Just another Sunday in Paradise. It is so incredible here. The skies have cleared (it's been partly cloudy) and with the blue sky the water is more blue and turquoise. I am in AWE!

We went to church this morning and it too was incredible. There were about 30 people or less there, including the Missionaries, but the spirit was so strong. On two different occasions a sister got up to bear her testimony, and she sang a verse from a hymn, Capella, it was beautiful. When these people down here pray, it is powerful. I really don't know how to explain the difference but it was powerful. The Gospel is true and the same and yet it is somehow very different, maybe in the coming weeks I will be able to put my finger on that difference and explain it better. They talk a lot about being Christian and I suppose that a lot of people here are not Christians, that is unusual to me. We are definitely not in Idaho anymore.

Drove home from church a different way and saw the South side of the island, a little different and still beautiful. Looking South over the ocean we are pretty close to South American (only about 500 miles), it's farther to the States. Still can't get used to the idea that we are out of the country.

Glad to have this day of rest, I can't believe how tired I am, the last 48 hours have just been a blur. Tomorrow it's onto the next thing, Rick finding a job and then buying some kind of car. I hope that can happen quickly and we can turn the rental back early, it's sooooo expensive. Hope we can get the cell phone working at the condo tomorrow too.

First the good news, we rented this really cool 2 bedroom condo. they would accept a month to month lease, so we'll see how it works out. the view out the living room and master bedroom is of the Caribbean Sea, we are right on the waterfront, short walk to the beach, great pool and other nice amenities. It is furnished really nice and pretty well equipped.

The bad news for the moment anyway is we did not get the code to get into the pool and my Sprint cell phone doesn't seem to work at the condo. I'm sure we can get the pool code tomorrow ( I really wanted to go for a swim this evening) and if there is no Sprint coverage here at the condo, I had a 30 day no questions asked get out of my contract clause with Sprint and then I can go with AT&T( that would be the case just as I'm getting my new phone figured out). So I'll have to check all of that out on Monday.

The condo does have free Wi-Fi, so I'm up and running. Today was a little hectic again. We went grocery shopping, we looked at rentals and drove all over the place. Had Crabby Patties (they were incredible) for lunch and by evening both Rick and I turned into "Crabby Patties" ourselves. It's a little bit hard to be in such a place, where you just want to hand on the beach and play tourist, and take care of business.

In a day or two, I'll work on posting pictures and videos, can only take so many new and frustrating activities per day.

We made it, we are on St Croix. Yesterday was hectic. We had a hotel reservation, one of Ricky's specials and I promise you it was (we checked out this morning) but we had not reserved a rental car. That was interesting seeing as how we had 8 (5 extremely heavy and large) pieces of luggage, but we finally got it figured out, and to the hotel. Had dinner on the waterfront and went back to the hotel and fell into bed(more than exhausted). Woke up this morning to the rooster crowing and the sound of a weed hacker(told you it was a Ricky Special).

St Croix is totally amazing. It's like Pirates of the Caribbean come to life. Very old and colonial looking, around every corner is a new surprise (literally, driving is a trip as you drive on the left, I may not drive here for a very long time). The ocean is incredible, the everything else totally awesome. We started looking at rentals and I think we can actually afford a really nice 2 bedroom condo on the water, they will rent to us month to month, so if we can't we'll enjoy it for a month anyway.

There is so much I want to say and so much more to do right now. We're "using" internet hot spots at restaurants and such for now, so once we get moved into our own place we'll get set up and I can write more and post pictures. Let me just say this is the type of place I'm glad I never came for a vacation; cause I really wouldn't want to leave!

Here I am sitting at JFK Airport in New York City waiting for my flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico wondering how this happened. I'm still in a daze. It was really hard saying good bye to Macy, Rachel and Don last night at the airport in SLC. Macy was crying; Grandma I'll miss you and I was crying and so was Rachel. It was awful. But, none the less here we are in NYC and in a short time we'll be on the next leg of our journey and this is the big one...leaving the country. More to come.

This is it! Tonight's the night. At 11:30 pm we get on that big bird in SLC to take us to the next adventure. Whatever doesn't get done today isn't gonna! We are leaving Rachel with a few things to sell for us, like our Subaru and piano but otherwise most of the things that are going are gone. Once we have an address and a car, she will start shipping the 15 boxes of essentials to us. 15 boxes? Are those all really essential? Well I guess we'll see.

Got to admit I'm starting to get excited and nervous and a little anxious. We are really going to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. The weather here in Idaho is more like November than June so it will make it easy to leave, but I hope I'm ready for that blast of hot humid air when we get off the plane. I'm also hoping that Macy will be really bad today, so I won't start missing her right away. She is my little girlfriend and it is really going to be hard not having those hugs and kisses. We have had so much fun the last few weeks, this will be the hardest part.

Well I'll sign off now. It may take a few days until I have a connection, but the next post will be from the Caribbean. See you on the beach!

Waiting for Rick to come home so we can really get nuts with the final packing details. Did do some packing myself today but then in the afternoon Macy and I took and break and went to the pool at Heise Hot Springs. We had a great time and it really felt good. Finally some fun!

Tuesday was a really really really busy day. Hit the ground running and didn't stop until 10:30 pm. Macy and I spent most of the day in the car running errands all over two counties. Then I had to meet Rachel to go for a "girls night". Actually after all the running, I thought this will be fun...NOT...but we went and had a nice massage and then got some dinner...it was fun and very relaxing, it was also nice to have some time for just the two of us.

Today another busy day but not so much running around. Two days and counting. Can't believe that we actually fly out to St.Croix tomorrow. Can't believe that we'll actually be ready.