Brunch at Topside

Yesterday (Easter sunday) we were invited by friends to brunch at Topside restaurant, less than 5 mins down the road from us but we've never been there before.

GREAT food, including an omelette station, lobster lasagne, mahi, ham, caribbean-style vegetables and eggs benny... we stuffed ourselves only to come home to a delicious kingfish bbq cookout that our landlords put on for us.

We certainly didnt go hungry this Easter!

Green thumb

Our veggie patch we started just 3 weeks ago bore its first crop last night!

A Crucian specialty...

...at Easter!

One of my friends Dale from work brought in a plate of traditional Crucian Easter lunch (typically eaten on Good Friday):

Saltfish: very popular all over the Caribbean, the saltfish is usually made from codfish, green and red bell peppers, onion and vegetable oil. (and salt, of course :-)

Callaloo: I love this stuff! Usually its made from okra (a root vegetable, similar to potato), spinach, oil, onion and spices boiled down into a soupy stew that is often served the main vegetable side in Jamaican cooking.

Ducana : a traditional dumpling made from flour, coconut, cinnamon, butter, salt and sugar and then boiled. I would consider them a desert as they are a little sweet but Dale told me that its eaten as a side to offset the saltfish. Delicious!

Next step... to learn how to cook all these yummies!

Easter in St. Croix

I found this article online which described a Crucian Easter very well...

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=378829349325

Or for those who dont have Facebook:

http://www.stcroixlime.com/content/crucians-prepare-easter-camping

Its crazy to see all these big colorful tents on the beach for weeks on end!

Morning hike in Paradise!

The last few months I've started my day with - what used to be - a gruelling hike up and down "The Beast" (as the locals call it). Its a steep hill right near our workplace that took me a good hour to walk once...now I'm proud to say and I can do it twice in about 45 minutes!

The views are phenomenal - to the north is the resort (pics above) and if I'm lucky, St. Thomas and the BVI's on a clear day - and to the south (right pics) is Carambola Golf Course.

A wonderful way to start the workday!

Sunset Sail to Buck Island

On Tuesday night we were invited by one of my work friends to go out on Caribbean Sea Adventures for a sunset sail for her birthday. We'd never been on a boat during sunset so this was set to be beautiful - especially since it was such a nice clear sky. Little did we know that we were going to Buck Island and everyone had brought their swimsuit except us..... well lucky for me, my friend Wendy whipped out another bikini (who carries two pairs with them, really?) and I could jump in the water and join in on the fun! Geoff - well he just jumped in wearing his work shorts - in which he went straight back to work after we docked back in until 4:30am... :-(

Kayaking at Sandy Point

Although I dont have any pics (the waves were really rough at the Point today), I just thought I'd mention that we saw a huge (could've been leatherback?) turtle swimming out in the ocean today whilst we were out kayaking. She stuck her head up out of the water, looked around and then dove back in... it was the most beautiful thing I have seen in a long time and absolutely made my weekend as i've never ever seen a wild turtle before!