June! Photo a Day Challenge

Way back in March, I tried to participate in the fatmumslim photo a day challenge.  I tried again in April and in May, unsuccessfully, until now!  This month, with the exception of one deliberate missed prompt, I finished the challenge. 

The June list

1 - Morning, Reilly picking out his clothes for the day.

2 - Empty

3 - On my plate, chicken, mashed potatoes and curried eggplant.

4 - Close-up, Go Giants!

5 - Sign - :)

6 - Hat

7 - Drink, water, our favorite!



8 - Six O'Clock - Eating gellato with a friend, yum!

 


9 - My view today - Peter Island at dusk.

 

10 - Best bit of my weekend, enjoying a cold beer on a warm beach!

11 - Door, two days later the hedge trimmer came and now we can see water from that view.

12 - From a low angle.

13 - Art, the sweetest kind, in my book!

14 - Time

15 - Yellow

16 - Out and about, driving into town.

17 - In my bag.

18 - missed prompt, Reagan and Reilly, 59 months.

19 - Imperfect

20 - Fave photo ever taken, I added this after the 20th, it is my favorite one so-far!

21 - Where I slept.



22 - From a high angle, the steps that the boys are sitting on in my favorite photo above.



23 - Movement, Chris body surfing at Lambert Beach.

24 - On my mind, getting off the rock......



25 - Something cute, need I say more?



26 - Where I shop, today I had to "shop my stash."

27 - Bathroom, the boys' to be precise.

28 - On the shelf.

29 - Something soft, meet Mr. Froggy, he goes everywhere with us!



30 - A Friend, Rex is our neighbor's dog.  He spends most afternoons sleeping right there on our deck. 

I am looking forward to starting July's challenge tomorrow.  I hope I can be disciplined enough to get through another month.  If you want to play along, you can find the prompt list at the fatmumslim blog, here:  July Photo a Day Challenge. 

Beach Hopping and Other "Adventures," Part 2

The second and third days of our weekend were a lot like the first.

Saturday morning we got up with plans to find Trunk Bay.  Chris ran into an acquaintance at the grocery store the night before who gave him “directions” that we were sure we could not follow, but would try anyway.  These “directions” went like this “turn left just beyond OneMart, turn right at the top of the mountain, left at the tree with a green string tied on it and look out for the road that is partially paved and partially dirt.”  With directions like this, we knew we may not actually get there, but it was early enough in the day that we were going to give it an honest try.  We did a decent job getting to the top of the mountain and found a road that looked promising.  It quickly turned to dirt and we could see a beautiful white sand beach way below.  Unfortunately, it quickly became so vertical, it made the “car elevator” look easy and we decided to turn back.  We put our spare tire into rotation the previous day and without a spare, we did not want to find ourselves stranded.  We decided that we are going to have to find someone that knows the proper way down, as the beach looks amazing. 

Not so good photo of the car "elevator."

Back at the top of the mountain, we decided that we would head back over to Lambert Beach Resort to check out the beach.  Shortly into that drive we came to a detour off of the main road and quickly found ourselves on another partially paved and partially dirt road.  Luckily, this one was not vertical and after a few errors, we found the right turn to take us down into Parham Town. 

When we finally arrived at Lambert we settled into our beach routine.  It was so nice to be the only ones using the beach.  The boys played in the surf, and Chris and I got in a good swim.  Of course, I took a lot of photos!

Left side of Lambert Beach

Playing in the Wake

We started getting hungry and decided to go over to Trellis Bay for a roti at the Roti Hut (by far the best roti we have had here!)  On our way out of Lambert our passenger side mirror was clipped off by another car, which resulted in this:



Yes, it's broken!



After lunch, we decided to call it a day.

Not happy to be sharing!

Sunday morning we decided to make it a full weekend at new (to us) beaches and drove over to Josiah’s Bay.  On our way, we encountered (yet another) road hazard.  This one, however, did not affect our route or damage our Jeep!

We set up camp on the far west side of the beach away from the bar and restaurant.  Josiah’s is known as a surfing beach, so we were pleasantly surprised to find a very calm bay to swim.  The boys enjoyed swimming in the calm water and playing with their sand toys on the beach.  With the exception of a small group of children on the other side of the beach, again we were  the only people using the beach.

Josiah's Bay

After a while we ate lunch and decided to go back to Lambert for the rest of the afternoon.  We found that the waves at Lambert were also calmer than the day before.  We set up on the opposite side of the beach as the day before and Chris quickly went to explore the rocks on the right side of us. 

The boys practiced swimming and we pretended to have a beach “party.”  Unfortunately, the afternoon was interrupted with a large group of tourists that came to the beach and got loud.  Luckily, we were having so much fun, it did not affect us and our “party.”  Chris returned from rock diving and helped Reilly practice swimming.  Shortly after, we called it a day (and weekend), packed up and went home. 

Beach Hopping and Other "Adventures," Part 1

The weekend started off with grand plans to do something different.  We decided to head over to the north shore and check out a few beaches.  Our first stop was Brewer’s Bay.  We attended a playgroup Easter egg hunt there in April and promised the boys we would bring them back to swim sometime.   Chris and I decided to let the boys swim while we planned our next stop.  Brewer's Bay is a calm, protected beach that is pretty shallow along the shoreline.  Reagan enjoyed practing swimming, while Reilly played in the (almost non-existant) wake.

The drive down to Brewer's from the west side.

He's really swimming!

Not quite ready to swim.

It was nice to be surrounded by grapes, however, not the kind we are used to being from Northern California!  The seagrape (or baygrape) is common along the coastal areas in the Caribbean (and Florida) and are often used as landscaping material.  According to an article by the Smithsonian Marine Station linked through Wikipedia, “The reddish fruits of the sea grape may be eaten raw, cooked into jellies and jams, or fermented into sea grape wine.”   I wonder what sea grape wine tastes like, I am going to have to keep a look out for it! Perhaps we have winemaking in our Caribbean future?!?!

Sea Grapes (Chris and boys in distance.)

We decided to head over to check out Josiah’s Bay next.  On our way out of Brewers, we decided to go up the other side. We retraced our steps the last time we came out here and have not had a chance to drive up the other side.  I was pleasantly surprised to come upon protected ruins.  So many of the ruins around the island seem to have not been maintained, but this one was actually listed as a  National Park.  The sign described Mt. Healthy as an example of an 18^th Century windmill used by sugar cane plantation on the island.  When we got home, I found this great description of the ruins here:   http://www.bvitourism.com/activity/mount-healthy-national-park

Mount Healthy National Park

The last time we drove down to Josiah’s we did not even get out of the car.  There were recent rains and the parkable portions of the lot were full.  You cannot see the beach from the lot or the drive in, we were pleasantly surprised to see this beach when we got out there:

Josiah's Bay

We decided that we would come back another day to actually swim.  We got back into the car and headed over to Lambert Beach.  Our previous attempt to go to this beach ended in our turning around at the entrance to the resort, after misreading the sign to say that parking was for guests only.  We have since been told by several people that it is ok to park in the first lot, as long as you do not park in the condominium areas.  This time, in our (not so infinite) wisdom, we took a side road, hoping to get closer to the beach than we had gotten last time.  To say the road was treacherous is putting it mildly.  We nearly made it to the bottom before meeting this hazard:

"Hazard!"

Which ended in this problem:

Flat tire.

We soon realized that although we had a spare, there was no usable jack.  Luckily we were at the resort by this point, so I wandered over to the front desk and found a nice gentleman to help us change the tire.  While Chris and our new friend worked on the tire, the boys and I wandered around the grounds (which were filled with bees).  I think it was a beautiful resort at one time.  It is a bit run down now, which is too bad.  My favorite photo of the day, which is also posted on Facebook, was taken as the boys and I waited for the tire to be changed.

Just waiting, or plotting??

You would think that we would have been done at this point, however, Chris and I really wanted to get into the water.  We made our way back through town, picked up some snacks and water and went out to Long Bay.

Snacking at Long Bay

  Our weekend’s adventures do not end here!  Stay tuned for part two……

Wordless Wednesday

Sail Boats, Cruise Ships and Ferries, Oh My

The boys have been obsessed with all things firefighting and rescue vehicle related since they were two.  They both would get so excited any time they heard a ‘ga-go-ma’ (fire truck) coming down the street.  I wasn’t sure if they were going to continue to be in awe of rescue vehicles and fire trucks when we got here.  Luckily, they still play firefighter and I think it will stick with them for a long time.  That said, both of them have some new interests thanks to our current location. 

Reilly on Native Son

We arrived in Tortola in early March, on a ferry from St. Thomas.  We came over on a Native Son ferry to be exact.  Why do I make this distinction?  Well, the boys, especially Reagan, have a new obsession.  Boats.  Reagan will come get me any time a boat goes by that he likes.  He will point out sail boats with colorful sails.  He will point out mega-yachts.  He will even point out the cruise ships that are arriving or leaving Road Town.  They love all boats, but especially ferries.  This is the view from their room (and yes, that is a ferry passing by):

View of Sir Francis Drake Channel

Because we face the channel and are west of Road Town, our view is of the ferry route between Road Town and all ferry destinations West of Road Town.  Starting around 6:30 am the first ferry comes by.  It is usually a Native Son ferry, we can hear the distinction as their motors seem to be so much louder than the rest.  Native Son is not the only option.  There are Road Town Fast Ferry, Tortola Fast Ferry, Smith's and Speedy’s.  Reagan is all too happy to point out each ferry as it comes by and will let you know which operator it belongs to as well. 



Road Town Fast Ferry

Native Son

Smith's to Virgin Gorda

Tortola Fast Ferry

Since ferries are the mode of transportation to get around the islands (if you are not lucky enough to have your own boat), we have had several opportunities to take ferries here and there.  One of our favorite adventures, so far, was the ferry to Jost Van Dyke.  You can see from the photos below that Reagan and Reilly love this mode of transportation, these are photos of the boys on the Mona Queen, the ferry to St. John!

Reagan on the Mona Queen

Reilly on the Mona Queen

The Mona Queen in St. John

Long Bay

Our favorite location on Tortola has to be Long Bay.  Situated on the northwestern shore of the island, Long Bay consists of a resort and mile long beach.  While on the beach, one has the perfect view of Jost Van Dyke.  Long Bay is also the home of Nature Boy, an authentic island beach bar!



View of Jost Van Dyke from Long Bay Beach



Nature Boy Beach Bar

Most weekends, and several evenings during the week, you can find us at Long Bay Beach.  There are several reasons we like Long Bay so much.  It is the closest “real” beach.  (We are closer to Nanny Cay, but the beach is man-made.)  It only takes us about 10 minutes to get there.  Most evenings, we are the only people on the beach and on the weekends it is rarely crowded.  It seems to be a different beach every time we are there.  The rocky areas change, the surf changes and the types of seashells we find on the beach change. 

Sunset at Long Bay Beach

Chris and Reagan spend a lot of time body surfing.  Reagan is just about swimming and just loves to play in the surf and “practice” swimming.  Reilly doesn’t like to get his face wet and is a bit shy about the water, but will also body surf.  He also loves to walk along the shore with me and collect seashells. 

Chris and Reagan "action" shot!



Reilly's style of "body surfing."



The resort itself also has a few nice amenities.  There are a couple of restaurants, tennis courts and a pool with a swim up bar.   A few weeks ago, the boys and I had the opportunity to have lunch at the bar and use the pool.  Lunch was just ok, but the boys loved the pool.  The pool’s biggest attraction is the slide.  The kids loved using it.  Even Reilly got into the action.  There are also basic pool floats that the boys decided to call their “boats!” 

Reilly on the Slide, Long Bay Resort

Reagan's "boat"

Reilly's "boat"