Easing Off the Bridge

18 February 2015

Long absence from writing

It has been two weeks since I last wrote, which may well be the longest gap I have had since starting to blog almost three years ago. Although it had taken me a number of days to get into the groove of St. John this year, by the end the trip seemed far too brief. Although we were sad to see the trip end, we were anxious to return to New York and Boston and our homes and family there.

We flew back to Boston on Thursday February 5^th and fortunately had some time with both daughters’ families over Sabbath. But by Sunday, when we headed back to New York, neither of us was feeling well, and we spent the following week almost completely unable to do anything at all. As I am finally starting to come back around I have discovered that we are not the only folks struggling with some nasty viruses. We have been back in New York for 9 days and I have yet to walk out the front door.

I have a list of topics about which I plan to write. But for today, I am just going to share two things.

Thanks to our daughter Simmie for sharing this first item with us. It would be funny but I fear most Boston area residents are having a hard time laughing at this point.

The second item was one we just happened to catch on the CBS Nightly News broadcast yesterday. We lived in Sharon, MA from the summer of 1986 until the spring of 1991. During that time there was a young couple with whom we were friends. They later divorced and we largely fell out of touch with them over the years since. Elizabeth went to medical school and has now also embarked on a career in local politics. The name and face were quite familiar the minute we saw this piece. Now I just need to figure out how to get back in touch with her.

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/oregon-set-to-crack-down-on-unvaccinated-children

Stay warm!

Love,

Rebecca

04 February 2015

Sunrise, sunset

Just to close the loop on yesterday’s question, thanks to my friend Randy, who lives in Hawaii, for the following information:

This is a yacht that came into the Puako area a while back. There was another one similar to it a year or so before that. Both of them were capable of making the crossing from the mainland (either US or Asian/European side: one was owned by a Russian and the other by an Italian) to Hawaii. I think all the stuff on the "mast" is navigation, radar and communication (including TV) equipment.

One fabulous thing about being here is that the sky is so fascinating, with magnificent sunrises and an amazing view of more stars than you can even imagine. We do not have the equipment photographic to capture these as well as professionals, but last night was the perfect combination of full moon and no clouds, and even these amateur shots are pretty cool.

Today is our last full day in paradise. We are so not ready to come back to the cold!

Love,

Rebecca

02 February 2015

Sure beats me

These two pictures are of the same vessel, one head-on and the other a side view. Do any of you have any idea what this is? It would look like a regular yacht (you see an amazing of them down here in these waters) but for that weird thing sticking out the top.

We saw this today off Francis Beach. We had been reluctant to go there because it is often very buggy, but perhaps since this past week has been so dry, the bugs were not a problem and we had a terrific shady spot on the beach all day.

Love,

Rebecca

30 January 2015

Hurrying home for Shabbat, St. John style

Have a great weekend and stay warm – we surely will.

Love,

Rebecca

29 January 2015

Beware of tsunamis

When our daughters were young, perhaps pre-teenagers, they and their friends would sometimes sit with their friends at our Sabbath table engaged in a rather morbid discussion on the topic of whether they would prefer to die (or kill someone) with a knife or with a gun. In light of the horrible weather we are missing in New England, I was reminded of this when I saw the following new sign along the roads of St. John, where the dangers of weather events are quite different but perhaps no less real:

For as long as we have been vacationing on St. John, there has been this little shack selling Columbo yogurt smoothies along the road towards the area of the island where we always stay. But for one reason or another we have never stopped there until yesterday. Here is Barry with his berry smoothie; I, of course, went for the peanut butter and chocolate.

This next picture is of the new grocery store in Coral Bay, the part of the island where we stay. When we first started coming to St. John, there was just one place to buy groceries in the Coral Bay area, a little hole in the wall called Love City Market. Barry and I always suspected that a lot more than groceries changed hands there. There were two larger stores on the eastern side of St. John, about a 30-40 minute drive from where we stay, Starfish Market and Dolphin Market. A few years ago, a small market called Lily’s opened in Coral Bay. Their stock was an improvement on Love City but it was still limited. We arrived this time to find that the spot where Lily’s had been is now inhabited by a newer and enlarged grocery store with a relocated Dolphin Market. This market has a reasonable selection of food and even some produce, although the best produce is still at Starfish. The new Dolphin Market is in the same little complex as Aqua Bistro, one of the places that has live music most nights.

The next picture is Hawksnest Beach, where we spent Wednesday.

You can see that our donkey friends are still hanging out here.

And this last picture is Cinnamon Beach. We have always loved Cinnamon but it is a rather long walk from the closest place that Barry can drop me off, so last year we did not go there at all. Wanting to see it again, we decided today to go for it, and with a bunch of stops I managed to make it. It was definitely worth the effort. It really is a beautiful beach, and is less calm than most of the other beaches so there is a wonderful breeze. We had a lovely day.