Vacation with the Gibsons... in Tortola B.V.I.

I'm not going to lie, it was hard to say goodbye to Texas for four more months. And while it was sad to leave, it was also really encouraging to think that after this semester, we'll be back on the mainland for good (there's no telling where...but that is another story completely!). Now everyone knows that the thing you need most after a vacation is another vacation and that's exactly how we felt. So before our last semester in Dominica, we island hopped over to Tortola where we met up with Rachel and Brian.
A small note to remember when arriving on a small island: always remember to write down the name of your hotel on the immigration forms. We happened to leave that section blank because I couldn't remember the name of the villa, and we found out that is a big no-no. After being detained for 30 minutes (the customs officer wouldn't let us make up a name to put on the form...yes we tried) and frantically trying to explain that we were being picked up by a pre-arranged driver and meeting friends, Justin got a hold of Rachel on her cell phone (which just happened to be turned on, thank goodness!). Now we will never forget that we stayed at Serendipity House in Tortola. Of course I'm playing down the whole incident partly because I know you don't want to hear about how I tried to turn on the waterworks and play the naive traveler or how Justin was so frustrated he was ready to get back on the plane and leave (I think his exact words were "it isn't even a real country"). No, those little details seem so insignificant now, of course, because we finally made it through (after several other flights arrived) and proceeded to spend the next hour in line waiting for customs officers to check our bags. Miraculously, our driver was still waiting for us. He drove us to the Serendipity house to drop off our bags and pick up Rachel and Brian. Our villa came equipped with a full kitchen we planned to make good use of before returning to the pathetic selection in Dominica. We were taken to the nearest grocery store where we stocked up on food to last us the next three days(including pb&j, shrimp, and of all things Blue Bell ice cream!). By the time we were settled into our cute little villa, the sun was setting.

Justin wasted no time finding the perfect spot on the porch: the hammock.

The beach was only a ten minute walk and so much nicer than the beaches in Dominica.

We packed lunches and spent the majority of the day being beach bums.

The waves were big enough that Justin rented a boogie board and we had a blast playing around in the water.






Down the hill from our villa was a pool and a bar/restaurant. Our first night we attempted to use the "swim up bar" side and all jumped into freezing cold water. It is easy to forget it is January when you wear shorts and use sunscreen all the time, but the water was much colder than the ocean. It didn't take long to abandon the idea of relaxing in the pool for the much more sensible poolside and so we retreated to the tables and chairs set up along with everyone else (I'm sure they were very amused at our brave attempt).

The bar had the funniest sign hanging by the pool. It said "Unattended children will be given an espresso and a free puppy." I wish we had taken a picture of it!


We played so many games each night after dinner. We found Rummikub, Life, Scrabble, Tri-ominoes, cards, and dominoes in the bar area and in our living room. We taught Rachel and Brian how to play 42 and they taught us a card game called Pitch.

In addition to a stocked kitchen, the Serendipity House also had a gas grill, which was great because it let the boys help us out making dinner each night. The whole vacation was a great ending to our break and an excellent way to start off the semester.