St. John Fri. 2/25/12

We had a lovely dinner last night and then cleaned up the kitchen. People go to bed early around here - usually quit the kitchen area where we all sit around and talk after dinner around 8:30 or 9. We usually read for a while before dropping off the sleep. We have been waking up about 5:30 or 6, but tomorrow we will have to set the alarm and we have to leave camp at 6:15. We are manning a water station for the road race. I think they are going to have about 1500 runners (you should have signed up, Russ!). We had a bit of rain in the night from about 3-7 AM. It sounded nice falling on the metal rood. We didn't have any guests this AM, so we each made our own breakfast. Several people tried the gooseberry jelly that we brought down and enjoyed it. Dave and I were assigned work on one of the gardens. It was overwhelmed by snake plants (mother-in-law's tongue). We got into a rhythm - I pulled the plants and Dave lopped off the roots with a machete. We managed to fill two pick up trucks with the leaves and 5 large garbage bags with the roots. I'm sure we will be back doing the same thing on Sunday. I took a small break midway through to go out to the dried lake bed behind the camp where the hummingbirds flock on a flowering weed. They only do this in the morning because it gets too hot later in the day. We quit around noon and got lunch. The rental car company never showed up today to switch out the car - ah, well.

After lunch, we went snorkeling again - another beautiful day in Paradise! Today we saw a coronet fish, many squirrel fish (they have huge eyes), along with the normal fare for the area. I spotted a 3 foot across sting ray - quite nice. Dave found a sea urchin test which I am drying outside and will attempt to bring home. He also found a lovely Queen conch, but it was inhabited so we left it there. I picked up a few shells on the beach - some of them quite tiny. We came back and showered and I threw a load of laundry in. I called the car rental place and they said they went to the wrong place so I will call them again tomorrow when we get back from the race.

A group of middle-school students came in this afternoon from a local school. They are working on making a dinner using fresh native ingredients. Each group is in charge of a course. They look like they are having a good time. As they finish preparing, they are planting some native plants in the bed that Dave worked on yesterday.

Nancy and Roy are making dinner tonight - meatloaf and baked potatoes. I was going to download some pictures, but the internet is getting fluky so I will post now and try for pictures tomorrow.