one step closer...

please join me in a HUGE sigh of relief.............

Lee got his USMLE results!!!
and he passssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssed!
but of course he didn't just pass, he did amazing and I am so so so proud of him.

Now we wait some more.
My life is all about waiting.
Any day now SGU can tell us where we will be going for clinical rotations and I cannot wait!
Then we will begin the apartment and job search immediately!!

{I plan on doing a post about USMLE prep/tips soon when I can get Lee to give me some pointers}

This past week we headed south {not quite as far south as I would have liked} to Georgia to visit my brother and his family and made a fun little trip out of it!  We saw everything between Ohio and Georgia.
I'm not sure anyone has a much fun as Lee and I do together. 
This week was perfect.
Then on Wednesday morning we got his test results and it became a celebration!!
I love having my husband back.
for now anyway...

I want to do a post about all the stuff we did on our trip, because this is sorta like a travel blog, yea?
But for now I'll just share a few pictures.... I need an excuse to blog more anyway.

Carriacou & Tobago Cays Breakdown

so after seeing my posts of day 1, 2, and 3 in Carriacou and the Cays I know you're all planning your trips!

Here are some things you might find helpful:

Ospry Ferry to Carriacou - round trip $160EC per person.  Runs twice daily, except on Sunday.  There is no baggage checks or anything, buy your ticket on the spot, very informal, you just get on and go.  The trip between Grenada and Carriacou is beautiful too! so many islands to see!
SVG Airlines - if you have money and want to go  to the Tobago Cays you should fly into Union Island.  Save yourself the extra boat ride.  you can also fly to Carriacou, but I liked the ferry just fine.

Green Roof Inn - adorable little cottage/inn close to town but far enough to be secluded.  We paid $50us per night, which was a discount after we told her we were poor & that there was no one else going to be renting the rooms anyway. So feel free to barter with them.  You could also have breakfast included if you wanted.  We did not, but I saw it... toast, poached eggs, corn flakes, and coffee.  not worth the extra money.
Ade's Dream Hotel - cheaper hotel but conveniently only had the more expensive rooms open when we were there. yea right.  It is located directly in town so you can step off the ferry and into  your room in about 5 minutes.

Carriacou Tourism Website
Snagg Tours - offers boat from Carriacou to Tobago Cays.  As long as you don't use a man named Clarence you're probably ok.
Things to do in Carriacou

You can also search the travel websites like Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor for other people's experiences and opinions.

About Carriacou:

• It is bigger than you'll expect.  I thought oh whatever we can walk anywhere we want to go.  Not so much.  
• The people are nice.  seriously.  I usually roll my eyes at stuff like this b/c I heard how nice the Grenadians are and I haven't found that to be true for the most part.  I think they are bitter about the medical school or something, but the people in Carriacou were super nice and helpful. 
• They have Reggae Buses like Grenada $2.50 each way 
• Everything closes at dark. 
• Laurena's might be the only place to eat at night in Hillsborough.
• Laurena's might be the only place to get a drink of water after dark too. 
• Laurena's is cheap!  About $15ec for dinner - around $6US

Sandy Island :
 We took a water taxi to Sandy Island.  We just found a man on the beach with a boat and said hey will you take us? We paid him $25EC each. They will try to charge $25US. don't do it.

Tobago Cays:
We tried to find someone on the beach to take us and couldn't find anyone.  So we went to the Ministry of Tourism and they called Curtis at Off the Hook & he called Clarence.  If you can go with Curtis it'd be fine, he has a nice boat, but he was full.  If they say Clarence... run.
They wanted to charge us $400US for the boat for the day, lunch, and drinks.  We ended up paying $600EC, which is about $225US split between all the people on the boat.  So about $55US each.  It was worth it.
I had some other phone numbers for people but they didn't answer for me for an entire week. :/
Be sure to bring your passport.  You're supposed to stop in at Union Island because you're entering St. Vincent, another country, but Clarence didn't bother with this.  We would have probably been in trouble if we had been stopped. 

Other tips:

• We took food with us, but there are grocery stores so you could buy snacks...
• Bring/buy water.  The drinking water in Carriacou is not quite as good as Grenada because they don't have any source of water other than rainfall.  No lakes or rivers like Grenada. 
• Don't plan on anywhere having AC.
• bug spray
• apply more sunscreen than you think you'll need & apply often. 
• There are two banks with ATM machines

So there you go.  Start planning your getaway!

Carriacou Day 3!

On our 3rd and final day on the lovely island of Carriacou we had plans of spending it on Paradise Beach, but our friend Stan was able to haggle an awesome deal for a guy with a boat to take us to Sandy Island, a little spit of sand close to the shore of Paradise beach. 
We had been hearing about the great snorkeling there and I think we had all caught the snorkeling bug by this point and were wanting to see more more more.
It was SO worth the money to go.  It is the most beautiful little island and the snorkeling was great!  We even saw another sea turtle! seriously the highlight of the trip for me because I wasn't expecting to see another one.

amazing snorkeling!

After snorkeling we ate dinner at a local place and we all had chicken platter specials and it was great!  2 pieces of chicken, macaroni pie, salad, and rice for $15ec!
Then we headed back to the Green Roof Inn to clean up and prepare for the 3:30 ferry to take us back to Grenada.
This time we took a much larger ferry and it was such a smooth enjoyable ride.  I could travel like this all the time.

arriving back in the carenage of home sweet Grenada.

I'm also going to do a post of how much stuff cost, who to contact and such, so it'll be a little easier for any of you who are planning your own trip to Carriacou or the Tobago Cays!
seriously. go. tomorrow.

Carriacou & Tobago Cays Day 2

This day was interesting to say the LEAST.
The Tobago Cays is by far the most beautiful place I have ever seen with my own eyes.
read about the first time I went here. 

I wanted to go back with Lee so badly so he could see it and we could experience swimming with sea turtles together! 

Well... the trip to the Cays was definitely an experience.  We thought we were doing the right thing and went to the ministry of tourism in Carriacou and asked about a boat to the Cays and they acted like it was a great operation. drinks, lunch, a nice boat...
no.
Clarence arrived to pick us up, an hour late, in a tiny work boat.  Which was ok.... we wanted to go so badly and it wasn't far.
Once we got into open water it was a different story!! The motor got wet and wasn't working properly and we were going so sloooooow over pretty big waves and getting splashed the entire time.   I couldn't open my eyes because the salt was burning them so badly.  esh. it was nuts.

We finally arrived near Union Island and stopped at the Happy Island BBQ so Clarence could mess with the motor. 
I was so HAPPY to be out of that boat!

Onward towards the island with the turtles!! My only wish of the day!

It was beyond incredible.  We were only in the water for about 5 minutes before we saw a turtle and then we kept seeing them!! We saw about 5 at once!  They are so graceful and pretty moving through the water.

We stayed on this island for a while and then went to Jamesby Island where we had our own private beach and saw some more iguanas.  And the most gorgeous view probably in the entire Caribbean.

Lee and I with the boat we  took across the ocean!

We then went to Palm Island, an island with what seemed to me to be only a resort.  Our driver said it was $700 a night to stay there. craziness. but beautiful!

The next stop was supposed to be back to Happy Island BBQ for dinner, but when we stopped they said they didn't have any food! seriously! haha

So to Union we went in search of some food and found hamburgers and fries for $12EC! an amazing deal.
We headed back to Carriacou in the sunset for another incredibly scary journey across the sea.
This time Clarence not only stopped the boat in the middle of open ocean (which Lee said was bad bad bad) to take the motor APART he also asked me to drive the boat while he filled the tank with gas. 
ugh. have you ever driven a boat? its not that easy. the motor is HEAVY.
I wasn't happy.

I told Lee I was going to kiss the ground when we got back to Carriacou! haha.

All in all..... it was worth it because the Cays are that amazing, but I would never get into this boat ever again.
Luckily because it was such a crappy boat we paid less! yes!

Carriacou Day 1!

On Tuesday (almost a week ago already?!) Lee and I along with our friends Stan and Natasha headed to Carriacou for a little mid-week adventure on the Osprey Ferry.

The ferry leaves out of the Carenage in St. George's at 9am and was supposed to take about an hour and half to get to Carriacou... it took a little longer. and wasn't the smoothest ride. haha.  We rode the smaller of the 2 ferries and we wanted to sit up top to get a good view of all the islands along the way (SO beautiful!) and we got SOAKED!  Even on the top of the boat the waves were splashing us & we were holding onto the rails with a death grip, well I was anyway.  But it was a beautiful ride & we arrived at the gorgeous island of Carriacou safely.

We started the search for an appropriate hotel room by heading to Paradise Beach, a place I had read about online & said there were cheap rooms.
they weren't kidding about cheap.
We went to Hope's Inn and I'm not kidding when I say there was a communal shower & the only toilet in the place was downstairs off of the restaurant! haha! and the rooms were JUST bed. no fan no AC.  It was about $38US a night.

So we said forget it and went back to the main town of Hillsborough via Reggae Bus, just like in Grenada, and asked the driver about the Green Roof Inn where he dropped us and then asked for extra money because he drove us out of his way (even though we didn't ask to be. ugh)We made our way down the beautiful Paradise Beach to another hotel and it was about $60US a night (much nicer) but they would NOT bargain with us at all.  We offered $50 and they wouldn't even consider it. a hotel on the tiny island of Carriacou in the off season with NO guests. and probably no possibility of guests since we were the only tourists on the ferry.
Anyway, the Green Roof Inn was great!! A secluded, quaint little cottage type place with an incredible view and great beachy decor :)  you can read about it on my other blog here. and they came down in price for us!

Once we were settled in we headed back to the main beach near town, to snorkel, and I'm so glad we did!  There wasn't much to see, but we were quite successful!
Lee spied this HUGE starfish! It was amazing to see under the water b/c everything is magnified and it was just crazy.  We soon found out it was dead and I begged Lee to bring it back to shore so I could take pictures of it (and secretly convince him I should take it home)

I also found several sand dollars and Stan drug up a half of a lobster! haha Gross!!

We went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and sunset on the beach and relaxed for a bit in the awesome hammocks. I LOVED these hammocks, so comfortable I literally fell asleep in one Wednesday night.

Our hotel was located about a 5-10 minute walk outside of downtown, or what town there was to speak of.  We went in search of a good place to eat dinner and quickly found out that there was only one option. haha. everyone we asked pointed us back to Laurena's or the Jerk Center.
It was ok, but they only had 1 dinner option.  Chicken, Rice, and salad.  At  least it was cheap!

after dinner we were going to go get ice cream and some drinks to take back to the hotel and soon found that Lauren's was the ONLY place open after dark to get anything. haha. so back we went for some water.

That night we played an intense game of Monopoly, which I hadn't played in seriously 10 years, and enjoyed the company of our friends. 

Carriacou is such a peaceful, relaxing place.  and like everyone said, the people there are so nice! nicer than in Grenada, much nicer. 

The next day we were off to the Tobago Cays!  and THAT was an experience...

Barbados

This is me blogging from Barbados! haha we don't  leave for another hour so I thought why not.
Barbados marks Lee & I's 6th country we've been to since we've been married!
USA
Canada
Mexico
Trinidad
Grenada
Barbados
and this is my 9th country, those above +Germany, France, and the Bahamas.
I think it's Lee's 8th... he's also been to Cuba & the Dominican Republic.

We walked around outside a bit & took pictures.... then ate lunch (I'm on a pizza around the world mission apparently) and I bought a new purse!  I didn't bring one back with me & I'll be in Canada for 10 days before going home & they were selling them for $10!  I said I liked it & Lee just handed me $20... I should have bought 2.
The airport here is nice, and has free wifi :)
We both got lunch for $10... I had a huge slice of pizza & pop & Lee had a roti & pop. 
I guess since Barbados is so much bigger & more easily accessible than Grenada prices aren't marked up as much... we got a powerade & juice for $3 too... I can't wait for things to be cheap again! Canada will look cheap compared to Grenada!

So far this has been a very smooth travel experience.... hoping the next flight is also & that they have good movies!

Mauritius ♥

before you say it.... I KNOW. I live on a gorgeous tropical island... and I dearly love Grenada and appreciate it....but I think it's ok to be educated about (and visit)  all of God's beautiful creation...including Mauritius!
Have you ever heard of it?? I hadn't until someone from there visited my blog.... and whoa whoa whoa I never knew such a place existed!
It is pronouced Maur-ishus.

It is located 500 miles east of Madagascar (with a c, not a k as the map says)
Did you even know ANYTHING was east of Madegascar?? 
I never ever hear about the Indian Ocean, maybe because I live in the Western Hemisphere and all we know is the Pacific and the Caribbean Islands.... (but of course I didn't even know where Grenada was a year ago)
The island is 787sq miles
It takes 26 hours to get there by plane from NYC!
If you ever want to get away from it all.... this is the place to do it!!!!!

They even have a real city!!!! The population of Mauritus is about 1million... and the majority of the population is Indian and there are many people of African decent, European, and Chinese.
They speak English and French.
It is the only African nation where Hinduism is the largest religion
It is also the only known home of the extinct Dodo bird!!!

So I'm already planning our 10 year anniversary trip here :)
5 year will be back to Cozumel where we honeymooned
and EVERY year will be Grenada... haha I wish!