Memorial Day Weekend Part 2

Happy Memorial Day everyone! We had a great weekend off and I hope everyone else did as well! Today we did a little shopping and shopping here means you drive around the whole island to every grocery store until you find which store has what you need. Oh man, do I miss Target and HEB! Anyways, it was fun to drive around and check out parts of the island I haven't been to yet (and will probably never go again). There was one cruise ship in town today.

Sorry for the reflection of Clarke's legs in this one!

We went to walk around the shops at Yacht Haven Grande which is an upscale shopping center right in the harbor where the cruise ships and yachts dock. The yachts that are docked here are amazing! How would it be to own one of those?!

Really? This is too funny:

10 miles per hour is just too fast for this parking lot! We continued our drive around the island in search of a scratching post for our cats (which we never found) and we ended up stopping by Home Depot. Now, everything on the island is scaled down because of the lack of flat ground to build things on, so the Kmarts and other stores are much smaller then you would find in the states. For some weird reason they built this Home Depot super sized! Anyways, we stocked ourselves up on roach killer and bug bombs. We are having a hard time with all of the nasty cockroaches and mosquitoes we have in our house. We came home and locked the cats up in our bedroom and we bug bombed the kitchen/living room. It was a perfect time to head down to the beach while we bombed the house. We have a quiet little beach that is just 5 minutes from our house called Hull Bay.

I love these little blue fish!

We chased around these large school of fish.

That long skinny fish is called a Trumpet fish (the name is totally fitting) and they are super fast!

We were finally able to get a picture of a turtle!

We followed it around for a good half hour! Who knew snorkeling could be such a great workout!

 We are now all beached out, if that is even possible. I hope everyone had a safe holiday and let us remember those who served our country!

My Grandma, Uncle Brett, and Mom at Camp Williams at my Grandpa Clifford's grave.

Memorial Day Weekend Part 1

Is it possible to have too much sun, fun, and beach? Too much sun, yes! It doesn't matter how much sunscreen we slather ourselves with it, we get fried. It must be that our skin is white (go figure) and that the UV index is an 11! But, we did end up having so much fun on the beach! We went over to St John again and stopped by Trunk Bay, which people say is the most beautiful beach in the islands... and it was! It was a little crowded, but still lots of fun. We had our waterproof camera this time and so we were able to catch lots of pics of under the sea. Unfortunately, we didn't see any sting rays or turtles this time. Sorry in advance for the lack of pictures of me. It's hard to take pictures of yourself when you are the photographer! Anyways, get ready for lots of pics!

Best money we ever spent on this cool waterproof cover for our digital camera

On the ferry to St John. The weather was perfect!

I can't control my hair no matter what I do. Clarke's freshly shaven head is about to get sunburned!

Trunk bay which is part of the Virgin Islands National Park.

Trunk Bay. Clarke wouldn't look at me. 

Trunk Bay. The water was like bath water and it was so clear!

They have this cool snorkel trail that had these information plaques to tell you about the sea life.

I had to get at least one picture of me under the water.

This is one of my favorites. I love the shape the fish are making.

Clarke trying to touch the fish but they always seem to escape

I love the red coral.

Clarke chasing a mammoth fish. This picture is deceiving. That fish is at least 3-4 feet long!

This fish kept going around and around chasing the little fish. 

These fish were my favorite. I love their neon blue color!

I'm not sure what this beach is called.

Work. Work. WORK!

I'm pretty lucky that I get to literally roll out of this:

That lump under the covers is our cat Harley (his new hiding spot).

And go straight to work sans makeup and sometimes clothes (I know that is TMI but that is the beauty of working from home. Plus, you wouldn't want to put on clothes too if your office was 85 degrees and 90% humidity!)

The kitchen table was the perfect spot for my desk. I just need to figure out where to put all of my papers!

I love love love being able to work from home! It's such a blessing that I was able to keep my job with my company. I haven't had a melt down out here (yet) and I think it is because I am able to work from home. I think things are going well and I hope I can work like this for the whole time we are out here.

We are going to check out a few beaches around St Thomas this weekend. I'll be sure to take lots of pics! I have my waterproof cover for my digital camera now so I should be able to capture some cool underwater shots!

*Bonus points for anyone that can guess what movie my title to this post is from (something me and my Dad always quote)!

St John = Amazing!

Well my first week here in St Thomas as been pretty uneventful. I have been stuck indoors from Sunday to Friday (due to not having a car, work, and just being terrified of getting out on my own). When Saturday came around I requested we get out and go to the beach! I mean, what else do you do on an island??! So we knew we had to go out to St John which I had heard has some of the most beautiful beaches. I'll just let the pictures do all the talking:

Sitting on the Ferry fixin' (for all my Texas folk) to leave to St John

We chose a really windy day to cross. We were getting rocked by 6 foot waves!

Not sure what bay this was, but isn't it so beautiful!?!

Cinnamon Bay - where we decided to have our lunch and do some snorkeling

Clarke soaking in the sun (we wore sunscreen and we still managed to get sunburned!)

On the ferry back to St Thomas

Leaving St John

I wish I could have taken more pictures. I have an awesome waterproof cover to go over my digital camera that we just received yesterday in a package we shipped three weeks ago. I will be sure to make good use of it. We saw some awesome fish and coral while snorkeling. We even swam with sting rays and sea turtles. It was pretty awesome and a great way to spend a Saturday!

It's Raining, It's Pouring!

Wow, yesterday was crazy! Clarke had told me before I moved in that the roof leaked, but I had no idea how bad! I was sitting here at home working when all of a sudden it starts to pour, not rain, but POUR! I have never seen rain like this before and here I thought we had crazy storms in Texas. Not even close! Right then I started noticing small droplets dropping from the ceiling. I went to each room to see where it was leaking. Pretty much every room had water coming in. I hadn't noticed the biggest leak, which was in the kitchen, until the whole kitchen had been soaked. It was all over the counters, stove, floor, EVERYWHERE! I was freaking out! I tried to grab as many containers and buckets as I could to help catch the water, but it was still not enough. Thank goodness Clarke came home about an hour after the rain had started. It continued to rain for about another hour after that. We called our property manager and he sent some guys out to put a giant tarp over the roof to help keep the rain out.

The storm clouds rolling in

If you can't tell, the floor and counters are soaked!

The rain was coming down the window like a water fall!

Our porch that shouldn't be soaking wet but is because of some large holes in the roof!

I thought the rain had stopped, but we got a little surprise around 1:00 am and it continued to pour all night. Clarke and I had to get up 3 times last night to rearrange our buckets to catch new leaks. I am exhausted. Clarke is exhausted. I really hope they fix this soon before we get hit with something much bigger, a HURRICANE!

You Call This Work?

It's a hard life when you get to work in a place like this:

St John (not sure which beach/bay this was)

We are definitely not in Texas anymore!

Our New Home

Friday was our last day in Austin and I am glad we were able to spend it with Clarke's parents. Of course we couldn't leave without eating at one of our favorite restaurants for sushi! We also stopped by Amy's ice-cream for a little dessert.

Our flight on Saturday was pretty easy considering we had two cats to take with us. Belle, our crazy cat, tried to escape the bag a few times while we were waiting to board in Austin, but after we got on the plane she calmed down. I felt really bad for keeping them in their bag for almost 9 hrs, but we survived! Can you believe I was able to pack everything into just 4 suitcases?!

Right when we got to St Thomas we went straight to our house to drop off the luggage and the cats. Our house is on the North side of the island at the top of the mountain. Clarke said it's very nice for an island house. It is very open and large which I like a lot, but it also has cockroaches the size of small dogs and it's very hot and humid. We have A/C but we are trying our hardest not to use it since the cost of electricity is outrageous!

Our big mango tree right outside our window

Yesterday we decided to go to the beach for a little while and snorkel. The water is so clear and fairly warm. We didn't stay very long, but long enough to get some sun.

Isn't it so beautiful? I know it is going to be very hard to live out here and for me to adjust, but I do admit the scenery makes it all better! We are going to learn how to live a completely different way. I'm sure a lot of it will be good for us. I don't know if I will ever get over how much things cost out here like my beloved milk. I don't know if I can stomach paying over $7 a gallon!

Anyways, I am stuck here at home by myself today. I was supposed to start working from home today, but of course my computer has not shown up yet. It has been two weeks since I have shipped it and who knows when it will get here. That is island living for ya!