30 January 2009 - Friday

Limin'

OK... I know it's been awhile since I've updated this site. (Sorry about that!) But for a few weeks there really wasn't much to report. Then in the middle of January our Chicago friends finally arrived! And more trickled in during the next few weeks.

So there's now a group of 3 couples that we've been spending afternoons with at Morne Rouge Beach. These are all people we met from the Windjammer Barefoot Cruise trips. This group is from Chicago, Boston, and England (and of course, our friends Mike & Jackie who live here). I guess you could say we're "pretending" to be on vacation! This is the most time we've spent on the beach since we arrived in Grenada! Now there's another group of about 20 people that will be arriving this weekend. (Again, former Windjammer passengers vacationing here.) We don't know all of them, but we plan to meet up with the group for a beach BBQ next week.

We had a chance to go out on our friend, Tony's sailboat "Sequin". He keeps it at the Grenada Yacht Club, so we went for a little trip just out from the Carenage. Unfortunately, his crew wasn't very experienced (that would be us!), which made it a bit difficult to manage the boat. So we headed back to his spot on the dock and enjoyed the view from the water along the way. Although it was a short trip, it made us wish we knew a bit more about sailing!

We're now in the dry season here, but you'd never know it! We still get rain showers daily, but usually they fade away by afternoon. So the past few weeks have been wonderful for hanging out on the beach! We had rain showers off & on all day yesterday, and it was mostly overcast... with a few patches of bright sunshine coming through. At one point late in the afternoon, it was raining and there was the brightest rainbow I've ever seen in the valley! We could see the whole rainbow from end to end... I was even looking for the pot o'gold! It happened so fast I never had a chance to get my wide angle lens on the camera to get a photo. Today we were pretty socked in with rain all day. I didn't even venture outside.

Grenada's Sailing Festival was to start today, but I doubt if there was much activity down on the beach with that. Hopefully, the weather will clear up for tomorrow's activities. By the end of the week, the whole island will be gearing up for their 35th Independence Day celebrations on Saturday, Feb. 7th. They've been hanging red, green, and gold banners up all over the place... and everyone wears their "colors" to show their patriotism. It's actually a beautiful sight!

I forgot to mention... I photographed my first wedding earlier this month. The British couple was referred to me by a friend, and they were married on the beach. They were not very interested in doing a lot of posed shots on the beach, but we were able to get a few with the water & sand in the background. We also took them up to Quarantine Point (where we went for New Year's Eve)... for a scenic shot with the city in the background.

Well, that's all I have for now... By the way, if you're wondering what "limin" is... it means chillin', or hanging out. (Photo above is Grenada Hospital.. from Tony's sailboat.)