In the last few weeks, I've heard there has been an outbreak of Dengue Fever in the US Virgin Islands. Dengue is a mosquito born disease that is extremely painful, you can read about the symptoms HERE.

The way that we control mosquitos around our house is with a Mosquito Larvae Trap (MLT). It's a really simple device that contains water where the mosquitos lay their eggs in the evenings and during the day the solar arm is activated and exposes the eggs to the sun where they dry out and die. The only thing you need to do is make sure it always has water and is placed in the sunshine. The other really important factor is to make sure that it is the only water source available around your home so that the mosquitos will be attracted to it. We have had it for a couple of years now and highly recommend that everyone gets one!

 I wish everyone with Dengue a speedy recovery!!!

You can order your own MLT on this site HERE.

One of my favorite things about the USVI is that all beaches are open to the public. Last weekend was my first time visiting Botany Bay Beach and Sandy Beach located on the west side of St Thomas. There is a bit of a walk to get to these beaches if you're not apart of The Preserve Botany Bay community, but the walk is well worth it!


 The above photos are of Sandy Beach. The waves where amazing the day we where there and perfect for buggy boarding.


 This next group of photos are of Botany Beach. Botany Beach was lined in rocks and coral. It also had a little beach house with a swimming pool and old stone ruins. This is where the surfers came to enjoy the waves.

I made these photos the other day while I was waiting for a sailboat wedding at the Caneel Bay dock. Have you ever been to Caneel Bay Beach? It was just a lovely morning and I wasn't the only one enjoying the sunshine; the bird above was sunning himself! I've never seen a bird hold a pose like this for such an extended length of time, it was mesmerizing!

After our road trip in California we stopped in San Francisco for a few days to spoil ourselves and get to know the city. I've heard all my life that I would love to live in San Francisco, so I just had to see why it was so wonderful. We stayed at the Serrano Hotel and the above photo was the view from our room. The hotel was really wonderful but the neighborhood left something to be desired.
Please click below to see what we did while on vacation:

The furthest south we made it on our California VW Bus Road Trip was to Big Sur. Have you ever been? It was my first time and I found it extremely beautiful and breathtaking. We where not as prepared as we should have been for camping in Big Sur - we had no plans on where we where going to stay and once we where there we realized that there isn't any cell service in Big Sur.  A lot of the campgrounds are first come first serve unless you made reservations months ago - this means that you need to be at the campground at 8:00 am to claim your spot (this was a shocker to us all.)

The first night we spent was at a campground in the mountains (no ocean view) and woke up early to get the best spot at Kirk Creek Campground for the next night. The morning drive down the mountain to the ocean was out of control (this is where I made the photos above the fog.) Kirk Creek is really an beautiful location right on the ocean. I found it freezing cold in Big Sur from all the fog (guess I'm use to the Caribbean weather) and was happy that this was our last night of camping for our road trip.

Next stop San Francisco!!!

PS You might also like this post about the VW Bus we rented for our trip.

 One of my favorite things about our new apartment are the many fruit trees that surround it. My favorite Caribbean fruit is the Sugar Apple (first photo) it taste a lot like apple pie! We have so many avocados that we're giving them away, we also have soursop, limes, mangos, plums, papayas, and coffee all in season. I've also spotted banana trees and cashew trees that are not yet producing at this time. I can't wait for the seasons to change to find more trees!
When I first moved to the Caribbean I had envisioned lot's of fresh fruit growing everywhere and I've finally found it!

The furthest north we made it in CA on our road trip was Calistoga where we spent a night camping. We where in Calistoga for one reason - Indian Springs! We where in need of a little pampering on our vacation and thought that sitting in a volcanic ash  mud baths and swimming in an Olympic-sized mineral pool was the way to do it in style!

Indian Springs is a resort that has an amazing spa that I would highly recommend checking out if you're in the neighborhood. I regret that I didn't get any photographs of the mud baths; I was in relaxation mode.

The experience I had was wonderful: after being immersed in volcanic hot mud you will soak in a mineral tub where they serve ice water with cucumbers, than a moment in a eucalyptus and lavender filled steam room, and lastly they wrap you in a soft flannel blanket and you take a nap in a private room (it's amazing!!!) Eric and I then met up at the Olympic-sized mineral pool to eat lunch together and plan our drive to Napa.

 PS Another CA spot that sounds amazing!