SGU Campus Tour, Tidepools, and Lookout Point

Sunday, December 29th 2014

Sunday we went to church. Our church building is right on the sea. The beautiful white sands of Grand Anse beach end and its a bit rocky, that is where we go to church. It's a pretty beautiful view from the back hallway. It was probably a good idea that the chapel windows don't over look the sea because it would be distracting.

I think Rissa took some pictures with her camera. Ross and I are just spoiled so we didn't even think to bring the camera.

After church we fulfilled our Sabbath Day responsibility. Napping. That's my daily duty, but the responsibility is extra hefty on Sunday. When we had relaxed a little we moseyed over to campus to show Rissa where Ross lives and I work.

http://www.moderndaygilligan.com/2009/02/st_georges_university.html

Campus is pretty beautiful on the outside (yeah, that was kinda rude). It's a perfect setting and the bright oranges and blues are very complimentary. There is a reason why the school's promotional brochures catch everyone.

Featured in my lovely collage; Ross by his old locker, the bus stop, where I spend about a third of my life, me checking the mail (send me mail!), and the new paint job outside of Charter Hall.



Here we have the inside of a lecture hall where Ross typically spends 3 or 4 hours a day. The rest are pictures of the student center where they have a small (no TINY) convenience store, Subway, and some other places to eat including New York Bagles. Hopefully the people who make the signs aren't the same people who teach.

This is looking out from the student center, Charter Hall is on the left, Taylor Hall in the center-ish. A dorm there on the right.

We wandered to upper campus to DES where I work.



Lots of pretty views (and people) around campus!

A rare moment with Ross and I both on campus. 



It doesn't take long for a tour of campus, so after we headed to the tidepools in Lance aux Epines. Second to Grand Etang, I think this is Ross's favorite place in Grenada. It is always breezy out on the point with the tidepools.

I love the cacti! It seems so random that you could see beautiful, tropical bougainvillea then turn around and see prickly cacti.

We hung out for a while but decided that for the sunset we would go to lookout point for a better view.

Am I the only one who can't get over how beautiful my sister is? Lookout point is just a few minutes' drive from the tidepools. There is a lighthouse type thing. I always wonder what it's story is. It looks like someone is living/ squatting there now, but I wonder how it worked back in the day.

It was a perfect Sunday nice and chill. Watching the sunset was absolutely phenomenal. I still just cannot get enough of Rissa being here. It's the simple things, like watching the sunset with her, that make me so happy!

New Year's Eve!

With having so much family around these past couple of weeks, it is pretty odd to find such an empty house. I have to laugh a little when I say this because "empty" is still 6 people.

Earlier in the day we went to Bex and had some amazing food.



Including a burger larger than your head, and of course more food than any of us could ever dream of finishing. This included two tubs of garlic fries. While delicious, still about half-an-Idaho's worth of fries.

I talked myself in and out then back in to getting this amazingly soft and beautiful scarf. No regrets. Then I found this kids hanging out on the street, probably up to no good.



But before long Ryan and Jen had to catch their plane back to Tennessee. While mom and dad drove them to the airport, Ross and I ran to to the store to get some ingredients to make our favorite recipe.

Homemade Egg Nog.



We got to see a symbolic sunset. Because of all the sunset pictures I post on the blog, the final sunset of the year can be pretty significant.

We all pitched in to put together some goodies for our night of partying hard.



Probably looking a little something like this:

We Face Time'd with Ali all the way in New York to ring in the New Year with her. And no, she did not go to Times Square to see the ball drop. Why? Well, I simply had no clue about how horrific that ordeal is. All of her workmates were telling her how you cannot move or leave your place in line so people end up wearing adult diapers of peeing in bottles in the middle of the street.



I guess that is one way to ring in the New Year- with an adult diaper full of excrement. -No thanks.



After ringing in the 2015 with Ali, we still had three hours to go til we saw 2015 but we made it!

You can see Synge in one frame, then gone the next. I don't think he like New Year's countdowns like the rest of us.

So here is to a brand new year and all it may have for me & us!

Desert Sunset

This weekend I dropped Ross off at the airport so he could take a break and see family and friends in Utah. After dropping him off I wasn't eager to go mope around the apartment by myself, so I headed to Palmdale. It worked out great because my godson's birthday was that weekend so I planned to do that. What I didn't realize, was that the siblings were already flying in at that point! I got to hang out with them too.





We decided we wanted some good ol' with the family at Charlie Brown Farms when we stepped out to a breath taking sunset.

I guess I am getting old and sentimental because my sunset posts have gotten a bit out of control.

It was beautiful the way it was continuously changing minute by minute.

We pulled over and took some pictures. 

I'm a desert rat for sure. I know a lot of people think it is ugly and barren but I think it is beautiful, and the sunsets are pretty unbeatable. 

Even by the time we made it home it was still changing. 

Forts & Facts, Kinda: Family Visit Day 4

I'm not going to name names, but on Wednesday the not-so-brightest-crayon in the pack locked herself in her apartment. No. Didn't lock her car keys in the car, but was physically trapped in her apartment. That's all i'm going to say on that.

After that fiasco, we headed to the forts above St. George's, after some missed turns and tight squeezes we made it.

Fort Frederick was first.

Since we paid for entrance (this time) I decided to be the tour guide for the family, which meant I just read aloud the few plaques on the premise. I also made up some facts and history because #PalmdaleIndianMuseum.

Beautiful views of St. George's and the south side of the island.



The forts are fun to visit because you can walk around in all the nooks and crannies, or just take a short walk and enjoy the view. I love history, and I love thinking about what it would've been like to live in a time like that. I got my Asian on and took a picture of the plaque you so you could feel like you were there. I think this bit of history is especially funny/ interesting.



Most people in this world that know me (and ya, probably some who don't know me) don't understand me. They don't understand my odd sense of humor, weird sarcasm, and quirky characteristics. But my family, they get it. My sister and I decided the Fort Frederick, with those killer arches, was perf for some senior pictures! Dad joined in too. That little look on his face just kills me!

I remember looking at pictures with my Grandpa when I was younger. There were lots of 1960s quality scenery shots of vacation places like Yellowstone. I remember my grandpa kind of chuckling to himself and looking at me and telling me how much he wished he would've taken more photos of people and not places. Because looking back 40 years later, the shots of the camping site picnic table don't really mean anything.

I've thought about that a lot, so now I always try to get lots of pictures of people. And if my mom is up for a picture, I take a thousand! She is so beautiful I don't get why she always refuses.



As you can see on the left, my dad took every opportunity he could to make pirate faces in pictures. Speaking of pirates. Got a little pirat-spiration and took this picture.

I think we really nailed it!

Next we headed over to Fort Matthew, which is a lot more interesting, and apparently has a lot less humongous piles of guano.

We had fun poking around the underground tunnels and secret gardens. 

I can't stand how cute my mom is! 

We all chuckled a little bit about what a dangerous place this was, decrepit walls, rotting wood, 2x4s with tetanus nails swinging in the breeze. It's kinda fun to not have security guards breathing down your back and ropes blocking off dangerous tunnels. Definitely not much of a UNESCO world heritage site going on here.

When the Civil Engineer saw this, she just shook her head.

For dinner we got some chicken at KFC, picked up Ross from school, and went out to Quarantine Point for a picnic. I thought it would be a good place to watch the sunset.

I'm omitting this story, because I am still a little traumatized; despite that cute smile on her face, I think she is too. 

Dinner was good and it was fun to watch the sunset.

I guess I am slightly obsessed with my parents.

And since this is my blog I can put as many cutesy pictures of me and Ross as I want. It's nice to not have a selfie every once in a while. 

I love Quarantine Point, it has nice views of Grand Anse beach and BBC beach.

And a nice creeper shot of the hotel.



I'm pretty jealous of my dad's panoramic photo capabilities.



It was another great day, and I can't believe they have already been here for 4 days.

Thanksgiving 2014

Holidays = family. When you have a family of 8, it is inevitable that you won't all be together, but you make the most of who is able to come. As per our usual tradition, we headed up to my Grandparents home for Thanksgiving.

All of us don't fit in one car, so we had to take two, and my car challenged the other car to a sing-off. We won. 

We got up to the cabin and had a fun time just hanging out. 

Helping make food -with grandma telling Ricky she needs to be more aggressive with the salt shaker.

The weather was absolutely amazing. It felt good to hang out in the sun. 

Sisters!

And with the parentals!

Having family around means photo time. Especially when you look as great as all of us.

Grandma had us get artsy with the pine cones and juniper branches. I think our tablescapes turned out quite nicely.  I had to include the picture of Max sitting by himself at the "kids table." 

I was fairly interested in the fact that Snapchat had a thanksgiving sticker. 

We didn't do much hiking like we used to because I'm fat and old, but mostly lazy. And if there is one lazy holiday all year, it is probably Thanksgiving. 

Taking pictures from the porch.

We went for a small walk at sunset. 

Sunsets up at the cabin have always been pretty breathtaking. 

I remember when I was younger I would think that the clouds in the valley looked like the ocean. That would be pretty amazing if it was.

Cass and Max hanging out on a rock.

The cabin. 

Other side of the house, with the tiniest crescent moon. 

After the sunset we helped Grandpa haul all the Christmas boxes up to the house. Pretty easy task when you have a bunch of grandkids hanging around. 

We put together the tree and decorated the house. 

Oh yeah, and somewhere in there we had pie.

Delicious, delicious pie. Maybe the best part of Thanksgiving.

Mom went a little overboard and bought two huge costco pies and made a chocolate french silk pie, and a peanut butter pie. We also had a rhubarb pie and a pecan pie, and I made a pumpkin gingersnap cheesecake. They were all delicious, and we had so much left over that everyone got to take at least one slice home!