Our First Visitor!

My mom visited- OUR FIRST VISITOR- and man do I have an update! There’s no even telling what we did because what did we not do?!? But, here is my attempt!

Day 1: I took Mom to my Yoga class and she got to meet all the ladies that I work out with and our instructor. And she loved the class! Then I took her to the store. Now, you may not think that is too exciting but in Grenada, the grocery store is quite the adventure! She got to look at the prices (most of which are extremely expensive compared to in the states) and we got some ingredients for a couple new recipes to try! We hurried home to grab lunch with Ash before his next class. He was really excited because we were getting Indian food that this lady cooks at home and then brings to campus to sell (Sounds a little sketch but its legit!) and it is delicious!! Once Ash headed to class, I took Mom on her own private campus tour! We walked all over and she then realized what we meant when we said the campus was hilly! Then, we went over to the cooking class over at the resort she was staying at. I had been to the cooking class two times last term, but the two times I went they didn’t cook…We would get some recipes, however, the two chefs, Esther and Omega, would make up a silly excuse as to why they had to precook the food instead of making it in front of us. This time, though, I was feeling hopeful. But, the same thing happened. We still had a lot of fun, met some nice people, got to try some yummy food and giggled about how extremely unhealthy one of the recipes was that they gave to us. Then, we went back to our place to make dinner! On the menu was slow cooker baked ziti, which sounded great! But…I quickly read over the “al dente” which I later found out meant that we were supposed to cook the noodles before putting them in the crock pot (Big oops!). So, our supposed-to-be two hour recipe turned into much longer…FLOP! But once we waited for a lot longer, it tasted good! I learned my lesson and actually learned what Al dente means :)

 

 

Heading to Our Cooking Class

                                                                     Our View from the Cooking Class

 
                                    

 

 

Making Dinner in the Crock Pot

Ash came home late from a study group and noticed how pretty the moon was so we all ran out to see it!!

 Day 2: We went on a whole island tour! It was a fun-filled PACKED day so I will try to keep it brief as possible!We expected that we would be on a big bus with a bunch of other people who were visiting the island, but when we went to the front office they told us that we were the only ones on the tour! When our tour guide arrived, he asked us if we would mind if we picked up one other couple. Of course we said no, and then we found out that the man we were picking up was a famous Jamaican singer and his wife! He was wearing his whole African garb- the robe and the head piece and they each had on about 4 huge gold rings per hand and big gold necklaces! They were such nice people and throughout the tour, we not only learned about Grenadian culture, plants, fruit and more, but we also learned about Jamaican culture, plants, fruit and more! The tour was amazing! We went everywhere! And our tour guide was so educated and did a lot of research to be able to tell us about all the plants, fruits, houses of famous people and so much more!! We went to Concord Falls, which was a really pretty drive up to a really big waterfall! There were a couple touristy booths where Mom got some Nutmeg Jam and a few other treats the guy threw in because he thought my mom was nice! Next, we continued driving up the West side of the island until we reached the Nutmeg Factory!  Grenada is known for its Nutmeg so it was really interesting to learn the whole process of how they get to the core of the nutmeg that they use as spices, syrup and so much more! From there, we headed to lunch at a place called Helena’s. This was a very authentic Grenadian restaurant high above the water with an amazing view! It was buffet style so the options were salad, a curry chicken, fish, rice with some interested peas and spices, cooked fruit- plantains, white yam, and bread fruit, and a passion fruit juice. The flavors were ok to me but it was fun to try something that is so authentic of my current home. Our next stop was Carib’s Leap. History states that the Caribs (the tribe in the Caribbean) were fighting the French. When they realized that they were not strong enough for the French, instead of surrendering, they all jumped off of this cliff. Unfortunately, they didn’t know that there was actually a place of refuge that they could have gone to escape the French fire. Sad story, but some interesting history! Our tour also included Levera Bay, which is where huge turtles hatch their eggs on the beach sometime in the Spring, the Rum Distillery where we got to see how the rum is made, and our favorite the Chocolate Factory!! We went on a tour to see each intricate step to make the chocolate, try Grenada’s special hot cocoa, and have tons of samples of their organic 60% and 71% dark chocolate! Mom couldn’t resist and bought a couple bars to take home! Let’s hope she didn’t get really hungry on the plane ;) From there, we drove through Pearl’s Airport, which is an abandoned airport from years ago when Cuba tried to invade Grenada. To end our tour we drove down through Grand Etang where there are usually monkeys but it was too late when we were there and then we drove back! It was a long day packed with so much information and meeting a lot of nice (and some interesting…) people along the way! We ended a great day at the restaurant La Boulangerie eating yummy pizza and calzones! Since the Fro yo place we wanted to take Mom to was closed, we treated her to our second favorite fro yo on campus for dessert! What a day!

The beginning of our Tour

 

The Nutmeg Factory

 

Starting to See the Grenadines in the Distance

 

 

Stop for Lunch...Our View

Lunch at Helena's

We got to sit on the deck and see this as we ate lunch! 

 

 

 

 







Leper's Hill

 

 

 

 

The Grenadian Pyramid


RIVER ANTOINE RUM DISTILLERY

 

 

 

Sugar Cane

Still uses Water as their Power Source

 

Rivers Rum

Over the allowed alcohol level...Someone in the govt holds the key.

Our Favorite Part: BELMONT CHOCOLATE FACTORY

The Stages of Making Chocolate...

Day 3: I wanted to take Mom into the downtown area and the Spice Market/Farmer’s Market. So, I decided to take her there on the true Grenadian way- The Reggae Bus! Yes, its really called a Grenadian bus and they are less than $2 US to go all the way to downtown! Our first stop was the mall that’s filled with fun touristy trinkets. This is the place where all the cruisers stop to do some shopping when they get time off their ship. Then we headed to the fabric store! I got a mini sewing machine for Christmas that my mom bought for me so we needed to get some fabric for projects that we were planning to do! We found some great stuff and great deals! Then we headed through the spice market, which was pretty overwhelming with all of the Grenadians yelling at you to buy their stuff! We quickly browsed and headed to the farmer’s market to check out the fruits and veggies! We bought tons- a few new things to try, some that we needed for recipes and some for Ash. We wore our walking shoes because we knew we would be getting some exercise! We walked through downtown, making a few stops to browse through some stores, to the Carenage, which is where all the fishing boats port. There are also some little restaurants and whole in the wall type places. Then, we continued walking to Port St. Louis. This is where all the very big and expensive yachts are! Among all of them, is also a very cute little bakery called The Merry Baker. We got some wheat bread, peanut butter cookies, wheat burger buns for dinner, and Ash’s favorite, Chelsea buns (Cinnamon rolls)! After all that walking, we needed a treat so I took Mom to our favorite frozen yogurt place called Yum Yum Café! Mmm it was delish! And then we needed some lounging time so we went back to the resort and tried out the pool! Our dinner menu was easy but fun. We usually only eat chicken or turkey but usually once a week we have burger night with potato wedges! And this night we had an added bonus with green beans! Pretty quickly after we first got to Grenada, Ash found a hot sauce that he loves! He especially loves to put it all over his burgers, so he of course made my mom try it and she liked it! And to top it off we had amazing green beans from the Farmer’s Market (only our 2nd time ever having green beans on the island!)

 Day 4: Since Mom got a full breakfast with her room, we decided to take full advantage of it. Ash and I headed over to her place for breakfast for some omelettes, fresh fruit, all kinds of breads and muffins and more! We then headed back to campus for CSA (Christian Student Association). This is where we go to church here. It is a student led club that meets on Sundays for worship and a sermon each week. Its an awesome place of fellowship and has been where we have met many of our friends. So, it was really fun for Mom to come see what its like, as well as, meet a lot of our friends! Afterwards was the Welcome Back CSA BBQ, which was a fun time to get to hang out with friends and let Mom get to know our friends better! We decided the afternoon would be more of a chill day since Ash had to study and there was a lot of cooking we wanted to do! While Mom started the ingredients for our dinner- Crock pot Tortilla Stack- I started making homemade whole wheat tortillas for dinner and to show her how it works! Once those were done we made dinner. But, while we waited for dinner, I made wheat pita bread (Yep, in the toaster oven!) and my mom made hummus and tabbouleh. It was a fun and relaxing day of cooking and baking!

Mom got to meet Baby Elora :)

 

 

Lemons! Used them in the hummus!

 Day 5: Monday started with some new exercise classes for Mom, but she was excited and willing to try! First, we had Pump which is a bar and dumbbell class of lower weight, high reps. Right after, we had Zumba!! Mom has never done Zumba before but was excited to see what it was like! We had a lot of fun and now she wants to go home and try to find some friends who will do it with her! After lunch, we headed to “my pool”. There is a place called the University Club where visiting professors or other people who are affiliated with SGU will stay. However, they have a beautiful pool that the SO’s are allowed to use on Mondays and Thursdays! Ash had his first of two finals on Monday so I tried to see if he would want to study at the pool (that wouldn’t be distracting or anything ;) but I thought I would ask) but he was studying with some buddies in the afternoon. We headed toward the pool and I got to show Mom Lance Aux Epines, which is another area that a lot of the students live. It was such a perfect day for the pool! Bright sun, cool water—It was beautiful! And, Mom got to meet a few more of our friends there, too! After getting roasted from the hot sun, we headed home to start dinner. We wanted to try Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers, but hadn’t found a perfect recipe so we just combined a couple to see what we could come up with! We tried a Mexican twist on them, but since we hadn’t done it before we didn’t know exactly how long they needed to cook for. While we waited, we also tried a from scratch healthy cornbread recipe. With the recipe we used, we decided that it would have been ideal if we had started earlier and put the peppers in so they could cook for longer. However, they still tasted good the peppers just could have been a littler softer!

While we were waiting on dinner, we ran out to catch the sunset!! We also have talked about taking pics in our APU gear to send to APU Life's Where are you wearing your APU stuff?? (Called something like that) and we finally did it!!

Day 6: Today, Ash had his second and last final of the week! While he was taking his test, we went to Yoga! It is such a great class and it was fun that Mom and I share the common interest of exercising so we can do it together! We got home and sewed while waiting for Ash. Then we spent some time Facetime-ing! Isn’t technology amazing?! I don’t know what I would do if I were so far away and had no way of communicating with my family and without being able to see my nieces and nephews grow up for these two years! So, first we talked with Jess, Jorde, Reese, and Zeke! Unfortunately, everyone either was getting over being sick or just getting sick, but there were still plenty of smiles to go around! Jorde is in a funny stage of not wanting to talk until he hears an interesting sound from our house or he wants to tell us something or he wants to hear a story haha but whatever works is fine with me because as soon as we start talking he forgets that he didn’t want to in the first place! And, the twins are not as confused anymore by seeing me through the phone and are starting to say my name!! It always so great to talk to Jess and hear how she is doing especially as the weeks keep getting closer and closer to baby #4 too! Next, we talked to Rach and Ellie! Now, Ellie has not caught on yet to the concept of Facetime and seeing me through the computer, but she is very curious! She just stared at the screen the whole time we were talking, until she got some breakfast and then that kept her busy! It was so fun to see Rach and see how shes doing getting close to baby #2 coming! We got to see the changes they have made to their home too like making the office into a playroom so Ellie has her own place to play! I can’t believe we are going to have to meet Ayers baby #4 and Spoelhof baby #2 over the computer but at least I don’t have to wait until May to actually see them!! Since Ash had the afternoon off, we wanted to go to the beach!! But, we couldn’t go to the beach without some fro yo :) We made a stop at Yum Yum and then headed over to the beautiful beach of Grand Anse! We met up with some friends, walked along the sand, and enjoyed the beautiful weather and the sound of the ocean! We planned to try a new Mediterranean restaurant called Ali Baba’s so we went home to shower up and actually get a little dressed up to go out to dinner (With the humidity and constant beach days and beach hair, this rarely happens!). We were the only ones in the restaurant and the service was amazing! (Also rarely happens in Grenada) The food was delicious!! We started off with hummus and mini pita breads. Then we all got the Shishkawoot (aka Chicken Kebab but whatever floats your boat :D) The presentation was beautiful and the food was really good! We all walked out of there full and happy! Then, we went home to do some more sewing!

 
Being Monkeys :)


Day 7: There were a couple classes that I was planning on taking Mom to at my gym on Wednesday until we found out that her resort had a yoga class on the dock of the ocean! We decided since we felt like that was more of a Caribbean once in a lifetime type of things that we had better try it! It was so great and relaxing and so much fun to be doing the different poses as we listened to the water crashing into the dock! We decided that since Mom was going home to cold weather that we needed to make the most of the sunny weather on her last day! After we walked a couple times back and forth from her resort to campus to have lunch with Ash and then head back, we found our spots by the pool to relax! We got our free drinks from the coupon Mom got when she checked in, found some chaise lounge chairs, and were ready for a nice, sunny afternoon by the pool. Unfortunately, this only lasted about 5 minutes before it started pouring!! Fortunately, the rain only lasted for about 5 minutes until the sun came back maybe even hotter than it started out! We chatted, we talked about what we wanted to do next time Mom comes trying to plan out her next trip before she even leaves J, talked about the Bible, discussed a Bible Study book that I am going through with some friends, and were just together enjoying God’s creation! After testing out the pool and getting a little more sun time, we headed back to campus to get started on dinner. For our last dinner, we decided to have French bread pizza- it was really yummy! We use IGA brand of marinara (But I want to try making my own soon!), deli part-mozzarella cheese, sometimes I’ll get Ash the treat of deli pepperoni for pizza, and then we get big bags of frozen peppers and a stir fry mix that we add on top to make veggie pizzas! They were really good and we finished just in time to make it to the first Photography Club meeting (We just joined this term because we got a nice SLR camera for Christmas!) and then Mom and I headed to one of my new Bible studies this term called True Woman 101! It was fun that Mom got to spend a little more time with the girls in my Bible study and see how our time is run when we meet! She even gave some good input and advice to us as wives of soon-to-be doctors and vets as well as how to be a true Godly woman. After an encouraging session, on how we can support our husbands as providers and leaders and how to encourage them to be Godly husbands, we came back, did some sewing and then figured it was only appropriate to play some games together for our last night! We played Bananagrams!—If you haven’t played it and you like word games, you must play!! It is really fun! We were even having so much fun that we “let” Mom stay a little longer than she had stayed the nights before. :D

It is rare that I get to play tour guide, especially with Mom because she is always the one who has done all the research and knows all the hot spots to go! But, it is very easy to show someone around, including all the crazy and quirky parts of Grenada, and have someone be so enthusiastic about it! Thanks Mom for all of your enthusiasm and reminding me of all the good here in Grenada!