Lamberts in Grenada

This past week, Jared's family came to Grenada to visit us.

So. Fun.

About two months ago I finally got into the "swing" of life away from family, but man, after having them over I feel like I now have to start again from scratch! Yesterday when it was just me and Jared we were like, "Wow. This is boring and quiet. Do we need to have babies right now?" (The answer is no, we do not, but that would definitely solve the too-much-quiet problem.)

In the past eight days, I have seen more of this island than I saw in the seven months before then. It has been exhausting and awesome. Here are a few highlights from our week:

+ Saturday: Jared giving the boat driver a thumbs up while we were tubing on Grand Anse beach, thereby causing me to epicly wipe out into the salty ocean on a particularly crazy turn.

+ Sunday: Finding rabid bats perched above our heads as we walked through some eerie and dark old forts. If only they were rabbit bats, that would have been more Easter appropriate.

+ Monday: Ants waking up before us and eating all the cereal. You know what they say--the early bird gets the Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

+ Tuesday: Our friendly island tour guide teaching us how to smuggle a gun into the country, and then pulling his own smuggled gun out from under his seat and waving it at us to illustrate his point.

+ Wednesday: Cramming six people into our little, barely air-conditioned car (this was actually a week-long treat).

+ Thursday: Discovering that our bedroom door doesn't close all the way when Jared's little brother accidentally knocked it open while I was half-nakedly changing into a swimsuit. "Hi entire family sitting outside my door!" Is what I said. (Actually I think I lunged at the door and screamed "NAKED" at the top of my lungs. Our downstairs neighbors were probably home, and their windows were probably open. Such is my life.)



Just kidding, there were some better highlights than those good happenings. Here they are:

+ Saturday: Spending all morning and afternoon at the lovely BBC beach, getting lightly roasted.

+ Sunday: Easter basket and egg hunts (with legit silver coins in our baskets, because them Lamberts love them some precious metals)--thanks Mama L! Conference! A nice drive to see campus and the forts! A holiday dinner with actual family!! (Not that our two-person Thanksgiving dinner wasn't awesome...)

+ Monday: A catamaran ride to do some snorkeling and see the underwater sculpture garden.

+ Tuesday: An island tour where we saw a nutmeg factory, a chocolate factory, a crater lake, some hot springs, and a waterfall. We also ate fruits like cocoa (yes, it's a fruit--the soft flesh around the bean tastes kind of like mango), water lemon, and some weird brown fruit that looked like a kiwi but did NOT taste like one.

+ Wednesday: Dumping Jared's mom and siblings at a pretty beach to get toasted while his dad and I went and waited for three hours in a completely empty waiting room in a government building just to get a renewal stamp in my passport.  Then we all had KFC for lunch/dinner, and when we found out that the movie theater was no longer playing the movie we wanted to see (Insurgent), we instead watched Paul Blart: Mall Cop on a laptop in our living room (that was a good life choice).

+ Thursday: Flying kites at the tide pools, having lunch at the University Club, and then hiking in the wretched-hot afternoon heat to Hog Island. That was maybe not a good life choice. But then we went boogie-boarding in some tiny and oh-so-satisfying waves and finished off the night with fruit smoothies.


Moral of the story, we had lots of fun. I only took pictures during the island tour, but enjoy all 19 of them, because I'm bad at narrowing things down!
 ^^Nutmeg factory
 ^^A nutmeg straight from the tree. The red stuff around the nutmeg is mace.
 ^^Our  tour guide, Martin, explaining how each part of a nutmeg is used.
 ^^The Grenada "hot springs." Basically lots of muddy pits in the ground, filled with warm spring water.
 ^^Jared's sister Annie, rubbing some of the "magic" hot spring mud on her skin. Haha, she's going to hate me for posting this.
 ^^Just a few of Grenada's local fruits, veggies, and nuts.
 ^^Belmont Estates chocolate plantation, where we ate raw cocoa and learned that every chocolate bar we've ever eaten is made with fermented chocolate.
 ^^Annie likes this picture because it includes "the finest chocolate man in all the land" (he does have nice dimples). I like this picture because it shows that Jared isn't the only Lambert who struggles to smile for pictures. Haha, Will . . .
 ^^Martin plucking some cashew fruit for us.
 ^^Cashew fruit. The nut hanging from the bottom is a cashew. I would guess that this is why cashews are so expensive--one nut per fruit, and each one has to be separately de-shelled.
 ^^Our island tour taxi. Grenada's terrible roads are crowded with these types of taxis.
 ^^Mama Lambert, looking very lovely at the Grand Etang crater lake.
 ^^Annie has the very best hair of anyone. Here she is, taking a picture of the gorgeous south side of the island.
^^Annandale Falls--a refreshing end to an excellent day!


5 comments

  1. we need to get together when you come back! wait, if you're family lives in utah. i can't remember!

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    1. Hopefully! My family does live in Utah, but it's only a four-week break and we already have four mini trips planned. Haha! Over Christmas break we weren't able to see as many friends as we would have liked to, but I will keep you up to date when we get there if we find ourselves with free days :)

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  2. Oh my goodness I loved everything about this post. Sometimes, since you're not around anymore, I forget how freaking funny you are. Then I read a blogpost and I'm quickly reminded :) So glad you had fun with family visiting! Aren't you guys going to be in Grenada for like 3 more years or something? Maybe that should be our next big trip because it looks so fun! Also, we should see each other while you're visiting for summer :)

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    1. Gurrl, the funniest thing about me is that in person I'm, like, bland. Something about being locked in my room with a keyboard brings out this weird side of me, ha. Actually we're only in Grenada for one more year, but after that we'll probably be spending the next two years somewhere cool/more accessible like New York or New Jersey or Florida, so that's always a good vacation option too! Same goes as for Emily--I'd love to hang out if I find myself with some free days, but considering how busy we were over Christmas break, and we'll have even less time in Utah Valley this time around, no promises :(. We are going to be running around like crazy people! But if we have free days I will for sure message you and you can show me your house--yayyyy!

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    2. Haha you are not bland in person. And okay, no worries if you're too busy for me ;)

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