Nana's dream charter

It only looks like Nana's happily drowning the kids.

Mark has been saying, "You're being sarcastic, aren't you?" a lot when I talk. This probably means I should work on being less sarcastic. Which I will do right after writing this post about Nana's visit with us being her best vacation ever.

Carnival Tuesday

Mark showing his carnival spirit...for 5 minutes
and then it was just too hot.

The camera battery died during the last big parade, but between yesterday's blog post and this one, I think you get the idea. Tuesday's grand finale was a lot like the Monday Fancy Mas except with more glitter and louder (not sure how it was even possible) music.

2014 Grenada Spice Mas Carnival - Monday

Carnival in Grenada culminates in 2 days of parades and celebration. This was our Monday:

1. Jouvert - celebrants douse themselves and others with oil and paint (and even a splattery-brown, chocolate based mixture) and dance to loud music. It starts at 3 a.m. but we arrived around 6 a.m.
2. Fancy Pageant Mas (short for masquerade) - colorful costumes, dancing, loud music.
3. Monday Night Mas - a parade of lights, dancing, loud music. It was like being in a slowly forward creeping disco.

Sometimes a dull moment

We won 7 goats and a sheep. This little guy is trying to make it 8.
On stage. Surrounded by children.

Back when we worked traditional jobs, our daily routines made a lot of the days run together for me. These days, there's more variety. We might be winning a herd of goats at Bingo one day and then spending a good chunk of another killing houseflies. The buggers keep coming in droves. Wasn't flies one of the 7 plagues? I'm pretty sure.

The (sea) grass is always greener on the other side

Throughout our sailing slog southeast from the Bahamas to Grenada, we enjoyed some beautiful and interesting areas. However, we had left our sailing friends behind and there were very few kid boats. We were really looking forward to getting to Grenada and getting Mark and Conrad some friends their own age.

Christmas in July



Nutmeg

My parents came from Chicago to visit us here in Grenada. They brought all kinds of goodies, including some boat parts and early birthday gifts for the kids, among many other items that filled two large suitcases. As usual, they were far too generous. We were all overjoyed to see them and we had a great week. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes loved my mother so much that she came and slept on the boat for a couple nights to get away from their invasion. Every night, a few wily skeeters would find their way into their beachside cottage and torture her endlessly.

Carriacou, Grenada

Grenada has already established itself in our book as a place that sucks you in. We learned this the second morning after we arrived in Tyrell Bay on the island of Carriacou. We had checked in the day before and planned to make our way south towards Prickly Bay on the main island to meet my parents who were flying in from Chicago in a few days. We meant to leave in the morning.