The Colors of Carnival

I never took a "bar trip" - that is, a big vacation post-law school and post-bar exam (hence "bar trip") to celebrate the last summer as a student before starting a legal career.  Nope, I finished my bar exam, and the next day I was packing up my stuff in a u-haul truck and driving cross-country with my dad, and within the week I had started my clerkship.  I toiled away, reviewing briefs and writing memos, while my friends from law school went to Europe, South America, wherever their passports would take them.

My clerkship, however, was fabulous.  I made a great friend (hi, Cindy!), who also did not get to go on a bar trip (but then again, she didn't have to take the bar either.  Diploma privilege in Wisconsin.  Lucky her).  We worked long hours and then even longer hours, before deciding that we needed to plan a trip.  A nice long trip for after our clerkship.  We found four other friends and together decided to escape to St. Lucia for two weeks. 

And what a fantabulous vacation it was.  We rented a house on one part of the island for one week and a different house on a different part of the island for another week.  We went to the local jump-ups, climbed up a mountain, went horse back riding (bareback into the ocean even), took a boat to Martinique, went snorkeling, did the zip-lines, hiked, lay by our private pool, went shopping at the market and cooked our own fresh meals...

and went to Carnival.

We hadn't planned our trip to St. Lucia so that we could attend Carnival.  I mean, I didn't even know tht St. Lucia had a Carnival when we booked our trip.  I just knew that I wanted to go to a beautiful island where I could play and relax.  But when we got there, and found the festivities going on, I was thrilled.

I loved the colors.  I loved the costumes.  I loved the glitter.  I must have taken dozens and dozens of photos (don't be surprised if you see another carnival-related post in the future).  The music was great, too, but I couldn't capture that with my camera.

Looking at these photos really makes me want to go back.  Cindy, is it time for another trip?

(St. Lucia, photographed July 2007)