Happy Valentines!

Quackenbush

Quackenbush Bakery in Hyde Park at night, Austin, TX.

Vieux Fort

At the southern tip of St Lucia lies the city of Vieux Fort. We drove through town to find The Old Plantation Yard restaurant for some lunch.
It was tasty!
Horses graze along the road out of town. That's the airport in the background.

Fond Doux Estate

Here are some photos from Fond Doux Estate. It's a hotel and cocoa plantation with a nature trail near Soufriere. The photo above is a cocoa pod growing on a cocoa tree.
Bananas hanging in the cocoa-drying shed.
This is the shed where the cocoa is dried. Giant trays of cocoa roll out along the metal tracks on sunny days. When it's rainy, the trays are protected in the shed.
We ate some delicious vegetable roti at the plantation restaurant.
New ginger plants sprouting on a ginger flower on the nature trail.
Huge metal pot used for separating out the cocoa beans.
Chicken who also lives in the cocoa shed.

Villa Des Pitons At Night

My Joby Gorillapod and long exposures while waiting for dinner at the hotel. We ate next to the pool.
Overlooking Soufriere.
Sleepy kitty on the balcony.
Soufriere.

Alta Java

Ski-up espresso and biscotti makes Lindsay happy.
Cold weather.
Hot beverage.

Cocoa Tea

Cocoa tea is made from the shavings of a stick of pure cocoa. It tastes like unsweetened hot chocolate and is lovely to drink in the morning.

Rum Punch

Here's a picture of a very strong rum punch I had at my favorite place in the world, Jungle Bay Resort. Incredible amounts of high-proof local rum+tons of fresh local ginger=this drink packed a punch. It is my cause of and solution to all of life's problems.

Paseo

This is Paseo. They serve good sandwiches out of a pink building wearing (for some reason) ties.
This is the tofu sandwich; it goes in my mouth.
Paseo is located right next to a surf shop across from the water. I don't know anything about surfing but this seemed like a good day for it.

Miro Tea

The tea shop so nice we visited twice! The first time was to visit with Thomas' MD friend Zack on day 2.
I was experiencing the goose-poop-on-my-pants and the oh-my-god-everyone-at-work-hates-me freak out when this happened.
However, this place is super, super bad ass. If you know me in recent years then you understand that I am unable to function unless my blood stream is 45% tea by volume at all times. So, on day 4 Thomas and I went back to chill and get in some relaxing tea house time before flying back to Dallas.
Free samples!
Sorry this is fuzzy, too pun-ny to not be included.
I bought a new tea ball to replace the one i lost at work the previous week. Also, some loose tea so I could bring some happies home with me.

Discovery Park

We went to Discovery Park in Seattle north of downtown in a neighborhood called Magnolia. It is a big park with lots of paths and a lighthouse. It's so big it I kept telling Thomas that it would be a good place to hide the body.
"This would be a good place to hide the body," I'd say.
Thomas: shifty eyes.
It's so big they caught a cougar there a few days after we visited.
No, really.
Did you know that in Seattle blackberries grow in the wild? And you can eat them?
And that people in Seattle are actually kind of annoyed by this?
It's like living in a magical wonderland full of magically delicious non-native invasive goodness! Look at all that freakin' blackberry!
Beautiful wild sweet pea.

Produce, Flowers, Clams

More scenes from the photogenic Pike Place Market.
Statice.
How do they grow such beautiful dahlias here? I was almost drooling.
Coffee+Zinnias=best job in the world.Thomas likes the carrots.