Banana smores

Well as usual I missed a weekend blog post because of too much activity. Not a bad problem to have. But its Sunday night, my mutha' is in town, and we are all exhausted and ready for a laid back evening. Perfect for blogging so here is the low down.

Last weekend we went CAMPING! We got really jazzed about it and bought a sweet new tent. This is it displayed in our living room. It has a rain covering to go over it but its nice to have the netted option as well!

Kat, Colin, Mike, and I set out Friday night to Macedonia State Park in Connecticut for 2 nights of outdoor fun. We loaded up the ol' honda civic to the brim with smores ingredients and other camping essentials. We of course had to stop at the local milkshake and burger roadside shack on the way there so we arrived a little after nightfall. Setting up a tent we had never used before with only headlights and a flashlight to guide us was an adventure but after we got settled in we couldn't wait to roast some wieners so we immediately made a fire.

The next morning our first priority was a bon fire again so we could cook BACONNNN.

If you think bacon is good normally, I highly encourage you to cook it outdoors over a fire. Wrap your hot dogs in it, put it on your smores, get creative. 

 In the afternoon we walked along the babbling brook by our campsite and visited a waterfall at another park nearby. We also did some ice cream eating, star gazing, football tossing, and other tomfoolery. Just what we needed.

Brie and Jam over the campfire

and my personal favorite picture from the whole trip...

Jibe Ho!

First weekend back in NYC and its good to be back. I miss the easy going Belizian life style but I had a very active weekend and loved it!  Friday night I met up with Mike and his coworker at his Wililamsburg apartment. After a quick apartment tour we sat on the roof top and took in the view. Then we proceeded to a friends party where I was transported back to college times with red solo cups, beer pong, mingling, and of course more rooftops. It was a wonderful evening.

On Saturday we finally got to do the sailing lessons Mike had gotten me for my birthday. After a morning swim with my co workers, we headed to the Water Front Center in Oyster bay. We signed up for a beginning sailing course for 4 hours and didn't really know what to expect. Right off the bat we were on the boat unrolling the sails, tying knots, and getting the boat ready to sail. Our instructor didn't waste any time getting us on the water which was really nice. He steered while having Mike and I run around letting out ropes and pulling other ropes. While I didn't really know what I was doing in the beginning the whole learning by doing thing really worked out. In between instructions John, our instructor, would explain terminology and the physics behind the sails. Mike and I each did a large amount of steering the boat, doing tacks and jibes, practicing man overboard procedures, and docking the boat. While it was a little nerve wrecking at first that I was in charge of steering and controlling the sail on a 23' sloop, I got a lot more comfortable once it sank in that sailboats are designed to lean and you just have to react accordingly and not panic. Anyway it was fantastic and I'll definitely be looking for a book to study up on sailing before I take another lesson. So if anyone knows of any good books - send them my way!

After sailing we caught a sunset and some seafood at Louie's in port washington, Long Island. It was the restaurant where they filmed the dinner scene in Meet the Parents, so thats pretty cool.

Today we watched church, did some separate activities, and made a fabulous breakfast of eggs, toast, belizian pineapple jam, and avocado. I worked on some commissioned ink drawings for a client and Mike worked out. After that we headed to Manhattan to watch the World Cup with friends! I'm sure many of you watched as Schweinsteigher took up a lot of time whining about injuries. Anyway on to better knews, we enjoyed some splendid ice cream from Odd Fellows afterwards. I got peanut butter and jelly, Mike got Miso Cherry, and our friend got Thai iced tea ice cream. So that was a great night cap.

I don't have any new photos for you because I'm lame and didn't bring my camera sailing... guess that means i'll have to go again but enjoy these updated pictures of my window!

I Belize I can fly

I know corny title right? But that was the name of our 2 man trivia team Wednesday night on the Island. Belize was amazing. Caye Caulker's slogan was "Go slow" and boy did they mean it. Time and spelling are among the top things that Belizians are not concerned about. It made for a perfectly relaxing, yet adventure filled week. The first couple days we explored the island on our bikes, did some kayaking, read our books, swam and snorkled in the ocean, and enjoyed a few Belikins (Belize's official beer) while checking in on the world cup.

 After we felt we had done enough pure relaxation we decided to sign up for some adventure filled days. On Tuesday we went Cave Tubing. We took a water taxi to Belize City, which by the way has the worlds third highest murder rate - yay!

From Belize we met our tour guide Major Tom and Mike. They loaded us, along with 4 others into there van and we headed out of the murder capital and into the rain forest. Along the way Major Tom entertained us with stories of his childhood in the jungle - how if you treat the jungle likes its going to kill you it will, and if you treat it like it will nourish you it will provide for, heal, and shelter you.


While Major Tom told us about his very interesting life, Michael told us in the ins and out of Belize while saying things like "jah man go slow." Needless to say it was a great trip from start to finish. We made friends with 2 women on the trip, Kelsey and Teresa, and we exchanged stories. They are both in the military. One lives in Germany now and the other in Hawaii. We got some hot tips on where to go in Germany so its safe to say Bamberg, Germany is on our short list of places to go. After we finally reached the cave tubing site we did a small hike while our tour guide pointed out different trees, nuts, deadly bugs, etc. We explored some caves on land and were told that the mayans thought certain stalagmites that were in the shape of different animals represented different things to them such as wisdom of fertility. After that we found our tubes and took turns jumping off a large rock in the mouth of a cave into the crystal clear water. As the tour guide kept telling us "just because you can see the bottom doesn't mean you can reach it" which we found to be very true. While we floated through the caves we learned a lot more about the Mayans and how the caves were formed. When we got to the middle everyone turned off their head lamps and it might have been the first time I've experienced total darkness. Not a creature was stirring, not even a snake. Our new friends took lots of pictures and will be emailing them to me when they get a chance. She is a doctor in the army so I'm sure she's just a tad busy.

Don't worry I managed to snap a few shots of the fresh coconut milk (maybe with a little rum in it) from after our cave tubing experience.

After a quick trip to the zoo where we ate lunch we were on the road back to Belize city, back to the water taxi, and back to Caye Caulker just in time to watch the last 10 minutes of the world cup at the bar attached to our hotel. Of course during the last few exciting minutes the internet/cable went out on the island so all the Americans took a collective sigh - knowing we were probably losing anyway- and went on with our day.

Most of our time during the day was spent at the "Lazy Lizard" at the north split of the island. The reason its called the split is because there was once a time where the islands were connected however through some serious weather there is now about 300 feet of ocean between them. Which makes for a very fun swimming/diving hole.

We spent several hours almost every day swimming, snorkeling, watching the boats go by, and listening to a wide variety of music at the split. One of the most shocking things we found our right away was that Belizians like to listen to a lot of JT and Bruno Mars. While they had many live reggae bands there, which I found a little more enjoyable, there was no telling what you would here - from house music to Frank Sinatra. Just like everything else, it seemed their music taste was easy going as well.

On Thursday we did some Scuba Diving. Belize has the 2nd largest coral reef if the world! Neither of us are certified so we weren't able to go on that deep of a trip but we did get to see a lot of very awesome underwater scenes. After my nerves got out of the way and the whole I'm not supposed to be breathing underwater way of thinking subsided, I really loved it! Mike was much more of a pro at it than I was because he had been previously but after about a half hour of practicing in case of emergency situations underwater, my mind was a lot more at ease. On the first dive we saw a lot of beautiful coral, a barracuda, a really cool white crab that our scuba instructor kept picking and then allowing it to bury itself back in the sand, and A LOT of colorful fish that I can't recognize. On the way back to the island our instructor stopped the boat because he had seen some nurse sharks and sting rays so he said if anyone wants to jump out and swim with them we had a few minutes. No way was I passing up that opportunity. We saw about 5 or 6 nurse sharks traveling together, and 2 or 3 very large sting rays. Life underwater is a whole different universe.

Now onto the last portion of the longest blog I've ever written. The food! I know you were probably thinking - ' Lauren this is the first time you haven't mentioned food in your blog.' Well don't worry, I've got you covered. It was lobsterfest the first weekend we got to the island which kicks off the lobster fishing season. So of course we stopped in the first place we could and got a lobster sandwich and lobster burrito. We were a little underwhelmed but figured it must just be that restaurant that covered up the taste of the lobster with a bunch of spices and sauces. Well we found out the hard way that unless you order just a straight up grilled lobster, or grab a kebab on the beach you're lobster is going to come with a heaping pile of prego pasta sauce or something very similar.

Luckily we changed ours ways, sought out the good eats, and got a foodie guide of the restaurant from the owner of Colinda Cabanas, a lovely Canadian woman names Linda. Her husband's name was Colin hence Co-lin-da - get it? Cute, right? Well anyway, she referred us to some of our favorite eateries on the island. There is a pasta, yes ITALIAN pasta place on the island that is only open from 6 - 9pm with about 10 seats total on this couples porch. They moved there from Italy several years ago and now only serve the freshest pasta. He makes the pasta, she makes the sauce, and they only serve 2 entrees every night. One with fresh seafood from the catch of the day, and one vegetarian dish.

Fresh juice every day? I guess if I have to...

 Cuban Sandwich made by Cubans living on the Island? Loving the Diversity.

Another one of our favorites was a Mediterranean place on the tip of the island. The older man from Rhode Island served the tables and browsed facebook while his wife from Honduras did the cooking. He probably had the most interesting life story I've ever heard including moving out the U.S. when he was 19 to buy a house in South America, then owned a bunch of condos in Florida, then sold them to build cabanas on Caye Caulker only to have the contractor take all his money and receipts which left him broke. He then lived in Belize City competing with native Belizians for hard labor work. He had a dirt bike and a chainsaw and found work cutting up fallen trees for 30 BZ or about 15 US dollars a day. Then he met his wife, yada yada yada, 3 kids later and they ended up running this place in Caye Caulker. Amazing Baba ganoush and a side of crazy tales? Yes, please. I pretty much ate fresh shrimp, fish, or lobster all week and feel great about it.

There is so much more to talk about but I've got 12 minutes left on my computer charge and I'm back in the coffee shop in Queens. Much love bruddas and sistahs, go slow, and do yourself a favor and read at least the first book in the left behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins - its truly life changing.