Bridget Beari Cruising the Caribbean

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We left Puerto Rico for a 5 day cruise through the Caribbean on the Silverseas Cruise line. Our ship was the Silver Cloud. I am not really a fan of cruises but this small luxury cruise line with only 200 people was better than the 3000 people cruises. 

By traveling on the smaller ships you can dock at the small islands. Our agenda was St. Barts, Nevis, Virgin Gorda, Prickly Pear and Jost Va Dyke.

Our cabin was spacious with a living room, bedroom and marble bath. Notice the welcoming champagne and beautiful white orchid. All rooms have balconies on this ship.

Leaving Puerto Rico at sunset 

After a rough night at sea ( I was sea sick all night - Yuck! ) we arrived at St. Barts in the French Virgin Islands. The bay and port was filled with very expensive and interesting yachts. The most unusual was the Megayacht "A" owned by a Russian Billonaire. It only cost $300 million and after researching it I found that it was designed by Phillipe Starck. Check out the video of the interior. It looked like a submarine and at night the bottom of the boat glowed with a blue light.

I loved the red roofs in St. Barts!

Lunch was at the surf side restaurant called Cote Port. I could practice my French by ordering a Salade Nicoise and a glass of wine. 

We found Shell Beach and had more drinks at the bar that overlooked the beach.  

Our view from the bar.

A little shopping spree where I found the most beautiful tops by Sabrina Crippa. My husband almost choked when he paid for it but it was worth the 5 compliments I received at dinner. It was in euros so how was I to know - Wink Wink! 


The next day was Nevis. Beautiful and not as much hustle bustle as St. Barts. No real shopping just beautiful rain forests and beaches. 

We found the Four Seasons Resort and sat on the beach for awhile enjoying the view. A few drinks at the bar - check out the bubble light fixtures.

Lunch at a local spot called Chevy's. I had grilled lobster and a Killer Bee rum Punch ( the house specialty) The service was not fast but the lobster was the best I had all trip. Bloated, a little drunk and filling out my bikini a little too much we made our way back to the ship. Everyone was super friendly!

The Beach at Nevis. 

Next stop was Virgin Gorda. The Russian ship followed us there too. Beautiful water - one side Atlantic and the other the Caribbean.  I noticed all the islands names from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

The Baths are worth the hike. Beautiful!

 

The best resort was Little Dix Bay. 

Picnic on Prickly Pear Island - Rum punch!  Definitely a sailors dream place. Not a lot of big yachts. A quieter easy going place.

The last stop was Jost Van Dyke - a small island with only a couple of restaurants and bars on it. It is suppose to the place to go for New Year's Eve if you own a yacht. 

We had drinks at Foxy's until the wee hours. 

Sort of like Key West with the garments hanging from the ceiling. 

Sir Richard Branson owns a couple of the islands off the coast of Virgin Gorda. Here is Nester Island - you can rent it for $50K per night!

Little did we know that wearing flip flops back to Virginia was a mistake since when we landed it was 19 degrees!

 

Happy Travels.....

Bridget Beari Travels to Puerto Rico

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Our winter vacation to the Caribbean started off in San Juan Puerto Rico. It was a place a had never been to before. We stayed at the El San Juan hotel in Isla Verde which is over a bridge from Old town  San Juan. The hotel room was very modern and brightly decorated. It had seen a little wear but considering it was free from my AMEX points,  no real complaining. The floors were tile and there were no rugs. No balcony and the view was Ok. You had to look over a roof to see the ocean but that was better than we thought we would get with free points. 

The first night we went to La Playita, a hotel and restaurant on the water. The service was a little off - after an hour no ceviche for appetizer? But the dinner was good and they did apologize. We had our first Mofongo - a potato type starchy vegetable that is molded into a dome shape. 

The best meal we had was at the hotel restaurant - Koco, an ooof! restaurant. The service was wonderful and the food delish! Grouper over coconut risotto, raw oysters,  pumpkin ravioli.

 

For breakfast we took Rachael Rae's advise and found La Bombonera, a pastry shop and restaurant founded in 1902. We had a house speciality, a Mallorca - the biscuit type pastry with powdered sugar on top.

A venture to the historic fort that protected the Caribbean seas for decades until of course the Americans took over.

While we were there the town was celebrating the end of the Christmas holidays or their San Sebastien's  days. The town was full of parades and parties well into the night. I was glad we were on the Isle because we had thought about staying at El Convento - that would have been a problem unless we- wanted to party until 2 or 3 in the morning.

Another dinner at the hotel for football - Brother Jimmy's. Here is the waitress making fresh guacamole. 



 

Another Mafungo at Plato's restaurant. 

 

Interesting architecture throughout the streets of San Juan. Row houses in a variety of colors: 

An interesting old remnants of old sea walls and gates:

All in all Puerto Rico was warm and fun! Too bad it was 19 degrees when we returned to Virginia and silly me still had her flip flops on.  Next I will post about our Silverseas Cruise to St. Barts and Virgin Gorda. 

Happy Travels.....

Bridget Beari Defining Design: Church Hill Row House

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Before and After!

Defining Design with Bridget Beari has another video out about this Federal style row house in historic Church Hill in Richmond, VA. We did a complete make over on the interior of this house.

Here are the before pictures:

And here are the after pictures:

A mix of modern upholstery, organic art pieces, custom furniture in a neutral background.

Faux Bois mantels

Morrish style lighting from a hotel in L.A. found on 1stdibs mixed with the 60's style table and chairs.

Check out the video for all the details!

Bridget Beari Travels to Maui Alii Kula Lavender and Organic O'o Farm

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One of our many excursions took us to the Alii Kula Lavender Farm. They grow over 100 varieties of lavender. A beautiful setting and the gift store includes wonderful treats made with lavender such as sconces, lemonade, chocolate, creams, and gifts.

Down the mountain from the lavender farm is the O'o organic farm. This farm supplies the vegetables for 2 of the local restaurants, Io and Pacifico. Everything that is harvested that day is delivered in boxes to the restaurants. That is as fresh as it gets!

This is our guide Steve. He is cutting our lettuce for the lunch salad. The farm grows vegetables, fruit orchard, and a newly constructed beanery for roasting coffee beans.

We were allowed to sample the vegetables right from the ground. This is a kohlrabi - sweet like a cabbage!

After walking the farm, the chef served us a fabulous organic meal - red carrots, kohlrabi, radishes sliced raw on salad green, beets and onions sauteed with grilled tofu, grilled fish, crusty homemade bread, homemade chocolates and our course organic wine!

This is group gobbling it up.

If that wasn't enough, that evening we went to IO for a 5 course dinner: a bottle of Conundrum to start, calamari ( big fillets), broth based fish , pink snapper, those wonderful vegetables from the farm, and a glass of champagne to end. The chef sent out a sweet dessert as a thank you for the whole farm experience. A memorable excursion in Maui!

 

Happy Travels.....

 

Bridget Beari Travels to Costa Rica

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Funny that I never travel out of the country for projects and in one month I have traveled to 2 different countries. This is our Costa Rica trip. Painting and redecorating a house in 5 days! Here's how it went:

An all day plane ride from Virginia to Liberia Costa Rica. We stayed in Tamarindo which is about a 45 minute ride from the airport through roads filled with pot holes, cows, ranchero cowboys, chickens, dogs, children and other cars driving where ever they wanted. Once we were at the house the beaches were gorgeous as well as the sunsets. Notice the huge pot holes in picture #1.

We had a time with the American painter boy who would not put the paint on the walls because he was on CR time. Whatever! This is Joe stressing over the painters.

This is Joe after the painters finally started or maybe the stress of it all drove him to have a drink!

Here are the before pictures of the house: yellow walls too matchy with the tiles, black ceiling made the rooms too dark and small, no artwork or focal points but great features like the pool, outside courtyards, glass, outdoor showers, and interesting windows!

Here are the after photos:
I found a great furniture store way out in the country down dirt roads. It took a while but well worth it. Check out the Ikat throws I used for the bed covering and the carving over the bed. In this room the walls were painting a softer cream. I would have liked to paint the trim but changing the black proved to be a real problem with time and the resources that were available to cover it up. There is only one hardware store and that's it no bondo, no regular paint brushes, no sealers, no black caulk, etc.

Blue is such a strong color in CR. The pool has this electric blue color so I wanted the kid's room to reflect this vivd color. I love the Moorish windows.

The next few pictures are the main rooms. I painted the ceilings my signature echo color that I had made up. The walls are a light gray and there are 2 accent walls in a darker taupe. I chose these colors to accent the concrete colored brackets that are in the window frames. I would have loved to paint the cabinets and the trim or at least the outer layer but there was not enough time.

All the showers open to the outside. Very tropical but there are bugs and lizards! I could hear the monkeys howling every night.

The pool is like a little tropical island. There's that blue color!

It was a definite challenge but well worth it. I hope I get to go back as a visitor next time and relax!

Happy Travels.....