Our Exciting Day

So we had a very lucky and exciting day today. H's mom and her friend were out by the beach when they noticed our neighbors heading out to their sailboat. They were determined to get a ride, and floated out on a inflatable floaty and chatted it up with the couple. Fortunately, we have great neighbors (who knew) who were more than happy to have us with them. So we spent the day sailing around the island on this great sailboat.
R got right to work learning how to sail and man the jib!!! (We have no idea if that is the right terminology but we're learning)!!!
We headed out to Buck Island, which has one of the greatest beaches in the world.
On our way back in we passed another small boat...well ok, basically a cruise ship!! Our neighbors have been on this boat and said it has a hot tub in the front, a revolving dance floor on the 3rd deck, and is normally trailing a small dinghy boat which itself has 2 decks!!

After we stopped at a little marina for lunch we headed home and sailed past the house that we are thinking of renting...we put a red arrow on the picture so you can see it...sort of!

Once again, we've been lazy and waited weeks to publish a new post...at this point, you all have likely given up and stopped checking for anything new! Oh well, we'll keep giving you updates!

We are adjusting to island life and getting into the flow of things. We have also had our first few visitors! First was one of H's friends and her boyfriend, and we currently have H's mother and her friend here. Our biggest relief is that Sophie is adjusting to the heat, and life without air conditioning rather well. While we are away during the day she just lays around the house on the tile floors...but she's also found plenty of pool time in her new suit!!!
A couple of visitors we could do without are a couple of pesky iguanas. They stop by the pool each day and do their "business" on the pool deck! We do our best to chase them off but there's not much we can do while we are at work...Sophie is not much of a guard dog anymore...ok ever!
H and her mother went for a horseback ride the other day...yes R was hard at work!! They really enjoyed it and recommend it for anyone making a trip south! The rides are on the west end of the island, and as you can see it is a very short distance from beach to rainforest.
We also got in our first SCUBA dive a couple of weekends ago. We purchased our dive equipment so now we are all set to go out anytime we want. The dive was really good as we saw several sting rays, one of which was over five feet wide!

We are also still searching for a long term home. We thought we had it all worked out, however, as we learn more about the island we think we may be able to find something better for the same price. We'll keep you posted on our plans!

R was in Puerto Rico for a couple of days this week and will be again next. He actually gets to fly back with his parents on board next week! They will be staying for ten days and then after a couple days' break, R's brother and his family arrive. We are very much looking forward to both visits!

A New Job and Private Plane Ride!

So the big news on the island is that H has a job!!! It is not full time as yet, but we are hopeful that she will continue to get more days as time goes on. One of the perks of the job is the Dr. has a private plane and he took us out for a ride! It was very nice of him and we really enjoyed it...although it was a bit of a tummy tickler at times! H took some pics while in flight and they turned out great. The first pick is of us standing by the plane:
Next is a good picture of the island, taken from the east side, you can actually see Point Udall, which is a park area situated on the Easternmost point of the United States:
Here is a picture of the town of Christiansted. This is where R works. It is a very old town, with most of the buildings around the harbor being built in the 1700s:
Finally, here is a picture of our temp quarters home as seen from the air. It is the home sort of in the middle of the picture with a somewhat pink roof:
We'll add another post to fill you in on other items of interest!