Anniversaryish

Been back together for exactly 2 months. The kids and i flew in to Dominica on June 26th

Do NOT do this at home.

Soooo.. In Dominica the bread is ridiculously bad.  It's dry and flavorless.  Which means all of us student spouses get to make bread if we want our families to have yummy sandwiches.  I came up with a recipe that I love and I started to bake and sell it to other students and families.  It's called my Sweet Wheat Oat Top Bread.  Well, tonight I made a few loaves, turned the oven's gas on and lit it inside, then went in the other room to do something else while I waited for it to preheat. 
**side note: There aren't gas companies here like there are in the US.  If you want to cook you have to fill your propane tank and hook it up to your oven.  Sometimes when a shipment hasn't come in for a while we will have propane shortages.  It really stinks when your tank runs out in the middle of baking bread.  THE WORST. bleh.**
Well, when I came back in to put the bread in I opened the oven and it wasn't hot. Noooooooo! The propane ran out!  Ug.  It was too late at night to go use someone else's oven.  I thought MAYBE I could kind of coax a little propane out if I shook the tank a little.  I turned on and off the gas knob again (BTW there aren't temperature settings on the oven.  just numbers 1-4 and you have to guess about where 350° would be) and then got a match to tryyyy and light the stove.

SCREEEEEAM!  A HUGE fire ball exploded in my face!  I looked down and my cut off shorts were on fire and I patted them out.  I ran to the shower and stripped down in a matter of seconds.  As I stood there in the freezing cold heaven sent stream of water I just started to sob.  It hurt so bad and I knew I couldn't stay in the water forever.  My upper right arm killed, as did the inside of my right leg. When I finally got out I looked at my face.  My eyelashes and eyebrow on the right side were all curled up.  That was sure a horrible night to get through. ouch.
I guess the flame I lit in the oven to preheat it had somehow gone out- maybe when I shut the oven door.  The gas had been working all along and just filling up the oven.  When I opened it- and left it open while I jiggled the gas tank- the cloud of gas was slowly enveloping me.  Then like a dope, I lit my fate.  Well, Darwin, you haven't gotten me yet.  I'm still alive and kickin.

Red Rock

On the other side of the island there is a resort called Red Rock.  It's an absolutely beautiful place with bungalows interspersed with jungle and set against huge red cliffs that have been shaped and smoothed by the water and wind.  At the beach bar they have tables shaded by palm frond umbrellas that are underlit at night.  This place is absolutely magical.  We went with the Ashton/Green/Roses, Beares, and Ally LeClair when she visited.

Aaron and Charlie Beare- She looks so tiny!

The sand at this beach is very coarse.  You can find a lot of shells and miniature sea urchin skeletons washed up on the shore.

There I am in the background collecting for the sea urchin skeletons

 Here's an example of what they look like.  They are SUUUUPER thin and fragile.

Matthew and Taeyon heading in for dinner

 Zoned out.....

 I love how we are in this amazing place and the kids are playing games on their iphones...  lol  Except for Colin and Megan.  They're making googly eyes at eachother.

Makin smores!  

 yay fire

See the ocean in the background?  I love this place.

What a great day at Red Rock!  Can't wait to come again!

Prettiest people EVER

This photograph was taken two weeks after my parents got married.  Aren't they beautiful?

Anniversary Trip gone haywire

Happy Anniversary to my husband of 13 years!!! (That hat was may anniversary present. lol) For our anniversary I made reservations at a really great restaurant called Sunset Bay Beach Club which is about 20-30 minutes away on Sunset bay.  Our plan was to leave after lunch, go to Sunset beach to snorkel, and then walk up the steps to have a yummy lobster dinner for two. We got on the public transport to head out. 

**Side Note: Public Transports run all day from Portsmouth all the way north to the capitol, Roseau.  If you're going Roseau it takes about and hour or so.  The public transports, however, are run down 12-28 seater vans that people get on and off all day long. and it takes much longer with all the stopping and starting to pick up and drop off.  When you get in you squish really close to the people next to you.  Hopefully they smell alright.  It's usually ok because the windows are open unless it's raining, and the wind whips around your face.  If you need a ride, you just stand by the side of the road looking expectantly and one will stop for you.  No need to find a bus stop.  There are only a few on the island anyway.  When you're about to the point that you'd like to get off the transport you just call out "Stopping!" and he will pull over to let you out. **

     Sunset bay is about halfway between Portsmouth and Roseau.  I had never been there before, so when we got on the transport I told the driver that we were going to Sunset Bay and that We'd never been there before so I would need him to stop to let us out when we got there.  "ok, ok, Sunset Bay, ok."  He said. 45 minutes into the ride I asked how much longer it would be to Sunset Bay.  "Ohhhhh Sunset Bay?  You want to go to Sunset Bay??  We passed it."  Nooooo!!!!  ug. "how far back is it?  can you take us back?"  "No," he said, "We goeen to Roseau, mon." "Can you take us back to Sunset Bay after we go to Roseau?" "No mon, I not goeen back to Portsmouth tonight." 

     By the time we got to Roseau we had decided that we would forgo Sunset Bay and just stay in Roseau and have an adventure.  Here are pictures to prove it:

Ok, first of all I just have to say that this is one of my favorite pictures.  Aaron is licking his pinky and I am leaning my arm on the table but it looks like that's my hairy arm and Aaron's licking MY pinky.  I laughed for quite a while about this.   We stopped into KFC to use the restrooms (one of the only US franchises on the island)

Dinner at the Laughing Lobster.  It's called that cause you think you're going to get Lobster, but it's not even on the menu.  Which is why the Lobster is laughing. at you.  Pretty *great* service, too.  The waitress wasn't rude AT ALL. ;)

 This is the view out the "window."  There aren't actual glass windows in Dominica unless you're at Ross or in a fancy part of the island like Picard.

 On our way to get Jelly Coconuts

 The guy that sells on this corner actually has a truck and sits in the back.  The guy (Augustus the Jelly man) that sells them where we live just rolls around a wheel barrow.  The customer in front of us.  You see more covered dreads then bare dreads here. 

 Roseau's Jelly man.  He sits in the back under his umbrella.  You come up and ask for a coconut and he chooses one and uses his machete to slice chunks off the top until he reaches the juice cavity and then sticks in a straw.

My very first jelly coconut :)

 you drink out the juice.......

 .......and then you give it back to the Jelly man and he splits it in half and slices off a piece for you to use as a spoon.

 and you scrape the jelly off the sides. 

Not all coconuts taste the same.  I really didn't like the first one I had very much, but I just kept on trying them and they grew on me.  Some are more tart than others. Once you get that perfect one you will keep getting them trying to recreate that experience.  

Roseau's market (we have a smaller one is Portsmouth) where people come to sell their vegetables, meat, baked goods, and concoctions like coconut oil and sugar cane juice

The roads in Dominica were mainly built by the Chinese in exchange for Dominica allowing them to mine there, so there are a lot of obviously Chinese things around.  Chinese shops, Chinese food, and when you see construction workers on the side of the road, they wear the straw conical Asian hats.

This is Dominican fast food.  Painted plywood huts.  They call them shacks. They are lined up along a wide street where the transports park to gather riders for their trip back south to Portsmouth.

Across the street from the transports...and my shadow

i think this dude was drunk.  

In the transport on our way home

Pictures taken out the window at Sunset on our transport

 I believe this is the only picket fence in Dominica