The Homrichs Visit Augusta

The weekend before our Sailing Trip in May, two of our favorite people in the whole world, Andy and Jami, came to visit us in Augusta! They are some of our best friends from UGA, and we always seem to pick up right where we left off whenever we get together. I am so thankful for friendships like that!

On our first night together, we ate dinner at TakoSushi, a restaurant in Augusta that blends Mexican and Asian cuisine. I have been dying to go there ever since we moved here two years ago, since it blends my two favorite food groups (yes, Mexican and Asian are food groups in my book). So needless to say it was my first time eating there right along with Andy and Jami, and we all loved it! 

After our delicious dinner, we went to see The Avengers. Like most who have seen it, I was pleasantly surprised at how good that movie was! Definitely worth going to see again when it comes out at the Dollar Theater or (gasp!) even buying on DVD (if you know us you know we are cheapos and never buy anything on DVD). The next day, we all slept in a little and Kyle made waffles for breakfast, then we headed out to downtown Augusta to check out the Saturday Market on the River.

It was HOT! 

After perusing around the market, we took a stroll along the river until we were about ready to pass out from the heat. Since it was Cinco de Mayo, we found the perfect way to cool off with some margaritas and mexican food at La Vallarta for lunch. Not long after lunch, it was time for Andy and Jami to hit the road to meet their family for a beach vacation, and time for us to start packing for our little beach vacation. We loved the short time we got to spend with Andy and Jami, and look forward to the day we can move closer to them in Atlanta and do more Atlanta-y things with them! ;)

Sailing Trip Day 10: Brewer's Bay + Back to Marina Cay

Well today marks the end of the Sailing Trip posts! What in the world am I going to blog about now? ;) But really, thanks for following along on our journey. As cheesy as it sounds, I'm glad I'll always have these posts to look back on and remember this fun vacation. Just as a reminder, if you want to go back and read any of the other Sailing Trip posts, they are all linked up on the Our Travels page (and at the bottom of this post).

Day 10 was one of those awkward days where we were still on vacation but my mind was starting to think about readjusting to life back home. On top of that, when we started to head in the direction of the dive site Zach picked for the day, we encountered some really rough seas with about 5 to 6 ft. swells. It didn't take long for us to turn around and improvise our Plan B, which was to dive in Brewer's Bay off Tortola, a much more sheltered dive site. Once again we anchored the boat in a shallower area in Brewer's Bay and then the divers took the dinghy to the dive site.

The visibility at this dive site was not as good as the others, so the photos look a little murky (all dive photos taken by Zach). Jenny, Zach, Kyle, and his mom saw plenty of Lionfish on this dive, which are not native to the Caribbean and are supposed to be reported when you see one. Here's one picture Zach got of a lionfish (there's also a picture of one in this post).

Meanwhile, this was my view of Brewer's Bay from the boat. While they were diving, I was reading and soaking up some sun on the front netting. I think I got the better end of the deal! ;)

After the divers got back and we ate some lunch, we headed back to Marina Cay, one of our final destinations of the trip. We got to see some more gorgeous terrain on the way.

Once we were moored up and settled at Marina Cay, Zach and Jenny took the kayak out and Kyle and his dad snorkeled around the reefs.

Before dinner we presented Kyle's dad with his Captain shirt and Kyle with his Dinghy Captain shirt that Kyle's mom had bought at Soper's Hole the day before. They were the perfect souvenir shirts!

We also couldn't resist taking another group photo in our matching trip shirts, but this time we were on the front of the boat instead of gallivanting around Sandy Spit (it was weird to think that that was 5 days prior to this point!).

We finished the day with a delicious bbq chicken dinner, and then got things packed up for our big travel day the next day. I won't go into details about what all went down on our slightly stressful travel day, but all that matters is at the end of the day, we made it safely home! And so ended our trip, and this picture pretty much sums up how sad we felt about it (please ignore my gross airport look).

This trip was truly the trip of a lifetime, something I have never done before and probably will not get the chance to do again for a long time. Kyle and I could never thank his parents enough for their generosity in taking us, for the long hours put into planning the trip and making sure we had everything we needed. I am truly blessed to have such wonderful in-laws, and look forward to the many adventures I'm sure we'll have together in the years ahead!

In case you don't feel like clicking over to the Our Travels tab, here are all the Sailing Trip posts in chronological order:

 Back from the BVI
Day 1: St. Thomas + Tortola
Day 2: Road Town + Trellis Bay
Boat Tour
Day 3: Anegada
Day 4: Great Dog + Jost Van Dyke
Day 5: Sandy Spit + Cane Garden Bay
Day 6: Lee Bay + Marina Cay
Day 7: The Baths at Virgin Gorda
Day 8: Wreck of the Rhone + Norman Island
Day 9: Snorkeling Norman Island + Soper's Hole
Day 10: Brewer's Bay + Back to Marina Cay

Until next time!

Sailing Trip Day 9: Snorkeling Norman Island and Soper's Hole

So the whole wrapping up the Sailing Trip posts by Wednesday of last week didn't happen. We have been busy busy busy over here! Kyle was studying for his first Pediatrics test all last week, and I have been busy editing photos for an engagement session I did earlier in June. We had a much needed getaway at the lake for Father's Day weekend this weekend, and now we are feeling recharged and ready to get back into the swing of things. So here we go with the recap of Day 9 of our Sailing Trip!

We spent the first half of our day on Day 9 snorkeling, starting things off with The Indians, which are four rock formations located near Norman Island. (All snorkeling photos taken by Zach).

This is a group shot Zach got of us snorkeling at The Indians, from L-R: Christina, Fred, me, Kyle, Jenny, Eric, and Lynn. It's one of my favorite pictures from the trip! After we took this photo we all started swimming back to the boat, and once most of us were safely on board Zach told us that he saw a 3-ft. baby reef shark under the boat. Glad I wasn't in the water when he made that announcement!

From The Indians we drove the boat over to The Caves, which were right off of Norman Island as well. The water was SO beautiful around The Caves and perfect for snorkeling. The only drawback was that there were a ton of jellyfish floating around, but thankfully they were not the stinging kind. I managed to get stung by something anyway, but that didn't surprise me judging by my tendency to get hurt on past vacations (i.e. falling off a ski lift, getting run over by a surf board--true stories).

Yep, we swam right into that dark cave! Kyle's dad had a dive light that we used to look around in the cave, and this is the view from inside the cave looking out. It made me nervous at first because with my luck I would've been the person to get shocked by an eel or stuck by a sea urchin or something, but there really weren't that many sea creatures hanging out in there. It was a pretty neat experience!

After we were done snorkeling we headed back to the boat for lunch and relaxed for a little bit. I really enjoyed just soaking in the scenery around Norman Island. It was gorgeous!

From Norman Island we sailed over to Soper's Hole on the West End of Tortola. Some storms were rolling in, so the wind picked up and made it a rough ride across the Sir Francis Drake Channel. Nevertheless there were plenty of boats out at sea, including this beautiful two-mast ship (I think this photo might be my favorite from the trip!).

There was even a point when this sailboat got dangerously close to another one, but obviously their captains knew what they were doing. :)

Two Ships [Nearly] Collide from Lesley Anne Fenton on Vimeo.

Eventually we made it safely to Soper's Hole, with enough time to spare to go shopping before dinner. While shopping I found this really cute one-shoulder top (at 50% off!) that I'm wearing in the last photo, and Kyle and I also found a cute Christmas ornament to start our tradition of buying an ornament at all the places we travel to. Can't wait to see it hanging on our tree this Christmas! 

That night we had dinner at The Jolly Roger, and I ordered the specialty lobster pizza. It was really good and super filling, which meant leftovers for lunch the next day! This was the last dinner with our group all together, since Fred and Christina had to leave the next day. Even though the trip was almost over for them we still had another adventure-filled day ahead of us!

Up next, the last Sailing Trip post! Diving at Brewer's Bay and another visit to Marina Cay. Stay tuned!