Sand Dollars, Star Fish, and Significant Others

I've been trying to soak up every last ounce of "island" life that I can before we leave.  However, the weather apparently hasn't heard that I'm leaving soon and so it's been particularly uncooperative the past few days.  The 7 day forecast says "chance of thunderstorms" every day.  Boo. 

But on Saturday, a few of my best SO buddies headed over to Grand Anse for some fun in the sun.  The water was the clearest I've seen it with hardly any waves, perfect for snorkeling around to look for sea goodies.  And since I'm one of very few of my friends who are willing to dive for sea treasures, I hit the jackpot in "dollars."  Too bad these won't buy me anything!

Thanks to Mrs. Kara Manis for all my beautiful pictures from the day.

I had at least 3 or 4 more, but I accidentally crushed them before making it back to my towel.

And then I came across something I'd never personally found before.  A beautiful orange starfish!

Kelsey would be so proud of me.

Jessie also found a little baby starfish that happened to be missing a leg. Don't fret, I hear they grow back.

Look at that water!

It's not helping me any that Josh is so very excited to be done here in Grenada.  I guess it's not really his fault.  His year here and my year here have been completely different, a tale of two island lives if you will.  While I've been enjoying the sunshine, waterfalls, beaches, pools, and volunteering, Josh has been locked in the house studying.  This year has made me look more like a local, while he is paler than when we got here last June and about 20lbs lighter.  Poor guy, I guess I can't blame him for being ready to leave.  But his eagerness to get off this rock just makes me more depressed.  Maybe he just needs a few weeks away from it to help him appreciate it more.  I on the other hand...don't.  I know how special Grenada is and I don't want to let go.

Jump Around

This week has been JAM PACKED with things to do!  Which explains why my blog has fallen to the wayside.  Don't worry though, I plan to do lots of catching up over the weekend.

Yesterday, the SO's went to La Sagesse Beach.  This was my second trip there and after going again, I wondered why I haven't gone again sooner.  I love this beach!  La Sagesse is beautiful.  The day was perfect, the breeze felt great, and minus my husband, all of my other favorite people on the island were there.

 Kelsey and I walked the sand and found lots of cool beach finds. Including this teeny tiny conch shell. I love it!

And I really love that Kelsey girl too!  What can I say, she's growing on me. :)  Too bad she leaves in December.

Then things started to get a little silly.  Kelsey and I have this "high burst" shutter speed on our camera.  So we started to "jump around" a bit.

Yup, this girl has still got it.

It was pretty hilarious.  But maybe you had to be there. 

I finished off the day with a little palm tree swingin'.

The SO's had such a great time.  I think there were 27 SO's and 10 kids that came.  What a turnout!  I am going to promise myself I won't wait 3 months before I go back to La Sagesse again.

About 1/2 of the group.

This week in pictures...

On Tuesday Laura, Nicole, Blaire, and I went to Magazine beach for a snorkel sesh.

Yes the water is that blue.



Laura and I. Don't we look cute?



Hello!

Blaire and I

Then on Friday I took some new friends on a tour of the Conch Shell Graveyard...


Into the JUNGLE!



Kara, Me, Laura, and Nicole

This morning, I joined some student and SO volunteers at Grand Anse Beach for the Bel Air Children's home beach day.

We had a great turnout of volunteers.

And where has Josh been you might ask?  Well, he's been studying.  A. Lot. Fourth term is proving to be just as busy as we heard it would be.

Conch Shell Graveyard

On Tuesday morning, my new friend Kelsey and her husband Lee took me and a few other friends to the conch shell graveyard.  I'm not sure if that is the official name, but that is what I've seen Kelsey refer to it as.  Anyway, it's a cove off to the right side of campus that many local fisherman cast their nets into and catch these conch shells for the meat inside called Lambie.  They don't need the shells once the meat has been harvested, so they throw them back into the water or up onto the beach which makes for a perfect place to search for beautiful shells.

There were literally thousands of conch shells, but the trick is finding the pretty pink ones.  When the shells sit in the sun too long, they lose their color.  So you have to do some searching in order to find the good ones.

Crawling over shells.

But after some serious searching, I had quite a few treasures to take home.  As I'm sure you can imagine, Josh was just thrilled with my finds. :)

Isn't she a BEAUTY!!!

Then we hiked up around the cove.  It was a gorgeous day.  The sun was shining and we could see SGU on the penninsula.  Have I mentioned that I'm in love with this island?!?

That's the SGU campus behind me.

So yeah, just another day in Grenada...living the life! 

4th of July...On the 2nd

Since the 4th of July falls on a Monday this year and currently Josh and I live in yet ANOTHER country that doesn't celebrate some of the major American holidays...Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day (What the heck were we thinking moving here?!?), my new friend Kelsey hosted a Fourth of July potluck at Grand Anse Beach for all of us Americans.  Oh yeah, and we celebrated Canada Day which is on July 1st as well.

I tried to get a little festive with my potluck additions and I think they turned out pretty great!

Red, White, and Blue fruit skewers!

Rice Crispy Treat Patriotic Stars

Rice Crispy Treat Cake!

Kelsey's decorations at the beach were very cute.  And all of the food was extremely delicious.

Kelsey's USA and Canada cookies. (Her hubs is Canadian)

It could not have been a better day for a potluck at the beach.  The sun was shining and ocean water was crystal clear.  We've been here almost two weeks and I still can't believe we actually LIVE here.

About half of the group.  Most of the familes with kids left earlier in the day.

It was such a fun day, celebrating America's independence.  And even though it wasn't 4th of July in Gramma's backyard pool with the cousins, Uncle Jerry BBQ'ing, Mom's homemade icecream, and Dad lighting fireworks in the front yard, it was still a great day.

***

On another note, I've been snorkeling around everytime I go to the beach these last couple of weeks looking for shells.  Look at my findings in just two weeks!

Sand Dollar! I can't wait to find more!

Have a great 4th of July everyone!