Meet Eeyore

So at the end of my half marathon training I was really sick of running.  Like, really sick of it.  Run, Run, Run.  It was like a never ending theme.  Go figure.

Now, I'm glad I did it, and I've been out running a few times since then but newest latest and greatest obsession is my new buddy Eeyore.  (I didn't name him-the guy at the bike shop did..who am I to argue?)

No- Eeyore isn't the black dog-that's Mulligan.  Eeyore is my new bike!  And yes, I keep him in the dining room.  Isn't that normal?

I'm excited.  I haven't ridden a bike in a gazillion years.  Not kidding.  I am a gazillion and one years old.  Mr. P has had a bike for a while and I'm so pumped to kick his butt ride with him!

We actually had the bikes out the other day.  (And no, I didn't forget how to ride!)  It was a nice chance for Eeyore and I to bond.

My brain is so important, it needs a bucket.

We still had some snow (which is gone now) but it was a sunny warm day.  Mr. P informed me that you can totally see through the pants I was wearing.  Is that why he was behind me the whole time, or was I faster than him from the start?  And where else have I worn those??? 

I hope Eeyore and I will have many great adventures.  As soon as I buy some padded shorts (non-see through) or build up some callouses on my rumpus!   

Oops, I lost my tail again.....    :)

Signs, Signs, Everywhere A Sign

I love signs.  Totally love them.  Sometimes I wonder how many people actually READ the signs around them.  There were some signs around St. John that kinda cracked me up.  Yeah, yeah-I know, enough about St. John already.

I always wondered where the 16oz drink originated.  Now I know.  

You can decide if I took advantage of this offer or not! I'll never tell!

This one is my personal favorite:  

Is one because of the other? OR ??

Oh- and another great sign, this is the sign of the Cruz Bay Boutique Hotel.  It's where we stayed on St. John.  It's where you should stay on St. John.  They're awesome.  Enough said!

Pardon the photo-it was dark and with my phone

Do you have a favorite sign???

And a Day of Walking

Since we couldn't scuba dive on our last day on St. John, (don't mix diving with elevation-bad idea) we had to use our land lover legs for the day.

After breakfast, we went to the St. John Animal Care Center.  It's the local no kill animal shelter and they have some of the best critters and people you'll ever meet!

 Our hotel "hostess with the most-ess" Denise gets to hang with these wonderful people and fur kids all the time.  She donates her time every week to match people and pets and make the world a better place. Can't you just feel the warm and fuzzy feelings here??  Since Mr. P and I were longing for some puppy attention, we hoofed it over there and were lucky enough to get approved to walk some of the puppers!

First we took Lola and Bullwinkle for a spin-they're little but super sweet!

The view when you walk Lola!

Mr. P playing with Bullwinkle and Lola

After cruising around with the dynamic duo of Lola and Bullwinkle, we took out Moose and Happy.  I don't have a picture of Moose, but trust me-the name fits.  He's super sweet.  Whomever adopts him will be very lucky. We took a little walking break and Happy soaked up some lovin'!

Happy is happy.

Happy is adorable!!!  Totally freaking adorable.  She was my favorite in the whole place.  She's sweet, smart, happy (duh), loves to play, etc.  She's the total package.  I would have snuck her home on the plane but I'm pretty sure we would have had a Lab revolt when we landed.  Bummer.  She'll make someone a wonderful buddy.   If you're considering adding a fur-kid to your life, please consider some of the wonderful ones they have that are looking for their forever home.  You can make their world a better place and they can make your world a better place.  It's a win-win.

After getting our canine fix, we headed out on some of the local hiking trails.  St. John is known for it's super duper awesome beaches.  We took the Lind Point trail to Salomon beach.  You can only get to that beach by trail or by water.  It was a fun little hike.  

Is it this way or that way?

Salomon Beach

After getting to the beach, Mr. P and I realized that we're not really beach people.  We love the water and the weather and all the things associated with the beach, but we don't really like "the beach."  It's dumb, but after twenty minutes we were bored.  I'm pretty sure that's just wrong on some crazy level and we probably need counseling.  We actually shouldn't even be admitting that kind of stuff to people.  Really.  Now we'll be shunned from all the super cool social groups.  oops.  

So, we hiked back into town and had a "little lunch" (that was for you Minnesota folks). We then mapped out our next mini adventure.  We opted for another hike.  This time to the top of the world!  Or maybe to the top of lookout hill.  Or maybe it was to the Caneel Hill Summit.  Yeah, that was it.  Caneel Hill!    It was a hot hike, but the view at the top was beautiful!!  Totally worth it!  

A view from the top

Our evening was spent at our favorite Beach Bar hangout and we were ready to head back home in the morning!  Thank you St. John for such a wonderful trip.  We can't wait to go back!

Under the Sea of St. John

Like I mentioned the other day-Mr. P and I totally went scuba diving on our little excursion down in St. John.  We carved out three wonderful days to swim with the fishes and other sea critters.  As luck would have it, my underwater camera died on the first dive of the first day.   Sad face.  Totally dead.  It wouldn't even PRETEND to work.  Zip. Zero. Nadda.

I'm not the best at the whole underwater photography thing.  It takes skill and practice and a kick butt set up with lights and some other crazy contraptions.  I just have had a little point and shoot camera jobby with an onboard flash.  And not that much skill.   I first started taking pictures so I could look at stuff in a book and have a photo reference after the dive.  The last time we went diving, I took this pic:

Yes- Sir- E-Bob-that's a stingray.
I think it's the one that killed the Crocodile Hunter.
Or maybe not.  Probably not.  But it could be.

So when my camera croaked on me, I did the selfless thing that any loving wife would do.  I stole Mr. P's video camera.  That was new.   Imagine me, "film maker of the sea" with the whole underwater world at my whim for two whole days... I'm pretty sure I made every subject a total star.  Or-maybe not.   Here's a couple ("couple" ranging from two to twelve, per the definition of how many cookies we could have when my brother and I were kids)  of videos from the trip.  I won't bore you with all of them.  Promise.  If nothing else, you might be entertained by the "darth vader" noises of my breathing underwater.  

The first is the rare Mr. P fish.  I see one of these every time I dive, but others do not.  They seem somewhat friendly when approached.  Note the fine cinematography and use of light.

And then we have the elusive Gray Angelfish.  I don't think he wanted to be on camera.  That's probably why his butt was pointed my way most of the time.  What can I say?  Not every fish is ready for the camera or my rockin' awesome video skills.....

And these underwater thingys.  I can't remember what they're technically named and I forgot that they did this-it scared the beegeebies (whatever that is) out of me!  

 Lastly, the encounter with the pair of triggerfishes.  The proper name for these beauties is Balistes Vetula, but what fun is it to be proper?  Most folk just call them Queen Triggerfishes.  I guess sometimes they're also known as the Old Wife Fish, but that doesn't seem very glamorous or very camera worthy.

Where in the world was Mr and Mrs P??

Mr. P and I just got back from vacation.  In fact, we got home at about one thirty this morning.  It was wayyyy past my bedtime and I didn't even take a nap in the car.  It might of had something to do with the Excedrin that Mr. P gave me for my headache.  He carries all sorts of stuff in that back pack of his.  Legal type stuff.  Don't get carried away.

Where did we go on vacation and how is that possible--because didn't I just run the Disney Princess Half Marathon?  (which I should dedicate a million more blog posts to-just because)  Since you asked, or have tuned out because you don't care, after running the Princess Half in under my goal of two hours and twenty minutes (are you sick of hearing that yet?)  with my best gal pals, I met Mr. P in Atlanta (soooo romantic meeting in the airport-or not) and we flew to St. Thomas.  We then hopped a ferry (the boat kind) and kissed the sand of St. John.   (not at all like kissing a blarney stone-I know that time of year is coming up)

Why did we go to St. John?  Because Mr. P picked it.  He does good stuff like that.  I'm not sure if he has a  map on a dart board or what, but he doesn't usually steer us wrong.  Except for that Jack Nicholas movie that he picked a billion years ago that was super terrible and horribly disappointing.  But who keeps track of stuff like that?  Certainly not me.  

St. John is a small little island, about nine (although some say seven) miles long and about three miles wide.  There isn't a road that goes all the way around the island.  In fact, two thirds of the island is national park.  That leaves not much room for inhabitants (around four thousand) and guests (including cruise ship people-shudder).  It's known for it's beaches.  Mr. P and I are not known for being beach goers.  Not at all, although we did go to one for about half an hour-just because.  Don't say we don't participate...

Source

So, why would we go to an island that has one of the top ten best beaches in the world??  Ah- we go to swim with the fishes!! Mr. P was silly enough to agree to learn how to scuba dive years ago.  I was smart enough to get us certified before he came to his senses, remembered that he doesn't like water and changed his mind.  Do you want to know the funny thing?  He doesn't like water, but loves to dive.  I'm thrilled that he's had the open mind to give this type of adventure a shot.   Granted he decided this fairly early on in our relationship-so he's probably gotten smarter by now...

An actual picture of an actual beach we were on!

I'll do a few posts about some of the highlights of our trip because I know you're dying to hear all about the tropical vacations that other people take!   Besides that, we really did some pretty cool things and met some super cool people!

But-there's always a but-it's great to be back home!

The case of the loose toenail

A funny thing happened after that sassy Princess Half Marathon. After I took off my tenny sneakers I noticed that I had a couple of blisters. In five months of training I never got any blisters, so why did they show up on race day? Its a big ol' mystery of the universe. Or it could be related to the new socks I chose to sport that day. Nawww that can't be it. So in true "you shouldn't do that" fashion, I popped them, and wrapped them all super snug in band-aids. I know, blah blah blah,possible infection, blah blah. Let's talk about how totally uncomfortable it it to have blisters between your toes when you're trying to vacation. Some things in life are just not to be tolerated. Blisters in my book are one of them.

While I was performing minor surgery on my blisters, I noticed that the toenail on my left foot is loose. Not the big toenail, the one next to it. When I informed Mr P about this he gave me the "well, quit wiggling it!" What fun is he? It's like a little kid that discovers a loose tooth and then is completely obsessive about getting it out. I might be obsessive like that. Maybe.

I shouldn't have a loose toenail. I need them. I'm not that coordinated and tend to drop stuff. Like the agility seesaw that I dropped on my big toe back in November. You can still see the dark spot from that adventure through my nail polish. I dropped it not only once but twice the same day just for good measure. Brilliant idea.

I've heard that runners loose their toenails. And I've heard that you only loose them if your shoes don't fit properly. I had my shoes fitted but a super duper show fitter person. So-does that mean that I'm ACTUALLY a runner now?? I don't FEEL like a runner. (since everyone's into feelings these days). What does a runner feel like anyway?

See my lovely toes?? :-). Try not to pass out from envy.