About that trip (finally)

Our trip to the Virgin Islands was initiated by my friend who passed away in December. She spent her honeymoon there and promised my daughter that they would snorkel in St. John before graduation. As she was dying, she decided she wanted her ashes spread in the sea off St. John and that my daughter should be there for it. So what else could we do?
I was apprehensive from the beginning. Rtg doesn't travel well and this trip was so emotionally charged that I wasn't sure that I had the reserves to keep us all even keeled. Luckily, my friend's husband made nearly all the arrangements. We just had to show up.
Three fourths of St. John is national park, which means it is largely unbuilt and under-populated, which is nice. We could go to beaches and snorkel and not see many other people, which was nice. We rented a house for all of us so we cooked at home and watched movies and did homework, but mostly we sat on the patio and watched the boats go by. It was very restful. My friend is still greiving for his wife and as a result, the conversation flowed more freely into issues of values and creed and legacy than it usually does.

Here are some photos:
This is the view off the patio



And of a beach

And of a still soggy family

There were many things historic, geologic, and meteorologic that surprised me, but the greatest thing was my willingness, after having discussed the real meaning-of-life stuff, to start disassociating from my stuff. There is a large live-aboard community on the east end of the island who make it sound so easy.

Back on our heads

We are back to our work-a-day groove after a rest in the Virgin Islands. I had never been to the tropics before and was aprehensive about what I might find, but now I know:
I like it. More about that trip next time.

The YA novel "Dicey's Song" mentions a grave stone inscribed, "Home is the hunter home from the hill and the sailor home from the sea." Or something like that, which has always stuck in my mind. We returned from our trip to the "worst storm of the year" according to the TV & news. There has been a good bit of rain, but then it is NOVEMBER. Should we be surprised?
Anyway, back from vacation and back to work. The holidays are upon us, which means rtg and I are gearing up for our annual bout of holiday industry. We are the people who work during others' recreation.
I started sailing lessons two weeks ago. So far they have been very wet and very cold (November, right?), but also very exciting and anxiety inducing. This last lesson was the first time I had the greater sense that I could do this by myself. With a lot more practice, of course, but soon. Hopefully there will be more to say about this soon, too.

Abandoned blog recovered (for now)

Working and traveling, exploring the joys of geometry, cooking and teaching, learning a little about the world (and more than I wanted to about myself).
Here's a traveling photo from St. John: