We figured now would be a great time to reflect on Island life.

We feel as if we officially accepted island life and learned to move and appreciate the island pace. Many say things are slower here and this is very true. We believe things are slower because no one is in a rush and everybody stops to talk to everyone. St Croix has proved to be the friendliest place we have ever lived. Every where we go we see someone we know on the island and whether rich or poor no body looks down on another. It seems that here on the Island everyone came to escape the rat race and hustle bustle of the continental US. Islanders really take this to heart and there stress rarely comes from work because they work to live not live to work. We found a close knit community within our work and noticed how well everybody got along. The owners would speak to us like equals not just workers and would be out having drinks with us until 2 am. St. Croix really etched a spot in our lives and hearts. We are so appreciative to everyone for their kindness and generosity here on the island. If we have learned anything from being here, it would be, ” take your time, nothings more important then the next person you talk to.” We believe this because we can not go in or out of a store without striking up a conversation or making a new friend; and what’s more important than people?

^in our work uni’s^

For our latest adventures…. We really have been keeping our selves busy. To start, we took Pastor John, (fishing guy) up on an offer that allowed us to help work on the renovation of one of the 4 oldest churches in the Hemisphere. This was the Holy Trinity Lutheran church it has been owned by all seven flags of St. Croix and began with the dutch man years ago. After working with him we met up with our friend Daniel. He is the vice president of a merchant company and a really cool guy. Several times this week we all hung out for a few drinks and some football. He seems to be a cool contact to have and if we cross paths again it always proves to be a good time.

We brought our neighbor Vince to sandy point to come fishing with us last Tuesday. Our first trip proved successful so we came back home and bragged to Vince about our catch . He was excited about the opportunity to fish at Sandy Point but  our trip turned out to be a complete failure. The winds were so strong and the water was extremely high. Fishing was merely an option for everytime we cast the line the surf washed it right back to our feet. As much as we wanted to give up we could not leave because John is in heaven here and has the keys to the gate until 8pm.I swear he could fish through a hurricane! As Laura, Vince and I watched John catch no fish I combed the beach for any signs of turtles. It just so happened that a giant green turtle or hawk billed turtle was in our area today and Laura spotted her coming right on shore to lay her eggs! This was a sight to see, the turtle looked as if it could way at least 200 pounds!

Last but not least, we finally made Laura an official Cruzan Girl! I bought her a hook bracelet from the original Sonya’s the other day, a handcrafted, island jewler on the island… Almost every person here wears a Cruzan Hook Bracelet….I thought it was the perfect time to get one now that we fully appreciate the island!!

^Laura’s Cruzan Hook Bracelet^

We again reaped the benefits of working at a restaurant this week. Since it is the off season here and the restaurant is starting to die down, Lori and Pauli (owners) asked us if we would like to help them out with some organizational things around the place. We went into work Weds, Thurs, and Sat. On Wednesday we had to organize the freezer into sections…it was the most ridiculous job I have ever had to do. We were blue by the time we were done and to boot I had a cake pan fall on my head while we organizing the shelves. Great day.

Thursday we worked on invoicing products and restocking the shelves in the market. We were appreciative to get the extra hours to do these things…and it was easy money.

Saturday we showed up at the restaurant to help out and Lori told us to leave once we got there. She was stressing b/c she was the only one on the line and she did not want to worry about telling us what to do as well. So we left and decided to explore some place new. We drove around until we bumped into a basketball court that was right on the beach. It was a gorgeous court too. So of course we got out and played for a while. Travis impressed me with his photography skills..capuring my swish…I tried to capture one of his shots but I did not have much to work with, haha.

Saturday night we decided that we would head back to our restaurant and grab some dinner. We figured it was the best way to go b/c we get a discount on all the food there. We sat down at the bar b/c our pal Sammy was running the bar and we ordered an appetizer, some drinks and dinner. We ended up talking to a guy, Daniel,  who is  the VP of a company that is in charge of all the credit card machines in St. Croix. He ended up giving us his card and we made plans to meet up again Sunday night for the Pats game. After dinner we asked Sammy for our bill and to our surprise he told us that it was already taken care of. Apparently, Lori felt bad that she told us to scoot out today when we came into work and she paid for our whole dinner. Lori and Pauli are great people and extremely loyal to their employees.

Today we meet up with some of our work friends, Rachel and Ryan, who own a sail boat. We decided to head out sailing and maybe do some snorkeling/ spear fishing. Once we got every thing set up and set sail it started to down pour. Our trip was cut short but it was still fun to chill with some new friends and check out their boat.

Tonight we met up with Daniel at the Carambola Resort Restaurant for the Pats game. It was a fun time even though the Pats lost. During half time of the game the crowd that was there had a competition on who could come closest to the hole…Carambola is a Golf course and the restaurant is looking over the last hole on the course. Of course Travis and I got in it…there was a guys competition and a girls competition..after the guys competition was done, which Travis could have dominated but was off by one ball, it was time for the girls…there were 6 girls including me involved in the competition and it was 5 bucks to enter…

lets just say I went home with $25 : ) haha,

Tomorrow we plan on heading to the West end of the island to volunteer and then do some fishing on Sandy Point. We are hoping for a better day, weather wise, than today.

Sorry to all of our blog followers who were upset about our blog negligence. We have been so busy lately and have met a ton of awesome people.

We really are beginning to adapt to our new job. We worked this past Sunday and made pretty good money without ever pissing off the chefs. Our day started at 10:00 am and we worked our butts off until about 5 when Tommy and Maggie came strolling in. They asked us to have a drink with them before they had to leave to have dinner with her dad. We sat down for about 2 hours and had about  15 beers and a few glasses of Chardonnay between the four of us before they had to leave. As they left Laura and I decided since we were already here at work we should try their Sunday Italian buffet. Each plate costs 25 dollars but that did not stop a hungry Laura and I so we ordered two plates of lasagna and chicken alfredo. By the time we finished eating we noticed Maggie and Tommy walking back into our restaurant. They said they finished early and stopped back in hoping we would still be in there. By this time the shop was closing so us four and the owners hung around sipping on top shelf tequila and drinking the finest spirits. At the end of the night we asked for our bill and we both were a little nervous about what the total would be, buuuut Pauli (owner) said all together you guys only owe me 20 bucks! We finally grasped the benefits of working at a restaurant! : )

The next day we remembered that it was our turn to cook for our neighbors. We both pondered for a bit about what to cook and how not to spend an arm and a leg. We decided we would go out to the pier and snare some lobsters. Now remember the first time was a complete screw up so we did not have too high of hopes. We got to the pier with all of our equipment and dove between every rock and crevice. Finally I swim to the bottom and spotted a lobster big enough to eat. I was so excited with the thoughts of catching our meal. It turns out the lobster and I would have this epic battle of the titans for about 25 minutes. He dodged my snare like Ali about 5 times before he dove into a deeper hole. I was a little frustrated so we decided to just snorkel instead. As we jumped in off the pier and  cleared our mask the first thing that caught our eye was a erie barracuda just snarling at us from about 6 ft away. As we began to swim and watch the barracuda circle us I looked to my left and saw a massive eagle ray swim by. Laura and I were so excited and did not expect the day to get any better. I laughed and said sarcastically, ” now we are going to see a big turtle because of course we did not bring the camera”. Just as I say that Laura spots a big sea turtle resting about 8 feet below us by a rock. We could not believe our eyes! I jumped out of the water and fetched the camera! Laura took a few shots of the turtle as we swam beside it but the water was a little to dark to get a picture. All in all great day at the pier!!

^(trav snaring, laura snaring, sea turtle!!)^

Its now tuesday and we started the day like every other day. We woke up and Laura kicked butt pool side during her Tabata routine while I slaved away doing dishes in our kitchen. Afterwards we headed to the Animal shelter. We make a point to volunteer a little over and hour every Tuesday to help the animal crisis here on St. Croix. Last week we fell in love with a group of 6 puppies. They were tiny and had the cutest eyes ever. As we walked into the shelter our first thoughts were to go check on our buddies. As we walked in we noticed they were not in their cage. At first we thought they were adopted however, one of the employees told us each pup had ring worm and all were going to be put to sleep. This was a wide eyed experience on the realism of the animal issue. We were saddened but understood and continued with our care. Laura fell in love with an adopted pup named Romeo so we took him outside and played catch for awhile.

^(Laura holding Romeo…who got adopted today!)^

After volunteering we ventured off to Sandy Point. Sandy Point is world famous for its beach. This beach attracts thousands of turtles each year to lay their eggs. As we pulled up to the gate we spoke to this man who looked somewhat important and asked him how to get the viewing area or to the beach. He informed us that no one is allowed here until the end of turtle season unless you are a biologist, conservationist orrrrrr in the “fishing club”. Right away we wanted to hear more about the fishing club and he told us that three days a week the gate is opened and the fishing club is allowed on the beach. Then he went on and told us that he was a biologist and the head of the club. He said if we have our pole we could start today! Thanks to Trip and Maureen we had the travel rod right in the trunk!! We told the man we would love to join and us three ventured off the beach. Apparently the club has minimal members because us three were the only people on the entire beach. We saw a couple turtles and caught a ton of Jack and cobble.This time we told Jon, the biologist, he could keep our catch, but next time it is all ours!!  During our time at Sandy Point we were told that 90 percent of the time dolphins swim through this area and are always spotted!! We are so excited for our next fishing venture and we will keep you posted on wether or not Laura gets to swim with dolphins (just like her grandmother).

^(all pics on Sandy Point, same beach the final scene of Shawshank Redemption was filmed on!)^

Also, heres a shout out to Grammy and Papa Hackbush, Thanks for following along and keeping our butts on top of this blog!!

-Travis

Last night was a lot of fun. We met up with a couple that we exchanged numbers with at the tide pools, Maggie and Tommy. Tommy is the bartender at the Buccaneer and we all went there for drinks. We had a good time to say the least and got hooked up all night. Tommy’s famous drink is the Cruzan Confusion and it is prettyyyy!! We are meeting up with them again tomorrow night for dinner and live music at the Buc.

^(drinks here are so cheap..trav and I prob had 3 mixed drinks each and our bill was 12 bucks haha) ^

Sadly, today we had to move back into our studio after a week of living large in the 3 bed room suit. Hopefully it wont flood again and we can unpack all our stuff without the fear of it getting ruined.

After getting back into the studio we realized that we had a big bag of dog food and some other dog supplies that we had bought for Wilson (who we have not seen for over a week). We decided to drop it all off at the shelter. Once we were there we were immediately touched by all that the volunteers and workers do for the dogs there. We were informed about the Hearts for Hope program. Check out the website to learn more… i just got the bronze necklace and love it!  http://www.stcroixawc.org/

As volunteers we will be in charge of bathing and walking the dogs. Also, once we leave island we will be in charge of taking a carry on dog, each, to a loving adoption home at our next location…we were really excited about that and it feels good to give back to something we are passionate about.

Tomorrow morning we will be volunteering at the shelter and after we are going to test out our new fishing pole that Trip and my Mom just sent us, then its back to the Bucc!

So we gave up on Wilson… officially have not seen him for an entire week. We are kind of sad but also a little relieved that we do not have to care for him as bad as that sounds. That past few days were very cool. We started the week off really well when Laura waited on Ray Allen’s cousin! We each made well over 200 bucks!! For a couple servers with very little experience we really have been doing a great job. When we are not working we try to fill our days with as much as possible. On Monday we explored the tide pools again. We were hoping the storms off the coast would bring in bigger waves and in return would fill the tide pools. We hiked the trail and the entire time laughed because this hike was so much easier compared to earlier in the month with Rob and Gretta. When we arrived we noticed right away that the water was much deeper. We dove right in and snorkeled and explored every nook and cranny. There were areas of the tide pools that were well over our heads. We met some new friends here and are actually meeting up for dinner and drinks with them Wednesday night.    

On Tuesday, Laura and I had our first scuba diving experience. We were taught everything about scuba such as how to check the regulators, how to equalize our ears, clear the masks and about twenty different hand signals. As we swam around we each had a little difficulty breathing and got pretty frustrated but got the hang of it pretty quickly. Our next step would be to now take our skills to the ocean on a 40 ft reef dive off of Cane Bay. I will keep you guys updated if we continue with the dive!

Laura also has a brand new hobby here on the island. After posting a blog about personal training a man wrote back saying he does not need training but would pay her to collect sea glass for him. So of course we were out the very next day combing the beach. So far we have almost half a bottle full. On the way to the beach we had our first wild horse encounter. They were chomping on some grass right off the road so I jumped out and made a noise that I thought resembled a horse noise and it came right to me. He let me pet him for a few minutes then we ran back to the apt to get him some carrots!

We are hoping we can rent some cheap kayaks tomorrow and kayak around Green Cay Island…hopefully have a chance to snare our first lobstaaaa!!!!

-Travis

(talking to my rents on the webcam)^^

It was a gorgeous day today and we were excited to hit up the beach, snorkel and swim on our day off from the restaurant.

We went to Carambola Resort to soak up the rays and enjoy the day.

We are still staying in the second floor apartment as we are waiting for our studio to be repaired…however, hurricane guston is on our heels so we are thinking we wont be moved back in any time soon.

Wilson is MIA. We went to grab some dinner last night and when we got back he was no where to be found…still have no clue where he could be…We thought he would have been back later last night when we were doing our card workout on the pool porch, but he didnt…. For some sick reason we think our landlord put him in the car and dropped him off some where…its sad because we are constantly thinking of him but in all reality he is a stray and he is use to being able to roam the island freely…hopefully he is alright.

Hurricane Earl wasn’t a disaster compared to our new dog!

First off, Happy birthday Nick and I love you!!

So, the past couple days the town was talking about the hurricane that was passing through. We were a little excited and a little nervous at the same time. I really wanted to take care of the all the precautions before the storm. Our hurricane checklist consisted of, lots of water, can goods, candles, batteries,board up the windows and the card game Uno. We got the groceries with no major issues, besides the menacing long lines at the store ,and went home to board up the house. Of course once we got to our home, we noticed that the boards we were told to put in front of our windows were all about 4 inches too long to fit. We were shit out of luck! We played Tetrus with the boards for about 30 minutes before giving up. We came to the conclusion that if our place could stand through hurricanes in the past it will stand tall tonight.

Before the hurricanes eye came close to us we decided to go to the beach and catch some pictures of the waves and storm rolling in. The waves were rushing back and forth with such force and the rain came down buckets at a time. We really had no clue what we were in store for. As we walked back to our apartment however, we noticed that something was following us. Laura and I turned around to see the same stray dog that ran along Laura’s side a couple days ago. The poor dog was drenched and trying to take cover under some debris and small palms. Our hearts are too big to let the poor animal fight the hurricane alone so we invited him into our house. Of course it took about 20 minutes before our hearts melted and we named him and fed him. His name is Wilson. His name originated because once we introduced him to our Wilson tennis ball he has not let it leave his side, literally.

The wind grew louder and louder and the rain hit the house like small bricks. It got so intense that it knocked out all power and phone service. So now Laura, Wilson and I were huddled together in our studio playing Uno under some candle light. All the while, 4 serious leaks squirted through our wall without us knowing. The rain came so hard it flooded our entire apartment ankle high. Trash buckets were filling up by the seconds and we rushed to try and sweep out gallons and gallons of water. Finally we gave up and consolidated all our belongings onto our bed and fought the winds to  our property managers house. We told Wendy our issue and she advised us to stay in the upper apartment. Laura and I took her up on that offer immedietly and began to transport all of our belongings to the upper apartment in the midst of the hurricane. It was atrocious.

Morning eventually came and the house stayed intact, thank god! We were still with out cell phones or power but this did not bother us because we had something else in mind. We were so excited to take Wilson to the vet to check him for any illness’ or bugs that a stray might carry. We made his appointment for 2:30…so to pass the time we brought him to the beach. He followed along side us the entire time, it was as if he claimed us for his owners already! Afterwards, we drove him to the vet, the entire time we talked about wether keeping him would be the best decision or placing him at the shelter for adoption. At the vet we paid 100.00 dollars to get the full exam. The vet of course came back to us with nothing but terrible news. We were told that he has a heart worm! This meant that if we kept him it was cost us over $100 a month in vet medicine (cant afford this) and if we brought him to the animal shelter they would immediatly put him down! We are now in a pickle and decided to give him a bath, some food and his first heart worm pill and look for a family to adopt the poor guy! As of right now he might become another one of our property strays. Wilson and Pup Pup (the one eyed dog that lives here) will hopefully become friends…and we plan to leave food and water out for him every day…he is sleeping right outside our door as we are posting this…

Sorry we have missed a few days on the blog. We have been really busy with training and work and are finally ready to catch everyone up on our status.

We started training for work on Thursday night. It was a slow night and we just shadowed two other waiters, Sam and Eric. We had our own sections on Friday night and HOLY SHIT…we have a new found respect for waitresses and waiters. It is easily the hardest job. I had 8 tables at one point and we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We had a few mishaps. Travis spilled a jug of ice water all over the first table he started to serve and my last table of the night a lady ordered a side baked potato and asked me for some butter….we have a section in the fridge for butter and sour cream and now i know there is also mayo in there too…yes, I gave the lady mayo w/ her baked potato…she did not enjoy that much…

After work and all the hustle and bussle we were relieved and pumped to have some cash in our pockets. We ended up going to a restaurant with our cowokers called Tutto Bene. It is set up just like an Olive Garden during hours, but after hours it becomes an underground ping pong tournament. The reining champ was there, the best player on the island…and he ran the table for almost 15 games straight….

Travis finally got his name in the tourney and he was facing Aarron, the ping pong legend haha…whatta knowwww Travis took it to him…beat him 21-15!! He kicked hiss ass!!! I was so excited…its pathetic how competitive it was so of course I got right in that in cheering for my man haha!!!

We worked Sunday brunch today and it was extremely busy but a lot smoother than Friday night. We both walked out with a little over $100. We are about to have some grub with our neighbors than head to the rainforest for the end of the month bash at the Domino Club!!!

We are also expecting Hurricane Earl to hit us some time tomorrow….we went grocery shopping today and picked up the necessities…soooo if you dont hear from us for a few days its b/c we are without power!!!

love and miss you all!!!

Laura + Travis

KRISTINA and NICK BOOK UR TICKET!!!

Travis’s computer shit the bed and it looks like it could be his hard drive. Today we spent driving around the island to try and find a computer repair shop. We came across a few but the price of a simple disgnostic was crazy. Hopefully it will get figured out soon because he is going insane without being able to have his own computer to play poker on and what not.

5′Oclock came around and its a Wednesday, sooo we went to the Deep End Bar and Grill for $5 entree night. After, we walked to the end of the pier and threw the fishing line in. The water was pretty choppy  so we had no luck tonight.

First shift at the Blue Water Terrace tomorrow night! Should be interesting : )

Laura

well, my computer shit the bed. So I am using Laura’s to write this today. Today we checked out Cane Bay. Saw some really cool fish, neon blue with florescent yellow dots on them. After that, we made a pb and j then went to the Brew pub for drinks. It was 2 fer Twosdays. Then we went home, I turned on my computer and it was broken. Tried fixing it for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we are going to go to fishing. Thanks bye.

-Travis (annoyed.)