Wet Island Tour in a Clown Car

Cowering under an awning to stay dry.  I have a mouth full of delicious honey roasted peanuts.

Yesterday we had big plans with our good friends on s/v YOLO to tour the island.  There was talk of waterfalls, distant villages, monkeys and crater lakes.  We packed our bags, borrowed our friends car (thank you Zeke and Crystal!) and were ready for a full day of adventure.  Unfortunately, the weather had other plans.

Rain is something that happens frequently this time of year but, typically, the tropical shower is nothing more than just that: a shower.  You see the clouds approaching and - if you are familiar enough with the area and the patterns - you can almost time when and where the rain will fall to the second.  And fall it will... for five, ten, maybe fifteen minutes.  Then it passes, the sun resumes shining and all that is left of the downpour is a glorious rainbow and a few puddles.  But yesterday?  Yesterday was full-blown all-day rain fest.  These types of days are few and far between.  It was so gray and cloudy that not even one measly rainbow was spotted all. day. long.  A day in the Caribbean without a rainbow?  Well, that's a serious lack of sunshine.  The plus side, of course, was that yesterday also marked the first day where I was not drenched with sweat by 8am and our baby didn't smell of butter (Scott thinks Isla smells like butter when she is sweaty and hot, which is all the time.  I disagree, she smells of sweet baby sweat to me, pure heaven.)

Did the rain stop us from piling four adults and two toddlers (with respective car seats) into a five-seater Suzuki Vitara?  Heck no.  Did it stop us from ever really getting out of the car except to forage for food in the town of Grenville?  Yes, yes it did.  We did do a little off-roading when a sign made promise of a "petting zoo/donkey farm" (?) down a dirt road but when we arrived, we were told it was too muddy/rainy and the animals wouldn't want to come out.  Yes, they were divas.  It was a bust.  So, while we might not have taken in any sites (except those which we could see from the car windows), and we might not have done anything worth noting (except discover the deliciousness that is the local honey roasted peanut) or learned any fun factoids about Grenada (except that there exists an elusive petting zoo), we managed to spend the day with our very good friends and have a good laugh in spite of ourselves, and no one loves good friends and a good laugh more than me.

In other news, tomorrow we hop a plane bound for Chicago for a (much needed) three week visit home.  At this very moment we are in a desperate scramble to get the boat (and ourselves) ready for our impending departure.  So far we have done absolutely nothing in preparation, which is very unlike us.  I have, however, edited my packing spreadsheet and printed it out (Yep. I'm one of those.  Don't knock it till you have a kid!) so I feel semi-productive and ready to start ticking things off.  Speaking of lists, I must run because we have a boat to clean, a dinghy to store, a fridge to empty and food to get rid of because we are homeward bound...

If you are curious what we do to prep our boat for a water-based short leave, check out this post.

A tight fit! Darcy (bless her cotton socks) took one for the team and sat in the back where her butt almost caught fire.

Cutest couple in the Caribbean.  Or ever.

These two braved the rain to see the view.  Photo taken from behind a closed window in the car.