Guest blogger, Ryan Anderson, on his vacay in Anguilla

Today, I’m extremely fortunate to have my client, Ryan Anderson, write a wonderful guest blog about his vacation in Anguilla. His girlfriend, Cara Rowland, has been blogging on her own too – and the links to a few of Cara’s terrific posts are below as well.

Grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and let their words and photos take you away to this island paradise. Ryan’s contact details are at the end (he runs a full service creative agency with web development, marketing and advertising, and web/print design called Northern Army, to which Cara, and other capable team members, add their talents).

Course, if you want to try out this strip of paradise called Anguilla all on your own, please give me a call! I can have your feet in this sand lickety split! 🙂

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A A few years ago, as I walked down the street, hunched over with a scarf wrapped securely around my head and tears streaming down my face from the ice cold wind, I made a decision. That decision was that from that point on, I was making a conscious decision to spend as little time in Ottawa as possible during the winter months.

The first part of that plan was to find a travel agent and book a trip. When I found Sheila through a Twitter recommendation, I gave her a straightforward request:

We’re looking for a place that’s hot, isn’t crowded, has great food, great beaches and isn’t the kind of place where the resort isn’t completely removed from the local culture.

The response: “Have you thought about Anguilla?”

In all honesty, I had not thought about Anguilla, primarily because I had never heard of it. To be honest, I had been thinking Hawaii for no particular reason, but this place, that a quick Google search convinced me was not, in fact, made up, hit all of our points and then some.

I didn’t know what to expect when we got there, but within a day, it was obvious that we wouldn’t be disappointed.

We wanted restaurants. Anguilla has more restaurants per capita than any other place I’ve ever seen. And though we tried a very wide variety of places, we never found a bad meal on the island. This surprised me more than anything – I’m a bit of a food snob.

We wanted local culture. One of my favourite parts of the island was the people. Everyone we met said the same thing – what makes Anguilla unique is that you’ll never meet anyone here who isn’t willing to help you if you’re lost or need directions. You can feel safe there – and to me, that’s an important characteristic of a vacation place.

We wanted great weather. The ten days we were there, the weather was sunny and beautiful. It rained a few times, but never for longer than 20 minutes or so.

We wanted great beaches. Words cannot describe how beautiful the beaches in Anguilla really are. Imagine white sand and blue water that blend into one another, set against a backdrop of mountains. Now multiply that by 33, and you’ve got Anguilla.

We wanted to relax. Now, I don’t want to give the impression that I’m a misanthrope, but hanging around gaggles of slackjawed tourists isn’t really my thing. Anguilla isn’t a ghost town by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s also not crowded. The entire time I was there, I never felt crowded, but we met a lot of great people. It was the perfect balance.

I’ve been to a number of places, but there have only been a handful that made me feel homesick when I left. Granted, it’s not for everyone – those who love shopping or dance clubs might find it a little boring, but for us, it was perfect. The only downside – it made returning to winter in Ottawa even more painful.

I suppose we’ll have to stay longer next year.

http://polkadotapron.posterous.com/my-new-happy-place-0

http://polkadotapron.posterous.com/cuisinart-resorts-hydroponic-farm

http://polkadotapron.posterous.com/cooking-class-at-cuisinart-resort-in-anguilla