About book A Trip To The Beach: Living On Island Time In The Caribbean (2001)
It feels like a long time since I read a really good travel book. Or maybe it's just that it's the end of February and reading about a warm, sunny island felt like such a relief. Whatever the reason, I loved this story of a Vermont couple who move to Anguilla to open a restaurant and make a life for themselves there.This is the kind of travel book I like best, the ones where the writers have done more than just vacation in their chosen spot - they have lived there and because of that they can give the reader a much richer experience. They immerse us in the culture, let us get to know some of the locals and see a bit of what their lives are like, and show us both how great and how difficult operating a business in this paradise can be. It's so much more than "a trip to the beach".The Blanchards tell their story beautifully. I was completely absorbed. They put me right there on the island of Anguilla feeling the hot Caribbean breeze on my skin and breathing the salt air. I laughed with them over the cultural idiosyncrasies that sometimes tripped them up, shared their frustrations with the legal hassles and the laid back island attitude toward time, and grieved with them when they were victims of that enemy of tropical existence - the hurricane.While telling their story the authours share some of their recipes in the book, including Grilled Tuna With Coconut Rice Cakes, Gazpacho, Cornbread, Crisp Tai Snapper and Banana Bread, a mix of Island and Vermont staples. They know food. Melinda Blanchard grew up cooking and perfecting her own recipes, and together they run, in addition to their highly rated restaurant, a successful business selling gourmet dressings and sauces.As a last bit of enticement I'll leave you with these few lines from early in the book when they had made the decision to move and were sitting on the beach making plans for the restaurant:"We had trouble paying attention in Anguilla. Unencumbered by walls, our blue beach umbrella created a delightfully distracting office. We forced ourselves to concentrate - to work in a spot where the rest of the world comes to play. We sketched floor plans, our toes wriggling deeper into the sand as each new idea struck. Fat lizards puttered around us, their tails creating intricate patterns in the sand. They snatched tiny bugs with the tips of their long, long tongues - we were hypnotized. Concentrate, we told ourselves, concentrate."I most definitely recommend "A Trip To The Beach". I finished it a week or so ago and already I'm eager to read it again. It would be the perfect I'm-tired-of-winter book to soak up every year. If I can wait that long.
Ok, so while I was pleasantly surprised by how this turned out to be sort of a foodie/travel book, it still wasn't the best account out there. It had many strengths to it, but in all, just wasn't as interesting as it could have been.Melinda and Robert Blanchard, after selling their business at far below what they should have, decided they want to live on the island of Anguilla. Not as well known to the tourists, but still with a thriving tourist economy, they decide they will open a restaurant on the beach and make their living that way. The only problem is that things are very very expensive in Anguilla and bringing things in from the outside even more expensive. And running a restaurant is tough enough when you can get everything easily. The easy peaceful life they were looking for quickly evolves into something a little more fast paced and difficult.I found Melinda a somewhat ok narrator. She focuses on the hardships more than the pleasures of island living and even insults her husband by calling him an optimist like its a bad thing. I guess I just didn't like the negativity. Her husband seems like he'd be the more enjoyable narrator but he doesn't really write this book despite his name being on the cover. She does describe the island people fairly, but I would have liked to hear a lot more about them.Most of this book, as opposed to being about the island and the people, was more about the running of a restaurant. And while I enjoy books about food immensely, that wasn't what I expected going into this novel. Although I was happy that she included several recipes for different foods. But the food they did cook wasn't really island food per say. It was more fancy stuff as they opened a fancy restaurant. I guess thats what happens when you're in a tourist area though. To be honest, the food places they visited sounded more appealing to me than their restaurant.An ok travel book with food elements thrown in. Not my favorite of the travel books I've read but not the worst either.A Trip to the BeachCopyright 2000296 pagesReview by M. Reynard 2012More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com
Do You like book A Trip To The Beach: Living On Island Time In The Caribbean (2001)?
Got about 2/3 through before I stopped. Wasn't holding my interest. It's a long account of a couple from Vermont who sell up to open their own restaurant in Anguilla. It could have been told in half the pages. I'd have thought it would be more my cup of tea, as I loved the Derek Tangye series about leaving the hustle and bustle of London to start a daffodil farm in Cornwall. But, then again, I love images of England and the English and find I identify less with the Caribbean and it's inhabitants. I'd trade grey skies and green fields for sun and sand any day.
—Kristin Maillard
Have you ever wanted to just escape it all and open up a cafe in paradise? Eating and enjoying the good life? Step this way on to the beach…?Booktrail it here - Trip to the Beach - trailWe’ll all probably thought about it at some point – escaping to an island paradise and live the high life. Maybe set up a business and live there far away from the rat race.That’s exactly what Bob and Melinda Blanchard did when they moved from their lives and food business in Vermont and moved to Anguilla in the Caribbean. Opening up a food bar then turns into a restaurant and a life neither of them could have imagined. But then comes Hurricane Luis, and their dreams risk being destroyed.Should paradise be such a challenge and what can they do now?Welcome to Anguilla (rhymes with vanilla) in the Caribbean. Now you see, it sounds and smells nice already and that’s before the adventure really begins..Life in Vermont is good but it’s when they’re on a holiday in the Caribbean that they stumble along a shack on the beach and think of the nice way of life they could have here. Tempting right? So, leaving behind the concrete jungle of Vermont, the island of Anguilla is out of this world. The white sandy beaches, the palm trees and the perfect weather for outdoor cooking and open air eating.Adapting to the slower pace of life and the new and quirky island charms, life is one long day by the grill, the ‘music’ of fishing boats in the background and the essence of the ocean.But creating and building a restaurant is just as difficult in paradise than it is anywhere else. Red tape, customs problems, delivery issues (oh the distances involved!)We forced ourselves to concentrate – to work in a spot where the rest of the world comes to playBut the funny and hardworking staff make it all worth while. Even the way they speak, captured via the sing-song dialogue create an ambience that draws you right in. That’s if Shabby doesn’t with his ‘octopus arms’Oh but the food – centre of the table at all times-What about some Grilled Tuna With Coconut Rice Cakes? Maybe some banana bread and would you dare to try the strangely named Crisp Tai Snapper?When the hurricane comes, life changes but the spirit and determination of Bob and Mel does not. The spirit of the Caribbean and its people immerse you in another world.
—Thebooktrail
This is definitely a beach read, one of the new generation of adult chick lit type books about life, travel and cooking, with a few interesting recipes strewn here and there.This one is about a man and woman that move from Vermont to the eastern Caribbean island of Anguilla (their favorite vacation spot) to open the beachfront restaurant they have always dreamed about.It is an easy read that is written as a one year narrative about dreaming, building and running their restaurant until it is destroyed by a hurricane, ending with the determination to rebuild. The reader should not anticipate great writing. Blanchard is a soft writer, not a lot of descriptive power and can’t bring the people of the island into focus although she tries to very much. In the book things are almost too easy, it’s all so good and conflict is so little. The reading, although good-natured, is shallow. Which may be explained when I read in the author’s notes that the events actually took place over a ten year period and were condensed into one year to make a better narrative. But it is a good beach read and could be a nice winter read if you are dreaming of sailing off to a Caribbean island.
—el_quijote
