In May we made new friends…

On May 6th I got to have a real treat for dinner because ever since the restaurants closed, Dad has been cooking dinner.  Dad’s cooking is really good, but it’s nice to have someone else cook our food.  Mimi and Fabio (from Endless Summer) came over to our boat and Fabio cooked Carbonara. Dad made focaccia and salad. Fabio is Italian, he is from Rome. Mimi is from San Francisco. Fabio and Mimi go every year to his mom’s house in Italy for the olive harvest. Mom and Dad warned me there might be meat in the pasta (prosciutto) and thought I would not like it, but the truth is I have not met a pasta or french fries I did not like. Pasta and french fries are my favorite foods. French fries are my first favorite and pasta is my second favorite. I enjoyed the carbonara so much, I had seconds. It was really exciting to have dinner cooked by a true Italian.

Mimi and Fabio cooked for me again a few nights later. This time he cooked saffron risotto and Mimi cooked tiramisu. Turns out, I was up most of the night because my body is not used to caffeine (in the tiramisu); I could hardly fall asleep. It was hard figuring out how to fall asleep since the melatonin I usually take did not work. I finally figured out a way to fall asleep. I read a book on my kindle and then I put a lavender scented eye wrap over my eyes. I woke up in the morning and I was tired.

A few dayes ago I had a new experience for me. I got to do something I have never done before. I got to go lobster hunting with Mimi, Makenzie, Ella and Mom. The lobster that we tried to find is called the Caribbean Spiny Lobster. The Caribbean Spiny Lobster hides in caves and crevices during the day. They come out at twilight and dinner hours to hunt for crabs and small snails. The lobster will eat most anything it finds. The lobster’s shell looks like a skeleton. The skeleton does not expand because the exoskeleton does not expand. The lobster goes through this process called molting creating another exoskeleton in the process. The lobster population is declining. Scientists do not know if the lobsters are vulnerable to extinction or not. The lobsters are vulnerable to over fishing. People usually catch them with gloved hands because if they do not wear gloves the spine will cut their hand or they catch them with baited fishing traps. Dad  tried to catch them with the speargun but he could not get any.

One of our last nights in St. Thomas, Mom, Dad, Patrick, Rita, Cara,(our friends from Bella), Mimi, Fabio (Endless Summer) and I went to Bob Apfel’s house for dinner and a hangout. Bob’s house is a restored sugar plantation on St Thomas which is where they would make sugar and rum in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Bob gave us a tour of the Fortuna Plantation. The plantation is like a very nice series of cabins with many kitchens, dens, and bedrooms. It would make a good bed and breakfast. One of the outdoor rooms was a screening room which is where we watched the movie called, Where the Boys Are. This movie came out in 1960. I liked the movie. For dinner dad made steaks and Fabio made pasta with peas and mushrooms and I had a side of carrots. It was delicious but there was so much of it, that I was full. I was so full that I almost fell asleep when Bob was reading and telling about the history of his house. A famous author named John Patrick once lived there. After dinner we hiked up to Bob’s friend Louie’s house. His house was originally owned by Eleanor Heckert whose 1968 novel, Muscovado, tells the history of Bob’s house. Robert Ludlum owned Louie’s house for a long time and wrote the Born Identity books while there. It was cool getting to see both houses and learning about the history of each house. Another thing that was fun was getting to meet Louie and meeting Louie’s dogs.

We are leaving the USVI this weekend and heading to Grenada!
Talk to you next time from Grenada!