May 28-31 - In Trinidad with Simone

For the last couple of years, Team Finnegan has had the good fortune to have a fantastic investment team. The leader of our financial team is Steve Coplin. Steve's critical right hand assistant is Simone Matthews. Over the months of working with Steve and Simone, we have become excellent friends. Somewhere along the line, Simone began to call us "mom and dad" and we started to call her "our girl".

Simone grew up in Trinidad and Tabago. She came to the states with her mother, brothers and sister when she was 13. After attending middle and high school in NYC, Simone attended and graduated from Florida State University in Tallassaee. Simone has been a US citizen for many years. Simone has been in the banking and securities industry for many years. She specializes in details, organizational skills and regulatory knowledge.

About a year ago while out to lunch with Steve and Simone, Robert suggested that it would be a lot of fun to visit Trinidad and Tabago with Simone as our guide. Simone agreed and thus we made our travel plans.

We flew to Trinidad and Tabago from Ft. Lauderdale on Carribean airlines, an easy 3 and a half hour flight. Simone's dad met us at the airport and drove us to the Hilton, our hotel. The Hilton, in the capital city of Port of Spain, is lovely with a wonderful restaurant.

The next day, Simone's Aunt Patsy picked us up for our personal three day tour of Trinidad. Just as Team Finnegan are hororary mom and dad, Patsy is an honorary aunt. Patsy is Simone's mom's best friend.

First up was a ride out to Maracas Beach, Trinidad's most popular beach. It is a lovely ride up into the mountains and then down to the beach.

Maracas Beach

Simone relaxing on Maracas Beach

Our personal chauffeur and gracious hostess, Patsy.

Team Finnegan on Maracas Beach

One of the most famous things about Maracas Beach, besides the view, is a unique, local food called bake 'n shark. Simone reminisced on many childhood trips to Maracas Beach to eat bake 'n shark. What is bake 'n shark, you may well ask yourself. First off, there is nothing baked. Bake 'n shark is a fried dish. First dough is rolled into a ball and fried.. This creates a puffy shell, sort of like a pita. Shark or other white fish is fried in a batter. The fish is placed in the puffy shell. Next comes the fun part. The diner takes the fish in the puffy shell to a huge row of tables containing many sauces and a wide variety of accompaniements. There are chopped tomatoes, lettuce, maybe avocados, mangos and many other things. The diner individualizes the bake 'n shark.

On Maracas Beach are many stands offering the bake 'n shark. Natually, we chose Patsy's Bake 'n Shark in honor of our chauffeur.

Simone prepares to enter Patsy's bake 'n shark.

The bake 'n shark in all of it's glory.

Robert enjoying a stag beer with his bake 'n shark

The view from the top of the mountain, looking down toward Maracas Beach.

After dining on bake 'n shark, Team Finnegan were well on the road to becoming regular "Trinis"....the local term for a person from Trinidad. However, another local treat awaited us at Patsy's house...the abundant and yummy fruit.

Simone points out the sapodilla fruit and demonstrates enjoying the creamy, caramel tasting fruit.

In order to sample coconut jelly and coconut water, Patsy broke open a coconut.

Patsy drove us to many parts of Port of Spain and surrounding towns. We saw many bright, colorful houses. This one took the prize of brightest house.

We had a reservation to take a boat ride at a nature preserve. Our big goal was to see the scarlet ibis. We learned that this was the nesting season for the scarlet ibis and thus a huge section of the preserve containing the rookery was off limits to give the scarlet ibis families privacy. This was disappointing, but I looked far overhead and saw this sight...hundreds of scarlet ibis.

For our second day in Trinidad, Patsy drove us far into the mountains to the Asa Wright wildlife center. I didn't take my camera, but on our hike with a guide, we saw some amazing birds. It was a significant adventure to find the Asa Wright wildlife center, involving steep, winding, narrow roads perched on deep canyons.

The second evening, Patsy joined us for dinner at the Hilton. After a yummy meal, we went up to the deck overlooking the city of the Port of Spain.

On our last day in Trinidad, Patsy drove us to the zoo, the sure place to see scarlet ibis up close.

We had a terrific time visiting Trinidad and Tobago with our daughter, Simone. We saw many lovely sites and enjoyed a taste of the interesting and multi-cultural heritage. Patsy was a  knowledgeable and extremely informative local guide. We truly appreciated the fact that she gave three days to our adventure.

So long from the new trinis - Team Finnegan