I love when my friends and family have birthdays and apparently, they love that I love it too. Ok, the reason I am saying this is I started making birthday videos for people and they love it, some have even come to expect it and if I’m late… uh oh!
I don’t even know when or how it started, but it did and I’ve had so much fun over the years! I take a video of me singing happy birthday to the person. Sometimes I do it early for people, maybe somewhere I’ve been traveling, for example, last year, I made a few while I was snorkeling/swimming in the waters of Jost Van Dyke, the British Virgin Islands, and by last year, I meant in December 2023 for birthdays coming up in 2024.
This year, or last year, well, last week, I was in Hawai’i and recorded a few for this year. I even did one or two while I was riding on my motorcycle! NO! I am not holding the phone! It’s in a phone holder on the bike, I flip the camera and press record, then start singing. Now… those are harder to hear, I’m as loud as I can be, but…the bike and the wind are louder, imagine that!
My singing is not great, I put on voices and accents, and I absolutely love doing it. And as I make friends and family, or make friends my family, my record collection, so to speak, grows and grows, I think I get sillier and sillier, but it seems to work for me!
The year started off with our niece, MM, I was so excited, I sent it the day before her birthday! I sent one to a friend yesterday, HH, who is celebrating in London, then today, my cousin MS celebrating with her daughter in Barcelona, a friend LJ, who happens to be in Puerto Rico celebrating, and then SMB, who is 16, not in a foreign land, but… drumroll please…got her license today! That is a great way to celebrate a birthday!
And if you’re celebrating a birthday today, tomorrow, this month, or…whenever you celebrate, I wish you all the best, and a very happy birthday to you…happy birthday to you…happy birthday dear….youuuuu…happy birthday to you!
Apologies, apparently when I made albums on my phone, I got dates wrong, I knew we did more on day 5! Let me tell you about the rest of the day!
It’s December 26th, we were up before dawn, go figure, not a new occurance on this trip for some reason, but it afforded us the opportunity to see some amazing sunrises and today was no different! We decided to go down to the beach to watch the sunrise.
We didn’t make it very long and realized why there weren’t other people on the beach at that time…the no-see-ums, biting little suckers! We have bites all over our legs from these things! UGH! They bite when the sun’s not out, hence sunrise, sunset, and if you have one on you, apparently you bring it with you, gee thanks! Anyway…we enjoyed the sunrise as long as we could and headed back to the room for breakfast and to get ready for the day, if you recall, we have a snorkel trip at 1p, but we’re not going to let the morning go to waste!
Back to Charlotte Amalie, park and make our way to the Hebrew Congregation of St Thomas, we tried to get there on Christmas, no go, they were closed like everyone else! I had been to the synagogue years ago on a cruise, unfortunately, I don’t really remember it, the one thing I do remember, the floor is covered in sand, isn’t that grand!?
It’s a beautiful synagogue, and there was a bat mitzvah that was going to happen that morning, we asked if it was alright if we still came in and they were gracious enough to allow us in, we could even stay for the mitzvah if we wanted to, very generous. We wished the bat mitzvah girl and her family much nachas, which is joy, and pride in someone’s accomplishments, she was excited and nervous. Becoming a bat mitzvah, or “daughter of the commandments,” signifies that a young woman has attained legal adulthood under Jewish law. A bat mitzvah is based on the centuries-old ritual of bar mitzvah, or “son of the commandments,” the ceremony for 13-year-old boys. I still remember my bat mitzvah date, November 4, 1984. Not sure if it’s something anyone forgets.
The synagogue was founded in 1796 and has a long and rich history. We toured the chapel, the tributes, the history and then joined the synagogue to support and keep them going, as honorary members, that was something I could support. Look at us, we joined a synagogue!
We left as the family was pouring in from all over the world, what a wonderful time in a young person’s life and what a joy for their family.
When we left we headed back to the car to cross something else off our list of things to do in St Thomas. We went to the Skyride to Paradise Point. It was a must see, we looked at the line and thought, ugh, they’re charging what to go up? Wait, we have a vehicle and we can drive up! Sold! Paradise Point is definitely worth seeing, the view is amazing! On a clear day, you can see St Croix and Puerto Rico! At the rate we were not having luck getting to St Croix, this view and from the snorkel trips are as close as we’re getting on this trip!
It was a windy ride up, but very much worth it! We walked around, PSM had a painkiller, signature drink of St Thomas apparently! I didn’t care for it, but you probably already knew that! One thing we found that we really grooved with was My Brother’s Workshop, an organization ‘Providing hope, faith, and purpose to at-risk and high-risk young people in U.S Virgin Islands.’ Everything in the shop was made by someone from My Brother’s Workshop, we bought a few things because we love to support organizations like that. And we get a wonderful memory from our trip, wonderful.
We checked our watches and knew we needed to get back to Ocean Surfari in Red Hook for our Do It All Snorkel trip! We got there, got our tickets and then went down to the dock and grabbed a bite at Tarpon’s Table. We enjoyed view, being on the dock and the tarpon in abundance. Ya gotta love creative bathroom signs!
And now…you’re caught up, I shared everything we did until we went on the snorkel trip. Was that enough? We definitely don’t let moss grow under our feet!
Peaches Prattlings 