We’re home from the sunny shores of St. John just in time to be welcomed back by a New England snow storm. We’d didn’t really get all that much in terms of snow, but the welcome home message was certainly received. Our trip went off without a hitch. It was a little cooler than last year and we had a couple of days of rain, but it sure beat the weather here. I think we can finally say that we’ve become fully acclimated to New England. When we got there we couldn’t figure out why there were so many people at the resort. Silly us, the rest of the country still takes their spring breaks around Easter rather than February and April like they do here. We ended up in one of the cabins WAY up the hill from the beach and well, everything. Now I know why they call it luggage and why you should never refuse an offer from the staff to take you up to your cabin in a truck. I thought I was going to have the big one after carrying our stuff up some 130 stairs. We counted and it was 391 stairs to the beach (782 round trip); the old legs sure got a work out but now they’re STRONG. Still I don’t think any of us miss the 78 stairs to the bathroom…

We had some new encounters with the local wildlife in the tent this time. In addition to our friends the Anoles (whom I think we all truly did miss) we got to see up close an personal a couple of scorpions. They are extremely shy creatures and really wanted nothing at all to do with us, but they are high on the heebee jeebee scale.

The ocean and reefs were of course the stars of the show. When we arrived the sea was just calming down from one of the largest swells in the Caribbean since the “Perfect Storm” of October 1991. The sea was so churned up snorkeling was nearly impossible but we had a good time playing in the waves. Piper was a little bit more cautious in the water this time out, but had a good time flinging herself into the waves. I think what happened is that she popped her snorkel on during the rough period and had the waves fill it one too many times for her to be comfortable. I still managed to drag her out on my back to the reefs a couple of times so she could see the locals. I was thrilled to finally see a sea turtle up close at Maho Point. After determining that it was going to stick around a while I hauled it back to shore so Lisa could go out and see for herself. She was much less thrilled to encounter a fair sized Nurse Shark rather than her expected turtle. Like last year I came within a few feet of a 4 foot Barracuda. It was resting on the reef with its nose down and tail up like a floating log. I can tell you unequivocally that those things are intimidating fish.

We took one side trip to visit the Annaberg Sugar Plantation ruins. The Plantation grew and processed sugar cane in a elaborate factory setting. In the factory ruins you can still see the boiling cisterns and channels used to route the cane juice through the various processes needed to turn it into processed sugar, molasses and finally rum. The site has the lower two thirds of a Dutch style windmill still in place which provided much of the energy to crush the cane. We did this on one of the rainy days so by the time we made it back from the mile walk we were all pretty soaked from the intermittent down-pours. But at least it was warm rain!

The fun is over now though! Everyone is back to work in the morning.

Well, we’re off to warmer climates tomorrow and it cannot come soon enough. We all have the winter blahs and are thoroughly looking forward to a week of 80 degree weather. I’ve spent the last several days obsessing over the packing. I would have to say I have outdone myself managing to get clothes, towels, snorkels, books, and a week’s worth of cooking staples into 3 bags. Tim still has his head after asking if he could bring 2 pairs of sandals, but it was a close thing. Minor glitches included Whole Foods not having my 30SPF sunscreen in stock. Anyone who has seen me, especially after this much winter knows 15 is just not going to do it. I’m so pale I probably glow in the dark. I lucked out and found some at the store in Acton while Piper was in art class saving an additional trip, went home to pull out the 1 bottle I knew I had, and turns out I’m the only person on the planet who squirrels sunscreen – 2 full bottles and 3 that were 1/2 empty. Because I don’t have enough to do I need to create problems. Yeesh! Piper and I dropped Sparkle the gecko off this afternoon. Since we had to stop at the pet store for crickets, we finally had someone in the know look to determine sex. Drum roll please… Sparkle is boy!!! Poor gender confused creature, we’ve been thinking he was a girl for 3 1/2 years. Anyhow, all that’s left is for Tim to drop off the dog and we are ready to go. Bring on the sunshine!!!!

I was looking at Piper’s legs the other night and they are just covered with bruises from learning to ride her bike. She also skinned her knee.

Me: “My goodness look at your legs, what were you doing with that bike?”

Piper: “I was just learning how to ride! … and steer.”

Must have been something about the delivery. Tim and I cracked up.

On Day 10 Lisa and Piper indulged my inner ubergeek and we headed out to the Wind Energy Institute of Canada on the North Cape of PEI. Now Lisa loves a good wind turbine as much as the next gal (God I love her) but I have to admit there was a certain concern over the time-value return on this particular excursion. I argued that it was only a short drive (later proven severely wrong after a fateful incorrect turn) and come on they’re WIND TURBINES! So back to the wrong turn, I’m sure you’re asking yourself what’s the big deal about a wrong turn? I mean come on, it is an island! as long as you’re going in the right general direction everything will turn out all right. All this is true, but the average speed that you make getting there is severely impacted. We got to see some more of the island and came up to a Vestas V90; a truly awesome machine generating 3 MW using 90m blades. In addition to the wind turbines themselves there is a very nice interpretive center that tells the story of the area, goes into detail showing how the turbines work, and tells the history of people’s efforts to harness the wind. In the picture Piper is posed before a mock-up of a turbine hub. It helps to give scale to these machines.

The tip of PEI’s North Cape is obviously prime wind real estate, but it is also a very beautiful spot. Here the ubiquitous red sandstone has been eroded into some fun shapes very reminiscent of Wiley Coyote rocks of Warner Brothers fame. After eating lunch and having our fill of ogling the turbines we played on the beach and picked up rocks and shells. This particular beach was great for small snail shells which were littered across the rocks by the thousands.

The ride home was much shorter. Isn’t it amazing how fast you get there when you take the right roads?

Below is a YouTube video I found posted by peiplaces.com. They did a really nice job showing the Institute and has a great perspective shot of some of the larger Vesta’s turbines. It looks like this video may have outlived the website. I attempted to reach peiplaces.com in order to link back to them and my browser returned a 404 every time a tried. Enjoy!