I asked the last day of our Honeymoon as we walked on the beach...
Our honeymoon was the most needed vacation I have ever taken and was also one of the best! We left the hotel at 3:30 on Sunday morning...we had just enough time to shower and take a short nap. We slept on the first flight and the second watched the movie, "Valentines Day" with the other 90% of the plane that were honeymooners. Most of the girls wore their "bride" shirts or sun dresses and some guys had their "groom" shirts. All had their shiny, newly polished rings on that glistened in the light, freshly manicured nails, and a newlywed glow. Matt and I had bags under our eyes and no rings (thought it was a smart idea when going to the ocean), but we did have pretty nails. ;)
We arrived on St. Lucia and were greeted by the rain and gray skies due to the recent tropical storm. We didn't mind, we just wanted to sleep...but this didn't happen until we rode an hour and a half on very windy roads...many got car sick while Matt slept haha. We were greeted by friendly staff at Ti Kaye who gave us welcome leis made out of banana leaves and a welcome rum punch in a wooden cup. That night we ate dinner at the resort (the only available place to eat at night, averaging 100 dollars a dinner).
Our bungalow was amazing with a gorgeous view of the ocean that we would never get sick of looking at. It was complete with french doors that would open to the porch that had a hammock and private plunge pool...that connected to our outdoor shower from which we could look at the ocean. Flowers covered our bed that we quickly brushed off and fell like zombies into until about noon the next day.
Our shower
We woke to partly cloudy skies and took the chance to relax on the beach...only 160 steps down from the resort. (better than the boat/car ride at other resorts) We ate at the beach bar and grill and took the day to kayak to private beaches and lay around.
On Tuesday, we took a 30 minute water taxi ride to the capital city of St. Lucia, the Castries. While there we had the opportunity visit the craft market, a local cafe for some juice, a 400 year old tree, the city's cathedral, some duty free shops, and see an animation about the island's history.We finally found out that the island was fought over by the french and british until the 70's, when they got their independence...just in time for a hurricane to hit and destroy many homes; leaving the country with little money to support itself. This did explain the mixture of creole food and language with british-english and driving on the left side of the road. That night we ate our cold lunch left-overs from the mini-fridge in order to save money for activities and relax on our porch...
Matt and the lady at the craft market that sold him a painting
The Cathedral in Castries
Us in front of the 400 year old tree
Wednesday, we woke up excited about our horseback riding that morning...only to find that it was storming and canceled...it rained until around noon so we sat around reading and eating. After the rain was done, we hiked down the steps to the beach and lay out under the cloudy skies. Later that day we were able to kayak some more and snorkel next to the beach. We saw a lot of fish and found out why we kept seeing Sandals and other boats dropping off people there...apparently our cove has the best snorkeling on the island, SCORE!
That night, the resort hosted a cocktail hour with a live band and a large buffet in order to get the small amount of guests that stay there acquainted with each other. We met many couples and have kept in touch with a couple from Orlando that wants us to go visit.
The day of sitting around made Matt antsy...he booked up our last 3 days with back-to-back activities. This started with a beach outing Thursday morning, followed by horseback riding in the afternoon. We each got a well-trained female horse...his was named, "Olympia" and mine was, "Dalila". We felt bad for his for having to carry such a heavy guy...she was the slowest one of the bunch. We road through the banana plantations...learning all about bananas and then down to the beach to get on our guides horse in the ocean bareback. It was as bad as I thought, but his constant bucking and sitting due to the "ladies" on the beach made it a little difficult. Afterwards we rode our girls down to see St. Lucia's rum distillery and back to the ranch. When we got back to the resort, we quickly changed and left again to head to our romantic dinner at the Rainforest Hideaway restaurant 20 minutes away in Marigot Bay.
Friday morning we got up bright and early, went to the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, and headed an hour away to our Rainforest Canopy Tour- code word for zip lining through the rainforest. We looked EXTREMELY attractive in our outfits...and I was nervous to control myself on the lines and still let myself go fast enough to not stop in the middle of the lines. After a few lines...they told me I was better than Matt! I let him know...he got a video on one line, but I am not sure how to post it. We cooled off in our plunge pool and that night went with a group of guests to a local fishing town called, Anse la Raye, for their weekly fish fry festival. Matt and I love seafood so we sat at a table most of the night eating king fish sandwiches, crab cakes, grilled red snapper with garlic, and other dishes. After that we walked around the town watching the locals and tourist dance to the music while they waiting for a local club to open up.
Eating at the fish fry festival
Saturday was another early day, but since it was our last full day we didn't mind...we were going scuba diving! I had been sick ever since our plane ride there (my darn allergies), but luckily this day my congestion had gone away (otherwise I couldn't dive). I was still extra nervous about getting my ears to equalize as we went deeper...my ears always give me trouble...ever since I was a baby. We took the DSD course which only took about an hour and can contribute towards our eventual certification. We had to pass a few underwater tests before going; including flushing our mask (the hardest for me) and putting our respirator back in and purging it if we were to lose it. Then we were off...we completely forgot to take pictures in our dive suits and tanks (which were heavy as hell) because of our excitement/nerves in the beginning and more excitement/hunger at the end. We got to pet a sea horse and hold and arrow-head crab. When I was given a slug to hold, I didn't realize I had sunk and was about to hit the lava rock at the bottom...my instructor, Lester,...and awesome guy...pointed and out and I freaked (thinking about snorkeling near the sharp coral in Hawaii); I then knocked my respirator out of my mouth at about 30 feet under...freaking out Matt and Lester. To their (and my own) surprise, I calmly held up my hand to calm down and got my respirator back in my mouth... and we continued. Honestly, if it would have been my mask and I couldn't see I would have lost it...but when we got back to shore Lester said we were naturals and need to get certified...I am never a natural at ANYTHING! We want to get certified now so we can go with my dad on future vacations...get ready dad!
The only pick we got of our gear
Us with Lester later that day
Directly after lunch we went to our hour-and-a-half free massages that provided a terrific view of the ocean. And right after that trucked it to our wine tasting with Cleus...our favorite staff member that we are still keeping in touch with. He has a smile that brightens your day and was a wealth of wine knowledge. We found out he has a girlfriend of 6.5 years at the resort, so as any girl that waited a long time herself would do, I suggested that our tip go towards the engagement ring savings account haha. The tasting made me like wine again and I felt quite nice afterwards. ;) We ate at the resort and sat at the bar with the orlando couple until it closed...Perfect last night.
The next day we hit the beach for an hour before leaving and walked around thinking about having to leave, but wanting to stay. When we left our taxi driver took us to see the Pitons which we had not gotten to see yet and a small town of, Soufriere, that we are told we must visit when we go back. Twelve hours later we were in Houston driving on fast, straight interstates again...boo hoo. We are looking into our next vacation! ;)
The Pitons with Soufriere in the foreground
Nikki
