From Sun to Snow

After enjoying the Caribbean for a week, we were dramatically re-introduced to New England winters with another snow storm, delivering 6″ or more. The roads were plowed, but because of rain preceding the snow the roads were very slippery – I nearly hit a wall when trying to drive to work, so gave up and waited for the next day!

And next day, the roads are clear and lined by beautiful white trees; at work these Robins have found a few left-over apples on a tree outside Christian’s office, but there’s not much food when the ground is covered in snow and ice!

“Club”(man) night at MINI of Peabody

I’m sure many MINI dealerships around the country will be promoting the launch of the bigger-than-normal MINI Clubman, and MINI of Peabody is no exception …
clubman.jpg

On this MINI2 thread, Paul Taylor writes:
… Our upcoming launch party for the Clubman on Friday, February 15th; the time will be from 7:00 p.m. ’til 9:30 p.m., in response to those that need time after work to travel and attend. It will be held at our 7 Centennial Drive, Peabody location, which is convenient to RT 128.
The theme will be a “Club” atmosphere, with a special show, and DJ.
For all of you that RSVP, we will have special “goody bags”. Of course the event will be catered by our usual excellent catering company; food & refreshments for all.
If you haven’t attended one of our events, ask around….we know how to throw a party!

That’s true, Paul!
For previous events at the Centennial location, see: Get Into It, R56 unveiling, and the recent OctoberFast 2007.

If you’re interested in seeing the Clubman in the flesh – or just hanging out with MINI owners, and enjoying food and entertainment, be sure to attend 🙂

The U.S. Virgin Islands

This is the view from our room, perched right at the top of a steep hill on the ocean’s edge, in the Point Pleasant Resort on St. Thomas, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean! The downside of this view was the incredibly steep roads and paths to get anywhere in the resort – after one day we rented a car so that we could get around! Another reason was that the resort had no restaurants offering breakfast, only one for lunch (and with not a very wide menu choice); I supposed we could have cooked, since our room had a kitchen …


Here’s our room, from a nearby road – you can see how high it is (our room is top right on the rightmost building):

 

St. Thomas was quite strange; it’s single main town catered primarily to cruise ship tourists, offering loads of jewelry shops! Elsewhere the island was all hilly with steep twisty roads, regular chances to bottom out part of the car, and a cross-section of different homes, run down areas, etc … but the views were so spectacular that any downsides were forgotten!


Another highlight was touring Coral World, with it’s sting rays, sealions, lorikeets and an underwater viewing area:


Then there was the amazing sight of watching weather roll in across the ocean – here it’s raining over part of St. Johns (another nearby U.S. Virgin island):


And, eventually, we found a nice (but tiny) beach where we could swim in the warm blue-green waters of the Caribbean ocean: