Yes, these are my feet in Paradise, a.k.a. Anguilla, British West Indies.

I can understand if you hate me, but I currently have a tan.  Yes, I just spent five blissful days in the sun, drinking pina coladas on the beach, swimming in turquoise blue water, and walking on a beach where the white sand felt like velvet under my feet.  Not a snowflake in sight.  Ahhhhhhhhh!

Truth is, my husband and I booked this trip back in the fall because we were facing Empty Nest Syndrome for the first time.  We figured we would need something to cheer us up when our children had left us again after the holidays.  Little did we know that this winter would make this trip seem even better than we expected.

That’s our hotel’s beach above.  Glorious, isn’t it?

For entertainment, we had what I dubbed the Kamikaze birds, like the one below.  They would hover over the surf, then fold their wings and plunge head-first into the water.  I worried they’d break their necks every time they did it, but there were no casualties, at least while I watched.

I went snorkeling and found this giant conch shell beneath the waves.  (Being a good Girl Scout, I returned it to the sea before we left.)

  I was very impressed with myself until we went to Scilly Cay for lunch, and I saw this wall.

Evidently, conch shells are pretty common in Anguilla.  By the way, this was what we had for lunch there:

Another snorkeling sight, this one pretty exciting: an eagle ray swimming leisurely along the bottom of the Caribbean.

One evening we came back to our room after dinner and found our bed decorated.  Maybe they thought we were on our honeymoon?  A lovely idea after twenty-five years of marriage!

Just a final photo for your enjoyment.  The hills in the distance are the island of St. Maarten, where our plane landed.  We came to Anguilla by speed boat, a very cool way to make an entrance.

 As my daughter says, the colors are so intense they look fake, but they are absolutely accurate.  This is the view from our hotel room terrace.  Every morning when I woke up and threw up the French doors, the beauty would knock me breathless. 

Just to make you feel better, it was snowing when we landed in New Jersey on our return.  But I still have my tan…