Our Apartment

The 

I figured that I would show you all pictures of the place that we are staying so you can drool and be jealous ;).  

This is the table.  I love the shape of the table and the look, but do you want to know a sad piece of information?  The tall blue vase on the table does not have a bottom, I know, sad, so now I can't fill it with water or anything exciting.  

This is the couch and beautiful coffee table.  The couch is really amazingly deep with usually makes for a really comfortable couch but since the back on this one is so low I have a really hard time getting comfortable on it.

This is what the living room looks like standing at the front door.  Those doors at the end open out onto the patio and from there you can walk to the pool or beach.  During the day we usually leave the doors open. 

Mom and Dad's room, everyday the cleaning lady will come and do a beautiful job making all of our beds and making me feel completely spoiled, so I have zero responsibilities LIKE ZERO, Mom is doing my laundry and I left most of my stuff at Katie's so my room doesn't get messy and the cleaning lady makes my bed everyday.   Also the door at the end opens onto the patio as well.

Mom and Dad's bathroom area, it is almost as big as there bedroom! The have a massive tub, two sinks, a shower, and a separate little room for the toilet, crazy talk.

This is part of the kitchen, there are a lot of ants here (although I don't really think it is a problem with a dirty gross place, but just the nature of the island) so we have to wash all of our dishes right after we use them which is why it looks so nice and neat here.

Other part of the kitchen, get this, the stove is a touch screen kind of dealio.  I know, wonky, also the stove and oven and washing machine and pretty much everything in this house beeps at you when it doesn't like what you are doing, so when mom is cooking if she leans up against the oven it starts beeping. If you leave the washing machine door open, it starts beeping.  They just beep all the time so that is a little annoying, and we still can't really figure out how to work the oven, oh well.  

The cabinets in this place are AWESOME!  Look at the beautiful organization and neatness, so pretty.  

This is my bedroom, Look! A color other than blue!  I love the massive bed, I have mad it my personal goal to take up as much of the bed every night so far I am rocking that goal.

This is the guest bedroom that we mostly use to set up our drying rack and dry all of our clothes after washing them.  

This is the patio outside, we spend a lot of time out here, these chairs are more comfortable than the couch in my opinion, and at night we have an average of about seven lizards that come out and crawl around on the ceiling eating bugs, I think that is pretty cool to see :D.  

This is the little backyard area off the patio 

 The short walk to the pool

 The pool/ocean

 Mom and Dad Chilaxin near the pool.

 So this pool is pretty much the best thing ever, on the deep side it is about up to my chin and the shallow side is a perfect depth for small children.  Also these bed things are surprisingly comfy and make great jumping off spots.  

 This is on the other side of the pool looking out onto the ocean

 And here is some little snipits of the beach where we are.  There are a lot of little poisonous sea urchins in the water so I have mostly spent time on the beach or walking on the rocks.  

The beach is really amazing because you can just pick any spot and look for something cool, you are sure to find something.  

I looked in this spot and found...

 This awesome looking coral thing.

 Look at all those snails!

WEllllll we are having a great time and I love it here but I am very ready to get back home to my people, that is the sad thing about going to such a cool place at the end of such a long trip.  I am still enjoying myself and the beautiful ocean.  

Hiking Black River Gorge

So we went hiking in the Black River Gorge today.  We get there and are trying to figure out where to go and what path to hike on blah blah blah.  We start by looking for the promised visitor center, we follow a German couple to a building that looks like it might be what we want but upon further inspection it looked more like a prison under construction.  By that time Mom has taken the lead (surprise, surprise) and the couple is following us.  We walk to another building and walk in, there is a map on the wall and a few trail descriptions in this little tiny room.  We are thinking that there is no one to explain it to us when a man walks in and starts telling us about the different trails.  After looking at a few different trails we decide on one that is only 3 kilometers one way and ends in a waterfall and bonus the little plaque about it says that it is only moderate difficulty. So we start off!  

Dad immediately goes off way ahead of us, a man on a mission trying to find the well marked trail that we were promised.  Even though the path we were following was wide and easy to see we weren't sure if we were walking down the intended trail.  It is kind of hard to see in this picture but the road was very rocky and a little hard to keep your footing, I was very glad that I had nice sandals (thanks Mrs. Kristy!)

We continued walking, a little ways on we had to cross over a bridge that had water flowing over it so my feet got wet, once again the sandals were a blessing.  I thought  "oh if this is all the little man ment when he said you have to cross the river a few times this is no big deal!  It is actually kind of cool and refreshing."  Oh innocent Celina, you're so cute.  

 Stopped for a kiss and water break.

We found a trail marker and headed off on a separate path taking us to the trail we were wanting to be on.  Before long we were walking up stream right through the water, it was a little hard to keep your footing but not that bad.  

 After a lot of hiking up hill through the woods we had to actually start crossing the river.  We had to cross quite a few times during the adventure.

 One of the places we had to cross.

 Ahh the cool water (rocks are actually quite comfy if you can find a good nook to settle your bum into)

 The trail was a lot of climbing down steep banks into rocky water.

 Although the rocks were pretty hard to maneuver through it was still fun.

 Some of the beautiful pathways we got to walk through.

I think it is a sign from God ;).  

 We also crossed through a few overgrown viny areas.

 Lots and lots of big rocks.

 Some of the view through the trees during part of the adventure.

So after climbing up and up and up and crossing the river a bunch of times Mom and I just sat down on some rocks in the middle of a stream ready to give up all hope of seeing the waterfall.  Dad (the goal oriented one), couldn't just give up without a fight so we waited while he went ahead to see if it was near by.  After about twenty minutes he came back and said that there was no hope in sight.  So we decided we had seen enough beauty and it was time to head back.  The trip there (where ever there was) took about an hour and thirty minutes.  The trip back down was a lot shorter (only like and hour) and it was so much easier.  After we started to figure out how to easily maneuver around the rocks it was easier, and down is better than up.  When we got back to the main path which on the beginning of the hike I thought was awful with all the rocks it felt like a walk in the park. We got to see some really beautiful things and it wasn't super sunny and my feet were always wet so I didn't even sweat very much.  I just have to say I hate mosquitoes, they are awful! Plus the bites are going to stay with you for a while after the trip, get dirty? Oh well you can just shower when you get back, get tired? oh well you can take a nap and rest later, get wet? Oh well you will dry, slip while crossing the river and break a leg? slap a cast on that baby and move on with life, but get bitten by a mosquito? That is going to be with you for DAYS! And they were EVERYWHERE!  The bites seemed to not itch so much after swimming in the pool though so that is good.       

After the hike we decided to drive up the a different area to see a different view.  WOW!  This was just on the side of the road! I know if I was a better photographer and had a better camera you might be able to actually see the beauty that I got to see.  But even with my poopy skills and lake of equipment you can still see the beauty shinning through!      

By the time all of those things were done we were hungry and tired and dirty and hungry and thirsty and hungry.  

We had to stop by the grocery store on the way home and bam right behind the parking lot is the beautiful mountain.  This island is so beautiful!  Yeah I know I didn't even hold my camera straight to take this picture oh well.  

Well that's all!  I should be posting soon some pictures of the place we are staying and the views that we have here!