Vacationing in Grenada

Yes, we do live in Grenada. And because we live in Grenada we often take for granted how lush the mountain sides are, how beautifully blue the oceans are, how there are a lot of things to do besides going to "pool day" or catching a 3 month old movie at the theater. And so, now that Dustin is done with his finals and we have a week to kill before our badly planned flight on monday, we have decided to rediscover this island we have been habitating for the past four months and go on vacation!

Tuesday morning Dustin got up with Jackson, because he is a wonderful husband and doesn't even need me to ask for a morning to sleep in, and fed him, dressed him and took him on a long walk on the beach. They took some beautiful pictures and came back smelling like beach and sweat.


Jamal and Peterson from our ward out catching bait before they go fishing.


Our church is the building in the middle of the picture. It has quite a view if you have to bounce a baby during the meetings.





Later that day we all went to the beach for some much needed time in the sun and on the sand...Jackson unfortunately went a little crazy and had his first mud pie.







We tuckered Jackson out for the day but started all over again when we set out to go to Belmont Estates where the island's organic cocoa beans are grown and processed before they are sent to the Grenadian Chocolate Company. First, we were able to eat at the estate's restaurant where I had a delicious pumpkin soup to start and Dustin had the Callaloo soup. The entree was buffet style consisting of several local dishes including sauteed provisions (yams, bananas, plantains), fried chicken with a mustard sauce, grilled tuna, mutton curry and green beans. Our drinks were fresh juices, Dustin having passion fruit, my favorite, and I had the restaurant's specialty of fruit punch, a mixture of several fruits grown on the estate. Dessert was divine! I had the passion fruit cheese cake and Dust had the nutmeg ice cream...he is currently laughing at me for listing such mundane details but food is never a mundane detail to me ).

After the wonderful lunch we went on the estate tour and learned all about how the cocoa beans are harvested. While the tour was a little dry, I really enjoyed the information and the glimpse it gave into the history of the island. And to balance out the tour afterwards we took our own tour around to see the animals and watch Jackson get scared to death at the sound of a parrot. The hat we bought him is inspired by a coconut. We wanted to get him the watermelon hat but people already mistake him for a girl a little too often :)



That has been our week so far but we are planning on cramming in all the fun we can into the rest of our time here. We love this island and will miss it a lot. We really are spoiled to live in such a beautiful place!




The cocoa beans that are laid out for 8 days to dry. Someone has to walk through them every 30 minutes to mix them up and make sure they are all drying evenly. I was able to run my toes through them and I don't think I would mind doing the job myself. If it rains, which is does quite frequently, and in short bursts, the roof next to the beans slides over them and the racks in front slide underneath.




A few more pics from our drive home today down the north side of the island.