Ahhh to be at the Beach

Glorious...just glorious
 So about this time TWO years ago (really has it been THAT long?!?!) I was pretty excited cause I had experienced for the first time receiving a bonus on my paycheck for hitting my budget as a manager at Starbucks and I realize while some girls would want to go shopping and spend ridiculous amounts on jeans or handbags- I on the other hand decided to go all out and told Patrick we were going to go on a vacation....in his mind he was thinking something in the Pacific Northwest like...Seattle, Portland, Missoula...but I decided it was high time we went somewhere exotic so I found an amazing deal on flights to St.John in the Virgin Islands and bought them :) Needless to say I didn't really Think through this purchase because his first was "Wow babe...sounds like fun (to say his voice was hesitant surprised and excited all at the same time would be an understatement) where are we staying when we get there??"  to which my response was.."oh yeah.....somewhere to stay.....like somewhere to sleep....hmmm...I haven't got that far yet." I immediately starting looking up places to stay which it came to as a shock to me that hotels in the V.I run about $250 a NIGHT. That means with our budget we could stay in a hotel for two nights and the streets for the other five :) But me, being the frugal gal that I am, convinced him we should throw caution to the wind and go camping at one of the national parks on the island. Since we both love camping it seemed like the best option. Now just so you all get a visual, I mean camping as in showers that are outdoor and only have cold water at a communal bathhouse (men and women did have seperate stalls don't worry none of that hippie stuff), a picnic table for our dining area and a little plot to set up our tent. After selling Patrick on this idea his final question was "So what do we do if it rains" to which I responded "Babe- of course I factored that in- according to the weather channel website St.John recieves less than a 1/4 inch of rain in the whole month of March so the likelihood of that happening is slim to none." (You all see where this is going right?!?) Well we get there, it's gorgeous. We fall asleep to the sounds of waves crashing and enjoying our little piece of paradise. Now it is important to mention that when we got there it was BEAUTIFUL and the pictures of the place did it no justice. Day 3 comes and we hear there should be some rain which you are in the tropics so rain is just part of life but we are thinking it will rain for MAYBE a couple hours then back to sunshine and smiles. Oh no. How wrong were we. It started raining all right...but it was MONSOON rain that didn't stop for 3 DAYS. To sum up the rest of the trip lets just say we both perfected our Rummy game, Patrick taught me how to play poker, and we read ALOT of books (as in I read six books haha) Now you might be wondering why are we talking about this two years later? Well because right now I look outside and there is snow in my backyard, the temperature is in the 20's, and despite the pouring rain on our beach vacation- we were none the less at the beach and now we can look back and smile at our paradise vacation gone wrong. :) What I would give to be at a beach right now......

Our luxurious kitchen :)

Our tent setup :)

My Rummy winnings- cause clearly gambling with Jolly Ranchers is the best way to go.

Ahhhh life at the beach.....

*Disclaimer: I don't recommend sporaticaly buying plane tickets to exotic places BEFORE speaking to your spouse- unless it's Patrick reading this and then the answer is yes Yes YES- I will always be happy with tickets to a beachy place.