Poinsette State Park

This morning we 'hiked' the Ravenel Bridge.  With the bridge deck peaking at 186 feet above the water, it's the only 'hill' we have within a two hour drive in any direction.  From the top you get a panoramic view of downtown Charleston, and any cool ships coming into port, like this one. 

Because we were having so much fun on the bridge, we decided to head upstate a bit in the afternoon to go explore Poinsette State Park.  The park is about 2 hours west of Charleston, which is about where the hills start.  Have I mentioned how much I miss geographical relief?  Hills?  Vistas?  Mountains, even?  Charleston is as flat as eastern North Dakota.  But, I digress.   We packed up the dog and some road snacks, and headed to the park, where we had heard there were...gasp...hills.

It was a very pretty park, and remarkably quiet for Memorial Day weekend.  We drove around the campgrounds and were surprised to see open campsites.  We stopped to take a family portrait in one of the picnic shelters.  I can't believe this one turned out - I had the camera on the timer and Seca was being so good for about 10 seconds - long enough to set up the camera and get back on the table!   And I really can't believe she's looking at the camera.

We hiked for a bit at a small lake in the park.  I had to include this picture of a frog because I was standing on a fire ant hill while taking it.  It wasn't until they were swarming on my feet and biting me that I realized what I had done.  I was jumping up and down and swearing up a storm trying to get them off me (and of course I was wearing sandals).  And the really stupid thing is that I did it again later in the day - on a different ant hill.  Fire ants suck.

 This turtle seemed to be having a really nice time in the sun.

 There are ruins of an old mill at the park.  This is part of the original mill channels, I think.  Seca had fun playing in the water behind me.

 I laughed so hard when saw this little guy sunning on the lily pad.  I don't know why he (or she) had his foot in the air.  Steve said this was proof that turtles fart.

Couch potato

Our new (fabulous, brown leather) couch was delivered at 7 am this morning!  We're so excited to have a real couch for the first time in...well, since we sold our house, so it's been 7 years.  Whoa.  We've had chairs, and we've had futon couches, but not a *real* couch.  Steve says we have to keep this one forever, and I agree.  It's awesome. 

We've been busy while awaiting the arrival of the couch (we ordered it 8 weeks ago yesterday).  We've painted the walls a soft grey and the ceiling a crisp white, which was a vast improvement of the badly-painted putty color they were before.  We rearranged furniture and added lots of new photographs from our travels to the walls too.  I can't wait to show everyone.  Photos to come!  (must clean and tidy a bit more first)

9 years!

Today is our 9th wedding anniversary!  Steve had the awesome idea of booking a sunset catamaran cruise of the Charleston harbor to celebrate.  It was a perfect night to be on the water.  The boat leaves from Shem Creek, in Mt. Pleasant for a two hour cruise.  It was really fun!
 

We saw a couple of dolphins feeding in the creek before we set sail.

And pelicans too.  I love the colors and detail in the feathers here.

This small island is a bird sanctuary and sits just off the entrance to Shem Creek.  Being downwind smells really bad due to all the bird poo.

And when we got home tonight there was a surprise on the doorstep - beautiful purple roses from Tami and Erik and family!  They are the same purple that we had for our wedding flowers.  :)  What a great end to the night.  Thank you!

Home again

Friday it rained hard all day (there was a forecast of 4-6 inches rain).  Our meeting ended about noon and we packed up and went into Christiansted, a town towards the eastern side of the island.  Since it was raining so hard, we didn't explore much, but did have a nice lunch and drinks at a bar with a view of the harbor.

The flights home on Saturday started again with a tiny plane, but I got a picture this time.  It was still raining so no great pictures, but it was a fun flight.  Once again I had the seat behind the pilot, which made for a cool view of the landing strip in San Juan.

I'm glad to be home!  Steve, as usual, did a great job of eating almost everything in the fridge.  Time to go grocery shopping, I guess.  :)

Snorkeling

I got up at 6 am and went snorkeling.  The corals start in about 4 feet of water, about 15 feet from the beach.  I don't think I've ever seen so much cool stuff so close to a beach.  If you go out about 100 meters there's a 3000 foot drop off (wall) that is popular for scuba divers.  I swam out there to check it out - kinda creepy to see the ocean floor drop away into blackness so fast.

The water is clear and warm.  No sharks seen (whew!).  Tyree had a waterproof camera and took some pictures (thanks Tyree!)...

This one was probably more than 6 feet wide.

 There's a small black fish right in the center of this photo - it's an invasive lionfish.  If I had had a way to catch it, I would have!

And proof that I was there - the ubiquitous picture of my feet!

 

And, last photo of the day...a cute (tiny!) anole that I spotted on a leaf during a break in the meeting. 

 

Furry mammal sighting

I saw a mongoose!  They aren't native here but were brought here to kill snakes, which they have apparently done.  I thought they were supposed to be really aggressive, but the couple I've seen have all run away quickly. 

Tyree (the IT guy for our meeting) and I walked up the road a bit this morning to get a wider view of the resort. What a view!  Today is the first sunny morning and I think it's going to be hot and humid today.

Sunset and sunrise in St. Croix

I took a few pictures at sunset last night, then was up early and walking on the beach. The weather has been really nice - not too hot and humid, as long as you're not moving quickly.

Sunset, looking north over the water

This morning, on the beach.

 Looking roughly northeast this morning.

Two showers a day

 I suspect this is a two shower a day sort of place -  once when you get up and once before bed.  Today, I think I'll actually end up with three.  The good news is that my luggage came in this morning.

Here's some pictures of the local fauna.

Ghost crab

Anole

Cat with attitude

Turbo prop to St. Croix

I have a data workshop in St. Croix this week (I know, boo hoo, what a horrible place for a meeting).  Let me assure you that I will post pictures as soon as I can.  It's gorgeous here.  Steve, let's move!

The plane ride here from Puerto Rico was really cool - a tiny, twin engine Cessna 402 that seats nine passengers and one pilot...and the ninth passenger sits in the co-pilot seat.  I was totally bummed that I didn't get to sit there.  I got the seat immediately behind the pilot, with my knees squished to either side of his seat so I didn't knee him in the back.  The plane is so small that they fit luggage wherever they can - in the nose, in a tiny compartment behind the propellers, and tucked around our seats.  When you check in for your boarding pass you have to tell them your weight and have every piece of luggage weighed.  Then before you get on the plane everyone lines up and they tell you where to sit based on your weight so the plane is balanced.  Our luggage didn't make it on the flight, so hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.  This isn't the best place to not have a change of clothes - it's very humid and the plane wasn't air conditioned.

I was a bit nervous taking off - full plane, pretty warm outside...I was afraid we wouldn't have enough lift to get off the ground.  No worries though, we lifted off well before the end of the runway in San Juan.  Soon after takeoff the pilot unbuckled his seat belt.  I thought that was odd given the weather - a massive looming thunderstorm ahead.  When it started to rain so hard you couldn't see anything ahead, and the pilot clicked his seat belt back on, I cranked mine down a bit tighter.  We hit a bit of turbulence, but overall not bad, and the landing was probably the smoothest I've ever felt.

I'm off to bed soon, but will post photos as soon as I can.  The rooms here are beautiful but odd.  The only place there's glass is on the patio doors to the screened in balcony, and everywhere else they have screens and slatted shades (so not really sound or temperature proof), yet there's air conditioning in the rooms.  It can't possibly be very efficient, but it's lovely.

Monday morning update:  I've posted some pictures of the grounds and my room.  Right now, I'd pay good money for some deodorant and a toothbrush.  I've heard that my luggage is now on the island and may be delivered today.  For the sake of everyone else at the meeting, I sure hope so.

The room - there's a screened-in balcony through the doors on the left.  To the right is the bathroom, behind me is the door to the room.

 The grounds.

 The beach (we're on the north side of the island, this would be looking northwest).

 The hotel bell tower.  Pool and open-air lunch restaurant are forward and to the right, open-air breakfast restaurant is forward and to the left.  Beach behind me.

 Most of the walkways are covered, which is good for shade and even better to keep from getting wet.  It's raining this morning.

Leftover peeps

So we picked up some leftover easter peeps at the store the other day, figuring they would be good for something eventually. Turns out, they were. We even figured out what to do with them before they turned into little yellow marshmallow bricks. Kari and I, being the outdoor adventure types, thought we would roast them over a campfire and turn them into a tasty treat. That's right, marshmallow peep s'mores!

Tubing the Edisto River

According to Wikipedia, the Edisto River is the longest free-flowing blackwater river in North America.  According to me, it's a great river on which to spend a lazy May afternoon.  On Sunday morning, thirteen of us met at Givhans Ferry State Park (and dutifully hid our beer until onto the river...these crazy state parks here...) and spent four leisurely hours floating down the river.  It was a perfect day - mid-80s and a bit humid - and the water was cool enough to make the sun feel nice.  I kept up a nice coating of 100 spf sunscreen (darn those Norwegian genes) and managed to make it through the day relatively unscathed.

The trip leader mentioned that he's seen alligators on the river, but thankfully we didn't spot any.  All day I kept thinking about this commercial for Hostess cupcakes, but replace the shark with an alligator.  It makes me giggle.  We even brought some Hostess cupcakes along on the float, just in case. 

Homemade soft pretzels

Homemade pretzels and mustard and a walk outside on the most perfect day of the spring...does life get any better?

There's a pizza place in town that makes really good soft pretzels and every time we go there we talk about how we need to try making them at home.  So, I did.  I used this recipe from Alton Brown, but I just made a half batch.  I used my stand mixer with the dough hook attachment, so it wasn't messy at all. 

While the dough was mixing, I used my new jar of Penzey's dry mustard to make a honey-mustard dip.  It has a serious kick!  In the end, neither one of us loved it...too spicy.

 The dough was really nice and soft after the five minute kneading in the machine.  I transferred the dough to a clean, oiled bowl to rise until double (about an hour) while I prepped the rest of our dinner (chicken sausages and roasted green beans).

Once the dough had doubled I divided the it into four pieces for four large pretzels. 
Then I dipped each formed pretzel into the boiling water + baking soda bath.  I didn't brush them with the egg yolk before baking because we didn't have eggs...and no salt on top either.

They turned out great and were so easy I'll make them again.  Steve gave them an 8 out of 10 (points deducted for no salt on top).  Next time, I'll look for the big salt for the top and maybe bake them a bit longer. 

Seca want to go for a walk?

W-A-L-K.  You have to spell it out around our house if you don't want Seca to get too excited.

Perfect start to the day

Is there any better way to start the day than a walk on the beach? 

Here's Seca, asking "why aren't we walking yet?"  It was a challenge to keep her out of the surf, but we'd just put Frontline on her (so no getting wet for 2 days), and she tends to drink the salt water (yuck), and we would rather not have a wet and sandy dog in the truck for the trip home (double yuck).  So, we all stayed dry.

And just to prove that we really do eat (homemade) pizza a lot, here's last night's (totally awesome, best crust EVER) dinner.  Steve says it's better than most pizza restaurants.  :) 

I tried something different with the crust:  1 part bread flour to 2 parts all purpose flour.  It was perfect - light by chewy, crispy on the bottom and soft on the top/inside.  The recipe (roughly, since I never measure): 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup bread flour, ~1 teaspoon sugar, ~1/2 teaspoon salt, ~2 teaspoons yeast, and ~1 to 1 1/2 cups warm water.  The water is the biggest guess.  Just add enough to make a sticky dough when you stir.  Maybe next time I make it I'll take pictures of each step.  It's so easy to make!

Having a big dog is great, but that also makes her able to see onto the table.  Here she was eyeballing our pizza then trying to make me feel guilty for not giving her any...  Yes, we keep a camera on the table.  You know, just in case.