Mom's Visit Part 1: She's Here!!

There's nothing like a mama-hug.

-Adabella Radici

Kyle and I were both so excited to have my mom come and visit - though it seemed so surreal that she was actually going to be here! We planned the trip and tickets were booked about a month before she was going to come down, so before we knew it, she was boarding her plane in Columbus to head down to our little island, Dominica!

When we first saw her walking out of the arrivals section of the airport, it was like a little piece of home was being delivered to us! The transport ride from the airport to our apartment felt so surreal as we chatted and caught up - as if for the past 3 months we hadn't been thousands of miles away!

We gave her the "grand tour" of our apartment, taking about 2 minutes to walk from the kitchen/living room/dining room area to the bedroom/office and then into the bathroom. We also decided to celebrate Mother's Day, and all 3 of our birthdays early as we exchanged gifts. I got a few new shirts and dresses, which made it feel like my birthday and Christmas all in one! :)

For dinner, we headed to Tomato's, a restaurant in Dominica that is owned by a couple from Canada, so it is the closest to American food you'll get down here. As we finally had a chance to sit down, we realized just how tired we were - especially my mom, who had been up since 5 am!

The "gang" at Tomato's! (notice how tired my mom and I look...)

After Tomato's we headed to Sweet Refuge Cafe, a new "hot spot" in Picard because they sell ice cream! (Well, they call it "Texas Gelato, which we really don't know what that means! All we know is it's good!!) Then we finally made it home, where my mom and I crashed. For the first night she was here, we had an air mattress blown up at the foot of our bed. Yes, it was very "cozy" but we made it work! But the rest of the time my mom was here, she had her own apartment! Our friend Ryan moved out of his apartment, and it would be open until the end of break. It was just on the floor below ours, so it worked out perfect!

Kyle had actually taken his last mini EVER that day and he was ready to celebrate!! So he left us at home, to fall asleep probably seconds after he walked out the door, and he met up with some of his friends. As I mentioned before, most of his close friends are staying for 5th semester in Dominica, but Justin is now is Saginaw, Michigan. So it was nice Kyle got to spend time with him and say goodbye until we see him again at graduation 2 years from now!

The next day, Friday, we woke up ready to go! We walked to campus and gave my mom the tour. I think one of my favorite spots on campus is the "Subway Deck" since it's right outside of Subway (yes, we have one here!). The deck overlooks the Caribbean Sea, and you can see across to other parts of the island. It's gorgeous and so relaxing!

Kyle and I out on the deck!

After the little tour, we headed down to the beach closest to campus. We dropped our stuff under the shade of a palm tree, spread out our towels, and laid out under the sun! I think it was the perfect welcome to relaxing island-life for my mom! Not soon after though, we started to feel little raindrops. Similar to Ohio, Dominican weather has a mind of it's own. Five minutes after beautiful sunny skies, it was pouring down rain! We headed to a restaurant nearby for some shelter where we grabbed some mango rum and cokes (yum!)

Soon, the rain stopped and the sun was back out, so we headed back to the beach. We walked to the far end of the beach, and it was so nice because we had the whole place to ourselves! Thinking this would be a great place to snorkel, we grabbed our gear and went out there. (My stepdad Greg told my mom to be adventurous while she was here. She didn't even hesitate to put that mask and snorkel on and jump in the water!) We swam around for a little bit, but discovered maybe a few fish and a lot of sea urchins - which creep me out when I don't snorkel with my crocs on, so I didn't last all that long. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing under the sun, and harassing crabs (well, I say "we," but I'm sure you can imagine who was doing most of the harassing...)

After getting all "dolled up" back at the apartment, we headed back toward the beach to the restaurant PBH, the same one we went when Mamaw and Pampaw came to visit. It's right on the water and you can see some gorgeous sunsets from there. Well, since it rained that day, the sky was a little overcast, so we didn't get much of a sunset. But we still had a great dinner, and even went to see the movie "P.S. I Love You" after we ate! It was a great first day of my mom's island adventure!