There is just nothing better than sitting on a porch overlooking the sand, the Palm Trees, and the Beach at Sugar Beach. But it is possible to make great even better - add some Food and Rum Drinks!

And here's a quick and easy - not to mention good for you - recipe that makes relaxing and watching the water roll in and out even more fun!

Warm Spinach & Artichoke Dip - Source: Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter - Feb 2013

** Nutrition highlights: Artichokes provide fiber, vitamin C, folate and magnesium. Low fat cottage cheese (key ingredient alert) reduces the fat in traditional mayonnaise. Serve the dip with Whole-Wheat Pita Chips or Whole-grain crackers - or my new favorites - Fire-roasted Tomato Whole-Wheat Crackers (available from several brands).

To make the Dip (Yield is 12 servings, 1/4 cup each):

Ingredients:

3 tsp olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

6 cups spinach - trimmed, washed and dried

1 can (14 oz) of artichoke hears - drained and rinsed

3/4 cup low-fat cottage cheese

2 Tbsp low-fat mayonnaise

2 tsp Dijon mustard (I love Dijon Mustard)

Salt and Pepper to taste

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees (aren't you glad you have a kitchen?). Coat a baking dish with cooking spray - or more fun - make individual dipping pots for each guest.

2. Heat 2 tsp oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, cook, stirring often, until softened and just starting to turn golden, 2 to 4 minutes. Add spinach and garlic, cook, stirring until spinach has wilted, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat

3. Place artichokes, cottage cheese, mayonnaise, mustard, salt and black pepper in a food processor; process until smooth. Add spinach mixture and Parmesan; pulse just until blended. Scrape artichoke mixture into prepared baking dish.

4. bake, uncovered, until heated though, 25 to 35 minutes. Add pita chips for last 8 minutes of cooking. Remove dip and chips from the oven and Drizzle remaining 1 tsp oil over top of the dip. Serve hot.

Whole-Wheat Pita Chips: Cut 4 whole-wheat pita breads into 6 triangles. Separate each triangle into 2 halves at the fold. Arrange, rough side up, on 2 large rimmed baking sheets. Sprinkle lightly with olive oil cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees until crisp, 5 to 8 minutes. Makes 48 pita crisps.

Key to the experience - take Dip, Crisps, Good Friends, and a Rum Drink - sit on the porch at Sugar Beach in St. Croix - and be on top of the world.

When Christopher Columbus first arrived on St. Croix - one of the things that he found most amazing were our sea turtles. There were so many that historical accounts quote sailors as saying: "the sea was (so) thick with them so that it seemed that the ships would run aground on them"

Well - we don't quite have so many anymore - that's a fact that can be said about many of the different animal populations of the ocean - but what we do have - we protect. We post 'turtle' watches over nests to keep predators (mongooses are a problem as are cats and dogs. seconded only by humans), and if we spot a gaggle of tiny turtle hatchlings making their mad dash for open water - it's a cause for celebration.

The peak of Green Sea Turtle season on St. Croix is September, with the Hawksbill and Leatherback Turtles picking up the slack a bit earlier or a bit later in the year. Popular beaches with the Green Sea turtles (they are very discriminating - and very picky too.) are rocky ones like Jacks, Isaacs, and East End Bay. Hawksbill's prefer Buck Island - which doesn't surprise me - it's my favorite too. For the Leatherback's - it's wide open sandy beaches - like Sandy Point - which is also a National Wildlife Refuge.

There's lot of well written information on the web about Green Sea Turtles - so rather than repeat the obvious (yes - they get large, yes - they live 80 years, yes - they are 150 million years old) - here's some fun turtle facts to share at your next dinner party (hopefully spent relaxing on a balcony at Sugar Beach enjoying the ocean breezes, white sand, and blue, blue, blue ocean).

1. Green turtles can hold their breathe for up to 5 hours... That's clocked. So don't try to compete!

2. The shells of Green Sea Turtles aren't green. Sorry. They are brown or at best olive. Green Sea Turtles are called green because their fat is green.

3. Turtles get ahead by sticking their necks out. But Green Turtles can't pull their heads in! They are out all the time. (which makes them the most likely to succeed in the turtle world I guess)

4. Baby Green turtles eat anything they can get their mouths around - crabs, jellyfish and delicious sponges

5. But... Adult Green turtles are herbivorous - like cows  - they only eat grasses! Sea grasses of course. They also chow down on algae. (Imagine - they get up to 500 pounds by just eating grass. How do they do that?)

6. This you won't find hard to believe - Green Sea Turtles prefer just one kind of grass - Turtle Grass. (clearly, picking a name was simple)

7. Like other turtles, Green Sea Turtles take long long trips (also known as migrations). They only 'do it' every 2 to 4 years - the rest of the time they are roaming around the ocean. Scientists, who are basically very nosey people, have tracked turtles from St. Croix - all the way up to Nova Scotia. Wonder if he had his passport?

8. Here's a really surprising fact - Green Sea turtles only nest every other year - but - Even numbered years are most popular! Clearly - they keep day books. Sorry honey - not tonight - it's not an even year. 2012 promises to be a good year for Green Sea Turtles too - which means your odds of seeing turtle babies is going to go up.

 9. One female - many nests - large families! Leatherback ladies will nest 5 to 7 times - with a record of 11 times for one very anxious female. She must have been a school teacher - keep trying until you get it right. Green Sea Turtles only nest about 5 times a season - but each nest will have an average of 135 eggs. Hawksbills make the fewest nests in a mating season - 3 to 5, and have slightly fewer eggs on average per nest - around 130.

10. There are lots of great sites for information about turtles - but this is my favorite: http://www.deepseawaters.com/sea-turtles.htm.  I like it best because it not only has good facts - it's easy to read, and the pictures are fun. So it's a real winner. And you can find out about more than just sea turtles!

So next time you are coming to our beautiful island - be sure to cozy up to some of our most attractive residents - the Turtles!

Keeping our ears to the ground - we got the following hot off the presses advice about where to find cool stuff when you snorkel directly off Sugar Beach:

Spotted in April 2012 by George C - in just 50 feet off the shore about 4 feet deep, directly in front of unit 205 - a green moray and about 10 small lobsters! Then 2 days later, George reports spotting a large ray buried in the sand along with the usual variety of  fish and lobster in the tire reef just in front of Smuggler's Cove (that's to the left as you face the ocean from Sugar Beach). George was able to catch one of the lobsters to show off to his friends on shore. Not a mean feat when you are Snorkeling. I'm sure George put the lobster back afterwards - those babies are cute - but they don't make for much of a meal!

Thanks for the report George. If anyone else spots something fun - in front of Sugar Beach, or elsewhere on the island - do let me (and everyone else) know by leaving a comment!

If you visit, and you film it - should you post it? Hey - why not!

I decided to check out the YouTube selections for St. Croix - was there anything worth watching? Well among all the links - and people love to visit paradise and bring home great memories - (and post on YouTube for everyone to enjoy), there were surprising hits, some pretty silly selections, and while there were duds (focus people - please focus), there were a lot of professional, and semi-professional videos to enjoy! Here are some of my favorite links (and why you should check them out)

Topics include: MokoJumbies, Snorkeling/Diving on St. Croix, Salt River Canyon, Sea Horses, and Beautiful Sunrises/sunsets. 

MokoJumbies are a St. Croix surprise - if you don't get to see them perform, you've missed something special. I've been lucky enough to see them several times - and while this is not the blog about their history and tradition (that's for another day) - this is a great link to check them out:

Sunrise and Sunset on an island are always special times - and this stunningly beautiful photo montage was an entry into a contest - The Most Beautiful Place in the World - St. Croix. If you only click one link - this is the one. I could just watch this one over and over again (I guess I'm not alone - it's had over 60,000 views)

Much to my surprise - I found 2 TV shows that feature St. Croix - one a bit more bubble gum than the other - but both feature pretty hostesses - and of course lovely lovely pictures of our island.

Colors of Paradise with Africah Harrigan focuses on the more tourist oriented sites - but the host is lovely, and the weather perfect.

ReDiscover St. Croix hosted by Janeisha John is the more intellectual tour - and includes interviews with park rangers at our historic sites - including Buck Island. There are lots and lots of these to watch - I enjoyed them, and of course - learned something new in each one. The link below is just to the one on Buck Island - but a quick search will reveal the dozens that this group have posted. And it has the best intro ever - so click the first link - you don't have to do the entire show - but definitely watch the beginning - totally makes me want to jump an airplane and fly away home... to St. Croix of course.

Besides the great intro - the link below is about Salt River - the place where Columbus actually set foot in America on his 2nd voyage. (Hey - did you realize that happened in St. Croix?)

And here's a 5 minute quick overview of Janeisha's Buck Island adventure

But it's not just about sand and sun - there's snorkeling and Scuba Diving - and here's the video's to prove it! (I'm a diver - this was probably my favorite on the diving ones - well filmed, great fish shots - and the moray alone is worth watching.)

And here's one of my favorite of the 'I visited, I had a wonderful time, and now I have to go home' videos - this gal actually saw 5 Seahorses off the Fredricstad Pier. This is so cool - and she's happy about it too. But even better - she filmed the video right on the beach at Sugar Beach - so not only do you get to hear how exciting it was to see the Seahorses - you get to see the beach and the ocean..

Did you like any/all/some of my choices. Do you have others that you think I should see? Please - use the comment section to lets us know if there's something fun that I've missed.

And when you come to St. Croix - please - face in the sun, toes in the sand - think of me!

I thank you.

Today is Easter - and I'm not on St. Croix - and I'm definitely not at Sugar Beach. Wish I was - but there you are - somethings just can't be.

So instead of an Island Easter - I got up at 4:30 am, got dressed in all the warm clothes I could find in my home, and drove to the Gondola Base at Mount Mansfield, in Stowe, Vermont. There, along with 450 other brave and fairly cold souls, I rode up the Gondola to the top of the Mountain - around 3500  feet. At exactly 6:19 - the service began with the singing of Cat Steven's Morning has Broken. The celebrant - Rev. Bruce S. Comiskey, who has been doing this for only 25 years led us in first greeting each other  - and then greeting the dawn. Well - not exactly a dawn. More of a grey-in because the sky was completely overcast. But never-the-less - it was a unique and wonderful way to greet Easter Sunday. We rode the Gondola back down - but surprisingly - lots and lots of people opted to walk down. (In past years - we've been able to ski down - but this year - snow conditions just didn't allow that to happen)

How different would it have been on the island? Well - for starters - I could have greeted the dawn from my balcony. All the condos at Sugar Beach face East and the ocean - so greeting dawn is as easy as getting up. You can even stay in your PJ's. But if you want to do something a bit more 'out of the ordinary' - you drive to Point Udall, the Eastern most point of the US. Now you are among the very first to greet the sun - and if that doesn't make for a completely unique way to greet Easter Sunday - I just don't know what does!

And the best part - you can do it in a swim suit.

On St. Croix - the fun doesn't stop with greeting the dawn. Oh, no. there's a lot more to Easter Sunday on the island then just dawn. There's horse racing at the Randall 'Doc' James Racetrack, there's watching the birds eat breakfast ,and best of all - there's going to an island church for a taste of a truly unique way of celebrating.

Here's the st. Croix Reformed Church's pictures from 2011 - doesn't that look like fun?

 

Or check out our traditional tent villages that spring up on beaches around the island to celebrate this very special long weekend. Just another way of greeting Easter Sunday on an island.

And if all this  doesn't sound like the way you want to spend your Easter Sunday - no problems, man. Just lim'n out on a beach (sit under a palm tree holding something made with rum and limes) is considered the perfect cure for what ails you.

And St. Croix doesn't just do Easter - we do St. Patrick's day, we do Christmas, we do Jump-ups at a drop of the hat - in fact - finding a reason to celebrate is never a problem on St. Croix! So come on down - the islanders will happily share their piece of paradise with you.