Celebration Week

This was a week of celebrations! Scott and I started it off with our 30 year wedding anniversery on 4/14, then Sean's birthday on the 15th followed by mine on the 17th. Sean and I are 40 years apart so we turned 24 and 64 respectively!

We wish, of course, that we could have been with our family at this time, but in lieu of that we celebrated with cruiser friends. Sixteen of us went out to dinner at "Der Heron" in Curacao and it was a fun evening. Cars were a bit scarce so 6 of us piled into one very small economy car for the ride. Jackie, Hilary, Val and I shared the back seat. Or rather three of us did -

Jackie lay on our laps on the way over and Hilary on the way back. No problem as they are both light as feathers!
We were able to talk to Sean on his birthday. He had celebrated with friends on Saturday night thank goodness as he had to fly to Detroit on his actual birthday, as usual exhausted from work. Will organized the party and James came with some of his friends.

On my birthday Scott invited our three closest cruiser couples here for drinks on the boat;"Miss Charlotte", "Feisty" and "Angel". He put up streamers and we had our special plastic birthday tablecloth (that's seen a bunch of parties). I made a platter of middle eastern appetisers - huumus, falafel, stuffed grape leaves, feta cheese, olives and pita bread. Again, it was a lovely evening.

Usually when we're in Curacao we're here for work on the boat or putting it up while we go home. So this week we made a special effort to see and enjoy the island. Scott and I drove up north to Daabooi Beach for an afternoon. We swam and lay on the lounge chairs. Nice and relaxing. Scott's demonstrating below.

Tropical Storm Omar played havoc with the beach sand here on Curacao's west coast last fall. It took away the sand at the edge and left coral bones. So it's a little hard getting in the water gracely. But once your there it's heaven.

At the end of the week Jackie & Mel from "Feisty" (that's them at the bottom of the page) invited us to join them on a trip north to the Kura Hulanda Hotel in Westpunt for lunch, swimming and snorkeling. This beautiful hotel is set on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and a small white beach.
We had a wonderful lunch and then lazed about their fantastic facilities.
Business seems very light around the island now so they seemed glad to have us - if only for the day. A lot of the large hotels are very fussy about using their facilites if you aren't a resident but this charming place was very welcoming.

On my birthday I talked with James, Paula and Sean. Sean has set up Skype so he and Will called with the video working. What fun to see each other (ours works too) while we talked! After Shabbat we had a wonderful call with Josh, Michal and the kids. They all sang a fabulous rendition of Happy Birthday and Daniel and Ariella receited poems by heart! I'm a lucky lady!

While talking to everyone is great, it's turning our thoughts towards home. Our time here is running out and soon we'll be back with family and old friends. The two sections of our lives are very different and both are fantastic. We feel very lucky to be living them.