so ready for kids/grandkids.  It was a simply magnificent day.  Everything was perfect, we were together, kids were all over us, our dogs were there and they were awesome, the sun was out, the water was perfect, and life was good<3

Spoiled dogs riding to the beach!

Monday was a bit of a cloudy day, but Mom and I didn't mind!  We dropped Brayton at school and headed to Palm Court Gardens to enjoy the pool, sun (what we had of it), lunch, and another great day together!  The view there was spectacular, the clouds helped ease our sunburns from the previous day, the pool was cool, and lunch was fabulous!  The rain hit, and hit hard, around 3 which led us back to home for a relaxing evening in!  

Cloudy view from Palm Court Gardens

Rain over the ocean!

Good ol' St. Kitts Weather!  Rain and sun.. 

The pool at Palm Court

Tuesday was our big day out, venturing to Nevis to explore the island.  We headed to the ferry around 830 am, found a boat had sunk in Major's Bay that gave us something to 'watch' while we waited for the ferry.  We had lots of stops we planned to make on Nevis and we're all very impressed with the beauty there.  Aside from our Catamaran trips, this was the first driving island tour for Brayton and I as well.  We stopped at the Botanical Gardens, Golden Rock Inn (where we had the most amazing lunch), Nisbett Plantation, the old Bath Houses, the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton and Nevis Museum.  We also ventured out to the end of the island to view the lighthouse on the map... Well that turned into about a 30 minute drive down dirt roads, only to find a red and white light pole with a light at the top.. depressing!  The island of Nevis is gorgeous.  It was clean and pretty and cared for.  It was hard to believe it is so correlated with St. Kitts!  We enjoyed our day so much - as you can see in our pictures here!  We finished our night withs ome kick ass sushi!  Perfect day with perfect people! <3

Leaving St Kitts

Sunken boat!

Botanical Gardens

Golden Rock Inn

Our drive to the 'lighthouse' and Nevis sights!

boat made ... something!

St. Kitts in the distance 

The "lighthouse"

The drive to the lighthouse!

The view on the drive to the 'lighthouse'

Heading back to St Kitts

St Kitts

The Ferry

Booby Island!

Glowing Carib!

Lighthouse?  haha

Good bye Nevis!

The sunken boat.... Apparently it broke loose from its spot in Nevis, and drifted across the 2.5 mile channel to St. Kitts where it beached itself at Major's Bay!  Took the whole day, a crane and back-ho to get it out and back to Nevis!  YIKES!

Love Leader.. loading his trailer onto the ferry! 

Tuesday also ended my 'days off' so Wednesday and Thursday was back to work!  Luckily, mom is a teacher and was happy to go with me!  It was so nice to have her in my classroom, to meet my kids, see where I work and the environment I work in.  My students LOVED her and didn't want her to leave!  Mom's only request while in St. Kitts this round was to visit Sprat Net for dinner, so that is what we did!  Wednesday night we headed to Sprat Net, ate tons of lobster, shrimp and chicken and enjoyed the company!  Perfect night!  Since Thursday was mom's last night, we took her (while, she took us really!) to Marshall's for a fancy dinner with a view!  The food was fabulous and we had a great last night together!  

Friday was the end of the week..it went to fast!  Mom made it in to say her good-bye's to her students, and I was able to sneak out to drop her at the airport.. Bring on the tears!  Saying good-bye is never easy.. Especially when you know its another 8 months till we get to see each other again!  Luckily, I had to be back at work, so our tears and goodbyes were short lived and Mom made it back home safe and sound to her boys!  

I feel so blessed to have a person in my life like my mother that I can call on for anything and everything, that has given her time to experience and understand this part of my life and is, day in and out, one of the best friends I could ask for!