A relaxing day in the sun with Tyler was just what this almost-doctor ordered!
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Fall Foliage Road Trip
Backdating this post a few months (currently writing from the middle of the Polar Vortex!), we had such a fun trip and an amazing introduction to a season non-existent in both Grenada and California that I just had to share.
We took a road trip through the Hudson River Valley just north of the city. We started the day with craft coffee and delicious breakfast and then spent a few hours driving through trees painted the most beautiful colors. It was sunny, bright blue skies, and the perfect crisp, chill fall air that I personally love the most. After some adventures, hiking, leave stomping, and my need to collect a leave in every color to take home – we stopped for beer and cheese plates as all date day afternoons should comprise of.
100,000 Miles!
Later that day, after our afternoon pitstop – we hit a pretty big milestone! We hit the 100,000 mile mark on the ol’ Escape! It was such a fun moment (even more so for Tyler) and was documented with way more pictures than ever need to be taken of one car. But, we are excited to think of all the many more adventures this car will likely take us on.
Just a fun filled day with my favorite guy! Not often we get to take whole days together in the midst of our crazy schedules, so it is always a treat!
That One Time I Ditched Pathophys Studying to Eat Dinner on a Boat
Well, the title pretty much says it all. But, Friday last week my brain declared that it had had enough of school, studying, first aid charts, etc. It went on strike and left my body alone in the library unable to concentrate.
Solution – throw caution to the wind, ditch my school work and responsibilities, and go on an impossibly fun date with my hubby.
A few bays over is a boating marina, Le Phare Bleu, that is actually quite cute and really nice compared to much of Grenada. It was much larger than I expected, I think that was most of it. I can see why the rich boaters spend a lot of time there. But, they have a boat that they serve dinner on a few nights a week and Tyler and I had placed it on our short list of places we wanted to try out before leaving Grenada. Due to a wrong turn, we missed seeing the peak of the gorgeous sunset over the water, but it was still amazing. The place is all light with twinkly Christmas lights, the dinner was amazing, and the atmosphere quaint and quiet. After a slow dinner of drinks, dinner, the most amazing dessert – our spirits and minds were relaxed and refreshed. And, I had a supremely productive Saturday of working 8am to about midnight so I would say I more than made up for my break. Sometimes, taking time off is the most productive thing to do!
Post-Exam Fun
So Term 4 is a beast! An unruly, nearly untameable, beast. So when our first of 3 exam weeks (yes, 3!) finished last week Tyler and I tried to make the best of it. We dearly wanted to go to my favorite place on the island, Belmont, but they are always closed on Saturdays. So instead we decided to check a few more places to see off the ol’ bucket list and headed out to the River Antoine Rum Distillery and to the Old Pearl’s Airport. Since we would be driving all the way up to practically the north of the Island anyway, we made it a round trip and had lunch in Sauteurs and then drove back down the Caribbean side.
Pearls Aiport
We attempted to go to the Rivers first, but while trying to find the correct turn-off we actually happened upon the old airport. Which was nice since we didn’t know how to get to the old airport anyways. Way back when the school first opened, the airport was actually located fairly close to Grenville, which if you look at a map is quite far away from where we live (you may reference map on the side of the screen). So students used to have to take a bus or taxi the one hour plus drive to get to True Blue. Of course, as travel to Grenada has gone up a new airport was needed, built, and is now the “huge” airport that it is.
But, the old airport still has some old planes, the real reason for wanting to go and check it out. It was actually really cool. They are just there, becoming part of the landscape. No idea why they have been just left there, but one of them we almost didn’t even see since the brush has grown completely through it and around it.
Unsuccessfully trying to feed the cows
I personally was enamored by all of the cows just grazing in the grass, but that is just a ‘me’ thing. I was so sad when I couldn’t get the little babies to let me come pet them. Not even when I tempted them with grass. It was neat to see the old, decaying planes though. I was originally hoping we would be passing by the airport around sunset time hoping to just take a ton of photos, and we could play with all the fun settings on my new camera and Ty and I could even take some photos of us, but as it was high noon and bright, that didn’t quite happen. But I still got a few good ones worth sharing.
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After our little airport detour, we got back on the road and headed up to Rivers – we did eventually find the correct turn.
A beautiful church we passed on the drive.
River Antoine is like the oldest rum distillery on the island, and we are pretty sure the oldest in the Caribbean. They use a large water wheel to power much of what they do which is just so neat. And it is certified organic! Believe it or not, they make around 100,000 bottles or rum that are sold only in Grenada a year! The population of Grenada is only about 100,000 people, and this is the smallest of 3 rum distilleries on the island and they are still making enough for 1 bottler per man, woman and child. Crazy!
We got to take a short tour of the facility and see how the make the rum, the way it is all piped around underground, and how it is fermented. Rivers only makes the overproof rum with their ‘weak’ stuff still being 69%. That is the lowest alcohol content that can legally be imported into the U.S. Their normal strength stuff is 79% which is the lowest that is legally allowed to be flown due to flammability concerns. The Carriacou rum distillery makes their rum at 89% which is just insane! And all of it is drank on that island too because it can only be transported somewhere else by boat.
But anyways, it was neat. We even got a sample. HAHA. The rum itself actually has a nice flavor for white rum, but lets just say that we will be using half of what we normally would every time we put it in our punch.
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After our tour we were ready for lunch so we headed up to Sauteurs to this little restaurant owned by this British couple. A delicious lunch while overlooking the northern shores and some of Grenada’s cays made us feel refreshed and relaxed.
Then it was time to embark upon the journey home. This roadtrip around the country we came prepared with a Relevant podcast to listen to, one our favorite driving activities and then of course and excellent CD. With all the windows and down and music blaring, driving along the windy coastal roads is just so much fun! Our little clown car loves it too, we think he is sad he only drives from our house to school most days.
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We did actually make one last small detour on our way home. We really wanted to check our Port Louis Marina as we keep saying we will go, but never do. Sadly, I think for off-season most of the stuff was closed down for renovations for the impending busy tourist season. So we really just walked around a bit and took some pictures. But that is okay, we will have to come again. We have heard rumors of a coffee shop. But it is so nice and right on the water overlooking the Carrenage and St. George’s so it would be a perfect spot to do lunch one day too!
Post-Exam Relaxation (Alt Title: Tyler and Stefanie’s Weekend of Crazy Bus Stories)
The epitome of post-exams: cocktails along the perfect blue sea
Another exam week has come and gone. I am pretty sure that school is measured in exam weeks, not terms. Sure, 5 term until I leave Grenada. But what I really see is 5 midterm weeks and 5 final weeks. My life revolves around the exam cycle. The lull right after exams end, the continual work in the inbetween, the intense seeming 24-hour blur of studying the couple weeks right before and then the amazing feeling of relief the minute you put the pencil down and hand in the scantron of the last exam. And no matter how aweful the week was, it always never seems half as bad the weekend after (and certainly not once you receive good marks)
With each round of exams it gets both easier and harder. The material gets harder. There are more complex things to learn, more diseases and drugs to memorize, more material covered, and of course more to integrate. But it also gets easier. I get better at it. I learn how to pace myself better, how to motivate myself. I learn what work to do throughout the term so I enter exams in a better place. I learn how early to start so I am not rushing and cramming at the end. And most importantly for me, with each exam week Tyler learns how to be a more supportive husband. Living with a med student during exam week is not easy. I don’t even like being around my fellow students during exams sometimes. But he handles my stress better, helps me relax better, calms my nerves better, and learns not to take my short temper to seriously when I have only had 4 hours of sleep and one cup of coffee. And I too learn to maybe lay off the stress-induced rants about the dishes or curtains, or really whatever it is that I feel so frustrated by. We work better as a unit, learning to have a little grace and to try and bite the tongue when needed.
I am currently in the post-midterm lull. Exams finished last week and I am quite happy with how I did. However, trying to recouperate about 3 weeks of shortened nights and living in a continued state of stress and busy is hard to do in a weekend. It seems quite cruel to give us but a mere two days off. But alas, Tyler and I sought to make last weekend fun and relaxing. And as Tyler said, he was just happy to have me around again and to not have to spend any time in the study halls.
Friday started off with me and my study buddy getting massages. We have now decided that this will be a post-exam tradition and are pretty sure we will book now for after finals. So relaxing! And it gave Tyler a chance to finish up his work day without my distraction. Friday night we decided to go to dinner at a nice restaurant up near Grand Etang called the Spice Basket. We had never been there before but it was supposed to be a nice local food restaurant that forms part of the cultural center of Grenada. In true Tyler and Stefanie fashion, we decided we would take the local buses up there (changing buses in downtown and all) instead of taking a taxi. And of course it was rainy, we never get good weather when we want it. So we headed into St. George’s at about 6:30pm on a Friday night to be the only 2 white people there (seriously!) and to stand in the crowds of people waiting for buses to take them home.
Now I have long complained about how pushy the students are when getting on the school buses. People push and shove and rush the bus, and it is simply ridiculous. Well, apparently I hadn’t seen anything yet. The way the locals behave, I am surprised that people don’t wind up injured. After about the 4th bus came by heading the way we needed to go, we managed to get on. And naturally, we were the “odd white people sitting in back that wanted to get off way before everyone else did.”
The restaurant was truly lovely. We were the only ones there, likely due to the rain, but it was still lovely. The food was amazing, the drinks beautiful and tasty and we had a great time. And had great service since we were the only 2 customers for all 5 servers that were there that night. We loved the food and discovered a new local favorite, Callaloo lasagna. I think I am going to have to try my hand at whipping one up. Maybe in time to impress Tyler’s parents when they come this summer.
Our trip back was naturally no less adventurous than the first one. We can sum it up by saying that we were impressed that our driver was driving a stick shift in the pouring rain, drinking a beer, and watching music videos. I know, you are all probably terrified for our safety but like it or not, that is typical around here.
Saturday was a day of relaxing and adventuring. We went out to breakfast at the most adorable French Cafe! We love going out to breakfast, but it is not a typical thing to do around here. This is now my new favorite place, we will be going back for sure. The food and the coffee was delicious. I have never had better french toast in my life. And Tyler told me that he will by me the sweet Le Crusset ramekins so that I can make him the eggs en cocotte he so loved once we are back in the States. After a delicious and filling breakfast we decided to head to St. George’s to walk around and explore.
A delicious Latte!
The best french toast!
It turned out to be a weekend full of crazy bus experiences because while riding in the bus to town, he suddenly started blaring his horn, sped up and zoomed through traffic the wrong way down the one way street and powered up this stepp shortcut up the mountain that leads to town. It wasn’t until I recognized the route from taking it when I go to the hospital that I realized where we were going. It turned out that once of the passengers was having an asthma attack so the bus turned into an ambulance. And once we got the the ER, the weirdness continued as some random man came up to the driver begging him to take back this shirtless SGU student. It is against the law in Grenada to be in a car without a shirt so the bus driver graciously decided to take the guy, who likely was brought there in some sort of post-exam drunken stuppor, home. The guy swore someone at the hospital stole his short, so it was quite an amusing scene.
Once we made it to town, the real fun part began. There are so many little stores and we never have time to just walk around. Our day ended up being not only fun to walk around and see new things, but we came home with the most beautiful, huge canvas painting. We had been talking about buying a painting by a local artist from the art gallery for a while, and when we saw this both one we both died! It is all wrapped up now, but hopefully it will have a spot to be displayed in our new apartment and we can post a pic then.
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Saturday ended with some sunset coctails at Dodgy Dock and watching a movie over some of my homemade taco bowls. Tyler missed my cooking I think. It was great! While Sunday was mostly cleaning and all that productive stuff, it was great as always to forget about school.
Thanks for all your prayers during exam week! It paid off, I did great. 🙂
Road Trip Around the Country
Last weekend marked the end of midterms! After a week of studying nearly nonstop, I needed a break and both of us wanted to not only get far away from the campus study halls, but far away from our side of the island. So Tyler rented a car and we decided that on Saturday we would drive to the other side of our country (our little tiny island of a country) to the north side and see what kind of good stuff was over there.
Tyler, in all of his super awesomeness, found a sweet little resort inn for us to have lunch at. So we loaded up the rental car and braved the Grenadian roads and the left-hand driving to start our adventure to the north side. The little touristy resort “road map” of Grenada is in fact the official driving map and we did our best to follow the yellow road up the Atlantic coastline until we reached our destination – and we managed to do so with remarkable success considering there are maybe 15 road signs in the entire country. Oh, and this was made even more interesting by the fact that we had a left-hand drive car too!
A little view of the northern cities.
Driving was actually really fun! You have to honk your horn when going around corners, which is absurdly hilarious. We got it down after a while. And it is funny how many goats you see walking along the side of the road or when you get to a fork in a road and really have no idea which way to go because there are no signs. But every time we could see the beautiful ocean it was so great. After about 90 minutes of driving up the coast on what was a spectacular Saturday here, we got to the resort. It is owned by a British couple so we had some British cider and some legit British food for lunch while sitting in this super cute little restaurant overlooking a perfectly crystal clear ocean with all of Grenada’s smaller islands visible right off the coast.
After our delicious lunch, we just checked out the area a little and admired the view a little while longer. They had some sweet lounge chairs on their pool deck and we spent some time admiring the view and relaxing and enjoying a whole day in while we did not have to do anything. No schedule, no agenda, just fun and relaxation.
Isn't that view just spectacular?
After lunch we started on our way to Bathway beach, which is a locals beach on the northern Atlantic side of the island that Tyler had read about. So we got back into the car, opened the sun roof and all of the windows, turned up the sweet driving CD we burned (so 90’s right?) and traversed some more roads.
On our way we saw the spot for Carib’s leap, which is a historical site of where the native Caribs committed suicide when the Island was under French control. We had heard about it and really wanted to see it. It was not nearly as impressive as we thought, but there was a sweet memorial and a beautiful lookout. However, it was kinda at the end of the cemetery so we were glad we went in midday because walking through a cemetery at night is just way too weird.
After our little detour at Carib’s leap, we managed to make it to Bathway beach. We were at first confused by the no swimming signs, but soon learned by the help of a passing local that we were just not supposed to swim beyond the rocky ridge that was a little bit off-shore. The waves crashing over the rocks made floating and swimming around here a lot of fun. We certainly enjoyed it. And after our little beach swim we decided to partake in the single most common Grenadian tradition, drinks from a local rum shop. These things are everywhere and are open at any and all times. So, the nice lady who had a little wooden shack right on the sand made us some drinks which we enjoyed while admiring the water and the waves.
To end our night we decided that we would drive down the Caribbean side, thereby effectively driving around the entire island, and watch the sunset and just enjoy our country. We had a few funny experiences, one of which being the funny local Grenadian guy that took us to see the rock carvings at this random fisherman’s beach. The views were breathtaking, even if the rock drawings were less than impressive. But apparently best on the whole island!
After that little stop we pretty much drove straight home. It still takes over an hour to drive from north to south so we got to see the entire sunset along the peaceful seaside road. We even stopped for some roasted corn being sold on the side of the road, which was unexpectedly delicious.
All in all, we had a blast. We have learned that our little made up adventures are always the best. Tyler and I had flashbacks to our first roadtrip together we made last summer where we went border to border along the west coast. Hard to believe that we traversed an entire country in a single day when then we spent 2 weeks going through only 3 states. Makes the sheer size difference of our new home quite real. We look forward to possible getting a car sometime in the spring and then we can take more trips like this and see more that Grenada has to offer. We have quite a few things on our bucket list we want to see and do anyways.
Sheer Perfection!