#913 remembering Sunshine Biscuit

This morning I put on a necklace. I'm not usually much of an accessorizer, but since I've been feeling blah lately, I decided to take a baby step to feeling less blah, hence the necklace.

Just putting the necklace on made me smile because it gave me a happy memory. This is no ordinary necklace. It's a vacation necklace and it has a story.

On our first big tropical vacation in 2006, MT and I went on a Caribbean cruise. One of our stops was the island of St. Lucia (pronounced LOOSHA). For our excursion, we decided to go out on a catamaran that would take us to the town of Soufriere to see the volcano and would get us close to the Pitons.

I think St. Lucia was our third or fourth stop on the trip and we were really getting into vacation-relaxing mode. It was a gorgeous day and we were so happy to be out sailing on the water. We sailed along the coast and pulled into Marigot Bay, just to look around. We didn't get off the boat, it just cruised around the bay. Maybe they stopped to snorkel, but I don't remember.

From Marigot Bay, we continued up to Soufriere. We got off the boat, got into some vans and headed up the mountain to the volcano. We walked around up there, then got back in the vans and went to a plantation where we walked around some more. We then got back in the van and went back to the dock where we got back in the boat and headed back to the ship. Looking back, it wasn't exactly the kind of excursion we like except for the sailing part. Usually there is a lot more snorkeling for MT and sunbathing for me.
 
Here's the bummer part...I hadn't charged the batteries on my camera and had forgotten to bring extras, so I have very few pics of the day in St. Lucia. I have several mediocre shots of Marigot Bay, but only two mediocre pics of the volcano and one pretty good pic of the Pitons. I'll show that in a minute.

There are a couple of things I especially remember about Soufriere. One was at the boat dock. As we pulled up to the dock, there was a little boy, maybe seven or eight years old. He had wild hair; it looked like it had never been cut because it was pretty long and dreads were starting to form. He was wearing only a tattered pair of swim trunks and a necklace. He jumped around the dock like he had spent his whole life there, which he probably had. MT thought he looked like a young Tarzan. He was cool  I wish I had taken his picture, but I didn't, of course, because I was running out of batteries and I wanted to save them for the volcano. Should have taken the kid's picture. Much more interesting.

The second thing I remember was walking back to the van after we'd walked around the volcano area. MT and I were looking at some necklaces along the way when a friendly St. Lucian fell into step with us and starting talking. He wanted to know if we were interested in necklaces or anything else. He told us he could hook us up. He wanted to know where we were from and how we liked his island. He had long dreadlocks and a big smile. We knew we'd found our man when he told us his name: Sunshine Biscuit. How can you NOT buy something from a guy named Sunshine Biscuit. Man! I wish I would have taken his picture!

We bought a few things from Sunshine, including the necklace I'm wearing today. How can you not smile when you think about the necklace you bought from Sunshine Biscuit?

We have been back to St. Lucia one time, but we didn't go to the volcano at Soufriere. I wonder if Sunshine is still up there, peddling his wares?

St. Lucia is a beautiful place. I think we would like to go back there for a some quality time someday.

Here's my pic of the Pitons:

It's not that great, but I only had a little point-and-shoot Kodak camera. The second time we were in St. Lucia and we did a similar excursion, it was raining.

I kind of like this photo because I think it shows the Pitons better. They are large and just come right up out of the sea.

Anyway, that's all I've got for tonight. I'm really tired and it's been a long day. Good night!