And Then There Were Nine...

Nine boxes of Girl Scout cookies, that is.  Yes, I shamefully admit that my husband and I consumed an entire box of Girl Scout cookies today alone.  We’ll I’ll be more responsible with the rest of them.  I can’t make those kinds of promises for Jade.

Today was just a fantastic day!  I’m getting ahead of myself here because I’ve got a lot to write about from earlier this month, but I think today takes the cake.  So a while back a woman contacted the Significant Others Organization to ask about possibly getting a campus tour for her and her son.  He had been accepted to the SGU School of Medicine for the fall 2012 term and they were going to be in port one day while on a cruise.  Their day in port was going to be a Sunday and the school does not run official campus tours on Sundays.  Our SO president emailed the information out and I volunteered to do the tour.

I contacted Terri via email and began arranging the details of our meeting.  She was so nice and appreciative of me volunteering to do the tour that she offered to bring us items from the States.  Jade and I had just been talking about how spring meant Girl Scout cookies and how bummed we were to miss out on them.  It was the very first luxury item from the States to pop into my head so I gave Terri our two favorite kinds of Girl Scout cookies: Thin Mints and Samoas (which THIS Girl Scout will forever call Carmel Delights).  I was anticipating two boxes, maybe four, but to our great joy and surprise we have had ten boxes of the coveted cookies.  They took up an entire carry-on of their luggage!  Terri and Ryan were also so generous as to share snacks with us today so I scored not one, but two chocolate mint Clif Bars.  It’s the little things, guys.  Jade said my face lit up.

Jade and I took a 7:40 bus to campus to meet Terri and Ryan at 8:00.  While we waited at the security booth one of the security officers chatted it up with us like we were old friends.  He was just SO nice!  He invited us into the booth to see the most updated campus map and looked around for some resources to give us.  Once we stepped inside we saw our landlord, who also bent over backwards to help us get ready for the tour we were about to give.  Within minutes the taxi pulled up and Terri jumped out of the car to give me a hug.  She and her son were just great people!  I took the taxi driver’s number and estimated our tour to last about an hour.  We actually finished our tour in about two hours, but they got to see a lot of campus, including a dorm room.  I know they enjoyed meeting some additional students, too. 

From campus Richard (our taxi driver) took us to True Blue Bay, the hotel they’ll likely stay in when Ryan moves to school.  I had been to the Thursday cooking class and I had eaten at Dodgy Dock, but hadn’t seen the resort.  It’s beautiful!!  It has some really, really stunning features in some of the rooms.  It was neat to see the interior of a place I’d been around the outside of so many times.

We then went past Food Fair and on to Spiceland Mall.  I think it was invaluable for Ryan to be able to walk around the grocery store and hardware store to see what he can and can’t get in Grenada.  That’s one of the things many potential SOs and students get concerned about before coming to the island because we read about how some products are impossible to find.  That may be true with a few things, but unless you are super picky about brands or some specific aspect of a product, you can fairly easily find a substitution that will work.

But not Girl Scout cookies, Starbucks and Sephora.  Nope.  No suitable replacement there.

From the mall we went to Grand Anse campus and Grand Anse Beach where we had a terrific view of their cruise-ship. 

We had just over an hour before they had to report back to the boat, so Richard took us to Clark’s Court Rum Distillery.  It isn’t the best rum distillery on the island to actually see the process, but there was some stuff to look at and they offered free rum tasting.

From there we drove to St. George’s (the city) and up to Fort Frederick to snap a few photos of the area.  Richard took us to a couple more scenic spots for photo ops before getting them to the boat right on time.  We said our farewells and I know we’ll be talking again soon.  We’ll likely see them again in August!

Even our driver, Richard, was awesome.  He was kind, accommodating, patient, very informative and absolutely pleasant to talk to.  This should be a given, but he also drove really well.  For those that know the roads here and what it can be like to drive or ride around the island, that’s a great thing.  Richard was filling in for his uncle today, but I will definitely be using their service in the future for any of my taxi needs.  For anyone else who is interested, it’s Augustine Mitchell with K’s Taxi Service at 473-414-2738, 473-458-7717, or auguskay@hotmail.com. 

To top the day off, my wedding dress sold online!  I’d been trying to sell it since November or December and just when I was losing hope, someone came through.  I’m so glad it can make another bride as happy as it did me.


It was just a lovely day full of great experiences and great company!  And who knows, maybe SGU will endorse me for weekend campus tours in the future.  Will work for cookies...