Farewell Banquet

Near the end of every semester the spouse's organization hosts a farewell banquet for the 4th semester spouses leaving. In the past they've always done it at a local restaurant near the school. This semester they wanted to do something different and have the banquet out at Red Rock- a restaurant I'd only heard about before. I was excited to get to see a new part of the island (and I always thought it was only a 15 minute drive from the school). I dosed up on dramamine (a must for any type of driving trip here- no matter how far a distance), Ben came home a little early to watch Chase, I touched up my makeup and was out the door. Honestly, it was pretty liberating to be able to go out for a night with the girls! Since it's only once a semester, and Ben only lost about 1 hour of potential study time (since Chase goes to bed early) I didn't even feel guilty about it.

We boarded the transport (WORST DRIVER EVER) and headed off to Red Rock. It was about a 40 minute drive of crazy fast driving around so many twists and turns in the road. My weak stomach felt less and less enthusiastic about the night the longer the drive took. Once we got to Red Rock, I got to enjoy the beauty of the place, and the horrible ride was [mostly] forgotten. Look at this amazing view!

 The restaurant is right on this beach! We got there just as the sun was going down. This is on the Atlantic side of the island, which has much rougher waves, making for some gorgeous scenery. We live on the Caribbean side, which is much gentler.

I'm glad we got a photo with the gals in the branch! These are the women I hang out with all the time- but never without our kids. It was so fun to be able to sit and chat and enjoy our dinner without being interrupted every 45 seconds. These wonderful ladies have made all the difference for me living here. I kind of feel like we are all in this crazy adventure together! I'm glad I got to know such strong, wonderful women here and I love them all!

Crystal Durrant, Holly Jensen, Jessica Dunn, me, Kelsey Stenquist, Heidi Wilkins

After dinner and the slide show were done, we were ready to head back to school. I must admit, I missed Ben and my little man Chase, I'm really not used to being away! If the ride to Red Rock was horrible, the ride back was even worse. I could not get off that transport soon enough! I don't think details are really necessary here on the blog- but suffice it to say, it wasn't pretty :) Despite crazy Dominica transport drivers on windy roads, it was really a beautiful, wonderful evening!