PELICANS!

I have alluded to my trip to Nevis a few times now in my little blog.  Now that I'm nice and drunk and it's been a month+, I suppose now's a good time as any to talk about it.  Really, there's no reason other than sheer laziness and procrastination for having not written about it sooner.

Here's the least you need to know:  My friends, Nick and Eliza, invited me and some other super awesome folks to join them for a week at Eliza's parent's house on Nevis, a wee island near St. Kitts in the Caribbean.  I accepted their offer and proceeded to have the most decadent, wonderful week ever.  Ranks in my top three vacations, along with Peru and Tanzania.  You also need to know there will be a lot of pictures.

A few months ago I posted this picture, my first mention of the trip:

I AM SO TALENTED!

I didn't see a shark, but I totally wore that bathing suit and there was lots of drinking.  That plane is pretty spot-on too.

We stayed in this house:

 

This house is on the market, but my secret wish is that it never sells.

But seriously, it was a beautiful house; they spared no expense and our every need was met and then some.

See how close I was in my artistic rendition?

I  lived in this pool.

That entire outdoor porch/patio area?  It had automatic screens we could put down, along with misting organic bug spray shit, to save us from the mosquitoes.  Ridiculous. 

We all flew into St. Kitts, but I got there a bit later than everyone else so I missed the public ferry.  I'm pretty sure I just hopped on some random dude's boat and made my way over to Nevis.  "Oh, here's a dock.  And a boat.  You going to Nevis?  Sweet.  Can I bum a ride?"  Yup.  I showed up at the house to find everyone wearing what are clearly the greatest t-shirts ever made:

I hate this picture of myself, so you just get my boobs.
Thanks to Nick & Eliza for dressing us in such fly gear.

It took me a bit to notice.  "Why is everyone wearing green shir....  OMG!  THAT'S MY ART!"  (This is one of those times I wish there was a 'sarcastic' font.)

<And then lots of super-fun-awesome stuff happened.>

Seriously though, everything about that week was glorious -- our dynamic as a group couldn't have been better; we fit together like happy little pieces in a silly, drunk puzzle.  We relaxed, we laid by the pool, we read books, we laughed, we cooked delicious food (actually, I should scratch the "we" from that sentence because I didn't cook a damn thing), some of us climbed a volcano, some of us went snorkeling/SCUBA diving, etc., etc.  The weather was perfect, the house was perfect, the week was ... damn near perfect.  I don't mean to sound all Pollyanna-wearing-rose-tinted-glasses, but it really was a phenomenal vacation.  I don't have have a single complaint and I wouldn't have changed a thing.  I probably could have napped more, but other than that...

The sunsets were breathtaking.

I want to live here forever.

And don't even get me started on the clouds.

So puffy.

The clouds are real, but these were enhanced by the "dramatic tone" setting on my camera.

Even the storms are pretty.

(Quick aside:  As I type this up and drink my wine, I'm watching "Iron Man" for the twelfth time and there was just a scene where Obadiah/Jeff Bridges was smoking a cigar all up in Iron Man/Tony Stark/Robert Downey Jr's face.  What the hell did his breath smell like?  Did he have stank cigar breath?  I think about this all time, during every single movie I watch, ever.  Do they have good breath during these close-up, smoochie scenes?  Is there a mint guy on stand-by?  Is he like the gaffer?  A mint gaffer?  Or is that just a draw-back of being an actor?  Living in a cloud of someone's stank breath?)

Get this man a mint!

Anyway.  There were also pelicans.

PELICAN!

I found it surprisingly difficult to sit around and do nothing all day.  Not nothing-nothing; I was up by 6:30 or 7:00 most mornings, immediately jamming myself into my bathing suit and propping myself up pool-side.  I breakfasted, read, floated and breathed it all in.  That's something.

My "how ridiculous is my breakfast location?" face.
With ears.

I did read a book or two and as I said, there were lots of fun shenanigans, but mostly we just ... sat around.  I've never lounged and relaxed so much in my entire life.  It was hard, ya'll.  Hated it.

What I hated most though was the leaving part.  It's never easy to go back to the "real world" after a vacation, but this one was surprisingly difficult.  I've always known my friends are awesome -- I wouldn't surround myself with a group of drama-queen-douchcanoes -- but I was amazed at how easy it was to spend a week with them.  Seriously, wouldn't change a thing.

PELICAN!