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While visiting my father in Albuquerque over Christmas in December 2004, my brother Rob and I drove up to Denver to spend a few days with Brock and his girlfriend Britney, and to ski in the beautiful Colorado Rockies. |
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Lions vs. Packers at Lambeau Field As an early Christmas gift, my step-father Mike took myself and two step-brothers to Lambeau field for a classic winter match-up between our beloved Lions and the Green Bay Packers on December 12, 2004. |
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In early December of 2004, I took a trip to Boston for a long weekend to visit my friend John Davis and his girlfriend Lital. John and I hadn't seen one another since leaving the Peace Corps in 2003, and he was studying for his masters degree at Tufts University. I had never visited Boston before, and so I was able to do a bit of sightseeing, including a walk around the campus of Harvard University. I also was able to experience Shabbat for the first time. |
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September 7th, 2004 will always be remembered here in the West Indies for Hurricane Ivan, and the destruction it wreaked throughout the Caribbean. A couple of days before the hurricane hit, they began to evacuate the island of Mustique, as most persons working here have homes in St. Vincent. The anticipation was at first exciting, then sickening. Late on Monday night CNN news drew the red line of Ivan's projected path straight through the Grenadines. Lucky for us, it moved south, and the eye of the hurricane didn't hit us. |
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In July of 2004, Roxie and I spent a week on a sailboat with my father and his friends, touring the Grenadine islands in our own back yard. It was the first time that my Dad or Pam had met Roxie, and it was a great week. Larry Stroup chartered a 55 foot sailboat from Moorings in Canouan, and they sailed up to Mustique to pick up Roxie and I. We stopped in Bequia, Canouan, Mayreau, Union and the Tobago Cays. |
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Every year, in late June and early July, St. Vincent celebrates Vincy Mas, the Vincentian version of the Caribbean Carnival. This year, Roxie and I were celebrities of some sort, as we were featured dancing down the street in the carnival advertisement that was played across the Caribbean (I think the cameras were focused on her). |
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In May of 2004, I returned to the United States for the memorial service of my Grandmother, Ruth Porter. My grandmother had passed away in February, but our family decided to wait until Mother's Day to hold her memorial service. The trip home was a celebration of life, as spring had sprung, and the entire family was together for the first time in years. |
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This is a collection of photographs from the first year that Roxie and I lived on Mustique, including many candid photographs of what we do to try to entertain ourselves on a tiny little island like Mustique.
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In April of 2004, Roxie and I took a trip from the Caribbean to the Pacific coast of Mexico to spend a week with my mother, step-father and brothers in beautiful Puerto Vallarta. It was the first time that anyone in my family except for my sister Lindsey or cousin Tara had met Roxie, and it was the first time for Roxie in a Spanish-speaking country.
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The last two weeks of March were marked by a visit from my great friend Vince, who was making the trip to SVG for the very first time. Besides going to Union Island and the rest of the southern Grenadines, Vince and I managed to squeeze in a hike to Trinity Falls and a hike to the top of La Soufrierre.
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On March 1st, Roxie and I took our Peace Corps friends Brian and Amber Lewandowski to the Falls of Baliene for the first time. It also marked the first time that I captained a speedboat, and our adventures lasted into well after dark.
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On February 2nd, one day after the Super Bowl, Roxie and I moved to Mustique. It was an interesting adjustment from life in both the United States and St. Vincent. Mustique is a private island, a tourist destination, so many of the challenges I had become accustomed to dealing with in St. Vincent were no longer an issue. However, Mustique is a very quiet place, with little to do besides read, watch television and go to the beach, so a new set of challenges arose. |
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On January 15th, after four months away, I returned to St. Vincent and the embrace of my loving girlfriend, Roxie. It was good to be back and have a perspective of life away from St. Vincent. In the first month back we celebrated TC's fourth birthday, I took a trip to the Grenadines, Roxie and I had a Valentines dinner and I spent time with Paul and the Ghent family, sharing the donations that so many friends and family members had made.
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