This is the true story of a trip to the beach that never ends. It's about a husband and wife who escape civilization to build a small restaurant on an island paradise - and discover that even paradise has its pitfalls. It's a story filled with calamities and comedy, culinary disasters and triumphs, and indelible portraits of people who work in a place where the rest of the world goes to play. It's about the maddening, exhausting, impossible complications of trying to live the simple life - and the joy that comes when you somehow pull it off.

Walking away from one's home in Vermont to open a restaurant in Anguilla sounds both frightening and fascinating. But husband and wife team Melinda and Bob Blanchard took the plunge. Melinda gives a delightfully honest account of their struggles to open and manage a restaurant on an island that has very little of what is needed to accomplish the task. Overcoming near impossible circumstances with restaurant supplies, employees, weather conditions, and demanding guests, Melinda discloses the love they discovered for Anguilla and its inhabitants, as well as the deep happiness and satisfaction they found in achieving their dream. B.J.P. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

 

Married for nearly thirty years, Melinda and Robert Blanchard divide their time between Norwich, Vermont, where they built their own home, and the Caribbean island of Anguilla, where they operate Blanchard's Restaurant. Together they have started eight businesses, including Blanchard and Blanchard, the award-winning line of specialty foods. Bob is a seventh-generation Vermonter and Melinda was born and raised in New York City.