Montpelier Plantation Inn

This past Sunday we went to Montpelier Plantation Inn for tea. Yes, English tea. Apparently we had a Cream Tea. Can you imagine sitting on a tropical island when it is 85+ degrees at 4 pm drinking hot tea? It was quite the experience though. Montpelier is one of the old sugar plantations that has been converted to a very exclusive inn. Apparently, HRH Princess Diana came here to escape. It is a very, very beautiful place and very exclusive.
We had English breakfast tea, scones, cake, raspberry jam, and cream. Our friends, the Averys, who are British, explained that Cream Tea is different from High Tea. Apparently, High Tea is a commoner tea because they placed the tea and cakes on a high shelf away from the dogs. At tea, one is supposed to place the jam and cream on the plate rather than directly on the scone. There are other rules as well, but we were a bit hungry so skipped all the niceties. Afterall, we are rude Americans ;) Oh, there is also Afternoon Tea, where you have little sandwiches rather than sweets.

Oh, another thing. In the U.S., we would pronounce Montpelier as Mont-pee-lee-er. Right? Well apparently, the British pronunciation is Mont-pel-ee-ay. So, now you know! It is funny listening to the Averys say the Montpelier. They are really delightful people. Penny told me that the whole Harry Potter schooling business is really how British education works - qualifying exams and all. More on that later for anyone who is interested.

Gordon, is a physician who specializes in epidemeology. Apparently, he was in line for the British equivalent of Surgeon General. He does a lot of studies on global epidemics and diseases for the U.N. He also just happened to take over the teaching of Brian's pre-med physiology course. Gordon and Penny also take a lot of hikes exploring the mountain. We have one planned for this weekend - more on that later :)

Fish and Poverty

Today, our upstairs neighbor Pat, called and asked if we could walk down the street to help a local woman, Clarestine, set up an aquarium for her daughter Nicole. At first I was a bit hesitant because setting up an aquarium is quite the project. Well, I am used to 30 gallon tanks I guess. We walked down this evening, and the aquarium is one of those little 2 gallon hexagon kits that we can buy at Wal-mart. Clarestine had bought it for Nicole at Christmas, and they just got the fish today. So, Brian showed them how the tubes and air filters work, and they put in the fish - pretty, colorful guppies.

Clarestine and Nicole live in what they try to pass off as a house here. This is a one-bedroom place that is no bigger than Nolan or Michaila's bedroom. They manage to squeeze in a miniature kitchen with a half-sized stove, a micron-sized bathroom, and a bedroom, which mother and daughter share. There are not enough cabinets to hold the food and not enough room to store their clothes. They have a sweet, old dog whose eyes look like Rugby's and a parakeet, who lives in a cage outside. I could cry thinking about this little "house".

Clarestine keeps a cute little garden too. I must stress little. . . imagine one of every plant crammed into the space a car occupies in a parking lot. Clarestine works so hard to make sure Nicole gets a proper education. Last year, she mentioned that Nicole likes to read the Sweet Valley books. So, we bought a bunch of used ones online and Brian brought them down because books are hard to come by here. When we left, Clarestine gave us an invitation to Nicole's primary school graduation. It is on July 3, and we plan on going. It makes me think a lot though about all the material things that people, me too, desire and don't really need.

Half Moon Bay

This is Half Moon Bay, Antigua. It is located on the southeast side of the island. As the Atlantic approaches the island, two outcroppings of rock narrow the passage of water, which brings in big, loud waves. The water is clear and blue, and the sand is fine and white. This really is one of the most beautiful areas I have seen in our travels so far. At one end of the beach there are ruins of an old hotel. A little past the ruins there is a path which leads up into the mountain. Our destination was a natural stone arch that faces the Atlantic. We made it up to the first ridges and had a time finding the markers to follow, which were just blue paint on rocks. We finally found the path and made it up a ways until we really needed our machete. Somehow, I don't think Carib Aviation would have appreciated us dragging a machete onto their plane. LOL. Anyway, we turned back with a lot of scrapes from thorny bushes. It is funny, in the Caribbean, the plants are so beautiful yet have the thorns to match. That, and we reached a point where all you could see was sky, which freaked me out. So, we headed back down. It was time to head to the airport anyway. I am glad we made the trip to Half Moon Bay. It was definitely worth the time to see such a beautiful place.

English Harbor

Sunday our original intent was to take a hike described in the "Discover Antigua" book left in our cottage. I selected one that started on Pigeon Beach and went out to Fort Berkley. (BTW, if Pigeon Beach is considered one of the 365 in Antigua, I would say there is really only 364.) At one point in the hike you were supposed to climb these rocks to the top of another fort called Fort Cuyler. From there you are supposed to be able to see Guadaloupe, Montserrat, and Redonda. If the day is clear, you are also able to see St. Kitts and Nevis. Well, we ended up at Shirley Heights and all over the place before we figured out that you had to start at the Nelson Dockyards. I figured this out because I could see Fort Berkely from Dow Hill, which is near Shirley Heights. Anyway, we found our way up the path and turned. The climb to Fort Cuyler was overgrown and a bit craggy. Needless to say, with the ocean waves below, I wasn't keen on taking the kids up considering if anyone is going to have an accident, it will be Micha. So, we walked out to Fort Berkley, which is at the entrance to English Harbor.

Shirley Heights and Dow Hill

Shirley Heights is the old ruins of the fort that was once located on the south/southeast side of Antigua. It is all ruins now, and no battles were ever fought here between the French and English. The views of the Atlantic are phenomenal though! Down the mountain a little way is Dow Hill (picture below), which is the "entrance" to Shirley Heights. From there one can see into English Harbor, which is where Lord Horatio Nelson's navy docked their ships. Today it is home to Antigua Sailing days and whomever is fortunate enough to be able to sail around the Caribbean.

Heritage Quay

Heritage Quay is a bunch of neat little shops on the harbor in St. John's. They have a little wine bar called C&C, which sells good wines from South Africa. There is also an ice cream shop, toy shop, local artist shop, and a few clothing/souvenier places. We also ate at a restaurant called Cafe Napolean. We tried some cockleshells and crab balls. Very good! Nolan took the picture of Brian and me. Michaila took the toyshop picture.

Radcliffe Quay

On our Saturday in Antigua we drove into St. John's, the capital, to do a little duty free shopping. Specifically, we (I) wanted to visit Diamond's International and see what goodies the store had. We stopped at a little bar/grill called "Cheers", if you can believe that. If you are ever in Antigua, do NOT stop there. It was $16 (US) for two beers and two sodas. Not worth it. Walk over to Heritage Quay, which is more quaint and priced in EC dollars!

Wadadli

Jimmy Buffett says:

Sailed off to Antigua.
It took her three days on a boat.
Lookin' for some peace and quiet;
Maybe keep her dreams afloat.


The Arawak name for Antigua is "Wadadli". It also happens to be the name of the local beer, which is pretty good by the way.

Antigua is a beautiful island and boasts 365 beaches. It is much more commercial than Nevis so some of the rustic island charm is lost, but its roads are a lot better ;). We arrived Friday evening and went to a restaurant called "The Beach". Original name, hey? Food there was very good. Saturday we spent the day in St. John's, the capital, and took advantage of duty free shopping at Diamond's International. Everyone can see my little "trinket" later. We also found a nice little wine cellar there.

Sunday, we drove to the south side of the island to English Harbor, Shirley Heights, and Nelson Dockyards. The south side is absolutely beautiful and not nearly as commercial. The old fort ruins are located there at Shirley Heights. These are truly ruins of the Fort, but the views were awesome. Apparently, there were no battles fought between the English and French here. (They must have reserved those for St. Kitts!). The Nelson Dockyards are restored and the harbor is a wonderful inlet that is a deep blue. This is where the annual Antiguan Sailing Days are held. Later in the afternoon we headed down to the Dickinson Bay beach. The sand is real fine and white on Antigua, not like the sand here which is more coarse. The beach we were at, though was a bit to vactioneeze for me. Too many people trying to sell trinkets or jet ski rentals. So, now we know!

Today, before our flight, we drove to the southeast of the island to Half Moon Bay. This little inlet boast enormous waves on the Atlantic side that any surfer would love. We tried a suggeted hike to a natural stone arch, but the trail was severely overgrown. To get there we had to climb a small mountain outcropping. We got quite far, but then a little bit of vertigo set in for me. Have you ever climbed to a point were you look out and all you see is water? Well, that's were we were. Except it wasn't just water, it was the crashing waves of the Atlantic. I could tell Brian wanted to keep going, but I didn't think it too safe for the kids. Between that, the vertigo, and the overgrown path we decided to head back down to the bay.

Sam

"Sam" is a friendly stray that hangs out at Oualie. He likes to sit with the kids by the water and then lay under the chairs in the shade. Nolan has taken a real liking to this dog.

Doctor doctor

Brian had physical diagnosis lab yesterday, and the students are required to dress in short coats, ties, etc. So, here is Brian in his monkey suit.

We are here!

This is the kids on the plane as we were pulling out of the gate. It's about 6:30 a.m. and we had been up since 2:00 a.m. Micha and I slept a little on the plane. Nolan, however, was enthralled with the film, which was King Kong. Our layover in San Juan was fine and the little island hopper plane was actually on time. We made it into the island fine, although the views were horrible due to the ash created haze from Montserrat's latest eruption.

We made it through customs without a problem. That evening we headed to Pizza Beach for "Something Hot", which is a pizza with black olives and crushed red peppers - a lot of crushed red peppers. Very good! Afterwards we headed down to Oualie and saw old friends. We didn't stay long, but we did manage to get Micha to play the bongos for a bit. Nolan found the almond tree but also noticed the sea grapes aren't ready yet. He was hoping since he loves to eat those, but the fruits are a little late this year. In a few weeks though the mangos, sea grapes, and almonds should be ready.

The Enchanting Island of Nevis

There’s something about this small, sombrero-shaped island that grabs you. The charm and tranquility takes you back to a time when things were simpler, when life was more peaceful, when stress was just a word, not a way of life.

This 36-square-mile island lies near the top of the Lesser Antilles archipelago, about 200 miles south of Puerto Rico, and just west of Antigua. This island jewel is approximately 7 miles long and 5 miles wide, with natural vegetation that is unparalleled.

Green and serene, Nevis is truly one of the remaining unspoilt places and proudly carries the name, "Queen of the Caribees." From the top of the 3,232-foot Nevis Peak to the depths of the clear waters offshore, there is a world of flora and fauna to be explored. In the hills, the comical green vervet monkeys chatter and scamper; in the sea, the whales cruise by. Stroll around and see the architecture of eras gone by: churches, windmills, and refurbished Great Houses.

Its 10,000 residents are friendly and helpful, ready to make new friends and welcome back regular visitors. The genuine charm and hospitality radiate into the unspoken, "Welcome," "Be my guest," and "Do come again."Nevis is special, a place that will seduce you, and tug at your heart strings after you leave.

Like they say on Nevis: “You’re only a stranger here once." from http://www.nevisisland.com/

That, and I cannot wait to put my feet in the water, lay on the beach, drink a Carib, visit old friends, and live with my husband for a little while. For those of you in the good ole U.S. "Later gator." For those of you on the lovely little island, "See you tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Back to the Island

Well, today is June 2 and we are into the second day of hurricane season. Will this one be as exciting as the last? Let's hope not!

We are at T -3 and still counting. Been packing like fiends and taking care of various home related issues before we fly out of here.

I believe the Buffett song line goes like this:

Well I hope you understand.
I just had to go back to the island.
And watch the sun go down.
Listen to the sea roll in.
I'll be thinkin' of you.
And how it might've been.
Listen to the nightbird cry.
Watch the sun set die.
Well I hope you understand.
I just had to go back to the island.