Cooling Off!

With the temperature in Texas reaching a scorching 104*, we decided to head to New Braunfels and float the cool Comal River.  It is the shortest river in Texas.  The water temperature in the river is a constant 72* since it is spring fed.
 

We arrived early to beat the summer crowds and were on the river shortly after 10 am.
The river was down from my last float, but still had a good flow and no paddling was required.  It was a great way to spend part of the day. Our float lasted about three hours!
Dried off and dressed we stopped at Clear Springs Cafe for a late lunch.  No stop there would be complete without an order of fried onion rings.  Dale had Chicken Fried Steak and I tried the Fried Catfish......both were great! Stuffed we headed home!

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous!!

Limping along with my bad knee, I caught a very early flight to Charleston, then onto St. Lucia to join the awesome ladies of Lady Go Divers!  A shuttle picked us up and we were on our way to the beautiful Anse Chastanet resort.  It was so good to see all my old friends and great to meet some new ladies that joined our group this year.  Cecilia, my roommate and I had a beachfront room, 11C-Star Grass with AC....thank goodness!  Our room was lovely, very spacious and comfortable...with a large outside sitting area!  We all met for a lovely dinner and then crashed after a hard day of travel.
With over a 100 steps to breakfast we quickly figured out that the shuttle was our best means of transportation....my knee agreed!  So every morning our shuttle arrived promptly to take us up to breakfast and sometimes to dinner at night......amazing service!
Bright and early we had breakfast, then checked into the dive shop, had a meeting and then did an orientation dive on the house reef.  After demonstrating our skills we enjoyed a dive and then we were on the boat the rest of the week. Our terrific crew consisted of Bernita, Errol, and Zina...plus a boat captain. The boat was spacious, with lots of shade, and our gear was waiting on board every morning. The dive sites we all close to the resort, so we had short boat rides! Cecilia made her 500th dive in St. Lucia and got thrown into the water after she was back on the boat!


The resort had a beautiful beach with lots of palapas and lounge chairs to enjoy. The beach crew would set up the lounge chairs and make sure you had plenty of fresh towels.  At certain times of the day a beach boy came by with cold towels, fresh fruit, and a mister that sprayed "Happiness"!  It was actually cold eucalyptus water that they sprayed you with....quite refreshing! If you were thirsty or hungry all you had to do was put your flag up and someone quickly took your order! Gosh did we get spoiled!!!!

One of the highlights of my trip was finding that the folks of St Lucia love Country and Western music.....I even managed a little Texas Two Step with a bad knee!  Who knew?  Cecilia and I also found that we had a mutual attraction for Mojitos and enjoyed one or two almost every night after a day of diving! Our bar bill reflected that at the end of the week! We even converted some of the other gals! One day the boat took us over to the resorts other beach where we enjoyed the best hamburgers on the island and some of the gals did a hike to see some old plantation ruins!  I held down a hammock on the beach with Bonnie!!!


The resort service was top notch and all the employees were extremely friendly and helpful.....Always trying to make sure we were having a wonderful time!  One night the resort set up a tent on the beach just for our group for a lovely candlelight dinner! Our final dinner with a cocktail party was just as wonderful up in the Tree House Restaurant, where the new ladies were officially made members of the Lady Go Divers. Congratulations!

During our wonderful week of diving we saw a frog fish, two seahorses, a octopus, lots of eels, and some even saw a turtle.....plus lots of small stuff!  The diving was easy with a little current at 40-60 feet!  The visibility was pretty good and the dive masters always tried to get a site with the best visibility.
Cecilia and I had a wonderful week together, enjoyed some great diving, and had lots of laughs! Thanks Anse Chastanet!