What better way to start a Friday than with a beer?

This morning started with walking the boys to school and then meeting another neighbour Paula who works at a resort cleaning the rooms. Meena was already at the bar by 9:00 and Brent was heading out to look for a car. We stopped over to say hello because Janice was there as well. Turns out Meena works for a boat line teaching snorkeling and invited us as her guests the first time we could get away to the underwater sculpture park. Her ship was in dry dock before the cruise ships start to port and so this is her vacation time. When the ships are in she can work from 6:00 a.m. until 7-8:00 p.m.! We’ve already arranged to have a neighbourhood Thanksgiving dinner, so that should be fun.

She also let us know that there was a beach you could snorkel at just at the end of our street. As we were talking she ordered three beers! It was 9:45! I do not drink beer. I rarely drink at all, so beer at 9:30 was not a good idea. But they were placed in front of us and she was very generous and hospitable, so I tried. I think I maybe got down the bottom of the neck, maybe the top of the label, before Brent helped me out by switching bottles. Definitely not something either of us are used to. And not ideal before you go shopping for a car to down two beers in 40 minutes in 30 plus heat!

 It seems Friday is party day and night and we will be expected at the bar, which we can do for a little while- the kids watch a movie and we can see the house from the bar.

So Brent and I finished our beers and headed off to the main road where he caught a bus within 10 seconds and I proceeded down the hill to the beach. As it turns out the beach is a five minute walk 

Coconut turn over

from the boy’s school and a 10 minute walk from home. It is beautiful, with a small reef very close to shore. So I hiked back up the hill and made a stop in at a bakery about 3 doors down from the boy’s school. Here I found a coconut turnover for $1.65 ECD and mini pigs in blankets for $1.35 ECD. I bought a turnover to have with a cup of tea and a pigs in blanket treat for the guys when they came home.

On my way back was an older gentleman with two canes who was struggling to walk with a club foot and age. Turns out he uses the canes for support in walking but also because he was blind. Like most people in Grenada he was eager to chat with a Canadian. Unfortunately he takes up much more space and unbeknownst to him there was a parked car on the opposite side of us. Down the road doesn’t there come an enormous Hydro truck with a telephone pole on it! There was hardly any room for it to pass with the parked car let alone this gentleman. I took one of his canes and I supported him as we made our way past the parked car. After the Hydro truck went by a car coming the other direction stopped and a lovely couple, probably German – very definitely Northern European, offered him a ride to the blind centre.

Brent had some luck with finding a SUV, but was going shopping with a local police officer to ensure he wasn’t getting the run around or an inflated price because he might be a med student. Reginald was lovely and a big help. He and Brent test drove a vehicle and the price came down $1000 ECD with Reginald being present. A big thanks to Tim Morris at CFB Trenton for helping us make that connection.

While Brent was car shopping (we got a Honda CRV) the boys and I headed down to snorkel at Pandy beach. It had some little fish, and since we didn’t bring our fins for our first venture we stayed close to the shore. Owen was really hesitant. There is a big difference between practicing in the pool and the ocean. Aiden was very kind and swam back to hold Owen’s hand while he crossed the reef. Owen came back and we went together with me holding his hand. I could also drag him out past the reef so we were looking back at it. There were lots of little fish and Aiden thought he saw an octopus, I’m not sure but cool if he did.

Fish is traditional on Friday but with everything we have been doing we hadn’t gotten any groceries (meat) for dinner. On the way back we stopped at the bakery and got 6 buns and two battered salted fish fillets. The boys had fish burgers for dinner, Aiden loved it- Owen less than thrilled but ate about half before Aiden happily gobbled the other half up.