St. John 2012

For Jason's 40th birthday, we rented a villa in St. John with some of our closest friends.  It was on the 'quiet side' of the island and we just enjoyed doing very little for a whole week. 
We had to take a ferry from St. Thomas first.  The US Virgin Islands are really very beautiful.

 After arriving on to St. John, we got our rental car and headed to Coral Cove Villa.  

There had been a bad lightning storm the day before we arrived, so we had no power for a few hours.  AFter a day of traveling ( literally a full day), we found ways to enjoy ourselves.  The villa was perfectly situated.

 The next day, we had power..so sun and relaxation were on the menu. 
The house is on the left..this was taken from the rocks near the pool

 The rocks near the pool..we called that stick the Praying Mantis all week.  Resembled it most of the time

 Sunrise was beautiful from the side porch

 This was the view from the outdoor dining table/gazebo and also the view from my room which was directly to the right of this photo

  This is the main room. All the bedrooms were separated and air conditioned. This room was not but did not need to be. All the doors opened and a great breeze was always there.

 Our bedroom.  They all had balconies or patios..but we spent most of our time in the main room

 The side porch where we spent most evenings. The chairs viewed the sunrise but had direct sun through the morning, so they were great for afternoon naps. ;-)

We had donkeys visit us a couple of days.  We discovered they enjoyed stale french bread and would let us pet them while they were eating.

 Gyeong tries to make friends too

Camera 1

 Camera 2

The snorkeling was fantastic at our house.  Everywhere you went in to the ocean, the was live coral and great fishes to be found.

 Since St. John is mostly a national preserve, the snorkeling is fantastic everywhere. So on Monday, we chartered a sailboat for a day of snorkeling and scuba.  They took us to three different places around the chain of islands. Jason, me, Gyeong, Kristen and Susan on the boat!

 Kristen and I

 The trip itself was breath taking..

 

 

 Susan and Jason did scuba while Kristen, Gyeong and I remained topside and snorkeled.

 

 

 Susan navigates the coral while scubaing

The weather was perfect, the water was crystal clear and warm and the fish were plentiful.

 The soft coral was everywhere..fans galore!

 Gyeong tried to coax a few fish in to his pocket for dinner..but he did come away with a pretty nasty bit on his finger..he wanted to touch them!!

 We did attract the attention of a local predator..but luckily they are just menacing and not dangerous. But whenever we thought he was gone, he would emerge from the shadows and just stare at us.  He was usually about 3-4 feet away and quiet ominous!!!

I have done a lot of snorkeling in a lot of different regions of the Caribbean but I have never seen a sea turtle in the wild.  I was very hopeful for this trip since they are very common in USVI.  We stopped at a calm bay to have lunch and we jumped in the water to snorkel while the lunch was being prepared.  And right below me!!!

 We ended up seeing two more..but I only got photos of this one..I was very excited!!!
The Cloud 9 crew was awesome and we really enjoyed having the boat to ourselves.  Such a great day!!
A few days later, we jumped in the car and headed to some out of the way bays to snorkel.   We went to Sugar Bay and Lameshur Bay..both very secluded with great snorkeling

 Biggest fish we saw by far (except the Barracuda)..easily 1-2 feet long.

 On the way back, we realized we were on the hill above the house. So the red roof in the middle of the photo, is our villa.  The peninsula is where the praying mantis lives.

 For Jason's birthday, we had a chef come to the house and prepare us a gourmet meal.The chef did eventually have to kick Jason out of the kitchen 

 Not a bad view

 We did venture out occasionally to sample the fare on the island.  Miss Lucy's was a wonderful brunch location on the water.

 And Sweet Plaintains had a great rum tasting

 It was a wonderful vacation.  I feel sure Gyeong will have his blog up shortly with more photos (he had a great time with the hermit crabs!).  But I do wish I could do this every day....

 The fur kids were happy to have us home.  We have a wonderful petsitter who lives at our house while we travel.  So they are well taken care of in our absence.  But they were very happy to have us home!

Cali's world

Cali decided there has been WAY too much blog time spent on 'those that aren't her' so I promised her I would rectify this situation. 
It has been hot..100+F hot..so indoor activities are a must.
Cali can be quite the diva and loves to have her 'best angle'forward

 Her guard drops when she is sleeping sometimes

 The 'finer' side of the Tart (and yes, I have Wine themed PJs..BIG surprise)

 JRG brought up 8 greyhounds from Birmingham to be adopted this past weekend.  The one foster dog could have come home with me..there is something about those white greyhounds!!

And speaking of whit greyhounds, Henry is still hanging in there.  He even feels good enough to jog around the yard sometimes. He is still happy, eating and as pain free as I can get him. 

 We are heading to St. John, USVI in 6 days along with our faithful traveling companions: Kristen, Gyeong and Susan. The blog entries should be awesome.

Spending time

 Henry seems to be doing OK on the pain meds. He has his good days and bad.  On his bad days, we make sure he is as comfortable as possible.  Sometimes this means rearranging the pillows to give him the ultimate comfort.

On his good days, we try to spend time outside.  Lately, it has either been 100F plus or there have been terrible storms causing power outages and tree damage. So on the rare days we can go outside, we try to enjoy it.

 Henry and Dana have a moment..

 Jason left for Charlotte to continue helping care for his mother but before he left he was able to let Cali romp around and remind us not everyone in our house is ailing.

She even had time to wink at us as she went by..

 And for those of you with only greyhounds..you are missing out on the joy of an undercoat.  I spent an hour brushing Shiloh and got about 5 pounds of undercoat off of her.  And I am betting I could do it again right now.

 We have Petey for a bit..he has definitely started to be more 'dog-like' and less puppy like..which is a good thing.
"Lady...will you get that thing out of my face?"

And I was lucky enough to be able to help with a GUR from Florida to NY recently.  Two dogs with broken hocks were heading to their forever home.  I did the Richmond to Fredericksburg leg.  I hope the rest of their journey went well.

Remember to run

Henry reminds everyone to remember to run and play.  These were taken a few months ago (and previously posted) but Henry was diagnosed with a bone tumor on Monday in his left front leg.  It is either osteosarcoma or metastisized hemangiosarcoma.  So he can no longer run..nor does he really want too.  We are managing his pain (successfully right now) with Tramadol and Rimadyl.  It has been a tough couple of weeks.  Hug your hounds.

What's another cult among friends?

I'm not saying the greyhound world is a cult..actually it is 'cult-like'.  And we drank the Kool-Aid a long time ago.  I mean who could blame us..look at this face!

 Looking adoringly at us with love and loyalty in their eyes..

 Or T-bone..whichever

We proudly pack up everything and form a 'greyhound city' at local events (Cooper Winery's SPCA festival).  20 greyhounds and their people..just relaxing and enjoying the day. 

What could be wrong with that..Shiloh says "Absolutely nothing"

So it is perfectly natural to fall head first into another 'cult like' atmosphere.

Cue ColdPlay's "Paradise"

 We attended our first Porsche Club of America-Shenandoah Region Meet. 

There were new ones

 And old ones

 Our friend Bob had his entered in the 'Concours" competition (who's is the best maintained)

 And Jason just brought his to be among its 'kind'

 

 After a catered lunch, about 40 Porsches hit the back roads to drive to a country club (of course..) for wine and snacks (woot!)  The drive was a lot of fun..the weather was perfect and we even had the police holding traffic for us to get through big intersections. I am sure it was quite the sight to behold. Porsches in front and behind!

 Then we get to some small country club in an area I have never been (second surprise) and we got some free swag and had some raffles while sipping on wine. 

 Photographer's dream!

 There were more events that we didn't participate in, we didn't want to overdose on Kool-aid the first day out.  But all in all we had a lot of fun.
I came home and sat back in middle suburbia and chatted with my hummingbirds.