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!

 The last couple of months have been a little overwhelming and consuming- let me bring you up-to-date:  right before we went on our vacation to CA we lost our cat Ming to FIV (this was heartbreaking), the apartment we had lined-up fell through, and in a mad scramble we found another rental. We're still living on the North Side of St Thomas and our new spacious 3 bedroom apartment  has an amazing porch, a yard surrounded in fruit trees, and the landlord is a wonderful couple that have made us feel very welcomed (did you notice the handmade broom above? They made that for us!)
Oh, we also adopted a kitten from the St Thomas Human Society, we're calling her Cleo and are completely in love.
With everything unpacked I should have more time to share here on this blog and if you're in the neighborhood please stop by to say hello!!!