Where We've Been

I'm not talking much about food in this post, although most of what I ate on vacation did turn out to be vegan. I just have some pretty photos I want to share of one of the most beautiful spots I've seen -- St. John. For several years now our family has been regrouping on this tiny island. There are only a couple of hotels on the island and thus far we have opted to rent villas. We go on the off-season to make it affordable (hot) so being on top of a mountain makes it much more pleasant -- there's plenty of cooling breeze up there! This first photo is sort of an artsy shot through the funky spindles of the lower terrace of our villa. The Westin complex and it's dock in Great Cruz Bay is below. We rent a dinghy from the Westin each year so we can check out isolated beaches and coves which have no other access.

My favorite time of day on the island is the early morning, before the sun has risen over the hills when it's still quiet except for a few cockadoodledos. This is a shot from our upper terrace next to our pool. All the tilework and blown glass in our villa, The Sapphire Breeze, was created by the professional artists who own the house. Not much of it is featured in these photos, but it's stunning.

The island is in a drought currently, so you can see that the verdant tropical isle of years past features more shades of brown. Still, the more muted palette reveals some interesting things I may have otherwise missed. This tree is seriously struggling -- appearing basically dead, but yet . . . it blooms! This immediately reminded me of [spoiler] the white tree of Gondor in the "Return of the King" LOTR fans will understand. I am rooting for this stalwart little tree which, while fighting for its life, also plays host to AIR PLANTS! This is a real world, full grown version of my own fairly recent obsession -- see this old photo of one on my kitchen table:

This healthy little guy is what the wild tilisandria would look like if not enduring a drought. I know this because my little house plant looked like the wild one after I'd been away a week.

Back to the villa -- sometimes it really was too hot to hang outside, but look at the view from my bed! That's the infinity pool right outside the french doors, and Great Cruz Bay beyond.

Finally, my week in paradise was not all play and no work (though my work is actually a form of play too!) I brought supplies for a few prayer beads that I made for InspireDesigns, the wonderful company where I work. I noticed how pretty the beads looked draped around a conch shell up on our veranda. What do you think? I love my job!

Oh -- I almost forgot to follow up on the food I mentioned earlier, and with good reason. Life on St. John is very active with snorkeling and hiking and boating and jeeping all over steep and narrow mountain roads. By the time we returned to our villa each day we normally just boiled a batch of pasta  and ate it with a bunch of vegetables -- vegan but not gluten-free. The gluten does not bother me as much as cheese would have, but I'm back on the gluten-free plan at home now, no worse for the wear.

St. John

I've been AWOL for a little while. In close succession, we hosted my wonderful sisters-in-law for the better part of a week and then jetted and boated off to the amazing island of St. John, USVI. This is a shot of Great Cruz Bay from our rented villa. I could definitely get used to this view and the active, no-nonsense lifestyle of this island, largely undeveloped and covered with wildlife. I wore a scarf around my head instead of attempting to style my hair and opted for sunscreen over makeup. We've encountered eagles, wild chickens, mongoose, deer, wild mules and donkeys, wild (or at least free-range upon the roadways) cattle and goats, peccaries (little, wild pigs) enormous sea turtles, sting rays the size of my kitchen table, huge fish which swam right up to our rented dinghy, and clouds of tiny fish which were not bothered when we snorkeled through their midst. As thrilling as the close encounters with the larger animals were, I'd have to say it was being enveloped in these clouds of tiny, iridescent fish that brought me closest to a transcendent state of mind. I'm a bit off-kilter as I resume real life now.

Imagining an alternate universe where this could be permanent real-life, I have to admit there are downsides. First, the price of the dwellings, and real estate in general. We checked the price of an empty lot in paradise and it was $80,000. The lot was a good 45 minute drive on winding mountain roads away from civilization. I cannot say enough great things about our gorgeous villa planted atop a mountain in paradise, but to many with western civilization sensibilities, a paradigm shift will be in order. The central living areas of most of these villas are not air conditioned. Individual units of varying effectiveness cool the sleeping quarters. It makes no sense whatsoever to turn on the oven. The entire living area becomes unlivable. I made the mistake of baking a potato, and won't do that again. Aside from cooking, I never spent time in this part of the house. The boys sat in front of the TV for the Germany v. Brazil World Cup game, but other than that we lived on the veranda overlooking the bay. The villa was perched upon and within a habitat of an unknown number of native species. As such, we had to learn to live with them a little. Truly, it was mostly my 16 year old daughter who had to live with them the most. Her bedroom was above the cistern, the source of water for the house. Water is delivered to these homes by truck, and the pipes for showering, laundry and dishes are fed from a large tank called a cistern. A section of the tiled floor under one of the beds in her room has a frame so the floor can be lifted for access to the cistern. I witnessed a few tiny critters evading capture through the cracks in the floor. They must be attracted to the moisture (don't drink the water). I joked with my daughter that she can now call herself the "mother of dragons" since most of her roommates were of the reptilian variety. The first night she was aware of them was unsettling, but since she is a wildlife lover who particularly loves baby animals, she became very brave and only worried about inadvertently harming the little guys who must have been newborns. They were less than an inch long with eyes way too big for their heads. They spent most of their time on the walls and ceilings. She thought they were adorable. I thought she was very brave. Once we re framed the villa stay as a highly luxurious camping trip, we all relaxed. This was around the time I stopped pulling out the blow dryer and makeup. Still, I insisted my daughter carefully shake out and inspect all her clothing before repacking it for the trip home.

Living anywhere without an airport or a large harbor for freight obviously affects the price of everything, and the quality of perishables. We had packed a bag of dry goods, mostly rice, pasta and canned items, knowing the St. John markup would be substantial. As it turned out, I made do with a sad, almost rotten head of romaine, some grape tomatoes, an onion, some mushrooms and an even sadder bunch of kale for the week, along with some garlic, olive oil, dried herbs and spices left from the last tenant of the villa. We also enjoyed the remains of a couple of bottles of island rum from the prior tenants and similarly paid forward what was left and presentable from our own food and drink. While I've been mostly gluten-free since April, I had to resort to eating regular bread on the days we packed lunch since we would be away from food sources, hiking or boating. Gluten free bread is too expensive on the mainland, so I didn't even check the price on the island. I thought about buying a bunch of organic carrots, which actually looked pretty decent, but they were $14.

I basically put this upon most of my rice or gluten-free pasta (which I had packed):

Tip: lightly sauteing sad romaine or kale in olive oil and fresh garlic greatly improves it.

I was happy to pay the price of a week of lowered nutritional standards to reap the benefits of being in this amazing place. If it's ever in the budget again, I'd jump at the chance.

Where I've Been

Did you miss me? I've missed all of you. The family and I, along with five other families, 26 people total, spent Spring Break on the Gulf Coast of Florida, just south of Alabama at Crystal Beach. It was lovely. I'll talk food in a later post (I kept it very simple) but for now, here's a taste of where I've been:

I'll be back soon with a couple of photos you can sink your teeth into.