Picture of the Day: Mitre Peak Reflected in Milford Sound

Milford Sound, New Zealand
9.18.2005 

Picture of the Day: Winter Berries in the Snow

Ann Arbor, Michigan
11.24.2005 

Lazy Day On Water Island

Yesterday my sister and I, along with several of her friends, spent a fun day on Water Island. The smallest of the four islands comprising the USVI, Water Island is a residential island with a population of less than 200 people. Because of its laidback beach it is a popular place for my sister (who lives on St. Thomas) to visit on the weekend.

The Water Island Ferry leaves from Crown Bay Marina on St. Thomas and runs several time a day. The trip takes only ten minutes and costs $10 round trip for adults and $5 round trip for children. You pay the captain on board and your return ticket includes the ferry schedule on the back so that you won't forget the time to be back at the dock.

We grabbed brunch at Tickles Dockside Pub at Crown Bay Marina and then hopped on the 10:30 am ferry. The views of St. Thomas as we pulled out were quite lovely.

Honeymoon Beach, where we spent the day, is only a few minutes walk from the Water Island Dock. You walk up the road from the dock, past a few charming homes and then you can see the beach off to the right down below.

Descending down the hill you are greeted by a lovely beach lined with palm trees that sits along beautiful Druif Bay.

Underneath the palm trees on Honeymoon Beach are little wooden umbrella huts topped with palm fronds to provide shade. Brightly colored benches are situated underneath them for seating. We snagged one of the umbrellas and set out our beach gear for the day.

For food and drinks there are two food truck options. On the far side of Honeymoon Beach sits Joe's Beach Bar which has a variety of tropical mixed drinks and some fried foods like corn dogs and french fries.

Heidi's Honeymoon Grill is on the close end of the beach and has grilled food like hamburgers, hot dogs and sausages. She also sells beer plus frozen drinks from the back of a little truck with solar panels on the roof. I had an Italian sausage and a frozen strawberry margarita which were both tasty.

We spent our day relaxing in the calm water, reading books and taking naps on beach towels in the sand. There really isn't anything like falling asleep to the sound of the water lapping the shore on a warm, lazy afternoon.

Of course, I also couldn't resist taking a few pictures. The water was especially clear taking on a brilliant teal color when the sun was out and turning a moodier blue when the clouds rolled in.

We also spent a bit of time scouring the rocks to look for sea glass and managed to find a handful of pretty green glass.

Before we knew it, it was 5:00. With the last ferry of the day departing at 5:15 we quickly packed up and I snapped a last shot of the deserted beach with the sun setting before we hurried back to the dock.

We managed to get to the dock just in time to see the ferry pull up. (Bonus points if you can spot the beached ship in the background)

Again we had some pretty views of St. Thomas on the way back and all too soon we were pulling in to Crown Bay Marina.

It was a perfect, relaxing day. If you ever find yourself on St. Thomas for a while and are looking for a low key day away on the beach, I would highly recommend visiting Water Island.

Picture of the Day: Lioness Resting in Kruger National Park

Kruger National Park, South Africa
7.28.2004

How to Make a Lattice Pie Crust Top

For Thanksgiving this year I made a few pies and I took a some pictures so that I could share how to make a traditional lattice pie crust top.

A lattice top is a classic that always looks pretty. It seems like it could be a lot of work but it really isn't. Here are some simple instructions to try it if you've never done it before.

To start, roll out the top crust (it is easier if the dough has been chilled first) and then cut it into strips of an even width. I just use a knife to cut my strips, but you can use a pastry wheel or pizza wheel as well.

Once you have the strips all cut, drape a strip across the middle. Working out from the center, lay out the strips on one side and then the other until the whole pie is covered, spacing them one strip width apart.

Next, fold back every other strip on the top of the pie. Make sure to fold it back a little more than halfway. Lay a strip across the middle of the pie, perpendicular to the other strips.

Now fold the strips back down over the middle strip that you just laid down. Every other strip will be on top or underneath it. This is the start of the lattice.

To make the next lattice piece, fold back every other strip again but this time you want to fold back the ones that were underneath the middle strip. Lay down another strip of pie dough and then fold the strips back down.

Repeat the same process of folding back strips, laying down a perpendicular strip and folding the strips back down, alternating which strips you fold back each time. Once the pie is covered in one direction, perform the same process on the other side of the pie.

To finish simply trim the ends of the strips. If you want you can leave it (just pinch the strips down into the bottom crust to seal it) or you can make a fluted edge.

That's all there is to it. It looks quite fancy but it is simple to do in less than ten minutes. Easy as pie!

Picture of the Day: Horse Guard at Buckingham Palace

London, United Kingdom
11.24.2003 

Picture of the Day: Mount Ngauruhoe

Tongariro National Park, New Zealand
9.08.2005 

One Year Anniversary

I can't believe that it has been one year since I started up my blog. I decided to start up this blog to motivate me to finally write down and share some of my travel stories and pictures as well as get projects done around my house. Although I haven't written up as many of my travels as I would like, it has been great fun for me to reminisce as I go back through my photos to pick out photos for my Picture of the Day. On the home front I've gotten a lot done and it is neat to look back at some of my posts to see where things stood as some of my projects started.

Over the past year I've posted 285 blog posts and 339 pictures of the day (yeah, I missed a few days...) and I thought that to celebrate I would do a look back at some of my posts.

My First Post
The first post that I wrote was about a wedding cake that I had made for some friends. In the past year they have since welcomed a little girl to their family which is wonderfully exciting.  

Favorite Home Post
My favorite home post is probably the recap about finishing my bathroom. It was so rewarding to look back over all of the projects and see the final result put together.

Favorite Away Post
For my favorite away post I would have to pick my overnight adventure to Banaue in the Philippines with Trisha. We had such a fun time and I'm glad that I actually wrote the story down. 

Hardest Post to Write
Hands down the hardest post for me to write was about my struggles moving back to the U.S. after living in Japan. It was really personal and I debated about posting it. In the end it was something I wanted to write for myself and I am glad that I shared it here. 

Over the next year I want to write up more of my travels (I barely posted anything about my trips to Italy and Panama this past year) and I want to put together a home tour as well.

Do you have any posts that you particularly enjoyed? Did you try any of my projects? Thank you so much for stopping by over the past year. It really means a lot to me to see people reading and enjoying my blog. 

Picture of the Day: Statues in Pak Ou Cave

Luang Prabang, Laos
8.16.2011 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am in charge of desserts for the meal this year so I have been having a fun morning in the kitchen baking. I was hoping to do some of the prep work earlier this week but work was crazy (I worked nearly 40 hours in three days) so I had to do everything today.

I'm making pumpkin pie, apple pie and a cranberry upside down cake. I'm actually waiting for the pumpkin pie to finish baking right now so that I can head over to the festivities.

After spending today with Frank I am heading out to St. Thomas to visit my sister for the rest of the holiday weekend. I am so excited to see her and can't wait. My first trip to visit her on her island was actually for Thanksgiving in 2006. It was so hot and her stove wasn't working so we decided to make turkey sandwiches to celebrate Thanksgiving that year. It wasn't very traditional but it was a lot of fun!

What are you doing to celebrate Thanksgiving this year? Are you making anything tasty? What do you usually do to celebrate?