Today is a special day for us– our second anniversary! On June 7, 2014, we said “I do” at Whitton Avenue Bible Church in Phoenix, Arizona. It was a beautiful day for us, with a lovely ceremony and a fun reception afterwards! We made a promise to each other that we would spend the rest of our lives together, no matter what. It’s only been two years, but so much has happened in that time.
On June 7, 2015, we celebrated our first anniversary in Indiana. We were there for our friends Phil and McKenna’s wedding , which had been in Michigan the day before. We woke up on the seventh at our friend Marcus’ house in the Berne, Indiana, a small Swiss town. We spent the day exploring a science museum, Science Central.
Today, June 7, 2016, we spent the day on our home island, Saint Martin. Since Ben has medical school tests next week, he had to be in class for half the day. But at 3:30, he was mine– he took half the day off to be with me, even though he has a lot to do! We discovered some new hiking trails behind the causeway on the Dutch side. The trail took us and our puppy through the woods, past the Rastafarian Farm, and out into the French capitol, Marigot. We picked low-hanging tamarind seeds to snack on during the walk.
Later, we went to Advantika, a Thai restaurant that was highly recommenced to us. Finally, we went to Carousel for ice cream cake! We eat cake on the seventh of every month to celebrate our marriage. An anniversary called for something special: cookies and cream ice cream cake.
So far, we’ve celebrated both wedding anniversaries in different locations hundreds of miles apart. If things continue as expected, we’ll spend at least the next two in new places. I’ve learned many things from our journeys, but one of the most important is this: “home” doesn’t mean a specific geographical location. Rather, “home” is defined as the place your beloved is, wherever that may be.
The Caribbean is filled with with beautiful butterflies of all sizes and colors. In the fall, you can see clouds of them swirling around the hills and valley of the tropical isles. In the summer, they’re less common int he wild, but you can still visit the Butterfly Farm to see nature’s winged beauties in action.
The Butterfly Farm has locations in both Aruba and Saint Martin. In Saint Martin, it is on the French side of the Island near Galion Bay Beach. In my ten months of living on the island, I had passed in many times on my way to surf, but never had a chance to stop. My friend Stacey and I had both wanted to visit for a long, time, so we decided to take a couple of the kids we know and make an afternoon of it.
Visiting the farm is actually pretty inexpensive compared to farms in the states. We also got the local’s discount: $10 for adults and $5 for kids. Viator has a deal for tourists: $56 for a trip to the farm, a tour, and then three hours at Orient Bay, Saint Martin’s most poplar beach, with all transportation included.
When we got there, we were welcomed with a friendly greeting from the staff and led into the butterfly enclosure.
The best part of the whole experience was seeing the kids’ face when we walked in! Giant blue butterflies floated past our noses, and we couldn’t help but stop and stare at all the life that filled the air around us. Later, our guide told us that the afternoon is a quiet time in the enclosure, so I can only image how incredible it must be in the morning.
We walked around for a while before our tour started. There was a lot to see. Most of the butterflies were as big as our faces!
We joined a tour of the facility. The tours are offered in both English and French. The kids would have been fine with either, but we Americans were happy to take the tour in English. Our guide was wonderful. She made it interesting for both the kids and the adults and was happy to answer all our questions.
The tour took us through the entire enclosure and gave s a complete overview of the entire life cycle. I thought I knew everything about butterflies, but I still learned a few things!
First, we learned about butterfly eggs. When a female butterfly is ready to lay eggs, she finds a host plant to leave them on. Only certain plants, like milkweed, can be a host plant. The host plant has to be edible for the caterpillar and should be poisonous to give the caterpillar a slight toxicity.
This huge caterpillar reminded me of the one from Bug’s Life. It becomes an owl butterfly. It wraps itself in a leaf cocoon and creates a chrysalis inside. It stays like that for a long time, and then becomes a butterfly with a lifespan of only five days.
We loved the chrysalis cabinets. Our guide told us that “chrysalis” is derived from the Greek word “gold.” Most chrysalises have at least a little gold to warn away predators. My favorite one was entirely gold! Our guide said that the butterflies hatch during the night and sometimes up to 75 butterflies will fly out in the morning.
Once the butterfly breaks free of its chrysalis, it spends its time drinking nectar from its straw-like proboscis, mating, and laying eggs.
At the end of the tour, our guide let us put fermented orange juice on our hands to attract the butterflies. We were able to let them land on us, which was just magical!
The little one carried around this butterfly for about half an hour. It didn’t want to leave her! I told her it was because she’s so sweet.
The rarest butterfly in the farm is this white one. Mister G said that it was his favorite of all.
The kids were great at spotting camouflaged butterflies and caterpillars. The little one found some green caterpillars way up in the trees, and she kept peeking under leaves to discover patches of eggs.
The end of our time came too soon! We couldn’t believe it was already closing time.
Just before we walked out, one last butterfly landed on Mister G’s hand for a brief moment… a quick goodbye butterfly kiss.
Carnival is the biggest event of the year in the Caribbean! The island of Saint Martin is no different, and we’re lucky enough to get it twice: once on the French side and once on the Dutch side. Unfortunately, I missed all the festivities on the French side, but I did catch a few things on the Dutch side! My friends and I went to the light parade and Ben and I went to the children’s parade. We also went to the apex of Carnival: the grand Carnival parade!
The parade is filled with elaborate costumes of feathers and glitter. The colors swirled around us and music pulsed in our ears, drawing us in to the heartbeat of the festival.
The parade (and most of Carnival, really) is centered around the sensuality of a woman’s body. With so much focus on sensuality, I felt that the appreciation of people for who they are was lost somewhere behind the sequins and paint. Since this is a family-friendly blog, I want to present a different angle on Carnival than the typical. This post is a study on beauty: not the transient beauty of the revealed body, but the authentic, lifelong beauty of humanity. They say that the eye is the window to the soul, so I have decided to focus this photographic undertaking on the beautiful faces of the people in the parade. I hope that as you look at these beautiful faces, you will reflect on the wonderful miracle that is embodied in each person.
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”
-C.S. Lewis
“So God created human beings in His own image. In His own image He created them, male and female He created them.” -Genesis 1:27
Some days, you just need to forget life and find something weird to do.
Like this diving platform floating in the ocean. You need something like that.
After block week, which is the week leading up to Ben’s big quarter-term med school tests, we sure needed a red floating dock to jump off. Ben and Matt wanted to surf after their tests, but I had hurt my shoulder. So Stacey and I decided to wander around Galion Bay Beach, and this was what we found.
It might seem silly, but this thing was the best medicine for a couple of tired, stressed-out med school spouses. Sometimes, you need to let loose and act like a kid!
How’s your week going? If you’re feeling stressed, maybe it’s time to tap into your inner child and do something weird.
Where in the Americas can you find France? The Caribbean, of course! The French side of the island Saint Martin is definitely tropical, but there are pieces and pockets that feel just like a part of Paris. This afternoon, my girlfriends and I went for lunch and fashion in the capitol town, Marigot.
There are a lot of places to get a croissant and coffee in Marigot, and all of them are delicious. This is France, after all. I never liked pastries all that much until I moved here, where real pastries are made. The most popular shops are the touristy ones by the port, but within the winding streets of Marigot, you can find even better treasures.
We stopped at The Coffee Shop Club, where we were greeted by brightly-colored walls and kind faces. Seriously, the people who work here are some of the friendliest I’ve met on the island. I’ll go back just because of the people. All I got was a tea, but the other girls ordered smoothies and lunch. It was delicious! I know, because I sampled a little of other people’s food. We were lucky to have Aqiyla with us, because she is the only one of our group who speaks French fluently. The rest of us needed a little help with the French menus.
What’s an afternoon in France without a little fashion? We went shopping at some of the more affordable boutiques in the area, and they reminded us of the familiar mall stores back home.
Jennyfer has a lot of sweet, trendy styles that I hadn’t seen yet because I haven’t been shopping for clothes since I visited the States a few months ago. I have to say that classy must be making a comeback, and I actually liked most of the clothes here. I wanted to buy a dress I loved, but then I thought of our mounting med school debt and the closet full of dresses I have at home.
Pimkie is pretty much the clothing store version of Pinterest with a tribal flair. I loved browsing through and looking at all the sayings on the shirts. One of them said, “The Dream is Dedication: Dedication is Expensive.” I think that shirt should be the official medical school uniform! My favorite tank was based on a quote from the book Peter Pan. When Peter Pan is wounded and left to die on a rock in the ocean, he says bravely, “To die will be an awfully big adventure.” The shirt was a bit more inspirational: “To live will be an awfully big adventure.” I might go back and buy that one.
We stopped for a while at Z Boutique on Rue du Republique, but most of the men’s clothes were in an odd size and I didn’t see anything that I wanted. I also forgot to take a photo, because I was so eager to get to Roland Richarson’s art gallery!
Roland’s wife, Laura, was at the gallery when we arrived. Stacey and I have been to the gallery often, and we introduced our friends to her. She let us wander the grounds, and we showed everyone the paintings of me and Stacey that Roland has done.
All of these ladies with me are fellow Caribbean med school spouses, Canadian and American expats in the Caribbean. Being an expat is bittersweet, because your heart is divided into pieces, and “home” has many definitions. There are a lot of things we miss about home, but I think that when we return, we’ll miss times like today. These days are short and precious.
It’s been a long time since our first days of Pride and Prejudice Balls P.E. class, Friday morning hikes, and drama improv. But even after many years and many miles, these friendships have stayed strong.
My friends Taylor and Bethany came to visit me a few weeks ago! Taylor and Bethany have been my friends for many years. We have a lot of memories under our belts, and the week they spent here created many more. I actually managed to find some new things to do with them, just when I thought I had conquered all the activities on the island. Of course, we also covered some old favorites with a new twist.
For the first time, we saw monkeys on Pic Paradis! These vervets are escaped pets who have moved in to the Columbier area of the island and proliferated. They’re actually quite a pest, but at least they’re cool to look at.
The day we hiked was perfect. Can you see St. Barth’s in the background of the picture below? Usually, that island is like a mysterious phantom rising out of the mist. Even on relatively clear days, it’s hard to see more than its outline. This day, though, you could not only see the entire island, but even little white sails in the harbor! We couldn’t have picked a better day to take a hike to the island’s best viewpoint.
Fort Louis is always top of the list for visitors. As you can see, Taylor and Bethany brought their best acting skills to liven up the dead ruins of the fort.
Bethany noticed this little shack at the bottom of Fort Louis Hill. I had never stopped to look, but she discovered that it houses an old stone oven.
Taylor took every opportunity to enjoy the beautiful clear Caribbean Sea! I hung out with Bethany on the beach while Taylor did some swimming at Indigo Bay.
In case you ever wondered, Philipsburg is right here on Map:
We found this crazy contraption on the beach in Pburg. I’m not entirely sure how you’re supposed to use it, but it was pretty cool anyway!
Fort Amsterdam is a great place to take a deep breath of fresh air and look at the past, present, and future of the island. My favorite thing to do here is bird-watching near the pelican nests.
We did a lot of water sports while the ladies were here. Snorkeling was awesome that week, so we spent a whole day doing that. We also tried out stand-up paddle boards at Orient Bay, and of course enjoyed the water’s edge. The sunset over the water is spectacular. Ben and I even taught Taylor to surf!
No Johnson Tour of Saint Martin is complete without a trip to watch planes at Maho beach, an afternoon with the kids at Player Development Program, a visit to Roland Richarson’s gallery, or ice cream at Carousel.
Bethany and Taylor took me shopping for groceries and we made a delicious meal together! We ended up making and African-style beef sauce for rice with fruit and salad. You can get the recipe here.
Ben’s first day of break was also the last day of Bethany and Taylor’s visit. We celebrated by taking a trip to the abandoned hotel, La Belle Creole Resort. Ben climbed all the way up the highest tower on a rickety old wood ladder!
They say that if you’ve been friends with someone for seven years, you’ll be friends for life. I’m finding that to be true so far. I’ve been friends with Taylor and Bethany for a decade, and we’ve been through a lot of good times, laughter, deep talks, and crazy moments. Here’s to many more years of adventures!
